[Vol. 3] Chapter 14: An Uninvited Guest

Evening was approaching. At the law office, Matt Murdock was sorting through his files. He had infiltrated Kingpin’s building as Daredevil and come away with plenty of evidence of his crimes.

The thought of finally bringing Kingpin down—putting him behind bars despite his efforts to pass himself off as a legitimate businessman—brought a broad smile to Matt’s face.

“Witnesses, physical evidence… I even have the books proving his tax evasion. Let’s see him talk his way out of this in court!”

Finn sat in a chair and sipped his rich, aromatic Americano, offering no comment.

Finn had openly identified Matt as Daredevil, so Matt had stopped hiding his identity from him and offered to show him around the office.

Daredevil believed in due process. Finn preferred a simpler, more direct approach: storm Fisk Tower, kill Kingpin, and empty his vault. But that wasn’t how superheroes did things, and Finn had a reputation to maintain.

If Daredevil actually succeeded in sending Kingpin to prison, Hell’s Kitchen would only grow more chaotic. Finn could always take advantage of the turmoil then.

Suddenly, Matt’s colleague Foggy pushed through the door, looking alarmed.

“Marcus is dead!”

“What?!” Matt asked, unable to believe his ears.

“Marcus is dead! Right there in the police station! The preliminary finding is that low blood sugar triggered his heart condition. He went into shock and died,” Foggy added.

Matt grabbed his white cane and rushed to the station, making no effort to conceal his speed, only to learn that Marcus had already been taken to a funeral home.

The recent gang wars in Hell’s Kitchen had left so many dead that the morgue had run out of space. Even the dead were facing a housing shortage. Marcus’s body was scheduled for immediate cremation.

“I want to see the security footage from Marcus’s cell!” Matt demanded.

Even an idiot could tell something was wrong. Marcus’s death was suspicious enough, but the speed at which they were rushing him into the crematorium was worse. Once his body was reduced to ashes, there would be no way to perform an autopsy and find out the truth.

The female officer handling his inquiry lowered her eyes apologetically.

“I’m very sorry, Mr. Murdock. We hadn’t used that cell in a long time, so we didn’t realize… The security camera was already broken. There’s no footage.”

“You…” Matt clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his palms. Behind his dark glasses, his eyes burned with anger.

His sense of gentlemanly restraint wouldn’t allow him to shout at a woman. Otherwise, he would have grabbed her by the neck, lifted her off the floor, and demanded to know whether she had done it on purpose—whether Kingpin had bought her off!

Another officer approached and began pushing Matt toward the station’s exit.

“Counselor, please don’t interfere with our work. We’re short-staffed as it is. The murders alone are enough to keep us running ourselves ragged every day.”

Matt hurriedly got the funeral home’s number and called, asking them to hold off on cremating Marcus’s body.

He was too late, they told him. The cremation was already finished.

Blake told Matt that he, too, had found the whole thing hard to believe. He had examined Marcus’s body but found no visible signs of injury. The medical examiner had also concluded that hypoglycemia had sent him into fatal shock.

But Matt knew that if someone had died of low blood sugar without any obvious injuries, one possible explanation was that they had been forcibly injected with a large dose of insulin. An autopsy and further testing might have uncovered evidence.

But Marcus had already been cremated.

That morning, Marcus Leonard had still been a living, breathing man—a father desperate to redeem himself and make things right with his daughter.

By evening, he was nothing but ashes.

Matt Murdock had no idea how he made it back to the office. He stumbled along, barely steady on his feet.

He felt as though he could no longer see the truth.

Everywhere he turned, there was no light. Only darkness.

Dusk faded, and night fell. Across Hell’s Kitchen, gunshots and police sirens answered one another without end.

Matt Murdock hurriedly pulled on his black helmet and returned to who he really was.

Daredevil.

“Kingpin, I’ll fight you to the bitter end.”

…

Finn stood on a rooftop beside Daredevil, looking out at Kingpin’s stronghold—Fisk Tower.

“Careful, Beacon,” Daredevil said quietly. “We have an uninvited guest.”

Clang!

A long metal arrow embedded itself in the smooth lightning rod, its synthetic fletching trembling.

Hawkeye had arrived.

Hawkeye, real name Clint Barton: a man still going *whoosh, whoosh* with a bow in the age of firearms.

That old-fashioned choice made him look rather underpowered among the walking cheat codes known as the Avengers. He usually did fine, but once the heavy hitters started trading blows, he mostly just coasted on the sidelines.

He also had another important role: one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s top agents.

“Hello, heroes of Hell’s Kitchen.” Hawkeye rose from the shadows.

“I already told you I’m not interested in joining the Avengers,” Daredevil said with a frown. “Stop asking.”

“I’m not here for you this time. I’m here for Kingpin. And, of course, the famous Beacon!” Hawkeye smiled and shook Finn’s hand.

“What do you want with me?”

Some busybody had filmed Finn in action around Hell’s Kitchen and uploaded the footage, so it wasn’t surprising that Hawkeye had tracked him down.

“We’d like to formally invite you to join the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division—S.H.I.E.L.D.! Help us fight for world peace!”

Finn hadn’t expected S.H.I.E.L.D. to start recruiting him before he’d even found any new recruits for the Spacetime Destruction Bureau.

“Why invite me?”

Hawkeye was generous with his praise. “You’re honest and brave, with a strong sense of justice! And you’re more than powerful enough. Director Nick Fury heard about your victories over Venom and the Purple Man, and he was very impressed by your abilities…”

“The Avengers and the Justice League have been competing for recruits lately,” Daredevil whispered to Finn. “They’re both after the new heroes on the scene. If you join S.H.I.E.L.D., there’s a good chance you’ll end up getting pulled into the Avengers.”

Knowing Finn was on good terms with Superman, Daredevil assumed he leaned toward the Justice League.

Hawkeye had clearly heard every word. His smile turned awkward, though it remained polite.

“That’s one reason. The other is that a cosmic catastrophe is fast approaching. We need recruits to help stop a crisis that threatens half the life in the universe!”

Daredevil pursed his lips. “Care to be more specific?”

Hawkeye smiled. “We don’t want to cause a public panic, so that information is classified at S.H.I.E.L.D.’s highest level. Only people with high enough clearance get to know. Perhaps if you two joined us, you’d get a chance to find out.”

“Scare tactics,” Daredevil said dismissively.

Hawkeye turned to Finn, looking every bit the salesman coaxing a prospective customer.

“Beacon, would you like to join S.H.I.E.L.D.?”