Superhero Adventures, UK Style

31^st August 1888

Through the curtain of rain, they witnessed the transformation of a man into a beast. A man whose fingernails had glistened like silver and which, like his snout and teeth, grew out; in this case into silvered blade-like claws. The dark-haired female was immediately eclipsed when the bonneted female with the bronzed artificial leg hobbled forward, even as the white haired man with the piercing eyes and a grim look on lips almost concealed behind his white beard, stepped forward and raised his left hand, the one holding his cane, as though it held a shield. To Mace’s unawakened eyes that was all she saw, but to Mary (who immediately changed to Banshee, in anticipation of a fight) and Akira’s mystical senses he had just generated a mystical shield in front of him.

To one side, the transformation from man to wolf was now complete and his clothes had not survived the ordeal. His claws had been altered somehow into long sharp scalpel-like blades that glistened in the street light. He growled, low and menacingly at the three of them as the transformation shuddered to a bone-breaking conclusion. The werewolf preparing itself to leap at them, was over seven foot tall, lean and excessively muscular under its fur.

The bonneted female pulled a gun-like device from behind her back. On close inspection it more closely resembled a metallic-coloured hair drier with a winder attached but without any form of cord. She pointed it at Akira, spun the handle as fast as she could for a couple of seconds then from its nozzle a lightning bolt erupted in his general direction, the strike divided and earthed even as the main bolt headed straight at him. He dodged behind a lamppost and the blast took out the light with a small explosion of gas but failed to reach him.

The Werewolf seemed to be waiting for the distraction and was about to pounce as Banshee instantaneously changed back into Mary and unhooked her harp. The transformed Quincey was taken by surprise even as the white haired man grasped a crucifix on a chain hanging round his neck. Mary ignored their reaction and began to strum a pacifying lullaby putting all of her energy into calming down the savage beast who strode towards them. Wave after wave of soothing, mystical music flowed over the beast and its companions, sapping the hostility of them leaving a very confused werewolf unsure how to proceed as she proclaimed, “Wow easy now, we’re hunting vampires too.”

Akira used the opportunity to step towards the old man, the one he assumed Mr Stoker had been referring to when he’d mentioned Van Helsing’s name back at the theatre.  “Sorry about that, it was a stupid idea to claim I knew Drakul back there, we’re not with him and want to destroy him too. We ah, thought the manager was in cahoots with him. Sorry!”

The two women in front of them turned and looked at each other in amazement even as the werewolf tried to fight off the desire to transform back into a man under the influence of Mary’s harp. The old man however, held up the crucifix in his hand, and muttered something under his breath. The object immediately began to glow. To Mace it looked as though sunlight had appeared from nowhere, a single ray of light sparkling off the object in his hand, however Mary and Akira knew better. The man had cast the Illumination of Abbridon and focused its energy into the object in his hand so that it shone with the light and energy of the midday sun. Such a powerful spell would decimate most vampires though they were aware some could survive sunlight even if it left them weakened. They stood their ground and smiled as their skin was exposed to more sunlight that it had experienced in several days. It would mean they might have a bit of suntan on their exposed skin as a result and Mary couldn’t help wonder if this combination of spell channelled through a religious object was the source of the legend that vampires feared religious artefacts?

When the four facing them realised that the ‘crucifix’ had no effect on them, Quincey allowed himself to complete his transformation back into a shy American, albeit one who was now only dressed in tatters of clothing. The girl with the artificial leg giggled slightly at his embarrassment and hobbling forward pulled out a thin cloak from the bag on her back to cover his near nakedness.

The older man allowed the spell to die away before approaching, “My name is Professor Abram Van Helsing and with my companions here, we are the NightWatch. It is our task on behalf of the Watchers to stand against the powers of the night.” He turned and introduced his companions, the bonneted female was Lucy West, their weapons specialist, the fairly plain looking girl standing behind her, protected by her was Mina Murray, Technologist and of course they’d already met their assassin, Quincey Morris. Quincey responded by raising his hand towards his head apparently intending to tip a hat he did not currently wear and looked embarrassed as he apologised for his “intemperate judgement.”

Akira stepped forward and explained that they were “The Balance, so called because we keep things in balance and we don’t like vampires either.”

After a few minutes of dialogue, Van Helsing suggested that the open street was not the place to continue their conversation and suggested they retire to their base of operations to share intelligence on what was happening.

The team agreed and followed behind walking through the unceasing rain until they arrived at a place they recognised immediately, Mitre Square where Catherine Eddowes had been so ruthlessly slaughtered the night before –  probably by Quincey, thought Mace unsure about her feelings towards a man who despite his immaculate manners and shy demeanour may actually be Jack the Ripper.

