GUARDIAN DEVILS

By Wesley Overhults

Hell’s Kitchen, Earth-107

The world looked different from the red-tinted lenses of his mask.  It made things look more violent, more visceral.  Johnny Gallo wondered if his predecessor had thought the same thing, had seen the world the same as he saw it every time he pulled the cowl over his head and took to the streets.  He figured that Matt saw the world the same way, maybe even worse.  Thanks to his time with the Exiles, Johnny had seen things that Matt would’ve never been able to handle.  It was hard to imagine that he had been gone from his home reality for two years.  Things had changed, new players entering the game that was the New York underworld.  The Avengers and Fantastic Four still saved the world on a daily basis and you still had the likes of Spider-Man and Punisher pounding the pavement every night but everyone knew that there were big shoes to fill while he was gone.  Johnny was surprised to find out that Matt hadn’t begun training a replacement.  It let him know that the former vigilante cared, not that Johnny doubted it.

“I’m not used to this,” he confessed as he looked to his right and saw his girlfriend staring back at him.  “Normally I do the patrol alone.  I’ve done it alone every night since I put on this costume.  Sure, Matt’s in my ear but he’s not out here with me.  This is . . . different.”

Nico Minoru nodded but didn’t make a move to leave.  It had been a little bit of a culture shock coming from her own reality to live in his.  Things were mostly still the same but there were some big differences.  This reality’s version of Dr. Strange was different from the man she came to know as her teacher.  She had only met him once in this reality.  He was an ally of Daredevil, mostly out of a courtesy to Matt, but he was more distant and aloof than the version she had known.  Nico didn’t even want to think what the other Runaways were like in this reality, assuming they even existed.  Traveling to an alternate reality and seeing them all as murderous psychopaths was enough for her.

“This is your life and I’m a part of it,” she reminded him.  “I’ve gone toe-to-toe with Dormammu and survived.  Beating up on some thugs should be easy.”

“I’m the one that’ll be doing most of the work,” assured Daredevil.  “Nico . . . I don’t want to lose you again.”

“Nothing you did could’ve stopped him,” said Nico.  “You’re supposed to be The Man Without Fear, Johnny.  Better live up to your rep or people will think you’re slacking.  You’ve already been gone for two years.”

Daredevil nodded and dove off the rooftop they were on.  He used his grappling hook to swing through the window of the warehouse across the street.  The thugs were new, or at least new to him.  They belonged to a newcomer who had stepped in to consolidate power during the two years Daredevil was gone.  The man was known only as The Hood, a name earned because of his interesting wardrobe.  Rumor had it that the man’s hooded cloak was magical but Daredevil didn’t care about that.  He was more concerned about the fact that The Hood was trying to control the entire New York underworld and was having an easy time of doing it.  Daredevil was going to show him that it wasn’t going to be so easy.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t think up any new material for you guys,” he joked as he bounced through the stream of bullets searing towards him, his danger-sense keeping him from being harmed.  “I guess I shouldn’t have taken that vacation.”

His heart wasn’t in the banter and he mechanically went through the motions of dismantling the group of thugs.  His mind was on Nico, on the fact that at one time he thought he was never going to see her again.  It was a miracle that he still had her after the nightmare he had gone through to find her again.  Now that she was with him again, he realized just how much he had to lose.  For most of his life, Johnny Gallo lived without fear because he felt he had nothing to lose. He was reckless, headstrong, and a host of other things that made him a perfect successor to Matt Murdock but made it easy to invite misery into his life.  Now he had something to lose and it made him nervous.

“I wasn’t listening during your conversation with Nico,” informed Matt through the earpiece Johnny wore.  “Wrap up that bust quick and then come back to the loft.  We need to go over some things.”

“Yeah,” said Daredevil, blocking a punch and then sweeping the thugs legs out from under him.

Johnny flipped to dodge another attack, stepping on the fallen thug’s stomach in the process.  He cartwheeled and disarmed another thug, clubbing him with his batons to take him down.  The arms deal wasn’t a big loss to The Hood’s organization but it would help remind him that Hell’s Kitchen still had its guardian devil. Johnny’s danger-sense went off and he flipped backwards, watching the bullets from a thug’s machine gun bury themselves into his friend’s chest.  Daredevil twisted in mid-air and flung a d-disc at the man, removing the gun from his hand before he had the chance to accidentally murder any of the others.  He landed on his feet and hit the goon with a roundhouse kick to his jaw.  A couple shots from his batons sent the man to the ground and Daredevil turned to see that some of the potential buyers were getting away.  He bounded after them and coiled the cable of his grappling hook around the legs of one of them.  The other two made it to their car and were off into the night.  Daredevil knew the main thing was making sure the police got all the sellers because they were the ones involved with The Hood.  Breaking up crimes like this and making sure The Hood’s men all got into custody would help send the message that Daredevil was gunning for the crime boss.

