Malphegor
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MCIM Ch. 25
🕑 Added 2025-09-19 23:34:43 +0000 UTCMario's underground base.
Three guys and one fat bat sat on the couch. Mario pulled out two bottles of Coke and set them on the coffee table in front of Blade and Coulson.
"Don't have anything fancier, so we're keeping it simple."
Neither man was in the mood for drinks. They were too busy staring around the spacious underground chamber, taking in all the weird decorations. The whole setup was blowing their minds.
Coulson looked amazed as he spoke. "Your abilities are incredible. According to my intel, you've only been in New York for four or five days, and you've already carved out this entire space under Central Park."
Mario glanced around at his underground base without saying anything, which was basically admitting Coulson was right. He grabbed his drink, twisted off the cap, and chugged half the bottle in one go.
Burp.
"Coulson, keep an eye out for those things I mentioned."
"Here's your down payment."
Thunk.
He tossed a gold ingot onto the table.
Coulson's eye twitched as he stared at the chunk of solid gold.
This job is going to give me gray hair.
Blade looked at the gold ingot with envy. The guy was broke, poorer than Spider-Man. He survived by hoping vampires would drop watches or jewelry when he killed them, but most of the time their belongings just burned to ash along with their bodies.
Coulson nodded, but said aloud, "I can help you gather intel, but I don't need money. How about paying me with information instead?"
His instincts told him that Mario knew a lot of important shit that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't.
Mario set his Coke bottle back on the table with a sharp clink. He leaned back into the couch and reached for his cigarettes, only to find his pack was empty. Frowning, he tossed the crumpled package into a trash can.
Seeing this, Coulson smiled and pulled an unopened pack of cigarettes from his jacket. He cracked it open and offered it to Mario along with a nice lighter.
"Been carrying these around for two days, waiting for the right moment."
Mario's eyes lit up as he accepted the smokes and the fancy zippo. He was a simple guy at heart, and he loved little status symbols that made him look cool.
After lighting up and taking a drag, he said, "I know what you want to know, buddy. But you're not ready to hear it yet."
Coulson smiled. "Knowing early is better than knowing late, right?"
Mario nodded. He had to admit that was true. But he needed to wait, at least until Captain America was back in action. When the information came out, it would carry more weight. Cap still had serious respect in America.
"No rush. Take it easy. I definitely know some stuff. But your offer isn't high enough. Course, if you consider me a friend, I'd advise you to quit S.H.I.E.L.D. and join my Hunter Association."
He gave him a look that clearly said 'you'd be getting in on the ground floor,' and continued, "If the Hunter Association takes off, you'd be a founding member. That's gotta be worth something."
Coulson felt like someone with a stable government job being told to quit and start picking up trash for a living. Sure, he suspected Mario's organization might not turn out bad, but compared to S.H.I.E.L.D., a global powerhouse, the gap was enormous.
"Right now the important thing is figuring out how to deal with the vampires."
Mario glanced at the fat bat sitting on the couch next to him. "We don't need too many people at first. Ten or so would be enough."
"First, we wipe out all the vampires in New York. If bloodsuckers from other cities try to move in on our territory, we cut their fucking heads off."
Blade nodded in agreement with Mario's plan. The vampires in New York were basically headless chickens now, lots of them around, but no real leadership or organization.
The two men spent the next hour hammering out details while Coulson sat quietly on the sidelines, watching the show.
When their intense planning session finally ended, judging by how much Blade had been nodding, Mario had clearly won him over and changed some of his thinking.
Mario rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Blade, can you find us a suitable base of operations? Doesn't matter if it's obvious or not."
"Leave it to me."
Blade flashed his teeth in what might have been a smile or a threat. Through his discussion with Mario, he'd finally seen hope for completely wiping out the vampire threat. He'd also gotten a good look at Mario's ridiculous wealth, the guy looked ready to literally bury vampires in money if that's what it took.
Being rich must be nice.
That was his most honest thought of the night.
When Coulson saw their discussion wrapping up, he stood and expressed his desire to leave. "I should head back. Unlike you two, I'm not running on pure adrenaline. According to our timeline, Rogers should wake up tomorrow, and I want to be there when it happens."
They all left Mario's underground mansion. After seeing Coulson off, Mario and Blade began their nightly hunting operation.
