......….
Transylvania, Europe
With all her preparations, Selene was able to invade Dracula's castle. The whole area is protected by a magic barrier that obstructs vision and makes any intruder get lost in the fog, so they can't find the castle.
Unless someone hunts them before they can go back.
Hector already mapped the area long ago; after all, no illusion can obstruct his All Seeing Eyes of God. He did the same with many places of importance around the globe. Except the ones hidden inside Pocket Dimensions… He found the entrance of most of them, though.
Dracula's Castle is not inside a pocket dimension, so it is relatively easy to invade if you know what you are doing.
The vampires' arrogance also made security incredibly lax; they rely too much on their magic wards and their charmed animals(and familiars) to make a single patrol around the perimeter.
That's why, to Selene, the infiltration was literally a walk in the woods… literally. She simply walked into the forest, unobstructed, and arrived at the castle without a single inconvenience obstructing her way.
The Death Dealer was never careless, though, taking her job of infiltrating this place seriously. She got even more careful now that she is entering the castle.
The powers given to her are specially selected to assist in stealth missions like that. Selene moves in the shadows, completely silent and unseen.
A good stealth infiltration is only as good as the people you are going against, knowing that everyone in that castle has super-senses, Selene doesn't expect her presence to go unnoticed for too long.
But it will be enough to investigate what she needs. The recent actions of vampires almost scream that they have the intention of doing something big, preparing to make a major move.
She will try to discover as much as she can about it.
The gothic medieval castle is big, too big… if Selene had it on her mind to pay attention to the architecture, she would guess that most of the castle was added and modified at a later date after the first construction.
Without a doubt, with his newfound powers, strength, and time, Dracula decided to improve his living conditions.
He can make as many thralls as he wants, and they would not need to sleep, together with super-human strength and other abilities that would make it easy to build something this big.
The original castle is barely the Main building in the center of this city-wide fortress, with tall and pointy towers, bridges connecting them, and other impossible displays of architecture that only make sense when you discover that monsters are living in it.
'And there is still the underground…' Selene thinks after she jumped onto a high tower to take a good look at the area.
Maybe underground, there are still thralls working endlessly to expand the dungeons and catacombs.
'In this world, High Level vampires like Dracula have strong connections with their homeland and coffins…' She remembers Hector's explanation and the books he gave her. 'So Dracula's coffin must be deep underground, in the center of everything… Let's avoid that place for now. Security must be tighter there. I will use that when needed…'
With that in mind, she doesn't think much and just chooses the nearest window.
Again, this place's security is as lax as a bear's den, because anyone entering it would be in for a bad time. People want to stay away from this place and not walk into it.
Selene enters through a big window and immediately sneaks to the shadows of the empty room before looking around to check where she is.
The place looks like someone's study room, filled with books and a small table covered with parchments.
Did she hit the jackpot instantly like that?
Keeping an eye on the door, she approaches the table to check what is written on the papers.
To her disappointment, it is not about what she is looking for, but about magic. It seems the owner of this room is a pursuer of the arcane.
"That is why this tower is so high and the window so large…" She looks at the schematics of magic circles and the drawings of all forms of the moon.
Although this is something that would probably interest Hector, she avoided touching anywhere else and left. It was already imprinted in her mind that Sorcerers tend to be prepared and very careful with their research.
Luckily, this doesn't look like a very important research room; there are no experiments or artifacts. It just looks like a place to read and write under moonlight, probably a relaxing place for a workaholic mage.
Leaving it behind, Selene sneaks around the corridors and halls.
The interior design of the castle is exactly like one would expect after seeing the outside. Walls of stone, red tapestries, armors, paintings… Really a medieval castle, without an ounce of modernity.
'At least on his outward part…' Selene doesn't believe the vampires of this world kept up with their "lifestyle" to this day.
Even in her former world, eventually, the conveniences of modernity are too much of an attractive prospect to ignore. They incorporate it into their style and enjoy the best of what humans have made in the world, while keeping their customs.
It was the same in Monster Metropolis. Monsters are not stuck in time, especially when "new blood" enters the ranks. The most used hunting grounds of vampires are modern nightclubs, after all, instead of dark woods.
Selene jumps from dark spot to dark spot, going down on the tower till she is finally inside a bigger building, then she starts checking the doors more thoroughly.
Even until this moment, she hasn't found anyone, so where she is must be the personal area of someone important, or the number of people inside the castle is smaller than she thought.
