A/N: I've just got two feedback reviews in a row… And just that simple act of getting two people saying, "I liked this, I enjoy reading it and I want more," in a row has given me a reason to work on this more. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE writing this story; it's a fun piece to write. But I was so pleased to get two people to say something… has given me more drive to put attention into it. In fact, I took off work today to start writing on it (February 28th) so… Thanks, you two! I appreciate it! I usually reply to each person who leaves feedback, but since I have no way to contact you guys, I hope this little author's note works!

-Kit

Chapter -6-
Intervention of Man

The towering, gray-furred werewolf lumbered through the hallway; gelatinous remnants of blood stained his claws. The hooded cloak billowed around his ankles, undulating to the rhythm of his step. Ornate body armor lined the wall of this hallway, much like the hallways on the first floor. Mirrored shields accompanied the suits, allowing Justus Bell to see himself in a way that resembled a Hollywood dramatization.

'Interesting; I wonder what these mirrors are for,' he thought. His eyes flitted from left to right, gazing at the reflective surfaces that held the image of his hooded form. Half-way down the hall, the floor tiles changed to mirrors and, ten meters further, the entire hallway became an intricate reflective surface. Pillars of reflective glass, arches of beautifully restored mirrors and entire reflective armored suits lined the shimmering walls.

Up ahead, a strange image flitted by, seeming to run perpendicular to the hallway. Justus quickened his pace, dashing into an intersection. He turned left and saw what appeared to be a young woman hurrying down the hall. Her footfalls clicked like tap-dance shoes from the tempered mirror floors. She turned left and the fantastic kaleidoscope of her image disappeared from the hallway.

He lifted his paws, rubbing his furry wrists against his eyes. "What in the hell…" The beastly man sprinted to the next intersection just in time to see her break left again, down the hall. His pupils dilated and his eyes widened in realization of what she'd just done. He turned about and ran back down the hall in the direction from which he'd come.

He made a right at the intersection, padded down the hall then turned to make his next right… At the corner, he collided with a soft body; onyx strands of hair carried forward from momentum, shrouding either side of his muzzle for the duration of a second. Both collapsed to the ground, tumbling along the floor in confusion. Justus sat up, glaring at her.

The girl scrambled to her hands and knees, her shoes squeaking on the mirrored floor. Justus' ears laid flat on his head, reminded of the sound of sneakers on a waxed indoor basketball court. He saw her jaw drop and eyes widen, lifting her left hand to cover her gaping mouth. "Holy shit," she shrieked through her fingers.

"Calm down!" Justus cried in reply. "I'm not here to hurt you, so just take a deep breath and chill out!"

"Christ, you can talk?" she said, scurrying back to the wall. The girl pressed herself into the mirror-lined bulkhead, pulling her knapsack over her chest in a protective manner. Her right hand plunged into it, pulling out an old service revolver.

"Whoa, wait just a second there!" Justus shouted, reaching for the Taurus in his belt. He pointed the barrel back at the young woman, narrowing his eyes. "You need to just chill out, goddamn you! I said I'm not here to hurt you," he added.

The revolver trembled in her sweaty palm. She looked resolved by the shaky weapon and nervous gaze belied her stone facial expression. "Since when did six-foot dogs speak English and use guns?" Her snappy demanding tone caused Justus to face-fault.

"I'm going to put this down." He lifted his left paw, palm out, and lowered the gun, pushing it back into his cloak. "And now, it's your turn to do the same, cool?"

"I… guess," she placed her thumb on the hammer, pulling it back. She eased in on the trigger, to release the cocking mechanism but her sweaty thumb caused the hammer to slip. The revolver bucked in her palm.

Justus' ears flickered from the obnoxious noise in unison to his body flinching from the connection of a bullet to his flesh. The round struck above his waist, spinning him to the right. It passed through his cloak; his left paw reached to the right side of his torso, just beneath his ribs. He dropped to the reflective tiles and a pool of scarlet began to gather, beneath him.

