MUP: Chapter 136. Disagreement

"This is the help you got?"

Chinatown, within the martial arts school.

Jessica asked with a frown as she looked at the burly short-haired man in a bulletproof vest in front of her.

Faced with the threat of Jiu You, not only was Jessica under a lot of pressure but so was Matt. For that reason, he approached Frank about joining the Defenders, in contrast to his past objections to his actions.

"First of all, I don't have any intentions of joining your little group." When the Punisher spoke, not giving Matt the slightest bit of respect in his opening words, "However, I'll join the next fight." Frank was willing to join the fight for a simple reason -- Kingpin.

He had been working hard to eliminate the nefarious organisations in Hell's Kitchen, and according to his investigations, Kingpin was the one in control of the vast majority of these shady forces and was naturally one of his targets.

Raising an eyebrow, Jessica didn't take kindly to Frank's lukewarm response. However, considering that the other party was also one of the fighting forces against Jiu You, she brushed off her discontent, as this was after all, a fight to the death not child's play.

"Jessica." Luke Cage said, sensing that something was wrong, "Did you finish your work?"

The thing Luke was talking about was the same thing she had mentioned earlier in the hospital when she left.

"Yeah, I've done it."

After hearing Luke's question, Jessica gave a short answer. Although Ryan had promised her that he would inform the Brotherhood about Jiu You, there was a delay in the response.

Perhaps, the Brotherhood decided not to get involved in Jiu You's matter.

Thinking of that possibility, Jessica's mood was somewhat complicated, but she didn't complain too much. This was the Defenders' battle, not the Brotherhood's.

"Guys, I don't think we can passively wait any longer."

Glancing at the group inside the martial arts school, Danny couldn't help but say, "I've got information that Kingpin has been making major efforts to reorganise the entire Hell's Kitchen underworld. Any groups that disagree with him will be dealt with."

With the power of the Iron Fist inside him, Danny's broken arms had been healed.

Even after breaking, he could still use the Iron Fist's powers.

"I noticed that too." Frank frowned, corroborating Danny's intel, "Recently, a lot of gangs had disappeared from Hell's Kitchen. While I personally have no problems with what happens to trash, it's clear that it's gonna impact the balance in Hell's Kitchen."

"Harlem too. There are a lot of gangs fighting in the streets these days, and people are on edge. Pop said it's the craziest scene he's ever seen in Harlem. People even started to move out of Harlem." Luke added.

"Same in Chinatown. A lot of gangs started coming in, extorting money. I've fought some of them, but they're swarming in like locusts. A lot of shops were forced to close down."

Ip Man spoke up with a worried look.

Naturally, he was well aware of the reason for everything that happened. After receiving the support from Jiu You, no, it should be from [Makoto Shishio], Kingpin ambitiously started his own plan to bring Hell's Kitchen and the rest of New York's underworld under his own umbrella. This would solidify his status, making him the true 'King' of New York's underworld.

"We can't let this go any further." Matt spoke up, he had already seen many cases related to the underworld recently, and a lot of innocent people had been hurt because of this war, "There has to be some way to stop this."

"Maybe we can step in and force these gangs to stop."

"What? You wanna ask them nicely?" At that, a cold sound of disdain came out of Frank's mouth, "If you ask me, just kill them all. It'll solve a lot of things."

"You're going overboard, Frank."

Hearing the Punisher's murderous words, Matt couldn't help but frown and say, "Our aim is to stop the growing chaos, not to add fuel to the flames."

"To me, they are the source of chaos. If they're still there, Hell's Kitchen will never have peace." Based on his personal experience, Frank's approach was to drive those gangs to extinction, leaving absolutely no one alive. He had already received a painful punishment for being too soft-hearted. Now, there was no longer any reason for him to be merciful.

"If you don't agree with me, I'm completely fine with doing it on my own."

"Maybe, he's right, Matt. This is war." At that moment, Jessica spoke up, apparently agreeing with Frank's sentiment, "We aren't facing Madame Gao or the Hand, but Kingpin and Jui You. If we don't want even more innocent people to get hurt, we have to make a compromise."

"At the very least, right now, the compromise we need to make is a little easier."

"..."

Jessica's comment silenced Matt.

He had been trying to protect Hell's Kitchen and hold on to his bottom line, but in the situation at hand, everything he had been holding on to in the past seemed to be rendered helpless.

"Maybe there's a better way, something less ... radical." Aware of Matt's struggle, Luke spoke up to ease the situation. In fact, he didn't quite agree with the extreme proposal from the Punisher. Despite being from the streets, Luke himself had always kept to his own bottom line, a line he once broke when he lost the person he loved most.

Because of the difference of opinion, the atmosphere in the martial arts school wasn't very pleasant.

"Someone's coming."

Just then, Matt's super senses heard the sound of footsteps approaching. He frowned and alerted the group in the martial arts school.

He could tell that the person was approaching Master Ip's martial arts school, where the Defenders were located, especially when there was no one else out in the streets this late at night.

The crowd clearly had a lot of trust in Matt's abilities, so when they heard his warning, they swung into action, with Frank pulling out his Browning Automatic and pointing it at the entrance.

"So... Am I late?"