#elektralivesagain

Matt reached for Elektra before he was fully awake. He moved closer to her, holding her as the last tendrils of sleep subsided, bringing the world back into clarity. He thought of the fight and of the monster he’d struggled to fully sense without his sight. No matter how horrible it looked, the most devastating attack from it had been the sorrow. He’d been filled with the same grief he’d felt when he’d lost her. He’d rather have been stun by the flying creatures with tentacles than go through that pain again. Having her back, being able to hold her, was what he used to fight that feeling off now whenever it tried to reoccur. 

Using his senses, