Marvel: Scientist reborn as Superman

It was almost half past three in the morning when I was standing on the grounds of the abandoned Collins farm. The murky pre-dawn light reluctantly broke through the low clouds, and everything around looked sinister and repulsive. I sighed, peering at the road that curved around the bend and disappeared into the fog.

"Where are Blade and Abraham?" flashed through my mind. We had agreed to meet here, but I didn't see a soul yet.

I sped up and in a few seconds circled the area, like a weightless shadow gliding in the twilight. Soon my gaze caught on a small van parked off to the side, near a crooked, long-overgrown fence that surrounded the former Collin family estate.

"Excellent, they're already here," I thought, and in an instant I was inside the car.

"Good morning, gentlemen!" I greeted Blade and Abraham with a smile, waving at them.

The hunters' reaction was swift: they both jumped in surprise, and Blade, without a moment's hesitation, grabbed his gun and pointed it straight at me.

"Damn it, Bruce! What the hell?! Where did you come from?!" Eric yelled, stunned. His face was tense, his eyes burning with angry confusion. Abraham squinted and grinned crookedly, clearly trying not to laugh.

I shrugged:

"You seem to have forgotten that I'm super fast," I said innocently, spreading my arms wide. "You can put the gun down. I know it won't really hurt me, but you have to admit, it's not the most pleasant feeling to have a gun pointed at you."

Blade gave me a heavy look, but still put the gun away and tucked it into its holster. His lips pressed into a thin line.

"Next time I'll shoot without warning," he said through clenched teeth, "and we'll see how bulletproof you are."

"What are you going to shoot with?" I asked, instantly snatching the gun from Blade to get a closer look. "Wow, that's a Beretta 92FS, right? I've seen one like that in the movies. Nice piece."

Blade's eyes filled with blood, and although Abraham looked as if he was about to burst out laughing, he too tried to remain serious.

Blade held out his hand and said clearly:

"Give it back. Weapons are not toys for children.

The tension in his jaw showed that he was struggling to keep from hitting me.

"Children?!" I snorted, handing him the gun. "All right, whatever you say... You're boring, though. Let's leave the poetry aside," I turned to Abraham. "Tell me, what's the plan?"

Blade turned away, demonstratively showing that he didn't want to continue the conversation, and handed the floor to Abraham.

Abraham, relieved, as if releasing tension, spoke:

"We've been here for several hours," the old hunter said calmly, measuredly. His face showed fatigue, but also a will to act. "We've been watching the house. Eric even got closer to check if there was any movement inside. We found fresh car tracks: someone had clearly been here very recently. Other than that, we didn't find anything suspicious. Either the vampires have all left, or they're inside and not showing their faces. But to be sure, we'll have to check the house ourselves." Abraham paused and glanced at me. "Besides, I think they know Blade is in town, so they're probably hiding and keeping quiet, like mice under a broom. So we're waiting for dawn — the best time to hunt. Vampires are creatures of the night; they can't stand sunlight. And they can't stand Blade even more; he's become a bogeyman they tell stories about to each other.

"Well, what if I," I suggested, perking up, "run over and check the house? I move very fast: they won't have time to see or feel me. It won't be a second before I'm back with information about whether there's anyone there or not!

Abraham frowned and opened his mouth, clearly intending to forbid me from doing such a foolish thing:

"No, don't..." he began, but I had already decided to act on my own and didn't wait to hear him out.

In an instant, the world around us froze.

Blade and Abraham turned into frozen statues: one's mouth remained open, the other's eyebrow raised. I jumped off the seat and, keeping everything suspended, rushed towards the cursed house.

When I found myself in the yard, which looked like the set of a horror film — with rotten boards, a collapsed roof, and paint peeling off the walls — I felt an unpleasant chill run down my skin. The windows on the ground floor were neatly boarded up, as if the inhabitants clearly did not want any sunlight to get inside. On the second floor, one window gaped with broken glass, covered by a dirty curtain flapping in the night wind. "Great entrance," I thought, and without hesitation, I flew up there.

