The Banana Slug: Jurassic Park was such a beautiful movie, I watched it as a kid (and yes, I was afraid of nuthin'!) and I still love it, love it, love it as an adult.
Lost World…yyyeah, I agree with its critics but I still enjoyed the movie, even though I liked the villains more than the protagonists (especially Roland Tembo).
Hell, I made Roland Leonard's father, therefore linking him to Quatermain. Why? Because he DESERVES IT!
JS3? …I'm not even going to dignify myself with a response.
Hellsing's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
By The Banana Slug
CHAPTER 13: The Lost World
Hellsing Organization
Mid-August, 2009
The rain was ramming down hard in the city of London, along with the Hellsing Mansion as its owner looked through the dripping window of her large organized office. Sir Integra would watch with her single undamaged eye as she spied the Spy walking past the front gates with an umbrella protecting him as he seemed to be walking with joy.
She glared down at him, forced to work with this spy who has given her no reason to trust him. Integra sighs and walks back to her desk, sitting down as she pulls out a cigar from her case.
As she slices off the top, the doors open to reveal Bond come in, setting his umbrella down, all while breathing out a tune, "Siiinging in the rain…I'm siiiinging in the rain."
He sighed and turned to Integra as she lights her cigar, looking at him with great distaste. She sighs and says through his humming, "…Have you any word of the League since Dimmsdale?"
"Hm?" he replied without notice before realizing, saying to her with a shake of his head, "No, afraid not, but we should be getting a call from them real soon. But I did come to tell you that-"
And with that said, the phone rang out with both looking at it in slight surprise. James chuckled and said, "Well well well, speak of the devil, hm?"
Ignoring his statement, she picks up the phone and answers, "Alucard, I hope you are heading back to England. Did you acquire the Notes in Dimmsdale."
"Yes and no," explained Alucard from the other side, "on our way down the coast, a useful tip told us of a base on a South American island. We had to burn the Notes just to keep them from getting them."
"You found a base, hm?" she asked from him, perking the interest of James as he studied her with a glare. Integra then asks of him, "What have you learned, where did you get the tip?"
"One could say we have learned too much," chuckled Alucard, "and the one who supplied the information was our dear friend Orlando."
"Orlando?" breathed out Integra in curiosity, which caused James Bond to fully gather his entire interest.
"Orlando!" coughed out Bond, walking over and holding his hand out and calmly ordering her, "The phone."
However, all he was given in response from her was a turn of her rotating chair, blocking him from her as he stood flabbergasted. "…When will you be back?"
"By Nautilus, I'd say five days, but we're taking a detour," explained Alucard, "we're stopping in Isla Sorna."
"And why is that, Alucard?" questioned Integra coldly, "Did you forget we are at war with Millennium again?"
"No, master, but I am honoring the request of a great hunter," breathed out Alucard, "he helped slay a foe I could not kill alone. I must, and I do mean I must, honor his request."
"…Fine," she sighed in irritation, pinching the bridge of her nose, "…but please hurry, that information is vital."
"Very well," he ended, "I await to see you again, my master…"
With that, she spun back around and ended her call. As she put the phone back down, James was leaning against the wall as he sighs in boredom.
"…What's the news, love?" he asked her.
"…They'll be coming back in a week," she replied, "they have information quite important to us about the New Millennium. The Cavorite Notes from Dimmsdale were destroyed to keep them out of Millennium hands."
"Hm…can't expect them to do anything perfect," he sighed, "would've rather have the Cavorite Notes intact for our use…"
"They did their duty, you should be grateful, Bond," she hissed, offended by his callous attitude, "Millennium doesn't have them, and that is more important." With that out of hand, Integra then asks, "And what were you going to tell me? What is your reason for entering my headquarters?"
James sighed and said, "Well, just that I got a valuable source that says we're not alone in the Cavorite race. Apparently there is another organization out there in search of them all, and they're not friendly."
"And that is all?" questioned Integra.
"From what I am allowed to tell you, yes," replied James coolly.
"And how long are you going to keep me mostly in the dark?" added Integra with a scowl.
James shrugged and said without a shed of regret, "As long as you do your job, sir." With that, Integra glared at him as the agent bowed and walked out her office, humming to himself, singing about the rain.
