c28: Karl's Girlfriend, and the Stressed-Out Daredevil
A beautiful figure with long brown hair stood therez Elektra Natchios, the woman many people called Erica.
She had no superpowers like mutants, Inhumans, or metahumans from the DC side of the world.
However, she was proficient in countless forms of martial arts, from traditional Greek combat techniques taught by her family's bodyguards to the deadly ninja assassination methods she later studied, and she was also skilled with various cold weapons, especially her signature twin sai.
Her physical fitness could rival that of an Olympic gold medalist, and every aspect of her body speed, agility, reflexes, and endurance had reached the true peak of normal human potential, the same level as people like Batman or Captain America before the Super Soldier Serum became a factor.
Because of her experiences in childhood, especially the violent death of her mother and the harsh training she accepted afterward, she had developed an almost obsessive interest in martial arts and combat.
Karl met Elektra at school.
More precisely, they were both studying at Columbia University in New York, where Elektra's wealthy background and striking beauty made her impossible to ignore.
Naturally, after repeated encounters and Karl's deliberate approach, the two gradually became boyfriend and girlfriend.
...
Nowadays.
When Karl saw Elektra again,
he raised his eyebrows slightly.
Because.
He did not just see Elektra.
He also saw Matt Murdock Daredevil.
The two were having a one-on-one fight on the street.
Although Daredevil was currently wearing sunglasses, a clean white shirt, and looked like nothing more than an ordinary blind white-collar lawyer from Nelson and Murdock rather than the Devil of Hell's Kitchen who usually wore a dark red armored suit and horned mask,
Karl recognized him immediately.
It was completely different from before, when he wore the crimson suit that made him look like a darker version of Captain America mixed with Batman's urban vigilance.
But Karl still knew without any doubt.
The person fighting Elektra was Daredevil himself.
Because.
Back when he first met Daredevil, he had already seen the other person's true face beneath the mask.
The Super Vision that Karl possessed could see across astonishing distances, enough to observe changes throughout the planet and even peer far into the Universe.
And he also possessed X-ray vision, microscopic vision, heat vision, and many other Kryptonian-like abilities that ordinary people could never imagine.
"Daredevil, to think you're actually fighting with my girlfriend..."
Karl smiled faintly and his figure flashed.
He vanished in an instant like Superman using super speed.
Almost at the same time,
he arrived near Elektra and Daredevil.
...
In front of the coffee shop.
Matt Murdock, the Daredevil of Hell's Kitchen, began to fight with Elektra, whom he had just met again.
Of course.
It was not truly a life-or-death struggle.
After all,
Daredevil was a righteous street-level superhero, not someone like Frank Castle, the Punisher, who solved problems with bullets.
His current goal was simply to strike up a conversation and confirm whether the woman before him was really the same Elektra Natchios from his college days.
Therefore.
Daredevil did not use his full strength.
He did not activate the full aggression and brutality he normally used against ninjas from The Hand or criminals working for Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin.
After only a few rounds of exchanging blows,
Daredevil understood the other party's strength.
It was extremely good far stronger than an ordinary person.
An average thug from Hell's Kitchen would not even last ten seconds against her.
Even trained gang members from Fisk's organization would be handled with ease.
But compared to him, Daredevil,
she was still a little behind.
After all, Matt had been trained personally by Stick, survived countless battles against assassins, and his radar sense gave him an overwhelming advantage in close combat.
Daredevil became even more interested in the woman before him.
She probably would not kill me either.
After all, despite her skills, she was still acting like an ordinary civilian on the surface.
And it was still broad daylight in Manhattan.
I'll just pretend that my skills are inferior and let her defeat me.
In that case, striking up a conversation probably would not be a problem.
If I were to defeat her directly,
with Elektra's proud personality from college,
she might just get angry and leave immediately.
Well, I'll pretend to lose.
Daredevil thought for a moment
and made his decision.
However.
Right at this moment.
A smiling voice came from nearby.
