"Vampire Genesis"
Chapter 8: "Demon Machine"
Disclaimer: Teen Titans, Hellsing, Castlevania, and BloodRayne are not mine. TT belongs to DC Comics and Time Warner. Hellsing belongs to Kohta Hirano. Castlevania belongs to Konami, and BloodRayne belongs to Majesco. All else – except the Initiative – is mine.
Author's note: I'm sure you're starting to get worried about the fandoms that I am mixing and merging with TT. Don't worry; I'm not doing a multi-fandom crossover. It's more like guest appearances from characters from vampire-based fandoms. I can easily do Castlevania because both Castlevania and the Hellsing series have a version of Dracula. Rayne of BloodRayne fame is simply guest-starring. And that's enough explanation for me; time to begin the story.
Robin's first impulse was to draw his Razorbirds and throw them at the three intruders. In a lightning-like flash, the redhead's blades had flipped into a combat position and she had used them to slice the Razorbirds apart. "Listen, brat, we're here to help you," she spat.
"And am I supposed to just take your word for it?" Robin retorted. "For all I know, you could be with the Initiative!"
That made the woman bark out a harsh laugh. "Please, you little brat. You think I'd sign up with those assholes?"
"What makes you think we can trust you?" Robin asked suspiciously.
"I don't sense any deception from her or the other two," Raven cut in, ever the voice of reason.
Robin relented. "What's your name?" he asked of the woman.
"My name's Rayne," the woman replied. "My boytoys here are Alucard and Julius."
"Alucard?" Robin uttered. "How can you be Alucard? I already know someone named Alucard and he's a full vampire, while you're a dhampir."
"I took the name to be the opposite of my father," "Alucard" replied. "If you have met someone else calling himself Alucard, that would be my father." He smiled. "Ironic that he has become a servant of humans, after all this time."
"You said you took the name Alucard to be the opposite of your father," Robin said. "If 'Alucard' is reversed, then we have 'Dracula.' Oh, God. I fought Dracula. I fought the Lord of Vampires himself."
"According to most tales of my father's defeat, he was not only bested but also killed," "Alucard" explained. "The killing part was a lie, meant to assure the mortals that my father would never threaten them again. And with everyone thinking Dracula was dead or a mere legend, then no one would think 'Alucard' was the same creature and in a way he isn't." He chuckled. "If it is too confusing for you to think of father and son both calling themselves Alucard, then refer to me by my real name: Adrian."
"What's your story?" Beast Boy asked Julius.
"I'm the latest in a long line of vampire slayers," Julius replied. "And I'm the best, by the way."
"Sure you are, honey," Rayne drawled.
"It is very good that you wish to take down the Initiative with us," Starfire said. "We could certainly use the assistance."
"Sure thing, beautiful," Julius answered with a wink.
"How did you get here?" Cyborg asked. "I thought vampires – even half-vampires – couldn't stand to cross water."
"Shadow-walking spell," Adrian replied.
"I just got a message from the owner of that club Mai took me to," Robin interjected. "The clan leaders want to see me. I think I know why." His tone was quite grim. "Go on without me. I'll catch up as soon as I can." With that said, he ran across the bay and into the city, stopping at the nightclub to which Mai had introduced him.
Robin walked inside and made his way to the backroom, the vampires around him parting for him. Without even knocking, he telekinetically shifted the atoms of his body around the atoms of the door, effectively phasing through it. "Take me to them," he requested.
"Sure," the club owner replied. "I warn you, this isn't going to be fun for you. They're pissed. Very fucking pissed." He opened the secret doorway to the tunnel access and walked through, Robin following. They navigated the tunnels, making their way to the chamber where the local clan leaders resided. When they found them, the clan leaders gazed at Robin with stony expressions that betrayed almost nothing.
"Robin," the red sash-wearing clan leader spoke. "We are very disappointed with your performance thus far."
Robin glared. "The Initiative had a cyberpath on their side. That's how they were able to get past the security in Titans Tower."
