Chapter 4: Drop It

"No matter what the work you are doing, be always ready to drop it. And plan it, so as to be able to leave it."― Leo Tolstoy

It wasn't even lunchtime and I was already sick of waking up today. I'd done so twice now.

And this time I was in a pool of my own blood, that fucker Morbius hadn't even bothered to clean his plate! And I bet my blood was rather tasty as well!

Wait…shit, I'm already having my mental state warped by this.

Groaning, I slowly pushed myself up to my feet with my cane.

"I'm not sure how I'm going after him like this…" I muttered to myself.

'Then do not.' I started in surprise at Nekhrun's voice echoing in my head.

'Apologies, yes I can communicate with you. Not particularly important right now, do not chase him around the city in broad daylight. That would be counterproductive to your goals, your notoriety to be seen first, and indeed your own resources. You need to regain your strength after your death and transformation. Go find some type of blood to replace what you lost'.

I hated that he was right, it meant Morbius could possibly get a body count before he regained control of himself, but I couldn't chase him like this.

Grunting my assent I stumbled my way into Morbius's lab. He had to have some blood around. It was literally his thing.

I hit the jackpot with his cold storage. He had both authentic human blood for comparative studies and his synthetic blood. Obviously he had been so ravenous from his own transformation that he had gone straight for fresh blood.

Grimacing, I greedily downed a bag of the human blood and cleaned out the rest of the cold storage into my computer bag that I had to clear out of my shattered laptop.

That's when I noticed the body of his lab assistant and canonical love interest on the floor. She was pale but I did notice she was breathing, which meant similar to the movie she was going to be fine, as opposed to where I was pretty sure he killed her in the comics. And maybe even the old animated show.

Wait, how did Morbius starting early affect Spider-man? Well they weren't a shared universe in the original MCU so maybe not at all?

Fuck, I was panic rambling in my head.

"Okay, next move…next move…"

My greatest talent, in both lives, was the ability to put off a panic response until after the threatening situation. Fall of a cliff? Apply first aid to yourself and panic after you get back to the base camp. Shark attack? Same deal. Hit it with your kayak paddle a few times, panic when you get back to the boat house.

Get turned into a science vampire and get saved by a pact with a member of the Heliopolitan-Ennead pantheon?

Panic. Later.

So I hid my computer bag with the blood in my own lab's cold storage across the hallway, finally able to walk without the cane due to the recovery effects of drinking the blood. I also washed my mouth a little bit in my own lab, though I left the drying blood from the wounds I had (thankfully I wasn't healing too quickly externally in my base form with just the one bag of blood) for my next maneuver.

I called 911. Did I WANT to deal with first responders right now? Absolutely not. But Martine could possibly die if I just left her there, and with her not being fully drained I wasn't sure if she would turn or not.

Though I suppose it was worth noticing that Milo wasn't here, so this was probably more similar to the movie where he was a financial partner and not a lab partner.

Which meant I knew where he would likely have gone this evening and where to pick up his trail. Good.

As I finished that thought, a solid four minutes after calling the emergency number, the first wave of responders showed up. Campus police and first aid.

They merely focused on securing the scene and checking on Martine and I's physical conditions.

Then the real cops and responders arrived. The EMS quickly carted Martine off to the hospital, but the cops zeroed in on me hard.

I answered a bunch of grueling questions and really only had to withhold the fact that I was now a weird mixed vampire-avatar. And the blood I took.

"I think Doctor Morbius had some kind of lab accident that drove him into some kind of induced rage. Hopefully it isn't some kind of mutated rabies from those bats of his, but the medics did give me a shot just in case," was a solid summary of most of my answers.

Also that rabies shot sucked worse than Morbius does now.

'That was terrible.'

'Oh, so you're always listening?'

'Merely when I think it is going to be important. Unfortunately this time I was incorrect about that.'

'Criticize my puns when I'm not using them to hold off a panic attack, yeah?'

'Hmm…I shall endeavor to leave you to your coping mechanisms I suppose. Now, let us return to your abode, set-up operations, rest, and plan for your first excursion tonight.'

'Yeah, I don't think Doctor Pace will begrudge me calling in sick. Ooh, I bet I can get Worker's Comp for all of this, too!'

'Inane…'

Grabbing my computer bag full of contraband blood from my own lab, I made my way home, quickly sending off a few texts to my friends and colleagues letting them know what had happened at the lab and that Doctor Morbius may still be dangerous if he shows up.

On top of the timeline being unpredictable so that I couldn't be sure he wouldn't have other victims it really would shore up my credibility and undermine any suspicions authorities might direct my way.

After I got back to my apartment I quickly refrigerated the remaining blood after tossing back a bag labeled as cattle blood to fortify my strength some more.

