DAREDEVIL THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR #4
DEVIL'S DUE PART 4
By: Stephen Kelley
Matt was in serious trouble most if not the majority of his rib cage had been cracked or broken and he heard muscles tear in his abdomen, if Matt had to guess no he knew he was internally bleeding not enough to kill him, but enough to severely slow him "I'm not liking my chances, manslaughter has the advantage over me in my weakened condition" "I can read your mind sugar, doesn't matter if you're in a weakened state or not you'll die all the same" manslaughter said with casual confidence not concerning herself with how to get the job done. Matt grunted and groaned as he slowly crawled across the floor feeling a small trail of blood coming behind him and that's when Matt realized that his left knee had been twisted in the opposite direction, "great, couple of cracked ribs internal bleeding and now a busted left knee" "how many injuries you've piled up should be the least of your concerns right now"manslaughter said taunting and toying with him. "See Hon your mind is like a playground, and I'm the big kid that rules it"she said psychically attacking matts mind scrambling his radar sense, Matt couldn't decide which one of her was real and which one was a duplicate that she had placed in his mind. "Tough decision, on one hand one of these could be me, but then what if I'm standing outside and none of this is real then you would have thrown your billy club at a shadow"she said cackling.
Despite being in a lot of pain Matt focused his sense of hearing picking up on any hint as to where the real manslaughter was and he thought he heard, no wait he could hear it a slight ping to her step "you have spurs on your boots don't you"Matt said smirking through the pain "oh how clever you're trying to use your sense of hearing you almost had me that time"manslaughter said hovering herself off the ground "there we go" "yes indeed and I'm sorry " manslaughter looked at daredevil confused "sorry for what that you did make this interesting" "no for this"Matt said with a wincing smirk as he shot a grapple line into manslaughter's throat catching her by surprise as she fell flat on her back partly gasping for air as Matt secured part of the grapple line to her left leg and then tried out his new linear line grapple as the other half shot to another part of the room and zip-lined her by her left leg into the wall butt first then the back of her neck slamming/bouncing off nearly knocking her out. Manslaughter's collision with the wall broke the psychic attack on his senses and he realized where he was "and here I thought lady luck was gonna screw me over again"Matt said amusingly to himself grabbing an old-time radio and jumbling up the wires modifying it "sugar i don't know what you're doing to that radio but it ain't gonna help you"manslaughter said angrily "now I was gonna have some fun and games with you before I actually collapsed your mind in on itself, but now you've done made me mad" "well then this is REALLY gonna give you a headache"Matt winced as he turned the radio to full blast and grabbed at his ears as the high-pitched frequency that rang out, manslaughter started partly convulsing "turn it off, it's confusing me, can't focus my powers, feeling weak, and dizzy, dizzy"manslaughter said slowly crumbling from her "micro aneurysm". Matt barely shut off the radio as the room around him started spinning in his radar sense everything felt foggy and Misty, and right before he blacked out he saw figure approaching him and stood over him and he didn't even need to guess who it was "Kodiak"Matt said weakly "I must applaud your ingenuity comrade daredevil, but your sense of awareness is very sloppy"Kodiak said shaking his head in disapproval, "do not try to attack me you're much too weak, go ahead and pass out you've earned your rest for the next couple of hours"Kodiak said with genuine sincerity like a boss telling an employee that they've earned a weeks vacation. "Will... stop...you" "you will have your chance in due time "man without fear", but please rest I do not wish to fight you as a limp noodle it would be a how would you say "very unsporting"" Kodiak said partly pacing back and forth "anyway, I must go I have preparations to make"he said walking away from Matt but slowly turned back before he was fully gone and said "but I want you to know if you survive this night and not only stop the two other assassins and myself and the owl, you will have proven not only a worthy foe but you will have gained my respect"Kodiak said with a wolfish grin before walking away and disappearing while Matt gave up his fight to stay conscious and finally blacked out. The next thing Matt could feel and sense was somebody picking him up and carrying him but he was too weak to attack however Matt could hear the man's heartbeat, and he knew right away who it was that was carrying him as well as the man beside him making sure no witnesses saw them carry Matt off, "iron fist... Luke..." "hey