POV Rio
I was completely unaware that Reznov had become the most wanted man in the world with the largest bounty seen on one target ever recorded by the High Table. But even if I knew, I wouldn't care. It would be nearly impossible to link me with Reznov. After all, how can I be all over Europe but also at home in New York? Then, on a flight to London mere hours after Reznov was seen in France. Not to mention the drastic difference in looks.
I was busy finishing Minecraft. I had developed it to a playable state. It was almost ready for version 1.0, but for now, I would hold off until I finished making sure everything was working as it should. I had to thank the Steve Dayton Template for speeding things along. His knowledge of programming might not have been his speciality, but he was still quite proficient in it. And that helped speed things along even further. It also helped that I had an idea of what I wanted in this version. I knew the game would be coming out late enough that I couldn't realistically make much profit from it before I shorted Stark Industries, but any bit would help.
Once I landed in London, I didn't run straight to Lara Croft's residence; instead, I decided I would check out the sights. Which was nice, for five minutes, until I came across one of the locals.
"Whogabalackadookita!" the British man says aggressively before clicking his teeth in a show of dominance.
I stood looking at the British man as he spoke in a language so foreign that even Pandora's boon couldn't translate it.
"OI, gov'nah, want a bo'le of wa'er?" says another strange man.
"Um, no thanks," I politely decline before getting away from the creatures.
"An' if th'ivver does owt for nowt, allus do it for thissen," says another man and no joke, I had no idea what he was asking or if he was even asking something.
But after that really odd encounter, the rest of the residents weren't so bad. They weren't indecipherable and were honestly quite nice.
"Oh, you must have met the Allen Brothers. They're a little loony. But don't let 'em think we're a bunch of wierdos," said a kind old lady running a small tea shop.
"I truly hope so, I would be quite worried if this place were worse than Paris," I joke.
"Hah, if we became as bad as the French, then you'd be damn'd right we'd have a problem," an older gentleman said from afar.
I finished my tea and left the nice shop behind. It was time to see the rest of the sights. The first was the British Museum. It was a nice sight, and I sensed at least three separate magic items. One was indeed the Dark Sceptre.
'How has Kamar Taj not just removed these or at least replaced them with fakes?'
Now, to be fair, only the Dark Sceptre seemed strong, as the other two seemed like simple magic trinkets, so it was possible they simply hadn't checked the museum in a while. Or perhaps magic is just that uncommon. However, none of that mattered when I noticed a group of people that set off my spy senses.
"Why do we even need to check the museum? It's not like we'll find anything of interest for our cause," says Man 1.
"Shut up. Orders from the top are to check here for anything that could be usable. Who knows how many of those bloodsuckers are waiting for our attack?" says Man 2.
"Both of you, be quiet. Their agents could be listening to us!" says Man 3.
'Hmm, Blood suckers? So vampires, then? This could be interesting.'
I decided I would follow them and see where they led me. Worst-case scenario, I learn nothing of note and leave. Lara Croft wasn't going anywhere. At least probably not. And selling my items to her isn't an absolute requirement, just a side project.
The more I spied on the men, the more I was certain they were human. They carried the usual vampire hunter gear, crosses, garlic, holy water, silver weapons and powder. They also carried weapons that looked like they fired something strange. The bullets were glowing blue and looked like a toy, almost, but I knew they weren't. These guys did look fairly professional. But more than that, they were everywhere. I did an estimate, and I found there to be around 1000 vampire hunters present. Which was insane. Just thinking about smuggling in so many weapons into the UK made it clear these guys were at the very least, very well-connected. The question became, what or who is their target?
Eventually, I had to retreat as it didn't seem they were going to be moving right now. So I placed a tracking device on one of their vehicles and left. I could go and be a tourist for now and wait for them to make a move.
Two Days Later...
It was late on December 5th that I received the signal that they started moving. I was a bit confused as to why they would attack at night, but it became a bit clearer when I saw how many cars left their compound. They had to do so as otherwuse they would be noticed. And admittedly, the Vampires would expect an attack at night the least. Regardless, I had no intention of choosing a side. I had no part in this fight, and I couldn't even say who might be on the good or bad side in this fight. It could be the vampire hunters, as vampires rarely appear as neutral or good guys in stories, but I wasn't going to just assume that is the case. For all I know, both of them are equally bad.
Regardless, I drove my car to the location of the tracker and found over 100 abandoned vans and SUVs. Upon seeing that, I got a most wicked idea.
'Hehe boi.'
I move from car to car to check and scan for any tracking devices or things that might be able to be tracked easily. Other than the VINs on them, there wasn't anything left on them. Then I started storing each car one by one and checking the descriptions to make sure I was right. It turned out I missed one tracker. It was swiftly removed, and I decided to take it apart real quick to see how it was made. Once that was done, I dropped it into a vial of Black Acid to destroy it. Then I start tracking the path the vampire hunters used.
