darkest before the dawn

August 4th, 2016

1:32 PM

All that Jessica asked him to do was pick up Spider-Man. Drive out to Brooklyn, to the location she sent him, and pick him up. Just a small favor, because she didn’t have a car and she didn’t want Spidey getting arrested.

Which meant Jessica cared a little bit about Spidey, and that was something that needed to be explored at a later date.

Just drive up, introduce himself, and go back.

Instead, Luke got to deal with a bleeding and shot Spider-Man and a furious and silent Punisher.

{The latter had shot the former.}

Which, admittedly, Luke could understand if the man didn’t have all the information. Luke only knew because of Jessica and Claire. If he hadn’t, then he’d probably be searching for Spider-Man himself.

Still made his life difficult.

He’d had to drag Castle away from the red and blue figure and have a shouting match that Castle had the wrong guy. Castle had clearly been out to murder the guy, armed to the teeth and wearing that skull vest.

All the while, Spider-Man bled out behind them.

Finally, finally, he got Castle to the agreement that Luke could take him to a nurse {Claire} and if it turned out that Spider-Man had indeed murdered all of those people, then Castle could kill him.

Which was very stress-inducing, knowing he just bartered with this guy’s life, for his life.

So that’s how he ended up in a small car that he borrowed from Claire, with a murderous vigilante and another vigilante accused of several murders.

Spider-Man was in the back, unconscious and bleeding. Luke had wrapped in a towel and prayed to God that he wouldn’t die in Claire’s car. Castle had wanted to unmask him, but Luke, remembering Murdock’s reluctance and stubbornness about secrets and identities, told him no.

This led to another argument.

Castle was in the passenger side of the car, glaring out the window. He’s got a hoodie on, thank Jesus, hiding that white skull bullet-proof vest. He’s got a bruise blooming on the side of his face, right on his cheekbone. Castle keeps furtively glancing behind him, and-

He’s got a pistol.

A Beretta M9, to be exact.

 “Didn’t I tell you to put all of your shit in the back?” Luke demands, “He’s not gonna leap out of nowhere and attack you.”

Castle just glares.

“You gonna talk or you just gonna glare at me?” When he gets no response, Luke sighs. “We’re goin’ to my place. And if you get all trigger-happy, I’m tossin’ your ass out the window.”

More glaring.

Luke sighs again and returns to the road. “Sweet Christmas.”

It takes half an hour to get from Greenpoint to Harlem, Luke pulling the car up as close as he can to Claire’s apartment. Castle gets out of the car, pulling the hood over his face and tucking the gun into his waistband. Luke grabs the towel and wraps it around Spider-Man, concealing the guy as best as he can.

Luke lifts him up and nods to Frank, leading him up to the apartment. Castle follows stiffly, hunched over and-

He’s still glaring.

Does this man ever smile?

Spider-Man lets out a pained groan, and Luke adjusts him in his arms, the small vigilante almost as light as a feather. He finally reaches the apartment and knocks on the door with his shoe, making as loud of a noise as he can. Castle stands just behind him, looking warily at his surroundings.

Danny opens the door. Because of course he does.

“Don’t you have your own place?” Luke asks, “Somewhere that isn’t mine?”

“Jess said you were getting Spider-Man,” Danny answers, eyes wide and completely innocent, “I wanted to help.”

Luke frowns at him. “She here?”

“Nah. She’s got a lead that she’s looking at.” Danny looks down at the bundle in Luke’s arms. “Is that Spider-Man? What happened to him?”

Luke jerks his head in Castle’s direction. “Ask Mr. Sunshine over there.”

Castle scowls as Danny looks at him and his eyes widen. “Oh shit.”

“Yeah,” Luke pushes past Danny, the shorter man letting him through. He walks into the apartment, still carrying the vigilante. “Claire? We got a situation!”

Claire comes rushing out of the bedroom, eyes widening as she catches sight of Spider-Man. “Oh, fuck. What happened?”

Luke sets Spidey down on the couch, pointing at Castle, who was leaning against the wall. “He happened.”

Claire snaps her head around, finding Castle and staring at him. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. You? Again? Is it a mission of yours to shoot every vigilante that comes into contact with you?”

