MADE

Part I

By Wesley Overhults

New York City, Earth-1313

“We should be helping.”

Sister Grimm looked to her companion but didn’t say anything. The Exiles had been in this reality for only a week but this assignment was a difficult one. The Tallus told them to “take out the Kingpin”. Nico had never heard of the Kingpin though, admittedly, her knowledge of the criminal underworld was extremely limited. She only knew about The Pride and whatever it was Strange fought when he wasn’t helping her with her magic. Daredevil, on the other hand, seemed to know a great deal about the Kingpin, perhaps a little too much. In the end though, that knowledge hadn’t helped them achieve their ultimate goal yet.

“Harry and Kate can handle themselves,” assured Sister Grimm and she noticed that Daredevil was antsy.

Sandman and Husk were probably already back at the hotel waiting for them. The six of them had split up for the night again, determined to stop some of the Kingpin’s operations for the evening and gain some more insight into the crime boss’s true identity. They developed the same strategy since they arrived. Eventually, someone was going to say something that would give them a lead. It didn’t make the waiting any easier though.

With their business concluded for the evening, Nico and Johnny were in the process of walking to their hotel. They had already called the room from a payphone once their assignment was finished, as per the arrangement everyone had agreed upon. Without radios or com-links, the team had to use what they could to stay in contact with each other. It was far from perfect and all of them knew it.

“I mean we should be pounding the pavement again,” clarified Daredevil, his sneakers scuffing the sidewalk as he shuffled alongside Nico.

Both of them were in street clothes and Johnny had a small backpack slung over his shoulder that he used to store his regular clothes in when he took them off to don the Daredevil costume he wore underneath. For only the millionth time, he wondered why Spider-Man got all the breaks in life. At least Peter could make a web sack to store his clothes in whenever he wanted to do so. Johnny had to work for it.

“You’ll get your chance,” promised Sister Grimm, the two of them walking into a convenience store. Nico could use a slushie, assuming they even made them in this reality. The group’s funds were starting to dwindle and the stay in the hotel wasn’t doing them any monetary favors. She hoped this mission didn’t take too much longer.

“I’m not a very patient person,” admitted Daredevil, as if it wasn’t obvious enough.

“No duh,” she replied as the two of them made their way into the store.

The two Exiles separated for the moment as Nico went to get her drink and Johnny went to get a couple necessities that Will told them they needed. He looked at the newspaper on the rack and felt an urge to vomit arise. Continuing the unsettling trend he had already noticed, the paper’s headline proclaimed the greatness of New York City’s mayor, Wilson Fisk. Johnny knew Fisk in a completely different light though. In his reality, Fisk had broken Matt Murdock’s back during a confrontation and that led to Murdock retiring from his identity as Daredevil. Johnny took up that identity though, like always, he was cocky and flippant in the beginning. Murdock trained him to truly be a man without fear and Johnny had lived up to everyone’s expectations as the new Daredevil. He even put away Fisk for good but that was in his own world and this was a completely different game.

“Has to be him,” muttered Johnny before he averted his gaze from the newspaper and gathered what they needed. After completing the task, he moved to the checkout counter and saw Nico standing in line and sipping her drink.

“God, I love these things,” she commented. “Seriously, when I was little I wanted my parents to install one of those machines in our kitchen. It was on my Christmas list three straight years.”

“Nice to know in case I need to get you a birthday present,” he replied, grinning as he watched her drink. He noticed the newspaper again and his eyes darkened almost immediately.

“You still think it’s him?” she inquired, her voice hushed to avoid anyone else listening.

“Has to be,” he answered almost immediately, his voice taking on the same tone. “It’s always been him and it always will be. I learned something ever since I put on the suit. People like us always look too much at the big picture. We take care of things like Galactus and Dr. Doom but we don’t take care of the little things. That’s how people like him thrive.”

“I’ve learned a lot of stuff ever since I got tangled up with magic,” said Nico. “The biggest rule of all is: expect the unexpected. Something tells me we need to think outside the box more.”

“Well we won’t find out like this,” countered Johnny.

He opened his mouth to say something else but he felt the familiar tingle of his danger-sense in the back of his head. Two men in long coats walked into the store. He could tell they were both armed and it took only seconds for everyone else to know it too.

“Everybody get on the floor and don’t move!” shouted one of the thugs, both of them brandishing their pistols. He pointed his gun at the ceiling and fired off a couple rounds to make his point. Everyone aside from Sister Grimm and Daredevil hit the floor immediately.

