ISSUE # 3 

"LocoForce"

by Dale Glaser

Pierce lay on his back, the upper half of his body inside a large console, soldering together circuit board connections. The construction on the Riverboat had gone quickly and smoothly, thanks to More’s expertise and Pierce’s resources. The interior was a serviceable meeting space, with areas modified specifically for storage and, if necessary, detention. Pierce was finishing the "brains" of the base, including the surveillance and communications array.

Karnival stood in front of the console, awaiting word from Pierce to turn the monitors on. Six of them were set in the wall of the room – two for satellite television, one for video-link communication, one for the main computer terminal, and two for external surveillance.

"All right, Ed, fire them up," Pierce said from underneath the control panel.

Karnival pushed the main power switch under each monitor. The satellite TV screens blinked to life, displaying CNN news feeds. The video-link monitor remained black, but showed the words "NO INPUT" across the screen. A cursor blinked passively on the computer screen.

"Pierce, the external screens aren’t working," Karnival informed his teammate. He had tried to get to know Pierce better in the weeks since they had begun rebuilding and outfitting the Riverboat, introducing himself as Ed Baird, but Pierce had not responded in kind. In fact, Pierce never removed his helmet, never answered to anything other than his code name even though he addressed everyone else by real names, and never answered questions about himself. Karnival was trying to respect that intense need for privacy.

"Dammit, I was afraid I had gone over some of the connections too quickly. Hang on," Pierce said as he set the soldering tool to the circuits again.

Hangfire entered the room. "What’s going on?"

"Oh, you know, just chillin’," Karnival answered, creating the illusion that his breath was steaming in frigid air. Hangfire stared back at him blankly. Karnival cast an illusion of dozens of penguins waddling around the floor between them. Hangfire cracked a small smile at that. Karnival waved his hand and the penguins disappeared. "Actually, we’re finishing up all the comm stuff in here. Pierce is finishing it; I’m just here to tell him when it’s done."

"Right," Hangfire nodded, observing the monitors for himself.

"That should do it. Ed?" Pierce’s voice drifted up once again.

The two external-view screens were set for long- and short-range observation. The right-hand screen, fed by a small camera mounted atop the Riverboat, now showed a rotating view of the swamp immediately surrounding the base. The left-hand screen, intended to show the city of New Orleans through a telescopic lens, was still black.

"Short-range up, long-range down," Karnival responded.

Pierce swore under his breath and began running over the circuits a third time.

"Where’s everyone else?" Karnival asked Hangfire.

"Jack and Les are both helping Dirk" – Dirk Walejcka was Enigma’s real name; at least he had been forthcoming about his identity – "scoping out some of the space that’s not earmarked yet. Dirk’s thinking about installing some kind of lab facilities, maybe even a medbay."

"Not a bad idea," Karnival agreed.

"How about now, boys?" Pierce asked impatiently.

Hangfire and Karnival both glanced at the screen, which was still black. "Nothing yet," Hangfire informed the former Checkmate knight.

"Well it’s not the circuits!" Pierce insisted as he shot out from under the console. Karnival and Hangfire hurried quickly out of his way as Pierce jumped up to his feet and approached the control console. His fingers flew over the buttons, trying to raise a response form the long-range screen. He ran through different combinations of commands until finally he hammered at the "zoom" button over and over again.

"Look," Pierce commanded, "and tell me what you see."

The screen was still black, but Karnival and Hangfire obliged Pierce and looked at the monitor. As they peered closely they could barely make out a swirling pattern in the blackness, not the flat blankness of an inert monitor but the ebb and flow of a dark, moving surface.

"What is that?" Karnival demanded.

"That is New Orleans," Pierce replied. "Nothing wrong with the long-range camera – something’s wrong with the city. Let’s go." Pierce ran out of the room, with Karnival and Hangfire close behind.

---

A shimmering red disc dilated open in the air just above the ground in St. Charles Circle in New Orleans, and the six members of Bad Blood stepped out into nearly impenetrable black murk. Pierce turned on a flashlight, then reached into a compartment on his belt and withdrew several small earpieces, which he held out in his open palm.

