Gates found herself in the warehouse's bullpen before the south stairwell's door had the chance to close behind her. "That was quick," she commented.

Beckett ignored the comment and got straight to the point. "Captain, what led you to believe that one of Mrs. Wong's lawyers might be a Guardian?"

"Mrs. Wong was drugged to unconsciousness on the night of the murder," Gates explained. "Mister Murdock recognized that she was drugged and didn't just call for the test. He insisted that the test needed to be performed in under an hour from the time he met Mrs. Wong for the first time."

"Why is that important?" asked Ryan.

"I sent them to Doc to get the test done," Gates replied. "He just called me with the results. Murdock was dead on: not only was Jennifer Wong drugged, if we had waited an hour longer to do the test, then the drug wouldn't have shown up in her system."

Castle frowned. "That's one hell of a quick dissolving drug..."

Gates shook her head. "That's not it. Mrs. Wong has a severe sleep disorder that might have knocked her out all on its own. She only needed a tiny dose of the drug to render her unconscious. By the time we got to her, only trace amounts of the drug were left in her system."

"So how did he know that Mrs. Wong had been drugged?" asked Beckett.

"That is the question of the hour," Gates agreed with a nod. "The only way Murdock could have pegged something like that was if he's a Guardian, a Sentinel, or has the nose of a damn bloodhound."

Blair perked up at the mention of his old field of study. "You think this Murdock might be a Sentinel?"

Gates nodded. "There is something else...but it's probably more of a hunch."

"What is it?" asked Esposito.

Gates offered Esposito her hand in response. "It's easier if you see for yourself."

Esposito took his old captain's hand, downloading her memories...and her hunches...with a single touch. "You think Matt Murdock is Daredevil?"

Gates nodded again. "It's more of a cop hunch than anything else. He matches the height, the build, and that sightless mask..."

Esposito agreed, "yeah, it fits the idea of Daredevil being blind."

Blair's eyes widened. "This guy you're talking about is blind?!"

"He is," Gates replied.

"Then he can't be a Sentinel," Blair insisted. "He might have heightened senses, but all five can't be heightened if he's lost..."

"Do we know where this Murdock guy is now?" Beckett pressed, not wanting to get into a hair-splitting argument with an academic.

Ryan typed a few queries into the laptop on his desk and quickly came up with the information that Beckett was looking for. "Matt Murdock is a partner in the law firm of Nelson and Murdock in Hell's Kitchen," he read off of the screen before looking up at his fellow Guardian. "Hell's Kitchen...I've heard that that's this Daredevil's stomping grounds, too."

"Then maybe it's time I go hunting for a devil," Beckett declared.

#

It was almost too easy. Crack a couple of skulls together and Matt discovered the location of Madame Gao's new hideout in under half an hour. She had to be up to something, Matt was certain of it. But what?

From his perch on top of a nearby tenement, Matt focused on the warehouse scene as it was unfolding below him. He could pick out the sound of at least two dozen guards armed with AK-47s. The smell of heroin was so pervasive Matt started to wonder if he was getting a psychosomatic contact high. That would explain that...weird glow I'm seeing, at any rate...He couldn't get much of a 'view' of the workers from his perch, but the ones that he saw were just as blind as they were when he first encountered them. But where is Madame Gao?

Matt took a running leap, landing with a roll on the top of the warehouse. The sound of his weight hitting gravel caught the attention of a couple of the top floor guards, so he hid behind the roof access door as the two men stormed through it, then ambushed them, knocking both men out before either had the chance to return a punch. He worked his way down the catwalk foot by foot, taking out the handful of guards he found with as much stealth as he could muster...mostly by suffocating each guard from behind until they collapsed, unconscious, at his feet.

The catwalk ended at a ring of offices that circled the second floor of the building. The floor underneath his feet was cement, giving him not just stability, but the cover of silence. Eight guards watched over that floor, their positions lit by the reflected glow of the large hanging lamps that illuminated the workspace below them. Matt knew he could take down the four guards on one side of the balcony...but there was no way he could do it without revealing his own position and pinning him down in a hail of bullets from the four guards on the other..."What the...?"

