The Blood's Secret (branch off of Shaun v Creed)

[Alucard Nightshade]

Alucard listened to him speak so confidently and with so much enthusiasm about his fight. That was good, he was a bit more cheerful now, or at least he thought so. He needed to approach this carefully or else this wouldn't work. He figured informing him of his opponent was a good idea, just not in the same way he had originally meant it for. He might as well begin this little gambit of his.

" Glad to help, so are you willing to listen to what I have to say to you? It might be useful to you, but that is only if your willing to listen." Alucard said to him in a calm voice. " So are you willing to listen to my proposal?"

Alucard wasn't sure what this guy was going to say in reply or how he would react to this whole situation. All Alucard knew was that this man was unstable and needed to be approached a certain way. He wasn't sure exactly what way that was at the moment, but he was hoping this way would work as well. He just needed to get the guy thinking on what he had to say enough to not decide to try to kill him a third time now that he knew he was alive, otherwise he would never get a chance to keep his word to the girl.

[shaungallagher]

Shaun looked at him a second with a blank stare as if he hadn't registered anything at all. Essentially his mind was now spinning the roulette wheel in his head to determine just how he felt about this boy's little proposal of his.

After a moment a wide and confident grin appeared on his face.

"Aiiie you got me in a good mood now I suppose." he said as he moved around Em and put his arm around her. "Besides I got this fight ta worry bout anyway...I could always be killin ya later."

"Tell ya what, you want to talk...maybe live a little longer...how bout ya go over there" He pointed to the wall on the far end of the room this time horizontally instead of vertically where there was a small and extremely overpriced concession stand. "And ya go get us some beers...Oh that's right your not you're just a little tyke still, you ain't old enough to drink. Well you go get yourself a soda or somethin then...Oh and get somethin for the little lady ere would ya? she get's a bit peckish at stuff like this..."

[emmy]

Wait... Was Shaun actually listening to him?! She had been so concerned about her brother's well being in the ring that she hadn't caught some of the conversation. The man her brother was supposed to fight was a giant. He looked like he could squash everyone here like a bug, with out a second thought. What was worse.... He didn't look right.... He reminded her of Shaun when he was in a bloodthirsty mood... It made her shudder (like Shaun had expected.).

She only paid attention when she lost her human shield, Shaun moving to her side with an arm around her. She half panicked, far to used to just hiding behind her brother when facing anything new and foreign. She even looked up at him, silently voicing her sudden distress. Like he'd care though, he was far to focused on Alucard....

Suddenly, she blinked, a thought hitting her. Alucard.... Spelled backwards.... was Dracula. How fitting... Random thought over, she focused on the task at hand. Still silent, she looked up at Shaun once more, forcing herself to calm down, purely for speech's sake. She hated stuttering, but her brother hated it almost as much as she did. "What.... D-does he want?" She kept her voice low, her message meant for Shaun, and Shaun alone. But, like her, he didn't have a clue....

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[Alucard Nightshade]

Alucard just listened to the guy talking. He did seem to be in a good enough mood now to listen to what he had to say, but the guy planed on making him go over to the stupid vendor who was peddling his food and drinks and get them some drinks. The guy mentioned him not being old enough to drink which would normally be true if it wasn't for the fact that this place didn't care about those kinds of rules and Alucard had drank before now anyways back home. The Nightshades didn't care if you were old enough to drink or not, you drank or you went without at least in his case. He was annoyed the man saw him as an errand boy for him right now, but he was just going to have to play along some if he wanted this guy to listen to what he had to say.

Alucard walked over to the stand and waited for his turn in line. There wasn't anyone else up there surprisingly by the time he got there. The guy at the stand just looked at Alucard as he got up.

" I'll take a bottle of your imported Irish beer, two roman cokes that are almost all vodka, a large coke, and a large bucket of popcorn." Alucard said to the man in a voice edged with his annoyance. " NOW!"

The vendor only had to hear Alucard's annoyed tone of voice and the look in his eyes to tell that Alucard wasn't about to listen to any complaints and quickly got everything ready for him. He got it all to Alucard in a large drink holder and Alucard took it back to the two he had been with before.

Alucard set the popcorn in Emmy's lap and handed her the large soda. He handed the Shaun-beta the Irish beer and one of the roman cokes and sat down with the other one for himself.

" That is a roman coke I gave you, mostly vodka. If you don't want it then I'll drink it after I finish mine." Alucard said to the man. " They don't have a good selection of the good tasting stuff up there. You would think they would have some Jamison or something good."

