A Mission In Romania And Gearing Up

The two of us walked down the cavernous pass to where the HQ of the Order was - there to meet us was Cardinal Jinette, a slight frown upon his face. He wasn't upset. That's just how his face looks nowadays.

More and more supernatural incidents. More and more innocent lives lost. So much so that Van Helsing and I are usually split to do different jobs unless the job needed doing was one of high importance. Just before I joined the Hyde subjugation mission, I was off in the depths of the Siberian tundra hunting down Skin-walkers.

They're usually only found in North America. Mexico or South America if they migrate, which they rarely do. But with travel over the Atlantic getting more and more common, supernatural creatures only found in North America are beginning to spread to other continents and their countries.

Skin-walkers...nasty little blighters. Not just animalistic strength but also ancient magic meant to dull their prey. Unlucky for them, I have an uncanny resistance to most types of magic that aim to control or cast insidious effects on me.

Anyway, we're here, in the Vatican, to meet Father Jinette. The Cardinal I first met after I woke up here. The one who blessed me and welcomed me into the order. He was a friend, even if he tried to deny it at times in favour of professionalism.

"I knew I was right to send the two of you," he began, "Dr. Jekyll has already began to talk as long as he does not have to see the, what was it that he called you? Ah, yes, the Sword of God. It seems you've given both sides of the doctor some trauma because of your actions with a sword. Though I must say, your methods are...questionable," he shook his head, the fatigue coming across his face apparent in every way, "Was it really necessary to make him limbless? We cannot even make him write down his findings and instead had to rely on orally getting them."

Father Jinette, when compared to Van Helsing and I, had aged in these six years. Yet neither of us had changed even the slightest. I'd guessed I'd either be immortal or extremely long-lived...but to see my friend slowly getting older was truly a uniquely horrifying sight.

My sombre thoughts aside, I gave a shrug and a nonchalant smile, "You should've seen him as Mr. Hyde, Your Eminence. Very big fellow. Even threatened to eat us, didn't he, Helsing?"

"Oh yes. If it weren't for him being limbless, I fear to think how we'd have brought him back alive," Van Helsing said in a serious tone but the slight grin at the corner of his mouth told everyone who knew him that he was following along with my joke.

The Cardinal shook his head and threw his hands up in 'I can't deal with this gesture', as he turned, mumbling, "It's like dealing with a pair of teenagers," before he began walking further into the cavernous pass that led further into the HQ of the Order, "Forget it and just follow me before the patience He gave me runs out."

As we walked down the stairs in silence, the sounds came to my ears before they did theirs. Sounds of people walking around, hammers hitting metal and anvils, swords and weapons being sharpened, scholars trading ideas between each other and scientists mixing different kinds of chemicals together causing a multitude of different effects. No doubt Carl was among the people mixing chemicals and no doubt his combinations were causing the explosions I could hear.

Before long we found ourselves in front of the origin of this noise. A cave that stretched hundreds of meters and was about ten meters in height - despite not being able to see them, there were other rooms that were connected to this cavern in front of me. This entire place stretched as far as the Vatican did.

Standing there, Father Jinette looked over the people at work with a proud light in his eyes, "We've kept mankind safe since time immemorial. Without us, the world would be in darkness. Empires and governments come and go but we...we stay and fight to keep people safe. We are the last and first defense against evil," he said, overlooking the people at work. The oddest, or best, part about the people working was the many different religions and places they came from.

I could see Buddhist Monks, Jewish Rabbis, Asian Scholars, Arabic Imams and scholars--every single religion and their brightest minds were here. Not just Catholics. On the surface, humanity is split and divided when it comes to worldly issues...but down here, against the supernatural? Humanity is united and strong. It's a wonderful sight to see.

"Yet I fear an evil greater than all others is coming to the forefront of that darkness. One that threatens the world with it's insidious goals," the Cardinal sighed, his proud look being tainted with that same fatigue once more, "Which is why I have a task for you two. A task that will decide the fate of humanity."

Van Helsing became serious at that, his entire demeanor changing once he knew humanity as a whole was at danger. I couldn't blame him. I knew the stakes and it truly did threaten the entirety of the world.

"Where do we need to go, Your Eminence?" I asked as we began walking into the cave that housed all these people. I looked over the tables filled with books, notes and test tubes as I asked.

"To the east. The far side of Romania, to be exact," the Cardinal scowled, "An accursed land, terrorised by all sorts of nightmarish creatures. Lorded over by a certain Count Dracula," he snapped his fingers and a projector was turned on, showing an old-styled painting of the man the creature once was.

"Dracula?" Van Helsing asked, looking away from the notepad he was perusing over and looking to the Cardinal with a confused look.

Confused because we knew Vampires were real. Two separate kinds, to be exact.

