a/n: my first fanfic. set in a very realistic and well designed marvel/dc earth. takes place before identity crisis and avenger's dissassembled.
disclaimer: i do not own any of the characters of marvel or d.c although i wish i did.
Chapter one- The pieces fall into place
The heavy rain poured mercilessly on Gotham city. 'Storm of the decade' was what the weatherman had called it. And indeed it was like nothing the city had ever known.
An army of umbrellas marched across the streets, trying to find shelter from the raging tempest that had engulfed their city.
Everyone was worried by the rain, everyone….but him.
Batman stood on the ledge of the gotham cathedral, his hand holding on to a nearby gargoyle statue for support. His visage, concealed by the weather and the night, made him impossible to see by an untrained eye. He watched meticulously at the teeming masses below him, observing them individually, watching for any suspicious characters.
"What, no bat-umbrella?" chuckled a voice behind him
"You're late" batman replied with a stern tone, not even bothering to look back.
"Hey going from New York to gotham isn't exactly a joy-ride, plus I got side-tracked by another goblin" the shadowy figure said as he plopped down unto the ledge and stood beside batman
"hmphf, I'm guessing it's another Osborne" batman said with a smirk
"Well, I'm guessing you didn't call me out here to your turf just to show-off your new-found comedic skills" Spider-man replied as he made a small somersault and landed on top of the gargoyle statue, facing batman.
Batman pulled out a small black ball and gently squeezed it. The ball immediately hummed to life with a faint glow and floated in front of batman and spider-man. The ball projected holographic images in front of them.
"2 weeks ago, oracle alerted me to several known criminals who had arrived in gotham under their civilian identities" numerous photos of rough looking men appeared simultaneously. Spider-man recognized some of them but the others were totally new to him.
"Quentin beck a.k.a Mysterio, Herman Schultz a.k.a The Shocker, Max Dillon a.k.a Electro, Aleksei Sytsevich a.k.a Rhino, Dr. Calvin Zabo a.k.a Mr. Hyde, and two individuals whom we have failed to identify" batman gave Spider-man an upset look.
"Your villains—your expertise---your helping" batman stated as he pulled out his grappling gun and prepared to leave.
"Wait! What do you mean by 'helping?'" spider-man quickly scaled the wall and confronted batman. Batman merely looked at him then fired his grappling gun and soared into the wet dark sky…
Gotham harbor: one hour ago
A large cargo freighter docked into pier 48. The vicious storm covered the whole harbor front in darkness. Ship crews hurriedly flee the docks, everyone except the staff of pier 48.
"Boss, I thought the kingpin sent all of his goons to you by road" the thug shivered; even with his thick sweater the cold rain still chilled his bones. The whole crew contended with the harsh weather. The only one accustomed to the current climate was Oswald Copplepot—known by most gothamites as The Penguin.
"No, the kingpin sent his b-list clowns by road, the ones in the freighter—those are the professionals" the penguin explained with a sadistic grin on his face.
His transaction with the kingpin was four months in the making. Penguin would supply him with mass-produced weapons courtesy of Arkham's residents; in exchange, the kingpin would allow him contract rights to New York's deadliest super-powered mercenaries. It was a brilliant deal for both the crime lords; the kingpin would be able to arm his enforcers with gadgetry crafted by maniacs like the joker, scarecrow, riddler, two-face, Mr. freeze and a host of other villains while the penguin could bolster his ranks with heavy-hitters like rhino, shocker, mysterio, electro and the rest of NYC's finest criminals.
It was a strange deal for the penguin but after the dark knight went on a successful three-week campaign resulting in the arrest and incarceration of 93 percent of gotham's criminal community, the penguin felt that he needed to take drastic measures otherwise batman would win his war on crime.
The ship docked successfully into the harbor. It took twenty minutes to unload the special passenger crates that penguin designed specifically to carry his cargo comfortably and stealthily through the Atlantic. The huge air conditioned crates were built to mimic a jet plane's first class section, they were secured by a voice activation lock, and only the penguin could release the madness the patiently sat inside the steel crates.
Three crates, all were hauled down onto the unloading zone. Penguin and ten of his armed thugs stood in front of the crates. The penguin pressed a small switch on his umbrella, beacons on the door of the three crates suddenly glowed green.
"Activation code—blue mackerel" the penguin said referring to his favorite fish, the doors slowly opened. One figure stepped out per crate. The thugs slowly inched away in fear of the three figures in front of them.
The penguin took a step forward and produced from his pocket a small piece of paper. He smiled gleefully at the three mass-murderers assembled in front of him.
"Welcome to Gotham city, BULLSEYE, NITRO, and TYPHOID MARY!
