"Come on!" Justus yelled and they marched towards the entrance of the base. When he reached the threshold, he narrowly missed a beheading when a large axe flew by him, sc.r.a.ping his chin. "Attack!" was the only word that came out of his mouth as he stood there in shock. The soldiers used flares to light the now darkened room and saw that hundreds of vampires, all sticking to the walls, in order to create an ambush, were glaring at them with fiery eyes, baring their long fangs, and hissing spitefully.

The vampires flew off the walls and glided towards the soldiers, knocking them down and pushing them off-guard. The ones still standing grabbed their semi-automatic silver proton Uzis and fired at their enemies. As the vampires flew down for a second attack, they were caught in the fire and disintegrated. Those who were lucky enough to survive fell to the floor. They ran at lightning speed, dodging the bullets and attacked those who were reloading. They grabbed a hold of them, ripped off their helmets and dug their fangs deep into their necks, feasting on what must have seemed to them like ambrosia. It had been so long since any of them tasted human blood. The sacred life-fluid splattered across the floor as they gorged on their prey.

The surviving humans screamed in fear and disgust and ran back from the carnage, gathering their will and strength. Many of them had never seen such gruesome acts. Some of them were frozen in shock. They fell prey to the second b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.sault, not able to hear Justus's commands to back away.

"We need to fight together! Group up! Fast!" he shouted. Some of them were too horrified to react. The ones who could gave heed to his command and grouped into a giant dense circle as the powerful vampires, now filled with a fresh supply of life-blood, flew around them.

"Justus, where the h.e.l.l are you?" John's voice blasted through Justus's earpiece.

"We're in a bit of a situation, sir."

Romsky split ways with Hopkinson and took a transport tanker to the southwest coast of the British Isle. He wiped the condensation from the window. As the ship came closer to the ground, he saw at least a thousand soldiers marching towards the Command Center in the Atlantic. He sent an urgent report to the War Council, where the seven other generals were taking in messages and sending out commands. The seven generals who were a.s.signed to this were Strauss, Smith, Wellington, Kenmore, Park, Hussein, Lawler, Anderson, Skarssen, Di-Nardo, Huron, Jackson, and Xiu. Lawler was the one who received this printed report, "By G.o.d!" he exclaimed, "We're going to need more men," he told his comrades.

"Well, how many more, and where?" asked Wellington, moving his office chair around.

"Romsky says that he can see at least a thousand in Britain, so he suggests sending another five hundred to himself and Hopkinson in North Africa." Wellington's balding head gleamed with sweat at the mention of the numbers he had deducted from the previous reports.

"Where exactly in Northern Africa?" Wellington asked. He turned on his communicator and switched to Hopkinson's frequency. He could hear lots of gunfire and screams. "General, can you hear me?"

Hopkinson was in the middle of a duel with a vampire who was using double swords. The swords swung in such a quick rhythmic fashion that if he flinched for a second he would have his head cut off. "Abe? Is that you?"

"Yes," said the clear voice, "Listen to me carefully."

"Yeah," he dodged the vampire's attack and backed off, "Tell me."

"Sergei says there are at least a thousand or so enemies in Britain. He's requested reinforcements. What about you?"

"Well we sure could use it, but not now. We had them by surprise here. Over and out!" he said and the line cut.

What George had said was true, because the vampires miscalculated that the human armies would attack cities mostly located in Europe. They hadn't thought of Africa, particularly Morocco, where they were fighting now. Thanks to the surprise attack, the humans now had the advantage. The storm raged on, spreading across England and now Morocco. Overhead, they heard fighting in the air and sometimes a fighter would plummet to the battlefield, crushing people to death. This was getting risky on his end, George thought. Their fighters were doing well but the enemy ships could land on his troops at any time.

The only reason why fighting was taking place in Moroccan airs.p.a.ce was because they had been ordered to reach the Command Center in order to help out President Gareng and his troops. But the human fighters made it almost impossible for them to get through.