"And because of your negligence, the vampires whose protection we entrusted to you have either died or abandoned you," the purple sash-wearing vampire answered.
"Are you going to punish me or something?" Robin sneered.
"No, we are going to test you," the red sash-wearing vampire replied. "We are going to see if you truly have the will to fight for the vampire community."
"And how are you going to do that?" Robin asked.
"You're going to fight our Death Dealers," the white sash-wearing vampire replied. "Our top seven, in actuality. We will take you to the field where you will do battle."
The clan leaders rose from the table and one gestured for Robin to follow them. Robin followed them through the tunnels, all the way to catacombs. "Is this where you're going to test me?" Robin asked.
"Yes," Ashurii, the blue sash-wearing vampire, replied. "Good luck to you. I would hate for you to die so soon."
Immediately, seven men and women emerged from the darkest shadows of the catacombs. The apparent leader was a woman in a cleavage-exposing strapless black dress. Her hair was a long and wavy black and her eyes were a dark, almost brownish red. A red tattoo resembling a snake eating its own tail rested just above her cleavage. Beside her stood a green-eyed, brunette woman wearing a dark purple spaghetti-strapped dress with the same tattoo as the other woman but above her left breast.
"Hello, Robin," the red-eyed woman greeted with an almost amorous smirk and tone. "I'm Lust. The woman beside me is called Sloth. The others are Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Pride, and Wrath."
Envy was an androgynous young man with palm tree-styled green hair and dressed in a small, midriff-baring black top and small black shorts with sock-like foot covers that left his heels and toes exposed. Gluttony was an extremely thin bald man with completely white eyes and dressed in a skintight black suit. Greed was a man with short brown hair and dressed in a fur-lined black vest over a sleeveless black shirt and leather pants. Pride was a black-haired man with a left eye bearing the same symbol as the tattoo on Lust and Sloth and dressed in a short-sleeved black shirt and black combat pants and boots. Wrath was a small teenage boy dressed similarly to Envy with long brown hair and purple eyes.
"You're all named after the seven deadly sins," Robin remarked. "Interesting."
"We're the elite of the Death Dealers, the Seven Deadly Sins," Envy said. "Emphasis on deadly."
Robin gazed at the Seven Deadly Sins. "Come on, then." He withdrew three Birdarangs and three Razorbirds from his belt, holding them between his fingers. "Let's do this!"
Meanwhile, the Titans – along with Mai, Julius, Adrian, and Rayne – had infiltrated the Initiative headquarters. This time, they did not go in unopposed; they ended up having to fight through ghouls. Kid Flash zipped around the ghouls, pummeling them with 100-mile-a-second punches. Starfire alternately blasted them apart with her starbolts and beat them down with superior strength. Raven used her soul-self to shred the ghouls, and Cyborg blew them apart with his Sonic Cannon. Beast Boy cut through the ghouls as the Werebeast, while Argent used Crimson Shadow to slice through them.
Mai was fighting the ghouls with sheer physical might and superior agility and reflexes. Julius withdrew his whip from his side and uncoiled it, lashing the ghouls with it and cutting through them like a hot knife through butter. Adrian drew his sword and sliced through the ghouls at speeds too great to be detected by an ordinary human. Rayne flipped her blades to combat position and used them to hack through ghouls at superhuman speeds.
"Pathetic," Rayne sneered as she hacked several more ghouls to pieces. "Can't these Initiative fuckers send anything better against us?"
"Be careful what you ask for, Rayne!" Cyborg shouted as he blasted a giant hole in another ghoul.
After the ghouls were beaten, a small contingent of Initiative soldiers arrived to challenge the group, with a fully healed Looker in the lead. Looker withdrew one of her pistols and attached the familiar blade to the muzzle, pointing it at the Titans. She tilted her head in a manner suggesting that she was smirking. "Agent BloodRayne, how nice to see you again."
"Nice seeing you, too, bitch," Rayne retorted.
