AHHHHHHH!
Under Blade's wary gaze, the ghostly creature that had appeared opened its enormous mouth and spat out a fireball the size of a human head. His entire body tensed. But before he could move, he watched Mario assume a batting stance, like he was about to hit a baseball.
The fireball came screaming toward them, trailing smoke and heat. At the last possible second, Mario swung.
CRACK.
The fireball reversed course, rocketing back toward the floating monstrosity. Unfortunately, the ghast dodged.
"Damn it!" Mario lowered his sword. "This guy is the worst. It shoots from long range and dodges like it's playing dodgeball."
He turned to Blade. "Alright, your turn. It only shoots fireballs, just hit them back and blow it up. But watch out you don't blow yourself up in the process. If you can't hit the fireballs, just shoot it with your gun. It doesn't have much health."
Blade nodded automatically, still tracking the floating creature. "What is that thing?"
"Ghast. Native to the Nether. Looks scary as hell, but they're actually pretty weak once you get the hang of them."
Mario started placing blocks, building a bridge toward the distant bastion. As he worked, he realized having company made the Nether less oppressive. Exploring alone had its advantages, but sharing the insanity with someone else? That was its own kind of therapy.
The ghast spat another fireball, this one aimed directly at Blade. He didn't think, just reacted, swinging his weapon. The fireball connected with his blade and shot back toward the ghast with twice the force.
BOOM.
The ghast's own fireball detonated against its body. The creature turned red, let out one final wail, and exploded into particles. Several items dropped from where it had been floating.
"Nice shot!" Mario called out, genuinely impressed.
Blade stared as the items fell. "I think something dropped from its body."
"Yeah, that's normal. Ghasts drop gunpowder and ghast tears, both are potion ingredients. But it's too far away, not worth grabbing. We've got bigger fish to fry."
Blade wanted to transform into bat form and fly over to examine the loot, but he held back. Mario clearly had a plan, and he was just along for the ride.
As they continued toward the bastion, he spotted other creatures. Massive magma cubes bouncing across lava pools. Strange red striders walking on the molten surface like it was solid ground. All of them shared one characteristic, they were made of blocks, just like everything else in this dimension.
The bastion loomed closer.
"Careful now," Mario warned as they reached the outer wall. "These piglins are aggressive, and they've got crossbows."
He pulled out his pickaxe and carefully broke a single block, creating a small opening to peek through.
THWIP.
A crossbow bolt shot through the gap and embedded itself directly in his forehead.
Blade quickly drew his pistol and fired three rapid shots through the opening.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The damage numbers floated up: -2, -2, -2.
"Well, that's not doing much," he muttered, ejecting the magazine to check his ammo.
Mario, apparently unbothered by having a bolt sticking out of his skull, drew his diamond sword and thrust it through the gap. The blade found flesh, and the piglin's health bar dropped to zero immediately.
"Ugh, I hate ambushes." Mario turned to face Blade, and Blade had to work hard not to recoil. The crossbow bolt protruding from his forehead was deeply unsettling, even knowing Mario couldn't be hurt by it.
"You okay?" Blade asked, unable to stop staring at the bolt.
Mario blinked, then reached up to grab the bolt. His hand passed through it like it was a hologram. "Oh, right. Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it."
He pointed at Blade with the diamond sword. "You've got vampire abilities now. For close-range enemies like these piglins, just use your blood-drain power. Way more efficient than wasting bullets."
Blade reached out tentatively and touched the bolt sticking from Mario's head, confirming it wasn't actually solid. "Right. I'm still getting used to all this."
The death of the first piglin triggered a chain reaction. Grunting sounds echoed through the bastion as reinforcements arrived, several regular piglins and one massive piglin brute wielding a golden axe.
The brute was easily seven feet tall, barrel-chested, and looked like it could tear a car in half. Its health bar showed 50 HP, five times what a normal piglin had.
Mario attacked through the narrow opening. Blade activated his vampire drain, watching as purple energy flowed from the piglins into his body. Each drain restored some of his health and stamina.
The regular piglins fell quickly, but not before Mario acquired three more crossbow bolts sticking out of various parts of his head. He now resembled some kind of pincushion.
The piglin brute raged inside the bastion, slamming its axe against the walls and roaring in frustration. It was too large to fit through the gap, but that didn't stop it from trying.
"This guy's got way too much health." He stabbed repeatedly through the opening.
Finally, the brute collapsed.
"These brutes hit like trucks. Even with full netherite armor, two hits from that axe would make you wish you were wearing something."
Blade barely heard him. He was too busy taking in the strange architecture, the hostile mobs, the surreal landscape. Everything about this dimension fascinated him.
"These creatures..." he started to ask a question, then couldn't help himself. He burst out laughing.
Mario turned to face him fully, and Blade doubled over. With four crossbow bolts sticking out of his face at various angles, he looked absolutely ridiculous.
"Sorry," Blade gasped between laughs. "I didn't mean to, but you look—"
"Laugh one more time and you're taking point from now on," Mario said flatly.
He widened the gap and stepped through into the bastion proper. "Come on. Let's clear this place out."
The interior was dark. He placed torches as they moved, illuminating corridors and chambers filled with hostile piglins.
Then he spotted it, a chest in one of the side rooms.
After carefully checking for more ambushers, he opened the chest and examined the contents. "Spectral arrows, crying obsidian, nether wart, gold ingots... not bad."
