“I do, don’t I…” said Bowen, looking down at herself. She might be a vain person, but she didn’t care. She had a tight belly, and long pretty legs. Tonight, though, she looked extra special. Their employer, John Proudstar, had handed the four - Tandy Bowen, Malcolm Cage, Tao Jones, and Kristan Marwan - his platinum cards and told them to go buy whatever outfits they needed for a night of clubbing. Tandy had chosen a short skirt, go-go boots, and matching top, all white leather. It fit her very snuggly, showing off her curves amply.

Bowen looked at her three companions. Tao was dressed in black leather pants and a gaudy silk shirt. Tandy giggled to herself, because Tao was such a stereotypical gay man, from his ‘stylish’ clothes to his immaculate hair to his pretty smell. Malcolm Cage wore a retro basketball jersey and matching cap, and a pair of baggy jeans. Tandy had been amazed when she saw the price tag on the jersey - over four hundred dollars! Kristan’s outfit was much simpler and mundane, but she stood out due to her stunning natural beauty and all the accessories she adorned herself with. Her arms were filled with gold bracelets, her necklace shined with jewels, and her numerous piercings in her nose and ears were all adorned with a stunning array of rubies and diamonds and other jewels.

Tandy was impressed. They all looked very fly!

“Man,” said Tao, as the four walked down the street, “this is what I am talking about. Platinum charge cards. Fresh new clothes, which I look damn good in. A night of dancing at one of the hottest underground clubs in Los Angeles. This is what I signed on for…”

“Tao,” said Malcolm, turning to face him, “don’t lose your head, and remember the real reason we are here. Kids are disappearing down here. The kids that nobody are suppose to keep track of…”

Malcolm scratched his head, annoyed. This was serious business, and he knew it. He had been talking to his longtime friend Juan Marquez on the telephone. Juan had mentioned how he had decided to transfer from Gotham University to Southern California State, because he liked the sun and there were plenty of needs in his chosen field, social work, around Los Angles. He was donating his time at downtown shelters - helping runaway and throw-away kids that filled those shelters, kids that were lost and abandoned and broken. He said that in the last month the kids he had come to consider as regulars had started to disappear. Whispered rumors connected a couple of underground clubs-especially St. Christopher’s Church. Malcolm had said he would investigate. Luckily, John said it was a good idea, and so the four were now headed for a night at St. Christopher’s, to see if they could discover any strange happenings.

“We are here,” said Kristan, interrupting Malcolm’s thoughts.

Malcolm looked up, to scan the building before him. Malcolm had done some checking on the Internet about the Church’s history on the plane ride here. Once, it had been one of the most beautiful and visited churches in the whole city. Then, decades ago, scandal and murder had rocked the church, and it was all but abandoned and left in a part of the city that slowly was losing the battle against degradation and desolation. Now, all this time later, the building had a new owner, and a popular nightclub catering to the young and wild of Los Angeles.

The four walked up the stone stairs, and knocked six times, as they had been told by Juan to do. The huge doors swung open, and they walked inside to the foyer. Malcolm had watched Tandy’s eyes, as they wandered to video cameras both outside the building and inside the foyer. Someone was keeping a close eye on things. Inside the foyer, two very large black men stood, eyeing the four. It wasn’t hard to see the holsters under their arms or the pistols that were housed in them.

{These guys aren’t poser,} Kristan telepathically told her companions. {They have military training, and they are very suspicious of us…}

“You are newbies,” said one, sticking his hand out for the four’s identification. “Ain’t seen you ‘round here, have we…”

Kristan considered giving them a little mental push to ‘like’ them, and ease their transition into the club. She found she couldn’t. Skimming their surface thoughts was one thing, but something was preventing her ability to alter their thoughts.

“Yeah, we are new,” said Malcolm, standing within inches of one of the men, “my friends and I are just visiting and heard this was the place to have some fun. Problem…brutha?”

The man starring at the identification cards ran them through a scanner, then spoke, “Ain’t no problem…brutha…you all can go on in…”

“But know,” said the other, whom Malcolm stood eye-to-eye with, “I got my eyes on you…”

Malcolm shrugged and the four walked through the foyer doors, and followed a neon sign that led to a basement. They techno music was blaring the moment they hit the stairs. They followed it down to the bottom, to a huge room filled with flashing lights, blaring music, and almost a hundred young people dancing and drinking.

{This place is dangerous,} replied Kristan. {Too many partiers, too much drinking. Also, I don’t see a lot of exits. This place has to be running illegally. A problem erupts, and there is going to be a whole lot of trouble.}

{Guess we better make sure nothing like that happens,} said Tao.

{I think it would be wise,} said Tandy, {if we spread out amongst the crowd. We can stay linked by Kristan. If anybody gets into trouble, we can come a running…}

The four split to work the crowd. Tao headed towards the middle of the party, and started to dance with a group of cute guys. Kristan headed towards the bar, in hopes of gleaning some information from the mind of the bartender. Tandy also made her way through the crowd, unable to resist the fat wallets of several rich young guys who grinded up against her. Malcolm made his way towards the outside fringe of the group, hoping to find doors leading to something other than a room of dancers.

