The day had long since broken, but the heavy rain continued to pour, leaving the sky a hazy gray and the abandoned shipyard shrouded in gloom.
Batarangs and spiral silver shuriken lay scattered in the mud. Blade's straight-edged longsword was driven vertically into the ground, right next to a broken wing torn from Batman's Vulcan armor.
The shipyard's drainage system had been destroyed two months prior when Batman dealt with the Squid, causing the rainwater that had been falling since last night to pool deep enough to submerge a grown man's ankles.
In the midst of the standing water, two figures who had been locked in high-intensity, hand-to-hand combat since the previous night now lay on the ground.
One of Batman's wings was snapped off, while the other hung lopsidedly at his side. The plating of his Vulcan suit was covered in a network of fine cracks, and the sharp, pointed ears of his cowl had been sheared flat.
Blade's leather duster had been reduced to a tattered mess of threads, and his form-fitting tactical armor was as riddled with fractures as a piece of shattering porcelain. His sunglasses were long gone, and nearly every weapon on his person had been exhausted.
The two men lay less than half a meter apart, staring flat on their backs into the rainy sky.
"You're not a vampire," Blade said, looking up at the low-hanging black clouds. As he spoke, huge droplets of rain splashed into his mouth. "You had at least four chances to try and slit my throat or crush my skull with your fists, but you didn't."
"..." Batman remained silent.
During the prolonged battle, Blade had also had several opportunities to force an opening by trading injury for injury—using his silver stakes or his garlic-coated blade to pierce Batman's body by brute force.
Blade hadn't done it either. He had realized nearly halfway through the fight that Batman wasn't a vampire. The silver weapons, crosses, and garlic that were lethal to the undead had absolutely no effect on him.
Driven by the competitive spirit of meeting a worthy opponent, however, Blade hadn't chosen to stop. Instead, he had unleashed every martial art and killing technique he had mastered over a lifetime to test himself against Batman.
The fight had lasted for hours, dragging on until the sun had risen.
"Are you a vampire hunter?" Batman asked, his voice raspy.
"Yeah," Blade replied. "You didn't know there were vampires in this world? They look just like people, but they aren't human."
Batman watched the raindrops fall from the sky. He thought of Professor Morbius.
Contrary to Blade's description, Professor Morbius didn't look human at all, yet his heart still possessed humanity.
"Tell me about them," Batman said.
The two men, who had spent most of the night trying to kill each other, now lay in the mud like old friends. Blade thought for a moment and began sharing what he knew about the various types of vampires:
"Like in the stories, sunlight burns their skin. That's why they prefer to move at night, or on overcast days like today."
"Most of the time, they disguise themselves as humans. They usually work in nightclubs or bars, and because of the nature of their business, they're often tied up with the mob."
"Silver weapons are the best way to handle them. Garlic and crosses come second. As for sunlight... artificial UV light doesn't work on them; I've tried it countless times."
Batman asked, "How do you tell them apart?"
"You can't. You have to rely on your gut and the experience gathered from years of fighting them," Blade said, his lips curling into a dry smirk. "It's why I can kill them in seconds with silver, but it's also why I'm always at risk of getting blindsided by one."
"And then there's you—wrapped so tightly in that armor that I couldn't tell what you were for the life of me. I figured the only way to be sure was to have a real go at you."
Batman was silent for a few seconds. "Your weapons and equipment need an upgrade."
Blade lifted his arm, looking at the exposed armor beneath his shredded duster. The cracks were wide enough to fit a child's pinky finger.
"That's exactly what's giving me a headache. A perfect set of Kevlar plating doesn't come cheap."
"I just happen to have a lot of money," Batman said.
"You're joking, right?" Blade turned his head, looking at Batman's masked face.
Batman looked back at him. Without the sunglasses, Blade's face looked almost refined—like a sophisticated professor you might find at a university. It was a far cry from the lethal, aggressive fighting style he possessed.
"In three days, come here to collect your new weapons and armor," Batman said, his voice devoid of any trace of a joke.
Blade stared at the white, glowing lenses of Batman's mask, as if trying to see the face underneath. "S.H.I.E.L.D. contacted me a while back. They wanted me to take you down."
"Are you a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent? What rank?" Batman asked.
"I don't belong to S.H.I.E.L.D., I just have a working relationship with them," Blade said, shaking his head slightly. "What about you? S.H.I.E.L.D. said you might be a Hydra vampire. I've ruled out the latter, but I'm not sure about the former."
Seeing Batman didn't respond, Blade spoke again: "You don't fight like Hydra, but I need to hear it from you."
"I'm not," Batman said.
Blade seemed to relax. He watched as Batman used his elbows to push himself up from the ground. Batman waded through the ankle-deep water, his footsteps heavy as he walked toward the depths of the abandoned shipyard.
The Batmobile was parked there. It had been crouching silently since last night, like a sleeping beast.
Vroom!
The moment Batman ignited the engine, the beast woke from its slumber. With a roar, it sped out of the shipyard.
"He can't fly, yet he built himself a pair of wings. He doesn't even use the wings to move; he drives a Batmobile instead." Blade sat on the ground, shaking his head as he watched the red taillights of the Batmobile vanish into the curtain of rain.
The heavy rain meant there were very few pedestrians on the streets of Manhattan. The Batmobile tore through the city until it reached a secluded spot without surveillance. It plunged into the sewers, heading toward a secret production line owned by Parker Industries.
Half an hour later, Batman stood inside a workshop specifically designed for suit fabrication.
The place was deserted. Not even Alice, the CEO of Parker Industries, knew this production line existed.
As the machines hummed to life one by one, a brand-new Spider-Man suit slowly began to take shape under Batman's watchful eye.
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