Date: Sat, 09 Apr 2005 16:53:26 -0400
From: reapersharvest@mac.com
Subject: Underworld 3 (Revised)

DISCLAIMER: This contains sexually explicit scenes; so if that offends you
don't read it.  The author and/or Nifty are not responsible for those under
eighteen (18) years of age reading this.  UNDERWORLD is property of the
author and should not be used without the author's permission.


  Agent Drake Bamford was sitting at his desk, poring over case files when
Hallows peeked her head through his door.

  "Bamford, you're gonna want to see this. Cave, now." The Cave was the
main room of the Agency for Supernatural Affair's HQ in upstate New
York. Bamford got up from his desk and followed Hallows and a couple of
other agents down the hall and down the main stairwell into the rows of
desks with countless computers and filing cabinets with plasma
monitor-lined walls, all with stats and satellite feeds. At the center of
the room, on a circular raised platform surrounded by more monitors and a
computer used by the head technician, Marty, was the Chief. Both were
looking at the screens, which appeared to be displaying case reports, with
a few other agents. Chief noticed Bamford when he entered.

  "Good, Bamford. Now a report just got in from your sector about a chase
in progress in Battery Park city, Manhattan."

  "Couldn't a routine road block with three units secure this? What even
makes it stand out as nocturnal?" This situation hardly warranted such a
meeting, there was vampire and werewolf crime going on all the time.

  "Well this one involves a car with three vamps, and a werewolf. A changed
werewolf."

  "But... that's impossible, the next full moon isn't for another week and
a half."

  "Apparently it is only too possible. Here the camera at an intersection
caught a shot of the wolf when the vehicle ran a red light," The image
appeared, a black and white photo with a blurred, but fully recognizable,
image of a changed wolf going after a black sedan, "frankly I couldn't
blame them, that werewolf's making good time."

 **********************

  "What the hell do we do now?!" The driver screamed at his partner,

  "How the fuck is this even happening!"

  "How the hell should I know?" He thought for a minute, then turned and
grabbed the shotgun behind him, loaded with silver bullets. "I'll try and
get him from here, turn left!" He did so and as the car turned sharply, he
opened the door, reached out one arm, and swung himself onto the roof of
the car. Once he steadied himself on top of the moving vehicle, he steadied
himself with the shotgun so he could get a clear shot at the behemoth
chasing after them. It was about ten feet behind them. He aimed and made
some close shots at the beast, but it would always nimbly leap out of the
line of fire and start running alongside a wall of one of the buildings on
either side of the street. "C'mon, you fucker," the vampire muttered to
himself in frustration as he tried to get another shot in
unsuccessfully. The wolf leaped up from the street and launched himself off
a newsstand onto the facade of the row of townhouses on the right side of
the street. As it ran along the wall, he tried to fire a few more shots at
the wolf, but when it got close enough, the werewolf leapt off the wall and
onto the roof of the car.

  The impact of the creature landing on the roof caused the driver to panic
and turn the car too sharply, flipping it. The werewolf grabbed the
vampire' neck with one hand and with the other, jumped off the roof of the
car and, as it was about to flip over onto the wolf, it grabbed the handle
of the side door with the other hand and threw the car over its head to
bring it down on its roof abruptly with a crash onto the pavement. After
digging deep into the vampire's chest with its claws and lacerating his
heart severely enough for it to bleed and starve to death, he ripped off
the car door like it were made of paper, yanked out the driver, disposed of
him similarly, and fished his briefcase out of the car. Just when the
werwolf had gotten what he came for and thought he would be able to get
away before the change wore off, he heard sirens. There were four black
audis coming at him from all sides with their small, red sirens
flashing. He knew these weren't ordinary cops, this was the ASA, the
Nightwatchers, as most called them. He turned to run away, but a car
stopped up right in his path and as he leapt over it, two agents firing
guns with silencers, loaded with silver bullets, got out and got a couple
of shots in. About eight more began firing similarly, running after the
wolf. A few got in and slowed him down incredibly until he couldn't go on
and collapsed. When one fires silver at a changed wolf, it just causes them
to change back and heal, it doesn't kill them like if they were in their
human form. So the body slowly morphed back until it was a naked man's body
in a fetal position, covered in scars and dirt. One of the agents walked up
to the body tentatively, gun at the ready, to see of it was safe to
transport him. Upon a couple of nudges with his foot, he turned to the
others and said, "Ok, bag him and get him upstate."

 *******************

  The Big Three once again found themselves around the familiar round table
in the large, dark conference room. They were all there:

  -- Hellion Sanger, the current chancellor of the Council, a new one is
chosen every ten years. He is the owner of the Company Sangeo with a
monopoly on all commercial blood distribution in the country. The only
source of blood out of his scope is a fresh bite. His company ran a number
of "Blood Silos" across the country, supplying the other clan's locations
with preserved, enriched blood, sometimes even bodies in bulk. He came out
of the wood work after about seventy-five years off the radar. The last
records of his whereabouts was during the 1800s when he ran some
factories. It's strange that such a businessman would suddenly take an
interest in biotechnology. Nobody knows the secret partner with whom he
developed the blood preservation techniques that made him the powerful
figure he is today. He is the most imposing man if them all, with shoulder-
length center-parted dark hair, equally dark eyes, and broad shoulders with
a solid build. He is in a normal pinstripe suit, typical to his
business-like personality.