{Are you picking anything special up?} asked Malcolm to Kristan.

{It isn’t that easy,} said Kristan, {there are a lot of people down here, and I am still new to this telepathy stuff. I am picking up a lot of mumbled surface thoughts - mostly about drugs and booze and sex. Nothing psychotic or evil or anything like that.}

Kristan made her way to the bar, and smiled at the girl there, catching her attention immediately. The young woman walked over to Kristan and beamed a smile that made Kristan feel a little uneasy. She was very attractive, a raven-haired latino with large breasts and a shirt that barely kept them in check.

“What will you have, beautiful?” the girl asked.

“Just give me a shot of Jaeger and a coke,” said Kristan, concentrating on the bartender’s thoughts. She found nothing malicious on the surface of the woman’s mind - just thoughts about drinks and how hot she thought Kristan looked. Kristan blushed just then, and hoped that the bartender wouldn’t notice. She did, and her smile grew wider.

Across the room, Malcolm Cage was the first person to see Him, as he entered the room. He came from a backdoor, slipping quietly into the room. He was very tall, and dressed immaculately in a fine Italian suit. He was older, by at least ten years, than his patrons. Malcolm studied his face, for the few moments he saw him. He had a very clean look, very handsome, but it was his eyes that caught Malcolm’s attention. In the brief moments the lights flashed through them, Malcolm saw something there, deep and dark.

{Alright crew,} said Malcolm. {There is a new player in the room. He is tall, dark, and stands out of place. I think he is the one we need to focus on, and he is heading towards the center of the room…}

Tandy was the next to see him. He was indeed a tall and handsome man. She also noticed that a girl walked beside him. She was thin and very well-built, but her face was obscured by a strange mask that you would expect to see at a costume ball. She watched as he walked through the crowd.

{He is looking everybody up and down,} said Tandy, watching him through the corner of her eye. {and he seems to be handing out some type of passes to certain people, as the girl beside him directs her…}

Kristan turned her attention from the bartender, noticing the man now herself. She concentrated her mental attention on the man. She could yield nothing. She couldn’t even read his surface thoughts. She tried the girl, but that also bore no effect. It was then that she noticed he had turned his attention, and was heading straight for her.

{Uhhm, guys…} said Kristan, feeling more uncomfortable by the minute.

{We see,} said Tao. {And we are all making our way towards you…}

The man walked up directly in front of Kristan. She closed her eyes and felt him, she didn’t have to look at him. He exuded a dark presence, a feeling of evil. She didn’t need her psychic powers to tell her there was something wrong here.

He spoke, his voice deep and powerful, “What is your name, child?”

“Kristan,” she said, looking at the man. He had handsome, well-chiseled features, but it was his eyes. They were dark and seemed to go deep. She felt his eyes penetrating her, deep inside. She felt naked and revealed in front of him.

“Well, Kristan,” said the man, “you are a very beautiful woman, and I have a good feeling about you. You are special. What you see out here is just the rabble. There is another party going on here, one that is very exclusive and much, much more…fun. You, my dear, have been picked out to come and join us at this party. When you are ready, join us. Just show this card to the bouncer at the red door in the back and you are in…”

With that the man walked away, back through the crowd, disappearing inside the red door in the back of the room from wince he came.

Kristan relayed the details to her teammates. With a wink, Tandy quickly slinked back into the crowd. Ten minutes later she walked back to the bar, with three more pass cards in her hand.

“I don’t even want to know,” said Tao, smiling, “what you did to get your hands on those…”

“Just cause I wear white,” said Tandy, smiling, “don’t mean I’m an angel…”

The four decided that they would go into the red door in groups of two, with Kristan and Tao going first, and Malcolm and Tandy bringing up the defensive rear.

Kristan and Tao flashed their crads to the man at the door, and they were allowed inside the door. They were ushered into a long hall, painted blood red. They walked the hall. It was uncommonly warm, so much so that sweat ran down both their brows. At the end of the hall they came to a series of rooms. In the first was a group of six people. They were sitting around a table filled with bottles and other items. They were taking turns snorting something white off the table. The next room contained couches filled with heroin junkies, some shooting up, others already higher than kites. The next room was locked, but inside Kristan thought she heard screaming and moaning. She reached for the knob, but Tao grabbed her arm and pulled her forward, shaking his head.

Finally after passing several other rooms, they came to a much larger room. It looked like a smaller version of the large alter room above, or turned dark and chaotic. Here the cross was inverted, and painted red. The pews were all black. People sat in the pews, but they were not dressed in party clothes, instead draped in cowls and robes, all black and red. Where the altar should have been, instead a man sat there in a throne. The throne was made of bone, and a girl stood beside it. The girl wore a mask. The man wore a very expensive Italian suit.