What would not be strange, considering how elitist vampires are, is that just a few select people would be allowed in this castle. It is the residence of Dracula! Even with the different factions of vampires and all politics, it can be considered the "Holy Land" of the vampire race.
The first room that she checked was empty, the second too, in the third she found that it was a storage room, and it went like that… The place is so big that the number of empty rooms is surprising even to Selene.
She finally found a person walking in a corridor, by the smell and complexion, she was sure that it was a vampire. The male vampire is completely exposed, arrogantly thinking no one would try to attack him right here, in the heart of vampire civilization.
He is wrong. This male vampire is preventing her from advancing on her search, so he has to die.
Selene silently approaches him, and before he notices, she pulls him and stabs the soft part of his jaw with a retractable blade from her wrist, impaling his brain.
KachikBuchiPssh
"!!" The vampire jerks in surprise, but suddenly he goes limp and dies.
Selene pulls him to a nearby room and abandons the body there. She retracts the blade back into her sleeve after cleaning it.
This is one of her few melee weapons, specialized in killing vampires stealthily. In truth, it is not even a blade per se, but a giant and sharp needle, with a small hole in the tip.
But instead of expelling a liquid like a syringe, it releases a stream of UV light directed at the vampire's brain, or heart, but the brain is the main target.
An incredibly nasty weapon to kill vampires that only a sick mind like Hector's can think about creating.
Selene continues to advance, killing more lone vampires she finds along her way. She is an efficient killing machine among those unaware vampires.
Even when she entered a room with three of them, preventing her stealth assassination tactics from working, she still made quick work of them.
When she pulls her guns, with almost perfect silencers created by Hector, she only needs three precise shots to their foreheads to kill them. After that, she fuses with the shadows again and waits.
Even a small and quick commotion like this one can attract the attention of some vampire or other monster that is nearby.
She waits for anyone to appear to check, ready to kill them quickly, but no one comes. Feeling more confident, and at the same time unhappy with her progress, Selene starts moving faster.
'Dawn will come before I cover half of this place…' She thinks 'Which maybe would not be so bad… maybe.'
At this point, she doesn't have the obvious vampire weakness of being vulnerable to sunlight, so when thinking about it, the best course of action would be to infiltrate this place when most of the vampires have decided to retreat back to their coffins and hideouts.
But she also knows that, unfortunately, this place is not only inhabited by vampires. And logically, the vampires will use their non-vampire servants to patrol the area while they are vulnerable.
Different from a usual human base, this place is even more protected during the day.
Without a doubt, if they are invaded during the day, they can use the fog or the large size of the castle to still come out of the coffins to fight whatever decides to exploit their obvious weakness.
Selene's powers are also more effective at night, too. Hector is the one to blame in this aspect; he likes giving his subordinates "powers in character".
Faster, she continues her investigation, moving from room to room like a dark blur. She notices equally quickly that this area appears to just house people of no interest, maybe a vacation home of someone important, the vampires she killed were just some servants.
She moves to another area then. A long but not tall building that connects two castle-like constructions, it can be considered a corridor when compared with the magnitude of this place.
And there she finally makes some progress. From a high window, she looks down at the high number of people below. Aesthetically, this building looks like an army hospital, lines of beds on each side with people lying on them, while some that look like they are working walk around.
She takes on all of this… There are both average humans and vampires on the beds; some are sleeping, others are awake and look well, and some look horribly wounded or even transfigured.
All of them have some kind of IV fluid connected with their bodies, the place smells like medicine and herbs, but the dismembered body parts preserved in jars and other morbid sights would not be out of place in a necrotery.
If Hector were here, he would describe this place as a modern-day Necromancer experiment room. Healing is not the main objective here.
'Are they studying vampirism?' Selene contemplates. It would make sense to study what gives them powers; it also connects with their research on making an anti-UV serum.
Ignoring how Hector helped her overcome the weakness, she met Blade and knew that is possible for a vampire to be immune to UV rays… a half-vampire at least…
'This would explain those humans…' Behind her mask, Selene's icy blue eyes narrow while looking at those humans who are apparently kidnapped to be guinea pigs and "scientific bloodbags" for samples. 'He is not gonna like it.' She knows that if she reports what she discovered now, he could very well simply appear and deal with this place.
But even if they consider this place the Main base of operations of the Vampires, nothing is preventing the existence of other branches. That is why she is investigating before Hector finally acts.
He is also giving the vampires the benefit of the doubt in hopes of coexistence. He even commented that researching a serum to deal with their weakness is okay, but if they are using humans… the whole perspective changes.