Looker dashed toward Rayne with inhuman velocity, only for Rayne to block Looker's gun-blade with an arm-blade. Rayne swung her leg up to kick Looker, but Looker twirled out of the way and fired her other pistol at Rayne. The latex-clad dhampir dodged the shots and swung her arm-blades at Looker, who dodged.
Around the two fighting redheads, the Initiative soldiers armed their rifles and fired at the other intruders. Julius sliced through the rifles with his whip and lashed the Initiative soldiers with that same whip. Adrian dodged the bullets with superhuman alacrity and dashed up close to one of the soldiers, slicing his rifle in two with his sword. Then Adrian punched the soldier into the wall, only for the soldier to bounce off and onto his feet. The soldier drew one of his smaller pistols, but Adrian beat him to the punch by slicing the holsters off his hips.
Mai moved literally between bullets, tackling one soldier who had his rifle pointed at Starfire and knocking him down. She flipped off him, onto and off the wall and into a flying kick that knocked down several soldiers. She picked up one of the fallen soldiers' rifles and used it as a boomerang, throwing it at the soldiers' legs to trip them. Once they fell, she snatched up another rifle, jumped into the air, and strafed the Initiative soldiers.
Silver cross-styled boomerangs flew at the Initiative soldiers, slicing apart their rifles and landing back in Julius' hands. The rifle shells bounced harmlessly off Cyborg's armor and Raven's telekinetic shields, while Beast Boy, Kid Flash, Starfire, and Argent dodged them. Argent weaved between bullets, her newfound speed aiding her greatly in evading the gunfire. She jammed up their weapons with gooey red plasma and cut them apart with Crimson Shadow.
Looker and Rayne continued to battle, moving through the corridors at super-speed while fighting each other. Looker slashed at Rayne with her gun-blade, only for Rayne to dodge and retaliate with a swing of her arm-blades. Looker dodged the arm-blades and shot at Rayne with her other pistol, but Rayne dodged the bullets and kicked Looker. The masked redhead quickly recovered and slashed at Rayne with her gun-blade while firing with her pistol. Rayne dodged the gun-blade, but one of the bullets from the pistol grazed her exposed midriff.
Rayne hissed in pain. "Silver," she muttered. "Fuck."
Looker was upon her, slicing her in the side with the gun-blade. Rayne snarled in rage and her eyes flashed red. In a flurry of blades, she was upon Looker, slashing her repeatedly. When Looker managed to block, it was only after she'd been slashed several times. She was bleeding, but she wasn't done for yet. And Rayne was going to get a lesson in what exactly Looker was capable of.
Back in the catacombs, Robin was battling Lust, who had her fingernails extended into sharp claws. Robin was dodging Lust's claws, but even with his slowed perception of time, she was still inhumanly fast, almost too fast for Robin to keep up. As he fought her, Sloth had morphed into a black liquid and slithered over Robin's body, restraining him. Robin strained against her, but her liquid form was stronger than he expected. Shadow-matter burst from him, splattering Sloth's liquid form all over the walls of the catacombs.
Gluttony rushed Robin, tackling him with far greater strength than would be expected from one of his gaunt frame. Robin kicked Gluttony off him, only to be attacked by Envy. Robin flipped onto his feet and threw Razorbirds at Envy, only for Envy to flip out of the way of the Razorbirds and kick Robin into the wall. Lust practically flew over Envy and slashed Robin with her claws, shredding the shadow fabric of his shirt. Greed charged at Robin and slammed him back obininto the wall just as Robin had moved away from that wall. Wrath touched the wall of the catacombs and his arm took on a stony appearance. He rushed at Robin and punched him with that rocky fist, but Robin ducked and Wrath's fist went through the wall.
Robin lunged at Pride, but Pride grabbed his wrist and swung him into the wall. Robin quickly recovered and materialized a blade from his shadow-metal hand, slashing at Pride with it. Pride dodged each and every one of Robin's swings. Pride smirked at the Dark Squire and grabbed him by his wrist, this time slamming him into the ground. Robin repelled him with a telekinetic burst, but Pride flipped back onto his feet.
