Hydra's Blood
The British called it the "Flower of the Orient." With it's fragrant harbor and exotic culture, the name is most apt for Hong Kong.
But times and cities change. While still a jewel in Asia's crown, Hong Kong has become like many other cities around the world. Crime, pollution, and all the other things that can make cities dark and horrible have reared their heads. But the average citizen of Hong Kong has no idea just how dark and horrible some of the things that inhabit its streets can be.
In the city's warehouse district the purr of a sleek motorcycle could just be heard. The bike was a high-performance machine designed to make as little noise as possible. It's rider was also a high-performance machine. Born to kill as swiftly as possible. His name was Blade.
Blade stopped his bike and stashed it behind some crates. He made a final check of his weapons, and then began to creep silently toward the warehouse that was his target. Two guards stood chatting outside the main door. Blade's senses, far sharper than any normal human's, prickled at their presence. They were not human so he would feel no guilt over their deaths.
The two were still talking as two streaks of silver flew though the air and impelled them in their hearts. But the two did not fall dead like a normal man would have. Instead they managed a short gasp before they turned to dust. Blade came forward from his hiding place and retrieved his weapons. He would need all of them before he was done.
The hunter then made his way inside the warehouse, his senses on full alert. He surprised the first one as she came around a corner. The woman didn't even had time to scream before one of the silver weapons found her heart. Within seconds there was nothing left of her or her green and yellow uniform.
Soon Blade found what he had been searching for. A hatchway leading under the warehouse. There, he knew, the one he searched for was waiting. All he had to do was remove the three green and yellow clad men guarding the entrance.
The first one fell to one of his silver weapons. The other two, however, had quicker reflexes and dodged. They came at him with a speed than would have blindsided a normal man. But Blade was not a normal man. The first was hit with a kick to the stomach even as the hunter pulled his sword from the scabbard on his back. The second had no time to react before the sword sliced though his torso, cleaving him in half. The first by then had regained himself and charged. He only made it four steps before a whirling boomerang-like object sailed though the air and separated his head from his body.
Blade grinned. But it was short lived as he felt himself grabbed from behind. He whirled and tossed his attacker from his back. Instantly, four others jumped upon him. Cursing his carelessness the hunter struggled against his adversaries' inhuman strength. With a burst of his own unnatural power, Blade threw his attackers off him and then sliced his sword, terminating two of them.
One of those that remained pulled a gun and aimed at the hunter. Before he could pull the trigger one of the silver weapons impaled itself in the barrel, making it useless. The man barely had time to register a face of surprise before the deadly boomerang tore though his throat.
The last two had banded together and had gotten weapons from somewhere. One carried a pair of truncheon sticks while the other wielded a wooden staff. The one with the staff charged first but Blade was ready for him. He grabbed the green and yellow clad man's staff and pulled it up and out of his hands while giving the attacker a kick that sent him reeling into his cohort. The two were on their feet in seconds and charged him. Like lighting, Blade broke the staff over his knee and jabbed the two in their hearts with the sharp wooded ends. Like those before them they turned to dust.
The hunter took a moment to dust himself off before heading to the hatch. He climbed down the ladder and was not surprized to find himself in a corridor of a high-tech base. Blade frowned. This base and the presence of those he had fought above confirmed what he had feared.
But he had no time to worry because two more green and yellow figures had turned a corner and found themselves confronted with the hunter. "Intruder! We've been breached! Call for--" shouted the first before a silver weapon tore though his chest.
The second did not waste time morning her comrade. Instead she ran while screaming into a comm badge, "This is Technician Seventeen! We have an intruder in section beta four! I think it's--" Technician seventeen did not live to finish her sentence.
Again the Blade cursed himself. All ready he could hear the thunder of the guard's boots as they closed in. He pulled his sword and prepared himself. "If it's a fight these monsters want, then it's a fight they'll get!" he thought to himself.
The door to the base's command center rolled open and the hunter stepped inside. His clothing, combat boots, black pants, black bullet proof vest, and black jacket had taken a beating just as he had.
Except for Blade the only other being in the room was a man clad in the same green and yellow uniform as all the others in the base. "Thackery, at last I've found you!" snarled the hunter.
The one called Thackery turned from the view screen he had been watching and smiled at the hunter. "Yes, you have found me haven't you?" teased the man as he removed his yellow and green mask. "I thought I'd given you the slip in Istanbul."
"I will hunt you and your cursed kind until your blight has been wiped from the earth!" countered Blade as he pulled his sword and stepped toward Thackery.
