//------------------------------// // Chapter 133 – Something’s Different // Story: Infinity Era // by JDPrime22 //------------------------------// 133 New York City Capital of the Ultron Empire Year: 2021 9:17 p.m. Matthew Murdock’s world was cloaked in black. Taking a second or two to maintain his breathing, even Matt found that to be difficult when the air was corroded in smoke and fire. The world on fire he always witnessed didn’t seem to be just him anymore. All around him, all Matt could see, hear, and taste were the remains of a large bedroom. At least, that was what it appeared to have been once. The walls were blown open, the ceiling torn asunder and wires, lamps, and rebar dangling above his head. Smoke covered the ceiling and sunk in through the floor. Distant fires raged outside of the apartment complex Murdock was found in, the Daredevil’s head flicking back and forth as his ears caught every beat and sound within a five-mile radius. Just one heartbeat other than his. And it was close. Just two heartbeats within New York City. That alone caught Murdock’s heart in his throat. He scrambled to his feet, the black Daredevil mask retracting back and revealing his disheveled, uneven expression breathing and coughing sporadically. Again and again. Looking around wildly and stampeding through the broken doorways in search of that other life, another heartbeat within the city. Yet there was something clouding it. Just silence and raging fires consuming the colossal remains of his home city. How it was possible was a question Matt could hold onto for later. He recalled that there was another heartbeat in the abandoned apartment complex other than his. He focused his efforts to turn to that heartbeat instead, try and find that life still alive with him. He didn’t have to. It came to him. Freezing, Matt rolled to the left as a tremor of energy blasted apart the floor he once stood upon. That flow of raw power followed him, ripping apart the entire floor until it caved in and fell to the floor below. Matt fell with it, landing on his shoulder as the dust and concrete came flowing on top of him. Quickly kicking the concrete off of him, Matt rolled back to his feet and raised his head a couple floors above. Once more, he didn’t have to. That fiery figure leapt down and landed just in front of him, swinging with a right leg that Matt easily ducked under. The punches came quicker, Murdock doing his best to duck and recover. A single, gloved-fist struck his chest. Even as Murdock caught it before it could make impact, the blast of energy fueling the fist sent Matt flying backwards. The Daredevil rolled several yards back, groaning softly as he rose to a knee and lifted his widened eyes to his approaching attacker. He heard the heartbeat. The sporadic, adrenaline-fueled, familiar heartbeat. Quickly, he shot out his hands and called out, “Daisy!” Daisy Johnson lowered her right fist, her panic-filled gaze softening when that voice reached her. Her eyes narrowed, the fires from the skies outside barely able to unveil to her who was kneeling before her. “Matt?” she replied. Slowly, shakily, he rose back up to his own two feet, hands still jutted outwards towards the Inhuman. “Yeah… Yeah, it’s me.” “Oh, my God,” she gasped. Before he could even react appropriately, Daisy broke that distance between them and gave Murdock a quick but assuring hug. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, breaking away and gripping his shoulders, eyes scanning him from top to bottom. “If it wasn’t pitch-black in here…” She could barely make out the smile on his lips, his blank stare gazing straight into her eyes. “Guess the suit didn’t help either,” he chuckled. Daisy offered a chuckle in return, stepping back and observing her surroundings more clearly, more precisely. She had woken up surrounded in darkness, seemingly on her own for several minutes. As if her stress couldn’t have been elevated enough. Able to gaze out the glass window to her left, Daisy witnessed red and black skies above and darkened, decimated buildings and housing complexes that traveled for miles on end. As far as they could have been allowed to see. She approached the window that offered that minimal light, a palm rising up and pressing against the cracked, dusty glass. “Where are we?” she asked, gazing to the torn street below. “New York,” Matt responded in a heartbeat, Daisy flicking her head back to him. He waved his palm outwards as he approached her. “Or… what’s left of it. Can you check our coordinates and see if we made it to Scott’s last known location?” Daisy nodded and tapped away on her GPS. “Yep. We’re here,” she mumbled, letting her left wrist fall softly to her side, eyes unable to turn away from the only light source. The melting skylines. “Wherever we are.” Together, the agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Defender, the two Avengers gazed outwards to see the sprawling city as anything but. If what Friday told them was true, then Scott definitely winded up in an alternate timeline separate from their own. Which brought Matt back to the mission at hand, his fist tapping Daisy’s right shoulder as he said, “Let’s scout it out. He couldn’t have gotten far.” A scouting party of two did not cover as much ground as either had hoped. It was ranging close to ten minutes of them searching the entire floor before having to move down to the next one. In their search with Matthew pretty much leading the way, all Daisy could