How insidious is evil? Can it become genetic? Can good be genetic? Where does that leave freedom of choice?

I've added a picture of Vampirella.
I'm starting a new job tomorrow, so I don't know how regularly I'll be posting. I'll try to at least do one a week.

She saw the man pulling the trigger of the 9mm semi-automatic pistol, saw the hammer of the gun rise and heard the gunshot that went off at point blank range. She braced for the impact, fully expecting to die on the spot, so it was an anti- climax when nothing happened. The shooter's mouth fell open and he unloaded the entire clip into her.

By this time he'd finished shooting she realised she was floating in the air, with wings of flame. Oh, she suddenly realised as she glanced at the ground. The bullets melted before they could hit me she thought, looking at the melted metal on the ground.

Dani was pissed off, this man had given her a serious fright, she was going to put the fear of God...more appropriately Goddess into him.“Little man what are you trying to kill a goddess for?” Dani didn't see herself as divine, but the Angelus certainly was more than human...or even metahuman. And as one of her favourite comic character's had said, 'Criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot', she was going to make this idiot's nightmare a reality.

She floated down toward him as he turned to start running. He suddenly found himself facing … he didn't know what to call her. An angel? No, she had horns. Maybe she was a devil. He mentally chastised himself, this is what you got for doing a magicians dirty work. He had actually expected to die today but not this way. At least his sister was safe.

Mika had gotten involved in a drug smuggling operation because she needed money. The people she had been working for had been murdered so that meant there was a new person in charge of what she was doing and suddenly she was no longer a drug mule but a a prostitute.

It seemed that the new owner of the operation was convinced she was too pretty to be a mule but when she told him that she wouldn't work for him as a whore he locked her up and got her addicted to cocaine. The conditions were: do what we want or else suffer.

His sister had been missing for six months and Howard was worried about her. One night he was out with friends when he saw her walking with an older man. He followed her into the restaurant that they went into. When Mika had finished her meal and her 'date' went to the men's bathroom, Howard walked up to her table and asked her very curtly why she just left without telling their family.

She broke down in tears telling him everything. She said that on top of addicting them to the drug, they mixed magic into it so that even if they ran away and tried to break their addiction they'd come back for the magic aspect of the drug. She told Howard the name of the people who took her and where they made her work. Apparently a high end Escort Agency just outside of New York.

Howard would have done anything to help his sister and he began looking into where he could find a magician to break the spell. There was an organisation called the Darko Group who would charge people for aid if requiring magic. And that's how he found himself working for Sonny Darko, who told him that his name was Estacado, so whenever Estacado's name came up he actually saw Sonny Darko in his mind's eye.

The man he thought of as Estacado was actually very helpful in freeing Mika. Mika was now free, but Howard was trapped paying off Darko who didn't want money. He wanted a period of service. In the short time that he had worked there Howard had felt his morality die bit by bit.

His final task for Estacado (who was really Darko) was to kill this woman. He was told she was very dangerous and that if he didn't kill her she would kill him. So he acted and tried not to think of all the suffering that had occurred by his hand.

Now that it appeared that he was about to die he could only feel relief, relief at no longer having to face the guilt he had of all the souls he'd wronged. The Angelus is light and so, to a certain extent is imagination. If a person is thinking things and the Angelus can see the light in their eyes, she knows their thoughts.

Dani saw that Darko pretended to be Estacado. Why is this? she thought to herself.
Finches thought drifted to her from her realm, 'it seems that the Darkness has competition...hmm... or maybe Estacado has competition,' she said after a pause.

The Angelus offered Howard a choice of a living a life full of guilt and remorse for what he'd done to people or a chance of redemption. The catch was that he would need to leave his life on Earth to do this. He chose the latter. This is how Howard Stern became an Angelus warrior.

* * *

Ella was The Vampirella, queen of the vampires and sometime avatar of her mother, Satanna. During that first gathering of vampires of both day and nightwalkers she explained what was coming. A possible end to the curse that Darkness experimentation had placed on their race.

Vampires didn't reproduce. Unlike in the stories, the vampiric gene was inborn to some humans because of genetic experiments done in the distant past. When blood drinking vampires were first created, there were some who volunteered to be changed but the process never worked on them but there descendants were born with an almost invisible genetic anomaly. A dormant vampire gene.

