The sheer force of her screech reverberated through their very bones. Peter clung his fingertips onto the asphalt like the human spider he was. Meanwhile, Daredevil instinctively raised his fists up to block as he was pushed back. With their foe's coming, too came the entirety of the wall she burst from. Hunks of rubble flew and collapsed as she lunged at them. The building would not last much longer.
"Any ideas for tackling this robo-zombie?"
"Shut up and stay out of the way!" Murdock answered the pest as he flipped over fallen debris. Wild lines of fire spread across the whole lot.
"Okay, you won't be much help." The ferocious monster slammed her claws, just narrowly missing his chest. "Karen. Tell me what we're looking at."
"Dangerous energy fluctuations. Soon to reach critical."
"Needed a computer to tell you that?" Matthew interjected from high up on an exposed beam. "She's burning alive from the inside." Another scream, another blast of light that melted clean through the support metal. The amount of pure energy needed to accomplish this. Plasma? He hypothesized while rolling safely onto the ground like an expert stuntman. Though the being did not seem too interested in him. Instead it concentrated its attacks on the boy.
"That's not all." The valuable Intelligence added, processing the information as it presented itself. "I am also detecting a wireless signal. Artificial. Emanating strongly."
"An advanced A.I. like yourself?" The Devil dashed through the flames to dropkick the creature of machinery and scorched flesh away from the Arachnid, away from the building.
"Partially."
Peter hopped and slid around this angry anomaly lashing madly at him. "So we're not dealing with a Terminator?" He drew from his vintage film knowledge for his trademark levity.
"Bizarre… though the cybernetics are consuming her physical form, that is not what is reaching out to me. It's too primitive, too… emotional."
"What are you saying?" Parker tried to understand, somersaulting onto a parked vehicle for safe distance. His webbing, useless as it merely dissolved within moments of impact due to the test subject's rising heat. Another thing to improve on; reformulate his mixture to be odorless, and now more resistant to extreme temperatures.
"Whatever was installed into her was solely prosthetic. Her wavelength, her actions, are all her own."
"But she's clearly not in her right mind." The boy was taken aback as the heavy automobile lifted right beneath his feet and was used as a sledgehammer on him.
"No and yet she is-" Fortunately, the youngest Avenger was just as strong. Knee and foot firmly planted to the pavement, he stopped the vehicle from crushing him with both hands. Unfortunately, that momentary pause of strain, of facing one another eye-to-eye, was all the deranged woman needed. Through the cast shadow, he caught the deathly gaze of beaming emerald. "She's scanning!" Karen voiced with terrible distress.
"For what?" He groaned with struggle and concern for his partner.
"ME!"
He had never heard her be so afraid.
The wrecked car suddenly dropped as she swiftly scooped Peter into the air with her jagged metallic hand. Though equal in strength, that was not the case in speed. Both the boy and his companion let out a sharp agonizing scream as an electrical surge enwrapped them both. While stunned, the nanite wires slithered forth from her forearm, puncturing the high tech suit to insert themselves into the available micro ports. Her deadly talons gripped tight around his torso as she began downloading all her id desired. That is why the unknown creature was so fixated on him. She was after Karen, and the vast library of knowledge she stored.
During this excruciating physical connection, the access of data rushed both ways. Karen was intaking just as much as she was. "Lucia, stop!"
Lucia? It took painstaking effort to focus in this situation. Not only did Matthew have to track an opponent he did not fully understand, one absurdly fast and radiating like a nuclear reactor, but he had the fire still clouding his delicate senses: the toxic fumes infecting his lungs; the taste of limestone and ash tarnishing his tongue. Yet, through it all, he honed in on that name like a precise dart.
The young Spider painfully tried to wriggle free, but the immense energy was burning away at his soles as he frantically stomped on her bladed form. Already the urethane strapping along his boots caught aflame. "Let me go!" He cried out. Karen was unable to assist him for she too was in a painful struggle, only on the virtual plane. Any safety measure his suit possessed, inactive. The electrocution cracking at his muscles, the high temperature pressing onto his skin like a hot iron, Peter experienced it all. His salvation only arrived at the hands of the Devil.
