"OW! Sonnuva bitch!"

The sound of a gun cocking silences the vampire who calls himself Scab. The woman holding the gun is a skilled Japanese ninja named Mosha. Her black hair reaches down past her shoulder, and strapped to her leather catsuit are several anti-vampire weapons.

"Quiet Scab," she says. "My trigger finger has a tendency to twitch."

"What the hell do you bitches want, anyway?" asks Scab. "Bad enough you wasted my customers."

Mikado, Mosha's twin sister, sits perched on the bartop. She is identical to her sister, with the one exception being that her hair is pulled back into a bun. She holds a dagger by the blade between her thumb and forefinger. Her hand suddenly whips back and forward again, and the dagger leaves her fingers as she makes this motion. It soars past Scab and Mosha, missing them, and imbeds itself into the neck of a vampire wielding a glock.

<"You missed one,"> says Mikado in Japanese. She leaps off the counter and walks to the writhing vampire. Mosha rolls her eyes at her sister's comment.

"We want information, Scab," says Mosha. "Information you can provide us."

"An' what information would that be?" asks Scab.

"What do you know about the incident last night?"

"What incident?"

"The one at TCRI."

"What's a TCRI?"

"Don't play dumb."

<"That's impossible for him, sister,"> says Mikado. She pulls out a second dagger and rams it into the vampire's heart. It cries out in pain before it turns to ashes.

"Hey, I don't speak Chinese, but I didn't like the sound of that!" exclaims Scab.

Mikado saunters over to Mosha and Scab. She draws her gun as she approaches, lifts it over her head, and smacks it across Scab's face.

"We don't speak Chinese, either," says Mikado. "We're Japanese. There's a difference."

"Mikado, don't make me force you to wait outside," says Mosha. Mikado stares at her long and hard, then mutters something under her breath in Japanese. Mosha replies with, "I heard that."

"Look, all I know is that you bitches are making business very difficult for me," says Scab. "Blade did this shit all the time, and even after he died, it still took me awhile before I could build my rep back up. Now I was starting to get back into the groove, and then you come to shoot it all to hell—literally!"

"We have some news for you, Scab," says Mosha with a smile.

"An' what's that?"

"Blade's not dead."

"Bull-fuckin'-shit."

"We were sent by Whistler," says Mosha. "You remember Whistler, right?"

"We need you to tell us what happened at TCRI last night," says Mikado. "And if you don't tell us, then maybe Blade will come by to pay you a visit."

"You don't scare me," says Scab. "Blade's dead."

"No body was found, Scab," says Mosha. "If you believe we're bluffing, then call us on it. If you're right, then congratulations, you survived an attack by two lethal hunters. But if you're wrong, then that means we're going to tell Blade that you weren't very cooperative. Which means that he'll be coming around to ask you a few... questions of his own. And you do know how persuasive Blade can be..."

Scab swallows hard and sweat begins to form on his forehead. He grins nervously at the two twins.

"Well now... I might not know about TCRI, but I might know something that you lovely ladies would find interesting..."

"Which would be what?" asks Mosha.

"Word on the street is that Hunger's back in business," says Scab. "An' that he's got big plans. Really big plans."

"What plans?" asks Mosha.

"Fuck if I know," says Scab. "What I do know is that he's lookin' for volunteers."

"I need to do some volunteer work," says Mosha. "Where do I go?"

"Pfft, yeah right," says Scab. Mikado presses the barrel of her gun underneath Scab's chin.

"Come again?" she asks.

"You're not gonna kill me," says Scab. "You need me alive or else you lose your informant."

"Interesting thing about this gun," says Mikado. "The bullets aren't silver."

She pulls the trigger, and Scab cries out in pain as the bullet travels through his skull.

"GODDAMMIT!!"

"Hurts, doesn't it?" asks Mikado with a smile.

"FUCKING BITCH!" exclaims Scab. Mikado presses the gun against his crotch.

"Did I say bitch?" asks Scab. "Babe. I meant babe. Extremely hot babe."

"Cut the crap and just tell us what we need to know," says Mosha.

"You're making a huge mistake," says Blade.

"Shut up," orders Lt. Nathan Paul of Silvereye. He stood to one side of her with another Silvereye agent on her other side. Blade herself was handcuffed, and being led by them to the Silverfang's brig.

"Just think about this for a minute," says Blade. "If the original Blade couldn't stop Hunger, how do you think you guys can succeed without some help?"

"We've been well-trained," replies Paul.

"Really?" asks Blade. "That's comforting."

Suddenly, she stops. Paul and the agent turn to face her, but her leg flies up and strikes the agent in the chin. She kicks him again and sends him flying into the wall. Paul reaches for his gun, but Blade kicks it from his hands before he can flick off the safety. She then kicks him in the temple. Reaching down on his belt, she pulls out keys for the handcuffs she has on and unlocks them.

"So am I," she says to Paul, and drops the cuffs on him. She picks up his gun and runs off. Paul presses a switch on his helmet.

