Chapter Text
Tony has been up in his lab for hours now. Which isn’t exactly abnormal. Sometimes he’s up there for so long they’d find him asleep on the floor, his tools and random metal trinkets all around him.
But something must be different this time because usually when he’s up there the only person who’s allowed to ‘disturb’ him is Bruce.
But this time FRIDAY, Tony’s AI machine (and probably his closest friend figuring how much he talks to the damn thing) has requested that all of them come up to his lab immediately. (With the exception of Thor who had to run or well, fly, to Asgard for a couple of days)
They thought maybe he needed help or something bad had happened so Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Bruce rushed to the elevator and went to his lab.
But instead of finding some sort of threat, they found Tony’s desk covered in newspapers some dating back to 2014, along with that, Tony was sitting on the floor swiping on one of the four- no five- tablets that were around him, looking at what they thought was old security footage tapes.
“Hey how much do you guys know about this Daredevil guy?” He asks without even looking up from the hologram he was now tapping away on.
They looked at him for a moment, Clint was the one to speak up first, “ya’ mean that vigilante from Hell’s Kitchen?”
“That’s the one, have you ever actually met him?”
“No, but I’ve seen him on the news a couple of times.”
Bruce spoke now, “he took down that Wilson Fisk guy too right?”
“Yeah,” Tony said while simultaneously pushing a newspaper talking about the vigilante and Fisk with his foot the the four Avengers, “twice actually. Both times before we even realized he was a threat. He also took down the Russian mob, and the Yakuza.”
“All without help?” Steve asked, he’s heard of Daredevil, or, The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen as he used to be known as, but he never really took the time to look into it. Hell’s Kitchen wasn’t exactly a safe neighborhood, so what if some guy wanted to help try and fix that?
To be honest, from the little Steve has heard about the guy, he respects what he’s trying to do, he’d be a hypocrite if he said the guy was wrong because ‘being a vigilante is a crime’. Steve Rodgers may be America’s Golden Boy, but he’s broken more laws in the last 5 years than some might have in a life time.
“Well he’s been spotted working with people a few of times, but usually, yeah, he works alone.” Tony answered.
“Is this why you called us up here Tony?” Natasha asked,
“So you guys have all heard of him, but have any of you actually seen him fight?” Tony continues, without answering Natasha,
Nobody answered, it’s true, they’ve all heard of The Man Without Fear, but have only seen photos of him on TV or in the newspaper.
“Let’s change that, FRIDAY?” Tony continues without an answer,
“Right away sir.” A female robotic voice answers as a giant hologram pops up on Tony’s other, less paper covered, desk.
The four were shocked.
Daredevil was like a machine. They watched him take on 5 guys in an alleyway at night, all armed with knives and two with guns. He knocked the first guy out with a single punch that threw him into the corner of a dumpster before blocking an incoming knife aimed for the back of his neck, hitting the second guy in the head with a billy club.
Stepping over the second guy, he blocked a punch, uppercutting the third man in the chin and slamming him into a wall punching him in the stomach a couple of times until the guy started coughing up blood. Without looking behind him, he threw his billy club at the fourth guys hand knocking his gun away before back flipping and knocking the guy to the ground, hitting him in the face a couple of times for good measure.
They thought the fight was over but as Daredevil was looking down at the guy he just knocked out the first man he knocked out, the one who hit the dumpster, got up slowly, he pulled out his gun and quietly pointed it at the back of Daredevils head.
For a split second, Clint thought they were about to witness the end of The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, but then, out of nowhere, Daredevil ducked milliseconds before the gun went off, he rolled to the side and kicked the gun out of the man’s hand before pounding on the guy with what Bruce could only describe as rage.
After all, Bruce has had first hand experience with it, with the hulk.
Tony paused the CCTV footage after Daredevil flipped onto a fire escape and disappeared from camera view.
“I’ve been looking at several other bits of footage just like this, and going over police interviews from guys who took on Daredevil himself, everything I find looks and sounds the same. This guy can do things no normal human could, like, how the hell did he know that gun was pointed at him? The guy was behind him and it was dark in that alley. That’s what I can’t figure out, how the hell is he doing what he’s doing?!” Tony rambled on, clearly he’s been researching this Daredevil guy none stop for the past couple hours.
