The Hunt Begins
The vampires were sitting quietly in the shaded part of the forest where they reformed playing instruments while being completely unaware that they were back among the living. The Dancer played bongos, the Duke played a glass harmonica, the Aristocrat played a violin, the Shadow played a flute, and the Vampire Queen played a regular harmonica.
A short time later, the Dancer finally realized that they were back among the living. "Hey, is it me, or are we suddenly back in our physical forms again?"
"It's just you." the Vampire Queen deadpanned taking her lips from her harmonica.
"Where are we?" the Duke asked, confused about their surroundings which they haven't seen in centuries. "It's like we fell asleep for a long time and now we've suddenly woken up."
"Fell asleep?" the Aristocrat said mockingly coming up next to the Duke. "We died. The hunter Caesar Van Helsing Riffin hunted us down and slayed us one by one, remember?"
"Ah yes, I remember it like it was only yesterday." the Vampire Queen said with wide eyes upon remembering what went on all those years ago.
Flashback
The Vampire Queen stepped out of the green mist and revealed herself to Caesar and his friends, staring at the hunters with a calm look on her face.
"Hello, Caesar."
"Vampire Queen, we meet at last." Caesar replied.
"Yes. And I see that you have triumphed over the Aristocrat, just like you triumphed over the other members of my court." the Vampire Queen said with a surprising calm expression, almost like she didn't even care.
"That's right, and with their powers, you're next." Caesar declared.
"All this destruction, all this bloodshed, is it really necessary to kill me too?" the Vampire Queen asked, her expression unchanged. "You have power now, Caesar, I can see it. Caesar, there's no one left of my kind but me. Are you really willing to wipe out an entire race just to ensure this town has peace?"
"That's the way it has to be." Caesar shot back. "Your kind has done far to much to this town to deserve to be staked over and over again! And as for you, well, there are things about you that give me reasons of my own." he said with a hint of regret and sadness in his voice.
The Vampire Queen narrowed her eyes. "So be it." She then suddenly jumped up into the air higher than any human ever could and corkscrewed back down to the ground with her arms outstretched in front of her like a drill. When she landed, her hands were dug deep into the ground while she placed her feet on it, and with superhuman strength, pulled a large chunk of the ground up and hurled it at the leader of the hunters. A startled Caesar quickly responded by drawing out his sword and jabbing it into the approaching chunk of earth, which then instantly shattered only to give Caesar a surprise when the Vampire Queen came through from the other side and slashed him on the shoulder with enough force to knock him back.
"Caesar!" Lina gasped with worry.
"Don't worry, vampires can only infect humans by biting them, not scratching them." Jin explained, making Lina give a sigh of relief.
The Vampire Queen walked slowly toward Caesar, who was struggling to get up. "I gave you a choice, Caesar, to end this peacefully. And you just turn it down like that." she said feeling hurt by Caesar's previous reply.
"As I said before, there are things about you that give me my reasons for wanting to kill you." Caesar shot back.
The vampire hunter then levitated high up into the air and looked down on the Vampire Queen with a courageous expression. The Vampire Queen looked at Caesar in awe as she saw the sheer valor on Caesar's face and what looked like a glowing blue aura around him. This made her see something about Caesar that she recognized and made her understand his reasons for killing her. In that moment, she realized that her defeat was inevitable, that her time as ruler of these lands has indeed come to an end. Knowing what had to be done, she jumped into the air and flew towards the leader of the hunters, which Lina responded to by tossing Caesar her bow and one of her arrows, which Caesar made ready to fire. Unbeknownst to Caesar and his friends, the Vampire Queen was hoping for that as she was intending to let Caesar kill her. Giving a small smile, she closed her eyes, awaiting her fate which came very quickly when Caesar let the arrow fly and strike her directly in her chest.
End Flashback
Snapping out of that flashback, the Vampire Queen turned to the sound of clucking and saw a chicken pecking at the ground. The vampire took a liking to the small bird and went over to it. the bird was startled by the feeling of a hand grabbing it from its back and being pulled off the ground. The chicken clucked wildly until the Vampire Queen put a finger to its beak and looked at it with a calm expression.
"Shh." she whispered.
