LNH20: A Drop of Blood

[Andrew Perron]

                                 --<>--

                             A Drop of Blood

                   By Andrew Perron and Yuki Rosemoon

                                 --<>--

It was a bright, sunny day at LNHQ, and Kid Enthusiastic was on his way 
to lunch.  He whistled cheerfully as he walked along.  Ah, what a nice, 
peaceful day, without any possibility for angst!

The doors to the building swung open.  KE was taken by surprise as a 
girl with dark red hair and red-purple eyes, somewhere in the middle of 
puberty, came through the door.  A man followed her and closed the door 
behind.  

Wait...

That was...

But it couldn't possibly...

What was Emme doing here!?

They hadn't seen each other in years.  she looked different; a little 
bit taller, and a little bit scarier.  well, she had always been like 
that to some degree, but...

Was that man her boyfriend?  As soon as she saw Kid Enthusiastic, she 
turned the other way, but he could see sadness in her eyes.

So... maybe a *little* bit of angst today.

                                 --<>--

Emme tried not to look back.  She knew he'd be here, but she didn't 
know it would be this hard.  Step by step, she continued on.  Her first 
day of work, alongside him... She shook, but Tyler gently pushed her 
forward.

She opened the door to Fearless Leader's office. "Hello?"

"Ah, good, you're right on time." Tyler followed her in, and they sat 
in the chairs across from his desk. "Emily Aria Kyjoi, is that right?"

"Uh, that's right, but I usually go by Emme.  Nice to meet you." Tyler 
squeezed her hand.

Fearless Leader nodded. "Felix Landers.  Nice to meet you.  I've been 
reading about your work.  You're very well-respected in the community."

She bowed. "Thank you, though I'm not sure that every vampire would 
agree."

FL chuckled. "Criminals never like getting caught."

Emme nodded, encouraged. "So... should i get to training?"

"Well, we like to give our new members a test.  A way to see how they 
react in a live situation."

"Okay," Tyler and Emme said together.

"Ah, I'm sorry, but we prefer to test one person at a time."

Emme was about to protest, but Tyler nodded. "Of course.  I'll fill out 
the paperwork, and you can take your test."

"...yeah."

"Excellent!  Follow me to the Peril Room, please..."

                                 --<>--

Emme leapt into the air.  The combat robot followed, but she dodged all 
the moves thrown at her.  This was actually kind of AWESOME!

A whistle blew, and two more robots stepped out of the holographic 
jungle.  They were faster, too, and it was harder to keep out of range.  
The metal kicks and punches were coming closer, and if she didn't do 
something, sooner or later they'd connect.

Well, the LNH already had people who could dodge a punch.  They 
deserved to know what she could *really* do!

In a blink, she disappeared.  Suddenly, she was there, behind the one 
on the left.  Her leg snapped out and its head flew off.  She could 
feel the blood pulsing inside her.  Couldn't keep this up for long, but 
she didn't have to.  She disappeared again as the other robot charged 
at her.  Reappearing on the ground, she delivered a punch that 
shattered its knee, and it fell.

She stood up and dusted herself off.  That was too easy.

...wait.  Hadn't there been three robots?

A disc shot out of the underbush and wrapped around her ankle.  She 
screamed in an unladylike manner and fell down.  The robot reeled her 
in and held her upside-down.

January Frost clicked a stopwatch. "Six minutes.  Not bad." As soon as 
she spoke, the robot dropped Emme, leaving her on the floor.

"Ow! That was rude! ....stupid robot," She mumbled under her breath, 
pushing up on her feet.

The older woman chuckled. "Rudeness is the least you'll have to deal with
from your foes, dear."

Emme rolled her eyes. "You don't have to tell me that. I've been in 
fights before." A bit of attitude crept into her voice.

January smiled, looking completely unbothered and, perhaps, just a bit 
smug. "You should take a break.  Go visit the cafeteria and talk to Su.  
He'll fix you up."

                                 --<>--

"...I should have asked where the cafeteria *was*," Emme mumbled to 
herself. "Not that they'll probably be serving blood..."