A regenerated Sloth rushed at Robin again, assaulting him with the speed and force of a tidal wave. Robin blocked her punches to the best of his ability, but the punches hurt more than he expected them to. Even his shadow-metal arm was aching from her strikes. Wrath and Envy flipped over Sloth to attack Robin in tandem with her. Robin blocked their attacks to the best of his ability, but some made it past his defenses and they hurt.
Gluttony, Greed, Pride, and Lust attacked Robin on all sides, with slashes from Lust and punches from Gluttony, Greed, and Pride. Robin blocked as best as he could, but they were even faster and stronger than he was expecting them to be. "What's the matter, vampire demigod?" Greed asked mockingly. "Not so tough, after all?"
"You haven't seen how tough I am yet," Robin retorted, slashing Greed with his shadow blade, only to find that Greed hadn't been affected at all by the slash. "What the –?"
"Ultimate shield," Greed explained. "We've all evolved a special power. That's why we're the elite of the Death Dealers."
"Ultimate lance," Lust supplied, slashing Robin.
"Ultimate lightning," Envy added, striking Robin with superhuman speed and force.
"Ultimate liquid," Sloth purred, wrapping around Robin in liquid form once again and constricting him.
Wrath pressed his hand against the ground of the catacombs and his arm hardened into a stony substance. "Ultimate absorber."
Gluttony grabbed Robin by his head and Robin felt his very energy being drained. "Ultimate consumer."
Pride locked eyes with Robin, tilting his head to emphasize the left eye. "Ultimate eye."
"So you all have special powers," Robin snarled, despite having been drained by Gluttony, who actually looked refreshed. "So fucking what? I'm not going to be beaten by you. Not gonna make it easy for you."
"I like that," Lust purred. "I like that fire in your eyes. We'll snuff it out, but I like it."
Robin chuckled darkly. "Snuff this . . ." Psychokinetic force exploded from his body in all directions, pushing away the Seven Deadly Sins and splattering Sloth's liquid form all over the walls of the catacombs. The Sins came after him again, but Robin materialized his shadow-matter blade and fought through them.
His blade clashed with Lust's claws, while Wrath's transformed arm was cut off. Envy attacked Robin with inhuman swiftness, but Robin blocked with that same swiftness, ignoring the pain from Envy's blows. Robin kicked Greed in the stomach, only for Greed to ignore the kick and grab Robin's ankle, swinging him around. Robin slipped out of Greed's grip and spun around Greed to kick him with his other foot. Greed blocked that as well and Robin flipped away from him, subsequently being blocked from attacking Pride.
"You can see my next moves, can't you?" Robin deduced. He smiled darkly. "Well, then . . . why don't I show you how useless it is to be able to see my next moves if you can't follow them?"
Back at the Initiative headquarters, Looker and Rayne continued to fight. "You really ought to be on our side," Looker said to Rayne.
"Why's that?" Rayne asked.
"You're a vampire hunter," Looker replied as she evaded a swing of Rayne's arm-blade. "We also hunt vampires."
"No, you don't," Rayne answered. "Not just to kill them. You use them to make vampiric super-soldiers that you plan on using for your wars. And I've already had to deal with one bunch of megalomaniacs that thought they could harness the powers of vampires for warfare."
Looker shot at Rayne again, but Rayne blocked the bullet with one of her arm-blades. She swung her other arm-blade at Looker, who was nicked in the cheek by the arm-blade. "Starting to get tired?" Rayne mocked.
"I can outlast you," Looker retorted.
"We'll see," Rayne answered boldly.
Looker laughed. "This is getting to be so much fun I might not be able to help myself much longer, but all the same, I have to wrap this up." A telekinetic blast sent Rayne flying down the corridor, Looker speeding behind her and kicking her in the back, thus sending her flying again but in the opposite direction. Rayne threw her arms out, using her arm-blades to scrape the walls and slow her unwilling flight. She stopped herself and dashed toward Looker while scraping the walls with her arm-blades.
