THE VROL TRILOGY (144 page)

"Max, be careful, they can still see you with
your simple cantus," cautioned the gorgeous dega.

"Yeah sweetie, no worries. It's daytime right
now over there anyway. I'm just gonna shoot in, fly around, check
things out and slip directly back," said Max, who then kissed his
wife before he took two steps and impressively jumped into the air,
wings sprouting out from his back at the same time. He made a short
loop over the remaining troops before disappearing through a portal
to Portlandia.

Portlandia, America

An invisible hybrid lycan/archangel, the only
his kind in the universe, shot into the air over Portlandia, a
large city with a massive natural harbor. Unlike its Earthly west
coast namesake, the port was salt water, and was named for the
ancient town in the former United States of America due to its
geographical similarities.

Max first went to the naval annex, and noting
that only Draagh's infoscreens displayed Bagatelle's frozen image
he immediately surmised something was wrong. Dropping to the ground
in front of a building entrance he detected no electricity -
someone had shut the power off.

He slipped inside the building to avoid being
discovered by opening a door. Once inside he went directly to the
ops center, finding it abandoned and dark.

Looks like someone's buddied up with
Johnson

The young mage dropped an infoscreen over the
top of the main control panel, noting where circuits traveled. An
engineer by education and trade, Max had little difficulty using
his human skills along with his magical abilities to determine that
the power plant's main line had been severed. A quick 3D slip to
that location and Max had the entire base lit up, which also caused
a lot of soldiers and civilian personnel to exit their quarters and
offices. Luckily, he was still invisible, even to heat scans, so he
moved about the population, using his enhanced HUD to look for
inactive lycans, ghouls and mages.

Max saw only normals for the first twenty
minutes, but his readouts told him everyone was nervous - afraid of
some form of deceit. It wasn't long afterward when he sniffed the
air and detected a foul odor - a noxious, yet familiar odor.
Shaking his head he knew it couldn't be true. He quickly generated
an extra cantus around himself, one to block his scent, and upon
rounding a corner what he saw shocked him to the point of nearly
dropping all of his sensory defenses.

Vera Base, Azul System

"Max had better be careful," said Jennie,
while she looked at the glimmering portal to Azul - specifically
Portlandia. "It's already daybreak there, and he hasn't checked in
for a while. I'm starting to -"

"
Everyone.
Hey, Mike? I think I need some… help here
," commed
Max.

"
Max, what is
wrong? Why do you not come back and we can discuss your
quandary
," responded Michael.

"
Max, get your
ass back here now. You don't sound right
," demanded
his beautiful but preoccupied wife.

"
I'm not
right. It's just something that shouldn't be. It's
impossible
."

"
What is it,
Max
?" asked Gabriel, chiming in from New
Sydney.

"
I'm looking
directly at an active vampire. And he's standing out in the
sun
."

Chapter 19 - Activated

Portlandia, America

"
What? A ghoul
survives in the sun on a world where there should be none? Max,
please hold. I have your position and I shall assist you in killing
it
," said Gabriel.

"
Gabe! No! You
can't just go killing everything. We need some intelligence here.
I'm taking it with me. Draagh, are you
there
?"

"
Yes, my boy.
How may I assist
?"

"
Max, are you
bringing that thing back here
?" asked
Jennie.

"
Oh hell no.
Draagh, meet me at Krynos' castle. Whatever made this freak can
probably track it. Jennie, hold off on Portlandia. Something weird
is up here."

Max opened the comm to include New Sydney
COC, so they could bring Bagatelle into the fold.

"Admiral, can you give us a status update?
We're holding on Portlandia. I found an active vampire and Draagh
and I are taking it to the Rhönen."

"Captain, we are good here.
In fact, it's almost like a party. Draagh, I could use some
assistance getting troops over to Buenos Aires
," said
Bagatelle.

"Admiral, I believe we are
experiencing the same revelry in our campaign,"
reported Krynos
. "Isamu and I are
currently overseeing a change of leadership. We have captured
twenty genetic vampires and they are in custody. In my opinion you
should concentrate on Max's issues at the moment."

"Okay, but these guys are
getting restless. I need to send them somewhere. Admiral, do you
have any suggestions?"
asked Jennie.

"Jen, send them here. We'll need a massive
contingency to march on the Capitol anyway."

Max silently approached the being that
shouldn't have been where it was. For a moment it almost appeared
that it somehow detected Max, but the moment no one was looking in
their mutual direction Max slipped them both to the meadow outside
Krynos' castle, and released his cantuses at the same time. The
vampire screeched and hissed, looking around in confusion, and then
dove towards Max. The young lycan mage merely pointed his hand out
and froze the beast in midair, with it retaining a look of
confusion upon its rotting visage. It wasn't a few more seconds and
Draagh was at his grandson's side, looking at the creature
curiously.

"Hmm, yes, strange, quite strange indeed,"
said the ancient Primulus.

"What's that?" asked Max.

"I had my suspicions, but now I am certain.
There are probably many more."

"
My sons, you
shall encounter activated ghouls. Please do not hesitate in
eliminating them. We have all of the information we shall need from
this one sample
," said Draagh.

"Wow, pops. That's kinda not your style, is
it?" asked Max.

Draagh gave his grandson a sincere, weathered
look and sighed as the captured vampire popped out of sight.

"My boy, the further we delve into our
campaign, the more ruthless we shall need to become. This is no
small battle with a pathetic warlord. We are dealing with universal
forces - those of your, and my kind."

"Huh? Who's involved now?"

"Let us go inside and I shall explain to
you."

