|
 |
| Issue #18 July 2010 |
"Return of the King" Written by Andrew Gabriel |
||
|
|||
Thomas Fireheart opened his eyes, and immediately wished he hadn’t. His head was pounding. He had been in the hospital for longer than he liked at this point, but after barely surviving the explosive attack on the Cooperate Cooperation Conference at the Roxxon Energy Conference Center, the room he was now occupying seemed the best place for him to be. As he reeled in pain when first brought to this place, he was told he had suffered at least four broken ribs, a ruptured spleen, and burns throughout his body. A list of bruises and cuts only complicated his situation.
He wasn’t that concerned, however. Though the pain was extreme at times, Fireheart knew that, thanks to his abilities as the vigilante hero known as Puma, that his enhanced immune system would have him healed soon. He still didn’t want to be here, though, and forced himself to open his eyes more. As his vision focused, he saw a shadowy figure standing at the foot of his bed, and the pain he felt pulsating from his injuries took a back seat.
“You’re awake.”
“And what? You’ve come to bring me flowers?”
Daredevil smirked, and lowered the chart he had been reading at the foot of the bed.
“I can only guess that you’re here because that attack at the conference wasn’t an accident…”
“Nope.”
“…Or some random attack…”
“Nope.”
“…Fisk?”
“Yep.”
“I friggin’ knew it! God damnit,” Puma yelled, putting his hands over his face.
He had a gut feeling that the man called the Kingpin had been behind the assault, but his head had been lost in sea of pain and pain-killing medicine to even think straight recently. When his board approached him with the ‘assistance’ Fisk was offering his company during his recovery, Fireheart had barely been conscious, and the board members, men he trusted, decided to take Fisk’s offer. They had told him who had been appointed…but he had forgotten his name…it had been familiar, and not in a good way…He had to check-up on this, but right now, revenge was the only thing keeping his thoughts together.
“Who else was hurt?”
Daredevil was silent a moment. Many people had been seriously injured in the attack on the Roxxon Center, and the events following as the Kingpin continued his bid for power, and many had died, but Murdock knew the ‘people’ Puma was referring to.
“Marc Spector, Moon Knight. Ran his company under the name Steven Grant. He was in the explosion, and from what I’ve heard, has yet to regain consciousness,” Daredevil began. “And the Black Cat. She…She had her throat slashed by Bullseye…among other things. Undoubtedly brought on by Fisk’s orders.”
“I want that fat f*** taken down,” Fireheart said through gritted teeth as Daredevil’s words seeped into his head.
“So do I,” Daredevil replied. “I have a plan. With Spector down, you were the next on my list. Think you’re up to some physical activity?”
Though the pain from his injuries was great, and he felt shaky, Puma forced himself to sit up as straight as possible in the bed. The Kingpin would pay for what he had done to him…his company…and his friends…Daredevil had a plan, and he would make sure he had a part in it.
“I’m good to go. What have you got in mind?”
********************
Spider-Man sat in a place that he thought he would never find himself. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit, hands cuffed, on the wrong side of the Riker’s Island Visitor’s Center. He stared through the thick piece of plexi-glass separating the inmates of the prison from the general public coming to see them. His visitor had yet to show up, and if he hadn’t been told who it was, he would have much rather have stayed within his cell.
He had been escorted from the general inmate area to the visitor’s center twice already today. The first was for a visit from Robbie Robertson. He, in the kindest of words, had informed him that J. Jonah Jameson had fired him from his position at the Daily Bugle. He wished Peter well, and left, leaving him even more depressed.
For his second trip to this glass-partitioned booth, Peter had been visited by the lawyer for the school district he was employed by. He had groaned in despair as soon as he had seen the suited, bespectacled man. The lawyer had produced a letter, signed by both Principal Muniz and the Superintendent, which stated that Parker had been suspended without pay from his teaching post, pending ‘further investigation’.
