Vampire Hunter Duo
Part 2
Duo looked out of his motel room window, watching the flashing neon
lights from the arcade across the street. Even though the room was
warm, he shivered slightly. A cup of coffee materialized in front of
his face.
" Here." Jen's voice was kinder then it had been earlier. After
checking the surrounding area, the two strangers had decided to walk
Duo back to his hotel, to discuss what had happened. Upon reaching
Motel Utopia (the look on Jen's face had been priceless at it's
appearance), she had immediately searched the room for alcohol.
Finding none, she pounced on the battered coffeemaker some previous
tenant of the motel had thoughtfully left behind. Duo had been amused
to see her pull a small tin of coffee out of the front pouch of her
windbreaker.
" Thanks," Duo smiled slightly. " I still don't believe you carry
your coffee with you."
" Means of survival, kid," she snorted. " That instant crap will rot
your stomach."
Koby looked up from where he was sitting, perched on the end of Duo's
bed, polishing a knife that had almost made Duo jealous to see. Long,
sharp and with a wicked edge to it, it was his pride and joy. He
could practically see the drool on the boys face as he stared at the
blade. Koby regarded the slight figure he cut and shook his head. Duo
caught him staring back and immediately grew defensive, tensing
slightly.
" What?"
" I just can't believe you fought off a vampire and won," Koby said,
tapping the blade of his dagger against the palm of his hand. " Do
you have any idea of how impossible that is?"
Duo smirked. " Not if you're trained to fight."
Jen sipped her coffee and blanched. " Needs more sugar," she
muttered, reaching back into the wonder-windbreaker. Out came another
sugar packet. " Trained to fight? What, you take karate or something
kid? "
" Probably judo," Koby mused thoughtfully. " That was a nice throw."
Duo shrugged. " If you say so." He then slammed his hand down on the
small, water-marked table and stared at them evenly. " Let's quit
with the casual, okay? I want to know what's going on." He stared at
his outstretched hand, and watched as his fingers curled into a
fist. " I killed...something tonight. It turned to dust. " His voice
grew slightly shakey. " People don't turn to dust!"
" Vampires aren't people," Jen shrugged. " They're blood-sucking
demons that need to be exterminated."
Her tone, though mild, revealed a deep underlying hatred and
bitterness. Duo blinked at the intensity of her words. He turned to
see Koby nodding.
" Don't feel guilty about what you did. If you hadn't killed it, it
would have killed you instead."
Duo gripped the end of his braid, running his hands over it, tugging
it gently as he contemplated what he was hearing. His braid was
always a calming device. He remembered how Heero would tug on it
after he woke from a nightmare. Not a harsh pull, but just enough to
let Duo know he wasn't alone. Or when he'd been injured in a battle
and stuck in the safehouse with Quatre - even while unconscious, he
could feel Quatre brushing his hair for him and it soothed more then
anything else could have. Now it was doing the same thing. Focusing
on freeing the tangles from the end of the three-foot mass, he felt
his earlier panic start to wash away, and the warrior part of him,
the part that piloted Shinigami with a laugh and a whirl, came to the
forefront.
Taking a deep breath, he released it, and looked at Koby. " So give
me the whole deal."
Koby nodded, looking at Jen quickly. She shrugged and sipped her
coffee, wincing again and rooting through her jacket for more sugar.
He grinned and turned back to Duo.
" Where to start....well, I'll start by telling you about that thing
you killed."
" Vampires," Duo said, settling himself comfortably.
" Vampires," Koby sighed. " Vampires have been around for centuries,
ever since the first was created back around 900AD. It's name was
Valik; he was created by the Roman church accidentally when an
exorcism went wrong." Koby shook his head as he spoke - the stupidity
of humanity never ceased to amaze him. " To make a long story short,
Valik began making other vampires and he came to the new world -
what's now North America. He was following the cross, an ebony black
cross about three feet high, that had been used during his failed
exorcism, knowing it harnessed a great deal of power. If he could get
the cross, he could complete his exorcism and finish a transformation
into a demonic being; a full vampire, one that could walk in the
daylight."
Duo regarded him skeptically. " Daylight, huh?"
" Yup," Jen stood up, setting her coffee cup back on the table. "
Goons in the light, snacking on the innocent anytime they feel
peckish. Isn't that lovely?"
Duo chose to ignore that question.
" If I may?" Koby glared at the two of them. " Anyway, Valik was
defeated by a man named Jack Crow - the best vampire hunter of the
twenty-first century." He grimaced. " He was lucky - at the time, he
was working on behalf of the Vatican, and the Cardinal he reported to
struck a deal with Valik. Immortality for the ability to walk in
sunlight. Jack was livid and went on a vamp killing spree. It really
was unusual because Jack remains the first and last human who was
ever scratched by a Master Vampire and didn't turn."
" Turn?"
" Become a vamp," Jen clarified.
" Oh."
" Jack became legendary after he killed Valik, " Koby continued. " He
left the cross to burn in the fire, but when he went to check later
on, the cross was sitting on a pile of ashes, completely unscathed.
He figured its power was protecting it and he took it with him and
his new partner at the time, a young priest named Father Michaels.
They spent their lives tracking down other Master Vampires and
guarding the cross."
" But you said he killed the Master Vampire?" Duo questioned,
shooting him a confused look.
" Didn't you?"
