Bullseye's viciously gleeful laughter was extremely repulsive to the two.
"Countdown..."
Danny muttered, the two words seeping into his being like venom.
The dim light from the laptop in the office now seemed like the entrance to hell.
Luke Cage didn't waste another second.
He delivered a backhanded chop, precisely striking Bullseye's neck as he was laughing maniacally.
"Thud." With a muffled sound, Bullseye's laughter abruptly ceased, and he fell unconscious once more.
"Go!"
Luke's voice was so heavy it could wring Water.
Danny awoke as if from a dream; he slammed the laptop shut and clutched it tightly along with the USB drive, as if holding his only hope.
The two rushed out of the office, which had become a battlefield, one after the other.
"Car keys!"
In the hallway, Luke roared.
Danny pulled a set of car keys from his suit pocket and threw them over.
"Garage, Black sports car, you drive!"
"You navigate!"
The conversation between the two was extremely concise, every word filled with urgency.
The roar of the engine soon shattered the quiet of the garage.
The sports car, like a Black leopard, burst out of the garage and merged into the steel torrent of New York.
Danny sat in the passenger seat, clutching the computer tightly with both hands; he could feel his heart pounding wildly in his chest, almost shattering his ribs.
"Faster, Luke, faster!"
His voice trembled slightly with anxiety.
"I've already run three red lights, Danny!"
Luke Cage's hands on the steering wheel were as steady as a rock, but his furrowed brow betrayed his inner agitation.
"We chase him down like this, then what? Fight him, knock him out and drag him back?"
"I don't know!"
Danny roared, guilt and panic like two hands, clutching his throat.
"I just know I can't let him go alone! That place... Fisk hollowed out the foundations to build that fortress! What Bullseye said is true, it's a trap! A trap specifically prepared for Matt!"
"Fisk just wants him angry, wants him to lose his mind!"
Luke abruptly swerved the steering wheel, and the sports car turned into another street with a dangerous drift, tires screeching against the pavement.
"How is what you're doing now any different from him?!"
These words were like a bucket of ice Water poured over Danny's head.
He froze, looking at the rapidly receding neon lights outside the window, speechless for a moment.
Yes.
All he could do now was urge Luke to drive faster; his mind was a blank.
He was driven by guilt, only wanting to make amends, but he hadn't even considered how to do so.
Luke's voice rang out again, terrifyingly calm. "Matt is our friend, he's our brother."
"But he's an enraged Beast now, he won't listen to anything."
"We can't talk him out of it, Danny. We need to give him a better option, a second path besides destruction."
Luke's gaze fell on the laptop in Danny's arms.
"In there, is the second path."
Danny understood instantly.
He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and opened the computer.
The faint Blue light once again illuminated his grave face.
Blueprints, duty rosters, weakness analysis... The intelligence provided by William spread out before him like an incredibly precise net.
His mind began to race, connecting these cold data points with Bullseye's malicious "countdown."
"Queensboro Bridge!"
Danny suddenly shouted.
"That's the closest way to Long Island! He'll definitely go that way!"
Luke said nothing, pressing the accelerator deeper... At the top of the Queensboro Bridge.
The night wind howled, shattering the city's clamor.
A Red figure stood silently on the cold steel cables, looking down at the river of lights flowing beneath him.
He was like a drop of blood about to fall.
Matt Murdock was listening.
He could hear the sound of the wind, the distant wail of sirens, and the groaning of the bridge structure under heavy pressure.
He could even "see" the direction of Long Island, the fortress that imprisoned all his pain and memories.
His entire sensory World was filled with an imminent, destructive urge.
He wanted to flatten that place.
He wanted Wilson Fisk to turn to ashes in agony.
And then... he wanted to personally liberate the soul trapped in that body.
This was the only mercy he could think of.
A harsh screech of brakes came from beneath the bridge.
Matt didn't look back.
He knew who it was.
Heavy footsteps and another relatively lighter set of footsteps were rapidly approaching him along the steel cables.
"Matt!"
Danny's voice was somewhat distorted by the wind.
"Go back!"
Matt spoke, his voice like it was squeezed from beneath ice, devoid of any warmth.
"This is none of your business."
"What nonsense are you talking about!"
Luke Cage's tall figure blocked him, like a wall.
"We are friends! Your business is our business!"
"Friends?"
Matt slowly turned around, his masked face confronting them.
