After the Pandemic: The Enemy of My Enemy (part 23): The Prince and The Aristocrat (1255 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: 1.95 on 32 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by The Caes (View user info) at 2005-09-05 16:54:08 EDT
http://www.ubersite.com/m/61238 -- Introduction -- Jack McCallum
http://www.ubersite.com/m/61350 -- Variant C -- Jack McCallum
http://www.ubersite.com/m/61505 -- Part 1: Brianna
http://www.ubersite.com/m/61614 -- Part 2: Khalid
http://www.ubersite.com/m/63145 -- Part 3: The Meeting
http://www.ubersite.com/m/63504 -- Part 4: The Conversation
http://www.ubersite.com/m/63663 -- Part 5: The Story of Manhattan
http://www.ubersite.com/m/64024 -- Part 6: On the Streets of Jersey
http://www.ubersite.com/m/64325 -- Part 7: Tome
http://www.ubersite.com/m/64611 -- Part 8: Faing
http://www.ubersite.com/m/65301 -- Part 9: The Gathering
http://www.ubersite.com/m/65871 -- Part 10: Men Amongst Giants
http://www.ubersite.com/m/66684 -- Part 11: The Temptress and The Aristocrat
http://www.ubersite.com/m/66752 -- Part 12: Trial by Blood
http://www.ubersite.com/m/67296 -- Part 13: Words and Swords
http://www.ubersite.com/m/67769 -- Part 14: Details and Divinity
http://www.ubersite.com/m/68760 -- Part 15: Into the Breach
http://www.ubersite.com/m/69588 -- Part 16: The Ambassador of New York
http://www.ubersite.com/m/69741 -- Part 17: The Devil in the Details
http://www.ubersite.com/m/70550 -- Part 18: The Joker's Wild
http://www.ubersite.com/m/71764 -- Part 19: The Remnants
http://www.ubersite.com/m/72757 -- Part 20: From Below
http://www.ubersite.com/m/73718 -- Part 21: Rise and Shine
http://www.ubersite.com/m/74077 -- Part 22: Hush Little Baby
Khalid was weaving a tapestry. The Doctor had been so engrossed by the dust and ash that was Svetlana's hand that he had forgotten their daily injections. Hundreds of threads drifted in the air, billowing softly around him. He plucked them from the scattered starscape of his mind with greater ease than before. He twined them together into a thick rope, something solid that he could easily touch with his mind. He imagined the rope wrapping around the four manacles that pinned him to the wall. He tugged, like a sailor testing the quality of his knot. It felt firm. Khalid closed his eyes and concentrated.
"Khalid." Abayome's voice.
A familiar mist was rushing in under the door. Khalid's eyebrows knitted together and his jaw tightened.
"Aristocrat." Khalid snarled as the mist took shape.
"Hello, Khalid," Vilhelm said absently, brushing imagined lint from his shoulder. "I see they're keeping you well."
"Let me down, Talbot. Let me down and face me."
"Oh, please," the nobleman scoffed. "Don't' be a fool. Look at the state you're in. Those shackles are the only things keeping you standing. Besides, I think you've been embarrassed enough lately. Oh, my, my," he said, examining the charred stump of Svetlana's wrist. "I see the Doctor has been busy. Did it hurt?"
"Poshol nahuj, petookh opooscheny," she said through a disgusted sneer. "I will feed your own virgin cock to you."
"Yes, well, I highly doubt that."
"Are you here to gloat?" Abayome demanded.
"No, no, that would be unbecoming, wouldn't you agree? I've only come to talk to my fellow nightwalkers. I wanted to see how you were being kept. And I wanted to know how you felt," he pointed to Khalid, "being responsible for this disaster. Oh, don't look so indignant. None of you paid me the proper respect, but it was you, my brown friend, who insulted me the most. We should have been brothers, you and I! Noble kings of darkness, prowling this broken world like the gods we are. Had you known your place and treated me as your equal, this unfortunate business never would have happened."
"Hmar. You bray like an addled donkey, pretender. We both know that you are not my equal, and you are not my friend. You're a fool who has watched too many American movies. Your greatness is but a child's delusion."
