In memory of

Kevin Conroy

1995 -2022

Rest in Peace, Dark Knight! Thank you so much for everything.

In the cockpit, an aggravated Montana watched in frustration at the free for all fight between fellow Enforcers, Fancy Dan and Ox, and two masked heroes on the Kingpin's hitlist, Daredevil the Spider-Man. Before this night, his men usually 'dealt' with targets reasonably quickly, thus establishing their reputation for their efficiency, which earned them the trust and respect of the Kingpin and fear in the underworld and filled the Southern mercenary with pride. But instead, he was filled with annoyance as he witnessed Dan and Ox struggle against these two masked 'freaks' and, in the process, harm their credibility. And the fight that made Montana the most aggravated was…

SPIDER-MAN VS. OX

….Ox was throwing punches but could not hit Peter, who dodged every punch using his quick speed and reflexes. Finally, out of pure frustration, Ox threw a left-legged front kick to send Peter flying across the roof. Unfortunately for the muscular hitman, Peter also avoided this attack by performing a butterfly flip to the right side and on top of the now heavily damaged air conditioning box, leaving Ox to let out a loud, angry yell. "Will you hold friggin' hold still?!"

The perched Peter responded to the furious Ox's question with a shrug. "Sorry, pal," said Peter in a light-hearted, jokey mood to mask his nervousness. "But given that I was Daredevil's punching bag a few minutes ago, I'm gonna have to say no."

This remark only further enraged Ox, and thus continued his assault on Peter, this time with a left-handed clothesline. But much like his other attacks, it was avoided by the nimble young hero who leaned back and allowed Ox to run past him. Ox just barely managed to stop himself, and by the time he turned around, Peter had already jumped and flipped forward to create some distance, which only fueled his fury. "You know, it really ain't a good idea to piss off people like me!" Ox barked as he watched Peter turn around to face him.

As Peter got into a defensive posture, he could tell that Ox was getting so mad that he could barely think straight, assuming that the hitman thought. Though he knew he was pushing his already bad luck, Peter felt he had kept on the insults to have Ox make a mistake he could capitalize on to end this fight and help Daredevil. Thus, he continued his verbal assault. "And by 'people like you, you mean people who are built like a tank but throw temper tantrums like a little girl in a toy store?"

At that moment, Ox finally snapped and, with a roar of pure rage, ran towards Peter, raised his fists, and went to bash Peter into the steel box and shut him up permanently.

This act of pure rage was exactly what Peter was hoping for, as he jumped and flipped over Ox, allowing him to bash his fists and create a significant dent into the steel. While he was upside down in the air, Peter pointed his hands down at Ox's fists and shot two web balls, which covered the hitman's hands and bound them to the box, leaving him trapped. Upon landing safely on his feet, Peter turned around to the struggling Ox with a confident smirk behind his mask. "Now you stand there and about what you've-!"

Before Peter could finish his quip, the enraged Ox unveiled his own surprise. Namely, he put those massive muscles to use by pulling his arms back and tearing the web that bonded him to the steel box, then began ripping the webbing still over his hands as if they were paper.

Upon seeing this display of inhuman strength, Peter's confidence was soon replaced with fear and discouragement. For he designed his webbing to be as durable as steel and just witnessed this brutish mercenary tear through it like it was nothing. "Ooookay, not good!"

Meanwhile, the tide had also turned in the between…

DAREDEVIL VS. FANCY DAN

…As the Butterfly Knife-wielding Dan continued to throw one slash attack after another at Daredevil, who managed to keep up with the Enforcer's speed enough to block them with his billy clubs. Finally, after throwing a right slash that the horn-headed vigilante blocked, Dan threw another slash with his other hand, which was also anticipated and blocked by Daredevil. Instead of being frustrated, Dan only smiled with sadistic glee. For this was a feint for him to use his knives to push Daredevil's clubs downward and, in a fluid type motion, throws a right elbow strike to the side of his red-wearing opponent's mouth, causing him to stagger aimlessly backward. This gives Dan a chance to end this fight quickly by holding both knives over his left shoulder, then running in and throwing both blades in an outward slash, intended to slash the middle and lower part of Daredevil's throat.

