hawk_shot: (gasp)
Kate Bishop ([personal profile] hawk_shot) wrote2025-04-17 07:04 am

(Almost) Murder in the dance floor (for [personal profile] streetlevel )

With her thumb, Kate tried to get it out. She dug, finger by finger, under the rim of each one of her nails as she tried to dig out those mucky red lines that had once been Matt's blood. Her hands were still shaking.

Looking back, she should have known. Deep down she knew, Matt and Kate had spent the day warning each other not to do anything stupid at the Black and White Ball the Fisks had hosted, inviting anyone influential at the city of New York. And not so very smoothly, Matt as his girlfriend's plus one. It was a recipe for disaster and they both pretended to have it all under control.

Things started well, even if by this point the water was starting to boil. Kate's gown flowed as she made her way through the crowd, always clocking Matt, Fisk and the task force around them. She had eventually spotted Jack too who, still warmed her heart with how graciously she treated her despite of how her mother had framed him for her crimes. It's shocking how you can misjudge a person sometimes.

But, before Jack could warn her about his conversation with Fisk, the Mayor had sent one of his people asking Kate to join him in a private room for a chat. Kate could feel Matt's presence on her back as the door closed behind her. She knew his ears were in the room with them too as Fisk, as charming as a murderer can be, reminded her of their first encounter. The fight during Christmas Eve. He made it clear that he knew about Kate's gig now as a vigilante. The demand for a monetary contribution from Bishop Security's behalf had not been all that subtle. A tax to keep his rabid guard dogs off her neck.

By the time Kate walked out of the room, her hands shook with frustration. She should have heard the water boiling by then.

It had all happened too quickly then. The dance, the gunshot, Fisk pushing Matt off himself as if he was trash. Her friend being down on the floor, red blossoming on his white shirt like a deadly rose. While Heather called for help Kate had placed both her hands on the wound while the ambulance came over, blood staining the silks of her dress. His blood giving her red gloves, blood still clinging to the rim of her nails no matter how many times she washed her hands at the hospital.

It was strange and tense and horrible, waiting. Matt might be stable now, but Kate and Heather barely broke the silence in the room until Kirsten showed up.
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[personal profile] streetlevel 2025-04-18 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's not the drugs. The city - the power's out in the entire city." He could hear the shouts about it, he could already hear the police sirens and clamoring and windows breaking. Panic and opportunity to capitalize on it wasting no time.

There was a snort and wry look at her starting down the trail of Fisk feeling like he owed Matt anything. That wasn't how the Kingpin operated, certainly not when his wife was at risk. Nothing mattered more to Fisk than Vanessa - except perhaps his own well-being. Unfortunately, Fisk's well-being easily aligned with his wife's, the two doing a dark tango of crime together.

Matt pulled out the tubes and got to his feet, immediately wobbling and reaching out for the bed or Kate to hold him steady. "SHIT. Fuck shit. Okay. Okay. I'll steer us, you keep us upright." He couldn't possibly focus to maneuver them and move on his own - or perhaps he could if he really pushed himself, but Kate helping was much easier. He also knew she wouldn't leave him. Working together they could get one another to safety faster. "And I can't believe I'm saying this, but ditch your heels and go barefoot if that makes moving easier." So gross to walk through New York barefoot, but better than being slow in heels. He wouldn't put it past Kate to be able to run in heels, though. He'd leave it up to her.

He managed to get his shoes on, didn't bother with his clothing. "Wait. Kate. We have to get the person next to us out. They-" Were way too sick to move. They stood a better chance in a chaotic, unpowered hospital than on the streets with two known vigilantes. Matt's heart broke so hard that he couldn't save everyone in this hospital. That he wasn't the answer to everyone's problem.

Then he heard an orderly rushing in next door, heard them say in a slightly scared but firm tone what needed to happen to other workers.

Experts were here. He should let them work.

He was not always the answer.

He shook his head. He smiled.

It was a frightening smile in the dark. A vengeful, satisfied smile. The workers would keep people alive. The devil would get the due of those who didn't survive. Not with death, but with justice.

"They're in better hands than ours. Let's do what we do best." He had to trust the city now. Now more than ever.

He moved with wobbling certainty towards her. He let her carry his weight as he guided them. He wanted so badly to fight the man who was carrying the gun, but he turned them in the other direction. He wove them in and out of the crowd, into a city as black as night.

