Chapter 44

Gliding through the air, I spot my destination in the distance, and it seems I am pretty early. The area is still quiet, with no one in sight, so I should be able to set up and hide in a safe spot before the meeting, preferably inside the building. A lot of thugs that I had collided with in recent times have been talking about this meeting, and all the higher-ups I beat the crap out of all gave the same exact location and time of the mob boss meeting. Which is in a half hour, so I have enough time to properly get myself in the ventilation shafts.

Of course, the fact that they all gave me the same information after a bit of pressing was suspicious as fuck. Why do all the grunts need to know that there is going to be a meeting? Why do some lieutenants know the time and location when they are not even attending? It stunk of a trap, and there was about a fifty percent chance that it was for me. I am not the centre of the universe, and I am aware there are others out there causing him trouble as well.

It is why I am not going straight to the location and am instead positioning myself at a vantage point to watch over it and see exactly who is arriving, if anyone at all is. Trap or not, this is an opportunity. I will watch from afar and make observations, and if I judge it acceptable, then I will crash the party.

Still, I don't just want to rush in and potentially ruin my advantage, and I want to make sure of the situation first and maybe even try to derive some information out of this. I need to make sure Wilson Fisk actually attends this meeting before I start going all gung-ho. Otherwise, I will just be involving myself and making a bunch of enemies that will get in the way of my true goal. I need to remember that I am not an actual superhero, just a pretender using the title to bring down Fisk, and once that is done, I will shed the identity and skip town.

I have even thought about the current situation and how to bring down Fisk in the most effective and time-efficient way. Because when I say bringing down, I am not talking about his empire, his organisation or anything else. I am talking about the man himself, and there is more than one way to bring down a man. Right now, my current plan, which I thought up after finding out about this meeting, is to cut down the man in front of everyone.

Since this is a mob meeting, not a single one of these guys is going to trust anyone else, and that's why instead of all showing up at separate times, these guys are all going to turn up within seconds of each other, almost precisely at the time scheduled. These are bloodthirsty criminals, all looking out for number one and just waiting for the chance to cut down their opposition, keeping an eye out for any little piece of weakness.

This is perfect, as these guys I can use to take down Fisk. My current plan is to wait for them all to get inside and into their meeting, and once they are all seated and Fisk begins the meeting, I will act. I will ambush Fisk and beat the shit out of him in front of all of them, all the while mocking and degrading him. I expect there to be some resistance, but I am going to brute force that shit and keep hammering on him. I will slap him to high heaven and make sure the rest of the mob bosses are watching, witnessing this mighty bull of a man be treated like a little bitch as I break him limb from limb.

And then I will leave. My part is done in this, and they will take care of the rest for me. With Fisk being utterly humiliated in front of all of the mob bosses, he will lose all respect, and the fear everybody had of him will be trained. These hardened criminals will look upon Fisk's beaten form and see opportunity, and being the greedy bastards that they are, they will all start to try and break up his empire and take what they can for themselves.

Of course, I don't expect things t go down that easy, but if there is one thing you can rely on, it is bad people consistently doing bad things. Either way, my beatdown on Fisk will result in him losing standing and taking significant losses in one way or another. I will stick around for a bit to make sure the damage sticks, and he will be so busy trying to keep his empire in one piece that Felicia will be left alone, and with that, my debt will be repaid, and I can leave.

Now, instead of daydreaming about that outcome, it is time to make it into reality. Dropping down to land on the top of a building overlooking the meeting location, I move to the edge and kneel down to get a good view of my target. The meeting place is a run-down building that hasn't seen use in many years, but it is still in much better shape than all of the other surrounding buildings that are health hazards.

I don't know what happened to this place, but my guess is that this was the setting for some big epic Avenger-level battle or something, way above my pay grade, and they raised this area to the ground. The only building around here that is still okay is the one I am currently on. All the others are missing their roofs and have no stable footing. This is the only place with a proper vantage point for the meeting, and- *SPIDER-SENSE*

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

I spring forward, chucking myself off of the building just fast enough to escape the epicentre of the sudden explosion that erupts on the roof I was just standing on. My spider sense alerted me as soon as the bomb planted on the roof was activated, but whoever planted it didn't want to take any chances, and the second it was remotely activated, it blew up with only three quick beeps sounding out.

I don't manage to escape from the blast fully, only just managing to get away, and the force of the explosion sends me hurtling through the air. My body flips and spins continuously through the air, the centrifugal force building as I am blown away. I can feel myself on a direct collision course with the concrete pavement, and so I automatically reach my hand out and press my middle and ring finger to my palm, forgetting that I no longer use web shooters.

