Hell's Kitchen.
Inside a building on another street near Satan's Mansion.
The figure in red and blue panted heavily. Dax clutched his abdomen as he leaned against a wall with only half its height remaining.
Matt was hardly better off. Only one of his two hammers remained, its silver spikes coated in thick blood.
A hideous, ragged tear in his suit exposed the bulletproof padding beneath.
Around them, Chitauri soldiers' corpses littered the ground.
The two of them had wiped out an entire combat squad.
"Need a hand?" Matt steadied his breathing and walked toward Dax, his emotions tangled.
Night Ghost, whom he had considered a threat to order in Hell's Kitchen, had fought alongside him to protect this place.
Standing amid the ruins, he felt cracks appear in his convictions and faith for the first time.
He approached with an offer of friendship, intending to check the other man's injuries.
Dax's gaze sharpened as he saw him approach.
He drew his last throwing knife, took aim, and hurled it without hesitation.
The knife flew past Matt's ear, coming within a hair's breadth of killing the famous Daredevil.
"Urgh!"
Matt turned as a body hit the ground.
A Chitauri soldier holding a weapon lay dead.
Dax let his hand fall. He had lost quite a lot of blood.
Matt hurried over to examine him. Besides blood loss, impacts and explosions had displaced some of his internal organs.
However powerful Dax was, he was still only flesh and blood. Without their armor, both of them would have died in this assault against the aliens.
Helping Dax to his feet, Matt struggled toward the exit.
A taxi stood outside. Robert had just carefully helped a heavily pregnant woman out of it and through the back entrance of Satan's Mansion.
Satan's Mansion had