When I Met You

Chapter 37: Vampire Saga - Home Base

"Ugh... what day is it again? Wait... didn't we search this place last week? Why are we searching it again?" Johnny asked, already so bored and complaining about their search for Dracula's Hideout, while Namor and Ben told him to knock it off, annoyed with the hothead's behaviour. They argued, well more so just the Human Torch and the Thing fought as the Prince of Atlantis did his best to ignore them as this petty squabbling was beneath him but seeing as Johnny always knew just what to say to get under his skin he soon rejoined the argument. Blade and the other Howling Commandos completely ignored them, although the Dhampir wished that he didn't get stuck with babysitting such annoying mortals, he could barely stand working with other monsters, let alone humans. They had been at it for weeks, but still nothing, everyone was getting on each other's nerves and with the current situation their lack of cooperation and teamwork could get them in trouble, serious trouble.    

The Howling Commandos were sent in just before the Force Field was put up to deal with Dracula, teaming up with all the heroes they met along the way. Unfortunately, though, the only heroes they managed to find were two members of the Fantastic Four and Prince Namor who happened to be visiting them when everything went down. Each hero was strong in their own right but they didn't get along at all, but with no other options, the Howling Commandos couldn't exactly be picky about who helped them out. They were currently checking likely Vampire Lair spots that would lead to Dracula's location but so far, they were having no luck, but to be fair, the list of requirements wasn't that long or complicated. They were literally just big and dark and with how many buildings there were in New York, the likelihood of actually finding the place was slim but they couldn't give up.     

They would check out about a dozen buildings a day, in between searching for supplies and other survivors, but they were more focused on Vampire hunting. They had found several leads but it never really went anywhere, none of their leads did, they only managed to find abandoned nests, with barely a clue to follow where they went. Today was a little different though, after searching building number eleven on their list they managed to locate a tunnel in the basement that seemed to lead somewhere. There was evidence of vampires being there and they were seemingly excited, or well, Johnny was thrilled by the thought of fighting more vampires while Blade instructed the others to remain on guard. They fought a few vampires as they headed down the old service tunnel, with both the Thing and Jack Russell a.k.a. Werewolf-By-Night feeling uneasy about the whole thing, something was definitely off.    

They were right as they entered up into the connecting building finding quite the large Vampire nest, at least, Johnny, Ben, and Namor thought it was but Blade corrected them, this was nothing. The basement of this building was crawling with bloodsuckers, they lined the walls, with many more soon on the way as they called out to their undead brethren via high-pitch screams. They all managed to fight through the initial wave, making it to the floor above them but there were even more vampires on the main level and with the day being almost over, if they didn't get out soon they were fucked. The architecture of this building allowed you to look all the way up, with winding staircases and glass elevators, it was definitely a very nice building, at least it would have been if it weren't for all the vampires. They covered nearly every inch of the walls all the way to the top and although they couldn't get an exact number, not that they were planning on actually taking the time to count but there had to be at least 1000.

They knew they walked right into a trap, at least the Howling Commandos caught on right away, as with their heightened senses they, being Blade and Jack should have picked up on how many vampires were nearby but didn't. Without hesitating, Blade called in over the Shield frequency, it was a gamble as they had no idea if it had been compromised or not but they had to risk it, giving their location, requesting emergency assistance. They had to get out now, they had no other choice if they wanted to protect the remainder of their mortal allies, but all the exits were blocked and bordered up, all but one and it was guarded by the majority of the vampires. Frankenstein's Monster and the Thing used their brute strength to knock away the initial wave of vampires with the Human Torch lighting them up and turning them into ash. He soon released a huge blast of fire up towards the roof of the building, taking several bloodsuckers with it but it was nowhere near enough to stop them all. While they did that, the others being Blade, Namor, Werewolf-By-Night, and N'Kantu a.k.a. the Living Mummy, worked on making a path back over to the garage.