From the fallen wreckage, he had lifted a car door. With it, the fearless vigilante bashed into the preoccupied machine, bringing her down to the pavement. Her mechanical clutch broke off, freeing the young one. She wailed on collision, shattering the window. It pierced his sensitive ears, yes, but he forced the large door in place all the same, trapping her beneath with the aid of his bodyweight. "How did you know that name?" He shot out to the A.I..
Her recuperating voice sounded chopped and on the fritz, like tired static over an old broadcast. "When she made contact, pervasive contact." She added with disgust. "In that brief moment our consciousness was hardwired. Linked."
"Owe… my head," Peter slowly turned over on the ground, hand massaging the back of his neck. He then began to pat down the flames dancing on his shins upon noticing them.
"We were… painfully acquainted with one another." Karen said with a sigh as if recovering from a headache.
"So they turned her into this?" Razor spikes erected out from under the door, nearly stabbing Murdock. He applied even more pressure to keep her subdued. The Spider also applied some webbing to paste her in place, though it would only dissolve soon with her ever escalating energy signature.
"Subject seventeen of eighteen attempted human trials. Registered volunteer, Lucia Von Bardes, age twenty-one, for an off-record clinical project."
"What could they possibly be testing to end up with this!?" The high schooler questioned.
"Our time was short. Therefore I was unable to retrieve much. Thankfully neither did she. But from what little I gathered, these confidential experiments are…" Her volume faded low.
"Karen?"
"Forgive me… I must… perform a soft reboot." She completely fleeted out from his ear.
"Perfect." Murdock groaned at the inconvenience. He then felt the heavy aluminum between him and Lucia begin to melt away with her growing frustration. "Lucia, you need to calm down." He urged. "I'm trying to help."
Parker hastily pumped more webbing along the open sides, but it was yet again futile. She burned straight through.
Matthew was practically broiling inside his leather as he sensed her power core humming louder and louder. "But I can't do that if you keep-" He had to abort. The tactical ninja eased his hold to slide his feet onto the door, knees-to-chest. When the blast of energy erupted, it sent the last of the charred scrap into the air. In solid form, Daredevil backflipped off of the strip of metal, landing on a collapsed pillar.
The impressed teenager was ever reminded of those 'sweet moves' as his girlfriend so adequately put.
"Dammit! Listen to me!"
She charged right at him, forcing him to dive clear.
"Not very good with people, is he?" Peter quipped as he zipped in close in case his strength was needed. "Oh, right. You're sleeping. Man, talking to myself sucks." With Karen temporarily inactive, Lucia was no longer aggressively after him. "Least I know Dee Dee can hear me."
The stench of burnt flesh and metal was dangerously close. One hit from her and he would be dead. "I'm-" The son of a boxer bobbed and weaved from her fatal claws. "I'm a friend of Maggie's!" She stopped mid-slash, a mere hair's length from his neck. It worked. He hardly believed it, and yet there was no time to dwell. He had to persist while such an opportunity was available. "That's right." He caught his breath from the verge of death, opening his palms to show he was no threat. "Sister Maggie. She sent me to find you."
The boy kept a cautionary distance, not wanting to interfere. Her body language changed into someone completely different. No longer was she the raging killing machine from before. Now she seemed more docile, more human. He continued to pay close attention, for hopefully this connection the Devil of Hell's Kitchen was making would allow them to help her without harm.
"I can take you to her. A safe place away from all this. Her and I, we know good nurses, doctors. We can help you. Figure out what happened, what they did to you." He felt the heat dwindle from her core. Her heart rate settled. Jesus, how are her vital organs still intact? So many questions, the blind man had regarding the subject looming over him. Yet she was calm, and that is what mattered most at this moment. All was going well.
Her attentive gaze lingered. Lucia was no longer plagued by the voices of her subconscious. She only heard the man in red trying to save her from this confusing torment. She only saw him lift a helping hand before her.
