Walking in Blind
Peter’s been shot.
He was dealing with some goons on the fourth floor when one of them pulls out a gun. He should have expected it, really, because these are bad guys and they’re in New York, but he’s never really faced off against a handgun before. Alien guns and lasers, yes, but a normal gun? This wasn’t what he was used to.
When he heard the click of the trigger, Peter was able to step quick enough to just get hit on his shoulder. But it still hurt!
He staggers into an unlocked supply closet, shutting the door behind him. He leans against it, gasping for breath, and touches his earpiece.
“Um…guys…I’ve been shot,” Peter says.
“Shit – Peter can you just stay where you are,” Tony replies, and Peter can hear the sound of his blasters going off. “There’s more goons that we were thinking, we’ll be as quick as we can.”
“Does anyone have eyes on Daredevil?” asks Nat. Peter can hear she’s breathing hard, and he wonders how many of the goons she’s taken out so far.
“No, why?”
“There’s something on the door here that looks suspicious,” Nat responds, sounding worried. “I’ll send a pic to the group.”
Peter pulls out his phone from his pocket. His hands are bloodied, but he can already feel the wound in his shoulder stitching itself back together so he’s not too worried about it all. He opens up the Avengers group chat, where Nat has posted a picture of a sign.
It’s a laminated sign, and Peter can clearly see that it says:
DD – you’re walking into a trap
“Shit,” Peter breathes to himself. All of this was a trap? For Daredevil?
…
Natasha pushes open the door after snapping the picture. She pockets her phone as she looks around the room. There’s a gurney in the centre of the room with medical trolley knocked over on its side. Scalpels, syringes, and other medical instruments are strewn across the floor, some of them used and bloodied.
Nat covers her nose as she smells something not quite right. She taps her earpiece. “Guys, I think DD’s been taken. There’s blood in this room and the scent of knock-out gas.”
“Goddamn,” responds Tony, his breath coming quickly. “Let’s reconvene back at Stark Tower.”
…
When Nat returns to Stark Tower, she is greeted by room full of grim faces. Peter is sat on the table in the conference room as Bruce is digging around in his shoulder for the bullet lodged in there. His knuckles are white as he’s gripping his mask, which is bunched up in his hands.
Steve and Tony are looking over surveillance footage for the building. They’ve managed to hack in to when we arrived, and Daredevil can be seen walking down the hallway. Natasha watches as he rests his hands on varying signs throughout the building.
“What’s he doing?” Nat asks the room, to which the other Avengers simply shrug.
Daredevil stands in front of the door with the laminated sign. He runs his hands over it, and, seemingly without caring about the warning right in front of his face, pushes open the door.
The image changes to the inside of a room. Clint is strapped to a gurney, wearing a white hospital gown that Nat can see is stained with his blood. Suddenly Daredevil staggers, as if shot, and he clings onto a table for support. He stumbles forward and begins to untie Clint, his motions sloppy and slow, unlike his usual self. Clint leans forward and mumbles something into Daredevil’s ear, but then the room is being filled with a thick gas.
“Jesus!” exclaims Peter as they watch Daredevil begin choking on the gas.
He tries to crawl towards the door but collapses halfway there. In under a minute a team of four men dressed in black burst into the room. They’re all wearing gasmasks and tactical gear, much more professionally dressed than the goons on the other floors, and they begin to move Daredevil and Clint from the room.
The cameras change again, and they’re watching Daredevil and Clint be dragged down the corridors of the building. Eventually they reach outside, where the Avengers did not think to station anyone, and escape in an unmarked van.
“JARVIS, I need you to try and track that van!” Tony shouts, and Nat can see the tears in the corners of his eyes. “Shit! Does anyone have any idea why Daredevil would walk right into a trap?”
“He has super hearing – he probably heard Clint and thought he would risk it,” responds Banner while wrapping up the wound on Peter’s shoulder.
“But why didn’t he tell any of us?”
“Because he’s stubborn?” suggests Natasha as she collapses into one of the chairs. “I don’t know – but wasn’t he acting odd in the video? He was touching walls – he doesn’t do that usually.”
“We don’t usually work with him,” counters Bruce. “Maybe feeling the place is something to do with his abilities.”
“Um…guys…I think I might have seen something suspicious earlier,” Peter adds, and everyone in the room turns towards him. “He didn’t know where we were supposed to be going in, like he wasn’t listening to Natasha. I thought it was weird.”
“He wasn’t following the plan?” Natasha asks, confused.
“Um, it was like he didn’t know the plan in the first place. I had to point out where his entrance point was,” Peter replies. “He really doesn’t like to work in a team, I guess.”
“Or he was already mentally impaired by something,” Bruce responds. He’s packing away his first aid kit now, and Nat can see that his hands are shaking from the shock of the evening. “If he was already acting suspicious, then potentially he was under the influence?”
“Are you suggesting Daredevil is a drug addict?” Tony asks.
“It would explain his strange movements and his willingness to walk straight into a trap,” interjects Natasha. “I mean, how much do we really know about the guy?”
“I don’t think DD is a drug addict,” Steve says, rubbing his hands through his golden hair. “I just don’t believe it. Plus, talking like this is us blaming him. I don’t care how we got into this situation – I just care that we bring him and Clint home.”
“Well said, Steve,” Tony agrees. “We can deal with DD later – first we need to find him.”