"She's escaped!"

"You really need to learn some self-control," says Mosha.

<"Oh boohoo,"> replies Mikado. <"What are you whining about? He's still alive, isn't he?">

"Was it really necessary to cut off his toes?" asks Mosha. "He already told us what we needed to know."

<"I know,"> replies Mikado. <"The toes were for fun.">

"You're sick," says Mosha. A ringing comes from inside her vest. She unzips it and reaches into it, pulling out a cell phone and placing it to her ear.

"What is it, Whistler?" she asks. "No leads on Blade, but we do have something on Hunger. What do you mean stay out of it? If we can't get to her, we might as well do something about Hunger. We have a location where Hunger's recruiting, Mikado and I are heading there to check it out. Once we find a way to get to the Silverfang, we'll rescue Blade. For now, we have to stick with what we've got."

She turns off the phone and places it back inside her vest, then zips it up.

<"The old bastard?">

"Who else?" asks Mosha. "And must you always talk in Japanese? It's starting to annoy me."

<"You ashamed of your heritage?">

"No, but we're in America," says Mosha. "And when in Rome..."

<"But we're not in Rome, imbecile.">

"It's a saying, Mikado," says Mosha. "Don't be so literal. We're in America, so we might as well speak their language."

<"I'd rather not,"> says Mikado. <"It's an unsophisticated language anyway.">

"Let's just get moving," says Mosha as she climbs on her motorcycle. She starts it up and drives off with Mikado following.

With Nathan Paul's assault rifle in hand, Blade opens a door marked "EVIDENCE ROOM" and enters. She begins to search around the room for her weapons. Guns, daggers, stakes, UV grenades, glaives, and garlic gas cans. She continues searching around for one more weapon.

At the far end of the room, she notices it. She walks towards it as if she were in a trance, almost like she was drawn to it by some unseen force. She wraps her hand around the scabbard and slowly pulls the silver sword from its sheathe. She looks at the gleaming metal, then slides the blade back into the scabbard and hooks it to her belt where it belongs.

She opens the door and looks from side to side. The hall is clear. She slowly walks out into the corridor and runs. She hears the sound of footsteps behind her and hides in a nearby alcove. She waits for the sound of footsteps to fade, and then moves out once more. She comes to the elevator, and rather than risking it, she enters the stairwell. She scales down all the flights of stairs until there are no more stairs. Then, she exits through the doorway and sees a surprised Silvereye agent standing there with his helmet in his hand. She lifts up the assault rifle and fires at him. His armor protects him, but the impact combined with the shock sends him reeling. Blade lifts the rifle up and slams the butt of it against his face. She steps over his fallen body and runs deeper into the bay area. She finds herself in the hangar, and looks around at the various crafts. She considers hijacking one of the minijets, but then she spots the sky-cycles...

Commander Frank Dallas is not happy.

Lt. Nathan Paul understands this, because Dallas is shouting at the top of his lungs. Never a good sign.

"I want the Silverfang placed under complete lockdown!" orders Dallas.

"Might be too late for that, sir," says Paul.

"And why is that?" asks Dallas.

"Because we found an unconscious agent in the hangar area, and we're missing one of the sky-cycles," replies Paul.

"She's escaped?" asks Dallas. Paul nods.

"FUCK!" exclaims Dallas.

"You want us to pursue her?" asks Paul.

"Not worth the effort," replies Dallas. "We can't split our efforts between searching for Hill and searching for Hunger. Besides, if she's been trained by Whistler, chances are we won't be able to find her again."

<"You sure this is the place?"> asks Mikado.

"Yes," replies Mosha.

<"Looks pretty empty.">

"Vampires don't like crowded areas, you know that."

<"I know that you probably screwed up the directions.">

"Do you ever shut up?" asks Mosha.

<"No.">

"Shh..." says Mosha. "Look."

She points out to the distance. Several men in black stand in a semi-circle around one man. Some of them are holding weapons such as bats or crowbars or chains. Mosha and Mikado both duck lower behind the crates which hide them.

"We wait for a bit longer, and then we attack," says Mosha. She draws a semiautomatic gun and loads it. She looks up at Mikado who's busy sharpening her daggers.

"And Mikado, don't kill all of them," says Mosha. "Ashes can't talk."

<"You're no fun,"> says Mikado with a pout.

Invisible fingers dance across the keyboard. Images appear on the monitor of different strands of DNA interlocking and merging. The words, "GENETIC RECOMBINATION BEGINNING" appear. Hunger turns away from the computer and hovers towards a large vat. Inside is a man suspended by wires. Hunger looks at him and smiles.

"Congratulations, Neil Erben," he says.

Invisible fingers dance across the keyboard some more. Hunger continues to stare at Erben, who looks back at him with fear. Emerald liquid starts to course through the tubes connecting to the vat. Neil's body begins to convulse.

"You are to be the first of the new race."