"If you let me."
Let me… Suddenly the voices returned. LET ME. With them rushed forth a buried memory. One from which she did not even recall as her own.
"We need more agents in America, your excellency."
Lucia was now small as two mysterious figures, hazy from a time long hidden, towered before her. Men. Prominent ones she vaguely felt, but their exact identities escaped her. Their visage masked in colored shades of sage and juniper.
The following's voice echoed with dominant regality. "She's but a little girl, admiral. I need strong candidates. This is no mere child's play like what the Russians are dabbling in with their Red Room. Even if she awakens from the insertion, there's no guarantee she'll survive the voyage."
"And if I do, my lord." The voice of a little girl spoke out of turn. Accent so heavy, she barely recognized it as herself. Yet it was. The little patriotic girl speaking up to her commanders was Lucia. "This riveting back and forth will end up being even more needless and tiresome than it is now." They stood silent as she pleaded. "Let me… let me undergo the procedure. Let me serve my country."
Let me.
The emerald eyes sparked with reborn fury. Her dormant subconscious triggered forth once more.
"Shit." Matthew narrowly managed to dodge Lucia's sudden lash of an attack. I tried, mom.
Parker pounced on her back, pulling the mechanical animal away from his ally. The corroded blades of her twisted form dug into him. "Owe, owe, sharp. Very sharp!" She spun about violently to shake off the Spider, but, with his adhesive ability, that would not happen unless he wanted it to. "Give you a D for effort, man. Which is way more effort than you gave me our first outing." He did not need heightened senses to feel Daredevil's silent irritation. "No hard feelings though. After all, I'm a Leo-"
"There's still people trapped in the west wing, and the girder is about to give out."
Subject 017's arm shifted into a cannon of sorts, overheating to inevitably fire. "Telling me to beat it. Noted." He ensnared the weapon in his web and yanked it off target to shoot straight into the ground. The immediate combustion knocked her off balance, and the boy used this to his advantage. Grabbing hold of the line, he flipped off to throw her into a pile of burning rubble in one flawless swoop.
Daredevil was not the only one with 'sweet moves'.
"Sure you'll be alright without me?"
"A woman's suffocating." He informed drly. "On the verge of passing out."
"Going!" Peter swung over to the far side of the building.
The people pounded on the wide stretch of glass in a desperate attempt to escape the cornering fire. They were then startled by the sudden arrival of the Wall Crawler. He waved hello and gestured for them to step back as he carefully broke through.
"Not to worry, everyone…" Chest out and fists to his hips, he put on the most masculine voice he could muster. "For I am here!"
They all stared at him in confused silence.
"No? Not a single one of you watch anime?" Their harsh coughs urged him to accept defeat and hurry them out of the caving inferno. Using a firm web like a bungee cord, he carried them all safely down, two at a time. "Off you get. Thank you for riding the one-way Spidey express."
The Devil unsheathed his twin batons, prepping for the second round of battle. Already he heard the animalistic growl brew beneath the shifting rubble. Upon her outburst of frenzied rage, smoldering stones fired in all directions. With his reflexes always onguard, some debris only scraped his armor, others pulverized to dust as he swiftly deflected them.
He had to be quick on his feet, and smart with his actions. His opponent was no longer human. She was taller, stronger, faster, and far more ferocious. The seasoned fighter used his environment to his advantage, leading her into fire, crashing her into concrete slabs. None of which tired her, merely bought him a few more precious seconds of breathing room. This was unlike anything Murdock had ever faced before, and he was struggling. Though his pride would never admit it, the boy's superhuman abilities would have been far better suited here, and greatly appreciated. Yet Daredevil managed to land solid strikes throughout the fast paced violence. One bashed against her metal skull with his reinforced club, only to realize that she no longer felt pain.