[zaintison]

Luke watched bored staring at the center waiting for the match too start. Obviously Alucard just came here to hook up with his girlfriend... guess I was wrong. Luke glanced up over Alucard, who was done chatting with his friends, and was buying all of them drinks. Man it's boring sitting here and it looks like Alucard wants me too stay out of this. But actually a coke sounds good about now, maybe some Starburst gummies those are delicious. Luke walked over to the concession stand, about to make his purchase he suddenly noticed the betting booth. Maybe I can make some money while I'm here. Let's see I could bid on Shaun's match or I could bid on my match. Well Shaun's match I still don't know much about. I know he's up against Kitty-man from before, and I'm not sure who to bet on it's Killer vs. Killer. I'll just bet on my match, still don't know who I'm up against, but it would say something horrible about success and my self esteem if I bet against myself. He walked up to the betting booth talking to the large man. Charge the whole card on Luke Adler. There's only like 20 dollars in there anyway. Are you sure? This much? Yeah I know it's not much but. The man looked at Luke strangely. Alright $2542 on Luke Adler What? There's only like $20 on the card? Luke looked down instead of the Gold Card he was sure he placed down, was the forbidden MasterCard with the Label on a peice of tape on it saying. LUKE DO NOT USE IN CASE OF EMERGENCIES ONLY. Luke tried to scream but instead it just sounded like a puppy... quietly whimpering. No take Backs The man then quietly walked to the back smirking. What do I do? What do I do? I can either face the consequences of my actions, and be destroyed by mom. or I could win so mom never finds out, and I have extra money... I'm going to need help I still don't know who I'm even up against. Luke walks over towards Alucard, and sits behind him ignoring their words, head in his hands, trying to avoid bursting into nervousness and despair.

[shaungallagher]

Shaun watched Alucard as he scampered off like a good little lad. He'd be lying if he said he didn't get any enjoyment out of making his little sister a tad bit uncomfortable here and there. The fact that she detested the boy just made the whole situation that much more fun to watch. After all, he had to entertain himself somehow, being as he got second billing when it came to experiencein the blood lust of the fight.
.
It was either this, or sit quietly and watch, and Shaun wasn't all that much for sitting quietly as one might have guessed. His smirk widened slightly as he felt his little sister squirm in his arms, and glare at him in obvious protest and horror. She wanted to experience life, well he gave it to her just like she wanted, life and the outside world wasn't always quite as pretty as it seemed. She would just have to live with it, and Shaun would just have to laugh.

When the boy finally returned, he surprised Shaun a bit by actually being prepared. The Irish always made the finest drinks, at least in Shaun's opinion, and on top of it, he even had some nice Vodka to add as a chaser.

Shaun, was never quite the alcoholic type, at least he didn't think so. He preferred to think of himself more as a binge drinker more then anything else. He could put away his liquor quite well, and he was damned proud of that fact. He rarely (at least to his recollection) got drunk, instead he would drink himself to a nice warm buzz that would stay with him throughout the night, no matter how much alcohol he decided to consume.

He took the drinks for the boy gladly, and he made a quick sidelong glance toward his clearly uncomfortable sister. Now that he was contently amused with liquor in his hand he was ready to listen to whatever this boy had to say. He just hoped it would be as interesting as the rest of this charade.

"Well, cheers then." he said as he took a large swig out of his Irish whiskey. "Now what was it you were sayin' before?"

At that moment some poor bloke moped on by sitting behind the boy clearly down on his luck. Feeling charitable, and a bit mischievous Shaun stopped the boy before he could go on with his proposal.

"This poor git seems a bit down on his luck...Why don't you go get him a drink to soothe his troubles..." He lifted the drink of nearly pure vodka in his left hand while taking another swig of the Irish one with his right. "I'm drinkin for two myself."

[emmy]

Shaun could be quite the sadist, even towards his own sister! But, that was brothers for you. They had a nasty habit of picking on their poor little sisters whenever they had the chance. He knew the intruder unsettled her, so how could he pass up the chance to pick on her a bit?

His smirking didn’t help. At all. It only irritated her even more. By now she’d figured out he was doing all of this intentionally, which deeply upset her. But, that was a normal response. The girl didn’t like being teased or picked on, her reaction wouldn’t be anything new to him. If anything it would encourage him to continue. He wanted a reaction, and she’d given him one.

Emily had finally resorted to sulking. She’d squirmed free of her brother’s arms, sitting back in her own chair and refusing to let him touch her. Still, she was closer to Shaun then where the intruder would sit when he got back, if that said how attached she was to Shaun. Even when she was annoyed at him, she liked him more than strangers. She had Shaun fixed with a scolding look for even considering talking with the teenager and picking on her like this.

