A/N: Um… Hi guys…This is just the beginning. We'll see Blade eventually, worry not.. This is all just really long background information… I do not own Blade or any of the original characters, although I'd love to. The italicized words below are an excerpt from the screenplay, so I do not own them, either. I do, however, take full responsibility for the havoc and chaos to be created by my own characters. Well, less of my yapping and more of the story. So… motions grandly I give you… Blade: Regeneration. Huzzah!
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Blade: Regeneration
By: NxRxG
Chapter
One
N.O.V.A. Hospital; FBI HQ, Downtown Chicago 2003
Dr. Arthur Dorsinger was almost done for the night. Then he could go home to his wife and recliner. It had been a long day, and only recently had they brought in the body of the infamous sociopath who went by the name of "Blade." He snorted. It sounded awfully like a comic book gone wrong. Vampires, he smiled. Only the stuff of fairytales. The poor man was probably a product of a Dungeons and Dragons obsession gone wrong. He'd seen it before.
"Doctor, we're ready for you." Said a nurse.
He nodded at her and began the preparations. He washed his hands thoroughly to the tune of "Happy Birthday," a morbid thought, as the body he was about to examine would have no future birthdays. He put the gloves on, grabbed a cassette recorder and entered the examination room.
"We have here, "Blade," number 45-Z88." Dr. Dorsinger stated into a small cassette recorder. "Black male, about thirty to forty years of age…isn't his physique nice? Height about six feet one inch. Weight maybe 220 pounds. Several tattoos of archaic design around the body, upon the upper back and neck region… You know, Doris, I was thinking of getting myself a tattoo. Don't think the wife would fancy it that much."
"There are no anterior wounds or exterior lacerations…" The Doctor prodded at the left pectoral region. "Doris, can we get a blood sample on this guy?"
The nurse nodded and began to take blood from the body.
"I am going to begin incision." Dr. Dorsinger stated, putting the scalpel to Blade's chest.
"What the…" Agent Matthew Garsal questioned incredulously.
The body began to change. There were several pops and cracks as the cartilage shifted. At the same time, the skin began to lighten as melanin was gradually leached away. It hadn't been Blade at all.
The virus didn't kill Blade. But the authorities very well could have. So in the end, realizing that own his people were doomed, Drake decided to give Blade a gift. By taking Blade's shape, he bought Blade enough time to escape. Offering Blade a second chance at life And so Blade took it. We never saw him again. He disappeared completely. But that's what heroes do. They simply fade out. And in this way-- they become legends.
Dracula Castle: Bran-Brasov, Romania; 1998
"Darling, honestly. It's three in the morning." Dr. Annael Parr wrapped her arms around her husband and looked over his shoulder at his work.
Joseph Parr yawned and kissed his wife's cheek. He looked down at the books and papers strewn across his desk, all o which related to vampires. The two doctors were archaeologists specializing in occult history. Although they were somewhat of a joke to historical society and although Dr. Annael had started to dig for history's sake, Annael stood by her husband. She had made a marriage vow for better or worse and would love him despite his quirks. This time it was vampires.
"Is it really? Are the kids asleep?" He questioned, rubbing his eyes.
"Yes, of course. Esen came in from a rave about midnight. Erik has been asleep since ten." She remarked and walked back to the bed of their rented cottage.
It had been a nice deal. Joseph had wanted to get away from his mocking colleagues and the normal "dig for lost culture" digs. There had been a nice lead near Russia about Vampires. It had something to do with some sort of underground conspiracy near Russia. There was something about a man who walked in darkness, striking fear into the hearts of all nightwalkers. Now he and his family were renting a small, two room cottage with a central room that held a kitchen and an eating area.
Joseph and Annael had become frequenters of Dracula's castle. For two months they had been gleaning information from caretakers and from the permitted inspectional digs. During their time in Bran, their daughter had become their source of underground information.
She was supposed to work her way into the good graces of the locals and to get the information that the professionals wouldn't give. She went to raves and brought back half-tale half-truth stories that her father used at his own discretion.
At sixteen years old, Esen stood five feet seven inches, with medium length golden brown hair and beautiful grass green eyes. Her skin was tanned because of time of many days under the sun. Her physique was slim and muscular—as a result of the kickboxing she did each night. That night she had gone to a rave and had learned some strange information. Vampiracy was a genetic disease and for a while it had been given a physical state on the black market as a drug. She had laughed it off, but for some reasons he didn't think Pavolv was joking this time.
She decided to tell her father the news in the morning as it would add fire to his search and had fallen asleep in her room.
