Matt was having a hard time reading Spider-Man. He was used to being able to get a good impression of people based on their bodies; their heart, their breathing, their ticks. But Spider-Man was an enigma, of sorts.
When he first encountered the young man on the roof, his heartbeat was incredibly slow, his breathing the exact opposite. It was like his heart was in hibernation while his lungs were on a mountaintop. At first, Matt wasn't entirely sure if that was just his normal physiology. He sure couldn't remember if it had been this way when he worked his case.
But on their impromptu train ride, as Spider-Man relaxed, his body began working a lot more like a normal human's. His heart beat faster and his breathing slowed down. So whatever was going on was a stress response, perhaps a way for his body to compensate for the pressure he puts on himself.
As soon as the subway rolled up to its station, they were out the back door and back into the sky, on the way to the Batalon's.
Technically, Matt has done team-ups before, but that was just with the other Defenders. And while they had powers and the occasional costume, those collaborations were completely different from this one.
Spider-Man and Daredevil worked pretty similarly; they both worked in the air, using a combination of hand-to-hand combat, acrobatics and long-ranged weapons to take down their opponents. Granted, Matt used his billy clubs while Spider-Man shot literal webs from his wrist, but the basic building blocks were all there.
In a way, Matt would call this refreshing if not for the circumstances of why they were in Queens.
He could hear the firetrucks as soon as they left their station, only moments after they got off the train. And by the time they were passing beneath Daredevil and Spider-Man, he could already smell the smoke. Matt was a little relieved he couldn't see the fire, because he was certain that it would be in sight by now.
Spider-Man's heartbeat spiked. Matt turned his face to him, focusing his hearing on the young man. His enhanced body was at war with his adrenaline; something about this situation was making him nervous. Something beyond the typical superhero mess, as if this personally mattered to Spider-Man.
As much as he wanted to ask about it, Matt filed that question away for later. It was better to focus on the task at hand; lives were at stake.
As they got closer, he could feel the heat of the fire, and the smell of the smoke became almost overwhelming. With that, he could also smell gasoline, confirming a suspicion of his. Matt held back a shudder as he and Spider-Man dropped down on the house across the street from the Batalon's.
Karen and Foggy were standing together on the street, comforting the sobbing Ms. Batalon. They were surrounded by fire crews running around and preparing hoses to put out the fire.
Daredevil and Spider-Man dropped down to the street, both with a flip. "Ms. Page. Mr. Nelson." Matt said calmly just before he landed. They both turned around, scared and concerned.
"Who's your friend?" Karen asked shortly, a crying woman clinging to her side.
"I'd like you both to meet Spider-Man." He gestured to the hero behind him, who was still sitting in a crouch. Matt turned to face him. "Spider-Man, this is Karen Page and Foggy Nelson. They work at a law firm in my neighborhood."
Spider-Man responded by standing and approaching, offering a single curt nod at the both of them. "What's going on? What happened?"
Foggy wasted no time. "Ms. Batalon's grandson, Ned Leeds, gave us a phone call about a half hour ago. He said he and his friend had been smelling gasoline around their home. They barely got Ms. Batalon out in time before the entire house lit on fire." He pointed down the street. "As soon as Karen and I got here, the two of them hopped in a car and went down that way, claiming that they saw someone escaping the scene."
Matt sniffed. "Makes sense. I can still smell the gasoline, and a little bit of alcohol. This was absolutely arson, likely ignited by a molotov cocktail."
"So the two of them went after the arsonist?" Spider-Man frantically asked, his heartbeat still flickering between slow and fast.
"Yep. Mr. Leeds is a young man, large, and Filipino." Karen explained to them, as if Matt needed to know. "The girl he went with seemed to be light-skinned African American, about 6 inches taller than him."
If Daredevil didn't have enhanced hearing, he would've missed the quiet, hissed " No ." from Spider-Man, as well as the fact that his heart finally started beating a mile a minute consistently. This seemed to have come from the mention of the young woman Mr. Leeds was with. Again, he would ask about this later. But for now, he couldn't let two teenagers chase after someone who was potentially armed and dangerous.
"Right. We'll find them. Spider-Man," Matt turned to the hero.
He startled a little bit and nodded. "Right." He said as he launched a web out, taking himself back into the air.
Behind him, Matt heard Foggy take a sharp breath as Spider-Man leapt away, either shocked or disturbed. Matt turned to him and lazily shrugged before jumping up and releasing his billy club to follow.
Spider-Man was moving like a bat out of hell down the road. He was clearly freaking out, right on the edge of a panic attack. Matt frowned. That was not good. It was also confusing as hell. Why would Spider-Man be freaking out over two kids he's never met?
