Darkness Unleashed Short Story [Revised]

[Eddy Fate]

Update 6/20 - Thanks to Derrick Billings for revising this with me!
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Here's a little short scene about the Dark Brigade to whet your appetite.  (Note that this story or some of the details might change before publication, but hell, it's a fun story.)
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General Anthony Cannon hefted his rifle, the heavy feel of the UV laser reassuring as he crept across the sumptuously decorated room.  His eyes quickly darted back and forth, looking for any enemies that might be lurking in the shadows.  Lightning Claw and Nikita V had followed WarFang back to this old manor on the border of a small Balkan country, the name of which Cannon could barely pronounce.  The rest of the Brigade was mopping-up a particularly nasty horde of ghouls in the small village nearby, leaving the three of them to catch up with WarFang and find out what the Brotherhood was plotting.  The other two more mystically inclined Brigaders were scouting the second floor and basement for the wolfman while he checked out the ground floor alone.  Cannon felt a crawling sense of dread… the feeling that something was watching him.

He caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye.  

As he spun around, a ghastly white hand grabbed the Sun Gun and yanked it out of Cannon’s grasp.  The creature grabbed him by the throat and slammed him up against a wall.  It chuckled at his attempts to dislodge its grip.  Cannon managed to croak out, “Steven?”

“Hardly,” the vampire snorted, his long black coat swaying slightly.  “I’m Lord Syn now, Anthony, and more powerful than you could ever imagine.”  He squeezed Cannon’s throat slightly.  “I’ve had a… change of heart.  I realize now that I wasn’t destined to be protecting the fools that populate this planet, but instead rule them.  The Brotherhood of Death has a new general now.  With my skill and newfound power, I will make the entire human race tremble before me.”

Cannon struggled for breath, but Syn’s grasp was like iron.  “We’ll stop you,” he whispered as his windpipe was slowly crushed.

“I highly doubt that, my former second-in-command.  You will always be second best.  You’ve split up your forces, and left yourself vulnerable.  Once I take care of you, I will pick them off one by one, and then I can end this little experiment of the Secretary-General’s…”

“Tony!”  Lightning Claw’s voice rang out, and Syn turned around in time to see Lightning Claw throw Cannon his Sun Gun.  Syn grabbed for the rifle with his free hand, but Cannon caught it and shoved the barrel into Syn’s stomach.  Cannon pulled the trigger and the vampire lord let loose an unearthly scream as the blast of compressed ultraviolet rays ripped at his undead flesh.  Clutching his stomach, he let Cannon slide down the wall.  

Nikita grabbed Cannon and threw his arm over her shoulder to steady him.  “Time to leave, boss man,” the slender woman muttered in her cool British accent.

“You will never leave!” Syn snarled, his fingernails ripping into Cannon’s ankle as they grew into razor-sharp claws.  Cannon let go of Nikita to swing his other leg around, cracking a solid wheel kick into Syn’s head.  As general and vampire fell to the ground, Syn tried to get close enough to grab Cannon.  Cannon leveled his rifle and fired blast after blast into his former best friend, the vampire screaming with each shot.

Syn, realizing he was injured and outnumbered, stood up and smirked. Lightning Claw moved carefully forward, looking for the right time to strike while Nikita’s staff began to glow with her focused life energy. "Take him down, Brigade!" Cannon screamed. The air crackled as Lightning Claw leaped forward to hit Syn with the mystic blast that gave him his name. He fell to the floor in surprise on the other side of Syn as Cannon and Nikita watched the monster's body turning to mist.   

The voice of his former commander resonated in Cannon’s mind.  “You have routed my ghouls and chased off Commander WarFang.  Thus, you have won this round.  But rest assured, I will destroy the Dark Brigade and become the ruler of this planet.  We shall meet again… General Cannon.”  The hollow laughter echoed in his mind long after the mist had dispersed.

Nikita leaned over Cannon as he sat up, using her life energy to heal his leg.  He eased the beret from his head and ran his hand through his short silver-gray hair in a gesture of resignation.  His eyes fell on the badge pinned to his beret, the emblem of the Dark Brigade.  “Not as long as I wear this badge, Steven,” he muttered to himself.

Lightning Claw, rubbing his head, walked over to them.  “What did you say, General?”

Cannon shook his head.  “Nothing, Thomas.  Just… talking to an old friend.”