"Tony, where are you going?"
Obadiah, sporting a shaved head, called out to Tony, who was about to leave the house. A strange glint flashed in his eyes. He had been informed of Tony's sudden departure the previous day. Since the matter involved S.H.I.E.L.D., he had no way of knowing the truth. After a night of fruitless investigation, he appeared at Tony's home early in the morning. The A.I. assistant certainly wouldn't bar him from entry.
"I'm just going out for a drive. I don't think there are any engagements I need to attend today, are there?" Tony casually grabbed a jacket and threw it on, greeting Obadiah normally. However, his slightly subdued tone suggested he wasn't quite himself.
"Did you come over this early just to ask where I'm going? That's not like you."
"You always follow your impulses; I'm pretty much used to it. Is it strange for me, as an elder, to show a little concern for you? You left the company in a hurry yesterday." Obadiah made a gesture of helplessness, then turned around and retrieved a bottle of liquor from the cabinet. Obadiah simply assumed Tony had discovered some information detrimental to him, so he turned away to avoid revealing any further flaws.
"It was just a temporary matter I needed to handle, dear Uncle Obadiah. You don't need to worry." Tony put on his playboy facade, giving the man before him a perfunctory answer. The matter concerned his family, as well as some experiences unsuitable for sharing, so Tony chose to keep quiet out of concern for others. However, this action would not earn him Obadiah's trust or understanding; instead, it deepened Obadiah's suspicion. After all, the statement sounded like a veiled warning.
"Alright, you've been an adult for a while. As long as you can guarantee your safety, nothing else matters." Obadiah lowered his head and drank his liquor, conveniently hiding his continuously shifting gaze.
"I'm leaving then. JARVIS, please look after my uncle."
"As you wish, sir."
Tony gave a brief instruction to his A.I. and left the house immediately. Obadiah didn't stay long either. No matter how much he hated Tony Stark, he wasn't foolish enough to speak his mind right under the nose of that A.I. assistant.
"Nick, you need to understand that the power Hydra wields may have exceeded your imagination." Blade, the Vampire Hunter, spoke coldly, half-lying on a surgical-like bed.
"I've long been psychologically prepared for that." Nick Fury sat across from Blade, his single eye glinting.
After waiting for a while at the blacksmith shop, Nick Fury eventually left the premises under the strange gaze of Monkey King. Just as he was testing a listening device, he heard a piercing "squeaking" sound, and the device was subsequently destroyed and left in pieces at Monkey King's forge. He happened to arrive at this safe house just in time for Blade's awakening.
"I suggest you just state the conclusions of your investigation, that way you'll have more time to recover." Blade leaned his head back on the pillow, sounding somewhat weak: "There are some artificially created products among the vampires, and all signs indicate they are inextricably linked to Hydra. The characteristics of these creatures are obvious: they lack regenerative abilities, but their physical prowess may be even stronger than Steve's. The injuries on me were largely caused by that one vampire. The most terrifying thing is that this type of vampire has likely been mass-produced."
Hearing Blade's statement, Nick Fury remained silent, simply staring intently at Blade.
"Fine, I also ran into a priest. He was pinned to the ground by a bayonet when I was completely unable to fight back. Clearly, he was the kind of clergyman with real skill." (A Gunsword is a bayonet.)
Blade added casually. He was usually reluctant to mention the cause of his injuries.
"So, where do you think he's a priest from?" Nick Fury's voice always sounded awkward. Since the establishment of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD), these matters had been classified under their management. But Nick Fury didn't plan to seek out those secretive individuals right now; Hellboy had just shown his dissatisfaction with him, and the Amphibian Man Abe Sapien was still undergoing treatment. The BPRD didn't seem to have any other forces available.
"The Vatican? Or St. Paul's Cathedral? How would I know such a thing? Do you expect me to go to church to pray and meet a priest who runs me through without asking questions?" Blade's intense tone caused his wound to start bleeding again. A wound inflicted by a power carrying the Holy Light was not easy to heal.
"Do you have any contact information for civilian experts in this area?" Nick Fury stood up and took a refrigerated blood bag from the freezer, hanging it next to Blade's bed. "Injection or consumption is up to you." Nick Fury placed a needle nearby.
"Don't you usually believe S.H.I.E.L.D. knows everything? Now you come running to me asking? What do you think I could possibly know?" Blade grabbed the needle and immediately plunged it into the crook of his arm. He never considered himself a vampire, so he would never choose to consume blood directly.
"If you insist, there seems to be a semi-official organization over in England you might contact." Blade said with a tone of clear impatience.
"Hellsing? Van Helsing?" Nick Fury's words were a query, met by silence from Blade. In Blade's view, if Nick Fury already knew the place, asking around was just wasting his time.
"I thought the legend of Dracula was just a story." Nick Fury added in explanation.
"You may have heard the name, but the Dracula Van Helsing killed and the one in the stories are two different things. The Dracula who is the source of us vampires merely borrowed that name." Blade's patience was running out.
Dracula, as a super-villain, seemed somewhat strange. He possessed countless weaknesses but had an immortality that rendered even death powerless. But Dracula was just Dracula. His existence was somewhat similar to Leoric the Skeleton King; an existence that is neither alive nor dead naturally has no beginning or end.
"Sounds like a reliable entity to rely on." Nick Fury said this while staring at Blade, seemingly trying to read something from the Vampire Hunter's face.
"Stop your useless probing. I hate your damned way of talking." Blade pulled the blanket over his head. Talking to Nick Fury was simply too frustrating. No matter the subject, he had to be probed relentlessly. Was the existence of the Hellsing family a secret? Nick Fury pretending to be clueless just made him sick.
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