1st POV Claire

'He's late.' Sighing to myself, I looked at the clock on my phone. Matthew Murdock, since saving the crime fighting vigilantly months ago, I had started to learn more about him and one of the things that stays consistent is that the only time he doesn't show up on time is when he takes a beating. Although he seems to have an odd since of pride in his ability to take a hit instead of avoiding it. I would never understand why but it didn't matter much after all I wasn't the one going out every night in a costume to fight criminals and destroy gangs. "Knock Knock" Hearing a knock on my window I turn to my left and see Matt crouched on the railing outside my window waiting. Observing the way, he was holding his right side I sighed to myself and stood up grabbing my first aid kit as I passed my kitchen. Opening the window, I watched as Matt stumbled his way into my apartment. Moving over to his right side to help him wobble to my couch to lay down, I couldn't help my curiosity after observing the rather massive bruising covering his back. 

"Who did you piss off this time?" Hearing my question Matt chuckled to himself before coughing as the pain started to kick in. Easing himself onto my couch he started to tell me about his night.

"I was raiding some of the hotels the Russians operated out when I got a big led on the location of the Ranskahov brothers..."

"And let me guess you walked yourself right into another trap."

"No, the information checked out I found the garage they were hiding at."

"Then how did you get so hurt?"

"When I entered the garage, I made my way through trying to find the electrical room. Once I found it, I turned off the power and started to take them out one by one until it was just the brothers and me. I forced them to talk about Fisk. Or at least that was the plan until someone else showed up and used the power outage to slaughter his way to the brothers. These are all from him." Gesturing to his massive bruises Matt continued "I don't know what it was, but it wasn't a human at least not fully."

"How do your figure that?"

"They were too strong too fast. No normal human could do that and, they were able to fight without breathing or a heartbeat."

"What?! It didn't have a heartbeat." Listening to Matts story I wondered if he was trying to prank me. But looking at Matts face I could tell he was being serious "How is that possible for someone to be able to fight let alone live without a heartbeat."

"I don't know. All I know is they said they had fought others like me before and that to them I was nothing more than a pest."

"Wha!!" Hearing Matt describe his fight in such a way shocked me. Matt up until this point had always been confident even when beaten he would just shake it off and then continue fighting. It was one of the things I loved about him. But for him to say he was just a pest in front of his opponent. I couldn't even fathom how strong his opponent must have been. As if sensing my fear Matt reached out and grabbed my hand "You don't need to worry. No matter what happens, I will always protect this city. Protect you." Giving her a confident smile Matt groaned again because of his injuries and laid back onto the bed. Unconsciously a smile came onto my face when I realized that Matt was still the same even when faced with such an overwhelming defeat. Breathing a sigh of relief, I got to work checking Matt for any more injuries. 

It didn't matter if Matt was beaten today. After all, if there was anything I had learned about the Murdocks, it was that they could take a punch.

…

3rd POV Triskelion DC

Sitting in an office on the top floor of the Triskelion, Nick Fury picked up reports about various missions his agents were performing around the globe. Reading through the report and adding comments or circling areas for review he finished the report by signing off at the bottom and adding a security level to the file. Putting the report aside, Nick Fury turned to grab another from his unfinished pile only to stop when he realized he couldn't reach the top of the pile while sitting. "Motherfucker." Sighing to himself, Nick stood up from his desk and reached for another document when a knock on the door broke his concentration.

"Sir I have information from our contact in the underworld of New York you need to see this." Agent Marie Hills voice came from behind the door. Immediately, he put the folder onto his desk, flipped it to a random page and grabbed his trench coat from off his chair before throwing it on. Moving quickly and silently 3 steps to his left he grabbed the already prepared glass of scotch and turned his body, so he leaned against the wall of his office looking through the full body window behind his desk. 

Double checking to make sure he didn't miss anything he slightly tilted his head towards the door and opened his mouth "Come on in Agent Hill." Watching from the corner of his eye as Hill entered his office with a headpiece on and a tablet in hand, he took a sip of his drink and spoke once more. "What's the situation? Do we know who was responsible?" No response. Strange. Normally Hill was quick to give reports, she hated wasting time and she knew he didn't like it either. Turning his head, he saw a look of trepidation on Hill's face while she clenched the tablet in her hand tightly. "Well Hill what is it?"

"Yes sir...Our informant told us that as of this morning the Russian gang is gone." Waiting patiently for more elaboration Nick turned his head in annoyance when Hill didn't continue providing details. "Gone where Agent Hill?" As Fury watched Hill took a deep breath before refocusing.

"There all dead sir."

"Pardon." In disbelief Fury stared at Hill's face trying to find a sign that would show she was lying. Not finding any Nick quickly turned around from the window and sat at his desk leaning forward onto his desk ignoring the file under him "Tell me what we know so far."

"Yes sir, Last night at 23:00 hours a hotel in Hell's Kitchen was attacked. A resident had reported the case to the police early this morning after finding a dead body outside in front of the hotel. After arriving the police searched the building and found 37 children locked in the hotel rooms and just over 2 and a half dozen armed Russians all killed along with some of the kidnapped children. The first 4 floors of the hotel all had bodies sparsely distributed and no children were found dead. However, on the top floor the police found what could be described as a bloodbath. Nearly 15 dead Russians strown about the hallway and 5 of the kidnapped children laid out in positions that have made the police suspect they might have been trying to use the children as hostages. Clearly, whatever they were fighting didn't care for the hostages. Several other buildings were hit throughout the night ranging from the docks to garages and hotels throughout Hell's Kitchen. Putting times on their deaths puts this hotel as the assailants first stop." 

