Chapter 1

Leaning back in the seat of the private jet, the young redhead felt completely uncomfortable. Not only was she being forced to travel under the assumed name of Svetlana Petrovska but she was being flown on an expensive, corporately owned jet to Russia. She hated going to Russia, at least in this world. Back home in her own dimension her homeland was a prosperous beacon of progress. Sure, it had its share of problems but what nation didn't? Her homeland, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had weathered the Second World War, defeated the threat of the West during the long Cold War, survived the Terrorists of Black Oktober and helped beat back the invaders from another dimension in the Rikti War at the cost of one of their greatest heroes but it endured.

By comparison, the Russia of the world she now found herself in was a rotting shell of the nation she knew. The military was a shambles using antiquated equipment, the government was a corrupt pantomine controlled by Oligarchs and former spies and the people were either scrabbling to get by or, far more rarely, lording the wealth they had robbed from looting the corpse of the former USSR over those who lived beneath them in a mockery of all she believed in. That was why this corporate jet, ferrying her across the Atlantic rankled her so badly. It was a constant reminder that though the places she was going might have familiar buildings and people, it was NOT her long lost homeland.

She couldn't even go by her name, Peri Stroika, given to her by the Ministry of Super-Human affairs when she was but six years old after she was born to a farmer and his wife on a collective farm after the Chernobyl terror attack of 1986. No, that name, a take on the old Soviet policy of Perestroika would offend some of the old guard and remind the populace of their lost glory. Instead, she had to go in disguise with a fake name. She wondered, not for the first time, why she had agreed to this assignment in the first place.

Five years ago, she had arrived in Paragon City from her home dimension thanks tot he interference of some Rogue Portal Corp technicians and a division of Crey Industries obsessed with looting alternate realities for their riches and technology. She had been shocked to find another world parallel to her own where the United States had triumphed in the recent Cold War but she had been trained to help, to serve and though it was another world, she could feel that it needed her help. So, using her government given name as her Heroic one, she was convinced to register as a hero and fight the good fight for the citizens of Paragon. She tired never to even think of this world's version of her home, it was all too depressing to dwell upon.

That was until last week when Positron of the Freedom Phalanx had come to her personally with a problem. She had worked with the great hero in the past, helping him defend the OVerbrook Damn, battled his evil Praetorian double in that blighted alternate world and even battled the forces of dread Arachnos at his side. So, when the technical genius of the Phalanx asked to talk with her, she could not refuse, especially in the wake of the recent losses to the Phalanx after that bastard Darren Wade's failed masterplan.

"I have been asked," Positron explained, looking over some notes on one of his massive monitor screens, "By a friend of mine in the Russian Science Ministry to look into a curious series of events in the Ukraine." That word made Peri swallow hard for those she had been raised in Russia, the Ukraine was the home of her birth, not that such borders held much true meaning in the Union as all were one in the Soviet system.

"I would have gone myself," He continued, "But with the constant threat from the Praetorians looming over Paragon and the losses of Statesman and Sister Psyche, I really cannot be spared in this situation." He then added, with a somewhat nervous chuckle, "Plus, my Russian really isn't up to snuff for dealing directly with their security forces."

"But why me?" Peri asked, crossing her arms in front of the Hammer and Sickle emblazoned across the chest of her action costume.

Positron turned and removed his helmet, looking right into the almost luminous green eyes of the Soviet heroine, "There are a number of reasons I asked for you to help with this. The first is that I trust you. You are selfless, brave and dependable. The second is your native knowledge of Russian and ability to deal with the people on a more natural level than a complete foreigner such as myself." He paused and then added, "And lastly, due to the nuclear nature of your powers, you have a natural resistance to radiation that will come in extremely useful in this situation."

Peri could feel her jaw tighten and swallowed, instinctively knowing where this was going even before Positron confirmed her fear by saying, "I need you to go to Chernobyl."

In her world Chernobyl had been the source of her powers, the radiation released having given rise to an entire generation of heroes (and sadly villains) who made Moscow the City of Heroes of her world. In this one, Chernobyl had been a terrible, horrid accident caused by Soviet neglect and improper safety concerns. In her own, it had been the first strike of the Facist terrorist organization Black Oktober against the Soviet Union. Just thinking about visiting a site to tied to her own history in this broken mirrorverse almost made her refuse instantly. If anyone else had asked her, she would have said no. As it was, she replied, "What's going on there?"

Positron hit a control on her keyboard and brought up some Police files, all of them in Russian, all of them dated from the last coupel of months. "My friend sent these along, asking me to look them over. There have been a series of strange attacks and disappearances surrounding the area cordoned off near the reactor site including the town of Prypiat. Most of the vanished have been guards or workers around the plant, the ones there to monitor radiation levels and the Engineers working to devise a more permanent way to seal the damaged plant. 18 people have vanished, two have survived to see what happened but..." he paused, "They died shortly after being found wandering the grounds of Prypiat and babbling about glowing eyes in the night. Worse, both of them were found with strange wounds on their bodies, a surprising lack of blood in their systems and worst of all, fatal radiation poisoning."

"What kind of wounds?" The heroine asked, leaning forward and placing her hands on the side of the monitor bank in front of her, scrutinizing the files.

