I caught an elbow in the gut, and he kicked me clear off the top of the mausoleum. The hard crash to the ground below temporarily knocked the wind out of me, but I didn't have much of a chance to catch my breath. The Hunter flipped off of the roof, and in mid air he threw both whistling swords in my direction. Their nearly undetectable path curved from both the right and left sides of me, converging in an 'X' shape with the hopes of cutting me to pieces. I leapt forward and twisted my body to avoid them as best as I could, but still took deep cuts on both of my arms! My blood splashed the headstone ahead of me as I saw the swords continue their circle back to his hands. Then...footsteps behind me.

Three soldiers approached, and I spun around to wrap one of my legs around the first man's throat to bring him down and pin him to the ground beneath me. I reached out to grab the legs of the second, and pull them forward, forcing him to fall back as I dragged him close and dropped my elbow into his nuts. There's no other scream in the world like the ones you hear when you do something like that. The third soldier raised his gun, so I rolled off of the first, and kicked the gun to the side as I delivered multiple blows to his head and chest, finishing it off by bringing my heel up...and then down to shatter his shoulder.

The first soldier stood up, but he was unaware of the whistling heading my way. "GET DOWN!!!" I shouted...but it was too late. How can I expect a human to have reflexes like mine? Instinctively, my body maneuvered itself and back flipped out of the way of the twin blades. The soldier was not so fortunate. And I watched, wide eyed, as he fell to pieces right in front of me.

"Come on now, 'Flatline'! Make this interesting, will you?" Watts shouted out from the darkness. "These Hunters don't come cheap. You could at least make this show worth watching. I've been talking about your reputation. Don't disappoint me."

Taking a moment to look for him, I saw Agent Watts standing next to yet another Hunter. One who hadn't said a word or moved from her position until that very moment. I saw her removing her hood to display a shockingly bright head of shoulder length white hair. Her fangs dropped, and her eyes turned red as she took in a heavy breath and removed her coat. She had long gold bracelets on her arms, from her wrist to her elbow. Long gold bracelets on her legs as well. From her ankles to her knees. A thick gold belt, wrapped around her slim waistline twice. Gold shoulder braces, gold necklaces, gold rings, gold earrings...and beneath it all, a tight fitting black spandex outfit. Beautiful girl in her late teens, with black lipstick and black make-up circles around her eyes. It was then that I recognized the play.

One Hunter to take me down, one Hunter to act as Watt's personal bodyguard, and the soldiers were little more than a distraction to help even out the odds. I know this game. I've run it many times myself on assignment.

I also know that it has one fundamental flaw. When you attack the head of the operation, it puts them on the defensive...and with the humans already in panic mode and shooting at everything that moves...things begin to fall apart.

The best way to beat any system is to use it's own laws and limitations against itself.

Knowing that, I cart wheeled away from the swordsman and forced myself towards Agent Watts and his femme fatale.

Watts instantly backed up and 'Snakebite' moved in front of him to intercept me. Our fists made contact as I tried to put as much pressure on her as I possibly could. She was extremely flexible. I had never seen a style quite like hers before. So unforgiving. So precise. And she had long nails that she used to rake my skin from time to time. She kept her position in front of Watts and cut me off at every turn. Then I heard the whistling blades coming for me again from behind.

I ducked and rolled to the side...giving the female hunter time to focus her energies on her extra. And before my very eyes, I watched as all of the gold she was wearing began to melt itself down and morph into another shape entirely. It was like the decorative jewelry had a life of its own, and it slithered swiftly around her arms and legs like a thick liquid...hardening again in the form of a two headed snake on her shoulders. It was almost like an extra set of arms...but with teeth! The golden serpent hissed from both sides, and she attacked again. This time I had four limbs to contend with. The extras she seemed to command with the slightest of ease. She could change their shape at will, and she as VERY good at it.

As I grapples with her, I felt one of the snake heads sink its fangs deep into my left thigh, and I had to maneuver in order to pry its mouth open and get free again. She fought expertly with this golden snake on her shoulders. It wrapped itself around her arms and she could extended it outwards at will, forcing my acrobatic skills into a frenzy, just to avoid taking more damage.

"Are we having FUN yet, Mr. Prince???" Agent Watts shouted out.

Where the hell are the police in this town when you need them? They've GOTTA be hearing this!

I kept myself between them, and when the swordsman jumped into the fray, I found myself with quite the handful. I blocked and dodged as best as I could, but I was clearly taking a lot of damage. My body wasn't going to be able to suffer too many more blows. Already I was bruised and bleeding profusely from several nearly crippling blows. I could hardly think straight, purely acting on instinct. But I kept moving, and got in all the major hits that I could get. And then....I heard it.

