Betty smacked the steering wheel hard, swore out of frustration, tossed her phone aside, stepped on the gas pedal, and started accelerating.
Just earlier, Bruce Banner had admitted her to the Arkham Sanatorium to recuperate. Although the sanatorium was located near the suburbs of New York and not too far off, it was still some distance away from the city center.
Unfortunately, to reach Gwen's laboratory from here, she had to traverse through the Brooklyn area. As Betty's car sped up, the number of bats she hit also increased.
The more bats that blocked her path, the faster she had to go. Once she stopped, the bats would immediately shatter the glass and fly in through the window.
Betty was no agent. She had never received professional critical driving training and could only rely on her intuition to control the vehicle. Shortly after reaching high speeds, her car was on the brink of spinning out of control.
At that moment, her phone, left on the passenger seat, began to ring. She picked it up and said, "Hello? Bruce? Uh... I... I'm in the sanatorium, the noise? You must have heard wrong ..."
"... Okay, I'm in the car now, I need to make a trip to the lab; there's some crucial information there that can have a significant impact on this vampire invasion war..."
"I said it already! I'm not crazy!" Betty bit back, "I'm not a lunatic! I don't need to stay in a sanatorium! Bruce Banner! Mind your own business; I don't want to talk to you..."
After she hung up the phone, she focused on driving. The phone on the passenger seat continued ringing incessantly. Growing impatient, Betty blindly hit the answer button and said, "Listen, Banner, I'm not your pet, or any personal object, you can't dictate my actions..."
"Are you going to repeat your idiotic arguments? You think only those who are strong enough can stand up? I don't need... Ross? Why are you calling?"
Whilst frantically steering and answering calls, the overwhelming chaos triggered her emotional eruption due to her already unstable mental state from psychological abuse. Betty shouted, "Are you going to threaten me again?! You damned violent maniac! A selfish, self-centered dictator!"
"Where are you hiding now? A safe military base maybe? What qualifications do you have to keep preaching about world peace?!!"
Betty tossed her hair back and veered left to avoid a looming bat. She said: "It has never been you maintaining world peace! If you only have this kind of courage, then hang up and crawl back into your safety hole!!"
After that, she reached out, forcefully pressing the end call button. But, a second later, instinctively she slammed on the brakes, with her body jolting against the steering wheel.
A cloud of black mist shrouded the windshield. As the steering wheel went out of control, the car spun and flew out, crashing into a utility pole on the side of the road.
Betty was a typical researcher and her physical health was frail, even weaker than average people. Untrained, she could not withstand such an impact.
As the airbags deployed, Betty passed out. At the same time, both men she had hung up on felt a sudden twinge in their hearts.
At the entrance to Brooklyn Bridge, the number of bats started to multiply, but so did the number of people arriving here.
Besides the police from various districts of New York, Nightingale and Fungi Man, who departed earlier, were the first to reach the top of a nearby building. They squinted to evaluate the situation, but soon after, they saw more people gathering.
Vampire hunters coming from the south had the most bats to contend with. Since their firearms and cold weapons were designed to specifically combat these airborne rats, the vampires could not hinder their progress.
"The vampire hunters have arrived as expected." Nighingale narrowed his eyes looking at the screen on his cheek, "For hundreds of years, there has been a group of people opposing vampires. Last time, they took care of the bats wreaking havoc in Brooklyn City Area...
Coming from the southern crossroads soon after was a team led by Matt. The most conspicuous was a black-haired girl in a red and white uniform, circling the air.
She flew faster and with more strength than the bats, dancing in mid-air, single-handedly battling bats. Although she couldn't combat the vampires' magic for the moment, she was still able to make a pathway for her team.
"Who is that girl?" Fungi Man asked, "I didn't hear about such a powerful superhero in New York..."
Nightingale touched his facemask and said, "I don't have this person in my database; she must have just started out recently..."
Just as Nightingale and Fungi Man were about to swoop down and join the fight, they heard a huge rumbling sound.
They turned back and saw a gigantic lizard monster, casually tossing several bats around like throwing a crumpled paper into a wastebasket. The bats that were in his grip, even the smallest ones, had a wingspan of over a meter.
"I've seen this giant lizard so many times!" Fungi Man scratched his head, "Why is he everywhere?"