Fortunately for Daredevil, he could return to reality when he could hear the singing sounds of the knives coming his way and thus backstepped to the left side to save his throat from being slashed. Though he managed to keep himself from getting his neck sliced, the blades still managed to cut the upper part of his shirt, exposing some of the caviler armor inside. And if that wasn't enough, this fight, along with the one he had with Peter, was beginning to take quite a toll on his stamina, thus forcing the crime fighter to take slow breaths to control his breathing.

Though Dan saw the exposed steel mesh that protected Daredevil's neck, which rendered his double slash attempt useless, he still was all smiles. It was mainly due to seeing the exhausted Daredevil breathing heavily and his movements getting slower from their prior exchanges with their weapons. "Well, you're prepared for damn near anything, ain't you, Devil-boy?" Dan said, calling attention to the Kevlar. "Still don't matter, though. You're getting tired, and even if you weren't, you're still fighting against the master of finesse! Hence the name; Fancy Dan! So, what makes your punk ass think you have a chance against me?!" Knowing that he has this fight in the bag, Dan rushes in and thrusts the Butterfly knife in his left hand forward, aiming the blade's tip into Daredevil's exposed mouth.

Despite being tired from engaging in two fights, Daredevil's hearing was as sharp as ever. Upon hearing the hitman speeding in his direction, he still had enough energy in his body to save himself. Meaning that he used the club in his left hand to not only block the blade but also push it to the right side as he sidestepped to the left.

Though Dan was annoyed at having his attack deflected, the hitman did not let this stop him, so he spun around and threw a right backhanded slash with Daredevil's mouth being the target.

Another attack that Daredevil anticipated and leaned back to avoid. Even as he took steady breaths to slow his heart rate, the horn-headed vigilante knew he couldn't keep this up. Not to mention that there was still the agile but inexperienced Peter, who needed his help regarding Ox. However, Daredevil knew that he needed to be alive in order to help the young man, and he bared this in mind when he heard the Butterfly knife in Dan's right hand coming his way and stopped it by holding up the billy club in the same hand to block the blade. After using the club in his right hand to block the slash from Dan's other knife, Daredevil decided to end this fight by driving his horned head right into Dan's face and sending him flat on his back to the roof floor. An act that Daredevil did out of instinct and instantly regretted as it left him a bit disoriented.

But not as much as the fallen Dan, whose forehead was now bleeding as he lay there in a daze. The hitman could only look up at Daredevil shaking his head before groaning as the world went black and drifted off into unconsciousness.

As for Daredevil, once he felt his head was clear enough, he directed his head down to face the direction where he heard Dan's groan as he passed out. "For starters, I don't do 'fancy,'" said the horn-headed vigilante about Dan's earlier overconfident question. Moments later, he was alerted by what sounded like someone choking. Someone young. All of which made the seasoned crime fighter roll his eyes in aggravation. "Of course," said the not surprised Daredevil, as he knew that the chocking came from the fight between…

SPIDER-MAN VS. OX

…Most notably, coming from Peter for Ox right behind him with his massive arms encircled around Peter's arms underneath his armpits, his huge hands secured behind his masked head and pressed down on his neck to cut off his air supply.

So secure was Ox's hold that he was able to lift Peter off the floor, all with a vicious smile, as Ox always felt empowered and overjoyed when he used his strength to overpower people smaller than him, especially those who take him for an idiot. "Like to see you shoot those webs now, Bug boy!"

Despite having the life choked out of him, Peter still chose to be snarky, as he did have a way out of this predicament. "W-Well," said the choking Peter whenever he had enough air to speak. "I didn't want to…say anything because I didn't…want you to think I was telling you…you how to do your job. But if you insist…!" It was here that while Peter couldn't move his arms down, he could move them up. And that's precisely what he did as he pointed his arms upward and pointed his wrists at where he heard Oz's voice. Moments later, he shot webbing that instantly covered Oz's face, and even as the bulky mercenary released his hold to try and tear the webbing off, Peter kept shooting so he could form two web lines. Upon landing on the floor on his feet, Peter went on the offensive by sliding between Ox's legs. Once he ended up behind him, he stood up, spun around to face the hitman's massive back, and pulled up on his lines with sixty percent of his spider strength, which was more than enough to force Ox to flip forward and land hard on his back.