"Yes, yes, so you've said before," sighed Thackery in a barely noticeable British accent. "Still, I must complement you and the way you killed all of my people. It's a shame to loose so many, but there are always more where they came from. Anyway, watching you in action, in the old days we would have called that a 'jolly good show.' But I would expect nothing less from you. From the Daywalker. From the one called
Blade."
"Show's over," said Blade as he advanced.
"Oh, my dear Blade," sighed Thackery. "You're forgetting the best part! Don't you want to know the master plan? To know why my vampire cohorts and I have spent years infiltrating the ranks of HYDRA?"
"You're telling me your plan like some B-movie villain just because you think I will be unable to stop you. You're truly mad, Thackery."
"A strong possibility, my boy. It's very simple, actually. The reason Baron Strucker and his fellow HYDRA fools have never taken over the world is simple. Ego."
"Ego?" spat the vampire hunter. "You are not exactly unfamiliar with the concept yourself."
"Very drool, Blade," retorted the vampire. "Yes, ego. Strucker and his kind don't know how to keep their heads down. We vampires, however, have learned to be very good about keeping a low profiles. HYDRA, A.I.M, and their lot insist on picking fights with Captain American, his Avenger friends, and all manner of other Marvels. They want to flaunt their power and victories to show how great they think they are."
"Unlike you," mocked Blade. As much as he wanted to destroy the undead Englishmen he had to hold back. If a vampire plot threatened the world he might be the only one who could stop it.
"Yes, unlike me!" blasted Thackery. "I do this not for myself but for vampire kind! With the resources of HYDRA under our control we will shatter mortal civilization! Then the undead will take their place as the rightful rules of mankind!"
"Let me guess, this is the part where you ask me to embrace my heritage and join you, right?" asked the vampire hunter.
"No, Blade, this is the part were I kill you and make cocktails from your blood," the vampire said as he hurled himself at his opponent.
Blade sliced his sword but the vampire ducked and sprang forward, knocking the vampire hunter to the floor and his sword from his hand. Pinned to the floor, Blade used his right hand to hold Thackery's fangs from his throat while he searched his bandoleers for a weapon. He knew his boomerang was gone but he was sure he had one stake left. He was sure of it.
"What's the matter, dear boy? Lost all your toys? Let Uncle Thackery kiss it and make it all better!" cackled the bloodsucker.
"Kiss this!" replied Blade as he produced the only weapon he had been able to find. Thackery screamed as the light from the vampire hunter's ultraviolet flashlight seared his face.
In horrible pain the undead man leapt from his would be victim, his face burned and smoking. "You'll pay for that, mortal!"
"Let me write you a check!" snarled Blade as he nailed Thackery with a powerful flying kick. The vampire flew across the room and crashed into a large bank of computers. Instantly millions of volts of electricity began to coarse thought the monster's body as it screamed. Seconds later a explosion sent the villain flying to the center of the room.
Blade retrieved his sword and approached the vampire warily. "Out cold," he assessed after a few moments.
It was then that the large view screen which dominated the room flared to life drawing Blade's attention. "Come in Base 27. Come in Base 27. We have received your distress call," growled a voice with a strong German accent.
Blade studied the man whose image filled the screen. It was that of an older bald man who wore a monocle and a crisp green military uniform. "Thackery, what the devil is going on?!" The man stopped when he caught site of Blade. "Who are you?! What have you done to my men and my base?!" he demanded.
"I am Blade. You must be Baron Strucker. I have destroyed your men because they were Children of the Night. Servants of Darkness. The Undead. Vampires."
"Vampires?! What kind of madness is this?! You will--" began Strucker.
"It's this kind of madness!" growled Blade as he hauled Thackery up by his hair and plunged his last silver stake into the vampire's heart. Thackery gave one final terrifying scream before he turned to dust.
"Dear god!" gasped Strucker.
"Face it, 'Baron', you have a vampire problem," smiled Blade. "I suggest you do something about it. Or I will."
"You cannot threaten me! I am--" Strucker's words were cut off as Blade hurled the silver stake into the glass of the view screen.
"Thackery was right. Ego," concluded the vampire hunter as he left.
That night the Hong Kong Fire Department spent almost four hours trying to put out a fire at a waterfront warehouse. The investigation into the fire, and the base found under the warehouse, would take much longer.
But by then the man who had set the fire was long gone. There had been reports of vampire-like killings in Cape Town, South Africa, that needed to be dealt with. And there was only one man on earth who could deal with such carnage. His name was Blade.
The End