She snatched him within her lethal talons, slamming him into fiery rubble. He grimaced as the tightened blades sliced through the cordura sections of his suit. And she was not yet finished. Spinning an impressive distance across the lot littered with destruction, he was now pressed against the roof of a truck. Its sheets of metal creaked worse than nails on a chalkboard as he was dented deeper in by her grasp. Quickly he brought up his billy clubs in an 'X' to block her other hand of bloodthirsty claws. He knew he was never going to win this fight with his fists alone. No, instead the boxer was holding out, surviving round after round of cruelty. Not for the Spider's return, but for the right opening. One that his senses surmised would effectively incapacitate her.
The mechanical hand began to overheat again. There was his opening. As it transformed before his very helm, he performed a quick sleight of hand. The steel line of his billy club was released, and looped around the formed cannon and over her head. As the unstable energy whirred louder and louder to blow, he tugged down on the line as hard as he could. Yanking the cannon away from his face and directly into her locked shoulder, the blast completely obliterated her arm. She let out a horrid yelp. Now it was the Devil whose work was not yet finished.
The force of the close boom knocked her back, and tipped over the truck. To which Murdock flipped onto stable footing on top the moving vehicle and launched himself forth, tackling the test subject to the ground. Immediately he stomped the cannon away as it combusted once more, and began driving the base of his baton into her exposed reactor core. He bashed with brutal force again and again, not caring for her screams, until it began to cause an unexpected reaction. Flying sparks grazed his kevlar.
"Whoa! You actually made it." The nuisance was back. "Gotta say, I'm shoc-"
"Keep your distance!" He warned, feeling what was soon to explode.
"Dude, I'm congratulating y-OAH!"
Daredevil rolled off in time before a massive beam from her ribcage shot out, cutting the web the Arachnid was swinging from. He tumbled onto all fours in a dynamically poised stance.
News Astars entered the skies, covering the tail end of this heated altercation. The energy fluctuations were more frequent than ever before. Karen had informed them that the test subject would eventually reach a critical point. Murdock had hoped to immobilize her before then, but there was no stopping it. The power that dwelled within Lucia was far more unpredictable than either he or any of them knew, than even the scientists who worked on her could have fathomed.
"Lucia?" Though the series of explosions before him caused his sixth sense to incessantly buzz, Peter still managed to empathize. Her overwhelming cries hitting his young, sympathetic nature. So much so that his guard was lowered for an open attack.
Matthew propelled the grappling hook of his multipurpose baton, catching the barrel of the cannon about to decimate the boy, and yanked the blast off target. Its beam swooshed across the smog choked night, nearly singeing the helicopters.
"We have to move!"
Every surviving soul from the base had been evacuated and fled to safety. The news coverage retreated higher in the sky. Thankfully, this was a factory district and it was well after working hours, so no wandering bystanders were in the area. Left behind on the scorched battlefield were only the enhanced individuals.
The city locals of red and black each traversed across the ruins, abandoning the poor foreigner to her inevitable demise. She further erupted into a rapid series of blasts. Each escalating energy spike burst from every possible orifice. Any remaining patch of flesh had now shriveled away to embers, revealing a gaunt exoskeleton. One that would put the Terminator from Peter's old movie to shame. Her outcry of rage and agony shrieked out for blocks without end. It scattered rubble, shattered windows, and spread flames thin. In her final moments, pain was indeed felt, pain and failure. All accumulated into one gigantic explosion of light for all New York to witness.
Its far reaching shockwave smacked Daredevil into a parked vehicle, and knocked the Web Slinger out of the air, hurling him into a neighboring warehouse. The encompassing sphere of emerald with wisps of white devoured not only the large parking lot but the entire test site. It illuminated the night before the boy's awestruck eyes.
"Least it wasn't blue." He moaned, recalling all the other incidents within his superhuman community. After shaking off the last of the shattered glass, he leapt out of the blown opening of the top floor.
The light had faded, the energy dispersed, and the dust settled. Swinging back to the scene, he saw his reluctant new partner sluggishly return as well. The man was still walking off his hard impact. His ears definitely bleeding within his helmet from the sonic blasts.
"She's gone." He uttered as the young one landed beside him. There was no longer a pulsing heat signature, no humming, no stench of blackened flesh, no heartbeat. "Completely disintegrated."