After the chicken calmed down, the Vampire Queen smiled at it and held it in her arms, rocking it like one would a baby.
"How are we even back?" the Aristocrat asked. "Now that I think about it, I don't really care. 'Cause I'm ready to start feeding on humans and taking back the land they stole from us."
"That's easy for you, Aristocrat, all you need to feel at home is the forest itself and something to feed on." the Duke commented, which the Aristocrat smirked at before the Duke began complaining. "While I need the pleasures of my old lair. The minions, the blood, the good blood with the golden leaf flaked into it."
"I thought the gold leaf was stupid." the Vampire Queen deadpanned. "It didn't even taste like anything."
"It was one of the standards we had, my Queen." the Duke defended. "Anyway, it doesn't matter where we are or when we are, because we're here. We must rebuild our clan. There's human life still here, I know it. So we must attack them and make as many of them into fellow vampires as possible." The Duke looked at the Vampire Queen and saw that she wasn't really listening, but instead licked her finger and rubbed the saliva on the chicken's eye like mascara. "My Queen, are you even listening to me?"
The Vampire Queen looked at the Duke with a calm expression for a brief moment before turning to look at the town of Peaceville on the horizon. The modern buildings and roads made the old vampire quite surprised at how much things have changed since their absence. Her train of thought was soon halted when the Aristocrat got her attention.
"My Queen, surely you realize that this means we have a chance to go back to the old ways of the vampires." she explained. "Surely you realize that abandoning the old ways is what got us killed in the first place. Surely-" That was all she said before she felt herself being choked by an unseen force.
The Vampire Queen had a stern expression on her face as she looked at the Aristocrat's suffering. The Vampire Queen had a variety of different supernatural powers, among them was telekinesis. And there was no doubt that she was using it to constrict the Aristocrat's throat due to not agreeing with her ideals.
"Surely? Surely?! Surely, my tail!" the Queen ranted as she dropped the Aristocrat and spoke with the authority she was known for. "I am your Queen, and I decide what we must do based on the current situation." She pointed to the edge of town. "Look there, Aristocrat. What do you see?"
The Aristocrat looked in the direction the Queen was pointing and saw a giant billboard with the picture of Mayor Mellow on it. "All I see is a giant picture of what looks like the current descendant of the mayor of Harmonopolis." she muttered.
"Yes, but what is he saying on it?" the Vampire Queen asked pointing to the words above the mayor's head.
The Aristocrat took a look at the words and read them. "Welcome to Peaceville?" she read with confusion.
"Yes" the Queen replied. "It tells me that the human territory has gone through some changes during our absence, including its name. That tells me that it is a new era, and old-fashioned vampire ideas have no place here." she said with finality, her decision having been made.
The Aristocrat didn't seem to take a liking to the Vampire Queen's decision, for she was dedicated to the old-fashioned ways and did not like the idea of change. Angry, she shapeshifted into the form of a velociraptor.
"Do what you like, but I know what's right for us." she snarled before running off into the forest to do who knows what.
"Should we stop her?" the Dancer asked concerned.
"No." the Vampire Queen replied "Let her learn the hard way."
"Well, if you're going to embrace this new world, I might as well do so with a good monster army, like I had all those years ago before Caesar killed me." the Duke said before turning to another direction into the forest. "See you later." he said before going invisible.
The Dancer looked at the direction the Duke took before seeing the Shadow also leaving, dropping small crystals as he left. "Where is he going?" she asked the Vampire Queen.
"Probably going to reclaim his territory." she muttered, sounding like she didn't even care.
"Well, I think I'm going to get friendly with the locals, seeing as you want to live with them in this new world and all." the Dancer stated before she flew towards Peaceville while staying in the shade of the trees.
The Vampire Queen smiled at the Dancer as she left, happy that at least one of her Court members wants to change without needing something they had in the past. She then continued to cuddle with the chicken as she slow-danced in the shade of the forest.
Wicked Cool Transition!
"I can't believe Mayor Mellow actually agreed to let us play at the festival." Laney said as she and the gang got back to the Groj from asking the mayor.
"Well, me and the mayor have been becoming good friends." Corey said shrugging.
