DARKSTALKERS: THE NIGHT WARRIORS
Chapter 10: Resolutions
Fanfiction by Louis the Rogue
(Original story by Capcom Inc.)
The old stone hospital had been abandoned for over a century, its' crumbling walls supposedly left in peace. However, it had been in this rainy mountain village that a sleeping giant had been awakened. Its' dark walls echoed with the swirl of harsh and bitter winds as lightning flashed above.
In the old, abandoned laboratory, upon a stone slab, lay the body of Victor Von Gerdenheim, his father's only "son". Unfortunately, Schloss Von Gerdenheim had not lived to see his greatest achievement. The spirit of the dead professor yet remained in these halls, and perhaps he watched now, alongside Emily, Victor's child-like counterpart, and four strangers, a silver-haired man with a brown leather jacket, a beautiful young catgirl with optimistic eyes, a noble merman with green and gold scales, and a mighty white-furred sasquatch, as they somberly stood vigil around the form.
Emily looked to them with her sad blue eyes and nodded slowly, "It is time now. The storm is overhead. Please, everyone, stand back from the immediate vicinity of the Strike Zone."
As the others moved away, Emily began to wind the wooden crank of the great steel ray gun-like machine above, turning the huge metal gears with amazing arm strength. She had put all the attachments in place; now it was all up to the rod high above to attract the lightning they would need.
Like it had so many times before, the machine worked. A flurry of electricity arced down the wires of the machine in an impressive lightshow, striking the still body strapped to the slab with black chords over and over.
Emily glanced over to what appeared to be a pressure gauge on the wall beside her and shouted to the others, "It's not enough!" Her voice was frantic.
Felicia bit her lip, tears welling up in her eyes; it didn't seem right. She knew life wasn't fair, but just this once, after all he had done, this one deserved to live.
The others must have been thinking the same thing. Jon looked to Aulbath, who looked to Quatos, and all three nodded in unison, shielding their eyes as they stepped forward.
Emily blinked as the large silhouette of the sasquatch came through the light and grabbed the crank, turning it with all the force in his mighty arms to keep the electricity flowing.
Meanwhile, Talbain placed a hand on Aulbath's shoulder and closed his eyes. As both their forms began to glow faintly with a mystical white light, Aulbath's eyes snapped wide open. He had never felt this invigorated in his entire life! With one hand raised to the sky, and the other pointed toward the sleeping giant, the sea guardian let out a tremendous, echoing shout.
Felicia and Emily watched in amazement as the rain itself began to twist downward toward Aulbath's high hand like a miniature waterspout, twisting around him like an elemental snake, and channeling through his other hand in a horizontal line that splashed over Victor like a fire hose, sparks flying everywhere.
Emily glanced up at the gauge with a mixture of fear and hope in her eyes, and smiled like the little girl she appeared to be, "It's working! It's working!"
Felicia covered her eyes as the intense light enveloped them all, and in a crackle of thunder, the room went dark.
The darkness lasted only a second, replaced afterwards by an electric blue light emitting from a tall, muscular body that had just sat up on the slab. As she uncovered her eyes, Felicia could only smile.
Some time later, two figures sat alone on a metal bench at a bus stop in the rain. Felicia was decidedly dressed for once in a paper-brown raincoat, and her companion still wore the brown leather jacket, black leather boots, and blue jeans so common to his appearance.
"Heading back to England I imagine?", she said to her friend.
As he broke away from his thoughts of the training ahead, Jon Talbain nodded and crossed his arms behind his head, enjoying the cool drizzle as it gently beat down on his face, "So, what next for you Miss Felicia?"
Felicia leaned an elbow on the head of the bench and looked over to him, the resolute sparkle in her eyes offsetting her optimistic smile, "Heading back to the East Coast. Broadway maybe."
Talbain gave an amused smile to that, "Broadway?"
Felicia just nodded with that child-like smile, "Uh huh! Everything that's happened, I think it's all trying to tell me something."
"Like what?"
Felicia's optimism was unwavering as she spoke, "Like that humans need a serious wake-up call. They need to see we're not all bad. Us "darkstalkers". Maybe then they can start to understand why we have just as much right to be here as they do."
"Maybe", he said pensively, "But that doesn't answer my question. Why Broadway?"