Taking in the information Hill was giving him Fury frows burrowed over how quickly this whole situation had happened. For the whole gang to be wiped out in one night even a special ops military team would struggle to pull something like this off. "Causality report."

"Sir, a total of 276 Russian bodies have been found and identified thus far along with 35 civilian causalities." Frowning slightly over the number of Civilians who had been killed Fury looked up at Hill and pushed those thoughts away finding the person responsible came first.

"What of the Ranskahov brothers?"

"We had a team of our own raid their hotel room and they found both brothers dead in one of the bathrooms. Anatoly was strangled by a shower head and Vladimir had his neck snapped from behind." Breathing slowly to calm his mind Fury looked up and asked the most important question. "What of the assailant?"

"We don't know currently who or what is responsible. However, we were able to find two videos that briefly showed the assailant one from a street camera just outside one of the garages it raided and the other from the cameras our people set in the hotel the Ranskahov brothers were staying in." Finished speaking Marie put down the tablet in her hand and Fury looked down to watch the footage.

The footage at the garage started with a shattering sound as a man dressed in a red costume was thrown out from the garage through a window. Raising a brow at the presence of Matthew Murdock AKA the Daredevil Fury continued to watch as from the direction Daredevil was thrown from a thing wrapped in darkness wearing a white mask stepped out. 'Trained.' That was the first thought in Fury's head as he looked at the thing on screen, it stood at 6'3 and compact muscle could be seen under its cloaked figure with every step it took. The way it carried itself resembled that of trained soldiers. Fury watched how it scanned the whole street before locking onto the surveillance camera. The thing looked back at Daredevil then towards the camera again as if it was reluctant to let go of its prey. Finally, it stepped back, and Fury narrowed his eyes as the darkness behind it seemed to move forward to swallow it in its grasp. Looking back up, Marie took the tablet and started to prepare the next video. Putting the tablet back down Nick watched as Vladimir entered the bathroom and pulled down the shower curtain only to freeze in horror at his brother's dead body. Watching Valdimir's actions up to his death. Nick took a minute to collect his thoughts before speaking

"Valdimir's actions before death suggest that whatever killed him must have some relation to the mirror in the room." 'Could it be a Skrull?' Nick had seen their ability to transform themselves in person and while Carl Danvers may have assured him that they couldn't change their shape in such complex ways Nick would be damned if he got rid of any possibility before knowing more information "Have we confirmed what kind of ability it used?"

"No, sir. But after reviewing the videos our analysts believe it possesses invisibility or intangibility like asset Ghost."

"Ghost? So, there's a new player in Pym technology on the run."

"That or a new mutant." 'Mutant' groaning in his mind about the amount of paperwork he would need to deal with if this thing was a mutant Fury debated his options before giving his orders.

"Send agent Coulson to New York to make contact and keep Barton on standby in case the situation turns critical." Giving out his orders he dismissed Hill silently and reached his hand into his inner coat pocket taking out the pager Carl Danvers had given to him if he ever needed her help. Rubbing his finger over the activation button had become a habit of Nick's over the years as the world continued to become stranger day by day. It kept him calm and reassured him of the control SHIELD had. Turning back to look out the window of his office Nick sighed and hoped to hear good news from Coulson soon.

... 

Meanwhile, in an office on the opposite end of the same floor Alexander Pierce was watching the same videos as Fury while listening to his subordinate's evaluations. Scowling upon hearing that this 'thing' could have the same power as Ghost Pierce silently thought over his options. 'A threat like this can't be ignored. If something like that starts snooping around then there's nothing that can stop it.' "Is project 'WALL' still not making any progress?" Looking back up at his subordinate Pierce rubbed his brows at the negative response. Project 'WALL' had been started immediately after the discovery of Ava Starr, hit by an explosion of Pym particles. Her body is in a state of quantum instability, which provides her with the ability to phase through anything. Understanding the dangers, she could pose Pierce had pulled a lot of strings to put her under HYDRA control. The payoff had been tremendous. Ghost was practically unstoppable as long as no mutants who could interfere with her were around and thankfully there weren't a lot of such mutants. 'WALL' was a project Pierce and Whitehall were funding in order to try and create a material or barrier that would stop or prevent phasers from accessing their ability. 

However, up until now no fruitful results have been achieved. Phasing was proving to be a much more annoying problem than Pierce would have liked and with this thing that could kill hundreds overnight on the loose he worried over the effect it could have. "What did Fury decide to do?"

"He's sent Coulson to try and establish friendly contact with it. Barton has also been assigned but he's only there to act in case the target goes on another massacre."

"Fufufu" Chuckling to himself at Fury's predictability Pierce patted himself on the back for the idea of promoting Fury to director. It gave Pierce more room to work with, without losing any of the perks. "Recommend Agent Rumlow to accompany Coulson. See if we can find a like-minded ally in this 'thing'. If all goes well this is the perfect chance to make him the team leader for the STRIKE team."

"What if the target turns sir?"

"Hmmm? Hahaha, that's the great thing about not being in charge. When shit hits the fan it's not my job to fix it. No matter what happens we come out on top here." Dismissing his subordinate, Pierce went back to relaxing in his office. Turning to face the window, Pierce looked at the magnificence of the Triskelion. 'Fury you've done a wonderful job on building a nest for HYDRA. When we are finally ready to save the world, I'll make sure you get rewarded properly.'

AN:

Let me know what you guys think about a chapter like this where the main character isn't mentioned. Also give me your thoughts on the first person writing. Let me know if you'd like to see it more in the future.