Okay, vampires sound bad. And I'm not crazy about the wars either. And Vampire Wars especially seem very bad...
"A darkness seemed to have begun to creep into Midgard by then..." Thor continues his tale "Though I do not know why, there seemed to have come a mystical change upon the world of mortals. Though we Avengers battled against the forces of evil as we always had, there were stories, rumors about other battles not fought out in the open. A shadow war being fought beneath the veil of normality. And much to my shame, to the shame of us all, we didn't get involved. Too caught up in our own battles to notice what was happening in secret, until it was already too late..."
.....
The Ruins of Castle Dracula, Transylvania, February 18th, 1979
"It brings me much joy to see that you all decided to accept my offer of truce, in spite of our past... difficulties..."
John Falsworth, better known to the mortal world as Baron Blood, scoffed at this massive understatement, but didn't speak up. Glancing around the room, he tried to read the faces of the others assembled around the table, hoping to glean some insight what they were thinking. To his right, an older man with white hair and beard, dressed in black and purple, sat, not looking any more convinced of their hosts largesse than Falsworth himself felt. He'd had little contact with the man before, knowing little beyond his name; Deacon Frost, though from what little he knew, Frost was not the type to pass up an opportunity.
Beyond Frost, sat a woman with ghostly white skin and yellow eyes, dressed in a scandalously revealing outfit made of leather and satin mesh, revealing far too much skin than was decent. She would have been very beautiful, had Falsworth still been subject to such mortal inclinations, if not for the grotesque shape of her head, her forehead splitting off into two points like a pair of horns, behind which a long mane of black hair flowed outwards and down her back. Falsworth knew little about her either beyond her name - Lilith, and her demonic nature. Unlike himself and Frost, Lilith seemed to him more cautiously intrigued by the proposal that had brought them all here.
To Falsworth's left was another woman, this one far less horrific in appearance, and dressed even more scandalously than the demonic Lilith. Her body just barely covered by a black leather corset and a cape, her beautiful face framed by long, dark hair. This one, even Falsworth knew about, even if he hadn't met her in person before. Selene, the mutant.
"Considering the nature of this invite, it seemed prudent to accept..." Selene drawled with a bored tone, giving their host a judging look "One doesn't turn down the Lord of The Vampires lightly. Still, I'd rather hope this meeting will be worth the trip."
Rising from his throne, Dracula grinned viciously, showing off his fangs as he placed his hands on the object in front of him, a square item covered by a black cloth "Oh, I rather believe you all will find my proposal interesting. You especially, Black Queen. Now, before I go into further detail, let me ask all of you a simple question - what do we have in common?"
There was silence as the assembled group simply glanced around, but giving no answer. Dracula waited for a few seconds, before he continuted "It's not the state of our vampirism, certainly. While the esteemed Lord Falsworth and Deacon Frost both share my blessing, neither you Selene, nor Lilith are vampires in the traditional sense. No, what we share that for far too long we have been denied what is rightfully ours! Forced into the shadows by the insects that infests this world! When they should be cowering at our feet, grateful for allowing them to live for yet another day in their meaningless lives before they serve their purpose of providing us with blood! All because of their protectors." Dracula grimaced, his words heavy with contempt "The so-called heroes that rush to the aid of the sheep! Protecting the worthless and weak!" He slammed down the palm of his hand on the covered object "Well, I say no more! No more shall we, the rightful rulers of this miserable Earth hide away in the corners of society! No more shall we be forced to grab a meager pittance of blood under the cover of night to stay hidden! This time, we shall be victorious!"
"And how is this time any different?" Falsworth asked, unimpressed with the speech, words he'd heard a thousand times before from a dozen different would-be conquerors "We've all tried this before, and every time, we've failed! If it's not the hunters, it's the heroes, but someone always interfers! Even this alliance..." He gestured around the room "as powerful as we might be, won't change the annoying tendency of the heroes to overcome even the greatest odds we put against them!"
It was a frustrating thought, but an all too accurate one. Falsworth had been around a long time, having been turned by Dracula himself just before the Great War, and even if his lifetime paled in comparison to the Lord of Vampires, it was enough for him to learn that somehow, no matter how little sense it made, if the spandex crowd decided to stick their nose in your plans, odds were they would succeed. He gritted his teeth, thinking back to his last encounter with the flag-wearing idiot Captain America, a foe he should have been able to best with ease, yet still he failed.
Dracula, however, seemed unconcerned "Perhaps there is some truth to your words, Falsworth, we've been losing to inferiors all this time, too divided by our own egos and petty vendettas. But it's time to put all that aside, because with our resources and powers combined, and with what I have planned, even the damned hunters won't be able to stop us, much the fools in capes and masks!"