But even after such a hard landing, Ox still manages to sit up and angrily tear the webbing off his face. However, the first thing that hitman saw upon removing the sticky substance was that of Daredevil throwing a right-legged round kick to his left temple, sending Ox down hard to the roof floor and with apparent brain trauma. "Yeah, sign me up for those…Testasbros…" were Oz's last conscious words before he finally passed out and lay cold on the roof floor.

After hearing Oz's groan and confirming that he was down for the count, Daredevil turned in Peter's direction, where he could listen to him coughing and trying to regain his breath. "You all right?"

After letting out two coughs and rubbing his throat, Peter could finally breathe enough to speak. "Better than them anyway," Peter answered with a slightly horsed voice as he referenced the now unconscious Dan and Ox. But despite this victory over the two Enforcers, Peter was still concerned as she maintained a readied stance. "Still missing our invisible cowboy, though."

"I know," Daredevil replied in a serious tone as he stood ready with his billy clubs. "So, stay sharp!"

Meanwhile, back inside the hovercraft's cockpit, Montana was beyond furious at seeing his two men out cold at the masked men's feet. "Damn it," Montana barked loudly, clearly not pleased by his men's performance as he typed on the dashboard to reactivate the targeting system and zeroed in on Daredevil's head. "It's the old sayin'; If you want someone killed right, you gotta do it yourseeeeAAAAHHH!" Suddenly, a sparkling portal appeared underneath the pilot seat, and moments later, both the seat and shocked Montana fell right through.

Back outside, another sparkling portal appeared above the roof, and through it came Montana and the seat he was strapped to, which landed right in front of Peter and Daredevil, catching them both by surprise.

And the first of the two masked men to vocalize his feelings was Peter, who looked at Montana, completely baffled. "Whoa, okay, that's weird!" As Peter looked up at the portal, which fizzled out of exitance, he also noticed something in the air that left him stunned. "And THAT'S even weirder!"

On the other hand, Daredevil only smirked as he recognized the fizzing sound and could tell from the awkwardness in Peter's voice that he had found the source of it. "I think the more appropriate word is Strange."

Around this time, Montana had pulled a bowie knife out of his right boot and cut the straps off his person so he could stand up from the chair. Once on his feet, Montana noticed Peter and Daredevil looking up, leaving him confused. Upon turning and looking up to see what the two masked men were gawking at, and what the Enforcer saw caused his eyes to grow wide and drop his knife. "What in Tarnation…!"

All three men saw that the source of the portal was that of Dr. Stephen Strange, whose clothing was filled with tatters and tears, his forehead bleeding, thanks to his battle with Lagos, and floating in the air thanks to the Cloak of Levitation. His hands held outward and appeared to be straining like he was holding something heavy. That something, of course, was the now pilotless hovercraft. With swift, synchronized movements with his hands, the portal inside the hovercraft expanded and shorted out the controls, disabling the cloak and revealing its existence.

Naturally, this scared Montana beyond belief, for not only were his men down, but this floating man now held his ride. All of this made the now fear-consumed hitman to make a run for it and speed toward where he saw the building's fire escape ladder just ahead. However, before he could reach the railings, Montana felt something strong and stick wrap around his ankles and cause him to fall on the roof floor hard. This caused Montana to groan painfully on his back, and as he looked down at his feet, he could see his ankles bound together by webbing. To make things worse for the Enforcer, he looked straight ahead and saw Peter, the shooter of the web, and Daredevil standing right in front of him, all of which prompted Montana to panic and pull out two six-shot pistols from the holsters on the sides of his belt and take aim at the two men that stood before him.

However, before a single shot was fired, Peter fired two web lines from his wrists, covering the barrels upon contact, then yanked the guns right out of Montana's hands.

As Montana lay there stunned, Daredevil was the next to attack when he threw the billy club in his right hand, which ended up hitting and bouncing off Montana's forehead. Moments later, it returned to Daredevil's waiting right hand like a boomerang. And the result of such an attack was Montana joining his fellow Enforcers into unconsciousness.