"These kinds of wounds." With that, Dr. Keyes brought up the photos, showing the naked torsos of the two dead men. The pale, radiation scarred flesh was bad enough to look at, the bodies obviously thin and malnourished. It was the wounds that made her blood run cold, twin puncture marks dotted the necks, inner arms and inner thighs of them men, as if they had been pierced in all of their major arteries and veins by a fork. To Peri though, they looked suspiciously like something out of a bad movie.

"You have to be kidding me," she said, incredulity in her voice trying to drown out a growing sense of horror.

"I'm afraid not. These wounds, the lack of blood and the nocturnal nature of the attacks seem to point to one conclusion. As wary as I am of placing a supernatural cause to these things the evidence makes me think this the work of..."

"Vampires," Peri finished the sentence for him and sealed her own commitment to the mission.

Chapter 2

The small private jet landed at an isolated airfield on a small Russian Army base just after midnight. Peri rose from her seat and stretched, working out a bit of then tension from the uncomfortable flight and trying to ignore the feeling of dread creeping over her as she made her way to the door. The pilot was blandly polite in wishing her a safe trip and the attendant who had been asking her every hour or so if she needed anything during the duration of the trip opened the door and wished her a safe journey in a curtly professional manner.

The exist ramp lead down into the airfield, keeping the plane away from the single terminal, where an ancient transport plane waited to pick up passengers and cargo to be sent off to who knew where in the former Soviet republics. At the bottom of the mobile stairs waited a couple of uniformed Russian soldiers carrying Kalashnikovs and a well-dressed man in a suit and tie with close-cropped black hair, brown eyes, pinched features and a smile so pasted on and fake it almost resembled a bad photoshop job. Behind him was a large black sedan of the official variety.

"Welcome to the Ukraine Miss Petrovska," The suited man said, his Russian so perfect it momentarily stirred the gnawing homesickness in Peri to a sharp jab instead of the dull ache is usually sat at. Forcing herself not to show any reaction, she nodded to the man before greeting him in turn.

"I am Victor Ustrenko, of the Ministry of Energy, please come this way, we have arranged for your accomadations for the evening and a brief rest before the meeting in the morning to discuss the situation at Chernobyl." He indicated the car behind him, while one of the unformed soldiers moved to open the back seat. Peri slid inside, making sure to keep her trenchcoat nearly pressed beneath her legs as she took her seat. Ustrenko took the seat next to her while the two soldier took the front, one driving, the other in the passenger's seat. A glass partion separated the front of the vehicle form the back, providing some measure of privacy.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Miss Petrovska. Or would you prefet Miss Stroika?" The official asked, his unctuosly artificial smile never leaving his face.

"For now, let us stick with my alias. I have heard it would be unwise to use my real name or reveal the organization I work with." Peri made a point not to look at the man, instead staring out the window as the vehicle began to move.

"Ah, yes, the KGB Special Section 8," Ustrenko persisted, mentioning Peri's affiliation back in Paragon. "Would it surprise you to know that I was once a member of the KGB proper, back in the glory days of the Union?"

"No. No really." Peri's reply was perhaps a bit more curt than she meant it to be, but the blighted landscape outside the windows and the pressing of this official did her mood no favors.

Letting the subject drop, Ustrenko took another road of conversation. "I am personally glad you agreed to take this assignment. We in the Ukraine have very few of your kind anymore and those we do have are currently quite busy dealing with official business. Believe me when I say we did not want to ask for outside help, but it was either ask for help from Paragon in this matter or go crawling to the Russians themselves for aid and after the gas crisis of two years past, we prefer to maintain some semblance of self-sufficiency."

Turning to look at her government liason, Peri nodded and listened now that the pleasantries were out of the way. "Tell me what you know of the incidents. I was only given the official security reports sent to Positon. Are there any more details I should be aware of?"

"Not much," Ustrenko replied, shaking his head from side to side, the smile finally fading to the dour expression of a career government functionary, "There have been no signs of the 18 workers who have gone missing but we are presuming them to be dead. All we do know is that none of the attacks have been outside of the exclusion zone."

"Would that explain the high levels of radiation the two victims were exposed to?"

"No, not directly. Not unless they were moving completely unprotected in the vicinity of the former reactor itself for a long period of time. We cannot yet account for that."

"And the bite marks and loss of blood?" Peri girded herself for the response she knew was coming.

"Yes, we believe it to be the work of Upior." Ustrenko said gravely, his face turning perhaps a bit more pale than it was before as he spoke the Ukrainian word for vampire. "There have always been rumors of that area being a lair for such creatures, dating back to the days just after the Stalinist purges."

Peri could not hide her expression of disgust at that. Stalin. The name stuck in her craw. He was one of the differences between her world and this one. Back home the man known as Joseph Stalin died in 1918 from the pandemic flu and Lenin's successor had been Leon Trotsky. Here, the man survived and began the slow descent of the Soviet Union into barbarism and defeat. She once more questioned he own wisdom of taking this assignment. "And no one took these rumors seriously until now?"

"Does one often give creedance to the ghost stories of ignorant peasants?" Ustrenko replied, his voice carrying a slight air of arrogance.

"I have sense enough in my life to never discount any story given to me. Would you dismiss the tales of flying men and alien invaders as easily? No. To do so would be foolish when the evidence is all around you every day. Why then would you discount the existence of vampires so quickly. I have seen such creatures in Paragon City."

"Paragon City is the exception to many rules," the official snapped, clearly offended by Peri's tone, "Many here call it an asylum for freaks. In many ways I believe we are better off her for our lack of beings like yourself. You seem to only provide tempting targets for any madman with dreams of wold domination." He paused and then regained his composure, "My apologies, I am under a great deal of pressure from above regarding this situation. Please forgive me."