This continued to further his descent into an abyss of despair, but losing his jobs wasn’t the main concern constantly rolling through his mind. It was of the welfare of his wife Mary Jane, and his Aunt May. The Kingpin’s ultimatum ran continuously through his conscious. His family’s safety was his prime objective, no matter what. If that meant leaving Wilson Fisk to his own devices, well…
“I can’t let him get away with this,” was the voice that always replied, following that thought. It was his Spider-Man persona, determined to ensure that The Kingpin’s influence wouldn’t harm the general populace. He had to be the hero; had to save others from evil. With great power came great responsibility.
He winced from the pain that coursed through his abdomen every time he moved in the chair. The pulses emanating from his swollen right eye and bruised left knee weren’t much better. The guards that had escorted him from his cell this time weren’t the good mannered officers he had hoped to see. As Peter Parker had so painfully learned, some of the more brutal guards, the ones he was most likely to be sarcastic to, were also on The Kingpin’s payroll. Wilson Fisk was surely keeping his promises.
Three of them had ushered him from the prison block, but before they made it to the visiting section, they took a slight detour down a dark, dimly lit corridor. There the guards gleefully took turns beating and kicking him senseless. Several times he almost instinctively defended himself; he could have taken all three of them down in little under a minute, even with his hands cuffed.
But he forced himself to take the punches. He couldn’t risk exposing himself as Spider-Man in a place where so many men now lived out sentences, because of his actions. Once the exercise in humility had ended, the biggest guard pulled Parker to his feet.
“Think that’s enough for one day boys,” the guard had said. “Mr. Fisk is lettin’ us take our tensions out on this kid’s face, so let’s leave some for later, huh?”
“T-Tell fatty I send my re-regards,” Parker stammered as blood filled his mouth.
This remark earned him a hefty punch in the right kidney, which knocked him back down to his knees with a groan.
He cursed Wilson Fisk with every stab of pain from that point on.
“How are you holding up?”
The voice broke Peter from his dark memories.
“Take a closer look eagle eye,” Parker responded to the man who was now seated opposite him.
Matthew Murdock smiled at Spider-Man’s comment. The blind defense lawyer who past his nights as the hero Daredevil folded his hands on the table.
“Haven’t lost your sense of humor, I see,” Murdock replied, leaning closer to the glass, allowing his radar sight to take in Peter Parker. “Jesus. What the hell happened? You didn’t…”
“Our fat friend has employees even here,” Peter answered. “And no, I held back.”
“I’m trying my damndest to get you out of here as soon as possible,” Daredevil responded, his voice beginning to seethe with anger. “I have some things in the works…a plan, of sorts to throw a massive wrench into the Kingpin’s schemes. We may not be able to take him down from his new powerbase, but we should be able to clear…the problem…with our identities. Keep things safer for us. You should be released soon…”
“It doesn’t matter what happens to me,” Parker replied, leaning closer towards the glass. “Did you get me message?”
“I did. I knew from the moment you were taken into custody that this would happen.”
Parker shook his head, damning his own stupidity.
“They are being tailed, but I’m pretty sure we can get them to a safe place…”
“Pretty sure?”
“Peter, you know I’d risk my life for them…”
“Who’s tailing them? Who’s that fat f*** have ready to kill them?”
Daredevil sighed. “Bullseye.”
“NO,” Spider-Man hollered, loud enough to catch the attention of one of the guards.
He leaned in closer to the glass, his swollen nose almost touching the window.
“Please, don’t let him touch them,” he pleaded, his mind immediately flowing to the condition in which he had found the Black Cat.
“I won’t let him get the chance,” Daredevil said with a look of determination. “In fact, you won’t let him get that chance…”
“What,” Spider-Man interrupted, as a guard approached him from behind.
“Time’s up,” the officer said. “Say good-bye.”
“Part of the plan, like I said before. Try not to worry about it.”
“I said time’s up,” the guard hollered, yanking Parker from the chair.
“Alright, alright,” Spider-Man said, wincing at the pain from his injuries.
