Metahumans vs the Undead: A Superhero vs Zombie Anthology (25 page)

“You’re welcome to try.”

The baron lunged with his sword. Angela deflected the blow with her right claw, then slashed with her left. The baron leaned his head to the side and the claws passed harmlessly past his face. He kicked outward and the air around Angela’s abdomen rippled, the ancient symbols providing an impenetrable shield. The baron loudly groaned as the rippled air deflected his blow back at him, sending him hurling into the air. His body crashed into his undead servants, knocking them all to the ground.

Angela joined Dusk’s side; her shadow had done its best to keep the zombies at bay while she brought the fight to the baron. Though they had to either step on or over countless body parts, Angela could finally see a break in their numbers. No more zombies came out of the rooftop stairwell.

After separating another dead head from its body, she stole a glance at the baron who stood, dusting himself off. He bent forward and picked up his top hat. Brushing it gently, he smiled at her, catching her glare. Once the black hat was returned to its resting place, the baron charged, his flaming sword held at the ready.

Foolish
, Angela thought as she flapped her wings and glided toward her enemy.

The sword came around with a battle cry.

Angela intercepted the attack by grabbing the baron’s wrist. With her free hand, she grabbed hold of his neck and lifted him off his feet. He gasped. The air in his lungs escaped as she drove him down onto the rooftop.

“Drop it!” she demanded as she forced his wrist back, bending it past its limit.

“
Aargh
.” Baron
Samedi
fought as long as he could, the pain evident by his twisted facial muscles. The sword fell away and lost its fiery glow.

Angela pulled her hand from his throat, extended her shadow claws, and plunged them into his neck. A gurgle escaped his lips as that same black smoke wafted into the air from the puncture wounds.

She lowered her head toward his, the bridge of their noses almost touching. “With one little flick of my wrist, your head will roll away.”

He stared at her, eyes wide and bloodshot, fear engraved on his painted face.

“But that is not the path I’ve chosen for myself.” She withdrew her claws and stood. Dusk stepped alongside her. Angela took a quick glance at the wake of trembling body parts littering the roof.
It’s done
, she thought.

Baron
Samedi
rubbed his throat, his gaze still fixated on Angela. When he finally pulled his hand away, the lacerations were healed. He stood and gazed upon the mass of quivering flesh sprawled out at their feet. “You think you’ve won?”

“You tell me. You’re the one standing all alone.”

“My army is easily replaced.”

“Then why don’t you use it for good instead of—”

“Your destruction is for the betterment of mankind. The world will be a safer place without the devil’s daughter in it.”

“And what will you do when my father sends a replacement? He’s already done it once with my brother. And I was the one who sent him back.”

“I saw what happened to you when that demon crossed over. You were immobilized.”

“I know!” Her body flew toward him in a blind rage, the image of her mother, slaughtered by the first demon to use her body, flashing in her mind’s eye.

While one hand grabbed the baron by the throat and lifted him off his feet, the other hovered dangerously close to his blackened eyes, claws ready to plunge into the soft tissue and penetrate his stubborn mind.

“In that brief moment, I lost the one thing that meant the most to me,” she said. “And instead of criticizing, or passing judgment on me, you could help see to it that no demon ever wreaks havoc during that time again.”

Baron
Samedi
looked deep into her eyes and Angela could have sworn she saw understanding in his penetrating stare. She released her hold and stepped back.

“You’ll be happy to know I escorted your mother to Heaven’s door,” he said.

For the first time, she took her eyes off her opponent as her head lowered. She didn’t want him to see the pooling tears. She hoped he wasn’t lying.

“Your conviction is strong. Perhaps there is a better way.”

She lifted her head and wiped the tears away with the back of her hand.

“You go ahead and play superhero, but if your resolve ever falters . . . I will bring forth an army ten times the size of this one, and I will cleave that pretty head of yours off those shoulders.”

“I—”

In an eruption of black smoke, Baron
Samedi
vanished.

Angela slapped her sides with her hands.
That arrogant . . . . I can’t believe he left us
. She turned and faced Dusk. “I suppose we have to clean this mess up, then.”

Dusk looked around at the mess at their feet and simply shrugged.

“That’s just great!” she said. “It’ll probably just be easier to torch the place. What do you think?”

Dusk shook her head.

Angela sighed through her nose and then stooped over to pick up a torso.
We’re going to need a really big dumpster for all this
.

Night(cat) of the Living Dead

by

J.L. MacDonald

I
wish physical
violence was rare in my line of work, but sadly, that’s not the case. Thankfully, this time there wasn’t an overabundance of it.

