Sterling Moonstone

Story

• STERLING MOONSTONE, VAMPIRE HUNTER EXTRAORDINAIRE

• Origin Story

  STORY: Sterling was your average boy born to a wealthy English family.There was nothing too remarkable about him aside from the family he was born to. His father came from a long line of lords, though Sterling was never told what his ancestors were lords of. All he knew was that the lordship gave his father enough money to fund all of Sterling’s frivolous pursuits. As such, he grew up rather entitled, though not entirely spoiled.
  
  One day, his father went on a trip and did not return home that night. Nor the day after that, or the one after that one. He remained missing for two weeks. Sterling was not too concerned, mainly because he could not imagine anything bad possibly happening to his father. Whenever he questioned his mother about it, she always responded by saying that he would return shortly. He believed her.
  
  Eventually one month passed before Lord Moonstone had returned home. He came home with several boxes of unknown contents and one casket. Sterling did not question him about his luggage as he was simply happy for his father to return. One week had passed since Lord Moonstone’s return and everything returned to normal. Except for one afternoon when he called Sterling to his study, saying that he had an important matter to discuss with him. When Sterling had visited his father in his study, he was presented with a rather odd request.
  
  On his father’s table was a breathing correction mask and a canister which seemed to be able to fit into the breathing correction mask. Lord Moonstone instructed Sterling to equip the mask and insert the canister into it. Wanting to please his father, Sterling did not question him and did what he was told. That led to him immediately fainting.
  
  He awoke in his bed with the mask still on, but the canister missing. Around him, he saw his father awaiting his awakening. Once his father noticed that he was awake, he commenced his explanation. He told Sterling that what he had just done meant that he could now do extraordinary things, and that he would have to be trained to use his new abilities to aid the human realm. Sterling did not understand a thing that had happened, but supposed that he had to accept it.
  
  A day later, Lord Moonstone had called Sterling over to commence his training. First, he had to learn how to access his abilities before he could train with them. As such, Lord Moonstone explained to him how his abilities worked. He explained that in the Moonstone family ran a special type of blood. This blood, when introduced to a special type of vapour unlocked the blood’s hidden potential. Which was the reason for the mask and the canister.
  
  He said that once the potential was unlocked, the abilities could always be accessed, however, the lower the concentration of the vapour was the weaker the abilities were. This was why Sterling still wore the mask. The mask contained a filter which recycled the vapour from the air that Sterling inhaled back into his own body, so that it would not be wasted. So long as he wore the mask, the vapour would be at a high concentration as when he first inhaled it. However, his father did not expect Sterling to equip the mask at all times so he also shared with him the formula for making the liquid which could be transformed into the vapour.
  
  This liquid was made from the boiling of leaves from a special tree only found in the moors near the Moonstone manor, though Lord Moonstone was establishing a way to engineer facilities which mimicked the conditions of the moor in order to regrow the tree as a failsafe in the event that anything was to happen to the existing trees. Now that he knew the origin of his new abilities, it was time to learn what those abilities were.
  
  The reason why his family were appointed as Lords was because Queen Elizabeth the First was saved by a Moonstone and appointed him as a Lord. Upon learning that all of his descendants would have the abilities which the first Lord Moonstone did, she hired his entire lineage to serve the crown in exchange for a Lordship given to the head of the household.
  
  Each Moonstone was granted a boost to their physical strength after their exposure to the vapour. They could withstand blows that would be enough to completely destroy a normal human’s body. They could handle extreme temperatures much better than an average human. However, there were still limits to their strength and endurance; they were not immortal.
  
  They could also use objects as conduits for their powers. They could charge objects with their power, increasing the durability of the object. They were also able to add extensions to objects. These extensions were made purely out of the energy created by the reaction of the Moonstone blood with the special vapour. For instance, a Moonstone would be able to create a spear tip or the blade of an axe from holding a broomstick. This would be the first skill that his Sterling’s father would train him in.
  
