03 - Darkest Before the Dawn

<< The Darkest Night

Ages - Kurtherian Gambit - The Second Dark Ages

Dawn Arrives >>

Michael continues to work to fulfill the promise to his love, but the world isn't the same place. Now,there is a mistake he made centuries in the past walking around he needs to rectify. To complicate matters, there is a group out of England believing Michael’s blood will be just what they need for their business. While they get nasty Vampires off the street at the same time. Further, the effort to pull together the Sacred Clan’s ship parts are starting to come together. Unfortunately, no one wishes to give Michael and his new family any help.What is a man with a hair problem supposed to do?

03/1 WORD IS OUT! Captain O’Banion is approached to confirm information re Michael, the ship’s activities, weres. Vamps, etc. Has video, will split fee with bartender.

03/1 - 6 LOOKING FOR THE DUKE Michael and Akio barhopping, reading minds, looking for info re Duke. Find someone, an older man, Jan Freholt. Upset because the Duke missed a meeting it took 6 month to set up. Get info from him, go to “Don’t Make Me Angry” bar, pick huge man, alpha of the pack, a werebear, to fight with. Akio, known as the Shadow, has a reputation. Michael mind-read the Duke’s passwords. Go to another restaurant, meet with Fraulein Hilga Overstead, a were, who, after fight with her men, knows of the Dark Messiah. Hilda tells them about Little Michael. They rescue him, take him to Paris, to relatives. While there, they check with Sabine, to see if she is ready to come back with them yet, Akio and Michael to be her teachers.

03/7 - Akio, Michael, and Sabine go to Duke’s Chalet, looking for him. Michael goes in, explores, is blown up, but had ducked into Etheric so was not injured. Sabine attracted to Akio, but confused. Duke not there. William receives word, but excited. OK, just don’t make a mess of them. Akio and Sabine finish off crew inside Chalet. Sabine totally destroys all art work, valuables inside chalet. Michael sets it all afire, and they return to Germany.

03/11 Akio, Michael, and Sabine go to Duke’s Chalet, looking for him. Michael goes in, explores, is blown up, but had ducked into Etheric so was not injured. Sabine attracted to Akio, but confused. Duke not there. William receives word, but excited. OK, just don’t make a mess of them. Akio and Sabine finish off crew inside Chalet. Sabine totally destroys all art work, valuables inside chalet. Michael sets it all afire, and they return to Germany

03/16, 17 Michael, Akio, and Sabine purse Duke into the Sewers of Frankfurt, the underground living areas for the rich and the roaches. Enter through the Subways, headed for Dark Corners area, where people disappear regularly. Meet Erich, convince him to guide them (or die). They Myst to area. Noah’s group (Blood Baggers) also headed into area (Noah, Keith, Beatrice, Tommy, plus 3 more). Michael senses Noah’s group on the same level, in the Duke’s home, and accosts them, killed all seven. Plan to go to England to destroy main group.

03/1, 2, 6, 11, 18 THE DUKE MEETS WITH EVAN VAULCOTT, PLANS, MICHAELS DEATH

Evan Vaulcott was a scientist, at CERN, who knows of vacuum chambers in Collider, Saint-Genis-Pouilly, France. 50 – 175 meters down, under surface. 27 kilometers circumference. Will be able to produce complete vacuum, bombard particles. Working to get computers, system up, to test, repair, and turn on. Will need more great brains to do so.

Gerard brings the Duke news of Michael’s appearance in England, and that the Blood Baggers were going to go after him. The Duke is pleased that Michael will eliminate them for him, and thinks he can tease Michael into coming to him after that (in his underground, air-tight quarters in France.)

Collect four teams of mercenaries to meet with him, to plan next phase of Michael’s death. William sends all of the mercenaries to England, to ambush Michael

03/20 THE HADRON COLLIDER In the Blood Bagger’s fight in England, Michael had learned that the Duke was at the Large Hadron Collider area near the old France/Switzerland border. They all go there to destroy the Duke. Land near Collider. Duke has not been sleeping in the daytime, something Michael did not know, so was awake when Michael entered the Collider, ready to turn it on. Had Michael-traps in Tunnel, to catch him in myst, so he could not escape. They would then bombard the traps, killing him. Sabine to protect top, so no one could come after. Sabine attacked on top, Akio killing in one area of hallway, Michael trying to get to William, enters Collider Pipe. William turns it on.

03/21, 22 ‘The pain was horrible, and the desire to just give up and dissipate was intense. Then he remembered who this was all for, and he fought on. He would offset the pull of the magnets with the energy he drew through the Etheric. He could not move into the other dimension, but neither could the collider pull him apart. He wasn’t sure if he was moving down the pipe or holding still.’ Michael was powering the Collider with the energy he was pulling from the Etheric, and he didn’t know it. Yuko and Eve get to Collider, give Sabine blood to heal, find Akio, who tells them to “stop this machine”.