"These are sub-audible radio transceivers," Pierce explained. "Just speak, even softly, and the mics will pick up and broadcast your voice on this circuit." After everyone had taken a transceiver and inserted it in their ear, Pierce began scanning the area with his helmet’s sensory arrays. The former Checkmate knight turned in a slow circle, sweeping the surroundings with the helmet’s equipment.

"Something’s … not right," Pierce said finally. "I’m picking up incredibly weak life signals all around … it’s as if the entire city’s on its deathbed. Look, traffic’s stopped." Pierce approached a car that had halted in the middle of the street. He shone his light into the car and a young man and woman were visible, slumped back against their seats. Both had a deathly gray pallor to their skins.

"They’re alive," Pierce re-confirmed, "but just barely." He moved on to the next car, while the rest of the team spread out down the street, checking the occupants of other vehicles. The oppressive blackness hanging in the air swirled around them as they traversed the street. Over and over, they found men and women unconscious, with weak pulses and only whispers of breath in their lungs, and the same sickly gray cast over their flesh.

"Is this … is this happening to everyone in the entire city?" Valence asked.

"I’d say yes, except … there’s six strong signals, that way," Pierce pointed down the street.

"Then that’s where our answers are," Karnival bristled, striding in the direction Pierce indicated. "Let’s go."

Pierce caught up to Karnival and put a restraining hand on his arm. The gaping eye sockets of Karnival’s demonic skull narrowed angrily at Pierce, but Karnival said nothing. Pierce silently indicated that they should approach with caution. He waved Valence, Enigma and Hangfire toward one side of the street, and led Karnival and More down the other, crouching behind parked cars. The two halves of Bad Blood slowly worked their way down the street and through the darkness, until the visibility began to increase slightly. The swirling blackness suffusing the air became more and more gray, and the heroes could make out shapes in the distance, six human figures surrounding an upright rectangular object.

Enigma’s voice was broadcast across the sub-audible connection: "I think some of your old playmates are here, Pierce."

Pierce stared down the street at the figures for a moment through a pair of high-powered binoculars, then relayed his answer. "I recognize four out of the six. I’ll run them down so everybody knows what we’re up against here. Guy in the dark blue and white bodysuit is called Headhunter. Mercenary and enforcer. He can produce ice constructs and got his codename from his standard M.O. – he encases someone in a block of ice from the neck down, then beats the hell out of their head. Odds are good he’s leading this mob.

"Big guy next to him is Minotaur. Bodyguard, hitman, your basic indestructible bruiser. Everyone but More, stay out of his way.

"The guy in the green and yellow costume with the fleur-de-lis on the chest is Silencer. Has some kind of sound-interference powers, and wrist-mounted guns in the costume. Annoying as hell assassin.

"Last one, in the silver armor with the big red gun, goes by the charming name of Genocide. Weather controller. I’d say he’s behind the black cloud around the city, but there’s something too unnatural about this darkness, not to mention the apparent connection to the health status of all the people we’ve seen. Still, don’t take him lightly, or any of the rest of them, either."

"You’ve run into all these guys before?" Hangfire asked.

"Not all at once. Usually Headhunter and Minotaur hang together. Ran into Genocide and Silencer on separate occasions. And I don’t know the last two at all," Pierce explained.

"Let me have a look," Karnival said, taking the binoculars. He peered at the cluster of villains and could make out the last two. One, a surly-looking lout with a long, greasy ponytail, was stripped to the waist and wearing blue jeans and cowboy boots. The other was dressed in a deep purple bodysuit and had a demonic skull’s head similar to Karnival’s. The villain’s skull was much more elongated, like a demented Man in the Moon, and instead of a single jet of fiery light like the one that split Karnival’s skull, the villain was crowned by dozens of tiny flames shooting from myriad cracks.

"I’ve got the last two ID’s," Karnival announced over the radio. "One’s a local goon who calls himself Bayonet. He’s got some cybernetic implants and some energy attacks but he’s still just a redneck troublemaker. The other … calls himself Loki. He and I go back."

"How far back?" Pierce demanded.

"Long story," Karnival rebuffed the question. "Anyway, if your boy Genocide isn’t responsible for the shroud over the city, maybe that big black block of whatever they’re standing around is. I say we take it down."

