“A Night on the Town”
Matt Murdock doesn't sleep much; he finds it next to impossible. He hears the sounds of the city beating their way into his cerebellum. He smells the smog from the afternoon traffic jam, searing into his lungs. This is his city, and it's killing him one day at a time.
When he was a boy, Matt saved a blind man's life by hurling himself in front of an oncoming chemical truck. His act of heroism left the boy blinded, but soon he discovered his other senses had been heightened to a superhuman level. Sounds became louder, utterly unbearable for the most part, smells overpowered his nostrils, and tastes bombarded his tongue. In a way it was like drowning, as his surroundings overtook him. He could even touch a piece of paper, and feel the fibers that had been used to make it, or the writing that had been printed on it.
Eventually Matt met the mysterious martial arts master, Stick, who taught the young man how to use his augmented senses, and trained him in deadly martial arts as well. He became skilled at both judo and ninjitsu, as well as boxing.
Matt later went on to college, then to law school. There he met his best friend, and future partner, Foggy Nelson. He also met his future love, Elektra Natchios. They dated for awhile, but things ended badly. After that, Matt threw himself into his studies, graduating at the top of his class. Things seemed to be going good, that is until the death of his father.
"Battlin" Jack Murdock, as he was known, was a boxer, and had been 'asked' to take a dive, refusing, Jack was killed by 'The Fixer' shortly after the fight. Matt was devastated by his father's death, and sought his justice through the legal system. To his utter disappointment, the law provided him none. Disillusioned, he took on the guise of Daredevil to seek out his own justice. Since that time he has proven himself both in the courtroom as a lawyer, and on the streets as the masked vigilante, helping those the law cannot.
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Tonight
He stands on the balcony of his Hell's Kitchen apartment, sipping his hot chocolate, preparing to go on his usual patrol route. Things have been quiet lately, which always makes him nervous. There were no super villains to fight, no seedy criminals making shady deals, just the usual petty criminals. He didn't know if he should be relieved or afraid. This either meant he was doing his job, or someone was planning something. Finishing his drink, Matt suits up, then hits the streets.
His first stop is a local bar, a neighborhood hangout for scum of the worst kind. If anything's going down tonight, he thinks, someone here will know. As he enters, everyone stops what they're doing, staring at the hero. No one talks, not even a whisper, they hardly even breathe.
Daredevil surveys the room, looking, or listening as the case may be, for anything out of the ordinary. His ears pick up their heartbeats, and he begins to single them out one by one. For the most part, they sound normal, but he picks up on a few that are beating very quickly.
He walks further into the place, moving towards the men with the rapid heartbeats. He smells the sweat beginning to form on their brow, and tastes the nicotine of their recently lit cigarettes. There are three of them and only one of him. He knows what they're thinking. Suddenly, but not unexpectedly, they rush at the masked man. One by one he takes them down. The first man is clotheslined; the second receives a boot to the face, and the third one he tackles.
"What's going down?" the hero asks.
"Nothin'!" The man screams. "I don't know nothin'!"
"Don't lie, I know you're lying. Now, tell me what's going down!" he repeats.
"O-okay, Pier 14, at the docks, a drug shipment is coming in. That's all I know, I swear." The thug answers.
Daredevil listens carefully, noticing the man's slowing pulse. He's telling the truth. He carefully rises off of the fallen goon. He looks around the bar once again, stopping when he hears the bartender's distinct heartbeat.
"Billy," Daredevil nods to the man.
Billy nods back, knowing that tomorrow, in the mail, he would find more than enough money to cover the damage done here tonight. He's never questioned where it came from; he just keeps his mouth shut. He watches Daredevil walk out of the front door, hoping very much that it would be a long while before he saw him again.
"You idiot!" one of the downed lowlife's exclaims. "If word gets around about that, we're done for!"
"Pipe down!" Billy tells him. "Settle your tabs, and get the hell out of my bar."
"Billy-" another one starts up.
"I don't want any of that in this place, I try to run it respectable, and I don't want to cater to criminals, now get out."
The men settle their bills, cursing the honest bartender all the while. As they leave everyone gets back to what they were doing, and Billy sets to cleaning up the mess.
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Pier 14
He hates drugs. If given the chance to abolish the world of one thing, it would be drugs. He's seen the horrors of abuse first hand. One of his closest friends, Karen Page, once sold him out for drugs.
Poor Karen, he thought to himself. She had been gone for over a month now, but it seemed like just yesterday he had attended her funeral.* Shaking his head of those thoughts, he focused on his current task. Kneeling on top of one of the hangers, he surveys the night.
