Chapter 21

It's funny, with all the protections I've added to myself since I got my powers, guns are about as effective against me as a mild summer breeze is against a burning building, but even knowing that, hell, even knowing someone already tried shooting me in the head once, I can't help but feel a little uneasy about the sheer amount of gunfire we're heading towards. Unsurprisingly, Jen doesn't seem the least bit bothered if the grin on her face is any indication as she leaps from roof to roof. I could keep up with her easily enough, but an idea strikes me and I begin to leisurely stroll after her, using my power to teleport from roof to roof. At one point, I even manifest a walking cane for me to twirl casually as I keep myself next to her despite her speed.

Jen shoots me a disbelieving look "You know, I feel like you're not appreciating the storied superhero tradition of roof-jumping. And the cane really doesn't suit you very well. You're not nearly Johnny Deppish enough to pull it off"

My response dies in my throat as we reach the edge of the roof overlooking the source of the gunfire, and we're both left staring at a grisly scene. Beneath us, a courtyard lies enclosed by several brownstones, where someone had apparently been hosting an outside dinner of some sort. HAD been, judging by the black-clad bodies littering the ground and hanging off the tables, and for one horrible moment, I think we've walked into some sort of wedding massacre. On closer inspection however, I notice the guns lying next to the bodies, and that everyone still walking around seem to be armed as well. Mobsters, maybe? Or some other kind of criminal?

And now that I think about it, who are they shooting AT?

"Hey Jen, can you see-" She doesn't answer me and wordlessly leaps from the roof and down towards the fray, making a notable "thud" as she lands, which carries even over the gunfire. A few of the gunmen stop shooting and turn around, their eyes widening when they recognize just who crashed their party/massacre.

"HOLY SHIT!!" A blonde man wearing a bloodied tuxedo screams and whirls around, turning his Uzi against Jen and opens fire, joined by some of his comrades, for all the good it does them, as the bullets does little except put holes in her shirt. Jen sighs, and shakes her head.

"And I liked this shirt too!" She grabs one of the long dining tables and throws it at the shooters, knocking the whole group to the ground, drawing the attention of the rest of the criminals who were still busy shooting at their attacker on the other side of the yard.

"Seriously?! We gotta deal with this bitch on top of everything else tonight?!" A large, balding man with a trimmed beard groans and motions towards the rest of the group "Hey, you fucking morons, we got trouble on two fronts here! Half of you keep shooting, the rest help me with this!"

"It's okay boss, we capped him pretty good before he ran for cover, he ain't going nowhere. Now what's going-" a bald man in sunglasses says before pausing as he stares at Jen "-great, Avengers bullshit, that's just perfect." He raises his gun, followed by everyone else, and Jen just sighs.

"Really? What makes you think I'm going to be any weaker to those bullets than those your friends shot me with?"

The balding man spits on the ground "You never know, might get lucky. Bet your old buddy Cap thought there wasn't a bullet with his name on it either."

Oh, wow. Okay. I better step in before Jen kills him. I can already see her face change from shock to pure rage. "Okay, that's enough of that, I think" I say as I step off the roof and slowly float to the ground, drawing the attention of everyone down below. I wave my hand over the gathered group, and with a burst of power, the guns in their hands begin crumbling away into nothing, black dust seeping out between the mobsters fingers. The criminals stare incredulously at the remains of their weapons.

"What the fu- Who the fuck are you?! What did you do to our guns?!" The balding man yells, his face turning an interesting shade of red from anger. The sunglasses guy on the other hand, grows deathly pale.

"Holy- boss, that's-that's the mutie from the news! That's the fucking Magic Man! He's supposed to be mutie Jesus or some shit!"

The balding man's eyes widen in recognition "Motherfucking... what the hell are you bothering us for? Don't you Avenger types usually stick to fighting aliens trying to eat the moon or whatever? Why are you down here in the shit with the rest of us?"

"Uh, okay, one, I'm not an Avenger, and two, you were firing automatic weapons! Even in New York that sort of stands out amid the usual background noise of gunfire. I was just minding my own business when you assholes turned the place into downtown Kabul!"

The boss shrugs "Hey, we got a right to defend ourselves! Me and my associates were just having a little get together when we were attacked completely unprovoked by some maniac! You should have a chat with him" He grins viciously "Though considering how much he was bleeding, he probably won't be feeling very chatty."

And I got a sneaking suspicion about who it was too "Yeah, well, in case you've forgotten, I have ways around that. Now, I'm sick of looking at you, so you pieces of human garbage can just wait nicely here for the cops. I got bigger things to deal with." The boss tries to yell, his eyes widening in surprise as no sound comes out, which his associates quickly discover is the same for them. The asphalt begins churning underneath their feet and suddenly rises up, enveloping their legs up to their knees before solidyfing again. "Don't worry, the silence spell will wear off when the police gets here. Have fun when they try to chip you out of there though. I even made sure your leg hair got stuck in it."

I begin moving towards the building on the other side of the yard, with Jen following me, only to stop briefly to stare at the balding man, before giving him a hard smack over the back of the head, causing him to give off a silent yell of pain. "Remember that next time you think about badmouthing Captain America, you ass!"

