He was just beginning to lean down, reaching out to grab the alien, when cold metal hands with sharp claws suddenly clamped down onto his arm. Dracula looked up, coming face-to-face with a fish in a gorilla suit, and was momentarily stunned. That was all Minion needed. He pulled, violently, and Dracula felt the muscles in his arm tearing. He was strong enough to keep his arm in place, but the fish suddenly threw him as if he were a sack of potatoes. The vampire screeched and slammed against a group of people. He was up in seconds, grabbing the closest person he could and sinking his teeth into his victim's throat. The man screamed at first, then fell silent, his eyes turning lifeless as his blood was all but drained by the vampire. This wasn't done to change the man, but more or less as 'top up' for the vampire who had sustained heavy damage so far.
Dropping the dead man, Dracula took a run at the fish and the two clashed with such force that nearby windows rattled, and the ground beneath them cracked.
Minion knew what he'd done was very wrong; but he couldn't allow his friend to be taken like this. Hadn't his master's parents' final words to him been that he was his master's minion, and that he'd take care of him? If giving him precious time to recover from a battle like this didn't count as taking care of him, he didn't know what was. The vampire opened his jaws and bit down against the glass of Minion's spherical head, but it did nothing but scratch it up. Megamind knew how to reinforce materials, it seemed, since even his suit was holding together against the sheer force and power of the vampire's jaws.
The monster finally got an upper hand; he dug his hands into crevices in the gorilla suit and heaved Minion away. The gorilla suit rattled through the air and seemed to bounce once off of the pavement, then crashed through the front window of an unlucky convenience store. He ended up crashing into the glass display case behind where the attendant would normally have stood. He hit up against the rear wall, the force of his landing causing the shelves to give way and fall on top of him. Inside his bowl, Minion spun around and around, dizzied by the whole affair. One of the legs of the machine fell away, having undergone far too much pressure when pushing against the vampire; it now lay useless in the storefront window where it had been ripped clean off.
"Pathetic fish!" Dracula screamed, right arm still aching from the strain, and his body shaking. "I'll fest on your wriggling entrails!"
A sword suddenly erupted through his chest, and Dracula stopped and stared down at the bloodied blade. With eyes wide, he slowly turned his head to look down at the blue alien who stood behind him, having plunged the sword into his back. The vampire breathed with difficulty, looking as though he was about to bend over when, instead, he pulled himself off of the blade and spun away; the open wound gushed blood down his front and back.
Megamind held his sword tightly in his hands despite the open wounds, bruises, broken ribs, and the sneaking suspicion that one of his ankles and a shinbone were broken; he somehow still managed to stand. His own red blood was dripping from the injuries, making his leather coat seem to almost gleam in the daylight.
"Once again... my blood stains steel..." Dracula whispered.
"They go well together," Megamind replied.
Megamind stood there, watching the man, waiting, praying for him to fall. But Dracula stubbornly refused to collapse, just like himself, and he watched as the monster began to walk towards him. Instead of going to meet him, Megamind began to back up. This made the monster smile triumphantly. "Running scared... are we? Afraid to put your back to me?" Dracula taunted as he continued his agonizingly slow pace.
"No." Megamind replied as strongly as he could as he continued to back away.
"Your actions speak... otherwise," smiled the vampire.
Megamind didn't have far to go until his legs hit the fountain; it was now smeared with blood and chipped in some places. It was no longer pristine as it once had been, sadly. Just like Megamind's own body.
"Do you really believe... that you will end me?" asked the vampire as he came closer. "Humans called me forth, and now somebody not even human fights on their behalf! Look at the world around us, the war, disease, pestilence, the death! It is the end days, you stupid star child, and you should know this place shall be mine and mine alone! This world shall be mine and they shall all know and fear me, and not chalk me up as some foolish little story told around camp fires to scare children! Today accomplishes nothing but your death." By now Dracula was standing over Megamind, who it seemed wasn't even listening to him. It was only now the vampire realized that the alien was whispering to himself, holding one hand to his mouth, and speaking in quick short whispers. "Oh. Praying to your Gods, are we? Praying the death is quick and painless? I'm afraid it won't be. I'm going to enjoy ripping you apart piece by piece until you beg for me to cut your throat and end your misery. Then I'll go after everyone you care for! That foolish fish, your precious Family, and that woman. Oh yes, I know about her! I smell her here, her blood in her veins! I'll rip the life she carries out of her and she will forever place the blame on the poor, pitiful creature she put so much faith into!"
Only now did Megamind finally stop whispering, and looked up at the beast standing over him. The handsome man's face was now bruised and bloodied, much like his own. He could smell the stench of death and blood on his breath, and it made him dizzy.
"I've... gotten quite sick... of your boasting."