The day would come.

It was all the same as him. It was time to get to work.

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[personal profile] streetlevel 2025-04-18 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm going back to my apartment. I have to pick up a few things." His suit. His clubs. Any evidence if the task force had already gone through there. "I'll be able to hear if they're there or not. If they are, then I'll deal with them. If not, I'm getting my stuff." Either way, he was getting his stuff. He was not going to let Fisk make him cower like a rat, and in order to take action, he needed to be in something other than a hospital gown.

Maybe more than ever right now, he needed to be in his Daredevil suit. The city needed to see that, lest they all fall prey to the lies Fisk was telling.

Whether or not he returned to work he didn't yet know. Once the city's power came back on, to have the task force barging into companies and killing everyone just to get to him wouldn't be a good look even for Fisk. No, they were just being brazen right now as the city was in chaos. Once some order resumed, even if it was an ugly sense of order, he might very well be able to return to work. With a target on his back, of course, with Fisk fighting every case he took, but what else was new and people would need a lawyer more than ever. First though before he resumed that part of his life, he had to properly return to the other. Nobody was going to work right now though with the city in darkness. Nobody doing anything legal, at least.

He wasn't about to do anything legal.

Almost as if reading her mind, knowing who else mattered to Kate, he said, "I'll call Cherry and send him over to Riker's. To keep an eye on things there with your mom. Why don't you call Peter to see if he can watch Lucky?" That about covered it. Matt's few remaining friends in the city, Jessica, Luke, and Danny, they could take care of themselves until Matt found a time to connect with them. He hoped.

He started to trudge his way through the city as he called Cherry, the cold and the chaos both battering at him. His expression didn't alter. There was a pained but focused look on his face, one step in front of the other. He stopped Kate a few times as he listened, then proceeded. Once outside his building he confirmed, "I don't hear anything outside people cowering." Slowly he made his way inside, one hand wrapped around his waist, his step getting heavier.

As they went up the stairs he did, in fact, hear something familiar.

Someone familiar.

Matt sighed in resigned exasperation as he let them into his apartment, shaking his head. A wry smile came to his face as he limped in, letting himself collapse for just a moment on the sofa. "You're pretty much the last person I expected to find here."

Frank Castle, the Punisher, newly shaven and with new aftershave, "You know you're a wall-to-wall asshole?" Seeing Kate, Frank raised an eyebrow but gave a slight nod. "Ma'am. You know this guy's insane, right? And that's rich coming from me. Power goes out and he doesn't even have anything to make a goddamn pot of coffee."

[OOC: I could not resist the great introduction of Frank, LOL.]
Edited 2025-04-18 21:47 (UTC)
streetlevel: (pic#17740569)

[personal profile] streetlevel 2025-04-18 11:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Frank gave a small snort at Kate's brazenness in offering food from Matt's fridge. "Seems you already know my name. Thanks for the tip, kid. I like her, Red. Maybe if you had more smart people around you wouldn't be in the fuck-infested mess you are now." He made his way to the refrigerator, opened it up, and started eating the Thai takeout cold and right from the carton. He returned the favor, gesturing towards Matt's bedroom. "Yeah, why don't you go get changed?"

"So glad you both have let me stay in my own apartment," Matt said dryly at their antics. "And yeah, who could have predicted the cops would be running around killing people with my face tattooed on their necks - oh wait, that's right, that's you." Matt clung to Lucky's fur, smiling a little at the dog's loving welcome. "Okay, okay, it's okay, pal. I missed you, too." The dog's presence was warm and welcoming, a balm on Matt's bruised soul.

Frank came over to stand near Matt, eating his leftovers. "So is that your new costume? Might need a stripper name to go with it with your bare ass hanging out. What's your first pet's name and the street you grew up on?"

"Aw, are you flirting? I'm gonna start to think that aftershave and a haircut are all for me." Matt wincingly sat up on the sofa. His tone was tart and a touch bitter. "I thought this wasn't your fight, Frank."

"Yeah, well, someone made me change my mind."

They both knew who that was. There was only one person who could do that.

Frank tossed the carton onto the ground. Lucky jumped off to lick up the remains. A helicopter was heard flying nearby. "Made a promise I'd get you out of here alive. There's a van of shitbags heading this way, won't be long. You clock that?"

