Awesome / Department 19

• The first book:
  • Jamie Carpenter, a sixteen-year-old boy, manages to outsmart and kill Alexandru Rusmanov, one of the most powerful vampires ever to exist.
  • In the past, but when John Carpenter (Jamie's grandfather) teams up with Frankenstein in 1928, marching into Valentin Rusmanov's house in search of a target, then demanding they be let out alive otherwise he would blow up the building. It's such an awesome moment, it even gets Valentin's respect
• The Rising:
  • Near the end, Jamie also leads an Operation into Paris to get Frankenstein back, killing an entire theatreful of vampires and sedating a werewolf in the process.
  • The battle that conclude when Valeri's army assaults the Loop has a few:
    • Valentin Rusmanov fighting his brother to a standstill in front of the entire Blacklight roster, proving his loyalty after much distrust.
    • Henry Seward triggering the detonation of the Loop's massive ultraviolet light bombs as Valeri carries him away.
    • Shortly after the battle ends, Jamie delivering a swift headshot to Dr. Talbot, who is holding Matt at gunpoint, cutting off his Motive Rant in the process.
• Battle Lines:
  • When Kate and Matt go out to sort out the mess with their fathers and Albert Harker and are joined by Frankenstein.
  • Seward not only surviving and enduring Dracula's brutal torture, but attempting to throw himself off of Chateau Dauncy mid-conversation both to spite the first vampire and to attempt to drag him down when he goes after Seward.
• Zero Hour:
  • Matt escaping a hostage situation in by deliberately driving the car he's being held at gunpoint in straight into a wall.
  • At the end, the enormous battle between every Department member in the world and Dracula's army at Chateau Dauncy.
  • How the battle starts in the first place: General Allen drops a bunker buster straight into the Chateau, blowing the walls out and almost killing Dracula then and there. It's enough to briefly terrify the first vampire and earn a modicum of his respect.
  • The moment when Frankenstein, fully transformed into a werewolf, is unleashed. If the bunker buster wasn't enough of an Oh, Crap! moment for Dracula's army...
  • Jamie finally getting to plunge a stake into Valeri's heart after three books of the eldest Rusmanov being a Karma Houdini.
  • The extended battle Larissa and Valentin have with Dracula, who is hours away from reaching full power. Dracula almost kills Valentin by splitting him in half, but Larissa — a much younger vampire — almost kills him in return, only letting him escape to save Valentin's life.
• The final battle at Carcassonne at the end of Darkest Night packs quite a few, as expected for the climax of the entire series:
  • The directors of the worldwide Departments, many of whom are Badass Grandpas, forgoing their own safety to pick up weapons again and charge into battle with their men. Paul Turner goes first, but Allen, Ovechkin, and Tan soon stride out to join him. And by the end, they all survive!
  • Valentin disarming a mid-flight nuclear missile just before it lands, and promptly using the wreckage to smash Osvaldo.
  • Alan Foster, a retired Marine with no special equipment or powers, manages to fight his way past all of Dracula's guards and enable the clean rescue of every hostage. He then manages to confront Dracula himself without dying horribly.
  • Angela Darcy escaping her crucifixion in the Basilica and ripping Emery's throat out.
  • After getting fatally run through by Dracula's broadsword, Frankenstein manages to pull himself along the blade with his last breaths and gouge one of Dracula's eyes out with his thumb before succumbing.
  • Jamie's final confrontation with Dracula: after watching all of his allies get taken out and being brutalized by the first vampire, he crawls toward Frankenstein's body and manages to grab hold of a wooden crucifix. When Dracula taunts him for believing superstitions and moves to finish him off, Jamie buries it in his throat and uses his blood to recover. Dracula is then shot multiple times by the recovered Larissa and stabbed in the heart with his own sword after being made to fear Jamie. As if that weren't enough, the mysterious Eldritch Abomination Dracula absorbed into his body to become the first vampire resurfaces and slowly, brutally drags Dracula down into god-knows-where as he screams and thrashes before vanishing completely.

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