The warehouse was exactly as Maya had described—heavily guarded, multiple access points, and security that would make Fort Knox jealous.
We watched from a rooftop across the street. All five of us now—me, Felicia, Maya, Jessica, and Elektra. Our first real operation as a team.
"Twenty guards visible," Felicia reported, scanning with enhanced optics. "Probably twice that inside. Three enhanced soldiers—same type that attacked us."
"And Kingpin?" I asked.
"Center of the building, third floor. In a reinforced office." Jessica checked her SHIELD comm device. "My backup team is standing by three blocks away. Once we get evidence and confirmation of illegal activity, they move in."
"How many people can you control simultaneously now?" Elektra asked me.
"Seventy-five, maybe a hundred if I push it," I replied. My powers had grown with training and use, but not exponentially. Just steady, hard-earned progress. "But full control of that many is exhausting. I can maintain it for maybe ten minutes before I start having problems."
"Then we need to be fast." Elektra pulled her mask on. "Maya and I go in first, take out the perimeter guards quietly. Marcus, you disable security systems and control any guards we miss. Felicia, you're on overwatch and tech support. Jessica, you stay here until we confirm Kingpin's crimes, then bring in SHIELD."
"Who put you in charge?" I asked with a slight smile.
"The person with the most combat experience." She wasn't smiling. "You're strong, Marcus. But you're still new to this. Follow my lead and we all get out alive."
She was right. Much as my ego didn't like it, Elektra knew what she was doing.
"Alright. Let's do this."
Maya and Elektra moved like shadows.
I watched through their eyes using my mental link, observing as they took down perimeter guards with silent efficiency. Each strike was precise, calculated. Within minutes, eight guards were unconscious and hidden.
My turn.
I reached out with my mind, touching the security systems. Not the electronics directly—I couldn't do that. But the security guards monitoring them? I could reach them.
*You see nothing unusual. Everything is normal. Stay at your posts.*
Two guards in the security room settled back in their chairs, their minds convinced that all the cameras showed exactly what they should.
"Security is blind," I reported through our comms. "Moving in."
The hardest part was rationing my power. I wanted to take control of every guard, make this easy. But I had limits now—realistic ones. If I burned myself out early, we'd be vulnerable when we needed it most.
So I was selective. Guards in crucial positions got full control. Others just got subtle suggestions to look the wrong way, ignore certain sounds, question their suspicions.
It was working. We penetrated deeper into the warehouse, taking out resistance as we found it. Maya and Elektra handled most of the physical work. I provided support—disrupting enemy coordination, warning of threats, occasionally freezing someone in place long enough for them to be neutralized.
Then we hit the enhanced soldiers.
Three of them were guarding the stairwell to the third floor.
The moment we entered their line of sight, they moved. Fast, coordinated, and completely immune to my mental manipulation.
"Same shielding as before!" I called out, dodging a strike that would have taken my head off.
Elektra engaged two of them simultaneously, her sai flashing in the dim light. She was incredible—faster than the enhanced soldiers, more skilled, able to predict and counter their augmented reflexes.
But she was also outnumbered.
Maya took the third soldier, using her photographic reflexes to match and counter his style. It wasn't enough—he was stronger, faster, better equipped. She was losing ground.
I tried what had worked before—amplifying pain in old injuries, disrupting their sensory processing, making their own bodies work against them. It helped, but not enough. These soldiers had learned from the last fight. They'd improved their shielding, refined their augmentations.
One of them broke away from Elektra and came for me.
I fell back on my training—the techniques I'd absorbed from Maya and Elektra over the past weeks. I blocked his first strike, dodged his second, even managed to land a hit that would have dropped a normal person.
It didn't even slow him down.
His counter-strike caught me in the chest, cracking ribs. I went down, gasping for air.
He raised his fist for a finishing blow—
And Felicia's sniper round took him in the eye.
The enhanced soldier dropped, dead before he hit the ground.
"Sorry!" Felicia's voice came through comms. "I know we said non-lethal, but he was going to kill you."
"No apologies needed," I wheezed, forcing myself up.
Elektra had finished her two opponents—both unconscious, not dead, which was impressive given how hard they'd pushed her. Maya was still fighting hers, but now with support from both of us, we managed to overwhelm him.
"Third floor," Elektra said, barely winded. "Now, before they send reinforcements."
Kingpin's office was everything I'd expected—opulent, intimidating, and filled with evidence of his criminal empire.
The man himself sat behind a massive desk, his white suit spotless despite the chaos below. He didn't look surprised to see us.
"Mr. Cole," he rumbled. "And your little team. I should have killed you at the gala."
"You tried," I replied, my ribs screaming with each breath. "It didn't work."
"So it would seem." He stood, his massive frame radiating menace. "And now you're here to what? Arrest me? Kill me? You're out of your depth, boy."
"I'm here to end your war against me." I reached out with my mind—and hit the same wall I'd encountered before. Kingpin's mental discipline was incredible. "We have evidence of your operations. SHIELD is outside. This is over."
"Evidence?" He laughed. "I own half of SHIELD's New York office. Whatever you think you have won't stick."
"Maybe. Maybe not. But you'll never know if I'm in your organization. Which of your people I've touched, whose loyalty I've changed. Every order you give, you'll wonder—is this person really mine, or has Cole gotten to them?"
For the first time, I saw uncertainty flicker across his face.
"That's the problem with fighting a telepath," I continued. "You can't trust anyone anymore. Every ally becomes a potential enemy. Every subordinate might be compromised. Your entire empire becomes suspect."
"You're bluffing."
"Am I?" I smiled despite the pain. "Your head of security, James Chen. He's been reporting to me for three weeks. Your accountant, Margaret Williams, has been feeding Felicia your financial records. And your personal assistant, David, has been copying every file you've touched for the past month."
I was bluffing—I hadn't touched any of those people. But Kingpin didn't know that. And the seed of doubt, once planted in a paranoid mind like his, would grow.
"You're lying."
"Then test them. Question them. Watch your organization tear itself apart from suspicion." I turned to leave, then paused. "Or you could leave me alone. End this war. Focus on your other enemies—the ones you can actually fight."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then I dismantle your empire piece by piece. Everyone you trust becomes suspect. Every operation becomes compromised. I don't need to defeat you in a fight, Fisk. I just need to make you paranoid enough to defeat yourself."
I walked out, my team following. Below, I could hear SHIELD moving in, arresting guards, securing evidence.
Would it stick? Maybe not. Kingpin had resources, lawyers, connections.
But I'd accomplished something more important: I'd made him afraid. Not of my power to control, but of my power to undermine. And fear was sometimes more effective than any mind control.