The Daily Bugle

The Next Day

The offices of one of the best newspapers was busier than usual as Peter made his way towards the office of editor-in-chief J. Jonah Jameson. Peter knew something big had happened within the city. He soon diverted to the desk of Robbie Robertson, the highest-ranking editor and friend of Jameson as well. The man is taking a phone call at the minute, he is a tall, heavy built African American man wearing a white collared shirt with a tie loosens around his neck. He is also wearing black slacks and dress shoes.

He hung up the phone as Peter approached him, looking over at him with a smile. Unlike the professional look of Robbie, Peter is wearing a red t-shirt, blue jeans and black tennis shoes.

"Hey there, Pete," Robbie said warmly, "Just get here?"

"Yeah, came here to see if Jameson had any other jobs that don't involve Spider-Man, but I noticed all the commotion, what's up?"

Robbie looks over at Peter, his face serious.

"Eddie Gnucci was found murdered with two bodyguards as well."

"He's that nephew of the head of the Gnucci Crime Family, right?"

Robbie nodded in confirmation.

"That's right, it was mostly likely a hit by one of the other four families," Robbie said, "I've been hearing the other families are not very fond of them."

"Where did it happen?" Peter questioned.

Robbie told him where it was, which drew a surprised look from Peter.

"I was at the movie theater near there with MJ."

This got Robbie's attention when he heard it.

"Really? Did you see anything weird?"

Peter simply shook his head.

"No, I was too busy watching Top Gun to notice anything strange."

Before anything else could be said, the door of Jameson's flew open and out charged out the man himself. A white man in his late fifties, Jameson had black hair that was beginning to go gray at the sides and a black mustache under his nose. He is wearing a white long collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up past his elbows, black dress vest, pants and shoes. He had his ever-present cigar stuck in his mouth. Soon his dark blue eyes locked onto both Robbie and Peter and marched over to them.

"PARKER!" Jameson barked out "I take it Robbie has filled you in on the Gnucci situation?"

"Yes sir," Peter said.

Neither him nor Robbie mention Peter being near the area when the murder occurs, fearing he would go on an unwanted tirade about not getting any info about it.

"Well, I got a job for you Parker," Jameson said "I need you to be there when they bury that bastard Gnucci, get some good shots of it."

Peter noticed the venom in Jameson voice, for all his faults Peter saw in him, he had to respect Jameson crusade against the Mafia and other organized crime within the city. Even when that crusade cost his wife's life, he never gave in. So naturally, Jameson had no sympathy when one of the mafia's own got killed.

Still, Peter had to be careful, the Mafia are still very dangerous to deal with, even with his spider powers.

"OK Mr. Jameson but..." Peter began to say.

Before he could finish, Jameson raised his hand to silence him. Peter shut up immediately, fearing he might have just pissed him off.

"I know the Mafia don't like being disturbed while burying their dead, you do this for me Parker and you get a thousand bucks, how's that sound?"

Both Robbie and Peter gave each other surprised looks, Jameson paying anything like that was damn near impossible. However, Peter couldn't pass up a payday like that.

"Sure thing Mr. Jameson!" Peter said in excitement.

"Good!" Jameson said, "But watch yourself with those slimy bastards."

Jameson walked away to talk with his secretary Betty Brant, leaving Robbie and Peter to talk again.

"Like Jameson said, be careful with the Gnucci's, if they get threatening with you, just leave. A big payday isn't worth getting a beating or worse," Robbie said seriously.

Peter simply nodded, shaking Robbie's hand before going over to other people's desk to inquire about the funeral.

Later that Night

Abandoned Hotel Basement, Brooklyn

In the dark warren of the abandoned hotel, Frank Castle is sitting down by a workstation, maintaining his impressive arsenal of weapons, ammo and supplies. He is currently just wearing a black tank top, black combat pants and boots. His current project was cleaning and maintaining a Colt Model 733, a carbine version of the M16 platform. He carried a similar weapon back during his day in the jungles of Vietnam, back when he was still a part of the Marines and an operator for the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group or simply MACV-SOG.

He and others conducted black ops all over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia with the help of the Central Intelligence Agency. The unit was disbanded in 1973 and Frank was sent home. He was greeted by his wife Maria and his two children, older daughter Lisa and youngest son Frank Jr.

He was going to become a special forces trainer but that was tragically cut short in 1974. His family was caught in a mob crossfire. The Costa Crime family was the most directly involved, seeing it was their hitman who tried to take out a Manfredi capo. The hitman's Tommy gun and the pistols of the Capo's bodyguards cut through his family, and he took a few bullets as well. While he survived, his kids were dead at the scene and Maria died in surgery.

Despite his best efforts, the Costa's managed to get away with his family's death, they had the police in their back pocket. It was then and there Frank decided to take matters into his own hands and kill those responsible, some would say what he did was vengeance, but he saw it differently, he saw it as punishment.

He continued after killing most of the Costa crime family but decided to leave for a while, taking out other criminal organizations on the East Coast before coming back and taking out Eddie Gnucci.

After assembling his M733 carbine, a door opened up and someone walked in, yet Frank didn't panic. He knew no one else but this person knew where to find him. Said person is a man, standing 6'1 with a lean but athletic build, even for a man pushing 50. The man had a red and black checkered dress shirt, brown jacket, blue jeans and brown work boots on. His brown hair was neatly combed, and he had a pair of aviator sunglasses that he seemed to wear constantly. He also had a duffle bag slung over his shoulder.

Dan Frost was a former CIA Special Agent, who was a part of Frank's MACV-SOG unit. He was the guy who was feeding them intel through a system of informants, and he also help arm Vietnamese locals loyal to the South and US. He continued his ways for a while until 1981, where is daughter was killed by drug dealers down in Florida. He reached out the Frank to help him out and Frank agreed. The killed very last one of the dealers. Since then, he was Frank's go to guy for intel and guns.

"Hey there Frank, got some intel for you," Dan said.

Frank looked over at him with determination in his eyes.

"What do you have there?"

"The funeral happens two days from now at St. John's Cemetery," Dan said to him, "Place is too public for a shootout."

The name gave Frank pause, that was the same cemetery where his family is buried as well. While Dan was right about it being too public for a shootout because he and Dan didn't want innocence getting shot, he had no intention to start a firefight where Maria and the kids are buried.

"However, I've tapped their phones using some contacts, apparently Eddie's brothers Bobby and Carlo are holding a little get together at Lucky Luigi's bar, it will be only members of the Mob there, no wives or kids. Great place to do some major damage to the Gnucci," Dan explained.

"Got it," Frank said simply, then looks down at the bag, "What's that?"

"Glad you asked," Dan said simply.

He put the bag on the ground and unzipped it, soon he pulled out a weapon Frank hadn't seen since his days in Vietnam, usually carried by Navy SEALs.

"Stoner 63A, the system weapon that can be configured to your needs. Rifle, carbine, LMG and anything in between. Managed to snag it from an old buddy in the SEALs, I got the parts and ammo in the van waiting outside, could be useful for the bar hit," Dan said, showing off the weapon.

He handed the weapon off to Frank who gave it a look over, he had to admit, he always wanted to try out this weapon and now he would get his chance. A rare grin formed around his face.

"Yeah, this will do."