'A little more and I report… Those people could be willing volunteers." Selene decided
As weird as it sounds, there are humans that willing to submit to vampires. It is natural, they could operate under their master's orders when they couldn't move in the human world.
Normally, they are promised the "gift" of immortality as a reward if they do a good job. Many humans would take up the offer to be immortal, not caring how low they need to go for that.
Selene doesn't do anything here; her mask is recording, so that is enough data collected. She exits by the window and jumps on the roof, moving to the next area.
But like all plans, something unexpected happened that derails her infiltration.
A commotion starts happening two buildings away. Selene can hear gunshots and feel lifeforms starting to move in that direction.
Before moving in the opposite direction, the right option is to investigate so that she can make the right approach, depending on the situation.
She gets even more stealth, hiding in the shadows while approaching the source of the commotion.
'It is him…' To her surprise, or maybe not, she found Blade fighting vampires on the top floor of a building.
Through the large windows, she can see him moving with his two katanas, dodging each time a vampire advances at him and striking when they overextend.
She fought him and can say that he is not a man who will go down easily; this commotion will escalate into something big, maybe even covering the whole castle.
The inhabitants will be on alert and moving to deal with him, and worst, they will probably stop doing things she can observe, like the hospital from before, and lock any place they don't want to be damaged or invaded… important places.
Behind her mask, Selene sighs loudly. 'If it is like that… let's make it worse.'
She pulls a device from a pocket in her trench coat and presses the button without hesitation, activating the "Nuclear Option".
Or the "Pre-Nuclear Option", because the real one is calling Eidolon. This button didn't call him; it makes him send another person.
Taking into consideration the place she is infiltrating, the high possibility of unexpected things happening, Hector prepared this to create even more chaos so that Selene can escape or act under the turbid waters that are about to be created.
Far away, in the Avengers Towers, Hector received the signal and didn't even move from there. 'This will be funny…' He thinks.
A portal suddenly appears above the building that Blade is fighting, and a figure is dropped on it unceremoniously. More than unceremoniously, this person was practically shot through the roof, landing in the middle of the fight.
"What the hell happened??" A male voice can be heard amidst the dust, and the figure stands up.
He is dressed in all white… He looks around… He sees Blade…. he sees the vampires… he looks through the windows and sees the castle… Then he goes back to look at the vampires…
"..." In the meanwhile everyone paused to stare at him too.
Finally, the person kicks a vampire and jumps through the window, opening his cape like wings to glide under the moon.
"DRACULAAAAA!! WHERE IS MY MONEY???" Moon Knight's shout can be heard throughout the whole castle.
He uses a flying gliding vampire as a platform and jumps high, landing on the roof of a building, where he immediately runs and starts beating the vampires that try to surround him.
"I KNOW YOU ARE HERE, DRACULA. YOU BIG FUCKING NERD! WHERE IS MY GODDMAN MONEY??"
"..." A little farther, Selene watches that ridiculous scene with deadpan eyes, before diving into the shadows again. 'This world is weird.'
......…..
Selene ignores the battle heating up outside and decides to move deep inside the buildings.
She gets even more aggressive because of the influx of monsters moving around now. She walks down a hall and shoots two vampires that appear around the corner. A door was opening, and she ambushed the nosferatu, leaving the room, killing him immediately.
She ventures herself in areas that look more important, moving to the center of the castle. On her path, she continued to deal easily with the unaware enemies, and sometimes she even blended in, not attracting attention.
They all seem too focused on getting to where Blade and Moon Knight are.
'This looks important…' While ignoring the loud sounds outside, she moves from building to building till she finds one that doesn't seem to be only used for housing.
Even with all the commotion, there are still guards who haven't moved from their place. Looking through the window, it looks pretty empty, but there is a double door with two big men guarding it.
'Big doors… big empty space… to move something big… using a vehicle maybe.' She decides that this is it. This place is worthy of her entering direct combat.
CrashPsshPsshPsshPssh
She jumps through the window, breaking the glass, and already shooting everyone inside.
The UV bullets hit the two big men(who look more dangerous) in both their chests and heads, before she even touched the ground, and she starts fighting the rest.
The vampires hiss and growl before they jump at Selene. She raises her leg to stomp one in the face while shooting the ones at her side. Using the face as a platform, she performs a backflip. She shoots more of them while upside down, hitting them perfectly.
When she lands, more are already fearlessly jumping at her, their claws approaching her face. She is out of bullets, but her enhancements are not for show. She spins and kicks one of them, making the vampire's arm fly away.
