Foggy was, decidedly, not happy with Matt.
As soon as Matt stepped out into the main room in the Daredevil suit, he heard an annoyed, tired scoff. "Matty, are you fucking serious?" Foggy deadpanned, sending him a scathing glare from his seat on the floor.
Matt bit back a sigh as he tucked his helmet beneath one of his arms. "Yes, Foggy. Very serious."
He could literally feel Foggy's eyes roll as the man struggled to his feet. Matt stepped forward and offered him a hand, to which Foggy pushed it away roughly as he finally stood.
"Matt, we barely have a vague idea of where Silvermane and Castle are right now, and yet you suit up. We fucking talked about this! You promised you wouldn't go headfirst into this without any backup!" Foggy jabbed a finger in Matt's chest.
"I know I promised that, Foggy, and I fully intend to keep it." Matt explained calmly.
"What the fuck are you talking about, Matty?" Foggy's finger dropped as he processed. Suddenly, he grabbed Matt's head and began twisting it around, examining him. "Fuck, I totally knew Daredevil would give you brain damage at some point. Karen, I think he's finally broken!"
"Foggy, no, I-" Matt tried to argue as Foggy turned his head far to the left. He lifted his arms and gently grabbed Foggy's wrists, letting his helmet drop to the floor. "It's not brain damage, Foggy."
"Then what is it?" Foggy wrenched his arms from Matt's grip. "What could have possibly possessed you to go out there alone thinking you have back-up?"
"Because I do have back-up, Foggy." Matt bent down and grabbed his phone, opened up his text-to-speech app, and handed it to his friend. "Look at the expose Karen mentioned."
Foggy snatched his phone and began reading through the Daily Bugle piece he'd listened to. Matt bent down to grab his helmet, giving Foggy a moment to read it.
There was another scoff as Matt stood up. It seems Foggy wasn't sated by the article. "So what if Spider-Man fought a bunch of Maggia men last night? There's no guarantee that A. the Maggia are out tonight, B. Castle's on their ass, and C. that Spider-Man's also there. For all we know, this is just some massive, weird coincidence."
"There's no way it's a coincidence." Matt would've rolled his own eyes if he could.
"You don't-"
"Matt's definitely right." Karen interjected from the floor, not bothering to look up from whatever file had taken over her attention.
Both men looked at her. Matt smirked while Foggy scowled. "What makes you so sure?"
Karen sighed heavily before she finally looked up at them. "Because there's been a lot of chatter in seedy places about the Maggia lately, and there was something important about this week." She picked up a folder on her left and passed it up to Foggy. "If the Maggia big-wigs are out at all, then it would be this week, so there's a better chance of them being out and about tonight than not."
"Where'd you get all this, Karen?" Matt asked with a small chuckle.
She shrugged. "Jess and I sometimes split notes. We've both been hearing a ton about the Maggia lately."
"Right, I guess it makes sense that Frank would target the Maggia tonight, but there's no guarantee any other vigilantes are out there, too." Foggy crossed his arms.
"Come on, Foggy. We know Spider-Man well enough to know that if he's on the Maggia case, he's out there, too." Matt sighed.
"Do we actually know Spider-Man?" Karen mused, more to herself than anything.
"Right, but-"
"Foggy, please," Matt put a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder. "I need you to trust me on this one. It'll be okay."
Foggy sighed as his heart rate spiked a little. "Are you absolutely sure?"
Matt nodded. Foggy made a strangled noise and buried his face in his hands.
"Look, Matt, I get you wanting to go out there, and I trust you enough to do it." Karen began as she stood. "But you have to promise us that you won't engage with Frank unless it's absolutely necessary for someone's life."
He nodded solemnly. "Of course, Karen."
Foggy shoved him a bit, knocking him towards the window. "Then fucking go before I change my mind."
"Right." Matt agreed as he slipped his phone into his utility belt.
"You better not come back here with anything worse than a black eye. I'm not going through a million rooftops looking for you again." Foggy added, voice on the verge of panic.
Matt chuckled softly as he put his helmet on. "I won't, Foggy. I've fought Castle enough to know what mistakes I need to avoid." He opened the window and jumped on the sill, opening his billy club. He gave his friends one last salute before Daredevil backflipped into the streets of New York.
He had a vague idea of where Frank and the Maggia would be, so he decided to head north until he could pick out exactly where he needed to go. Since the incident involving Spider-Man was in southeast Chinatown, Matt was willing to bet that the Maggia would be in the exact opposite direction.