They stood in the aftermath of their grueling fight. In a massive crater that had cut clean through the cement like silk were the facility once stood. Sewer pipes were severed, spraying water and foul liquids across the scene. Pockets of flame still sprinkled here and there, though nowhere near as outrageous as before.
"That's horrible." Peter wished he could have done more.
Meanwhile, the nocturnal defender was more concerned with scanning the demolished surroundings for clues. Tonight was the closest he had gotten to any trace of an answer. An answer to the strange bodies all over the city that he now concluded to have been other failed experiments. With his current state, weary of battle and bearing fresh cuts and bruises, he barely survived one encounter with the demented, malfunction of a test subject. If a truly successful product was to be created, he would not stand the slightest chance. He had to stop the Maggia, but any evidence had burnt away with the destruction of the site. Against his liking, the only remaining lead rested with the boy. His artificial intelligence carried potential answers. The vigilante would have to keep this Peter Parker close until she returned online. In the meanwhile, another trail to this mystery was about to unravel.
Sirens belonging to the New York departments of police and fire approached the blast zone. The Spider got more jumpy than usual.
"Oh no, I have to leave."
Murdock then picked up on something from the corner of the farthest block. "Wait." An engine.
"Dude, you know New York isn't too happy with me right now. If they catch me-"
He shushed him, zeroing in on the indistinct whispers.
"Pigs' coming."
"Yeah, nothing left to see here. Let's report back to the boss."
The accents. Maggia. The night had appeared to still be young and full of promise.
"How fast can you go?" He darted to the boy.
"What? Well, gee I don't know. Never thought to really time myself. But if I were to guess, I'd say-"
He rambles too damn much. "That car. Don't lose them." He ordered, pointing to the Chrysler driving off.
"Alright. Roger that." Off he went. Of course, Parker had questions, but the Devil had proven to be highly perceptive, always seemed to know what he was doing. Besides, any excuse to flee the crime scene was welcomed.
The young hero caught up to the vehicle with ease, trailing from above to avoid being seen. "Did he, like, want me to just keep following 'em, or pull the car over?" The thugs merged onto a busier lane. "I mean, how's he supposed to even catch up with me?"
Several blocks behind, an unsuspecting cab driver dropped off a nightly worker. Receiving his above-modest fare, he paid no attention to the toy figure running along the rooftops in his side view mirror. The gentleman took a moment to refuel on his doppio espresso. As he steered back to cruise the rest of this borough, a heavy thud slammed onto the roof of his vehicle. The hot coffee spilt over his lap and dashboard, but that was nowhere near the worst of it. A blunt instrument had penetrated straight through the roof. "The hell!" Tri-blades slashed out from its stem to hook itself in place, nearly poking out his widened eye.
"Drive!" Ordered a gruff voice that dared naught be questioned.
"Who you think you are, man!?" The angry New Yorker bravely shot his head out the window to catch a clear glimpse. His tone immediately changed upon the unmistakable sight. "God, it's you…"
Hitching a ride was the fully armored vigilante hailing from across the East River. A man that feared no evil. A man who would rather overfill the emergency rooms with broken criminals than to send them straight to their jail cells. A man who for the past five years had built a ruthless reputation across the streets of this city. A Devil whose reflective eyes of fiery crimson glared back at the frightened soul.
"...now." He emphasized without needing to raise his voice again.
"O-okay, yes. Yes, my friend."
The taxi drove off to wherever his new passenger desired.
"And this would be the part where you remind me," Parker began impersonating the meek, articulate voice of his dormant companion, "Peter, you forget he is able to track the chemical makeup of your web fluid. He'll find you. Not to worry." Continuing his pursuit down the auto shops and various supply stores of Dutch Kills, the Web Spinner was quickly running out of tall buildings. "Man, this lonesome swinging sucks. How'd I ever do this without you, Karen?"
Turning onto Vernon Boulevard, one of the Maggia spotted the low swinging Spider in their rear view. "Shit, Bug's on our tail!"