“You haven’t cracked a joke in the past few minutes,” noted Matt.

“Didn’t take my happy pills today,” shot back Johnny before turning his attention to the one buyer he had captured.  “I’m sure you’re guilty of something so we’re just going to let the police sort that one out.  I’ve put a call into them and they’ll be here soon.  I figure this will keep you from wandering off in the meantime.”

The thug screamed something in a foreign language as Daredevil jumped and hung him upside down from one of the beams in the warehouse’s rafters.  The arms dealer dangled there, cursing the vigilante but Daredevil paid no mind.  He went over to one of The Hood’s stragglers and hit him in the hand with a d-disc to keep him from reaching a gun.

“You really think this is over?” asked the thug as Daredevil hoisted him to his feet and slammed him into a wall.  “You know who I work for.  You think he’s just going to roll over like everyone else?”

“You’re awfully chatty for a guy who’s going to have a lot less teeth in a few minutes,” noted Daredevil.  “Since you love to talk, you can tell your boss something for me.  I’m coming for him and I’m taking him down just like all the other people who have tried to step up and take the Kingpin’s place.  The Hood isn’t anything special.  He’s just another loser with worse taste in clothes than most people.”

“Might wanna think again,” said the thug as something under his shirt glowed.

Daredevil’s danger-sense went off and he kicked himself backwards as the thug’s eyes matched the glow from the pendant he wore.  He raised his hand and prepared to launch a bolt of magical fire at Daredevil.

“ABRACADABRA”

A blast of magical energy hit the thug and dispelled his magic.  Daredevil tagged him in the head with a d-disc and then turned around to look at Nico.  She blew some smoke off her index finger and then grinned at him.  He grinned back and then went about securing the thugs for the police.

“Thanks,” he said to her after a few moments of silence.  “I assume you called the cops so they can come pick these guys up.”

“That’s what good girlfriends are for,” she replied.  “I can only cast that spell once though so you better figure out what this Hood guy is up to.  If he’s arming people with magic then the city’s going to be in trouble.”

“I’ll take the pendant to Strange and see what he can find out,” decided Daredevil.  “Matt said he wanted to meet at the loft to go over some things.”

“If I can stay awake long enough,” said Nico through yawning.  “All that time I spent in the wrong reality being retconned taught me to have a normal sleep schedule.  Going out with you is going to kill me.”

“Don’t joke about that,” said Daredevil.

Nico frowned, realizing that he wasn’t being funny when he said it.  Not for the first time, she wondered exactly what had happened to Johnny after she was forced to leave the Exiles.  He had changed and she wasn’t sure it was for the better.  It was nice to see him taking things more seriously but at the same time there was a different edge to him and Nico wasn’t sure she liked it.

Somewhere in Manhattan

Parker Robbins realized a long time ago that he was never going to get anywhere in life.  He tried to pretend that this wasn’t the case.  He put on a brave face for his mother even though she couldn’t see it due to her being in a coma.  He would sit by her hospital bed and tell her stories all about the jobs he was doing in order to make money to provide for her medical expenses.  He would tell her about the future he was going to build with his girlfriend Sara, the one that was going to have his baby.  The harsh reality was that Parker was a product of the streets from the moment he was born.  Normal streets bred normal criminals, ones who became small-time thugs for big-time bosses like the Kingpin.  Parker wasn’t a product of the normal streets.  He grew up in a world where men could cleave cars in two with their bare hands or discharge lightning and fire from those same hands.  Parker could never do anything like that.  His talent was in networking, in being the guy that everyone wanted to be friends with and the boss everyone wanted to work for.  His magical cloak gave him a few extra tricks, nothing more and nothing less.

“Park, those guys we sent out to do that deal ain’t showin’ back up.”

Parker looked at his cousin and closest friend.  John King was also a small-time hood, a thug who grew up in the same streets as Parker.  John had been with him from the start and Parker wouldn’t let anyone be his first lieutenant but him.  They were building an empire together but it seemed that someone wanted to put a stop to that.

“It’s probably Daredevil again,” he decided, turning to look at John and pulling back the hood on his cloak, the one that had given him his new name.  “He’s been getting into our business ever since he showed up again.  It’s why I started giving our boys a little something extra.”