George screamed in pain as a vampire slashed his skin. He faltered and fell to his knees in pain. His enemy's sword chopped through the air, aiming for George's head, but before it arrived, George slashed sideways into the vampire's knees. The vampire screamed as his legs burned to ashes. The fire spread up his body until it charred into dust, and flew away in the high wind.

The rain and the wet sandy ground made it difficult for them to walk, but as they advanced towards the enemy troops, their resolve strengthened with each step. There were sparks everywhere and the vampires all began to shriek in harmony making the humans cover their ears. The ones who could not handle the sound fell to the ground. The vampires devoured the fallen, five or six of them feasting on one body. "Ignore the noise!" Hopkinson yelled to his troops. But he too found it difficult as the sound pained his eardrums and the cold water pounded on his slashed skin. He used his anger to his advantage as he flung his sword in the air, whipping it round and round, killing as many as four to five vampires with each slash.

They were winning. So far.

Nikolas and the other Rebels stirred from their recuperation. As Nikolas opened his eyes, he saw the most remarkable thing. John, Richard, and Alex were fighting against Daniel, Erik and twenty soldiers. As Nick turned from his left to his right he saw all the Rebels staring at him. They nodded and he returned their greeting. All of them jumped up, transformed their bodies into silver and charged towards the battle.

At the sound of their battle cry, the two opposing sides stopped and looked. Both sides believed that the Rebels would come to their defense. In the midst of their charge, Nikolas stopped, and then the others did likewise. "What are you doing?" Daniel asked agitatedly, "Get them!"

Nikolas smiled and shook his head, "Did you think you could really trust us?" He paused to see Erik's and Daniel's confused faces. Daniel looked at him with a mixture of sadness, shock and disgust. Erik's demonized face reddened in hot anger.

"It doesn't matter now!" Erik yelled. "We have you surrounded. Activate the restrainers." He pointed to the restraint belts.

The belts activated and electrified the Rebels' silver bodies. They yelled in pain, their eyes bulged out and their faces contorted in excruciation. Alex slashed at Erik.

Erik blocked the ma.s.sive silver sword and spat at Alex, "You can't do anything boy!"

John jumped to Alex's aid only to be stopped midair by Daniel, "What do you think you're doing? We're not finished yet!" He attacked John maintaining a rhythm with the swords. This was a fight method all vampires had learned to keep their opponents in check and to give them the upper hand by controlling the rhythm.

Alex looked to Erik, who kept attacking him. Then he looked to Nikolas and the Rebels. He pushed Erik back with all his strength and stepped closer to Nikolas. He held out his right hand and from the tips of his fingers came a small flash of electricity, like miniature lighting. In a few seconds, it grew, filling half of the room. The sparks converged to the restraints on the Rebels' necks. The chokers blew apart, leaving the bearers unharmed. Suddenly, Alex felt a jolt of pain in his back as Erik had slashed it open. He screamed. John looked over to his nephew and yelled, "No!"

But, to everyone's amazement, the huge cut in his back healed up. Alex smiled and turned around to face an awe-stricken Erik. He put out his right hand, extended his index finger and waved it, taunting and questioning the might of his opponent. Erik, in a fit of rage, flew towards Alex, who was off-guard at the moment, only to have the powerful attack blocked by Nikolas. "Learn to fight with those whom you can match!" He pushed him away in one powerful shove. "Alex, get out of here and take some of us with you."

"But"

"Just do it!"

One of the guards left his post. He walked into the forest to breathe in the pine scented air and light a cigarette. "Okay," Ranjit murmured, "On my command." And just as the vampire finished his cigarette, the General yelled, "Now!" There was a large explosion in the air, creating confusion amongst the guards. A non-silver bullet hit the guard with the cigarette in the head. "Troops, follow my lead," said General Singh. They advanced towards the entrance of the gate at the edge of the forest. They would have to run as fast as they could because he and his men would be easily noticeable.

