"THE RED VICTORY SAGA" - Chapter One: A Mind Made Up

We apologize for the choppy and random structure of this chapter. It was our first roleplay together as Daredevil & Elektra. Your reviews are appreciated. Feedback is important to us.


A few weeks before Christmas. Midnight over Hell's Kitchen.

ELEKTRA's eyes were on the shadowy man in red. Sonofabitch... It never failed to amaze her how well he could balance himself on the thinnest of platforms. Him. Who else. Daredevil. Who the hell else could run on electric wire without losing his balance? It was hard keeping up with him, but Matt was not the only acrobatic presence on the scene. She was here to kill the crook he was fighting. Murdock was there to arrest him. Elektra disappeared from the rooftop in a flutter of silk, scaling down to the rain-slick, cobblestone grounds in a matter of moments. Don't test me today, Murdock.

DAREDEVIL neatly dodged a roundhouse unmistakably aimed at his head. And when he ducked, he caught a scent. Don't test me today, Elektra.

ELEKTRA An arrow whistled through the air at breakneck speed. More like a sai, actually - well placed and on target. It impaled Daredevil's attacker onto the wooden shipping crate behind him. Elektra was now $10,000 richer. Chump change, but sometimes the thrill of the kill was enough to inspire her...

ELEKTRA was usually not the type to introduce her presence, but... "You look surprised to see me."

DAREDEVIL offered a sigh, his "line of sight" drifting towards where he could hear each individual drop of blood leak from the baddie hitting the wooden dock. His jawline clenched in consternation. "Why am I not, then. I shouldn't insult your aim, but that wasn't meant for me, was it?"

ELEKTRA approached quietly, her mission accomplished. The smart-alec attitude was quickly dropped - it wasn't really her cup of tea. Besides, she hasn't touched him in years... That'd remain so tonight... "Give me a reason why the next one should miss. I have another one of those, Matt..." She was close enough to smell him. Hmm. Her voice lowered. "Heard of you in the papers. Thought I'd say...not like you to pull out." Elektra pulled her bloodstained sai off the corpse. Her target crumpled to the wet concrete. Why, she wondered, was she even talking to him?

DAREDEVIL folded his arms, offering what really ought to have been a piercing glare at the Greek woman formerly known as his lover. "Because you haven't used it yet." There was no arrogance in his answer - he was stating a fact. Elektra didn't make small talk on business outings. "There's no future in it," Matt added, following the sound of her footsteps.

ELEKTRA studied him carefully... In the blink of an eye, she had switched to a side stance and sent a toned leg at his head, the speed of her kick equaling lightning.

DAREDEVIL avoided her attack with a speed that matched hers. He resurfaced with an accusatory stare for the ninja.

ELEKTRA An arrogant smirk spread across her features, despite herself. "I'd say there's still a future left in that..." Elektra grew serious. "You're insane. You're letting the media influence who you are."

DAREDEVIL drew a perturbed expression. "I'm -not-, actually." He spoke slowly, enunciating each word as if that ought to be the final word on the subject. But then, he was talking to Elektra here. She couldn't be bothered with notions like "leaving things be".

ELEKTRA stood her ground, eyeing his lips which were set in a stony expression. There was once a time when he never cared to frown at her like that... "Take off your mask," she instructed. "I want you to look at me."

DAREDEVIL If anything could be heard from between the grinding of teeth it was: "Everyone's a comedian." But he took off his mask anyway. "I'm trusting there's no media around," Matt continued in a rather self-effacing manner.

ELEKTRA The sai tips teasingly tapping at the curves of his jaws should feel cold. It was unlike her to get so close to him like this, but she had understood the urgency in Black Widow's phone call and took it upon herself to play savior. This was not the Matt Murdock she remembered. The one she knew never gave up. Over anything. Not even when a truckload of radioactive waste took away his goddamn sight. She let him know that. "Listen to me carefully... I don't make house visits here, Matt, so use this time wisely..." Her voice was in itself an aphrodisiac. "What's wrong?"

DAREDEVIL's expression was set in stone. Before she could do anything about it, he had his hands around her wrists, lowering them away from his face. It was a tempting thought to just kiss her and tell her to butt out. Couldn't make himself do it, though. Well...the butting out part, anyhow. Staring intently at where he knew her face to be, he sighed and mentally rejected the quip that was practically out of his mouth. "It's complicated. One of those things that shouldn't be committed to the spoken word because it makes more sense when it's only you thinking about it."

ELEKTRA had but one thing to say to that. "Then why are you still in that uniform? Taking it upon yourself to deal out justice even when it's no longer your business? I've never known you to be a hypocrite." His words were familiar. He may not have remembered, but she did. Years ago, he had told her that exact same thing the very afternoon she saw her father's dead body wheeled away in a cadaver bag. He had told her then that things would only complicate themselves if she let it.

ELEKTRA's hands retreated away from his touch, her footsteps following soon thereafter. She slinked back. "Why are you afraid of the truth? You ARE Daredevil."

DAREDEVIL stared hard in the direction her voice issued from before an almost inhuman feat saw him perched atop a set of crates, about to dismiss her presence. "Not anymore, Elektra."

ELEKTRA froze in her tracks. She was utterly unimpressed. Irate, perhaps. "I never thought I'd say this, but you disappoint me. Quit, if you're tired of the game. Quit, if you've stopped giving a damn about this city. Quit, if you're no longer the same Matt Murdock I remember. But do your fanboys a favor and take a good, hard look at yourself. You can't escape the truth." And with that, Elektra dropped her concern for him and disappeared back into the night. It would be the last time she'd lecture him.

DAREDEVIL merely heaved a sigh into the breeze that came in over the river. "Women."