"What?" The vampire looks at his stump in shock. He is a vampire; he should be strong and durable now. He doesn't remember the last time he was hurt like that.
And he will not have the chance to remember, because Selene's boot is already hitting the side of his head.
The vampires get cautious and start moving smarter, using their super speed to circle Selene like prey, the dark smoke they leave behind obstructing her sight.
"..." She concentrates while turning around to keep her eyes on them. If she is right, one of them is gonna…
…dash at her blind spot.
She turned fast when she heard the sound of someone kicking the stone floor, her gun founding the vampire and blasting his face.
Her move obviously created an opening that more vampires try to take advantage of; she is attacked from her sides and back again, simultaneously.
She jumps forward and slides while turning her torso to shoot more, downing one vampire, but two are able to evade fatal wounds.
Grrrrrr
She hears a growl and turns around to see the first two guys she shot standing up while trembling. They are trembling they their bodies are growing and changing, their wounds are healing, and when they finally lock on her, she discovers why they are not dead.
Those two are not vampires, they are werewolves. Standing more than two meters tall, with brown fur, the two anthropomorphic wolves stare at her with furious eyes while growling and ripping off their stretched shirts.
"This takes me back…" Selene comments with a rare, amused tone, removing the mag with silver bullets from her trench coat and reloading her gun. "Lycans and Vampires working together…" The notion is inconceivable to someone from her world. "Maybe coexistence is not that unattainable a goal."
Ka-chik
The sound of her changing mags is like the starting shot that initiates round two of this battle.
The werewolves separate, running on all fours from the ground to the wall before jumping at her from left and right.
Selene shoots them, but the werewolves are able to dodge the bullets before leaping at her. She finally found why Hector considers guns to be "beginner's weapons", after a certain threshold, most long ranged become useless.
It is almost the same thing Helena eventually realized and asked Hector to find ways to make it relevant at her new level of power.
Without being able to use her guns appropriately, Selene resorts to using them like blunt weapons, like makeshift tonfas, when the werewolves are too close.
She hits them in their jaws, making spit and even a tooth or two fly. Each of her guns is also made of extremely durable materials, with some specific parts coated in adamantium.
Hector would never allow her to carry something that can be cut or destroyed by a melee-fighter who can approach her. It would also be a waste of her physical prowess if her guns could not be used to bash someone's skull.
Thwack
And that is exactly what she does. A poor vampire has his forehead carved, and his eyes literally pop out of their sockets when she hits him. Selene needs to be ruthless because they are attacking from all sides, not giving her time to reload or shoot, so she needs to take out anyone she can.
One of the werewolves lunges at her. He swipes with his claws, but Selene dodges with a sidestep. The werewolf is not done; he waves both arms frantically, so fast that they become a blur while trying to tear her to pieces.
SwishSwishSwishSwishSwishSwishSwishSwishSwishSwishSwishSwishSwishSwishSwishSwishSwishSwishSwish
She dodges by moving her lower body back and upper body from side to side, eyes open wide to pay attention to the attacks. Her arms are not idle either; she discreetly keeps her hand close to her hip and turns to shoot the werewolf.
BangBangBangBangBangBang
This time, he was not ready to dodge, receiving all silver bullets in the stomach.
The area is far from fatal, but it is silver, the werewolf immediately topples and falls to the ground in pain. A sizzling sound can be heard from his stomach as he wails on the ground, like his torso is melting.
In the Marvel universe, Mystical-created werewolves like this one are weak to silver; the element can easily cause much more damage than expected, maiming them or even killing them.
Their bodies are big, and it is possible to survive if they act fast to remove the bullet that hit a non-fatal spot, but if left alone… The silver could be carried in their blood, and they would eventually die painfully.
This one is lucky, though.
Bang
Selene saved him from his misery with a bullet in the head, this time, because it is silver; the shot easily pierced his durable cranium and perforated his brain.
The other werewolf looks even angrier now that his supposed friend was killed, lunging at Selene like a rabid dog. She displays her fearlessness by stepping forward and shoving her gun, with her hand and everything, inside his huge maw.
"I am a specialist in killing your type." She was good even before when Lycans are physical superior to her, now that she is the one at an advantage… this is outright bullying.
BangBang
The werewolf falls lifeless, and Selene just spares a glance at him before checking her own hand.
His maw closed around her wrist, but there was no harm done. She can't help but be surprised by how strong she is right now. Those sharp teeth that should have chomped off her hand didn't even break her skin.