really do was follow his footsteps and not get lost in the sprawling, run-down, decimated apartment complex. He could sense things more so than eyesight ever could, more than Daisy ever could. She examined her surroundings and witnessed the broken rooms, the tattered floors. Everything seemed to be the aftermath of a nuclear explosion striking New York. She prayed that wasn’t the case otherwise they would have been in much greater danger than earlier thought. Matt didn’t mention anything about nuclear waste in the atmosphere when she asked him, so that was reassuring. All that was left was finding their long-lost Avenger and the Mind Stone. Matt led them to a large set of steel doors, warning signs loosely hanging from the walls with what appeared to be bullet holes rippled throughout the hallway alongside… larger ones at that. The edges where the larger holes were appeared to have been burnt, going completely through the other side. Whatever had struck it, it was hot, fast, and deadly. The skeletal remains of a human being lying on the floor was evidence of that. While Matt struggled with the locks on the steel door, Daisy simply patted his shoulder and pulled him aside. Though somewhat curious at that, Murdock’s curiosity ended when the obvious became reality. Daisy stood before the set of doors, jammed out her right fist, and blew the doors apart with a trembling quake of energy. Matt flinched to the sound of the steel doors being ruthlessly thrown against the concrete pillars and walls, but nonetheless turned to Daisy and nodded. She smirked in return, taking that first step further into the darkness. But she stopped. The Devil’s hand stopped her. Looking back, she could see as Murdock’s head was darting back and forth, his neck slightly twisted for his ears to be better directed towards the windows. To the outside world. And from that world—from that burning hellscape—Matthew heard something. The sudden loss of color in his face made Daisy’s heart fall straight into her stomach. Slowly, he raised a gloved-finger over his lips, silently telling her to remain calm. More importantly, to keep quiet. She didn’t even have to ask why. The sound of repulsors and the robotic voice outside the apartment complex gave her all she needed to know. “Energy source detected. Attention all biological life forms. Exit the premises and surrender immediately. You will have ten seconds to comply, otherwise we will fire upon the building. Long live the new age.” Daisy shot her head in the direction of the voice, her black and violet hair dancing wildly to her movements. Her wide and agitated eyes spotted various light sources burning bright from the cracked and dusty windows, golden entities floating several feet above the street. They faced the building they were in, the obvious threat laid before them. Surrender wasn’t an option to either Avenger, and both seemed to be on the same page. Grabbing her hand, Matt whispered sharply, “Follow my lead!” Even when it was pitch-black in the apartment, Murdock ran and ducked and weaved through various obstacles in his path. He saw the world differently, everything burning bright and visible for the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. Daisy, unfortunately, did not have that blessing. Had Murdock let go of her hand, she would have easily tripped and fallen or gotten lost in the winding hallways and expansive, destroyed rooms within the apartment complex. Thankfully, he never let go, and he led her throughout the darkness until some light was finally their greeter. They were on an elevated floor, both Avengers pausing by the lone window that overlooked a secondary building directly next to the apartment they were in. Having already lost count of how many seconds they had left before the building would go up in flames, Daisy turned and watched as Matt kicked open the window and shattered it instantly. He pulled his billy club free from his belt, flinging one end out to the fire escape on the building ahead of them. Directly over the alleyway. The steel fiber cable wrapped around the fire escape, tightening after Murdock yanked at it. Gripping one end, Matt turned to Johnson and held out his arm. “Might wanna hold on tight. We got two seconds left.” Daisy didn’t even have time to breathe. She wrapped her arms around him, ran with him, leapt out of the window and even the building with him as the fires of it overcame the entire apartment. She could feel the heat burn the back of her head, but not a single flame reached her. They swung downwards, crashed into the approaching window and broke apart, rolling for several feet. Lifting their heads simultaneously, both Daisy and Matt watched with fire in their eyes as the entire apartment was bombarded with repulsor lights, streams of bright gold and orange energy impacting the entire complex and bringing it down in a flurry of fire and dust. Silence was their greeter for several seconds. Just nothing else than that. Slowly looking over to her fellow Avenger, Daisy watched as Matt raised another finger to his lips, the Devil rising up and making his way to the set of stairs. Cautiously, as desperate as she was to not make a sound, Daisy pressed her fists into the concrete floor and rose up. She stayed low, however, eyes constantly scanning the windows and the world outside for any signs of movement. Thankfully, there was none, and even if there was outside of her eyesight, Matt would have caught onto it and warned her. But