Chapter 83: Red Nation Incident

Within seconds Bronte and the Midnight Suns had gone from witnessing the Vampiric epidemic through a tv screen to hearing the fiendish madness….to seeing it spread on the streets below through the clear windows of the Baxter building.

The top floor of the building was crowded with Heroes.

Spider-Man, DareDevil, Nightcrawler, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones and even more obscure people Bronte didn't care to recognize.

He was on edge. Reliving unwanted memories of the Lupines.

More heroes spilled in. The Fantastic Four managed the numbers like this was a yearly event they planned for regularly.

"Alright everyone." Reed Richards stretched his body to tower over everyone, "I've been working with my wife Sue to pinpoint every area experiencing a flare up in vampirism we have cases in all major cities and states. New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago. I've got drones delivering advanced Anti-Riot gear and solar lamps to each named location but it's not enough. Id like my Mages and Teleporter's to team up and get ready to send Heroes out all across America. We have no time to waste."

"Y'all be on your guard and don't hesitate to shoot a threat. Even if it's one of ours." Punisher said from somewhere behind Bronte followed by the clicking of a magazine being loaded into a firearm.

"No— we have the power to do this non-lethal. This isn't a shooting gallery, Frank. These people have friends and family. Restrain as many as you can— quarantine the infected and work from there. Parker Industries is open to anyone in need we can use the floor space." Spider-Man interrupted.

"Who's behind this?" Daredevil questioned Reed.

"Whoever's behind this is someone high up on the food chain. I've got sources saying Mutants in the sewers have been getting snatched up and turned feral in waves all year." Jessica Jones added.

Brontë felt like shedding his own skin. He felt like doing something illogical in the name of shame… and rage … and fear and—

"Aye man! None of that matters right now let's get to splitting up and solving the problem. People down there are DYING right now. Let's go." Bronte interrupted any potential further discussion.

"You plan on saving the world in a tank top and cargo pants?" Punisher questioned.

Brontë and Luke Cage side eyed him.

"Something like that. I'm done waiting. I got New York." Bronte nodded to Ilyana and she opened a portal that got the cluster of costumed heroes parting like the seas.

"Wait for me!" Spider-Man and Daredevil followed after him flanked by a few others.

In a single step Bronte went from the cramped glass corridors of the Baxter building to the violent screaming streets of Manhattan.

He didn't waste a second in front of the hospital as Mend took him over and transformed him into something more.

"Go light— these people are just scared." Bronte spoke to Mend as a tidal wave of wind erupted from his Symbiote skin, halting all speeding cars and drifting men and women off the streets.

Spider-Man, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Jessica Jones hopped through the portal.

"Venom?…. You got a new haircut. Nice." Spiderman commented. He upgraded his suit again. This one for the specific purpose of Vampire combat. His spider symbol was a solar lamp. Sectional armoring was placed around his wrists, shins and neck. All the primary arterial locations. Why he had an anti Vampire suit, Bronte would never know.

Or care.

"How long do your webs last?" Bronte questioned as he approached the hospital of bloodied mirrors and cracked walls. With Mend's power he summoned a wind tornado around it. As Vampires in hospital gowns burst from the windows, the strong winds spun them back inside steaming and hollering.

"Few hours."

"Go inside and tie down the infected. They're newly changed so they probably don't know how to shift into bat swarms or access their enhanced speed. If you can round up the blood bags they'll get weaker over time."

"You know Vampires… great." Jessica Jones commented.

"I'll go with." Luke cage added before stomping after spiderman and entering the hospital.

"Alright defacto, leader, where are we going?" Jessica questioned as they stood outside the hospital surrounded by blaring sirens and burning buildings.

Mend's mask peeled away, revealing Bronte's face.

"We stay out here. Watch my back. Others are coming."

"Yep. Heads up." Daredevil brandished his escrima sticks just as something flew from an alley a block up north.

"Oh bless your ears…" Iron Fist readied himself as something ripped its way through an alley in the distance. Glass shattered, a dumpster skidded into the street and dented a parked police car. Then, a blur….

"Jesus Christ— was that an Angel?" One of the Police Officers taking cover behind a squad car nearby questioned.

"Y'all good?" Bronte questioned the street level trio as he maintained the tornado.

"Peachy." Jessica and Daredevil braced themselves as Angel, the Mutant Vampire, exploded from the shadows and charged them.

He was horrifying.