As he flew through the city, Matt stretched his senses out, trying to see if he could either locate Frank or Spider-Man. He didn't exactly remember every detail from the case - time would do that to you, though it still felt a little off - but he distinctly remembered Spider-Man's heartbeat.
It was a lot slower than the average heartbeat, which would be a dead giveaway that he was enhanced if Matt didn't already know that he could stick to walls with his bare hands. He wasn't entirely sure if that was a result of his nerves or if that was the kid's normal heart rate.
That was another thing he remembered about Spider-Man; he was just a kid. Some anonymous teenager was running around the city, stopping muggers and fighting aliens. It almost broke Matt's heart to learn that someone being ostracized by the entire world wasn't even 18. Everyone knew his name, where he went to school, who he was dating-
And how come Matt, and nobody else for that matter, didn't remember all that stuff? When Spider-Man's identity was first leaked, it was the biggest news in the world. Everyone, everywhere was talking about it. So how come it was all suddenly erased from everything? Matt was his lawyer, he should know the kid's name, but every time he tried to reach for any specific memory about Spider-Man, it crumbled in his mind like sand in his hand.
It was suspicious. And more than a little frightening. Something bad must have happened, and it probably had something to do with the Battle of Lady Liberty.
If Daredevil ended up running into Spider-Man tonight, he'd talk to him. He had more than a few questions for the younger vigilante. But it was more important to make sure that he was okay.
There were gunshots up ahead. They were muffled, likely due to a silencer, but Matt had long since trained his ears to pick up that kind of noise. Judging by the distance, he was only a few minutes out. He changed his trajectory, heading for the muffled gun head on, and hoped that no one was hurt.
The two minutes it took him to get deep into the upper west side felt like forever. By the time Daredevil landed on a roof, he could make out a cold, angry voice.
"Oh, I'm positive they did. Last group of guys I infiltrated, I found some… interesting black mail material on them. All kinds of stuff they could use against the Manfredi crime family. And it just so happens to all tie back to you." Frank explained slowly. Matt cringed and ran in the direction the voice came from.
"So what do you know? What exactly do you know about Mysterio?" Another voice - Spider-Man's voice - asked. The poor kid was more than a little frightened, but he was also pissed off beyond belief. Matt prayed that it would work out in his favor. His heart was pumping slowly, though faster than the last time he encountered the hero.
Matt got to the edge of the roof, Frank and Spider-Man the next building over. Frank had the kid pinned beneath his foot, a gun resting on his chest. Matt felt his blood run cold and leapt, throwing one of his billy clubs just so that it would knock the Punisher off of Spider-Man.
"At this point, I mostly have guesses, but if you-" Frank sputtered as the club hit him in the face. Daredevil did a flip before he landed, retracting his weapon as he scowled at the Punisher.
Frank was disoriented, so Matt took the opportunity to get Spider-Man back on his feet. He walked over, idly toying with his stick before tucking it away. He faced Spider-Man, reading his state through his senses. Luckily, the kid wasn't hurt, mostly just rattled by everything. Daredevil held out a hand. Spider-Man scrambled to take it. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Spider-Man." He smiled gently.
"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Daredevil." The other hero said as he stood.
Matt paused. The voice was a little familiar, but he stopped the thought before it could go any further. It wouldn't be good to get distracted while he was dealing with the Punisher. "Daredevil's fine. Mr. Daredevil was my father." He tried to joke.
"That's not what I remember." Frank spat coldly.
Matt tried to reason with him. Oh, he tried. But Frank was infuriated. He immediately attacked Daredevil as soon as he appeared. He shot at him, and Spider-Man tried his best to help, but it only served to throw Matt off his rhythm. It was only a moment, though, and eventually, Matt was fighting Frank while keeping Spider-Man off them both.
Daredevil encouraged him to get out of there and to run, but once the warehouse beneath them erupted in sudden noise, he ordered Spider-Man to go deal with that.
"A shame we won't get to finish our conversation!" Frank yelled as Spider-Man stood on the roof of the building. "Come find me if you ever want to! I'd sure love to compare notes!"
Spider-Man breathed like he was going to say something, but then his phone rang.
"Spider-Man, go!" Matt yelled. Spider-Man's attention snapped towards him. He nodded at Daredevil before flinging himself off the roof.
It sucked, but Matt was relieved once he was gone. One less person to get hurt. Now, it was just him against Frank Castle.
