Matt Murdock Shorts

Possession

It's your lucky day. Daredevil's getting out of hand. For a while, it was radio silence from the hero. But he recently returned to Hell's Kitchen, this time leading the Hand. A known criminal organization. At first, it seemed that Daredevil was using the hand to exact justice on a wider scale. Still criminal, but as long as he sticks to taking down gangs and mobs, it's under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s pay grade. Then he killed Bullseye. Now, 'out of hand' by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s standards means things have to be bad. Daredevil killing a homicidal maniac who's been after him for years hardly counts as bad in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s book. But you saw it for what it was. Daredevil never killed anyone before this. Something isn't right here.

"Director Fury, I have something on the Daredevil case."

"What did he do?"

You sigh. "He killed one of his enemies. Now, I know better than anyone that sometimes, that's what it takes. I've seen it enough times. But this isn't his M.O. We've been watching him for years and he hasn't killed once. Bullseye and Daredevil have been archenemies for almost as long as they've been in the press separately. Why kill him now? Why not when Elektra died at Bullseye's hand?" You pull up the footage of his fight with Bullseye. "Look at that. Elektra's weapon, straight through his back. That's a crime of passion. Revenge. But it's been so long. He's never been this bad before."

Fury is silent for a while. "I hear what you're saying. But right now he's not an immediate concern. Contact the other Defenders. See if they can shed some light on this. Come to me if anything else happens."

If this came from anyone else, you'd take it for the pacifier that it would be. But Fury was the one who gave you this case and let you give fieldwork a try even though you're a healer. So you take his advice and run with it.

—0—

So that's what you do. You contact Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Hellcat, and Daimon Hellstrom.

"We thought he was dead." Jessica states.

"Is that why he went off the grid for so long?"

"They never found a body, but after Midland Circle, we assumed..." Trish trails off.

"What, that no one survives being crushed by a building?" You let out a humorless laugh. Sometimes you forget that most people— even these people— aren't used to this sort of thing happening. "Your friend is alive, but he's... different."

They chorus out questions of what and how, quieting soon after, waiting for an answer. Before you can provide one, Daimon moves on to relevant questions.

"Different how?" He asks, unphased by the news. It makes sense that the exorcist, occult expert, demonologist, and man of the like takes this in stride. This is hardly the strangest thing he's heard of.

"We don't know the extent of it, but we have footage of him killing his longtime enemy, Bullseye."

"Why does S.H.I.E.L.D. care about that?" Jessica asks. "You guys have no problem killing when the situation calls for it."

"You're right, but Daredevil isn't part of a government— or any— agency. At least, he wasn't. Pair his recent killing with becoming the leader of the Hand—"

"What?" Luke cuts in.

"Does that seem out of character to you?"

"Considering that he died fighting them? Yeah, it's weird."

"That, and they have a streak of bringing people back to life, through a demon called 'the Beast.'" Daimon supplies.

"You think the Hand did this?"