"All right," Pierce agreed, securing his observation equipment and readying his bo staff. He hesitated for a moment, listening to the radio circuit; it seemed for a moment that Hangfire and More were both breathing too hard. But there was no time to lose. "Hit ‘em!"

The members of Bad Blood emerged from their vantagepoints and rushed the assembled villains. The villains seemed prepared and were instantly ready to meet them in battle.

Bayonet spread his arms wide, revealing metallic wings that spread from his wrists to the bottom of his ribcage. At the same time, two wicked blades sprung out from their housings in his forearms. Bayonet took to the air to intercept Valence as he flew in.

"Happy landings, robo-redneck," Valence growled as he unleashed a wave of magnetic energy. Bayonet froze in mid-air, his arms pinned back, and scowled with fierce concentration as the air around his hands turned jet black. A blast of obsidian energy exploded at Valence and drove him backwards several yards through the air.

"Wings ain’t what keep me airborne," Bayonet laughed, "and ain’t nothin’ gonna keep me from turnin’ you inside out now, boy!" Bayonet dove for Valence, leading with his twin forearm blades.

Enigma threw back his red cloak and spread his arms toward Silencer. A red portal opened in front of the assassin and sucked him in. Another portal opened directly in front of Enigma and as Silencer was ejected from it his head crashed into Enigma’s waiting fist. The impact of cranium and hand was completely soundless, as a bubble of soundwave nullification enveloped Enigma and Silencer.

Karnival concentrated on Loki, imagining a tidal wave of sulfuric acid coursing down the street, dissolving everything it washed across. The illusion surged inexorably toward Loki, while images of disintegrating cars and the melting bodies of Bad Blood and the villains were left in its wake. Loki’s body stiffened involuntarily as the illusion tore at his mind and the appearance of his own flesh sloughing off in the acid wave assailed his eyes, but the twisted reflection of Karnival did not fall. Mental visions of gigantic vampire bats were given life from Loki’s imagination, and they clawed at Karnival’s own consciousness.

More rushed in toward Minotaur, charging like a bull elephant. Minotaur spread his feet wide and waited out the attack, a right haymaker that connected with Minotaur’s jaw with pulverizing force. Minotaur’s feet remained in contact with the street even as his body rocked back at the knees; he braced himself with one arm and then pushed himself back upright to his full height, a few inches taller than More’s own giant proportions. He looked down at More with ice-cold malice in his eyes.

"Just wanted to know exactly what you could dish out," Minotaur snorted menacingly. "News flash for you – it’s not gonna be enough."

"We’ll –," More’s retort was cut off by the sudden arrival at blinding speed of Minotaur’s elbow in his mouth. More’s head snapped to the side and he staggered a step back. Then he turned his face toward his antagonist again. "We’ll see …" More finished, the coppery taste of fresh blood in his mouth.

Hangfire presented himself as a target for Genocide, who obligingly aimed his futuristically-designed rifle at Hangfire. The weapon fired and a scarlet burst of energy scorched through the air as Hangfire activated his redirectional forcefield. Hangfire allowed the energy to strike his field and then concentrated on returning the blast to Genocide. The scarlet energy reversed on itself and screamed backwards at Genocide, who simply raised his rifle again. The muzzle of the weapon appeared to grow wider, like a hungry animal’s mouth, and the energy blast was simply swallowed by the gun. Genocide leaned the rifle against his armored shoulder and fired it straight up into the pitch-black sky.

Hangfire drew out two guns of his own and began squeezing off rounds at Genocide. A few shots hit Genocide’s armored form but he showed no reaction to them. A moment later, a deep rumbling rolled in overhead, and with a blue-white flash a bolt of lightning slashed down to the earth. Hangfire had never tried his luck or his forcefield’s upper limits against an attack of that caliber. He rolled to the side just as the lightning struck asphalt, leaving a sizable crater in the street.

Pierce held his staff out to the side as he approached Headhunter, who kept his distance with fists raised to chest-level. The two men ranged around the rough outline of a circle, like prize-fighters in the ring sizing one another up.

"Pierce," Headhunter greeted his opponent jovially. "You’re running with a different crowd these days."