(*For the curious, yes, this series does take place following the "GUARDIAN DEVIL" story-arc in Marvel's Daredevil vol. 2 #1-9—Dino )
Below him there were several men standing watch. Daredevil prepared to surprise them, when he heard sirens, in the distance, but coming closer. The men began to scatter; Daredevil took them out one by one with his billy club. The sirens were almost to the pier.
Daredevil crept up to the docks, nearing the boat carrying the shipment. He listened, hearing eight separate heartbeats, again methodically taking each man out, until there were only two left. One of them had a gun; he could smell the recently fired barrel. They stood there, on the bow of the ship, their hearts racing. It's times like this Daredevil wanted to tell the world he was blind. To tell these punks a blind man had beaten them. He laughed at this, which made the two even more nervous.
The one with the gun reached for it, but was immediately disarmed. Then, before they knew it, both of them were in the river. It was then that the sirens wailed onto the docks, a half dozen police stepping out of the cars. Daredevil didn't stick around to help, he knew they could handle it from here.
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Shortly
After leaving the pier, Daredevil got back to his usual rounds, stopping in to check on a local church. The place had been vandalized quite a few times in the last month. The doors were open, as usual, and Daredevil could see Father Brian Finney inside, kneeling, presumably praying.
Daredevil stood outside the doors, careful not to make too much noise. He tried to ignore what he heard the father whispering, knowing that prayers were for God's ears only.
"Don't just stand there m'boy," the father said, rising to his feet.
"I didn't want to interrupt you," Daredevil explained.
"Never," the man said.
"So," Daredevil began, "no vandalism tonight?"
"No," the man answered. "It's funny."
"What's that?" DD asked.
"This church, being protected by a Devil."
Daredevil smiled at the old man. "In Hell's Kitchen, no less," he added. "Even the Devil looks out for his territory I suppose."
"You should get going," the Father said.
"You know what to do if you need me," Daredevil spoke, and with that he was gone, back to his patrol.
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Later...
He glides across the rooftops, as swift as a bird in flight. He hears the sounds of his city, he smells its filth, and tastes its bitter smog on his tongue. The wind touches his cheek, the cold biting his skin. The moon shines brightly over the world, but he cannot see it. To him there is only darkness. In the darkness he hears a cry for help. His ears tune into it, his radar senses seek it out. Two blocks away. He races to the source of the outburst.
Felicia Winters lies bloody in an alleyway, two men standing over her, one holding a knife. They are trying to rape her, but she is fighting, and she knows she will probably die. Still she screams for help. Help arrives in the form of a masked vigilante. Before she realizes it, her attackers are lying on the ground, unconscious. She stands up, not knowing what has happened.
"H-hello?" She asks the darkness.
"You're all right now, they won't hurt you. You need to get to the hospital."
Felicia sees her savior take shape in the darkness, and runs from the alley, not knowing what has frightened her more, the demons who attacked her, or the Devil who saved her.
Daredevil shakes his head at this. His costume has always been intended to frighten criminals, but more often than not it scares those he seeks to rescue too. He ties the men up, then makes a quick call to the police. He knows they will probably be out by morning, but he turns them in just the same.
He climbs to a nearby rooftop, proceeding with his late night vigil over the city. In the distance he hears sirens for the second time tonight. Silently he wonders who tipped the cops off to the shipment on the river, and then he smiles to himself, knowing it was probably Billy. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, he soon finds himself back at his apartment. He takes one last look at his city before turning in for the evening.
"Sleep well," he says to the night, smiling to himself, thankful for the good he was able to accomplish this evening. For the man without fear, it was just another night on the town.
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Epilogue
His name is Wilson Fisk, known to some as the Kingpin of Crime, and this is his city. From his office in his penthouse, he looks out over the skyline. He remembers a time when things were simple, before everyone in New York was a superhero. Silently, he wishes for those glory days to return, to be once again unstoppable. The hulking man laughs, it's something that will make even the most hardened man's skin crawl.
He has worked hard to attain everything he has. As a child Wilson was a failure to his father, but as he grew into adulthood things changed for him. He skilled himself in hand-to-hand combat, learned the oriental art of sumo, and took up political science. It didn't take long for him to form his own gang, which grew quickly in numbers. Eventually Fisk had an organization larger than the maggia itself. The only thing stopping him from his ultimate goal is the city's costumed crime fighters, namely Daredevil. He turns to face the room's other occupant.
"You have your orders," he says.
"Take him out," the man responds, beginning to leave the room.
"Make sure you don't miss," the Kingpin adds.
