2014-04-16 - Mark on the Devil

It was around two or three am in Hell's Kitchen. The spring torrential downpour had been broken by a snap freeze and so the rooftops were particularly slippery then, before the dawn would come and the temperatures rise enough to break the small stroke of cold that had hit the ground. But the Kitchen was miserable as always.



         On a rooftop a man with a black mask had a mad grin on his face, a white oval on the center of the mask on his forehead, "NOw dollface, be a good little thing and.." Shuffling a deck of cards in his hands, he shot out all 52 of them to impact over the woman in a perfect circle, narrowly missing severing her femoral arteries, "Scream for me. That's your cue!" Her shrieks filled the night.

Even on the worst nights, in the rain and cold, someone is out in the shadows and dark, patroling. Just /itching/ to stumble across someone up to no good. A few muggings thwarted and a car jacking stopped and the masked figure tight-rope-walking across the skyscape is feeling mighty good about himself. Might good--until there's that familiar song. The scream that cuts through the blur of rainfall. Changing his direction, the hero leaps onto the ledge of a nearby building and flips up to the higher vantage point, running across the slick rooftop towards the sound. A trap? Oh way, it couldn't possibly be someone trying to bait him!

As Daredevil zipped through the air, Bullseye whirled to face his direction with an almost warped sense of inuitition, "Hey Toots! It's been too long." Grinning, whirling out with a pair of sai in his hands, the rooftop slick with a half layer of ice and muck on it, "So there I am thinking that I'm bored. It's been way too long. So, I'm thinking that I might as well drop in, say hi, leave a pretty corpse, and go bye." Whirling around with the sai, flipping up a pair ofsmall stones and launching them through the air with blinding precision!

Daredevil hasn't seen his old 'buddy' since foiling some previous no-gooding that he'd done. Must be that he assumed the madman would be some time thinking about a new attack--so it's no wonder he faulters at the familiar voice, "So bored that you're coming out in the rain to get your teeth knocked in?" Poor girl caught in the crossfires! His body arches low, sliding down onto his knees through the ice and slush to avoid the stones, letting them zip just over his head, narrowly missing the target.

The stones hit the wall, then the ground, and shatter into a cascading series of deadly ricochets like a macabre array of bouncy balls, narrowly missing Daredevil. "Oooh, almost got ya! What's it DD, getting fat in your old age? Guess you're losing a step. Maybe I ought ta put you through the paces and cut off some of that flab!" Charging in to meet DD, throwing a quartet of shuriken.

Gesh, what kind of rock /was/ that anyway? He bats away a couple of those dangerous rebounding stones with a cocky smirk, "This old man is going to remind you why you need to stay out of the 'Kitchen." He becons Bullseye at him with a little crooked finger before the man charges and lashes out with his baton to swipe his feet out from under him, hopefully displacing the aim of the objects thrown at him. "Besides, Almost is /never/ good enough."

Bullseye lets out a hiss, "Well, I suppose instead of cutting you up to kibble I can always just slash off your arms and legs and use you as a doorstop." The shurikens bounced in deadly ricochets, Daredevil moving among the deadly derringers like magic. And then Bullseye charged in to hand to hand, slashing with his sai!

There's a smirk at the suggestion of being a dor-stop but no response. It's easier to show just how difficult it would be to slice and dice the masked man. Avoiding the worst of the ricochets with a handspring--and kicking out with a foot to the man's throat as they close in. Even with the rain pattering down and distorting the focus--Daredevil is able to block the slashing and get in a powerful fist to the marksman's stomach.

"I'm just getting warmed up." Daredevil counters, still crouched low and leaping back as the blade whiseprs twoards him, ignoring the hiss of pain as the sharp edge lances through his suit, a small line of blood beading up from the exposed flesh. That's when it gets serious! The baton is launched at bullseye as he rolls onto his shoulder to avoid the knives darting at him, the angle aimed up to knock the man in the chin or face. It leaves him open to the knives but thankfully he has the other stick to block the swarm of sharp blades flying at him.

Bullseye is fast, but not quite fast enough - he manages to dodge to the side as the billy club shoots up towards his chin, but can't roll uot of the way fast enough, and it smashes hard over into his shoulder, dislocating it in a rather brutal *SNAP*. Then Bullseye lets out his first scream. Not scream of mocking laughter, but of hate and pain as his arm flops at his side, useless. Then he charges in with his other sai in his opposite hand.

Daredevil sweeps the leg! Or at least he tries to, yanking back on the line of the wayward billyclub-just when you thought it was gone--oh no--it's coming back...right for the back of that thick skull! But, a man can only do so many moves at a time--he can't kick out at a leg and jerk the cord in and not leave himeslf open for the sai that's flashing out at him. All he can do is continue that backward arch, hopng that he'll not take it in the throat.