"Bullying a woman is hardly a gentlemanly act."
At the same time.
Daredevil suddenly felt his arm being restrained by something that felt harder than steel, like being grabbed by Luke Cage himself.
He frowned instantly, sensing that something was very wrong.
But just as this thought appeared,
Daredevil felt the entire world spinning around him.
The force was so overwhelming that even his enhanced balance could not resist it.
Subsequently.
He was thrown heavily onto the ground.
The scent of fresh grass drifted into his nose.
Daredevil was stunned.
He instinctively propped himself up.
His palms touched the grass below; through his radar-like perception, he could clearly tell that he had landed on a nearby lawn.
I'm on a lawn?
Daredevil found it difficult to believe.
You had to know.
Although he could not see with his eyes,
his sensory abilities were terrifyingly powerful.
His hearing, touch, smell, and taste were all far beyond ordinary people.
Even Spider-Man once admitted that Matt's senses were absurd.
Through years of brutal training, he had developed a radar-like perception ability.
Even without sight, Daredevil could still perceive nearly everything within several kilometers, like a living sonar system.
This was not his first time at this coffee shop.
Outside the coffee shop,
there was no lawn at all.
The nearest patch of grass was more than ten meters away.
In other words.
Daredevil had just been thrown more than ten meters away with a single casual motion?
How was that even possible?
The woman from just a moment ago Elektra should not have possessed that kind of terrifying strength.
If the other party had strength on that level,
Daredevil felt he should not have been able to exchange blows so easily.
Unless there had been a third person.
He instantly released his perception to the limit.
In a single moment,
countless sounds, heartbeats, breathing patterns, footsteps, and scents flooded into his mind.
The entire surrounding environment reconstructed itself inside his brain.
And sure enough.
He was lying on the grass more than ten meters away from the coffee shop.
And the person from just now the woman who had been fighting him was actually standing there kissing another man!
"WTF?!"
Daredevil instantly exploded and could not help but curse inwardly.
What the hell was this?
The beauty he had just gone to such lengths to approach, the woman whose fighting skills and temperament had instantly attracted him, was actually kissing someone else right in front of him?
And judging from the intimacy of that kiss,
this was definitely not some casual relationship.
Matt Murdock, the man who could calmly face Wilson Fisk and even stand against assassins from The Hand,
felt his emotions collapse for a second.
He immediately got up from the lawn and rushed over aggressively.
At this moment,
a familiar voice sounded.
"Daredevil, we really do seem to have quite the fate, don't we?"
Hearing this,
Daredevil froze instantly.
This voice he recognized it.
With Daredevil's superhuman senses,
he could naturally distinguish every person's voice with almost perfect accuracy.
Even years later, he could still remember someone's breathing rhythm, heartbeat pattern, and tone.
And this voice,
he had definitely heard it before.
Thinking carefully.
Wasn't it just a few days ago?
The terrifyingly powerful existence
who had casually suppressed him
and openly blackmailed Wilson Fisk—the Kingpin of Hell's Kitchen right in front of him?
That monster-like man.
In that instant, the previously aggressive Daredevil
instantly became motionless.
He stood there stiffly like someone who had just walked into Darkseid's throne room by mistake.
At this moment, he genuinely did not know what kind of expression he should make.
Should he go over and question the other party aggressively?
Should he demand an explanation?
Forget it.
He still wanted to live a few more days.
The last time they fought, he had been beaten so badly that even Claire Temple had to help patch him up.
Even now, his ribs still ached faintly whenever he moved too much.
And that was with Karl clearly holding back.
Furthermore.
In his radar-like perception, the other party and that beautiful woman were now embracing intimately.
Her heartbeat was steady.
Her breathing was relaxed.
There was no resistance.
Instead,
she was naturally leaning into the other person's arms, like this was the most normal thing in the world.
With Daredevil's perception,
there was no way to misunderstand this.
One look or rather, one scan and he knew the two had an extremely intimate relationship.
