Magical evening part 2

…Three months ago…Central Park…

"Daddy, daddy! I want to go on the Ferries Wheel!" a little six year old girl with dark brown hair and dressed in jeans overalls and a green shirt said as she skipped around her father, mother and older brother

Frank Castle smiled at the little bundle of joy that he sometimes questions how she can have so much energy "Alright but first we have lunch…"

"Awwww…" his daughter pouted cutely

Frank smirked at his daughter's response before he suddenly lifted her up and on his shoulders which earned a giggle from the little bundle of energy. Frank's wife smiled at the scene and gave her husband a kiss on the cheek

"What'd I do to deserve you?" she asked as she and her family began to make their way towards the cook out that was being held

"Funny I've been thinking the same thing since the day I asked you out and you said yes" Frank gave her a smile which she replied with a laugh

His son watched them both and rolled his eyes "Get a room"

"We had one…than you came along" Frank gave his son a playful pat on the head which he reluctantly accepted "Now come on, I smell ribs and I sure as hell ain't missing out on any!"

As the family began to make their way towards the seating area they were unaware of the multiple men who looked to be of Hispanic origin, were gathering not too far away from the crowd of picnic lovers, watching them with guarded expressions. They were members of the Cartel who were here to broker a deal with two other criminal organizations over a few matters that were beginning to bring the three into conflict, this meeting was being held in hopes to avoid any potential bloodshed

It was then that one of the men dressed in jeans, a white and blue shirt and a elaborate cross tattoo on his face alerted the others and pointed to a group of men clad in leather jackets with the symbol of the 'Dogs of Hell' embroidered on it and following close behind them was the Irish Mob…

"Let's get this over with" the leader of the Cartel said as he approached the two parties while also seeing that one of his men was starting to act a little…jumpy

…

It was half way through the show that Zatanna was preforming when Diana made her fist comment about the woman as she performed a variety of impressive feats of magic that she found entertaining

"She's quite gifted in the mystical arts"

"Yeah…" Peter said as he was leaning back in his chair, his mask up to his brow and exposed his face, and watching the younger woman conjure up illusions that he didn't know she could do "Don't think many realize just how good she is"

Diana felt her brow twitch as she watched Peter gaze at the woman intently, not in a sexual way but in a deeply memorized way. Granted so was the rest of the crowd in the room but there was something about the wat that Peter gazed at Zatanna that seemed to go beyond mere fascination, it was more along the lines of…

Enchanted…

Diana shook her head and returned to watching the sorceress perform another impressive feat of magic that involved a ball of floating water and lightning. Several minutes passed before ity look like Zatanna was ready to end on a high note and gave the crowd a smile

"Well than I think I have time for one last trick and to do that I'll need a volunteer…anyone?" Zatanna asked with a chuckle as she saw multiple men raise their hands and shout to pick them

But as she scanned the crowd her gaze came to see a the one and only Spider-man himself, she's watched the news enough to know it was him and Nick mentioned he was going to be here tonight, sitting there gazing at her with an intensity that almost caused her to blush. She grinned at the man before she pointed right at him

"How about the gentlemen in the spider suit?"

A lot of people looked to see who Zatanna was pointing to and saw a man give them all a sheepish smile as he slowly stood up and began to approach the stage. Many of the men were either glaring at him in envy or jealously…as were a few girls and a certain Amazon. Diana couldn't explain it, but she felt a tad bit miffed at seeing Peter walk on to the stage and give the woman a slight bow

Zatanna grinned at him before she took off her top hat and placed it on Peter's head and took several steps back

"Hold on tight handsome" Zatanna gave the man a wink which he returned with a grin

"That a suggestion or an order?" Peter said

"…Both" Zatanna said with a grin before she casted her spell

Diana watched the scene play out and had to give the woman credit, she knew her magic as sure as Diana knew her sword and shield. It was only than that's he saw Constantine approaching the table with a glass of something in his hand and a lit cigarette in his mouth

"Great, isn't she?" John nodded towards Zatanna who returned Peter to his normal state after transforming him into a small orb of energy

"Yes…she is" Diana nodded as she saw the show end and Peter returning to the table with a grin "Had fun I presume?"

"Oh yeah" Peter said with a laugh and took his seat next to her "Well it's official I'm definitely coming back here for another show"

"Tuesdays and Friday's at midnight" John said as he finished his cigarette before seeing Nick approaching them "Now can we go fetch this thing?"

"Sure" Nick said as he looked to see Zatanna approaching and met her half way and scooped her up and give her a long searing kiss that caused Peter, Diana and John to avert their eyes

Zatanna pulled out of the show of affection and smiled at Nick "Enjoy the show baby?"