The rest of the car ride into the small nearby city passed in relative silence, Peri staring out the window at the scene of grey, Soviet-era construction slowly decaying around her and the equally forlorn citizens eeking out a living on the edge of a forbidden zone. Ustrenko busied himself sending emails over his bulky, slightly out of date cell phone to presumably his higher ups. Finally, the car stopped in front of a hotel and the soldiers exited to hold the door for the pair.

Ustrenko excused himself at the check-in desk and left the hotel, leaving Peri to check in under her assumed name. The two guards remained with her, guarding the door to her modest room to either ensure no one bothered her or that she didn't bother anyone. Entering the room and locking the door behind her, Peri slipped out of her trench coat and clothes before sliding into a nice, hot shower to wash away the tensions of the day.

As the almost scalding water ran through her hair and over her face, Peri tried to forget about the day behind her and focus ont he work ahead but officious little beauracrats like Ustrenko always bothered her. Even back home she had occasionally had to deal with them in her official work with the Ministry of Soviet Superhuman Resources. She was particularly reminded of her former handler, a woman named Maleena Treskaya who had tried to be a surrogate mother to the young heroine in training but had been more like a very stern, loveless nanny for the first few years of Peri's life. It hadn't been until she entered actual government service at 15 and become the poster girl for Soviet Superhumans shortly thereafter that she had been free of that boring, rulesbound woman. It was the arrogance and dismissal of the working people that rankled her the most, especially in this land, which had once claimed to be a workers' paradise. It seemed so two-faced and hypocritical to label their fears and worries as myths and old wives tales when they were supposed to be the backbone of the country.

After staying in the shower perhaps a bit too long, Peri stepped out onto the rough bathmat, wrapped a threadbare towel around her torso, another about her head to help dry her hair and stepped out into the darkness of her hotel room. She instantly realized she was not alone.

The temperature in the room had dropped, going from mildly chilly to almost bone-chillingly frigid. She whipped around, her hands beginning to glow a sickly green with barely contained nuclear fury as her cells released their stored radioactive charge in preparation to defend herself. The pale light illuminated the corner of the room, where something sat in a chair facing her. It was about six feet high, dressed in a severe black suit and had one long, spindly leg crossed over the other.

No hair sat upon its bald pate and a heavy, hairless ridge rested above its beady eyes that glowed with a similar light to the radioactive shine coming from the heroine herself. A hole sank in where a nose should be and the lips below were thin, drawn back and left the sharp, rodent-like teeth visible.

"Who are you!?" Peri demanded, uncomfortably reminded of the Vampyr Parasite abominations created by the Fifth Column back home in Paragon.

The thing rose, now towering over her and leaned forward, hissing slightly as it intoned, "Help usssssss."

Chapter 3

Clutching one hand to her towel to maintain her decency in the face of the monstrosity before her, Peri extended the other in an open palm as if to say 'stop' though he palm was glowing with the building charge of a radioactive blast. "What are you?" She asked, modifying her earlier question.

The towering, spindly figure raised his stick-like fingers in a pose of surrender which seemed fortunate for Peri as each long digit ended in a wickedly curved claw. "I mean you no harm, I mere requessst you lisssten to me." The thing spoke in a sibilant whisper, barely audible over the sound of Peri's own pounding heart.

Weighing her options, Peri nodded and lowered her hand. "Very well but first, turn around, I have to get dressed before we can speak." The thing nodded and Peri grabbed the bag she brought with her from the US, fishing out the clothes that made her most comfortable, her action costume. Slipping into the skin-tight costume of grey, red and yellow with the crimson cape bordered by twin stripes of gold stars. She kept her eyes on her visitor as she dressed, doing it quickly and maintaining the radioactive charge in her body in case she needed it.

"Ok, let's talk." She finally said, taking a seat on the bed and resting her hands in her lap, a neutral gesture designed to put her strange visitor at ease. "But it you make any sudden moves, I will be forced to defend myself."

The odd creature turned back and nodded. "Agreed." It once more took the seat it had been in before and fixed its tiny, glowing green eyes on her. "I am Alexi Putressscu," it began and Peri had to admit that last name fit this emeciated, wan figure. "I have lived in the Ukraine for over 200 yearsss. I am Upior as you may have sssussspected." He paused and took another breath, which caused Peri to notice that this thing, this Alexi, only seemed to drawn air into its lungs to speak, when it was silent, it never seemed to breath. "I know you have been brought here to dessstroy but I beg you, hear me out and know that you are being deceived! Thisss isss a trap!"

"Why do you say that?" Peri asked, suddenly wary of everything around her, especially the two armed guards outside her hotel room.

"Becaussse, you are not the firssst to come here, drawn by talesss of monssstersss in the ruinsss of Pripyat. We have been usssed to lure you here. We did not take thossse workerssss, we did not kill anyone..." He seemed to pause and then take another breath, "Well... not anyone here. Yessss, we feed upon the blood of the living, we need it to sssurvive, but we do not need to kill to take it,. We can leave our prey alive and take just enough to keep ourssselvesss going. We are not greedy. But there are thossse who want ussss dead, truly dead and we jussst want to sssurvive. Issss that ssso wrong? Isss that ssso evil? After what hasss been done to usss?"