A vampire drinking blood and exchanging blood seemed to not do much to a person except make them really ill, and perhaps it gave them (but this was unsubstantiated) a dormant vampire gene. There was a theory among the scientific vampire community that new vampires were created only if a vampire fed on a person with the dormant gene from those descendants of the test subjects who didn't successfully become vampires

The closest that vampires had come to the one's depicted by Hollywood was when the Darkness had created nightwalkers. They were aggressive and were prone to attack at the slightest provocation however they were very charming as well; a charm that was increased at night due to the Darkness's further experimentation.

The was a prophecy concerning the reunification of the vampire race and expulsion of the D- (darkness) gene keeping them from the sun. Everybody who was at the gathering that Ella called believed that she was the prophecy come to life. For it was spoken 2000 years ago. It went like this:

Man of Law,
Toy of Darkness,
Neither male or female but both.
Found by the one who broke free.

Bringer of Light,
Death by flame,
Not destroyed
Reborn to Fallen
Dark driven to red queen.

She shall stumble
And find support
In her finder.
With trust, she leads
With trust, she saves.

However, not many of the vampires believed that Ella was suitable to lead. Terak had been adamant that he could help her learn their ways. “I found her, trust the prophecy. I was the first of us, trust me to teach her well.

Terak told Ella that they only had a limited time for her to learn several millennia of Vampire history and tradition. He explained that vampire society operated differently to human society. She would have to understand that they weren't bound to the laws of the world the same way that humans were.

Ella thought over all that had happened at the meeting while in her room in the basement of the club. She liked living here. Even though it was noisy at times, she felt that she had more privacy than most and even when Terak offered her a place to stay she refused.

Satanna, Ella's new mother, seemed to have left a door open in the back of her mind so that they could communicate with each other. She agreed that Ella should learn from Terak but told her that as she would be bringing in a new era. She would upset others no matter what.

Ella didn't need to tell the others this, but she learned from her mother that vampires existed long before the history of the blood and energy drinkers began. When the first angels fell from grace, they had sexual relations with humans.

“I was the first of the Fallen's offspring,” Satanna's voice drifted through her mind. “I was born and the mix of fallen divine and human genetics didn't meet very well. Food tasted like ash in my mouth and the only thing that would sustain me was my mother's milk. I wouldn't be weaned off the my mother's milk, and by the time I was in my 20th year we saw that those half- breeds that were weaned off the breast had begun to take sustenance from other humans. They drank their blood, usually draining the human lives.”

“My parents realised this was because a mother's milk is created from her blood and human blood is has a similar nutrition structure to a vampire mother's milk. What my father did was, create a synthetic way of producing a vampire mother's milk. Mother's milk made us stronger and more able to live productively amongst humans. But human blood was, and still is addictive to our kind.”

“After the food issue was explained many braved the withdrawal of the blood thirst to live productively amongst humans. Most succeeded but many didn't. Those of us drinking the synthetic milk noticed that the vampires were increasing but the human population was decreasing.”

“It was then that I begged my father to stop his followers reproducing with humans. I've always been able to wrap him around my finger,” an image of her smiling crossed Ella's mind and her heart leapt with the thought that her mother was happy.

Satanna continued, “For the most part they did, but now and then they disobey. But their offspring has the substitute milk when they grow.” She continued, “The newly made vampire children have their own planet where they have cultivated a plant that grows to produce the milk that we drink as babies.”

“If you rid our race of the Darkness within themselves you can distribute this formula. But if vampire tastes true vampire food with a Darkness aspect part of themselves, even though it is from an experiment, it will be catastrophic.”

“Do I also need to drink blood? Until the Darkness has been cleansed, I mean.” The Vampirella asked her mother. “No my dearest, you have been cleansed by the Angelus and you are now my genetic daughter. With the communication link I have give you at the back of your mind, you can open a portal to come to me”.

“But,” warned Satanna, “It will only open when you are alone.” Ella assumed this was so the others couldn't come until the Darkness was eradicated from their genes.
“Mother, I haven't eaten since you named me.”
“Yes my love, I realise that, come to me.”