They were soon startled by the sound of a door being kicked open and turned to see Trina and Mina coming in through the stairs door. Trina had an angry look on her face as she stomped up the stairs without even looking at her brother and his friends and just made her way to her room, slamming the door behind her.
"Geez, what put her in a bad mood?" Corey muttered leaning on the railing of the stairs. "Did Nick Mallory reject a dance with her?"
"No, one of her plans against you didn't seem to work." Mina explained, having not followed Trina upstairs due to being afraid of her when she's upset like that.
"Right." Corey rolled his eyes before noticing the crucifix that Mina still had in her hand and stared at it with wide eyes. "Mina, where did you get that?" he asked with worry.
Mina looked at her hand and finally noticed the cross was still in it. "Oh, well, you know those vampires that your ancestor imprisoned all those years ago? Well, releasing them and sicking them on you was Trina's plan."
"WHAT?!" the twins screamed in shock.
"Is that woman crazy?! Those vampires could destroy the entire town!" Laney shouted in annoyance at Trina's stupidity.
"Well then, I guess we'll just have to fix Trina's mistake and put the vampires back." Corey said.
"Core, those are the most powerful vampires in their entire clan, how are we gonna put them back in their tomb?" Laney asked concerned about Corey's idea to hunt the vampires.
"Because, Lanes, we're the descendants of the hunters who originally put them down in the first place. Surely we can do it just like them." Corey explained as Mina gave him the cross. "And besides, we did want to honor our ancestors by playing at the festival, why not honor them by defeating the vampires like they did?"
Laney took a moment to think about this. For years she was told of the heroics that her ancestor Lina was known for. and wished to be just as great as her in her own way. But with the threat of vampires running around in Peaceville, Laney realized that maybe she could honor her ancestor by doing what she did all those years ago, which would also make her family happy as well. This made Laney finally decide.
"Alright, Core. But we don't have any weapons." she explained.
"We're way ahead of you on that." Kin replied. He and Kon ran over to Kon's drum set and opened the big drum like a chest to reveal it to be full of wooden stakes.
Corey, Laney, and Mina stared in awe at this. "Guys, why do you even have all these stakes?" Corey asked.
"It's just in case some vampires actually come to Peaceville." Kin explained.
"Smart thinking, guys, but I know what it's smart to also have." Corey smirked. He went over to the couch and reached under it and pulled out a silver sword that looked to be brand new. "Caesar's sword."
"Oooh." the twins said as they stared in awe at the sword that was famous for slaying so many monsters during the war.
"Where'd you even get that, Core?" Laney asked surprised.
"From the attic next to his journal." Corey replied as he sheathed the sword. "Now let's go hunt us some vampires." He turned to face Mina. "Mina, can I trust you to hold down the fort while we're gone?"
"Sure, Corey." Mina replied smiling, for she didn't really think Trina's plan to release the vampires was a good idea anyway. "But I don't think I can do it alone, and we know Trina won't really help."
"I got that covered." Corey replied walking to the open garage door. "Kate, Allie." The two groupies popped out from the nearby trash cans they were hiding in for 'unknown reasons'. "Can you two help Mina hold down the fort while we're out hunting vampires?"
The two girls looked at each other before squealing at the top of their lungs to being asked to actually enter the garage of their favorite band. "Anything for you, Corey!" they said in unison.
Kate then went behind the trash can she was hiding in and pulled out a bag containing a silver bow and arrows. "You'll probably need this too."
"Wait, that's Lina's bow and arrows!" Laney said surprised, having seen them in the picture of their ancestors. "Where'd you get them?"
"We found them in the attic of your house when we snooped around in it." Allie answered. making Laney glare daggers at the two girls for snooping around in her house while Kate handed over the bag with a nervous smile before she and Allie ran into the Groj to fortify it against the vampires.
"We really need to have a talk with those two." Laney groaned.
"Let's do that after we save the town, Lanes." Corey replied before turning to Mina. "Mina, we may need you to also keep Trina in the dark about what we're up to. We don't want her trying to stop us."
Mina gave a salute. "Understood." She said before closing the garage door and began to help the groupies defend the house.
"Alright, Grojband, let's go hunt us some vampires." Corey declared. He and his friends then set out, sword, stakes, and bow in hand. They were ready to undo Trina's mistake and bring down the monsters she had released.