General Singh ran with his troops towards the entrance of the gate, but they were spotted and the guards shouted out to each other. They exposed their fangs and let out a hideous and unearthly howl. "Kurt, we need you! Now!" Singh shouted into his communicator. Within thirty seconds, the vampires attacked Singh's army and the human fighters flew down and fired upon the Anisaei. Singh jabbed his sword into the unholy flesh of the vamps until fire and embers spurted out of their h.e.l.lish bodies. As the large gates opened up to spew out more soldiers, Singh's army pushed through the gate. He called for the ionic plasma bombs, which contained silver nitrate. Forty were thrown at a time, creating a large explosion of smoke and silver nitrate particles. When the vampires inhaled these particles they burst open spreading their glowing remains everywhere.

"Evan!" Ranjit shouted, "Evan! Stay with me."

Evan, Ranjit's lieutenant, answered, "I'm coming." He rushed to Ranjit's side, hacking away at the enemy and killing at least twenty of them in his stride.

"Keep those discs safe; we're going to need them soon."

Alex stood in the elevator with seven of the Rebels: Davik, Joqetu, Gavin, Noel, Yagnik, Hektor, and Orwen. When they reached the main landing area, they saw the vampires feeding on human bodies. Blood spilled and flowed everywhere, making the ground shiny. Justus, along with his other men, battled it out with the vampires on the ground.

"Leave this to us, Alexander," Orwen said.

"But-"

"Just get in the ship," Orwen barked, "Davik, Gavin and Noel: you go with him."

Justus, who spotted Alex amidst the bloodbath, said, "Don't worry sir! I'm coming!" He had no idea that the others were Rebels.

"Wait! Wait!" Alex shouted, "They're here to help!"

Justus stopped in his tracks and an expression of relief covered his face. Just then, a flying vampire grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him outside. Justus gasped. He gathered his senses and with his sword tried to literally disarm his predator. The vampire flew out of range. Suddenly thunder struck and pierced the vampire's sensitive ears. The flying vampire let go of Justus who plummeted into the sea. Alex, quick to help, ran outside with the other Rebels, trying to catch him. But they were too late. Alex dived in the sea to save him.

"Let's finish this off," Orwen said. The Rebels turned into silver, took flight and prepared for the final a.s.sault.

John, accustomed to the ferocity of the fight and getting in tune with his old techniques, spun his sword around, broke the rhythm and slashed Daniel in the stomach. The sword pierced through the t.i.tanium chain-mail that he was wearing underneath leaving a searing wound there. Daniel screeched in agony and his face turned demonic. Just as it had in the boardroom, it became sharp, angular and intense. He leaped towards John and lacerated his shoulder with his sword, rendering his sword-arm almost powerless. The President laughed and thrust his weapon at John's chest but not before Nikolas had gathered enough energy to telepathically push his son away.

"Thanks, I owe you one." John spun his sword and smiled at Daniel maliciously. Daniel glared at him and in a raging fury, lifted a large broken piece of gla.s.s and telekinetically threw it at John. Dante used his psychic powers and broke it into innumerable shards that flew towards Daniel. Daniel ducked but it was too late. The gla.s.s pierced his body in many places, leaving him drained and weak, but not dead.

"I think you better get out of here, John," Dante said, "Alex'll be needing you!"

"Right!" John said with a deep breath and ran out to his nephew's aid.

Romsky knew that before the five hundred reinforcements arrived, he and his own men would have to fight with all they had. If possible, the optimal situation for the Generals in Africa, England and perhaps even the Vatican was for them to push the soldiers back to their own starting point. From there they could infiltrate and destroy as many as possible. There would also be help from the fighters who would drop as many bombs as possible to ensure maximum damage.

The Russian General's troops ran towards the marching vampires and launched a full scale attack upon them. The storm grew even larger; lightning flashed and thunder roared through the clouds, ripping them apart. The army was at the southwestern most tip of England and pushing its way through. They did not know whether they had reached the enemy's base or not.

"Onward!" Sergei would shout every five minutes or so at his men, making them push more fiercely. Soon enough, a fifth of the enemy was destroyed. Things seemed to be developing in their favor.

