"Any Heroes, Code 12, Carolinus Trauma Center, Code 12. Tainted Vampire in the building. Any Heroes, assist with evacuation and Vampire Control," The dispatcher said.

"Bark!" Crested punched the dashboard.

"Vampire?" Flat mumbled waking up.

"I bet some idiot took the stake out." Crested picked up the radio.

"Dispatch. Patrol three, copy Code 12, en route Carolinus," Crested hung up the mic as Flat turned the car into traffic.

"No point going to bed now.” Crested tossed a pill bottle to Flat.

An impromptu command center tried to organize near the Emergency Department. Patients, staff, and visitors filled the parking lot. Carts, beds, and medical equipment had started to litter the area. The two girls walked through the chaos. Crested fit a leather gorget to her neck. On her belt was the stun baton.

"Here," She said, handing Flat a large Rosary. It had steel chain links and silver beads. The cross was solid silver and had spiked ends.

"What do I do with this?" Flat said.

"Pray and wrap it around your knuckles," Crested said.

Staff and patients were still evacuating from the building. A hospital administrator acted as the incident commander. The man's attention moved from issue to issue. It was more about getting the documentation down than making decisions. He looked in shock as the girls walked in. "Your the heroes? Where are the other heroes?"

"On the way. Are we the first?" Crested said.

"Yes. We need more."

"Yeah…When the other heroes get here tell them Patrol Three when to Pathology," Crested said.

"You can't go in alone," He said.

"We're heroes. We're going in," Crested crossed the police line.

The Vampire could have walked out, Flat thought. She followed crested to the lobby doors. "Where are the other heroes?" Flat asked once inside. The lobby was empty.

"They take the night off when we're out." Crested sniffed the air.

"What?" Flat said. “I don’t believe this shit.” Crested shrugged.

"Rudy sent me a text. He's on the way with all the boys from North. They are going to search the building top to bottom regardless," Crested said. She pushed the elevator call button.

"North is an hour away," Flat said.

"At best. It doesn't matter it's all theater anyway. This is to make people believe the building is safe. The Vampire hopefully ran off. Also Gyaru and Go-Go should be here soon. Their skills can make this quick."

"And what are you worried about? We took on three the last time. And we killed this Vampire, once tonight." Crested stepped on the elevator and pushed the button for the sixth floor.

"The fight at the bar was a mess," Flat said.

"Well. This Vampire should still be high. So no magic. And we're not here for him anyway.”

"Then we can wait for Gyaru and Go-Go," Flat said.

"We're not waiting. Florida is out with Pathology to night," Crested said.

"Shit," Flat said as the elevator doors opened.

Gyaru and Go-Go walked through the chaos. As the hospital evacuated, the parking lot overflowed with carts and ambulances, and the other buildings were locked down. The two headed to the command tent, Gyaru slightly behind Go-Go. The Mecklenburg uniforms got them past security without question.

The speedster had been sullen all night, with no arrests or chases. No activity to get the speedster moving. The leads on Billhook had all led to nowhere. Gyaru hoped they would find him; Go-Go needed closure and a bit of payback. Except for a vampire call that went to Crested, it had been a slow night on the hero side.

Now Gyaru watched Go-Go fret over each patient she passed by. Then she saw the wheelchairs. Dozens lined up in a block. Go-Go froze like a deer for a second, looking at the wheelchairs.

That will distract her all night. It's not like her mom and grandmother are not home to care for him, Gyaru thought.

"Go-Go, head over to the resource pool and sign in. You'll be more useful helping the medical teams. I'll wait for Rudy to help with the search.”

Go-Go zipped away without a word.

Shes moving, being useful; that will help, Gyaru thought.

The sixth floor had no sound. Emergency power demand lighting came on as they walked down the hallway. Most of it from Crested’s memory was offices. The lights flickered on and off as the girls moved from one sensor to another.

"Can you smell Florida?" Flat said.