"Always" Nick said as he placed another peck on Zatanna's lips before letting her down and turning to see the others "Okay, now that I'll final member is here we can get moving"

"And here are we going exactly?" Peter asked as he stood up and pulled his mask down

"A little place over in Harlem. Members of the Cold Flame have it in their possession" Nick said as Zatanna had her coat appear

"So your telling me that a crazy cult of mystics currently has something connected to the Web of Life in their possession and may use it to cause some serious damage based on their usual M.O. of magical superiority and culling the population of 'weak' Homi Magi?" Peter figured

"Hmmm…you seem to know a lot about the Cold Flame" Nick said with his eyes narrowing slightly

Peter shrugged "May have met a person or two connected with them that liked to talk"

The two men stared at each other for a few seconds before John cleared his throat "Oi as much as me and the ladies here like watching your two's pissing contest, we have a mystical artifact to recover"

Peter broke eye contact with Nick and turned towards the door "Fine…let's go this mysterious artifact that Nicky here is so obsessed with getting"

Nick growled at the nick name but quickly followed after the spider themed man along with Zatanna and Constantine. Diana was about to follow when she saw the woman that Peter mentioned earlier, the one dressed in red and black, was watching them with an intent gaze focused solely on Peter. The amazon princess felt a jolt of annoyance as she quickly appeared next to Peter and shot the woman before she disappeared with Peter out the door.

Wanda watched them go and her eyes for a brief moment flashed scarlet before she finished her drink stood up as well

…

It was five minutes later that the odd group had found itself standing on a rooftop overlooking the building that the Cold Flame were using at the moment. Peter was crouched on the ledge scanning the building for any signs of the Cold Flame but found none

'Hmm…either there all inside or Nick's intel was off and they may have either never been here in the first place or already left' Peter thought as he turned back towards Nick who was standing next to him

"Looks like no one's home" Spider-man commented as he stood up "You sure they're here and not somewhere else…assuming they haven't already left"

Nick frowned as he couldn't see anything either "No…their supposed to be here. They couldn't have moved the artifact they found that quickly"

"What makes you so sure?" Spider-man asked

"Because it's not the type of thing you can just pick up and waltz off with" Nick said with a sigh of annoyance "This artifact was protected by powerful seals and incantations that only the most skilled of mages could work through"

"And how do you know that one of those guys didn't show up and help them move it already?" Wonder Woman asked as she came to stand next to Spider-man

"Because the only mage that can do such a thing and is associated with the Cold Flame is the one that told what they found" Nick said in a guarded tone

"…Torture?" Peter asked in a blank tone

"Not from us" Zatanna spoke up, having an idea of where this might go if certain things aren't cleared up and soon "Someone else had already gotten to the man, who or what we don't know but we were able to get a location out of the man before he died of his wounds"

"Did you at least try to help him?" Wonder Woman asked as she turned towards the magical woman

"No" John said in a sarcastic tone "We just decided to let him bleed out for shit's and giggles"

"Out of everyone here Constantine, I can actually see you doing just that" Spider-man gave the mage a deadpan stare through his mask that was met with John flipping him off

"Enough" Wonder Woman said as she placed a hand on Spider-man's shoulder "Right now let focus on getting this artifact and keeping it out of the hands of those who wish to abuse its power"

Nick eyed the woman for a brief moment before nodding "Alright than…let's get to it"

As the group of mystics turned away from Spider-man and Wonder Woman, the wall crawler leaned into Diana's ear "Something tells me that it wasn't just the Cold Flame you were talking about in regards to 'those who wish abuse its power'…"

"…And you'd be right" Diana said in an equally quiet tone as they followed after the trio of mages

Several minutes later the group was making it's way through the building, having passed through the barrier protecting the entrance with painful ease and now searching the rooms fro this mystical artifact. It was than a thought occurred to Peter

"Hey Necro, what's this thing look like anyway?"

"You'll know it when you see it Spider-man" Nick said as he conjured up a ball of light for them to use in the dark hallway that was far longer than it appeared on the outside, a simple enchantment to increase the space of a building

"…Well aren't you just helpful" Peter said dryly before he felt something and paused suddenly, catching everyone's attention

"Spider-man?" Diana asked as she came to stand by her friend

Peter quirked his head to the side as he felt something 'pulling' at his spider-sense. He couldn't really tell what it was, mainly because he's never felt something like this before even from a telepath. He turned to see that whatever it was that was pulling on his sixth sense, it was coming from…

The basement…

'Great…creepy abandoned building and I have to go into it's even creepier abandoned basement' Peter thought with a mental groan

"Spider-man what's wrong?" Diana shook his shoulder and forced him to look at her

"The basement…" Spider-man looked back down the hall that would lead to it "There's something...pulling me there"

"What like the artifact?" Nick asked with a hint of eagerness

Peter shrugged "Who knows but I've got a feeling it might be connected in some way"

Without another word, Peter marched off towards the cellar followed quickly by Diana and soon the trio of mages.

…

Meanwhile across town a group of four men were meeting in a bar and discussing the recent discovery f two of their men found dead in Hell's Kitchen

"Was it the Cold Flame?" one man asked with shades on and a small goatee

"Nah, the Cold Flame couldn't have been able to regroup that quickly" another man said, this one appearing to be the oldest, his hair already turning white "This was someone else…someone that apparently likes to use guns based on their wounds"

"Possible gang member?" the third man asked, his eyes were an unsettling red and he had dark brown hair held in a pony tail of sorts

"No…the bullet wounds on the two, they were to precise and the caliber of the rounds themselves belonged to some sort of light machine gun" the last man said, a bit on the larger side than the others "Plus since when can a bunch of sorry for an excuse gangsters get their hands on a grenade?"