In the game, this would be mediocre loot. In reality, finding anything useful felt like hitting the jackpot.
"Is this gold?"
Mario turned to find Blade pressed against a wall, scratching at the golden veins running through the blackstone.
He sighed. I know you're broke, but come on.
Blade had spent everything moving to D.C., buying a house, getting equipment for Karen. Being a superhero didn't pay well, and without the "generosity" of D.C.'s vampire population, he'd be living on instant noodles.
Mario walked over and patted Blade's shoulder. "Step back."
He pulled out his Fortune III diamond pickaxe and mined the gilded blackstone. Four gold nuggets, each the size of a baby's fist, clattered to the ground.
Blade's eyes went wide. He looked from the gold to Mario and back again.
In that moment, a new plan formed in his mind. Forget robbing vampires. I'm robbing Mario instead.
Mario scooped up the nuggets and tossed them to Blade. Then he dug a few more blocks toward the center of the bastion, breaking through into what had to be the treasure room.
"Come look at this."
Blade walked over and looked down into the chamber below. His jaw went slack.
Gold blocks. Hundreds of them. Stacked in neat piles that filled the entire room like some kind of dragon's hoard from a fantasy novel.
"That's all gold," Mario said, grinning at Blade's expression.
When something becomes abundant enough, it loses meaning. Blade finally understood that principle as he stared at more wealth than he'd seen in his entire life. Money suddenly seemed... trivial.
He opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Mario clapped him on the shoulder. "Let's finish clearing this place, then we'll talk about how much you can carry."
---
S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters.
The damage from the recent battle had been repaired with impressive speed. You wouldn't know from looking at the building that it had been a war zone less than a week ago.
Fury sat alone behind his desk, looking like he'd aged ten years in the past few days. The Hydra infiltration had been a catastrophic blow to S.H.I.E.L.D., not just to their operations, but to their reputation and credibility.
The vast global organization that had once spanned continents was now reduced to a skeleton crew of trusted agents. Worse, the World Security Council no longer had faith in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ability to function.
If not for his own competence and connections, the organization might not exist at all anymore.
Knock. Knock.
He looked up. "Come in."
A woman entered holding a file folder, and closed the door.
"Director, we need to talk."
Fury's expression softened slightly when he saw who it was. "Hill. Have a seat."
Maria Hill, Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., sat down without hesitation and placed the file on his desk.
"Our losses from the Hydra incident are severe. Many agents have gone deep underground."
Fury nodded. The Hydra cells that had openly occupied S.H.I.E.L.D. facilities were easy to eliminate with help from law enforcement. But everyone knew the real threat was the agents who'd buried themselves deeper.
"During the incident, I noticed someone," Hill continued, opening the file.
Fury's eye narrowed when he saw Mario's photo.
Hill looked at him. "Mario Argento. First appeared in Hell's Kitchen, hunting vampires. You assigned Coulson to make contact. Meanwhile, Hydra operatives learned of his existence and determined through some kind of predictive algorithm that he'd become an enemy of Hydra. That's why they targeted him. In other words, Hydra's exposure happened because of him. Isn't that right?"
Fury knew where this was going.
"That's correct. He's a potential recruit. I'll handle him personally."
Hill stood up. "His existence has drawn attention from higher up the chain. A man with multiple superhuman abilities, completely outside our control."
She walked toward the door, not even taking the file with her. "I trust you'll handle this appropriately."
After Hill left, Fury picked up the file and flipped through it. The contents were detailed, Mario's movements, his abilities, speculations about his powers and their limits.
He stood, walked to the office shredder, and fed the entire file into it. The machine whirred, reducing Mario's dossier to confetti that fell into a container of chemical solvent below.
Fury sat back down, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eye. After several minutes, he pulled out his phone and scrolled to Mario's contact.
He pressed call.
The phone rang. And rang. And rang.
No signal.
Of course there wasn't. Mario was currently in another dimension, digging through solid netherrack. No cell towers in the Nether.
Fury ended the call and dropped the phone onto his desk with a heavy sigh.
"Hope you know what you're doing..."
---
Back in the Nether, Blade followed Mario through the tunnel, feeling a creeping sense of regret about agreeing to this expedition. The monotony of red and brown blocks was beginning to wear on him.
"Where exactly are we going?" he asked for the third time.
Mario, focused on his mining, paused to check his mini-map. "Almost there."
"You said that half an hour ago."
"This time I mean it! Maybe seven or eight more minutes. Unless something unexpected happens."
Blade sighed and resigned himself to more digging.
"Ancient debris!" Mario's shout was full of excitement.
Blade wasn't even surprised anymore. Mario had found several pieces of the rare material already, but he got excited every single time like it was his first.
Seven minutes later, Mario broke through the last block to reveal another tunnel, identical to the one they'd been digging.
"We're here!" Mario called out.
Blade perked up immediately. "Really?"
"Really. This connects to the tunnel between Central Park and my workshop."
They climbed up to the surface level, a crimson forest with massive fungi trees and vine-covered blocks. The change of scenery was a relief after hours of monotonous netherrack.
"Mario," Blade said suddenly. "I think I just saw something. Really tall, at least eight feet, but it disappeared before I could get a good look."
Behind them, the distinctive sound of an enderman teleporting echoed through the forest.
He was about to warn Blade not to look directly at endermen, but swallowed his words.
Oh no.