The white smoke thinned, drifting lazily toward the tunnel ceiling. In the haze, the silhouettes of the fallen Hand soldiers lay scattered like broken dolls. The situation had reversed. The hundreds of soldiers were gone. Only Alexandra Reid remained, backed into a corner by her four guards.
Danny Rand stepped forward, his chest heaving. The golden glow of his fist flickered and died. Using the Iron Fist to block bullets had drained him; his Chi was dangerously low, his legs trembling with exhaustion.
"Surrender," Jessica Jones panted, cracking her knuckles. "You've lost."
Alexandra didn't flinch. She looked at the bodies of her men, then at the exhausted Defenders. A small, serene smile played on her lips.
"Lost?" Alexandra whispered. "My dear child... the war has only just begun."
Matt Murdock's head snapped up.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
Hundreds of heartbeats. Approaching fast.
"Watch out!" Matt screamed. "SCATTER!"
He shoved Jessica to the right just as the tunnel mouth erupted with muzzle flashes.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
Bullets chewed up the stone floor where they had been standing a second ago. Danny and Luke dove for cover behind a stack of crates. Danny tried to summon the Iron Fist again, but his hand only sparked weakly. He was running on fumes.
"Go!" Matt yelled.
He and Jessica rolled out of the kill zone. They didn't retreat; they advanced. They lunged at Alexandra's personal guards. Matt's billy clubs were a blur of violence, cracking skulls before the guards could raise their rifles. Jessica simply grabbed a guard by the tactical vest and threw him into the wall.
In seconds, the guards were down. Jessica spun Alexandra around, grabbing the elegant woman in a chokehold. She snatched a fallen wakizashi sword and pressed the blade against Alexandra's throat.
"Nobody move!" Jessica screamed at the tunnel entrance. "Or the Queen Bee gets it!"
The gunfire stopped instantly.
Silence returned to the cavern. From the shadows of the tunnel, figures emerged. Madame Gao. Murakami. Sowanda. Fongji. The Five Fingers were reunited. Behind them stood a wall of heavily armed mercenaries.
"Daredevil," Gao said, her voice echoing off the bronze door. "Your persistence is... tiresome. We haven't done anything to warrant such obsession," Gao lied smoothly.
Matt's grip on his clubs tightened until his knuckles turned white.
"Nothing?" Matt hissed. "What about the fifty people in Hell's Kitchen? The ones you blinded? The ones you deafened? You stole their senses to hide your secrets. You condemned them to a life of darkness!"
Gao tilted her head, acknowledging the accusation with a nod. She glanced at Sowanda. It was his operation. Standard procedure for The Hand: maximize efficiency, eliminate leaks.
"They were tools," Gao said dismissively. "When a tool is no longer useful, it is discarded. Their fate is not my concern."
She looked at Jessica, who was pressing the blade into Alexandra's neck. A line of blood trickled down the older woman's skin.
"Fine," Gao sighed. "Since you insist on interfering... Then die here."
Jessica's eyes widened. "Are you crazy? I'll kill her! I swear to god!"
Matt frowned. He listened to Gao's heartbeat. It was steady. Calm. 'Why isn't she afraid for Alexandra?' Then, he heard it. A specific, rhythmic tapping of Gao's fingers against her cane.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It wasn't a nervous tick. It was a signal.
"NO!" Matt shouted. "It's a trap!"
Too late.
CLANG.
The sword fell from Jessica's hand.
"ARGH!"
Jessica, Danny, and Luke collapsed simultaneously. They clutched their chests, screaming in agony. The Gu worms had awakened. Inside their hearts, the parasitic insects began to bite. It felt like swallowing razor blades. It felt like their organs were being chewed from the inside out.
Alexandra, freed from Jessica's grip, smoothed her coat. She looked down at the writhing heroine and smiled.
"Des... despicable," Danny gasped, curled into a ball on the floor, vomit staining his lips.
Gao chuckled dryly. "Naive," she mocked. "K'un-Lun has truly lost its way if they chose a child like you to be the Immortal Weapon. 'Despicable' is a word for losers, Mr. Rand. History is written by the victors."
Matt Murdock stood alone. His friends were down. The Hand surrounded him. He turned his head, focusing his radar sense on Gao. She was the controller. If he took her out, maybe the bugs would stop. He shifted his weight, preparing to launch a suicide run.
Gao saw the intent in his posture.
"You are brave, Devil," Gao noted. "But you are out of your depth."
She turned toward the shadows behind the Bronze Door. "Black Sky."
From the darkness, a figure walked out. She moved with absolute silence. No heartbeat. No breath. No friction of clothes. To Matt's radar sense, she was a void in the world. A ghost.
She wore a red combat outfit. In her hands, she held two sai. Matt froze. He couldn't sense her, but he knew the shape of those weapons. He knew the rhythm of that walk.
"No..." Matt whispered, his voice trembling. "It can't be."
The Black Sky stepped into the light. Her face was beautiful, cold, and dead.
Elektra Natchios.
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