The poor girl was so focused on wordlessly scolding her brother and she didn’t even realize Alucard was back. The popcorn being set in her lap startling her so bad you’d expect her to jump out of her own skin. By sheer luck, she managed to catch the popcorn before it went flying. Afterwards… She glanced down to figure out just what he’d put in her lap. Popcorn? Why had he…? She turned to stare up at him, puzzled. After a moment though, she looked at Shaun, right around the time he looked at her… She knew that look. Instantly she scowled. He wasn’t going to chase off the intruder. Quite the opposite.

Fidgeting, she returned to her sulking, but at least this time she had popcorn and soda. Not only that, she did have that book Alucard had given her. Which made her wonder why he would…. Holding back a sigh, she gave in, opening the front cover and turning to the first page.

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[Alucard Nightshade]

Alucard watched emmy open up the book he had set in her lap earlier and hoped she would enjoy it. He didn't know what kind of books she liked to read, but he had liked that one and hoped it would entertain her too. He heard as Shaun seemed ready to listen to him now, but then mentioned getting someone else something as well. He didn't feel like going back and getting something for someone else, but he turned to see who it was he was talking about anyways. The person he was talking about was that Luke guy who had shown him how to get here and had refused to let Alucard read in peace the ENTIRE bus ride from the institute to Boston. He might have gotten him something for helping him get here, but Luke had pretty much ruined that chance the moment he interrupted Alucard when he was trying to read.

" I don't think I will. He wouldn't shut up and let me read the entire trip over to here so he lost that right. Also, it is better to limit how much we get others involved in this matter. After all, you have a certain secret you don't want known and this business involves that. Before you ask though, he doesn't know anything. All he knew was that I was looking up the Black Death and he knew of this place so I made him take me without telling him a single thing. Not my fault if he gets into trouble, can't babysit this trip." Alucard said to Shaun in reply.

Alucard quickly downed his roman coke and set the empty cup on the ground near his feet. You would think he would at least be feeling tipsy by now, but that wasn't enough to do that. He noticed Shaun's look as he saw him down the thing in one go.

" That isn't enough to start getting me tipsy you now. Would take somewhere between 3 to 4 bottles of Jameson whiskey to start getting me tipsy. It's kind of interesting the side effect my mutation has on my blood." Alucard said in an almost off-handed kind of way. " Remember when you shot me with those toxic needles during our fight? Shouldn't that have killed me on the spot? Yet, how is it I'm still here? Makes you wonder what else my blood might be able to be resistant to?"

[shaungallagher]

A bit of a scowl began to form on Shaun's face as he listened. So he was going to play that game was he? Shaun's confident smirk began to take on a more cynical appearance as he let the boy say his piece. There were obviously two parts to his ploy here.

The first being the typical blackmail approach of 'I know your secret, and I haven't told anybody...you don't want me too right?' This was a pretty basic tactic when dealing with people involved in shady dealings. If it is said lightly, it is suppose to imply that the person is trustworthy, and it shifts the balance of power more in that person's favor.

In reality this was child's play. He may have known their secret, or vaguely guessed at it, but ultimately this kid didn't have a leg to stand on. He didn't have any info on them whatsoever. He didn't even know their names for that matter. Any evidence of their involvement in the explosion would have been wiped in the blast, and the most solid tie the boy may have had was simply that Shaun was tied to this gang at some point in his life. It was very little to go on, especially considering that Shaun was more a myth to the gang now then an actual person. No one really knew anything about him currently, and he doubted.that there were any still left alive that even knew he had a sister.

Shaun also doubted that the kid had any real connections or networks to speak of that would really help him gain an upper hand. He was here after all, which meant that this was probably the best lead he had, otherwise why go through the trouble and why risk a face to face meeting in the most dangerous place in town?

The second part of the boy's ploy came with the suggestion that his blood somehow made him an indispensable resource to Shaun. Given that he was making sure to highlight all of his immunities it was easy to infer what he meant. His blood would have the ability to help cure Em of some of her illnesses.

Putting aside, whether or not Shaun really wanted that at the moment, there was a lot of problems with this proposal. It was clear from their first encounter that the boy's blood was just as poisonous to Em as anyone elses. This meant that his blood would have to be processed and refined in order to produce anything useful. Preliminary research showed that Em's blood and her imunal deficiency were directly related to her mutation. This meant that not only would they need a significant amount of resources and time to produce a serum, they would also need to make sure it would not adversely effect her mutation.

And to be honest, it all sounded like too much of a hassle, they would have to keep this kid locked up somewhere for who knows how long until they could perfect a serum (having him provide it without extensive testing from his own men was out of the question) and what would be the benefit?