Isla Sorna
Mid-August, 2009
It was a beautiful green isle, with high peaks and a dreaded reef around the islands with cliffs substituting most of the beaches. It was covered in fog as the large black submarine slowly ascended from the brine waters and began to lower speed to a full stop.
Inside of the Nautilus, in the captain's deck was three of the League's members, sitting around the table with a map of the Costa Rican island, with the three including the No-Life King and his Draculina, and the Science-Pirate herself. In the back of the deck, there was Leonard Quatermain as he was kneeling over an assembly of guns, wrapping up a large elephant gun as he had a look of complete morose regret.
"So, you want to…start here?" asked Alucard, pointing at the south-west end of the island, then sliding his finger to the northern coast, "and finish here?"
"Yes," said Quatermain from across the room, "it's a game trail. It was the same game trail I used the last time I was here." He then walked over with his large rifle in hand, still wrapped up as he continued with, "Now, all I need now is a party. Anyone want to join me hunting some dinosaurs?"
"I'm…sorry, did you just say…dinosaurs?" let out Seras, looking at him with a nervous confusion.
"Yes, dinosaurs," enlightened Nemo, "they were created some time ago for a zoo for the bloody rich, only when a power outage led all of them to escape and, after many deaths, they were forced to close it before the park even opened."
"But, does he mean actual dinosaurs?" she inquired deeper.
"Really just genetically-engineered monsters, but one wouldn't be ridiculed for calling them as such," answered Nemo calmly, "this island was created as a place to hold them, really. The original island has been deserted for some time, but this one is quite a thriving paradise of prehistoric wildlife compared to the other."
After that, she said with a smirk, "But yes, I would love to join your little party. I myself am a hunter." With that, she swayed her hand to point to a wall filled with trophies, with the heads of many types of sharks, dolphins, and many other smaller fish-life mounted whole on the wall, including the head of a large Orca whale with its mouth hanging open just to show its many sharp teeth.
"And so shall I, Quatermain," stated Alucard with a smile, "as well as the Police Girl."
Seras sighed as she sat there with the other League members getting up from their seats as they would walk with Quatermain to the door as she sits there with a look at the eye before hearing her master call out, "Police Girl, come."
"Fine…" groaned Seras in evident disdain as she gets up and joins the League members as she saw them hold up rifles as she picks one up herself, "I just see this as a waste of time, really."
"Please don't tell me you are one of those environmentalists who think animals cannot defend themselves," scoffed Quatermain as the League walked through the doors and into the main hall.
"That's not what I am prattling on about, you old fool," snapped Seras with a glare and a pout, then saying loudly, "I am talking about the fact we are off hunting lizards instead of trying to stop the New Millennium from attacking London again."
"It's just a small two day expedition, Seras," scoffed Quatermain, "besides, Alucard and Conan said that they didn't have those bloody notes."
As they walked down the corridor with a metal clang with every step of their feet, Seras barked, "We don't know that! Besides, we shouldn't give them the time to actually get them."
"You really are a ray of sunshine," grumbled Quatermain as the group stopped in front of the hatch as Nemo herself was stopping herself from hitting one of them as they bickered. Quatermain then said with a gruff growl, "Why don't you try enjoying yourself, you angry little tomboy."
After that, Seras growled and snapped out with a hiss, "Jog on, you-"
"For the love of god, will the both of you shut up?" growled Alucard in irritation as Nemo would escape from this by climbing the ladder out of her submarine as the vampire continued with, "I swear, you both are acting like an old married couple."
Seras crosses her arms and scowls as she looks away like a defiant child as he master climbed away following the captain out of the Nautilus, with the old hunter rolling his eyes and saying to Seras, "Besides, we are only really hunting one thing, Seras. We're going to kill us the most dangerous predator in the history of the world: The Tyrannosaur."
With that, Leonard climbed up the ladder hurriedly as Seras was shocked for a moment at what they were going to hunt was the Tyrant Lizard. She quickly followed up as she shouted up at him, "Hold on! Did you say a Tyrannosaur? Like…a Tyrannosaurus Rex?"
"Quite, Seras," stated Quatermain as the two got on the roof of the Nautilus where it was buoyantly floating half a mile from the island. As the two sauntered over to Alucard and Nemo stood at the edge as they looked at Nemo's crewmates began removing the tarp off one of the silver shark-shaped speedboat.
