SMSTSS 12: Usagula meets Blacula! – By DS Wynne
Disclaimer: SM, R1/2, ST, Blacula and other genres belong to their respective owners.
Note: This is a multi-genre, two-part story.
Special: This is a Halloween special.
Author's Note: This story is different from the "Bunnicula" story.
Part 1
1972: Los Angeles, California.
Usagi Tsukino", aka "The Moon Princess", aka "Sailor Cosmos", aka "The Messiah", was many things. She was a "magical girl" hero who fought against evil in the name of love and justice. She was a wife, mother, lover, friend and ally who balanced the needs of being an explorer, a soldier, warrior, scholar, thinker, tinkerer, tailor, spy and a whole host of professions that need not to be repeated. With these backgrounds comes with it the heavy burden of responsibility, especially since Usagi has great power as a result of accumulating considerable life experiences. But in all that, in spite of the power she possessed, a power that could, in theory, reshape the Universe itself, Usagi was one of having simplistic needs and desires.
"Hey, honey!" Usagi called, as she steps back from her handiwork.
Ranma, who was working out in preparation for a film role, as a stuntman/action star, stops what he was doing in the backyard.
"What is it, hon?" Ranma replied, as he enters the house through the screen door.
"What do you think?" Usagi said, as she motions towards a gaudy looking painting.
Ranma frowns. Ever since the two got back from Southeast Asia, the couple has been doing their best to assimilate into normal society, with the couple joining the Los Angeles Police Department as law enforcement officers early on. It was harder for Usagi to be a cop, let alone a certified "Police Detective" in a male-dominated field, but her military service in Southeast Asia helped to mitigate matters. Other than that, the couple was as normal as any other, even so far as to moonlight in the entertainment industry whenever possible…
"Where did you get this?" Ranma asked. If there was one thing he couldn't stand being in the 1970s, was that fashion and aesthetics of the day were awful.
"Françoise to made it for me," Usagi said.
"Hon, were you drunk when you asked this 'Francoise' to make this?"
"May-be…"
"Usagi, I know you want to be fashionable, and all, but can we be at least a little moderate in our tastes?"
"What? What's wrong?"
"Let's just say that even our pal Liberace will think you lost your mind, with you over-doing things."
"Humph," Usagi replied.
Just then, the phone rings.
"Well, I think YOU are wrong, Ranma," Usagi said, as she picks up the phone. "Hello? Oh, hi Mina. Yes, we're fine. Yes? What? When was this…?"
A few minutes later, Usagi hangs up the phone.
"What's going on?" Ranma asked, as he sipped his water.
"Remember when I said that I and the rest of 'Dracula's Brides' decided to donate money to the Romanian government's 'Special Needs Fund for Children', as a way of placating them while we sell off some of our properties for the fund?"
"Yes, you didn't want the communists to encroach on lands belonging to your vampire clan, the Tzimisce, with their authority."
"Well, yes, after we threaten to slaughter the poliburo's families if they didn't accept the offer in a face-saving move."
Ranma gives his wife a questioning look.
"Hey, the use of violence is an effective tool, you know."
"Usagi, you're supposed to be a hero, not a monster."
"Well, when the world is no longer full of monsters, and I do mean the mortal kind, then I'll relent. Besides, I can't stand communists. At least with capitalists, you can always speak to their avarice and greed to cut through the nonsense."
"Oh-kay," Ranma said, as he broke out in a sweat. "So, what happened?"
"Apparently, a couple of local interior decorators bought up a bunch of furniture that included some coffins from one of our family's properties."
"So?"
"One of them wasn't empty. In fact, it had been sealed away in one of the hidden rooms at the property closer to town."
"So, what's next?"
"Well, I have the names of the guys who purchased the stuff: Bobby McCoy and Billy Schaffer."
"Wait, aren't they associates of your friend Francoise?"
"Yes. That's why Mina called me, since it was Francoise used me as a reference to get a crack at our property."
"Man, you have a lot of 'freaks' for friends."
"Now, now. Just because they are gay-"
"No, they have no tastes in fashion and interior decorating, Usagi. Ugh."
"I see. But I got the name of the storage lot where the coffin is being kept, while Mina is going over the family records to see who is in that coffin, if anyone."
"So, you think it's a vampire thing?"
"Dear, Vlad was a mad genius, with the emphasis on being a bastard. I wouldn't put it past him to do a jerk thing like seal a man into a coffin just to prove a point-"
Just then, the phone rings again.
"Hello?" Usagi said, as she picks up the phone. "Oh, Dr. Thomas! Yes, I heard of you- what? I see. We're on our way."
"What is it this time?" Ranma asked, as he towels himself off.
"Forensics has a case for us, one that is right up our alley," Usagi said. "It looks like the coffin deal will have to wait."
Ranma nods his head in reply. However, for some reason, he had a suspicion that they being called to work might be related to the missing coffin…
"Oh, dear," Usagi said, as she and Ranma stood to the side, as the next of kin to the deceased paid their respects at a local funeral home. Apparently, Bobby and his friend Billy were found murdered at a local storage facility, the one that both Usagi and Ranma were going to, in order to find the missing coffin.
"Why do I suspect that a vampire is involved?" Ranma whispered.
"You would suspect correctly," Usagi whispered back. "I sense the blood of the Dracul in that one."
"What generation?"
"Sixth, making Bobby seventh…"
"What now?" Ranma asked.