“Well if one of ’em iced Daredevil then we woulda heard something by now,” said King.

“Yeah, I know.  I figured they still wouldn’t be able to take him out.  That’s why I decided to step things up a little.”

The Hood made it a point not to deal with most super-villains.  This wasn’t to say that he wouldn’t employ anyone with superhuman abilities.  He was very selective about his talent pool, however, because he knew he didn’t have the necessary power to take on most other villains in a fight.  Villains like Doom or Red Skull were obviously out of the question.  Their egos were too large to make them partner up with anyone.  The other small-time ones like The Hood himself, they could be used as necessary if their services were in his price range.  He knew of one such villain that had developed a rivalry with Daredevil and the vigilante’s two-year absence hadn’t cooled down the flames of revenge that one of his deadliest adversaries carried for him.

“What’cha plannin’, Park?”

“I’ve got Lady Bullseye on this,” said The Hood.  “She still carries a grudge against Daredevil so I put her on the payroll.  I think we’ll see some results by tonight.  I need to have a conference with someone very important about something.  Can you excuse me, John?”

“You been havin’ a lot of private conferences,” noted King.

“I’m networking,” explained The Hood.  “You know it’s what I do best, John.  Trust me, this guy is going to get us straight into the big leagues.  He’s the same supplier I’ve been using to juice up our boys with magic and that’s turned out great.”

“I trust you, Park,” said King before taking his leave.  “Just don’t forget the plan.”

The Hood nodded and watched his friend close the door behind him.  The plan was working so far.  They were staying largely under the radar of the heroes.  That was another reason why The Hood didn’t enjoy working with other villains.  It attracted the wrong kind of attention and the wrong kind of attention was the last thing they needed.  There was a rather large exception that he made though.  It wouldn’t do to have the one who already gave him everything suddenly decide to take it all away.

“My men are enjoying the little trinkets you provided us with,” said The Hood after pulling the hood on his cloak up over his head and seeing the circle of fire appear in front of him.

“They are but a small sample of the boons I grant to those who loyally serve me,” stated Dormammu.  “That fool Dr. Strange thought that he could imprison me in this dimension but my influence spreads farther than he assumes.  I am glad that I found someone as capable as you, Parker Robbins.  How does our plan proceed?”

“Daredevil’s been a problem,” admitted The Hood.  “I’ve managed to stay away from Strange but once the word gets out that my guys are using magic, it won’t be long before he shows up.”

“I have already set in motion a way to distract him and keep him off this plane,” stated Dormammu.  “The ritual to free me from my imprisonment will be complete before he even knows it is occurring.  As to the matter of this ‘Daredevil’, I see no threat from such a puny man.  Deal with him so that nothing stands in our way.”

“I’ve already set something up to take care of him,” promised The Hood.  “Lady Bullseye will make sure he’s in the ground and out of our hair.”

“See that you don’t fail me,” warned Dormammu before the circle of fire that housed his image disappeared and left The Hood alone with his thoughts.

Parker Robbins always believed that he was never going to amount to anything in life.  The day he discovered the enchanted cloak he now wore, he realized that it was his ticket to the top.  Parker wasn’t going to be small-time forever.  He wasn’t going to be ordinary like his father or like most of the people he employed. Parker was going to be a self-made man, a man who had pulled himself out of the gutter and turned himself into a god.  Once he settled his debts with Dormammu and unleashed the demon lord upon Earth, The Hood was going to become the biggest crime boss the world had ever known.  Men like Dr. Doom and the Red Skull would cower at his feet and beg for his mercy.  Heroes like Daredevil would be crushed under his boot and he would have everything he wanted out of life.

Matt Murdock’s Apartment, Hell’s Kitchen

“I can’t reach Strange so he must be busy with something.”

Johnny Gallo nodded in response to his mentor’s statement.  He looked to his girlfriend and knew that if they couldn’t get Strange to analyze the magical pendant he had taken off of one of The Hood’s thugs then the task would fall to her.

“I’m afraid I’m not that good,” she confessed.  “I could cast a spell to look at its magical signature but I couldn’t tell you what that signature means.  I’m still only a novice when compared to someone like Strange.  Looks like you’re going to have to figure something else out, cowboy.”

“If The Hood is arming his men with magical talismans then the rumors of his supernatural connection are true,” said Matt.  “Considering that you’ve been butting heads with him a lot lately, he’s going to want to put you out of commission sooner rather than later.”

“You’re thinking he’s going to get a hitter to take me out?” inquired Johnny.  “I’ve had people trying to kill me ever since I put on my first set of spandex pajamas, Matt.  This isn’t my first rodeo.”