Driving the truck straight toward Frost's old building, a man dressed like a homeless drifter by the roadside caught Mario's attention. Even standing in the shadows, he couldn't hide the golden outline surrounding him.
"Stop the truck. There's a vampire by the road."
Screech.
The truck came to a sudden halt.
Pearl, in bat form, had nothing to grab onto. With a smack, his entire body splattered against the windshield like a pancake.
Mario grabbed Pearl and chucked him out the window.
"Go get him!"
Still dizzy from the impact, Pearl hadn't even figured out which way was up before Mario hurled him straight at the roadside vampire.
Boom.
He slammed into the bloodsucker, leaving both of them stunned and seeing stars.
Pearl was the first to snap out of it. Having never been in a fight before, panic gripped him. He flapped his wings, desperate to get away from the vampire.
That's when the vampire finally reacted, snatching one of Pearl's wings in a grip.
"A bat?"
Then his gaze shifted to the truck, locking eyes with Mario's half-amused expression.
"Pearl, cancel the transformation!"
Following Mario's command like a faithful Golbat, Pearl finally came to his senses and dropped out of bat form.
"Ahhhhh..."
A muffled, agonized scream echoed from beneath his massive bulk. Even with a vampire's enhanced physique, being crushed under several hundred pounds of fat left the bloodsucker completely immobilized.
"Drain him!"
Blood-red light flared from Pearl's hands. The vampire's screams grew weaker and weaker. Unlike when Pearl had practiced on Mario, this time it was for real, blood was being ripped directly from the vampire's body, flowing into his palms.
Mario climbed down from the truck and handed Pearl several glass bottles. "Store the blood in these."
When the vampire's blood was completely drained, his body didn't burn away like usual. Instead, he crumbled like old stone, breaking apart into dust and powder.
"Not bad for your first time."
Praised for his debut performance, Pearl vibrated with excitement. His eyes gleamed with bloodthirsty hunger, he was already itching to find another vampire to test himself on.
Shifting back into bat form, he suddenly spotted items on the ground, [Vampire Fang] and [Vampire Blood] floating there like video game loot drops. Flapping his wings eagerly, he swooped down to collect them.
"There's weird stuff on the ground under me!"
Mario stretched out his hand and accepted the items Pearl brought over.
I didn't expect Pearl to actually see the drops.
Normally, only he could see the loot that monsters dropped. Unless he picked it up and pulled it from his inventory, others couldn't see it at all. This was a game-changing development.
THUD.
The earth seemed to tremble slightly under the impact.
"Hahaha!"
Pearl's crazed laughter echoed through the lobby of Frost's old building.
Mario and Blade exchanged glances.
"I think this guy's lost his damn mind."
"Yeah, I'm getting the same vibe." Mario nodded, agreeing with Blade's assessment. Ever since Pearl had killed his first vampire, he'd been trapped in a disturbingly euphoric state of bloodlust.
Blood-red light glowed from Pearl's hands as he drained another vampire dry. The process didn't take long, within seconds, the bloodsucker beneath him stopped moving entirely.
"That's what you get for calling me fat!"
He transformed back into a bat, flapping his wings as he took to the air. A group of vampires wielding various weapons rushed out of the elevator. Mario pulled out his shield and crossbow while Blade drew the silver sword from his back.
Seeing his opportunity, Pearl flew directly above the vampires and dropped his transformation.
Several hundred pounds of fat came crashing down from the ceiling, giving the vampires zero time to react. Three of them were flattened instantly, while the rest were left dazed and disoriented from the impact.
"Pearl?!"
"Damn it, Pearl, you fat piece of shit, what the hell are you doing?"
Apparently, the vampire community in New York was small enough that many of them recognized Pearl. His massive body was pretty hard to forget.
At the words "fat piece of shit," Pearl's face immediately darkened. Hatred burned in his eyes as he glared at the vampire who'd insulted him.
"Vick, what am I doing? I'm going to slaughter you!"
He activated his blood drain ability. Crimson liquid burst out of Vick's body and flowed into Pearl's own. Terrified, Vick let out a panicked scream.
"Fuck this, kill him!"
Vick was the first to raise his gun, pulling the trigger. With Pearl's massive target, aiming wasn't even necessary, you'd have to try to miss.
Bang bang bang.
