Chapter Three
The Daredevil and Predator Meet - Part One: The Daredevil
The Daredevil leaped from the 15 story building, extending his right arm releasing his slender curved grappling hook onto the building ahead of him then gracefully swung to it.
He did this from building to building with the occasional jump or flip off one of the surfaces. looking like an acrobatic one would only see in a circus.
As always, when he was out fighting crime, he was wearing his red leather outfit. Boots with buckled latches and a holster for his farther advanced numb chucks just above the boots strapped to his leg, his thick leather pants with a belt strap around his waist and holster on his right hip that held his Billy Club. A jacket fitted to his body that covered his arms, and a mask with two inch long horns protruding from just the front of his upper forehead wrapping around the top of his head leaving the bottom half of his head for all to see. His eyes hidden by black opal eyes reflecting whatever they were facing allowing his eyes to stay hidden.
His Billy Club was a unique weapon of two parts and could be disguised as his walking cane when put together. With a twist of the silver knob to the human face engraved on the end his walking cane would appear, twisting it again to the devil's head would retract the cane and open the grappling hook. When placing both hands on the club and twisting it, it would come apart as his two, heavy weighted batons. His heavy weighted numb-chucks were like the regular numb-chucks created by the Japanese, but the cable holding them together could be extended to four feet in length.
A lot was on his mind tonight, including the past couple of days; he had just been shot in the right shoulder after having been caught in a cross fire of rival gangs between the 8-Balls and Scorpions. Casandra had just broken up with him and there had been a string of bizarre murders, someone was going around cutting off heads, slicing bodies in half, stabbing the bodies repeatedly and the worst, skinning them then hanging them by their ankles.
He had found one of the crime scenes mere minutes after it had happened and heard later through the news the victims were just some junkies but this time the news didn't say anything of the disemboweled bodies.
It was surely the same person but who was it? The only name he had was what the news and everyone on the street was calling him, The Butcherer.
Landing on a rooftop shaking the thought out of his head, it didn't matter who the person was but that this had to come to a stop. This guy so far only went around killing gun toting, junkie trouble makers, but even he, Matt Murdock, the famous Daredevil didn't create bloody massacres to be seen on the news by kids.
Matt was about to jump off the building until his keen ears picked up the cries for help.
"Help me!" A woman yelled, "Somebody help me!"
"Quit your screaming bitch, no one's gonna help you." A male voice replied, obviously her tormentor.
The Daredevil smirked, "You're wrong about that" He said to himself just before he leaped off the building heading to where the two were.
All Matt had to do was keep his ears open and look for a woman being attacked by a man. It was simple actually, he had trained himself to his peek where he could pick up and pinpoint these things in seconds.
"The Daredevil will!" The woman cried.
"I'm coming, Lady." Matt said aloud as he looked to his left while swinging, "Just hold on." Then looked to his right and came to a stop standing on the side of a building. He saw three people in the distance through a building in an alley way; two large bulky figures, one larger then the other and a slender petite one pressed against the wall.
"The Daredevil," The man holding the woman laughed, "That's only a myth."
"Either the Daredevil will," The second smaller man said in a thick English accent who was the farthest away from the figures, "Or that bloody butcherer will."
Unlatching himself from the building and started leaping through the air once again headed to where the three figures were.
The larger man turned his head to his buddy, "Shut up man!" His large hand clasped onto the woman's small shoulders.
Now finally standing on the ledge just above the three, "That murderer won't get you," He bellowed to them, "but I will."
All three looked up.
The smaller man being smart had turned around and ran for the street, meanwhile the woman had laid both her hands on her torementor's shoulders and drove her knee into his crotch.
It was instant and the man fell to his knees with a loud painful groan.
The woman slipped passed the man also running to the street, her high heels clomping along the way as she did so. "I'll call the cops! Thanks!" She yelled as she ran.
Matt couldn't help but smile as he watched her run off. Did she really need his help in the first place? Too bad he couldn't have fan mail. But he quickly turned his attention back to the man still on his knees moaning by some over flowing trash cans.
Jumping forward to the building in front of him and bounced off of it by the balls of his toes heading down to a fire escape ladder. Laying both hands on the bars extending his feet to the wall pushing himself backwards into a flip then landed safely on one knee and foot with a palm pressed to the trash littered ground.
"Ooo," The man teased, now standing on his feet, his back against the wall. "So fucking pretty man. You should try out for the Olympics."
Matt got to his feet and smiled, his body covered in shadow to the point where he was the silhouette of a shadow himself. Without warning he jumped to the man laying his right hand into his gut.
The man cried out holding his holding his stomach and started to fall forward.
Before the man could fall to his knees again Matt swung his left hand around boxing his jaw making him fall sideways onto a trash can that fell in a loud clatter with him, his large and hurt body covered with rotting food and other nasty trash.
Matt's face cringed over the stench emanating from him.
The man rolled onto his left side lifting his right arm in the air showing his bare palm and pleaded. "D-Don't kill me man. I wasn't going to hurt her."
"Yeah," Matt said to himself, "they always say that." He walked to the man's head looking down to him, "I won't kill you." He said just before he kicked his head knocking him out. "Bu that doesn't mean you won't go to jail."
Just then a loud clash of falling trash cans made him jump back in surprise, looking in the direction the noise came from. It went further into the alley way behind a building, a drunk man from the looks of it was stumbling around.