“One more thing,” Daredevil said as Peter was being led from the cubicle. “I have another…friend…here that should be able to help you with your current problems.”
Peter Parker turned his head towards Matt Murdock, as the guard led him from the room, a look of confusion on his face.
********************
“Mr. Fisk, you have a…visitor.”
The Kingpin looked up from his copy of the day’s Daily Bugle newspaper, and his almost completely emptied plate of filet mignon and potatoes, to face his assistant Wayne Gremil.
“I’m eating,” Fisk responded.
He had been waiting for this meal all day, and had ensured that he had an entire dining room to himself at ‘The Four Seasons’, stocked only with those upscale guests he felt would give him the most adoration. In all, he dined with twenty other people around him, but still kept an entire table to himself. Though the food could have easily been cooked by one of his private chefs, Fisk had always enjoys dining here when in New York. He craved his favorite meal, especially tonight, before a very important meeting, and it was also good publicity to be seen mingling with the city’s socialites.
“I see, Mr. Fisk, but I suggest that you see this visitor.”
“And why is that,” the Kingpin responded, his brow beginning to furrow with anger towards his right-hand man.
“She said if you didn’t, that she’d come back with the press to have this discussion. In her words ‘damn the consequences’.”
Fisk huffed, and threw his napkin on the table.
“Who is this ‘she’?”
“Mary Jane Parker.”
A frown began to compliment the Kingpin’s anger. This was an unforeseen occurrence, and one that he didn’t want to deal with tonight. He knew the wife of his enemy, Spider-Man, could possibly become a nuisance, but she was certainly one he could easily deal with if necessary, on his terms. Now, however, she was forcing her way onto his gamebord, forcing his hand…Wilson Fisk didn’t want to deal with this now.
He leaned in towards Gremil.
“What of the man…accompanying her,” he asked.
“Still available when needed,” Gremil responded, more than understanding his boss’s inquiry.
“Well, then let us make this quick. I have other things to attend to. Send her in,” he answered, waving Gremil off.
His assistant nodded and left. He soon returned with the tall, redheaded Mary Jane. She looked naturally stunning, but her clothing was still far below par of the rest of the diners, which soon had heads turning towards the Kingpin as she was escorted to his table.
Wilson Fisk stood, giving his best and brightest smile to Mrs. Parker, and offering his hand to help her to sit. Mary Jane just glared at him, ignoring his politeness, and helped herself to the seat. A waiter hurried over to the table.
“Something for the young lady, Mr. Fisk?”
“A glass of your best and most expensive chardonnay please,” Mary Jane answered, now smirking at the Kingpin.”
He now glared at her, but his smile never faded.
“Only the best for my guests,” Fisk responded.
“But of course, Madame,” the waiter said with a slight bow before hurrying off.
The two just stared at each other, before the Kingpin broke her stare and folded his hands of the table in front of him.
“To what do I owe this pleasure, my dear Mrs. Parker?”
“Cut the crap,” Mary Jane said loud enough to attract more attention than her underdressed form had originally brought from the crowd. “My husband’s in prison, and I want him out.”
The Kingpin sighed. “Business should always be conducted in private, my dear.”
“Where? In your office where you could easily make me disappear? Yeah, that’s not going to happen. I’d rather confront you in a public place.”
All other conversation was beginning to cease.
Fisk’s face began to redden, and he summoned Gremil over to him. He whispered into his assistant’s ear, then turned to face Mary Jane, his smile slowly fading.
“We will be given privacy. You have five minutes, then I have other business to attend to,” he hissed.
“That’s all I need,” she responded more confidently than she felt.
Within the next two minutes, the wait staff and cleared the room of all other guests. Mary Jane was floored by the power that this man possessed, and it made her unease rise. Wilson Fisk scared her, though she prayed it didn’t show on her face. She had thought this confrontation out many times, convinced that this was a chance she needed to take, and when she had learned from some of Peter’s paparazzi contacts that Fisk would be dining in public, she knew this was her time to act. Still, sitting here alone with him, as the other diners exited, Mary Jane couldn’t help but feel like a rabbit facing off against a bear. She forced herself to think of her husband, Spider-Man, rotting in prison, his very identity in jeopardy, and steeled herself.