“He said get the hell on the floor!” ordered the second thug when he and his companion noticed the two Exiles were still standing.

“Nico,” said Daredevil. “Magic these guys.”

“Brain freeze,” muttered Sister Grimm. “Why do they make these things so damn cold?”

“Nico!” snapped Daredevil even as he sprang towards the two thugs.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “CHECK MY BRAIN!”

The heads of the two thugs glowed with magical energy and both of them experienced skull-crushing headaches. The pain caused them to drop their weapons and that left them defenseless for Daredevil’s attack. He gave one of them a leg sweep and then performed a handstand to grab the other thug around the neck with his legs. He flipped the thug over onto his partner and made sure both of them were unconscious.

“You could’ve done that quicker,” he reminded his companion.

“You could’ve taken those guys out without my help,” she countered with a grin.

“Well . . . yeah,” he admitted after a slight pause. “They still could’ve hurt you though.”

“Aw, you really do care,” joked Nico before turning to the frightened clerk behind the counter. “We get this stuff for free, right?” She smiled when he wordlessly nodded.

“We need to get out of here before the cops show,” noted Johnny.

“Not before I get another free slushie,” decided Nico.

“What does the city look like tonight, Matt?”

Matthew Murdock looked out from the front window of the office and studied the streets of New York City through the lenses of his sunglasses. Murdock didn’t need his eyes to see. An accident with some toxic waste gave him a different way of seeing. He enjoyed thinking that this new, perhaps clearer, vision gave him a unique perspective on life and the world around him. His former colleagues in the legal field always made the joke about justice being blind. He never found it very amusing.

“Dark,” replied Murdock, turning his gaze to Mayor Wilson Fisk. “Still a bit filthy too if I might add.”

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, old friend,” reminded Fisk, his fingers curling around the edge of the desk as he pushed his chair back.

Murdock nodded but found the city a more interesting sight than his boss. He had spent his entire life in New York. He grew up on the rough streets of Hell’s Kitchen so he knew exactly what kind of filth and scum coated this city. He knew exactly how crazy this city could make a man.

“Do you think we’re making any headway, Wilson?” inquired Murdock. “Some days I don’t think we are.”

“Things take time, Matt,” reminded Fisk. “I will be turning in for the night. Try not to let the city get to you too much.”

Murdock watched Fisk leave the office. He knew the truth about this city. It was a cesspool full of inhuman monsters. It was beyond redemption, beyond saving. The only thing left to do was hang on and watch it burn.

“It has to happen tonight,” he said into his cell phone after flipping it open and punching the button for a number on speed dial. “Make sure everything goes smoothly.” He didn’t even wait to see if the person on the other end replied. He ended the call and watched the city again with dead eyes.

“I think that went pretty well,” decided Wasp as she and Goblin looked at the group of unconscious thugs whose bodies littered the warehouse.

“Aside from the fact that we didn’t get any information about the Kingpin, yes,” agreed Goblin. “C’mon, we don’t need to be here when the police arrive.”

Goblin exited the building and flew into the air with Wasp behind him. They needed to get back to the hotel and regroup with the others. They couldn’t risk spreading themselves too thin when they didn’t have a reliable communication system.

“You’re starting to get broody,” noted Wasp, noticing Goblin’s grim facial expression under his mask. Truthfully, it was hard to distinguish from Harry’s expressions and the garish leer of his mask. It was a little unnerving.

“My father would love it here,” said Goblin, the two of them flying through the skyline of New York City on their way to their hotel. “None of the superheroes in this world seem to really police the street-level crime. As long as he didn’t wear this costume, he could’ve had a field day here.”

“You sound a little jealous,” she commented.

“To paraphrase Michael Corleone: That’s my father, Kate. That’s not me,” he replied in return.

“The Godfather,” she noted. “So if you’re not him then why do you wear that costume?”

It was a fair question that many people in Harry’s life asked when he first decided to take up the Goblin mantle. No one completely understood it, not even Liz no matter how many times he tried to explain it. Maybe in some way, he just wanted to prove to the world that he was better than his father, and he wanted to wear his father’s face while doing it.

“Why do you call yourself Wasp?” he inquired in return.

Kate nodded, smiling a little and shaking her head as they took a turn and came within a block of the hotel. Janet Van Dyne was her idol and she was young and stupid enough to do whatever it took to emulate her. Now, she wanted to wipe the stain of her addiction clean from her life and really be what she always wanted to be.

