Volume 1, Issue 10

Emily Fine waited in the darkness, clutching her White Diamond mask tightly in her hand and hiding in the shadow of some trees on a cold winter night.  If she put the mask on now, it would begin to gather light, and she might be noticed before the plan came to fullness.

Her friend Angela, newly a vampire, stood toe to toe with the creature that had devastated Aaron, and had gone on to injure several others across quiet, lonely Stevenson over the last few cold December eves.  Now, finally, they had found it.  It was, unlike Angela, a creature of pure darkness, not empowered or driven by it, but seemingly born of if.  Every instinct she had was to put on the mask, stand under the brightest streetlight she could find for about five minutes, and then let loose on the creature.  But that wasn't the plan.  Not yet.

As Emily waited for the creature to continue its assault on Angela, she thought back to the horrible events that had gotten her involved in this.

Three nights ago...

"We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a special New 3 Update.  Earlier today, Aaron Majesky, now known to be the hero Dragonfly, was found near death on the football field of Stevenson High School.  Aaron, a CIU student and resident of Langley Hall, is at the intensive care unit at Slager Memorial.  The police we unable to make a statement at this time, but reporters indicate Majesky was found face-down in the snow, near suffocation, with multiple breaks and unidentifiable injuries, possible resulting in a super-hero battle of some sort.

"Back to you Jack," The middle aged African American woman said.

"In other news..." began the graying Jack Castle, lead anchor.

Meanwhile, 5 miles away at Slager Memorial, White Diamond argued with the head physician assigned to Aaron.

"I'm sorry, he's in critical condition.  Only direct relatives and clergy would be allowed to see him right now, and you're neither, unless taking off that mask will prove otherwise."

Diamond furrowed her brow.  "This is IMPORTANT.  Doctor, we have no idea what could have caused this situation, but I'm betting it's related to one of our cases.  It's in the best interest of the public that the rest of my team has information to act on."

The doctor, a thin man in his thirties with blond hair and chiseled features, sighed.  "You'll have to take it up with the police, then.  I'm sure if they think you should have information, they'll share it with you!"  The doctor turned to storm away, but Angela had come up behind him.  Emily didn't feel good about using Angela's abilities like this, but when her friend had found out that Aaron was in trouble, she'd insisted.  Emily was willing to accept that Angela owed her one.

"Doctor," Angela began.  Her doe brown eyes became a much deeper color, and the doctor felt loosely as if he were falling into a cavern somewhere in the wild, with no one to help him.  "I think what you mean is that, while it's hospital policy that only family be allowed to visit the critically injured, in this case, you understand the urgency, and we can go talk to him now."

The doctor struggled hard to understand why he felt so wrong.  In the end, his will could not win out over the dark beauty before him.  "Yes," he conceded, "that's what I mean.  Look, ladies, I have other patients to attend to as well.  I trust you can find your own way?"

Emily nodded, and grinned gratefully at Angela.  "That was amazing.  I never really quite believed you until now."

"Yes, just one of the little benefits of being the undead," Angela giggled.  

When they got to Aaron's room, they found him in as bad a state as they had heard.  Emily ran up to the bed, putting her hand on Aaron's chest.  He did not stir.

Angela came up behind her friend, placing her hand on Emily's arm.  Despite the fact that it was intended to comfort, a cold chill ran up Emily's back, which she quickly hid.  

Emily looked at Angela.  "Can you contact him?  I mean, mentally, somehow?"

"I don't think so.  My powers play on the conscious mind.  He seems very distant.  And yet..."  Angela reached out and touched Aaron on the chest, near where Emily's hand already lay.  She felt the heart beating within him, the warm, salty blood that flowed through those veins.  Before she even realized it, Angela had leaned in, her fangs protruding conspicuously from behind her upper lip.

Subconsciously, White Diamond's hand began to glow brightly, and Angela backed off.  "Sorry, Emily.  It's a hard habit to break.  Here, give him some of this," she said, holding out a vial of red liquid.  Emily eyed the vial, and her friend, suspiciously.  

Angela rolled her dark eyes in frustration.  "It's my blood.  It's not going to enslave him or anything.  You've read to many books.  It's just going to give his system a little boost.  Think of it as an energy shot."

Slowly, White Diamond too the vial and put it to Aaron's cold lips...

Now...

The shadow form, the "anti-man", was upon Angela.  While its draining dark power was less effective on Angela than it had proven on the living, Angela nevertheless fell back from the power of its assaults.  "Come, my dark huntress!  You have in you a glimpse of what I am!  Come with me and revel in the blood of the living!"  Its negative claws passed through Angela's coat, ripping into her ribcage and tearing dead flesh.  The dead skin began immediately to rot, and Angela realized she couldn't let that happen too many more times.  

Come on, Angela, Emily thought, the winter chill causing her to shiver in the dim light under the trees.  Get to the plan!

Angela stood back, momentarily out of reach of the anti-man.  Here goes, she thought, her undead mind still feeling a tinge of fear.  If this failed, she'd need to get out of there, fast.

"You know, anti-man, it's funny that a shadow like you can even play at existence.  Of course you realize it's all an illusion?"

The anti-man paused, intrigued by this new game.  "How so," he asked, claws menacing the air around Angela half-heartedly.

"Well, beings like myself have a better knowledge of the true nature of reality, being in-between states.  It is a fact, the mortals themselves, like your progenitor, they don't actually exist.  That's why it amazes me that a creature like you, being but a shadow of a thought, can exist at all!"

The anti-man was dumbfounded.  Her words were nonsense.  Of course he existed!  And yet, her eyes...No, this dead thing was lying, manipulating him.  And yet, try as he must, he could not look away.  The anti-man began to feel as if he were losing cohesion.  His power waned slightly, and the trap was sprung.

From under nearby trees, White Diamond stepped into the streetlights.  In an instant, her power was magnified tenfold.  Angela knew what to do in this part of the plan: run.  That light would melt her light a candle.

The anti-man didn't have time to draw the darkness back.  The powerful blast, which drained every bit of light White Diamond had pulled, ripped through the creature, sending it back to the nothingness from which it came.  Minutes later, Emily and Angela, convinced that the anti-man was gone, gathered together. 

They walked to a nearby car, at which Emily shouted "It worked!"  The window down, Aaron nodded at her grimly.  Aaron had a feeling that, while they'd defeated this anti-man tonight, he hadn't seen the last of his dark alter-ego.   

A pain in his side brought Aaron out of his deep reflection.  Emily came over to the car, her mom's, and got in the driver's side.  "Let's go get some breakfast," she said.