And then I passed out on my couch, didn't even make it back to my bed. Or remember to set an alarm.

However, some aspect of my new physiology must have already been kicking into high gear as the moment the sun began to set I bolted straight up from where I was haphazardly laying.

For the first few seconds immense confusion wracked my mind, as the events of the morning hammered my brain.

For all that I had had a strange set of lives and been intellectually been prepared for weird shit like this, nothing could truly have prepared me for those possibilities becoming reality.

I certainly had not been planning on gaining power in this manner. Truthfully Living Vampire Physiology was not even on my top ten list of preferred ways to gain power.

I had gotten immensely lucky to have somehow attracted Nekhrun's attention in order to garner this deal.

Had I really botched my past rituals so badly I had accidentally partially summoned or contacted an Egyptian minor deity? That was embarrassing.

"Be not too ashamed," I leapt in surprise as an actually physically audible voice spoke out. Turning I saw a small brown bat hanging from my smoke detector.

"It is I, Nekhrun, possessing this bat. I will bind him to you as a familiar so that you may have a scout and companion. And so occasionally we may speak in a more pedestrian manner."

I nodded, "Okay…not the weirdest thing about this arrangement I guess."

"Indeed. Now, as I was saying. You were attempting a form of occult magic not successfully utilized for fifty years in this world. Crowley's methods were hit or miss while he was amongst the living, once he no longer was around to actively teach his students they all floundered. Thus with how deeply involved with the Ennead his methods were when you reached out for protective purposes both in the past and more recently it is not unrealistic that a lesser deity of tomb protection would take notice."

"Alright, well that answers that I suppose, now…how do I summon this Mantle of yours? I need to go after Morbius, he's almost definitely going after Milo in some fashion, whether it's to actually attack or to seek shelter."

The bat opened its mouth once more and it was odd to hear the reverberating voice echo out from within.

"That seems a sound plan of action. Now, to summon the Mantle you merely will it to come up. However, the first few times may be difficult. You should focus on the feelings of your vampiric urges, the sensation of being wrapped in a dark night, and perhaps the sensations of your need to protect those who walk those darkened roads and halls in the night. As that is my domain."

"Yeah…I'll meditate on that…in the shower. Then we'll get out of here."

I had realized as we spoke that I was still covered in the blood from earlier.

I quickly showered and changed into a fresh and comfortable set of clothing. Noticing in my mirror that I had grown paler, not supremely noticeably so, but enough that if it hadn't been so uniform people might have been worried about vitiligo.

"Okay, I feel much better now," I checked my watch. It was about 6:30, forty minutes after the sun had set.

"Very good, now pull up the Mantle. This may take a few tries."

I imagine I must have looked very stupid, spreading my legs and placing my arms out bent to my sides with my fists up, as if I was Vegeta trying to access a new transformation, but sometimes posture can drive intent so I wasn't going to be finicky with myself. This sounded like a very instinctual thing, and instinct was not where I thrived.

I sent my mind away, a task I was very good at. First, I went to dark and quiet alleyways. Imagined crime and violence that needed to be stopped. Imagined myself swooping down like Batman to stop them with a vengeance.

I felt something building inside me.

Second, I envisioned myself alone at night on a rocky rundown pier outside of Baltimore that I had frequented in both lives. I turned and walked away from it, up a small barely paved pathway. At the end were the ruins of a seaside fort from the War of 1812. I passed the graffiti and walked into the dark depths.

And then I felt more of that pressure building within me. But I was losing grasp of it. I had to grab it tighter.

In my mind I stepped over the remains of a bonfire. Ashes and broken glasses strewn about inside the tunnels of the fort. I moved deeper. Taking turns that took me further from the moonlight. The angles began heading downward. I moved into places that had not existed into the real world.

I passed skeletons and spirits of soldiers who had died nearby that I knew were not buried there.

I passed faces of the deceased I had known in the past as well.

I passed faces of the deceased that Nekhrun had known. Wandering tribal peoples from Upper Egypt before they had moved north and settled the delta.

And finally I was face to face with my vampiric urges. A snarling stone visage of purest white marble. The source of the corruption in my body that I had to seize control of.

I reached out.

It suddenly came to life and took my entire hand into its mouth in one big and painful bite, fangs sinking down into my arm.

My inner world exploded into pain and white light. However, when it was done, I was back in the real world, and looking down at my body I saw I was covered in wrapped layers of pure black linen.

A short cape with red lining the underneath-side hung from my shoulders and off of my arms. And on my chest was pressed a deep and dark blood red ruby, in the shape of a bat's silhouette.

"Is…is this an Egyptian themed Batman Beyond costume?" I asked incredulously.

"I do not know what that is, but if you recognize it I imagine that your existing biases influenced the form that it took."

"Huh…I can work with this!"