“Your wine, Madame…”
“That will be all,” Fisk said bluntly.
The waiter bowed nervously, and hurried from the room, leaving the two alone.
Mary Jane gulped the expensive wine, trying to dull her nerves.
“Wine is meant to be savored, my dear,” Fisk said calmly, beginning to sense the effect he was having on her.
“Not my tab, not my problem,” she answered, having downed the glass.
Fisk just nodded, a new smile forming on his face.
“Please tell me, how is your dear Aunt May. So old and frail,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “So prone to…accidents…”
“Leave her out of this you bastard,” Mary Jane screamed, horrified that the words had left her mouth like that. She immediately made a conscious effort to control her words and emotions. “She’s safe. You can’t touch her.”
“Oh really,” Fisk responded, now leaning towards her. “And who is going to protect her? You? Your incarcerated husband?”
He chuckled. She felt her heart begin to race; she was losing this battle after it had barely started. She needed to act fast, get him to lose control…
“We’re done here…”
“No,” Mary Jane said in her most intimidating voice. “We are far from done here! Who do you think you are?”
“Excuse me?”
“You may be able to put my husband away on trumped up charges, but it will only be a matter of time before he’s out, or do you forget who is and who his friends are, huh? I know you know their secrets, Fisk, and I know that you’re so afraid of them taking your precious power away again that you’re using their most protected secrets against them!”
He flinched. The Kingpin flinched and she saw it. She stood up from her chair.
“You’re not a man! You’re just some pumped up opportunist who will do anything for money and power! And let me tell you something else ‘Kingpin’, it will only be a matter of time before he exposes you for what you really are, you fat f***!
Her heart was beating relentlessly, and she saw his anger growing.
“Nothing but a two-bit thug who gets off on playing this city’s business and underworld’s like a chess game…!”
With a growl, he was on her. She felt his massive, thick hand grab her around the neck. She instantly regretted this stupid plan. How could she hope to…
“I RULE THIS CITY AS IF IT WERE MY KINGDOM! I AM IT’S KING AND YOU ARE NOTHING,” he roared.
“YOUR PESKY HUSBAND AND THOSE OTHER COSTUMED FREAKS CAN’T TOUCH ME! I WILL CONTROL A CRIMINAL EMPIRE YOU CAN’T IMAGINE! I AM THE KINGPIN AND ALL THOSE WHO OPPOSE ME WILL BE CRUSHED LIKE BUGS! JUST LIKE SPIDER-MAN AND JUST LIKE YOU…!”
“MR. FISK!”
Kingpin turned and saw the look on Wayne Gremil’s face as he entered the room. He had lost it. That redheaded witch had caused his temper to flare beyond control. He turned to Mary Jane, his hand wrapped around her neck, lifting her from the floor; fear seeping from her eyes…and something else he saw…satisfaction? He dropped her and she slumped into the chair, gasping for air. He forced his anger to cease, taking deep breathes, his mind racing through any and all consequences of his actions. Fisk whipped his head around the room. No one was here except Gremil. No one had seen. He was clear…but that look of satisfaction on her gasping face…
“They are bringing the other guests back in,” Wayne Gremil said as calmly as possible, as he approached the Kingpin.
Wilson Fisk steadied himself, and fixed his suit, as the other diners returned to their meals, unaware of what had transpired. He turned to face Mary Jane and found that her chair was now empty.
“Where…”
“She left as the other’s returned,” Gremil answered, a hand on Fisk’s shoulder, easing him back into the chair.
“Get on the phone, call Bullseye,” the Kingpin whispered, as he smiled and waved to the diners returning to their meals. “I want her and the old woman dead by the end of the night. I want her lifeless body brought to me, understood?”
Gremil didn’t need to answer. He quickly left the room; hand on his cell phone as he went.
