00134. Ezekiel isn't normal.

A few days after taking everyone to Genosha Theo found something interesting. Well it was more than that, Theo found someone interesting he was looking for. There were a lot of people he was on the lookout for in this new world, but so far he'd only found a few. The technology being at its current level was the main issue. Yes computers, cameras and other devices were more advanced, but without tablets, cellphones or smart home devices, Theo was finding it hard to track people down. It was the main reason he pushed the cellphone project forward with Tony.

As for who Theo found, well that was a little bit of a surprise for Theo. He was actually excited to meet them, since he enjoyed the movies based on the guy. The man's name was Eric Brooks, better known as Blade or the day walker. He is a half vampire who hunted down other vampires.

Theo lucked out finding Blade since the guy apparently lived as a ghost. He had no traceable records and Theo only found him because of a police report that caught his attention. There was a rave in some meat packing facility in New York and besides a lot of human blood, ash, silver bullets and bullet casings. They found a couple of people who were babbling wrecks, who talked about vampires.

Theo had a clone visit them in the hospital and probe their minds which is how he found out about Blade and even learned what he looked like. He was a buffer and big version of the actor who played him in the movies. Theo's clone also gave each person some mental help to get over the trauma they suffered before the clone left.

With the knowledge that Blade was alive in this world and what he looked like. Theo sent out clones into the city to find him and his base of operations. It took a couple days but Theo found the warehouse Blade and an older man named Whistler used as their current base. After his clones scouted the place, Theo decided to pay a little visit.

It was around two AM when Blade and Whistler came back to their hideout. They just cleaned out a large nest of vampires and came back to resupply. When they stepped out of the car, Blade quickly noticed something was off and placed a hand on one of his guns, which made Whistler go on edge and also place a hand on his sidearm.

"I have to say, that's impressive. But then again I'm an amateur when it comes to concealment." Ezekiel said as he stepped out from around a corner with his hands raised.

Blade almost snarled as he asked, "Who're you?!"

Ezekiel smiled as he said, "Just a friendly stranger who wanted to introduce himself and offer you my services."

Whistler studied Ezekiel for a few moments before he said, "In our business, strangers normally mean trouble."

"Well how about we change that. My names Ezekiel and you gentlemen are Abraham Whistler and Eric Brooks… Or do you prefer to use the name Blade?" Ezekiel said with a smile.

Blade shared a glance with Whistler before he said, "You're not a vampire… But you don't smell human either."

Ezekiel with his arms still raised sniffed his right armpit before he said, "I just smell deodorant."

Blade wore a thin smile that showed a little of his teeth as he said, "You need a better nose. Now what do you want?"

"Like I said, I wanted to introduce myself and offer my services. Do you mind if I lower my arms?" Ezekiel asked.

Blade moved away from the car and came a little closer to Ezekiel as he asked, "The introductions are done. Now tell us what you are."

Ezekiel went to lower his hands as he said, "Meta-human. Just like you."

When he finished, Blade was already in front of him with his sword touching Ezekiel's neck as he said, "One wrong move and you die."

Ezekiel smirked as he asked, "Are you sure about that?

"Kid, I think we might have a problem." Whistler said.

Blade glanced behind him to see a silver haired man holding a knife to Whistler's throat. When he looked back at Ezekiel, Blade felt something metallic touch his own neck as the person behind him asked, "So what's your next move?"

Blade gritted his teeth but cautiously removed his sword from Ezekiel's throat. Ezekiel smiled and rubbed his neck as he said, "Stand down. We didn't come here to make enemies."

When the knife at his throat disappeared, Blade glanced back at Whistler to see him standing alone again. He cautiously turned back to Ezekiel and asked, "What do you want?"

"To offer my services and possibly make some new friends. But that's up to you, if you want to accept either one." Ezekiel said with a smile.

Blade put away his sword and walked past Ezekiel as he said, "Fine."

Ezekiel glanced at Blade for a moment before he turned to look at Whistler who said, "Don't mind him, he doesn't like new people, that's all."

"It's fine, I expected as much… Well I didn't expect to be greeted by a sword, but there's a first time for everything." Ezekiel said as he shrugged.

Whistler limped over and stuck out his hand as he said, "Just call me Whistler."

"Ezekiel. It's nice to meet you."

After they shook hands Whistler said, "Lets go inside so I can sit down and then we'll talk."

Ezekiel nodded before he followed Whistler into the hideout. Once inside they found Blade at a table as he disassembled a gun to clean it. Whistler went to the fridge and pulled out a couple of beers before he sat at the table with Blade. After Ezekiel sat down Whistler held out one of the beers and asked, "Want one?"

Ezekiel shook his head before he said, "No thanks."