"Shit! OH my God, I'm so sorry," she said. She plunged the pistol back into the knapsack and fished for some bandages. "Jesus, I didn't mean to shoot you," she said, muttering a string of vituperative curses under her breath.

Justus cradled his right side, wincing from the sensation of heat. Still in shock, he couldn't yet feel the piercing stab of pain, only a scalding heat, beneath the fur. He didn't reply to her. Instead, his eyes watered up with moisture from the hot sting… At first, the pain reminded him of the time he'd been stung by a hornet, at the age of ten. The lupine's lips curled up in a snarl, revealing his clinched white teeth. His toes curled; his chest and shoulders tightened then he closed his eyes, sighing in an attempt to keep his temper.

"My name is Justus Bell," he finally said. "And I don't appreciate you shooting me. Unless I've bared my teeth and am rushing at you, please refrain from… nevermind."

"It was an accident!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah." He turned away from her, eyes clinched. "Just… nevermind. Give me a minute, this hurts, goddammit."

"I'm… Molly Fields," she said in a guilty tone. "I'm sorry I shot you, really." Her voice sounded as though she were afraid he would retaliate at any moment.

"Hush," the beast muttered. "Maybe if you'd shot me while I was in the middle of fighting ten men, it wouldn't hurt so badly. Adrenaline, you know? Right now, I just need for you to relax and be quiet. I'm here to find you, that old man – James Johnson, and whoever else is in here… and my uncle, and get you all out of here. That's my only concern, and as far as…" his voice trailed off, his ears perked up at the sound of a strange rumbling. "…Do you hear that?"

"No," she said in reply. "Hear what?"

Justus hobbled off, down the hallway. "Follow me." He perked his ears, keeping his right arm around his waist, cradling the wound. His ears led him to a window, further into the mirrored hallway. He lifted his head, gazing out the window; the sill beginning at shoulder level. His eyes narrowed, watching a small dot in the sky. "What… in the hell is that?"

Molly approached the window, gazed to Justus in a nervous way then peered up through the window, moving closer to him. "That's… an Israeli built airplane: A bomber with Turkish markings. Hah! I knew we didn't go back in time or go to some astral plane or some other insane crap! I know the Turkish markings, because I know this countryside damn well."

"Well what's it doing?" Justus asked. His eyes squinted, watching the bomber's nose lower, dropping in altitude. "It'd better not crash over us; we're not the Bermuda Triangle for Chrissake. I don't need airplanes dropping on this castle, I swear."

Molly tightened her hands around the war bag she wore. "It looks like it's coming in for a run, but I thought World War II dive bombers did that. Why is he dropping?"

"He's awfully big," Justus replied, squinting at the dot. "How can you see colors on his undercarriage, all I see is a "T" shaped dot in the sky. And I've got good eyes."

"Not as good as mine," she said. Her bragging tone melted into a gasp of surprise. "What the hell is that!" Her strange nervous tension about proximity to a man beast seemed to disappear. She wiggled between Justus and the window, pulling herself up to the ledge to get a closer look. Her eyes narrowed to a squint, watching the bottom of the dot in the sky. "Oh shit!"

"Excuse me?" he barked in reply. "What?"

"They're dropping some sort of ordinance!" she shouted. With her palms on the window ledge, he arched her back and shoulders, shoving him away from the window. Molly dropped to her feet and turned from the window. Outside, a howling whistle increased in volume until the ringing noise caused Justus' ears to lower from the piercing sound. He watched the girl take off down the hall but she didn't get far. Her foot came in contact with slick blood, where she'd shot him and she stumbled to the floor.

He shook his head and bounded off, after her. The howling sound became earsplitting. He dropped to the floor, covering her body with his, just as the bomb detonated, above the castle. A bright flash filled the hallway, from the window, so that every inch of the mirrored corridor became blinding. Justus kept his face down, over her body, protecting her incase the roof caved in. However, the sound of silence lingered on. Incredible heat rushed in through all the windows of the castle, rolling over his cape in a brief fraction of a second. A hot rush of wind, nearly seventy miles an hour, swept through the hallway, rippling his cloak.

