Assault On Vladimirescu Manor

The Freedom League followed a copy of the book, Dracula, to a somewhat rundown mansion in North Bay. A sign beside the gate read “Vladimirescu”, which Speed Demon correctly identified as a Romanian surname meaning “Son of Vladimir”

Workers were tending the lawn, cleaning up fallen leaves, but at Deathstroke’s suggestion, quickly took the rest of the day off.

Deciding to take the direct approach, the team knocked on the front door and were greeted by Felix, the butler, who recognized the Freedom League, but assured them his master was unavailable and was reluctant to invite them in. He was convinced to invite them in anyway, and was quickly ushered out of the mansion.

The upper floors of the house seemed mostly empty, so it was straight to the basement which contained two doors, one a simple wooden door, and the other a large barred metal door, with a sliding window at eye-level. Beyond the door, in a brightly licked room lay a near-unconscious Nightwing, who insisted, “Don’t. Get out!”

Deathstroke contacted Doctor Atom to start planning a way to treat or cure a vampiric Nightwing, while Raptor, assuming there was a vampire behind the wooden door, started ripping apart the house to let sunlight shine into the basement.

Down in the basement they found a woman in black and red spandex, sitting on a coffin beside two women in gothic dresses on daybeds, conversing with a voice from somewhere in the shadows.

The woman in red, who the voice referred to as Mindfire, conversed with her unseen partner, until they decided the Freedom League’s presence was unacceptable. Raptor was quicker on the draw, though, and used a boomerang to deftly knock out both of the women in dresses. While Speed Demon ran to find a large mirror from an upstairs room, and Deathstroke did what Deathstroke does best, filled the room with lead.

Speed Demon used his mirror to redirect sunlight and shine a spotlight around the shadowed parts of the basement, to reveal a man hidden impossibly well in the shadows. He had pale skin and wore a black suit with a red vest and carried a wooden cane. He flinched from the light, and disappeared into the shadows, this time not to be found by Speed Demon’s mirror.

“Mindfire” was not going to stick around amid the bullets and boomerangs. What looked like a fiery explosion burst at ground level. Deathstroke and Raptor managed to hold their feet, but Speed Demon was thrown across the street, smashing his mirror, and the woman flew up through the floor to the upper levels.

The action moved to bedroom on the top floor, where Raptor wrestled with Mindfire, Deathstroke looked for a shot from outside, Speed Demon found a mirror from the bathroom vanity. Mindfire surrounded everyone in an outline of faerie fire, including an otherwise invisible human shape, while Dracula ducked out of the closet to attack.

The invisible man trapped Dracula in the closet, and then blow the wall open to let the sunlight in, forcing Dracula to move and giving Deathstroke the shot he was looking for, downing the vampire with a headshot.

Mindfire succumbed to Raptor’s grappling and the invisible man disappeared again. Despite an attempt by the unconscious vampire to float to safety, Deathstroke chopped off its head, reducing it to dust.

Shortly thereafter, the Atom Family arrived to help take care of Nightwing, and assured that “Grandfather” would do whatever he could to cure his condition. Deathstroke provided a sample of Dracula’s ashes and some of his own blood with its regenerative capabilities to help.

A further search of the house turned up some documents about the deceased super hero, and former Freedom League member, The Scarab, as well as some articles discussing a possible connection between the Scarab and The Rhodes Foundation, an international real estate interest.