“I idolized the original Wasp,” said Kate. “I just decided that since she retired someone had to take up that name. Maybe some day someone will feel the same way about me that I feel about her.”

“That would be the opposite of me,” noted Harry. “We’re here.”

Goblin swooped low to land on the street and shed his nanotech costume for his normal clothes. Wasp shrunk herself and zipped through the open window that wasn’t quite big enough for her normal size.

“We were just comparing notes,” said Sandman as he and the rest of the Exiles sat around one of the two hotel rooms they occupied. The hotel itself was nothing extravagant. If anything, it was the exact opposite but it put a roof over their heads for relatively little money so none of them complained.

“Harry’s coming up soon,” said Wasp, landing on a bed and reverting to her original size. “No new information from our front. We shut down that carjacking ring but no one had anything to say about the Kingpin.”

“Same with us,” said Sister Grimm. “Johnny thinks that it’s still Fisk but no confirmation on that theory.”

“Got some good news for us, Paige?” inquired Sandman, looking to the young mutant.

When they had landed in this reality, the Exiles immediately began using technology to discover the Kingpin’s identity. Though Goblin knew a few hacking tricks, it was Husk who proved to be the real expert in that field. Though this talent astonished everyone given her roots, none of them turned down the help. Sandman hoped that they could get a break in this assignment soon because if not then they could be in this reality for a very long time.

“Ah’m followin’ tha paper trail,” explained Husk. “Whoever this Kingpin is, he or she is almost tha only major player far as crime in this city’s concerned.”

“Who’re the others then?” asked Daredevil.

“Guy named Lonnie Lincoln,” answered Husk. “He goes by . . .”

“Tombstone,” finished Sandman grimly. “I remember Lincoln. He’s a tough guy or at least he thinks he is.”

“He’s a nobody,” spoke up Goblin after entering the room and catching Tombstone’s name. “He’s strictly small-time material at best. He’s the kind of guy that eats the scraps from Fisk’s table.”

“He’s a big deal now,” said Husk. “If’n anybody would know who Kingpin is, it’d be the competition.”

“There’s another option we haven’t discussed,” spoke up Daredevil.

Everyone looked to him and it made him nervous to say the least. He wasn’t used to everyone waiting for him to give orders. He wasn’t even used to working with a team but he knew how this world worked. Wilson Fisk was the mayor but the identity of the deputy mayor concerned Johnny more. Matt Murdock was like a second father to Johnny. Maybe if they could get an inside line into Fisk’s activities through him, they could figure out what was going on.

“It’s too risky,” stated Sandman, knowing exactly what his teammate wanted. “After what happened on our first mission, I think we all know that things don’t work the same in different realities.”

“Matt will listen to me,” assured Daredevil. “I know him and if I can convince him to help us then we’ve got a good line into Fisk’s business.”

“We don’t even know if it’s him,” reminded Sandman. “Everybody turn in for the night. Tomorrow, we’re going to see what Tombstone can tell us. After that, maybe we’ll talk about Murdock.”

“Tough luck, cowboy,” said Nico, patting Johnny on the shoulder as she and the girls moved to exit the room and retire to the one across the hall. “We’ll check it out tomorrow though.”

“Yeah,” he agreed halfheartedly as he watched her leave.

The man called Bullseye studied his surroundings with a meticulous eye. When any object could become a weapon, one tended to take stock of their surroundings at every moment. It was important to know what all your options were. He was in a very nice limo, nothing he hadn’t seen before of course but it was still nice. It had a decently stocked bar, plenty of glasses he could use as weapons if he needed to. It wouldn’t be hard to kill the man in the backseat with him, even simpler to kill the driver. Still, it wouldn’t be smart at this point.

“I don’t get an audience with the Kingpin?” he inquired, smirking at the man in the blue, pinstripe suit that had helped him escape the confines of his prison cell. The man with the flattop haircut grinned in response before silently shaking his head.

“Nobody sees Kingpin,” stated Hammerhead. “You should be grateful he took the time ta bail you out.”

“I’m not really big on gratitude,” admitted Bullseye. “I guess you want me to kill someone in return. That’s usually the way these things go.”

“Smart guy,” said Hammerhead. “Someone’s been taking it hard to the Kingpin in the past couple of days. We figured out it’s a group, six of ‘em. They’ve been shakin’ down everyone and tryin’ ta figure out who the Kingpin is.”

