"Yes."
"The body!"
Gioruno, who was bound in mid-air, couldn't stop talking after he started, and he confessed some things he knew.
Actually, he didn't know much.
"After Andrew Kloe died, there was indeed a patrol officer who chased him."
"Andore Yage!"
"He did catch up."
"At first, we also suspected Andore, so on the third day after the incident, Bruce and I followed Andore to a warehouse outside the city."
"The two gunmen who shot Andrew Kloe were inside."
"Andore was kneeling devoutly on the ground."
"Because..."
Speaking of this, Gioruno seemed to fall into a reverie, his eyes becoming somewhat infatuated: "Bruce and I saw the stigmata behind those two people!"
Hawk raised an eyebrow.
With a thought, he immediately understood what Gioruno's 'stigmata' was.
It was probably the cracks from those two bird-men having their wings cut off.
Indeed!
Gioruno continued.
"Later, Bruce and I were discovered."
"But the Lord's envoys didn't blame us, and told us that the apocalypse was coming, and they, as the Lord's pioneers, were here to guide humanity."
"..."
"Bruce and I followed instructions and made this case out to be a gang shooting."
"But Amy Kloe was too troublesome."
"In order to fulfill the Lord's envoy's instructions, Bruce and Andore had no choice but to go to Amy Kloe's home to warn her."
"Their warning was very effective."
"Amy Kloe no longer caused trouble at the precinct."
"After that, Bruce and Andore also faked their deaths as instructed, and then I secretly transported Andrew Kloe's body out and let the two take it away."
"..."
After saying this, Gioruno's angry eyes glared at Hawk: "That's all I know. Now, spare my son and grandson."
Hawk looked at Gioruno with a calm expression.
The next second.
He turned and disappeared from the house.
Gioruno, bound in mid-air, was slightly stunned. Just as he was about to speak, a heart-wrenching pain suddenly erupted.
Then—
Boom!
Gioruno, along with the house, exploded in response.
When Hawk returned to New York S.H.I.E.L.D. again, Gwen and George had already arrived.
George was currently curiously surveying the colossal S.H.I.E.L.D. hub, built beneath Times Square, like Liu姥姥 entering the Grand View Garden.
Good heavens.
He was an old New Yorker, and he had never known that such a large secret organization existed beneath Times Square.
Hawk's appearance was silent.
However, the moment Hawk appeared, Gwen noticed him immediately.
Hawk glanced at Gwen, then looked at George.
"Is Andrew Kloe's body at the 21st Precinct?"
"...Yes."
George came to his senses and looked at Hawk.
"What's wrong?"
"Has the DNA test been done?"
"The body has always been kept in..."
George frowned, then reacted and looked at Hawk: "Are you saying that's not Andrew Kloe's body?"
Hawk's expression was calm.
"Gioruno just confessed that after Bruce and Andore faked their deaths, he replaced the body and transported it to Paris."
"What?"
George was shocked.
Sharon, beside him, had already ordered people to go to the 21st Precinct's forensic office to retrieve Gioruno Kloe's body that was kept there.
Anyway, they already had Hawk's DNA data.
This was also what they found after recovering data from the HYDRA Base beneath the Atlantic Ocean.
So... doing a DNA comparison was easy.
Gwen frowned: "What do they want Mr. Kloe's body for? Cloning?"
Sharon, after giving instructions, walked over: "I've already arranged for people to retrieve the body."
Gwen looked at Hawk.
Hawk also frowned, thinking of a possibility.
But... Hawk looked up at Sharon: "Where's Blade?"
When Corvinus first mentioned it, he didn't have any impression, but just now, after Gioruno said Andrew's body was replaced, he finally remembered some plot scenes from Blade II.
Speaking of Blade's old man.
Whistler.
He was killed by Vampires in the first movie, and then returned as a Vampire in the second movie.
Although Andrew Kloe was moved a year later before being transported away.
But!
Those two so-called Blood God Envoys weren't real Vampires either, and who knew what magical items they had obtained while performing the tasks Jehovah had given them.
Hawk's thoughts raced.
The next second.
After Sharon reported Blade's current address, he turned again and disappeared from the spot.
Still the same old saying.
He wasn't a detective; he didn't need any evidence, only suspicion.
Inside Blade's warehouse.
The Blood Pack Squad from Corvinus's castle also arrived at Blade's lair after nightfall, intending to form an alliance with Blade to deal with a terrifying monster.
Reaper.
This was a creature mutated from Vampires; they were stronger, faster than ordinary Vampires, and fed on the blood of Vampires and humans.