She almost feels bad… almost…
Now that she has dealt with everyone here, she will advance to this secret area before someone else appears.
She kicks the double doors with her super strength. At this point, there is no use in acting sneaky. Beyond the doors, there is a dark passage, large stairways that go down to an unseen underground.
Without another choice, she just walks down, high alert and looking for possible traps. But it seems the arrogance of the vampires extends even to this place, and they did not set any traps against intruders.
She walks down the stairs for some time, they take on a snail shape after a certain point, and she moves along the wall so that any potential enemy does not see her coming.
When she finally reaches her destination, she finds another double door and again, without a choice, she opens it, ready to battle.
"Who goes there??" Someone shouts, obviously seeing the door opening even when she was careful.
Bam
So Selene just kicks it down and enters anyway, guns in hand and ready for a fight.
What she encounters is shocking even to her.
It is a horrific mix of slaughterhouse, dungeon, and experiment room. It is a wide and tall space, filled with tables with human corpses and body parts. There are also naked bodies hanging from the ceiling, their skin stretched by hooks. Some are also strapped to the wall.
A curious thing she noticed is that the blood appears to be drained in the ground, following a path to somewhere else.
This place looks equally like a sewer where they dump the bodies and an important ritualistic room. Considering the guards and that there are people here, Selene imagines that it is the second option.
BangBang
Selene immediately shot the other person in the room after confirming that he was not an innocent human. The vampire is a known person, none other than Joshua, the Nosferatu who went to talk with Queen Shiklah.
"Aaaargh!!" He immediately shouts in pain when the UV bullet hits his limbs. Joshua falls to the ground, clawing the wounds that are emitting a blue light, but that only makes his fingers hurt too.
Unlike silver that poisons werewolves, in this situation, the UV light will not spread through his body and kill, but it will corrode his arm till it falls. Selene only kept him alive because she remembered that he seemed important, and he could be a source of information.
"Don't move." She says to him, one hand points her gun at Joshua, and the other moves inside her trench coat for a capturing device Hector gave her.
Thwack
"!?!"
But suddenly she was hit on her side and was sent reeling some meters away before she caught herself. Selene gets on guard and points her gun in the direction of the attack, but there is nothing there.
"..." She surveys the surroundings, searching for this unknown assailant. The room is filled with blind spots, but even then… how was she hit without being able to react? She is sure her eyes immediately turned to the direction of the attack on impact, and there was nothing there.
Only when her brain reminds her that she is not in her former world anymore does she think of the likely possibility.
'Someone invisible.' In this world, she must be ready to meet all kinds of strange powers and abilities. Even she has stealth powers now, so it's not weird that someone has invisibility. It shouldn't even be that rare.
After understanding that, Selene doesn't say anything out loud, acting oblivious to keep some advantage.
She secretly takes a good sniff to try to locate the enemy, but the smell of blood and corpses is too strong and is camouflaging any other smell. Her ears are at full attention to detect any movement, but it is very likely that the enemy has already covered this weakness and mastered walking without making a sound.
'Not even my detection powers?' She is surprised that her thermal vision can't catch anyone either, almost doubting her guess that there is someone invisible.
'Don't get cocky just because of the jump in power… Nothing is absolute.' She remembers Hector's advice after he enhanced her and before he kicked her ass to "expand her horizons".
If neither vision, hearing, nor smell works, Selene decided to go with the other possible sense… Touch.
She lowers her weapon and puts it back in the holster, like she is giving up. She even stopped looking so guarded, straightening herself and casually walking back to Joshua, who was still suffering on the ground.
But beneath her mask, she is in high alert, the most alert she has been tonight. Muscles tense underneath her uncaring face…
It happened when she reached inside her trench coat again, when she was just above Joshua.
To Selene, it is like the world started moving in slow motion, a pressure appearing on the side of her head, on her temple…
Her arm immediately shot out while her face was turned because of the hit.
"Got you." She says, hand clamping on the empty air, slowly turning her faceless black mask to where she knows her enemy is.
Crack
"Argh!" The feeling of something breaking after she squeezed and the grunt of her pain is all the confirmation she needed before she commits to the next attack.
'It is light…'
BamBamBam
Like it is a ragdoll, she hits the enemy on the ground multiple times, blood emerging with every impact, the outline of a male human body appearing, smeared with blood. Blood from him and from the trails on the ground.
"In-Invisible man!" Joshua shouts while in pain.
