Central Park

New York City Central Park.

If you were looking with a birds eye view at New York, you would see this place stick out like a sore thumb in the entire city. Not only was it one of the rare parks inside of this city, it also was the most visited one in the entire country.

A rectangular area of green in the middle of Manhattan, with three vibrant splashes of blue inside.

Besides the three different water bodies, it also had many other attractions.

For example, there was the Delacorte theatre, somewhere near the middle of the park. There was the Central Park zoo for all animal lovers that visited, as well as a old carved-wood carousel for every family to visit.

Needless to say, this place right now was a nightmare for me, as I would need to keep running around to spot the incident if it is actually going to happen. 

Being ready for whatever was to come, i had dressed myself for the occasion. The oni mask currently was inside of my pants pocket, ready to be thrown on at a moments notice. The Anaconda was inside of <The Holster>, under my gray cargo pants.

The letterman jacket, a different one from before, was hiding the Desert Eagle inside of it. Lastly, a white t-shirt was underneath the jacket, making it a quite fashionable getup... I really need to stop focusing on my fashion dont I? 

Like that, I kept patrolling the central park, trying to find anything suspicious that stuck out even the slightest. Whether it was a group of people moving together in a too practiced manner, people carrying multiple suitcases or whatever else. 

Oddly enough, as I kept patrolling the park, there really wasn't much going on. In the first place, there weren't too many people either. 

Passing one attraction after another, I finally finished my first round trip. Then, seeing that it was only 1:13PM, I went back to patrolling. 

It happened when I was on my 5th patrol of the central park. I saw a man with a scared expression, carrying a suitcase in his hands, moving towards a more forested area of the park. 

Not hesitating much, I followed behind the man, hiding in the shadows of the trees as I followed him. 

"Is this the blacksmith or whatever? Or maybe a corrupt cop? Or an undercover one? No, he seems too unfit to be a cop from what I'm seeing. So I guess either drug dealer, or the blacksmith guy himself. Although the blacksmith seemed like a pretty famous guy so I doubt he'd show up to something like the drug deal on his own... Maybe just a henchman doing the delivery? Hmmm... "

As I kept following, I had a wide variety of different speculations pass through my head about who this guy would turn out to be. 

Finally, he stopped near a secluded spot with an oak tree that was a bit taller than the surrounding greenery. 

Seeing him lean on the tree and seemingly wait for something, I decided to gently climb the tree I was next to, planning on hiding myself inside the crown of leaves while I spied upon whatever happened. 

The massive branches that chaoticaly spread out merely 4 or 5 meters off the ground made for a far better cover than I had anticipated, and the further layer of leaves made this a pretty good hiding spot. 

Once more, i checked my wristwatch for what time it is. Seeing that it was merely 1:30PM, I had doubts if this was the right guy, and if I should abort this stakeout and go search again. 

I didn't have to worry long though, as a group of people approached, all of them wearing suits. Upon closer inspection, all of the people had intricately hidden guns inside of their suits, meaning the last odds of these guys being civilians was a whopping zero. 

Pulling out the Desert Eagle and the Anaconda, I laid low and listened to the conversation of the two involved parties. 

The first thing I heard, the lone guy was a banker turned drug dealer, who has previously supplied these guys with drugs. His name something like Forest Hunt

The second thing was that these guys were part of some family. Carefully peeking my head out, all of them had black suits, black ties with white undershirt. The man in charge of them was some bald old guy named Bruno.

Seconds later, after the man handed the case over, one of the mafia guys started inspecting the goods. Within seconds, he opened the case and took a whiff. 

Instantly, an argument broke out, and next thing I saw was that the fat banker was hanged upside down from him legs, with a rope securely tying him up, before he started receiving a beating for 'trying to scam the family.'

The Man kept begging and pleading with them while suspended, saying he didn't know anything and that he was set up. 

At this moment, my pupils suddenly dilated. The reason for it being a family was approaching this location. An well built man in his thirties, a blonde woman, and a pair of son and daughter. 

Once more being shocked, I heard the sound of a gunshot happen. The hanging banker was shot by one of the Mafiosi. The man, with a bloody bullet hole in his head, was definitely gone for good. 

Turning around towards the family, a mafioso with wavy and curly hair said loudly, striking a classic gangster pose. 

"Seems like we got company, Bruno." 

The bald old man wearing sunglasses, taking yet another gangster pose, turned towards the family of four, that was starting to be visibly afraid by now. 

"Too bad they wandered in during our little family execution--" 

Right now, the 10 gangsters were in front of me, while the family of the assumed punisher was slightly further away, on the right. 

