Author's Note: This will be a longer one, I don't usually write chapters, it's not something that I have much experience with. I hope that it meets with whatever low standards that people have come to expect from me.

This was a place called 'Jimmie's'. It was a bar of deceptive importance, it was off all major streets. Many people had never had heard of the place, if you were to ask for directions to it, none could find it. The only people who knew about it weren't going to tell anybody.

Because it was a place very close to the heart of all crime empires in Hell's Kitchen.

It was a neutral meeting ground, it acted as a place like sacred ground to the crime lords of the city. So it was just the right place for these two large criminal organizations to meet. It was not the first time such a meeting took place here and it would not be the last.

This kind of meetings always took place in a back room of the bar, far away from anyone accidentally walking in on them. On one side of the room, were six people from The Kitchen Irish, on the other side were six of the Russian Mafia. In between the two a blank wooden table.

Two rivals brought together by a common enemy. The Man in Black Mask.

The had both been targeted by this freak, the Russians more so but the Black Mask had made one mistake. He made it so the attack on Jim O'Reilly a big deal in the media. While the man was being lauded as a hero, those in the know, just thought the Irish were showing weakness. They could not let that stand, you take down one of theirs, then you get made an example of.

The Russians on the other hand, their human trafficking ring was being beaten by down by this masked vigilante, they were losing hundreds of product each week. Thanks to this their reputation were on a downward spiral, they were being pushed by certain business partners to deal with this freak.

When the Russians got the heard the rumor of this freak being bulletproof, then they knew that losses they would had trying to deal with this freak and that it would be better to split the cost of forces needed to take this freak down with someone else. Lucky, the Irish were more than happy to do so if meant taking out this thing.

Vladimir Ranskahov, co-leader of the Russians along with his brother, Anatoly. Nesbitt, the leader of Irish. These two were here for the first time, meeting each other.

Nesbitt was the older of the two, having a balding head and being dressed in a fancy suit, he came off as the well put together one, while Vladimir had a scar across his eye and wore a light grey tracksuit. The Russian had the look of a seasoned fighter compared to the businessman vibe the Irishman had.

There were anger and suspicion between them, but a common foe was allowing them to overcome that.

"We have managed to track his routes through sightings," Vladimir spoke, his thick accent slurring his words. His finger drew across a map left on the table. "If we leave men at these points, we can ambush him,"

"And how do you plan on taking the shite down," Nesbitt responded to his counterparts words with the typical Irish flair. "Ain't no standard bullet taking that fecker down"

"That is why we have this," Vladimir slid a photo at the Irishman. It showed a case full of Metis-Ms, Russian rocket launchers. "If bullet don't do him in, rocket will," He leaned back then as if impressed with his own work.

"Too loud," Was the response Vlad given. "You start shooting up someplace with those next thing you know," Nesbitt cut his finger across his throat. "Iron Man or the military come descending down on our heads"

"What then would you suggest?" The Russian asked him, anger plain to see. "Shooting mistletoe at him?" There was such vile to his tone that was easy to see how he had descended into mocking his Irish counterpart.

Nesbitt looked to one of the men behind him, nodded his head.

"We managed to get some specialty items," The Irishman revealed, his smile almost cruel with the pleasure he felt at this news. "Some heavy duty firepower from a unique seller, a real Tinker, you could say"

"Heavy duty?"

A picture sliding across the table was his answer. It was a bulky grey color, the profile while similar to a rocket launcher, had an even thicker end to it, with tubes leading from the center to the back of the device. It was hard to see in this photo but Vlad could just make out the scrap like nature of the weapon but also the deadly blue glow at the end of its barrel, just the sight. It was a massive weapon that would have needed more than one person to operate it. It reminded him of something he never wanted to remember.

The Chitauri.

"What is that?" There was tremble to the Russian's voice, a terror to his face, this was feeling he had no truly felt since childhood.

"That my friend," The leader of the Irish smiled, his teeth gleaming with delight. "Is death, and we're dealing with three units of the stuff"

It was several weeks since Matt had heard the news about that store robbery and he was not one step closer to finding the other Man In The Black Mask. He'd been too busy to look for him, the most he could do was to hope that he would run into him while on patrol or investigate the Mafia.

