Swish, swish! Bullets tore through the air, but Elektra was already moving—low, fast, and lethal. She closed the gap between herself and the Franchise gunman in a heartbeat, driving her fist into his gut with brutal precision. As he doubled over, she spun and snapped his neck with a swift kick.
The bodies of Hand enforcers and mafia gunmen were piling up fast. The fight was already over before it began.
Unlike Daredevil, Elektra didn't hesitate or struggle with morality. Killing wasn't a question of if but how fast. This was one of the many sharp edges that had driven a wedge between them since they'd last worked together.
More than a dozen corpses littered the construction yard. The Hand's gunmen were never shy about using firearms, and thanks to their moles in the NYPD, official interference rarely came. But Elektra had hit them hard, and most weren't ready for a direct assault—they expected stealth, not a frontal attack. Their scattered defenses made her work easy.
"Can't you do something for once?" Elektra shot Daniel a glare, her tone edged with irritation as she wiped blood from her blade.
Daniel stood a few paces behind her, calm and detached. "It's done. Every obstacle inside and out is gone."
She blinked, a slight chill crawling up her spine. "All of them?"
"Every last one," he said flatly, walking past the fallen gunmen without a glance.
Elektra's stomach tightened. She knew Daniel was dangerous, but there was something about the effortless way he said it that unnerved her. She had seen killers before—hell, she was one—but Daniel was something else. Something she couldn't fully read.
Daniel stepped into the heart of the construction site, pulling back the heavy green tarp that concealed what lay beyond. His expression darkened.
At the center of the site was a massive, yawning square pit—forty meters across, plunging into darkness. Its sheer blackness looked less like a hole and more like the open mouth of some buried beast, waiting to swallow the unprepared.
Elektra stopped at the edge and felt a coldness rise from her gut to her throat. For a moment, it wasn't the chilly night air that made her shiver, but the oppressive sense of something lurking below.
She pulled a flashlight from her belt, switching it on to pierce the dark. The beam was swallowed almost instantly, barely revealing the walls of the pit. "Jesus. How long have they been digging?" she muttered, leaning forward but unable to see the bottom.
"Give me that," Daniel said, taking the flashlight. Without warning, he tossed it down.
The light spun as it fell, flashing across rough-hewn walls lined with steel braces and a makeshift lift shaft. They both watched as the beam vanished, swallowed by the black.
"This isn't just dirt," Daniel muttered. "The Hand's been digging through layers of New York's history. God knows what they've uncovered down there."
New York's underbelly wasn't simple. Beneath the surface were layers of infrastructure, sewers, abandoned tunnels, and even ruins older than the United States itself.
"Most of these pipes and power lines are a century old," Daniel said quietly, scanning the pit's edges. "Knock out the wrong one and you don't just cause a blackout. You could cripple half of Manhattan."
Elektra's gaze hardened. "What the hell are they after? No one digs a hole like this for fun."
"Something big. Maybe something ancient," Daniel replied. His voice dropped, almost as if he didn't want the pit itself to hear him.
The more Daniel studied the scene, the more unease twisted in his gut. The Hand wasn't stupid. They had resources, centuries of knowledge, and ties to Kunlun itself—a city as old and secret as Asgard or Olympus.
And yet, there were no elite operatives here. No legendary warriors. Just fodder.
"They're stalling," Daniel muttered under his breath. "The real powerhouses aren't here. Which means…" He trailed off, his eyes narrowing.
Elektra tilted her head. "Which means what?"
"Which means they don't need to be here yet," he said darkly.
Daniel's heightened senses told him the pit was nearly sixty floors deep. Rock had been blasted through with precision, the dirt and stone hauled out via the lift shafts.
Elektra broke the silence. "You think this connects to those sites we found in the ledger? The tunnels? The pipeline plans?"
Daniel gave a single nod. "They're all connected. And if I'm right, their goal isn't just New York. It's Manhattan."
Her grip on her sai tightened. Manhattan falling into the Hand's control—or worse—was a nightmare she didn't want to imagine.
"Whatever they're planning, it's not ready yet," Daniel finally said. "We've seen enough for tonight. Police will be swarming this place soon."
Elektra didn't argue. As they turned to leave, she took one last look at the pit. It felt… hungry.
Fifteen minutes later, after Daniel and Elektra had vanished into the night, a figure emerged from the shadows of the construction site.
He was tall, muscular, clad in dark red ninja armor. His presence radiated menace. He had been there the whole time, watching from the depths of the shadows.