"I will have to commit the act of diablerie, in order to make this clean. That way, the authorities won't suspect a thing."
"But that also means you'll know who did this to him," Ranma asked.
"Yes, but the process will destroy the soul or essence of those being diablerized. I don't want to think that I am destroying Bobby's chances at having an afterlife…"
Meanwhile, a pair of eyes was staring at the scene, with a particular hatred for Usagi.
'So, I have a sister of sorts,' the man known simply as 'Blacula' thought. He had come down to the mortuary in order to raise Bobby, one of his first victims since being freed from his confinement, back to 'unlife'. Instead, he realizes that one of Dracula's progeny has arrived to deal with…him.
'I will NOT have my revenge escape my grasp,' Blacula thought.
Just then, one of the grievers lowers her hood, surprising the black vampire prince…
'Luva?' Blacula thought in surprise. 'Is that really you, coming back to me…?'
"Thank you for coming, detectives," Dr. Gordon Thomas said, as motions his companions to his side. Gordon was a dark-skinned black man who wore a short afro with a handle-bar mustache.
"This is Tina, Bobby's best friend and former fellow classmate."
"Hello," Tina replied with a nod. Tina wore a light brown, short afro. She also wore a cloak, out of respect for her best male friend Bobby.
"We went to the same school to be interior decorators."
"And this is Tina's older sister, and my personal friend, Michelle."
"Hello," Michelle said. Michelle wore a long perm/afro. Both she and her younger sister Tina were light-skinned, beautiful black women. Both Michelle and Tina were prominent in the local fashion industry, before Michelle decided to change professions, which is how she met her boyfriend Dr. Gordon Thomas…
"I was amazed to learn that you two knew Bobby," Tina said. "You know, being cops and all."
"Hey, we're more than law enforcement officers," Ranma said with a grin. "In fact, I do side work as an extra in Hollywood."
"I see…"
"Well, we would have been involved in all this even if we weren't with the police," Usagi said.
"Well, we better head on out to see Bobby's mother," Michelle said. "Someone needs to keep her company this evening."
"I catch up with you two later then," Gordon said, as he gives his girlfriend Michelle a hug.
"Just be careful…"
Michelle then turns towards Ranma and Usagi.
"And thank you for coming on such short notice," Michelle said.
"Eh, in light of this situation, it's the least we can do," Ranma said.
"Nice meeting you," Tina said with a nod.
And with that, the two sisters leave the mortuary.
"Now, if I recall, your backgrounds were in the 'Special Victims Unit'?" Gordon said, as he begins to examine Bobby's body. "One thing I found interesting were these puncture wounds."
"Yeah, looks like he got bitten by a flying rat," Ranma quipped. He automatically knew what the puncture wounds were…"
"You mean a…bat?"
"Has there been a chemical analysis on the wound itself, doctor?" Usagi asked.
"No, other than your basic 'cause of death': blood drain…"
Pause.
"So, where the hell did the blood go…?"
As the conversation continued, Usagi noticed the shifting in the air, something that only vampires or dhampires could detect.
"Um, I have to go to the 'ladies room', guys," Usagi said. "I'll be back…or something."
With that, Usagi disappears through some doors.
"Your girl must be in a hurry to do something," Gordon said, as he continues to examine Bobby's body.
"What do you mean, Gordon?" Ranma asked.
"That door way leads to the exit."
"I see…"
Meanwhile, Tina is walking down the street alone. She decided to let her older sister pay their respects to Bobby's mother, while she had time to think about her childhood friend's demise. As she continued to walk alone, Tina had the distinct feeling of being followed…
Suddenly, she bumps into a tall, handsome black man. He wore elegant clothes, a thick mustache, facial mutton chops, and a black cape. The cape has a white, silk linen underneath.
"Luva!" Blacula said in a thick accent. His English, however, was impeccable, since he went to school in England in the 1700s.
"Who?" Tina said in alarm.
"Yes, you're my Luva! It's me…Mamuwalde, your husband and Prince!"
"Get away from me-!"
"Let her go, scion of Dracula!" said a voice from behind.
Blacula and Tina turn to see Usagi standing there.
"You," Blacula spat, as he pushes Tina away, who then takes off running, sans her purse. "I sense kinship from you, which means that you, too, are a scion of Dracula!"
"One of his brides, actually," Usagi said, as she slowly walks up to the black prince of darkness.
Pause.
"I am Serena, principal Voivode of the Draculs, of Transylvania, although I am called 'Usagi Tsukino' in this era."
"Voivode", depending on region within Eastern Europe, either meant "prince", "duke" or "count". In local parlance, it certainly meant "commander" in military terms, especially when dealing the Tzimisce clan of vampires…
"I am Prince Mumawalde, of the Ebon nation," Blacula said with a nod. "Now that we dispensed with the formalities, I do expect you to stand aside and leave me be."
"Much has changed since you were released, Your Highness," Usagi said. "You cannot do as you please."
"Nothing has changed," Blacula said. "From what I've seen of this era thus far, the black man is still not seen as an equal partner in the community of Man…"
Pause.
"And THAT person is my Luva, reincarnated," Blacula said, as he points to a fleeing Tina. "She has come back to me, and I plan on fulfilling our happiness!"
With a yell, Blacula smashes into a brick wall, causing it to collapse on Usagi.
"No-!" Uasagi replied, as she is buried by a ton of bricks…
Tbc.