Chapter Text
The first time Matt Murdock meets the avengers it goes about as well as he could suspect- which in his world, meant absolute train wreck. It was supposed to be a simple night for him. Quiet. Clean. In and Out. That’s all it was supposed to be.
The rooftop he was crouched on was calm, the only kind of calm in the city. The echos of the normal New York chaos below. The ‘sounds of the city’ it was just honking horns, distant sirens, people arguing and the sound of the rails of the subway screeching with every stop.
He was just supposed to go to the docks, because that’s of course where the villains were. A trafficking ring with connections were working with new partners, unfortunately it seems to have been enough to get the avengers attention.
There came an explosion when he started making a move for the area, jumping down expertly onto the pavement below when he heard the unknown of the chaos.
Alien Tech.
Of course it was fucking alien tech. It had a horrible buzzing about it. Most probably wouldn’t of noticed it but with the fact he could hear everything distinctively at 50 feet, not to mention he could focus to hear everything else from further distance. It was nauseatingly unnatural to hear.
A drone came down to him, before he could get it there was a flurry of low rhythmic thump, Iron Man. It was his heart he could hear, it sounded the most distinct out of the avengers.
“J.A.R.V.I.S who the hell is the bdsm red nightmare?” Stark said through his Iron Man suit, all the Avengers on comms hearing it as the red devil moved back from another drone. Matt catching it midair and smashing it.
Steve, being the soldier he was, without missing a beat thinks that it’s someone of the trafficking ring before JARVIS could answer, throwing his shield. I mean a random man in a red suit in the middle of an alien-tech firefight? It wasn’t the worst idea to attack. Dare Devil cocked his head in that inhuman way and caught Captain America’s shield silently with one hand, still having that tilt as he locates exactly where Steve is.
Everyone froze. Natasha is rarely caught of guard but she thought this was going to be a bigger fight now. Everyone’s heart dropped, air stuck in their throats at this.
Jarvis just in time replies before everyone goes after the Devil, “A vigilante of Hell’s Kitchen, Dare Devil, might want to go apologize for your shield Captain.” Tony snickers at that, everyone else sighing almost in relief as they don’t have to fight the maniac who just caught Steve’s shield, only other person that could do that is Natasha and she’s a beast. The Avengers migrate that way to the Devil, Matt however seems less than thrilled to meet them.
“Glad that we don’t have to fight New York’s newest villain kink enthusiast.” Stark says with that usual sarcasm that flowed in his voice.
A sigh echoed over the group, thank god. Natasha visibly relaxed at this. Clint had mumbled over comms about friendly fire.
Steve looks embarrassed as he speaks, “Sorry for throwing that at you Dare Devil, JARVIS hadn’t read your file yet… Good catch though, impressive.” Steve gave a sheepish smile before offering his hand for a handshake. Dare Devil cocked his head again in the inhuman way, instead of shaking his hand he tosses the shield up to test the weight before he held out the shield to Captain America.
“Nice to meet you, Captain.” Dare Devil said he respected Steve the most, besides Natasha. His voice was in that batman distant tone, polite but distant.
Steve nodded with a slight smile before taking his shield back, “Glad to have you on the team..”
Matt’s voice was that low sternness that he projected as his persona, “There’s at least 20 just at the base, not mentioning the tens of them at each exit and entrance..that’s just the surface for what I can tell.”
Steve tilted his head as to ask Matt how he knew without voicing it yet.
Matt glanced away as he spoke, “Saw it before I came over.”
Tony nods and then looks over at the team, “Alright, follow the Bdsm Batman through, don’t be loud, we need to know what their doing.” Ironically this was coming from Tony, whose suit was the loudest thing of the whole mission besides the explosions.
“I believe these are the ones with upgrades in their joints, mechanically upgrading themselves.” Matt adds, he doesn’t feel the need to add that he can hear every chink or buzz in their blood. How it gurgles in their veins as the upgrades that had been methodically added into their bones was injecting steroid like alien tech into their blood stream for them to be stronger. He hated sometimes how much he could hear, the details in his head getting to gruesome or gross to think about.
Clint spoke over comms, “How the hell do you know that?” He said from his perch on a far away roof.
“Better ears,” Dare Devil comments simply.
Silence, even though it was just a beat it was noticeable tension.
Dare Devil then noticed the buzzing in his temporary comrades ears, hearing aids. Fuck. Dare Devil looks like an asshole now, just play dumb if they mention it is all he could think about.
The beat of awkward silence passed before a warehouse exploded, Cap going there first, everyone else following. Bio-mechanical soldiers running out of the Warehouses, swarming them. Cap throws his shied, slicing through the first 2 layers of enemies swarming them before it swung back from the circle it made.
Natasha took the low ground beneath the smog from the explosion, knocking out legs with her batons, cracking their knees before shooting them. Iron Man and Clint were above, keeping a steady stream of fire, blasts, and arrows coming to take out enemies that were trying to encase them.
Matt became the groups shadow.
Matt moved among them unbothered, while the others were struggling in the fog he embraced it. He wasn’t hindered by the fog but rather was helped. He wasn’t seeing the world but rather feeling the world, hearing it in every motion. He heard it, Smelt it, Felt it. He heard every groan, breath, misplaced step, and metal grinding in their bones. He could sneak on this group with ease.
He flipped through narrow gaps and surprised the enemies from behind in their own motion to encase the avengers by their sheer numbers. He was incapacitating, not killing. His hits though he will admit were brutal, they weren’t soft security hits that bouncers did. These were the hits of a man with built up and hidden anger that overflowed only for these people.