Em could go out for a little while and not get sick? that came with as many problems as it did benefits because as annoying as it was to constantly take care of her, her sickness was a guarantee that she would be stuck with Shaun. Even if she was kidnapped her blood would be useless to them in a short amount of time without proper treatment.

Shaun was incredibly well versed in business and black market deals, and this boy was an amateur. Shaun would humor him, mostly because he had little else to do, and in a pinch, if was always nice to see a rat squirm before you fed it to the snake.

[Alucard Nightshade]

Alucard noticed that this guy didn't seem to be enjoying his attempt at being subtle. That was fine by Alucard since he preferred to not beat around the bush all that much. He decided he might as well get things rolling and see how that went. He had the guys attention anyways so there wasn't a reason to stale any further.

" I can see your not taking to kindly to subtle approach. I have to say it was getting on my nerves to not just speak my mind as it was. I have a proposal for you that benefits us both. As I was mentioning before, my blood has an high resistance to anything that effects me by using the blood. That more or less means that it is hard for me to get sick because my blood attacks any disease that could be hostile to me. I think that it is possible for an extremely powerful anti-biotic to be made using my blood as a base. An anti-biotic that would be very useful to your sister here, and I'm sure to you as well. It would be able to require less pills and less time for her to recover from sickness, which would mean you would not have to take care of her when she is sick as long or as much. The other thing I'm here about also has to deal with your sister. I have that blood restoring liquid that would see to it that she doesn't suffer from blood lose nearly as bad as she is. I know you haven't looked into it yet, but I can get my hands on it easily for you if you wanted to. I'm sure my blood could be useful to you as well. My blood can be given to anyone and thanks to the properties of it, it can leave people feeling very good while it is in their system. You can adapt to thing well, but that doesn't mean you too wouldn't die of blood lose. It would give you a blood you could always use for such a thing no matter what might happen." Alucard said to him. " There is one other thing, but I think it would be better if I wrote it down for you."

Alucard reached into his satchel and pulled out a pen, notepad, and bottle of that ligth reddish liquid. He wrote something onto the paper, folded it in half, and handed it to the man. He waited till the man had read it before opening up the bottle.

" I'm sure your going to wonder if the liquid is really a poison or if it really works, but since I know me drinking some won't convince you, you can try it. Your body will just adapt if it is poison, but if it isn't and it does work then you will feel the effects of it for yourself." Alucard said as he handed to bottle over to the man. " And just so you know, it doesn't have any blood in it what so ever so the girl will be fine drinking it."

Alucard waited for him to drink it. He was sure that the man could feel the effects even if he might have shown that he had or not. He still wasn't sure how smoothly this was going, but he didn't show that on his face.

" My name is Alucard Nightshade by the way, you may introduce yourself if you wish to." Alucard said to him. " So what might you think of my proposal?"

[shaungallagher]

Shaun took the piece of paper from the boy's hand and read it...kid was smart, he'd give him that much, but he was far from seeing the whole picture.

He hadn't really said anything that Shaun had not already anticipated, as far as healing Em with his blood, that was going to be a lengthy and contrived process...Hard to tell if it would really be worth the effort in the end...especially when you consider the multitude of mutants out there and their abilities.

The blood restoring serum was a nice touch, but ultimately it wasn't anything that could not be replicated in the lab given a sample...He didn't need him to make it necessarily..plus when you factor in setting up rendezvous point, and dealing with all the proper transportation issues, it would be much easier to make the stuff in the lab....

At this point in the plan Mass Production wasn't the goal, in fact, it was very important to keep quantities in low controllable amounts while they continued to work on a way to replicate the results. It would at the very least be several months before he would have to consider producing mass quantities of her blood.

What the kid had was useful...but there was nothing about his proposal that was ultimately a necessity.

What Shaun needed was leverage, some insurance, some form of trust.

"Tell ya what...The problem I have with ya is trust....I don't trust you, you don't trust me...and let me tell ya all business deals have to have a level of trust."

"I'll put this offer on hold for now...and if you can manage to brutally...and I mean BRUTALLY kill your opponent here...then We'll talk and see if we can't work somethin out...If not well...its back to the old cat and mouse then isn't it boyo?"

[Alucard Nightshade]

Alucard glanced over at the man as he mentioned things about trust and how he would talk more if he brutally killed his opponent. Alucard didn't like using his powers all that much and he didn't like wasting time and effort killing someone for no good reason when it easily could have been avoided. This guy obviously wasn't going to consider anything that Alucard had mentioned to him and was just going to use him for entertainment. Alucard had already done enough for this guy and if he wanted to try and abuse his rights then Alucard was just going to stop giving those rights to him. He glanced away from him and decided this conversation had ended with that.