"What was done to you? Who wants you dead? Is it the local people? The government?"

"The localsss are not the threat, we watch over them, we guard them asss our flock. We protect them from outsidersss and guard them. It isss the rulersss of thisss nation that want usss dead, that wish to kill usss. Though that isss not their true reassson to bring you here."

Suddenly there came a knock from outside and Peri sprung from the bed in time to see the door, the door she had locked, open and one of the guards peer inside. Thinking quickly, she grabbed the long towel and wrapped it around herself, hoping it and shadows of the room would conceal her costume. "Yes?" She called out sharply, "Can I help you? I am not decent!"

"We apologize Miss Petrovska," the guard replied, averting his eyes from here, "We thought we heard voices."

"Then you are hearing things. If I need you, I will call for you. Now let me rest." With that, the guard shut the door and Peri turned to her guest, only to find an empty chair, he was gone. "Damn."

Not even changing out of her costume, the heroine pulled back the covers, slid between the sheets, pulled them back over herself and tried to sleep, her mind racing with the two warring scenarios presented before her of the truth and wondering which, if either were true while battling to keep a wave of paranoia and fear from making her just leave this place now. Eventually, curiosity and fatigue won the night and she slipped into unconsciousness and troubled dreams of stick-figure men dripping blood tied up in red tape and illuminated from behind by the glow of nuclear fire.

Chapter 4

Peri woke from her fitful sleep to a morning as grey, hazy and overcast as she had ever seen, a sky that matched the color of the drab, decaying concrete buildings of the small Ukrainian city perfectly. The haze clung to the streets, reminding the heroine of a shroud covering the corpse of a dream. After changing back into her false civilian identity and clothing, she exited the room to be met by a fresh pair of guards, the two watching her overnight having been relieved sometime during the night.

"Good morning Miss Petrovska," the guard on the right said, both of them standing at sudden attention as she exited the room, "Minister Ustrenko regrets that he cannot come and meet you this morning but pressing business came up and he asked that we escort you to the work site until such time as he can join us."

"Very well," Peri stated, wondering what kind of man seems so keen on bringing her here and then abandons her to attend to beauracratic chores. "I would like to interview anyone who knew the missing workers or the two victims, particularly the other personell in the exclusion zone."

"That can be arranged. Come this way, please." With that, the soldiers marched down the hallway in front of her, leading her back down to the waiting sedan and holding the door for her as she slid into the back seat. As the car pulled away into the gray morning, Peri was left wondering just what had happened the night before. Was Alexi really there at all? What did he mean by a trap? The entire situation put her completely on edge, a growing doubt about everything pushing her to wrap this up quickly and get home to Paragon City.

The car pulled up to a checkpoint just at the edge of the city, the edge of the current exclusion zone and armed guards checked everyones' credentials before opening the gate and letting the vehicle pass. The abandoned city of Pripyat sat as it had since that fateful morning in 1986, abandoned, overgrown, the ravages of time and neglect leaving a haunted shell of a town once housing the workers and their families who maintained the Chernobyl nuclear power station. Towering over the small town was a rusting ferris wheel, marking the site of an amusement center built for family fun.

One the car stopped in front of a newly fabricated tin building, the two soldiers clipped film badges to their uniforms, the kind that measure radiation exposure. Peri did not need one. Her body, due to her unique mutation, absorbed radiation of all kinds and even produced its own. While this did prevent her from suffering the ill effects and gave her her healing and offensive powers, it had some negative side effects as well. Suffice it to say, she would never earn the Mother's Cross of Distinction. The door opened and she strode out, the cool morning air actually feeling good on her skin, the ambient, lingering radiation making her flesh tingle in a not unpleasant manner.

Escorted to the building, she entered and was introduced to a small, frumpy, porcine man in an ill-fitting pair over overalls named Ymir Vassily. Vassily was the foreman of the current project, which was charged with cleaning up this area a bit better and designing a new, more permanent cap for the still leaking reactor.

"Thank you for meeting with me Mr. Vassily," Peri stated, taking a seat in a chair before him and crossing her legs demurely, resting her hands on her raised knee, one on top of the other. "Have you seen anything strange lately on your worksite?"

"Oh yes, oh yes," He nodded, his round, wire-framed glasses slipping down his nose as he did so, making him push them back up after he stopped before speaking again. "Just last night there was another disappeance. One of our workers, young Mr. Volkov, went missing. His partner on watch says he saw something tall, dark and thin grab Volkov from out of the shadows and drag him away, screaming. It woke half the camp, it did."

"Have you seen anything yourself? Anything that might help?"

'No,thank God. I spend all of my time behind a desk, I rarely get out in the field and never, ever at night. Call me a supersitious old fool but I believe the tales they tell in these parts about the Upior left behind to avenge the wrongs done them by Stalin and his goons."

"About those legends," Peri continued, her demeanor warm and friendly, which was apparently having the wrong effect on Vassily, who began to sweat profusely as he glanced between the two armed Soldiers standing on either side of the red-haired heroine, "Are the centered here in Pripyat or elsewhere?"

"Well, the rumor says the power plant itself was built on the graves of the wronged. If... if they exist the creatures would most likely be down there, in the ruins of the reactor itself."

"Can I go there?"

"Oh dear no! The radiation levels, even now are lethal at anything more than a brief exposure,"

"That will not be a problem for me." She pulled out her hero license and showed it to the man, who's eyes went wide as he realized just who and what she was.