Then came Karen Page and all the trouble that came with her. She was now a former employee of Union Allied Construction, who discovered corruption with the company funnelling funds away from the company's official task of repairing the damage done to the area by the Battle of New York and into their executive's pockets.

The group soon targeted the young woman for elimination but thankfully for her sake, Matt was able to help with both of identities. By representing her in a legal function as Matt Murdock and then protecting from the assassins sent after her as the Man in the Black Mask. Now she works as the secretary in their office of Nelson & Murdock Defense Attorneys. She was good at her new job and had a moral foundation that the both Matt and Foggy respected.

"Good morning Matt," She told him, as he entered their offices. She was already sitting when he arrived, bent over her desk and looking over some files. "Wait until you get a load of this"

"You sound excited," It was a relief that she was still capable of such Enthusiasm for work after all she had been through. "What are you at?"

"You remember me telling you about how the Man in The Black saved me right?"

"Of course I do," Matt responded, hiding his embarrassment at the concealed praise for the Masked Man. "He saved your life, that's something to remember and be grateful for"

"Well," She shifted around a few papers around. "There's a reporter at the New York Bulletin, a Mr Patrick Doyle, and he's seeming to be handling all the articles on The Man with The Black Mask"

"Really?" Matt asked, his interest peaked at this news. "I had never heard of him before now"

"Yeah, he's a new guy on the paper," She started to pack her bags. "He seems to be an expert on our vigilante"

"You want to learn more about this guy?" He was almost surprised, the lawyer would have thought she would have wanted to stay away from things that reminded her near death experience.

"Yep," Karen replied with a simple answer. "I wanted to have a talk to him about why does he fo things he does," She shook a stack of papers. "Look at this headline, Monster of Hell's Kitchen saves a boy from Russians, does that sound like the same guy that robbed an old man?"

"No, it doesn't," He admitted, changing his walking stick from one to the other. Matt was kind of on the back foot. "It almost sounds like two different people," He didn't want to sound too sure of that, just in case Karen started to suspect something.

"That's it" She twirled out from behind her desk and out of the office. "Thanks, Matt, I'll see you later," With that Karen left, leaving the blind lawyer all alone. In silence, but with a thought, perhaps Matt should visit this reporter

"This is your new desk," Caldwell informed, her sneer more pronounced than it ever had been before. "I hope you enjoy it,"

"Thanks, Caldwell," I said with the biggest shit eating grin on my face. I took pleasure in my new found position, higher up the totem pole than her. "I'll have a cup of tea, two sugars, soy milk"

"What," Her face was priceless. I swear that there was something wrong with me to enjoy angering me. She walked away after that, I would wait for at least a few minutes before checking to see if she was actually making it.

I made a decent amount of job progress since joining this paper, ever since the first article about the Man in The Black Mask, I had become a mild hit for a series of articles that Mitchell had wanted to be written on him. The man was happy to bring me up to writing articles full time.

That lead to my new cubicle here. It was small, it was had one desk, one desktop, and three walls but it was mine. Even its dull grey and cream color scheme didn't put a damper on my mood. A mood that was soon to be improved further by the increased salary. Yup, I was on my way up in the world.

A whistling reached my ears, it was Ben my Journalistic mentor. He had a massive smile on his that I had been seeing since last weeks article about the Union Allied Construction scandal. Making his way down to me, he leaned on one of the walls of my new cubicle.

"Things are looking good," Ben smiled with the energy of a younger man. "Numbers are coming in, last Friday's issue was a massive hit"

"That news was slow coming in." Usually, the sale numbers come much faster than that, I should know, I was handling those number it a few weeks ago personally.

"Well apparently there was some sort of electrical accident with a server," There was a shake of his head, no doubt a sign of his feeling for durability of the Bulletin's electronics. "Fried a lot of info, luckily we still have paper backups for what was lost"

"That is lucky," And also suspicious, what kind of electrical accident was it? Did the machines overheat? No that would have caused more problems than simple data loss or less depending on the severity of the heat build in certain parts of the server.