  The training of his abilities took him months, but he eventually mastered how to use most of them. Then it was time to get some answers. He questioned his father as to why he was given these abilities. What was it that he needed to battle with these powers? His father explained that there were supernatural beings known as vampires that roamed the darkness of night seeking to feed off of humans and turn innocent men and women into their servants. It was the job of the Moonstone bloodline to ensure that those beings were hunted and destroyed before the lives of normal humans were jeopardised.
  
  Sterling was surprisingly believing of this and was more than eager to go out hunting for these undead beings. His father said that no one has actively gone hunting for them in ages as the Moonstones only real obligation was to the English crown, and, in recent times, the only trouble caused by those entities was in other countries. Upon hearing this, Sterling decided that he would be the first to take the fight to those nasty beings in other nations.
  
  In response to this, Sterling’s father became proud of him. He offered to fund his son’s mission to fight these beings. However, he gave Sterling one final instruction: he was never to expose his raw blood to the liquid which made the vapour that gave him his powers. It was at that moment that the Moonstone and Co., Vampire Hunters organisation was founded, it’s head being none other than Sterling Moonstone. He took his company to the streets of America using the money from his father and bought a base for the organisation. For the first month, he had gotten no jobs as no one believed that anything such as vampires existed. He was a joke.
  
  His luck turned one day when he received a visit from a rather wealthy looking woman at the organisation’s headquarters. She had said that during the night, she was often paid a visit by her deceased husband in their manor. He would visit her in bed and stroke her hair. Though during that time, she would be so paralysed with fear that she would not be able to move. She thought the events just dreams during the night, but when her butler had ended up dead with his body completely drained of blood, she knew not what to do aside from turning to the organisation.
  
  Sterling was ecstatic. He would finally be able to put his vampire hunter training to some use. He said he would be able to visit the woman’s manor that very night in order to deal with
  her issue. However, he did not know that he had gotten more than what he had bargained for. He would soon find out, though.
  
  That night, the women sent a carriage to pick up Sterling from the organisation’s building. However, before he ventured forth, he made certain that he was properly prepared. He equipped his breathing correction mask and took one canister of the vapour, bringing a spare canister and breathing correction mask as a backup. He wore a unique pair of gloves as well which his father had specially designed for him. He was certain that he was ready, though nothing could prepare him for his very rough introduction to the world of vampire fighting.
  
  When he arrived at the manor, he devised a rather simple plan to be rid of the vampire. He told the woman to place a bell on her bedside table. When her deceased husband arrived, she was to ring that bell and Sterling would come in to eradicate the thing he had become. She thought it was a simple enough thing for her to do and she agreed. Sterling waited patiently in the room next to hers, ready for her signal.
  
  An hour passed and there was no ring of the bell. Another half hour after that, and eventually one more hour. Sterling thought something was off and entered the woman’s room to check on her. When he arrived, he saw the woman trembling with fear in her bed and what he could only assume was the vampire standing over her. This filled him with a sort of strange happiness. He decided that he needed to make a grand introduction to his first vampire.
  
  He struck a pose before introducing himself to the monster. His exact words were, “You fiend! Prepare yourself! For you are facing a force which is one hundred times more powerful than your imagination could create! From a lineage of brave men who have spent their lives seeking out and destroying the evils of this world, I am the great Sterling Moonstone, Vampire Hunter Extraordinaire!”
  
  This display of his cocky attitude caused a chuckle to emerge from the vampire who thought that defeating the young human would be an easy task. He attempted to use his vampiric telekinesis to toss Sterling aside. Unfortunately for him, the Moonstone blood made him immune to vampiric forces. “I am immune to your parlour tricks, monster! Now it is my move to show you the power of a Moonstone!” He rubbed both of his hands together, causing the gloves to spark a bit. He then rushed forwards towards the vampire and delivered a punch directly to his chest, sending a wave of the Moonstone energy through his body and causing him to fly back into a wall. Realising that this would not be an easy fight, the vampire disappeared out of the window in a trail of black.
  