“Welcome,” said the man, rising, sweeping his hands wildly, “to the realm of Brother Blood. Whatever is your pleasure. Whatever is your sin. We can indulge them here. Anything you want or desire will be yours…”

{Are you getting this?} said Kristan, hoping that Malcolm and Tandy were listening.

{Yes,} said Malcolm> {We are in and coming down the hallway now…}

“What is the price?” asked Tao, curious as to just what was going on down here.

“The price,” said Brother Blood, “why, the price isn’t what is important here. What is important is the pleasure… What is yours? Drugs? Sex? Death? We cater to everything here. Whatever you want, you can get…”

“What if you don’t want any of those things?” asked Kristan. She tried desperately to get inside both his and his masked-companions head, but to no avail. Something was protecting their minds. Worse, Brother Blood seemed to notice something wrong, an intrusion into his cranium.

“There is something wrong here,” said Brother Blood, touching his forehead, “Teresa, please…”

Suddenly Teresa raised her hands, and the room started to twist and contort. Tao and Kristan both fell to their knees, sick to their stomachs.

“Not again…” cried Tao, puking*

*(Tao and other members of the team were attacked by Count Vertigo, with a similar power last issue)

Suddenly, something flew over their head, crashing into the cross on the stage, sending Brother Blood and Teresa, his companion, scrambling. Kristan wiped the puke from her mouth and turned to see Tandy and Malcolm behind them, Malcolm already grabbing another pew to throw at the stage.

“Kill them,” shouted Brother Blood. Suddenly the others in the room rose, and started to move towards Tao and Kristan. Kristan noticed they all pulled black-stone daggers from inside their robes. She looked into the eyes of the nearest on-comers. There was nothing in those eyes, they looked as though they were nothing more than zombies, probably brain-washed into Blood’s control.

“I don’t think so,” cried Tandy, firing several daggers of white light from her hands. They struck several of the robed zombies, causing them to scream and drop to the ground. Malcolm threw the pew into another group, knocking several to the ground.

Several made their way to Kristan and Tao. Even slightly disoriented, their fighting skills allowed them to easily handle the slow, jerky movements of the brain-washed kids. Soon, all of Brother Blood’s stooges were incapacitated.

{Where is that sick bastard, Brother Blood?} asked Kristan. {And that little hoochie of his…}

“Damn,” shouted Tao, pointing towards the stage, “I think we have a bigger problem…”

The others turned to look. The stage was on fire, blazing forward in a thick cloud of flames and smoke.

{This is going to be a huge problem,} said Kristan. {If this moves to the main room, it is going to start a panic. People are going to go into a frenzy. People will get hurt, tampled. People will die…}

{Umm,} said Tandy, {Last time I checked, none of us have water-generating powers or ice or fire manipulation. This is getting out of hand. How can we stop it?}

{He did this,} said Kristan. {Brother Blood did this. He decided if he couldn’t have this place, then he was going to burn it down, and take all of us with it…}

“Then I guess we better put a stop to his plan…” said Malcolm.

{How?} said Kristan. {All those kids out there, not to mention the ones in here, unconscious or drugged up and unable to get out themselves…}

Suddenly Tao grabbed Kristan by the wrist, shocking her.

{Tandy,} she heard Tao scream in her mind. {Fire a bolt of your white energy, at us now.}

“What?” asked Tandy, stunned.

“NOW!” shouted his voice back at her.

Without another thought, Tandy released a huge amount of white energy to the combined forms of Tao Jones and Kristan Marwan. The energy surged through them, then exploded outward into a giant blast of white light. It moved through the room, consuming everybody and everything.

A second later, Malcolm rubbed his eyes and looked around. There were no flames, no pews, no basement church room. They were outside of the church. Everybody was outside the church, all of the dancers, all of the junkies, even the bouncers that stood at the front door. All of them stood outside, dazed and confused, looking around them, wondering what had happened.

“What the Hell?” said Tandy, shocked, staring around at all the people standing in the street.

“We are all teleported outside,” said Malcolm, searching the crowd for Kristan and Tao, “somehow that bolt of yours juiced up Kristan’s mystical powers, and she got us all out here. Tao knew it would happen, that lucky little worm…”

Malcolm moved through the crowd, finally locating Tao and Kristan. Kristan was on her knees, with Tao’s head cradled between them. Both looked worse for the wear.

“Are you guys alright?” asked Malcolm, concerned about his teammates.

“We will be fine,” said Kristan, quietly, “just a little tired. That was very dangerous. Tao is a very lucky man…”

“Here I am,” cracked Tao, weakly, “between a girl’s legs and I can’t even enjoy it…”

Malcolm laughed, despite himself, as Kristan slapped Tao in the head. Flames had started to flush out of the Church, and the sirens of police cards could be heard coming in the distance.