He ducked under a left hook and dropped to one hand, swinging his feet to try and knock Frank over. Frank jumped forward, landing his entire body weight on Matt's right arm. Matt snarled and shot his billy club in Frank's face, forcing him to take a step backward so he could recover.
Matt stood and flexed his arm. No broken bones, luckily. Probably just a fracture. Either way, he just broke one promise to Foggy. Not that he didn't already break the other one, but he could argue both ways on that.
"Frank, please listen to me," Matt pleaded, letting only a little emotion color his voice. "What you're doing, this whole Punisher thing, it's not what the city needs."
"Oh, it's exactly what the city needs, Murdock." Frank spat as he unsheathed a knife from his jacket. "You let this city go to Hell for five whole-ass years. I'm just fixing your mistakes. Someone needs to." He lunged forward, swiping the knife at Matt. The blade grazed his chest, and luckily, the suit protected him from the blow.
Matt grabbed his wrist and disarmed him, throwing the knife somewhere behind him. "Do you honestly think that I just let the city collapse under the weight of the Maggia?" He dodged a punched aim at his injured arm. "Have you considered the idea that the Maggia weren't the only groups trying to take over New York during the Blip? Or the entire fucking world, for that matter?"
Frank paused for only a second before aiming another punch at Matt's face, landing it this time. "The fuck do you mean?"
Matt took a few jumps backwards before he took his nose in hand and shifted it back into place. He bit back a groan as he tried to stand taller in front of Frank, who stopped advancing. "I mean, Frank, is that a lot of awful people who survived Thanos tried to do things to the city while the Avengers were distracted. I don't know about any other vigilantes, but I was mostly distracted with taking down Fisk's operations. He was, and always will be, the biggest criminal threat to New York, and I know that you know that, Frank."
"From what I hear, Fisk is still out there running his organization." Frank laughed bitterly. "You couldn't even do that shit right." He snarled as he ran at Matt.
Matt stepped to the side, away from Frank's attack. With the other man in front of him, Matt put both hands on his back and brought his knee up into his stomach, knocking the wind out of Frank. As he toppled over, Matt aimed a punch at his jaw for good measure.
"Fisk's operation would've been a lot bigger than it is if I hadn't done what I did." Matt reasoned, stepping back again. "Do I hate that a bunch of shitty people took control of the city? Of course I do, and I go everyday trying to put them down. But I don't regret what I did during the Blip. What I did was necessary, and it was effective."
"Explain it to me, then, Red."
Matt sighed. "Fisk was going for the city's jugular with most people gone. Without half the city's heroes here, he thought it best to finally take it over, once and for all. He managed to manipulate fucking Hawkeye, who I had to fight on a few occasions." He rubbed at a scar on his hip, grimacing as he remembered the injury. "The point is, Fisk had control over an Avenger, and was shooting for the rest of the city along with him. It would have destroyed those who remained if I didn't dedicate everything to taking him down, so I did what I could."
"You make it sound so difficult. Like taking down Fisk was some sort of challenge, even though you've done it twice before." Frank spat as he stood, squaring shoulders as if to intimidate Matt.
"You have no fucking clue, Frank." Matt rolled his shoulders, fighting the pain that settled in his right arm. "One night, when I was fighting Fisk's operation with the Defenders, he managed to get a guy to kill Danny Rand, a super-powered, supposedly god-like guy. If he can kill someone with a grand destiny like it was nothing, then he could tear apart this city at the seams."
Frank huffed and crossed his arms.
"Don't believe me, Frank?" Matt smiled at some blood trickled out of his nose.
"Sounds more like the words of a man trying to escape the death penalty." Frank admitted. "Why should I believe you, Murdock?"
"Have I ever lied to you Frank?" The other man raised an eyebrow. Matt relented. "Fine. Come by the office tomorrow, and I'll have Karen pull some files for you to read. Indisputable evidence of Fisk's activities during the Blip."
"And why can't you just do it?"
"Have you forgotten that I'm blind?"
Frank clenched his fists before finally sighing angrily. "Fine. I'll text Karen, let her know when I'm on my way over. But if you're wrong or if this is some sort of trap, then I'm making good on my threat." He said as he walked over to his sniper rifle and duffle bag.
"Only if you don't hurt Karen or Foggy." Matt ordered.
"Wasn't planning on it." Frank said, almost casually. "Karen's my friend, and you're the only one who could well and truly fuck up my plans." He stated simply as he shoved everything in a bag covered in something very sticky.
