The soul of Nicole Robbins screamed to end the pain and the horror reaching reality proportions that claimed her psyche. She struggled for her consciousness to return to a point of safety in the world around her that had suddenly gone irrevocably mad. Nothing in her immediate surroundings had made any kind of viable sense as she realized that her face and body had connected violently with the red carpeted floor below her. Slight bruises formed on her cheeks and legs from the impact. Despite the two bodies lying prone on the red surface littered with broken glass and fresh blood, the Rainbow Room at the Roosevelt Hotel seemed quite empty. Nicole was too disoriented to notice the other body.

She groaned awake, at first paying little attention to the dead body next to her and becoming aware that the killers of the her partner had fled the scene in dire need of escape. Her body had been wracked with pain but she saw little signs of bruises besides the black and blue marks across various non-descript parts of her exposed flesh from the impact of her fall. She noticed blood on the floor but it did not seem to be from her own body. Likely, it directed from the other dead body. Fresh gunshot wounds caused this array of blood.

During her dreamstate of sleep, she recounted the events that caused her to be in this predicament. It filled her mind with images of the most supreme horror, frightening her. She clutched her body, as the horror sent shivers up and down her spine. The images of the last couple of hours came back to her suddenly. She knew it as fresh as she would her own name. She recalled it as it were a movie script.

She attended some kind of party from another room in the hotel. A wedding or something like that. She left the party to go to the bathroom. Finished with what she had to do in the bathroom, she wandered around the hotel, taking a make-shift tour, winding her way into the empty Rainbow Room. Empty save for one other occupant. A japanese woman she didn't recognize. She seemed to be talking to her self. Not to herself but into a metallic talking device. Then, it happened. The window, the large one, exploded into a million pieces, as gunfire littered the room, raining down on them both. Surprisingly, it missed Nicole completely. No, it didn't. She remembered being hit. Hit very violently, raining death on her. Killing her, she thought. Then, the world went dark and black.

That was all she remembered. As she stood up, surprised that her body was absent of bullet holes, she scanned the room, surveying that her enemies had indeed fled the scene. A twist of paranoia convinced her that they might still be in hiding within the confines of the hotel. She was content that they weren't.

The fight or flight method of thinking was now most present within her. She chose the flight side. The less danger she would have to encounter the better her chance of safety. The only preventative step for the flight choice was that she thought she should report the death that she witnessed, lying mere feet from her present standing position, to the local authorities. She thought she saw a phone outside in the hallway.

As she awoke, she just realized that as she fell she tripped over a dead body. A flicker of remembrance sparked within her that she was sat the cause of the dead body but she witnessed the poor girl's death even instants after it happened. She wasn't sure who it was. Bu there was rapid gunfire, shattering the window pane, as the glass rained down on them both and the girl died instantly.

Who was that girl? As the sunlight streamed through the ruined window, she glanced over at the body. It looked so much like her, almost like an identical doppleganger of her, like an identical twin. But that had been impossible. She hadn't noticed the uncanny resemblance to her as she entered the room. In fact, if her memory serves, there hadn't been any such resemblance. Again the question anguished her, as she sat upright, puling her legs from atop the unmoving body. Many questions haunted her. Who was that girl really? And what had she been doing alone in this room?  Had she any relation to her killers? And why had the girl's killers been so accurate as to not kill Nicole? Since the girl had been dead and her killers fled the scene, her question would remain unanswered. If she got out of this alive, she swore she would find the answers to her questions.

Her exiting this room was a job that to her was a lifetime away. It seemed to be highly unattainable. How was she going to explain this to the police when they arrive? Of course, she would be a prime suspect top this girl's death. She never even got her name. Would she have cared if this never happened?

Standing up was an arduous task in and of itself. Her legs felt leaden and weak beyond belief. Worse, her body wouldn't stop shaking. She was probably in shock from the exploding window and rapid gunfire.

