by Captain Sammitch and Danny
"What in 'ell?" Grissom Montag pondered aloud.
"What the hell?" Danny Hearn asked.
"What the fuck?" Dirk Bell echoed.
"That's... that's Ton-Ton," Grimm stammered.
The massive sub-Terran jumped on top of the Jeep, wielding a spike-studded club and letting out a primal bellow, providing the nonverbal no shit in reply.
Phil Smith and Ton-Ton waded into the sea of vampires, Phil with his shotgun, Ton-Ton with his club, and both with a machete in the other hand. Ton-Ton let loose a swing that would have made any major-league hitting coach proud and neatly severed a pale vamp's head. Phil blasted a bowling ball-sized hole in another vampire's chest with the shotgun and lopped its head off with the machete before it could regenerate, and so on.
But there were too many vampires and not enough time. No matter how quickly Phil and Ton-Ton worked, the same horde of vampires kept rushing at them.
"What should we do?" Chance asked.
"We should get the hell in there and help," Danny replied. He turned to shout in the direction of Grissom. "Get Priest into the building!"
"We're locked out!" Grissom shouted back.
"What?"
"I'll work on it!" Grissom added. He shook his head. "You've certainly got your work cut out for you, Montag," he muttered to himself.
"Ameristar! Chance!" Danny called. "Cover Grissom and help him get back into the building with Priest!" The two nodded. "The rest of you, come with me!"
Grimm, Dirk, Blackwulf, and Edulcore Cicciotto each finished dispatching the nearest vampire and hurried over toward the crowd of vamps surrounding the Jeep. Danny called for his wings and got them. He jumped into the air and hovered over the fight, trying to find Phil and Ton-Ton.
Suddenly, a familiar voice called out from amid the ruckus, "Back up!"
There was a massive boom, almost like a miniature thunderclap, and the horde of vampires was thrown back by an invisible wall of force emanating from Phil. Who needs control? he wondered.
His fellow heroes charged in as the vampires were getting to their feet. Danny set down next to Phil, and Phil handed Danny a second shotgun that happened to be sitting in the back of the Jeep.
"Where were you?" Danny asked. "And what's he doing here?," he demanded, pointing in the direction of Ton-Ton, who was slamming his spiked club down on fallen vampires.
"I'll explain later," Phil replied as he turned to blow a vamp's head off with both barrels. "Does La Perdita have an NRA? Because whoever owns this Jeep has his own little arsenal!" He indicated the stash of weapons in the back of the Jeep.
"Doesn't do any good if you can't..." Danny grabbed as many of the guns and knives as he could, then leaped into the air and started dropping them to Blackwulf, Grimm, Dirk, and Ed.
"Good thinking," Phil said to no one in particular as he decapitated another vampire with his machete. It was a little easier in the comics.
Danny turned to Grissom and said, "Griss... get inside. Take the people from the basement, move them up to the first floor."
"First floor? There's a back entrance. Vamps could get in."
"It also means there's an exit. People can get out in case the vamps break in."
"They can't go outside, the storm'll--"
"If there's a situation where they have to evacuate the building, I'll have M'xy meet you out back. You just have them ready... just in case," Danny explained.
"Right."
As Grissom departed, one of the creatures leaped at Danny, who drove a rhino horn deep into its chest. When it fell to the ground at his feet, he crushed its skull with a hoof.
"Dirk!" Danny yelled, running to his teammate.
"What?!"
"Have you got any explosives left in that bag of yours?"
"Some."
"Enough for a large concentrated strike, if we can get all the vamps together in one spot?"
"Just."
Danny thought over the situation. They'd been attacking the vamps one on one and in small groups. They'd never get them all that way. But if they could herd all the creatures together.
Dirk turned away from Danny and raised his gun. A vampire fell to the ground before them, its skull reduced to something resembling a six-year-old's kindergarten art project.
"Right. You and Grimm, go on the west side. Try to herd them in toward the center. Raptor and Blackwulf," he continued, yelling over his shoulder, "that way!" Danny pointed toward the east side.
Grimm looked up after decapitating another vamp and said, "Who'd have thunk it... a man with a plan." He grabbed Dirk and headed to the west side of the horde. Edulcore and Blackwulf headed off in the other direction, snapping a couple of necks as they did so.
"Phil! You and this Ton-Ton character stay near the door. Make sure none of the damn things get through to the people inside," Danny yelled, running toward Phil.
"Sure..." Phil replied as Danny approached him.
"You sure you're up to this?" Danny asked quietly. Phil nodded, then closed his eyes and concentrated. The group of vampires around him were suddenly thrown backward, leaving him a clear area of a few feet around him.
He sprinted for the door. Danny spun around and found himself face to face with Chance.
"And me?" Chance asked, holding a large gun that he'd gotten from Phil's Jeep.
"Uh... Ameristar will cover Grissom... you should..." Danny looked down and noticed Priest's unconscious body. "Fine. You should watch him," Danny said, pointing -- but not looking -- at Priest.
"EVERYBODY! WAIT FOR THE SIGNAL, THEN DUCK FOR COVER!" Danny yelled, hoping everyone was still close enough to hear.
"What the hell's the signal?" Dirk said to Grimm as they ran off.
"Hopefully we'll know when it happens," Grimm replied.
"M'XY!" Danny yelled. A top hat appeared on the ground before Danny. M'xy grew from underneath it.
"Hi!"
"Come with me. Wings." Clutching the bag, Danny flew up into the air, M'xy hovering alongside him.
Dirk ducked a punch from a vamp as Grimm stepped over him and flung his axe into its skull. Dirk stood up, and they kept running. With a broad spray of machine gun fire, Dirk seemingly convinced a few of them to turn away from him, and head back toward the building.
Grimm just picked one up and threw it. They seemed to get the message.
Some distance away, Ed and Blackwulf were attempting something similar. Sprouting wings and getting a run up, Ed leaped into the air above the creatures, hovering mere feet above them. A few tried to jump up and grab him. Some almost succeeded.
But he definitely had their attention. As he flew in toward the rest of the creatures and inward to where he wanted them, they followed.
With a couple of well-placed punches and a tackle that sent three of the vamps sprawling to the ground, Blackwulf had the same effect.
Funnily enough, the plan almost seemed to be working.
In the sky above the battle, Danny was watching intently. His teammates were doing well, and the vamps were moving in toward the center. Slowly getting closer together until they were huddled into one big herd, not scattered across hundreds of feet.
He wondered briefly if he should have sent someone to the rear, but realized that if the creatures' goal was the people inside the building, they weren't about to start walking backward.
Danny reached into Dirk's bag, trying to grab what was left of his explosives. He looked down. It was just about time.
"M'XY! NOW!" Danny yelled.
Behind Danny, M'xy was gazing down at the battle below. He waved a hand, and the ground began to rumble. The dirt around the vampires was shaking, and cracks began to form.
Four huge walls suddenly shot up in between the vampires and the heroes, trapping the creatures within. The ground itself had shot up, and thick walls of clay and rock formed a pen around the horde of vamps.
"You think that's the signal?" Dirk asked. Grimm nodded.
The whole team ran for cover.
Danny dropped the bag.