One kind were vampires made through magical means. The other was vampires made through a mutated retrovirus. But Dracula was treated like a myth in the Order, a story made up by people who knew Vampires existed and wanted to try and conjure up a story for their origin. The story went that Dracula was once a noble knight who made a deal with a dark entity after his death because of his greed for life. In that story, he was called the original Vampire - yet I knew that wasn't the case.

Vampires had been spotted as far back as the 5th century, yet Dracula was meant to have become a vampire sometime in the 15th century. I knew that in the original Van Helsing movie, he would've been the original vampire. But this reality had much more to it than I originally thought.

When I first joined the Order, I put myself in it's very extensive Library and read everything I could. Knowledge is power, after all.

Which means I know there are two other forms of media mixed with this world.

A particular name constantly came up in the records of the vampires. Mikaelson. The Originals from 'The Vampire Diaries' TV show. Then, two other names came up 'Viktor' and 'Marcus', the latter of which was the first ever biological vampire. The Mikaelson family became Vampires through magic, while Marcus became a vampire through a genetic mutation. These are the two different races of vampires - the Magical Kind and the Biological Kind.

Viktor and Marcus come from the movie series 'Underworld'. And it was at that moment that I knew I was in a much, much more dangerous world than I originally thought. Luckily, the Mikaelsons had fled to America after being constantly hunted by both the Order and their father.

Marcus had seemingly disappeared from the face of the Earth but Viktor was the ruler of his race of vampires being what could only be described as a Warlord. He controlled the Austro-Hungarian Empire from behind the scenes, using it's money and influence to further his own power.

The Order could do very little to stop the growth of his Coven, using most of their resources just to stop him from spreading any further west in Europe or, God forbid, America. We'd ran a few missions against them and I've gotta tell you, they're a real hassle to deal with. Their Death Dealers are extremely well-trained...though that didn't stop me from killing 'em in the end. I haven't had any run-ins with the magical-type vampires, however. I've just heard they're much harder to kill due to their magical origins.

All of these thoughts happened within a fraction of a second, which meant I was able to hear Father Jinette begin his talk about the reason we were being sent to Romania.

"The story begins over 450 years ago, when a Transylvanian Knight, named Valerious the Elder, promised God that his family would never rest nor enter Heaven until they vanquished Dracula from their land," he said, pacing along a sturdy yet old wooden table, running his hand along the surface as he continued in a more subdued tone, "They have not succeeded and they are running out of family."

He stopped, leaning against the table before releasing a tired sigh, "His descendant, Boris Valerious," the slide on the projector changed to show an older man with long grey hair and a thick moustache with a black eye patch over his right eye, "King of the Gypsies, went missing almost twelve months ago," the slide changed again to show a man in his twenties, with long brown hair swept backward with handsome features and slight stubble around his jawline, chin and upper lip, "His only son, Prince Velkan, and his daughter, Princess Anna," the slide changed once more to show a beautiful woman with long black hair that curled toward the end - she had a stunning resemblance to Kate Beckinsale - "If the two of them are killed before Dracula is vanquished...nine generations of their family will never enter the gates of Saint Peter."

He stood between Van Helsing and I, his voice sounding strained and saddened as he went on, "For four centuries, this family has defended our left flank and battled Viktor and his coven as well as Dracula. They gave their lives in the pursuit of peace for their land's people and their predecessor's. We cannot let them slip into purgatory."

Landing a hand on the Cardinal's shoulder, I gave it a comforting squeeze as I spoke up, "Don't worry, Jinette, we won't let that happen. No one who has done such deeds deserves to be locked from the Silver City for all of eternity."

He gave me a thankful smile before turning to Van Helsing who spoke up.

"So, you're sending us into hell to fix their mistakes, I assume?" he asked in a sardonic manner which caused me to roll my eyes. He acts like such a tsundere at times - we both know he'll go to help regardless yet he always has to make those quips.

The Cardinal just rolled his eyes as he turned around and took what looked like a scroll from a monk behind him, "Valerious the Elder left this with his just before his death, four hundred years ago. We don't know it's purpose," he said as he unravelled the scroll, showing some Latin words, "But he would not have left it lightly," he gave both of us a look that got across the importance of this torn up scroll.

"In the name of God, open this door," I read, having learnt Latin in my stay here alongside a dozen other languages, "Most likely a way to Dracula's Castle, if I had to guess." Pulling the scroll just out a little more, it showed an insignia, "Your ring, Helsing. The insignia matches. Maybe we'll find a way to clear that empty head of yours in Romania?" I semi-joked with the man.

He gave me an unamused look as he held up his ring next to the insignia. A perfect match.

I already knew who Van Helsing was but it'd do him better to find out on his own. That's just how these types of things work. Either way, it looks like we're off to see Carl - I wonder if he completed that thing we'd been working on yet?

. . .

