Chapter 9
Matt made his way towards a different rooftop, where he could hide out until the Avengers left. A mischievous laugh bubbled out of him and he had to stifle the sound with his fist.
It was nothing short of hilarious, that he had managed to play this trick on them.
He hadn't been the one, who had created that file.
Foggy, however, had spent an entire day on it.
It had taken quite a lot of sweet talking, Matt's best puppy eyes and a bribe consisting of free coffee for a month, until Foggy had finally conceded and agreed to help out.
They had gone through the entire file, page by page. Matt had given his notes, and Foggy had written them down, including the two layouts of the warehouses that functioned as the syndicate's headquarters.
After all, it would be much easier to conceal his identity, if the Avengers thought he had normal sight.
The following night, Matt was sitting on a rooftop across the street from tonight's target, and waited. It didn't take long, until he heard someone climbing up the fire escape. He turned his head slightly to the side and spoke to the archer behind him: “How nice of you, to join me.”
“What are you talking about? I'm right on time,” came the slightly out of breath reply. “Besides, we need to wait until Tony is in position, anyway.” Clint rummaged through the duffle bag he had slung over one shoulder and eventually produced a small device, holding it out towards Matt. “I brought you an extra ear-piece, so we can stay in contact during the mission.”
Hesitantly, Matt turned around and inspected the device from up close, trying to decide whether he should take it or not. Chances were, it would only mess with his hearing, and since he would be able to hear Clint either way, he really didn't have much use for it.
On the other side, it might be useful to be able to hear what Stark was getting up to.
With a nod, he took the small ear-piece and put it in his pocket. “I'll be listening in, but I won't reply.”
“Wha-” The archer threw his hands into the air with an annoyed scoff. “What do you mean, you won't be replying? I thought the whole point of this is, for us to work together.” A faint voice came from his earpiece. He rolled his eyes and added: “Tony's in position.”
Matt gave him an amused smirk. “Good, but we are working together. And if I do get into trouble, I can always just yell loud enough for you to hear either way.”
He grimaced and asked: “Yeah, okay, but why though?”
Matt shrugged. “I don't like having something in my ear, while I fight.” He gestured towards the warehouse in front of them and declared: “It's time.”
Clint was good at his job. In fact, he was one of the best; and usually, he would have little trouble with taking out his half of the warehouse. However usually, he would scout the best angles from where he could shoot his bow, and take out a good chunk of enemies that way.
Unfortunately, that wasn't possible with this particular building, since it only had a few windows, which were high up and blocked by other buildings.
So, he grit his teeth and made his way inside, as quietly as he could.
Twenty minutes later, he hadn't made nearly as much progress as he would have liked, and he had to realize rather painfully, that fighting without killing his opponents, presented a much larger challenge than he had anticipated.
He was armed with stacks of zip-ties, which slowed him down even more, since he had to stop every couple of minutes to immobilize the defeated men strewn across the floor.
The whole ordeal was both frustrating and eye-opening. This way of fighting cost him a lot of energy and at some point he had to pause to catch his breath, before he could continue.
He was honestly in awe, when it dawned on him that Daredevil fought like this every night, every time. The stamina of that man had to be insane.
Hoping he was close to their rendezvous-point, Clint burst through a door and stumbled straight into a large, open hall, filled with long tables, covered in packaging and drugs.
About fifty men were staring back at him.
“Ah,” Clint said. “I see.” Swiftly, he stepped back through the door and held it closed behind himself. “Daredevil? There's a few more people in here than we thought.”
In the other warehouses, Tony laughed into his helmet. “This job too big for you, bud?”
“Shut up!” he snapped and decided to try again, while using his entire weight to counter the pounding on the door: “I could use some back-up, is what I'm saying.”
To his surprise, his ear-piece crackled, before a slightly strained voice replied: “I took a detour. I'm inside the drug-room now. Stark, what's your status?”
The sound of distant gunfire flooded his ears, before Tony yelled: “I'm almost finished up here, police are already on their way.”
“Good, get out of there, before the police get there.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Matt was having a great time. Since most of the building consisted of winding hallways, he had an easy way of dealing with anyone trying to take him down. At the same time, the closer he got to the room where he would meet up with the archer, the more easily he could track his movements.
Despite the distance between them, Matt got a good picture of Clint's fighting style and even he had to admit, that a fight between the two of them would be difficult to predict the outcome of.
His head cocked to the side, Matt listened closely, if somebody was immediately behind this next door. There were two men, but then a commotion on the opposite side of the room drew them away and he used the opportunity to slip inside unnoticed.
Ducking behind a table, he inched towards one criminal, who had remained in his spot. Matt shot up behind him and pulled him to the floor, one arm hooked around his throat, until he lost consciousness.
In that moment, Clint's voice came from the earpiece in Matt's pocket, asking for help. Fishing out the small device with his gloved hands was more than infuriating, but he managed it eventually and quietly answered.
He stuffed the earpiece back into his pocket and sneaked towards the wall, crawling underneath the tables and silently taking out a few people that crossed his path.
Shortly afterwards, the other door burst open and a knife came flying out of it, followed by the archer, who threw himself into battle head first.
Matt had to suppress a groan, as he came to the conclusion that he had to follow Clint's lead, even though he would have liked to continue his stealthy crusade.
After that, it all went by very fast.
Clint kept most of the attention on himself, while Matt went around picking people off the sidelines and zip-tying the ones already sprawled across the floor. As soon as the ones who would try to run away, were incapacitated, Matt threw himself into the crowd of criminals closing in on the archer.
They fought for what felt like hours, before a single gunshot rang through the room.