********************
Frank Castle shuffled down the dimly lit hallway with his head high, and a smile on his face. Though both his hands and ankles were shackled, causing him to walk as if he were imitating a penguin, he knew that his sheer presence was a fear-inducer. Take the three prison guards ordered to escort him to the meeting room. Each was holding a shotgun at his back, but they wouldn’t come within ten feet of him unless directly ordered. He could literally smell the fear permeating the sweat falling from their foreheads.
This made his smile widen. Here within Ryker’s Island, though a prisoner himself, he was the true warden. Here, the prisoners, beneath their normal prison bravado, were just as scared of him as they were cowering in the shadowed alleys of New York City. Here, from reputation alone, the security officers knew to give the man known as the Punisher a wide berth. Though, Castle also hoped that they realized he would never bring them harm, unless he found that were ‘crooked cops’. And many of them were, he knew that, but that wasn’t on his mind as he shuffled around a corner to a bank of steel doors. He had been summoned from his cell because he had a visitor. The curiosity of this statement alone had brought him to this point.
“Please stop there, Mr. Castle,” one of the guards from behind said in a tough voice, shaking with nervousness beneath.
The Punisher stopped just feet from a steel door with green paint chipping from it. The guard approached, knocked, listened, and then unlocked the sealed door with a creak.
“Alright. You have five minutes.”
“And if I need longer,” Castle asked with a smirk.
The three guards looked at each other with a nervous ‘you answer him’ look.
“Just a joke, fella’s,” the Punisher answered, satisfied with himself. “I appreciate your respect.”
The guards all nodded ‘thank you’ in unison as Castle entered the room. The door creaked closed behind him as his eyes adjusted to the much brighter light.
“Mr. Castle, please have a seat.”
The Punisher’s smile faded as his vision finally focused on the suited figure with red glasses seated table the steel table in front of him.
“What the f*** do you want,” Castle asked gruffly.
A lawyer. Just another criminal in a suit, Frank thought as he continued to stand. Though he had a history with this one, and believe it or not, doubted that the man had even a smudge on his record.
Matthew Murdock waved for the orange jump-suited man to take a seat.
“This will only take a moment,” the blind lawyer said sternly.
“You pull the short straw in my defense,” Castle asked with a laugh.
“Actually, that mountain of a task isn’t my concern.”
The Punisher laughed again, and finally took a seat.
“An…associate…of yours asked me to come and deliver a message to you,” Murdock said, still completely business.
“Yeah? And who the hell would that be,” Frank said, curiosity getting the best of him.
Murdock answered by producing a small, folded piece of paper from his inside breast pocket. He slid it across the table. The Punisher raised an eyebrow at the stern faced lawyer, before unfolding the note and reading it. The note was short and sweet, but Castle, now wide-eyed, read it as if it were in some foreign tongue.
“Get the f*** out of here,” he finally laughed. “This that horn-headed boy scout’s version of a joke!?!”
“No, I assure you…As much as it…pains him, Mr. Castle, Daredevil has given his word. And even for a person such as yourself, Daredevil will stick to his word,” Murdock responded, the words seeming to come through the costumed heroes gritted teeth.
“And I just have to make sure that this Peter Parker doesn’t get his ass handed to him?”
“Yes.”
“And how do I know this guy isn’t guilty of exactly what he’s been sent here for?”
“For that, you have my word. I would have never agreed to speak with you if I knew for a fact he wasn’t guilty.”
Frank Castle eyed the lawyer for several seconds and then returned his gaze to the note. Finally, he folded it back up and slid it across the table back to Murdock.
“Well,” Daredevil asked.
“Well…we have a deal, and he better stick to it.”