"Pathetic!" Vilhelm stomped a booted heel on the ground. "Your arrogance is unbelievable! Even when you were a Prince, you were a ruler of nothing but a land of dust and barbarians. And still you have the gall to call me a pretender. Well - " he spread his arms, palms to the ceiling, and turned a circle. His cape twirled theatrically after him. "Look at where your arrogance has led you. Where is your kingdom now, O mighty Prince?"
"And so you betrayed us all to teach me a lesson? Pfah. Even you, aristocrat, could not be so stupid. What did you gain, in serving the Butcher?"
"I do not serve him," Vilhelm spat. "I told you before, it is a partnership. He needs my assistance and I was happy to provide it in exchange for something in return. They're dying, you see. The variants. The mutation in the C variant of that stupid human virus is unstable. The A and B strains are struggling for dominance in their bodies. The Doctor explained it all to me - ah, but it's much too complicated for you to understand." He waved his hand as a never mind. "Suffice to say, the muncher in them is rotting away while the leech is struggling to repair damaged tissue. But it's a delicate balance, you see. The Doctor predicts that within a half century, the hybrids will biologically fail. So the Butcher has been seeking solutions. And so I gave them..." He paused dramatically. "You. You're what he wanted."
Khalid nodded. "He thinks we have the cure."
"That's ridiculous." Svetlana said. "We had nothing to do with the Pandemic."
"It's in the blood," Khalid mused. "The Doctor thinks there's something about our blood that can cure them."
"It's more complicated than that, but you're on the right track." Vilhelm agreed, smoothing out his ruffled shirt.
"So what do you get in return?"
"Isn't it obvious?" No answer. "What is it about these disgusting creatures that we envy? The ONLY thing that we fear?" He searched their eyes. "Come now, don't be so thick." He strode to the windows and pulled the levers. The slats flipped, revealing the stars twinkling against the night sky. "Sunlight!"
Khalid was silent for a moment. "You're saying - you think the Butcher is going to make it possible for you to survive in the daylight?"
Vilhelm nodded, and his expression was purely smug satisfaction.
"And you believe this?" Svetlana was agog.
His expression went flat. "Of course I believe it. The Doctor is a brilliant geneticist. No longer will that killing orb chase me into the shadows. I'm already invincible under the moon. Who then could stop me as I rise from the dark alleys and into the daylight? I'll be free of limitations. And you could have come with me, if you weren't so pompous and egotistical. But it's too late for you now."
Svetlana began laughing, the type of cruel amusement that belongs in dungeons. "You are an idiot, molokosos. You'll be dead in a week, as soon as the Butcher becomes tired of you licking after him like the dog you are."
Vilhelm crossed the room to face her. "Stupid Russian whore. You'll be dead long before that!" He pulled a large dagger from his cloak, and without hesitation, he plunged it into Svetlana's throat.
"NO!" Khalid shouted, his voice bouncing off the walls.
"Bitch! I am sick of your fucking shit!" He pulled the dagger out and slammed it into her stomach. Svetlana moaned and gurgled through the gash in her throat.
"Always mocking me! You think you're fucking funny, whore?" The knife slammed into her upper abdomen, punching through a rib. "Are you funny now??"
Khalid felt the anger run through him like a forest fire. He wrenched against his manacles but they held fast. With effort, he thought of the rope he had been tying. He closed his eyes, ignoring Svetlana's wet cries, and pictured the rope tied to his shackles, knowing he would be too late. He clenched his teeth as he imagined the wall cracking under the tension.
"To damnation with the Doctor and his tests. I'm finishing you! There won't be enough of your heart to fill a thimble." He pulled the knife back.
"Draconis!" The voice came from the door. The Doctor was standing there, holding a tray with three syringes. Today's sedative cocktails. He dropped the tray to the floor with a crash. "What are you doing?"
"Stay out of this, Doctor!" Vilhelm pointed at him with the knife. "I'm putting this bitch down."
"You certainly will not! She is instrumental to my experiments!" The Doctor rushed forward.
"I'm sorry Doctor, but there is unfinished business here, and you will NOT stand in my way. I have the utmost respect for your genius, but my honor demands this be settled. Step -- "
The Doctor punched Vilhelm square in the jaw. The aristocrat skidded to a stop on his back ten feet away. He rubbed his jaw and regarded the Doctor with bewilderment.