" He killed Valik, Master of all Vampires, yes, but there were still
more vamps out there. Just none, nearly as powerful as Valik. A
goon's power comes with age, and none had ever lived so long as him."
" Where's the cross now?"
" It's safe with our team, at an undisclosed location."
Undisclosed ocation. Duo bit back a grin. Jen scowled at the sign of
him trying to not to laugh.
" We're being serious."
" Okay, okay." Duo shrugged. " So what were you guys doing here then?
Was it just a coincidence, or are you gonna start spoutin' off about
fate and cosmic destiny? 'Cause I gotta tell ya, I never did buy into
all that intertwining threads mumbo-jumbo."
Jen shrugged. " Dunno."
Her partner glared at her before looking back at the American. " You
didn't buy into vampires before tonight either."
" Touche`."
" What I still don't get is that you beat a vamp in a fight!" Jen
stuck her face in into Duo's, scrutinizing him intently. " Vamps have
increased speed and are much stronger then any human. You looked like
you were just sparring with it or something."
" I thought he was your normal, run-of-the-mill psycho mugger," Duo
shrugged, tracing the rim of his mug with his finger. " Not a big
deal."
" That's where you're wrong, " Koby spoke up, grey eyes deadly
serious. " How were you able to do it?" He peered at the boy. " Who
are you?"
Duo felt his unease return as that level gaze bored into him. It
reminded him of Heero's death glare, and as soon as that thought
crossed his mind, he perked up. He'd been granted immunity from those
intimidating looks ages ago.
" Why should I tell you?" he countered, instead. " Who are you to
know so much about vampires?"
Koby and Jen exchanged knowing looks and the brunnette gave a short
nod. Koby returned the gesture and blew the breath out between his
teeth as he contemplated the best way to tell their story.
" Well....when John Crow passed away, his legacy was passed down to
his children. His son Jack Jr, was trained to fight vamps, and he in
turn passed it to his son Benjamin--" Koby grinned at Duo. "--who
passed it on to me."
Duo blinked at the realization. " So you're saying you're a direct
descendant of Jack Crow."
" Great-grandson, to be exact," he admitted modestly.
" And you fight vampires," Duo continued. He waved his hand at Jen
who was muttering obscenities at her coffee while rummaging for more
sugar packets. " Just the two of you?"
" The vamp population is lower then it used to be," Jen explained,
smiling triumphantly as she found the last packet. " It must be the
water poisening my coffee."
" Of course it would NEVER be the brew itself," Koby muttered.
" Some of us like it strong."
" Coffee wasn't meant to be walked on."
" Shut up. Anyway, the war, bad as it was for us humans, was even
worse for goons. Fire kills goons, and exploding buildings and mobile
suits create a lot of fires."
" Plus those buildings constantly getting destroyed wiped out any
cover a lot of goons might have had. Goons like warehouses: dark,
locked up and rarely used, but still near the human population," Koby
added. " Those, whaddaya call 'em--"
" Gundams," Jen supplied helpfully. " Some of us actually watch the
news."
"--Gundams," the man continued, ignoring the barb. " They targeted a
lot of factories and their surrounding storage areas - prime goon
nesting grounds." He stopped, noticing that Duo had turned pale at
the mention of Gundams, and he leaned over, concerned. " You okay
kid?"
" Uh yeah," Duo smiled but it failed to reach his eyes. " So to you,
Gundams were a good thing?"
Koby sat back again, still watching him carefully. " 'Bout as good as
anything about a war can be."
" Oh." Duo felt like he'd been dealt a hammer blow right between the
eyes. After years of being called a terrorist and/or mass murderer,
it was very strange hearing about the destruction he and his fellow
pilots had caused, in a favorable light. He shook his head, focusing
back on the main issue. " So what - it's just you two against the
world now?"
" We're part of a team," Jen said simply. " We have three more
members out combing the streets right now. Our intel reported a new
Kiss in the area."
" Kiss?"
" A group of vampires," Koby clarified.
" Oh." Duo had been saying that word a lot tonight.
" The five of us operate alone," Koby continued. " There's other
vampire teams around the world but we're an anomaly."
" What do you mean by anomaly?" Duo was intrigued.
" After the betrayal by the Cardinal, Jack severed all ties with the
Vatican, saying he'd fight on his own terms. Father Michaels joined
him and they tracked down the nests of hundreds of vamps."
" They had the highest kill ratio of any other hunters, and were the
longest surving goon-killers in history," Jen said
reverently. " 'Cause after killing the Master of Master Vamps, all
the other goons feared him. Big-time."
Koby nodded. " We follow my great-grandfather's way. we have no ties
to the church - well, no formal ties anyway. They hire us to help
their teams out all the time but we're on our own, provide our own
funding." He quirked a smile at the captivated American. " We're the
best, the elite. The Vatican's gone through so many teams it'd be
laughable if it weren't so serious."
" I'm suitably impressed," Duo remarked wryly.
" Enough about us for now though," Jen cut in sharply. She smiled
endearingly at Duo but her eyes were still as hard as stone. " Now
it's your turn."
Duo shrugged. It was only fair after all.
" My name is Duo Maxwell. I run, I hide, but I never lie. An American
psycho, irrepressible prankster and all-around loveable guy." He
looked up and met their amused faces with the manic grin he was so
famous for. " But you might know me from something else."
He stuck out his hand.
" Duo Maxwell." His teeth gleamed. " Pilot 02 of those Gundams you
like so much."
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