"Oh, then by all means, be my guest, be my guest." He glanced to the two soldiers, who nodded, which caused Vassily to relax in his chair and wipe his forehead with a slightly oily rag.

"I will be back to inteview the workers later. I think I should go there while the sun is still in the sky, for safety sake."

With no further arguments, the soldiers donned protective gear and drove Peri to the site of the plant itself. The hulking, blackened structure loomed large over the landscape, the concrete casket surrounding Reactor #4 drawing the eye instantly. As they got closer, Peri could feel the tingle grow across her body, almost like the hesitant touch of a nervous lover. While other people might grow worried at such a sensation from a lethal source, for Peri it was actually comforting and helped ease her sense of growing dread.

"We're here Miss," The driver said, his voice muffled by the protectie hood and mask covering his head. He and his companion got out and held the door for her, letting her exit. She took a few steps in front of them, closing her eyes to follow the trail of the radiation, which for her was like a gentle summer's breeze emenating from the reactor.

Suddenly, she felt a sudden blow to the back of her head, and stumbled forward into the mud. Dazed, she could hearone soldier curse and then the other kicked her hard in the ribs with his thick boot. The air knocked from her lungs, she rolled over on her back. Before she could even call upon her powers, the butt of a Kalashnikov came down on her face and everything went black.

(( Interesting...very interesting! More please! ))

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"Do your best and let the rest work itself out."
Doctor Void - Dr. Wretched - Impact Tower - Jackie Bones - MerryGoRound - Bella Facade - Dark Anima - Choose - many others.

Chapter 5

Peri woke with a splitting headache, strars of pain dancing before her closed eyes. She almost wished she had left them closed the minute they fluttered open. She was somewhere dark and cold, surrounded by barely functional machinery that chugged along in the darkness, belching forth clouds of steam every now and then or shuddering to a near halt before someone or something loudly beat it back into operation. She could feel the waves of radiation all around her, the intensity far more than any normal human could handle without dropping dead in moments.

While allowing her eyes to adjust to the darkness, the heroine took stock of her situation. She was bound, tied to the walls of this chamber with coils of old wire and conduit, a chunky metal collar wrapped firmly around her neck of a type she had seen only once before, an inhibitor. These were built by the former Soviet Union based on designs derived from a Black Oktober plot, at least in her world they were. She had no idea where the designs came from here but the purpose was the same, to suppress the powers of a superhuman. She flashed back to the previous nigth in her hotel, when the strange being called Alexi warned her of a trap.

When she was finally used to the darkness, Peri could see things moving about, working on the machines, all of them pale, wan creatures with horrible disfigurements that made her nocturnal visitor look like a fashion model. All wore the tattered remains of the uniforms of workers from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone meaning these must be the missing workers, somehow turned into misshapen Upior as well. They toiled in the dark, ignoring her, apparently not needing light to see, making sure the aging machines continued to do whatever it was they were doing. She was reminded of the Morlocks from the H.G. Wells novel 'The Time Machine' living beneath the ground and preying on the oblivious Eloi who lived above.

Looking about the walls of the chamber, she could see a maze of cables and wires much like the ones that held her. Held among them were the unconscious bodies of other men and women, all in the remains of brightly colored costumes. It hit her instantly that these were all superhumans, probably lured here by the same trap that snared her. All of them terribly malnourished and pale, evidently having been down here for a good deal of time.

The echoing sounds of footsteps and a sudden, almost blinding surge of light caused Peri to wince and turn away from one end of the chamber. She could hear a few of the transformed workers hiss and shrink back from the sudden illumination as well. The footsteps drew closer and Peri turned to see who made them, not at all shocked to see the face of her 'liason' Ustrenko.

"Good evening Ms. Petrovska," The petty beauracrat said, his voice dripping false formality, "Or should I just call you Ms. Stroike. There's no longer a need for pretense, on either of our parts." With that, he smiled wide, showing off her perfectly white teeth, drawing attention to the pair of long, pointed canines descending from his mouth. "Oh yes, I am Upio as well, though of a much different and superior breed to these pathetic wretches." To illustrate his point he kicked out viciously as a scrawny, bald and lumpy-faced worker that had dared approach him, sending the poor thing skittering back into the shadows.

"Why?" Peri managed to croak out, her throat very dry, her voice barely audible.

Ustrenko shook his head. "No, first dinner, then we chat." With that, he lunged forward, using his hands to force Peri's head to the side, exposing her neck. His pointed teeth sank deep into her flesh, causing her to first cry out in pain and then gasp in involuntary, shameful pleasure. It was the most intimate of violations, this creature, this monster supping from her veins and yet, she could not deny the wave of sensual release it brought her, an ecstasy tainted with the dark knowledge that it was utterly unwanted, utterly vile and inhumanly forced upon her. She could do nothing to fight back as the beast drew forth her blood, nothing but shudder and whimper. It was over before she knew it, the thing lapping at her wound like a kitten with a saucer of milk, his tongue closing the bite mark as if it had never been there.

The reverie broken, Peri spat at Ustrenko. "Don't you dare touch me again!"

"Oh my dear, I will be back for more of you, how delicious you are and how... enlightening." He raised one hand, the green glow of a sudden flare of radiation illuminating his palm just as it would for the young heroine. She gasped. "Yes, my dear, I have plans for you beyond being merely nourishment, as I do for all of these... heroes. You see, all of us Upior have certain quirks that help define our breed. These things become hideous upon their return from the dead, my stock develop a certain taste, a refinement of the pallete that means only a certain kind of blood can truly sate us. For me, that blood was the blood of superhumans.