  -- Mr. Wu, leader of the Dragon Clan. The gang existed mostly in China
until their weapons trafficking business extended overseas. Once the gang
had established substantial roots on the West Coast, Mr. Wu, in a daring
move, brought the Dragon Clan eastward. There he linked several small
Chinese vampire gangs already operating in Chicago, St. Louis, and New York
and built them up through further turnings, Eventually becoming leader of
the entire USA Branch. Their business still mainly consists of smuggling
werewolf-hunting weapons and ammo from their Chinese stronghold for use by
the rest of the vampire community. Lately, however, their practice has
included human smuggling for feeding purposes, as a supplier to Sanger's
Bloodbanks. He is a thin, venomous looking gentleman with a bony face,
goatee, and tight ponytail. He is in a black suit with a white tie, his
gang's uniform, as well as a black fur coat and black fedora and a cane
bearing his gang's symbol, the Imperial Dragon. Despite his austere
persona, he still has a fairly flamboyant taste.

  -- Nathaniel Carrion, leader of the Chiroptera clan, that of Kyle and now
Damien. Real Estate is the source of his influence. He owns all the
vampire-used property in all the major cities. He came to power after
making the huge transition of converting each of his clan's headquarters
across the country into nightclubs. His were now famous and frequented by
other cells in the area. Because of his bustling business, he gained much
of his influence as one of Sanger's greatest clients for his blood. Thus,
Sanger usually lends his support to Carrion. He is an albino, interestingly
enough, with slicked back white hair, dressed in a black suit with a red
shirt that matched his his red eyes.

 Each of the members had their own exit door, with each door guarded by
their own two bodyguards on either side. They spoke of business.

  "Wu, I'll need another load of handguns and ammo for my New York
location." Carrion began.

  Wu responded in accented english, "unfortunately, production has been
slowed, a couple of our factories in the southwest were raided this past
moon."

  "A cruel coincidence, as that is exactly why I must build up the arsenal
in Manhattan, they were also visited."

  "I understand, gentlemen," Sanger intervened smoothly, "How you have felt
the effects of these past raids, as have I. The healing requires blood,
more blood than I can supply at this time. It has become clear that the
wolves' tactics have evolved, therefore, so must we. Which is why I have
dedicated more manpower to the study of how to annihilate the Wolf
Problem."

  "We've already got labs in Nevada, constantly upgrading our weaponry. I
don't appreciate being outsourced to your own, unseen scientific
facilities." Wu interrupted defensively.

  "Don't worry, Mr. Wu, I understand your function and your weapons are
more than adequate. The effort to which I am dedicating my own resources
works on a far more grandiose scale."

  "Don't tell me we're back to Project Omega."

  "Indeed that is to what I am referring. Now before you begin again, I
must once more beseech your support in this effort. The war has gone on
long enough and no matter how close we have come to destroying them, they
always rebound, this time more forcefully than ever. What I am planning
will work on many levels over a period of time in a series of targeted
attacks. I cannot implement it without your help."

  Wu and Carrion weighed their options, and came to the simultaneous
conclusion that Sanger was offering them what could be their only chance to
salvage their businesses. When each arrived at their own conclusion, they
shot a couple of mental messages at one another ensuring that they were on
the same page. Carrion responded first, "Very well, count the Chiroptera
in."

  "The Dragons as well."

  "Excellent," Sanger's smirk gave away his pleasure at having their
support, "Now first, I assume you've all heard of the out-of-cycle wolf
that's been causing all the trouble?"

  "Yes, they call him the Renegade. A wolf unleashed by the moon, so to
speak." Wu answered.

  Carrion elaborated, "the Nightwatchers finally nabbed him, I hear."

  "They have, and that's not the half of it. Listen, I know who he is, what
he's been after and, most importantly, why we must get him before the
Nightwatchers have a chance to interrogate him."

  "How do you know they haven't already?"

  "My people tell me they caught him a few hours ago. Assuming they used
the standard silver darts to bring him down, it'll be at least another
couple of hours before the chemical wears off, and even longer before he
regains enough energy to be of any use to them." Now Wu asked a question.

  "So how, exactly, do you propose we break into the top-security
headquarters of an agency that is supposed to be helping us remain secret,
and rob them?"

  "Well, Mr. Wu, that's where you come in," Sanger answered tentatively,
noticing Wu stiffen immediately at his response. He continued defensively,
"Well, the Dragon Clan has all the necessary resources for this kind of
operation."

  "True. Alright, I'll offer my manpower." Carrion interjected, hoping to
be of some use himself.

  "So, do you need a place to keep him? Because I've got some prime
interrogation rooms in downtown New York."

  "That would be helpful, yes." Sanger nodded in his direction.

  "Now Sanger, I feel that we've gotten off track here. You say you know
who the Renegade is?" Sanger smirked again, glad that someone had finally
asked.

  "Oh, I've found out more than that."

 **********************

  Across the country, in a Sangeo lab in downtown Seattle, a man in a white
lab-coat slouched over ancient texts interspersed with more recent files on
a light-board, looking them over through a magnifying glass. He was very
clean cut in appearance, with only taught wrinkles and grey streaks in his
hair betraying his age of nine hundred years. In German, he muttered to
himself, "Finally, the Hybrid will be mine once more."