His eyes were pools of black surrounding red discs. His veins bulged and squirmed beneath his skin like living parasites. His wings were damaged and bloody— assumedly from him crashing and burning everytime he tried to fly under the sun's rays. Now he settled with contorting them into sun blockers. It more or less gave him a backdrop of feathers and an eternal aura of shadows.

"Cool….. but also bad news. We'll fix you right up Angel." Iron Fist whispered before his hands were enveloped in yellow brilliance.

Jessica met his charge head on and the battle ensued.

Brontë took a step closer to the hospital and punched his fists into the streets.

The blast shook the earth and his Symbiote fists burst through pipes and wiring until he reached the sewer.

The arcane letterings running along his skin glimmered as he took his fists out, followed by serpentine arcs of water.

He sent the fluids into the currents of the tornado until it became a spinning hurricane. As it heightened in speed and intensity he inhaled. Black veins bulged around his neck. The Symbiote bordered his mouth. Focusing its inherited magics where it was needed.

Brontë exhaled a gust of glacial winds and turned the hurricane into an ice prison to hold the Vampires inside.

In the silence he could hear Spider-Man webbing up Vampires.

"Solid." Bronte commended Mend before turning away from the hospital of horrors just as his three teammates came crashing into him.

Brontë caught them with Mend's help before blasting them offsides with a wind gust as Angel took the offensive.

His claws dug up thin trenches in the streets as he lunged, mouth open and leaking with frothy saliva.

Brontë flipped just as Angel moved for his throat, angling himself above the fiend to send a blast of lightning into his back.

He hit the ground steaming— muscles stuck convulsing, long enough for Iron Fist to run over and place a hand on his head.

Then he went limp.

"The hell was that?"

"Everyone has Chi. He can tweak it…. I guess? I try not to think too much about it. I already get migraines enough." Jessica said from beside him as she wiped blood from her no—

"Did you get bit?" Bronte could practically see the red glow in her eyes already.

"No. I got a right hook to the face. Relax….. uhh… whoever you are." Her flowy brown hair failed to hide her carefree— sleep deprived gaze,

A purple rift opened right between them suddenly, spitting out a demonic Mutant with kind yellow eyes— urgent, yellow eyes.

"Mein gott! None of you have patience—"

"Of course not."

Nightcrawler handed them all ear pieces, "If you weren't in such a rush to leave you would've known that an attack is hitting all major locations. Not regular Vampires or infected sick people. Real combatants. One other thing…. There's a storm in LA and that means the Infected don't have to worry about the sun. It's become top priority."

"Why are you telling him that…. Ohhhhh" Iron Fist put the pieces together as Nightcrawler spoke to Bronte.

"Do you need a lift?"

"I'm good." Bronte flew off in a burst of flame.

As he bulleted down the streets, he used the winds to flip cars upright, lift up broken light poles and swallow up the fires of damaged apartment bui—

"Up top!" Mend took over and spun around fully suited and ready to intercept the falling vampiric Morlock.

Mend caught the vampiric shark man and choke slammed him into the floor. They crashed, ripping up the ground for a mile straight before he noticed. Through the eyes in Mend's mane of tendril-dreads.

More Vampiric Mutants waited on the rooftops, watching. Standing directly under the sun.

Daken. It was all Daken. But they were painstakingly direct… and sent for him.

Whatever happened next required space. The streets were too full of people. Brontë and Mend improvised.

In a blur they went through the streets and metal piping until they landed in the sewers.

Whatever sunlight that followed them in was immediately swallowed up as more Vampiric monsters fell in after them.

To Mend's left, a clan of hideous bloodsuckers faced him proudly.

To his rig—

"AHHHHHSHHH!!" A giant rat-man lunged at him from beneath the waves of feces and blood.

Mend sent an electrical blast straight into the beasts chest with so much heat it balded the things entire midsection. The waters steamed where it landed.

The leading Morlock fed Vampire grinned. Porcupine quills sprouted from his skin and turned him into a living weapon.

"You're the magic one. We get an endless supply of blood for taking you out…." He raised his hand to watch it in the sunlight that peeked through the hole above. It still steamed faintly, but it was healing— resistant. "And now we don't have to worry about your fire."

Mend giggled. His canine jaws split open revealing endless rows of teeth and a serrated tongue. Frosty air spilled from Mend's mouth like dragons breath.

"Who says fire is your only issue?"