Universal Covenant, Central Post, Universal Rift 17

There was a reign of pandemonium in the office there in the main building. Papers were flying around, people were running and typing at full speed, phones were picked up every so often only to be slammed down in a few seconds.

"What the bloody hell is going on here!?" Hexus, a young but beyond wise hack in high places yelled into his cell phone. "I want to know who took Equinox Beta!"

"I don't have a lead!" someone on the other line yelled with just as much ferocity. "It's my weapon they took, prick. I'm the one who should be cussing the hell out of you!"

"Well, I'm in charge of the bloody red tape, Bishop!"

"I'm the one in charge of this entire bloody outpost! Get Rex on the next line and I'll send Xav to investigate!"

There was a click on the line, and Bishop hung up. Hexus rolled his eyes and ran his hand through his thick, spiky hair. Secretaries were now all calling him to get a message to him.

"THAXA!" Hexus bellowed.

"Yes, sir?" Thaxa, a very slight woman new to her job, answered nervously.

"Hold all my calls and take charge here! I'm getting onto this investigation myself. Someone who isn't registered as a UCM is wreaking havoc in some hybrid universe that appeared out of nowhere. Not only that, but they freakin' took Equinox Beta!"

"And what does that mean for us?"

"If this guy can control Uni-Trav, and he's got Equinox Beta, it means we're all screwed," Hexus enlightened her.

About a mile away, walking through the food court to get to his fiancé was a young man named Cerex. In his hand he held some chili powder, a box of chow mien, orange chicken, and mandarin chicken, a mango, and a Hershey's King-size chocolate bar.

"I swear, Roxy gets the strangest cravings I've ever heard of," he mumbled to himself. "Sometimes, I wish that I had-"

"YOU, SISTER-ABUSER!" someone screamed on his radio.

"What, Xav!?" Cerex bellowed, getting so mad, he started to shoot flames from his eyes.

"You're needed on the field!" Xav replied. "Drop whatever you're doing and get to a transport now!"

"I gotta give Roxy her food!" he yelled back. "She's pregnant, you know!"

"I know, you bastard, you did it! Now, give her the food, get your Equinox, and get the hell over to Bishop's Gate Traveler!"

"What do we have to deal with this time?"

"I didn't tell Richter Kingside, but we've got a job to do killing vampires."

Cerex groaned as he started to run. He hated vampires ever since Kalyn. Then he comes here two years ago and the Blood Coven appeared. Well, now he was going to bust some heads and kill anything that stood in his way. After all, if he didn't survive, who was going to take care of Roxy and his unborn son?

Highway 215, California

Alucard and Demon were driving in silence when Demon asked if they could stop, get out, and get some exercise.

"Why should we?" Alucard replied. "There is nothing to do, no zombies, animated armor, ghosts, shades, halves, or skeletons on this freeway. We'll have plenty to do when we find Julian."

"Aw, come on, boss," Demon begged. "Let's do something. Any humans you don't like?"

"None that I know," he muttered.

"Can't you summon anything like your dad? Lemme at , please?"

"I don't even know who that is. If you're so bored, turn on the built-in TV screen and check the news."

"I like Utah's news the best," Demon grinned. "It shows so many rocky things on there. Did I mention the rocky things?"

Alucard moaned inwardly. Demon was obsessed with anything made out of rock. He said it reminded him of brimstone. That was his favorite snack.

Demon flipped the channel and looked at it questioningly. There screen was in the middle of showing a woman talking. "What the heck? Is it broken?"

"No," Alucard answered. "I think it's a time stop." He swerved onto the freeway exit, checked a map, and then turned onto a path for Utah. "It's time I found Aeon and figured what's going on."

BryceCanyon, Utah

There was a loud thunk as one of Grant's knives hit a tree and sunk deep into them. It disappeared and reappeared in Brenda's hand. "Hey, they do come back! Magic?"

"Yes," Aeon replied. "Holy arts from a certain Belnades enchanted these just for this purpose."

"That's great," Brenda commented. "Now, how are we gonna find this entity and destroy it, and how are we gonna get there?"

"With this," Aeon answered as he tapped a few of the soul keys on his watch. He threw it and it turned into a four-wheel Ford Sierra. "A little something I picked up in California. It will take us anywhere at anytime. It can even create rifts to go from one place to the next."

Brenda's mouth fell open, looking at the truck. She always wanted one, and it was even in her favorite color: navy blue. She walked over to her van, got the blankets and pillows out, and threw them into the back of Aeon's truck.

"May I ask what you are doing?" Aeon implied with just a hint of ice in his tone.