The old hunter turned his gaze into the island as the sounds of behemoths bellowing out was heard out from the green mass, breathing out, "We're going in there to hunt the killer of hunters, the ultimate prey…"
Isla Sorna
Early November, 2000
"GO TO HELL!"
In the dense jungle was three figures, three men, two standing over one as he was tied to a tree. The man was a dark-haired Caucasian man with a cocky glare and a spiteful frown as he wore a simple hiking vest over his tan shirt, cargo pants that ended with brown leather boots.
Over him were two other men, both hunters. The eldest was a bald-headed man with a strong stern glare and a scowl of deep resentment, with his eyes hidden by a pair of black shades underneath a long-rimmed tan hat with a zebra-striped band. With him was a tan shirt and a tanner jacket, with tan pocketed shorts and long white socks snug with hiking boots. In his hand was a bowie knife and a large elephant gun resting on his shoulder, with a backpack strapped on filled with ammunition.
The other was Leonard Quatermain himself, looking down at him with equal resentment. He was more younger, but not by much. He still looked rained and still had that tire in his eyes. His hair was just as messy in Mexico, and his beard was shorter than today. He wore an outfit similar to his father's, minus a hat and shades as he held in his hand a long hunting rifle.
"Not as quick as you will, Mr. Van Owen," said the older man, "I can't have you try and murder me or my son."
"I'm not the murderer here, Tembo, you are," argued the mad environmentalist, "you came back here, even though it is now a protected area, and you want to kill animals for fun?"
"Don't you dare demonize me when you are as much as a demon as I am!" snarled the old hunter, "Because of your actions over thirty men lost their lives on this island, you are a murderer like my son and I…but you kill because of your own self-hatred as a species and your urge to protect animals who can easily defend themselves."
"And that justifies you strapping me to a tree?" argued back the man, "Letting some animal walk past to dine on me?"
"Well, Mr. Van Owen," scoffed the old hunter as Leonard slowly hands him a bucket, "that is…actually what we are planning on doing." And with that, the old man, Roland Tembo, began tossing blood from inside the bucket on Van Owen.
"GAH! Pft!" he gagged out, spitting out blood as he yells, "What the hell is this!?"
"Pig's blood, Mr. Van Owen," said Leonard, "It helps attract predators." After that, Roland and Leonard walked away as Nick Van Owen began to quickly hyperventilate, before he would scream out for help.
"HELP! HEEELP!" he screams, "SOMEONE HELP ME!"
"Go ahead and scream, you self-important little zoophile, it'll attract our quarry," sighed Roland as he walked to a large tree and began climbing up it, with him looking down at his son and asking, "You coming?"
"In a moment, father," he grunted, finding it hard to climb up the tree with him sweating profusely as Roland grunted with tire. Finally, they'd rest on the top of the tree as they watched the blood-soaked environmentalist scream out for help until his voice went hoarse.
The two hunters would sit there for minutes as they watched Van Owen kick his legs and try to escape, with Leonard turning to his hunting father, "Isn't this a bit…harsh?"
"Harsh is setting lose a herd of wild dinosaurs in a camp and having them destroy your only way out of this gods-forsaken island." explained Roland Tembo calmly, "Harsh is taking out the bullets from a rifle when you are trying to kill a monster that will not hesitate to brutally devour you and your companions. Because of him, I lost Ajay and many others. This isn't harsh, my boy, this is cold-blooded revenge."
The two would continue to wait as Roland would glance at his son, who looked tired and drained as he kept his rifle ready for their quarry. Finally, he asked, "What made you decide to actually come with me this time?"
"…I had a bit of a scare…in New York," breathed out Leonard, "saw things I wish I never had, made me start thinking…" He grunts and scratches his head, "I'm not one-hundred percent sure, but you are right…I need to get help."
"Trust me, boy," started Roland, "I think this will help, hunting together, like when you were twelve, remember?"
"Yes, that lion would have killed you if I didn't shoot that bastard in the eyes," chuckled Leonard.
"Hmhm, yes, I remember Wakanda," sighed Roland with a smirk on his face.
After that, Leonard would turn his head and ask, "…I just don't know why we are here, from what I heard from what happened last time, I would think this would be the last place you'd ever return to."