Ella opened the portal to her mother's home and saw Satanna sitting on a huge bed. “Come to me my daughter,” Satanna let the top of her robe fall,”Come to me and sup.”
Ella walk up to and sat next to her on the bed staring at Satanna's large breast. It came naturally to her, she grabbed her mother, her mouth latching onto the nipple and she fed.

* * *

The soldier raised his head, his mouth covered in blood from his meal. The man he had eaten had suffered. That was the way he liked his food it filled the blood with adrenalin, the struggle was fun to watch and the hunt had been exhilarating. Coming to work for the Darkness's host had been one of the best things that had happened to him in the past 100 years.

The host had done as he promised and followed the soldier's specific wishes. He had left the man in the stretch of forest that the vampire could hunt him. The man had been told he had an hour head start to get away. He had run. They all ran, the soldier though with a wolfish grin as he licked the blood off his lips; he always caught them. Maybe he would give the person a greater head start next time. If the hunt was more difficult it would be more fun for him.

The magician that Estacado wanted dead had left for a few days -at least that's what his underling had told him before he had drained him. This Sonny Darko had been alive for over a century and that meant he would be tasty. He wanted to go after him as soon as he found this out but Estacado had told him that if he waited and planned how to take him it would be better because he would have time to savour his prize. So he waited until the magician's return.

* * *
Sonny Darko drove to an abandoned warehouse 20 miles outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. Here he tied James White Eagle to a chair that had been cemented into the floor. He removed a charm from his pocket and hung it around White Eagle's neck. He had prepared this charm a few days ago specifically for blocking a white sorcerer's power. James was still under his 'come hither' spell so it was unlikely he would run away but it was always wise to be careful.
“Stay here” he commanded and left to enact the next part of his plan. He drove toward Flagstaff.

Geoff and Sarah Robinson were brother and sister and were extremely popular, unfortunately this didn't mean that they were very nice. So when the man came to them offering them $50000 for information on where all the children hung out and to help him kidnap them, they didn't feel very guilty about accepting. After all it was $50000.

After dealing a couple of times with this Darko character Sarah realised that that she was involved in more than a kidnapping scheme. After a fair bit of prompting the guy told them the truth but only after making them stand in a circle of blood taken from a dead stray dog and promising not to reveal the true reason he was there.

After telling them he was a dark magician and was going to use kids as blood sacrifices Jeff got scared and said that he was going to call the cops. The guy just stood there smiling and told Jeff to try. Geoff walked out of the old run down building they were in. As he walked he started to feel the pain.

“So Geoff are you going to continue walking and let yourself die as the blood of your body boils or are you going to do what you promised in the first place,” Darko said smugly. Geoff saw no way out, death had never concerned him and it still didn't. Painful death however, did.

Darko paused thoughtfully and said, “I can see that you have an ethical dilemma, maybe if I raised your take to a $100000 each, you might feel less guilty. Sarah never said anything but Geoff just said, “I'll never stop feeling guilty no matter what.” Sarah just looked at him with a puzzled frown.

She said to Darko, “I'll do it all for you for the original price if you teach me magic when we're finished.” Darko's eyes widened in surprise. He wasn't looking for a new acolyte but this girl's callousness intrigued him.
“You do realise what you asking don't you” he said to the girl. She nodded.

“We'll see how you handle yourself over the next few days and I'll decide then.”
Geoff look at his sister in horror, “Sarah!”
“Geoff you've never been tough enough to lead and that's why you always ask about things first. You hold me back like a ball and chain. I'm cutting you loose, if this shakes your view of how things really are then that's tough. Don't bother me with your morals. This guy's gonna show me real power and I'm not going to learn that in a shit town like this.”

Geoff was miserable but he didn't want to die a painful death and so he did what he was told. Sarah on the other hand took to her task like a duck in water...or maybe a better metaphor would be like a bitch in heat. Oh yes, thought Darko, she will do well. I think I will have to look very hard to find compassion in this one.

A very depressed Geoffrey drove toward the the arcade where where the primary school kids hung out on the weekend. They had given Darko an accurate description of the middle-school football coach and he now looked identical to the man. Darko walked up to the area of arcade where the team was. He told them that even though it was the weekend he was taking those boys in the arcade a few miles out of town to show them a new way to train and they would definitely win their next game. All but one boy went with him because that boy was meeting his girlfriend for lunch.