Romsky, who had trained himself in the Siberian tundra and cold mountains of the Himalayas, was like an animal when it came to fighting. For one month he roamed the Siberian wastelands and faced the bitter cold with only the barest of clothes on him. Legend had it that he faced a tiger with nothing but stones and rocks as his weapons. He ripped open the jaws of the tiger with his bare hands, and came back with the tiger's blood all over his body and its fangs worn as a neck ornament.

With every battle, he would go into a berserk rage, not caring about his life or the outcome. He fought with such horrific sadism and was like a fearsome wild beast in the eyes of his enemies. He would use his sword just like any master swordsman, but he would also use his bare hands to poke out the enemy's eyes and rip open their mouths. Even his own men were shocked by his brutality. The onslaught continued but soon enemy ships swooped down, dropping small but lethal bombs and killing an average of twenty soldiers with each explosion. "Do something, Ted!" Romsky shouted through the communicator to one of the squadron leaders.

"I'm on it," Ted said. "Get those fresh fighters," he ordered his men. And at once, the fighters were on their enemies' tails, shooting them down and further diminishing their numbers.

The heavy rain mixed with the bodily ashes of the vampires and created dense smog that began to suffocate every soldier there. Quick to their feet, the Anisaei flew above the corporeal mist, and with their collective energy they whipped up the wind and blew the smog away. The humans, wheezing and coughing, were preoccupied with keeping themselves alive. Once the dust cleared, the vampires led a swift ambush. But soon after, fresh transport tankers flew in with reinforcements and more fighters. They blasted away at the vampires, burning them and chasing them as they ran and flew away, attempting to escape their deaths. Victory belonged to the humans.

What was I thinking! Alex rushed into the icy depths of the rough ocean to save Justus, but he figured by now he must have drowned. The water numbed his body until he felt nothing. There was no sensation, no pain, nor any thought of pain. He found that with his new temporary powers he did not need to hold his breath. He just swam, breathing in the water and expelling it out, his nasal system acting like gills to a fish. Alex rushed into the icy depths of the rough ocean to save Justus, but he figured by now he must have drowned. The water numbed his body until he felt nothing. There was no sensation, no pain, nor any thought of pain. He found that with his new temporary powers he did not need to hold his breath. He just swam, breathing in the water and expelling it out, his nasal system acting like gills to a fish.

Justus! Where the heck are you? He was agitated and worried for the soldier. It was someone he didn't even know, but someone who had risked their life for him. He was agitated and worried for the soldier. It was someone he didn't even know, but someone who had risked their life for him.

A very icy chill went up Alex's spine as he felt something squirmy pa.s.s by his legs. This was the first time he had been in the ocean and he had heard stories as a child of monsters in the sea. Could this be one of those monsters? Could this be one of those monsters? He shuddered, afraid to look. He wanted to swim away as fast as he could. But something in him stopped and made him turn around. He shuddered, afraid to look. He wanted to swim away as fast as he could. But something in him stopped and made him turn around.

And when he did, he turned a deadly pale color. He saw a large black, lidless eye staring at him, and he had the feeling that the stare was one of hunger. As he swam back, mesmerized by the eye, he saw that it belonged to a gigantic squid. Its tentacles thrashed around in the water making it difficult for Alex to get away. He realized that the beast was pulling him towards it. Then he saw what had become of Justus.

The poor man had been taken by the creature. His neck was dislocated and his eyes were looking upward. His mouth was drooling and opened and his body was mangled in an unnatural position. He was utterly crushed and his body shook from the force of the tentacle that held him firmly. Alex wanted to yell, to get out and swim away, but he also wanted to destroy the beast and avenge the death of what would be the forgotten brave. And so, he kicked the eye of the monster.

The vampires on the main landing area were taken care of. The Rebels proved to be unbeatable with their silver bodies and sword mastery. "Well," Orwen said as they landed softly on the ground, all looking out to sea, "that's the last of them."

"Not yet," Davik said, as he pointed to the bodies of the slaughtered humans. They would have to disintegrate them totally before the bodies became possessed by the disease and will of the vampires.

"What about Alex?" Orwen said.

"Hey!" John's voice called out, as he heaved himself forward, holding on to his ruptured shoulder. "You all okay?" he asked them. They nodded. He looked around for Alex but could not find him.

