Tomb of Dracula#21(1974)

Continued from last issue... Frank Drake, Rachel van Helsing and Dracula have been captured by Dr. Sun and Lucas Brand. Sun has been attempting to capture Dracula for some time to try and take his mantle of lord of the vampires. Sun has Brand explain his origins to the others: That in 1966 he was a prisoner of the Chinese government during the Cultural Revolution and forced into an experiment where his brain was removed from his body and placed into a anti-matter container and wired into a computer in the hopes that his powerful mind would be used as a weapon for the Chinese government. However, they got more than they bargained for as Dr. Sun would exert his massive mental powers to kill the men who did this to him. He would soon learn that his brain required fresh blood to survive, much like a vampire, and devoted himself to learning about vampires since he learned of their existence and created his own army to carry out his wishes. With the story done, Sun orders Lucas Brand to bring him the blood of Rachel van Helsing, however as Brand seeks to carry out this task, Sun unleashes Dracula as a final test of Brand's abilities. Dracula and Brand lock in a fight to the finish, during the fight Brand picks up a wooden stake and rams it into Dracula's heart. While back in London, England, at the home of Quincy Harker, Quincy tries to convince Blade to stay and continue their quest to destroy Dracula. Blade declines the offer, feeling that he should get back on the case of the vampire responsible for killing his mother, and departs. Back at the headquarters of Dr. Sun, Dracula has had the stake removed from his chest and he has been wired up into a machine. Dr. Sun explains further of his need to constantly have fresh blood pumped into his body and seeks to have dominion over all vampires so that he can have an army of minions that could collect bodies for his own blood needs. As part of his plot, he had one of his men seek out the body of Lucas Brand to learn all he could about vampires in the hopes of learning a way to best Dracula and seize control of all the worlds vampires. Having Brand hook himself into the devices as well, Dr. Sun intends to transfer all of Dracula's memories into not only Dr. Sun's data banks, but also into the mind of Lucas Brand in the hopes that Brand would become his medium to control the vampires of the world. With the majority of the information transferred over to Brand, Lucas decides to break free early and destroy Dracula. Dracula is freed and the two fight, with Brand having the upper hand due to Dracula's weakened state. Dracula breaks free and feeds upon one of Dr. Sun's scientists regaining some strength and continues his fight with Brand. Deciding that utilizing Brand is a failure, Dr. Sun decides to terminate his project and frees Frank and Rachel and gives them their weapons. As the battle between Dracula and Lucas continues, Brand knocks Dracula into some equipment causing an explosion which starts a massive fire. When Rachel and Frank attempt to kill both vampires, Brand grabs and destroys their weapons. Brand then turns on Dr. Sun and attempts to kill him but is struck down by a mental bolt. As the fire rages on, Dr. Sun teleports away while Frank and Rachel escape in their helicopter, believing that Dracula is dead. Dracula, however is far from dead, and makes his own escape by changing into bat form and flying away seconds before the mountain explodes.