Mars, 8:34 PM EST (Earth Time)
"Why the hell am I here?" Hopper huffed, his palms covered in the orange grains of sand that covered the martian surface, as he stared up at the strange being before him. At first, he thought he'd gone to hell, and he wouldn't be surprised if he actually had, but he began to understand very quickly that he was very much alive, but also that there was something else at play here.
Given any other situation, he wouldn't have been able to take this guy seriously, given the fact that he was naked and all. It was the fact that he was glowing that made him think twice about pissing him off. "You seem unwilling to take an educated guess," The man said, staring up into the night sky, the only light around them was that of the stars and his very skin. The blue man turned around, his eyes pure white, and the icon of a hydrogen atom seared onto his forehead. "It's fascinating how you humans seem to deny every obvious truth that is presented before you, believing it is too simple to be true."
"Forgive me for second guessing myself, your highness," The Police Chief huffed, standing up weakly, as the being watched him blankly. Of all the things that Hopper had seen in the past few years, this had to be the strangest. "What are you anyway?" He asked, pretending to care, "Some kinda god?"
"You're stalling."
"Oh, screw you."
"I understand." The man said, looking off to his side, as if something else had caught his attention, "I once was like you. Naive. I thought that if I waited long enough, things would change, or otherwise alter in my favor." He seemed sympathetic in that moment, it was strange. Of course, there was only one thing that he could possibly be here for.
It wasn't like it was that much of a surprise, there were lots of enemies that he'd made over the past couple years, particularly that of the supernatural like. "What do you want with her?" Hopper groveled, causing the man's head to snap up, as if he'd regained interest in their conversation. "Why are you so interested in her?"
The blue man stood there for a moment, staring at him silently, "Yes, he killed Blake and half New York." Hopper raised an eyebrow in confusion, before muscular smurf blinked, his expression changing to one of mild confusion, "Apologies, something has just changed. Tachyons can be quite irking sometimes."
"Tack-what nows?" Hopper asked.
"Adrian... yes, of course." The being mumbled, almost like he was talking to someone else entirely, "I have another matter to attend to, but I will return in five hours, six minutes, and fifty-two seconds... or, at least I think I will. Things are getting increasingly..."
"Insane?"
"...less-boring." The man said, looking up to the stars, his eyes fixated on one particular spot, "When I return, we will discuss your... daughter." Before Hopper could reply, a surge of bright blue energy enveloped them both, blinding him. It was loud for a moment, the sounds of cities, voices, cars, planes, and infinitely many other sounds blared loudly, only for it all to disappear just as quickly as it appeared, and the man was gone.
Hell's Kitchen, New York
2:30 AM
Things have gotten worse. So much worse. It's almost like after Thanos, god turned his back on us, leaving us to die to our climate change and gang wars. I look down onto the streets and I see dozens of groups of people, each with their own agenda, attacking each other with bats, knives, and even guns. People began to think the end was coming, and in that madness, all the crazies came out. You had ANTIFA and the KKK killing each other in the streets, both claiming it was for their respective party's benefit, you had the Italians and the Irish firing .50 caliber sniper rifles at each other from across town (No Man's Land, as it has been so fondly named), and just for good measure, Frank Castle was running around in there somewhere.
Politicians are more divided than ever, some claiming the decimation was a sign of jesus's second coming, and another saying it was the universe finally revealing it's true power to us. Either of them could be right, or both of them could be wrong. We had bring him back, we had to bring back god. Even if it means forcing him back, kicking and screaming, because maybe we don't deserve it.
That's coming from a blind catholic boy, by the way. Albeit one that has fallen very far from the tree.
"Damn." Foggy said, half laughing at the paper he had in his hands. Matthew Murdock sat across from him in their darkened office, the one that they'd purchased soon after Fisk went down. Karen was out chasing a lead she'd gotten on a case, interviewing cops, examining crime scenes- she loved that sort of thing. Foggy had been handling all the legal stuff when Matt had asked him to proof read the first chapter or so of the book he's been writing.
"What?" Matt smirked, lacing his fingers together, "Too much?" After all the things Matt had seen, all the people who died on his watch, he felt like it was an obligation of his to tell people what was happening to the world from his point of view. From Daredevil's point of view. Even if that point of view was... rather violent. Matt was careful to make sure that it felt plausible that a blind catholic lawyer could know the things he mentions in the book.
Foggy shook his head, lowering the paper from his eyes to look at his partner, "Its... just a little intense." Matt chuckled, leaning back in his chair.
"These are intense times Foggy, and intense times require intense truths." The man without fear replied, to which Foggy grunted in agreement. It had been roughly eight months since Fisk had been locked up... or, it would've been if the decimation hadn't happened. Matt and Karen had been erased, leaving Foggy on his own, and he was forced to return to his family's butcher shop to make end's meet, and even then, only his brother could bear to continue working at the shop, since the decimation ripped away his cousins and his father.