'Invisible Man? Not very creative…' Selene thinks before shrugging and throwing Invisible Man into a wall like trash.
That moment of distraction was taken advantage of by Joshua, the nosferatu was so pathetic squirming on the ground that Selene unknowingly wrote off the man as dangerous, so he made an unexpected move.
His pale hand touched a specific and unassuming spot on the ground, the outline of a square appears and sinks, and the whole room lights up in red. All the blood baths across the room light up, making it even clearer the glyphs and symbols that blood writes.
"!" Selene immediately goes and kicks Joshua, the nosferatu hitting and bouncing on the ceiling and then a wall like a ball. He is curled like one, too.
Some glyphs leave the wall, become words in the air that spin around the room. Selene tried to leave, but all the spinning created a barrier that was preventing her from escaping.
The room becomes a chaotic, bloody storm. She tries to dodge, but it is impossible… The whole place becomes a vortex of blood, and Selene is dragged to the epicenter.
She fears that she is about to get crushed and is going for the "nuclear option", but everything was over faster than she thought, and suddenly she is pushed into another space.
'So it is a teleport.' She looks around to understand where that trap took her, and she finds herself in a huge arena-like space, surrounded by enemies from all sides, an army of monsters that are simply staring at her silently. 'Problematic… No escape routes.' The ceiling is high, but still there to block any escape from the air.
It is not over yet… Apparently, the trap that got her was wide enough to cover the whole palace, capturing all intruders and bringing them here, because Blade and Moon Knight also appeared not long after. Falling from two red vortexes that suddenly appeared in the air.
"Son of a… That guy really is stingy!" Moon Knight complains while standing up.
"Shut up with your bullshit. You are on the way." Blade says with some annoyance while looking around "Oh, it is you again. Also here?" He talks with Selene after noticing her.
"..." She simply nods, without elaborating.
Those three are not allies, so they will not share their true objectives with each other.
"Draculaaa!!! Pay!!!" Except Moon Knight, of course.
"Oh my, how uncouth." Suddenly, a female voice echoes in the wide space. It is mature, seductive, and with a heavy accent. "Guests used to behave more properly in my time~."
The trio of invaders turns to the source of the voice and watches while the rows of monsters make way for someone to step forward.
The woman looks extra delicate close to the army of werewolves, centaurs, minotaurs, and vampires… but she is undoubtedly the most dangerous one.
She is obviously a vampire; her pale complexion and presence give it away. Wearing a elaborated black dress with some red details, her lips are painted into a vibrant red, and her mascara is heavy. Her black hair is slicked back, falling on her back and exposing her pointed ears.
The whole attire looks like the stereotypical Victorian vampire noble lady.
"And who are you?" Moon Knight shouts
"Elizabeth Báthory…" Blade is the one who answers, but it's more like he is spitting the name from between his teeth.
"..." Selene just stays silent to get information
"Oh, Blade? Then I am not surprised by the lack of manners. A half-breed like you never learned how to properly carry yourself… I can't really blame you for that." She laughs in her hand, her tone and face are the textbook definition of mockery.
"Said the woman stuck in the 15th century." Blade scoffs "You are the backward savage here."
"Wait, is she rich? Friend of Dracula? Maybe she can pay his debt…"
"..."
"Heh~, being from the 15th century is just a proof of my longevity… Woe to you that is gonna be stuck on this year, Blade. Because you are gonna die tonight!" Elizabeth starts mocking before showing a fierce expression, pointing at him. "Attack!" She orders, and monsters from all sides move
"So, any of you has a good idea?" Blade whispers to the other two while preparing for the waves of attacks, the trio turning their backs to each other to defend from all directions
There must be thousands of monsters jumping them at the same time, they are bound to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers alone.
"Improvise!" Moon Knight suggests, while taking some crescent-shaped chakram from somewhere.
"I was thinking of something more substantial…" Blade deadpans "At this rate, we are not leaving this place in one piece, if we are leaving at all."
Selene finally speaks "There is always the nuclear option…" She reaches into her trench coat
"What?" The monsters are almost on them
"I don't want to and I shouldn't… but I just saw what they are doing to humans, so the conditions are met." Selene feels like she failed.
The instructions are just to investigate and do not escalate things, and look where she is… It is almost a war at this point. She should just try to run on her own… But Hector also told her that on the occasion where she finds irrefutable proof that vampires are abusing humans in large quantities…
She can just forget any previous instructions.