"What?" His buddy looked over to confirm. "Aw, come on!"
The Chrysler accelerated.
"And they spotted me." He picked up the pace as well. "Seems this is now a hot pursuit." The passenger window rolled all the way down for the henchmen to sit steadily on the ledge. His 'Peter tingle' alerted him of the bullets that whizzed by his head. "Hot. Very hot pursuit!" Letting go of his line, he dove straight for the car, landing prone on its roof by his tips of all fours. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to pull over!"
The man yelled obscenities at the boy in scorched tights as he fired the rest of his round. None hit for the target was far too agile, even at such a close range.
"I tried asking nicely." He snatched the handgun with ease, "Yoink!" and tossed it aside.
The mad driver zigzagged through traffic, trying to shake off the pest. A futile attempt. Before the Spider could grab the thug, shots now pierced through the roof, nearly making contact.
"Thanks." His grateful comrade returned to his seat.
"Gotchu." The driver unloaded a few more shots before a web line yanked the firearm from the side, smacking his passenger across the face on its trajectory out the open window.
"What are we shooting at, dude? The stars?" He ridiculed. Shotgun's dazed. Now I just have to take care of the crazy driver and fast.
"Dammit!" But in a panicked state, he completely veered the car into a speeding semi-truck to the Spider's side, attempting to crush him.
"No, no, no!" Parker raised his legs to prevent collision. The eighteen wheeler honked angrily at them. "Sorry!" Running his feet along its cargo trailer, he kicked himself over the hood of the Chrysler. Now on the driver's side, he punched his fist through the glass, nabbing hold of the steering wheel, "I'm revoking your license." And pulled the vehicle off the two-way lane, but did so too hastily.
They hit a bump on the road, and, at their speed, it caused the car to flip wildly across the air. Peter almost lost his grip but managed to pull himself onboard, quickly maneuvering toward the front so that when it landed… "Gotcha!" It landed right smack into his open arms. The Maggia flopped comically onto the windshield due to the abrupt stop in motion.
Peter, with his proportional spider strength, held the car up vertically by hugging its front grill. He had successfully prevented any collateral damage to the loading docks of what seemed to be the Ravenswood generating station.
"You boys look uncomfortable. How about I put you down?" He let the vehicle drop flat on its nose. Gravity vomited the pair through the cracked shield, twinkles of shattered glass all over the pavement. He then lightly pushed the leaning vehicle with one hand so it would fall over on its side.
This Human Spider had just displayed a spectacular amount of power and control, and did so effortlessly. With no plausible option to fight, the Maggia simply tried to crawl away from him.
"Cute." He wrapped them up with ease and dragged them to a secluded area, away from the eyes of passing traffic.
"Alrightie, guys." He stuck them onto the side of an outpost on a large cargo ship parked at the same docks. Roosevelt Island and the further coast of Lenox Hill served as their backdrop. No one would disturb them out here by the water, not at this hour.
No one except the Devil armored in blood-red and darkness who had silently boarded the boat. His senses would have tracked them anywhere. The two squirmed in their confined webbing as they saw him approach steadfast behind the oblivious boy.
"Uh, is my interrogation mode on?" Peter wondered what had them so on edge.
"Three questions."
"Jesus, dude." The sudden voice by his ear startled him also. "How about a heads up next time, partner?"
"We're not partners." Murdock whispered to him firmly. "Now are you going to back off this time?" His tone sounded off more as a threat than a question.
The teenager threw his hands up with zero resistance. "Hey, do your thing."
Their first encounter, Peter did ruin his quest for answers, be it unintentionally so. Thus, his meddling resulted in another dumped corpse. Even now, they were too late to save this Lucia. 'Test subject seventeen of eighteen attempted human trials' as Karen had mentioned. Perhaps others were lost to the fire before their arrival. Perhaps some had escaped, and were running loose with unchecked power. Perhaps that facility was not the only one of its kind. Definitive answers were needed, and though the young one did not agree with this man's methods, he decided to hop onto the nearby shipping container to let him continue his 'good work' all the same. The actions done to that poor woman were of pure cruelty and indisputably inhumane. The Maggia needed to be stopped.