Matt watched, astonished, as that 'weird glow' crept away from his peripheral vision and, one by one, took out the guards on the other balcony. Without a single one of 'his' guards noticing what was going on right in front of them until the four men were slumping heaps on the ground at their posts.

By that point, the 'glow' was safely under cover behind a cluster of shipping crates on the other side of the room. Then, from the other end of the warehouse, the glow spurred the Daredevil into action. By talking to him. "You coming, Murdock," the 'glow' teased him, "or you just gonna sit there all night?"

"Yes, ma'am," Matt replied. The four guards on his side of the balcony were ready for him after watching their compatriates go down, so the fight was the hardest of the night to that point. Matt rolled his shoulders and cracked his jaw, stopping to catch his breath...and to confront the glowing woman who had just proven herself to be his ally. He hoped. "You know my name," Matt told the woman as she came out from behind the crates. "Can I know yours?"

"Later," Beckett insisted, her senses opened to keep aware of as many potential dangers as she could check for. "So far I've tried to assume you're not just punching bad guys for your own amusement. Where's your target?"

"Right here."

Matt and Beckett turned to face the old Asian woman who had just entered their conversation. "Madam Gao, I presume?" asked Beckett.

Madame Gao used her cane as a crutch to gently curtsy. "The very same." She then turned all of her attention to Matt. "And so, as I have returned to New York City, the man in the mask has returned to stop me. Or should I call you...Daredevil?"

Matt and Beckett both gasped. Not because of Madame Gao's question, but because of the child that came around from behind the old woman's peasant skirts. Matt's world was usually so full of light that it felt like it was on fire most of the time, but when the boy stood next to Madame Gao Matt didn't see light. He saw darkness. A black silhouette that was as dark as his ally's silhouette was bright. Matt had no idea what that darkness was, but it terrified him to the core of his being.

Beckett, though, knew exactly what that darkness was. And knew that there was no way she and 'Daredevil' could possibly fight it alone. She reached into the core of her being and sent a desperate message to her husband and soul-mate. Castle, get us out of here, NOW!

#

Beckett watched sympathetically as Matt staggered back, his senses overwhelmed by the sudden, disorienting change in his surroundings. "Take deep breaths, Matt," she reassured him. "A jump like that can do a nasty number on hypersenses when you're not prepared for it."

Matt stood up, shaking his head as his senses took another unexpected assault. "All right, who the hell are you people?" he demanded.

"My name's Kate Beckett," Beckett introduced herself, giving Matt a familiar voice to latch onto. "I'm one of Guardians."

Matt recognized the title immediately. "Guardians?" he gasped. "So you guys are real."

"As is the Daredevil," Beckett countered.

"Touché," Matt agreed with a chuckle. "Doctor Morgan at the 11th...he's one of you guys? A Guardian?"

Blair's eyes widened. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

Matt turned his head in Blair's direction, then scanned the room, trying and failing to comprehend what his senses were telling him. They seem to know who I am, he thought, and if they're anything like all the rumors say they are..."Doctor Morgan...glows, for lack of a better way of describing it. Same as you guys. Well, some of you, anyway." When knowing glances shot around the room, Matt started to feel like the odd man out. "What?"

"That...glow you're sensing?" Beckett replied. "We call it auras. It's the energy that fuels our abilities."

Matt nodded, taking the explanation on faith for the moment. "And what about the animal farm?"

Blair stepped forward, taking over the conversation as his curiosity threatened to overwhelm him. "Animal farm?"

Matt looked down at Blair's feet. "Your pet wolf, your friend's panther, and if I'm not mistaken..." He tilted his head, filtering his hearing until he had confirmed his suspicions. "Two tigers in some kind of office down the hall?"

"Two tigers?" Beckett asked the group, confused only by the number.

"Cerberus is in town," Jim replied, "status report on the fight with HYDRA."

Blair ignored his teammates, focusing entirely on the new player in front of him. "You can sense them? All of them?"

Matt frowned, confused by the question. "You can't?"

"They're spirit animals," Blair explained. "Even Beckett has to focus to see them."

"I have to concentrate not to see them," Matt countered. "Same with these...auras."

Blair started bouncing on his heels with excitement. "I may have been wrong about you, Mr. Murdock..." he muttered underneath his breath. "Really wrong about you..."