They entered the Warehouse of ‘Kearley & Tonge’s’ and found themselves standing in an armoury and base camp that would have done the Army proud. Looking at the covert glances between them it was clear to Mace at least that the two women shared more than a room together. They were in a (what was the term they would have used in this era?) sophistic relationship. It was also clear going by the puppy dog eyes and jealous demeanour that Quincey had a ‘thing’ for Lucy himself. It was an unrequited love that failed to acknowledge the relationship that clearly already existed between the two women.

Abram allowed them to settle and then asked, “You have stepped into the middle of a secret war, one that may end in humanity’s extinction. I need to know, how willing are you to deal with the undead?”

Akira smirked, “By wiling to deal do you mean deal with or have a deal?” He dropped it when in all seriousness Mace started to expound that “we may need to understand them better. I would assume that not all vampires are necessarily bad people, they could be just misunderstood.”

Lucy spoke in a voice overflowing with emotion and anger, “Anyone who has seen their family slaughtered by them would be under no misapprehension as to their motives. They are evil through and through.”

It seemed NightWatch were a half-empty sort of group who could only see the black and white in the situation, no intermediate shades of grey in their philosophy.

Akira ended the long drawn out silence as he interjected, “It seems the vampires have been recruiting woman then using them to entice men, but for what reason?”

Quincey having now redressed, sat down some distance from them and explained to Mace, “Sorry Ma’am, I appreciate ma’ presence might make you uncomfortable but its ma’ job to take out the recruiters. Woman converted by Fairy Fay who has the ability to pass on the illusion of youth again. These woman, their youthful beauty restored, then seduce men, mostly ex-soldiers returned from abroad to join them but what happens to them after that, no one really knows. I assume that Drakul’s fella or his own chil’ren turned them . Whatever they intend we have to stop them before it’s too late.”

It took a second for his words to sink in. Mace was momentarily horrified, was this man really admitting that he was Jack the Ripper? That he killed these women because he thought they had become vampires?

She muttered under her breath, but the comment was picked up by the Commdots, “I have no choice, if he’s Jack I want to kill him, I need to, have to. Before he kills his next victim in such a horrific manner…”

Meanwhile Van Helsing was explaining that most people were blaming the local Chinese for the missing men claiming they were responsible for some sort of white slave trade and smuggling the men away to sea. Nonsense of course as the local tong, the Green Dragons led by a Chan Lui, had been helping them track down any vampires that dared surface though none of them dared to attack the Prince or his close companions for fear that they also would be ‘recruited’ to their ranks.

Before anyone could do anything though an excited and slightly breathless Mina appeared dragging a long sheet of paper. “My earthquake recorder has tracked down more of the digging Professor, it’s definitely heading towards Westminster and its increasing in intensity…”

The long trailing sheet of paper showed a series of squiggles and they immediately wondered if Mina might be trying to triangulate the location using a series of hand-built seismographs scattered around the city. She went on to explain that these readings showed that it was not related in any way to the underground railroad currently being built under parts of London.

Van Helsing thanked her and seemed to immediately dismiss her, as he continued to explain that he estimated that close to a thousand fit men had vanished off the street in the last three years within days of returning from fighting for the Empire .

What he didn’t know was why. Mace suggested it had to either be as food, a sort of living blood bank or as an army but which?

Mary asked if any of them had recently come across Boire and described him. Unfortunately, no one recognised him from her description but then there were lots of new vampires appearing of late as Drakul apparently expanded his plan, whatever it might be. They desperately wanted to track down Drakul but Van Helsing admitted that he had a knack of vanishing as soon as they lost sight of him, even if it was only for a couple of seconds. It didn’t help that they were now too well known to the vampires to be able to trail the Prince or his entourage closely without risking being ambushed themselves.

Akira was again suggesting that he wanted to dress up as an ex-soldier and allow himself to be picked up by one of Drakul’s prostitute recruiters. As the others ignored him or sighed in response, he exclaimed, “It’s a good plan what could possibly go wrong?”

The other two ignored him as they asked Mina about her readings and confirmed that they appeared to be heading towards the Houses of Parliament. Mace immediately wondered if this was another gunpowder plot planted beneath the cellars to prevent anyone accidentally discovering it. Mina quietly explained that she thought that was unlikely as it would require an immense amount of extremely powerful explosives to be successful and that the original plot, had it succeeded, would more likely have been a propaganda victory rather than successfully brought down the entire Houses of Parliament. She started muttering equations to herself as though to confirm her hypothesis. It was Quincey that reminded them that the State Opening of Parliament was due in a few weeks’ time, when her Majesty the Queen ‘of England’ (Mary and Akira refused to take the bait and correct him) would visit.

