Superheroine Battle Arena - Bad Blood, Final Chapter

METROCITY

City Outskirts

It only took Countessa a few hours to trace the seller of the towel to the MPD morgue. A few days to go over the forensics evidence on the case and track down the killer as a known assassin for hire. A few more hours of tracing financial transactions to find the shell company that hired him. Another half a day of hacking and several calls to Daniel at the Interpol data hub to find some unusual purchases of medical equipment by that same company. Centrifuges, mass spectrometer, tissue regenerators. All the things you would need if you were trying to reverse engineer DNA modifications out of someone's blood sample.

All of this equipment was purchased and delivered within hours of the bloody towel being sold. Delivered to a warehouse in the old industrial zone of Metrocity. Countessa stayed in the shadows as she worked her way towards the address. The first sentry she came across was dressed in gang colors but was armed with a guass SMG typical of COIL operatives. She wasn't sure if he was enhanced and didn't want to take any chances. She slipped behind him and put him in a sleeper hold. He struggled weakly for a few seconds before he went limp. "Definitely not enhanced." she thought. She was hoping they weren't able to extract much serum from her blood.

Over the next six minutes she took out a total of fifteen sentries around the perimeter and ended up on the roof of the warehouse looking for an entrance point. The earpiece from the first guard she took out began increasing in chatter. "Point six check in." "Point eight check in." "Anyone have eyes on point one?" "Is anyone out there?" Finally all the chatter ended abruptly.

A cool female voice with a German accent came over the comm. "We have lost contact with most of the guards on the eastern sector. Obviously Countessa has arrived and is no doubt listening in on this channel. Based on what we know about her capabilities I'm sure that she is only moments away from entering the warehouse. If you are listening, Countessa, come in. Please. I have someone you will want to meet."

Countessa paused. Did they have a hostage? Someone she knew?

"Are you still there, Countessa? The guards will stand down and let you in. Come say hello... to your daughter."

"The hell?" uttered Countessa. She jumped up in a high arc above one of the skylights, smashing her fist through it an instant before she fell through. As she passed through the roof, she immediately began falling at a 45-degree angel towards the center of the warehouse. Some kind of variable-direction gravity field. She fell sideways right towards the center of the warehouse into a large cage. She landed in a 3-point stance ready to attack, but she was alone in the cage. This felt familiar. The surface that she was standing on was Inertrium alloy. Even the gravity field around her felt just like the Graviton Compression field in the Superheroine Battle Arena. She was in a replica of the SBA ring.

A tall woman in a COIL uniform approached, clapping her hands slowly. "You absolutely live up to your reputation, Frau Alixandria. I hope you didn't kill any of our guards."

"Not yet, but the night is still young." Countessa stood up and stared hard at the woman. "You've been infusing your agents with a serum extracted from my blood. You realize that the serum is unstable? That you've been killing them?"

"Eggs. Omelettes. Whatever." the woman shrugged. "Ja, there were some early failures. But persistence pays off, Countessa. We found something that acts as a stabilizing agent... As it turns out... yours was not the only blood on that towel." Countessa's eyes went wide. These idiots were dabbling blindly in dangerous bio-chemistry. She knew only a little about the Soviet Super Soldier program that created Ursa Mega. If they combined their blood, what could that have...

A heavy door began to lift on the far side of the warehouse. The agent continued her monologue, "Say hello to your daughter, Countessa." There was a glimpse of movement in the doorway, something was coming towards her. "She doesn't quite have your looks or grace. But she is so much more than her mother." As the thing shuffled forward, Countessa could hear the concrete floor straining. It must weigh close to eight tons. "I would like to thank you for coming, and bringing us more of your blood to play with." She caught a glimpse of it's pale green skin as it came towards the light. Dense scar tissue all over it's body. Skin is probably thick enough to take hits from emplacement weaponry. "Of course I don't want to risk any harm to myself or anymore of my agents... so we'll let your offspring be the one to subdue you. I get the feeling she will enjoy your blood a great deal..." As the creature stepped forward, it's face a grotesque, twisted mask, it's arm brushed against the door frame and bent the steel almost effortlessly.

"My god. Was that thing human before?" Countessa thought. It's eyes were dull and lifeless until it looked across at Countessa, then they filled with rage. It roared and the interior of the warehouse shook from the echoes. "That thing. Will. Kill. Me." Countessa slipped off her armbands and felt a surge of strength and power flow across her arms and back. The quantum properties of the metal inhibited her strength. Made it safe for her to interact with people. Lessened the risk of accidentally killing someone. She was not sure of the exact upper limits of her own strength. But she knew she needed it now.

Countessa cracked her knuckles. "All right, Groteska. Come to mama."

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://superheroinebattle.mattslawblog.com/2018/10/05/superheroine-battle-arena-bad-blood-final-chapter/

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