Joseph Parr kissed his wife goodnight as she sank beneath the covers of the bed. With a click the lights went off. For some reason that night, Joseph could not sleep. He tossed and turned as a feeling of gradual unease spread through his body. Finally he held his wife close, and stared at the ceiling.
There was a noise from the other room. Had it been the sound of a door opening? He shook it off. His mind was playing tricks because he was so tired. This would be the last time he waited until two to sleep. He rolled over. Another sound from the other room, this time he was certain. It could be one of the kids up for a midnight snack…
The door to his room opened, and his heart raced. "Erik?" He questioned into the darkness. Something was breathing heavily. He reached over and turned on the light. Immediately his heart leapt. He shouted in surprise at the figure that stood before him.
A tall man with dark hair and dark eyes stared at him. He was gaunt and his face was pale, as though he hadn't ever been under the sun. The dark eyes were lifeless beneath bushy eyebrows. He looked like a walking corpse. Unexpectedly the creature leapt on him and was at his neck. He fought, yelling and feeling frightened and confused. The bite into his neck was abrupt, as was the feeling of paralysis that accompanied it. After a moment he could neither scream nor move. He only stared, as though lifeless while the creature fed off of his blood. He mustered an ounce of strength and gripped his wife's hand, feeling death was close in. His starting eyes fell upon his wife's lifeless eyes. Her body moved in unison with the feeding of a dark haired woman. He hoped the children had gotten away so that they did not share his fate. The chill of death was upon him and his vision darkened. He gripped his wife's hand firmly and sighed, at peace. So, vampires did exist.
Esen's eyes shot open as soon as she heard the shout. Something was terribly wrong. She sat up, smelling a very faint smell of rot and something sickeningly sweet. She turned to the bed next to her and shook her younger brother Erik so that he woke up threatening to punch her. "Shh…Something's wrong." She stated and motioned for him to follow her. They walked into the middle of the room, and saw that the door was ajar. What the devil was going on?
A light was on in her parent's room, so she and her brother crept to the doors and eased through them. Bloodcurdling could not begin to describe the scream of utter horror Esen had loosed. There upon the bed, bleeding from the neck and wrists were her parents. They stared, lifeless at the ceiling, seeming to spasm slightly. Esen looked down at the side of the bed. At the left wrist of her father was a man who held the wrist as though he were sucking the last drops of juice from an orange peel. A woman was doing the same to her mother's right wrist.
Esen's eyes went rapidly from the bleeding necks of her parents to their sliced wrists. "What the hell?" The pair of creatures looked up at the two as though startled. She suddenly felt the urge to be sick, but could not. "Er—Erik…go." She whispered hoarsely. The creatures jumped away from her parents as though one person. They were horrible-looking, pale, grungy and gaunt creatures that reminded her of the zombies she had seen in old horror movies.
The two spoke to each other in a language that Esen could not understand. The female nodded, wiping her bloodied mouth upon a black sleeve. Esen backed away, knowing there was no where to run. What were these abominations?
"C'mere, girly." The man said in a rough voice. He leapt at her, grabbing her firmly around the waist.
The female had straddled Erik upon the floor before Esen could even yell for him to watch out. The man pulled her close to him. "No! No!" She screamed.
"Relax, I'm not going to kill you. I'm quite satiated thanks to your father." He chuckled, leaning into her. "I'm simply turning you." He whispered, breathily into her ear. She shivered and turned warm. She felt a chill creep up her spine as she felt the man's lips on her neck. Her knees collapsed in pain as the teeth sank in and soon she was experiencing the feeling of having the blood sucked from her body.
After several minutes, the man pulled roughly away from her, letting her fall to the floor. He kicked the woman off of Erik. She hissed at him from a feline position on all four of her appendages, looked like a cowed and guilty cat. "We must wait for the change." He stated roughly, breathing as though he had just run a marathon.
Esen lay on the ground, staring up blankly at the ceiling. The pain from her wound was beginning to throb and spread through her whole body. Her body felt as though it were on fire—as though it were changing from the inside. Her jaw and mouth began to ache, and her head began to pound in unison with her heart. She began to spasm uncontrollably, writhing in pain. Her mouth opened in semblance of a scream, but none came. Her jaw was moving and growing in what seemed to be a fast forward motion. She gasped for breath, seized in a paroxysm that shook her whole body. Pain like a million stabbing daggers seized her inner organs. Her lungs began to expand and contract, changing her flow of breath. And then, the world suddenly became brighter and more visual. She saw a million colors as she had never seen them before. Her ears popped and suddenly every sound was magnified tenfold. The smell of blood became so strong in her nose that she rolled over and omitted. Then, there was nothing. The pain had ceased, the growth had ceased, but there was a heavy pounding in her head. A thirst came over her, so strong that she might die if it were not satiated. Her body longed for it, called for it. The urge gradually grew until her head threatened to explode.
