Chapter Ten
“This is the place.”
Jitterbug looked through a dingy window to see a group of men walking around, multiple crates scattered in the warehouse. From what she could see one of them was open and full of high-tech machinery and weaponry. “You got a plan?”
Daredevil nodded, she still couldn’t believe it all. Working side by side with the doppelganger of a man who made her life a living hell. Well, she’ll have time to process the absurdity of it all when she got back to her dimension.
“You go through the roof and web them up using your speed.” He explained. “And then I-” Suddenly Matt froze, his head tilted to the side as he listened to something she couldn’t hear. Jitterbug’s body went into overload and her hair stood on edge, the tell-tale sign of her spider-sense.
“Hey buddy, you wanna tell me what the hell is going on?” She looked around them and saw nothing, but she knew something was off.
Matt groaned. “Damnit Castle.”
Multiple gunshots rang throughout the building. A man had burst in and opened fire on the gang who quickly retaliated, turning it into a full blown fire-fight.
“New plan!” Jitterbug kicked in the window and sped into the building. “Stop everybody from killing each other!”
Jitterbug zipped into the building just in time to tackle a crook to the ground and out of gunfire. She narrowly avoided being shot by the man herself. Soon enough the gang was no longer focused on the mystery man, but her as well.
“What the fuck is that!” A thug screamed at her webbed mask.
She brought her fist down on his face, knocking him out instantly. “Save the dramatics mate.”
Daredevil ran over to the man and kicked the gun from his grasp. “Frank stop!” At the name her head shot up to stare but Matt kicked him back, facing away from her and hiding his identity. “We have it handled.”
Jitterbug went around, immobilizing each criminal and dancing around the bullets as Matt fought the unknown assailant. She shook the thought from her head. There was no way, it just wasn’t possible!
She looked over and saw them both still fighting. Matt was doing well to defend himself, but the man was better. He was taller, bulkier, and faster than the catholic vigilante. He definitely had training.
The Matt from this dimension was completely different than the one she knew, so maybe...
“Hardly.” The man’s voice was rough and deep. It was one she’d heard every week, one telling her to leave it to the police, telling her to stay to fill out a police report and telling her to be careful.
She turned and shot a web at him, connecting his raised fist to the giant crate right next to him. He tried to wretch his hand free but to no avail. Matt set his hands on his hips and grinned, watching the man try to tear himself free with no success.
“You know, I could get used to this.”
The breathe was stolen right from Jitterbug’s lungs at the sight of Frank fucking Castle, covered in bruises and staring her down with harsh eyes. This Frank was stockier, covered in more scars but the same face and bulldog-frown. He wore no police uniform, but all black clothing and a vest with a white skull painted on that was now riddled with bullets.
“Frank?” She said his name so soft, so scared and confused that it shocked both men.
The Frank Castle she knew was an officer of the law, one who’d defend the justice system with his last breathe and criticize the masked heroes that help him in the same sentence. He openly dismissed vigilante justice as a nuisance and believed in the system he worked for.
Now she felt like she stepped right into an episode of Twilight Zone.
“Your girlfriend alright red?” Frank noticed how the masked woman tensed up when he looked at her. She shook herself out of her stupor, she had no time to stand and gape over the vigilante. (Even calling him that made her feel wrong.)
“I’m fine.” She snapped before walking right past him and to the crate he was connected to. “You aren’t my issue, that’s all him.” She waved a hand in DareDevil’s direction and Frank snorted.
“Well ain’t she peachy.” Christ, it was the same voice and everything.
Matt shot him a dirty look. “You’re lucky we got here when we did Frank. We had it covered and you-”
Frank rolled his eyes. Clearly the severity of the situation meant nothing to him. Jitterbug noted the nicknames and first name basis the two were on. The banter between the two as they fought about their ideologies.
I guess they've been through this with each other before.
“All you do it beat ‘em up and-” Frank looked around him and froze mid sentence.“Alright, that’s new.”
Each criminal was tied up tight in a cocoon of webbing, unconscious, immobilized and stuck to a wall.
“You're welcome for that, by the way.” Jitterbug ripped the top off the box with a single hand, something both Frank and Matt gaped at. She didn’t have time to get caught up on the fact that this dimension’s Frank didn’t blink an eye at killing. She needed to worry about getting home. “Now if you boys are done with your little dick measuring contest I have to-” She looked at the open box which was now full of shattered materials and bullet holes.
“Youve got to be fucking kidding me!”
“What?” Matt rushed to her side. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” She laughed mockingly before turning to face Frank with a nasty scowl. “What’s wrong is that your Frank Castle is an ass who just ruined my chances of getting home because he’s fucking trigger happy!”
He clenched his fist and let out a slow breathe, as if keeping his temper from snapping. “You want me to apologize for keeping those guns from hittin’ the streets? For keepin’ those criminals from killing more people?”
She groaned and pointed in his face. “No jackass, I want you to apologize for sending me to an early grave you-”
She remembered Gwen telling her that “glitching” felt like “being tazed naked in a snowstorm.” Which as odd as it sounded, was actually spot on to the agonizing pain she felt in that moment as her body distorted and burned. She didn’t know what the loud piercing sound was until she realized it was her own screaming. She stumbled to the floor and Matt caught her, ripping off her mask and looking at her groaning form.
“Jitterbug?” He pressed his fingers to her pulse and she patted his arm, letting him know she was find, well...as fine as she could be in the situation.
“Hey!” Frank tried to rip his hand free and run to her aid, but he was stuck as stuck can be. “Hey! What the hell is going on?!” As the sight of her screaming in pain, Frank went from anger to concern for the now unmasked heroine. “Red what the hell did you do!?”
“Me?” Matt shot back. “This wasn’t me at all. If anything your violent actions could have been the one to cause-”
“I’m fine.” She pushed herself out of Matt’s arms and upright, facing both men with a grim expression. “Just my atoms reacting to being in another dimension is all.”
Frank looked between her and Matt. “Your what?”
“We need to find a way to get me back, or else I’m gonna keep doing that.” She explained. “And eventually I wont get back up from it.”
“We will.” Daredevil promised her. With that she went to one of the boxes to see what she could salvage. Maybe she could put something together? All the materials were there, albeit dented and riddled with bullets but maybe she’d be able to get it to work just enough to return her home.
As Jitterbug pondered a plan Frank fisted daredevil’s costume in his hand and yanked him close, rage clear on his face.
“Start talking. Now.”