"The easiest assignment that I could give you and you screw it up! What were you doing back there?!" Mr. Voice was not pleased with what happened back at the bay.
"Easy to say behind a screen." Verne but back.
Trying to ignore that remark, Souta said: "But why not let them take the Prince? This way the vampires will see for themselves that it's harmless."
"That's exactly what I hoped, but..." Verne explained.
This came as a surprise to both Souta and Mr. Voice, especially, the latter of which then saying: "What? You let them take it on purpose?"
"That was the plan at first, but then there was a change of plan." Verne replied.
"What do you mean?" Mr. Voice asked.
That was when Makino entered the room. Referring to a device he held, he said: "Verne. They're moving."
Verne whispered something, obviously, displeasing in his own language, but turned to talk to Makino: "Is that the receiver?"
"Yes." Makino replied, "Also, I managed to fix the many parts from your henshin devices."
"You did?" Masumi asked.
"This means Natsuki-tachi can henshin again?" Natsuki wondered.
"No." Makino sighed, "You can only make calls, and even call for your mechas, but that's it."
"It'll have to do." Verne said, "Let's go and get them!"
"When are you gonna explain what you're up to?" Mr. Voice asked, indignant.
"And when can we talk about what we discovered?" Eiji whined.
"It'll have to be done on the way there." Verne suggested, "The sun will be down within the next thirty minutes, so..."
"I thought the sun doesn't harm vampires?" this bit, Souta did not understand.
"No, but if we're dealing with what I think we're dealing with, we can't move too soon." Verne replied, as he left the room.
Still puzzled, the rest of the team didn't know what else to do, but to follow him.
On their way to... wherever the location may be, the Boukengers were discussing the situation.
"Anything you found out at the crime-scene, Silver?" Verne asked.
"It was odd." Eiji replied, "There were many traces that showed that the victim was attacked by a group, but there weren't enough footprints to show how many."
"Makes sense." Verne replied, "Vampires are known to walk the Earth as if hovering over it rather than actually touching the ground. Otherwise, it's possible that they moved too fast for their feet to touch the ground."
"That doesn't sound too good." Eiji sounded almost frightened.
"But the victim in question was a lot weirder, even considering the whole thing with vampires." Masumi started, "The body as bitten in the neck, there where it should have gushed out, but no blood was found at the scene."
"Natsuki hates having to hear this again." Natsuki moaned.
"Obviously, the vampire drank the blood." Souta replied.
"That may be so." Masumi replied, "But that too would have left a mark. The bite looked like someone just bit the victim, but didn't suck out the blood."
This indeed sounded weird, but not to Verne: "I was afraid of that."
"Are you planning on telling us anything yet?" Souta was getting agitated.
Verne looked at his receiving device, which was still bleeping, then decided in which direction to continue, before he replied: "Like Souta tried to tell me, it's crazy to keep transporting the Prince every time that the vampires find out where to find him."
"So you decided to let them get the body so they'd see for themselves how worthless it is. Then you let Makino-san put a transmitter on the crate so we'd know where to find him." Souta had figured this much out, "I think that was pretty obvious, but what are you so worried about? The skeleton is harmless."
"It is." Verne replied, not taking his eyes of the receiver, "But then I saw those Polongs."
"Polongs?" none of the other Boukengers had heard of that before.
"It's a type of vampire which you can make yourselves." Verne replied, "All you need is the blood of someone who's recently murdered, then put the blood inside a bottle, cast a spell upon it, and after a few days you have yourself a vampire that will do your bidding."
"That's what those things were we saw at the bay?" Souta asked.
"Must be." Verne replied, "Although I think that our enemy has used something bigger than a bottle, to make them this big."
"How do you stop those?" Masumi asked.
"The easiest way would be to kill the one who made them." Verne replied, "But that's not what worries me."
"Then what is it?" Masumi was still puzzled, as was everyone else.
"If our enemy knows how to create a Polong..." Verne explained, "... who knows what he can do with the dead body of an extremely devoted Christian."
"What do you mean?" Eiji asked.
"Why do you think that Vlad is considered a national hero in Romania? Or even called 'The Impalor'?" Verne questioned.
Judging from their silence, Verne knew that none of the others had ever thought about this: "All the people he impaled were those he considered as enemies, whether they be thieves, Turks, with whom they were at war at the time, or even atheists."
"And in this world, where not so many believe in Christianity anymore..." Eiji realized.
"Or where it's been proven to be a hoax..." Souta added.
"Does our enemy know what he's doing if he'd revive the Prince?" Masumi asked.
"I don't know." Verne answered, "That's what worries me even more."
Suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks, to which Souta asked: "What's wrong?"
"It stopped moving." Verne replied.
"Everyone look!" Natsuki pointed towards the sun, which had nearly set, causing the skies to look red.
Verne mumbled something frightened in his own language, but Masumi decided to take the lead: "Then we have no time to waste. Let's go!"
Shortly after they had continued their path, Souta asked Verne: "You're not afraid of that wolf, are you?"
"As long as it is only a wolf, no." Verne replied.
This, Souta did not understand: "What do you mean?"
"Hopefully, you won't have to see that for yourself." Verne answered.