"I managed to position myself in the government of the Soviet Union to find, train and develop such beings ostensiblty for the war against the hated Western powers but secretly as my own herd of feeding stock. It was by accident that I discovered that should I sup from the blood of one naturally gifted, as you are, from birth with powers, I could for a time use those powers myself. I became addicted to the rush of this power and began to hunt mutants exclusively, binding them to my will and drinking from them before engaging my rivals in battle.

"It was easy enough to remove the others of my kind of positions of power using my natural gifts and those stolen from your kind. Soon, I was party head just as the Union collapsed. Instead of finding myself devoid of work, I managed to worm my way into a postion of minor authority, a mere functionary in charge of the cleanup of this area. I used it to lure the former Soviet heroes and heroines to me and trap them here, beneath the ruins of the reactor, serving me still as batteries for the powers I need to rise once more to dominate this land."

Peri was sickened by the though of spending the rest of her days as a mere food source for this thing that would use her powers for the darkest of purposes. " I will find a way to escape you bastard and I will destroy you!"

Ustrenko laughed loudly. "They all say that, for the first few days, until I make them mine. You see, I have no use for batteries that will fade and die with time so, I give them a bit of my power as well, a pale echo of my immortality. I feed them my blood. It keeps them alive enough for my purposes, keeps them fresh and unaging. Best of all, after three draughts of my fine vintage, their wills become mine and they stop fighting back. Soon, you will be a mewling kitten, begging to serve me in any way you can. Enjoy you last few days of free will Ms. Heroine of the People. For soon, you will be my slave!"

((ACK!!! If only Anya Rashnikalni knew of this trip and the danger... she has a couple sharp blades just ready for decapitations of these things to get her comrade out and safe

Very good so far... looking forward to see what happens))

Ashes to ashes,
DJ Pheonyx

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DJ Pheonyx of The Cape Radio
Global Name: @Pheonyx

Chapter 6

Ustrenko left, saying he had to maitain his 'charade' of being deligent little functionary but not before forcing Peri to take his blood by way of drawing forth a quantity from his own arm with a syringe and injecting it into her arm like some kind of vile drug. She could already feel it in her body, a vile coldness spreading through her veins, corrupting her, weakening her will. She struggled and gritted her teeth in front of the monster but as soon as he was gone, she allowed herself the small indulgence of crying before deciding she had to do something and would not resign herself to the same fate as the other heroes of this blighted land.

At first, she tried to talk to the converted workers, though none of them seemed the least bit interested in her pleas, going about their mysterious tasks. She tried struggling, but without her powers, the cables and wires only wrapped about her tighter, holding her in place and threatening to strangle her if she put up too much resistance. At least, if she died she might deny Ustrenko his prize. Such grim thoughts lingering in her head, Peri failed to notice a new visitor until a whispering, sibilant voice called out to her. "Missss, oh misssss, I can help you."

Peri looked up, right into the gaunt face of Alexi. "Why do you hear me when none of the others do?"

"The othersssss," Alexi explained, "Are sssslaves to Ussstrenko, much asssss you will be if you do not essscape. I alone have been able to hide from him in the darkest placessss, to avoid hisssss powersssss and notice. We have lived in thissss land for far longer than that prancing would-be dictator. We were assssleep when the reactor accident occured and the radiation both woke ussss and damaged ussss. Sssssome were driven mad and had to be put down lesssst the mortalssss know of our pressssence. Others were rendered ssssterile, unable to make more of our kind, sssssome were even killed by the toxinsssss, ssssomething we thought impossssible.

"Then came Ussstrenko with his promisssessss to heal ussss, to help ussss. Ssssome lissstened and became hissss ssslaves but I did not! I would not! I knew of hissss kind from old. They pretend to be Lordsss and Ladiesss, they put themssselvesss about the masssessss and take power that isss not theirsss to take. Before I could convince my fellowsss of his perfidioussss nature, it wassss too late.

"He had bound them to him through the power of hisss blood, made them into his ssslave workersss, forced thossse who could ssstil make more of our kind to convert mortal workerssss to hisss cause, to building and maintaining thissss infernal machine."

Peri listened intently and with each word, her anger grew, her rage at Ustrenko and his violation of all she held true and dear causing her blood to boil and fight the effects of his evil blood in her veins. "What is this machine for?"

"Ussstrenko planssss to ussse it to flood the entire Uktraine with radiation, blaming it on the work of Ssssuper humansss, he wantssss to have them all rounded up sssso he might have them where he wantssss them, where he can feed at will and grow in power. He alssso plansss to create a 'cure' for the resssulting radiation sssicknesss, a cure derived from hisss blood and your powers to turn all of the people into hissss ssslavesss ssso he might rule unchallenged!" Alexi never spoke above a whisper, constantly glancing over his shoulder, watching the others of his kind working as if worried they might report on him to their Master.

"Free me Alexi, free me and I will free your people, I will free these heroes and we will defeat this madman before he can carry out his scheme." Peri strained at her bonds, glancing at the other imprisoned heroes and heroines about her.