The second floor was dusty and empty: only footprints on the dirty floor indicated that someone had been there recently. I listened carefully, using my hearing, but immediately felt a sharp pain in my temples. However, the pain was not severe, so I concentrated and heard a quiet conversation coming from downstairs on the first floor. So someone was definitely inside. 

Then I thought to myself, "Why didn't I use my super hearing earlier?" I mentally chastised myself. "I could have heard from the van if anyone was in the house. Why am I playing spy? It's just silly." Oh well, what's done is done.

I carefully but quickly descended the rickety stairs, crossing the rooms in a split second. It turned out that there were seven ghouls inside, you couldn't say it any better. Some were fast asleep, while two were sitting at a table talking about something. I expected to see rows of coffins, like in the movies, but the reality was much more mundane and at the same time terrifying: when I reached a small room on the first floor, my gaze fell on a pile of rags lying on the floor. Looking closer, I realised that this "pile" was moving, breathing — which meant that someone was sleeping inside. There were several creatures there, only vaguely resembling humans. Their limbs were bent at odd angles and unnaturally long, each hand had five fingers topped with long, terrifying claws that looked like fused knives. In the dim light, their claws glinted slightly, as if they were made of dark metal.

The skin of the sleeping vampires was a sickly yellow, almost waxy in colour, dry in places, but in others it looked bumpy, with protruding veins and capillaries lying beneath them. The times when they had been human seemed distant and unreal: their facial features had lost their smoothness and harmony. Now they had elongated cheekbones and protruding brow ridges with dark receding hairlines. I noticed sharp ears, something between those of a wolf and a bat, with wide sockets, perfectly adapted to pick up any foreign noise. And from their mouths, slightly open in sleep, protruded fangs, slightly longer and more curved than those of the typical vampires I had seen in films.

The others, sitting at the table and talking in the kitchen, "I glanced at the two vampires. At first glance, they looked no different from humans, except that their skin was slightly paler and their eyes were blood red. An automatic rifle and a pair of pistols lay next to them. "Smart to get human weapons," I thought, and without hesitation, I rushed through the house, grabbing every bullet I could find and taking my loot far away, to an open field behind the farm. "Let them try to shoot now," I smiled, imagining the scene when they discovered what was missing.Returning to the house, I headed for the only door I hadn't checked yet. Behind it was the basement: damp and dark. As soon as I crossed the threshold, something clicked inside me, and I suddenly fell out of the frozen world. The world was no longer "frozen" — it was as if I had been bound in invisible chains. A chill washed over my body, my heart began to pound wildly, and my mind was flooded with alarming, frantic thoughts. Before I could even think about what was happening, adrenaline rushed through my veins and I was back in motion. I caught the sound of something ringing, like glass breaking.

"So much for the trap. It's a barrier," flashed through my mind. "Most likely magical, which means there's a mystic among them."

If I let time take its course and slowed down now, the vampires would instantly sense that an intruder had violated their boundaries and invaded their territory. They would smell me or sense the energy surge — and the spell itself would probably alert its master. "Yeah, I'm screwed, they don't mess around with people like me," I chuckled to myself, but I actually felt like I was in deep trouble.

While I was thinking, I looked around the basement: it was damp, with low ceilings and mould growing on some of the walls. In the dim light, I could make out the outline of a man in chains; he was sitting on the floor with his head bowed. Judging by his uniform, he was a policeman. He had obviously been injured while trying to find out what was going on at the farm. "A hostage... How did he get here?" I felt a surge of pity and indignation.

"What the hell am I doing?!" I cursed myself, realising that I was venturing alone into the lair of vampires and sorcerers. "I have a huge advantage, but I'm throwing it away like an idiot."