It sounds like it was power loss. The rational side to me says that it just a common random event, that there was no one behind it. The other side of me, the one that was aware that I was in a superhero universe, that side knew that power loss could have been set up to allow for someone to remove data from the computers.

"So," Ben's smile returned, radiating joy with his pearly whites. "Enjoying the new workspace, are we?"

"Yes," I told him, hoping that he would see the true radiance I had for the workspace. It felt great to progress here at the Bulletin, even if it was into a role that I didn't expect when I started as a secretary. "The first article that I will write on this desk is on," I took a deep dramatic breath. "whether or not Hell's Kitchen would get a new subway line."

"Ouch," There was wince on the elder reporter's face. "That's rough"

"It's not so bad," I laughed slightly at his face. "Not every story can be about crime sprees, the readers would get bored with all that energy," I sat down on my new chair. "Have to slow down sometimes, let them catch their breaths"

"Yes that is true, but it is not as interesting to investigate," Ben took his arm off the wall. "Don't want to waste my time"

"Everything deserves reporting Ben"

He nodded at me as if agreeing in spirit but still showcasing his distaste for the work. It was understandable, he went into this work because he felt like he could make a difference here, help bring down criminals and expose corruption. It wasn't that he looked down at other subjects but that it wasn't what he was passionate about.

Ben's mood suddenly became tense, as he looked me up and down. He started to wave me to move into his office with him, apparently, he wanted to discuss a story he was working one with me.

"Sit down, I just have to lock the door," Ben spoke, his tone from earlier being replaced with that of regret. "Never know who will just come walking in"

He then sat in his chair. There was a tense silence, I could almost feel myself joke on it. A delectable feature of this room that I didn't notice before now was the exact details on the article on his wall. They were all big-time articles, dealing with corruption and crime rings. Except for one.

"Is that...is that mine?" I asked him, feeling accomplishment at being put on his wall.

"Yes," He sighed, I couldn't quite place that sigh, whether it sounded proud or sad. "I don't know if I want to keep it up anymore," It wasn't a question, somehow it was a statement.

"Why?" I attempted to keep the disappointment out of my voice, it was only.

"How long did you think you could keep-" He reached under the table, grabbing a bunch of black sports gear on throwing on the table. "This a secret." I could place his tone now, it was of disappointment.

"I-I-I," I stumbled over my words, the newly found tension made me metaphorically sweat. "I did only once," I decided to be truthful, it was disgraceful that I even kept it from him.

"There store?" There was a question to that.

"They were going to smash up the place," I revealed. "I heard about, tied to stop"

"You went too far," Ben nodded, his understanding of the situation now coming in on its own. "You hit them too hard"

"I actually only hit one, one was hit by one another and the last just hurt himself hitting me" It felt awkward to explain. Mostly because it was embarrassing.

"The Hero Father," He guessed, Ben's skills of deduction were the highest that I'd ever known. "Why did you write the article like that? He's a thug"

"You knew?"

"Don't deflect"

"Few reasons," I waved my left hand in a circle, as it hypnotized him. "The first is because I can't prove that he is those things, he's kept his record clean, only hearsay tells me otherwise, can't print hearsay"

"The other reason?"

"There are different faces that people show to people, to the people he brutalized, Jim was a nightmare," A deep breath, in and out. "To his mafia boss just a pawn,"I decided to stand at that point. "To his daughter, he was her hero"

Ben sat there in thought, no doubt trying to predict what I will say next.

"I genuinely believe that most people are born good, that world brings them down, tempts them into wickedness but I also believe that this headline could let the world see O'Reilly in a different light, the same way his daughter does"

"What effect would that even have?"

"The city will have their eye on him for years, I don't think it will give him room to commit crimes, stick a man in a role long enough and he becomes it"

"For a man that beats people up as a vigilante, you have a strange amount of nativity to you" At that, we both chuckle slightly. This helped lessen the tension that had built up between us in this room. "You've convinced me that," He pointed at my article. "Stays up there"

"Really," I said, the relief I felt at this news left me breathless. For some reason being on that wall meant something to me. "Thank you so much"

Ben and I sat in silence for a bit, until Ben broke it by starting a different but not unrelated topic.