" I'm not going to do such an unnecessary thing and it wouldn't matter since you aren't even considering my proposal at all, but that is your choice to make. My offer is still open if you actually decide you want to take it up." Alucard said to him in a way that said he was done talking about this issue.

Alucard glanced at the girl and noticed that she was reading the book her set in her lap. He wasn't sure how much she was enjoying it, but he was glad she had something other to do then watch these fights. He himself didn't like watching this kind of thing, but it was obvious that wasn't the case for many other people.

" So how are you enjoying the book little bird? I hope you have been enjoying it." Alucard said to Emmy. " Also, what might you think about my proposal?"

[emmy]

Emily knew to keep quiet when her brother was talking ‘business’ with someone. Feign ignorance, and she’d be ignored. That was always the plan. Don’t draw attention to herself. Alucard already knew she was there, and what she did though, so the strategy wasn’t really for her own protection. Just force of habit. Not to mention, Shaun wouldn’t want her piping in, even if she did have something to say.

She only half focused on reading, silently listening to what Shaun and the intruder spoke about. At first she had no idea what they were talking about. It confused her. Some ridiculous scheme to boost her immune system? Why? What good would that do? It’d only be useful when she got sick, and she already had anti-biotics for those situations. What good would having another be? Unless they somehow used it to prevent her getting sick to begin with. Then she was a little interested. She hated being sick, but you couldn’t blame her. She spent most her life sick with something.

It wasn’t until she heard that last name though, that she glanced up at Shaun. She’d heard that name before…. Somewhere. But where? She couldn’t remember… The family must be extremely famous, or infamous, for even sheltered Emily to know the name. After a moment though, she looked back down at the book, still on the first page. She’d gotten so caught up with listening in that she had been fake reading the entire conversation.

Again, she looked at Shaun, only this time because he’d told Alucard to kill his opponent before he even considered the offer. Her brother’s reaction was normal, she expected it, but still…. Didn’t mean she liked it. She fixed him with a disapproving look. Like always though, he was likely to ignore it. The stern stare was only broken by someone speaking to her this time. She jumped, glancing over at the intruder with a ‘why are you talking to me?’ stare.

”I-I….” She looked back at Shaun, to see if he’d interfere. No luck. He was still picking on her. ”I t-think it d-doesn’t matter what I think. I-it’s up to my b-brother.”

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[shaungallagher]

Shaun paused for a second as his listened to his little sister's response. She was reluctant as always, and docile, just like she knew to be, but being as bored as he was, and seeing as Alucard wasn't going to provide him with any real entertainment (for now anyway) he thought it would be nice to turn to her...at least until the match started that is.

"No Alucard here has a point...this deal has as much to do with you as it does with me...What exactly are you're thoughts...do you think we can trust him?"

Shaun watched Emily with glee as she spazed under the pressure of being put under the spotlight. She had been taught very early on not to speak her opinions, if ever she had any, and the few times she had...well let's just say she was reminded why she shouldn't disobey her dear brother.

"I'll leave the decision up to you...should we trust him and go along with this deal, or should your good old brother just take care of this problem before it causes us anymore trouble?"

[emmy]

Emily’s older brother really had it in for her today. Just when she thought he couldn’t be more torturous, he pulled this on her. She actually paled, the girl absolutely horrified by both Alucard and her brother giving her their full attention. She didn’t mind if it was just Shaun, but any more…. She had a panic attack.

She stared at her brother with that horrified, panicked expression he was familiar with. Why did he want her opinion? What was he up to? Was he seeing if she’d pick the wrong choice? Or was he just bored?

Finally she turned her gaze downward, unsure what she was supposed to do, or how to act. There was only one thing Emily ever voiced her opinion on. And that was her medical care. If she found out there was a safer, or more efficient way to handle her condition, she’d carefully bring it up when Shaun was in a good mood. Other than that…. The girl kept her mouth shut, only saying what she knew he’d want to hear.

”E-every deal has t-two sides to it…. But h-he didn’t say w-what he’d get from it…” She fell silent for a moment, staring at her hands in her lap. ”S-so why s-should you trust him…. If h-he’s keeping half t-the deal secret…?” She didn’t include herself in what she said, it was still her brother’s decision, even if he did leave it up to her. She wouldn’t do anything he didn’t want. ”H-he could t-trick you into accepting… B-before telling y-you all the terms…”

Emily might act like it sometimes, but she wasn’t an idiot. She was smarter than most people gave her credit for. Even Shaun could be caught off guard by some of the things she said. Now would be one of those times.

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