The first thing she had seen that is an appealing sight and an instant attraction to her is a full-length mirror that somehow remained inatct. She slowly walked over to it, as she desperately need to look at herself. Not for vanity but to see if there was any damage to her face and body.

She peered into the grand looking glass and like Alice before she entered Wonderland, she was astounded by what happened next. Unless she was hallucinating brought on by the stress of life, she saw another person looking back at her. She was not Nicole Robbins anyway; now, she was a very beautiful Asian woman.

Not realizing it until now, Nicole saw that she was wearing a total different wardrobe than the one she wore when she entered this hotel earlier rtoday. Instead of casual and modest clothing, she had the attire that befitted a hooker. Blue jeans, high heels, and a pink glowing tank top which accented her figure.

Well, she thought, if this was her new body, then it wasn't something to complain about.

Then, the door sprung open and a group of men entered. Obviously, they were the friends of this unnamed Asian woman whose body she now inhabited. The center man must have been a powerful crimelord because he wore a very expensive suit and was accompanied by other suited men. He approached Nicole (or whoever she was now) and held her in a tight embrace.

"Darling, I see we were successful in our mission. The poor woman didn't put up much of a struggle. C'mon, let's go, before the police arrive. We have more important things to do at the mansion."

She didn't know what to say or do. Should she go along with them? Or stay behind to find out how she could reenter her owmn body? No, it's best to follow them, put up the ruse.

That morning, Mr. Gentry called for a regular, routine meeting of his team of super agents based in Canada. Now, they sat at the large circular bureau waiting for their leader to present them with their new case. They were all engaged in casual conversation.

They all noticed that there were two individuals in the room, one that some of them recognized from his picture being in the American society papers. The other man’s name was only the Sarge. The two men whispered careful words to each other about the danger that they were in and what they could do to erase that danger.

“Okay, everyone, quiet down, I think we can get this meeting underway,” Gentry said, waving his arms in the air to silence the chattering and backtalk that was happening quite loudly within this office.

“What is he doing here?”

“Whatever he’s selling we’re not buying.”

“I say we just throw him out on his toes.”

Gentry frowned, as the Sarge also frowned at their harsh comments, and silenced them further. Once they did stop talking, he faced them, standing proud and tall. He said, “Nicole Robbins was shot in the heart several times last night. With her death, the Robbins family has been shattered. Her husband wants us to find the killer.” He paused, and turned to the Sarge. ‘I trust that we will have the full cooperation of the NYPD at our disposal in our investigation.”

The Sarge turned to Gentry and the rest of Alpha Flight. “Yes, we will be working with you side by side. But I have to warn you that some of the cops in my force are on the take. So you will have to battle them as well.”

 “The Sarge gave us the address of John Robbins’s home so we can apprehend the guy who did this. And we will stop them and find the man or woman responsible.”

“That’s quite a speech,” the Sarge said, as he patted Gentry on the back to give him righteous congratulations.

“Thank you, Sarge,” Gentry said, leading him out the door. “Rest assured that we will catch him.”

A man entered the room, without knocking. He closed the door with the back of his hand, pushing it all the way closed with his back harshly, firmly. He smiled that cold, unrelenting smile that was hard to interpret. She assumed that the smile, at first unassuming, but later in time threatening and strangely volatile, was the smile that most rapists used, perhaps behind a ski mask, when they were about to rape someone. Someone like her. Her heart raced and skipped a beat, as she stared into this man's haunting eyes. She had never seen this man before and did not want to know him further.

She got up from the bed, wrecking her relaxed position. She guarded herself from him, by inching away from him to the edge of the bed. His identity eluded her since, unlike herself now, he was not Asian or as she suspected the others, Japanese. He was not Yakuza. She noticed he was American, which should have been a relief, and breathing hard, either from exercise or exhaustion.

"Who are you?" she asked, trying to remain as calm as she could.  Her voice shook a little. "And what do you want? You're not supposed to be here, are you?"

As he took a seat at the side of the bed that she sat, he began to say, "Yes, actually I am. I was sent by Tanaka to keep an eye on you. He has a special interest in you."