Megamind suddenly dropped his sword to the floor. Dracula watched, curious, for just a second, before the alien suddenly pulled his Father's sword out of its hilt finally. The vampire bared his teeth and snarled but what happened wasn't what he had anticipated. Megamind turned the sword on himself.
He plunged the sharp blade into his body, pushing his Father's sword all the way through him until the end of it stuck out of his back. Was he committing suicide to end his life first? Dracula was just reaching forward to grab at the alien when the sword was pulled out, and plunged into his own stomach. Megamind's shaking free hand grabbed at the vampire's shoulder and held him as tightly as he could as the blade sunk into him.
"Born by fire, blood and steel." Megamind whispered shakily into the monsters ear, "Death by fire, blood and steel."
Pain erupted within Dracula's body like none he had known before. The sword, stained with Megamind's blood, burned with the fury of a thousand suns. He could feel his body literally eating away at itself, the alien blood attacking his beautiful, perfect form. The beast screamed and threw his head back as his body continued to suffer the effects. His handsome face began to undergo a violent change, the flesh seeming to have the life sucked out of it. His skin went from its healthy, albeit bruised and cut, form to a thin, veiny appearance one would compare to a sick, dying, old person. The vein-ridden skin became strained and taught on his body, revealing sharp angular features that had been hidden beneath a mask of beauty and elegance.
Hands became claws; knobbly old things that could be used to grip and climb any surface it encountered. His eyes became white and blind in the light, for Dracula was never truly meant to be out in the sunlight. He was a night creature, and the day time was not his usual playground. His whole body began to hunch over, his spine bending into that similar to an animal, and his clothes ripped and fell away from his grotesque body.
Blind white eyes stared at nothing, but he was still stuck with Megamind. With a vicious growl he opened his mouth to reveal his sharp, deadly teeth. Megamind tried to pull away but those monstrous claws were suddenly upon him, and he screamed as the beast sunk his sharp teeth down into his shoulder and pulled. Megamind screamed and the hand at Dracula's shoulder released, but not to push him off. Instead, he reached within his jacket for one last weapon that he had been hiding for just this occasion. He pulled out a small gun and pressed it against Dracula's side, pressing one of the triggers on it. Liquid shot out of it, striking Dracula's form, and when he pulled a different trigger flames erupted from its nozzle.
The fluid that had doused the pale, disgusting form of Dracula caught fire as well. The flames roared and licked up the disintegrating body, but they also seared across the blue man still held in place by the vampire.
All the vampires in the vicinity let out a scream that would echo in the world's shadows and darkness for eternity. It would haunt the nightmares of everyone gathered there to witness it. They turned and fled, running from the scene. Many were killed in their cowardice by those of the Family who could still fight. Fighters they may be, but when a great leader falls, the underlings are normally the first to run from the scene, and vampires were no different. For now there was no honour in defending a dying, or dead man.
Roxanne and Wayne hadn't split ways since they arrived, and Roxanne had done in at least a dozen of the beasts. Things had been going well, but then the screaming had started. She watched as they fled, and had managed to bash in a fleeing vampire's head with her faithful bat; she had brought it along just in case. It was bloodied and splintered, and could have worked wonders as a stake too if she so wanted it.
There was electricity in the air, and that throbbing sense of doom was suddenly gone. She looked around, shaken, as people around her began to finally move. They actually seemed to rush forward, towards the fountain. It was only now Roxanne realized there was thick, ugly, black smoke coming up from the scene. Heart racing, Roxanne pushed her way up through the crowds of people, almost being plowed over by retreating vampires in the meantime, and when she finally made her way to the front what she saw horrified her.
A man was on fire, but he was also vanishing before her eyes. He was nothing more than a skeleton with organs, but he somehow still screamed as the fire consumed him like kindling under a campfire. Was that Dracula? It must be, for its form was disgusting and the skeleton was disfigured, and it reminded her of that horrible painting in the Manor of the beast feasting on a living man.
The screaming skeleton finally burned to nothing. The flames died, the last of the smoke vanished into the air, and a good number of nearby men and women rushed forward. Ignoring the fountain and everyone else, they began collecting the remains of the beast, though it wasn't much left. A blackened skull, ash, and shattered bones were all that remained. Either way, they needed to be gathered and properly destroyed.
Roxanne watched, repulsed, before realizing Megamind was nowhere to be seen. She looked around, but couldn't see him. She suddenly spotted Minion, showing signs of damage to his body, hopping his way to the fountain. Was his leg missing? It was. Feeling her body being somehow pulled forward, she began to almost glide towards the fountain as Minion all but threw himself into the water. She drew closer, along with people whose faces she didn't really know, but they all looked horrified when their eyes saw what was in the fountain with the fish.