Well, that was wrong. He has met them. Spider-Man was, obviously, the centerpiece of the Battle of Lady Liberty, fighting against a bunch of attackers from another dimension. And when the articles about the incident came out, the only two people who were present at the Statue were Ned Leeds and Michelle Jones-Watson. If Matt recalled correctly, their memory of the events was quite fuzzy, but they both remembered both being saved by Spider-Man and helping him defeat the villains.
Now, Matt can't exactly see people's skin color, but it wasn't hard to imagine that the young woman Mr. Leeds was with matched Karen's description. And since Spider-Man likely knew them, it made sense why he was freaking out so much.
But a superhero panicking wouldn't really help the situation. Matt had to do what he could to keep him somewhat level. "Spider-Man!" He called out.
The other hero whipped his head around at him, looking at him long enough to almost miss the streetlight in his way. Spider-Man hit it not so gracefully, falling to the street below.
Matt grabbed the pole of the streetlight and swung himself in an arc over it, landed on the sidewalk by Spider-Man's head. He bent over, lowering a hand to him. Spider-Man swiped it away and literally jumped to his feet. "What the hell was that about?" He practically yelled at Daredevil. "We can't stop now! What if N- what if those kids get hurt?"
"They will get hurt regardless if you don't calm down." Matt said bluntly, which seemed to shock Spider-Man.
"What do you mean?" Spider-Man spat at him.
"Remember on the train when I told you I could hear those two kids going at it in the car behind us?" Spider-Man stiffly nodded. "I can hear a lot more than just that, including your damn heartbeat. And kid, it's off the charts. We can't be superheroes and jump right into danger freaking out more than the people we're saving."
"So what?" Spider-Man shot back, a little less heat to his words.
"So take a deep breath and try to control yourself. Everything will be okay, but only if you're calm enough to deal with it." Daredevil added gently, setting his free hand on Spider-Man's shoulder.
To his credit, Spider-Man seemed to take in his words. He squared his feet and took a slow, deep breath in. Matt was relieved as he heard his heartbeat become less erratic and return to its typical stress response. Spider-Man sucked in another deep breath and sighed it out.
"Thanks for that, Daredevil." Spider-Man breathed quietly, letting his shoulders relax just a bit.
"No problem, Spider-Man. Now-" Matt stopped as tires screeched just at the edge of his hearing.
Spider-Man tilted his head. "What's up, DD?"
Matt was going to respond, but a gunshot did all the speaking for him. They both looked to their right, where the noise came from, and he heard some yelling coming from that direction.
Without looking, Spider-Man grabbed Daredevil's hand and boosted him into the air, jumping after him. Matt did a graceful back flip before launching his billy club and swinging himself towards all the noise.
As they got closer, Spider-Man vaulted over a building to swing by his side. "What is your 'spidey sense' telling you?" He asked, a poor attempt at a joke.
Matt let himself smirk a little bit before focusing on their destination, only four blocks up. The source of the noise came from an old parking lot, and one of the people there seemed familiar. He was certain they'd found the teenagers. "Three people in a parking lot, two of them next to a minivan. Those two seem young, one of them larger than the other. They both have their hands up. A woman's voice is yelling… I'm just going to say obscenities for now. The other is pointing a gun at them. I can smell gunpowder, so obviously he shot it, but there's no blood. No one's wounded, at least for now."
"Thank God." Spider-Man breathed. "We need to get there before he shoots again."
"I was thinking the same thing." Matt nodded. He thought for a moment before adding, "You go high, web up the weapon, I'll go low and barricade the kids."
The other hero nodded. "Good plan."
Within a minute, they were in sight of the lot. Judging by the hitch of Spider-Man's breath, they found the right kids. He used a couple of webs to gain some altitude while Matt attached his billy club to a streetlight overlooking the three people.
They all startled when they heard the clang of his weapon on cold metal. The gunman whipped around, shooting at the streetlight and causing it to go out. The young woman flinched and covered her head, as did Mr. Leeds. Daredevil landed in front of them and retracted his weapon.
The man turned back to him, his gun aimed right at Matt's chest. His finger wasn't shaking on the trigger, his heart only slightly elevated. A hired gun, then. Just doing someone's dirty work.
"You shouldn't be butting in, pal." The gunman grunted lowly.
"You shouldn't be shooting at teenagers. What are you gonna do, mug them? You think teenagers, especially ones in Queens, have any money?" Daredevil scoffed.
The guy opened his mouth to respond, but sputtered when a glob of webs encased the hand with the gun. He looked at it, distracted enough for Spider-Man to launch a web at his foot and go down hard, the man now dangling from the streetlight he shot.
Spider-Man did a couple flips before landing gently in a crouch. His heart was beating fast again as he stood up and took a few smooth steps over to Daredevil and the teenagers. "Are you two alright?"
The young woman nodded, her arm holding onto Mr. Leeds. "Yes." She practically spit at Spider-Man before looking at Daredevil. "Thanks for your help."