Looker smirked at Rayne and pointed her pistol at the latex-clad dhampir, firing. Unfortunately for her, Rayne saw the bullet coming and evaded it while continuing her headlong rush toward Looker, who continued to shoot while Rayne continued to evade. Finally, Rayne ran Looker through with both arm-blades. Looker's mask darkened around the portion concealing her mouth, signaling that she had coughed up her own blood. Rayne pulled out the blades and walked away from Looker, smiling wickedly.
"So long, babe," she said. "You were fun while you lasted." She wandered into the midst of the remaining Initiative soldiers. "See this blood? It belongs to your leader. Went through her like butter." She raised one of her arm-blades to her mouth and licked it sensually, letting out a low moan of pleasure afterward.
"You bitch!" one of the Initiative soldiers yelled, beginning to open fire on her. Rayne dodged the bullets and whooshed past the soldier, who collapsed in his own blood.
"Enough!" a voice shouted, prompting everyone to turn in the direction the voice had come from. A lab-coated human woman, seemingly no older than 30, stood amidst of the fight. She had long black hair and dark green eyes, the lab-coat being worn over a red blouse and tan slacks. "You can stand down. There is nothing to be gained from fighting any further."
"But, Dr. Walsh –!" one of the Initiative soldiers protested, only to be cut off by a raised hand from her.
"But nothing. It's clear that the biotechnology we've developed up till now isn't enough to fight adversaries of their caliber. Not yet, anyway. That's why we need the masked one."
"You talking about me?" Kid Flash asked. "I do wear a mask, after all."
"Not you," Dr. Walsh answered. "Your leader. Robin. Where is he?"
"Somewhere you cannot harm him!" Starfire replied fiercely.
"Somehow, that boy is far stronger than the average vampire," Dr. Walsh said. "Then again, we've mostly been gathering young vampires. Vampires older than a century or so are too elusive, but your leader defies that. I suppose it's due to the presence of the vampire progenitor inside him. From our observation of him, he is possibly the equal of Hellsing's assassin Alucard. If we were to get our hands on him, we could . . ."
"And what the hell makes you think we'd let you anywhere near him?!" Argent asked furiously.
"You're very loyal to him, aren't you?" Dr. Walsh observed.
"We all are!" Beast Boy answered. "Robin's our friend, he'd risk his life for us and we'd do the same for him!"
"A leader who can command that kind of loyalty is a commendable one," Dr. Walsh complimented. "But as long as Robin exists, with the power that he has now, you will all be in danger just from being around him. Vampire hunters will come for him, spurred on just by what he is. Additionally, we will not stop until we have him and if we must, we will use his loyalty to you as a persuasive tool." She chuckled briefly. "If you're so sure you're ready for that, then go ahead. Go back to him."
Speaking of Robin, the Dark Squire was moving at speeds too great for Pride to counter, even with his ultimate eye. Pride attempted to attack Robin, but Robin was dodging Pride's assaults with frightening ease. In addition, Robin was retaliating with blows that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.
"What did I tell you?" Robin asked, his voice seemingly omnipresent. "It's useless to see my next moves if you can't keep up."
Lust shot her finger-blades at Robin, only for Robin to move out of the way and slice her extended nails off. He took her down with a fast thrust of his fingers at her stomach, the blow coming with such force that his hand went through her back. Robin withdrew his bloodied hand as Lust collapsed, only for Sloth to slither at him in liquid form. Robin's answer was to withdraw a special Birdarang and throw it at her fluid self. She caught it, only for the Birdarang to explode and freeze her in liquid form. Robin sped through her frozen self, shattering her.
Envy came after Robin, only for Robin to easily block his attacks. "Some ultimate lightning you are," Robin jeered. That prompted Envy to attack him with even more ferocity, but Robin swung his leg out and kicked Envy in his exposed stomach, sending him flying. Wrath, Gluttony, Greed, and Pride teamed up against Robin next, but Robin was moving with such speed that he was only intermittently visible to them, not to mention that every time he became visible to them, he inevitably "vanished" before they could retaliate against him.
"So what if you've gotten faster?" Greed taunted. "I'm still the ultimate shield, bitch!"