“I don’t kill ghosts,” stated Bullseye. “You give me pictures or descriptions and then we’ll talk.”

“We plan on handin’ ‘em to ya,” replied Hammerhead. “Me and the other Enforcers are gonna draw ‘em out. You’re gonna put ‘em in the ground.”

“You know the usual fee,” said Bullseye. “I don’t do group rates.”

“Kingpin got you outta jail,” reminded Hammerhead. “You do this for him and you two are square. We can put you back where we found you if you don’t like the terms.”

“Hard bargain to ignore,” admitted Bullseye, extending his hand. “You’ve got yourself a killer.”

“Good deal,” said Hammerhead, shaking Bullseye’s hand and then handing him a cell phone before gesturing for the driver to stop the car. “I’ll call you when we set everything up. Until then, just stay low and keep out of trouble. Also, remember whose town you’re in. Kingpin’s always got eyes on everything.”

“I’ll try to give him something worth watching then,” joked Bullseye before he opened the door and stepped out of the car, pocketing the cell phone. He watched the car leave before walking down the street to a phone booth and dialing a number once inside.

“How did it go?” inquired a voice on the other end of the line.

“He hired me just like you thought,” said Bullseye, grinning while flipping a playing card repeatedly between his fingers. “Our deal’s still good, right? I kill Kingpin and you pay me?”

“Of course,” promised the mystery man.

Bullseye nodded to himself and hung up the phone. He continued flipping the playing card between his fingers and began whistling a tune as he walked down the street. He would have to go to ground for a little while but he could wait. For the payday he was going to achieve, he could be patient.

Hammerhead watched Bullseye saunter down the street, the trench coat covering up his ludicrous costume. The leader of the Enforcers let his eyes linger on Bullseye a second longer before rolling up the window on his limo and turning his attention to other matters. His boss had charged him with taking care of some business tonight and Hammerhead wasn’t one to ever disappoint the boss.

“You got it ready?” he asked into his phone.

“Package is all tied up with no place to go,” replied Constrictor and Hammerhead knew the man was grinning as he spoke.

“Good,” said Hammerhead.

The limo pulled up along the curb in front of a large office building. Hammerhead opened the door and waited for his ally to deliver something very important to him. He smirked as Constrictor stepped out of the shadows and even smiled at the fact that a man’s body was wrapped in the Enforcer’s coils. Constrictor shoved the man in the limo and then followed suit, Hammerhead closing the door behind them.

“No trouble with picking it up,” confirmed Constrictor.

“Benjamin Urich,” said Hammerhead, looking to the man still wrapped in Constrictor’s clutches. “You got an issue with my boss, Urich. Word is that you’ve been doing a hell of a lot of digging into who the Kingpin is. What ya didn’t realize was that you were diggin’ yer own grave. All that’s left to do now is fill up the hole.”

“You’re not going to get away with this,” promised Urich. It was the only sentence he could get out before Constrictor lived up to his name.

“We can get away with anythin’ we want, Urich,” reminded Hammerhead with a cruel grin. “Anything at all.”

Nico was about to go to sleep. She was in that weird space between being awake and being asleep. In her world, this was the time when something bad happened. Strange would have Wong wake her if she wasn’t already awake and she would have to look presentable to help him deal with whatever dark and scary thing decided to go bump that particular night. Oddly enough, she missed that life. It was only during moments like this that she would let herself realize it. Then, she would fall asleep and her mental walls would be back in place when she awoke.

Something tapped against the window. It made her jump in bed and she blinked hard, realizing that she was almost asleep. Nico rolled over to look at the window and saw Daredevil crouched outside, tapping against the glass with one of his batons. He motioned for her to come outside as she sat up in the darkness and stared at him. She nodded and got out of bed to put on some clothes while he flipped backwards off the ledge and descended to the street below.

“Better be important,” she mumbled before quietly sneaking out of her hotel room and heading down to the lobby. She knew he was taking this mission seriously but she got the feeling he was never this driven about anything.

“I’m not waiting for tomorrow to check out Matt,” he explained once she had exited the building and met him on the sidewalk. “I could use some company though.”

“I think this is a terrible second date,” joked Nico. “Will already said we’d check it out tomorrow, Johnny. Would it kill you to wait?”

“Always,” he replied jokingly before pulling her close to him and firing the grappling hook in his baton into the air. “C’mon, we’ll check this out and be back before they have a chance to know we’re gone.”