"Friends wouldn't stop me."
His tone was calm, yet it sent a shiver through Danny and Luke.
"We're here to stop you from dying!"
Danny said urgently.
"Fisk has planned everything! Bullseye told us it's an activation program! It's a countdown! By the time you get there, Elektra, she..."
"She'll become a weapon."
Matt finished his sentence for him.
"A weapon programmed to clear me, the 'unstable factor,' as its first target."
Danny and Luke were both stunned.
"You knew?"
"Of course I knew."
Matt let out a faint, self-deprecating chuckle.
"Wilson Fisk, he never makes a losing deal. If he turns her into a weapon, he'll certainly use her in the sharpest way."
"He wants to use her to kill me."
"He wants the entire World to see Daredevil die at the hands of the woman he loved most."
"There's no better investment, is there?"
Matt calmly stated this utterly cruel logic, as if talking about something completely unrelated to himself.
This extreme calmness was more chilling than any hysterical roar.
"Then you're still going?!"
Luke couldn't understand.
"Is this why you want us to watch you go to your death?!"
"Because this is my destiny."
Matt looked up, as if he could pierce the night and see that abyss of despair.
"I owe her."
"I owe her a life, I owe her an ending."
"Whatever that ending is, it should be brought about by my own hands."
"So, move aside."
He took a step forward, an aura of resolute determination washing over them.
Luke Cage unconsciously tensed all his muscles; he had no doubt that if he stood in the way, Matt would attack him the next second.
Just at this tense moment, Danny Rand suddenly spoke.
"You're wrong, Matt."
Danny's voice was not loud, but it was exceptionally clear.
"This isn't destiny, this is Fisk's script. Every step you take now, every word you say, is in his script."
"You think you're walking towards your ending?"
"No, you're just playing the role he's arranged for you—a tragic Avenger, blinded by rage."
Matt stopped.
Danny stepped forward, opened the laptop he was holding, and held it up in front of Matt.
"Look at this."
On the screen was the weakness analysis file.
Point A, Point B, Point C... "Fisk's script doesn't have this."
Danny pointed at the screen, enunciating each word.
"He calculated that you would be angry, that you would rush in alone, that you would break in through the front door, that you would meet her in the most tragic way."
"But he didn't calculate that we would get this map."
"We have a chance, before his 'ending' plays out, to break into the backstage and tear up his script!"
Luke also came up and stood on Matt's other side.
"He's right, brother."
Luke's voice was deep and powerful.
"You want to see her, fine. You want to end it with your own hands, that's fine too."
"But not in the way Fisk has arranged for you."
"We will go to her in our own way. We will give him a surprise."
Matt was silent.
His extraordinary senses could capture every beat of Danny's heart, hear the surging power in Luke's blood, and even "see" the countless possibilities contained on that small screen.
The wind still howled.
But in his World, that burning, tumultuous sea of Fire seemed to finally show a crack.
The enraged Beast still roared, but the reins of reason were handed back into his hands by his friends.
After a long time.
Matt Murdock finally spoke again.
His voice was still hoarse, but no longer hollow despair, but solidified into cold determination.
"What's the plan?"
Danny and Luke exchanged glances, both relieved.
Danny pointed to Point C on the screen.
"Here, the abandoned sewage treatment tunnel, the most hidden, leading directly to the core laboratory. We can infiltrate from here, bypass most of the guards, and try to find her before the program is complete."
Matt "looked" at that point, his mind rapidly constructing the environment within the tunnel—damp, narrow, filled with various nauseating odors.
"No."
He rejected the proposal.
Danny and Luke were both stunned.
"The three of us, too big a target."
Matt slowly raised his head and turned to Luke.
"Luke, you're the biggest target and the strongest. You go to Point A, the main ventilation shaft, dismantle all their traps, the bigger the commotion, the better."
He then turned to Danny.
"Danny, you go to Point B, the backup generator unit. It's the most heavily guarded, but also the energy hub of the entire facility. What you need to do is make everyone believe you're going to blow it up."
Danny and Luke were completely stunned.
"What about you?"
Danny asked the crucial question.
"We're going to draw Fire, what will you do?"
Matt Murdock turned back around, facing the direction of Long Island.
The Red figure, in the night, was solitary and upright.
"Me?"
"I'll go through the front door."
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 40 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
[patreon.com/TripleCrown07]
Thank you so much for your support!!!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"