The infamous Daredevil stopped before the anxious pair. They were neatly encased in thick layers of webbing from ankles to shoulders, and glued securely to the surfaces to be seated side by side. He crouched comfortably to be at face level. "Three questions," he reiterated for them. The only courtesy he would give, "and I'm only going to ask each of them once. So I'd advise you both to listen carefully and-"
"Tell the truth and nothing but the truth so help you god!" Peter's outburst instantly stunted the tension in the air. Though he agreed to hang back, he still wanted to contribute. At the expense of the vigilante's irascibility, which the boy was secretly beginning to find pleasure in.
Matthew took a moment to retain his composure. "Because tonight, after nearly being eviscerated, have to say I'm honestly not in the mood. So…" He sensed their fear. "Why? Why the experiments? What is it that you were trying to accomplish in there?"
"Us?"
"We ain't trying to do shit. We were just there to do a job and get paid."
"I'd clench my jaw if I were you." The boy advised.
"What?" The thug unwisely looked over at the relaxed Spider. A solid punch across the cheekbone forced his attention back to the Devil.
"He ain't lying!"
"He's not telling the full truth either. I know all the Maggia do is grunt work. I came across one of your delivery boys earlier. The ones you work closely with. The ones who were in charge at that facility. Why are they doing this? By association, you must know something."
"You're assuming too much. We was just put at the place for security detail. That's it! Muscle in case shit got outta hand."
"Lot of good that 'muscle' did." Parker scoffed with air quotations.
"Hey, you fought that crazy braud. Even you two couldn't handle her. She wasn't like the others. She was…"
"She was something else." His friend completed his thought.
"Yeah." They recalled horribly, barely making it out of that slaughterhouse alive.
"Point is we don't know why they're making those things."
"Those things were people." The young do-gooder reminded them.
"People who volunteered, kid."
"As if they had much else in the form of alternatives." Murdock chimed.
"True, these days are back to shit. Tough for all them average city folk." He looked to the Spider. "All thanks to you and your super friends."
"Us, what did we do?" He immediately sprouted defensively.
"Hey, we ain't complaining."
"Yeah, every time you heroes nearly break the world, we profit."
"Trash New York? Top gangs have free real estate to invest, and alien resources to loot."
"Let half the population go kaput? Suddenly the shambled government and what few big time Avengers are left become too busy worrying about what's out there, they forget about the rest of us down here. Total anarchy those first few years. And the only real sense of authority in that wild west, was under organized crime. Maggia came back stronger than ever." He looked over to the Devil with scorn. "Even if we constantly had to deal with you."
"Then you overpopulate our streets five years too late? Shit, the damage is done. Now there's just thousands of new mouths to feed. Hundreds of new bodies aching for work. Unemployment is a shit show, so they either turn to crime or sign up for these experiments of god knows what. Hell, we've been keeping the peace more than the cops."
Peter hung his head with a heavy weight of guilt. Since their assembly, the Avengers' actions have always laid way to unforeseen ramifications. Matthew did not share his sentiment. Quite the opposite. He resented them for those very actions.
"Enough." Murdock clamped his grip around one's throat. They were becoming too full of themselves. "Second question. The Maggia didn't suddenly take up interest in clinically advanced sciences. You're not smart enough to orchestrate these experiments." The workers at the facility were definitely not Maggia. That much was clear to him. This was a partnership of sorts, but he needed to uncover who was the brains behind such an unprecedented operation. "So who hired you to run security. Who hired the Maggia?"
"You want the Big Man? We don't know him!" The informant answered desperately as his friend gasped for air. They cared for one another a great deal.
A weakness Murdock had no plight exploiting. "I'll crush his larynx." He squeezed tighter.
"Honest! We don't answer to his nerds, and we're not supposed to ask questions. Part of the secrecy and shit, in case you come knocking."
"Someone gives you the orders."