"Yeah." Matt slowly, achingly, got to his feet.

Frank nodded at the bedroom door. "This kid can hold their own? It's gonna get ugly, Red."

"I'm gonna remind you that you asked after she saves your ass."

"All right, then." Frank sniffed, reaching out to pet the dog and moving to stand just beside the window. "They come up here I ain't pulling my shots with these fanboys, you get what I'm saying?"

"Not sure I want that kind of help, Frank."

"Yeah, well, that's the kind of help you got." Frank paused. "Why'd you take a bullet for that asshole?"

Matt blew out a breath and shook his head. "That's a good question." He wasn't sure he had a good answer.

"Shit." Frank pulled out his gun and called out, "You ready, kid? Bare ass here needs to get off his and cover it." He smirked as Matt flipped him the finger while walking away.
Edited 2025-04-18 23:44 (UTC)
streetlevel: (pic#17740582)

[personal profile] streetlevel 2025-04-19 10:52 am (UTC)(link)
The banter felt both familiar and new. A shift in dynamics, with the addition of Frank. The other man was someone Matt had known off and on for close to twenty years now. Kate was a much more recent addition to Matt's life. He was glad for each of them in their own way. Matt knows he can't do this without help. Frank might just be here because of Karen, or maybe he'd just been looking for an excuse to join the fight, but this was Kate's city, too. He knew that she fought for it as hard as Matt did.

They're getting out of this. All of them. Alive.

His fingers brushed over the reinforced leather uniform, over the horns on the helmet. Then he began to get ready.

Out in the living room Frank watched Lucky race down the stairs and commented, "Good mutt." He didn't care about most people dying, but he was glad the dog might get to safety. Resting his gun on his shoulder he watched Kate as she chose her arrows and gave a small snort at her comment. "I'd ask what he says but I don't wanna blush. Anyway, whether he's glad or not, when times turn to shit you can't get picky." He paused a moment before adding, "Me and Red go way back. We don't gotta like one another to work together. I know his deal. But what about you? What's yours?" He noticed the bow and arrow. An interesting choice for sure. Not one he'd have chosen. He preferred something as common but efficiently deadly as a gun. "Living this life, it fucks you up, you know. So either you're already fucked up, or something matters more to you than getting that way."
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[personal profile] streetlevel 2025-04-19 12:33 pm (UTC)(link)
A single arrow. Barton? Frank only knew the man in passing, heard he'd retired. Sounded fake to Frank, but that wasn't his business. Instead he focused on Kate and her story, what she'd done when rising from the rubble. It was like the inverse of his story. He'd lost his kids, Kate had lost a parent. "Yeah. That'd fuck anyone up at least a little." He paused, because he wasn't very good at this shit. He didn't say he was sorry, because sorry meant nothing. "I'm sure your dad would be proud of you wanting to help out. World needs people like you two."

He raised his voice then. "You hear that, Red? It's the only compliment you're ever getting from me."

Matt left the bedroom, smiling a little. He had his clubs already in his hand, one of which he spins lazily to warm up. "Where would our coffee industry be without you, Frank? The feeling's mutual. You're a good man when you want to be."

Frank made a face. "Ugh, let's cut this sentimental shit."

"Sure? Kate and I can talk about our feelings for hours."

"Yeah, I heard you're dating a shrink now. Good for you, maybe you'll figure out why you're shit talking to a guy who's shot you in the head before."

Matt turned to Kate. "He didn't kill me. I think he liked me even then. Frank, maybe after this, we can all find small animals to pet and talk about all the other good things and people in the world."

A gun was waved right in his face as Frank mockingly prayed. "God that doesn't exist, let the assholes barge down the door right now or I'm gonna shoot him first." The barrel pressed on his head, turning it aside as Frank went to stand catty-corner across the room from the door, hidden on the balcony but with a good vantage spot. He was in position.

Matt chuckled. "I'm gonna go on the roof. Keep an ear out." He touched Kate's shoulder on his way, giving her a small nod. "You do, you know. Save a lot of little yous in the world. I'm sure of it." He gave her shoulder a squeeze and then vaulted onto the rooftop. He stood waiting. Waiting.

Footsteps, heavy and certain. An easy break into Matt's apartment that looked empty. At first.

CRASH.