With all three Enforcers down for the count, Peter and Daredevil turned their attention to Stephen and witnessed his most unusual plan of getting rid of the hovercraft so it didn't fall into the street below and endangered civilians. The first half of the plan was to channel his energy into his hands to create gold mandalas, then bring his hands together to make them merge into one giant mandala as tall as his body. From there, Stephen enacted the second phase of his plan, in that he used his right hand to push the circle forward, which sped towards and hit the hovercraft, which upon making contact, caused it to glow and burst into shining confetti, which slowly fell to the street below.

This grandiose display of magic left Peter impressed but, for the most part, utterly dumbfounded. "Okay," he thought. "I know it's his name, but 'strange' clearly isn't a strong enough word to properly describe this guy!"

As for Daredevil, he did not seem shocked and appeared to be quite annoyed at the Sorcerer's late arrival. "Glad to see you could make it, Doc," Daredevil said sarcastically. "What kept you?"

It was here that Peter spoke next, all while shocked at Stephen's torn clothing. "And what happened to you?"

"I don't want to talk about it," was Stephen's grim answer in response to both questions. For while he and Wong were successful in banishing Lagos, the last thing he needed was to hear a lecture from Daredevil, of all people, to give him the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth on being more careful with his belongings.

On the other hand, Daredevil could sense the embarrassment in Stephen's voice and knew that something troublesome must've happened by the Sorcerer's doing. And though he felt annoyed, the vigilante decided to put such feelings on hold and pointed one of his billy clubs at all three unconscious Enforcers. "Well, I'm assuming you can make something that can hold them?"

At that moment, Peter soon pointed at the fallen Ox, who easily tore through his durable webbing. "Especially the big guy!"

To answer that, Stephen turned to the three mercenaries on the roof floor. With more hand movements, three more mandalas appeared above the Enforcers, then gently lowered to them and, upon touching their bodies, formed into a gold substance that wrapped around them like cocoons. "There, that should hold them for a while," Stephen said confidently, then turned his attention back to Peter with a narrow brow. "Now, let's get to the matter at hand, that being how well you did with Daredevil's 'evaluation.' But first, what do you say we take this to a place that's less…well, out of the open."

With that said, Stephen moved his hands again, but this time, he formed a giant mandala above him, Peter and Daredevil. The Sorcerer then gently moved his hands downward, which caused the mandala to move down, and while Peter held his arms over his masked head in a panic, Daredevil was unphased. It didn't take long for the mandala to run down the three men, and within mere moments, they found themselves off the roof and into...

SANCTUM SANCTORIUM

…but this time, inside a large hallway that appeared to be in ruins and with the broken parts covered in golden magic that tried to reattach themselves. Stephen, Daredevil, and the baffled Peter were not the only ones in the hallway; however, for also present was Wong, who stood firmly with his hands behind his back. Not only that, but present were three other men who were part of this 'organization' that Daredevil spoke of.

The first of these members was a tall man clad entirely in white, from his armored body suit with a gold symbol on the chest that resembled a crescent moon to his hooded cloak and his face mask with glowing white eyes. This masked vigilante was known as Moon Knight, another feared vigilante like Daredevil himself, but his title goes back to Ancient Egypt, where it was said that whoever bore the title was the servant of Khonshu, the Egyptian God of the Moon.

The second was that of a bald, muscular African American man in his mid-thirties who was six feet, six inches tall, wearing a yellow shirt, black jeans and boots, and a chained linked belt. This man was Luke Cage, who was sent to prison long ago for a crime he did not commit, but thanks to an experiment inside the prison, he gained superhuman strength and bulletproof skin. Now, he used those gifts to make a living in fighting crime as New York's Hero for Hire.

And the third and final member of this team was a black-haired young man of Chinese descent in his mid-twenties, clad in green clothing with a golden dragon symbol on the chest and wearing a yellow mask over his eyes and tied around the back of his head. His actual name was Lin Lie, a man who trained in martial arts within the mystic city of K'un L'un and was given the title of Iron Fist, the city's greatest warrior.

Peter thought that fighting Daredevil and a group of mercenaries afterward was outlandish enough. But being transported to a partially destroyed hallway and seeing other costume men besides Luke left him completely dumbfounded. All of which prompted Peter to let out these three words in total bewilderment. "What the fu-!?"