“No but it might be your last if you don’t start watching your back,” said Matt.  “What were you doing for those two years that made you get sloppy?”

“Things I don’t really want to talk about,” said Johnny, glancing at Nico and then looking away.  “I’ve done all I can do for the night, Matt.  Nic and I are going to get some sleep.  You’re the dayshift so you’ll have to take over.”

“Keeping The Hood’s thugs inside a courtroom won’t be easy,” said Matt.  “I’ll do my best to see that they get some jail time but they’ll probably be back on the street by this time tomorrow.  We need to find out what The Hood is planning.  He’s been trying to consolidate the cartels to make himself the king of the New York underworld but I feel like he’s got a bigger play in mind.  Someone this ambitious isn’t going to be satisfied with controlling just the city.”

“They never are,” said Johnny as he and Nico left Matt’s apartment.

They walked in silence, traversing the few blocks between Matt’s apartment and the loft that Johnny used as his living space and his base of operations.  Both of them were lost in their own thoughts and Nico chose to think about what Matt had said to Johnny.  She hadn’t known him before he became an Exile so she couldn’t attest to how he was before then.  She only knew him as he was when he was on the team and even now he seemed a little different.

“What did he mean about you being sloppy?” she finally asked him.

“Matt spent most of his time as Daredevil alone,” explained Johnny as they stopped at the door to his loft and he opened it for her.  “He did patrol alone, he fought alone, he did everything alone.  Yeah, he had friends who would help him out but they weren’t his partners or sidekicks or whatever.  That’s what he trained me to be: alone.  Ever since the Exiles though, I’m used to having other people around to watch my back so I stopped doing it myself.”

“But you don’t want me out there with you,” said Nico.

“You’re different,” replied Johnny.  “It’s not that I don’t think you can do it, Nic.  I know damn well you can.”

“You don’t have to go back to being alone, Johnny,” said Nico, grazing his cheek with her fingers.

Johnny lightly kissed her fingertips before opening the door and letting them both inside his loft.  The furnishings inside were sparse, attesting to the fact that Johnny wasn’t really the kind of person to decorate his living space.  Yet it also spoke to the fact that he didn’t have much of a life beyond his crime-fighting pursuits.  His only real job to speak of was helping take care of Matt, a job that was in title and monetary compensation only.  Matt’s spine was still good enough to let him walk, albeit not without the aid of crutches, but his days of jumping around the city were over.  Johnny counted it as a miracle that Matt even still had partial use of his legs after hearing about the battle against the Kingpin that had crippled him.  He had crippling problems of his own though.  Johnny was always emotionally distant, always keeping everyone at arm’s length.  It made him great at being a vigilante but it made him miserable at being everything else.  Things were different now though.  He had Nico in his life and for the first time he felt like he had someone he could share that life with.  Maybe his time as an Exile was actually a good thing because it taught him how to let other people in.

“I still think you should take a look at this thing,” said Johnny as he fished the pendant out of his pocket and studied it while Nico went into what was now their bedroom to change into her pajamas.

“I already told you that there’s nothing I can do,” she replied, in the middle of changing clothes.  “My spell deactivated it so there’s nothing we can do until we get in touch with Strange.”

Johnny nodded to himself and was about to simply toss the pendant onto the coffee table when it started to glow again.  It pulsed with the same otherworldly energy it once did but Johnny didn’t feel his danger-sense kick in so he knew it wasn’t an immediate threat.  Whatever it was doing though, he knew it wasn’t good.  “Nic, you better take a look at this thing.”

“I told you before that . . .,” began Nico as she finished changing and then came into the room, seeing what the pendant was doing.  “Johnny, put the thing down and get away from it.”

He felt his danger-sense starting to buzz now as he tossed the pendant across the room.  It landed somewhere on the carpet and continued to glow before going dull again.  Daredevil looked around, stripping off his normal clothes to reveal his costume underneath.  He just finished pulling the cowl over his head when something burst through one of the windows.

“Oh great, you,” he said as he recognized the figure clad in the black and white.  “I was hoping you’d gone into retirement while I was on vacation.”

“No such luck,” retorted Lady Bullseye, pulling the sai daggers she employed from her belt and twirling them.  “I spent two years hoping for the chance to fight you again.  I suppose this is my reward.”

“That glow was some kind of homing beacon,” realized Nico.  “I know that magic.”

“And I’d love to have a chat with you about it but now’s not the time,” said Daredevil, whipping out his batons as Lady Bullseye came at him.