Shame filled me to the brim: I felt like a useless fool hammering nails with an expensive microscope. However, time was precious. Knowing that I had already given myself away, I decided not to stop halfway: in a few moments, I dragged all the vampires in the house into one room, tied them up with thick chains, and wound the iron around them like a cocoon. "Now you won't escape Uncle Bruce," flashed through my mind, "this will definitely keep you here for a while."

"Time to get out of here," I said to myself, and in the next second I was back in the cab of the van, in the same place where I had been sitting before. "Start the clock," I said silently and snapped my fingers, cancelling the accelerated mode, and everything around me came back to life.

"Oh no! There could have been magical barriers there," Abraham shouted, turning to me with a look of concern on his face. "You could have easily fallen into a trap!

"Too late, old man," I muttered, wincing at the realisation of my mistake. "I went there... and got caught.

"What?!" Blade, as if stung, jumped into the driver's seat, turned on the ignition and literally pressed the accelerator pedal to the floor. The van jerked forward, bouncing over the bumps. "So now those creatures definitely know we're here?!" His voice was on the verge of rage.

Abraham just grabbed his head, managing to throw me a reproachful look.

"I realised I was in trouble," I began to justify myself, feeling my face flush. "And so... I decided to tie them up. I chained them all up."

Abraham looked straight at me, shaking his head sadly: "Why the rush? You should have consulted me first. You just said yourself that there's a barrier. If there's a mage among them, chains won't stop him. He can break free and free the others. And the fact that we've been discovered complicates everything: there's no element of surprise.

Thousands of thoughts raced through my mind. My brain frantically searched for arguments in my defence, but found none. "Why did I miscalculate again? My brain is more powerful than any computer!" I thought, realising that it was all down to emotions and raging hormones. Despite all my previous experience, my teenage body still provokes flashes of recklessness, shutting down critical thinking, even though I possess such tremendous power...

"God," I suddenly thought, "what would I be doing if I didn't have a whole life behind me? I'm a walking weapon of mass destruction!"

A cold horror rose within me. I fell out of the acceleration, Abraham was still saying something, and Blade was swearing loudly and raising his voice, cursing everything he could think of, including my mental abilities.

Honestly, I felt such a wave of shame that I wanted to disappear. The van bounced over the bumps, looking as if it was about to fall apart, but Blade kept pressing the gas pedal.

Finally, we arrived at the entrance to the house. Blade stopped so abruptly that he almost knocked down the old fence with his bumper, jumped out like a shot and rushed towards the house. Abraham also surprised me with his agility, getting out of the car and, despite his age, running after him. I sighed, realising that we would all have to deal with the consequences of my recklessness.

I clenched my fists, pulled myself together, and rushed after the hunters. Blade, without slowing down, kicked in the front door, and we burst into the house. He immediately grabbed two pistols and opened fire. There was a crash of gunfire and the screams of dark creatures. Driven by rage at my own stupidity, I hurried after him inside.

Time froze again — for me. I saw one of the vampires, who was trying to aim his automatic rifle at Blade, slowly sink to the floor, looking confusedly at the empty magazine. He seemed unable to understand where his bullets had gone. 

The scene that followed was eerily frozen: the half-vampire had already managed to put a bullet in the head of one of the long-armed mutants, whose rough skin was pierced through. He froze with a gun sticking out of his mouth and a bloody wound gaping at the back of his head.

I noticed another mutant spreading its claws and flying towards Blade from behind. With one movement, I jumped towards it, grabbed its leg and threw it against the wall. At the same moment, I released the "slow motion" effect, returning time to its normal flow.

With a loud crash, the vampire tore a hole in the wall and flew out into the street. His torn leg remained in my hand. Without hesitation, I struck another bloodsucker who darted out from around the corner with my improvised "weapon." The blow was so powerful that both the leg and the vampire itself were blown to pieces, spraying flesh everywhere. Blade continued to shoot methodically, sending a couple more creatures into oblivion.