“Sure, it’s not like I need sleep,” she muttered sarcastically, wrapping her arms around his neck as both of them vaulted into the New York City skyline.

He swung with her in silence, his route already memorized from when he wrote down the address days ago. Johnny Gallo always trusted his instincts and they never let him down. He knew that no matter what reality he called home, Matt Murdock was one of the good guys. Johnny knew that Matt could help them sort this whole mess out if they just talked to him. Bringing Nico along wasn’t exactly part of his master plan, assuming he even had one to begin with. It was more of a spontaneous thing really. He told himself that her magical abilities would make the task easier but that was only part of the reason. The rest of the reason, well, that was more complicated.

“Never get a chance to see the city like this,” he murmured and for a moment, he forgot that his lips even moved and sound escaped from them.

“Yeah,” agreed Nico as they swung on, clearing city blocks in a matter of seconds. “It’s different from Los Angeles. You live here your whole life?”

“Yeah,” he answered. “Me and Dad should’ve packed up and moved out when we lost Mom but we just couldn’t do it. I thought about going to LA but I never did.”

“How old were you when you lost your mom?” she inquired, knowing a thing or two about losing parents herself.

“Just a kid,” answers Daredevil. “It was some lame-ass villain called ‘Orphan Maker’ that killed her. He worked for an even lamer villain called ‘the Nanny’ who likes collecting mutant kids. I kicked his ass when I was still Ricochet. It felt really good.”

“Violent much?” joked Nico except that she knew it was inappropriate for the moment.

“Violence is a part of everyday life down there,” he explained, gesturing to the streets below as they moved out of the urban area and towards the suburbs. “You work the streets long enough and it creeps into you.”

“So has it gotten into you yet?” she asked.

“Some days,” he replied as he swung them into a nicer section of the sprawling metropolis. He knew this neighborhood was a far cry from Hell’s Kitchen and he wondered if maybe, just maybe, he had misjudged this reality’s Matt Murdock. Now wasn’t the time for second-guessing himself though. They needed to get a break in this mission so they could complete it and move on.

“Guess we go in on foot then.” Nico looked around and realized that there weren’t as many tall buildings around for Daredevil to grab with his grappling hook. They were close enough now to the opulent townhouse. He set them down across the street from it so that they could figure out how to get inside it while avoiding detection.

“Think you’ve got a spell up your sleeve for getting us inside?” Daredevil didn’t quite trust magic. He tried to stay away from it whenever possible so his choice of partners for this mission was odd. He liked Nico though even if he couldn’t exactly put his finger on why. It was just instinct.

“I think I got one,” she assured him, smirking in the dim illumination of the streetlights. “IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE!”

A bright bolt of magical energy shot from her hand and enveloped both of them, causing their bodies to glow with a reddish hue. Daredevil looked at her skeptically, wondering whether her spell actually worked or whether it had, in fact, produced the exact opposite effect.

“Yeah, this isn’t conspicuous at all,” he muttered.

“Nobody else sees it or sees us,” she explained. “It works on machines too. As far as anybody or anything knows, we don’t exist. The glow just lets us know it’s still going.”

Daredevil nodded and vaulted towards the townhouse. His gothic companion followed him at a more sedate pace. He stood in front of the door and studied it.

“I need a spell to open this place up,” he said.

Nico almost laughed but she managed to keep it down. Instead, she reached up to undo the clip that held her spiky hair in a ponytail. She handed it to him unceremoniously and let a smirk play across her lips. Sometimes, you didn’t need magic to solve all your problems. It was another lesson she learned from her mentor.

Daredevil took the clip and used it to pick the lock on the front door. With the door open, both of them calmly and quietly walked into the house. They crept up the staircase in the foyer, knowing that the master bedroom would be on the second floor. Johnny took time to study the photographs on the wall in order to learn a little more about their possible ally. It made him want to vomit to see Murdock and Fisk shaking hands and looking like best friends in more than one of the pictures. Just how different was this world from his?

“If Fisk is the Kingpin then I don’t think we’re going to win Murdock over to our side,” said Nico after studying the pictures of the two, apparently life-long, friends. She was about to say something else but Daredevil put up his hand to silence her. They moved silently up the stairs and paused before entering the bedroom.

“Feels clear so far,” whispered Daredevil before he lead the way into the room.

“Something doesn’t feel right about this,” admitted Sister Grimm.