"Could say the same for you," Pierce replied coolly. "Quite the following."

Headhunter shrugged, almost imperceptibly. "This little loco-force you see with me? Merely taking advantage of a profitable opportunity. I was told that there was a possibility you might enter the scenario, but I believed it was just my employer’s attempt to entice me. How fortunate that his powers of prediction are so accurate."

"And whose powers might those be?" Pierce inquired.

Headhunter shook his head. "Wouldn’t you like to know?"

"I’d just like you out of this city," Pierce replied, crouching to the ground and then springing toward Headhunter. Pierce somersaulted directly over Headhunter, bringing his bo staff around into the back of the villain’s head with a loud crack.

Headhunter reacted with battle-honed reflexes, grabbing hold of the staff with both hands and coating it with ice. The sheath of ice continued to expand up the staff, encasing Pierce’s hands and arms until the Checkmate knight’s momentum carried him out of Headhunter’s reach. Pierce brought his frozen arms down hard on the asphalt and cracked the ice open, freeing his limbs.

Headhunter waited in a martial stance, beckoning with one upraised hand. "Try again?"

Pierce’s vault had carried him within a few feet of the object the villains had been guarding. He could see that it was a large mirror made of black glass, with an ornately carved ebony frame. Pierce detached a small object from his belt and slapped it on the mirror, then ran at Headhunter, saying, "We can keep dancing ‘til the job is done. Five more seconds?"

A column of crystallizing ice shot out of Headhunter’s hands at Pierce’s midsection. Pierce threw himself to the ground in a feet-first slide that carried him under the rush of ice and between Headhunter’s legs. Pierce raised his right gauntlet, tapped it twice with his left, and fired a sonic blast directly into Headhunter’s sternum. The mercenary was knocked onto his backside a few yards away.

Pierce got to his feet just as the explosive charge he had planted on the mirror detonated. The booming noise resonated across the area, but the mirror had survived the explosion unscathed, its obsidian surface not even scratched. Pierce stared at the mirror in disbelief and realized a moment too late that his legs from the mid-calf down were trapped in a solid block of ice.

Headhunter approached Pierce with fleet grace, running close and then throwing a roundhouse kick at Pierce’s head. Pierce allowed the blow to land and bent over at the waist, placing his hands on the ground. While Headhunter took a fraction of a second to regain his balance after throwing the kick, Pierce executed a flawless handstand, lifting his ice-encased feet straight up and then bringing the block down squarely on Headhunter’s brow, knocking the villain down again. Pierce used the momentary respite to blast the ice block away from his boots.

"What’s the mirror for, Headhunter?" Pierce demanded, nearly out of breath. "Who gave it to you?"

"It’s for draining the life essence of everything around it," Headhunter answered seriously. "Or hadn’t you noticed?"

Pierce felt cold, and swinging the block of ice at Headhunter’s head had left him exhausted, or so he had thought. Now he began to wonder if the mirror’s presence was having an adverse effect on him. If the mirror was the cause of the gray-skinned comas the residents of New Orleans had fallen into, and if its effects were still ongoing ... He looked around the street at the rest of his teammates.

Valence had magnetically torn the engine hood off a nearby car and was trying to snare Bayonet by enfolding him in the metal. The steel square smacked into Bayonet a few times, but Valence was unable to completely trap his opponent, who continued firing blasts of ebon energy and slicing at Valence with his forearm blades. Valence seemed sluggish, barely holding his own on the defensive now.

Hangfire was attempting to shoot the rifle out of Genocide’s hand, with no success. Genocide continued to whip the weather in their immediate vicinity into a frenzy that kept Hangfire off-balance. Hangfire, too, seemed to teeter on the verge of unconsciousness as he fought to stay on his feet.

Karnival and Loki were still locked in mental combat, but their illusions were for one another’s eyes only; all Pierce could see were the two skull-faced men leering at across the street at each other, their bodies occasionally reacting to artificial stimuli.