Selene presses the given device that reports exactly that… On the other continent, Eidolon understands the situation immediately and gets annoyed.
"They are here!" Blade shouts, raising his katanas to fight the horde circling them. There are so many that they can't see anything else but monsters.
And at that moment, Selene's shadow moves unnaturally.
BOOOM
It happened so fast that no one understood… but suddenly, the waves of monsters are thrown back by an invisible force, and they are sent flying in a multitude of directions. The trio feels like they are in the eye of a storm, peacefully standing in the center while chaos happens just in front of them.
A sigh can be heard behind them, and when they turn around, the trio of invaders can see Eidolon appearing from Selene's unnatural shadow.
He is still using Darth Vader's clothes, but only the pants are kept as the original. Every part of the armor is shrugged off, and the upper clothes hang loosely on his waist together with his waist cape.
His upper body is only covered by a tight sleeveless suit that goes up till it fuses with a mask that covers half of his face.
"Haah I didn't want to escalate things in a conflict so quickly, but it seems it's a pipe dream… Let's go with subjugation then." Eidolon cracks his fingers
"Sir… I'm sorry." Selene immediately ignores anything that is happening around her to bow her head to him.
"Hm? Meh, relax… Always expect the unexpected; we just need to roll with the changes." He laughs "I, at least, was not expecting this night to end peacefully, so I guess things are still inside my expectations."
......
Avengers Tower
Almost everyone at the party noticed Eidolon's disappearance.
"Where did he go?" Shego is the first to move to where Eidolon disappeared and immediately asks the people around.
"Something about killing Dracula." Clint replies with a nonchalant tone, like it's no big deal.
"That vampire thing? It escalated this fast?" She looks surprised
"What is this vampire thing?" Tony asks curiously
Shego rolls her eyes. "That guy simply does too much at the same time."
"What happened?" Harley asks after arriving
"That thing with vampires." Shego answers like it explained everything
"He's gone personally, something bad happened?" Helena asks while sucking her cocktail from a straw
"Maybe not. He is giving a lot of importance to this coexistence deal." Harley says
"I think that this derailed already, he says that he is going to: 'Kill Dracula'." Shego adds for clarification
"Oh…"
"Oh."
"Oh, indeed."
"What is this guy doing on the side?" Natasha asks curiously
"Like I said, 'too much'." Shego sighs before smirking "Why? Wanna see?"
"??"
"What if we spy on him?" Shego's smirk turns sly
Helena is already shaking her head while Harley's eyes sparkle
"Impossible…"
"Let's do it!"
"What are you two talking about?" Tony asks
"It is not impossible to see what he is doing now…"Shego stars explaining "We just need to ask Cortana…"
"And the plan ends." Helena says on the side while still slurping on her drink
"Who is Cortana?" Someone asks
"His A.I." Shego answers
"Is it okay to reveal that?" Helena asks
"He has an A.I.?" Tony looks surprised, but Shego ignores him and talks with her wrist to her inconspicuous watch.
"C'mon, Cortana. I know you can control some super small camera drones and spy on him for us."
" 'Spy' is not the right word; he is gonna notice it immediately, even if I use the microscopic drones." A female voice answers
"Is that the A.I.?" Tony approaches, very interested, grabbing Shego's wrist to check.
Thwack
But Shego hits his forehead lightly to make him back off.
"Then it would be basically asking permission…" Shego argues "If you don't want to be filmed, he will cut the connection."
"I guess so…"
"Yes! It will be another entertainment at the party… Who wants to see Eidolon in action??" She shouts while looking around, and everyone, of course, answers with shouts and raises their glasses.
"Whatever… If he gets angry, I will say that you used peer pressure." Cortana huffs
"Thank you." Shego replies sweetly
"She looks very alive." Tony comments
"Cortana is alive." She replies instantly, "Are you some kind of racist?"
"Of course not! I even have an A.I. friend." Tony immediately answers defensively
"Typical excuse of racists."
"I will be borrowing the holo projectors." Cortana starts saying from Shego's wrist, but in the middle of the phrase, her voice is coming from everywhere.
"What hell? Did she invade my system? Jarvis??" Tony looks not only surprised, but a little fearful and offended.
"I am sorry, sir. I couldn't stop her." Jarvis' british accents comes from the speakers
"Relax, I have no ill intent, but you really should upgrade your security." Cortana's voice comes from the speakers: "I will leave some points, Jarvis."
"Hey, my security system is super advanced." Tony says, but it looks like a child whining.