There were just too many unresolved variables. Mace was still worrying about how she might prevent the slaughter of Mary Kelly in a few weeks’ time as Mary suggested that they should try to tail Drakul and if they could manage it somehow, plant a tracer on him. That took a lot of explanation and in the end, they left an excited Mina to try and explain the concept to the others whilst they searched though some old piles of clothing belonging to the members of NightWatch. Quincey offered Akira some of his less gaudy clothing but admitted he would probably still look an American. Mace initially thought she would stand out as a woman of colour whatever she wore and therefore any attempt to follow them discretely would be ruined as a result, but Mary explained Mace’s ability to plant the tracker from a distance outweighed any inability to blend in. It was Akira who reminded her that even Queen Victoria had a close black companion in this era and there were literally hundreds of black people living as citizens in the city at this time. It had been her form of dress that had marked her out most, not the colour of her skin.

When they had all dressed in local costume, Van Helsing sent Lucy to explain to the Rabbi that the three of them would be away for the night and beg his assistance in looking after their comatose friend during their absence. The Professor also explained that he intended that his team would stay some distance back, following them rather than their immediate quarry, Drakul.

After some discussion it was decided that as Drakul would be attending the Lyceum Theatre again that evening that that would be the best place to find and begin to follow him though again the others explained that he would have some people with him, likely vampires themselves.

It was as they were about to leave that the Professor pulled them aside and asked them if they could keep an eye open for a young girl in Drakul’s company. It was possible that it was his granddaughter Rebecca. Drakul had kidnapped her from his family home a few months before, as he passed through Amsterdam – a warning to him and his family that they should not try to stop him. That was why Van Helsing had generally stayed off the streets, secreted here in the Warehouse rather than directly confronting him. He was sure he would not have converted her, at least not yet. If they did find her could they..?

The plea went unfinished. Whether he meant they should try to rescue her or kill if she’d been changed, the end of that statement was left unspoken.

The secret to Drakul’s ‘final destination’ every night remained undiscovered because he would vanish if they lost sight of him even for a couple of seconds. The members of NightWatch really didn’t understand how such a small object such as Mace’s Tracer would enable them to track him once he was out of sight. Mace smiled and assured them that it would work… They just needed some money for the Theatre.

After several long arguments, mostly between Mace and Akira about how best to proceed, Mary took matters into her own hands and paid for the three of them to purchase a private box on the Grand Balcony as it would give them the best viewpoint of the entire auditorium.

As they settled down in their seats, they were delighted to see that Prince Drakul and his entourage were occupying another box also in the dress circle, only three balconies away. As well as a now healed Philip and two young female companions dressed in finery that belayed their behaviour as they flirted with the men in the auditorium below, there was a young girl, twelve or so, her hair in ringlets and with eyes dark as ebony. She did not appear to be a captive but the Balance immediately assumed she had to be the Professor’s granddaughter.

It was too good an opportunity to miss. After several minutes of discussion about the best way to tag him, Mace elected to confront the matter straight on. She still had Adam’s experimental tracer bolt with her. Its range, like their communicators, would be limited to Bluetooth without access to satellite tracking but it was the best option they had.

As the lights in the theatre went down and the actors took to the stage, Mace lent over the safety rail and took careful aim. This had to look like a serious assassination attempt if it was to get their quarry to run to ground. She took careful aim in the half-light and fired. She had hoped to wound him, leaving the tracer embedded in his shoulder but he moved slightly and instead the bolt sliced through his lapel and embedded itself in the wall behind them.

She hoped in the immediate chaos that no one had noticed the small tracer detach a second before the bolt impacted and drop onto his clothing where it was designed to be near invisible.

It was an angry and defensive Philip that spotted and glowered at them, having worked out the direction of the attack as the two women and the girl immediately surrounded Drakul and began to usher him from the box. Mace couldn’t help herself as she quickly blew him a kiss before checking her wrist comp was reading the movement.