"You little speck," he said, pulling off his bloodstained white overcoat. "NO ONE interferes with my work. Especially not an infantile fool who pretends to be afraid of garlic and masturbates over the notion of transforming into a bat."
"How dare you lay hands on a true child of the night - ooof!!"
The Doctor tackled Vilhelm just as he was getting to his feet. They tumbled to the floor. The Doctor ended up in the better position. He swung his fist at the vampyre, but his knuckles passed through and smashed into the floor. Vilhelm's mist-body swirled away and solidified ten feet away. His thin sword was drawn.
Khalid neither heard nor saw any of it. In his mind there were only the ropes and the shackles. He imagined space forming in between his wrists and his chains. He visualized the ropes; quivering and taut. He saw a herd of the finest Arabian stallions charging against the ropes, straining with their burden.
Draconis lunged forward in a fencing pose. His aim true, the tip of his blade poked neatly through the variant's heart and out the other side. "Haaa!" He cried triumphantly. "Thus - "
His next words were lost as the Doctor backhanded him in the jaw with a closed fist. He seemed unperturbed by the sword in his chest. "Shut up, you nettlesome incompetent." He reached for the vampyre, but Vilhelm was already vaporizing. His cloud-form rose to the ceiling and disappeared in the shadows.
"Retreating already?" The Doctor taunted. "Is this the conduct of a 'true child of the night'?"
Khalid's stallions bucked and kicked. His head was pounding against his temples as if it were trying to escape. Blood trickled from his nose.
"Monster, these are your last moments," Vilhelm's disembodied voice drifted down to him.
"You can't significantly damage me with this glorified needle." The Doctor slid the sword from his chest and dropped it to the floor. "Return and submit, or I will call for the security detail."
"You cannot know the extent of my dark power," the voice replied. It came from nowhere, from everywhere.
The variant rolled his eyes. "I'm going to enjoy studying your physiology. But first I will have to remove your tongue."
The Doctor heard movement behind him. He turned to meet it and saw a black blur travel past him, tickling his neck as it went. As he turned to follow the blur, the room suddenly turned on its side. Then the entire room jumped and abruptly stopped, shaking around for a moment before becoming still.
The Doctor blinked. He was looking at his feet, which were connected to his body, which was connected to - nothing else.
Vilhelm was standing in front of him, holding Katsuo's samurai sword and smirking.
Ah, he thought to himself. It appears my head has been cut off.
The Doctor tried to speak but he couldn't make his mouth move properly. Of course he knew that severing a C variant's head did not terminate him. He had seen enough of that sort of thing to be certain. But to actually experience the sensation was so much more informative than conducting experiments on the matter. Oddly, he still felt his body, even though it was no longer attached. He tried to wiggle his fingers and nothing happened, though he was certain he could feel them moving. It was truly fascinating how the mind-body connection still persisted in his perception even though it quite obviously had been severed. His first instinct was to remove a pen and begin jotting notes, but then he remembered.
Vilhelm looked at the bloodied sword and wrinkled his nose. He tossed the curved sword aside and bent to retrieve his own weapon. "Thus, you pay the consequences for meddling in the business of our dark congress."
There was a crashing sound behind Vilhelm that was so loud it made him jump. When he turned to look, the prisoner's wall was missing large chunks of masonry. On the floor was Khalid, resting on one knee, his hair and shoulders gray with dust and fragments of stone. He rose slowly, fists clenched. In his eyes there burned a fire that a thousand oceans could not put out. When he spoke, his voice sizzled through his lips.
"You will wish your parents had slept that night, Jerry Talbot."
A blur, and Khalid was upon him. His knuckles rattled against Vilhelm's face like machinegun fire, cracking his jaw and orbital bone. Khalid cocked his fist back to deliver a powerful blow, but it whiffed through smoky air instead of producing the nice solid 'crunch' sound that he was hoping for.
Khalid grunted as a line of pain lashed across his back. The aristocrat had reformed behind him and slashed a diagonal wound to match the diagonal sunlight wound that the Doctor had delivered to his chest. Khalid kicked out behind him like a mule. His boot caught something soft, and he turned around in time to see Vilhelm stumble through a collection of vacant gurneys.
Khalid dove for him, but it took a half-second to cover the distance, and by that time the traitor was mist and shadow.
"You're a fool, Khalid!" Vilhelm's ghostly voice echoed from all around him.
