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"You have failed this city!"
As the Duck-form armor's startup voice line ended, Henry began running diagnostics on the suit.
The panther-form Duck-Leopard Armor used by Kitty had been designed based on the concepts of Iron Man's later metallic armors.
So it had an extremely heavy metal aesthetic, looking like a ferocious steel beast.
But the Duck Form was completely different.
Its outermost layer was covered in plush fabric camouflage, making it look like one of those costumed mascots often seen in amusement parks.
And because it was a duck, it inevitably reminded people of one of Disney's three flagship mascots—mouse, duck, and dog.
Still, since it wasn't wearing the signature sailor outfit, Disney's legal department probably wouldn't come after him...
Since it had no pants, the fluffy white duck backside was especially obvious.
But unlike that famous blue-and-white duck celebrity, this armor used green and white as its primary colors. Combined with the Punjabi-style cap adorned with pheasant feathers and the green eye mask, the whole thing looked absurdly like a cartoon character.
Yet no one should mistake this mascot-like appearance for low technology.
First of all, it was a highly airtight suit capable of spacewalking in vacuum.
That same vacuum-grade sealing effectively blocked vampire scent detection.
That was one major reason Henry chose this suit.
The second reason was that this armor integrated every weapons system Henry had designed.
Its raw destructive power wasn't particularly high. It couldn't effectively fight top-tier targets—certain superheroes or supervillains, whether technology-based or mutation-based.
But against large numbers of ordinary enemies, it was perfect for battlefield clearing.
After all, it had originally been designed with vampires as the primary hypothetical enemy, while also requiring a combat style that concealed Henry's personal traits.
Naturally, that meant using the grand American tradition:
Maximum firepower.
So besides the obvious machine gun mounted on the back, its main weapons were concealed railguns, while secondary weapons were small multi-directional tracking missiles.
Having chosen his battle suit, Henry began gearing up.
It wasn't troublesome.
Putting it on was more like climbing into a mascot costume than assembling Iron Man armor piece by piece.
Reloading ammunition was the real hassle.
The primary ammo bay was located in the duck butt.
Naturally, Henry loaded large quantities of specialized anti-vampire rounds.
Considering there might also be many vampire thralls—humans serving vampires as enforcers—ordinary ammunition was loaded as well.
Finally, driven by a certain malicious sense of humor, he draped two ammo belts across his body to feed the machine gun on his back.
In short:
This Green Arrow Duck didn't use bows or crossbows.
It used guns.
Once fully prepared, Green Arrow Duck entered the dedicated underground launch tunnel and shot into the night sky.
Each outstretched arm housed three thrusters, six total.
There were also two symmetrical hyper-acceleration systems mounted left and right.
The duck flippers on the feet contained anti-gravity devices built around trace amounts of gravitonium, providing lift.
Inside the helmet, instead of retinal projection, there was a panoramic display allowing the wearer to directly observe the outside world.
Through it, Green Arrow Duck noticed Kitty on the ground below, looking up and hopping excitedly as if asking to come play too.
Obviously, Green Arrow Duck was not bringing Kitty along.
She had already exposed him once in front of Jack Reacher.
If he wanted to walk the tiger in the future, he'd need another method.
Because artificial intelligence still wasn't fully reliable, the control system had three input methods:
Voice command.
Brainwave control.
And finger-joint buttons similar to those used previously to remote-control Little Duck.
With both arms held level, Henry opened and closed all ten fingers twice.
Then clenched both fists.
The moment the command was received—
All six thrusters fired at full power.
He broke the sound barrier instantly from a standing launch, creating a thunderous sonic boom.
At Mach 3 flight speed, Green Arrow Duck crossed from Goat Cave Valley wilderness to Los Angeles city airspace in just four minutes.
His first stop was Blade and Abraham Whistler's abandoned steel mill hideout.
Rather than wasting time searching for Blade directly, it was faster to examine the videotape message.
The tape would certainly contain clues.
Inside Blade's meditation room, Green Arrow Duck found the tape halfway played.
He didn't bother using a VCR or television.
Instead, he directly read the magnetic tape contents, converted it into digital video through the undersea basic quantum computing network, and played it in a small corner display inside the helmet.
From the footage, he quickly identified the named destination:
Edgewood Tower.
It also let Green Arrow Duck confirm what this world's Deacon Frost looked like.
A man who wasn't ugly.
Most notably, his face carried a hint of wickedness.
His appearance resembled the younger film version rather than the older comic version.
According to Blade earlier, this Frost was a turned vampire.
So he didn't get along with the purebloods born as vampires.
Among Los Angeles vampires, he belonged to the younger radical faction.
But "young" here was only relative to the ancient old vampires.
In truth, he was already three to four hundred years old.
Not some recently turned modern vampire.
Having confirmed the target, Green Arrow Duck naturally began gathering intelligence through networks—including government internal systems.
Edgewood Tower was actually the name of a downtown Los Angeles high-rise.
Ownership was mysterious.
It was almost never rented to outsiders.
Now it was obvious:
This was vampire property.
But entering a downtown skyscraper wasn't as simple as flying straight there.
The sun had only recently set, and downtown was still busy.
Green Arrow Duck's appearance had almost zero camouflage value.
Even flying high overhead, some enthusiastic citizen would probably notice and dial 911.
So direct level flight over downtown was impossible.
Instead, he needed to ascend vertically to high altitude, fly level unseen, then descend vertically onto the destination.
The building rooftop lacked a standard helicopter landing pad.
But the penthouse balcony featured an outdoor swimming pool, and the interior visible through windows was luxuriously decorated.
Clearly the owner was wealthy or powerful.
Not wanting to alarm whoever might be inside, Green Arrow Duck did not land on the balcony.
Instead, he slowed early and perched on a maintenance platform attached to a decorative rooftop spire.
The Duck-form armor had surveillance functions.
But compared with Henry's own kryptonian x-ray vision, it was nowhere close.
So Green Arrow Duck directly used the wearer's natural abilities to search for Blade.
Unfortunately, there was no sign of the half-vampire anywhere in the building.
There were, however, plenty of vampires.
Which confirmed this tower truly belonged to a vampire clan—otherwise such density would be impossible.
Thinking back to the movie, the final battle took place in a temple-like structure.
But nowhere inside this tower, including the basement, contained any such architectural level.
So had Blade been moved elsewhere?
Or lured away to another location?
It seemed the only way to know now...
Was to go inside, ask someone directly—
Or find another way to investigate.
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