"No!" Alexi cried, clamping his hand over his mouth and shaking his head, then speaking back in a low whisper, "They are all hisss ssslavesss, they would turn on you in an inssstant. You can only free them by dessstroying Ussstrenko, I have come to you becausssse you are the only one not under hissss power." As he spoke, his long, spider-like fingers worked on the collar about Peri's neck, finally managing to work it off. She could feel the flow of her bodily energies returning, feel the might she commanded once more hers to command.

Concentrating for a moment, Peri called upon he ability to scatter her own atomic structure and reform it elsewhere to vanish from her bonds and appear behind Alexi, which startled the undead man. "Thank you Alexi, thank you so much. I may be alone again Ustrenko, but I will do what I can for the people, for your people as well. Perhaps when this is all over, I will find a way to heal them of the damage caused by the radiation." She turned and marched towards the exit, he hands balled into fists, as she ascended the stairs to exit the chamber, she looked back at Alexi and with her lips drawn into a grim line of determination told him, "Even if I cannot, Ustrenko will pay tonight, pay with his misbegotten unlife. I swear to you now that before the sun rises, he will be destroyed."

With that. she pushes up through the tangle of wires and cables, out into the dark, cool Ukrainian night. She had work to do.

Chapter 7

There was no time for artifice, no time to think about the false identity she'd been cultivating since her arrival in the Ukraine. It was time for Peri Stroika to confront evil and it was only fitting that she do so in the costume that sometimes felt more a part of her than her own skin. Clad once more in her tight red, deep crimson and gold costume, drawing strength from the emblem of all she believed in emblazone on her chest, Peri headed for the government office that the vile Ustrenko called his own.

There were armed soldiers outside and Peri recognized one of them as the guard who first struck her from behind at the gates of Chernobyl. Not wanting to kill them and figuring they were blood slaves of the monster inside, she concentrated and teleported behind them almost soundlessly, then knocked them both senseless with a quick burst of radiation designed not to kill but to disrupt their cellular activity on an atomic level just long enough to 'reboot' their brains. That done, she pushes open the double doors and strode into the squat, concrete building.

A startled receptionist rose from behind her desk to confront the Red heroine, staring at the hammer and sickle emblem on her chest and gasping slightly. He fingers fumbled for a gun until Peri turned her gaze on her, a gaze that warned that pulling that weapon might be very, very foolish indeed.

Peri narrowed her eyes and practically growled, "Where is Ustrenko?" The receptionist pointed up the stairs, towards a set of double doors. Peri nodded and then, to ensure she would not be disturned, used a burst of X-rays from her eyes to fuse the circuits in the desk phone and computer before the woman. "I need a private meeting with him and we do not wish to be disturbed."

Shoving open both doors to the room revealed a large, solid, wooden desk behind which was a massive bookcase stuffed with hardbound volumes on law, politics and the arts of war. Also behind the desk, smiling widely and not trying to hide his fangs, was Ustrenko. "Well, well, well," he chuckles, clapping his hands, "Someone certainly knows how to make an entrance. I do not know how you escaped but it matters little. Have you come to offer yourself to me willingly or is this a..."

He was cut off mid-sentence by a sudden blast of power from Peri's eyes, twin beams of radiation knocking him backwards, against the bookshelf, the sudden impact dislodging a few volumes that came tumbling down upon his head. "Enough of this," Peri growled, "This ends tonight. Your reign of terror is over!"

Ustrenko rose from his chair and frowned. "You forget child, As long as your blood is in my veins, I command the same powers as you!" He fired back, raising his hand to blast Peri with a concentrated dose of gamme particles. She absorned the radiation but the impact tossed her back into the hall and down the stairs. "And as long as my blood is inside of your veins, you will be mine. Can you not feel it, the call to bow before me, the feeling that you should stop resisting and be mine?"

"Honestly," Peri said, suddenly behind her foe and kicking him in the small of the back with one of her well-heeled boots, "No, I don't. You forget monster, my powers allow me complete control over my own atomic structure and I am a trained medic, it was easy enough to seperate your corruption from my body when I teleported out of your binding back beneath the reactor. As for you having all of my powers, that remains to be seen. You can only copy the abilities natural to me, is that correct?"

Ustrenko picked himself up off the floor and moved with a suddenness that Peri could barely see, one of his cold, vice-like hands suddenly around her throat, lifting her off the ground and beginning to strangel her. "Yes but you forget," he hissed, "I have the powers of the other heroes I have drank from as well as my own might as Upior to call upon. There is nothing you can do to stop that."

Gritting her teeth and smiling a bit wickedly, Peri laughed and suddenly, without using her own powers, she vanished from his hand and appeared to his left... and his right... and behind him. All of her duplicates lashed out with devastating kicks far stronger that she could normally produce, then vanished and reformed back into her normal form but not before knocking the monster to his knees. "There is something you do not know about me Ustrenko, something I rarely find myself having to call upon. I am no longer merely a mutant heroine, no longer the radioactive combat medic I once was. I have been transformed, altered by powers even I scarcely understand." She grabbed the petty tyrant and hauled him to his feet, glaring into his eyes, her own smouldering with radiation. "I am Incarnate!"

Peri had once refused to allow that power to become a part of her, not wanting anything associated with 'gods' to taint her being but with the invasion from Praetoria and the recent attack by the foul 'god' Mot, she had been forced to put aside her own misgivings in favor of protecting the people of Paragon City. Now, she used those powers once more to battle a man perhaps not as powerful as Emperor Cole or Mot, but every bit as power hungry, vain and in need of a thorough ass-kicking. Tossing Ustrenko across the room, Peri advanced on him.