She lay, hissing slightly, unsure of herself. Her mind was foggy, clouded and confused. She felt like a completely different person. Millions of emotions ran through her and disappeared, the prevalent one was a need to feed. She stood up, looking around the room. The two that stood before her were not worthy subjects, and the humans upon the bed had already been bled dry. She hissed angrily and fled the room, exiting the home and going off into the darkened night.
The two older vampires looked at each other and smiled, watching as the boy jumped up and ran off into the night. They spoke in the weird language again and split up after the newly made vampires. They would each need someone once their blood lust had been quenched.
The man found the teenager feeding upon an elderly homeless man. She had been feeding for a long time, with the elder vampire watching her. After several minutes, the elder vampire told her "That's enough. You are young—you cannot yet bleed him until death. Death will take you with it." He spoke roughly in her language as though he were only learning it.
The girl looked up at him, her green eyes shinning in the dim glow of the street lamps. Soon they went from void, lifeless eyes to eyes filled with recognition. She looked down at the man in her arms and recoiled, disgusted. "What the HELL?" She cried, staring at the dead man.
"Yes, you did that." Said the vampire. "How did it feel?"
The girl paused, thinking. "Like…Heaven." She replied after several minutes, in disbelief and confusion. She knew that such an abomination should feel wrong but it had quenched a very ache in her soul. "What have you done to me? Who are you?"
"My name is Dmitri Kasov, and I am a vampire. I turned you because I was satiated and could not have bled you dry to get rid of the witnesses. Natasha also reminded me before anything happened that the coven has recently lost a great many to the one called Blade, and it was a prudent and fruitful choice to make you and your brother one of us."
"…You made me a bloody VAMPIRE?" The girl screamed at him, enraged.
Dmitri nodded as though he had just handed her the greatest gift on earth. "Do try to keep it down, you'll wake the humans."
She leapt up and lunged for him. Her fist met squarely with his jaw. Dmitiri looked startled. "Nobody has struck me for two centuries," He stated, still dazed.
"Get used to it, buddy. You've made me one unhappy camper. I'm pissed and I'm going to let you know for the rest of your goddamn—uh—unnatural life." Esen was enraged.
Dmitri chuckled. "Oh I do love a girl with spirit."
"Go to hell." She snarled.
"I'm planning on it." He retorted smugly.
She looked up at him as she pushed the now dead man away from her. For a moment Dmitri was struck by the emotion in her eyes. The girl looked as lost as a stray dog in unfamiliar territory, as well as completely enraged. Her eyes spoke of utter hopelessness and sadness, and a loss of what was only just settling in. "You've taken so much from me." She whispered. "More than you'll ever be aware of…" Her head sunk down and she looked at a pool of blood. "What do I do now? What can I do?"
Dmitri sighed. "Well, first off, you know my name, but I do not know yours…"
"I am…or formerly was…Esen Parr. But you have taken that element from me." Her statement was bitter and filled with pain.
Dmitri paused and after a long moment he spoke carefully in a level tone. "I may have taken from you, but here I have given you something else. Immortality, girl. Strengths you'd never know had you not been turned. An altered perception of the world… Now I offer you the knowledge to manipulate it and act in that world. Take this knowledge and run with it. Do as you please, but I advise that you utilize the cards you have been dealt." He knelt before her, putting his fingers under her chin and causing her to look him in the eyes. His voice was softer now. "What do you say?"
The first smartass remark that came to her mind was "Thank you?" said in the manner of a child who has just been asked the same question under reasonably better social circumstances. This was truly her only option as she was new to this and very much alone. She couldn't survive without some guidelines. What if she accidentally did something that would mean her death? Learning from the vampires could also be helpful to her in the future. She'd wait it out and somehow find a cure… There had to be a cure, right?
On the other hand, her hatred for vampires burned deeply within her heart. They were her least favorite characters in fairy tales and now they were her least favorite in reality. She ought to just run a steak through his ruddy heart now and then do the same to herself or wait until she had violated one of the rules that were accompanied by certain death. Neither idea was appealing. If she utilized the vampiric knowledge to her advantage…No. She wanted no part with these vile, murderous abominations. But…She took a deep breath, the answer on her lips.
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A/N: Well, there you have it. A very long chapter one. Critiques? Comments?