It all started with a guy named Clifton Graves..."
The interior of the mansion looks more or less the same as it did back in the 60's, aside from a few tech upgrades. There's a few tiny cameras tucked away in the corners of the ceiling, and in the living room where the big, clunky television set was, there's now a truly massive flatscreen, along with a cable box and a bunch of video game systems crammed into the glass cabinet holding up the screen. This is where Sunset had everyone gather together before he would go into detail about what exactly happened to the version of me from this future. Walking through the mansion was a bit weird though.
There's a giant painting of me and the rest of my Avengers out in the hallway now. Like, an actual oil painting, complete with a tacky gold frame. So that's a thing now.
Future Spidey is crouched on the wall above the sofa, still in costume though he's slipped out of his jacket. The two Hulks are sitting beneath him, having changed out of their bodysuits and into casual clothes of t-shirts and jeans, while Lady Cap is sitting regally in the large, custom chair we once had made for The Hulk, her uniform replaced with a red and blue tracksuit, her blonde hair now hanging freely. Thor is standing behind her, leaning against the massive backrest, still in his armor, though he's removed his helmet.
Sunset is standing in the middle of the room, holding a smartphone in one hand as he's tapping away at it with the other. It's been so long since I've seen one it actually startled me for a second when he pulled the phone out of his vest, I'm old enough to remember a time before any of that bullshit, but one does get used to the convenience. The novelty of having superpowers pretty much outweighed any issues I might have had, but I'd probably have chafed a lot more over it if I'd ended up in '63 without them.
Sunset taps something on his phone, and a beam of blue light shoots out of the camera lens on the back, materializing into a hologram showing a man in his mid-20's with tussled, neck-length hair, wearing a disleveled open shirt that shows off his upper chest. On closer inspection, his chest and face are covered in some rather nasty surgical scars that have been crudely stitched together.
Huh. Wonder what app you need to download for that feature!
"Ah, right, here we go" Sunset says as the hologram appears "As I was saying, it all began with this guy; Clifton Graves. Before he started looking like a human quilt, he was friends with this rich douchebag named Frank Drake, and back in the 70's, they visited a castle in Europe that Drake had inherited. Unfortunately, it turned out that the previous occupant never really left..."
The hologram changes, replacing Graves with an image of a foreboding castle, complete with a full moon behind one of the spires. And for a moment, I'm reminded of the old Castlevania games...
"No one's really sure what happened there that night, neither Drake nor Graves are in any state to go into details anymore, but what we do know is that somehow, Graves stumbled upon a crypt beneath the castle, and managed to awaken something... or rather, SOMEONE..."
The hologram changes again, the castle being replaced by a regal figure. It's a man, or something that used to be a man, dressed in elegant, Victorian-style clothes, along with a long cape draped over his back and pooling around his feet. The cape has a large collar covering most of his neck. He has dark hair, as far as I can tell with the blue hologram, which is combed back, revealing pointed ears and a sharp, angular face. And there's something else, but I can't quite... I lean forward, trying to make it out.
That's when I see it.
"Fangs. He has fangs." I look up at Sunset "This is Dracula, isn't it?"
"Aye, this be that wretched revenant" Thor answers, glaring furiously at the image "I remember it well, during those dark days after the fall of our shield-brother Stark, that the foul Dracula set upon the world like a plague. I had thought that the Draugr of Midgard had long since been driven to extinction since the last time I had dwelt upon this world, and their existance made nothing but myth as my own had been, but it wasn't until it was too late that I realized my folly." He shakes his head sadly "None of us knew what was coming until it was already too late..."
"Come on, big guy, no one blames you for what happened, I know Dad didn't." Lady Cap says, patting his arm comfortingly "It's been almost 50 years, you need to let it go."
"Mayhaps none of my beloved comrades blame me, but it's a burden I cannot absolve myself of. I wallowed in my grief over our loss like a child, and let the new threat grow out of control. And it cost us even more..."
"Okay, speaking as the guy who apparently died during all this" I cut in, pointing at the Dracula hologram "I'd like a bit more detail on it. Like, how the actual fucking Dracula is apparently a real guy!"
Of course, I already knew Dracula existed in Marvel, but there's no reason for this version of myself to know that. And to be fair, I don't actually know all that much about the Marvel version of Dracula, other than those old comics being where Blade debuted. I vaguely remember reading some of them when I was a kid, but it's all a blur, so I don't really have much metaknowledge to draw on for this scenario.
Thor nods, and Sunset turns back to his phone, clicking on something "Well Dad, as you've probably guessed by now, the only person here who was actually around when all this happened was Thor, but he and the other members of the Avengers back then wrote it all down in their files, so we've all read up on it. Thor, buddy, would you like to start?"
Thor pushes himself up from his leaning position and strides over to the middle of the room, back straight "Very well. Listen well, friend Sunshine, for this is a tale that concerns you most of all. A tale of heroic deeds and the blackest of villainy! And above all, a tale of sacrifice..."
"This is the tale of the Vampire Wars..."412