As the man called Bruno said something while he was doing a finger pistol like gesture... 

"Now they're witne-AAAAAAH" his scream resounded, the torn off arm, blasted by a bullet from my Desert Eagle, painting the green grass of the Central Park Red. 

Jumping up high from the tree, shot after shot resounded from my Desert Eagle, accompanied by the shots of my Anaconda. 

In the less than one second I was in <Focus > 10 shots resounded out, 9 of them blowing the crooks into meat paste, with only the boss of the group, Bruno, being left alive on the ground, wailing. 

Dropping on the ground with a loud thud, uninjured and unbothered by a fall of 6 odd meters, I slowly rose up. 

Walking over to the man called Bruno, I looked down at him, before turning to look at the family of four. The man, tightly holding his wife and kids in his hands, looked at me nervously. 

Uhhh... How exactly do I do this? 

... I didnt think of this, shit. Guess I have to improvise.

"Well, this turned out better than expected, I didn't think I'd get to prevent such a tragedy like this. I also don't mean you any harm, so you can relax. If I meant to do something bad, I wouldn't have stopped these bastards." I said, looking down at the bodies of the gangsters, trying to sound as approachable as I could. 

"Why did you help us, then?" the man who I assumed to be the punisher replied, a lot less nervous than before, but still slightly wary. 

"If you know something bad is going to happen, you would try your hardest to stop it, right? For example, a man going on a lone crusade against the criminal underworld after his entire family was killed in the central park..." deciding to give him a foreshadowing of what would have happened, I explained. 

"What? What are you talking about?" he interrupted, confused. 

"You're a former soldier or similar, aren't you?" I asked suddenly. 

"Yes, why?" 

"See, I don't want to see you embark on a bloody path of revenge. Especially since it wouldn't be done for revenge, but more so to seek an end for yourself. Say, if you had lost your family, you wouldn't have stopped hunting down the people responsible for it, right? You would've kept killing criminal after criminal, all for the sake of burying the ones responsible for it." 

"...I... Probably would have, yes." the man who I was almost certain would be called punisher if I didn't stop this, replied. 

" Now, while it would be a good thing if this city had yet another vigilante, hunting down crime left right and center, if the price for it is the lives of the vigilantes entire family... I dont think I can bring myself to ignore the event that starts their career as a vigilante, even if its for the entire greater good bullshit heroes yap about all the time. "

"...I see...Then, do you want me to become a vigilante then or what? Cause I don't think I ca-"

"No, I have a better idea, and a far more lucrative one for a man of your caliber. A certain idiot, with an eyepatch, may contact you soon after this incident. Not only will he offer you a job, he will also offer your family protection. Needless to say, the offer is great, with the only downside being the name of the organisation being dumb." having thought of a rough plan, I aired out my thoughts to him. 

"How do you know all this? And which organisation are we talking about?" he asked. 

"I have my sources. And besides, I really do recommend getting your family under their protection. You wouldn't want your family home to be fire bombed while you're away at work now, would you?" pointing my finger at the man who had stopped screaming due to fear, "These bastards are probably going to do just that, because they will think you killed off , or were involved in the killing of, their members in this incident, even if I claim to be the one who is responsible."

"That does sound convincing. Are you the new vigilante who hit the hideout of the Dogs of Hell in broad daylight, the one who is on the news?" 

"Yup, I thought the three gangs I hit yesterday would end up being the ones that did something to your family, so I went to wipe them out. Got two of the gangs and the cartel had to fortify after my attack that killed off half their members. Turns out I was right to not sit on my ass and to patrol the park, as you can see the results for yourself. But that's all besides the point, just remember what I said about protecting your family, and you should be careful as well. Don't want your kids to not have a dad anymore, or your wife to turn into a widow, right?" I gave the man one last proper warning, and I turned around, intending to get away from this place. 

"Frank." I heard the man speak a name. 

"Huh?" Caught off guard, i turned to look at him. 

"Instead of addressing me as you constantly, use my name, Frank, Frank Castle. I'll owe you one for this." he said with a smile. 

"Ah, got it. I'll tell you my real when it's more convenient, for now I'm just Jacket, and until then, take care Frank. You owe me a beer or something." turning around once more, I waved goodbye to the family of four. 

Having left the Central Park, as soon as I entered the warehouse with the bunker... 

<Like that, the grim tale of punisher shall not be told in this world, for he will, under a different name, protect innocent and uphold justice.>

<I have to say, good job.>

Smiling like a fool to myself, I was feeling happy... Proud? that I had prevented a tragedy. As long as I know that I can make a difference, as long as I know I can help others, I shall strive to be a hero.