She struck first in a horizontal slash leveled at his neckline that he deflected with his batons.  Lady Bullseye used the prongs of her weapon to trap the baton and turn it away from Daredevil so he couldn’t use it to protect himself.  He clubbed her in the side of the head with his other baton and then let go of the one that was caught up in the sai.  It clattered across the floor but Daredevil wasn’t without his other toys.  He flung two of his d-discs at her face and watched her swat them away with her blades.  They bounced around the room and they served as a distraction just as he wanted them to.  While Lady Bullseye was trying to keep the discs in her peripheral vision, Daredevil ran forward and tackled her to the floor.  He landed a few punches before she threw him off, flipping back to his feet and blocking the kick she threw at his face.  He ducked a swipe from her sai, spinning to dodge the follow-up thrust that was aimed at his gut.  He clutched her hand and yanked her forward as he spun, putting her right in the path of one of his d-discs.  The bouncing lump of metal struck her in the temple before he finally plucked it from the air.  Lady Bullseye could feel the blood running down the side of her head and she turned to retaliate but the other d-disc clipped her in the back of the legs and made her falter.  Daredevil ran and used her fallen body as a stepping stone to jump and catch the d-disc before it collided with the ceiling after bouncing from the floor to the wall.  He twisted while in the air and launched the disc at Lady Bullseye, nailing her in the spine with it before it returned to his hand after ricocheting off of the floor.

“Those toys are why I’ve always hated you,” stated Lady Bullseye after literally pulling the rug out from under Daredevil.

“I thought it was my personality all this time,” he cracked.

Nico watched as Daredevil and Lady Bullseye clashed again, the air ringing with the sound of steel on steel.  She knew she had to get to that pendant because if she was correct about the magical signature of it then they were in more trouble than they thought they were.  She thought that her spell had deactivated all of the pendant’s magical properties but it seemed that whoever enchanted it was more powerful than she was.

“I see that your sense of humor was not lost in those two years,” noted Lady Bullseye, trying for another slash that was avoided.  She did, however, manage to rob Daredevil of some of his d-discs and used them to kill the lights in the room.

Daredevil looked at the blackness surrounding him and let his danger-sense take over.  Something was coming for his head and he turned and saw a flash of light before ducking it.  He realized soon what it was.  Lady Bullseye had taken a lamp and was using it like a bo staff.  She twirled it and swung it like an uppercut, catching Daredevil under the chin.  He bent backwards to try to dodge the next attack but was concussed from the blow and wasn’t as fast as usual.  The end of the lamp with the bulb on it clocked him in the side of the head, the glass cutting into the cowl of his costume.  Both of them now had blood trickling down the sides of their head.  Daredevil heard the rush of air that meant Lady Bullseye was twirling her new weapon.  He dodged and then used his foot to pin the metal tube to the floor.  Daredevil used one of his grappling hooks to tie Lady Bullseye’s hands together at the wrists, making sure she couldn’t use her weapons anymore.  While she struggled against the cable, Daredevil kicked her in the head and knocked her to the floor.

“Nic, where are you?” he called, clicking on the night-vision in the lenses of his mask so he could see what was going on.

She didn’t respond but the pendant in her hand glowed and a pulse of magical energy radiated out from it.  It threw both Daredevil and Nico to the floor and knocked them unconscious.  Lady Bullseye snarled as she cut through the cable with one of her blades.  The pendant hovered in the air and continued glowing. The magic radiated out in a circle that turned into a portal.  The Hood stepped out of the portal and looked around at the scene before him, the magical light the only source of illumination in the room.

“We had a deal,” reminded Lady Bullseye as she went straight for Daredevil while he was unable to defend himself.

“No, I have something better in mind for him,” decided The Hood, using a bolt of magical energy to get Lady Bullseye to halt her advance.  “Bring him and the girl.  He can watch her die in agony and then you can kill him.”

The Hood’s Hideout

Nico Minoru groaned and opened her eyes.  Her head was filled with jumbled thoughts and she attempted to reorganize them into something coherent.  She remembered what had just happened moments before she blacked out.  The pendant had issued a pulse of magical energy and as it hit her body, Nico knew that it felt familiar.  She had been struck by magic like that before but it had been years since she had felt its sting.  There was only one being in this world or any other that used magic like that.

“Well this is giving me all kinds of flashbacks,” she remarked as she found herself clamped to the floor of a room, her limbs stretched out into a spread-eagle position.  She could see what looked like a ring of candles circled around her and she knew without looking that there was some kind of mystic sigil painted on or maybe carved into the floor.