"My guess; he must be a researcher." Nightingale looked at the data and analyzed, "His concoction must be very stable and controllable. Otherwise, he wouldn't appear only when he should and disappear when it's time."
Afterwards, Nightingale and Fungi Man jumped down and joined the others in battling the bats.
The bats' abilities hadn't changed much. More primitive vampires possessed talons and fangs.
The more advanced vampires had the magic of teleporting through black mist and talons. The bats they transformed into were larger and faster.
People bitten by them have a chance of death or turning into a vampire. However, if they have not gone through the proper first embrace, that is the exchange of blood, they cannot become high-level vampires who can wield magic. Moreover, those initial low-level vampires are weak and have no combat capabilities.
Therefore, in an extremely fierce battle, the high-level vampires would not attempt to convert humans. Their approach remains to aim to kill, either by targeting the head or the chest.
But the greatest strength of the human race lies in their ability to learn. During the last war with the bats, the human race was caught unprepared mainly due to a lack of experience and was forced to gather intelligence on the battlefield.
But this time, even most ordinary police officers knew the abilities of this group of bats and vampires. Some gifted ones could even anticipate their magic casting motions and with a freeze gun could catch them off guard.
Therefore, even though there were fewer people and less firepower this time, the formation did not collapse.
As more and more people joined in, the human forces managed to push to the entrance of the Brooklyn Bridge. A feat that cost countless lives in the last war.
However, Matt, the tactical master, noticed something amiss. He loudly exclaimed, "They're gathering strength. Perhaps waiting for something, retreat! Quickly retreat!"
Accompanying his shout spreading across the whole battlefield, everyone saw a mass of blood fog rise from the opposite side of the Brooklyn Bridge. A heart-pounding power swept across the entire battlefield.
All the bats shrieked, and they all simultaneously shouted a name: "Dracula!!!!!"
The vampire emerging from behind the blood fog revealed itself, dressed in a black and red suit, cloaked, with his eyes emaniting a red glow.
The moment he showed himself, the moonlight became extremely bright, and an eerie glow swept across the entire Brooklyn Bridge.
All the bats were excited in an instant. They all suddenly took to the sky, forming a terrifying tide of darkness, and swooped down on the humans.
In an instant, there was a hole in the human front line. Blade Warrior Eric, brandishing his longsword, shouted, "They've been strengthened! Retreat first, regroup our ranks!!"
While retreating, Matt was staring at Dracula in the sky, he said with a hint of surprise, "Eric, you didn't say he could do this..."
"Before this, indeed he couldn't! Dracula was merely stronger physically than other vampires, plus he had some magic that other vampires didn't know. He never revealed before that he could strengthen other vampires!!"
"What about our plan..."
"Proceed as usual!"
The human defensive line was retreating bit by bit. Just when everyone was feeling an enormous pressure, more streaks of light flew towards the battlefield.
After a roar, a black creature with fangs jumped onto the battlefield, biting off a vampire's head in one bite. The slime-like substance on its back stuck to a few bats and flung them away.
"Venom! Right side! Open up a breach!" Seeing Venom joining the battlefield, Matt immediately shouted.
The next second, with two mechanical tentacles, Doctor Octopus ripped open a breach in the swarm of bats. With the speedy of a real octopus, he lunged into the middle of the bat swarm.
"Zzzzzz-!!!"
After the electromagnetic explosion, numerous burnt bats fell down. The storm formed by the mechanical tentacles, like a blade piercing into the heart, charged straight towards Dracula.
"Quick, protect Lord Dracula!!" One of the people standing next to Dracula shouted, "Only he can restore the Blood Clan to its greatness!!!"
Several high-level vampires transformed into bats to engage Doctor Octopus. The mechanically enhanced tentacles were not afraid at all, causing a series of destructive storm while the electrical current roared incessantly.
Right at this moment, the shimmering light of a spider silk appeared in everyone's view. A figure in red and blue suddenly materialized, followed by several more identical figures.
The Amazing Spider-Man altered his usual agile fighting style. He directly leaped into the swarm of bats, swung a rock stuck on spider silk, and instantly knocked numerous bats away.
His roar echoed over the Brooklyn Bridge:
"Damn vampires!!! You dare to attack Gwen!!!!!!!!"
At this moment, an even angrier voice sounded:
"The Hulk!!!!!!!!!!!"