 Castle rolls his eyes. 

“Get him to the guest room,” Claire instructs, tying her hair back, “I don’t want him in here with him.”

Luke does as she says, a small bloodstain on the couch. Luke swears. “That shit’s gonna take forever to get out.”

Claire rolls her eyes fondly. “Danny, get me my kit.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Danny scurries off toward the kitchen, leaving Castle by himself. Brooding and glaring.

Claire points a finger at him. “Stay.”

Castle scoffs.

Luke takes Spider-Man into the guest bedroom, setting him down on the twin bed. Claire immediately takes off the towel, hissing a bit at the blood. “Shit.”

Danny burst into the room, holding the med kit. “Here you go.”

Claire takes it without even looking at him, focused on her work. “Go distract Castle and call Jess. Tell her what’s going on.”

“Okay,” Danny leaves, shutting the door, and Luke can hear him in the next room, asking Castle, “Okay, so what are your opinions on pigeons?”

Thank you, Danny.

“Help me get the suit off,” Claire instructs, pulling at the fabric, which is torn and patched way too many times. “He’s gotten shot in the stomach and the right leg, and I think his ribs are broken. Or rebroken, I don’t know.”

Luke gets the guy to sit up, holding him steady so Claire can get the suit over his head. She does, and then she swears some more. “Goddammit, Luke-”

“What?” Luke sets down Spider-Man, taking a step back. “Oh. Oh, Sweet Christmas.”

Spider-Man’s body is basically bandages. And bruises. Bandages covered with blood and steadily darkening, burns peeking out of the bandages.

“He got shot in the thigh, so-” Claire grabs her tweezers. “You start getting the bandages off and I’ll deal with the leg.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Luke mutters, grabbing the scissors and cutting through the bandages. He pauses as he gets to fabric. “Uh, hey, Claire? Is this what I think it is?”

Claire looks up from where she’s tweezing the bullet out. “That’s a bra, yes. Don’t touch it, just cut around it.”

“Okay,” Luke tears the bandages away from Spidey’s body, which is covered with scars. His brow furrows. “He’s been shot before.”

“What?”

“He’s got bullet scars,” Luke murmurs, examining the scars. “They look old.”

“He is a vigilante,” Claire pulls out the bullet, setting it down and beginning to stitch up the wound. “Kinda comes with the territory. Look at his leg.”

Luke does and flinches back. “Sweet Christmas.”

“I’m gonna guess that’s from the thing,” Claire sighs, moving onto the stomach wound. “Thank god that this didn’t hurt any organs.”

“Clean shot.” Luke takes a step back. “I’m gonna go call Misty. Ask her what she knows about what happened in Brooklyn.”

Claire nods. “Tell Danny to get burn ointment. The kid needs it.”

“Kid?”

“No adult would be caught dead wearing this outfit.”

“Fair enough.”

Luke leaves, dialing a number on his phone. “Hey, Misty.”

“Cage. What’s going on?”

“You know anything about what happened in Brooklyn?”

“Straight to business, I see.” Her voice holds a tinge of amusement. “And no, not exactly.”

“Can you tell me what you do know?”

“Can you tell me why you want to know?”

Luke thumps his head against the wall. “...Because I’m plannin’ on a trip?”

“Try again.”

Fuck it.

“Spider-Man wasn’t the one who attacked that hospital, Knight.”

There’s silence.

“Explain.”

“Claire was there. Said there was someone else. Someone taller, stronger, and a hell of alot uglier.” Luke pauses. “Jones saw it too.”

“What are we doin’,  getting the band back together again?” Misty sighs. “All right.”

Luke waits.

“The investigating part has been taken out of the hands of the police. Our orders are to shoot on sight if we see Spider-Man and respond to calls. That’s it. In Brooklyn, there was a 911 call made inside a St. John’s Evangelical Church at around eleven this morning. Said there was a large, enhanced individual attacking people. Brooklyn assumed it was Spider-Man and called it in as such.”

“Any casualties?”

“None. Two injuries, but no deaths. And only one  injury was directly caused by the attacker.”

“Can you tell me the name?”