"Not for long," Robin promised cryptically.
Greed didn't even have time to try to guess what Robin meant by that, as he was suddenly punched in the gut . . . and it hurt. "What the fuck?! How in fuck did you do that, you little bastard?!"
"Telekinetically manipulated your atoms," Robin replied. "Your ultimate shield is useless against me." He moved around Greed, slicing him to ribbons with his shadow-matter sword and finishing with a strong kick to his chest that sent him flying into the wall. The others fell to him in short order, even Pride, who was so utterly baffled by an opponent who was too fast to defend against even if his ultimate eye could see that opponent's next moves. He grabbed Pride by the throat and smirked cruelly at him. "I still have some wounds that need healing and I haven't gotten any blood to help me heal yet."
Robin bit the vein in Pride's neck, drinking his blood. The combat precog's blood had a pleasant kick to it, almost like strong vodka. Not that Robin would know, because he made a point of not drinking alcohol, but he could imagine that that was what it would be like. Once he was finished, he dropped Pride and smirked as his wounds healed. His shadow-matter arm became flesh and blood once again, while the wounds that his shadow-matter had spread to cover were replaced with renewed flesh and blood. His left eye became organic, too, but instead of the normal blue, his eye became silver with three black slits around the pupil in a pattern resembling a crooked triangle while his right eye had toned down from red to indigo.
"I feel stronger now," he murmured. "And I can see . . . so much more." He looked up at the clan leaders, speaking more clearly and more boldly. "You wanted to see what I was capable of, to see if there was a way you could harness my powers for your benefit, to keep yourselves at the top of the food chain." He smiled dangerously at them. "Unfortunately, I don't intend to be your toy soldier."
"You may have power, boy, but we have centuries of experience on you," the red sash-wearing vampire answered.
"Oh, don't worry; I don't intend to overthrow you. I simply want to be left alone, but if you come after me, if you try to use the people I care about as leverage to get me to do what you want, there is no limit to how hard and how fast I will bring this fight to your halls of power. Got that?" Moving faster than even the highest caliber of bullet, Robin departed from the catacombs.
Robin raced to the Initiative's headquarters, stopping right behind a lab-coated brunette woman his comrades' thoughts identified as Dr. Walsh. "Boo."
Dr. Walsh jumped and whirled to face Robin. "You're . . . Robin. In the flesh."
"In the flesh." A dark smile colored his expression. "Now, what's this about wanting to harvest my body and blood to even more greatly enhance your vampire hunters?"
"We need a counterpoint to you vampires. You already control much of human society from behind the scenes. If you wanted to, you could completely take over. We humans have decided that we want to be able to fight you should you attempt to take over. That's what the pseudo-dhampirs are for."
Robin grabbed her by the lapels of her coat and pulled her to him. "And to do that, you're willing to kidnap and experiment on innocent vampires."
"You're not innocent. You're stronger than us, faster than us, and smarter than us. We need to be able to fight you on an even playing field."
Robin pushed her away. "Do what you want to me, but threaten my team, my friends, my family . . . and you're dead. Got me?" He walked away from her and into the midst of his teammates. He looked to them once. "Let's go home."
As Robin walked away with his comrades, Dr. Walsh clenched her fists. Who does that bloodsucking brat think he is?
End Notes: There you go. Normally, such scenes end with a promise of vengeance on the part of the affronted antagonist, but I decided to leave it more suggested than explicitly stated. For your information, the "Seven Deadly Sins" that appeared in this chapter are based on the Homunculi from the anime Fullmetal Alchemist, but they are not the same characters. Looker is actually a character from DC Comics, a member of Batman's Outsiders team who possessed psychic powers and later became a vampire. In here, she's one of the Initiative's pseudo-dhampirs. Furthermore, Adrian's explanation of his father's modern activities is my way of reconciling Hellsing's Alucard (a.k.a. Dracula) with Castlevania's Dracula. Anything else, ask me in a review or a PM and put your critiques or remarks in a review or PM as well. Thank you, bye-bye.