As they headed out of their own box and hurried to catch sight of the fleeing group, they realised that their prey was already in the street heading towards the river. They needed to get closer so, with Mace’s head covered in a shawl to make sure she didn’t stand out too much, they ran out and into the street in pursuit. They turned the first corner and sure enough there was Philip, the two woman and the young girl but no Drakul. Then they spotted a familiar sight. Up ahead, dressed in the same clothes as Drakul was a figure they hadn’t seen since 1666. His hair was longer, his face bearded but his eyes – though a different colour from the man in the theatre box – still held the same sense of menace. That was the face of Drakul they had observed during the Great Fire. It made sense, Dracula was known to be a shapeshifter, capable of changing into a great bat-like creature or mist, why not the ability to alter his appearance?

He walked in front of the group, as though not part of the four behind him but the signal was still clear and strong. For the moment, their quarry and his followers were all heading in the same direction as they headed down side streets as though daring their hunters to get closer.

Then he vanished completely from sight. Not sure how he had achieved that particular feat, the signal was still showing that it was in the vicinity of Philip and the others as they approached an apparently abandoned church called St. Mary’s.

Under a nearby streetlight, Philip stood waiting, his two female companions and the young girl shielding him with their bodies even as the Balance realised that they were being surrounded by shadowy figures in ragged uniforms.

Mace saw them as victims and shouted out “Don’t hurt them.” The others did not feel the same degree of compassion for their would-be attackers as Mary changed into Banshee and unleashed a terrorising scream that echoed everywhere. The first to fall victim to its fright was the young girl though Philip himself seemed unaffected. Two of their potential attackers staggered back as others stepped up revealing their altered, almost rat-like appearance that immediately reminded Mace of the old Nosferatu film. That made up her mind for her.

There were about seven men surrounding them as well as the two female companions, all moving in for an attack. Akira reached upwards and unleashed the Illumination of Abbridon, which evaporated the nearby rain droplets creating a thin mist that did nothing to disguise the sunlight now blazing down on the vampires. It caught their closest attacker by surprise and he immediately turned to ash, the others possibly shielded slightly by the mist suffered burns though some appeared more seriously injured and staggered back from Akira and rushed at Banshee instead. Banshee elected to turn insubstantial and allow them to crash through her, even as she saw a side door of the nearby old church open on its own then quietly close. Drakul?

Akira meanwhile was distracted as the curly haired young girl in the party dress pulled herself free from Philip and ran towards him shouting, “Save me, save me please!”

He did wonder momentarily why the granddaughter of a Dutch Professor would have a London accent as he renewed his mystical energy into the mystical sun above his head. The girl staggered back badly burnt by the renewed mystical sun even as Philip cried out, “Fairy!”

Another of their attackers collapsed, shriven and clearly dead. Another turned to ash even as others, including a nearby attacker and Philip, were badly burnt and staggered backwards under the continued assault. None of the vampires, including the girl – could she be Fairy Fay they’d heard about rather than the Professor’s kidnapped granddaughter? – were unscathed.

Mace used the disruption to unleash a series of bolts against the males before their would-be attackers could recover. Two were hit in their hearts which caused them to shrivel up, another bolt shattered a knee causing the old soldier to collapse to the ground even as Banshee unleashed a Wail that shattered lights, affecting even her own teammates who were temporarily unable to continue their attacks and rendered the remaining vampires, including Philip and the girl, unconscious.

Not waiting, Banshee immediately ran towards the side door to the church followed closely behind by Akira and a rather hesitant Mace. Just as she entered the building, Mina caught up with her as the rest of NightWatch appeared and began dispatching the surviving vampires.

She did not wait to see what they did to the young female vampire or Sir David’s brother, she followed the others inside and down the stairs into a church crypt. Surrounded by thick stone walls her tracer was unable to get a signal but going by the string of miners lamps and the sound of digging echoing through the chamber they didn’t need it. The way to go led through a hole knocked in the wall into a sewer that headed towards the Thames. They followed the sound of excavation using the narrow rat-covered walkway with Mina slapping small parcels of what was clearly explosives on the wall and ceiling of the tunnel as she passed. A short distance in they found the lights illuminated a recently dug tunnel that headed away from the sewer. Again, Mina slapped parcels on the entrance and followed them in. The tunnel ran for several hundred yards until it turned into a large hand dug cavern. Every hundred yards or so Mina continued to place her little packages.

In front of them, in the light from dozens of miner’s lamps was an army of vampire navies digging continuously into the foundations of some building. As they stared and wondered what to do next, they heard Drakul’s voice behind them. They spun round and saw a strangely familiar-looking stranger standing behind speaking with Drakul’s voice.

Mace suddenly realised who it was, Drakul had taken the image of Prince Albert as a young man. Drakul smiled, revealing his canines. “You like? You see in a short while her Majesty the Queen will attend to open the Houses of Parliament and she will find the parliamentary chamber empty as she will the House of Lords, their members taken by my gathered army who will break through immediately after the statutory search of the cellars.

