Interrogation

At a dam somewhere, a research facility owned by S.H.I.E.L.D. was hidden away. Pearl, who had been captured alive, was being held there.

When Nick Fury arrived, the song playing over the facility's broadcast system had just ended, and the system automatically switched to "YMCA" by Village People. He strode along to the beat, as if he had chosen it for his entrance music.

Suddenly, Nick Fury shivered for no apparent reason, goosebumps breaking out all over his body. A strange feeling came over him, as if he had somehow slipped into a role he really didn't want.

When he reached the room where Pearl was being held, the song's hypnotic rhythm and lyrics got to him. Seeing Wei Xiuming standing there with his arms crossed, Nick Fury found himself blurting out, "Hey, young man!"

Wei Xiuming turned to look at Nick Fury, wondering if the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was so stressed that it had affected his speech. "You're here. We can begin questioning him."

Nick Fury asked, "Why are you playing music? Doesn't that increase the risk of exposing the facility? And you're playing an eighties song, too."

Nick Fury didn't comment on Wei Xiuming's unusual taste in entertainment, like his fondness for old TV shows such as Star Trek, or songs by Village People, a band made up of gay men.

"Playing music was approved by a democratic vote. Aside from a handful of people, everyone else agreed we should have music in the facility," Wei Xiuming said matter-of-factly.

Nick Fury's temple throbbed. He suddenly wanted to say, "Motherfucker." This was a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, and discipline was paramount in an intelligence organization. Even if this was a research center staffed mostly by scientists, it was still part of an intelligence agency. Democracy was the last thing they needed here.

He strongly suspected Wei Xiuming knew that he had sent people to transport the Insectoid corpses and was deliberately making things difficult for him.

Turning to look at the vampire Pearl in custody, Nick Fury saw that he wasn't strapped to an interrogation chair. Instead, he was suspended in midair. Seven chains welded to the steel beams in the ceiling stretched taut. Straps attached to the other ends bound Pearl's right arm from wrist to shoulder, while several iron hooks connected to chains pierced his left shoulder. A collar around his neck forced him to keep his head raised at all times.

All of Pearl's weight hung from the straps wrapped around his joints. His weight of over eight hundred pounds put so much pressure on them that he felt as if he were being laid across a blade. His left shoulder was especially painful, the hooks piercing his flesh and bone causing a tearing agony.

"Turn off the music."

Seeing Nick Fury's face darken further, Wei Xiuming picked up the walkie-talkie and called out an order. The music stopped at once in the central control room, and Black Eggplant immediately understood why most people in the facility had agreed to play music over the broadcast system.

Pearl might try to be clever when giving up information, but he wasn't particularly strong-willed. Even just hanging there, the pain he was suffering had already made him scream loudly.

The sound was so awful that it made you want to bash your head against a wall—many times worse than a pig squealing when it was slaughtered in a village before the New Year. It was extremely high-pitched and carried so far that it could be heard clearly through a wall. Even earplugs did no good. The dam's enclosed space made the screams even louder, like a resonating chamber.

His screams climbed to another level as soon as he saw Nick Fury. His fat body twisted incessantly in midair as he sobbed, "You... you son of a bitch! You can't... you can't do this, you can't!"

Nick Fury managed to resist the instinct to cover his ears. Frowning, he asked Wei Xiuming, "What did you do to him?"

"Other than hanging him up because we didn't have an interrogation chair that could fit him, I haven't done anything," Wei Xiuming said. "I just told him you'd be the one questioning him. Since he'd been uncooperative, he'd have to be punished to some degree before the questioning began."

"We can begin now." Wei Xiuming spoke into the walkie-talkie. The staff member in the room with Pearl picked up a syringe and injected its contents into the IV catheter already placed in Pearl's vein.

"You bastards, get away from me! Get away! Keep your filthy hands off me! Please, I'll tell you everything!"

Twenty seconds later, the drug took effect. Pearl could no longer curse; all he could do was howl in pain. As he struggled, the hooks tore through his flesh, only for his body to rapidly heal thanks to his unusual physiology. Even so, half his body was stained red with blood.

Then the broadcast system began playing upbeat music again to drown out Pearl's screams. Wei Xiuming and Nick Fury watched from the side. During the ordeal, Wei Xiuming even took the time to explain, "I stumbled upon this drug while researching human emotions. It doesn't cause any physical harm. Once it enters the brain through the bloodstream, it directly stimulates the pain center and produces unimaginable agony. On the numeric pain scale, I'd put it at level eleven."

The internationally recognized pain scale only went up to ten. Level eleven was beyond comprehension.

"Once we've dealt with the vampires, I'll need to leave for a while," Wei Xiuming said very seriously. "The Knight System developed to fight the Insectoids is completely ready, and the enhancements to its users are nearly finished. All that remains is to slowly clear out the Insectoids hiding in society."

Wei Xiuming had grown increasingly fond of research. It was the only thing he truly felt he could control. Getting stronger was no use. The only two times he had fought, the first had been against The Ancient One, who had trounced him with her flexible use of magic and unique tactics. The second had been against Pearl. Wei Xiuming had already built up his momentum, but then Pearl revealed that he knew a great deal about the vampire industry and the Book of the Blood God. Wei Xiuming had been forced to hold back and spare him, so they could move forward with their campaign against the vampires.

"What are you planning to do?" Nick Fury asked.

The Tesseract had already been taken away by Coulson from a parallel universe. If he lost Wei Xiuming too—a source of funding and a treasure trove of technology—Nick Fury figured he'd be in tears.

"I'm going to deal with the Mages," Wei Xiuming said. "I want to learn some things from them, and stop some of them from getting carried away and bringing extradimensional demons here. We haven't developed any weapons to resist God yet."

As he spoke, Wei Xiuming clenched his fist. "Neither the Knight System nor the development of my own power is anywhere near enough. I'll have to find another path and draw power from magic!"