| Daredevil Dares | |||||
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| What: A bounty has been placed on Daredevil's head. Elektra aims to collect... until she discovers who else's head must be claimed in the process. | |||||
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"Yo, Snakes. You get the shipment all unloaded yet?" A fat man in a business suit sits in an office connected to a warehouse. A semi-truck of stolen electronics is being unloaded. Unloaded more slowly than Rufus Toto would like, apparently.
"Nah boss. Should be done in about 5-10 minutes."
"That a fact? Why don't you get your flabby ass out there and try and speed it up, then huh? I aint got all day!"
The dismissal is clear in Toto's voice, but as Snake makes his way out into the garage, things are quiet. Too quiet. Both of the men seem to have vanished.
"Reynolds? Harris? Where are ya? Stop foolin' around and get back to work."
But when the lights go out, it's clear that Snakes, Reynolds, Harris, and Toto all got more than they bargained for that evening.
The battle doesn't take long, and within 8 minutes, the police have been notified, the crooks have been tied up, and Daredevil is among the rooftops, breathing heavily from a job well done.
The scent is the only warning. Although she's taken steps to hide most of it, she hasn't quite been successful in erasing it all; she believes that she is hiding merely from The Hand, whose agents are good but who cannot hope to match the senses of the Man Without Fear. She can't know how acute Daredevil's nose really is.
So it is the scent that lets him know. Familiar. Feminine. A hint of apple blossom and pomegranate, and underneath that, the tang of blood.
Elektra.
And in the next moment, she is in front of him, seeming almost to meld out of the darkness. Her footsteps are silent, her approach making almost no sound at all; until the sai comes swinging around. Displaced air, the whistle of metal against the wind. She doesn't hold back at all; her intent as simple as it is brutal, to stave in the unfortunate man's chest, and claim ten million dollars of the Kingpin's money in one simple stroke.
An easy night for the Assassin, eh?
Not quite so easy.
Daredevil leaps backwards into a summersault, narrowly avoiding the sigh as it scrapes a bit of a line over the interlocking double D on his chest.
Before he even rights himself, the billy club is out and swinging in wide arcs in a defensive manner. His knees are bent in a defensive stance as he stops, now. Listening. Waiting.
...Elektra.
Elektra's brow quirks as the blow fails to strike true. Perhaps this will be interesting after all.
The defensive ward is sorely pressed as Elektra makes an exploratory flourish of strikes. Each one rings out in the cool night air, and she is quietly impressed. There aren't many people who could last even this long against her, and it is immediately obvious that Daredevil is going to make her work for every cent of that money.
Her feet touch down to the ground, and she narrows her eyes. That style. It is ... familiar to her, but... why?
She's hesitating, not quite ready to press the attack again. She's seen this stance - or something close to it - before... but where? When?
Elektra's legs leave the ground as the leg sweeps, and her sai cross to deflect the ringing blow. It still shocks up her arms, but she's weathered enough storms to barely note the impact.
As she presses upon him, Daredevil goes low and stretches a leg in a long sweep arc; an attempt to take the legs out from under her. Meanwhile, successful or not, the billy club rockets upwards in an attempt to catch his attacker on the chin.
"What is the meaning of this?" His words are calm, low, barely above a whisper. There's no panic in him, rather patience and focus.
As Elektra touches down to the rooftop again, and circles across it, she muses the response. "Ten million dollars." She replies...
And in an instant, one sai is flung, and the other in the sash about her waist. It is a deadly feint, twisting in low to bring her hand up - a technique that would ordinarily allow her to rip a man's heart clean from his chest...
But this time, as her hand touches him, her eyes widen. There's a sharp intake of breath, and she pulls her hand back as though Daredevil's chest had been electrified, eyes wide with horror.
Daredevil takes the opportunity to jut back. That was close. Too close. He can't see her face, but he can hear the change in her breathing and the subtle shift in her pulse. He can almost feel the light reflected from her eyes change as he pupils dilate slightly.
"You know...Don't you?"