Matt blinked, a little taken back. "You shouldn't thank me. Spider-Man did most of the heavy lifting."
"One would think." She said quietly, but with the way Spider-Man deflated, he was sure he heard it as well.
"MJ, come on," Mr. Leeds whispered to her, taking them both a step back. "He did just save our lives. Again, might I add."
"Still not a fan of his after the shit we went through at the Statue." She whispered back.
"We don't even know what we went through." He retorted, a little louder. "Please, just try to be a little nicer."
"Fine!" She hissed before looking at Spider-Man. "Thank you."
"...don't mention it." Spider-Man responded, sounding a little dejected.
Matt examined the young woman - MJ - a little closer. Her adrenaline was coming down, and her body language and breathing showed a latent depression behind her fear. He got the same impression from Ned, though less strong. He didn't really appreciate her current tone with Spider-Man, though it was somewhat understandable given the last circumstances they met.
"What happened tonight? Why did you follow this man?" Daredevil asked, deciding that it was best to move on for now. Man, he was beginning to have quite a long list of questions for Spider-Man when all this was over. He should probably buy the kid dinner for this mini-interrogation. He should buy the kid dinner anyway, since it didn't seem like eats enough to maintain himself given his powerset.
"We followed him because he burnt down Ned's house!" MJ yelled, pointing in the direction they came from.
Ned held up his hands to interrupt her. "We were smelling some funky shit around my house. Gas, we think. So I called my lawyer cause he said to call if anything seems suspicious around the house. A little later, I go outside and see someone throw a flaming bottle. He takes off down the street. I run inside, and MJ and I get my Lola out safely. And she calls 911, and, uh, yeah." He shrugs.
"Once the lawyer and the PI got there, we hoped in Ned's Lola's minivan so we could chase the fucker down. We couldn't let him get away with it." MJ crossed her arms.
"And why did you two have to follow him? Why couldn't you have stayed put and let the professionals handle it?" Daredevil mimed her action.
"Because, Daredevil," She snarked. "We've been through enough shit to know how to handle some low-level criminal who has a fire fetish."
"But did you know he had a gun?" Spider-Man stepped in line with Daredevil.
"It was an easy assumption to make," MJ said dryly.
Ned cringed a little bit, taking a step in front of her. "We just didn't want the guy who burned down my house to get away."
"That was incredibly reckless, even more so because you got out of your car," Matt chastised. Ned shrunk a little bit, but MJ held her head higher. "I don't think either of you are particularly trained to fight or are enhanced, and this could've killed you."
"Okay, A. he shot out our tire, so it was safest to get out. And B., what makes either of you so special? How come you can fight guys like that but not us?" He could feel MJ roll her eyes dramatically.
"Training." Spider-Man answered, taking the same tone as Matt. "We know how to handle ourselves when facing the barrel of a gun. We know we can head back home to our- in one piece. I don't think either of you have that to the degree that we do."
Above them, there was some shuffling, followed by a quiet rip. The gunman had taken enough of Spider-Man's webs off his pistol to shoot, and he was doing just that. His finger struggled for only a moment before squeezing the trigger.
"Get down!" Daredevil ordered, pushing Ned to the ground as the gunshot rang out.
Spider-Man covered MJ, stepping in front of her and pushing her to the side. She stumbled a bit and grabbed onto his arm, bringing them both tumbling to the ground. Throughout their fall, Spider-Man kept his body between her's and the gunman's, which is right where he had been aiming.
Spider-Man huffed as the bullet hit home, ripping through his leg and jumping off the concrete once before embedding itself in the bottom of the minivan. He landed roughly on top of MJ before pushing himself off of her, rolling over to the side.
Daredevil threw his billy club and knocked out the assailant. He only had to hit him once before he hung off the streetlight limply, like a puppet with it's strings cut. As soon as his weapon was back in hand, he turned over to Spider-Man and knelt down next to him.
The smell of the blood was almost overwhelming. He scrunched up his nose but did his best to examine the wound. Luckily, no major arteries were hit, though he was bleeding quite a bit. He needed immediate medical attention.
Ned flew down to MJ's side, helping her up with a flurry of worried words. She sat up, staring blankly at Spider-Man as he writhed in pain.
"Spider-Man, can you hear me?" Matt asked softly. The younger hero nodded. "Good. I'm gonna pick you up, and we'll go get that leg sorted. You two-" He turned his attention to the two bewildered teenagers. "Call the cops. Or your lawyer. Or both. But call someone, tell them where you are and what happened."
"I, uh, right." Ned stammered, pulling his phone out.
"Thank you." MJ blurted out, more sincerely than last time.
"Don't mention it." Matt grunted as he got Spider-Man in a fireman's carry. He looked up, trying to figure out the best place to go before an idea popped up in his head. He aimed his billy club and fired, letting it take them both into the air once again.