"Ah, there you are," Carl said, looking over some sort of machine - a machine that had just shocked a man who was on some sort of pedalling machine which produced electricity for it - "I've seen that you brought back Dr. Jekyll. Well, you brought him back limbless but at least he's alive...that's the best outcome we could've expected after pairing you two together for a mission," he bantered as the two of us walked down the stairs and into the cave where Carl worked.

This cave was what could be called the R&D facility for the Order. As well as the place that produced the weapons and equipment Van Helsing uses. His grappling hooks, handheld saw blades and pistols all coming from here.

"Carl, it's good to see you," I greeted him, slapping the shorter man on the shoulder as he winced at the 'blow'. It wasn't hard or anything, he was just too soft. "What have you got for us today, you mad but brilliant friar?" I grinned as I asked, the three of us continuing to walk through the R&D cave of the Order, as I watched many a person were making swords or bombs or tinkering with delicate machinery.

"And you too, Michael. Though I'd prefer if you didn't call me 'mad'," he grumbled, getting a grin from the ever-stoic Van Helsing and a chuckle from me as we followed him. "But I've finally finished that design you gave to me. Plenty of ammunition for it as well. And I've got something for you as well, Van Helsing, something I'm sure you'll like. But first we'll get the basics," he said, handing both of us satchels before piling in garlic, holy water, silver stakes and crucifixes.

All the while, Van Helsing seemed enthralled with what looked like a prototype-gatling gun. I have to admit, I wouldn't mind taking one of those with us to Romania either.

Following Carl further, we came upon a tank of a clear substance with a light green tint.

"Here's something new," Carl said before holding his finger under a tap, "Glycerin 48," he said as he twisted the tap just enough for a drop to land on his finger before he turned and flicked it against the ground causing a surprisingly big explosion for just a drop of the stuff. Quite a few people got shocked by the sudden noise and fire, shouting out in annoyance at Carl while Van Helsing and I shared a glance; classic Carl. The man who'd caused the explosion shouting his apologies to whoever could hear them.

Once done apologizing, he turned back to us before getting distracted once more like he hadn't just nearly caused violently explosive death upon the nearby workers.

"Ah," he said, getting carried away with his mad scientist-ness, "My latest invention for you, Van Helsing. It's gas-propelled," he said as he walked over to and picked up a metallic crossbow with a drum magazine no doubt filled to the brim with bolts, "Capable of catapulting bolts in rapid succession at tremendous velocity. Just pull the trigger and hold on, is my advice. Though, admittedly, it does pale in comparison to what I've finally made for you, Michael," he said after handing the crossbow to Van Helsing who looked over it like a hawk.

He turned to a draw, which he opened and showed a thick case of mahogany. The case had the insignia of the Order and fancy curves and lines engraved into it and inlaid with silver. A very lovely case but I was more interested about what was in it.

Carl struggled to lift the case up before plopping it down where the crossbow had been. When he opened it, it showed two guns. Two glorious, glorious guns.

"22mm, four-round revolver, made with all the specified materials. The grip? Carved from fragments of the True Cross. The metal of the gun comes from holy church bells, blessed silver and cold iron from crucifixes used in at least one hundred supernatural missions," he explained in an almost reverent manner before picking up one of the rounds laid next to the guns, "The rounds tipped with explosive shells and filled with white oak, shavings of blessed silver, five drops of holy water and a dash of garlic."

...I think I'm in love.

Stepping toward the casing, I picked up one of the revolvers and held it in my hand. It was heavy for others but for me it was perfectly weighted and balanced. Flicking the gun to the side, I looked in the empty chambers before spinning the cylinder and snapping it shut once more. Perfect.

Looking to Carl, I put a hand on his shoulder, "I will get you laid if it's the last thing I ever do on this Earth, Carl. These revolvers are...perfect and more than I could've ever imagined," I smiled and turned away from the somewhat confused Van Helsing and the embarrassed Carl. Picking up the other revolver, I looked down at them before smiling even wider, "I'll call these two the Good Samaritans. Fitting, no?" I looked to Van Helsing who rolled his eyes.

"Don't you think His Eminence, Jinette, will be quite annoyed with naming two weapons after a story about compassion and mercy?" Van Helsing asked and I just shrugged, too enthralled in my new weapons.

"He'll get over it eventually," I finally answered before seeing the sling holster in the case. Placing the revolvers down, I took off my over coat and undid my suit jacket before taking that off too, leaving me with just my shirt and tie on. Putting the holster on, I made sure it was tightly secured to me before holster the two revolvers, "Ah~ Perfect."

As I packed the abundance of ammunition for my two beauties, Van Helsing looked to Carl, "Anything else you've got to add? I think we've lost Michael for the next hour or two," he said with a sigh before adding, "And pack your things, Carl, because you're coming with us. Cardinal's orders," he smiled toward the end, seeing Carl's quickly paling face.

...Who said those who hunt monsters don't become monsters themselves? Van Helsing's a real sadist at times.