he didn’t. He led her down the stairs, into the main lobby, and outside into the alleyway. Just as they reached the edge the alley, Murdock paused and peeked out, Daisy following. They saw the remains of the apartment they were once in, dozens of the golden entities searching the wreckage with bright, burning red lights escaping their eyes and maws. Like searchlights. Daisy gulped at that, darting her eyes down the opposite end of the street and seeing no such beings. It was empty. It was safe. She took that first daring step out into the road, only for Matt’s arm to shoot out in front of her chest and stop her. Turning her gaze to Murdock, Daisy quickly turned back to the golden men and saw them slowly turning towards the building they hid behind. “Matt, we have to move,” she whispered, danger burning on her tongue. “We can’t.” Daisy stared at him. “Why?” All he did was look up. Apprehensively, Daisy followed. The skies were filled with them. Dozens, maybe even hundreds of the golden entities flying forth and filling the fire and smoke that clouded the skylines of New York City. And half of it… half of the entire sky was covered by a ship. A fortress. So unimaginably massive that Quake lost her breath just staring at it. Titanic repulsors kept the mighty fortress afloat, bright blue orbs of energy burning with the light reminiscent of an Arc Reactor. From that fortress, the golden entities flew towards and away from it. Like a flow of blood from a heart. Like a living, breathing being. And before either of them could even fathom what they were witnessing, the sudden crash behind them brought them back to reality. One landed in the alleyway behind them, the golden entity rising up and glaring to the two Avengers with that red, manic smile, the pulsating eyes like a feral beast. Daredevil instinctively stood in front of Daisy, pushing her back to separate the entity from her. Scanning the two of them, the Ultron Sentinel growled, “Biological life forms detected. Submit or perish.” It pushed them out into the street, not even laying a finger on either as Matt and Daisy did most of the work, trying to keep as much distance away from the Ultron Sentinel as possible. Eventually, to their worst fear, they found themselves surrounded. They fell from the sky and impacted the street, cracking the road beneath their golden feet and rising back up to surround the two Avengers in a large, shimmering circle of gold and red. Back to back, breathing sporadically, Matthew and Daisy looked to one another for that semblance of assurance neither one could carry. Just the will to survive both felt burning in their expressions. Daisy turned forward and tightened her fists, the gravel beneath her feet quaking in terror. Matt’s mask closed over his head, the red eyes of the Daredevil erupting. Like a pack of feral wolves, the Ultron Sentinels struck. They flew towards the duo with horrifying speed and agility, fired beams of raw energy from their fists and mouths that would have vaporized any mortal caught within its light. They weren’t caught. They dodged and fought back with even deadlier precision, speed, agility, and ferocity. The first Sentinel flew for Matt, the Devil twirling in the air and slamming his foot into the side of the Sentinel’s head. The robot crashed to the street and tumbled for several yards, three more Sentinels flying and shooting at the Daredevil. Thunderous waves of energy stopped them, the power escaping Quake’s gauntlet-covered fists striking their entire bodies and ripping them to shreds of nothing but golden armor. She merely stood her ground and waved her fists back and forth, up and down, side to side, tearing through any Sentinel that tried to reach her or the Avenger she protected. If any of them managed to slip through, Daisy would overpower and overwhelm it in hand-to-hand combat, the power of her quake-fueled fists being more than enough to stop the golden entities in their tracks. Daredevil whipped out his billy club, broke it in two, and twirled the weapons in his hands. He dodged the stream of golden fire that would have vaporized him in a millisecond, rolling forward and ramming the end of his club into the Ultron Sentinel’s kneecap. It bent inwards, the Sentinel unshaken and gripping Murdock by the back of his neck, yanking him upwards and slamming him into the concrete. Rolling onto his chest, Matt looked up to see the eyes and the mouth of the Sentinel shimmer a bright red, its limp nearing him before its entire body was blown to shreds by a powerful tremor of energy impacting its chest. Twisting his neck back, Matt could see as Daisy lowered her right fist, her chest heaving heavily as she gazed down and met his red eyes. Perhaps even saw deeper than just the mask and saw the growing fear and uncertainty in Murdock’s expression. She couldn’t have seen the panic, but watched as he quickly rose to his feet and flung his billy club with deadly precision right past her left shoulder, so fast she wouldn’t have been able to dodge in time. So fast it would have killed her if the club was but a few inches closer to the right. Matt was accurate in his toss, knowledgeable in his precision, and thankful Daisy trusted him enough not to move. The end of the billy club struck the Ultron Sentinel right in its eye. It stuck out the back of the robot’s head, the Sentinel gurgling in a strange, robotic tongue before it fell back. Matt quickly shot out his hand and magnetically pulled the billy