“Sorry. Feds haven’t released shit. But,” Misty hesitates, lowering her voice. “There were gunshots heard in the area not long after that and it’s not confirmed, but there was a sighting of a man in a white skull vest.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“What do you mean ‘you know’?” Misty demands, “Cage-”

“Gotta go. Bye.”

He hangs up, slipping the phone into his pocket and walking back into the living area, right as Danny finishes explaining how he became the Iron Fist. 

“-and then I came back home to New York, and I met Luke and Jess and-Oh, hey Luke.”

Castle looks like he wants to die. 

“Claire needs the ointment.” He informs Danny, the blonde man nodding and darting off. Luke then turns and faces Castle. “Talk.”

Castle raises an eyebrow. “About what?”

His voice is hoarse. And rough. Like gravel on asphalt. Like he lost his voice, and it never came back.

“How about why the hell you were hunting him?” Luke crosses his arms. “How the hell did you find him?”

“Pure dumb luck.” Castle takes a sip of whiskey, from which he stole from the bottle on the shelf. “Heard about the church and left, only to see that fucker standin’ on a rooftop. Nearly lost ‘em, but his phone rang and he was too slow.”

Luke winces, knowing that if he checked that phone now, it would read a phone number that definitely wasn't his. Not at all. Not like Jessica gave it or anything.

“Knew that the police or feds weren’t gonna do shit ‘bout him, so I went after him,” Castle takes another shot of whiskey, staring straight ahead. “Besides, I owed someone a favor.”

“Who?”

“A friend.” Castle drains the glass, slamming it back down on the counter. “His kids are dead, thanks to that thing.”

Sweet Christmas.

Luke’s never met Frank Castle, only heard of him through reputation. He kills criminals, something Luke does not agree with. Lost his family a year ago, in a massacre covered up by the feds. Went on a murderous rampage to kill everyone associated with his family’s deaths. Died, then apparently came back to life, to go on another murderous rampage in March, the reasons unknown. And then reappeared to put a bullet in Spidey’s skull.

He knows that Claire dislikes him, as she had been in the hospital when he attacked. He knows that Nelson also dislikes him, since he purposely destroyed his own trial and put a bullet in Murdock’s head. He knows that Page has worked with him before, that she believes that there’s good in him.

He knows that Turk Barrett is openly terrified of the man, and does not want to ever see him again.

Luke takes a seat on the couch. “Look. That person in there did not kill your friend’s kids. He did not kill those people in the hospital. He’s been framed, all right? There’s someone else, the person you want dead. That’s who you need to go after.”

Castle says nothing, just judges him with those cold eyes of his.

“Spider-Man’s the only person who’s fought it and lived to tell the tale,” Luke raises his palm upwards, in a C’mon kind of gesture. “If you kill him, then you lose any sort of lead you have on this guy.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, I’m not gonna kill a guy who didn’t have anything to do with the murders-”

“Then work with us.” Luke stared dead into Castle’s eyes. “I don’t give a shit if you think that working with someone is gonna slow you down; if Jessica Jones can work with Spider-Man, then so can you. If you want this guy dead, then you need help.”

Castle exhaled, rubbing his forehead with his fingers. “Jesus Christ.”

“So that’s a yes?”

“He’s got a shitty costume,” Castle says, instead of answering.

Before Luke can voice his agreement, a voice speaks up. “Why, exactly, is my costume shitty?”

And lo and behold, Spider-Man, standing in the hallway, arms crossed and staring directly at the two of them. He’s got his suit back on, still stained and torn, with bandages peeking out of it. He’s leaning on his left leg, the one with those huge gashes and those veins of blue and red.

He seems nervous. 

“Your costume is a piece of crap,” Castle informs Spider-Man, refilling his glass of whisky. “It’s like you went to arts and crafts and threw a bunch of shit at clothes you dug out of a Goodwill bin.”

“It does the job,” Spider-Man mutters, and is he pitching his voice lower? Jessica said this guy sounded like a chipmunk with an attitude.

Castle snorts. “And what’s that? To be as much of an obvious target as possible?”

“Hey!” Claire snaps at Castle, storming out from behind Spider-Man. “I had to dig out two bullets from his stomach and leg, and rewrap the bandages because you couldn’t do your goddamn research. So sit the hell down and listen.”

