PRAYING • MATT MURDOCK

iv

AFTER LAST NIGHTS fiasco, Nicholas thought it would be a good idea to trail Matt, it felt like he would be getting himself in trouble. And it seemed as if Nicholas was right. Nicholas followed Matt from his work, to his apartment, only to follow him as he was dressed in black.

Nicholas' eyebrows furrowed as he realised that he was following Matthew into a brightly lit parking garage. He could hear two people talking before he heard an car engine starting and suddenly the man was by himself. Nick recognised the grey haired man as the man that handled Fisk's financials. The one whose name was given to the two vigilante's by the late Vladimir.

"Prick." Nick heard Owlsley mutter under his breath before unlocking his car door. He didn't have an opportunity to get in his vehicle as Matt came out from the shadows, standing fiercely. Nicholas stood back and let Matthew handle this.

"Oh, God! What do you want? My wallet?" The older man looked as if he were about to drop dead of a heart attack.

"You know what I want. Tell me about the man you work for." Matt's voice was a growl, and the way that he sounded so angry, so broken, Nick felt a flash of cold fear run down his spine.

Leland let out a long breath, as if he were already fed up with the questioning.

"I work for Silver & Brent." Matt's eyes narrowed at the man's answer, not liking how Leland avoided the question he was truly asking.

"I'm gonna ask you again. Think about your answer. Who do you work for?" Matthew took a threatening step toward the man, as if he were about to beat the information out of the old man. Nick moved closer to the two men, ready to intervene if Matt got too out of hand.

"I told you, I work for Silver and," before Leland could finish the firm's name, Matt had cut him off, anger radiating off of him in waves. It was like Nicholas could taste it. Bitter and hot, as if suffocating him.

"You work for Wilson Fisk moving his money around. Which means you have records, proof of who," Matthew has drifted off, listening to something else, no longer focusing on Leland. Nicholas looked to where Matt has his head cocked, listening intently. It was silent for a second, before he heard the sound of a cane tapping, just like Matthew's sounded.

With the two vigilante's distracted, Leland managed to grab a taser out of his coat pocket, and tase Matt. Matt fell to the floor, groaning, as Nicholas cursed himself out for letting himself get distracted.

"Asshole." Leland got into his car, staring the engine and taking off quicker than Nicholas could get to him. Nick made his way to where Matthew was laying on the ground groaning, the sound of the cane tapping getting louder.

"You just gonna lie there all night?" Nicholas saw the man almost towering over Matt, in an attempt to intimate him. Nicholas quickly stood in front of Matthew, taking a deep breath in and letting the one of him turn into five, all standing in front of Matt in a semi circle formation, like a shield. The other two didn't seem to notice the extra four of him, he assumed it was because the other bodies didn't have a heartbeat. They were all connected to him, he thinks and they do. They were more like clones than multiple existences of Nicholas.

Nick narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him, he was wearing a green jacket and had a cane like Matthew's. His eyes were clouded over so Nick could only assume the man was blind, however the way that he was trying to stare down Nicholas and Matthew made him realise that he was like Matt. He could see without his eyes.

"Stick." Matt groaned out, letting his head rest against the concrete floor. This made Nicholas even more suspicious of the older blind man.

"Are you gonna lie there all night or get up off your ass? Jesus, kid. I'm gone five minutes, you turn this place into a shit show." The man, Stick, held himself like he was better than Matthew and better than Nicholas. Nick was never going to be lesser than a mortal and if this old man tried to make him feel like that, then Nicholas would just have to show him how much lesser Stick was to a half god.