Megamind was in the water, being held by Minion. His face was a bloodied mess, he had an open wound in his stomach, and his blood was still pouring and mixing with the once clean water. But all the more alarming were the burns to his body. They stretched across his arms, his chest; almost everywhere save for the majority of his face and legs. The burns crossed the wound to his stomach, though that was nothing compared to the massive bite wound in his shoulder. Roxanne had once done a story on somebody who had a bad run in with a shark while surfing, and the look of the injury on Megamind's body was very reminiscent of it. Dracula had sunk his teeth in, and shook his head like a great white shark, tearing at the muscles and ripping the flesh, despite the knowledge that the blood of the alien would burn him.
Roxanne wanted to scream, to cry, but found her voice was gone, swallowed up by what she saw. Minion, who had made his way to the fountain even with one leg missing, had pulled Megamind out of the water so he wouldn't drown. Obviously the alien had had the sense to pull away from the vampire as soon as possible and fall into the fountain, dousing all the flames on his body before they could do further damage. The fish was stroking the alien's cheek with his thumb, seemingly oblivious to the fact Roxanne was there at all, much less any one else.
"You did wonderful, Sir..." Minion whispered quietly.
It was here Roxanne realized that Megamind was still alive; he was barely breathing, and his eyes were just slightly open. She gasped, wanted to reach out to touch him, but she was afraid she may hurt him. That didn't stop her from climbing into the water beside Minion, who looked up at her briefly. Megamind, too, seemed to sense she was there, since his eyes opened only a fraction more. He looked at her for a moment before his eyes slipped shut again. He was alive, but for how long? Where was the medical team? Where was Lady, or Wayne?
One question was suddenly answered when Wayne appeared, almost out of nowhere, and the towering man of strength stared at his brother with wide, horrified eyes. "Oh my God. Oh my God."
Why had he gotten caught up in the battle like that? He hated violence, yet he had been out there destroying monsters as if the world was ending. How many had fallen to his strength today? He had lost count. But why hadn't he sought out his brother? Megamind wasn't built like him. He had taken on the monster, and look at what it had earned him. Desperately he looked around, backing away from the fountain and shouted to the crowd. "LADY! Get Lady, get her here now! He's dying, he's dying my brother is dying! We have to move him, we have to, to get him home!"
The crowd reacted, looking around, trying to find the white haired woman, while Wayne returned to the fountain and those gathered around. "Oh Jesus, Ethelwine, why did you do this?" he asked quietly, voice cracking as his brother began to shiver in Minion's arms. Was he going into shock?
Wayne suddenly pulled his shirt off and helped Minion to wrap it around Megamind in the water to keep him cool but also to apply pressure to his still bleeding stomach and shoulder wound.
"Gone..." Megamind whispered. Wayne carefully pulled him out of the water just as Lady was running up to join them, looking horrified at what she saw. "Gone, gone..." his hand slipped, and his beads fell from his fingers to land in the water with a gentle plunk. Most of them were black, burned by the fire, while a few looked as new as ever.
Minion was quick to pluck them out of the water and offer them to Roxanne, who closed her hand over the still warm beads and pressed them to her chest.
"Take me with you." Roxanne finally found her voice where it was hiding in the back of her throat, and spoke with a strained voice to Wayne as Lady was just taking his hand.
"Yes, of course." Wayne wasn't bothered by carrying multiple people. He knew how fast he could go, how fast he could get them to the Manor where his brother would be fixed, healed. "Do you want to come, Minion?" he asked the fish.
"I can get back easily enough, you get him home. Get him fixed. Please," the fish begged from his place in the water still. "Please."
"We'll do our best," Lady promised.
Minion watched as the group suddenly vanished from sight, and was left with the rest of the Family. In the far distance, the sound of police sirens began to sing.
Roxanne felt disorientated as she found herself suddenly in the Manor's dining hall. She wondered just how Lady and her parents could put up with it since it felt like jet lag, only ten times more powerful. She felt like she was going to throw up, but luckily the feeling passed over her quickly when Wayne began moving through the house. Lady, by now, had gotten down from his embrace and was rushing ahead of him to their 'hospital' wing.
"Mom! Dad! Major emergency, major!" she called to her parents; they had stayed behind at the manor, unlike their daughter who had wanted to go fight. Most medical experts for the family normally chose to stay back rather than fight, since it was their job to patch up all the injuries fighters normally encountered.
Roxanne saw the couple rush around the corner accompanied by two more people Roxanne didn't know. She could only assume they were other members of the Family medical 'staff' who lived elsewhere and had arrived that morning. Their faces turned from shock to grim expressions when they saw the blue alien in Wayne's arms.
"Carry him through. Lady, get his blood reserves. Looks like he's lost a lot and it's still everywhere," said Lady's dad as they rushed into the medical wing.