I was out on one of my nightly romps when I came across something that could potentially be trouble. A well-dressed man was being approached by a shabby, gangly-looking individual. His body language told me he was planning something, likely figuring out a way to rob the man, with or without a fight.

I swung into action just as he lunged and unexpectedly sank his teeth into the side of the other man’s neck. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but I didn’t have time to analyze the situation. My cat-like feet made contact, sending him flying to the other end of the alleyway. I expected him to either lay there unconscious or scramble to his feet and flee. Instead he glared at me intently, then slowly stood up and casually walked away as if nothing happened.

I normally would have gone after him but the other man needed my help. I couldn’t judge how deep the wound was because of the blood, but I knew he needed more medical attention than I could offer.

“Do you have a cell phone?” I asked.

He nodded and tried to grab it off his belt.

“Don’t worry, the ambulance will be on its way,” I attempted to reassure him as I tried to further assess the damages. I ripped off a piece of his coat and used that for a bandage as my skimpy costume would have been inadequate for the job.

I phoned 9-1-1 and gave them all the details I could. Thankfully, the ambulance arrived quickly. The medics put him on a stretcher, wheeled it into the ambulance and drove away, leaving the police behind to get a statement.

As I was talking to them, an unmarked police car rolled up and I knew it was David, my police contact and one of the few on the force that didn’t treat me like stray alley cat. Ever since the day I stopped a couple of drug dealers from taking his life, our relationship increased exponentially.

“It was really weird,” I told him. “He didn’t go after the victim’s wallet and he didn’t appear to be armed or anything. It was like there wasn’t even a motive.”

“Well, sometimes the motive is being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” David replied as he jotted down what I said.

“I know, but it doesn’t make any sense.”

“Not all crimes do.”

I looked at him quizzically.

“This isn’t the first time this has happened,” he said. “Over the past few months there have been similar reports of a person getting bitten by a tall, lanky individual. And more often than not, we end up finding a corpse not too far away from the incident.”

“How come you never told me about this before?”

David smiled as he placed a hand on my shoulder. “Because I didn’t want you to panic.”

“The whole idea of me having you as my police contact is so I can help you guys out,” I said half-jokingly, knowing it wasn’t the only reason why David and I got along so well. “Did you need me for anything else?”

“We’ve got a few more things to do around here, but you’re good to go,” he said. “See you later tonight, then?” This last bit he whispered so only I could hear. No one knew we were dating or, more accurately, that David was dating my alter ego, Dana.

“Actually,
Rach
is coming over for a girl’s night,” I said.

“Right, I forgot you mentioned that the other day. Well then, I won’t intrude on your ‘chick flicks.’”

There was hardly any chance of that happening. Granted, I wasn’t sure what movies Rachel would bring over, but I was quite certain they wouldn’t be anything remotely akin to a romantic comedy.

Saying goodbye as
Nightcat
was always a challenge. We stood there awkwardly for a moment when normally we would have kissed, but simply saying goodbye would have to do.

Once I got home, I changed into my human form and took a quick shower, not having sufficient time for my usual hour-long soak in the tub.

Rachel came by shortly after I was finished.

“I’m actually impressed you’re here,” she said with a hint of sarcasm as she tossed several DVDs onto the coffee table.

“Hey, I’ve been good lately,” I said. Rachel was one of the few people who knew about my other identity and how it was increasingly hard for me to keep appointments because of it. Even though having to juggle such a hectic schedule bothered me to no end, she never seemed to mind.

“So what shows did you bring over?” I asked as I thumbed through the video line up.

“Before you say anything, I’ve watched them before and they’re good movies,” she said in mock defence.

I read the titles.
1001 Ways to Kill a Zombie
,
The Monster Trials
and
Inside Frankenstein’s Briefcase
.

I let out a groan when Rachel sat down on the couch beside me.

“If I can watch them, you can watch them,” she said, referring to the gore level.

Horror movies never made me queasy; they just weren’t my kind of movie. But tonight I’d humour her, or at least try to.

It was pretty close to 1
a.m.
by the time we were finished the first two movies. Rachel fell asleep halfway through the last one so I shut it off and let her crash on the couch.

Even though I wasn’t overly tired, I still got ready for bed. My body had long gotten used to staying up late thanks to my feline half. As I sat in bed, trying to wind down, I couldn’t help but think how similar the movies were to what I encountered earlier in regards to the sheer randomness and
surrealness
of it all. I briefly mulled it over in my head before drifting off to sleep.