More and Minotaur had traded blows and More showed the worse for it, bloody and bruised. Pierce noted that More’s skin had that unnatural gray pallor as well. More lunged at Minotaur desperately, but Minotaur was ready, catching More’s ears between his own gigantic fists, stunning More into a stupor. Minotaur clenched the front of More’s singlet in his right fisted, hoisted him off the ground, and threw him down the street toward Enigma and Silencer. Enigma had his back to Minotaur, and could not hear More’s airborne approach thanks to Silencer’s sound-nullifying powers. More struck Enigma and knocked him to the ground. Silencer brought up both of his wrist-guns, aiming one at each of the fallen heroes.

Pierce immediately dove for his bo staff, picking it up from the pile of ice and hurling it down the street with all his might. The staff spun through the air and propelled itself between Silencer’s arms, throwing one hand up and the other down as the wrist-guns fired. The bullets missed their intended targets. Pierce was running down the street himself and tackled Silencer, driving him down to the ground. A solid left cross knocked Silencer for a loop, and Pierce turned to rouse Enigma.

"We need to get out of here, Enigma," Pierce insisted, feeling more drained than ever. He was sure that under his armor his own skin was as gray as More’s. "Out of the city. Someplace safe."

Enigma slowly rose to his hands and knees, nodding in understanding. The familiar red circle shimmered in the air. Pierce rolled More through the warp portal, then stood up and signaled for the others.

Hangfire broke for the warp and ran through, dodging yet another lightning bolt brought down by Genocide. Valence positioned the car hood over Bayonet’s head and gave one solid push down toward the street, then flew through the warp as well. Pierce waited a few seconds for Karnival to disengage from his duel with Loki, and when Karnival did not Pierce fired a sonic blast from his gauntlet at Loki. The shot put the villain down almost instantly, and Karnival turned to look at Pierce.

"Time to go," Pierce admonished his teammate. "That giant mirror is draining the city’s life essence and we’ve got no way to fight it at the moment."

"Then go get a way to fight it," Karnival growled. "I’m not leaving."

"Karnival, there’s nothing you can do!" Pierce shouted.

"Screw you, Pierce!" the caustic response flew back from Karnival. "My wife’s in this city! She needs me!"

"You’re right," Pierce said with utmost gravity, "so stay alive for her. We’ll be back. I swear."

Karnival hesitated for another moment, as if considering whether or not to attack Pierce himself, then bolted for the warp and jumped through. Pierce followed, and Enigma brought up the rear and closed the warp portal behind them.

Headhunter watched his adversary’s team depart. "Well, that wasn’t so hard," he chuckled to himself.

TO BE CONTINUED …!!!!

MESSAGES WRITTEN IN BLOOD ...
Send e-mail to badblood51@hotmail.com

Hi Dale,

Another pleasant issue. The feeling I had about # 1
being somewhat uncertain in its tone was cleared up
here. This was much darker and I thought it suited the
story very well. Two new additions to the team
already? Interesting. With so many new characters, I
would have held off on adding two more to the mix but
I like the two newcomers, especially Pierce, a lot so
I won't complain ;-)

A few fanboy types requests :

1) Do you remember the guy from "I...Vampire"? I
forget his name at the moment but for some reason I'd
love to see him appear in this book. Maybe I'm just
stuck in an Anne Rice frame of mind and wanting to
throw in a vampire because of the setting. Still, I
always liked the I...Vampire comic series. Andrew
Bennett, might have been his name....

2)Villain-wise, I'd like to see a mix of new and old
villains. In terms of the older characters, maybe some
of the following : Anton Arcane (if he's still around,
I'm waaaaaaay behind on my Swamp Thing lore), Silver
Banshee or the Joker. I'd love to see the Bad Blood
gang take on an experienced nut like the Joker...

3) Gimme some wimmen! Seriously! This team is waaaaay
too testosterone-laced.

Keep up the good work,

Barry

Thanks for the note, Barry. I appreciate your input. I’ll probably take some of your suggestions to heart, too – but if you want to see which ones, you’ll just have to keep reading!

NEXT ISSUE: Bad Blood races to find the means to stop New Orleans from being drained of all of its life energies. Can anything they do prepare them for the rematch with the six deadly villains holding the city hostage? Don’t miss the conclusion of our first multi-issue story arc (I know, it’s only a two-parter, but you have to start somewhere …) DWG