2 Chapter 2 — arc-knights

oh, we think that was just the infection" Susan said. But Trent looked up sharply "how long was I out"

Susan realized her mistake a little to late. With a sigh she answered "nine days. We had to move you to a windowless room on the second day at the end of my shift. You had horrible boils everywhere that was exposed to sunlight

Trent was uncustomarily angry <I just woke up, I really hungry, arggg this tasty little crazy... > Trent paused his inner monolog <that is not nice. Why did I nearly think that> (he "almost" thought a bad word)

"are you feeling OK" queried Susan, noticing the frown on his face.

"my apologies miss Heartfelt, I just seem to be feeling out of sorts. Kind of aggressive." he said sheepishly.

"oh" she said making an adorable expression (like a primary live interest that hasn't decided on the protagonist yet) "well we have you scheduled for a psychological exam in a couple of hours.... Or whenever Dr. Hoffsteder is free."

Dr. Hofstadter is a tall blonde accomplished.... Better plan, she has a son called Leonard Hofstadter who has a friend called Sheldon.

Trent made a confused expression. "Isn't she busy... Like most of the time. She refuses to see anyone who isn't intellectually stimulating"

Susan made a face and dropped her voice into an annoying register to quote the Dr. "he has a unique mind that has no particular formative trauma, it will be interesting to see how it reacts to such forceful stimulation."

"oh" Trent was in trouble.

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Arc-knight Tim of the Order of the Holy Knights of the White Light (they go by "the order" because they realized that their name sounds really racist, and the wise being called "author" was not inclined to write such a long name) was annoyed. He had been up for days dealing with this problem. "we told them 'there is an Indian crypt underneath the site' but did they listen nooooo."

the order had found a sealed crypt of a vampire of unknown bloodline. It was found to late. A golf course was being built right over it. The Order was able to find it because a bulldozer scratched its warding. (the Order maintained a set of equipment that could detect the presence of powerful vampires. It could not pinpoint the location but it could find a general area.) In this case they had used the historic landmark preservation society to help locate it before the seal failed. However the company refused to admit that the crypt existed and construction was underway.

The crypt was near to Arc-knight Tim's jurisdiction, so he was alerted to its presence. Headquarters dispatched a team to observe and contain the situation.

That was 11 days ago. 10 days ago it woke up. Thankfully it woke at night and initial civilian casualties were limited. However it drained the entire team. One of them was able to activate his failure beacon, and Tim was notified. This was the beginning of Tim's troubles.

Among the Arc-knights Tim was unique. His promotion was based on his overwhelming combat prowess. He was actually quite probably the least compitent of all the Arc-knights.

This is not to say he was a slouch. He was a very compitent, and capable warrior. He just was not Arc-knight compitent. (the author feels that you need backstory on Tim)

The Order makes many holy implements. However the crafting of them requires some odd ingredients. Among these the most obnoxious had long been the tears of a virgin. A virgin was difficult to find, and they did not produce many tears in a day. The Order had created a device to increase the amount of tears that could be produced by releasing an aggravating gas and catching the tears (now called the "tear catcher"). But a large amount was required for use by the order.

Then a disaster happened. (if you cannot guess then you are probably a prime candidate for Tim's recruitment)

Tim was one of the nine ward-knights (one rank below Arc-knight) assigned to recruiting more. While his companions scoured the nunneries and convents in vain (let's be real, they have frequent contact with priests), Tim attended comic-con. He returned with 47 virgins who thought that they were getting paid 10,000 dollars a month to participate in a study. (let's be honest there are definitely more virgins in comic-con, than in all the nunneries in the world)

After that he was assigned the task of finding and clearing a small werewolf pack. Which he did by using ultrasonic devices to incapacitate them during a full moon. (it only works on their dog form.)

Tim had a reputation for irregular warfare. In fact he almost got the queen of England (obviously she is a vampire) by wrecking her car. Unfortunately she had let princess Diana use her car.

His promotion to Ark-knight was debated. However it was never regretted. He achieved stabilization in his district in under a year. With no major vampire nests, and the werewolves having retreated to downtown, his district saw almost no incidents. In fact the last time a werewolf had attacked someone, Roger (the Alpha) brought Tim his head.

But this incident was his most obnoxious trial. No one knew what bloodline the vampire belonged to. No one knew its traits.

Tim took his team to intercept the vampire. Two were drained. Five were injured. Tim sent his team home and pursued the vampire alone. He had finally found it fighting with Trent and shortly after cornered and killed it with a holy dagger.

It seemed like it was over.... But, the tell stone (the equipment that says a powerful vampire is around) was giving a new signal. Tim combed through the information at his disposal and finally found a nurse with a newly developed allergy to sunlight, who had been in a fight with the vampire.

Tim began preparing his tests.