Khalid moved towards the cloud. The mist lurched to the side as if it were blown by a tornado gust. For a split-second, Vilhelm's body became solid and a sliver of steel flickered into existence, slashing into the meat above Khalid's hip.
"You can't touch me! I told you, I'm invincible! No one has power like mine, not even YOU, FAILED PRINCE!"
Khalid ducked as his rapier whisked through the air. Once again Vilhelm was gone before Khalid could land an attack.
"FACE ME PRETENDER!!" He roared. "Face me like the royalty you wish you could be!"
"I AM royalty! I am a king!!" Vilhelm coalesced and struck out with his sword. Khalid dodged to the side, but still caught steel with his shoulder.
"Inta sharmoot!" Khalid shouted as he dispersed once more. "Selling yourself to a maniac's cause! Pfah!"
"Curse and spit at me all you want, O Mighty Prince. It doesn't give you the power to beat me." His chuckle vibrated frenetically through the air. "I can't tell you how satisfying this is for me."
"Power?" Khalid spoke as if reminded of something. "Yes, let's discuss power!"
Vilhelm's vaporous body circled around Khalid, far out of his reach. The Arab followed him with hunter's eyes, and reached out his hand like he was catching an invisible baseball. The cloud stopped dead.
"What? What's happening?" Vilhelm's omnipresent voice stammered.
"I am giving a demonstration on power." Khalid held his free hand out and pulled it back towards him, as if he were strumming a harp. The mist-cloud drew towards him.
"Stop it! How are you doing that?? I'm misting!"
"Even a sneeze has mass." He continued to strum the air, and Vilhelm drew closer and closer.
"Let me go!" The Arab ignored his pleas, and soon Khalid's fingers held Vilhelm's amorphous body like a spectral beach ball.
"Ahlass, traitor. Bask in the heat of my anger."
The air around Khalid began to waver and ripple. He felt the heat gush forth from a place deep inside him, like a dam had burst. It surged up his spine, across his shoulders, down his arms and into his fingers. The shapeless cloud began to swirl and boil, and a hissing noise permeated the air. Vilhelm cried out, his voice high pitched and desperate.
"What are you doing?? Stop it stop it stop it!!"
"WHERE IS YOUR DARK POWER NOW??" Khalid boomed, his voice shaking against the walls. "Where is the invincible gift that allows you to strike from behind like a craven coward? Where is the might that you use to torture helpless prisoners??"
Vilhelm could only reply with blubbering whimpers. He begged for his life, but Khalid's eyes were all sharp edges, and filled with intent that burned with cold fire.
A high-pitched sound vibrated through the air. Like a singing tea kettle, it started slowly, but soon split forth in a rattling squeal. Louder and louder it became, and as it reached it's apex, there was an odd popping noise, and the pressure of the room changed. Vilhelm was gone, and Khalid stood alone.
Abayome and Svetlana cheered for him. He did not hear it. He shakily looked around the room for signs of the betrayer. There was nothing. No smoke, no vapor. Only clean night air spilling in through the windows. Satisfied, Khalid promptly collapsed and fell unconscious.
User Reviews
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2006-04-06 11:12:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"You little speck," he said, pulling off his bloodstained white overcoat. "NO ONE interferes with my work. Especially not an infantile fool who pretends to be afraid of garlic and masturbates over the notion of transforming into a bat."
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2005-10-19 04:15:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
There are a solid four pages of +2 streaks with 30 or more reviews. That is stupid. I am weeding it all out by giving every one of them a +1; that way posts that have 1.99 with 200+ reviews gets best ever.
Submitted by Spam (user info) at 2005-09-20 04:31:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
you rock, you rule, etc etc
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-09-19 20:08:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Next one is almost ready to go.
Submitted by bob (user info) at 2005-09-19 19:47:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
MORE FUCKER
Submitted by DanielH (user info) at 2005-09-13 03:35:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Excellence. ++
Submitted by mbstateside (user info) at 2005-09-09 16:01:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Excellent as always Caes.
