Episode 11 (3/9/01)

Silverbullet lunged as she had been all evening, morphing a violently flung forearm into a kind of razor-tipped javelin that never leaves her hand (since it is, in part, her hand). She had stabbed this lieutenant of the Vampire Empire earlier in the torso. Now, as per her lover's suggestion, she'll aim for the throat with the intent of separating his head from his neck.

In the time it took Silverbullet to do so, however, the lieutenant had morphed also. Taking on both the appearance and substance of a sickly green mist, the junior officer simply dissipated from view. "Where did he go?" Silverbullet demanded. "I ought to find his fanged, fascist ass and finish him off --"

"Don't bother," Rose DeVega said, dismissingly cutting off her lover with much chagrin.

"-- but I got to get you off the streets. ... What do you mean, 'don't bother'?"

"If the only trick you know is stabbing like that, we'll be finished off." Rose folded her arms and leaned back against a wall in the alley they were still hiding in. "What else can you do?"

"Darling, we don't have time for this --"

"Goldie, I wasn't the only one at the arena, you know." As Rose spoke, memories of the "blood camp" began to surface. "They've got hundreds! Whole families, all ages, they've got friends of ours! I even saw my ex! They've got everyone segregated, but since I can pass for white --"

"Oh, joy -- oh, rapture ... !" Silverbullet's words were dripping with sarcasm as she rolled her pinball-looking eyes.

"-- they asked if I wanted to help bleed people dry for them! God help me, Lily, people are actually signing up -- just to get bit and turned into a monster! It's sick!"

"All the more reason to get us the hell out of here, out of town ..." Silverbullet began to lightly tug on Rose for her to descend deeper into the alleyway (and eventually out of it). But Rose snatched herself away and stood her ground.

"Where are we going to run? They're everywhere! Oh, sure. They're concentrated in America, but we'll never make it out of the country! Besides, you've been given a gift --"

"No! I never wanted this!" Silverbullet started to feel as though she was arguing with Father Mario Garibaldi all over again. "I'm only out here calling myself 'Silverbullet' and all because I had to save you. And don't call me 'Goldie' or 'Lily' or anything else whenever I look like this, unless you want a total lack of privacy! I can see the headlines now: INTERRACIAL LESBIAN COUPLE; ONE'S FLESH, ONE'S METAL!"

"I wouldn't dream of revealing your 'secret identity,' Miss Silverbullet, ma'am." Now it was Rose's turn to be sarcastic. "But it's kinda hard to have a private life when all human life is in danger. And I haven't forgotten that you never answered my question: What else can you do other than stab folks? I'm guessing you can mold yourself into most any shape ...?"

"Damn it, Rose!" Silverbullet had to calm herself so her voice wouldn't rise above an angry whisper. "You live in a fantasy world! I am not one of your cartoon characters! I am not going to an arena filled with those evil things and I'm just glad I found you before I had to. Now that I've got you, we are out of here!"

"First of all, honey, Sin City is crawling with vampires and werewolves! This is a fantasy world!" Rose's voice, despite Silverbullet's attempts to lower her tone, suddenly rose well above a whisper. "Second, and I'm ashamed to say it, but you're a hypocrite. I introduced you to literature, but you introduced me to politics. And one of the first things you taught me was that quote ... How did it go? 'When they came for the Gypsies, I did nothing because I wasn't a Gypsy, when they came for the unions, I did nothing because I wasn't in a union,' or however the hell it went ..."

Rose seemed to run out of steam upon not being able to recall the entire quote she had in mind, but Silverbullet remembered the rest. "'And when they finally came for me, there was no one left to stop them.' I don't have that quote memorized either, but I do remember the spirit behind it. All right, Rose. You want me to practice what I teach? You're the one who subscribes to Science Fiction Predictions and Mask Magazine. Assuming I am 'super-powered,' what would you have me do?"

TO BE CONTINUED