Chapter 3
DP
Danny woke up while it was still dark, he wasn't sure if it was evening or early morning. He looked around the room that wasn't his, and looked at Sam who was still sleeping soundly. Danny then looked at his oldest daughter, Cameron, sleeping in between them. Cameron had inherited Sam's naturally blonde hair; Sam always dyed it black for her Goth image, and his blue eyes. Danny gave Sam and Cameron kisses before he got off the bed and walked over to his two youngest children. William and Morgan had both inherited his black hair, but you could tell they were different; William had Sam's violet eyes while Morgan had his blue eyes like her sister. They were both wrapped up in each other's arms, sound asleep. Danny remembered how his children were born; he had been there for all three births.
Cameron had been a screaming birth, loud and strong, already with a full head of bright blonde hair. Cammie was always the headstrong one, and the Daddy's Girl, she hadn't stopped screaming until he held her the morning she was born. William and Morgan on the other hand were already so different from each other, like Night and Day, and Danny half suspected it was because they had been born in Night and Day. William was quiet during his birth in the afternoon. He didn't scream, only looked around at the world. Morgan had been born several hours later, even louder than Cameron, as if saying, "I'm here too I count too." Danny returned to the real world and kissed both his younger kids before leaving the room.
Danny headed straight for the Gymnasium he remembered where it was from his numerous visits in the past. He was in nothing but his pajama bottoms when he went in. Danny made a beeline for the heavy bag and stood before it, getting into a proper boxing stance like his Dad had taught him. Danny hit the bag, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it. His punches grew harder as time went on and he didn't stop. He needed to hit something. The echoes of his fists on the bag were drowned out in his mind by the moans of the ghouls that had been his parents, the sound of his children screaming in fear, and hearing the wet squish as his own hands killed his parents. "Dude, do you know what time it is?" Danny heard Tucker asked him from behind him.
"No," Danny said between punches. "Hold on Stallone," Tucker told him. Danny stopped and only then realized how sweaty he was, his fists felt sore, not broken, but it took effort to bend his fingers. Danny sat down on the floor and Tucker sat down beside him. They were opposites now, Danny grew into a giant, Tucker was a head shorter than him now and while he wasn't out of shape, he wasn't winning any beach body contests soon. "Danny, I should have said this before we came here-" "Don't say it, Tuck. I don't want to hear it right now," Danny told him. "Yes you do. Danny, it wasn't your fault," Tucker told him.
Danny looked at him, too tired to be angry at him. Not at his best friend. "Then why do I feel like it is!?" Danny asked. "I keep on thinking about that night, what I could have done, what I should have done years ago, what I shouldn't have done, all of it! I shouldn't have gone public! I should have put them in a safe house, put up some kind of defenses against vampires in their house, something!" Danny tiredly said, his voice barely going above a loud talking tone of voice. Tucker put a hand on his shoulder and told him, "Danny, there's nothing we can do about that now. I learned that when I was Mayor, it's why I quit two years ago. The past is in the past, but we can't mourn now." Tucker felt like a son of a bitch even as he said it. "Right now there are psycho vampires out there trying to do God knows what, and we are going to need you if we're gonna get through this," Tucker told him.
Danny didn't look at him, only clenched his fists even tighter and told him, "Hold the bag, I need to get just a little more out." Tucker held the bag and Danny punched it more. Tucker had to strain his own muscles to keep himself and the bag from flying from the power of Danny's punches. Tucker didn't say anything he only let Danny get all his anger out, while trying not to get knocked out at the same time. Tucker thought, I feel sorry for anyone that's getting in his way now!
Hellsing
After breakfast and getting properly dressed, Sir Integra called Danny to her office. "Daniel, I need to see that flash drive now," she told him. Danny put it down on her desk and told her, "I don't know what good it'll do, it could be anything." Sir Integra looked at him and said, "Now is not the time for self-doubts. You found this, and nothing else, correct?" Danny nodded. "Then this must be important for your Father to have hidden it so that none could find it. It might even have the clue to discover who killed your parents," Sir Integra said, then flinched inwardly and looked at Danny. He didn't look back instead he looked out the window behind her.
She opened up the flash drive and gasped in shock. It can't be! She checked the screen again, and her eye did not deceive her. The story matched up with what she knew, she had no doubts at all. "What is it?" Danny asked her. "Your parents found it, or were about to find it," Sir Integra told him. She held her head in her hands, my family searched for generations, and yet it was them that found it… "Integra, what is it?" Danny asked her again. "Get your friends and family, except your in-laws. Have them take care of your children. Everyone needs to hear this," she told him. Danny looked at her but did as he was told. Integra then mentally shouted, SERAS!
"What is it!? Are we under attack!?" Seras said out loud, Integra's mental shout woke her up deep in the dungeon. Integra telepathically said, Get to my office now! Then she stayed mentally and physically quiet. Seras arrived first as a shadow that slipped under her door. "Stay in the shadows for now," Sir Integra ordered her. Seras did so just as Danny, Sam, Tucker, Valerie, and Jazz all marched in and Sam asked, "What's going on?" "This," Sir Integra said as she turned her computer screen around to show the file. In bold underlined letters was the title, The Staff of Solomon. "The Staff of Solomon?" Danny asked.
Sir Integra took a deep breath as she said, "The Staff of Solomon, an ancient weapon against the forces of evil, said to be even older than the Earth itself. Brought into the world through forgotten magic by pagan priests, it was used for centuries by priests of Ancient Egypt's cat goddess Bast in their rituals. Legend has it that the children of Israel took it with them when they left Egypt's captivity, and that it was the same staff the prophet Moses used for his miracles. It was passed down from prophet to prophet until at last it was given to King Solomon, who used it to drive out demons and other monsters from his lands. It was then lost during the Babylonian captivity, and rediscovered by an African shaman known as N'Longa, in the sixteenth century A.D.
"N'Longa knew not what a powerful artifact he had, and he gave the Staff to one of the greatest heroes to ever live, Solomon Kane!" Sir Integra paused to let everyone digest this information. "Wait wait wait, Solomon Kane? Didn't they make a move about that a few years ago?" Valerie pointed out. "Yeah, are you seriously telling us that he was real?" Jazz asked Sir Integra. Sir Integra looked at them and said, "Yes indeed he was real, one of the greatest warriors for humanity against the darkness." They weren't convinced so Integra finally sighed and said, "Is that really so hard to believe in a world where vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and a superhero are real?"
"Had to bring me up," Danny muttered. "Alright, so did he really save England from the forces of Hell?" Jazz asked, still not convinced. "That was an exaggeration. Kane battled many individual creatures, and human evils, throughout the world during his lifetime. Oftentimes his travels led him to Africa, where N'Longa enlisted his help to kill a rival wizard. For his help, N'Longa gave him the Staff of Solomon, which Kane used to battle a hive of vampires in Africa. Solomon Kane did many things in the name of God and for the greater good of humanity against the forces of evil, but we do not know when or how he died. The records my family managed to obtain over the years show that he was last seen with the Staff going back to Africa, and that's where all we obtained was legend and myth," Sir Integra explained.
"Are you telling me that the vampire killed my parents for this Staff?" Danny coldly asked. Jazz had a similar look in her eyes. "Yes. The Staff of Solomon was powerful, the records show that even mindless ghouls were afraid of it, it could kill any supernatural creature, in our hands it could help us destroy their evil stain once and for all," Sir Integra said. "Now all we need to do is find out what that symbol means," Danny said, his eyes glowing green.