"Uh, Jen? I think we got a bit of a situation here?" I say as I kneel next to the bleeding, semi-conscious figure I found trying to drag himself up the stairs in the building, leaving a trail of blood like a horrifying snail. Even if the scars and body didn't tip you off to his identity, the familiar bulletproof vest he was wearing certainly would.

Frank Castle. The Punisher.

...

"Maybe I'm missing something, but why didn't you just heal him and leave him for the police?"

We pop back to the rooftop a few blocks away, even as the sirens had almost reached the courtyard. Jen is holding Castle's body in her arms, a mixed look over concern and distaste on her face, apparently she isn't much of a fan of The Punisher anymore than the rest of the hero community. I've stopped the bleeding, but I haven't actually fixed anything, not yet. I point at a spot on the roof and a hospital bed appears. Jen gets the idea and carefully places Castle on the bedding, the man barely stirring despite the pain he must be in.

"Because Castle is a special case, Jen. And I'm planning on giving him an important choice." I'm still not even sure that what I'm about to do is the right thing, or even a good thing. In my old life, The Punisher was one of my all-time favorite characters, but this isn't colors on a page, this is an actual, physical person who might be one of the worst mass-murderers to ever walk the Earth, even if he only killed people who "deserved it", which made it okay.

Fuck it, I'm not going to debate morality with myself. I like the guy and I'm doing this. The rest is up to him.

I apply a bit of my power, reversing the damage just enough, and Castle's eyes flutter open. "Frank? Frank, can you hear me?"

He doesn't answer but the flash of recognition in his eyes tells me he can.

"I take it you know who I am? If you do, you also know I can fix you. I can make you better than You've been in years. And I won't ask for anything in return, because... well, I don't need anything. But I'm not going to, not without your consent."

Jen stares at me "Wait, what are you-"

I hold up my hand, stopping her "I'm giving you the choice, Frank. I can heal you, heal EVERYTHING, all the damage you've done to yourself over the years, you'll be that fast and strong again. Or, I can let you go, and your crusade ends here. You can finally rest. You will be with your family again. Stay, or go, Frank? Which will it be?"

His face goes blank for a moment. Then he mouths a single word silently.

I can't say I'm surprised. But I am a little disappointed.

Castle gasps and sits upright in the bed as my power goes to work, his flesh reknitting itself, his blood regenerating, countless fractures and damages and just regular wear and tear disappearing from his body, the bullets still inside him vanishing entirerly, even his muscles inflating slightly as he's fully returned to his prime. I even fix up his clothes, removing the bloodstains and bulletholes. Castle stares at his hands, flexing his fingers experimentally, noting the lack of pain or even discomfort from the dozens of former breaks that had been there seconds before. Then he looks up at me.

"Thought you only worked on mutants." And WOW that's a gruff voice.

I shrug "You're one of a handful of special cases that gets preferential treatment."

"I know I've never met you before in my life. And I don't like mysteries."

"You can go right back down there and get yourself killed if you want, I'm not stopping you. This was a freebie, how you spend it is up to you." I'm surprised I don't even get annoyed at his attitude, and realize I was pretty much expecting this response.

He grunts and looks over at Jen, nodding at her. "Walters. You've got an odd taste in friends."

She nods back "Sgt. Castle. You know, we should take you right to prison, you got a warrant list longer than all three of us combined."

"You going to?"

She looks over at me and sighs "Like Ginnungagap said, we'll call this a freebie."

"Plus, if we take him to prison, that's like a weekend cruise for him."

She glares at me "You're not making me happier with my decision, you know."

Castle jumps off the bed and takes notice of the new feeling in his limbs before he begins moving towards the fire escape, but stops and casts a final glance back before he leaves. "You could stop this. All of it. Without even trying."

It's impossible to not realize what he's talking about "Maybe. But I won't." And that's really all there is left to say. Castle disappears into the night, leaving me and Jen alone on the rooftop. Despite the warm night, Jen rubs her arms, like there's a chill in the air.

"Could you really? Just...make horrible things never happen?"

I look out across the city as I consider my answer. "I honestly don't know. Fixing mutantkind or resurrecting someone, it's like flipping a switch, it didn't even require any real imagination. But how would I fix suffering? Or evil? Maybe if I sat down and came up with a complex step-by-step plan I could IMPROVE things a lot more, but totally make it all go away? As it is, I prefer to fix things the way I've been doing it. Maybe that's a copout, but for now, it's what I'm sticking to."

She nods and we stand in comfortable silence for a while, listening to the sounds of New York. Finally, she smiles and puts a hand on my shoulder "Well, if nothing else, you can certainly make a night on the town interesting."

"That's one way of looking at it."

"Well, it's getting late, or early I guess, so you want to crash at my place?"

"Yes. Yes I do." I glance over at her. "You want me to patch up your shirt while I'm at it?"

She looks down at her ruined t-shirt which can barely be called rags after the gunfire it withstood, showing off far more skin than is decent, and sighs, tugging at a fabric shred. "Can't have anything nice."