The last enemy remained, looking stranger than the others: he stood in the middle of the room, muttering something and waving his arms. Thin needles began to form at the tips of his fingers, as if woven from blood. But he didn't have time to use this power — Abraham appeared in the doorway with a shotgun and, without hesitation, fired. The shot was so powerful that the upper part of the vampire's body literally exploded, scattering bloody fragments.

In the silence that followed, I scanned the room, breathing heavily.

"Seven," I said, still clenching and unclenching my fingers.

"Seven what?" Blade asked, keeping his gun raised and continuing to aim at the stairs leading to the second floor.

"There were seven vampires in the house," I replied, trying to calm down.

"Are you sure?" Abraham asked.

"Yes, I counted them. Plus the cop chained up in the basement," I added.

"A policeman?" Abraham asked in surprise. I nodded briefly, but didn't feel like talking anymore.

Before going down to the basement, Blade decided to check if there was anyone else there. But we didn't find any new creatures. I sat down heavily on the chair where the vampires had been sitting and looked at my hands: they were sticky with blood and covered with bits of something slimy. I shuddered with disgust.

Abraham approached me and handed me a flask: "Take it," he said quietly. I mechanically took the metal container in my hand.

"I don't drink," I muttered, looking at the floor.

"What the hell. It's 70% alcohol," the old man explained warmly. "If it doesn't get you drunk, at least it'll make you feel a little better."

I gave him a grateful look and took a sip. A hot wave rolled through my throat and settled somewhere in my chest and lower abdomen. Somehow, the anxiety subsided a little. Abraham nodded, took the flask and took a sip himself: "Well, here's to your first hunt." He smiled crookedly. "Hopefully not your last."

"Thanks," I managed to say.

"Sit here for a while," he suggested and left the house.

A few minutes later, he returned with a mobile phone — not particularly small, more like a brick, but mobile nonetheless. He dialled a number and pressed the phone to his ear. I listened to the conversation as usual.

"Code 611. We have a civilian. Address..." He dictated the coordinates and hung up.

"Who were you calling?" I asked wearily.

"S.H.I.E.L.D.," Abraham replied briefly. I frowned and tensed up.

At that moment, Blade entered the room, supporting the chained man in uniform. The policeman looked around, noticed the pieces of vampires on the floor and the blood-stained walls, and only grimaced, clearly suppressing his disgust.

Blade sat the sergeant down on a chair next to me. Abraham placed the flask in front of the policeman. "Here, drink," he said.

The sergeant took long gulps and emptied the flask, then looked up at us with unblinking eyes. "What the hell happened here? Who were those... creatures?" he asked in a broken voice.

Abraham leaned back in his chair: "The feds will be here soon, they'll tell you everything. In the meantime, let's just wait a little while. Oh, yes, allow me to introduce myself: Abraham," he said calmly, extending his hand. "Hunter."

The policeman cleared his throat, as if trying to regain his composure: "Sergeant George Stacy. Thank you for saving me from those...," he paused for a moment, searching for the right words, "...monsters.

"You should thank him, not me," Abraham nodded in my direction. "He found this nest. But I have one request, Sergeant. When the agents arrive, please don't mention our young friend. He doesn't need any unnecessary publicity. Let that be your thanks."

I opened my mouth to object, but Abraham quickly shook his head and turned to me: "I'm sure you're not eager to be in the spotlight before your time. So I advise you to leave here now. If you have any questions, come back tomorrow, closer to midnight. We'll talk and I'll try to answer them. In the meantime, go home, you still have school today, I believe.

Feeling slightly numb, I obediently stood up, nodded silently to everyone in farewell, and headed for the exit. On the porch of my house, I was blinded by the first rays of the rising sun. I froze, covering my eyes, allowing the soft warmth to wash away all the horror I had experienced that night. The air was still filled with the smell of fresh blood and pain, but in the rays of the morning light, I felt a new, pure energy enveloping me. It filled me with vigour. And although the feeling of shame for my own stupidity had not completely disappeared, it made me rethink my priorities in life.

***

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