"Hm?  What's that about blood?" Doc Nostalgia, one of the oldest and, 
she'd heard, least friendly members of the Legion peered at her.

"Ah... ahaha, nothing!" She grinned and ran off down the nearest 
corridor.  As she turned the corner, her stomach grumbled, and she 
sighed. "I'm going to get lost... but I'll look stupid if I just ask 
someone."

She walked like she knew where she was going, but it soon became very 
obvious that she didn't.  Where was Tyler?  Ugh, she had even less idea 
how to get back to that office...

Suddenly, she was aware that something was nearby.  When another 
vampire was around, she could feel her blood quicken.  This wasn't like 
that.  It was like her blood was... slowing down...

Footsteps, behind her!  Emme started to panic. She turned and saw 
someone in dark clothing, their face hidden in the shadows.

Emme fell to the ground.  Just before she passed out, she could feel 
arms lifting her up and taking her away...

                                 --<>--

"Emme?" Tyler called. "Hello?!" It seemed Emme was nowhere to be found.  
Once he'd finished the paperwork, he'd gone to check on her, and Ms. 
Frost had pointed him to the cafeteria.  But he had searched through 
the crowds of people shuffling in and out, to no avail.

"Hey!" A woman wearing a long white robe grabbed his arm. "Careful!"

Tyler turned, intending to apologize, when someone running by at super-
speed knocked him over. "ow!" he murmured.  the woman sighed and helped 
him up.

"Thanks. hey..." He asked cautiously. "can you help me find a red-
haired girl, about ten years old, named Emme?"

"Ah, lost little lady, eh?  shouldn't be too hard to find." She took 
him down a side corridor into a big room with monitors all over the 
walls.  There was a chair there, and for a moment, Tyler thought he'd 
found Emme.  But he realized after a moment that it wasn't the same 
girl - she was a bit older, say twelve, with east Asian features, and 
her hair was a brighter, almost unreal red.  Her eyes were flickering 
from the monitors to a piece of paper in front of her, on which she was 
sketching.

"Manga Girl!" said the woman.

The girl looked up. "Oh, Kindle!"

Kindle smiled. "This is..." She looked up at Tyler, questioningly.

"Ah.  My name is Tyler.  I am trying to find Emme Kyjoi," He explained. 
"She..." He pulled a pendant out of his pocket, opening it to show them 
a picture of her.

"Hmmmm, haven't seen anyone like that..." Manga Girl opened up the 
monitoring system's commands and rapidly fast-forwarded through the 
video logs.

Images flashed across the screens, and stopped at a still frame of 
Emme, standing in the hallway.  Tyler sucked in a breath.  Manga Girl 
advanced the video, frame by frame.  Some sort of shape showed up, just 
out of clear vision, at the bottom of the frame.  Emme turned... and 
the video fuzzed out.

"Dagnabbit!" Kindle shouted angrily, smacking the monitor.

"That was Emme!!!" Tyler shouted. "Where - what happened to her!?"

"Looks like someone snuck in!" said Manga Girl. "But that shouldn't be 
possible!"

"In this weird old place?" Kindle shook her head. "Pretty much 
anything's possible."

"That was the southwest corridor, between the Peril Room and the 
cafeteria - just a few minutes ago!" Manga Girl rose from her chair. 
"If we hurry, maybe we can catch 'em!"

                                 --<>--

Emme woke up in a chair, her arms tied behind her back, rope binding 
her legs and waist to the chair. "Where am I?!"

"Don't worry, my dear," said a deep voice. "You're not hurt, and you 
won't be... as long, that is, as you hand over the Sword of Deletion!" 
An old man stepped out.  Despite his age, he was healthy and muscular, 
with dark blue hair.

"W- who are you?"

"Hah.  My name doesn't matter.  Only what I can do.  And what I can do 
to you, my dear, is anything I like."

"I will never give you the Sword of Deletion!!!" she said, 
adding to herself, "I can't give it to you anyway."