Daredevil saw someone laying in the bed but he suddenly felt something else. He felt his danger-sense kick in and realized there was someone else in the house. It took him only a second to realize that person wasn’t the only thing in the house that shouldn’t be there.

“Move!” shouted Daredevil, grabbing Nico even as he heard the timer go off. His legs uncoiled and both of them went diving through the bedroom window as the bomb went off. The explosion propelled both of them across the street and into a parked car. Daredevil twisted his body to shield his teammate from the impact. His spine slammed into the car and both of them slumped to the ground, Johnny still protecting her from any shrapnel that might come their way. He felt the heat from the fire and when he looked down at his hand, he noticed the glow from Nico’s invisibility spell was fading.

“Johnny?” mumbled Sister Grimm and he noticed her voice had a lazy, sleepy quality to it that meant she was more than likely about to pass out. “I can’t hear very well.”

“Nico, you need to stay awake,” he told her even as he tried to get both of them back up to their feet. His back felt like hell but he knew it would heal. His biggest concern was keeping his teammate conscious so she could use her magic to help him figure out what was going on. Someone had obviously set a trap for Deputy Mayor Murdock and that someone may still be in the area.

“Wanna go to bed,” murmured Nico and Johnny noticed the glow of her spell fade out as she lost consciousness. He tried to rouse her but she was out like a light. Thankfully, though, she was unharmed aside from some minor cuts and bruises. The paramedics would be here soon and they could take care of her. That wasn’t his immediate concern. His danger-sense wasn’t done saving his life yet.

“Boy, tonight hasn’t been dull,” he muttered as he shoved Nico away from him and dove in the opposite direction to avoid the bullets that sank into the damaged car. Daredevil flipped to his feet and watched a man clad in a red and black costume make his escape down the street. He knew it had to be the same person he had sensed in the house. Assuming that was true, that person was probably the one who had planted the bomb.

“Not tonight, pal,” he warned the stranger before springing to give chase. He pursued the gun-toting costumed man through the maze of alleys that took him back towards the tall buildings he had left behind. Johnny navigated the streets well, having worked them long enough to know their ins and outs. He also had the advantage of superior leaping abilities. A few superhuman bounds closed the gap between him and his prey. He tackled the man to the ground.

“Did the Kingpin send you to finish the job?” The stranger asked the question first even though it was the same question Daredevil was about to ask him. Johnny’s danger-sense warned him of the gun and he kicked himself into the air to get away from it. The stranger in red and black fired, tracking Daredevil with his shots, but Johnny lived up to his former codename and ricocheted off the walls of the alley to avoid the stream of bullets.

“So what’s your name?” asked Daredevil before a d-disc relieved the man of his weapon. “I’ve never seen you before but I’m not really from around here.”

“Blood Rose,” replied the man, pulling another firearm from his suit. Daredevil bounced off a wall and kicked him out of the alley and into a proper street.

“Well I don’t work for the Kingpin,” clarified Daredevil. “All I know is that you were in that house with Matt before it exploded. If you’re responsible for that then you’ve got a problem with me.”

Blood Rose picked himself up from the ground but Daredevil was on him in an instant, hitting a forward handspring that sent both his feet into the gunman’s face. Blood Rose turned and fired but Daredevil flipped backwards over the shots and tagged him in the back of the head with one of his batons when he landed. Johnny knew he had to get that gun away from Blood Rose but he had more immediate concerns. The masked gunman fired to gain some distance from Daredevil and then tossed a live grenade at him. The lone member of the Exiles managed to dodge the initial explosion but the device unloaded the shrapnel contained inside it. Daredevil contorted his body to weave through the shards of metal but enough of them managed to catch him that he faltered and found himself a bloody mess laying on the pavement.

“A pity your suit doesn’t have armor like mine,” admitted Blood Rose, slowly stalking towards his injured opponent. “I’m betting the Kingpin caused that explosion because I sure as hell didn’t. You want some ‘friendly’ advice, stranger? Don’t get in my way again because I’m going to be the one taking out the Kingpin.”

Daredevil clawed towards Blood Rose but he turned and departed into the night. Johnny Gallo turned his eyes to the sky and watched the first slivers of morning light begin to appear. He could hear the sounds of people yelling but all of that began to fade away. As morning came, he closed his eyes for possibly the last time.

Next Issue: With two of their own down, the Exiles rally to discover more clues concerning the mystery of the Kingpin’s identity.