His adrenaline kicked in and he forgot his wound for a moment. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could feel the terrified girl clinging to his wrist, keeping her pinned to the reflective floor tiles. A roar of sound shattered the silence, and yet the sound seemed distant. All at once, the flash ended and the dim illumination of the mirrored corridor returned.

Justus sat up; his hood flopped to his right shoulder. Molly crawled out from beneath his arms and ran back to the window. Justus let her go, sitting on the floor in a daze. He felt disoriented and his senses told him to be anywhere but here at this very instant. The dizzy spell gripped his chest, leaving his head to spin with vertigo.

"This proves it," she said, from further down the hall. "There isn't a God. There can't be. It's impossible."

Justus stood up, placing his shoulder against the reflective wall. The mirrored wall seemed somewhat faded. In fact, now that his eyes readjusted, he noted the spot on the floor he'd just come from, seemed normal, but everywhere else in the hall seemed to be faded. He slumped along the wall, approaching her. "Wait, hold on. I feel dizzy; I don't think it's from lack of blood, though." He approached the window, looking out into the sky. "…What the?"

Molly covered her mouth with her hand and said, "I feel like I'm inside of a snow globe, looking out at real snow, covering the glass dome." Outside, a circular bubble seemed to surround the castle. A fine white powder collected upon the bubble, making it visible to the naked eye. "I hope that's not what I think it is," she said.

"What does it look like, to you?"

She sighed. "Fallout."

Julius Belmont paused in the circular granite staircase, placing his palm on the stone blocks. He could feel a vibration in the stones, but they felt warm to the touch. "Odd," he said under his breath. The hall seemed to roar to life with a rush of hot air. It lasted for several seconds then subsided. He stepped from the staircase, into the fourth floor hallway. A demon flailed about with listless abandon, in an attempt to see. Its melted eyes ran down its cheeks like sludge. Its hands were outstretched, trying to feel for anything. However, standing in the center of the large room, it couldn't find a wall to gain any sort of bearing.

Julius reached his right hand back to the gauze over his left forearm. It began at his elbow, stopped at his wrist and, even with Yoko's spells and Genya's stitching job, it still hurt. His favored brown coat had been lost, left to dry over the heart in a guest room. His flamboyant garment, something he wore like a jersey in combat against vampires, remained with his coat.

The old man's eyes flitted back to Genya Arikado, emerging from the staircase behind him. He tilted his head, nodding at the demonic imp in the hall, whose melted eyes sent a shutter through the spines of even the most hardened warriors. It lifted its scaly hands, dabbing at the slimy white cream running down its cheeks. A disgruntled shriek of rage, confusion and fear erupted from its maw. The beast gnashed its incisors then dropped to the ground in a kneeling position.

Julius uncoiled the whip on his belt in silence. Genya approached Julius and placed a palm on the hunter's shoulder. Julius tilted his head in curiosity, glancing back at the pallid fingertips on his shirtless-shoulder. His eyes lifted, glancing at Alucard with a frown. "The inability to see," he whispered, "doesn't rule him out as a threat."

Alucard nodded, then released Belmont's shoulder, lifting his hand to point at the demon in silence. Julius' eyes returned to the thin cloth of a wife-beater undershirt that form-fittingly clung at the base of his neck, along his collarbone. He pivoted on his heel and glanced back at the demon, knelt in despair, wiping in a tentative way at the frothy thick liquid which dribbled from its clinched eyelids.

"Demon," said Alucard in a calm, deep voice. "Do not be alarmed; I see you are defenseless and demand to know what has happened to your face." The vampire passed Julius and approached the demon, looking over the gooey mixture of blood and paste covering over scaly cheeks.

"I can't… I can't see anything." The demon growled. "I looked outside, through the windows and the sky lit up in a flash brighter than I've ever seen. And now everything is dark." The demonic beast sniffed at the air then said, "My face is wet, I think I'm sweating but I don't feel hot." Its clawed fingers shut into the palm, making fists. "The darkness came; I felt a momentary hot wind. End my life; that I may not live as one handicapped, left to slowly starve in these dusty halls."

