The three heroes moved around John Wick like hunters surrounding their prey.
Spider-Man crouched down low on a fire escape, his web-shooters pointed at John. His whole body was tense and ready to move. Daredevil stood perfectly still, his head tilted to one side like he was listening to something only he could hear. Luke Cage blocked the street with his huge body, his arms crossed over his chest like he was made of stone.
John Wick stood in the middle of them all. His gun was put away, but his hand stayed close to it. His breathing was slow and steady. His eyes moved from one hero to another, studying each of them carefully. He was looking at how far away they were, how strong they looked, and where he could run if he needed to.
There was only one way out of this street. And there were three very dangerous men in his way.
John had been in worse situations before. But never against people who could do impossible things.
He knew talking wouldn't help. These men had already decided he was the bad guy. They saw the dead bodies around Deadpool and thought John had killed them all. They wouldn't listen to explanations. They wouldn't believe him if he said he was just defending himself.
The Baba Yaga had learned long ago that some fights couldn't be avoided with words.
Spider-Man was the first to speak, and his voice sounded nervous.
"Okay, so... you're not saying anything, which is kind of scary. Really scary, actually. So maybe we could just talk about this? You know, like normal people? Without the shooting?"
John didn't answer. Instead, his hand moved faster than any of them expected.
BANG!
The gunshot echoed through the alley like thunder. But John wasn't trying to kill the young hero. The bullet hit Spider-Man's web-shooter on his right wrist, making sparks fly everywhere. Spider-Man yelped in surprise and flipped backward through the air, landing hard on a car roof.
"Are you kidding me?!" Spider-Man shouted, looking at his broken web-shooter. "Who shoots at Spider-Man? I'm one of the good guys!"
Luke Cage didn't wait to see if John would shoot again. The big man ran forward like a charging bull, his heavy footsteps shaking the ground. But John was already moving. He rolled to the side just as Luke's huge fist crashed into the brick wall where John had been standing. Pieces of brick exploded everywhere.
John came up from his roll with a knife in his hand. He slashed at Luke's leg, but the blade just scraped against his skin like it was made of metal. Luke's skin couldn't be cut or broken. But the attack wasn't meant to hurt him. It was meant to distract him.
While Luke was looking down at the useless knife, John fired another shot. This time he aimed at the back of Luke's knee, right where the bones met. The bullet hit and flattened against Luke's unbreakable skin, but the force was enough to make the big man stumble forward and almost fall.
That's when Daredevil attacked.
The man in the red costume moved like a dancer, spinning through the air with two short sticks in his hands. He swung one stick at John's head and the other at his ribs. John blocked the first one with his arm, feeling the pain shoot through his bones. But he caught the second stick and pushed it back, driving the end into Daredevil's stomach.
Daredevil grunted in pain but didn't stop fighting. He spun around and tried to hit John in the back of the head. John ducked and grabbed Daredevil's wrist, twisting it until the stick fell from his hand.
The fight moved fast and brutal. John fought like a machine built for killing, but he was holding back. Every punch was meant to hurt, not kill. Every shot was meant to slow them down, not end their lives. But the three heroes couldn't see that he was being gentle with them. All they could see was a man who moved like death itself.
Spider-Man swung back into the fight, shooting a web from his good web-shooter. The sticky white strand shot toward John's gun arm. But John saw it coming. He let the web stick to his jacket, then shrugged out of the jacket in one smooth motion.
Spider-Man was still pulling on the web when the jacket came flying at him. The sudden change threw him off balance, and he crashed right into Luke Cage, who was just getting back on his feet. Both heroes smashed into a big metal dumpster with a loud CLANG that echoed through the whole alley.
Daredevil tried to grab John while the other two were tangled up, but when he reached for him, John was gone. The assassin had slipped into the shadows at the edge of the alley like smoke disappearing in the wind.
By the time Spider-Man and Luke Cage untangled themselves from the dumpster, there was no sign of John Wick anywhere. The alley was quiet except for the sound of Deadpool slowly putting himself back together.
Spider-Man pulled off his mask and rubbed his head where he had hit the dumpster. His brown hair was messy and he looked frustrated.
"Did we just lose John Wick? To a back alley disappearing act? How does someone just vanish like that?"
Daredevil's jaw was tight with anger. He was still holding one of his sticks, and his knuckles were white from gripping it so hard.
"We didn't lose him," Daredevil said quietly. "He could have killed us. All of us. But he didn't. He let us live."
Luke Cage rubbed his knee where John had shot him. Even though the bullet hadn't hurt him, he could still feel where it had hit.
"If he was holding back, then he's even more dangerous than we thought. We need to figure out what he wants and why he's here. Before someone with bad intentions finds him first."
Deadpool was sitting against a wall, his jaw almost completely healed now. He was watching the three heroes with amusement in his eyes.
"Oh, you guys have no idea what you just messed with," Deadpool said with a laugh. "That wasn't just any killer. That was THE killer. The Baba Yaga. The man they send to kill the boogeyman. And if he's in this world now..." Deadpool's voice got serious for the first time. "Then every bad guy, every crime lord, every super villain better start running. Because John Wick doesn't just kill people. He ends bloodlines."
The three heroes looked at each other. They had thought they were dealing with just another criminal with a gun. But now they were starting to understand that John Wick was something much more dangerous.
And somewhere far away from the alley, hidden in the shadows of the city, John Wick was already moving. He had learned something important from the fight. These heroes were strong, but they fought with rules. They tried not to kill. They tried to capture, not destroy.
John had no such rules.
He needed to find out where he was and how he had gotten here. He needed weapons, money, and information. And he needed to figure out who was running this strange new world.
Because if someone had brought him here, they had done it for a reason.
And John Wick always finished what other people started.
The rain kept falling on the empty alley. The neon lights kept flashing. And in the distance, that tower with "STARK" written on it stood like a beacon in the night.
John Wick was loose in the Marvel Universe.
And nothing would ever be the same.