“He’s definitely has training,” Steve says
“But you can tell he’s using a mix of different fighting styles, some he uses more than others” Clint adds before Natasha finishes with,
“He switches off between using skill and using anger. Sometimes he throws perfect punches and kicks and has impressive form while back flipping or dodging a knife, but other times it looks like he’s in any old street fight,” She thinks for a moment before adding,
“This guy has manage to mix both into his own unique fighting style that no one else knows, therefore no one can prepare for.” She was impressed, to say the least. But also slightly concerned, this guy was skilled, trained and clearly very dangerous. Why is this the first time he’s being looked into??
“That’s what I’m talking about! Pepper brought him up to me a couple days ago and I was bored so I figured I’d look into the guy and holy cow am I glad I did!” Tony said, looking at some of the newspaper articles he had laid out.
“Do you think he’s enhanced or something?” Bruce asks Tony,
“Or something,” he says,
they could tell he wants to say something else but then Steve says, “Maybe he’s an alien, I mean, that would explain the enhancements, and why we can’t find anything on the guy.”
“Speaking of, “ Clint continues, “Do we even know who this guy is?”
“No.” Tony says grumpily. Clearly he’s been unsuccessful in uncovering the man behind the mask.
He pauses for a moment then continues, ”While I’ve been digging I’ve discovered a few theories some of the locals have about him,” he says cautiously, “Some of the people in Hell’s Kitchen think his name is more than just a name.”
“Wait, your not actually suggesting what I think you are-“ Bruce says his brows knitting together,
“You think he’s the Devil??” Steve asks, not fully believing any of this,
“You can’t be serious-“ Natasha says, rolling her eyes,
“Devil or some kind of demon, yeah.” Tony says, he turns around back to the hologram and adds, “FRIDAY, show them the other thing I found,”
The hologram changed to another CCTV camera, this one on top of a building, Daredevil is fighting some guy, and clearly having a lot more trouble than in the other video. This guy is skilled and trained too, watching them fighting was like watching a fight scene in an action movie sped up, both men were fighting with incredible speed and precision, landing solid hits on each other but neither backing down.
Until one of the guys falls over. He’s on the ground and Daredevil is in front of him, they think he’s won the fight but the the other guy pulls out a gun from an ankle holder that wasn’t visible until now, Daredevil freezes but it’s too late,
“Bang.” The man says.
The gun goes off, and all five of them watch Daredevils head fly back before his body falls off the edge of the building.
“That video is from 2015. This was before the first video I showed you guys of him.”
“Wait- this guy got shot in the head and he’s still alive??” Bruce asks not bothering to hide the shock in his voice.
“Yeah. You should see some of the other hits I’ve seen this guy take. He’s been punched, kicked, stabbed and shot. Several times.” Tony answers.
“Maybe he is the Devil,” Clint, who has been quiet for a couple minutes thinking, up until now whispers, just loud enough for the others to hear.
“You guys can’t really believe that,” Steve says,
“It’s much more likely for him to be enhanced or some sort of alien.” Natasha says.
“Oh come on! In the world we live in? You’ve seen some of what this guy can do! You really think it’s impossible for this guy to be the actual Devil in world where the impossible is proven possible everyday??” Tony exclaims, when neither Steve nor Natasha agrees with him he turns to Bruce, “come on Banner, back me up.”
Bruce hesitates than says, “sorry Tony, but I can’t agree with you on this one.”
For a moment, Tony pauses, “fine. I bet each of you Daredevil is the actual Devil or some kind of demon.”
“You really want to place bets on this?” Natasha asks now slightly amused,
“Yes. Because I’m always right.” Steve rolls his eyes.
Clint laughs then says, “we haven’t even met the guy , I wouldn’t start placing bets just yet.”
“On a more serious note we probably should find this guy, someone like him is a good person to keep an eye on.” Bruce thinks out loud.
“Bruce is right. How ‘bout this, Natasha and Clint can head to Hell’s Kitchen tonight to try and find Daredevil.” Steve turns to the geniuses in the room, ”Bruce and Tony will stay here to try and find more on this guy,” He glances back at Natasha and Clint before adding, “And if you two happen to run into the him, we’ll stay on coms and watch from the cameras in your suit. I’ll be just outside of Hell’s Kitchen as back up if needed and Tony will have his suit ready and on stand by.”
“Good idea cap, we can stalk the guy till he banishes us all into hell.” Tony says sitting back into his seat.
“He’s not the Devil Stark, he’s not going to cast anyone down to hell.” Natasha says rolling her eyes for what must be the fifth time in the last half hour.
Tony smiles, “you wanna bet?”