Matt broke through the skylights, landing in the middle of the room. Screams and shots began to fill the space, with Matt keeping steady track of Frank and Kate's heartbeats throughout the fight.

[OOC: I'm not great at action scenes so I tend to gloss over a lot of it. However, feel free to add in whatever details you want! I figure the general vibe of the fight would stay the same but I am totally down for that arrow through the hand and things like that. <3]
Edited 2025-04-19 12:35 (UTC)
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[personal profile] streetlevel 2025-04-20 01:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Be careful. Matt smiled at the sentiment, even if nothing about this moment was safe. They were all watching one another's backs. He could sense that in the moment even among the chaos. How Kate, himself, and Frank weave around one another, trying to stay in some semblance of a triangle so that attacks are less likely to happen from behind. It wasn't a full proof plan of course, however much good it did. Matt could hear his friends struggling, could also make out their methods and motives.

He yelled at Frank to stop when he felt things were getting too brutal, but of course the Punisher didn't listen. The man was in his death machine mode, tearing down the people who'd put him on a perverted pedestal. Blood soaked the shirts of these men bearing the skull logo, and bodies dropped to the ground with either a silenced or erratic heartbeat. Matt's own gunshot wound was throbbing, the pain radiating outward as new bruises were added to the list. At one point Matt even had to lean against his corner bookshelf, holding his arm tight around his body and panting to give himself a moment to recover before rejoining the fray. His clubs were tossed at all angles, even behind him, finding purchase with their targets before returning to him. Bones cracked, but Matt was careful not to have any of the injuries he levied be fatal.

Matt heard Frank fall to the floor, leaping over a counter to collide with an assailant. He also heard someone approaching from behind while that scuffle was going on. Matt turned, ready to help, but Kate was already on it. He heard the clang of the bow against skull and the person go down. In a ragged but smug tone Matt called out, "Told you!" as he grappled with another gunman, turning their spray of bullets into the walls when it had been about to shower his friends. He just managed to wrestle the gun away and knock the man out against the counter when someone rammed into his side, making him see stars before Matt used the other man's heavier weight against him and flipped him over the sofa and into the coffee table, crushing it.

"Shove that baton up your ass if you're not gonna really use it," was Franks retort, but he did clock that Kate helped him. There'd be time to thank her later. For now he was busy barreling bullets into bodies.

Matt flung one of the men into his television then vaulted himself into the air to evade a parade of shots fired at him. Kate managed to pin the hand of the man to the wall to stop it. One last man standing, Matt used the cable in his billy clubs to thrust out and trip them, a final punch on the ground knocking them out cold.

Matt stood in the middle of the room, panting heavily. The adrenaline was still rushing through him enough that he could hold himself upright. The combination of the earlier gunshot, the drugs, and the new battered bruising would take it's toll eventually, but not yet.

"Just getting warmed up," was Frank's answer as he sat up, leaning against the kitchen cabinets for a moment. "You good, Red?"

"Yeah. Yeah..." Matt sucked in air.

Frank's fingers picked up a bullet with the skull on it, slowly getting to his feet and tossing the small piece of metal to Matt. "Think we found your guy." Matt stiffened at that, knowing what Frank meant. Hector's killer. Likely the same man that had threatened Kate, too. He approached Cole who was desperately radioing for help, saying that the Punisher was on site.

Matt knelt in front of Cole, holding up the bullet. His voice was lower, a hellbent growl. "This yours? Yeah, you recognize it, don't you? You killed Hector Ayala. He was a good man. You threatened an innocent woman. You've been terrorizing this city."

Cole spoke through a mouthful of blood and spittle. "Do what you gotta do. I stood with my own. I can die easy." Cole's head tipped to the side, studying Kate without remorse as he addressed them all. "Nobody here is innocent."

Rage. Matt didn't see the world, but he could see red. He stood up, backed away a moment, then with a sickening whack he knocked Cole practically unconscious. Memories flooded back to him. Of Hector, newly freed for only one last day of life. Of Foggy and Karen, and what that loss had nearly driven him to do on the rooftop with Bullseye - what he had been driven to do, not knowing Bullseye would survive.

"Do it, Red," Frank encouraged him. "Come on, he's right there."