It was going to be one hell of a dash...but I heard it.

The elevated train was coming. I might have a total of five minutes to catch it...and that wasn't going to be easy.

Thinking only of my escape route, I fought with all of the stored up energy that I had. I needed to keep them tangled. Needed to keep them fighting against one another. I decreased the distance between the swordsman and me, hoping to keep him from throwing those whistling swords with any kind of accuracy. I saw Snakebite transform one of the snake heads into a long sharp spear for a few moments, spinning it around her waist and neck, trying to stab at my legs. I moved quickly to avoid her attacks, and spun around to deliver a harsh kick to her stomach. She slid backwards on her feet, the spear returning to the form of a snake again, until she came to a stop. I heard the whistling again, and moved right in front of her to see if I could get it to take a slice out of her, but seconds before the blade made contact....it stopped in mid air, and 'Shortcut' called it back to his hand.

Now assaulted by TWO hunters at once, I looked towards the fence and plotted out the gravestones needed to help me reach the train in time. Neither of them was ready for the natural talent that I had running through my veins. I think that I surprised them both, even though they came prepared for a major battle with one of the agency's best soldiers. I kicked both of the to their backs at the same time, and only had seconds before Watts pulled his pistol and fired numerous rounds at me. I barely was able to get out of the way on time. But that wasn't my concern anymore. The fight wasn't my goal. The train was my goal. And I didn't have a second to spare.

I flipped forward and swung my leg around low to sweep Agent Watts off of his feet, and kept my head down as I ran for the fence...the remaining human soldiers firing off as many rounds as they could in my direction.

There were police sirens in the distance, no doubt responding to the personal WAR that we had started on the edge of this residential area graveyard. I had to be GONE when they got there. Watts has special privileges for this kind of thing. I don't. I kept the site of the approaching train in sight, and kept moving. The dirt under my feet was kicked up behind me as I reached top speed. Then I took a flying leap, hopping on top of tombstones and moving forward towards the fence and the street beyond it. I could clearly 'feel' the two hunters following me at equal speed. They were good. Really good. I guess it's an honor to know that the agency brought out the best to take me down.

I flung myself over the fence, just as Shortcut's two swords whizzed by my head and neck! I fell face down in the street in front of a string of cars, racing at me at 40 miles an hour. I rolled to the right to dodge the first. Rolled to the left to dodge the second. I had to move faster than I ever had before to keep from being run over. Then I jumped to my feet, just in time to jump up and roll over a car that was headed right for me.

I looked back to see both hunters dodging traffic with ease, and still in hot pursuit.Watts and his human S.W.A.T. team were just now catching up to the rest of us, and the train was racing by in the background. Move! Gotta keep moving!

I struggled through the passing cars, and finally got close enough to jump up and climb one of the streetlamps to get up to the elevated train tracks. It took all I had, but I jumped forward and nearly broke my ankles landing on the inclined surface of the hill leading up to the tracks. I held my stomach and moved quickly to catch the speeding train and spring up between cars so that I could easily pull myself up to the roof.

Breathless...

Bleeding...

Scarred and sliced....

I attempted to use every second that I could get, trying to monitor my breathing and concentrate the many panicked thoughts running through my mind into one solid form where I could logically break them down and toss out what I didn't need for the moment. I held my chest, my heart beating with a near overdose of adrenaline. I can't beat them all. Not here. Not now. They've already worn me down.

But that didn't stop the hunters from doing their job.

I heard the slam of their feet hit the top of the train as they hopped up from the side of the tracks. No time to rest now. Can't show weakness. Get up Jonathan! Get up!

I flipped up to my feet and ran to meet them head on...all of us shouting out our battle cries as we lusted for the blood of our opponents. The three of us began our lethal dance as we each attempted to get the upper hand. They were good. I was better. The agency wasn't going to find another fighter better than me. It just wasn't going to happen. But being outnumbered two to one was going to make things difficult. I slid my body around sword strikes, I dodged snake heads, I blocked punches and kicks until they were both sore from it. And When I struck out at their most vulnerable points...even though I know they were taught to hide the reaction and turn off the pain...they felt it.

I felt the agony of golden snake fangs sinking into the side of my neck from behind. I was too busy trying to avoid the blades swinging wildly at my legs. I spun low to sweep her off of her feet, and continued to roll forward to do the same to the swordsman. They recovered too quickly for me to take full advantage. Shortcut was moving those swords at blinding speeds. Only the whistling kept me alert as to their position. And Snakebite could liquefy and harden that gold material into a virtually infinite variety of different shapes at will. And faster than anything that I could keep up with. They were better than I thought. This has to come to an end....now.

