Chapter Two: Black as Night

[The Mighty Thor]

Realizing that his boss could be more than a bit brash, and that Paige looked as though she was about to loose it, the Punisher’s youngest member made his way over to the emotionally distraught girl. Reaching his hand out to her in an honest to goodness display of friendship, the man spoke in a gentle tone that came as a bit of a surprise considering his rough exterior, “Please don’t do that. I can’t stand to see a pretty girl cry: it just breaks my heart. My name’s Vance. What’s yours?”

Eyeballing the silver alien, Castle attempted to answer the Watch’s questions, “We have no idea how many are out there. More are created every night, and it has become impossible to keep track.” Before continuing, Castle allowed Wong to answer the Surfer’s other query. Having been caught staring, Wong blinked a few times to break the eye contact, and then apologized to Norrin, “No sir, there is nothing troubling me. I did not mean to stare: it is just that the energy around you seems to be extraordinarily strong. I have not seen such a thing in this world since the days of Master Strange and his Defenders. Please, do not be bothered by the curiosities of an old man.”

Annoyed at the interruption, the leader of the Punishers continued, “That’s where we are lucky McCoy, these vampires are plenty vulnerable to most of the classics.” Signaling to the bow slung over his shoulder, Castle said, “Wooden stakes are a personal favorite of mine, although silver and holy water work wonders as well. Any sort of religious trinket will do the trick as well, as long as you believe in the symbol.” Reaching into one of his hip pockets, he produced a handful of garlic cloves and tossed them onto a nearby table. “Those don’t exactly hurt the nasties, but they seem to afford you a wide berth. And trust me, when you have a pack of hungry demons coming at your throat, you sometimes need those extra few seconds to reload that second clip. And of coarse, there is no substitute for good old-fashioned sunlight. If you can keep the bastards distracted long enough, you can sometimes manage to keep them up past their bedtime.” As the members of the Watch continued to fire questions at him, Castle rolled his eyes. The Punishers didn’t have time to help these newbies play catch up, but since reinforcements didn’t exactly fall out of the sky every night, Castle decided to let it go on a bit longer.

Looking at the whirlwind of destruction that littered the floor around him, Castle listened as Norrin asked his question. With a frown he answered, “Yeah, that’s right. Vampires cannot enter a place unless they are invited. That’s what helps to keep the poor schmucks of this city safe. Although it’s also the thing that helped to take down the super types so fast. Once a few of them were turned, it was pretty easy for the hell spawn to infiltrate their former friend’s homes. That’s what happened here. That’s what happened all over the city.” The vigilante reached up and rubbed his eyes as the questions kept on coming. He was glad to have the help, but his patience was reaching its breaking point. He didn’t like talking. He didn’t like answering questions. He liked fighting. He liked killing vampires. It was the only thing that actually brought any light into the inescapable shadow that had enveloped his life. Just as he thought the grilling was over, Tessa spoke up. It was the last straw. He just couldn’t take it any longer. Especially the barrage of analytical inquiries that the Watch’s resident information junky threw at him.

Unable to cope with any more questions, Frank grumbled in an obviously irritated way. Looking at the leather jacket wearing Punisher, the lead vampire hunter barked, “Finish this for me, Dan? I’ll be up top.” With his commander gone up to the roof, likely scouting for vampires, the man identified as Dan attempted to answer the Watch’s questions, “Lets see... Vampires are able to control some animals, they have some shape shifting abilities, they have a hypnotic stare that can control all but the most powerful of beings, they are very fast and super strong. As for the master, he is the biggest problem of all. He lords over all the other vampires and controls their every move. Last week we finally tracked him to Westchester. He goes by the name of...” But his sentence was abruptly cut off by a very loud wail from upstairs. It was a horrible sound that sent chills down each of the team’s backs. It was coming from the room where the Watch had destroyed the Red Death. The Punishers known as Blade and Wong, realizing what was happening upstairs, wasted no time jumping to action. Blade pulled a long silver sword from the sheath on his back and Wong produced an ancient looking book from the pouch on his. As they ran, Wong could be heard saying, “I can’t believe they left it up there without reciting the incantation. The Montesi Formula must be used before it can fully reform.”

With a slight smirk on his face, Dan continued, “Oh, and did I mention vampires’ have incredible regenerative abilities?”