The man smirked. "Your mouth can lie... but your heart betrays you. 
Minion!"

"But I--" Someone interrupted her.

"Master..." A figure shuffled out of the darkness.  A brown-haired man, 
pale, with a scar along his jawline.  One of his eyes was brown, but 
the other was crimson.

"Ah, Yes, Curtis." The man grinned.  It wasn't a nice grin.

"Master, the sword, I can feel it... it is bonded to her and her 
alone."

"Don't say such perverted things!!!" Emme shouted. "Tell me where I 
am!" She was doing her best to sound pissed off instead of terrified.

"Shut up!" yelled Curtis. the man leaned in and whispered something in 
his ear. Curtis smirked at Emme. "Heh heh heh... if we can't take the 
sword..."

"...we shall just have to take you." The man grinned. "My, my... taking 
control of a vampire.  Haven't done that in a few decades.  I'm afraid 
they don't last long... but then, I think you'll last long enough."

Okay, *that* was enough! "I will never agree to you!!" Emme slipped a 
tiny dagger from her sleeve.  In a flash, the ropes fell away, cut into 
pieces.

The man sighed. "Really, must you make it difficult?" He stretched out 
a hand, and she began to feel faint, just like in the hallway - only 
this time, she could recognize it and resist it.  Leaping away, she saw 
a door and bolted through.

Who are these people? Emme thought. Why did I have to be in this mess? 
Wish I could get out of here...

...where am I, anyway?

She stopped running.  Emme was lost again.

                                 --<>--

Kid Enthusiastic leaned against the cafeteria wall and sighed.  Okay, 
so, Emme.  She was awesome, he was awesome... they had not been so 
awesome together.  She was still... well, he sure *hoped* he could 
still call her a friend.  But showing up to join the LNH out of the 
blue... dang it, he wasn't supposed to be one of the gloomy characters!

Suddenly, that man he'd seen Emme with ran by, followed by Kindle and 
Manga Girl.  He pushed himself off the wall and ran after them. "Hey, 
guys, what's up?"

"Have to find Emme!" they all yelled at once.

"Emme!?" Kid E ran even faster, only to plow right into Kindle as they 
all stopped.

"She was here..." Tyler took a deep breath, eyes flickering back and 
forth. "They went..."

"They went that way!" Kid Enthusiastic pointed down a disused corridor, 
holding a complicated device with lots of spinning satellite dishes on 
it.  He activated his rocket skates and zoomed away.

"Emme... I'm coming!"

                                 --<>--

Emme turned back and forth, searching.  She'd been taken to some sort 
of huge old house, with doors and hallways like a maze.  Despite the 
danger all around, She just couldn't stop thinking about her past - 
about their past...

                              ~ Flashback ~

I was with Alice, my best friend, on what seemed like the worst night 
of her life.  Her grandparents had died two days before. We went to the 
funeral together.  Alice was... well, 'devastated' doesn't seem like a 
strong enough word.  I hugged her, said "It's going to be alright." 
She sobbed into my nice dress.  I didn't mind.

The next day, James and I got into a fight.  It started when he 
reminded me about the date we were supposed to have gone on yesterday.  
I snapped at him.  We started yelling, saying things we didn't mean...

looking back, it was obvious that he hadn't gotten over the death of 
his dad - just like I hadn't ever really dealt with the past I couldn't 
remember.  We had gotten together because we wanted to try and help 
each other, but in the end, neither of us were ready.  In the end, we 
walked away from each other..

I was crying by the time i got home, half from the funeral, half from...

                          ~ End of Flashback ~

Emme started to cry.  She blinked the tears away, running off to get 
even more lost.

                                 --<>--

Kid Enthusiastic zipped out of the back entrance to the LNHQ.  Today 
they were in one of the older parts of town, with ancient, decrepit 
mansions that had once housed millionaires but had been allowed to fall 
into ruin.

Tyler narrowed his eyes.  Of course!  Hidden in an old--

Kid E zipped right by them.

Or maybe not.