It was then that I saw another train coming toward us from the opposite direction on a different track. This was gonna have to be precise.

With a few distracting maneuvers on my part, I made my move. I waited for the passing train to get to the very last car...and then spun my leg around to roundhouse both attackers on either side of me. I jumped. I had almost missed my window of opportunity, and rolled to the very edge, nearly falling to the racing train tracks beneath me. The hunters caught on to the play and both ran to jump on board as well...but this time I was counting on that.

I got up on one knee, and I stretched my hand out in front of me. I couldn't have used my extra in the graveyard. It takes soooo much energy to be effective. If I had used it earlier I wouldn't have had the stamina to fight my way out of there. But for now, I'm praying that this will be enough to ensure my escape.

It began as a fever inside my head. Then what felt like a growing vacuum in the center of my chest. I saw the two hunters jumping in mid air to continue their pursuit...I was only going to have one shot at this. I felt myself being drained physically. It had to be strong enough to work with one shot. No holding back on this one. The sensation shout out of my palm and surrounded them in mid jump. And suddenly...their extras were completely shut down. Every vampire trait, every supernatural advantage, every last detail that made them anything more than your average human...gone in a flash. I cancelled out their frequencies, and I watched as their mighty leap from one train to another was cut drastically short. Shortcut's swords lost their glow, Snakebite's gold became brittle and fell off of her shoulders in giant chunks and flakes of glitter...and they both fell to the ground, rolling behind the train for nearly twenty feet. Breaking limbs, scarring flesh. I fell back to the roof of the train as the fatigue overwhelmed me, and looked up at the stars as it rushed me away to safety. At least for now.

I may have passed out for a few minutes. I seemed to have lost track of a couple of minutes. I should have known better than to come back here. It was too soon to resurface. Watts isn't ever going to give up on trying to bring me back to the elders. Not ever. I should have expected him to be watching. Stupid. If only I had stayed underground. Off the grid. Now he's seen me, face-to-face. He's never going to stop searching now.

I got off of the train as soon as it went into the subway, and I navigated the underground tunnels until I found my little stash of extra clothes, medications and bandages, extra cash, and a few weapons. I 'prettied' myself up as best as I could, and then walked until I got to a subway station close to where my boyfriend, Spencer, and I were staying.

There was an old church on the West outskirts of town. An Irish priest by the name of Father Sean McDonnell was kind enough to give us sanctuary whenever we came to visit as a favor to my father. We stayed down in the basement. An old part of the church that survived a fire many years earlier and was never rebuilt to be a functional part of the church from then on. I came downstairs, and Naturally...Spencer freaked when he saw the scars. He did all he could to nurse me while I did all I could to calm him down. I didn't even realize that I had been shot in the back at least twice during the scuffle. I was too engaged in the battle to even notice. Maybe that's why my skills were a bit off.

"Baby...they hurt you...." He said, kissing me gently on the cheek from behind as he wiped away some of the dried blood from my skin with a wet rag. Spencer. Lovely Spencer. Sometimes I feel terrible about taking such a beautiful blond boy away from the world and keeping him for my very own. Even more so for dragging him into a world of hiding and secrets and violence. But when I look into those deep brown eyes and see him smile...something tells me it was worth it. Some things were just meant to be.

I need time to think I need to find new places to hide. If I know Watts and his team, they'll be narrowing down all possibilities and leaning on informants in order to pinpoint my location. I may only have a few days before he figures something out.

There was a time when I thought my extra could be studied and used to not only pacify vampires in places where violence wasn't allowed...but to possibly REVERSE the vampire curse altogether. They've been using technologies in sanctuaries and clubs all over the country that were built off of my extra's blueprint. The IceZone underground club in Chicago was one of the first to take advantage of it. But they want more. They haven't perfected it yet, and they want the whole show. A device that can render a vampire completely helpless. Human. Unable to defend himself. How could I have been so easily mislead? With power like that...they could enslave our kind and keep them under their control forever if they wanted to. I've seen the framework of their future plans, and I won't let them do it. I won't let them use me to force our kind into an existence of eternal servitude.

I have to run.I have to keep a low profile. And I have to protect that which matters most....the love of my life.

I'll heal. Two sleep cycles, tops. But when that's done...it'll be time to prepare ourselves. Because now that Watts is hot on my trail again after faking my death, he's gonna come at me with everything he's got.

I plan to be ready.

He's either gonna close his case...or I'm gonna close mine. The endgame is coming.