(Tokyo, Japan)
A section of the city is in ruins. Soldiers lie on the ground, either dead, or about to die. One solider reaches in vain for a radio set, but a burst of flame puts an end to his life. Nearby, Sunfire is outstretched on the ground, with small fires flickering around him. Titannus stands over him, with energy still leaking from his gauntlets. He tells the hero that he’d hoped he has learned enough to save himself this embarrassment a third time. He turns and looks at downtown Tokyo. Now, he says, to cause some real damage.
(New York City, USA)
At the offices of Nelson & Murdock, Foggy and Matt are entertaining a client and his lawyers. They have plenty to go over before their client’s trial begins the next day, but Matt still excuses himself, saying he isn’t feeling too well. Foggy can’t believe he’s leaving, but tries his best to humor their client. As he turns back to them, he sees the reason for Matt’s untimely exit. Stilt Man is walking the streets carrying a briefcase. He tells them Matt had some Indian food earlier and doesn’t think it’s agreeing with him.
Outside, Matt is soon in his Daredevil costume and on Stilt Man’s tail. He asks where he’s headed with his briefcase. Stilt Man quickly turns and uses his telescopic arms to lash out at Daredevil. He knew he would run into Murdock, though he thought he’d be laying low after his identity was leaked. Daredevil replies that he’s been misled. He isn’t Murdock. Stilt Man doesn’t really care either way. He deposits his briefcase on a rooftop and prepares for battle.
He knows the arm thing has got Daredevil thinking, and he explains that he isn’t Wilbur Day. He quit, he explains, and because he was out of the way, he decided to give the whole villain thing a shot. He got the plans for this suit on the Internet. They were on eBay but he found them somewhere else for free. Daredevil hurls his billy club at the villain, and replies that he doesn’t talk any less than the old Stilt Man.
The club misses, and Stilt Man’s response is to open fire from a gun attached to his wrist. This is another improvement on the old design. He’s added all kinds of gadgets and what not, including the extendo-arms. He’s pretty confident that he’ll be able to beat Daredevil with little to no effort. His hubris doesn’t seem misplaced when a volley of rounds cause Murdock to leap acrobatically from his rooftop position.
As he falls, he asks Stilt Man to tell him more, and throws his Billy club once again. The club misses again, as Stilt Man offers his surprise that this is the first time they’ve met. Unseen by him, the club’s wire wraps itself around a metal support and Daredevil uses the momentum of his fall to pull himself towards Stilt Man. He lands with both feet in his torso, but he is barely winded by the attempt.
He grabs Matt in his fist and extends his arm again, holding him out precariously several stories up. Barely felt that, he tells Matt. As he was saying, he’s been at this for weeks now; nine successful heists under his belt. He figured he’d run into him before now. He beat up a guy called Superpro last week. He was the silliest looking guy, he adds.
Down below in the streets, his elongated legs are causing damage; trashing vehicles and forcing innocents to flee. Luke Cage is wandering the streets listening to some tunes having picked up some food, when he notices the commotion.
Up above him, Stilt Man punches Daredevil with his other fist, and warns him that he’s gonna have to get used to his new powers. He thinks Matt is out of practice. Too much time in the courtroom and not enough time in the gym, he reckons. Daredevil once again insists he’s not Murdock. Stilt Man replies that maybe he is a new guy. That would certainly explain his performance.
Suddenly, he hears a thud behind him, and turns to see Luke Cage crawling over his suit. Luke agrees with the villain, and asks what’s up with him tonight. He’s letting the Stilt Man give him trouble. “You got the flu or something?!” Matt replies that he’s trying to put him in jail, not the morgue. If he gets knocked out while he’s on those things the fall will kill him. Cage reacts instinctively, and tells Matt that innocent lives are at stake. They don’t have a lot of options. He smashes his fist down on Stilt Man’s helmet, which knocks him out cold.