"As you wish," replied mister Arikado, drawing a sword from the sheath on his belt. "Make peace with your soul, that I might release you from the Curse of his castle."

"Praised be to G-…" The demon's words fell short and its head pitched forward, cleft from the body. With a resounding thud, the entire head hit the ground; the body slumped back, crashing to the floor.

Julius coiled his whip, hooking it on the mount clipped on his belt. He gave a tug at the hem of the tank-top out of habit… something he did to remove the wrinkles from his clothes after an encounter with enemies. Belmont approached the nearest window and looked up at the sky. "Genya… look at this." His calm voice denoted the serious nature of the situation.

Mr. Arikado reached into his pocket, pulling out a moist cloth. He rubbed the flat of his sword against the demon's soiled trousers, flipped the blade and cleaned the other side. On approach, he used the cloth to rub a layer of oil onto the blade then sheathed it. He pushed the cloth back into his clothes, beneath the dress-suit blazer and looked over Julius' shoulder.

"…It can't be," said the lithe man. He reached his hands upwards, brushing away locks of white. The ashen snow hovering above the castle made it feel as though they resided inside of a dome, looking out. "But it all makes sense… the flash, the intense wave of heat… the Demon's eyes… Inadvertently, we've been saved by the power of this castle's magical seal. It's far stronger than I'd realized and, if it had been anything less, we'd all be dead."

Belmont looked dubious. "I highly doubt you're referring to what I think you're referring to…"

Genya, a very cultured man, placed his hand to his chin. His pensive gesture portrayed the obvious apprehensions now plaguing him. "It appears the nervous Turkish Government may have deployed a B-61 Nuclear Gravity Bomb."

Julius' eyes widened. He glanced to Alucard, then back to the window and exclaimed, "What?"

The vampire sighed. "It's impossible to know how long they've been trying to enter this castle after their Prime Minister was, to their knowledge, abducted. It would be the decision of the Sultan of Istanbul, I fear. He's a very paranoid man. …Look!" Genya Arikado lifted his right hand, pointing at the grainy, distorted image of a jet fighter. "You can barely see him through the layer of fallout lying on the magic seal bubble, but it's a Rafael reconnaissance fighter. He's flying overhead to survey the damage. Right now, he's probably reporting that he's never seen anything like this…"

"You seem to know a lot about the warfare of man," Julius mused, folding his arms, taking care so as not to put any pressure against the wound on his left forearm. "What would this region look like from the sky?"

"The castle would be intact," Alucard told him. "The bubble would look like dirty glass, fallout would be light but it would be resting on the top of the bubble. Depending on the power of the bomb, there will be a crater in the earth on all sides of the magic seal, looking oddly reminiscent of a moat around the castle grounds. The grassy field will be a flat, barrel wasteland of ashes and embers. Trees in the distance are probably burning, but anything close to the castle would have been vaporized. This includes my limousine, the bodies of the police and workers – were they not collected by the Romanian government, first. I would hope so, as Romania would most likely conduct an autopsy on each body to ascertain what happened down there. There is no conceivable way that Romania would conduct a nuclear strike on a castle in its own region. However, this section of the countryside is very empty. A low-yield detonation would not interfere with the nearest major cities, save for very light cases of low radiation sickness in people."

"And you think, because this guy from Turkey is paranoid, he'd be the one to have ordered it?" Julius craned his neck, looking up from the window at the strange blob directly above the castle… looking up at the heel of a mushroom cloud high above them. From this angle, it had no definition or apparent shape. "Wouldn't that complicate relations between Turkey and its neighbors? Asia Minor, the Middle East and most of Europe?" Belmont cast his gaze back to Alucard.

