Marvel: A Lazy-Ass Superman

Chapter 461: Chapter 461 — Shadow War

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It wasn’t exactly that the Men in Black had formally absorbed Blade’s group. But in the war against vampires, they had gained a powerful enforcer.

There were no restrictions—no rules about which vampires could or couldn’t be killed. After all, every last one of those fanged creatures deserved a beating. None of them were innocent.

Jasper Barden stayed one more day at Blade’s hideout.

Though he woke up uneasy, dealing with people like Blade and Abraham Whistler wasn’t unfamiliar territory for someone who’d lived on the streets.

It didn’t take long before he was calling Whistler ”brother” and treating Blade like a junior—much to the irritation of the half-vampire.

Because Cruella’s side was pressing for urgency, the Men in Black made the call to stall things for a day. Only after confirming Jasper showed no signs of vampire infection was he reluctantly escorted out and sent back to England.

As for his mission to personally deliver invitations—it fizzled out. The invitations were instead sent through Stark Pictures’ mailroom.

But with vampires involved, far fewer Hollywood stars were willing to attend.

Blade and Whistler didn’t relocate their base. Instead, the Men in Black upgraded their surveillance system, expanding its coverage.

Anyone approaching the warehouse district would trigger tiered alerts.

The system even quietly linked into police databases. Anyone with a criminal record could be flagged through facial recognition in advance.

Of course, given the era, the accuracy wasn’t great—but it was better than nothing.

The Men in Black provided both the software and the police database access mainly to gather more data for future improvements.

And if anything went wrong?

Well—the users weren’t them. Having someone else take the fall wasn’t a bad backup plan.

As for UV bullets and silver nitrate rounds—those were easy.

The Men in Black practically handed over the tech and manufacturing equipment, just short of guiding Whistler step-by-step on how to produce them.

Money or knowledge being ”freeloaded” wasn’t a concern.

As long as someone was out there killing vampires—and doing it enthusiastically—it was worth it.

Blade and Whistler certainly didn’t mind either.

With or without support, they would hunt vampires. Now that someone was funding them and supplying ammo, they simply hunted harder.

And just as predicted—

Hollywood changed.

As Blade stirred wave after wave of bloodshed, the underworld fell into chaos... while the surface world grew quieter.

Previously, Blade hadn’t been as active due to limited ammunition.

Looting vampires barely covered costs. Sometimes the money taken off a corpse wouldn’t even pay for the silver stake used to kill it.

And when it came to firearms, Blade followed classic U.S. military doctrine—

Ammo was meant to be spent.

During the Vietnam War, it took an average of 70,000 rounds to kill one enemy. Blade wasn’t that inefficient—but he still burned through ammo fast. Most fights ended with him running dry and switching to melee.

After each battle, he’d enter a cooldown period—gathering intel, stockpiling ammo, and occasionally taking side jobs at the Continental Hotel to make ends meet.

No wonder he valued gold coins.

But with Men in Black support, those downtime periods shrank.

And that meant one thing—

Vampires were in trouble.

Ironically, despite Blade’s increasingly aggressive hunts, the vampires—still lacking a unified radical leadership—became more cautious instead of retaliating.

If Blade and Whistler were easy to eliminate, they’d have been dead long ago.

The fact that they were still alive proved otherwise.

The calm on the surface was noticeable in Hollywood.

Strange parties disappeared. Odd invitations stopped coming.

But that didn’t mean vampire activity had ceased.

With backing from dying old-money elites, their operations had simply become more secretive—and far more brutal.

Public-facing activity stopped only to avoid leaving trails.

After all, the vampires Blade hunted were the careless ones.

However, Blade now faced a new limitation—

Intel.

Every time he wiped out a nest, the rest went deeper underground.

Finding them became harder and harder.

The Men in Black could help—but they had no intention of turning themselves into a full-time vampire radar.

Even with Kryptonian super senses, information gathering was passive—and time-consuming.

Criminals didn’t sit around 24/7 repeating their plans for easy interception.

Supporting Blade was always meant to be a low-effort strategy—

Spend money. Avoid work.

As long as vampires were kept busy and unable to target them, that was enough.

Clearing America of vampires?

That wasn’t their job.

If even the U.S. government wasn’t doing it, why should they?

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At the end of June, Henry traveled to Paris as a guest to attend one of Cruella’s menswear fashion shows.

Charlize Theron accompanied him.

The moment they arrived backstage—

Charlize made a beeline straight for Cruella.

Almost deliberately.

Without caring whether the designer was overwhelmed, she immediately started picking a fight.

”Capri pants with black-and-white striped stockings? What is this—Victorian British hunting fashion? Is that what you’re going for, Cruella?”

”Fashion is cyclical,” Cruella shot back without missing a beat. ”Each era has its own themes. It’s fine if you don’t understand—but shallow criticism only makes you look foolish.”

The two women clashed like fighting roosters—sarcasm flying, neither yielding an inch.

Yet—

Cruella’s hands never stopped working.

She directed assistants, adjusted accessories, and personally refined model styling on the fly.

Charlize, for all her sharp tongue, didn’t interfere physically. She kept her distance, careful not to disrupt the workflow or damage anything.

After greeting them, Henry moved to a corner—out of everyone’s way.

Partly to avoid the battlefield.

Partly because the Barden brothers were there.

”Henry,” Jasper Barden greeted warmly.

After all, this man had saved his life back in Los Angeles.

Without Henry, Jasper might not have made it out alive.

Naturally, his attitude carried genuine gratitude.

Horace Barden, though more reserved, knew the story as well. Even he showed more friendliness than usual.

”Jasper, Horace. Good to see you,” Henry replied with equal ease.

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