"He's gone down," Gavin said, "to save someone."

"What!" John yelled, "How could you let him?"

Just behind him, Richard and the others ran towards them. "What's happened?" Richard asked.

"They left my nephew in the b.l.o.o.d.y water!" John yelled.

The tentacles wrapped forcefully around Alex, rendering him helpless. He yelled out in pain and concentrated his energy towards the eye. After a few seconds, the tentacles blew apart from the force of his will. He slashed the eye with his sword, causing the squid to toss him out of the sea.

Alex crashed to the ground at John's feet. "Alex!" shouted John. He took his nephew by the shoulder and stood him up. "Are you alright?"

"Don't worry about me," Alex said in a daze, "I wanted to help Justus, but he's dead."

"What? What happened?"

"A vampire left him in the sea and a giant squid killed him."

Just then, a hollow, deep ba.s.s groan came through the waves of the ocean and a set of large tentacles smashed onto the floor. They jumped back.

John had only ever heard of such a creature in stories. But he knew this mutation resulted from nuclear waste. "Forget it!" he said. "Let's just get into the ship."

"What about Nick?" Alex asked.

"I'm going back there to help him."

"I'm coming with you," Alex said.

"No!" John yelled, "You have to get back to the Regnum, safe and sound. Stay with these men. Go!"

The transport ship landed and Hektor pulled Alex towards it.

They boarded it and, just before the entrance sealed shut, it took off into the sky.

The night grew darker and the skies over the Vatican and its neighboring forest were filled with stars. On a clear night such as this, one could see the spherical body of the Regnum eclipsing the bright full moon.

The General and his men were now inside the Vatican fighting the guards. Suddenly, General Chang and General Nakashima charged out with their men. The arrival of the reinforcements made the vampires panic. They ran for cover. The fighters attacked them with greater effort, further reducing their numbers.

"Great work, team," Singh said, as he shot a vampire who immediately crumbled with the force of the silver nitrate. He turned to Evan and said, "Activate the sound." Evan nodded and pushed a b.u.t.ton on the edge of his metallic glove, and a frequency emanated from Evan's entire armor. Every single vampire in a fifteen mile radius fell down on their knees, begging for the sound to stop. The humans couldn't hear anything, as the frequency was so low that it could be heard only by hypersensitive ears. Ranjit approached one of the vampires who covered his ears and eyed the general with spite. "Tell us, where we can find the main computer database," said Singh.

The vampire spat blood into his face, "Turn it off!" he yelled, "And I'll tell you."

"Tell me and I'll turn it off!" Ranjit yelled back.

"No one is allowed inside. There is a code for it. Please," tears of blood flowed down from his eyes, "Just turn the d.a.m.n noise off."

Ranjit signaled the order, and a reluctant looking Evan pressed the same b.u.t.ton. The noise stopped immediately.

"Now tell us. Where can we find the database?"

The vampire, his long hair matted with blood, breathed heavily and paused, "We cannot tell you. It is forbidden."

"Don't fool with me!" Ranjit yelled, pushing his sword towards the vampire's throat.

The pain burned through his skin and he let out a squeal. "Don't kill me!" he tried to push away Ranjit's hand, "I'll tell you." The other vampires stared at him and prepared to strike. The humans created a circle around the vampire and Ranjit.

"You will help me," Ranjit said softly. "Lead me to the library database. If you are useful, we might spare your life."

"Alright, follow me." He got on his feet and gestured for the humans to follow.

General Singh said in a loud voice, "If anyone is to follow us or try to attack, you know what will happen."

The vampires glared and hissed at them.

John ran towards the entrance and a large tentacle smacked him hard on the back. The tentacle left some kind of powerful irritant on his skin causing him to cry out. He cursed wildly under his breath and in his anger sliced off the tentacle and hacked away at the remains.

The squid's large tubular head protruded out of the water. One of its eyes bled and the other glared at John as if it was hungry for human flesh. He didn't fancy sticking around to fight, but realized he had no other choice. He decided to call for a fighter.