Part Eight

            Peter stared quietly at the Enforcers as they approached. DareDevil would be moving soon, he could sense it. He'd have to the do the same. They attacked. Ox came in first swinging his massive fist. Peter performed a back-flip narrowly dodging it.

            He landed on his feet. DareDevil was already engaged with Montana and Fancy Dan. Peter kept light on his feet, Ox packed a punch, he looked to be a mutant, far larger than any normal human could hope to be and obviously stronger.

            "Hey, Spider-Boy, you ready to go down?" Ox asked confidently taking a step towards his much smaller foe.

            Peter closed his fist, "The only way you're going to be taking me down is if your butt starts emitting toxic fumes. Come on chowder head."

            Ox charged forward outraged at his opponent's arrogance. When he said his one-liners, corny as they might be at times, it represented a sort of disinterest. This usually had the effect of angering whoever he was running against making them do stupid things. Ox was no exception.

            Peter twisted to his side escaping the first strike from Ox's fist and blocked the second with his forearm. "You're going to have to do better than that."

            "Shut up and stand still!" He brought both his fist down like a hammer. Any other person would have been smashed and the fight would have been over. Peter easily avoided it.

            "That's it?" Peter kneed Ox in the jaw with a summersault forcing the giant to stumble clumsily back, "You waste my time, screw around with my name and you can't even muster a witty comeback? Man, I get a tougher fight out of the Chess team!"

            Ox frowned in frustration. This wasn't how it was; he was an Enforcer, nobody cracked jokes about him. He did his best to give Spider-Man a bloody nose, to no avail. He swung faster than most would believe possible from such a massive figure. To Peter he might as well have been a snail. He wove in and out, escaping every attempt and with a simple right hook he knocked Ox's lights out.

            Meanwhile, DareDevil had a much more difficult struggle on his hands. Matt had barely kept ahead of Montana's lasso while Fancy Dan took cheap shots at him with his handgun. His battle with the remaining Enforcers had shredded up the support banisters strewn across the lobby.

            DareDevil rolled across the ground while bullets streaked past his body. He could see the lasso ahead of him lashing out, trying to slice his body apart. DareDevil spotted a lamp hanging from the ceiling. He fired his cable and the hook-piece grappled the lamp raising him up from the ground.

            "Damn it, why can't these guys just die already!" Montana screamed angrily handling the safe end of his lasso.

            "They're like freaking demons, man!" Fancy Dan lamented firing his gun blindly, praying that he hit something.

            DareDevil dropped down from the lamp beside Spider-Man, "Where have you been?"
            Peter raised an eye, "Watching you play around with our two friends here." He smiled slyly, "Are you done?"

            "Very."

            Peter fired a short burst of webbing that acted like a rock smashing the lasso from Montana's hands. With his other web-shooter he enveloped them in a layer of webbing. "Now, we can get to business."

            The Kingpin stared through the monitor. The Enforcers struggled to escape their webbed prison but to no success. He grimaced and leaned back into the leather seat of his penthouse that faced a wall of security cameras. Spider-Man quickly hacked into the computer and gained the access codes to the penthouse.

            "They're coming." He observed quietly and rose to his feet, "Let them come. I've built this city, lubricated its veins with offerings of blood and money. I rose from the streets as a fat child picked on by simpletons to a man at the highest rung of power."

            He opened his jacket and tore it off revealing a muscular frame underneath a muscle shirt. "I built an empire when the other crime bosses were being sent to jails in droves." Kingpin gulped as sweat poured down his head, "They can not destroy me!"

            "No, my enemies are nothing!" He stared at the camera feed, Spider-Man and DareDevil made their way up the elevator shaft. Only a few more moments stood between them. "They can't crush me. I rule this city, it needs me. I am Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime!" He roared furiously, "Let them come!"