"Well," Brenda said as she hauled some books in the back. "We are trying to stop a big monster or whatever right?" she started to arrange the carpet in the back. "Well, I'm no expert on this, but what I do know is if we don't know where he is, we're gonna be driving a lot, eh? So it's cheaper to make this thing grow a camper shell and sleep in there than it is to rent a hotel room."

Aeon never thought of this, having no real experience with camping in the outside world. He climbed into the driver's seat and pushed a few more buttons. A camper shell spread out over.

Brenda climbed into the passenger seat and winked. "Not to mention we'll have some friends comin' to beat the beastie, right? So a camper shell will come in handy."

"Well-spoken," Aeon admitted. He started to drive towards California again. He had sensed a powerful presence there, but he never tried to find out who it was.

He kicked the pedal to make it go faster. It was time he broke a few speed limits. He was never governed by them anyways. When you are a member of the Order of Chrono XIII, who needs to pay tribute to a law of one age in thousands?

Brookland, New York

Kayla decided that the best thing to do is not sneak into Will's house, but to invite herself in. Rather appear she liked him than to look like a stalker if she got caught. And besides, it was half true. She did think he was sort of cute, but he always seemed like he was obsessed with Track & Field and never had time for girls. Athletic, but not sociable was her opinion. She approached William again at the school's team tent.

"Oh, hi Kalya!" Will greeted her. He was in the middle of putting a shirt on. How embarrassing.

"Hey, I was wondering if I could get a lift home," she lied. Her mom was going to pick her up, but she was going to avert that after a call when he said yes. "My mom's not going to be here for, like, another hour, and I really don't need to be here."

Will was thinking about this. Kayla, wanting to come to his house? The other guys started ooing and things like that.

"Oh, Will's got someone!" one of his teammates called.

"Shut up, man," Will countered, blushing. "Uh, sure Kayla. I hope my mom says yes. But it should be fine."

Kayla smiled. "Thanks! I owe you!"

Will's mind was racing. 'Kayla seriously wants to come to my house? No way, I'm never that lucky.' He thought back in his Theater class. Always those dang football players that the cheerleaders liked and all that crap, it was unfair. 'Yeah, it was messed up, but now…'

His thoughts were interrupted by his cell phone ringing. It was an unknown number. He walked outside the tent, shirt put on, and answered. "Hello?"

"Hi," a female voice replied. "You don't know, me, but you probably will very soon." There was a slight giggle.

Will started to get really creeped out. "Are you some sort of stalker? What do you mean?"

"No, not a stalker, but a soon to be friend," she replied. "Anyways, you will have a job to do really fast and really soon, so if I were you, I'd answer the call of the Spear." There was a click on the other line.

Will closed the cell phone. "What the heck?" he wondered allowed. He then called his mom. "Hey, mom, I hope you can get the front and back seats clean. I need to give a lift to my friend Kayla."

"A girl?" his mom asked, sounding slightly amused.

"Yes, my friend, Kayla," Will murmured, feeling slightly harassed. "Yeah, she might be staying a little bit."

"That's fine as long as you don't try anything stupid," she said.

"Mom, I'm not an idiot," Will countered. "See you."

In the meantime, Kayla had called Leah up. "Okay, I'm in," she said. "We are going to be leaving in a little bit. I'll send you a picture."

"Fine, but get home afterwards, 'Kay?" Leah requested. "I'm making this new soup with garlic bread."

"Confirmed," Kayla answered. She hung up.

Kayla and Leah were both orphans. Actually Leah had parents, but they were divorced and never cared what happened to their daughter, so she ran away and set up home in a different location. Kayla's mom was a drug addict, and later committed suicide. They put their past behind them and learned that they should never trust adults with affections. Everything else, but never trust that they love you or anything close to that.

While Kayla was walking around, William came up to her. "My mom's here, so we better get going."

"Okay," she replied. "I call front seat."

Will shrugged. "That's fine. So, anyways, there isn't much to do over at my house really, but-"

"You have a computer?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, then, that's good enough for me."

They walked to the car together and got in. Will's mother was asking Kayla a lot of questions, mostly about how she met William and other women things. Kayla answered all of these, but her mind was elsewhere, deep in thought. She was thinking where her inheritance, the Vampire Killer whip, had been lost to or where it was located.

'Two possible locations,' she was thinking. 'One, inside Castlevania in a hidden room or treasure chest among the countless hidden walls and things like that, but that isn't likely, otherwise Dracula would have conquered this world and killed off my clan. Also, I wouldn't have my Gravity Leap power, or resistance to dark powers. Second, one of my "Parents'" place. But there wasn't a whip at mom's, but I don't know where that useless slob, dad, is. He should've cared more.'

Once they got to Will's house, Kayla had a poke around the place. She automatically was drawn to the power of the Alucard Spear. She looked at it.