"It would seem so, wouldn't it?" grunts Roland as he rolls his shoulder in discomfort, "All in all, I am just trying to silence my critics. It is true that I did not kill a tyrannosaurus, same one that rampaged throughout San Francisco, so I am here to kill one and become a man of my word." He then turns to his son and asks almost mockingly, "Not afraid, are you?"
"Of course not, father," grumbled Leonard, "its just that I never hunted a bloody beast like it. From what I've heard, its like a bloody elephant with a hanker for flesh."
"Trust me, boy," sighed Roland, "…It's a lot worse than that, especially the sows."
However, the two would soon hear loud screams from the environmentalist, with the two hunters quickly aiming their rifles to discover what Nick Van Owen was not a tyrannosaurus.
Instead, with screeching chirps were heard as Van Owen kicked his feet at the flock of Compsognathi, tiny chicken-like lizards that chirped and jumped around as they salivated with their beak-like maws snapping wildly.
"Damn…" whispered Roland with a disheartened growl, "well, this was a long shot anyway, any sort of predator could have walked by…besides, we're looking for a hunter, not a scavenger."
"So, do we scare them off with a good shot?" asked Leonard, holding his rifle up before Roland holds his hand up and gives a calm shake of the head.
"No, son," said Roland Tembo calmly and quickly, before stating to him silently, "…Ajay's blood is on his hands, it is time he pays in kind…"
The sounds of Nick Van Owen's screams as they would be upon him quickly shot out from his lungs, with the teeth of those small dinosaurs sinking into his blood-covered flesh. The flesh would rip off his bones as they crowded and climbed over him as the claws would slash with deep wounds gushing blood lightly. The small beasts would savagely eat the man as they growled and hissed, with Nick crying out in agony as he kicks his feet into the mud wildly as the splashing of earth and gore mixes together.
Isla Sorna, 2009
The rotten corpse would look into the forest with empty eye sockets and an open jaw, strapped to a tree by chewed-up rope covered in blood. Its clothing ripped and shredded as flies would buzz around the grey flesh left over as it covered the gnawed-on bones sparsely.
Leonard Quatermain would look at it with a glare, his gun pressing against the dirt as he stands there like a statue alone in an abandoned park with melancholy and loneliness. He felt nothing for the man who he witness dying a gruesome death, but for the man he called father that he will never ever see again in this mortal plane.
"Who's that?" would be a question asked to him, and Leonard looked to his side to see Seras walk next to him and inspect the corpse.
"I wish I cared," was the reply of Leonard Quatermain, tipping his hat and walking away with Seras looking with a hint of suspicion. Around the area was Alucard looking at a pile of corroded chicken-like bones, and Captain Nemo as she looks around with blue binoculars. All of them had rifles in hand and packs behind them, except for Seras Victoria, who kept hers strapped to her back with their group leader, Quatermain, carrying one hunting rifle in hand with an elephant gun strapped next to his brown slightly torn pack.
"Where to, hunter?" questioned Alucard, turning to him as Leonard would be out of mind for some time.
"Hm?" would be his response before his mind finally comprehended the question and saying with his finger shooting to the distance, "We head on down the plains there, then we head on off to the other part of the forest, there we camp for the night, then head on to the beach. Hopefully we can find a bull Rex during our trail and shoot the bastard down."
"And after we kill it, what do we do with it?" asked Seras, "Just leave it to rot with the scavengers eating the corpse."
"Hell no!" answered Quatermain, almost offended with a deep sneer, "Nemo promises to have her men carry the corpse back and stuff it." With a laugh, he says, "Who knows? We might be able to make sausages from the meat, I'm sure it will taste like ostrich or crocodile, definitely something like that."
"If you are done fantasizing on eating an extinct predator, I think we should start hunting it down, hm?" sighed Nemo as she pulls down her binoculars, loading his rifle as Quatermain was again disturbed by the simple part of being on this prehistoric island.
He sighed as he would be approached by his party, gulping up that dreaded feeling in his gut that yearned for release and injection, with his addiction getting worse as he feels his heart thump with a dark feeling as he leads them all down the forest. The small light hidden by the fog would soon beat down on them as the long green trees were starting to show less and less with the grass scraping against their knees as they would get to the plains of Isla Sorna. A long place filled with grass reaching to their knees as it swayed with the wind as it blows a calm yet deeply haunting tune. In the distance would be seen a giant long-necked beast that even ten miles away, drinking from the grotto, looked massive and great as herds of other dinosaurs gathering around it.