"I know that your not the original Man in the Black Mask, sightings of him are older than your residency here" It was a statement, a matter of fact.

"Yeah, that was a mistake of mine, I didn't realize that people would make that connection" I sat back down at this point, no longer feeling as dramatic.

"Oh, how could people have thought that," His sarcasm so open that even I could see. "Black Sports gear vigilante, there must be loads of those"

"Yeah, I know, it was stupid," I sighed. "But that has lead to a…" I stalled. "problem now,"

"What is that?"

"The Irish may think the Black Mask is bulletproof?"

"You got out and warn him," There was an urgency to his voice. "They're going be packing heavy-duty firepower after him now"

"I know," I admitted, sighing, it was an action that I seemed to be doing a lot recently. "I've tracked down his travel routes, using what I could find out about Russian trafficking routes to estimate where he will turn up next," I stood up and began to walk towards the door. "I plan to find him tonight, there should be a shipment the Russians are bringing in at the pier"

"Good but look, if you're going to be doing this," Ben reached down, grabbed another bag and threw on the table, covering the old sports gear. "Then you got to fly under your own colors"

There wasn't a lot to compare racing over rooftops too, it had a certain flair that blazing through the streets lack. I had to learn how to jump differently to this because when I started I cracked the concrete. I'm even sure what I am doing differently but whatever it is it's working.

The rooftops were of all shapes and sizes, making leaping from one to next gently a challenge, due to the vents of the buildings being placed at different spots. If I landed on one of those there wouldn't be a vent anymore.

I was wearing Ben's new gift. It wasn't some kind of super suit that was made from bullet resistant material. It was a blue spandex sports suit with a hooded jacket and an old domino mask that Ben had for reasons he didn't go into. If it wasn't a gift I would have turned it down, because spandex superheroes are somehow cliche even here.

And they felt kind of breezy to wear.

I stopped a fair distance away from the dock. I needed to get a lay of the land and not go thundering in, with the amazing vision powers I had, I could make out the containers that the Russians were unloading.

"Can you even see those from here?" A voice popped up from behind me.

"Yeah, I can," I replied not showing any surprise that I actually felt. "Can you?"

"Nope, not at all," Was the comeback of the Man in The Black Mask. "Is that another one of your powers, supersight?"

"That and some sort of thermal vision"

"So your fast, strong, tough and have an array of eye modes," He nodded his head at me while pointing at my direction. "Someone won the lottery," He laughed lightly.

"How did you find me? I was looking for you"

"I was coming here myself when I noticed you leapfrogging from building to building," He explained to my embarrassment, another thing that I had a lot lately. "It what was really noticeable"

"Oh, that's something to fix," I replied nonchalantly turning to look back at the cargo container with my thermal vision.

"What do you see?"

"There are about two dozen people in the container, from their height I'm guessing they're children"

"You know this a trap?" My fellow vigilante enquired. "We've pissed them off and now they are setting the bait"

"There is only one thing to do with a trap," I told him, hoping to the next building with the ease that neared flight.

"What's that?" The Black Mask followed me over to the building with flips and along jumps that some masked the impact.

"You spring it"

"What if they take the people as hostages? No, I can deal with this using stealth, on my own"

"Unless they brought something to deal with me," I responded. "I have a great deal of respect for you but I don't think you're in my weight class"

"Is that so," It wasn't so much a question but more a show of annoyance. "What would you recommend?"

"We both go in, you first," I pointed to him. "Then after a period of two or four minutes, I crash in as loud as I can, giving you time to take some of out from behind"

"Can you do that?"

"Of course, I'm invincible"

"Well," He said starting to run. "I'll hold you to that, four minutes"

I watched him as made his way to the docks. He was graceful without being wasteful of his movements. It reminded Pat of a trapeze performance he had seen in his childhood. But unlike that there was no net here, the two of them were playing with much more than their lives.

The newly blue vigilante watched his dark counterpart enter the Russian's area. He counted down in seconds the time as it passed, so he could execute the plan at exactly the right moment. Then when the time was right.

He leaped.