"Right now, Julius, word of this attack and images from neighboring cities and satellite photos… are being broadcast to every nation in the country as breaking news. It's not every day a nuclear weapon is detonated in public, above ground, in an open area. People are demanding answers, government political figures are trying to get information while being slammed with demands. Local and International authorities are scrambling to get information from the Military. Military groups around the world are trying to shed light on this mess to find out who made the order, why and if they're a threat, capable or willing to do it again. We should be dead; I've seriously underestimated the power of this castle's magic seal. Now that it feels threatened, it will change in frequency, modulation and power, so as to protect itself. Nobody will get in or out, short of Devine Intervention."

"Seems unlikely," Julius replied in a flat tone. "He only steps in when one person's freewill decision has taken freewill from the rest of the population. He's rather big on making sure the majority of us have our freedom of will. Shy of that, I don't think He'll intervene. He's not a babysitter."

"I tend to agree," said Alucard. "He's here to lend us strength when we need to be empowered. He's here to offer signs and sometimes direction but he's not here to hold our hands when we go to war with one another. This is a dispute of man, directly taking an assault to the forces of Evil. Evil isn't exactly allowed to war with man, beyond manipulation, temptation and coercion. So, man won't be able to make this castle a battleground. The magic seal stands between this evil cursed place and the rest of mankind."

"Who would win?" Julius asked. "Or am I just a representative of mankind?"

"Humanity would trump Evil in a direct assault," Genya replied. "But that will not happen. It's foretold in the Christian Bible, in the revelations, that Evil will rise up and lead mankind; there will not be a war… Mankind will be tricked into following the leadership of Satan. Thus, Evil will attempt to strengthen itself with the forces of humanity, in order to overthrow the power of Good."

Belmont gazed back to the dark sheet of ash lying on the magic bubble, just outside of the Castle. "But God has the ability to abolish evil from existence with but a thought, right?"

"God created order and life," Alucard said, narrowing his eyes. "He does not advocate violence between sides, which is why he created life based on balance of good and evil. Perfect harmony requires both sides to be even. His Son is the King in the army of Good. The archangels are the Generals and the seraphim guardians are the lieutenants of light. God is the creator. He is not opposed, because those who oppose Him directly simply cease to exist, with the exception of Humans, who are allowed to believe in whatever, because they're bestowed the gift of Freewill. God doesn't fight, he mediates. However, He is an advocate of Good, after all, He created the law of life so that perfect balance between Good and Evil creates Harmony, which is a good thing. God only intervened in the war of Good and Evil on very few occasions. All of these occasions were when Evil began to triumph to the point of shaking the cosmic foundations. And so, he gave humanity his Son. Jesus learned all he would need to know in thirty-three short years on Earth. Then, he died, so that he could ascend to Heaven and take his seat as the King of Heaven."

"I thought God was the King of Heaven," Julius said, stepping back from the window.

"No," said Alucard with a pointed tone. He took a long, slow breath and turned to Julius. "I'll explain it all in a nutshell, and then this conversation is over, do you understand?" asked the Vampire, drawing his cloak about himself with narrowed eyes. "He's the King of all existence. There is a difference. Existence is Heaven, Hell and Earth. And he's managing both sides, to keep them from toppling the other, as it would have an adverse reaction to the kingdom of Earth. Jesus helps humans directly because it bodes well into the miracles of Good. Satan helps humans directly because it bodes well into the temptation and manipulation of the kingdom of Earth, giving Evil an edge. God runs the whole show, to make sure the least amount of casualties happen, so that neither empire topples the other, so that the Kingdom of Earth does not crash… without balance, you have chaos, no matter who runs the show, good or evil.

"Think about this, Julius… You stand here and imagine a life without evil, but your mortal mind cannot comprehend just how that would bring about a cease for life. With no struggle and no need to survive, there would be no NEED for the Kingdom of Earth and there would be no need for this realm… then, because Good reigns supreme, all the people of Earth become Saints. Then, with no need for middle ground, all humans would simply become inducted into Heaven. You sort of have to die to go to Heaven. Everyone on the planet would die and go to Heaven. It would be the end of Life as we know it. The end of life means the end of God's creation. God's creation IS life, His gift is Freewill. To end His creation would mean that the end of the universe. Without existence, Heaven is unnecessary. Then, there is nothing. Nothing except for God, with no creation. You really think He wants to start over from scratch? We've come so far and He has worked so hard to keep the balance. And now you know.

