Inside Kingpin's palace, Jessica watched helplessly as Riley swung his fists in fury, hammering Daredevil Matt, who had turned into a monster, into the floor.
Matt was completely embedded in the ground. When Kingpin built this palace, even those expensive, hard floor materials could not withstand Riley's fury. If Shang-Chi had not pulled him away, Jessica truly suspected Riley would have pounded Matt into a lump of pulp.
Riley stood up from the ground, breathing heavily. He wiped at the corner of his mouth and said in a tone that was practically rude for him, "Damn it! Something must have controlled him. I'll make them pay. I will!"
Shang-Chi patted Riley on the back, then smoothed his breath from top to bottom. He knew how much Matt from his universe had meant to the Spider-Men. Spider-Man rarely accepted anyone's care for long; those who had once stayed by his side had either left or died.
That left them with considerable guilt, as though they were bad luck. But in that universe, whenever they thought that even if they accepted Matt's care, no one could possibly hurt him, they felt completely safe. In another sense, it was like imprinting.
The reason Riley was especially enraged was that seeing Matt hurt had triggered him. It reminded him of too many terrible things in Spider-Man's life. Those people had all eventually left, left forever.
It took Riley quite a while to barely calm down. He sucked in a breath and looked at the unconscious Matt. "Don't let me find out who did this. I'll make them regret it!"
"We're about to find that out." Shang-Chi pushed Riley a little farther away and gave Jessica a look. Jessica stepped forward and said, "There was an explosion two blocks away. It could have been a