Castle narrows his eyes, taking a sip of his whiskey.

But he keeps his mouth shut.

Danny speaks up from where he’s behind Spider-Man. “So, like do you have a name? It doesn’t have to be your real one, just something we can call you.”

“Ummm.” Spider-Man glances at Castle warily and Luke is struck by how small the guy is. “You call me, um, Ben.”

“Ben?” Claire repeats, eyebrow raised. 

“Yeah. Ben.” ‘Ben’ fiddles with his hands, which are covered with black gloves. “So, can I go now or….?”

“What happened at the church?” Luke asks, and he can see Castle’s head snap straight up.

Ben scratches at his face. “I heard about some disturbance on the police radio Ms. Jones had, somewhere in Brooklyn. So I left and I tracked down where all the noise was comin’ from. It was at this church in Greenpoint, this red brick one.”

Castle’s face gets tense. Really tense.

“So I get inside there, and there’s nobody there. It-” Ben hesitates. “It wasn’t like the hospital; it didn’t have people lying on the floor. There were people hiding in the confessional; I could hear ‘em, but that was it. There was a basement, and I could hear voices, so I went.”

Ben sniffles, wiping his nose. His suit is wet. He’s probably coming down with a cold.

“When I got down there, I saw Jigsaw with this other dude-”

“Jigsaw?” Castle interrupts, frowning. 

“It’s what I call him,” Ben explains, in a voice that Luke knows is fake. Castle doesn’t seem to notice, leaning back against the couch. “He was there, with this other dude. And I saw him, out of the suit thing. I didn’t see his face, but he’s got brown hair and he’s white. His suit is weird, though. It looks like it’s alive.”

“Maybe it is,” Danny murmurs, thinking to himself in the corner. He notices everyone’s eyes on him. “I’m thinking.”

“How’d you get out?” Claire asks, brows furrowing as she looks at him. “‘Cause the only injuries I saw were ‘cause of him, and all the other ones were old.”

“Okay, so this other guy? I grabbed him and we managed to distract Jigsaw long enough for us to make it to the stairs. Jigsaw knocked him out, but I set off the water sprinklers and,” Ben shrugs, shoulders tense. “Here I am.”

“Any motives?” Luke takes the bottle of whiskey and places it on a high shelf away from Castle as the said man finishes his second glass. He returns to the group. “Any reasons given?”

Ben pauses. “I think he’s trying to lure someone out. This guy’s name; his name was Hoyle and he knew Jigsaw. Like, personally. And Jigsaw knew him. He said that he was going to have a conversation with Hoyle. Um, he said that he was trying to get someone, and if this failed, he’d go after someone else.”

“Is Hoyle alive?” Castle’s the one to ask the question, staring off into space, an unreadable expression on his face.

“Oh, yeah! He’s fine, just knocked out. S’why I couldn’t ask him who Jigsaw was.”

Ben’s voice is so weird. It’s like he’s trying to smooth out his words, picking them carefully so an accent doesn’t shine through. Got his voice lowered too, like he’s afraid someone will recognize i.t.

Luke opens his mouth, probably to ask Ben more questions or ask Castle why he looks like he’s swallowing a lemon, when his phone rings.

It’s Misty.

He picks up.

“Hey, what’s-”

“Your guy? He’s attacking the 15th precinct, right now. Got the entire area on lockdown.”

“Shit, Misty. You sure?”

“Can’t be anyone else.” She sounds stressed. “They can’t do anything, Luke. The bullets just bounce off.”

“All right, I’ll head out with Danny and Jess, just let me-” He pauses, looking up. “Oh, where the hell did he go?”

Claire is standing by the door, a purely exasperated and annoyed look on her face. “Out.”

This is why Jessica is one dealing with him.

Castle stands up, moving toward the door and Luke shakes his head at him. “He’s fast on those webs of his, Castle. You ain’t gonna catch up to him.”

“Castle?” Misty demands, calling Luke’s attention back to his phone. “Luke, what the hell-”

“Misty,” Luke sighs, “If it’s at all possible, can you tell your coworkers not to shoot at Spider-Man?”