"You're a knight in the kingdom of Good, Julius Belmont. You will ascend to Heaven and fight in the war against Hell but you won't fight with your bare hands, as you do here. I don't know how fighting is done there, but it won't be with blood, flesh or bone. Those factors do not exist anywhere else but Earth. Jesus is the only one in Heaven who consists of Flesh or Blood, because they are integral parts of whom He is. Now, I can't sit here and explain the Eternal Struggle of the Great Autocracy – the tiers beneath The Creator – known as the Celestial Bureaucracy of Good and of Evil, because it's not for you to know. Besides that, we don't have the time."

Julius remained quiet for a moment. His eyes flitted from Alucard back to the window, back to the vampire. "I didn't realize that the Son of Dracula would have such intimate knowledge of the Universe."

"Who says I'm the son of Dracula?" Genya announced with an airy chuckle and a roll of his eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"The hell you don't," Julius replied. However, he changed the subject, reproaching the window. "Do you think this attack will affect Bulgaria?"

"They hardly exist," Alucard scoffed. "They were once part of Turkey. And, as far as you're concerned, I'm Genya Arikado and I work for a Government body, answering to and for the kingdom of Earth. To say I'm anything more would imply that I worked for Hell and switched sides to Heaven. I work for neither Good or Evil, but the God of both… I'm here to help the continuation of Life. Right now, Evil is very powerful, so I will help to push it back with all that I am. When Good has become victorious, I will simply return to sleep. I am a man, I bleed and I can be struck down." He lifts his hand to the window and added, "That bomb could have obliterated me in the flash of an instant. I'm not a god or a Demigod; my father was born and nursed and believed in Christianity. My mother was born, she was raised and she loved and mothered and died as all humans do."

Julius lifted his hands in a defensive posture, "Fine, very well. But I've always known. I'll drop it. Now," he sighed with a frown. "What do we do? Finding a way to take down the seal will kill us all with lethal radiation. What are our options."

"We find the Turkish Prime Minister," said Alucard. "We locate survivors, protect ourselves and find a way to remove the magic seal. We then wait. When the time is right, we abolish the seal and secure transportation, via teleportation, to a safe plane. Because it might be weeks before we can leave this castle, we would do well to find a source of Food. Let's also find Yoko and Hammer; they're most likely down in the courtyard. I wish to ensure that they were unharmed by the flash or burst of superheated wind. In certain parts of the castle, the heat would feel like a fireball, probably incinerating some. The seal probably protected us from most of the heat but I still wish to check on them."

Julius nodded. "Fine. Let's find them then we'll look for Justus."

A/N: Now our heroes are sealed in the castle without the ability to leave… Surly Justus' mother is back in England all upset. What about Yoko and Hammer in the courtyard? Are they okay, after the flash happened? We'll find out. IF you like this story, thank the two feedback reviews I got. I was going to work on two other chapters, one for Spy Cooper and one for Reflections Of Fox McCloud but… people showing interest in this story makes me show interest in finishing it. :D

I started a new job as a Manager at Blockbuster video to make some cash… so I won't be able to hammer out a hundred pages in a week (all stories combined) like I usually do. But anyhow.

Thanks for the input guys! Also, as always, my readers often help dictate things that happen in my stories… anything yaw'll wanna see?

PS: All the information on Turkey's attack capabilities for the 2040's are based loosely on what the UN claims they have now, PLUS the future orders they've made with Isreal and a hint of imagination for what the future might bring. As of today, Turkey's Nuclear bombs are sitting, more or less, in American Bases for emergencies. They do not have their own Nuclear program, although they do have plans to create up to 15 Nuclear Power Plants around 2015. It's IAEA backed and supported by the rest of the world. They do not have the authority to touch the Nuclear gravity-drop style bombs and you don't have to worry about them doing what they've done in this story. Although it will create quite a huge political storm IN the story, now that mankind has staged their intervention. The fools! hehe

-Kit