"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Light exploded from Dracula's eyes, ears, and mouth.
Cracks spread across his skin as molten-red radiance burst through his body, glowing with temperatures so extre the surrounding air warped around him.
He stared at his own hands in disbelief as his body rapidly mutated into the monstrous form from ancient legends.
But even after transforming, the virus inside him kept spreading.
It didn't slow down.
It didn't stop.
"Blade!"
Dracula realized instantly that he was dying.
And before death took him, he intended to drag Blade down with him.
Blade himself looked stunned.
He glanced from the pistol in his hand back to the screaming vampire lord.
That stuff actually worked?
What the hell had Drex put inside those rounds?
Holy water blessed by the Pope himself?
Blade had spent most of his life testing every anti-vampire myth humanity had ever invented.
Silver.
Garlic.
Holy relics.
Even high-ranking church sanctified water.
Most vampires either ignored it entirely or complained that it slled awful.
But this?
This was different.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Seeing Dracula trying to charge him despite his collapsing body, Blade fired several more shots.
Dracula's pupils contracted.
Normally, bullets at this speed ant nothing to him.
But now his body was failing so catastrophically he couldn't evade properly.
One round pierced his heart.
Another tore through his skull.
"Blaaaade!!"
Dracula roared in fury.
Then his body began lting.
Not taphorically.
Actually lting.
His flesh liquefied into blazing molten matter, and the stone floor around him started softening under the sheer heat pouring out of his body.
The Extremis Virus and the vampire pathogen were annihilating each other inside him like two biological species locked in mutual extermination.
The only reason Dracula had survived this long at all was because his vampiric physiology was absurdly powerful.
Blade watched silently as Dracula finally collapsed into a burning pool fused with the surrounding rock.
He waited several more seconds.
Just to make sure the bastard wasn't getting back up.
After that, Blade carefully holstered the remaining ammunition.
Sothing this effective against vampires needed to be preserved.
Who knew when he might need it again against another monster?
A vampire king.
Cain.
Lilith.
Whatever nightmare crawled out next.
As agreed, Blade delivered the Daystar Virus to Drex Valen.
Drex never asked what happened to the remaining Extremis rounds.
Blade wasn't stupid enough to waste them recklessly.
At most, he'd probably let Whistler examine one.
And honestly?
Drex wasn't worried about an old weapons engineer reverse-engineering Extremis technology.
Even if sothing sohow went catastrophically wrong...
Well.
The Ancient One still existed.
The Ancient One: "..."
Just as Drex prepared to begin researching the Daystar Virus, the Black Queen interrupted him with urgent news.
His Hulk serum project might be gone.
That got his attention imdiately.
Drex still valued the Hulk serum enormously.
Then the Black Queen explained the situation.
The problem stemd from the Dark Knight Armor.
More specifically...
Mass production.
By modern military standards, war machines like Drex's armor systems were priceless.
On the battlefield, they possessed both tactical and strategic dominance.
Assassination strikes.
Rapid-response deploynt.
Overwhelming firepower.
But their greatest strength wasn't speed, armor, or weapons.
It was scalability.
Unlike Captain Arica's serum or the Hulk program, the Dark Knight Armor could be manufactured repeatedly.
That difference changed everything.
Super soldier programs had all collapsed into singular, irreproducible accidents.
Drex's technology could create armies.
And because of that, General Thunderbolt Ross' Hulk project finally lost all political support.
Every year, Ross burned through absurd military budgets trying to capture the Hulk.
Every year, he failed.
At one point, he had even authorized the deploynt of a tactical nuclear warhead against the Hulk.
The Hulk survived.
The aftermath beca a political catastrophe.
Ross' division consud money, created disasters, and generated endless casualty compensation payouts for dead soldiers.
Congress was furious.
The military was furious.
So once the first hundred Dark Knight war machines entered active production discussions, Ross' entire departnt was dismantled.
Ross had once dread of becoming a full Air Force General through the Hulk program.
Instead, he was demoted from Lieutenant General all the way down to Lieutenant Colonel.
And even that outco only happened because both his family and his wife's family intervened politically on his behalf.
Otherwise?
Military prison.
Possibly for life.
Now Ross had been reassigned to a miserable little "Air Force base" that possessed exactly one transport helicopter.
These days, he spent most nights drinking himself unconscious.
He knew his career was over.
No recovery.
No redemption.
No second chance.
"One rye whiskey."
The voice ca from beside him at the bar.
Ross ignored it.
At this point, there wasn't much left in his life worth acknowledging.
"General Ross," the man continued. "Actually... I guess it's Colonel Ross now."
Ross turned slowly.
Even through the alcohol haze, he recognized Drex Valen instantly.
The genius who had indirectly destroyed his entire future.
Ross stood up unsteadily and tried to leave.
Drex simply caught him before he stumbled.
"You want to change your fate, Colonel?"
Drex smiled slightly.
"Get the hell off ," Ross growled.
Drex didn't react.
Instead, he calmly asked:
"What if I said I could turn you into the Hulk?"
Ross stopped moving.
"I can make you into a Hulk that keeps his intelligence," Drex continued. "Interested?"
It was ti for the Red Hulk project to appear early.
Honestly, Drex doubted there was much practical difference between a Red Hulk serum and a standard Hulk serum anyway.
Ross still didn't answer.
He shoved open the bar door and left without looking back.
Drex watched him go without concern.
n like Thunderbolt Ross never accepted defeat permanently.
Not really.
Ross would spend the next several days exhausting every remaining connection and favor he possessed.
And when every single door closed in his face...
He would co back.
Besides, with the Black Queen erasing traces and Drex using both telepathy and electromagnetic interference, S.H.I.E.L.D. never detected their eting.
Otherwise, they absolutely would've intervened.
Exactly as predicted, Ross spent the following days desperately contacting old military allies, political figures, family connections, anyone who might help restore his career.
Nothing worked.
His reputation was toxic now.
Congress and the military had already chosen him as the official scapegoat for the Hulk program's failures.
No one intended to give him another opportunity.
After several days of complete failure, Ross finally accepted reality.
To his credit, he acted decisively once he made up his mind.
A soldier's ntality.
No hesitation once the target beca clear.
So he personally ca to find Drex.
Ross understood sothing important.
Showing up voluntarily now was completely different from forcing Drex to chase him later.
Because if Drex lost patience...
The opportunity might disappear forever.
And no matter how much Ross disliked Drex Valen personally, he trusted one thing absolutely.
If Drex said he could create a Hulk...
Then he could create a Hulk.
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