Titans Resistance #13

Ravager's fleet was extensive, and contained more boats than the others had previously seen. She had called one of the island pirate havens under her fleet's control, and brought to them a submarine.

Even Anarky had been impressed.

They slipped down into the boat and had made for the white cliffs of Dover; they were still called that, even though they hadn't been white for more than forty years. The natural cliffs were gone; now there was the iron latticework of a Markovian weapons munitions plant.

The Submarine was cramped, of course, and somewhat old. Terra privately suspected it was of Markovian make, and Ravager (or even her father; given its age, that seemed more likely) had captured it, or bought it on the black market. She wondered what else was in Ravager’s fleet she didn’t know about.

The crew did what they could to keep it clean, but there was a certain basic stink that just would not go away, due to too many years of habitation. Supergirl was fascinated. Terra experienced a certain amount of claustrophobia, and Anarky got a bit queasy in a way that the surface-going ships had never instigated in him.

Robin and Terra had each been worried about being detected here; so close to the enemy. But Ravager was an old hand at this game; such was her reason for choosing the submarine, which would be able to sneak beneath the Markovian sonar nets and slip into the country.

"Which is not to say,” Rose added, “That your basic worry ain’t right? You're gonna have that problem the whole time you're here."

Terra nodded. "Mother always said that control of Britain was a matter of personal pride."

Ravager nodded. "The Brits have continued their passive resistance to this day."

"Aided and abetted by certain others," Green Lantern put in.

"Yes, so you've told us," Anarky agreed. "For the first time I find some interest in you. Or more accurately, with those your mentor works with."

"Gee, thanks," Lantern sneered. "I'm sure Alan needs your good opinion."

Anarky waved this aside irritably. "No, seriously, I'm interested."

"I'm sure we'll have a chat with the Society later," Robin said. "Stick to the business at hand."

"Right you are, bird boy," Ravager agreed. "I wouldn't advise open assault here. We could try it but....things are not as easy as they were before our strikes on Markovia and Italy."

"Stealth is the plan," Robin nodded. "For once, we're not here to fight the Markovians. Though if we cross swords with them that would be a nice bonus. It's the walking dead we're after."

"Vampires," Terra shuddered. "Unbelievable."

"Rose," Robin said, turning to her. "How much money would it take for you to accompany us?"

Ravager thought about it. "A little," she said. "But the main concern will be arguing with Wintergreen about it."

Wintergreen had followed Rose into the Submarine and, as expected, was reluctant to let her go. But her word was final, and so she was to come along.

They couldn't just enter at the Dover weapons factory, of course. The submarine would have to sneak into one of Britain's rivers that emptied out onto the ocean. Rose had brought the submarine here because it was a "blind spot" in the Markovian detection grid, and from here they could slip into one of the river ways. Most likely the river Stour.

Jason, meanwhile, had not been idle.

He and his allies had taken to fighting the vampires on one of their own favorite stages; the rooftops. The bloodsuckers would often pounce from the high place, swooping down upon their victims, using their enhanced speed and strength to take their chosen food before anyone had a chance to realize they were there, let alone fight back.

One of the main problems Jason and his cohorts had was that fighting vampires wasn’t like in the movies or that annoying TV show with the blonde vampire hunter; the simple cold fact was that vampires were faster and more agile to a degree to vampire hunter could match, even with modern technology. In a straight up fight, vampires would have them for lunch....literally. And vampires had had thousands of years to learn to safeguard against the sunlight and religious iconography (which only worked if the wielder had faith in any case).

Long before Jason had picked up his first steak, they had learned to copy the vampires own tactics for hunting and use them against the bloodsuckers; most importantly, surprise and ambush. It was no accident that the hunter weapon of choice was the crossbow-mounted stake. Even vampire reflexes were usually not fast enough to avoid the kill shot. If, that was, the hunter had aimed properly in the first place.

Modern technology had helped, not in terms of killing vampires quicker, but in terms of ensuring a hunter would survive if the first strike failed....

Since that terrible day as a child when Jason had lost his father to a vampire-turned mother, he had known there were far greater evils in the world than the Markovians.

A vampire was looming atop a gargoyle, preening in a ridiculous manner. To Jason’s mind, there were some that enjoyed unlife way too much.