Soon after the fake coach left the real coach walked in. “Come Jim,” Jim's girlfriend's dad said to him, “Sal's at home and I want to show you a few moves before we meet the girls.”
Jim just stared at him, “But...but you were just here.”
That is how the entire school district came to know that the most of the Flagstaff middle-school football team had gone missing, taken by a man who looked just like the coach!

In the ware house 20 miles outside of Flagstaff James White Eagle only shook his head sadly as he continued to have all the evil in the world flow through him.

* * *

Stephanie was now in a faceless mode whenever she wasn't at work. She had to figure out a way to help Dani. She didn't really get why it had suddenly become so important to her to do what she could for Dani but it had. She wondered if she was getting addicted to this portion of her life. Did this faceless mask make her question something obsessively? Yes. Was that always bad? No. But this obsessive- compulsive need to help someone that she'd only met a few months ago made her wonder if she was losing her touch with reality.

She tried not to focus on negative thoughts at the moment. She had gone through all the files in the database in the embassy computer and paper files in the archives and found that there was no record of Dani involved in any other part of the French government.

Stephanie didn't doubt anything that she found, somehow her new ability gave her an instant...knowing. A definite knowledge of the truth that she sought and while her computer skills prior to her possible meta activation had only been enough to help Marie — Elise Baptise in the embassy. They were now like super hacker skills when she needed to find an answer and sometimes, answers to simple questions even came to her telepathically.

However once her face was visible again those awesome skills that she had had, disappeared and she became plain old Stephanie Roux. She loved the freedom this ability gave her body as well because she had been left with so many limitations after her illness and when her face disappeared, so did her limitations.

That was probably why she got on so well with Dani she thought. They both had difficulties to overcome and they both derived from the fact that their bodies weren't doing what or working how that wanted them to.

Finally Stephanie had to come to the conclusion tat Dani didn't work for the French government in any other capacity beyond working in the embassy. She'd checked and double- checked all names and aliases and Dani didn't appear.

It was possible that Dani could be so deep undercover that she had no records, but Dani was 21 and that meant that she didn't have enough experience for deep undercover work. Although Steph discovered that Daniel had been 20, she assumed that Madam Baptiste changed Dani's name and age at the same time so that Dani could work at the embassy and have a better legal standing.

Marie-Elise was telling the truth, of that she was sure. Dani was definitely doing government work. But for whom?
She didn't think Dani spied on France for Australia, at least she really hoped. Maybe Dani worked for the U.N? She decided to look into both of these possibilities.

* * *

He was a great scientist. Everyone knew that he was so gifted that the government got scared of him and locked him up. The fools in the higher political echelons didn't seem to grasp that he was a master of manipulation as well and five years after being locked up in 'The Chateaux' he had found a way to get his jailers to be his loyal servants. It took six extra years to implement that plan and turn it into reallity..

Actually scratch that he thought, let's call a spade a spade. They're not my servants - they're my slaves. If he had laughed it would have sounded like a mad criminal mastermind laughing in a kid's cartoon, but Charles didn't laugh he just smiled.

“Dr.,” said one of his assistants “We've had some activity on a possible.” 'A Possible' was a possible latent activation of an experiment. “Where is the activity coming from?” he queried.
“I'm sorry doctor, but it seems as if this one doesn't want to be found. It's coming from overseas but were unsure where from because it's signal is bouncing through too many satellites for us to get to it's point of origin.” Came the reply.
“Don't tell me what I don't want to know,” he screamed. “Just find it and send a team to retrieve it.”

Over the years he had developed many experiments, he was a pioneer in his truth serum work for the government in the 1980's. But then they closed him in '97 down after his experiments started dying. When he was still a prisoner here at the Chateaux, they told him that one experimental subject still lived but it was an unsuccessful test as nothing had happened.

He knew that this was probably true but he also realised that the subject could just be adjusting to the treatment, although he never told anyone this. He knew that one day he would free himself and find the subject he'd been told about. He'd find it and see what was different about it.

It was true, the French Government was scared of him because he didn't see humans as people. The doctor was a brilliant but amoral man. To Charles Victor Szasz humanity was one big Petri -dish and his one truly successful experiment might be the one that got away.