"I never miss," he says, leaving.
"For your sake, let's hope not." The Kingpin replies, turning back to look over the city.
His city.
When he was a boy, Matt saved a blind man's life by hurling himself in front of an oncoming chemical truck. His act of heroism left the boy blinded, but soon he discovered his other senses had been heightened to a superhuman level. Sounds became louder, utterly unbearable for the most part, smells overpowered his nostrils, and tastes bombarded his tongue. In a way it was like drowning, as his surroundings overtook him. He could even touch a piece of paper, and feel the fibers that had been used to make it, or the writing that had been printed on it.
Eventually Matt met the mysterious martial arts master, Stick, who taught the young man how to use his augmented senses, and trained him in deadly martial arts as well. He became skilled at both judo and ninjitsu, as well as boxing.
Matt later went on to college, then to law school. There he met his best friend, and future partner, Foggy Nelson. He also met his future love, Elektra Natchios. They dated for awhile, but things ended badly. After that, Matt threw himself into his studies, graduating at the top of his class. Things seemed to be going good, that is until the death of his father.
"Battlin" Jack Murdock, as he was known, was a boxer, and had been 'asked' to take a dive, refusing, Jack was killed by 'The Fixer' shortly after the fight. Matt was devastated by his father's death, and sought his justice through the legal system. To his utter disappointment, the law provided him none. Disillusioned, he took on the guise of Daredevil to seek out his own justice. Since that time he has proven himself both in the courtroom as a lawyer, and on the streets as the masked vigilante, helping those the law cannot.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Tonight
He stands on the balcony of his Hell's Kitchen apartment, sipping his hot chocolate, preparing to go on his usual patrol route. Things have been quiet lately, which always makes him nervous. There were no super villains to fight, no seedy criminals making shady deals, just the usual petty criminals. He didn't know if he should be relieved or afraid. This either meant he was doing his job, or someone was planning something. Finishing his drink, Matt suits up, then hits the streets.
His first stop is a local bar, a neighborhood hangout for scum of the worst kind. If anything's going down tonight, he thinks, someone here will know. As he enters, everyone stops what they're doing, staring at the hero. No one talks, not even a whisper, they hardly even breathe.
Daredevil surveys the room, looking, or listening as the case may be, for anything out of the ordinary. His ears pick up their heartbeats, and he begins to single them out one by one. For the most part, they sound normal, but he picks up on a few that are beating very quickly.
He walks further into the place, moving towards the men with the rapid heartbeats. He smells the sweat beginning to form on their brow, and tastes the nicotine of their recently lit cigarettes. There are three of them and only one of him. He knows what they're thinking. Suddenly, but not unexpectedly, they rush at the masked man. One by one he takes them down. The first man is clotheslined; the second receives a boot to the face, and the third one he tackles.
"What's going down?" the hero asks.
"Nothin'!" The man screams. "I don't know nothin'!"
"Don't lie, I know you're lying. Now, tell me what's going down!" he repeats.
"O-okay, Pier 14, at the docks, a drug shipment is coming in. That's all I know, I swear." The thug answers.
Daredevil listens carefully, noticing the man's slowing pulse. He's telling the truth. He carefully rises off of the fallen goon. He looks around the bar once again, stopping when he hears the bartender's distinct heartbeat.
"Billy," Daredevil nods to the man.
Billy nods back, knowing that tomorrow, in the mail, he would find more than enough money to cover the damage done here tonight. He's never questioned where it came from; he just keeps his mouth shut. He watches Daredevil walk out of the front door, hoping very much that it would be a long while before he saw him again.
"You idiot!" one of the downed lowlife's exclaims. "If word gets around about that, we're done for!"
"Pipe down!" Billy tells him. "Settle your tabs, and get the hell out of my bar."
"Billy-" another one starts up.
"I don't want any of that in this place, I try to run it respectable, and I don't want to cater to criminals, now get out."
The men settle their bills, cursing the honest bartender all the while. As they leave everyone gets back to what they were doing, and Billy sets to cleaning up the mess.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Pier 14
He hates drugs. If given the chance to abolish the world of one thing, it would be drugs. He's seen the horrors of abuse first hand. One of his closest friends, Karen Page, once sold him out for drugs.
Poor Karen, he thought to himself. She had been gone for over a month now, but it seemed like just yesterday he had attended her funeral.* Shaking his head of those thoughts, he focused on his current task. Kneeling on top of one of the hangers, he surveys the night.