Not too far, they'd be able to see large horned beasts grazing in the large grass-fields as they mooed and grunted, stomping around as they ate. They had a body somewhat like a rhino, but had two large horns growing from the forehead along with a large frill and a large fat tail from behind.
Seras would stop and look out in the distance with curious awe, "…Are those the dinosaurs?"
"Yes, funny, it looked just like that when I first showed up here," explained Quatermain with a half smile as he looked at the herd out there with an appreciation of natural beauty, feeling his inner turmoil slowly dissipate at the sight of it. Leonard sighs as Seras and he stand there looking at the herd gathered at the body of water.
Alucard and Nemo would approach and behold this as well, with pirate breathing out, "So…this is what God created before us? It is so antediluvian, yet so majestic…so beautiful."
"I quite agree, monsters gifted with life from death, not un-life like you and I, Seras," gave out Alucard with a deep calm voice, "allowed to breath and eat without fearing the sun or striking fear for no reason but to murder and rape." Alucard chuckles and says, "Look at me, getting sentimental over a gallery of living fossils."
He lifts the hat off his black-haired head and began patting the dust off his hat and says, "Let's kill us a Rex before I turn completely soft."
Alucard nudges Seras, causing a squeak back from her, as he walks past the two as Nemo looked over and followed him. Leonard and Seras were the last, with the old hunter saying, "…He's right, we came here for the Tyrannosaur."
With that, Seras watched as he joined the two off down the plains to the forests in the distance, hearing the loud calls of the dinosaurs down at the grotto as the wind cuts faster into the ears as the grass blows with it. She rolls her shoulders and ran up to them, following the three obediently as she looks over at the grim Quatermain, knowing his attitude has been sour and dark throughout the hunt.
"Do you have any idea where the Rex is at or are we just going to hope we run into it?" asked Seras to Quatermain.
"My father and I encountered a nest near the end of the island, if we so happen to run into one on the way, then kudos to us, our hunt comes to a swift end for us or for him," explained Quatermain with a gruff and old tone.
"Kill or be killed, hm?" teased Alucard with a smile, "All just for the thrill of the hunt?"
"My father said to me this when I asked that," stated Quatermain without looking at him, "He'd tell me a story of this man I think twenty years ago, climbed Mount Everest without oxygen and came back nearly dying. One person asked him, "Why did you go up there to die?" He responded, "I didn't, I went up there to live."
"And you can't remember the name?"
"No, I can't remember the damn name," barked Roland as he and his son made their way to the large dense forest, "now, I want you on your guard, son. The bloody reptiles that killed Ajay hide in these bloody vines and they kill swiftly and instantly, understand?"
Leonard sighed and looked with a wide-eyed glare at the area, "…Mhm." was all he said to his father as he pressed his shoulder against his head nervously.
"Leonard, what did I just say?" tested Roland strictly.
"I heard it!" snapped Quatermain quickly, "Just bloody believe-"
"Leonard," quietly scolded Tembo, "what was the first bloody thing I told you? Silence during the hunt, especially in predator zones."
"Sorry…sorry…" breathed a sweating Leonard, wiping his brow and scratching the back of his head with a great unstoppable fidgetiness.
"The addiction, hm?" asked Roland rhetorically, then saying with a worried sigh, "I know, I can tell, one can say we are both trying to enter that bloody serenity I hear too many bloody time." He turns to him and says to his son, "I haven't brought a single drop of alcohol here, not a single drop to tempt me. For I too, had a nasty scare myself, son."
"…The Zeppelin Incident, I…" his son would groan back, "I heard you were there when…"
"When those monsters descended from the sky? Raping and pillaging over a million people?" finished Tembo, then telling grimly, "…And where was I? Passed out. Drunk. Laying in the corner of the alleyway after drowning in Hennessey, Whiskey, and Gin, and I would awaken to see the city burning, and all the monsters dead with the sun rising from the East."
He continued as the two trekked through the dense jungle, "Think of it, during that time one of those lampreys would have crouched down and ripped my throat out. I had become sloppy and undisciplined, and I needed to reenter the jungle by bagging what I originally came out here to do three years ago…collect my fee, and perhaps, maybe, I will finally be satisfied, that alcohol will no longer drown any thoughts of doubt."