"No, this place reeks of death, blood and bleach. I wont be able to find her in here." Crested opened the door to the Pathology office. The sensor flickered the overhead lights. The room lit up in crisp L.E.D. brightness.

"What's Gyaru going to do then?"

"She can feel magic, it's a werewolf thing. Vampires are inherently magical. At worst we have to wait for Vincent," Crested said.

The office was empty. The coffee pot long cold. "This is the nine to five operation here. No one should be here." Crested looked around.

Farther down the hallway, the overhead lights flickered on. The floor changed from carpet to tile. Passed the freight elevator, blood on the walls; the fight had been in the hallway.

Flats eyes followed the blood splatter patterns as she learned in the crime scene class. She could reconstruct how the fight played out. The Hospital Police came up the hallway and ran into someone strong. The Vampire. She saw the blood pattern from an officer being thrown into the wall. The Hospital Police had dragged their injured to the freight elevator.

“He didn’t stop to lap up the blood,” Flat said.

"He’s saturated by now. We're close," Crested said.

"I'll call her.” Flat pulled out her phone.

"No. I don't want her phone to ring. Send a text," Crested said.

A moment later, the door marked Pathology Lab 2 opened, and Florida looked out into the hallway. The two girls entered the room, and Florida closed the door.

"You OK?" Crested said.

"I'll be fine," Florida said. She held the silver spike Crested had used earlier. The body of a doctor lay on the floor. His throat ripped open. Blood pooled at his head. Crested wrinkled her nose.

"Is he the one?" Flat said.

"I told him not to take the spike out. He removed it while I was in the lunch room. He didn’t listen because I'm young.”

"This can be Rudy's problem. We're going home," Crested said.

"I have to stay and help," Florida said.

"You can help outside, across the police line," Crested said.

"Lets get out of here," Flat said. The three walked out into the hallway. The lights flickered on. Crested walked past the elevator, walking deeper into the lab.

"We're not taking the elevator?" Florida pointed back.

"We don't backtrack," Crested said.

"I could’ve gone down by myself."

"Never split up the party. You know that from tabletop," Crested said.

Flat turned to Crested. "Wait. Your tactical decisions are from role-playing games?" They walked to the front of the lab.

"Yeah," Crested said.

"Are you nuts? Of course, we’re heroes, it's all nuts," Flat threw up her hands. Lights flickered out behind them.

"We had days of tabletop training in middle school,” Florida said.

"Days? You have to be kidding," Flat said. Lab machines ran with fan hums and clicks.

"No. It's really good training," Florida said.

"It plays out every time, don't split up the party," Crested said.

"Unless your a werewolf or speedster," Florida said. At the front of the lab, a room opened filled with testing machines and racks of tubes and medical refrigerators.

"I loved wrecking those two at the game table," Crested said.

The next set of elevators waited just past the Blood Bank. The three stopped. The door had not closed, it hung on the slip latch, and the lights were on inside.

"He's in there." Flat pointed to the door.

"I know," Crested said.

"Its so cliche, he has to be in there," Flat said.

"I'm a support class, not a fighter," Florida said.

"The Vampire gets a say. Lets get this over with," Crested said.

"Pointy end goes in the heart," Flat said.

"Got it.” Florida held the spike closer to her chest.

They opened the door. The lights were on, and Flat walked in first. She heard movement in the back room. There was a shadow on the floor.

He's in a cabinet, Flat thought, and she didn't see the wheeled stool. Her foot knocked it across the room. A blur came from the room. Flat staggered back, fists up.

"Honey?" Go-Go stopped in front of Flat.

"What are you doing up here?" Crested lowered the baton.

"Getting supply's for the evacuation," Go-Go said.

"You couldn't text us?" Crested said.

"You couldn't answer your radio?" Go-Go said.

"It's turned down so we could be sneaky.”

"Honey, doing a great job. I'm busy with the resource pool. Help me with this blood or go find the Vampire." Go-Go walked to the back room.

"I'll be with Go-Go," Florida said following.

