Chapter 4: Hunting the Resistance
Knuckles opened the gate and left the village. As he continued to walk, a thought hit him. Couldn't he just summon the power of the Master Emerald to transport to England? He closed his eyes and tried but nothing came to him; he would have to go by train. The echidna walked further out of the village and then came to the train station. Once he got a ticket, he got onto train and looked for somewhere to sit. He found an open spot and walked over to his seat. Knuckles sighed and looked out the window. Minutes later, the train left the station and headed to England. A few days passed until he finally got there. He got off and looked around.
"I need to find him, and fast," Knuckles noticed it was already sundown. He kept looking around and hoped to see something besides a vampire. The echidna gulped and walked throughout the city. Soon, he heard a screech and saw a few vampires lunge towards him. "Great, when I don't want them to show up, they show up." Without thinking, Knuckles ran head on to fight them.
The vampires hissed and avoided Knuckles; they were to fast for him. He growled angrily and attacked once more but the vampires transformed into wolves and pounced on him. A few minutes later, they howled in pain as a stake hit them, causing them to die instantly. Knuckles gasped and saw a man standing above him. It was Van Helsing.
He reached out his hand. Knuckles gave him a smirk and Van Helsing helped the echidna get up. "Thanks, that helped big time."
"You're welcome," he said. "My name is Van Helsing. I saw you being attacked by those vampires and had to help."
Knuckles nodded and told him what he wanted. "Speaking of help, I need yours."
Van Helsing looked at him. "With what?"
Knuckles started to explain his situation from when the Master Emerald glowed, to where he is now.
The vampire hunter nodded. "We must hurry to Transylvania, then. If this Dracula is as powerful as you say he is, we must kill him soon."
Knuckles nodded and looked up at the sky. It was nearly dark. "We should probably start in the morning. I've almost had it with all these vampire encounters."
Van Helsing hesitated. "Morning is not a good time for me."
Knuckles gave the vampire hunter a questioning look. "Huh? Why not? It would be for the best, unless you have something else in mind."
"I usually work at night."
Knuckles shrugged. "Okay, that's good enough for me, now let's go."
Van Helsing nodded, and they set off towards the train station.
Meanwhile at the castle, Vlad was in his room along with his father. Dracula had just told him about Van Helsing, and the younger vampire growled in hatred. He wanted this man killed, along with Knuckles.
"When do you suppose Knuckles will be back? We need time right now to figure out something while we have the opportunity."
"Most likely he will be back in a few days," Dracula said. "That gives us time to plan. Do you have any ideas on what we could do when he gets here with that hunter?"
Vlad started to think. "We could try turning some members of the resistance so that when Knuckles and...him...arrive, they can feed us information."
Dracula chuckled. "That would be great. But first, we need to find them."
The vampire prince nodded. Right when he was about to ask his father where they could find them, his fangs started to tingle, and Dracula saw blood lust in his son's eyes.
The vampire king grinned and called the other vampires to him. "It is time to feed," he said. "You know what to do. Also, I have a request: find members of the Resistance, and turn them into vampires."
The other vampires bowed, turned into bats, and flew towards the village. But Vlad and Dracula were still inside.
"Father? May I ask you something?"
"Of course," Dracula said. "What is it?"
"I was thinking that...I don't know...maybe go feed together? We haven't done it in a while, plus I want to learn more from you. I have my ways of hunting, but I also want to know some of your techniques."
Dracula nodded. "Sure, we could do that."
Vlad smiled. Even though his father was pure evil, he was still very loving. The vampire prince and king turned into bats and went into the village, sticking together for the night. They looked around for humans, looking for the ones who were in the resistance. Dracula saw the other vampires, and spoke to them.
"Turn the members of the resistance you find." They nodded and spread out. They would cover more ground by doing so. Dracula looked at his son and smiled. "Shall we?"