“I thought you might enjoy it,” said The Hood, his namesake pulled up over his head to shroud his face while his trademark cloak wrapped around his body. “Lady Bullseye said you might’ve figured out who my benefactor is.”

“Not hard considering he almost stole my soul,” said Nico.  “I can feel his magic on you.  There’s no mistake that you’ve been working with Dormammu this whole time.  His power always comes with a price tag and usually it’s too high for anyone to afford.  I’m really surprised you’re not dead already.”

“I’ve been giving him a good supply of life force so that he can enter this realm,” explained The Hood.  “My men don’t know it but every time they wear those pendants they’ve been donating more than just their time to my cause.”

“Not much use in trying to appeal to him, Nic.”

Nico tried to shift her eyes in the voice’s direction.  From what she could tell, they had strung Daredevil up by his wrists and then clamped some kind of weight around his ankles so that he couldn’t use his acrobatics to help him escape.  He had a front row seat though and she could only guess that it was to watch her demise.

“She can thank you for all this,” said The Hood, his gaze turning away from Nico and towards Daredevil.  “I know I’ve tried to operate under the radar and I’ve done it with great success but I was really hoping I’d run into you at some point.”

“I’m honored.”

The Hood expected the verbal jab and didn’t let it faze him in the slightest.  “You probably don’t remember me.  You’ve beaten up so many thugs in your life that you didn’t have time to get their names or histories.  Same goes for super-villains I bet.”

“Is there a point to this?” inquired Daredevil.  “I mean I love it when you villainous types go on and on about things but it really gets tedious after the first few lines.”

“I was a kid when I saw you punch out Electro in the middle of Times Square,” explained The Hood.  “Most kids seeing that fight would want to be you but I wanted to be Electro.  I wanted to be the man with all the power so I got into crime.  Care to take a guess who was the first person to bust me?”

“I bet he looks dashing in a red bodysuit,” said Daredevil.  “Care to weigh in on this, Nic?”

“You kicked my ass pretty good,” continued The Hood before Nico could comment.  “So then I had a new mission in life.  I was going to make it in crime and some day, when I was the man with all the power, I’d find you and I’d make you pay for humiliating me.”

“Oh, chuckles, you already humiliated yourself when you put on Little Red Riding Hood’s hand-me-downs.”

The Hood was now visibly upset, barely able to restrict the growl that escaped his mouth.  He had to remind himself that right now he was the man in control. He was the one with the power and right now he was going to use it.  Everything was in place and it was time to offer up Nico’s soul to his dark benefactor.  It would be just the thing that Dormammu needed to gain entrance into this world and claim it as his own.  Of course once he did that, The Hood would be rewarded for his years of loyal service.

“Don’t talk to me like I’m some kind of punk!” he snarled at Daredevil.  “I’m going to make you suffer, Daredevil.  I’m going to make you watch while I suck the life out of the girl you love and then I’m going to make you watch when my boss destroys the world you’ve fought so hard to protect.  When you start begging me to end your miserable life, I might consider it but it won’t happen until I’ve gotten all the fun out of you I can.”

“You want me to not talk to you like a punk but that’s what you are,” retorted Daredevil.  “That’s all you’ve ever been.  You think that little cape makes you special but you’re middle management.  In the end you’re just another hustler looking to get a big score while trying to satisfy your boss.  If you’re such a big man then I should at least be able to remember your real name, right?”

“It’s Parker Robbins.”

Daredevil knew that name wouldn’t ring a bell.  He figured The Hood was so impossibly average of a criminal that there was no way he could be remembered by anyone.  What Daredevil was trying to do was distract his opponent just as he always did.  It was a trait he unknowingly picked up from watching Spider-Man as a child and Matt had encouraged him to make it part of his Daredevil persona.  As The Man Without Fear, Johnny couldn’t let anything get to him.  He had to make everything seem like a game to distract his foes and sometimes himself from the seriousness of what was happening.  Inside, he was scared but he couldn’t let that show.  It wasn’t going to do him any good and, more importantly, it wasn’t going to do Nico any good.

“Sorry, doesn’t ring a bell,” he told The Hood.

“Well, you’ll remember it now,” stated The Hood.

Everything in the room got darker as The Hood opened the book that was on some kind of podium that stood before him.  He flipped it to exactly the page he wanted and he began chanting in some tongue that wasn’t familiar to Daredevil.  Johnny didn’t care what The Hood was doing.  What he did care about was what else was happening in the room.  He had seen Lady Bullseye sneak into the shadows during his conversation with The Hood.  He found it odd considering that she worked for The Hood but seemed to have her own agenda.  Despite how much they didn’t like one another, Daredevil understood that Lady Bullseye was a professional.  He knew she believed in and followed a code of honor despite her chosen career of murder.  Apparently, even killing machines could have a conscience.