"I have great power," she began, "But unlike you, I do not wield it for my own self-aggrandizement. I do not use it to Lord over my fellow men and women, I do not place myself above them. I truly believe in the ideals of the Revolution, the idea that all are equal and that all serve a greater purpose. I believe that each should contribute according to their ability. I am not a farmer, I do not work in the factories or the institutes of higher learning. I am a medic, I am a solider and right now, I am the will of the a people crying out for liberation. But most of all, right now, I am your doom."

A moment of panic crossed Ustrenko's face as he realized the true scope of his enemy and the power at her command but onlya moment. He sprung to his feet and drew upon the powers of another hero in his larder of power, charging Peri and taking to the air to strike the heroine in the stomach, knocking her out the large window on the far side of the room and down intot he street below. "You claim to respresent the ideals of the Soviets? You claim to fight for their cause? You're a delusionsal fool girl, their ideals are dead, the Soviets are gone, the only power left in this world is that which we take for ourselves, that which we use to make us the better of all. These workers, these farmers, these pathetic worms are meant to serve, to grovel, to submit. Your dream is dead and thanks to you being a bigger pain that you are worth, now so will you be!" He stalked towards the fallen heroine, his boots crunching the debris of his office window beneath his feet..

Peri rolled over, catching her breath, the wind momentarily knocked from her body,. Calling upon her powers, she boosted her own endurance, gaining the strength to rise once more,. Spitting blood from the side of her mouth, then wiping her lips on the back of her sleeve, she stood proud before the much taller, stronger man. "You feast upon the corpse of a country I once gave my all for, a country that in another time and place is stronger than any of us. You represent everything that is wrong in this land, everything that has become of my home. Your presence is an affront to my very soul. You cannot kill me, you cannot destroy what I represent. An idea can never die so long as one person holds it in their heart."

He lashed out, striking he again, snapping her head to the side. ":Pretty words young fool but all your believe in is gone."

Peri chuckled and looked back at him. "No, it is not. I still believe that singularly we are weak, helpless, together we find strength, collectively we can stand against anything. And though I battle you now as one woman, I am never alone. I have found friends and comrades in the West, where once I saw only enemies I now see a second home full of people who care about me and I about them and I will never harm them by allowing myself to die at the hands of a dead bearacrat with delusions of grandeur." Without warning, she grabbed Ustrenko and held him tight, gathering her powers about her. She looks to the bystanders gathered round and shouted, "Run, run now!" The complied.

Ustrenko tried to break free, he managed to break he hold and was about to use her own teleportational ability to get away when Peri let loose her full power all at once. There was an explosion like a miniature sun as her nuclear fury exploded outwards, scorching the ground, burning the shadows of trees into nearby buildings and raising a miniature mushroom cloud over the square. Shattered twigs and twisted branches littered the ground as it cleared, the paving stones othewise blasted clear, burnt, some even melted into heaps of slag.

Peri stood in the middle of it all, trying to catch her breath. Ustrenko staggered backwards, skin peeling from his face, one eye ran down his cheek in a molten trail of ooze, the bare skull beneath revealed. His clothing was burnt from parts of him the rest fused to his bubbling skin. The monter cried out in fury, in utter anger fueled by agony and tried to pin Peri to the ground beneath him. In he weakened state, she could barely resist.

"I will feasssst upon your blood and heal! I shall recover from this and rule my nation! I shall..." He was silenced as a still burning shaft of wood exploded out of his chest, stopping just before reaching the heroine. The monster froze in mid gloat, then slumped over, revealing the spindly form of Alexi behind him. The twisted figure smiled broadly, displaying his needle-like rows of teeth and helped Peri back to her feet. "Thank you Comrade," She said, embracing her new friend, "You saved me."

"No Comrade Ssstroika," Alexi responded, pushing her back and shaking his head, "You sssaved me, sssaved all of usss. You showed ussss that we could ssstil have hope, that we need not fear men like Ussstrenko. My people have been given hope that ssssomeone like you, who hassss no connection to usss at all would be willing to fight and posssibly die for our freedom. When the sssun risssesss, Ussstrenko will burn for hissss crimessss, he will vanish and all thossse who he held ensssslaved will be freed. When he diessss, ssssso does the cursssse of his blood. My home issss now free, thankssss to you. We owe you..."

Peri pressed a gloved finger to Alexi's lips and shoke her own head, "You owe me nothing. I do not do this for thanks or appreciation. I do it because it is right. Now, I must leave. I do not want to be here when everyone comes to their senses. I realized now that coming here was not coming home. My home is in Paragon City, with my friends and allies. However, I leave knowing this land, my former home, is in good hands. Your hands. No more words now Alexi, you and I both have work to do. Someday I will come back once I have found a way to cure you of the sickness that plagues your people but for now, Das Vidanya, Comrade Alexi."

With those words, Peri vanished, her atomic structure unravelling as she cast herself towards the West, towards her friends, towards home.

Oh yeah..

THE END.

((Bra-vo! I very much enjoy a good vampire story! ))

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Great story Peri!

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(( Verreh enjoyable! ))

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"Do your best and let the rest work itself out."
Doctor Void - Dr. Wretched - Impact Tower - Jackie Bones - MerryGoRound - Bella Facade - Dark Anima - Choose - many others.

((Great story, Peri! Sorry I didn't see it sooner!))