"OK. Fine with us," Crested turned as the hall lights flickered on behind them.

She saw Florida's face mouth open and eyes blank, trapped in a vision. The baton came off of Chrested’s Belt.

Flat saw the door open. The Vampire slammed Crested into the counter. With animal speed, he bit her neck. His jaw shook on her throat. As Flat reached for him, the stun baton struck his face. With a pop of electricity, the Vampire came off of Crested. Flat stepped in with a left hook and found mist. Go-Go zipped past but stumbled on the stool to trip into Flat. The girls rolled out into the hallway. As Flat sat up, Go-Go became a red ribbon blur; that zipped from room to room. Doors opened and closed like a machine.

Go-Go zipped back. "Honey, hes gone.”

"Crested!" Flat remembered the dog girl.

With the collar off her neck, Florida examined Crested; not even a bruise. A fang stuck in the thick leather. Crested pulled it out.

"Good thing you had that," Florida said as the dog girl fit the collar back on her neck.

"He's sobering up. This just got a lot harder," Crested said.

"Honey lets get Flo out of here.”

Crested turned up her radio waiting for the elevator. "Dark Cape, Patrol Three.”

"Patrol three go ahead," Vincent said.

"E.T.A. to Carolinus?"

"Fifteen minutes.”

A mouse walked inside the drop ceiling, using the I-beam of the floor above. A long-forgotten machine room was above an unused stairwell. The only human access was by a rooftop hatch unless you were a vampire with mist or a small animal form like the mouse.

An ancient L.E.D. bulb glowed above with an old blue light. The Vampire lay against the wall; he glanced up as Vincent transformed from a mouse to a human. The two looked at each other for a while. Then Vincent sat down on the far side, pulling the opera cloak around himself. "Are you coming down from the blood?"

"My head's clearing up."

"No going back from what happened," Vincent said.

"I screwed up. Bad, really bad."

"What did you take?" Vincent said.

"Deep Violet. I didn't want to kill them. But the blood, the blood."

"Deep Violet is an Adrenochrome, it triggers hallucination. And in vampires, blood hunger," Vincent said.

"Whats going to happen?"

"Prison, forever, or you can take the Judgment of the Sun," Vincent said.

"I don't want the Sun."

"You do have a third option.”

Gyaru walked through the fourth floor again. The search had been going on for hours. Rudy and a herd of fifty boys stomped along the hallway on the floor below. She could hear them opening and closing doors. So Gyaru walked the areas above in case the boys flushed out the Vampire.

He could be anywhere, Gyaru thought. Rudy would give the search till dawn. Then the hospital would be declared secure. And the Vampire should have come down from the blood and drugs.

If he's smart, he'd run off and hide. The Heroes would find him on the streets in a few days, Gyaru thought.

Then she felt a surge of magic. It took a while to find it. She followed it to a stairwell at the end of the East wing. Gyaru looked up at the concrete above. It radiated magic.

She found the machine room entrance. A slip-proof path started from an elevator machine room to a rooftop, then down to a lower east wing roof by a dew-covered ladder. In the middle of the flat roof was a hatch, raised a few feet to keep the rainwater off. She opened the hatch, and the smell of raw magic came up from the space below. And the scent of Vincent. The sun would be up very soon. Gyaru dropped down into the building.

Vincent lay with the opera cloak behind his head. The floor had a burned-out arcane circle. His eyes opened as she knelt next to him. Her hand touched his cheek. That was the magic, she thought.

"Hey Babe.” Vincent Smiled.

"Where did you send him?" Gyaru said.

"Luna," Vincent said.

"He escaped justice," Gyaru said.

Vincent sat up. "I told them on Luna what he's done, he’s escaping justice, but he won’t escape punishment. He'll be sent out on a cycler ship with cargo to the ortt cloud. It wont be much different than any prison.”

"What's the story for Rudy?" Gyaru said.

"He chose the Judgment of the Sun. At dawn his ashes blew away with the wind," Vincent said.