“And that’s what I was hoping for,” he muttered under his breath as he saw something metallic fly through the air, the blade of the sai glinting in the last remaining light left in the room.

The dagger cut through the rope binding Daredevil’s wrists together.  He fell and managed to land on his feet despite his ankles being tied together.  He picked the dagger up and freed his feet in one smooth motion.  The Hood didn’t stop his chanting but there was another noise in the room now.  Johnny could hear the girl he loved screaming in pain as the mystic sigil on the floor began to glow.  He took only a split-second to tense his legs and then let them uncoil, leaping straight into the middle of symbol.  As he tumbled through the air, he flicked his d-discs and watched them cut into the ropes holding Nico to the floor.  Daredevil tucked into a forward roll that brought him right in front of The Hood’s face.  He punched him in the jaw and watched the cloaked criminal fall to the floor.

“You’re too late,” he snarled as he pulled his firearms from his cloak and pointed them at Daredevil.  “He’s coming here one way or another.”

Johnny looked back to see that The Hood was right.  He had to get Nico out of harm’s way before the spell finished stealing her soul and letting Dormammu pass into this world.  He ran back into the fire but he felt the heat of the bullets from The Hood’s gun follow him.  One of them nicked him in the back of the leg.  It didn’t matter.  He had to get to Nico.  He wasn’t going to lose her again.  He dived in a forward roll to scoop Nico up and it was only thanks to his danger-sense that he avoided the attack from The Hood and got his hands on his girlfriend.  The Hood had teleported into a prone position right under Johnny while he was in the air but Daredevil had twisted his body to avoid the bullets from The Hood’s guns.  He and Nico both tumbled to the floor and made it just outside the spell’s range.  They heard The Hood scream as the spell stole his soul as payment for his master’s journey to this world.

“I have to get him out of there,” said Daredevil.

“You can’t,” countered Nico as the spell’s energies reached their crescendo and the symbol on the floor caught on fire.  “We’ve got bigger problems now.”

The walls shook with sinister laughter as something threatened to come through the portal that the symbol had now become.  Two giant hands clamped onto the rim of the circle and pushed something upward.  The fiery head of Dormammu began to come up through the portal and soon his body trailed behind him.

“What do we do?” asked Daredevil.

“You don’t do anything,” answered Nico, getting back to her feet and readying herself for a battle.  “I kinda wanted this to happen.  I dunno if you’re the same Dormammu from my reality but if you are then I’ve been waiting years for a rematch with you.”

“There is only one ruler of the Dark Dimension, Nico Minoru,” said Dormammu as he stood on the floor and glared at her, his head barely contained by the room’s ceiling.  “I too have hoped to come across you once more.  This contest shall end differently for you though.  This time I will have the payment your parents promised me.”

“Come and get it if you think you can,” dared Nico.

Dormammu was about to summon his dark energies when something crashed through the ceiling.  Cloaked in a sheathe of magical energy, Dr. Strange let that same energy fly from his fingertips.  The Bolts of Balthakk struck Dormammu and caused him to stagger backwards.  Strange peppered the dark lord with a few more rounds before landing with Nico and Daredevil.

“Matthew notified me that my help was needed,” he told Daredevil.  “I believe Dormammu used the Mindless Ones as a distraction to keep me occupied while he gained passage into this realm.  Fortunately, I realized the ruse in time but my powers are depleted.  I’m afraid I lack sufficient strength to cast the banishment spell.”

“I know the spell but I’m not strong enough to cast it,” said Nico.

“Ah, fortunately I can cast some enchantments to increase your power,” said Strange.  “Where did you learn the spell?  I ask because few but myself know it.”

“You told me how,” answered Nico.  “Hit me with whatever you’ve got and do it soon.  This guy isn’t going to give us the chance to stand around and talk.”

“No he is not,” agreed Strange, zapping Nico with what she assumed was the power-boosting enchantments she would require.

Nico could feel the magic course through her and wondered if this was what it was like to be the Sorcerer Supreme.  The Strange of her world had taught her a lot about not just her own brand of magic but others as well.  She knew how to do banishments but always lacked the power to do so, especially against someone of Dormammu’s caliber.  Now thanks to Strange’s enchantments, she could manage it without any problem.

“You believe the pitiful power from a weakened sorcerer can stop me?” asked Dormammu.  “I am the dark god Dormammu.  I am more powerful than anything a human mind can comprehend.”