03/24, 25 Eve shut down their systems, and put a crypto-lock they have to bypass to get it up and running again. Akio finds William, blows off his kneecaps. Michael arrives, using the energy of the Cosmos to melt William’s body, all except the legs. Anoints hat with William’s blood, as promised. Hat has only a small silver piece, melted, on side. Michael apologizes to Akio for his stupidity and arrogance, acknowledges their part in saving hem. Blows up rest of William with energy, leaves.

03/2, 5 EVE TAKES MARK AND JACQUELINE SIGHTSEEING IN TOKYO Eve takes M & J to a fire-lit acrobatic show. J startled by acrobat, starts to change, scares acrobat. Go or stay? Less conspicuous to stay. Accosted by acrobat on way out, recognized as were, but different. Go to technology palace (Eve’s inventions – polo, other virtual games depending on ocular stimulation), Entertainment Centrale, introduced them to wata kasha, cotton candy.

03/2, 5 YUKO VISITS HIRANO Visited him while Eve was entertaining Jacqueline and Mark at the Centrale. Will be visiting him again that evening The two go out to dinner, Pod transporting them. Eve to “watch the kids”.

Masked group attack Yuko. She is able to handle all, killing them. Hirano comes out from under the table, and they go off to another place for dinner. Yuko decides to withdraw from Hirano, to keep him safe. She and Eve will again pursue their regular activities.

03/9, 10, 13, 18, 19 THE ENGLISH "BLOOD BAGGERS"

A group of Blood Baggers, vampire hunters who sell vamp blood, plan to capture Michael and the Duke, sell their blood, and make their FORTUNES! Group planED to have four teams to attack, capture and use vamp’s blood. Attack Michael in Frankfurt, along with Akio and Sabine. They do not succeed. All dead, building burned. Noah’s group attack Michael, Akio, Sabine in Duke’s residence in Sewers of Frankfurt, all seven dead. Michael now coming to England to attack main groups. Michael, Akio and Sabine arrive, advance toward building fortified by Baggers. Baggers fire first shot, building annihilated by Michael’s team’s return. Police see who did it – Michael, the Patriarch, the ArchAngel, the Dark Messiah!. Stay away, and just clean up after him! Explosions, then FEAR! Harry tries to electrocute Michael, who turns power back to its source, frying many, injuring all. Police come and save whom they could I the basement. Two buildings away, Sabine kills the four snipers who had been set up for Michael, Akio reading their minds for info re the Duke.

03/9 - 24 FIND THE "CLAN'S" SHIP, RE-ASSEMBLE

03/9 Michael orders Eve and Yuko to change direction, and to start looking for the hidden pieces of the Clan’s Kurtherian ship (11 missing), to be re-assembled to find Bethany Anne.

03/10 Yuko goes to visit an ancient sensei, Kashikoi, with whom she had studied before, knowing he was keep of the Clan who was guarding the secret ship pieces. She asked him to allow her to collect the pieces, and showed him she was strong enough to do so by allowing Eve, Jacqueline and Mark to fend off 20 of his best fighters, whom he had trained. They did, ha agreed that Yuko could search out the secret treasures, and all was agreed upon.

03/11 Met with him the next day. Map held by Chinese government, but would need Kurtherian language to put it together. She did not tell him of the secrets she knew, for his own safety. Vallitseva tila, invoking the concept of maintaining the status quo for the good of all involved. Akio tells Michael of plan to find/re-assemble Kurtherian ship, with help of Lilith, a contact of Boris. (Lilith is a Kurtherian brain inside a computer.) That leaves us needing people, resources, and know-how to build the spaceship. Do we go to Japan for them? “They are the most advanced for the job, but I have issues with them.” “Such as?” “They are the most advanced and skilled people for the job. The issue is security.” “The problem is that Japan is the most advanced, which was Bethany Anne’s point. She wanted a country that was mostly intact.” “So, the problem?” “They are the most advanced in stealing secrets as well.” “So you are saying we need to use Japanese labor, but not be on Japanese land?” ”Hai.”

03/12 Yuko meets Haruto, and Riku, Akari and Ichika, four disciples offered by Kashikoi. They will assist on your mission and represent our interests in maintaining the vallitseva tila no matter what” I am Yuko. This is Eve. We welcome your assistance and hope that we remain allies on this task.” Yuko must find Chinese who knows about the secret caches. The man you are looking for, if he is still alive, is Qin Shi.” “The emperor himself?” Yes. He lives in Tokyo. Eve requests, book appointment with Emperor Qin Shi.

