Volume I: The Lost Boys

"ZOMBIE!" Slugger yells back to Vermite as she slams the bat into the creature's head, knocking it's teeth away from Retribution's neck. It was a zombie, she had a bat... there was something surprisingly cathartic about the scenario, even if it was deeply horrifying. "DEFINITELY A ZOMBIE!"

Slugger didn't just knock the zombie's teeth away from Retribution's neck; she knocked its rotten teeth out of its mouth altogether. The direct wooden bat's blow to the head, with the added momentum from her charge, would have put the lights out, if not outright killed, any mortal man. The Zombie probably didn't have much of a brain to worry about a concussion, however. Its skull fractured, its jaw smashed to bits, and it was pushed off Retribution by the force of the blow, but it was still very much 'alive' and eager to resume the fight; as soon as it got back on its feet

Hearing Deion's cry for help Blacklight looks in that direction, his shadow struggling presumably with yet another one of these things. Without much time to think she reaches out, opening a portal between there and here, trying for just Deion, to pull him through and hoping to leave the thing attacking him behind. "Everyone look out, there are more of the things nearby!"

Through her portal, Blacklight could see the comatose Deion lying on his back, another monster sitting on top of his chest, her elongated, curved fingernails digging into his neck. It was uncertain whether the young boy was still alive or not; lying in a pool of his own blood, completely unresponsive. Blacklight had no choice but to act if she wanted to save him. She pulled him through her portal to the relative safety of the rest of the team, but was unable to close the gateway before the 'thing' followed through.

Shadowhex peddles hard to what see expects to be a meeting with Vermite and the others as she hears the screaming and moaning of the zombies. Confused she almost jumps off her bike, letting it crash somewhere on the sideway.

Monsters. Walking dead? The supernatural? Shadowhex just saw it as an opportunity to practice her powers.

Calmly she stepped forward. She streched out her arms beside her body, opened her hands, palms facing forward, fingers streched out, as a black and purple energy started to spin around her...She was ready to face these monsters as an anger flared through her. Anger at what Vermite told her. Animal blood. If that was the fault of the zombies... they would pay... Pay a lot. Especially now that her power burned all through her body.

---

Shadowhex stepped forward, the magic sparkling through her.
She stepped forward to the first zombie she saw.
Planted her feet, raised her arms, and made the magic swirl around her.
She directed it at the zombie.Her magic slammed the zombie some distance away from her, and through a window of a nearby building, shattering glass.

Without so much as a thankful glance at Slugger for saving their life, Retribution jumps to their feet - their mask concealing a dribble of blood - and snaps a foot sharply against the closest zombie's shin, bringing it down to the ground so Vermite's rats have an easier time reaching it.

The swarm of rats nibbling at her rotten flesh didn't deter the Zombie one bit. It couldn't feel any pain, and right now, it had a single purpose in mind - murder the impudent girl who had stolen its meal. It lunged at Blacklight, hands curling around her throat, squeezing the life out of her with a grip so supernaturally powerful it threatened to snap the young heroine's head off

The Ogre wants to smash.

His hand lashes out, but instead of connecting with the zombie, he grabs a metal trash can and punches the bottom out and leaps at it, slamming it down over the zombie's head and then crushing the can to try and make an improvised metal trash can straight jacket.

In the back of his mind TV zombie lore is telling him don't get bit, he tries to avoid gashing teeth. Anyway, his skin is too tough for a Zombie to bite through, right?

The Ogre smashed the metal can on top of the Zombie. He had to squash the metal tightly to fit around its body, but once he did, the Zombie was more or less neutralized. They could all still hear its hissing and spitting from inside its metal casing, and its still had use of its legs, though the question remained if it would still be able to walk once the rats were done with them.

It was exactly then when a man in a stained lab coat wandered into the dark alley. He was checking his phone, raising his eyes intermittently to confirm his bearing when he happened upon the group of heroes and the defeated Zombie. His expression didn't betray any surprise or shock upon witnessing (the legs of) a supernatural monster. He was far more concerned about the injured young boy lying lifeless in the alley.

"Oh no! oh no! this ain't good!!" He was talking not to the heroes, but to the two, gun-toting young hoodlums who followed closely behind him "Quick; tell the others we found Sheryl!"

Putting his phone away, he took a few steps closer to the heroes, slowly raising his hands to indicate he was no threat:

"Let me through, please. I'm a doctor; I can help him!"

Blacklight took a trembling breath, staggering back to lean against the Ally wall one hand going up to massage her bruised throat. She lets out a cough and then a rough voiced "Thank you." to Ogre. She wasn't in any position or state of mind to obstruct the Doctor or question his appearance or the gun thugs with him.

Seeing that he was moving towards Deion she let her second thought off the leash. As she finally started to get her wits about her she realized 'weren't there two of them?' and she starts looking around in a panic to see what happened to the other even asking aloud before her eyes turned to the shattered window across the way and the shadows within. "What about the other one?"

"Paul? You found Paul?!?!" The doctor looked somewhat relieved "Where is he? We must capture him intact. He's the key to it all"
He took another step forward, still looking at Deion "Please - there isn't much time. I gotta help him!"

With the zombie contained, Ogre is less concerned about the doctors and more worried about Blacklight.

"Hurt?" he rumbles, his eyes narrow as he scans Blacklight, "Was going to go easy on thing, but can still bash!"

The big red monster raises a threatening fist and nods towards the restrained zombie.

Retribution visibly bristles at the appearance of the doctor, not moving aside so easily. However, they reluctantly slink back at Vermite’s words, perhaps in deference or in shock. Then, Retribution suddenly breaks off toward the direction of the second zombie, very concerned about leaving any of them alone and un-restrained - Blacklight’s question finally sinking in.

"My name is Jackob Harris" The Doctor started talking as he kneeled beside Deion. He first checked for a pulse, gently pressing two of his fingers against the groove of the boy's neck "Faint" he muttered under his breath.
There was blood all over Deion's shirt, and the Doctor soon found its source - a deep bite on his shoulder:

"I was afraid of that. The Resurrected are venomous; their bite delivers a potent myotoxin. It might kill him from diaphragmatic paralysis if we don't administer the antidote. And Fast!"

Dr. Harris raised his eyes to make a quick assessment of the situation:
"Sir" he addressed the biggest and largest of the Heroes - the Ogre "Can you help us carry him to my laboratory? It is less than a block from here"

"James, Malik - " he swiveled his head to look at the two gang members who followed him into the alley. The ones who have been relatively silent, only to spring to obey the doctor's orders without question as soon as he opened his mouth to talk: "take Sheryl back to Containment. And call the others. We must find Paul before he harms anyone else!"

There was a faint sound of glass shattering from the nearby building. Another window breaking.
It seems like 'Paul', the Zombie they injured, was...making a run for it?

Shadowhex had probably missed a lot of the conversation, still focussed on the feeling of magic surging through her. And the zombie that had she had slammed through the window was making a run for it.

"Oh no you don't!" she yelled.

She raised her arms again and slammed them down midair, sending a wave of black and purple magical energy at the zombie, with the intent to knock him down, zending him sstraight through yet another window.