********************
Mary Jane Parker exited the taxi a block away from the small motel that was now the home she shared with Peter’s Aunt May. Her hand was still shaking as she paid the cabbie her fare. Though her neck still hurt from the Kingpin’s assault, it wasn’t pain or even fear that was causing her adrenaline to course. It was the fact that her plan, stupid and dangerous as it had been, had worked. She now had evidence at her fingertips of Wilson Fisk’s true motives. She barely felt the drops of water on her skin as rain began to fall around her. God, now she knew the rush Peter must feel every time he swung down and crushed the face of one unsuspecting criminal or another.
In a haze, she began to walk towards the motel where she would call Matthew Murdock or Daily Bugle reporter Phil Urich…
“Well, evening there pretty lady.”
Mary Jane whirled around, and the feeling of excitement she felt was instantly replaced with sheer terror. She tried to turn and run, but felt her hair yanked hard, and she fell backwards onto the concrete, the murderous Bullseye looking down on her.
“You shouldn’t have pissed off the big guy, lady, but I’m glad you did, ‘cause now I get to enjoy myself.”
“O-Oh god…”
“Her words caught in her throat, as Bullseye’s hand wrapped around her throat, and started to drag her into the shadows of a near-by alley.
“How about we get us some privacy. Wouldn’t be decent for other’s to see us enjoying ourselves. I may be many things, but I’m not into exhibition,” Bullseye said with a laugh.
Mary Jane knew she was going to die, and her heart pounded in her throat. Her mind raced to Aunt May and she prayed that this psychopath hadn’t hurt her. She felt tears run down her cheeks as Bullseye pulled her deeper into the alley.
“In case you were wondering, I haven’t gotten to the old lady yet…but I will. Your pretty little ass comes first.”
Mary Jane clenched her eyes shut. She tried to scream, but nothing came out except a raspy hiss. She was dead, and Aunt May was next. She found herself wishing Peter were here; that he would come down and rescue her like the old days…
“Now, where to begin. Maybe…”
She heard a crunch and felt the hand rip free of her throat. She opened her eyes, and saw a blur of blue and red flash through the shadows, and saw Bullseye, blood running from his face, fall backwards into the street.
“You aren’t laying another hand on her.”
“SPIDER-MAN,” Bullseye yelled. “That’s f****** impossible! The fat man took care of you!”
“Really? Because I’m pretty sure I’m the one beating your face in,” Spider-Man answered, plowing his hand into Bullseye’s already broken nose.
The assassin replied with a swift kick to Spider-Man’s side, sending him headlong into a parked car.
“You f****** aren’t gonna fool me! You’re probably that a** f***** Daredevil in another costume,” Bullseye laughed, coughing on blood, as he ran away, head turned towards ‘Spider-Man’.
He turned in stride just in time to catch view of a red fist careening for his broken face. The two collided, and Bullseye was down again.
“What!?! No,” Bullseye screamed through bloody, quickly swelling, lips. “I-Impossible!”
Standing in front of him was Daredevil. Rising behind him was Spider-Man.
“You’re wrong everywhere you turn, you psycho. Look’s like the Kingpin played you,” Daredevil said. “The photographer he put away wasn’t Spider-Man…”
“Like he ever could…hmmff…ever hope to be,” Spider-Man answered, seemingly in quite a bit of pain.
Mary Jane pulled herself from the littered alleyway, rain pouring down onto her bruised neck. She groaned, the pain of two near strangulations was beginning to get to her, but the amazement she felt was now overwhelming everything. Standing mere yards from her…actually, struggling to get to his feet, she observed…was Spider-Man! Had her prayers been answered? Was that really Peter? She moved closer, but kept her distance from the murderer that had tried to kill her mere moments before.
“Peter.”
The words had left her aching throat in a raspy whisper. Had he somehow escaped prison? He sounded different, she allowed her mind to acknowledge, and he was obviously injured. ‘Spider-Man’ was cringing, as he stood fully behind Daredevil and Bullseye, holding his left side with his right hand. What had happened?
Bullseye now turned from Daredevil and lunged at Spider-Man, his hand taking something from his belt. Spider-Man, though distracted by pain, managed to propel himself into a forward flip, using Bullseye’s momentum to help pole-vault himself over the assassin. Bullseye slashed at the hero with the knife he had just pulled out, but cut nothing but rain.