“You’re a Ghost Rider wannabe who talks too much,” retorted Nico.  “SHOUT AT THE DEVIL!”

Nico unleashed her magic at Dormammu.  It wrapped around him, binding him and dragging him back through the portal he came from.  He tried to get free but Nico kept pouring on the magic until he was all the way through the portal.  Once he was through, the portal closed itself and everything returned to normal. Daredevil looked around and saw Lady Bullseye standing across the room.

“Using the lives of his own men as a commodity to broker with was dishonorable,” she told him before smiling at him.  “Besides, I’m the only one who gets to kill you.  Until next we meet, Man Without Fear, I suggest you sleep with one eye open.  I know exactly where you live now.”  With that, she disappeared into the night.

“Rough night at the office,” said Nico, looking around at the room and finally able to breathe easy.  “You know, there was a second there where I thought you weren’t going to save me.  You must’ve lost your touch while I was gone.”

“Really, only a second?” asked Daredevil.  “I think that means I’ve improved.”

“Maybe even a split-second.”

Daredevil smiled at Nico and threw his arm around her shoulder as they walked with Strange out of the building and went their separate ways.  Nico looked at this reality’s version of her mentor as he disappeared in a puff of smoke.  If it wasn’t for him, her life wouldn’t be the same.  She looked over at Daredevil and realized she could say the same thing about him.  If she had never met him, her life would be extremely boring and lonely.  She decided that she was extremely lucky to have him and she knew he would say the same about her without hesitation.

“Home?” he asked her.

“Home,” she decided before he swept her off her feet and hooked his grappling hook on the rooftop of a nearby building.  She kissed him as they shot skyward and swung their way home.

Daredevil’s Loft

Daredevil felt exhausted by the time he and Nico returned to his loft.  They came in and surveyed the disarray left from the fight with Lady Bullseye, looking at one another and waiting for the other to say something.  Nico wordlessly shrugged and then went to the bedroom, Daredevil following her.  He picked up his phone that was lying on the nightstand and dialed Matt Murdock’s number.

“Anyone else would wonder why their friend was calling at this hour,” said Murdock as soon as he answered the phone.  “I’ve been wondering where the hell you’ve been.”

“Thanks for sending Strange to check on us,” said Daredevil.  “We’re both okay.  Turns out The Hood was working for Dormammu.  He sacrificed his own soul so that Dormammu could come through to our dimension but Strange and Nic sent him back home.”

“So it looks like there’s still a power vacuum then,” decided Murdock.  “Guess the race is on for the next person to try to fill the Kingpin’s shoes.”

“Yeah and Lady Bullseye got away in the confusion so I’ll have to deal with her again,” explained Daredevil.  “She’ll turn back up again though and now she knows where I live.  We’re going to have to get someone to put some extra security on this place but I’ll take care of that later.  Right now, I need you to look into a name for me.  Parker Robbins.”

“Never heard of him,” said Murdock.  “Why should I look into him?”

“He was The Hood,” answered Daredevil.  “Just find out if he has any family or loved ones and if he does then I’ll try to do something nice for them.  All Parker wanted was to be remembered.  I’d like to make sure that he is.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” promised Murdock.  “Get some sleep, Johnny.  Tomorrow’s another long night.”

“They always are.”

Nico came over and wrapped her arms around Johnny as he hung up the phone.  She kissed him and smiled.  He returned that smile with his own and felt a sureness in him that he hadn’t felt in a long time.  Life was starting to become more stable for him.  It was a welcome change from the hectic nature of being an Exile.  For the first time since he returned to his own reality, Johnny really felt like he finally belonged there.  It was nice to have that sense of security back.

“That’s really nice that you want to do something for The Hood’s family,” said Nico.

“People shouldn’t be forgotten,” replied Johnny.  “Nic, I know that ever since we settled down here that I haven’t felt the same.  I’ve been nervous, scared actually.  I almost lost you again tonight but I didn’t.  I think I’ve decided to stop running away from that fear and start living with it.”

“I’m glad for that,” said Nico.  “Every time I get in trouble, I’m scared too.  It’s hard not to be scared when you’re staring a demon lord in the eye and hoping he’s the one who blinks instead of you.  There’s always one thing I can count on though.  I can count on the people I care about to have my back and right now you’re the person I care about the most.”

“I feel the same way,” he told her.  “C’mon, let’s get some sleep.  Matt said tomorrow would be another long night.”

“They always are, cowboy.”

They grinned at one another and settled in for the night.  Johnny turned off the lamp on the nightstand and they both went to bed.