"I am sure it is, babe." Pepper even mocks him by talking in a patronizing way.
"Wanna bet how much that there is some sexy goth vampire lady where he is right now?" Shego turns to Helena
"I am not taking a losing bet." Helena scoffs
"I am talking about an enemy…" They know of the existence of Selene
"Even like this…"
"Then let's bet if she will try to seduce him."
"Hmm? That is more feasible… Maybe he will annoy her first." Helena looks convinced
"Then it is on!"
"What are you two doing?" She-Hulk asks
"Just an inside joke…" Helena says
"Every time that something happens and that guy goes somewhere, he ends up meeting some hot women." Shego is a little angry
"He is very lucky." Harley laughs
"You are not serious, right?" Janet shakes her head
"Wanna bet with me?" She extends her hand "If there is a hot woman that try to seduce him, I win."
"Okay, the chances are so small. What are we betting?" Janet takes the offer
"I don't know…a billion dollars." That is how much Shego is confident in Hector's bullshit luck with women.
"Whoa, calm down!" Janet raises her hands and backs down
"Scared now?" Shego smirks
"I just don't bet what I don't have."
"Then the one that loses will have to do an embarrassing dance later." Harley suggests
"Fine… I am not gonna lose either." Shego shrugs
"That is okay." Janet agrees
"Then it is settled. The winner decides the dance."
"There is a stage on the top floor, where the bet can be paid." Pepper suggests, find the whole thing a little amusing.
"Great, maximum embarrassment!" Shego laughs
Finally, a big holo-screen appears in front of them.
"It is starting! Shhh!" Everyone settles like theta re watching a movie.
The screen starts all black, but then it zooms out, and it is possible to see that a floating camera is moving around Eidolon's back to show his face.
"...some training later. You are not Shadow, but there is still untapped potential. The potential to deal with this whole castle alone…" They can hear Eidolon's voice talking with someone.
"That thing even has a microphone? Pretty advanced…" Someone says
It is like they are watching from an insect point of view, looking over his shoulder, they can see that they're in some sort of giant room, there are some fallen people and monsters, and a woman in a black trench coat, wearing a black mask in front of him.
"This one doesn't count… That is from our group." Helena whispers to the people around
"From the SCP? Who is she?" Natasha asks
"Never met, only know that she exists."
"We compartmentalize."
The screen floats enough so that they could finally see the side of Eidolon's face, and he suddenly stops talking…
"Uh-oh…" Helena says unworried
"Busted." Harley chuckles
"You don't know that…" Shego starts saying. "!!!" But when Eidolon's pupils move to stare directly at them, everyone receives a jumpscare.
"What are you thinking you're doing?" Eidolon frowns; the people feel like he is talking directly with them, like a father scolding them after doing something wrong.
"Ahem Just checking to see if you are alright…" Shego answers in a fake worried tone.
The way he looks at her shows that he knows that it's bullshit."
"Wait, he can see us?" Natasha finally noticed that this was a two-way exchange
"Yes." It is Eidolon that answers her. "Surprised? And before you ask, yes, I always noticed when you all watched me by a satellite."
"...Fury gonna love knowing this." Natasha laughs after her surprise wears off.
"Okay, this is important business, I am gonna cut off-"
"Wait!" Shego stops him "Why don't you let us see you being a hero? Transparency and all that…"
"..." Eidolon looks at her with half-lidded eyes. "You make a good point, but-"
Suddenly, while he was talking, Eidolon was attacked. But it was not a normal attack…
You see, when he appeared, every single monster in this place instinctively understood how dangerous he is. Vampires act superior and sophisticated, but in a paradoxical way, they are much more animalistic than the average human.
So they still have a strong intuition capable of measuring the periculosity of someone.
And Eidolon is very dangerous…
Even the arrogant Elizabeth Báthory noticed that and didn't dare to speak while the hero casually talked with Selene and then with Shego.
But now he looked distracted, and she decided to take a bet… She lunged at him, using the maximum of her super-speed, grabbed his face, and pulled him into a kiss.
Elizabeth Báthory hopes that she can ensnare and charm him before he turns his sights on her.
Boom
She obviously failed and was sent flying by him when her lips were just a centimeter away from his mask.
"Ah! Ah! There! See?? Replay, Cortana!" Shego points at the screen "I won!"
"Okay, I changed my mind. I will show you guys how to terrify some monsters." His annoyance changed targets to his enemies because Elizabeth Báthory had just tried to sexually assault him. "That will be a lesson… stay tuned."
......
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