"He's not worth it, he's not worth it," Matt kept repeating like a desperate prayer, trying to convince and calm himself. He heard Frank's frustrated scoff, heard the Punisher's gun click and he stepped in front of Cole to create a protective barrier between Frank and Cole. "No, no. Frank! It's not what I want. Please don't."

"Yeah?" Frank studied him with resignation and a little derision. The divide that always separated them in the end. He looked over at Kate. "What about you? Keeping this shitbag alive, is that what you want?"
Edited 2025-04-20 13:04 (UTC)
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[personal profile] streetlevel 2025-04-20 04:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Even though the moment was thick with tension, a part of Matt felt nothing but pride in Kate's answer. He knew how terrible things were right now, how nerves danced on a knife's edge. How justice and revenge felt so much the same when blood was spilled as it was. The men on Fisk's task force had done unspeakable things in the name of the law, a perversion of what it was meant to do and what those who held such positions were meant to serve. Matt didn't want to think that anyone was too far gone to save, but at the same time, the city was run afoul right now with corrupted power with Fisk at the helm. A man who very much had not changed.

Matt held his hands up, weary but resolved. "She's right. If we just start killing everyone right back, then all that happen is chaos. A warzone that will make innocent people continue to fall. We have to inspire what's left of the city to fight back in a way that doesn't leave us all in ashes."

Frank scoffed, shaking his head. "So getting in front of bullets that would stop killers is what you do, heroes? He's not worth it? Well, what about him? Is he worth it?" He pointed at a nearby man incapacitated on the floor and blew his brains out.

Immediately Matt grabbed him by the collar, thrusting him back. "God, you just can't help yourself, can you? What is wrong with you? You're a liability every time!"

Frank pushed back just as hard, roaring, "Get your goddamn hands off of me! Go play church somewhere else, blind boy, hiding under your-"

"SHUT UP!" Matt's head tilted to the side, listening intently. Frank, for all his bluster, was trained enough to know when to get quiet.

He recognized that look on Matt's face even if he couldn't hear anything.

"Oh shit." Frank immediately reached out and pulled Kate towards him. "Kid, get over here." Whatever it was, it wasn't good.

"Grenade. RUN! Run, run!" Matt shoved both Kate and Frank towards the balcony. As they moved towards the edge, he reached out and grabbed Kate. "Hold on no matter what," he told her, trying to swing her so that she was holding onto him from the back with her arms around his neck. Frank already knew the drill, starting to leap off the side. Matt thrust out one end of his wire, the grapple at the other end finding purchase. With his free hand he wrapped an arm around Frank's waist. The weight was excruciating for Matt, but he clung on grimly and hoped that Kate did the same as they plummeted towards the ground.

An unsuspecting car beneath his balcony took the brunt of their landing. Matt's legs buckled and he rolled off the car, letting go of Frank and landing hard on his knees on the ground rather than risking rolling into his back and injuring Kate.
Edited 2025-04-20 16:25 (UTC)
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[personal profile] streetlevel 2025-04-20 05:38 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah." Matt answered Kate's question from the ground, slowly getting his breath back. Kate really had a vice grip when she wanted to, and carrying Frank hadn't done his chest injury any favors. Still. He didn't feel like he was in immediate danger of his injuries. "You?" He could tell she'd taken some hits, but at least he couldn't detect any life threatening injuries from her. Which was good, because Matt had a feeling their evening was just getting started. He slowly, painfully, started to get to his feet.

Frank rocked himself into a standing position with a groan. "Just... getting started." He watched as Kate sprinted for the building, not stopping her. Hell, if it was his dog, he'd have done the same thing. He started to trudge after her, feeling Matt fall into step beside him.

"You're an asshole, Frank." Matt wearily began limping, hearing Frank agree with him as they went. Matt could hear the joyful reunion of girl and dog, making him not feel the need to rush. Instead, the light from a car stopped both Frank and Matt in their tracks.

Matt knew that heartbeat, even before a word was spoken.

Karen.

Any other time, Matt would have called shotgun. This time though, he felt like it was the wrong thing to say when Kate would also be joining them. After all, she'd just met Frank, and the man had blown people's brains out not three minutes ago. She might not want to sit alone with him in the back. "I know that tone. I'm guessing the dog gets shotgun," Matt wearily joked instead, holding the door open in the back for Kate.