(*For the curious, yes, this series does take place following the "GUARDIAN DEVIL" story-arc in Marvel's Daredevil vol. 2 #1-9—Dino )
Below him there were several men standing watch. Daredevil prepared to surprise them, when he heard sirens, in the distance, but coming closer. The men began to scatter; Daredevil took them out one by one with his billy club. The sirens were almost to the pier.
Daredevil crept up to the docks, nearing the boat carrying the shipment. He listened, hearing eight separate heartbeats, again methodically taking each man out, until there were only two left. One of them had a gun; he could smell the recently fired barrel. They stood there, on the bow of the ship, their hearts racing. It's times like this Daredevil wanted to tell the world he was blind. To tell these punks a blind man had beaten them. He laughed at this, which made the two even more nervous.
The one with the gun reached for it, but was immediately disarmed. Then, before they knew it, both of them were in the river. It was then that the sirens wailed onto the docks, a half dozen police stepping out of the cars. Daredevil didn't stick around to help, he knew they could handle it from here.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Shortly
After leaving the pier, Daredevil got back to his usual rounds, stopping in to check on a local church. The place had been vandalized quite a few times in the last month. The doors were open, as usual, and Daredevil could see Father Brian Finney inside, kneeling, presumably praying.
Daredevil stood outside the doors, careful not to make too much noise. He tried to ignore what he heard the father whispering, knowing that prayers were for God's ears only.
"Don't just stand there m'boy," the father said, rising to his feet.
"I didn't want to interrupt you," Daredevil explained.
"Never," the man said.
"So," Daredevil began, "no vandalism tonight?"
"No," the man answered. "It's funny."
"What's that?" DD asked.
"This church, being protected by a Devil."
Daredevil smiled at the old man. "In Hell's Kitchen, no less," he added. "Even the Devil looks out for his territory I suppose."
"You should get going," the Father said.
"You know what to do if you need me," Daredevil spoke, and with that he was gone, back to his patrol.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Later...
He glides across the rooftops, as swift as a bird in flight. He hears the sounds of his city, he smells its filth, and tastes its bitter smog on his tongue. The wind touches his cheek, the cold biting his skin. The moon shines brightly over the world, but he cannot see it. To him there is only darkness. In the darkness he hears a cry for help. His ears tune into it, his radar senses seek it out. Two blocks away. He races to the source of the outburst.
Felicia Winters lies bloody in an alleyway, two men standing over her, one holding a knife. They are trying to rape her, but she is fighting, and she knows she will probably die. Still she screams for help. Help arrives in the form of a masked vigilante. Before she realizes it, her attackers are lying on the ground, unconscious. She stands up, not knowing what has happened.
"H-hello?" She asks the darkness.
"You're all right now, they won't hurt you. You need to get to the hospital."
Felicia sees her savior take shape in the darkness, and runs from the alley, not knowing what has frightened her more, the demons who attacked her, or the Devil who saved her.
Daredevil shakes his head at this. His costume has always been intended to frighten criminals, but more often than not it scares those he seeks to rescue too. He ties the men up, then makes a quick call to the police. He knows they will probably be out by morning, but he turns them in just the same.
He climbs to a nearby rooftop, proceeding with his late night vigil over the city. In the distance he hears sirens for the second time tonight. Silently he wonders who tipped the cops off to the shipment on the river, and then he smiles to himself, knowing it was probably Billy. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, he soon finds himself back at his apartment. He takes one last look at his city before turning in for the evening.
"Sleep well," he says to the night, smiling to himself, thankful for the good he was able to accomplish this evening. For the man without fear, it was just another night on the town.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Epilogue
His name is Wilson Fisk, known to some as the Kingpin of Crime, and this is his city. From his office in his penthouse, he looks out over the skyline. He remembers a time when things were simple, before everyone in New York was a superhero. Silently, he wishes for those glory days to return, to be once again unstoppable. The hulking man laughs, it's something that will make even the most hardened man's skin crawl.
He has worked hard to attain everything he has. As a child Wilson was a failure to his father, but as he grew into adulthood things changed for him. He skilled himself in hand-to-hand combat, learned the oriental art of sumo, and took up political science. It didn't take long for him to form his own gang, which grew quickly in numbers. Eventually Fisk had an organization larger than the maggia itself. The only thing stopping him from his ultimate goal is the city's costumed crime fighters, namely Daredevil. He turns to face the room's other occupant.
"You have your orders," he says.
"Take him out," the man responds, beginning to leave the room.
"Make sure you don't miss," the Kingpin adds.
"I never miss," he says, leaving.
"For your sake, let's hope not." The Kingpin replies, turning back to look over the city.
His city.