03/14 Yuko, Eve visit Emperor and two others, in Qin Shi’s office. They refuse information, trip silent alarm. Yuko et al kill all attacking personnel, again ask politely for information. Qin Shi tells them that Chang Feng, his technology officer, has the information. Yuko meets with Chang Feng, learns maps and locations were lost when bunkers under dam were collapsed in earthquakes of 2045, and physical servers holding all of information were destroyed. Yuko and Eve will confirm, plan next move.A second group visited the Emperor and cohorts, killing them all.

03/16, 17, 18, 21, 22 VISITING THE DAM Yuko, Eve and group (Ichika, Jacqueline, Mark, Akari, Haruto, and Riku) visit dam, take sensory readings, find that they can use Pods to plant explosives in certain areas to breach buildup of debris, so that entrance to underwater areas may be achieved. Mark will break into mainframe, and transfer data to their machines. Explosives placed, entry acquired, 6 swim through and into air pocket within chamber under dam. Find data room, plug into equipment. Team left below dam while Yuko, Eve go to help Michael. Jacqueline beginning to be suspicious about something- power on, no bodies. Mark gets system to working, downloading info, and is attacked, goes unconscious. Riku, a traitor, had attacked Mark, dumped shelving on him, electrocuted him. When Haruto came to help Mark. Riku shot him dead. Jacqueline found Mark, Riku gone, and Akari with gun to Ichito’s head, maintaining the vallitseva tila. The data does not belong to foreigners. Akari escapes with gun, following Riku, and causes another explosion, breaching the underwater air pocket cavern, causing water to pour into it, drowning Mark and Ichika. Jacqueline and Ichika go back into cavern to find Mark. Find Mark, find way out that Riku took, will follow. Climb shaft to surface, exit, exhausted and dirty. Mark with data he had duplicated while doing data dump. Riku delivers data to Kuro, his Master.

03/23 Ichika in hospital, will regain health, not turned. Would be a disaster if she had. Will return to Grandfather, and with their minds, will heal herself well.

03/14, 15 MICHAEL'S HAT

Jan Zwerven, a hatter in Frankfurt, is visited by Akio, Michael, and Sabine. Michael is looking for a hat, something special, that will go with his black leather coat. Michael picks up a Stetson, and Sabine designs his hat.” Right here is a skull, dead center. Behind the skull are Angel wings, with roses laying this side and the other side. There should be flames in the eye sockets…No, no. Scratch that.” “Now, here we need two pistols crossed, above the skull and between the wings.” “What do these pistols look like?” Michael shows him a Jean Duke’s Special. Jan recognizes him as the Patriarch, there to destroy the Duke, and adds “I would like to add Vampire teeth to the skull, and tiny red pinpricks of red to the eye sockets. If you will just promise to wear it when you yank that sonofabitch’s heart out of his chest, then our daughter, Holda, will be avenged. It will be ready for you tomorrow morning.” “I will take some of his blood and consecrate your vengeance so that the hat knows.” When Michael picked up the hat, he saw “Honor or Death” had been inscribed into the little band, and “ArchAngel” on the back. Michael felt the leather, the indentations that made the skull look like it had been carved of ebony marble. He reached up and placed the hat on his head, then tipped it a little forward. Jan watched him smile. Michael gave him a small vial, filled with a special liquid, for him to drink. “When we leave, close and lock the door and drink this, then lie down.” He handed the vial to Jan. “Make sure you destroy the vial and get rid of any evidence that it was around.” “What do I do when I wake up?” Jan asked, Michael considered the man a moment. “Know that your vengeance is complete and your responsibility for your daughter to your wife is done. Allow your sorrow to go down the drain and decide when you look in the mirror in the morning, what the next stage of your life will be.” When he awoke, he was young again.

03/25 MICHAEL'S DECISION

Sabine receives Bethany Anne’s blood (nanocytes), will be enhanced, not turned. “So,” he reached up with his right hand and pulled off his hat, pulling it down to hold it with both hands as he stood there. “I am promising to do my best to let my team in on my plans. To let each of you shoulder the responsibilities and to perhaps learn how to effectively lead, not just tell you what I expect, but rather to seek your advice in the process.” He looked to Yuko, “Not that I expect to always do what you logically suggest, but that I’ll consider it and reflect rather than dismiss it out of hand.” Michael held his hat in his left hand, reaching out with his right to Akio, “Thank you Akio, I’m proud to call you my friend.” “Forever will you be my brother.” “Eve, without you I would not be here. Your intelligence and abilities are beyond mine in ways I cannot fathom. You are my daughter, for whom I will give up my life to protect.” “Yuko, I personally owe you for all of your service. For protecting and saving Sabine. I cannot possibly repay you, but I would offer you whatever I can. You have but to ask.” Michael agrees to be her Uncle, her Family. “Sabine will see the stars; her name will be spread to galaxies in stories for generations to come.” And, as he puts his hat back on, “I FEEL HAIR!