Roland Tembo finished with a smile, looking at his son as he listened to him with a grave frown, "Perhaps you will too, do you think?"
"I think it's getting dark."
Quatermain looked out into the distance with his hand on his forehead, seeing the red sunset past the fog as the fogged sky darkened above them. He then said to Seras with a cough, "Hmph, my fault for starting this blood expedition during the day, it seems."
He turns to the others and says, "We'll set up camp another quarter of a mile to the north-west, I camped there last time I was here."
With that, he led his expedition with his glares looking at any movement in the trees, hearing the sounds of mooing and bellows from dinosaurs far from here as he keeps his gun ready. He was sure to make sure anything wasn't hunting them, something smart like an ape but the ferocity of a wolf, something that was a terror to the untrained that will eat you alive with just one swift leap as they dig their claws in your belly.
"You seem tense, Quatermain," spoke out Nemo, his fear causing her defense to heighten, "what is it on this island that makes a hunter so cautious?"
"Never met it when I was here, but I was told stories of a evil sort of creature," rambled Quatermain as he continued to look around cautiously, "a pack-hunting sort of beast that kill for fun, like dolphins, and are wicked smart, like apes. I've heard tales that those animals also use traps for prey, even more say that they have their own language." He shook his head and said, "Bah, I don't believe all of them, but it is damn fact that those 'raptors' are natural born killers. Those raptors are murderous animals, swift as hell and cunning to an unnatural degree."
"Interesting," chuckled Alucard, "that's the sort of creature…I'd love to hunt."
Quatermain rolls his eyes and grunts, "Yes, must remind you of your usual prey, doesn't it?"
With that, the group continued down the dense forest with trees as high as cities as the sound of insects buzzing and leaves rustling continued as besides those the silence was unnerving, indescribably haunting. This silence was nothing to Quatermain, but the sky getting darker and dimmer caused much worry for the hunter, knowing that those prehistoric hunters his father told him about are nocturnal and always silent before striking.
However, salvation was found in a familiar area as Quatermain sighed and stated hopefully, "Here…this is it." He recognized the patch of ground, especially the same rock formation around a dirt patch that served as a firepit with two large stones next to the formation as seats. With that, he placed his gun down and began tugging his pack off and saying to the rest, "We make camp here, after that, we keep going till we hit the shore, where the Nautilus waits for us."
"Very well, but I have a question," stated Nemo as she put her pack to the ground, "what will happen…if it turns out we don't encounter a Tyrannosaur?"
"Impossible," stated Leonard bluntly, "we will find the Tyrannosaur, I swear it by my own life."
"Don't be dramatic, boy. We will find the Tyrannosaur, I swear it by my own life."
Leonard sighed as he sat on a rock with his father over at the other side of the firepit, eating the roasted remains of a small Compsognathus, one of many the two hunted out. Roland then looked over at his son, sitting there with his fingers pressing against the tail and neck of the dead meat.
"Eat up son, we don't want to attract the raptors," he told him, "then throw the remains in the fire." With that, Roland then ordered, "And keep your gun near, and-"
"Sleep with one eye open," finished Leonard in slight annoyance, "I may be a wreck but I have not forgotten what you taught me, father."
"Yes, I suppose you do," breaths Roland, looking into the fire tiredly, "it seems that I have taught you enough about hunting, seeing you are already a seasoned hunter at the age of forty, hm?"
Roland takes another bite, then saying to him, "Tomorrow, we head over to the beach, I believe a Rex Nest is around that area. There we kill a buck together, then have our men at the ship help us haul the corpse back to the ship, so we can stuff it and salvage the rest for food."
"I wonder how it tastes," Quatermain says out there, "and how the hell do we even prepare it? Rex Sausage? Rex Burgers?"
Roland chuckles lightly, "We'll know when we shoot and bag the bastard, son. Thinking about it, I just wonder how it cooks."
"Do you think it will cook like pork?" laughs Leonard, poking at the fire with a stick.
"Hell no!" barked Roland with a smile, "I think it will taste like…ostrich or maybe even crocodile, somewhere around that area."
With that, he threw the remains of his Compy into the fire, watching the bones burn from the orange flames as Leonard ate his. Roland smiled and played with it as the two would hear the sound of birds calling…or maybe it was something else, it trumpeted, but could not know if it was a bird or a dinosaur…
"Is it mating season?"