            The blast door slid open and Peter and Matt made their way into the interior of Fisk's penthouse. It was a lavish fortress designed to hold out against the best well-armed assaults.
            Peter gazed across the penthouse, several small rooms that led to a large office made out of marble with the shatter-proof windows staring at the city.

            "Be careful, Fisk could be anywhere." Matt warned and took several steps forward into the office.

            "You don't have to tell me twice, Peter said entering the corridor between the rest of the penthouse and the office, several feet behind DareDevil. His spider-sense flared, "Crap." Glass walls slid down separating the office from the rest of the penthouse and both heroes from one another.

            DareDevil's eyes widened, "No."

            Peter smashed on the glass but it held despite his immense strength. Gas suddenly began to pour into the enclosure. Peter looked around in a panic, "There's got to be a panel somewhere, shut the gas off!" He said staring at the mist slowly growing at his feet.

            "You'll do nothing of the sort." The Kingpin said emerging from the shadows. DareDevil could already sense his location. The Kingpin's heart beat was rapid; the crime boss was afraid but determined. Adrenaline poured through Fisk's veins. "Spider-Man will be dead in a few minutes and you I will kill personally."

            Matt stared at him, "I wouldn't expect anything different from you, Wilson."

            "How do you know me?" Fisk inquired, "Are you the husband of prostitute I had killed?"

            DareDevil tore the mask from his face, "Remember me, Wilson. The little kid you dumped in waste and left for dead? The sins of the past do not wash away with money."

            The Kingpin grinned widely, "Matt, it is you! After all this time, you've returned. I had heard you'd been blinded, I guess I was mistaken." He laughed, "Matt, I would have thought you were smarter than that."

            Peter watched this exchange, knowing that precious seconds ticked by. "Come on, I'm in trouble here." He whispered almost silently.

            Not quietly enough for DareDevil. He heard him and realized that action was needed. "Let him go."

            "Please, don't add idiotic to your sin of foolishness. He's already dead." The Kingpin exclaimed.

            "No!" Spider-Man for all his flaws and inexperience was a decent person; Matt had seen enough decent people die. He leapt at the Kingpin viciously.

            DareDevil landed a good left to Kingpin's jaw but the massive figure managed to grab Matt with his hands and fling him against the wall. Kingpin wiped the blood trickling from a gash on his jaw with a smile, "Not bad, Matt, you're doing better than the last time we fought, much better."

            "I'm just getting started, Wilson." DareDevil fired his cable straight for the Kingpin. In response Fisk grabbed it in his hands to the shock of Murdock.

            "No, I'm just getting started." He yanked the cable furiously pulling DareDevil towards him. With a powerful left hook Kingpin slammed Matt to the floor.

            Peter winced at the blow, this wasn't going well.

            DareDevil could feel the blood pouring from the side of his head. He was hurt, badly. He crawled along the ground helplessly. "Wilson." He stammered.

            Matt could hear the entire room. His blood was falling on the floor, the Kingpin's footsteps; the sound of the gas entering Peter's lungs, even the electrical current flowing into the panel hidden behind a picture on the wall that governed the various traps of the penthouse.

            "Now you'll die." The Kingpin slammed his foot down on DareDevil's head and began to apply pressure, "You never were as good as I. Nobody is!"

            DareDevil groaned under the pain of his head being slowly crushed, "No, but he is." He clutched his fallen club and launched the cable into the picture shorting out the electrical source.

            Peter glass prison rose back into its hidden slots and the gas ceased to flow. He took a deep breath of fresh air and immediately ran into the office.

            The Kingpin stared at Spider-Man, "You want to end up like him? I'll crush you just as easily."

            "Correction, I am about to kick your butt and afterwards may I suggest checking into a hospital to treat your wounds and possibly get liposuction." Peter suggested.

            "You little piece of-." The Kingpin moved away from a wounded DareDevil and charged for his new nemesis.

            Peter landed a jab to Kingpin's face moments before they made contact. The latter stumbled away shocked by the force of the blow and the blood spilling from his nose. "Let's go tubby." He was still weak, he had been deprived of air for a good two minutes, he was more vulnerable than he'd have liked.