New york city: Now
Hells kitchen glimmered like an infernal gem in the night. Several apartment buildings were on fire, the cries of the innocent echoed into the blackness of the sky, police sirens wailed in the distance, gunfire faintly erupted from time to time and the worse part was that he could hear them all…
For a blind man, Matt Murdock was far more aware than most people with sight. A freak accident had stripped him of the use of his eyes when he was still a child but in return his remaining four senses were enhanced to superhuman levels. After graduating from Columbia University with top honors, matt decided to become a lawyer, he soon realized that the war on crime needed to be taken to another level; he donned a mask and forged a name. During the day he is Matt Murdock- New York's top lawyer, but at the night he is the man without fear…DAREDEVIL!
Daredevil crouched on the roof of an apartment; he just stayed there hearing the chaos that ensued all across New York. Though hell's kitchen received a heavy beating during the attacks earlier that night, all of New York was soon engulfed in a swift current of mob violence. The suit-wearing hordes of the NYC criminal community poured to the streets, totting hi-tech weaponry and odd-looking gadgets.
During those 3 hours of tortuous fighting, daredevil defended his turf from thugs wielding weapons he had little experience with- freeze-guns, assault rifles disguised as umbrellas, exploding stuff toys, fear-inducing gas grenades and a host of other goofy but deadly armaments.
Daredevil almost got killed, the thug's superior weaponry and insurmountable numbers almost overwhelmed daredevil--luckily for him he had friends.
Daredevil reflected on that particular moment, he had his back against the wall when suddenly out of nowhere, Luke cage along with the other 'new york knights' as they were called by the media, entered the fray throwing punches and kicking teeth. Iron fist, shang-chi, a de-powered moon knight, and blade all came in to assist daredevil in the fight. The fight ended with the criminals arrested and hell's kitchen purged of the threat.
After that, the New York knights dispersed to their respective neighborhoods to halt the crime wave there.
Daredevil just stood there, patiently waiting for any sign of trouble, a shadowy figure slowly crept behind him.
"Hey Luke, how are things in Harlem?" Daredevil took of his mask and ruffled his hair a bit. "Well, iron fist and I knocked down the goons there with ease, we let the police handle the leftovers" Luke cage went up beside daredevil and sat on a ledge next to him.
"I spoke to castle, a while ago" Luke said with a grim face. Everybody respected the punisher but hated his methods.
"Oh? About what?" Daredevil said pretending to be interested, the thought of the punisher fighting earlier tonight made his stomach turn, he disliked criminals but that didn't mean that he wanted them dead without a fair trial.
"Castle thinks that the weapons used by those thugs tonight didn't originate in New York" Luke explained.
"So where did they come from?" daredevil asked as he stood up, luke could tell from the tone of his voice that he was getting interested.
"Castle thinks they may have come from gotham city" luke said as he also stood up.
Daredevil flinched in disbelief. "gotham? That's batman's place, I don't think bat's would let something like this happen, especially with the number of lives at stake" daredevil pointed out with conviction. He respected batman and admired his dedication to keeping the whole of gotham city safe from crime. But in light of what had happened could he really trust that the batman was still in control of gotham? After all batman was known for keeping his activities to himself, neither the justice league nor the avengers were welcome in gotham. The dark knight has his own philosophy on dealing with crime and he hated it when other heroes intervened in his city.
"I dunno matt, batman never had any real back-up in guarding that city, except maybe his dinky sidekicks but it was gonna happen sooner or later, batman would have lost control of gotham—what makes you think tonight wasn't proof of that?" Luke raised his eyebrow at daredevil. Daredevil merely stared back at Luke cage with an unconvinced look. "Batman's been through a lot of dark times we have to respect his skills and give him benefit of the doubt, what makes you think we have the right to barge into gotham and take this into our own hands?" daredevil argued furiously, luke knew that he couldn't debate with daredevil—not in his lawyer mode.
"You're right—as always—but lets at least holla at him, ya know? Inform him on what went down here in New York, if we cant go into his turf then we can at least ask the world's greatest detective for some help—make him come here to our city" daredevil liked cage's idea.
"good plan, lets gather as many knights as we can, so we can coordinate a plan to put the city back on it's feet" daredevil said excitedly.
Luke cage was about to climb down the apartment's service ladder when daredevil called after him.
"Can you contact spider-man? With Dr Strange and ghost rider in another dimension we're going to need a heavy-hitter like him" daredevil noted to luke cage.
Luke cage was silent for a moment then with a nervous tone replied "ya know that's weird, throughout the whole night—spider man was nowhere to be seen"