My damn muscle memory and panic costing me precious seconds, I reach to my side and draw out my grapple gun and quickly point it out and go to shoot it to save myself and-

"Bang*

The boom is accompanied by something slamming into my grapple gun, the one that is still in my hand, my hand which is attached to me, and I am spinning way too fast through the air. The projectile blasted the grapple gun out of my hand. Not only that, but the shot hit at the perfect spot and at the perfect time to add to my centrifugal force and send me careening even faster towards the ground. I panic, trying to figure out some way to save myself, going through all my options.

I have no web shooters, my grapple gun is gone, there is nothing anywhere nearby for me to grab onto, and I am going too fast and spinning too much to gain some control over myself and try and land safely. Fuck, my cape is fluttering every which way, and the wind is too much for it to activate and allow me to glide, so that is out.

Whoever just fucked me over is damn deadly. They blew me up and then had the skills to keep a perfect understanding of my entire being as I spun through the air and even managed to fire a shot to rid me of my only means of saving myself, and they even did it in such a way that it propelled me even further to my doom. So what the fuck can I do to protect myself? There has to be something, some way, something in my arsenal that could help me.

I... I've got nothing.

*BOOOOM*

Immense pain courses through my entire body. A stabbing pain was shooting through the left side of my body. The air is forced out of my lungs, and I can feel the metal taste of blood as a fountain of it erupts out of my mouth. Then, everything goes bright white, and I black out for a second, a ringing noise resounding on the inside of my skull.

I force myself back into consciousness, knowing if I let myself drift off now, I would be in a bad position when I eventually woke up if I ever did. So, eyes wide open, I lay there, wholly dazed with no doubt multiple broken bones throughout my entire body, my breath harsh and struggling. I try to calm down and regulate my breathing, but I can't. It hurts, and the more I try to control it, the raspier my breathing gets.

*Clomp* *Clomp* *Clomp*

My alertness shoots up as I hear heavy footsteps coming towards me, my enhanced hearing picking it up even though it is still quite a distance away. I try to look in that direction and jerk my head up, but something jostles my insides, and my head immediately flops down as I grind my teeth to keep from shouting from the intense pain. I can hear the footsteps getting closer, crushing debris underfoot as it nears my location, and I don't want to help them find me faster.

Panicking slightly at the nearing menacing presence, I try and sit up slowly, but the pain spikes again. Whereas before the pain was consistent and throughout my entire body, when I move, there is shocking torturous pain in my abdomen. Instead of moving my whole body this time, I merely lift my neck up and try to analyse the damage done to my body and just what exactly is restricting my movement.

Well, that isn't good, is it... Fucking piece of shit, my name is not Rick Grimes, shit! At the sight of the steel piece of rebar piercing out through the lower left side of my body, my panic shoots up to the limit, and I can feel my blood start pushing even harder, which I know is worse because that means I will lose it as it seeps out of the hole going through the side of my abdomen. Not to mention the unknown assailant rapidly closing in on my position, most likely coming to finish me off.

Fuck, fuck, fuck! I fucked up! I wanted to get this over and done with as soon as possible, afraid of getting closer to Felicia if I stuck around too long. And so I rushed straight into a trap without thinking about it properly. It was suspicious that all those low-level mooks knew about the meeting when it was purely between the bosses. I acted like I was being cautious, but they were playing me, and I was happy to be led around by my own tail. And now I am about to pay the price.

I don't want to die. I didn't even manage to enjoy my life correctly; I purely focused on preparing for it and not actually living it. Reaching down, I grasp both of my hands onto the ridges of the rebar, ignoring my own bright red blood staining it and sticking myself to it firmly for better leverage.

With my hold tight, I start to pull myself up, gritting my teeth hard to stop any noise emitting and alerting my pursuer. Slowly reversing the penetration as I rise, it takes my all not to scream from the hellish pain, each ridge of the bar stabbing into my insides as I rise. The only sweet relief I get is watching the rebar slowly disappear, knowing that I am going to escape and get away-

"AGGGGHH!" I scream out as someone kicks me in my side, making me lose my grip, barraged by the sudden spike of pain that assaults my insides and the following torture as my body slides back down the rebar and my back crashes into the ground.

"Now, now. We can't be having that. Don't be trying to run away before even saying hello." The voice says, and I go to curse them before my breath is caught in my stomach as my eyes lock onto the symbol plastered across my opponent's head.

A Bullseye.