Three crossbow bolts were fired simultaneously. Two of them hit, but neither was a heart shot. That meant the vampire was going to be very pissed off.

They prepared their ultraviolet flares, but the vampire did not attack immediately. Instead he grinned mischievously, and turned to mist.

“Drill four!” Jason shouted. “Keep an eye on each other! Ready for anything!”

They primed their UV flares without being told, but it was Dorothy, with her stake in her other hand, freed from it’s crossbow, who struck the mark. The vampire reformed behind her, and she whirled. He grabbed her by the throat and went to bite, but her stake of wood found his black heart first.

He let her go and staggered back. He did not explode into dust or wither away; he simply toppled over, paralyzed. Dorothy moved over and sliced his head off with her short, silver blade. Then his body decayed rapidly until only bones and fangs were left.

Silver was not strictly necessary on the blade, but it helped. One of the many things one learned as a vampire hunter, if you survived.

“Well done,” Jason said, coming up behind her.

She nodded. “I just hope those ‘friends’ of yours arrive soon.”

He looked off into the dark spires of London, eyes troubled. “So do I.”

They had followed the river Stour as far as the submarine safely cold, then quietly disembarked in the countryside, near Kent. There were Markovians patrol here, but they were few and far between. Out here, there was more to worry from sonar nets and the occasional robotic probe, which the Empire was coming to rely on more and more. Green Lantern’s ring could help to shield them from such things.

“I don’t understand why we sneak around,” Anarky said. “We can take Markovian troopers, you guys could do that even before I showed.”

“Seriously, just shut up,” Green Lantern snapped.

Argent rolled her eyes.

“It is true that we are being unusually low-profile considering our powers,” Terra put in before Anarky could reply. “But on this mission, more than others, we are trying to avoid Markovian attention while we battle the.....the vampires.”

“I did think about luring vampires out into the open to fight the Markovians, but there’s the risk of exposing ourselves,” Robin said. “Besides, the vampires might be able to increase their numbers that way.”

“Hopefully your buddy the expert can shed some light on that,” Ravager said.

“He’s not my friend,” Robin said quietly. “In fact I’m not entirely sure.....” he broke off and shook his head.

“What?” Terra asked, and the others were looking at him too.

“Nothing. Nothing yet, anyway. Let’s see how the meeting with him goes.”

“If we can find him,” Anarky muttered sourly.

“Oh, we can find him,” Robin said confidently. “Finding him will be the easy part. He wanted this meeting, remember; wants our help. I know where we need to meet him. It’s getting to him without attracting unfriendly attention that is the concern. Lantern?”

Green Lantern nodded and powered up his ring.

With the help of Green Lantern’s ring, they slipped into London relatively quickly, and relatively undetected.

Ravager took Anarky to one side. “Stop baiting Lantern.”

Anarky flapped his hands, agitated. “Half the time he’s just pissed off because I speak!”

“You’re smarter than him, I’ll grant you that,” Ravager said. “But the two of you are more alike than ya think.”

“And you're the soul of diplomacy?”

“When all our butts are on the line, yes. I like you kid, I really do. Keep it cool, huh?”

“I’m not a kid....and the fact that you like me scares me a little.”

Ravager laughed. “Just remember what I said.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Are we almost there?” Argent asked.

“Down the next street, is the meeting place he asked for,” Robin said.

“I am intrigued to meet this person,” Terra said.

“Yeah, me too,” Ravager agreed. “Sounds like my kind of guy.”

Everybody groaned at that one, even Supergirl.

“Is there a type of guy who you don’t like?” Anarky asked, almost bitterly.

“You could always try to find out,” Ravager teased him.

“Are they always like this?” Argent asked Supergirl.

“Sometimes it’s worse,” the Kryptonian responded.

“Through here,” Robin said.

They entered a small, dingy warehouse. Four people were waiting for them.

“Hello, Robin,” Jason Todd said.

“Jason,” Robin returned.

“Quite a group you’ve got,” Jason mused. His eyes lingered on Terra for a moment, frowning in puzzlement, then moving on to the others. “Heard you hit Markovia hard.”

“We did. Vampires, huh? How bad is it?” Robin moved forward to shake Jason’s hand.

Jason took it, and shook firmly. “Worse than you can possibly imagine.”