            The Kingpin attacked again. Peter dodged the first and flipped into the air. Unfortunately, the Kingpin caught him with the second blow and Peter crashed into a table smashing it in two.

            Peter rubbed his back; it felt like somebody had hit his chest with a sledgehammer. The Kingpin's fist pounding his abdomen kept that feeling going. Peter managed to push off Kingpin with his legs and stumble clumsily back to his feet. "That hurt." He murmured quietly.

            Kingpin rushed forward and wrapped his meaty fingers around Peter's skull slamming him into a wall sending cracks throughout the frame. "You arrogant little freak!"

            Peter kneed Kingpin in the gut and both fell down to their knees. "Have you ever thought about Weight Watchers? I know a guy that lost tons of weight doing that, I figure after a month you might actually be able to stand on a scale." He said in between gasps.

            They managed to rise at nearly the same time. The Kingpin swung angrily. Peter tried to duck but his ribs had been hurt slowing him down. He took the blow rolling along the floor like a rag-doll. "After you're dead I think I'll hang you up on the outside of my tower as a message to all the other mutants in this city."

            "Oh like a Silence of the Lambs type thing?" Peter inquired getting back up.

            The Kingpin lashed out for Peter's insolence. He moved as fast as he could. Sometimes he'd get lucky other times Kingpin would. At the end of a slugfest, Peter's mask was showing signs of tear and wear, revealing the bruised skin underneath.

            Eventually, Peter's ribs caught up with him. The Kingpin landed an uppercut and Peter fell helplessly. He groaned loudly, "You're running on empty." He told himself, "He's still got a full tank." He said watching Kingpin close in anticipating the kill.

            The Kingpin stared at him, "I am this city, Spider-Man. You can't win, nobody can defeat me." He raised his foot, "Goodbye you annoying creature."

            Then quietly and far too simply the metal tip of DareDevil's club burst through Kingpin's chest. There was silence. Peter's eyes widened, he saw Matt standing there holding the club, barely enough strength to even breath. The Kingpin fell with no last word or promise, not even a smile or frown, just a blank stare.

            Peter slowly got back up clutching his ribcage, "He's dead now."

            Matt nodded.

            "Nothings changed. I know."

            DareDevil looked at him quietly, "I know. I can already feel the emptiness." He looked at Kingpin's lifeless body, "We came here to bring him in, right?"

            "Yes." Peter responded, "He forced this, not us."

            "Are you sure?" Matt looked at him, "I could have aimed for a leg."

            Peter's face widened and the shock washed over him. DareDevil had seen a chance and taken it. He had always intended to kill the Kingpin and now vengeance had been satiated. Matt only began to realize the price he had just paid for it. Maybe Peter had imagined it, but DareDevil's face, his eyes, his lips everything about him resembled Uncle Ben on that fateful night. Matt had a long road ahead.

            Uncle Ben sat nervously in his chair. Peter had been gone for so long; anger had been replaced by fear. He watched the news alert come on flooding the channel replacing the previous brainless entertainment Ben had tried to calm down with.

            "This is a still developing story. Less than two hours ago, the vigilante figures known as Spider-Man and DareDevil broke into Fisk Towers in lower Manhattan and began attacking the security force there. Police arriving on scene found the infamous Enforcers captured in the lobby. As you may know, the Enforcers were responsible in Mayor Willis' assassination last May. Investigating officers then discovered that on the top level of what is being called at this time a hidden fortress businessman Wilson Fisk was found dead."

            The anchor stared at the screen looking at the information as it came in, "NYPD officials believe that Wilson Fisk was in fact the enigmatic crime boss the Kingpin due to the presence of the Enforcers and several vital documents found strewn across Fisk's penthouse. At this time arrest warrants are being put out for the arrest of both Spider-Man and DareDevil."