“Ahggg…God damnit,” Spider-Man groaned, as he landed, this time, the pain seeming too much for him.
Daredevil ran forward, more concerned for the health of Spider-Man than of Bullseye. The assassin realized this as he reeled around from the attack. He threw the knife towards Daredevil, and then vaulted over the car next to him, disappearing into the alley nearby.
“H-He’s escaping,” Spider-Man said, as he tried to rise again, shaking on his feet.
“Let him go,” Daredevil. “He’ll..”
“LET HIM GO!?”
Daredevil turned to see Mary Jane running toward them from across the street.
“Mary Jane,” he began. “Are you alright?”
“I’ll-I’ll be fine,” she said, rubbing her neck. “But you’re letting that-that freak get away…”
“Yeah…Yes I am,” Daredevil answered, cringing at the thought. “But he’ll spread the word that Spider-Man’s still around. Spread dissension, fear, in the ranks. Start to throw a wrench in the Kingpin’s plans. We’ll get him later. I’ll make sure of it.”
“You sure about that, Murdock,” Spider-Man asked, leaning against a nearby car, beginning to scratch himself terribly. “This freakin’ spandex makes my fur itch like crazy…”
“Wait, what,” Mary Jane asked, confusion replacing anger.
Daredevil nodded to ‘Spider-Man’ who replied by lifting his mask up to his forehead, revealing the fur-covered face of the hero called Puma.
“Mary Jane,” Daredevil began. “Meet a friend. Puma.”
“But..But my husband…”
“Still in jail, for the time being, Mrs. Parker,” Puma replied, replacing the mask, as the rain continued to fall. “But not for much longer. Not after we’re done repaying that fat f***.”
Mary Jane felt weaker now, more than ever. Her hopes that Peter was free had been dashed. She felt her head begin to spin, before Daredevil put a hand on her shoulder.
“I know explanations are in order, and you deserve to know everything. I put a plan in action, and hopefully, word will get out that Spider-Man is still on the streets. That he’s NOT Peter Parker…Shake the Kingpin up just enough…”
Daredevil’s words seemed to shake Mary Jane from her fog. She immediately reached into her bra, stunning the men in front of her, and pulled out a small voice recorder.
“What the hell…”
“I took a note from Peter’s book, did some…reporting of my own. I confronted the Kingpin…”
“You what,” Daredevil yelled in disbelief.
“I’m fine,” she growled, though her neck seemed like it was on fire. “I know it was stupid…Peter would hate it…but it worked! I have Wilson Fisk on tape…pretty much incriminating himself!”
Daredevil and Puma looked at each other in shock. Matt Murdock’s plan to bring the Kingpin down a notch, and at the very least, keep their true identities secret, had just taken a very nice unexpected turn.
“Let’s find a place we can finish talking,” Daredevil said in response, a smile forming on his face.
********************
The mess hall was packed with a sea of orange jumpsuits. The room reeked of bad cafeteria food and echoed with a mixture of laughter and foul language. Peter Parker sat by himself in the middle of the room. Though he was seated at a table made for ten or more, no one had the inclination to sit near him. A sad smile formed on his face. If it wasn’t for the armed guards standing idly along the perimeter of the room, the hero known as Spider-Man would have sworn he were in high school all over again.
He dug his plastic ‘spork’ into a mush that he assumed was supposed to be meatloaf and shoveled the brownish oddity into his mouth. He choked down the mouthful and decided he wasn’t hungry anymore. He looked around the room, and observed several inmates eyeing him up. Almost instinctively, his bruises and strains received from the prison’s keepers began to ache and the Kingpin’s threats began to beat in his head.
Parker knew it was only a matter of time before he received another beating, this time, thanks to that fat cow Wilson Fisk, from the inmates themselves. Many of whom he probably put here himself as Spider-Man. He couldn’t help the same sad smile forming on his face again. It really was like high school again. He would just have to take his beatings and like it, or be forced to reveal his extraordinary powers to a room filled of scum. The thought made him cringe and he unwittingly broke his spork in half.