"Funny man. I'll risk it," Frank said drolly, sitting in the front passenger seat with Karen. Lucky absolutely bounded over when Kate moved closer, snuggling into the front seat with Frank despite the man's token protests. He looked over at Karen and gave a small nod, eloquent as ever with, "Hey."
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[personal profile] streetlevel 2025-04-20 06:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Frank gave a small snort at Karen's teasing, then made a face at Lucky's slobbering kisses. "Hey, hey. Thought you were a ladies man," he said to the dog, but his voice wasn't loud and he didn't make any movements that would hurt the dog. It was clear that Frank was actually treating Lucky nicer than he did Matt. Kids and dogs held a soft spot for him. His heartbeat quickened a little at hearing Karen say 'handsome' even if she'd directed it at Lucky. He held her gaze for a moment. "Yeah? Good. I know a nosy former reporter who would be asking me for favors all the time if I stayed in one spot and she found it." His voice was gruff, but there was an element of admiration in it, too. Karen was the single most dogged person Frank knew, and he respected the hell out of her for it. "How about I'll just say warmer or colder depending on the street you turn down?" he teased.

Frank Castle, teasing. Not in the rude soldier way he normally did, but dorky teasing.

Matt sat quiet, listening to the words. Hearing what was left unsaid. Heartbeats and aftershave. Feelings on both sides. Something in his chest squeezed, and it wasn't the popped stitches. He tilted his head towards the blown up building, saying a silent goodbye to what was lost in that apartment. Old boxing gloves, worn billy clubs. A silly little trinket that reminded him of Foggy. Matt said goodbye to parts of a past he likely wouldn't get back, and his chest hurt for yet another reason.

He changed focus yet again. A warm body resting against him. A steady heartbeat that was still strong, if exhausted. He very lightly rested his head back on Kate's. Just for a moment. He breathed in a scent that he wouldn't admit made him feel a little better. "We need to take a look at your eye when we stop," he murmured to her. Then, in a louder voice, he asked Karen, "Any trouble getting here on your end?"
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[personal profile] streetlevel 2025-04-20 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Matt felt so tired, overloaded from the past night. There were things he knew he wasn't up to fully processing yet, like his apartment, and that as comforting as the current moment was, he couldn't trust it to last for long. He still kept a vigilant ear out, waiting for trouble around every corner as Frank navigated them towards the safe house. He didn't register right away that Karen was looking at him in the rearview mirror, only that he could feel the change in her heartbeat once more. Just as he did Kate's when she shifted.

His life was a complicated mess, and his girlfriend who despised his alter ago wasn't even in the car with them.

Karen brought them to oddly safer conversational grounds, rooting the talk in Fisk.

"I'm glad you're all right," was all he said on her arriving to get them, trying to sit up a little straighter without jostling Kate too much. "And of course he is." There was a bitter edge to Matt's tone. "There's more to this than that though, Karen. More than Fisk just holding the city under his thumb. I'm certain of it. There's something about Foggy's last case that they're trying to keep buried."

"All this would be done and buried if you hadn't gone and taken a bullet for the bastard," Frank retorted as he scruffled Lucky's head and told him in a very quiet voice that he was a good boy.

Matt sighed. "Not now, Frank." A beat. "Did you just ask who's a good boy?"

"I think you need to get your hearing checked," Frank replied stiffly as Lucky licked him. He looked over at Karen. "The news saying anything about Fisk's chosen task force wearing the Punisher symbol? 'cause we just fought a whole lotta them that weren't afraid to show it."
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[personal profile] streetlevel 2025-04-20 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Matt could hear the pain in Karen's voice when she said the name of their former friend. Still their friend, just now gone. He knew there wasn't anything he could say. There hadn't been anything back then either, part of the reason he'd pulled away. An asshole move, he knew. It didn't go unnoticed that Karen still hadn't felt comfortable reaching out to him. That she'd only reached out to Frank. She cared about him, but that didn't mean she really wanted anything to do with him.

So he stopped himself as he started to reach forward and touch her shoulder for comfort. His hand curled into a fist and he sat back again, chewing on the inside of his cheek.

"I'm certain that she's the one who put the hit on Foggy. Her doing it on Fisk... that one I'm not as confident. Fisk moved Bullseye to gen pop, likely to kill him so that link to Vanessa would be gone. Bullseye felt betrayed, so I think he went off book once he broke out and tried to take on Fisk for it." Matt might be wrong, but that was how he imagined the scenario going down. "I've known Wilson and Vanessa a long time. There's nothing they won't do for one another. Vanessa turning on him... I'm not sure I see that."