"Hm?" replied Quatermain, turning to Nemo as the group sit in a circle over the fire as the sounds of the dinosaurs and birds crying out in the black night.
"They seem to be pretty loud," added Nemo, looking around as Alucard looked at the fire next to her with his fledgling between her master and the old hunter as the two humans would eat jerky the sea captain brought with them. The vampires brought blood packs to feed on as they stayed up for a little bit more.
"…Perhaps, but that just means a buck will be more out in the open," replied Quatermain calmly, biting into his jerky and saying, "it also means the bloody thing will be more aggressive, it is a good thing we have vampires in our team to combat the titan."
"Glad to be of help, my boy," sighed Alucard with a smile, "but I have to ask, what is your strategy when we get to the animal?"
"We hide, and when it least suspects it, we blast it with rifles," explained Quatermain, "and if we have to, I have an elephant gun to blast it to hell."
"All we have to do is just hope to God we shoot it at the right spot?" asked Alucard, "Didn't that tactic work last time you were here?"
"No, not at all," sighed Quatermain morosely as he shook his head, "because there were only two of us, I think with more hunters we could down the animal." He then said with a look of failure, "When I last hunted it, it survived forty shots with the rifles and one shot with the elephant gun. It is obvious that with more people, it will go down faster, especially if two are already dead."
Alucard laughs and says, "Well said, hunter."
"Hm, this tyrannosaur sounds like an unstoppable juggernaut," added Nemo as she bit into the jerky, "perhaps we should've brought a damn grenade launcher to kill it."
"I heard if you stand still, they can't see you," pointed out Seras, looking around at the noises of the scaly beasts in the dark.
"Pheh, bullshit, apparently you've been reading those books that hack Ian Malcolm writes," growled Quatermain with a sneer.
"Actually, Alan Grant," corrected Seras, jabbing a stick into the fire with a small pout.
"He retracted that theory, knowing how well that thing actually sees," explains Nemo with a roll of the eyes, "hell, that misconception is as pathetic as that whole 'scavenger' fantasy."
"Indeed, I doubt this Rex will be too much trouble, but it will be quite the kill," hissed Alucard as he leaned back and smiled, "think of it, a king among beasts, a titan from the past. To kill it will be such a treat, I believe you would agree with me, right hunter?"
"Yes, it would," sighed Quatermain in a grim tone, "but this is not all it is about, vampire. This trip is more about my own personal feelings, I need to bury some old demons and only bagging this animal will cure me of that."
He sighs loudly and ruffles his hair as eyes were on him saying, "Well, that's one of the reasons here, thank you again…Alucard, I needed to come here."
"No need, old hunter," replied Alucard, "all just to see these monsters in the flesh at last, all in thanks for helping me slay my foe."
"Go on, this is all just a chance just to shoot something, isn't it?" scoffed Quatermain calmly, "I'm sure you'd be able to kill that weird leech by your own."
Alucard chuckles and asks him, "Ah, and how could I have done so when I was trapped in a mountain of vampires?"
"You took down a whole army of them during that Zeppelin Incident," argued Quatermain, "I keep wondering why you need us anyway, you could handle this whole New Millennium business by yourself."
"Not at all, Quatermain," explained Alucard with a tilt of his head, "I may be powerful, but even a god can be overcome by a mortal, have you not heard the old Greek tale of Ares and the Ghost of Sparta? It is simply proof that even gods may die, old hunter."
He grabs his hat and takes it off as he continues with, "I died in London, and even though this Detective may not have someone like that thing that killed me…yet, but he has proven to be cunning, intelligent, and calculated. He knows what he wants, and won't take failure as an option. I can't tell you if he will outdo his predecessor or be more pathetic, but his intentions are clear…London will burn and I can't do it alone."
Seras looks with her soft blue eyes with a light pout, with Quatermain shaking his head and saying, "…I never met the old Millennium, but I'll take your word for it, Alucard."
"I have met the old Millennium, Alucard, so I can't argue if you say that the New one is just as appalling," remarked Nemo as she sat with her rummaging in her coat pocket.
"You have met the previous Millennium before, Captain Nemo?" asked Seras, not really surprised, a woman like her must have seen the whole world and met the most prodigious of figures in her life.