Glancing down at the floor, Roxanne felt her stomach plummet. Megamind was still bleeding heavily, evident by the blood staining the carpet. In the distance she heard a television talking about a brawl erupting in the middle of town, and how people had been killed. From the sounds of it a helicopter was filming a lot of footage, while the man continued to talk over the din.
The television continued to blare at the children who sat there, watching, transfixed.
"News reports came flooding in about what at first appeared to be a gathering at the city's centre today, around midday. The two groups erupted into gang related violence and I hear we're getting footage taken from nearby surveillance cameras..."
Zeke gasped as one image showed Minion being thrown clear through a store front, loosing his leg in the process. "Minion!" he gasped.
"Look!" Alexander pointed. More footage, this one in color, picked up a blue skinned man being thrown through the air by another man in a torn suit. The image froze on the frame, and a red circle appeared around the flung man as if he were impossible to see against a background of violence and blurs.
"Police have yet to confirm the identity of this civilian. There are rumors the whole thing is a stunt to boost interest in an upcoming movie, but nobody is coming forward to answer to these claims. Whoever the group is, it has caused massive amounts of property damage."
Little did the children know that across town those people who were still home were watching this news unfold. Every other minute on practically every news channel images of violence were being shown, with the grittier parts blurred out of course; vampires caught on camera for the first time, swords being used, stakes and knives as well as claws and teeth. Some people who watched couldn't help but have a sense of déjà vu whilst watching it all play out.
One woman in particular, sitting in her small apartment, felt a wave of memories suddenly crash over her when she saw the freeze frame of the blue man. There were memories of a house, an old, old house, and a man with brown hair. He had a moustache. And there were two little boys, their boys... Her boys. One was blue; he had fallen from the sky and needed a family. The other could fly. Was this one of them? What was his name? The woman lifted a hand to her forehead and shut her eyes, trying to fight against the flood, memories breaking through the dam that the man with brown hair had erected in her mind. Hot, salty tears ran down her face.
Still the television went on, loud enough to rouse Bernard from his bed. Wrapping his dressing gown around his body, he started slowly making his way downstairs, nose keenly picking up the smell of blood and of medicinal things. Reaching the bottom of the stairs he rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache creeping up on him, and walked through to the room where the children sat watching the news still.
"What in the name of all that is holy is going on?" he asked.
"The war!" Alexander replied enthusiastically, not even looking over his shoulder. "They got caught on TV! All of it!"
"Look, there's uncle Ethelwine!" pointed Zeke.
Bernard walked closer to get a better view of the television and stared as the image of Megamind appeared, blurred thanks to the footage. Then it appeared again, suspended on a screen between a panel of three people who began theorizing and talking about just what was going on.
"Well bugger me." Bernard muttered, causing the children to finally look at him. "This isn't good."
The children watched their werewolf friend for a while, as if waiting for him to transform right there. Instead the man moved away from the loud television and staring eyes of children and walked through the house until he heard voices coming from down the hallway. He could hear Lady and her parents... and other voices he didn't recognize. Then he heard Wayne and his heart gave a sudden jolt. Was he hurt? Had something happened to him? What if Dracula had bitten him, and pierced his skin? His feet carried him just that little bit faster towards the medical ward, and he pushed the door open to find Roxanne hanging back with Wayne.
"Oh thank God." whispered the librarian, causing the two to turn their heads to look at him. "I smelt it and I thought you..." he started.
"You should be in bed." Wayne whispered gravely as he moved to his boyfriend's side, running a hand through his tussled hair. "Why are you up?"
"I heard noise. I came to investigate..." Bernard replied, tilting his head into the touch gently since it felt nice; at a time like this he would take any form of nice he could. "You guys are all over the news."
"Hmm. I'm not surprised," scoffed Wayne.
"What's going on?" Bernard asked finally, looking to Roxanne who had tears streaming down her face. "Who's hurt?"
"Megamind is," answered Wayne. "He took some pretty heavy damage out there."
Bernard wasn't certain how to feel when he heard that news. Injuries were expected when you fought the bad guys; he knew that better than anyone. But to hear Megamind, who seemed to come out of most encounters with just some bruised ribs and ash stained clothes, was a strange thing. He wanted to ask how badly hurt he was, but chose not to. It was obviously serious if he had five people working on him in the other room, and the way Roxanne was crying like he had never seen her cry before.
Even when her last boyfriend, Dave, had been caught cheating on her with a twenty-year-old.
He moved over to his friend and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and he felt her shudder beneath his embrace. While he wanted to say something comforting, something like 'he'll be all right', Bernard had seen how badly torn up a person could get. Even if Lady and her parents were talented, they weren't miracle workers. Wayne moved to the two of them and Bernard shifted his other arm so he could grasp at his boyfriends large, strong hand, and rested his head slightly against Wayne's shoulder.
"Let the waiting game begin," he mumbled.
To be continued