Combined with the kiss from just now,
they were either husband and wife,
or lovers with a very deep relationship.
As a complete stranger,
and someone who had only just met her,
there was really nothing he could say.
Before, he had only acted out of instinctive frustration.
But now that he calmed down and thought about it, it actually made perfect sense.
She was beautiful, wealthy, dangerous, and clearly extraordinary.
It was not strange at all for someone like her to already have a boyfriend.
As a superhero who constantly dealt with emotional chaos in Hell's Kitchen, Daredevil quickly forced himself to adjust his mentality.
However.
Immediately afterward, his expression became bitter.
After being beaten up by Karl a few days ago, Daredevil had already understood one thing very clearly.
This man was definitely not a traditional superhero like Spider-Man or Captain America,
who followed strict moral rules and upheld justice at all costs.
He was powerful, dangerous, and completely unpredictable.
The encounter with Kingpin before
had simply been his own bad luck.
At that time, if he had kept his mouth shut and minded his own business,
perhaps he would not have been thrown around like a training dummy.
How could this happen?
He had finally happened to meet a beautiful woman today,
and she just happened to be this terrifying man's girlfriend?
Even the Flash from DC probably would not have enough speed to run away from this kind of bad luck.
Daredevil suddenly felt
that his luck was simply too terrible.
"What's wrong? Why are you just standing there?"
Another voice came.
"Seeing you jumping around like that… are your injuries already healed?"
Karl looked at Daredevil with a faint smile on his face,
as if he were greeting an old friend.
But in Matt's ears, that smile carried more pressure than hearing Batman calmly say, "We need to talk."
Matt was under enormous psychological pressure
and genuinely did not know what to say.
He stood there awkwardly,
his fingers twitching slightly.
After holding it in for a long time,
he finally lowered his voice and said,
"Sorry… this was just a misunderstanding."
After all.
Daredevil knew very clearly
that he truly could not defeat the other party.
Not even close.
Even if he called in Spider-Man and Luke Cage together,
he still felt the result would probably not change much.
More importantly.
As a superhero, Daredevil also felt that in this matter,
he was indeed the one at fault.
He had initiated the fight.
He had tried to deliberately approach someone else's girlfriend.
Even if his intentions were not malicious,
it still sounded incredibly awkward when explained out loud.
If he had known from the beginning that Elektra already had a boyfriend, especially this boyfriend, he absolutely would not have done something so stupid.
Karl looked at Daredevil with a smile that was not quite a smile.
Possessing telepathy, he naturally knew exactly what Matt Murdock was thinking.
Every trace of embarrassment,
every ounce of regret, and even that desperate thought of wanting to disappear from the scene immediately
Karl could sense it all clearly.
Originally,
when Karl saw Daredevil fighting Elektra,
his first thought
had been to beat Daredevil up on the spot.
After all,
stealing his woman right in front of him
was not something most men would tolerate.
Well,
to be honest,
killing him had not been completely out of the question either.
Hell's Kitchen would simply have one less masked vigilante.
But now,
Karl had changed his mind a little.
Thinking about it carefully,
keeping this Daredevil around
might actually be useful.
After all,
Matt Murdock was obsessed with justice,
and with him constantly cleaning up Hell's Kitchen,
there would naturally be fewer villains, gangs, and criminals causing trouble.
Someone had to keep people like Kingpin, Bullseye, and the remnants of The Hand busy.
That saved Karl some unnecessary trouble.
At this moment,
Elektra, who had been standing at the side,
suddenly asked excitedly,
"Karl, why did you come here?"
Her tone was much softer than when she had been fighting earlier,
and there was obvious joy in it.
Karl looked at her and smiled.
"Well… I came here specifically to find you."
"Really?"
Elektra's eyes lit up immediately.
"Then let's go shopping!"
She appeared extremely excited,
completely ignoring the still-awkward Daredevil nearby.
Karl smiled helplessly.
"Okay."