"Aye, around…twelve years ago, I believe," she elaborated, "it was Antarctica, from what I gathered from one of their captured soldiers, they were after a sample of DNA of some sort of 'extra-terrestrial biokinetic organism', which I guess explains what our late Neo-Nazi friend was."
"How did you get one of those bloody lampreys to talk, Nemo?" asked Quatermain, turning to Seras and saying, "No offense." She replied with a simple wave of her hand.
"Just because they are undead like Alucard and Miss Victoria, it doesn't mean they can't be broken, and on the side note, I don't understand why people don't use keelhauling as a method of interrogation more often than they should," explained the captain with her hand reaching into her coat pocket, then continuing with her tale after pulling out a small black pipe, "we would encounter them at a burned down base filled with frozen corpses, where me and my men were forced to push back, we were no match for vampires at the time."
She shook her head and breaths out, saying with a low tone, "…I saw the Major, that fat little child that smiled as we approached, knowing who I was and possibly stroking his own ego knowing he'd win. With him was that cat-creature Alucard spoke of, and a tall blonde doctor who was the only one who seemed…distressed by our coming…the fourth couldn't care less."
"How could you tell?" questioned Alucard as he drank the blood he had in his hand.
"…I couldn't," she replied to him, tapping a small container as a green powder fell inside of the pipe, "his face was blank…like a ghost."
"The Detective!" blurted out Seras.
Nemo nods and said as she lit a match, putting the fire into the pipe as Nemo put it into her soft lips, "…Yes, that was him, the same thing who escaped Alucard and the same thing that you fought in Noble's Isle. I believed he died in the crusade of London ten years ago, but when Millennium turned up…I had a pretty good guess who was running it, a phantom like that was the only one I could think of that could spread fear in the late Major's name."
Smoking the pipe she seems to bring with her everywhere, she concludes with, "…Which is one of the main reasons I joined this League, I didn't want to see what would happen if the Detective actually managed to conquer the West."
"…Interesting, very interesting," said Alucard with a small smile, turning to Quatermain and asking, "So Leonard, what is your reason for joining this League?"
"Perhaps I will tell you, if you tell me how you escaped from Limbo," Quatermain quipped back, "then perhaps I shall tell you my ridiculous reason for joining this ridiculous League."
"Would you believe me that I simply…appeared from Limbo?" answered Alucard with a chuckle, "In the middle of nowhere, no reason?"
Quatermain rolled his eyes and scoffed at him, "Jog on, Alucard! One doesn't just appear out of thin air without reason, there has to be an explanation for what happened and how you returned from the dead."
"All I will tell you is that I simply showed up, five years after my defeat, in the cold north," replied Alucard, "that is all I will tell you, perhaps someday I shall tell you the full story, but that day will be far off."
Quatermain couldn't help but laugh at that, biting into his jerky again and looking at him with one raised brow, "You are quite the annoying bastard. Well, since you are simply going to hint it, I'll hint mine: You remind me of someone important to me. That's why I joined."
"All for familiarities sake, eh Quatermain?" sighed Alucard with his brows up and a large smile, "That's touching, you old hound."
"Yes, I bet it gives you more material to make fun of me about, hm?" hisses Quatermain, wiping his brow as he looks over at Seras' direction. His gaze didn't stop, with Seras getting a bit uneasy by his glare with his hand gripping his rifle.
She was concerned, blinking rapidly as she looked over to her master, seeing him and Alucard doing the same. Their hands were tightly gripping their weapons, Alucard gripping the hilts of his silver handguns and Nemo gripping her harpoon gun as Seras would see them stare at her so darkly and defensively.
It didn't take long that it wasn't her they were staring at, but what was behind her. She took a tiny breath as she grabbed her rifle, slowly and cautiously as whatever it was that was behind her could strike soon.
Seras would then hear a low guttural snarl, a savage one that was so dark and hellish that it made even this vampire's blood run cold. She dare not turn around, not until her master would say otherwise…even if those eyes, those cat-like eyes that shined with bright red savagery watching her as that evil snarl was heard one last time.
The Banana Slug: FUCK! This was a BITCH to write, my friends! I don't know why, but it really FUCKING WAS! Sorry, the heat is getting to me.
And yes, sadly, this series of chapters is going to go on a bit more. Just one more chapter, I swear, so just brace yourself for character development and a big-ass T-Rex. :P