They didn't seem to bother hiding their tracks, which I suppose, with so many, it didn't really matter. But eventually I followed the tracks to a manor. The manor was old Gothic style, and I could see the signs of battle. I reach down and touch the ground.
'Vampiric ash. Still fresh, looks like I'm not late.'
I put on the invisibility cloak and start sneaking around the chaos. There were a lot of dead people. And as I got closer to the sounds of fighting, the more I found mutilated bodies. On occasion, I found Vampiric ash, but it was quite uncommon. It was honestly a bit worrisome that the hunters were losing so badly in comparison to the vampires, but maybe that was just how things worked. Anyway, as I arrived at the battle, I saw there were still a few hundred vampire hunters fighting four vampires.
I stayed out of sight just in case any of them would see me, and I didn't linger. I would look around the manor for some loot. I had already looted all the corpses for silver and other useful materials. What can I say? Silver is valuable, and it wasn't like they needed it anymore. And even if they do see me, they would only see the featureless mask of The Question. As I was looking at the manor for valuable, I had to admit the place looked familiar. Not all of it, but parts of it, which made me believe that I might have seen parts of this place in a movie.
'But which one? It probably had to do with vampires. Also, possibly in London. And maybe with vampire hunters?'
None of the options I could think of made much sense. Some fit partially, but none perfectly.
'Meh, I'll figure it out eventually.'
I explore the manor and only stop when I feel the manor shake from an explosion. The explosion knocks me off my feet and into a secret door, which swivels open to reveal a secluded chamber. In the back of the centre of the chamber lies a small pool of ice. It sank into the ground, and I took a peek inside, only to be surprised to see someone inside. And not just anyone, but Selene from the Underworld movies.
'Oh, this changes things.'
I hear footsteps nearby and close the door.
"Colloportus!" I cast, locking the door.
To be extra sure, I throw the cloak of invisibility over myself and the pool. While Selene might not be an ally, she was a decent moderate when it came to humans, if not even sympathetic to them. So she could be an ally, especially if I protect her while she seems incapacitated.
"I think I heard something over here!" says a voice outside the chamber.
They discover the secret door fairly quickly, likely with magic-detecting items, or perhaps it was a vampiric-detecting item. I suppose I would learn soon enough. But right as I was preparing to pull out a weapon, I detected that I was being watched. I looked down, and Selene was staring right at me. I put my fingers to my mouth and pointed at the door. She seems to think about what I say and doesn't move to break free from her icy prison.
Moments later, a loud crack fills the room as the door is damaged and then knocked out of its socket. They looked around the room and looked confused.
"Why did they protect the door with magic if nothing is in here?" asks one man in metal armour.
"Look around the edges of the room, there might be a button or lever," says another man.
They start searching the walls and find nothing, and thankfully, don't seem to detect my cloak. They look around for about 10 minutes before giving up.
"Fine, keep looking through the rest of the manor. The Elder must still be here," says the man in armour.
I wait for them to leave a fair distance away before I start to get up and sneak to the door to look around to make sure they are gone. Then I cast a simple sound-concealing spell.
"They can't hear us for now. So if you need to get out of that, now is your chance," I say to her as I was fairly sure she could hear me.
CRACK
The ice shatters, and a naked Selene leaves the ice. I look away but stay on my guard and toss her some clothes. I didn't know her size, so I gave her several options in various sizes.
"Thanks, now who are you and what is going on?" Selene asks after getting dressed.
"I'll be honest, I don't fully know what is happening. I was tracking some vampire hunters from London, which led me to find an army of them. That army attacked this manor and killed all the other vampires and thralls you guys had. Or at least I'm pretty sure they did. There could be some hidden around, I guess. They lost a lot of men so far, but I'm not sure how many remain. Could be the 17 we just saw, or it could be well over 100. As for protecting you? I did it to hide and to test what kind of detectors they had," I reply.
I don't say I saved her because I recognised her, as that wasn't worth explaining now.
"Of course they did. Terrible timing for us," Selene says with a frustrated tone.
"So how did 1000 simple humans manage to wipe out this entire coven. Shouldn't there be better defences or more vampires to defend you?" I ask.
"We just finished a war with the Lycans, and many of my kind were killed in the war. There were only 31 defenders of the manor, 7 of whom were vampires. We never expected the hunters to come and attack us. We have connections with the British Government. It should have been impossible for them to amass so many without alerting us," Selene says with annoyance.
"Ah, yeah, that will do it," I reply.
I hear some distant voices.
"Do you want to run? I can teleport us away from here," I ask.
She bites her lip and looks conflicted.
"Can you defeat them?" Selene asks.