As he falters, Luke leaps to the nearest rooftop. “Act now, think later,” he shouts to Matt. Daredevil is quick to respond as he sees the lolloping villain and he leaps towards him, wrapping the wire of one of his Billy clubs around Stilt Man with the other end around the metal support. With the other club, he does the same thing but lashes onto a support on the other side of the street. As Stilt Man falls, he is left dangling above the street, with Daredevil balancing on the wires, and giving Luke the evils.
“See man, I knew you had it covered,” says Luke. Matt tells him to shut up, and Luke asks if that’s any way to thank him for helping out. Luke picks up the food he bought earlier, and tells Matt that he was out getting burgers. When Jessica gets a craving, it’s better to just switch to “Yes ma’am” mode. He asks Matt if he wants one. He bought a couple extra in case he got hungry. Matt declines, just before a huge explosion rocks the streets below them.
Luke drops the food, and asks Matt not to tell her he did that. If she finds out she’ll kill him. Matt is about to tell Luke they’re most likely needed below, but Luke insists the girl will eat him alive if he doesn’t return with the food five minutes ago. “Luke, you’re not serious?” asks Daredevil. Luke assures him that he has to get the food home, but if Matt doesn’t call to say the coast is clear by the time he gets back, he’ll turn right around. He adds that someone ought to call Fury about Stilts as well. He doubts the police can get him down from there. Daredevil has no time to waste, and leaps from the rooftop, heading for the location of the explosion.
Back at Nelson & Murdock, their client waits impatiently for Matt’s return, which isn’t forthcoming. Foggy tells them they can continue without him. It’s no big deal. Their client points his finger at Nelson, and says he wasn’t thrilled about having this meeting in the first place but, once he realized his hotshot partner was going to be sitting in, he really wanted to hear what he thought of the strategy they’d developed. He’s not leaving until he hears from Matt Murdock. Foggy pauses, and smiles nervously. “I’m sure he’ll be back any second now. Yes, sir… any second now…”
(meanwhile)
In another part of the city, Rick Sheridan is in bed with a redheaded woman, who is reading a book. She can’t believe Rick’s asleep already but, when Sleepwalker materializes from nowhere, she realizes he’s already in a deep sleep. Sleepwalker asks if she’s going to waken him, but she resigns herself to leaving him be. She tells him the window’s open, so he can go do his thing. “Thank you ma’am,” he replies, before slipping into the evening air.
He makes his way over the rooftops in search of trouble. He is glad to be free of Rick’s mind. Though his waking hours are not extending, his idle time inside Rick’s mindscape seems an eternity. He quickly spots something down below, and drifts across to a building where Black Cat is hanging upside down from a rope and cutting a circle of glass out of the window. He orders her to halt and explain her actions. She glances around at him, and replies that she’s dropping off some medicine for her grandmother. She asks him to leave before he sets off the alarm.
Sleepwalker, not the brightest hero on the planet, still realizes that she is breaking the law, and demands that she ceases her illegal activity. He doesn’t wish to have a physical encounter with her. Too bad, ugly, she replies. She’s not letting him take her in. She hurls the glass disc at him, but it misses and sails off into the street below. “You would be wise to surrender,” says Sleepwalker, his eyes glowing from under his cowl. Black Cat replies that she’s been called a lot of things, but wise is not one of them. She leaps at Sleepwalker with her talons bared.
In response, Sleepwalker uses warp beams from his eyes to pull away part of the building’s metal support. He wraps it around her, pinning her arms against her body without lifting a finger. He approaches, and tells her if she would be so kind as not to struggle, he will notify the proper authorities of her whereabouts. Before he can continue his speech, a huge explosion rocks the streets below and he turns to see what the commotion is. He excuses himself, but as he turns to look at Black Cat, she has already slipped her constraints and has vanished. Sleepwalker figures he must be more focused in the future.
Never mind, he thinks, there are more urgent matters to attend to. He must seek the source of the explosion and ensure that there have been no injuries. Unfortunately, because Rick Sheridan has been snoring, his companion wakes him. He apologizes to her, but it’s too late for Sleepwalker whose presence dissipates into nothingness.
(Tokyo, Japan)
The city’s downtown lies in ruins, felled at the hands of Titannus. He smiles. “I believe I can seek their attention no longer. They must notice this.”