But this wasn't the most terrifying part.
The most terrifying thing was that Vampires bitten by Reapers would undergo a painful mutation in a short period, becoming new Reapers.
This was also why Corvinus sent the Blood Pack Squad to New York City.
Because if the Reapers weren't eliminated quickly, the entire Vampire race would face extinction, and after Vampires were extinct, Reapers would turn to humans without restraint, which would be a global disaster.
Therefore—
After the Blood Pack Squad arrived in New York City and realized that they couldn't capture the Reapers alone, they thought of Blade.
Blade had recently found Whistler, who had already become a Vampire, in a Vampire's lair.
Fortunately.
Whistler recovered again after injecting the Vampire antidote serum.
At this moment, Blade, who was showing his old man Whistler around the warehouse, which had been renovated by S.H.I.E.L.D. and greatly changed after his disappearance, welcomed the Blood Pack Squad.
Just as Blade was wondering if this was a Vampire conspiracy.
Hawk appeared silently, glanced at Blade, then raised an eyebrow at the tense Blood Pack Squad: "Looks like I've arrived at just the right time."
As he spoke.
Snap!
Hawk snapped his right fingers, then, under Blade's gaze, approached a Vampire with an Asian face, looking very much like a certain martial arts star.
"Bruce and Andore, do you know where they are?"
"Who are you!"
The Vampire, codenamed Snowman, tried to break free from Hawk's restraint.
Hawk didn't speak. With a thought, with a bang, the Snowman, bound in mid-air, exploded in response.
But the explosion did not spread; instead, it was frozen in place the moment it exploded.
But this was even more terrifying.
Blade's eyes behind his sunglasses couldn't help but twitch.
Whistler also exclaimed inwardly, wondering where this peerless fiend came from.
Hawk then walked to Nyssa, the Blood Pack Squad's only female Vampire.
Just as he was about to ask a question.
Beside him, a bald, muscular Vampire looked at Hawk: "Wait a minute, whatever you want, come at me. I'm their Captain."
Hawk's gaze shifted and landed on the bald Vampire, then he seemed to remember something.
"Reinhardt?"
"...It's me."
"Very good."
Hawk smiled slightly, released Reinhardt's restraint, and after Reinhardt landed, he looked at the time on his watch and said to Reinhardt: "It's seven o'clock tonight. I'm giving you two hours. After two hours, either you bring me the two people I want, or I'll kill all your people."
Reinhardt's expression changed.
Hawk, however, glanced at Reinhardt.
Eye blast.
Boom!
Reinhardt was sent flying out of the warehouse in response, crashing into the pile of scrapped vehicle parts outside the warehouse.
"Remember, you only have two hours!"
"Bring Bruce and Andore to me."
"Otherwise, I will kill all your squad members."
"..."
Reinhardt quickly flashed out of the crater, glanced at Hawk in the warehouse, his eyes flickering, and with a whoosh, his figure quickly disappeared from the spot.
Two hours.
He didn't have much time left.
After Reinhardt left, Hawk chuckled, subtly moved his right hand, and let the remaining two male and one female Vampires, who were suspended in mid-air, drop to the ground.
Blade, seeing this, opened his mouth.
Just then.
Hawk's gaze shifted, and his right hand reached and grasped towards the depths of the warehouse corner.
"Since you're already here, come out."
"..."
Accompanied by a whistling black shadow, a Vampire, seemingly shrouded in a monk's robe, was then pulled over by Hawk from a distance.
And the moment this monk-robed black shadow was pulled over, countless Beast-like roars seemed to come from all around.
Closer and closer.
More and more.
Blade instinctively drew his sword.
"Something's coming."
"It's the Reapers!"
"F*ck, let go of me quickly, you'll kill us."
The Blood Pack Squad, who had dealt with Reapers before, heard the roars, their faces changed involuntarily, and they struggled to break free from their restraints, yelling at Hawk.
Just then.
Bang!
Before Hawk could get a good look at what the guy he had pulled over looked like, with the sound of shattering glass, the glass above the warehouse broke. Then, under the moonlight, a monster with pale, smooth, hairless skin, completely black eyes with no pupils, a jaw that opened like petals, revealing a chrysanthemum-shaped annular mouth with sharp teeth, leaped in from outside.
The next second.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
One after another, monsters that were initially hiding somewhere, seemingly having taken the wrong medicine, rushed towards here from all directions.
These—
Were the mutated Vampires.
Reapers!
... (End of chapter)
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