New Sydney, Oz

"I'm done standing around. I'm going to New
Sydney with my brother. He says it seems safe," said Jennie. Her
father-in-law, Michael, nodded his head and walked through the
shimmering portal with her and the remaining troops, exiting out
onto the expansive grinder in the center of the base.

New Sydney Naval Base had been the center of
Jennie's military career ever since she graduated from the academy,
so she needed neither escort nor directions, even though Michael
stuck to her like glue, mostly for her protection. Jennie was
wearing standard military fatigues, as was Michael. She found it
funny that he could technically be arrested and brought up on
charges for impersonating an officer. That is if anyone could
actually arrest one of the most powerful being in the universe. The
two moved to Bagatelle's command center he had set up in the
communications center of the base, and walking in, noted that the
officers and soldiers near him were almost exclusively inactive
lycan.

Wow, we really do gravitate
toward each other
.

"Admiral, it is good to see that your efforts
have been successful," said Jennie, speaking to her brother in a
manner befitting of his rank.

"Welcome, Commander. I am assuming Captain
Gunnarsson is busy with our ancient ally in an attempt to discover
just how an active ghoul came to be on this world?"

Jennie nodded her head, as Bagatelle looked
at Michael. "Mickey, that's a good look on you. Let me know if you
ever want to make it permanent."

Michael smiled while nodding his head,
and then asked over the comm, "
Luigi, what
is my rank in this uniform
?"

"
Let's just
call you Commodore. It's the rank above Captain, but hasn't been in
use for generations
."

"
What? He's a
frikin' Commodore? Dang
!" Jennie exclaimed with fake
dismay, and then elbowed her father-in-law in the side, giving him
a mischievous grin.

"
Jennie, I
know you're joking, but I did that for a reason. First of all,
Michael is billions of years old. Second, his rank is only eclipsed
by mine, so no one will question him nor his authority at this
time. Sadly, it appears that all command-rank officers have
disappeared - erased. They are all dead and I am the
highest-ranking officer in Azul System. I have platoons out hunting
down anything not lycan or normal, and hearing an active vamp who's
sun-resistant was found has me preoccupied. You are staying with
Michael and coordinating intelligence from all recon units. I want
a status report every hour on the hour."

"You got it. But G, what
about the police force? How are they playing into this?"
asked Jennie.

"
They appear
to be all normals, with a few lycans. The chief of NS civilian
security is an inactive ghoul, and has been detained."

"But then who's in charge
of the police force?"
she inquired
.

"Sir, I understand the military situation,
but where's Chief Robinson?" asked the patrol officer in the
doorway.

A kindly and slightly indigenous-looking
older gentleman sat in the Chief's office, wearing military
fatigues, but displaying no rank. He looked up at the patrol
officer, detecting the man was an inactive lycan. He then gave him
a broad grin and said, "Chief Robinson has been detained for
assisting in Leonard Johnson's illegal elimination of the
Constitution. I am Chief Jake Williams. It is a pleasure to meet
you, young sir."

Jake Williams looked out onto the Buenos
Aires precinct floor, military and police officers mixed together,
working on restoring order, if it was even unrestored in the first
place. It turned out that no non-politico wanted
anti-constitutional rule. They welcomed the military just to stop
the rumors and the disappearances. Jake was a student of Earth
history, having come from Alaska of the core timeline - the one
that could not be changed. His village was moved to the alternate
Earth by Marnn in an unexpected display of compassion for the
Haidas, but Williams knew Mankind's story all too well. On his
world a military takeover meant even more death and destruction -
more deceit and disappearances. It happened in Nazi Germany, Soviet
Russia and El Proceso in Argentina, as well as many other smaller
countries. However, lycans had taken over on Azul, and were
fulfilling their genetic role as the protectors of Mankind.

"Officer, what is your name?" Williams kindly
asked.

"Nano Sanchez, sir."

"Nano, I like you. How would you like to be
my assistant?"

Sanchez looked at Williams for a moment,
trying desperately to see if he was being used or bamboozled, but
he could always rely on his ability to gauge people, and felt
Williams was authentic.

"Yes, I would like that very much, sir."

"Okay. The first thing I need for you to do
is to assure the public that what we are doing is a good thing, and
that we only care about their safety. Put a team together and start
working with the community."

Rhönen Dominion, 4268

"Grigori? Weird name. You think they're
behind all of this?" asked Max.

"That is partly correct, my boy. They are
nearly as strong as us. However, your lycan abilities may perhaps
provide you with an edge unforeseen when we encounter them," said
Draagh with some amount of satisfaction.

"Well, where are they?" inquired Max.

"That I have yet to ascertain, Max. But now
that we have this poor fool in custody I am going to study him a
bit. Why not return to Vera while I complete some tasks here?"

"Good idea. I'm going to check on Buenos
Aires. See ya!"

Max blinked out of sight, leaving Draagh in
the dark antechamber of Krynos' very quiet castle. He looked over
at a cage in the corner, the vampire inside hissing and spitting
like vampires would usually do.

"Well hello there, my friend. My name is
Draagh, and I will need a bit of your blood."

The vampire started to lash out through the
bars as soon as the ancient Primulus approached. Holding his head
back, the ghoul's clawed hand nearly touched Draagh's beard. He
kept his distance and looked at the poor creature. He pitied
vampires. Not on the level that he pitied cannibals, but he felt
some bit of compassion for them. They were nature's creation and it
wasn't really their fault they were assholes. Still, he had a job
to do. Quickly moving to the cage, he reached inside, grabbing the
ghoul by the throat. He squeezed so hard that the creature
immediately lost consciousness. He then took a large syringe out
and extracted a few CCs of blood from the creature's neck.