From the corner of his eye, he noticed another table absent of other prisoners save for one. Though it was far from his field of vision, and he didn’t want to make eye contact with whoever was sitting there, Parker could have swore he knew the square-jawed, dark haired man. He was interrupted from thought by a shove from behind that planted his face into the meat-like substance.
“What’s the matter, pretty boy, not hungry.”
Laughter erupted as Parker wiped the brown mess from his face and turned in his chair to face his attacker. The man was a huge African American and was flanked by five more jumpsuits of differing ethnicity. This was going to hurt, Peter thought, but he couldn’t stop his sarcastic wit from coming to the surface.
“I wasn’t really in the mood for a gravy facile, but I hear it just makes the skin so dang soft. So, thank you for that.”
“You getting’ smart wit’ me boy?”
“What? No! How could I ever even hope to match an intellect such as yourself.”
A moment of dumb silence followed this remark before another inmate spoke up from behind the large man.
“You gonna let him sass you like that, Big Jake?”
“F*** no,” he hollered, raisin a meaty fist into the air. “Ain’t no muther-f***** gonna talk to me like that!”
Peter Parker closed his eyes and readied himself for the inevitable mash of fist on face. But the collision never came. Parker opened his eyes, and felt his jaw drop.
Now standing in-between himself and the inmate Big Jake, was the other lonely prisoner Peter had seen from the corner of his eye. Parker recognized him instantly as the Punisher. So too, it seem, did Big Jake. The large man, though inches above the head of Frank Castle lowered his fist, eyes wide.
“You know who I am?”
“Y-Yeah,” Big Jake stammered to the shock of both Parker and Jake’s lackeys. “L-listen…I-I didn’t mean no harm…”
“Bulls*** Jake,” one of the inmate’s from behind him bellowed. “If you ain’t gonna show that muther-f***** who’s boss, then I am.”
The man pushed past Jake, followed by two other inmates. Frank Castle stepped to the side, used the oncoming inmate’s momentum against him, and slammed his face into the metal table. Parker jumped at the force of the blow, as the inmate slid limp from the table, leaving behind a blood covered dent. The Punisher turned to face the other two assailants, fists raised, but found they had stopped dead in their tracks, eyes fixed on their bloodied friend.
“That’s enough,” a guard screamed from across the room, as three others rushed over to the scene.
“Listen up,” Castle hollered, seeing his display had attracted enough attention, his voice echoing through the mess hall, as others voices fell silent.
“Most of you know me, and I sure as hell know most of you! Anyone, and I mean anyone, who has the balls to mess with this kid, is going to have to come through me first! Spread the word! Am I clear?”
The room was utterly silent, as the guards finally reached the table. There was no response, and the Punisher didn’t expect one. Their sheer silence was a big enough ‘yes’.
“Castle…”
The Punisher lifted his arms in a show of surrender and allowed two of the guards to escort him back to the table, without so much as a look back at Parker or the inmate who’s nose he had just shattered.
Spider-Man just continued to sit in awe and felt knots form in his stomach as the remaining guard dragged the unconscious prisoner away from the table. Daredevil’s words from only a few hours earlier joined the mix of dark thoughts in his head. Had the Punisher been the ‘friend’ Murdock had spoke of? And if that was the case, Parker thought, what had Daredevil promised him in exchange? The thought made Spider-Man shudder, and he felt himself again dragged into a pit of despair.
********************
TO BE CONCLUDED!!!
BE HERE FOR AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #19 AS OUR HEROS FINALLY TAKE THEIR FIGHT TO THE KINGPIN HEAD-ON, AS “RETURN OF THE KING” COMES TO ITS DRAMATIC CONCLUSION!!!
A NEW ERA FOR THE WEBSLINGER BEGINS HERE…
AND A NEW TEAM OF HEROES IS BORN!!!