"Cool, huh?" William commented as he saw her gazing intently at the family inheritance. "That spear has been in our family for a long time. It's really cool."

"Hmm," Kayla agreed. She held up her cell phone. "Mind if I take a picture?"

Will shook his head. She snapped the photo and sent it to Leah. 'There's the proof, now I need to talk to him alone.'

She proceeded to poke around until she found Will's room. It was unnaturally clean for a boy's room. Everything was in a place. Will followed her in.

"Yeah, this is my room," he said, gesturing around the place. "So, anyways."

Kayla looked around. "Oh, you like manga?" she pointed to a bookcase full of the Japanese comic books.

Will shrugged. "It's a hobby. But anyhow, did you need the computer for something?" he sat down in a desk chair and turned on the computer.

Kayla became serious. It was all business now. "Thanks," she said while pulling up Leah's website called . She called up the history of the Lecardes. "Check this out, Lecarde." She turned him to the screen.

"What is-" he started to say. He stopped talking and read through it a little bit. "Huh!?" he asked, voice breaking. He turned to Kayla. "What is this?"

Kayla looked him dead in the eye, the popular girl mask off her face. "This is who you are, and what you will become."

Will now looked at Mikayla as if she were mad. "You're crazy. Isn't this some sort of fiction?"

Kayla shook her head. "No, this is real. Your little family treasure proves it. The spear is the Alucard Spear. You must learn how to use it and apply it in combat."

Will just stared at her. "I really hope it's April right now."

Kayla rolled her eyes. "Listen, Lecarde. I probably wouldn't be bothering you right now about this if it wasn't important. In fact, I shouldn't be squandering my time right now trying to convince you. Just…hear me out, okay?"

Will couldn't get around those big green eyes. "Okay, Kayla. What's going on?"

Kayla sat down on the bed next to him. "Okay, thank you. Now, me and my friend Leah Belnades found out in the last few months that there were eight families or heroes back in the 17-1800s: Belmont, Morris, Tepes, Belnades, Dynasty, Lecarde, Renard, and Ecclesia. They fought against a man who lost faith in God, who also tried to cover the world in chaos using dark arts. Well, in the present, he, Dracula, is gone right now, but Leah senses that there is something bigger out there. We don't know what it is, but we need all the power we can get.

"So basically, we need your help as well, Will. Leah can put a spell on your mom so she thinks she doesn't have a kid so you don't worry her, and then take it off if we succeed. It will give you peace of mind at least."

Will thought about this. He always wanted to go somewhere different, but there wasn't time and anything like that. Then, his cell phone rang. Same unknown number. "Hello?" he said.

"How about it, Lecarde?" someone on the line asked. "Will you join?"

"That's Leah," Kayla enlightened.

Will gave this thought. He could, but what about his mom? What if that spell didn't work? This might just be some sort of prank. "Well, I-" he turned to see that Kayla was really close to him.

"Please, Will?" she cooed. "Do it for me, okay?"

Will couldn't stop himself. "Sure," he answered.

Kayla hugged him, and then pulled away. "Okay good. Now Leah will perform the magic when she gets here, then wipe your existence off the face of the planet with her hacking skills." She batted an eyelash at him. "Better go get your weapon."

In the next half-hour, William had snuck the spear off the mantle, eaten some chocolate-chip cookies with Mikayla, Answered the door to find Leah, then had his mom's memory wiped.

As she stood there, staring ahead with a blank look, William was having second thoughts about his mom. "Is she gonna be okay?" he asked Leah nervously.

She nodded. "Yup. It'll wear off after three hours, the entire stiffness. Now, I wiped your birth certificate, insurance number, social securities, ID, bank account, and your whole basic existence. I also made you a fake license and a new bank account complete with two thousand if you need it. Now don't blow it off with on the new Nintendo, Xbox, or whatever the heck you want to get. The cost of food and things will pretty much eat it up.

Kayla decided to get into the conversation. "So, yeah. Now we are all on our own, three orphan kids with one weapon and two spell books-"

"You're an orphan?" Will couldn't stop himself from asking.

"Not technically," Kayla snapped, entering a bad mood. "My parents did nothing for me, so I disown them."

"Me neither," Leah interrupted. "Let's move on. We'll be staying at my house until I get plane info and other spells that might be useful."

Will took his spear, which didn't feel heavy, even thought it was made of steel with ornate designs and about eight feet long. "Okay, does any of that mage stuff cover resurrection, in case I get killed?"

"No," Leah answered. "Unless you want someone else to die in your place."

"Well, then," Will replied. "Let's make this easy and clean. Now, let's hurry before I chicken out and you have to reestablish my entire network."