  Sterling chased after the trail, shouting back at the woman who hired him as he jumped out the window, instructing her to wait in the carriage until he told her it would be safe. Following the trail, Sterling was led into a wine cellar. He lit a torch on the wall in order for him to see better, though he found no sign of where the vampire went. Though this did not stop him from investigating the area.
  
  He found a bit of ash on the ground. The ash created trail that led to a wall. The obvious answer was that there was a secret passageway which the being had fled to, all Sterling had to do was find the entrance. He could have looked for a switch or a loose block. However, he figured that he did not need to waste his time doing that and dusted both of his hands together, creating yet another spark. When he did this, he delivered one energy filled punch to the wall, causing it to break, showing him the secret passageway. He was rather proud of himself at that point.
  
  He checked to ensure that he had the spare canister still on him before he entered, just in case something were to happen. Fortunately for him, it was still attached to his belt by a clip. Once he was confident, he entered the passageway and followed where it led him. What he found at the end of it was something that he was not prepared for in the slightest.
  
  The sight that met his eyes something that took his breath and his confidence away. He did, in fact, find the vampire that he was hunting, but he also found roughly twenty others there as well. It seemed that, much like how Sterling came from a long line of vampire hunters, that man came from a long line of vampires, all of which lived in that wine cellar. He did not know if he would be able to deal with that many, though it was too late for him to turn back.
  
  He faked confidence and made a grand entrance and pose once more. “I thought I would rid the world of one evil tonight, though it appears that I will have the honour of ridding the world of a whole history of evil. Prepare to be done away with, you monsters!” He had no idea how he would fight off all of them, but he was certain that he would try.
  
  He lunged forward at the one that seemed to be the eldest and attempted to deliver a punch straight to his chest. The punch landed and the energy did appear to sting him a bit, but nothing more than that. It was only a sting. In response to this, the elder vampire slashed at the young man’s chest with his nails, causing him to bleed quite a bit. “You vile demon! Prepare to face the full force of the Moonstone family!” He rubbed both of his hands vigorously, causing more sparks to be formed from his gloves. He then clapped both hands together with great force, causing a wave of Moonstone energy to be expelled from him. This wave caused about four of the younger vampires, including his original target, to turn to dust and it did seem to hurt the elder ones quite a bit. However, they still remained. All this seemed to do was infuriate them.
  
  One of the vampires lifted Sterling by the neck, and threw him back into a wall. The remaining ones seemed to advance towards him with the intent to devour his entire body. He had to think quickly, what could he possibly do to save his skin now? Then the words of his father echoed in his mind. “Never combine your raw blood with the liquid that makes the vapour which gives you your abilities.” Why was this? It was his last resort. The only thing that he could try that would offer him any hopes of survival. He forcefully removed the cap off of the canister which he brought with him and bled from the wound along his chest into the liquid. He covered the canister and threw it towards the vampiric horde.
  
  While they were distracted by the sight of the canister flying past them, Sterling took the opportunity to run back through the passage and out the wine cellar into the open night. Never before had he run so quickly. He was certain he would die and that fear channelled into his legs. However, he was still uncertain if his plan did anything. If it did not, then he knew that he would have to face the horde again. Just then, a blast of raw Moonstone energy erupted from the underground cellar...rather, where there used to be an underground centre. Sterling knew that not even vampires could withstand that force. He was safe
  
  He fell onto the lawn of the manor and simply stared up into the moon. That experience taught him that he needed to figure out ways to become more powerful if he had any sort of hope of battling the evil beings of the world. Months later, Sterling Moonstone became a household name. After that job, the wealthy woman gave him her backing and his exploit was chronicled in the newspaper. Many people came to him with reports of vampiric activity and his company grew to international fame. He hired and trained employees. Though he was the only one of them who could channel the Moonstone energy, he had engineered equipment which they used in order to fight vampiric threats. And soon, vampires everywhere came to fear the name Moonstone.