club back to his left palm, Daisy watching as it ripped out of the Sentinel’s eye socket and returned to the Devil. But she couldn’t stare for long. Her eyes rose up, mirroring Murdock’s head gazing up to the heavens. From that, from those burning skies, more Ultron Sentinels descended like fallen angels. All of them fell in slow, deliberate manners, surrounding the lone Avengers in numbers that ranged from more than a dozen to at least fifty. It only kept growing from there. And from the literal hundreds above New York’s skyline, it only left Matt and Daisy trapped in a sea of doubt. A sea of troubles. An unending sea of misery of woe of which they were hopelessly drowning in. Matthew rose up, gripped both of his billy clubs until his fists shook, and stepped back. Daisy did the same with her clenched fists, taking a step back and hitting Murdock’s backside. Back to back once more, looking around them for several seconds on end, the two eventually turned back to one another. Not a word shared between them. Nothing but their tired, ragged, and fearful breaths telling the other exactly what was to come. The golden and red lights from the Ultron Sentinels showered over them, the two Avengers gazing one last time to the sky… The both of them watching numerous rockets fly from the smoke and darkness and impact several dozen Sentinels at a time. Bright, burning eruptions filled the air, Daisy and Matt shielding their heads from the debris and shrapnel that fell to the street. Alert and agitated, the remaining Sentinels turned to the oncoming disturbance and saw the jetting suit of armor blast through the smoke and launch a flurry of rockets from its shoulder-mounted rocket launchers. Several more were taken out in resounding explosions, the remaining Ultron Sentinels locking on and aiming for the suit of armor. But before they could even unleash their fire, the metal suit flew downwards towards the two Avengers. Its Arc Reactor burned a bright blue, that same energy coursing throughout the vein-like armor of the entire suit until it made impact with the street. It landed with its right knee leading, a pulsating wave of energy escaping the suit of armor and filling the road, the buildings, and the entire sky for several blocks. That wave washed over the Ultron Sentinels. That wave covered them all in darkness. The EMP wiped out the rest. After losing his HUD from the electromagnetic pulse, Murdock let his mask retract back into his suit so he wouldn’t be entirely blind. He could still see the world burning around him, now with the added corpses of the deactivated Ultron Sentinels impacting the street and surrounding them in flaming carcasses of golden metal. Daisy lowered her arms as the wave of energy bypassed and left just the three of them alive and alone. Just her, Matthew, and the familiar suit of armor rising back up. All they could see was the back of the suit, but by its heavily-built design, heavy rocket launchers and machine guns plastered on its shoulders, wrists, and body, the two of them could already assume it was a certain Punisher coming to their aid just in the nick of time. But when he turned around, both Daisy and Matt’s smiles simultaneously fell. It was definitely a War Machine armor, but Daisy’s smile fell when she noticed the lack of a certain white skull on the chest and helmet. Matthew’s smile fell when he noticed it wasn’t Frank’s heartbeat coming from within it. Even the suit of armor looked different. Larger than the Punisher Armor, more heavily-stacked, more poorly-designed, scratched and dented in various places. It was colored a dark black and red, the Arc Reactor and eyes burning just as red and violent as the veins on the suit. When the mask finally retracted backwards, the Avengers were pleasantly surprised and mildly shocked to see none other than James Rhodes beneath the mask. Just from the look on his face when he stared at them, Daisy could already assume it wasn’t their James. The scars, the burnt skin, and the absolute dread plastered in his eyes were all evident of that. Neither Avenger made a move, both seemingly scanning Rhodes from top to bottom, keeping the distance and their guard at an all-time high. James very nearly did the same, but after staring back towards the skies and seeing a reinforcing unit of Sentinels circling their area, he realized quickly they had no time for formalities. No time for hesitance. He shot his widened, horrified eyes back to the duo and said, “Got no time to explain. If you don’t wanna die out here, I suggest you follow me.” “What’s going on here?” Daisy asked, completely ignoring his fist statement. Snorting to that, Rhodes managed a slight smirk on his end. Guess he managed to find them after all. A miracle and a half. Nodding their way, he said, “Yeah, you’re definitely the ones. Come on, I’ll take you to the other survivors.” Left with really no other choice—and seeing the influx of Sentinels descending towards their location—Daisy and Matthew shot each other a quick glance for confirmation, for that shared understanding. Neither needed to say a word before they both turned and nodded back to Rhodes. His mask closed over his smile, the red eyes lighting up as he nodded at them to follow. They did, and when they were safely out of reach from any Sentinel in the street and hidden within the shadows of the nearest alleyway, Rhodes turned to Daredevil and asked, “Also, why does this Castle guy have one of my old War Machine suits?”