Foggy nodded, clearly painfully aware of how small both of them were in the grand scheme of things. Even with Matt's superhero life as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, they were two small fish in a big pond compared to the Avengers. Matt came back to life just outside of what was once the Avenger's tower, now being sold to some business man. The world was drastically different from what he remembered, the streets were trashed, traces of snow covered the pavement, not even mentioning the street art thrown up around every street corner.
"Sure," Foggy said, his mind deep in thought, "I just feel like this whole situation with the riots and the protests is rubbing off on all of us. And not in a good way." He was stating the obvious, everyone figured this out, but only a few were willing to speak openly about it. "So did you hear the news? About Spider-Man?" Foggy asked, catching Matt's attention.
"No, what happened?" Matt asked, at this point, everyone was losing their minds over the webslinger. All the school girls wanted to date him, the guys wanted to hang out with him, and the older guys (the same ones Matt has to deal with) wanted him arrested.
His partner pressed his hand to his eyes, "How do you not know these things, Matt? It's like every time some knowledge-bomb drops from the press drops, I have to tell you about it."
Matt sighed, "I've been couped up in here for twelve hours straight, Foggy. And it's not like I can just look at my phone."
Foggy shrugged his shoulders, but then answered, "That Mysterio guy released a video from the incident in London a few weeks ago, and it apparently Spider-Man was the one controlling those drones." Matt did a double take, that didn't seem right. The wall-crawler was clearly a teenager, and he hung out with the Avengers. Nothing gets by them, not even Daredevil's antics. "And they revealed his name too. Like, his real one."
"Holy shit."
"Yeah. He's just some kid from Queens, named Peter Parker." Foggy said, staring at his friend's famous poker-face. Matt knew he was doing it, and he knew Foggy knew he was doing it, but it was something he did out of habit, "So... I was thinking, since he's a little on the lower-income side..."
"No." Matt answered, making Foggy throw his hands up in the air.
"You serious? Imagine if you got unmasked like that! You got me and you have Karen, along with all the legal knowledge we have. Who's this guy got?" Matt looked at him incredulously, "Okay, maybe he's not entirely alone, but you know what I mean." He did know what he meant. In fact, he really did want to help this kid. And he was fairly certain they could win any cases that came against him, but that would attract a lot of attention. And attention isn't exactly a great way to keep his other life a secret.
"Let's say we do this, and we win. What then? The world still knows who he is." Matt said, "And we get a lot of unwanted press, from all over the world. You do realize you are suggesting we represent an Avenger here, don't you?" Foggy placed something on the table, and judging from the sound and vibrations the table made, it was a tape. Security footage from Fisk's penthouse the night he was arrested. Matt sighed, and Foggy raised his brow at him, "Oh, screw you. Fine, we'll do it."
Foggy pumped his fist, "Alright! Let's win this bitch!" Matt smirked at his friend's enthusiasm, and was pretty happy with the way the conversation ended as well- not that he would tell him that. There was a funny thing about being a catholic blind man who pretended to be the devil and beat up homicidal criminals- it was that you were a catholic blind man who pretended to be the devil and beat up homicidal criminals. But along with that counter-intuitive personality, came several admirable (or näive, depending on how you looked at it) qualities. One of those was that you had a soft spot for helpless individuals with hopeless cases. "Alright, so if this Parker kid went to-
-I mean, what's so funny? I don't get it. Somebody explain it to me!-
-att! Matt?" Foggy shouted, making Matt leap out of his seat in surprise. What was that? Foggy was standing on the other side of the table two seconds ago, and now he was only three feet away from him.
"What the..." His heart was beating very quickly, his mind racing at the sudden change in the environment, from something as large as flower pot that was on a cabinet a few minutes ago now disappearing, to being as subtle as a pen moved a few milimeters to the right.
It was almost like the world had cosmetically changed, with certain objects moving or being erased entirely, "Matt? You okay?" Foggy seemed like he hadn't noticed anything, like nothing had changed at all.
"I- Spider-Man- we were just..."
"Wait what?" Foggy asked, as Matt looked at him strangely, "What's a Spider-Man?"
The greatest trick
The Devil ever pulled was convincing the world
He didn't exist.
-Roger Klint
Got this done quicker than expect. Hope you're all enjoying this. Figured I'd insert Daredevil into the story because I needed someone else to be aware of the changes to MCU timeline. I was explain why he was the outlier in a world of people who forgot Spider-Man in the next chapter he's in, but for now- the next chapter with delve into where Spidey and Tony are right now, continue with Dan and Adrian's journey, and visit the DC universe.
Trust me, I know this seems like a bunch of abstract storylines all mixed together- but I promise you they will all tie-in to one another soon enough, and you will see all the characters together before long, just stay with me. Leave a review if you enjoyed, and I should have a new chapter posted soon enough (especially if you guys review. Plz) Thanks for reading!
-MB
