"Daredevil is a homo. Man, wait until I tell Turk." I could hear Jimmy smiling.
"What do you want, Jimmy?"
"You homo. You say you're cleaning up this neighborhood, and then you go kissing a man on the street. That's too far, man. Keep that shit down in the Village or something."
Good. He's angry, and getting close. I pretend to be calm.
I didn't notice the second person come from my side. I haven't taken a surprise hit like that in a while, just a solid fist to the side of the face, and it didn't hurt nearly like I remembered.
I spun quickly, blocking the next punch. I landed one of my own before Jimmy joined in. "You're off your game tonight, Daredevil."
Keep talking, Jimmy.
I've fought without my senses, before. As my enemies have learned how I fight, they've come up with ways to disarm me. But in the heat of the moment, when it really matters, I could almost always make them work.
"Rraaawwwrrrt" he yelled as he ran at me. Bless him.
I was actually able to duck down and flip him over my head. I stood and listened for the next attacker, but seemed to be alone.
My senses didn't return with this fight.
"Foggy?" I called out as I used the cane to orient myself. It's amazing how quickly I get turned around when the walls don't speak back.
Footsteps ran toward me. "Foggy?" I hoped it was him, and not another attacker.
"Are they going to be okay?" Foggy's voice asked.
I tried to summon my senses to check for a heartbeat, or anything. Nothing. Lots and lots of nothing. "I don't know. Do they look alive?"
Silence.
"Foggy?"
"Sorry. It's just weird for you to... Be like this."
"You're telling me."
Tap. Curb. Move left.
Tap. Clear, step forward. The stairs should be up here on the left. Tap. Tap. So little information with each tap, now. Without a word, Foggy stepped next to me and I took his arm.
Silently, he led me the next few feet to my house.
"You going to be okay?" Foggy asked.
"Yeah. He threw a light punch."
"You're bleeding pretty badly."
I took a deep breath. There was the light scent of blood. I touched my forehead. I could hardly feel the cut, but it was definitely there.
"I guess there are advantages to not being able to feel everything."
"I can stay-"
"No, I'll be fine, really. And I've started enough rumors about the two of us, already."
"No kiss goodnight?" Foggy asked.
"Sorry about that, by the way." I replied, glad he had taken it all in good spirits.
"I'm honored. Though I hope this doesn't mean some super-villian will be using me as bait, soon."
"Yeah. You're probably doomed. Make the most of it tonight, then."
"Call if you need me."
With that, Foggy was gone, and I had my house to myself.
I've lived in this neighborhood most of my life. There is a symphony from the City that floods through the windows, surrounding my life.
But right now, the silence is all so suffocating.
The key to meditation is to push everything away. Stick taught me to push through my hyper-senses and find an inner place where none of that mattered. Meditating should be easy now. But when there's nothing to push away, how do I go further?
I turned on some music. I turned it up as high as I could.
It wasn't enough, so I dug out an old radio, and found a station with just a little bit of static. This would have burned my ears. But now, it's just starting to feel like what I knew as "Normal."
More noise. I found three more radios. I could feel my heart rate decrease.
I sat in the floor, crossing my legs, and tried to find myself.
Nothing.
Nothing but nothing.
I turned off all the noise and was left with the vast nothingness of my house. I ran my fingers through my hair and remembered the cut. How much blood had I spread around, before and after meditating?
I took a shower, hot enough to scald my skin, and climbed into bed.
I couldn't sleep with all this silence.
So quiet.
I needed to feel something. I needed to hear things. So I went to the roof.
This feels better. Wind on my skin, traffic buzzing. I put my pillow down and lay there.
So little distractions, I don't have to concentrate so hard on pushing things away. This frees me up to think.
How did this happen?
My mind raced with my list of enemies, and their skill sets. Then the skills of their allies.
Perhaps I should have focused more on my allies. An overweight attorney is a great friend, but not much help in the superhero department. I wonder if any of this is affecting Peter Parker?
Overwhelmed with this idea, I go inside to call him.
"I just got to bed. I'm not getting out." Peter answered.
"Are you alone?" I asked.
"If someone else was here, wouldn't you know?"
"My senses aren't as great over the phone. Can we chat?"
"Are we under attack?"
"I don't know. Are you under attack?" I asked.
"Matt?"
"So it's all fine in Spidey world?"
"Except I'm sleep deprived."
"Stop by tomorrow?"
"How about I meet you on the library roof?"
"Meet me on my roof."
"Deal."
Obviously, Peter's skills are still sharp.
I go back to the roof, where the pre-dawn sounds odd the city walking up lulls me to sleep.
...
"Matt!"
I wake up hearing my name shouted. Groggily, I turn toward the voice.
"Matt, oh no, are you... Yeah you're okay."
I feel Foggy slap my face.
"What?"
"I got here this morning, and all of your things were here, but you were gone. When I saw all the blood, I assumed-"
"-that something happened."
I felt the cut on my face. It wasn't still bleeding.
"I was worried."
"Thanks."
I got up, taking my pillow.
"Why were you up here?"
"Trying to find enough noise to get to sleep. Sorry to have scared you."
"It's okay. I was being too paranoid."
"It was probably just the right amount of paranoid."
"Any change?"
I attempted to throw out my radar. "Nothing."
He walked closer. "I'm sure it will come back, soon."
He brushed his hand against mine-the proper signal for me to take his arm as a sighted guide. I was more accustomed to my own protocol when Foggy and I first met.
"I'm good, here, Foggy, but thank you."
"I'm trying to remember everything, buddy. It's been a while, though."
I followed the sound of my best friend's footsteps to the trap door into my house. I needed to put some extra effort into this law gig, since we were about to lose a few more cases than normal.