It wasn't often that Anatoly was happy to personally deal with an issue, of the two brothers he was the worse fighter, but he could handle himself, especially with the hardware they had available now. There was no chance that the freak would survive the night if he appeared.

"Oigh." It wasn't all happy dealings, his brother had decided that they would enter an alliance to deal the freak. With the Irish of all people.

"What do you want," Anatoly wasn't able to keep a nice tone with the Irish. "We're busy"

"We only need to know where to be positioned for the ambush," The Irishman shrugged his shoulder. "It important to keep us in hidden places so that it will work"

"Right," Anatoly agreed reluctantly, he did not like them but he could overcome this feeling for the sake of his brother and their business. "Take your place in the warehouse, we give you signal when the time is right"

With that, the two made their way into position. The few men that the Irish had lent Anatoly were now out of sight, waiting for the sign that their prey was in position. It was a welcome thing for him and his fellow Russians, even though they were working to together on this, the Russians didn't trust them not to betray them somehow. They had been taking over the Irish's territories for the last few years.

"Boss," A nameless grunt of his walked up to him. "The cargo is getting restless in there when are going to move them?"

"Soon, we mustn't move our bait too close the front of the area, that way that freak has to go through us," It was a decent plan or at least it followed the rule of keeping it simple. "If you can't keep them quiet until then I will take it out of your hide"

With that the Russians continued what one could consider a stare off competition between themselves, attempting to keep the attention of their surroundings up. You never knew when the Man in The Black Mask was just going to drop in from above.

It was then the most surprising thing happened, an entirely new guy just dropped from the sky. He was in a cheap blue spandex suit, with a hooded jacket that was a different darker shade of blue. The hood shadowed his face so much that he couldn't make out what was happening.

"Hello lads," Oh god, it was another Irishman and this one was dressed up like a freak. "Hear that you lot have committed crimes of that to include human trafficking, surrender now and receive mercy that the law provides." It wasn't one of the Irish's then, that meant he was just another would be vigilante and that means.

They could open fire.

All the Russians there opened fire, there was rifles, handguns, full and semi-auto machine guns all were concentrate on the figure before them. The bullets belted him like rain on an umbrella. The ground soon became covered in bullet cases as they finished unloading their payload.

"That was something," The blue clothed man walked forward, slowly as if not provoke the rapidly reloading Russians. "Your weapons are useless, drop them and surrender, I am sure that cops will treat the mercy traffickers deserve"

From the second they had fired Anatoly knew that this freak was the one they were waiting for. The bullets having no effect on him just proved that. So when the first bullet bounced he hit the buzzer, that would call the first wave of real firepower.

"Okay, force it is." Blueboy stalked forward with the purpose to bust some heads. That was when their men who strategically placed with Metis-Ms, already the rockets were flying down on the target.

The explosions were loud, they rang the ears of the men there. A rather large smoke cloud enveloped the area their target was, they waited for baited breath for the reveal of what remained of that freak.

"Justice my friends, has no weakness," It walked out of the smoke like all that was done to him was being pelted with water balloons, even the damn spandex was unblemished. The smoke oozed around him as disappeared into the air, it gave off the look of an otherworldly being. "And neither do I"

"Fuck." The Russian co-leader swore, he had wanted to do this without the Irish but it looked like they would need their exotic weapon. He pushed a button on an old pager he had set to message the Irish when it was time.

The reacted with a speed he hadn't been aware that they were capable of. Two men held the rocket launcher like device, one on his shoulder, the other appeared to be trying to aim it at the hooded freak.

"Shot it for fuck sake," Yelled one of Anatoly's own men, dragging the blue guy's attention over to the Irish. Even though they couldn't see the look on his face, Anatoly could practically imagine the smug look on that freaks face vanish once he got hit by this.

Then another surprising thing happened.

The freak suddenly blurred to the side where some of his men, who were now blocking the line of fire the Irish had on him. The guys turned to the Blue Man, swinging their firearms like clubs in some kind of feeble show of force. They whacked harmlessly off his blue suit and out of their hands, then the men were knocked out by the freak.