Instead, what she will find is this, the image of her long dead love resurrected. Do you think she will reject her love returned? She will rush to my arms and join my chydren. Together we shall reign over this empire. I will of course remain as Prince Consort. The world maps will show the British Empire coloured blood-red as my army of undead spreads out and converts the world to my rule.”

He pointed beyond them, “Vampire workers never need to rest, to sleep, never get tired. Try to drown or gas them and they merely enter into a suspended animation until revived. They are the perfect army for such an empire. Unstoppable and with the power of the Empire behind them the world will become our feeding grounds. You can’t stop us.”

He shapeshifted again back into his original shape as he spoke. Behind them, more and more of the undead diggers began to advance towards them from the massive hand dug chamber.

No time, Akira used the last of his mystical energy as well as part of his own life force to power another miniature sun. To his surprise, while it forced the vampires behind them to move back, Drakul merely stepped out of the way into a side tunnel, away from the direct effect of the sunlight obviously weakened but otherwise unaffected. Mina threw the remains of her explosives by the entrance to the chamber and ran… Passed Drakul and down the tunnel towards the crypt.

Mace unleashed a bolt straight at Drakul but the nearby mystical sun obviously didn’t slow his reactions as he dodged the bolt. Then as they watched, a portal appeared behind Drakul; a familiar kevlar-covered arm reached over and pulled him through even as the portal slammed shut. Again, Boire had rescued Drakul and this time had made sure they couldn’t follow.

They had no idea how to trace him and realised there was a strong possibility that they were trapped in the past. Mace started running after Mina realising that even if they could have followed Drakul as it would have meant abandoning Locker.

Akira allowed his mystical sun to fade even as Banshee used her Banshee shriek to weaken and bring the roof down on the entrance to the chamber with the explosives on the other side. Then Akira teleported them all out to the street even as Mina and Lucy activated the explosives using a large radio-like device and seconds later the church collapsed in on itself.

There was no sign of the vampires (or the young girl) in the street and Mace couldn’t bring herself to ask.

Mary approached the Professor, “So what happens now? Do you think the explosion killed all the vampires gathered underground?” Van Helsing shook his head, “We haven’t killed them you know. Without air, the vampire army will merely enter in a death-like coma until they are revived. I’m not sure how to reach underground and kill them but we will make sure that a watch is kept on the cellars underneath the House of Parliament, just in case.”

When they explained what they had seen about Drakul’s escape, Van Helsing was sure that he would now retreat, back to his castle in Transylvania, possibly visiting wherever he had hidden his granddaughter in the process in case he needed to use her as a hostage. They would follow him regardless as soon as they could make some arrangements.

Mace hoped that if Quincey was to leave London in the next few days it would mean that at least Mary Kelly would now be safe.  The two groups parted company and the team headed back to the Rabbi’s home and Locker. It was a day later that Akira felt strong enough to try casting the Compass of Ahgrazul to locate Boire, nothing. It backed up their own senses that Boire had already left this era, trapping them here in Victorian London.

If they were to remain here, they would need jobs, a base of operations other than relying on the Rabbi’s goodwill and medical help for Locker. Depressed, they considered their options. It was a few hours later that the rabbi opened the door to his house and muttered, “This one must be with you. We don’t get many armoured amazons appearing out of nowhere in the middle of a busy street.” Behind him, a still armoured Danni poked her head round the door and smiled, “Found you at last. I had to follow a historic breadcrumb trail to locate you; from previously unreported tales of a witch appearing over London foretelling the Great Fire of London to a previously unrecorded earthquake in 1888. Ah, you wouldn’t happen to have any coffee would you? Never mind, so I need a day to recover but I will be able to get you home, though we still don’t know where Boire has gone to yet.

So, sorry Rabbi is there room for one more for a night and I can clear out your infestation for good? I can pay..?” She scrambled in her armour and produced a couple of gold sovereigns, which she placed on the table.

Next day, Danni gathered the group together in the yard with Mace’s bike and Locker in an emergency life support cocoon. Winking at the slightly shocked Rabbi she explained, “You’ll like this.” She turned to Banshee, Mace and Akira and asked, “I can either take you immediately home or… Well you see there is an issue that I need to resolve. It means travelling to Friday the 31^st of December 1999… Would you be interested in helping out? I can arrange for Locker to get temporary treatment while we are there…” She smiled as they nodded in agreement and vanished in a burst of light.

To be continued.