Matt shook his head with a sigh, people these days, walking down the alley to the man seeing if he was in need of help, but the appearance of the man began to take shape with the more noise he made.
The drunk was big, a giant as a matter of fact, the height of a basketball player but the body width of a Line Backer.
The drunk fell to his hands and knees and started vomiting.
That's when Matt gasped. Did his vision finally go down the drain, or was this some guy in a costume? He didn't look human, not at all, he was hideous: Mandibles for a mouth, no nose, a big flat forehead with thick tentacle looking dreadlocks, the rest of him looked more human, in a way. This had to be a costume.
"What are you doing here, you should be at home?" Matt said, "Whichever planet you come from." He said to himself as a joke.
The drunk said nothing but lifted his head, saliva and vomit dripping from his deformed mouth.
Matt's stomach started doing flips over the site of his ugly warped face, and came to the dreadful realization, this wasn't a costume. "Who-who are you?" He decided to ask.
The drunk said nothing but lunged at him slamming his back onto the nearest wall driving two knifes into his left shoulder.
Matt screamed aloud, lifting his right hand and swung with all his might to the guy's lower mandible, where the chin would be on a human then he was dropped. Laying his hand on his injured shoulder, "Damn, first I get shot in my right shoulder then stabbed in my left. What next?" He clenched his teeth in a groan, his wound throbbing as he sat their watching the guy stumble about, trying to stay on his feet. What was the matter with this guy?
He reached for his Billy Club, quickly switching it to the grappling hook and threw it at him.
The guy had apparently seen the grappling hook thrown at him when he tried to dodge it.
This surprised Matt that anyone could even see the grappling hook hurling at them too actually dodge it, but he wasn't fast enough as he watched the blade of his weapon impale his opponent's side.
He opened his toothy mouth letting out a tremendous roar of pain.
The roar so loud and terrifying it sent shivers up Matt's spine.
Then he fell to one knee, his hands wrapped around the blade in his side then pulled it out, a screech escaping his lungs as he did so then let if fall to the ground with a clang.
Matt forced himself to his feet and so did his opponent.
"Freeze!" A male voice yelled, making the two turn their attention where the voice had come from. "Hands on the back of your head and face on the ground! Both of you!" The police officer in his blue iron pressed uniform ordered, his female partner quietly standing beside him, both their hand-held weapons pointed at them.
Matt shakily extended his right hand in front of him showing his bloody palm. "No!" He yelled to them, "Stand back! This guy is crazy!"
"I said, kiss the ground!" The officer ordered again.
"You don't understand!" He yelled back, "The guy isn't hu . . ." Matt stopped and stood in shock when a round device all of a sudden rendered the officer in two.
The woman screamed her partner's last name and started firing at her partner's killer.
Matt was stunned as he watched the killer dodge the bullets that were being shot at him, pings and sparks could be heard and seen from what bullets grazed his armor but none the less had penetrated his body.
Within seconds the killer had made his way to the female officer.
Matt running to the woman trying to intervene the two.
The killer lifted his big right arm as she turned around to run away, he balled his fist then two large curved blades unsheathed from his metal wrist gauntlet and he drove the blades into her back.
The officer screamed a high pitch scream then she stopped moving and her arms fell to her side, her gun dropping to the ground by her feet in a clatter.
"You jerk!" Matt yelled, jumping into the air with his right foot extended forward kicking the killer on the left side of his face.
All three fell to the ground. The officer laying on her side dead, an expression of shock and fear written on her face. Matt landing on his opponent's chest and started punching his face. The opponent grabbing Matt by his feet then flung him off his chest into nearby garbage cans.
Matt hit the trash cans with a scream, landing on the cold cement then laid there motionless. His mind telling his body to move, to get up and counter attack, but his body wouldn't listen. Now he only laid on the ground in pain watching his opponent whom was also laying on the ground.
His opponent sounded as if he was gasping, like he was having troubles breathing, a hand laid across his chest then rolled onto his side in a wheeze. Seconds went by of his troubled breathing until he struggled to his feet.
Matt held his breath, the guy was already on his feet and he wasn't.
His legs and knees shook and he stumbled around, tripping over the female officer's body but caught his balance then looked to Matt, his mouth open and his big, armored-covered chest moving in and out. With each inhale of his chest a long wheeze could be heard.
Matt clenched his teeth and furrowed his brow, "Fuck." Why the hell couldn't he move?
They looked at each other. Matt's dead white blue eyes locked onto the red, flaring eyes of death standing mere feet from him. They both were the devil and both dared to kill the other.
Seconds went by until Matt could move his fingers, then, his arms. With a loud grunt and burst of anger feeding his adrenaline Matt had finally got to his feet, his arm braced against the wall barely keeping himself standing. Then, he waited for the next move.
They guy, whatever it was, only stood beside the upper half of the male officer's body, his left hand over the deep wound and also just stood there, staring at him.
Matt took his hand off the wall trying to stand on his own two feet but his legs collapsed and he fell, his right side landing on a dumpster then he slid down it until he was sitting on the ground. Matt now had found himself holding his breath for three seconds to hold back the pain sweeping through his back, trying to move his left arm but was only answered with more pain. He was defenseless now. Looking to his opponent and was relieved when he saw he was stumbling down the alley way away from him, watching him a few more seconds until he saw him limp around the corner. He could still see him but exhaled and relaxed his back onto the dumpster and then he knew, this was going to be a long week.