The other three had to agree on that

"So, who was it then?" the pony tail man asked

The overweight man shrugged "Who knows, but right now we have to move the artifact before-"

BANG!

The man didn't get to finish before his entire upper head was blasted off and sprayed his equally shock companions with bits of his skull and blood. The three men looked towards the entrance of the bar along with the other customers that were up until then enjoying their evening to see a man decked out in a Kevlar with a white skull spray painted on the chest and holding a sawed-off shotgun that he was busy reloading without taking his eyes off the three men

"Catch you fuckers at a bad time?" the man said with a dark grin as two of the three men made a break for the back entrance while the third, the one with a pony tail formed a ball of fire in his hand and threw it at the shooter while others in the bar quickly threw themselves to the ground or hid under their tables

The Punisher seeing this quickly rolled under the mystical flame, his coat being lightly burned at the end and quickly brought up his shot gun and fired off one round at the man who brought up a shield of energy to block it. The Punisher seeing this fired off the second round at the table that held the men's drinks

The glass bottles exploding sent fragments of glass at the man's face who for a brief moment flinched and allowed the Punisher to quickly close the distance and ram the butt off his gun into the man's surprised head after he made it around the shield

The mage let out a pained yelp as he felt his jaw crack under the blow before he was grabbed by the throat and had his head slammed into the table, right into the glass which sliced into his face

"AGH!" the man growled in pain before he formed a whip of blue magical energy and tried to hit his attacker…only for the Punisher to grab his arm and slam it down hard on the table's edge

KRAAK!

"GAH!" the man yelled as his limb was snapped in half and tried to move but felt the barrel of the man's shot gun push into the back of his head, causing him to freeze

The Punisher smirked at this "Now then…let's talk about where your friends had rushed off to"

"What makes you think I'll talk?" the man gritted out in pain as bits of glass were digging into his check and brow

The Punisher narrowed his eyes before he aimed his gun at the man's non-broken arm, at the elbow joint to be more specific and pulled the trigger

BANG!

"AAAAAAH!" the man howled in pain as his elbow was destroyed leaving his arm to hang by a few threads of flesh. Others in the bar screamed at the sudden action with one actually fainting

The bar tender made to reach for the .45 he had under the counter top but a hard look from the gunman froze him in place

"Don't…" the Punisher said before he returned his attention back to the whimpering man before he used his knee to keep him in place while he reloaded his shot gun "Now as far as I can see it I have four shells left and I count two knee joints, your other elbow and your soiled groin. So, if you feel like keeping these I recommend you rethink your earlier comment"

The man let out a weak nod causing the Punisher to smirk at him darkly as he adjusted his grip and pulled the man up until he was looking him in the eye

"Good…now where were your friends off to again?"

…

Peter's eyes narrowed at the sight of a door that seemed to have been torn open by something and several bodies around it, burnt, broken or outright torn to shreds

"Well…I think it's safe to say we now know why we haven't encountered of the Cold Flame" Peter said as he crouched down and examined of the men who had some sort of symbol burned into his forehead "Someone came through here and took them out"

Zatanna's eyes narrowed at the scene "Whoever they are, they were powerful. The Cold Flame isn't a bunch of mystics that you can push around and not expect a punch in return"

"Was it perhaps the man that tortured you informant?" Diana asked as she drew her sword and carefully approached the torn door with a guarded expression

"Most likely, but I don't think he was alone" Nick said as he scanned some of the bodies "I'm seeing the work of multiple assailants here"

"Great…" John said as he stepped over what was once a torso, as far as he could tell "and based on how fucked these boys and girls are, I think it's safe to say that we're dealing with a real loon"

"A sociopathic group of mages…wonderful" Diana said sarcastically as she finally entered the room that the Cold Flame seemed so determined to defend and found that it was empty "There's nothing in here. Whatever it was, the attackers must have taken it"

The rest flowed in through the doorway and scanned the area and aside from a few corpses of members of the Cold Flame cult, there was nothing-

"What do we have here?" Peter said as he approached a particular dead mage that seemed to be what was pulling on his spider-sense and had something very unusual about him… he had a large hand print on his face that exposed the muscle tissue and even his skull

Peter's eyes narrowed at the sight as distant memories of his previous life came to the forefront of his mind

'…it couldn't be…' Peter thought to himself as he closely examined the dead mages face before he saw something else that may have confirmed his suspicions

Around the man's neck…was a strand of webbing

Peter carefully reached for it and pulled it off the person's broken neck and held it up for his suit's scanners to examine. It was organic webbing and it held a particular chemical structure in it that he's only ever seen produced by one person…someone Peter saw die years ago, in his world as a result of Kraven's family attempts to resurrect the deadly hunter that led to the deaths of the first Madame Web, the third Spider-woman Mattie Franklin, and finally…

The second Scarlet Spider… the black sheep of the spider clan…

Kaine