WHAM! It hit the back of his head and sent him sprawling, but not before he could get a good slash out and over with the sai then as he was sent sprawling over to the side, going to leap back up to his feet with the sai in front of him,"Come on ole boy, let's dance. I wanna say I've danced with the devil in this $##! moonlight and stuck him up like a piggy."

Daredevil takes the cut as best he can but this one does make him growl out in pain, twisting away too late to avoid the sharp tip of the sai cutting into flesh but--missing anything important. "you need to come up with some better lines. Stealing from others--tsktsk!" He springs back to his feet, sliding through the churned up ice and slush on the rooftop to slam bodily into Bullseye--One shoulder taken out--he goes to work trying to land a blow to take the other out of fighting shape while avoiding getting pricked by the others' weapsons.

This is less of a dance of martial arts prowess now and turning more over to a street fight, a bare knuckle brawl as Bullseye gets slammed over to the side in a flying tackle that would do Matt's father proud as Daredevil smashes hard over into Bullseye's other arm, and a loud *CRACK* is heard as he screams once more in pain, trying to slam his knee up towards Daredevil's gut.

<p class="MsoNormal">It's the close, physical fight where Daredevil can try to retake the upper hand rather than deal with sharp objects being flug at him. It's too soon to gloat though, not when he's taking the knee into his stomach, grunting as the air is forced out of him. There's the familiar crunch of muscule and bones bruised but then there's a stick flying for Bullseye's wrist, trying to remove the blade from skilled fingers before it can pluck into his flesh again.

<p class="MsoNormal">SMASH! Bullseye's fingers are crushed into a fist, almost in a permanent sense as he lets out a howl, and goes to swing his fist up and over at Daredevil's face then, intent on trying to hopefully hammer DD's chin over with a rather loud and satisfying *CRUNCH* if at all possible - though in his haze of rage induced pain he's equally as likely to smash itno the brick wall behind the duo..

<p class="MsoNormal">Daredevil roars, "Let-Go!" Wanting to hear that satisfying clink-clatter of the blade falling to the stones. Instead, his ears are ringing thanks to the fist that grazes his jaw. He's able to avoid getting his teeth knocked out at least, but the knuckles still batter his jaw before they slip past him. He grabs a fist full of Bullseye's uniform-front and tries to throw him down, using his weight and leverage to knock him off his feet. The otherhand still holds the second club but he holds back striking--he's a good guy like that.

<p class="MsoNormal">There's another *SNAP* as both of the arms of Bullseye are yanked back and compress behind his back from the yank and twist as if they were like tissue paper, his chin hammering hard over into the top of the roof with Daredevil's mass on top of him, rebounding once, twice, three times as his screams go silent and he falls flat and out then,b oth arms badly broken.

<p class="MsoNormal">Daredevil tastes blood in his mouth thanks to that hit--ears still buzzing and he holds good ol Bullseye down, sucking in a breath or two. He's waiting for the madman to pull something else--but also catching his breath while he holds the man still--waiting. "You /finished/?" He rasps out, not making things any worse for ol' Lester at least.

<p class="MsoNormal">It's the last man standing at this point. And that man is Daredevil. The silence of his yelling and the unconscious form of Bullseye is broken over by the quiet sobbing over of the girl that he had used to bait a trap in the first place, still pinned to the wall.

<p class="MsoNormal">Poor girl. Poor Bullseye. Daredevil slowly releases the madman once he's satisfied that he's down for the count and draws himself to stand again, ignoring the pain of the busted ribs and various other cuts and bruises."You ok?" He asks the girl as he turns to address her. Holding his hands up, showing that he's not meaning any harm as he comes closer. "Lets getyou out of here huh?"

<p class="MsoNormal">The girl nods over at him and whimpers, collapsing over in a frightened heap then, having been terrified beyond belief. Hurt but alive, and Bullseye having just made a show of slashing her up, rather than having slashed her up like a turkey. Daredevil moves quickly to unbind the girl--woman--what-have you. Understandable to pass out after watching that sort of fight on the rainy rooftop. "Hey, it's alright. Deep breaths. We'll get you someplace warm." Looking for the way Bullseye got the girl up--stairway? Door?

Bullseye seemed to have simply taken the easiest way up, which was just the rackety looking fire escape which was probably older than Matt's father. The girl was sobbing and had finally collapsed unconscious, but wasn't bleeding out. Bullseye was out and was likely going to be eating through a straw for awhile. That counted as a win.