As Iron Man said before, which he found amusing in his mind at the moment ‘Bdsm Batman.’
At his amusement, enemies began trying to encase him, he started falling back into the shadows of the area. He slowly moved away from them, leading them to places where he could slowly pick them off, hitting them with his billy club to break their bones.
Matt moved lick liquid through the paths, picking off members as the Avengers were taking down the ones encasing them.
He found that although they had been advanced all but their vision had been, it hindered as well in the smog like the Avengers. Matt was the only chess piece at play on this checker board as he was the only one who could sneak around, take out larger groups of enemies through this. Both sides being almost useless until they were closer to clearer air, or face to face with an enemy of the other side.
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He disabled the last of them in a narrow hall, snapping the last ones knee backward with a satisfying crunch, hitting them with the billy club at the top of the head. The place where your skull forms together, this hit causing the last person to be knocked out cold. Matt let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, he had effectively taken out at least 50 or so guys who had been trying to make their ways to the Avengers in the smog. Though that had been cleared now.
The battle was winding down, he followed the way of the sounds of Clint moving closer from another roof to join his team in a moment, Cap throwing his shield once more, and Natasha’s boots scrapping the ground.
Once he pivoted and arrived back at the main area, away from all the carnage both he and the Avengers caused, he found that the team had started to regroup.
Steve was upright, checking along his suit to see if any of it had been damaged. Natasha was reloading her ammo, and then counting how many she had left. She was quiet like normal, mostly just taking everything in and finding out best plan of action. Clint had made it back down to the ground, grabbing an arrow out of a dead, but twitching enemy.
Tony finally landed from his hovering, he opened the face plate and looked at Matt. “You know,” Stark flashed a smirk over to the shadows as Matt stepped out of them, “I thought that I had been the dramatic one but you don’t even breathe when you fight, do you?”
Matt wiped off some blood-not his own- from the mask of his suit. “Don’t usually think about that.”
Clint glanced over “Creepy..” he muttered under his breath. Natasha glanced over at Clint, a soft nod that Matt barely noticed without his vision. Clearly Natasha hadn’t been very fond of this arrangement either.
Steve looked over at Matt, he stepped forward. “Hey..You alright?”
Matt answered with a nod, “I’m fine.”
Clint adds “These guys didn’t go down easy.”
Natasha speaks up, “They weren’t supposed to technologically advanced, remember?” Clint kind of groaned at that but nodded.
Matt finally chimed in, “Every bone of theirs have been modified. It all feels unnatural when you fight them because how much of their biology has been advanced. It doesn’t seem to just be trafficking.” Matt paused and silently tapped one with his foot. “They’re building something.”
Tony moved over to one of the dead guys and kicked one of their arms to move it. “Yeah we’ve fought against alien tech but I haven’t seen anything like this yet, to rewrite biology in the bones during a fight is hard, it’s not stolen. Its custom made for each one to boost their strength individually…which is the worrying part.”
Matt turned his head to Natasha, “You look at the crates?”
Natasha nodded as she looked down at a piece of Stark tech that Matt couldn’t identify apart from the data chip she pulled from her belt. “Got a scan, it should be transmitting to JARVIS now,” Natasha adds.
JARVIS confirmed a moment later: “Data received. From the parts in the box it seems that the tech is a hybrid strain. It’s both extraterrestrial and human. I estimate that the alloy changes the person who has it to boost their strength by 400% at least. Though it ruins the specimens internal systems through the advancements.”
Clint now walks over with his arrows in hand, “Great, so super soldiers with time bombs in them? Just what New York needed.”
Matt while listening felt more nauseous as he listened to the deads blood. He could hear the gurgle of their blood as the fluid still tried to run and make them stronger. He could hear how wrong it sounded.
Steve looked over at Matt, he noticed the tension in his shoulders as he stood. “Want to help us? This is your city after all..”
Those words struck a cord in Matt, he was silent for a moment. He could hear Natasha’s calm pulse, Steve’s breathing, Clint’s hearing aids having a weaker buzz from earlier, Tony’s suit making a faint hum.
Tony spoke up again with that famed sarcasm of his. “So…You joining us Leather Batman?”
Matt hated how this felt, he hated the closeness of it all. He only felt at ease because he could hear although they all sounded different from the average human he could still tell what they were, human.
“Temporary…” Matt finally said, “I work better alone.”
Natasha finally lets her guard down, snickering under her breath, “You’re not the only one whose said that before.”
Matt almost smirked at that.
Almost.
Tony clapped his metal hands together. “Well, DareDevil, if you ever decide to take up residence as a permanent guest star…I’m sure we can find room on the roster. Though we might have to get you a new suit, something less ‘Gimp Ninja.’ "
Matt turned and with a dry voice he spoke, “Coming from the guy in a flying hot rod..?”
“Got some big talk behind that mask,” Tony smirks as he shuts his face plate, “I like that.”
Steve stepped forward once again, “What were dealing with here- it’s not something small. It’s good to have someone who sees what we miss while we’re not here.
Matt hides a smirk behind his hand before wiping down and returning to that stone cold face. “You don’t want to know what I see.”
Steve kind of did a small awkward nod before backing off a bit, “The offer is open though, when either of us need the other….”
Matt didn’t shake hands or say goodbye, he did one simple nod. He backed away, blending back into the shadows of the warehouse one more. The team watched him go- silent and quick.
Clint muttered, “Leather Batman sure is fucking creepy.”
Tony smirked, that usual tone in his voice, “Yeah, but he’s ours now.”