Vlad's fangs tingled and he chuckled evilly. After walking a couple of feet, Vlad pointed out three humans talking to each other. "Father, do you think those are some of the members?"
"It is possible," he said. The vampire struck so fast, the humans barely had time to react. He could see that they had anti-vampire weapons, and chuckled. "You fools think you can harm me," he said. "I am the Lord of Vampires! Now tell me: where are the members of the Resistance?"
"Like we would tell you of all people," the human said.
Vlad went up to the human and hissed, also letting his eyes glow. "Oh really? Do you want me to get it out of you the easy way, or the hard way?"
The human growled angrily and took out a cross, holding it in front of the two vampires.
"Oh, a cross! I am so scared!" Vlad started to mock the mortal and then grabbed it out of his hand. Then he dropped it, causing it to burn with flames. "Look into my eyes."
The human tried to looked away but couldn't; he was being hypnotized. Dracula looked at his son.
"Excellent job," he complimented, and turned back to the human. "Now...tell us where your pathetic Resistance is, or I will have Vlad drain every drop of blood in your body."
The human looked at Dracula expressionlessly and began to talk. "Yes, master. There is a secret tunnel underneath the fountain of the plaza that leads to our base. To open it, pull down the cross on the front of the fountain."
The other two humans were horrified. The Lord of all vampires knew where the hideout was hidden.
Dracula sneered and looked at Vlad. "Turn them."
The vampire prince smirked, and seized one of the humans, and dug his fangs into his neck. He kept doing so until he felt the mortal become weak, then he threw him to the ground. He did the same with the other, and turning the last one was easier do to the mortal's hypnotized state. Once he was finished, he evilly smiled at his father. Vlad wasn't full yet, he still needed to feed a little bit more.
"What should we do with them?"
"Take them to the castle."
Vlad nodded and teleported along with the fainted humans. When he was finished, he teleported right beside Dracula.
"You are a fast learner," his father said. "Now, let us head to their base."
Vlad nodded. He thought about Dracula's Shadow and Mephiles, and dragon forms and wondered if he had any. He also knew that his mother could harness the power of flames, and wondered if he has them too. "Father?"
"Yes, son?"
"I was wondering, do I have any other forms or at least inherited your dragon form? Also, mother has pyrokinesis, do I have it too?"
Dracula thought about it. "Yes, you have my other forms, including the dragon form. Some part of Shadow and Mephiles is inside you as well, so you can become them. And you do have the pyrokinetic ability."
Vlad thought it was pretty cool, but he wasn't so sure about transforming into Shadow or Mephiles yet. He decided he would try out his abilities later, right now he needed to focus on turning the Resistance. He smirked and followed Dracula to the base. Once there, they walked inside and saw all of the humans. Vlad stared at them hungrily.
Some nights, Vlad would be really hungry. "Which one of you would like to be my first victim? Don't be shy..."
The humans stared at the vampire in shock; not one was moving. Vlad sighed and struck the nearest closest to him. He dug his fangs into the human's neck until he grew weak. He fed off of the human quickly and dropped him. The vampire prince still had to turn the rest of them. He wanted to see their fear, so instead of hypnotizing them, he summoned a flame and threw it near them where it would hit the only the wall.
The humans screamed and immediately took out their crosses, holy water, and garlic, aiming them at the vampires. Vlad hissed in fear as he saw the holy water as well as the garlic. But he wouldn't let that stop him. He summoned multiple flames and threw them at the bottles of holy water so that they would break. The vampire prince did the same to the garlic as they all burned up. The only weapons the humans had left were crosses, but they would do no affect. He laughed maniacally and walked up to the humans, then to his father. Dracula grinned, showing his sharp fangs.
"Kill half, and turn the others."
Vlad nodded and did what his father told him. When he was done, there were dead bodies along with the humans that fainted from the loss of blood. The vampire prince snapped his fingers and all of the ones who fainted were teleported to the castle. Vlad was satisfied and also had his fill for the night.