While the two on the floor would usually mean that the Irish should have now had a shot, the blue man had already blurred across to another formation of his men, this time the ones who had shot the rockets, before they could respond he picked up by the shirt and threw him to another, then he just karate chopped the third into unconsciousness.

Another attempt at line-up by the Irish was met with a burst of superspeed to what was left of Anatoly's men, that weren't behind him, in this part of the pier, and repeated what happened to the others. Anatoly began to wonder where was the others at the back of the area, they were meant to come out at the sound of gunfire. Then he turned around.

It was then Anatoly knew that he had fucked up.

Another vigilante, this time it looked like it was the actual Man in The Black Mask, was tearing through the men he had left covering his back like they were kindergarteners. He twisted and he flipped around what little gunfire that they sent at him. When the Mask got close to them he'd just rip their guns out of their hands, whack them with it and then fling it at the nearest person.

Soon all the Russian men, minus Anatoly, were knocked out. All the crooks that left were members of the Irish. That was when the Irish handling their weapon got jittery, they started to fire nearly randomly at any target. Anatoly and the Black Mask Vigilante each got behind some shipping crates to hide from the blasts.

Sadly that wouldn't protect them for long, the two of them could see that the blasts were going through other shipping crates.

The Blue Man was blurring to their location, no doubt he was going to use his speed in an attempt to help his partner to leave. This mixed with the arc of fire that the gunner had developed in their panic, meant that as a blast was about to hit The Man in the Black Mask, he was shoved out of the way and it hit Blue instead.

For the first time since those vigilantes had shown themselves that night, Anatoly's spirit rose. The Blue Man rolled on the floor, screaming pain. It was as if it was his time experiencing pain, he was trying to stand now. That would be allowed.

"Again," Anatoly screamed to which the gunners were more than happy to comply to his command. This time it blasted him back into another shipping container, finally, they had broken through the freak's blue suit. The skin underneath was red, Anatoly could smell the burning flesh. as it was charging for the third strike a pistol broke the nose of one the man lining the shot causing it to misfire into the air.

The Man in Black swooped in to pick up the Blue one, carrying him on his shoulder. Anatoly took aim for that freaks legs but found that the gun clicked empty. He reached into his pocket, drawing a spare clip, only for when looked up again to find that his prey had vanished.

That was when thing got worse.

Sirens could be heard in the distance, Police Sirens. They were coming this way. Anatoly found that the Irish were already fleeing with their weapon, so he shook the closet member of his crew awake.

"Get up now, we have to leave," He informed him. "Wake as many as you can but forgot the cargo"

The Russians scrambled from the dock, leaving only to few to hurt to move. They could at least to solace that even if they couldn't keep the cargo, they found a weapon that hurt that new Blue freak. Now All they needed to do was to find out where the Irish got it from.

Author's Note: My Longest chapter yet, I tried to take my time with it. I don't know if I will be making a lot of chapters with this length, I find it easier to just to write shorter chapters. I also find the pacing on those shorter chapters so much easier.

Then on to certain character interactions, Matt did some research on the now really Blue Man after Karen brought up the reporter to him. That's why he didn't have put up much of a fight to teaming up with him, he wasn't sure if he could take him. At least that way he could have some control over what he'd do and could keep an eye.

Also Pat forgot to warn about people thinking he is Matt, so oops. Honestly, he forgot when he noticed the people in the cargo container since he and Matt were working together here, he figured that he would soak up any damage Matt couldn't handle. So mission accomplished.

Pat once again allowed his power to go to his head, what he should have done is, the second he noticed the exotic weapon was the running around behind them and get rid of it. Instead, he thought that he could tank it like everything else. Mind you it didn't kill him, but he won't eager to test his invulnerability again.

This is will be something that will happen less often as the story goes on. He will learn to address these points because the MCU is not somewhere that he can just coast without thinking about the consequences.

The police were called by the people overhearing the explosions, so those kids in the cargo containers will be free and safe. This event is a too high profile to so otherwise.

The next chapter will deal with the fallout of this event because Matt now has to get Pat some medical attention who won't ask questions.

Please review and follow this story if you guys like it, after all, that tells me that you're interested in the story continuing.