Submitted by Viper_04 (user info) at 2005-09-09 03:21:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
That was up there with one of your best installments, i particularly liked the way you described kalid pulling himself from the wall (the Arabian stallions and that) and the harp with Talbot, very nice indeed
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-09-08 07:38:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Ooops. That first translation should read, "Fuck off, you raped male prison bitch," or something along those lines.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-09-06 18:30:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Glad you guys are liking it. Mop, I actually had that line in Arabic originally, but changed it because I thought it was better if the reader could understand what he was saying. Which reminds me, I meant to post the translations for the foreign phrases I was using...some of this I used, some I didn't:
Poshol nahuj, petookh opooscheny -- I will feed your own virgin cock to you.
Inta sharmoot -- You're a male whore
Hmar -- Jackass
Laitohom ragado -- Wish your parents slept that night. (the night you were conceived)
El Khara Dah? -- What is this shit?
Inti mafish Mukh -- You have no brains
Arie Fique -- Fuck you
Poshol nahuj -- Fuck off, fuck you
Petookh (or Kozel) opooscheny -- A raped male prison bitch (jail slang)
Molokosos -- Underage boy (lit. milk sucker)
All of this comes from an insult website www.insultmonger.com . Learn how to curse creatively in over 50 languages!
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-09-06 17:30:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
and the South Park was the freakking cherry on the top!
Submitted by Mop (user info) at 2005-09-06 17:09:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"You will wish your parents had slept that night, Jerry Talbot."
Haha. Best line ever.
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2005-09-06 14:01:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
as always, spectacular. you rule.
Submitted by Yes (user info) at 2005-09-06 11:35:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Hell yeah.
Submitted by nrduncan (user info) at 2005-09-06 09:30:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by iradney (user info) at 2005-09-06 09:27:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
YES!!! vilhelm finally bought it!! thank you THANK YOU for killing him!
Submitted by Rasta (user info) at 2005-09-06 01:51:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Ahhhh..Now ya got me again! Action and vampire powers dueling. That is what it is all about!
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-09-05 22:49:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Yay Ladyplural for acknowledging Khalid in all his terrible cuteness.
Thanks, whiskey-jack. I usually don't post these more often than once a week at best though...
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-09-05 22:14:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
That picture amuses me.
Submitted by whiskey_jack (user info) at 2005-09-05 22:09:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm so hooked to this series. The first thing I do when I log on to Ubersite is check for a new instalment in this series. You rock like a hurricane, or atleast a absurdly violent and strong sneeze.
Submitted by bob (user info) at 2005-09-05 20:07:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
book.
bitch.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-09-05 19:50:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Benny (user info) at 2005-09-05 19:32:25 (#)
Ranking: 2
Very nicely done. I really like Khalid as a character. Although I picture him a little differently from the image at the bottom of the post which is I assume when he visited Southpark.
*****************
That would be a correct assumption.
Submitted by Benny (user info) at 2005-09-05 19:32:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Very nicely done. I really like Khalid as a character. Although I picture him a little differently from the image at the bottom of the post which is I assume when he visited Southpark.
Submitted by Grownasskid (user info) at 2005-09-05 18:58:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
hooray for vampires
Submitted by zakalwe (user info) at 2005-09-05 18:27:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I was wondering why Khalid didn't just flame-grill the gaseous mechanic. the Doctor is a nice character as well.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-09-05 17:31:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-09-05 17:21:22 (#)
Ranking: 2
Hahaha! Pandemic-addict. You'll NEVER finish! This world has its hooks in you! Hahahahaha!
This was good. I am still painting my place, and this was the perfect break.
Good detail on the doctor's musings post-decap.
***************
Thanks Jack.
But you're wrong! I will be done with this story, in about four posts from now. I have it all planned out. And by "all" I mean "mostly."
Submitted by ArtificialInsanity (user info) at 2005-09-05 17:26:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Very good.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-09-05 17:21:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Hahaha! Pandemic-addict. You'll NEVER finish! This world has its hooks in you! Hahahahaha!
This was good. I am still painting my place, and this was the perfect break.
Good detail on the doctor's musings post-decap.
Submitted by hcp28 (user info) at 2005-09-05 17:18:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
awesome
Submitted by JMG114 (user info) at 2005-09-05 17:11:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Deeply satisfying. Keep up the good work.
Submitted by HadToBeDone (user info) at 2005-09-05 17:11:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Fucking awesome
Submitted by ajanssen (user info) at 2005-09-05 17:02:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Lovely job. I'm making you an honorary American.