The Amazing Crusader: All of the Defenders will have a chapter, as will Claire and Brett Mahoney (because, why not?)
"He said he had been a child soldier like I had."
Frank is a simple guy. From being a Marine and a father to becoming a vessel for justice (at least, he'd like to think he was) he knew that people died, they died in combat like his comrades in the Marines, or they sacrificed themselves for others like Red had. When Frank first learnt of Red's death, he thought of him as another soldier lost in battle. He had seen it before. They go off to war, and never come back. At least he didn't have to see the death this time.
But when the broadcast came out, Frank began to see Red in a different light. He began to compare Red's sacrifice to his children's deaths. His children had lost their innocence by dying. Red had lost his innocence through training. He didn't know which was worse: dying before you reached adulthood, or having your childhood ripped away from you and then being expected to carry on. Frank pushed the unsettling thought away from his mind. He had a job to do.
For a few weeks, there weren't any murders committed by the Punisher. Frank was busy. He had to find out who had trained Red and 'ask' why they chose a child to be part of their war. No matter the excuse, you don't use a child to fight your battles. It took nearly a month of investigating for Frank to find out who Red's 'teacher' was, only to find out that he was already dead. A waste of time.
And yet, Frank was angry that he wasn't the one to kill the old blind man. He didn't know how the guy died – though he had a faint idea that maybe the other super-powered people in Red's life had done it, or maybe that crazy chick who was dead, then alive, then dead again – but Frank had wanted to make the guy suffer. For Red. The thought had shocked Frank, as he hadn't really considered Red to be a friend. Although it made sense, the man was somebody to look up to even if his methods of exacting justice weren't efficient enough for Frank's taste. But Red had been a guy that had, despite everything, had become a force for good rather than evil.
Frank didn't care why Red became Red, it only mattered that he had and Hell's Kitchen had been better off with him.
Now, Hell's Kitchen was being protected by a kid with a glowing hand. Oh, how things have changed. For the worse, obviously, the kid wasn't very good.
Despite not having been Red's friend, so to say, Frank still thought that Red deserved a soldier's funeral. Or at least, the vigilante did, the lawyer didn't. He had been a terrible lawyer. Frank didn't have a horse-drawn limbers and caissons or an army of fighter jets, but he could still put the United States flag on Red's 'tomb'. Oddly enough, when Frank got to the fallen Midland Circle building, there was already several offerings towards the lost vigilante. Flowers, mainly, although he could see a scarf and devil horns (that had almost made Frank crack a smile) among the flora.
Frank picked up the scarf and used it to tie his flag to a lamppost that had survived the earthquake. He wondered why the clean-up crews that seemed to jump in whenever something involving a hero or vigilante happened hadn't done their job. Red's body shouldn't be staying under that building. The police at least should be looking through the rubble for evidence for prosecuting someone. Nobody should be believing the whole 'earthquake' story. Especially since at least one prominent 'person' had died and was buried under there.
Frank picked up the devil horns. Somebody should remind the police to do their job. He set off towards Hell Kitchen's police station, horns in hand now with a note reminding the police about Daredevil. He will tell Mahoney. He was one of the few non-dirty cops Hell's Kitchen had.
A/N: I know we don't see Castle in 'The Defenders' but I had to add him. I think he would think of Matt as an honourable soldier and comrade who died in battle, and would treat his memory as such. He died for what had to be done, so good job. The whole 'child soldier' thing would really play on Frank's conscience as he saw Matt as a force of good who came from a force of evil. He's a father first, a soldier second. Matt was a child forced into battle and the idea of a child who 'died' for a lack of a better term would really bring back bad memories for Frank. His children died before their time, Matt's innocence died before it really should have. If Stick weren't already dead, Frank would have hunted him down and killed him, one-armed blind man or not.