High up above the city, Matt Murdock took a deep breath and listened.

To the sounds of hundreds of cars and the subtle differences in their engines.  To the sounds of countless little snippets of conversation, and the millions of little mechanical sounds of everything from ceiling fans creaking in un-air-conditions apartments to the ever so subtle hum of power lines that lay beyond human hearing.  Barking dogs and police sirens and, yes, a helicopter making an emergency landing at Manhattan general.

He inhaled again and took in the smells of his city.  Of exhaust fumes and rotting garbage and countless different pizzas, all claiming to be the original Ray's.

And then he saw the city in the way that only he could, playing out over every nook and cranny as far as his radar sense would go.  The way it looked only to him, a sharp beat of outlines wired directly into his brain.

Less than a week since he had used his law degree to find a loophole in the promise he had made to his father.  Less than a week since Daredevil had battled the Fixer and the criminal had run right into the path of a speeding subway car.  He'd have liked to thing his father was resting easier, but he knew, in his heart of hearts, that Jack Murdock would not have approved of his son choosing the path of violence like this.

But the Fixer had only been the tip of the iceberg.  There were rumors floating everywhere that, in one way or another, every major criminal, whether they ran numbers or drugs or protection or weapons, worked for a mysterious Kingpin, a spider at the web of every major criminal enterprise in the city and many minor ones besides.  It was foolhardy and unbelievable.  But if it was true, and he possessed the power to help bring this man... or woman... down, then he had to do everything in his power to make that happen.

And, though he would never admit this, he had liked being Daredevil.  After spending so much of his life bottling up his aggression, his anger, his physicality, it had been a release.  He had hidden so much of himself, even more so since the accident that had robbed him of his sight had also left him with greatly enhanced senses, that to be free of all those limitations, of having to be the meek blind man, it had felt amazing.

It had been like finding himself for the first time in years.

He chuckled to himself.  "Guess it really is true what they say: justice is blind."

And whether as Matt Murdock or Daredevil... he would be justice for those who had none.

tags: daredevil