He headed into Net.ropolis west-Central Park, a dense, overgrown forest 
of deep shadows.  The rocket skates cut out, and he had to pick his way 
through the underbrush.  Soon, Tyler, Kindle and Manga Girl caught up 
with him.

"What is this?" Manga Girl asked.

"I can sense the flux in the morphogenic field caused by the presence 
of the Sword of Deletion this way!"

"...the what?" said Kindle, raising her eyebrow.

"The Sword of Deletion!  A magic blade linked to the power of death 
that can kill even immortals!"

"...and we're running *towards* this."

"Emme is magically bonded to it.  Where it is, she is."

                                 --<>--

"I'm thirsty." Emme said to herself, thinking about warm, sweet, fresh 
blood.  Mmmm.

BANG!!! A loud crash came from behind Emme.  she stopped thinking about 
herself and started running.  She opened a door and slammed it behind 
her - only to realize she was trapped.

What am I going to do? she thought to herself. Ah-- a pile of clothes!!  
She jumped into it, covering herself easily in the old raggedy garments.  
She left the tiniest crack to see through, and watched...

The door creaked open.  A twisted creature with impossibly thin arms 
and legs and ash-gray skin stepped inside.  Though it was much larger 
than Emme, it looked shy and startled...

Emme kept quiet.  Who-- and what-- was that?  It turned around, closed 
the door, and sat down, leaning back against a wall.

Emme stood up, old gray dresses falling away.  The creature jumped back.  
Something strange happened - its limbs shrank, the coldness of its skin 
turning warm.  Slowly, it became a tall, skinny boy, somewhat older 
than her about fifteen, with blond hair and warm brown eyes.

He brushed his hair back and said, "Uh, hi.  I'm... well, I'm trying to 
get out of this place.  My name's Daniel.  Who are you?"

"My name's Emme, Emme Kyjoi. trying to get out as well." Emme looked at 
Daniel cautiously. "How did you get here, Daniel?" she asked.

"I..." He looked away. "I've been trapped here for a long time... 
that... *thing* that calls himself a man..." He swallowed nervously and 
said nothing more.

"Well, I got here by *that man* kidnapping me." Emme said, trying not 
to swallow.

"Oh, god." Daniel glanced, panicked, at the walls. "You... you're a 
vampire, aren't you?  You have to get out of here!  He'll--"

"He'll what, Daniel?" The man stood in the doorway.

                                 --<>--

The device in Kid Enthusiastic's hand beeped loudly. "There!" he 
shouted, and pointed to a place where three tree trunks had grown up, 
twisted around each other.

Tyler stepped forward.  With a single blow, the trunks exploded 
outward, revealing a shaded clearing with an old dark house within.  
They ran towards it...

--<>--

"Oh god!" said Emme.  She bolted for the door, But the man caught her 
by the sleeve.

"You are not going anywhere."

She froze.

"What are you going to do to her?!" yelled Daniel.

"Shut up!" Curtis appeared.

"Not very much, Daniel," said the man. "Not very much more than I did 
to you..."

Daniel screamed in rage and fear and leapt at the man, limbs growing, 
skin turning ashen.  The man laughed, catching him in one hand and 
tossing him against the wall.

"You can't do that!!!--"

The man covered her mouth. "You can't stop me."

Emme closed her eyes.  Yes, she could stop him.

She had never wanted to be a onlooker, just sitting back and doing 
nothing.  But wasn't it better to do nothing than to do something 
horrible?  something monstrous?

Not if it would prevent something even worse.

The man laughed, harsh, nasty.  She could feel his clammy skin against 
hers.

She thought of the people she'd just met, the trust in their eyes.  Why? 
she thought.  Why did my life turn out this way?  Why couldn't I just 
have one month, one week, one day as a normal girl?  It felt like her 
head was boiling with rage and worry and fear.

Her eyes snapped open. With all her strength, she struggled, trying to 
throw the evil man off. She screamed while bearing her fangs. "Get off 
of me! YOU are not going to ruin my life any more, you bastard!!!"

