The modern Matthew Murdock was a Barbarian, and Barbarians loved their drink. While the alcohol couldn't cloud his mind, a lawyer couldn't walk into a meeting smelling like a distillery. He usually snuck a few drinks away from prying eyes and then chewed a mountain of gum.
"I guess I don't know you as well as I thought," Peter muttered. "But I'll wait until you're off work."
"I have five minutes before I have to head back down. If you called me up here, you'd better have something useful to say," Matthew said, his voice muffled by the gum he was now chewing. His hand, however, remained hidden in his pocket, gripped tight around the hilt of a weapon.
He respected the web-slinger's actions, but a Barbarian never let his guard down. Standing face-to-face with Peter, Matthew could hear the difference in him. Peter's heartbeat was slow, but the sound of his blood rushing through his veins was thunderous. His physical stats were far beyond even Captain America's.
"Kingpin has obtained a power I can't describe. I... I'm afraid of him," Peter admitted after a moment of hesitation.
This caught Matthew's attention. Kingpin was an old acquaintance—no one living in Hell's Kitchen could ignore the name of the Underworld King. But Matthew had recently crossed Fisk off his "threat" list. Since becoming a Barbarian, he was significantly stronger than the Kingpin he knew. He had been collecting evidence to put Fisk away legally, but he had also considered paying him a "Barbarian's visit" if the law failed.
Lawyer Matthew followed the book. Barbarian Matthew followed Justice.
"How strong? Stronger than me?" Matthew asked, suddenly releasing his Pressure. It wasn't killing intent, just the raw weight of his power as a high-level warrior.
Peter swallowed hard. He hadn't expected this Matthew to possess such overwhelming force. In terms of pure threat, it didn't have the "wrongness" of Frank's death energy, but it still made every hair on Peter's body stand on end.
"Stronger," Peter said quickly. "In front of him, I felt like my only option was to die. I couldn't even think of a way to fight back."
Matthew frowned. "Another 'incident' then."
He immediately thought of the Great Evils. Sudden, inexplicable power-ups were usually their handiwork.
"Was it related to the 'meteor' that landed today?" Matthew asked, though his tone suggested he already knew the answer. "Let me guess... SHIELD should already be on top of this. Have you seen their agents? Phil Coulson?"
Matthew grew agitated and took another swig from his flask. He was reading Peter's heartbeat like an open book.
"Wait... Clint Barton is back. You saw Barton? Did you tell him? No? Then Barton clearly hasn't seen Fisk yet."
"SHIELD either knows nothing, or they're already moving. If Kingpin is as strong as you say, SHIELD is going to get slaughtered."
What was supposed to be a dialogue had turned into a Matthew Murdock monologue. He had completely forgotten about his legal work. His colleagues would handle his cases; Kingpin was the priority.
"Barton saw you, but you didn't fight? You know each other? Or rather, you know him?" Matthew's deductions were lightning-fast. "Neither? Then you have a common acquaintance."
"Enough, Mr. Murdock!" Peter cried out, feeling like he was being dissected. "The Matthew I knew wasn't this powerful... or this talkative!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Peter regretted them.
Matthew froze. "You know me. But I've never heard your heartbeat before today. So... are you from another world? Or another time?"
Matthew felt a headache coming on. Ever since the battle in London, rumors of "The Doctor" and "Space-Time Rifts" had been circulating among their circle. They were all wary of temporal anomalies.
"Tell me where the rift is. This isn't something you can hide."
"Space-time rift? What are you talking about?" Peter was genuinely confused.
"Then how did you get here!" Matthew pulled out his mace, his muscles tensing. The sudden spike in threat level made Peter's body lock up instinctively.
"Pym Particles! Dr. Pym's particles!" Peter blurted out. This was going horribly. This Barbarian lawyer was nothing like the Daredevil he remembered.
"Be specific!"
"A time-travel device!" Peter shouted, his nerves frayed.
"Tony Stark built it? So you are from the future?" Matthew immediately thought of Tony. In his limited circle, Tony was the only genius scientist capable of such a feat. He decided he needed to take this "Spider-Man" to Mount Arreat (Harrogath). Anything involving time was beyond his pay grade; it needed to be handled by Bul-Kathos.
"Can I go now? I think I left something... in the oven," Peter said, his logic finally returning. Even if this was a different world, he didn't want to mess with the timeline. If movies taught him anything, revealing the future caused catastrophes. He still hoped to find this world's Hank Pym and "borrow" some particles to get home.
"You think you're leaving?"
Matthew initiated a Furious Charge. He didn't lead with the mace—he didn't want to kill the "future-man"—but he used the sheer momentum to close the gap.
"Sorry, Mr. Murdock! I think I overstayed my welcome! I'll come back when I'm better prepared! Your clients are waiting!" Peter spoke with the speed of a machine gun, firing a web at a distant skyscraper.
Matthew lunged, but his fingers only managed to snag a small scrap of spandex from Peter's suit as the hero swung away.
"I'll have to get Barton to track this little spider down," Matthew muttered, standing at the edge of the roof. He didn't look down; he couldn't "see" the view anyway, and he didn't want anyone thinking a blind lawyer was about to jump.
"As for Kingpin... I'll check him out tonight. From a distance."
Inside the SHIELD headquarters, a Life Model Decoy (LMD) of Nick Fury was observing an experiment. This was Fury's top priority. If successful, the ten thousand Asgardian refugees on Earth would no longer be a threat.
Ever since he'd learned of the Asgardians' arrival, his head had been spinning. While the military had technically taken charge, the actual management fell to SHIELD. The military only cared about America; SHIELD had to answer to the world. If Fury didn't find a solution, the Asgardians would end up on a military dissection table. He knew those generals were capable of it. Hell, even he wanted to study "Gods."
Before him lay the body of the Purple Man. Fury wasn't a scientist, but he understood the process. The Purple Man was dead—decapitated. In Fury's experience, even aliens died when you removed their heads.
But a dead body couldn't produce the pheromones needed for mind control. SHIELD was using technology to keep the body in a state of "synthetic life" to harvest his "command pheromones." Their research showed that while the effect wasn't permanent, those once exposed remained susceptible to future control.
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