Felicia looked on him with her eyes full of hope, "Because you've taught me something, Mr. Talbain. If I set my mind to it, there's nothing I can't do. I want to sing; it's my big dream in life. Rose always said I could, but I was too busy to seriously think about it. Now, I… well, there's nothing binding me down now…"
Talbain averted his eyes, "I'm sorry."
She just flashed him another grin, and placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, "Don't be sorry. I'm not. She's happier now. By the way, I have told you what I'll call my first musical. When I'm famous, I mean."
He looked back to her, "Oh? And what will you call it?"
She looked into his eyes and smiled warmly, "The Ballad of Jon Talbain."
He couldn't think of an answer for that; he just smiled right back.
As she awakened in the blackness, Marionette felt her wooden body compelled forward by a dark power. She knew immediately what it meant as Master Ozomu's voice drifted through her mind, and a half smile crept over her usually subtle face. Zarock had failed; defeated by a mere darkstalker, and a half-human at that.
The darkness gave way to a strange stone room that would have been just as black if not lit by high pillars and a long carpet, all glowing with an electric violet hue. Seated on the large stone throne at the end of the rug was Ozomu, his green cloak substituted for a violet one, eyes glowing with a dim red light that sought her out.
As she knelt down before her owner, the puppet felt his large, leathery hand brush through her hair and down the side of her face before he spoke, "It occurs that we may have underestimated the darkstalkers of the Human World. Especially Maximoff; surprisingly, his power has grown in the past century rather than diminishing. Clearly, Zabel Zarock was not up to the task of destroying them…"
"Clearly not up to the task", she echoed cheerfully.
"That is why I have decided to intensify his training regiment."
"Intensify his training?"
"Yes. His training I leave to you. Only you can teach him to master the more subtle points of assassination. You are dismissed."
"Yes, Milord…"
As she turned and left the room, descending a long spiral staircase into the darkness beyond, Marionette was filled with a horrible rage. If she had failed him, her fate would have been sealed! Why was this upstart so special? She entered into a large, dark room filled with cages, their metallic sheen barely flickering in the dim light or lack thereof.
At the corner of one, she found him. Curled up into a ball, his yellowish claws gripping tightly at his spiked violet hair, was Zabel Zarock. The pitiful creature was muttering incoherently until his senses made out a presence in the room, "Villian? Is that you I hear? Come to burn me alive, have you! I'll kill you!"
Marionette was silent, unmoved as she saw the misshapen figure dive at her with a saw and lop off a large chunk of her wooden face, which reshaped itself into a normal form in seconds.
Zabel felt no exhilaration at this stage, only emptiness, and didn't bother to continue the pursuit. He simply lay there on his face as Marionette spun round and gripped him up by his collar, bringing his face to her own, "Whatever happened to you on Earth, you're going to prefer it by the time I'm through with you. From this point on, you are officially my bitch!"
A sinister, nigh sadistic smile crept over her pitiless countenance.
Demitri sat alone on his spike-headed throne, the darkness having fully consumed the world around. Now and again, a dim gray shone over him as the pale moonlight filtered in, highlighting his chiseled face in mild contrast to the darkness.
His expression was a brooding one as the memories came flooding back to him, "Daughter of Aensland… I know not even your name… Why do you fascinate me so?"
With a growl, he stood and walked to the edge of the room, looking out to the cloudy night above. His lips trembled with a cross between furious passion and absolute conviction as he spoke, "Somewhere up there, you are waiting for me. Beckoning me to follow you toward my destiny. Our destiny. I will conquer them all, waving the bloody banner that shall entwine our bodies together. Hear me now, I will have you."
In a desolate gray wasteland, on a craggy hill where no life could flourish, laid an old, abandoned building resembling a crumbled black stone cathedral. At the gates stood two men in dark monk's robes, their hoods concealing their faces.
Another man, larger but also in robe, stood in front of the decadent stone steps where they had perched. He reached up, slowly, and a young boy with tanned skin, wild brown hair, and the darkest eyes, wearing naught but a tattered brown robe, walked out from under his cloak. The boy looked up emptily to the two men before him, who placed their hands on his shoulders and slowly escorted the boy inside a large angled doorway.
As the large man turned and left, his heart grew heavy. He lowered his hood, revealing himself to be Abadi Khan, and looked back only once at the monastery with a lingering sadness in his dark eyes, "Donovan, my son, fare thee well…"