In a sick way, Wilson Fisk had managed to maintain a more consistent romantic life than Matt Murdock by a mile. Whether that said nothing good about Vanessa or even less good about Matt, he didn't know. Maybe both.

"In any case, there's no way they're turning on each other now. They're going to present a united front, so we have to find out what that chink in their armor was that they're trying to hide so they go down together. And Bullseye is still on the loose. I doubt he'll go to ground for good, and who knows who'll get hurt with him running free." Matt rubbed a hand over his aching face. It didn't work as well with the mask on.

"I can handle Bullseye," Frank said calmly, letting Lucky get in one lick. "First on my list is this task force, though." He looked over at Karen. "No offense taken. These guys think they wanna emulate me? They're gonna find out what that really means." He gave a small nod up ahead. "Here. Find someplace to park. It's not a long walk from this spot."
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[personal profile] streetlevel 2025-04-20 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Matt grimaced as Kate made her suggestion, because he knew it was a good one. It was also incredibly unethical. It was a personal betrayal of Heather's trust. It was a criminal action, an invasion of privacy even if it was against a man that Matt despised. It also might very well be useful in a fight that had escalated to unimaginable levels. Where was the line drawn? He wouldn't kill, but was that it?

"Heather would never hand over those tapes. Her professionalism means everything to her," Matt said tightly. What he didn't say was an automatic no for getting those tapes or notes some other way.

God, he was an asshole for considering it.

"Hey, maybe the boy scout has some balls after all," Frank bandied back, a smirk on his face at Matt's annoyance in return. He walked alongside Karen, ahead of Kate and Matt, leading them down the winding path and into his bunker. "Here we are. Wipe your damn feet." He went to located his medical supplies. "I've got stuff to get us cleaned up. And I'm making coffee. Anyone want any?"

"Do you have oat milk?" Matt asked as he gently stopped Kate, nodding at her forehead in a silent request to see how bad the cut was.

"Blind bougie bastard," Frank was heard muttering behind him.
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[personal profile] streetlevel 2025-04-20 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Matt was pretty certain his ribs were a mess, although if he was honest, his entire body felt like that so it was hard to really discern problem areas. His chest wound was certainly open again, he could feel the blood seeping out beneath his uniform. He didn't care. His focus was on Kate, and once he felt the wound, he gave a small nod. "Sit down." He nodded in the direction of one of the rare seats in the area, going to get the medical equipment.

He felt Karen put a hand on his chest. "Matt..." her voice trailed off. She knew he was hurt. Matt knew it, too. She also knew that Matt wouldn't rest until their mutual friend was helped. Always the martyr, no matter what it did to the man. She blew out a sigh, knowing and tired, and gave him a small smile as she patted his chest, then walked away from him. "I'll look after Frank. You help Kate." There was a knowing resignation in her voice, an unwillingness to fall back on old patterns with Matt as much as she could admire and respect the intention behind his self-destructiveness.

Frank had put on the police scanner, turning to look at Karen in surprise. It was just a shoulder shot. He could easily patch himself up. Karen just said, "Sit," in a tone that said she couldn't handle him being a stubborn ass, too. So he sat and let her help him, saying in a wry voice, "You leave me any scars and I'll complain about not being pretty anymore." His foot nudged hers, understanding her needs right now. After all, before it all went to shit, Frank had known how to be a caring husband. Not that he and Karen were...

"You're crazy for coming back, you know," he told her.

"You're crazy for answering my call," she shot back at him.

They smiled.

Meanwhile, Matt had taken out the materials and if Kate let him tried to start cleaning her wound so that he could stitch it. "If you sit still, Lucky won't be as upset," he said. "That is entirely a manipulative tactic, but I'm not afraid to use it." He smiled, hoping to charm his way into helping her.

"Fisk sent men after Matt Murdock. That's bold, even for him. After both of you, if he knew Kate was with you," Karen commented as she helped stitch Frank.

"Like I said, he'll do anything for love. Especially when the love of his life helps him move millions illegally. We need to see that motion Foggy meant to file. I think there was something in that motion to dismiss that Vanessa made sure he didn't."

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