Whistler opened his own bottle and took a large drink before he asked, "More for me then… So what did you wanna offer us?"

"Funding would be the main thing. But support, weapons, specialized medical help." Ezekiel pointed at Whistler's leg as he said, "Fixing your leg would be no issue for us, or even bringing someone back from the brink of death. We would also provide backup when you need it and more." Ezekiel said.

Blade frowned slightly as Whistler took another drink. He studied his bottle and then his busted leg for a few moments before he asked, "Do you even know what we do?"

"Hunt vampires."

Whistler nodded as he asked, "So why do you want to help us out? Was your family killed by vampires or something?"

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "No nothing like that. I'm just trying to make the world a better place and as far as I can tell, vampires aren't conducive to that goal."

"Heh, You're right about that." Whistler said before he took another drink.

Ezekiel glanced between Blade and Whistler before he asked, "So what do you think?"

Blade and Whistler shared a look before Whistler said, "We'll think about it."

Ezekiel nodded as he stood up and said, "I figured as much. Since that's the case, I'll leave you with a way to contact me."

A moment later a man appeared next to Ezekiel with a large briefcase. Whistler didn't see him approach, but tensed up after he just appeared out of thin air. Blade also tensed up but he did it sooner, since he saw the man as he approached the table. The man moved faster than Blade himself could move, but Blade was at least able to track his movements slightly. Ezekiel took the briefcase from the man who instantly disappeared a moment later, before he placed it on the table and opened it up.

He spun it towards Whistler as he said, "You can use the phone to contact me and the other stuff can be considered a gift."

Whistler looked at the contents of the briefcase before he said, "That's one hell of a gift."

He looked up a moment later to see Ezekiel had already disappeared. He shook his head as he turned the briefcase to Blade and asked, "What do you think?"

"I don't trust him. Someone showing up out of the blue and saying they want to help… Normal people don't do that." Blade said.

Whistler nodded as he said, "I'll agree with you on that… But then again, people in our line of work aren't exactly normal. What should we do with this silver and the phone?"

"Let's just toss the phone in the safe for now. The silver we'll test. If it's pure, we'll use it for our next batch of bullets."

Whistler took another drink of his beer before he said, "For some reason he looked familiar to me…"

Blade nodded as he said, "I felt the same way."

vvvvv

A couple of days passed by with no word from Blade or Whistler. But Theo knew they were still in New York from the weird police reports he kept getting. Since Theo had other things he needed to do, he put them out of his mind and focused on his other projects.

He checked in with Hank and his team, they were still in the quantum realm. Even with the help of the drones, Minato and Tobirama, only about ten percent of the place was explored so far. They'd also run into some locals finally, which gave Agatha something to do.

She ended up visiting each of the groups with the help of Minato and talked with them for a day or two. It was mostly for information gathering, but it was also to stave off her boredom. Luckily she only needed to stay there till the end of the month, before Kaecilius would take over for her. He agreed to take over for her, in exchange for alchemy lessons.

After Hank, Theo checked on things around the base and even visited the kids in person. He also had some clones start expanding the base a little bit. Even though most of the valkyries currently lived in Genosha. Some of them moved into the base because it just felt better to them. So instead of possibly running out of room, Theo decided to expand the base now.

Theo also checked in with Adrian to see how things were going. Even though Theo threw him into the deep end, the man took everything in stride and had a decent business plan already set up. Tony also shared contact information with him and put him in contact with a couple people to help buy all the equipment he would need for his company and the job itself. Theo also told Adrian not to worry about renting out a place for his company. He could use one of the buildings Theo owned just outside of the demolition area to run his business until the job was completed and to not worry about the rent.

After that Theo focused on training and finishing his mind defense. Well that wasn't actually true, his mental defense was already complete. But according to Tao and Agatha a person's mental defense was never finished. It could always be improved by adding another layer to it, whether that was a softer inner layer or more solid outer layer. The main thing was to remember it was never done and could always be improved, so Theo set aside at least an hour a day for it.

A couple weeks passed by in relative peace before Blade contacted Ezekiel. It was late at night as Theo climbed his rock wall and trained his chakra control. As he pulled himself up to the next hand hold an alert went off at his computer and one of his clones checked it before it said, "Blade's calling from the phone you gave him."

Theo channeled some chakra to his feet before he let go of his hands and attached his feet to the wall. Then he used body flicker to reach his computer as he switched into Ezekiel to answer the call and said, "This is Ezekiel."

Blade's voice was a little hoarse as he asked, "You said you can bring someone back from the brink of death right? Was that a lie?"

Ezekiel typed on his computer as he said, "No, it wasn't"

He could hear Blade doing something before he said, "Whistler's dying. Can you save him?"

"Do what you can to keep him stable, I'll be there soon."