{T/N: So option 'A' won the Poll... As promised, from now on, I will start uploading 2 fixed daily chapters... Enjoy...}
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After a long day's work, Matt Murdock returned to his rundown apartment...
He didn't bother turning on the lights, simply setting aside his guiding cane before making his way to the living room and sinking into the couch.
In the silent darkness, Matt's heightened senses painted the world in vivid detail...
Unlike other blind individuals who had to cautiously feel their way forward due to being afraid of tripping over obstacles, this blind lawyer could 'see' a different world... one shaped by sound, scent, and vibration.
Abandoned by his mother as a child, Matt was raised by his father, a struggling boxer. When his father was murdered for refusing to throw a fight for the mob, young Matt was left an orphan.
A radioactive chemical spill had blinded him as a boy, but the accident also sharpened his remaining senses to superhuman levels.
Trained by a blind martial arts master, he honed these abilities into weapons, becoming a formidable fighter.
Growing up in an orphanage, Matt learned early that society needed rules to function.
Determined to uphold justice, he studied law at Columbia University and earned his Juris Doctor.
However, after graduating, he soon realized that the law was merely a tool manipulated by the wealthy and powerful.
In frustration, Matt donned the red devil's mask and became Hell's Kitchen's 'Daredevil'... One who delivered justice through violence when the system failed.
"Kingpin... is really dead?" Matt murmured, still struggling to believe it.
Using his legal connections, he had investigated Hell's Kitchen's shadow ruler and managed to uncover the truth... Wilson Fisk, the renowned real estate tycoon, was the criminal mastermind behind it all.
This man who had masqueraded as a philanthropist while trafficking drugs, smuggling weapons, and forcibly evicting families, was a festering tumor on Hell's Kitchen.
As Daredevil, Matt had tried to drag the bloodstained crime lord to justice. But reality crushed his hopes...
Half the police department was on Fisk's payroll. Even the mayor and district attorney laughed with him at galas.
Kingpin's shadow stretched over all of New York...
Just as Matt had begun to despair, the unthinkable happened... The king of New York's underworld had suddenly fallen.
Reading the braille newspaper that morning, Matt had been stunned...
According to official reports, the 'real estate magnate Wilson Fisk' had been killed in a 'terrorist attack' on the 16th.
It made no sense...
Matt knew Kingpin's power firsthand. He'd fought both the massive crime lord and his enforcer, Bullseye, and barely survived. Without the Punisher's intervention, he'd be swimming with the fishes...
Yet this invincible duo had fallen to a single attack?
It defied all logic.
Matt's head snapped up as his senses caught an anomaly, "Frank... why are you in my apartment?"
"You're still sharp as ever, Matt..." A towering figure climbed through the fire escape window...
The figure was clad in a skull-printed black shirt, his body laden with enough weapons to outfit a small army.
"I thought you'd left Hell's Kitchen," Matt said.
Though he was blind, his other senses painted a clear picture...
The man called 'The Punisher' chuckled darkly before saying, "And miss all the fun? Nowhere else has this many scumbags packed together."
Matt frowned. He despised Frank's methods... Executing every criminal without mercy was too extreme.
"Did you hear the news? Kingpin is dead." Frank's voice carried a hint of frustration, "Someone stole my kill. That fat bastard was 'my' target..." he growled.
"Get to the point Frank. You didn't come here to chat." Matt urged.
The Punisher wasn't one for social calls after all.
Frank's grin was audible, "You really haven't noticed, have you?"
"Noticed what?"
"Hell's Kitchen is changing. With Kingpin gone, everything is shifting..."
The Punisher methodically unloaded and reloaded his pistol, his expression grim even in darkness:
"I've been tracking his crews. They've been working with the Hand to smuggle drugs inside kids' bodies. Tonight, I went to wipe out one of their processing sites..." He paused for a moment, then, "The place was empty. I caught one of Fisk's lieutenants... You know what he told me after I broke his arm?"
Matt remained silent.
"All of Kingpin's drug and human trafficking operations have stopped. Someone handed them off... to the Hand and the Russian mob..." Frank barked a laugh at that, "Fisk's men going legit? What a joke. Someone is orchestrating this..."
Matt's mind raced...
Kingpin's death was no random act. There were larger forces at play.
"I'd love to meet the bastard who took down Fisk," Frank mused as he gripped his pistol, "Wonder what his game is? Maybe rebuilding Hell's Kitchen?"
"Frank, tread carefully. Anyone who killed Kingpin isn't to be trifled with." Matt warned.
He knew Frank's rage well...
After his family's massacre, the Punisher saw all criminals as vermin to be exterminated. Where Daredevil left criminals battered but alive, Frank left body bags.
"Spare me the lecture, 'Lawyer'..." Frank sneered, "If you really believed in the system, why put on that devil suit? Rich assholes and mobsters hire fancy lawyers to twist the law. Justice? A load of bullshit."
He stood abruptly, his massive frame blocking the dim light, "If the law won't punish them, I will... Permanently."
Matt had no rebuttal. Part of him agreed... How many times had he watched criminals walk free on technicalities? The law was indeed broken...
"...You're too extreme, Frank." was all Matt could say.
"Something big is coming, Matt. When Hell's Kitchen's new order arrives, we'll all have to choose sides." With that, the Punisher vanished into the night.
As he left, he cast one last disdainful look at the brooding 'Daredevil'...
'If you lack conviction, why wear the mask at all?' he thought...