man, don't be talkin we're gonna get you to your apartment and get you fixed up"Luke Cage said hitting the hidden backdoor panel to Matt's apartment and ascended the stairs, "yo Matt, you really got to invest in a damn elevator" "what's wrong Luke, all that big-time superstrength and you can't even run upstairs carrying somebody, I think Jess's cooking is making you fat"iron fist poked "shut up Danny, and for the record jesse's cooking ain't makin me fat, if that's the case you'd be just as fat as me". Luke and Danny reached the top of the hidden stairs to Matt's apartment where foggy met them at the entrance. "Jesus, Matt what the hell happened to you" "tried to be the one who flew over the cuckoo's nest"Matt weakly said sarcastically "you're about to bleed out and die, and your cracking jokes"foggy said angrily, "yo, make your dumb ass useful and go fetch me and Danny a first aid kit"Luke said annoyed "I swear, he's the only dude that I could possibly know who'd yell at a dead person for messing up the carpet and junk"Luke said tearing the chest area of matts costume so he and Danny could clean the wounds "perhaps I should do this Luke, you're not exactly known for your "gentle touch"", Luke just looked at Danny then let him clean matts wounds. When Matt came to at least he thought he had regained consciousness, he tried to sit up and a sharp pain shot through his abdomen and right pectoral "hey, hey, hey" Luke said rushing to Matt and laying him back down "your blind ass ain't going no damn where" "Luke's right Matt, I was able to use a portion of my chi to stop your internal bleeding and fix your knee, but if you're gonna tackle these assassins at least rest for a few hours give your body time to heal" "A FEW HOURS" foggy shrieked "foggy"Matt winced as he sharply raised his voice to his business partner and friend "oh, sorry Matt forgot super hearing really sensitive" "anyway"Luke said turning and looking at Matt, "me and Danny gotta split, between balancing my home life with Jess and Daniela, Danny being the Grand Master and junk, and the two of us on the new avengers task force we got our hands pretty full" "what Luke's saying Matt is be careful, you got lucky because me and Luke just happened to be passing by when you had your little "fight"with manslaughter, next time though you might not get so lucky" "yeah, hell for all you know Matt somebody could be out there in "the kitchen" right now with your secret identity"Luke said calmly but with a little bit of worry in his voice "the tabloids already think I'm daredevil, so it wouldn't be all that surprising in fact it'd be disappointing for the people at TMZ and whatnot, because everyone loves a good mystery and an even better dirt sheet"Matt said exhaustively with a smile. After Luke and Danny said their goodbyes and left and listening to foggy rant on and off for about a good hour hour and a half, Matt finally decided to relent and devote a couple of hours to sleep because he had a feeling it was gonna be the last peaceful thing he'd be doing. Meanwhile on the other side of the city the owl was livid "three, count them three assassins all failed and even worse, you keep taunting daredevil I'm not paying you to taunt him, to toy with him, I'm paying you to kill him and bring his carcass up to my office and lay him out like a bearskin rug is that clear to you COMRADE or shall I get one of my boys to translate it to you and Russian"owl spat at Kodiak whose face hardened as he leaned then so his face was meeting the owls, the centuries in the room all pointed their guns and one stepped forward "listen Russkie, the boss has "personal space issues"so would be very much appreciated if you"Kodiak grabbed the SMG and crushed the barrel like it was a wad of paper "and last time I checked, this meeting was between me and your boss not me your boss and you so unless you want to end up like your gun you will stand back and keep mouth shut yes"the other henchmen pointed their guns at him "put him down boys I'm not completely defenseless and I don't think Mr. Kodiak is here to pick a fight are you" "no I am not, and as far as me "taunting"I will conduct myself as I please I'm confident that I can take out "the man without fear"so the only thing you must concern yourself with is making sure you pay my fee on time" "you deliver daredevils corpse right here on my desk and hell you make him suffer I'll double it"owls snickered deviously "good"Kodiak said with a smile in his arms outstretched "glad we come to understanding" "but boss he"Kodiak world around with the speed of the jungle Tiger and backhanded the henchmen so hard that every bone in his face broke on impact and his head twisted 180°. "Was that necessary"owl said staring at Kodiak with annoyance in his voice "I told him to keep mouth shut, he did not do as I asked so I broke him" "oh well you two, dumped his body down the chute but make it look like an accident" "yes boss" "sure thing boss"the henchmen said as they nervously eyed Kodiak.
To be continued in part five