"Good." Matt crossed his arms, letting his billy club stick out as a warning.
"Good." Frank slung the duffle bag over his shoulder and walked to the roof's door, disappearing through it.
Matt was reluctant to let him go, but it was better than ruining their tenuous truce or continuing to fight. His arm was already killing him. All he wanted to do was go home and eat a bottle of ibuprofen. But first thing's first; Spider-Man.
He walked to the edge of the roof, trying to examine the warehouse the hero disappeared into. He focused his senses on it, finding most people either running away or laying in unconscious heaps. The only people remaining standing were Spider-Man and, judging by the stance and his vocal cadence, Silvio Manfredi.
Silvermane threw something, and it exploded. Matt readied his billy club to swing over, but he heard the tell-tale hiss of a gas canister begin. As much as he wanted to help Spider-Man, he couldn't go in there without risking himself a lot.
But then again, he always put himself in harm's way for the greater good. No, it was best to help the kid out. Keyword: kid. So Matt picked out a streetlight, aimed, and-
Spider-Man came flying out of one of the windows, frantically swinging himself over to the roof Daredevil stood on. The poor kid was hacking up a lung and he rolled up his mask over his mouth, trying to breath through whatever gas had been thrown in his face. Judging by the smell, it was chloroform mixed with something else.
He wasn't sure why Silvermane had that kind of thing at the ready, but it was definitely worrying. He really needed to help this kid out.
"Are you okay?" He asked Spider-Man once the coughing got a little lighter. Matt walked over to him and knelt down, resting a reassuring hand on his back. "Spider-Man?"
The younger vigilante coughed again. "Dare- Daredevil?"
"Yeah, kid. It's me. Are you okay? What happened in there?" He asked, rubbing his thumb along Spider-Man's shoulder blade, trying to offer some comfort to the kid.
"I'm- I'm fine." He took a deep breath, letting the coughs die down. "Yeah, I'm fine. Silvio Manfredi, he threw a gas bomb, trying to knock me out after I took out the rest of the warehouse." He took another gasping breath, clearing his throat. He tried to stand. "Managed to get out of there before it did anything, though."
"Well, it did do something. You should take it easy." Matt said, dropping his billy club so he could use both hands to keep Spider-Man sitting. "Don't try to stand until you have a clear head."
Spider-Man relented, letting Daredevil guide him back to the ground. The poor kid slumped against Matt, taking in air gratefully. Matt used this moment to assess him; his heartbeat was slower than its typical, already too slow speed. Matt was worried, but he tried not to dote; he already knew that his heart was pretty slow, so hopefully it wouldn't do anything bad to his enhanced system. He was also wheezing, clearly having taken in a lot of the gas. Probably enough to knock out a normal human, but luckily, Spider-Man was anything but.
By Matt's best estimates, Spider-Man would need no more than 10 minutes to fully recover from the gas. Lucky kid.
Matt stayed quiet, offering the support Spider-Man clearly needed. He was practically drinking up the attention, leaning on Daredevil like a tired puppy. Matt was somewhat of a stranger to physical affection from anyone other than Foggy, but he tried his best. He kept rubbing one hand up and down Spider-Man's back, using the other to keep him balanced. Eventually, Spider-Man's breath evened out and his heartbeat sped up a little.
Once he gathered his bearings, Spider-Man carefully tried to stand, Daredevil supporting him all the way up. He moved away from Matt once he was sure he was balanced, rolling his mask back over his mouth. "Uh, thanks for that, Daredevil."
"No problem, Spider-Man." Matt smiled casually as he scooped his billy club from where he dropped it. "Now, if you don't mind, I have a couple questions that-" He was interrupted by his phone, which played a text noise he picked out specifically for Karen.
"Do you have to get that?" Spider-Man asked.
"I probably should. Sorry about that." He cringed a little as he plucked his phone from his belt and opened the text-to-speech app.
"Emergency at the Batalon's house. Fire everywhere. Suspected arson. Get your ass over here." A robotic voice read Karen's words out loud.
Matt felt a cold sweat under his suit. "Shit."
Spider-Man had a similar reaction. "Do you need help with that?" He asked, almost frantically. Like he was personally invested in what was happening.
"I wouldn't complain." Daredevil tucked the phone back into his belt. "Follow me."
Spider-Man nodded seriously. "After you, Daredevil."