A string of bullets hit Pearl's body, but he didn't even flinch. That was the beauty of playing a tank build, especially a life-draining tank.
The moment gunfire erupted, a crossbow bolt whistled through the air, striking one vampire. Along with it came Mario's voice, "He wants to slaughter you, why can't you just behave and let him?"
The other vampires looked at him like he was insane.
Easy for you to say, you're not the one getting slaughtered.
Another bolt flew out, dropping another vampire. Their return fire was completely blocked by Mario's wooden shield.
Then a shadow streaked in from the side. A silver blade carved through the group of bloodsuckers. After just a few flashes, four or five vampires had already fallen to Blade's sword.
The remaining vampires caught sight of the legendary hunter and reacted like they'd seen the Grim Reaper himself.
"It's Blade!"
"Run for your fucking lives!"
Ever since Blade had killed Frost, his reputation among New York's vampire population had reached mythical status. His photo could probably be sold to regular people as a good luck charm.
"Blade, you're kill-stealing again. If I'd known, I wouldn't have bothered coming with you."
Mario sighed and put away his weapons, bending down to collect the vampire fangs that had dropped from the corpses.
Glancing at the fleeing vampires, he sprinted ahead of the one called Vick and started smacking him, using Minecraft's knockback mechanics to repeatedly slap the vampire back toward Pearl, completely ignoring the psychological trauma such treatment might cause.
A silver streak of light shot toward the other fleeing bloodsuckers. Defying all laws of physics, the weapon cut down every vampire it touched before somehow flying back to Blade's hand like a boomerang.
Of the dozen-plus vampires, only four remained now. Mario felt frustrated. Blade was the bane of vampire existence, he basically one-shotted everything, leaving Mario no chance to get finishing blows unless they coordinated beforehand.
"Pearl, how you holding up?"
Seeing Vick brought back within reach, Pearl's face lit up. "I'm great, never felt better!"
"Good. These last few are all yours."
Mario kicked Vick to the ground in front of Pearl. Without hesitation, Pearl unleashed his blood drain ability once again.
Under the power of his vampiric skill, the bullets lodged in his body were slowly forced out, clattering to the floor.
Mario ignored Pearl's feeding frenzy and walked over to Blade. "We cooperated pretty well last time, didn't we?"
Blade smoothly sheathed his sword, glanced at Pearl, and said, "I was worried the guy I finally brought you would just die on his first mission."
After a pause, he added, "Looks like I was wrong to worry."
"Didn't know you cared about him so much."
Mario chuckled and walked toward the elevator, planning to clear out any vampires hiding on the upper floors.
Blade's voice drifted from behind him: "I just didn't want to waste half my night for nothing..."
Inside the elevator, Mario used his enhanced senses to detect the surviving vampires throughout the building. He silently pressed the button for the third floor and called back to Pearl at the entrance.
"Stay down here and hold the lobby, try not to get yourself killed!"
The elevator doors slowly closed. He raised his shield in preparation. Through the metal doors, he could already sense several vampires lined up and waiting to give him a proper welcome.
---
S.H.I.E.L.D. Special Recovery Center.
Even though it was well past midnight, the halls of the facility were anything but quiet. In a specialized medical chamber, various technicians moved around monitoring equipment.
Coulson stood before a massive reinforced glass wall, staring at a man lying within a specialized containment pod.
"Phil, how's he looking?"
At the sound of the familiar voice, he turned. It was Nick Fury himself, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s current director. His distinctive bald head gleamed under the lights, and the black eyepatch covering his left eye gave him the look of a modern pirate. He walked up to the observation window and gazed at the figure inside.
Captain America. The living legend.
"Director Fury."
"Steve Rogers' recovery is progressing well. Based on his current vitals and brain activity, he should wake up within the next two days."
Fury nodded, then turned to fix Coulson with his penetrating stare. "You went out tonight to make contact with that enhanced individual again, didn't you?"
"What's your assessment?"
Coulson nodded slightly, speaking with absolute seriousness. "Extremely mysterious. He possesses remarkable abilities, and I get the sense that he knows far more than we do about what's really going on. His true power level is impossible to accurately measure."
Fury absorbed this information. After a long moment, he said, "Write me a report. I want every detail."
Then his gaze returned to Captain America, and in his mind, the idea of assembling a special response team grew stronger and more urgent.