"Any more?" He laughed, chest shaking against her. "I've hardly begun!"

She bit into his hand, hard.  It was completely dry, and she gagged. 
"Who the hell are you?!"

"Hmmm.  Would it be too obvious to say 'your worst nightmare'?" The man 
didn't even notice as Daniel struggled, pinned to the wall.

She had only one acceptable option... and one... She shook her head. 
Putting on her most nonchalant attitude, she smirked and said "You 
can't kill me."

"Oh? And why not?"

In a blink, She disappeared.  The words "I'll show you!" echoed around 
the room.

                                 --<>--

"FIDDLESTICKS!!" shouted Kindle, running from one identical corridor to 
another.

"This place is like a maze, only without the metaphors for puberty at 
every corner!" said Manga Girl.

Kid Enthusiastic was ripping apart one of the devices he carried around 
and rewiring it.  He shook the screen, and it lit up with a map of the 
house. "This way!"

Tyler kept his own council, but to the few people who knew him, it was 
obvious: fear - fear for Emme... and possibly, fear *of* her...

                                 --<>--

Curtis snarled. "She can't have gone--"

Emme appeared out of nowhere and Kicked him in the face. Lifting him in 
both arms, she threw hm out the window.

"He's done with!" Emme turned to the evil man and said, "Now for YOU!"

Emme swung her fist at the man's face... but he wrapped his hand 
casually around hers.

"Impressive!  Must be very taxing for you, though.  I bet you're... 
hungry..."

"SHUT UP!!!" she kicked him in the groin.

"..." The man took a breath. "That... is... enough!"

Emme could feel it.  The dreadful draining darkness was spreading 
through her, sucking out all her energy.  She was ravenously hungry, 
but it didn't matter.  Soon, she'd pass out, and then...

With her last breath, she said, "I HATE YOU... but I'm sorry."

She drew the Sword of Deletion.  Through his heart.

She looked into his eyes.  She could see a single brief moment of 
fear... and then he dissolved, ashes and dust collapsing around the 
blade.

And behind him was the door, and looking through it was Kid 
Enthusiastic...

Emme blacked out. Before she completely blacked she saw him reach out. 
"...It's okay..."

                                 --<>--

When she woke up, she could hear voices.

"...obviously in self-defense," said an older woman; January Frost.

"She was on the verge of being captured, and..." A young boy; Kid 
Enthusiastic. "You saw what happened to the other guy we rescued!"

"But the Code of the Legion clearly states that we do not take life 
unless it is absolutely necessary." A teenager that sounded older; Doc 
Nostalgia. "You were right there, and--"

"She didn't know that!" Kid E interrupted.

"No? She didn't think someone would be coming to help her, even knowing 
that this 'Tyler' couldn't have missed her absence?"

"..."

"Well." An older man, calm and collected. Fearless Leader. "I think 
that--"

"I'm leaving." Emme stood up, leaning on the doorway.  Tyler, standing 
there silently, immediately leaned in to support her other side.  An IV 
drip had been set up next to her, steadily flowing blood.

The four who had been discussing her fate turned.  Kid E leapt out of 
his chair. "Emme--"

"I'm sorry." She pulled the needle out of her arm. "Thank you for your 
hospitality, but... I am going."

She walked towards Kid Enthusiastic.  He started to protest, but she 
leaned in and kissed him on the lips.  He blinked, stunned.  She 
whispered, "...Goodbye."

She turned to Fearless Leader and gave him a card. "Call me if you're 
ever in need of a... consultant." He nodded, understanding.

She looked up at Tyler. "Let's go."

They walked through the doorway and disappeared, leaving behind an 
echo: "Be seeing you."

                                 --<>--

Authors' Notes:

Andrew: Please welcome a new writer!  In my personal experience, I'll 
have you know: She's awesome.

Yuki: I hope you like the story! (*smiles*) Andrew is awesome, I hope 
you like the story we both came up with! Thank you for reading!

Emme is created by Yuki Rosemoon and Andrew Perron, and is Ask Before 
Using.  All other characters are General Use.