"You seem very certain of this plan of yours, my Lord" Lilith spoke up "I admit I'm intrigued to the exact nature of this plot. What do you require from us?"
"In one word? Quantity!" Seeing the puzzled looks on his conspirators, Dracula began going into detail "The more manpower we have for this, the easier our victory will be. Between Falsworth, Frost and myself, we need to build an entire army of vampires, one that can crush the mortals through numbers alone. Lilith, from you, your Lilin spawn. Selene, your worshippers. Every resource availible to us, to destroy all opposition, once and for all!"
"A big army? That's your big plan?" Falsworth asked incredulously "Do you have any idea how many soldiers would be needed to win through force alone? These heroes have fought off armies before, I can't imagine they'll shy away from one that has to hide away during the daylight hours!"
To his surprise, Dracula simply smirked at him "Which is why, my dear Baron, amassing our army is simply one half of my intended plan. As you may have heard, in one week, there will be a solar eclipse, something that will greatly benefit us."
Falsworth rolled his eyes, though he noticed that Selene seemed suddenly intrigued "Yes, I've heard about it, and again, so what? An eclipse only lasts a few minutes, not to mention it only hides the sun for a small portion of the Earth. What good does it do us?"
"Because, Falsworth, the eclipse will last a great deal longer than the men of science have predicted..." With that, Dracula grabbed ahold of the black cloth covering the object in front of him and pulled it away.
Next to him, Falsworth heard Selene gasp "The Darkhold! You've regained it!"
A book rested in front of them, but it wasn't like any other tome Falsworth had ever seen. Bound in black leather, it would almost look unassuming was it not for the sheer darkness that seemed to radiate from within it's pages, power that made the magic Falsworth had seen before in his undead life look like nothing but parlor tricks. Even the corrupted remains of his own soul seemed to shy away from the presence of the book.
"Indeed, Selene." Dracula said as he picked up the book and held it up for everyone to see "Though the cost was great, The Darkhold is once again in my possession, and it will provide all the advantage we need to finally claim the world for ourselves! Upon the eve of the eclipse, the skies will grow dark all over the world, and the creatures of the night will sweep across the mortal cities like a plague, devouring everyone who's ever stood against us!"
"And dawn will never come again..."
...
"Dad talked about those days sometimes" Lady Cap says "I don't think he knew very much, and he didn't like going into detail about the stuff he did know, I think he felt guilty because he hadn't been able to see what was happening." She shrugs "I think he felt guilty because he couldn't stop the wars before they broke out."
"Why? If I'm understanding your story correctly, everyone seemed to have missed what was going on, not just him. And vampires? Would that have been anyone's first guess?"
She gives me a flat look "You've met Steve Rogers, right?"
She's got a point. I'm surprised the army didn't just call him Captain Hero Complex.
"But yeah, apparently things had been kinda bad even before the whole wars thing" She continues "Apparently once the 70's rolled around, things got sort of... weird. And not 60's Groovy Weird, I mean like horror movie weird. Vampires, werewolves, demons... I think even a swamp monster! Hey Spidey, wasn't there a swamp monster too?"
"Yup, definetly a swamp monster, I remember Gramps talked about it a few times. Man, he does not like that thing..." Future Spidey answers her, as he shifts around, and does a sitting jump up to the ceiling "I think my Mom ran into that thing a few times too. Man, Florida is a TRAINWRECK!"
Well, guess some things never change in any timeline "Okay, so I'm getting that everything apparently turned into a Universal Horror Who's Who, but I'm still not getting how it got so bad that both Captain America and Thor are still shellshocked over it. And I'd still like to know how I, you know, DIED because of it! Where was I during all of this, for that matter?! Didn't I see anything going on?"
Sunset looks around awkwardly, scratching the back of his head "You were a little... distracted for a lot of the 70's..."
...
Avengers Mansion, New York City, July 4th, 1976
"I do hope you don't mind, but I decided to let myself in. I think it's time we had a chat, don't you?"
I'd like to answer, but somehow, I can't seem to find the words. Part of it is because the attractive, blue-skinned woman sitting in my favorite chair, someone I don't know for certain I've ever actually met in person, but that's the problem with Mystique, you usually don't know it's her until it's too late. She looks a lot like I remember from the comics, red hair contrasting against her blue skin, gold eyes, even the same form-fitting white dress with the creepy skull belt.
What really makes me choke on my words however, is the blue-skinned infant sleeping contendedly in her arms, a fuzz of red hair on his head. Mystique smiles at me.
"I was thinking Lars for a name, but I thought I'd get your opinion as well. A father should have a say in what his son will be called, right?"376