"You have a name?" she asked, repeatedly.

"Stoker, Kirby Stoker."  With each word that he spoke, he inched closer to her, using his hand to feel the firmness and the tightness of the bed mattress.

Nicole waved her hand in the air to ward him off. "I don't think so, hot stuff. I'd prefer if you'd keep your distance."

Kirby had a hurt expression painted upon his face. Nicole wondered what emotions were coursing through his mind at the moment that she averted him. Was it pain, fear? She also wondered if she would have to fight him off. He looked strong, as if he worked out regularly, and he probably spent time in prison. But she took those self-defense classes in college that she presumed she could hold her own against someone like this.

"You'd do well to respect someone like me," he warned her. His breathing was heavy, Huh huh. In and out with vicious tones. "Or I'll tell Tanaka about how bad you've been."

He clasped his hand over her mouth, to catch her screams so Tanaka wouldn't be alerted to them, pummeling her down with the other. She was caught in a tight, unbreakable vise. Nicole experienced first-hand how strong Kirby was. As her head flew down inches away from the two pillows at the front of the bed, she felt the pressure of his hand lock down on her. The weight of his body shifted geometrically so as to pin her down in the right position.

Nicole kicked him squarely across the jaw, sending the surprised man sprawling ever backward across the expanse of the room. She didn't want to utilize all of her strength because she knew that she would need plenty of reserves of kinetic energy later in the struggle. Also, she didn't want him to sustain permanent damage, only send him to a state of unconsciousness.

He rose to his feet immediately, with one hand touching his jaw as if the part of his body was absolutely foreign to him. By how he rose so quickly, she surmised that he felt little pain. He snarled, animal-like. His red eyes burned with rage as he approached his target.

"You will live to regret that," he said, walking slowly towards her retreating form. "Few have survived after doing what you have done." He bent his legs, ready in stance to pounce. "Prepare to die," he announced, as his hands reached out to grab her body. He found her throat, maintaining an unbreakable grasp, and tightened his fingers around the right pressure points. She tried to scream, searching for the right volume or decibel level as which to maintain her yell for help. No one came. She screamed harder and louder with all of her might. Her yells were different from Kirby's earlier snarls. The intelligent level rose a few notches from hers compared to his. Hers were human, his were animalistic.

In retaliation, she slapped him hard without any form of reserve. Kirby ducked his head to avoid the slaps.  She hoped it would help him to release her but it was to no avail. He only tightened his grip around her throat.       

Kamikaze smashed through the window and saw Kirby trying to attack an Asian woman. He had tracked the trail of Yakuza activity to this room. He didn’t know where the rest of the Yakuza agents were. He didn’t care; he couldn’t stand to see a woman being raped in plain sight.

He unsheathed his sword and swung it at the American criminal, separating him from the woman. The woman was frightened, and deservedly so.

“I do not like to keep company with men who attack helpless women,” Kamikaze said. Kirby had backed himself into a corner. The tip of the sword was mere inches from his throat. But Kirby wasn’t scared or helpless, either.

The full moon was out. And with that moonlight, he started to change into a creature of the night. His short hair started to grow long and several patches of hair sprouted on his chest and body. He wasn’t a werewolf, but a very hirsute, strong gentleman.

Already in a maddened fury, Kirby, the creature, attacked Kamikaze. He knocked the sword out of Harada’s grasp. It fell in front of Nicole Robbins. She picked it up and swung it at Kirby’s patches of hair, ripping some skin off.

Kirby ran off.

“Who are you?” Kamikaze asked her. “And can I have my sword back?”

“Here.”  She handed it to him. ‘Nicole. Nicole Robbins. That’s my name. “

“What happened to you?”

“This woman, the one that is me now, changed minds with me and I died. I hope my husband doesn’t mind.”

“I don’t. Come.”

Kamikaze and the new Nicole Robbins disappeared in a puff of smoke to be rejoined with her family.