"And now I know a bit about you, too."
Elektra's lapse of control does not last long. A long, slow breath leaves the woman, and she brings her heart rate back under control. Her lips press together, and she leans down slowly, deliberately, picking up the sai again.
"You are a fool." She says, at last.
"... But a fool who has earned the price on his head, so a successful fool."
"A fool?"
For the first time, Matt's exterior as Daredevil cracks a bit. "Careful, Elektra. You might hurt my feelings if you're not careful."
Still defensive, he feels like the battle has ended, but he remains defensive nonetheless.
After all, there are 10 million reasons for her to be out tonight. "Who is it this time?"
"Matt..."
Stepping closer across the rooftop, Elektra has fallen out of her combat stance, and the sai is placed back in the sash around her waist. Her breath fogs the air between them, and she stops just a few paces short, her bearing tense.
"The Kingpin." She says, her voice solemn as the grave. "And so you must stop this game, because he will not. A mask... is not worth dying for. Is it?"
Daredevil's shoulders droop as she approaches him, but he makes no move to put distance between himself and her...not any longer. Still wary of a double-cross, his hand tightens on his billyclub, but his thoughts are more upon what she was saying. "Men like Kingpin are the reasons why I spend my father's days alone, Elektra. You can't tell me you willingly side with him."
"I side with myself." Elektra replies, sharply. Her arms fold across her chest, and she glares - for all the good that hard looks will do her. The woman's jaw is set, and whilst Daredevil looks disappointed, she just looks more and more angry.
"But I am not the problem. Do you think that I will be the only one to come for you?"
"No, I don't. But I do know that you're the only one good enough to actually do the deed." Daredevil then begins pumping her for information. "Who else has he put on the job? What are their ability levels? Metas, mutants, or normal humans?" He can hear her jaw clench, teeth grinding on each other. "You're angry. Why?"
"Arrogant."
Elektra stalks forwards, and she is angry, yes, but the finger which is pointed at Matt is not aiming at one of the many points she could use to try and maim, mangle or murder him. Instead, her voice rises.
"It is an open bounty. Every assassin and mercenary in the world knows that there is ten million dollars to be made in taking your head. Or, at least, the head of Daredevil."
She pauses, to let that sink in, before she continues. "You may not approve of my skills, but if you are going to survive, you are going to need them."
"On the contrary. I'm enthralled by your skills." Daredevil's head tilts slightly. "I don't approve of how you use them. But then again," Daredevil takes a step foward into her pointing finger, bouncing it off his chest. "You stopped caring about what I doand what I do not approve of a long time ago."
Elektra steps forwards as Daredevil invades her personal space. Quite suddenly, she's reaching up, and her hands come together behind his neck. He chides her, but her lips are pressing into his, and the air on the rooftop feels suddenly intensely warm, the heat of the past, perhaps, forcing its way into the present. She lets the kiss linger for as long as she can, holding him tight against her.
With all his powers and abilities of observation, Murdock was not ready for this. He leans against her, letting her kiss him and returning after a moment of surprise. When she finally pulls away he just stands there a moment; surprised putty. After, he's able to get his bearings and straightens. "That was unexpected."
Now, Elektra is smiling. Stepping away from the man again, she stretches her arms languidly into the air, and closes her eyes. "I won't let you die." There's a promise in those five words, and after she says it, she steps towards the edge of the rooftop. The taste of her lingers, will, perhaps, linger longer than she herself will.
"But soon, Matt... you might understand why we can't be together again." Even though she's smiling, her voice is strangely mournful, especially the whisper that any else would have missed...
~Too soon.~
Daredevil grimaces as she steps away and begins to make her disappearance. He's just now gotten to the point where he doesn't think about her. To have her come in and do this to him seems patently unfair. Still, her aid in this war against Kingpin will be invaluable. It's only at the last moment that he considers her comment about what he will soon realize. Is it he who is arrogant? Or does she take the cake on that one? Perhaps she's arrogant, but she's most certainly right.