Chapter 211: Vampires

Once through the Boom Tube, Peter found himself driving along a sun-drenched coastal road.

The sound of waves crashing against the rocks filled the warm, salt-tinged air. He handed his phone to Karen, letting her pick a track from his futuristic music library as they drove deeper into Cuba.

They spent the afternoon at a sprawling open-air car exhibition in Havana, admiring classic American muscle and heavily modified street machines.

The peaceful outing was briefly interrupted when Peter intervened to help a young Cuban mechanic who was being extorted by a local loan shark. Refusing to let the kid lose his livelihood, Peter challenged the thug to a high-stakes street race.

Relying on his superhuman reflexes and a dangerously rigged engine, Peter narrowly won the chaotic race. He tossed the keys of his own pristine Impala to the stunned mechanic to replace his wrecked car, leaving the crowd in awe.

After enjoying the rest of the island and materializing a red-and-black Bugatti for Karen to drive, they teleported back to the cave.

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They teleported back to the cave laughing, but the laughter died the instant the emergency alarm began wailing.

Peter walked to the Spider-Computer and found that it was not an emergency.....it was a priority call from Dan, requesting his presence at the station for something classified as extremely important.

"Are you taking the Boom Tube, or are you going to try the new vehicle?" Karen asked.

"Get it ready. I am using it today."

Peter walked to the workbench and picked up a watch. He pressed a button on its side, and thousands of nanobots erupted outward, covering his body in seconds. The Unlimited Suit materialized around him.....the standard blue replaced with solid black.

He mounted a waiting motorcycle and kicked the engine to life.

"If the girls show up," he called back to Karen, "you know what to do and what not to do."

"I know," she replied. "Happy hunting."

Dan was pacing when Spider-Man materialized from the shadows behind Trish.

"Captain."

"AAHHHH!" Trish screamed, whipping around. "Are you insane?! You scared me half to death!"

"You have endured worse. Being startled by someone like me is insignificant."

"It would be.....if you were not the one doing the startling."

"That is enough," Dan cut in. He held out a file. "You need to see this. At first I thought it was a coincidence. But then there was a similar case. Then another. And another. And another."

Spider-Man opened the file and began reading the forensic reports. Multiple murder victims. Identical cause of death.

"One is a coincidence," Spider-Man said quietly. "Two is chance. But three is a pattern."

His mind raced behind the mask. He had theorized that these creatures existed in this world, but he had assumed they would not surface for years. The implications were staggering.....and the contingency plans he would need to build were extensive.

"I thought the same," Dan said. "The only thing I cannot figure out are the puncture wounds. Two on the neck. Two on the wrist. Thighs."

"Locations where blood flows quickly, abundantly, and efficiently."

Dan nodded grimly. "A strange case needs someone with experience in the strange. And I only know one person who understands the strange better than anyone."

"Good instinct."

"So.....do you have any ideas?"

"Based on the autopsy data, the images, the victim profiles, the murder locations, and the manner of death.....I have one conclusion."

"Thank God. We spent days trying to find anything. What is it?"

"Do you believe in the supernatural?"

Dan blinked. "What? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Answer the question."

Trish nudged him. "Just do it, Dan. What do you have to lose?"

Dan exhaled. "I never thought superpowers would become normal. I never thought I would see someone lift a building or turn into a green monster. The world we live in is strange. And it would not surprise me much if the supernatural existed. So.....yes. I suppose I do."

"Correct answer." Spider-Man closed the file and handed it to Trish. "What you have in front of you are people who were killed by vampires."

"Vampires?" Trish repeated.

"Yes."

Dan processed the word for exactly two seconds. "Alright. How do we stop them?"

"For now.....you do nothing. I will handle it. They operate with significant control over their territory and almost always move in groups." He raised a hand before either of them could protest. "This is for your safety. If a single vampire is stronger than Captain America, you do not want to face a whole nest of them."

The silence was answer enough.

"Fine," Dan said. "We will stay out of it. But I want these things to think twice before they harm anyone in my city."

"Understood. I will investigate and report anything relevant."

He vanished into the shadows.

Dan stared at the empty space where Spider-Man had been standing. "Vampires. Who would believe it.....those miserable creatures are real." He looked at Trish with a dry smile. "What is next? Bigfoot? Frankenstein?"

Trish grimaced.

"Shit," Dan muttered.

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From the rooftop of a building overlooking the city’s nightlife district, Spider-Man surveyed a venue called NightClub.

Even from this distance, his enhanced senses told him everything he needed to know.....eighty-five percent of the people inside carried the unmistakable scent of human blood on their skin.

Vampires.

The remaining fifteen percent were nothing more than a walking menu.

A well-dressed couple in their twenties pulled up and walked directly inside without waiting in line. Several of the doormen gave the man discreet, deferential looks.....as if he outranked the others.

Peter sighed at the sheer number of people who must have already died in this place and those who would die next.

He decompressed several Nanocubes and equipped himself with light tactical armor, ammunition, and weapons. Using echolocation, he located an unguarded service entrance at the rear of the building.

He slowed his heart rate to near-zero and activated the maximum stealth techniques Raizō had taught him, rendering himself undetectable to vampiric senses.

The suit’s built-in scent suppression handled the rest.....the same technology he had reverse-engineered from Doc Ock’s work against Morlun’s brothers¹.

He forced the lock with surgical precision and slipped into the storage room.

Approaching footsteps. He pressed himself into a corner and waited.

Two staff members entered.....a bartender and a waitress, tangled in each other’s arms. Before Peter could dismiss them as irrelevant, two more figures joined. His senses confirmed it instantly.....two of the four were vampires using the private moment as cover for a feeding opportunity.

Peter dropped a small marble near the group.

A blinding flash of UV light erupted from the device. The two vampires disintegrated into ash, coating the two humans who stood frozen in shock.

"Wake up," Spider-Man said from the shadows.

The couple screamed.

"Silence." He laced his voice with pheromones, and they went rigid. "Both of you will get dressed and leave through the back exit without attracting anyone’s attention. Understood?"

"Understood," they replied in unison, their voices flat and mechanical.

They fixed their clothes and left through the door Peter had forced open minutes earlier.

"One less problem," Spider-Man murmured, melting deeper into the building. "One more to go."