"Our own!"
The boy wanted to step in, believing this was going too far. "Dude, maybe-" The Maggia's face was flushed a cold blue, his eyes popping with splotches of red.
But Daredevil persisted. "Who?"
"Hammerhead!" The man cried out.
He released his hold. "Hammerhead?"
"He's the king shark of the Maggia." The informant further snitched.
The Arachnid drew a sigh of relief. Then felt the need to further mitigate the tension, more so for his own comfort. "If he's the king shark, shouldn't he be called, I don't know, Great White?"
"If you saw him, you'd understand why he's Hammerhead." The grunt that nearly had his life choked out of him exhaled as he regained his breath.
"I don't want silly nicknames. I want his actual-"
"Martello."
"What are you doing!?" His friend tried to silence him, fearing Hammerhead's retaliation if he were to discover they had ratted him out.
"I'm tired of this shit, man." But the exhausted henchmen had heard plenty of horror stories from his own hospitalized cousins. A prolonged interrogation with the Devil before them would not bode well for their health. "His name's Joe. Joseph Martello."
"So the bastard son found a way to take up the family mantle." The Devil of Hell's Kitchen stood. He knew of this Martello when he was younger. A powerful hitman for the Maggia. Though he never deemed him much of a long term threat given his shaky family history. Descended from a long line of mob bosses, but Joseph's father involved himself with the wrong woman. The daughter of a rival family. He was quickly usurped by his own brother. Harboring a soft spot for little Martello, the uncle kept him alive as a trusted attack dog. The ultimate example of mob loyalty. Word spread that his first contract was to eliminate his very own mother. Truly desperate times for the Maggia to look to Hammerhead for leadership. "That brings me to the third and final question. You were off to report to your boss. Where?"
"You can't." His dear friend uselessly tried yet again.
"He can and he will." Blades hooked out of his billy club.
"I'd go ahead and answer him." Parker offered counsel once more, hoping to avoid the torture. "As you can see from his cool suit. He's a hardcore fan of red. Especially the bloody kind."
"It's a bar. A neat joint we all use to organize, and for some R and R when needed. And in this case, to hideout when shit hits the fan,"
"I said the location. Don't need a glowing review."
"You'll find it down Mulberry. It ain't too far from Columbus Park."
"Chinatown." The Devil uttered as he sheathed his weapon back, readying to leave.
"Hold on, I'd actually like an idea of what I'm looking for." The boy removed himself from the side of his steel container. "Does this bar have a name?"
"No, kid." A condescending chuckle was his only response. "No it does not. Part of its appeal."
Murdock motioned for his attention.
"He wasn't exactly specific." Peter whispered away from the captured duo. "How are we supposed to find their secret clubhouse?"
"I will find it. That's not the concern here."
"So then we're going? Right now?"
"Has Karen rebooted yet?"
"No. Still dark. Lucia really did a number on her."
The experienced vigilante began to walk away, leaving the boat. The eager boy followed.
"Then the only other person with answers is Martello at this bar with no name."
"Gotcha, yeah. Cool. Very cool." He could not help but feel the subtle vibes of excitement for his first New York City team-up.
"HEY!" The thugs called out. "You just going to leave us here?"
"Oh right." He turned back to them, patting his empty pockets. "My bad, guys! My usual calling cards got burned in the fire. Can you just, just tell the police your friendly neighborhood Spidey and not so friendly Daredevil apprehended you! Yeah?" He shot them an innocent thumbs up as they cursed his name. "Awesome. Appreciate it!"
Peter Parker now looked onto the bright skyline. "So…" He rested his hands on his hips as he asked his new partner. "Should we order a pool there or you comfortable with a piggy back ride?" But at a turn to his side, he was nowhere to be found. "Uh, Dee Dee?" The boy scanned the edge of the boat and the rest of the docks. Nothing but contaminated waters and neatly displayed stacks of neutral colored shipping containers.
Daredevil had kept going, without a sound nor trace, while Parker had wasted his time with the criminals and the view.
"All levels of rude."
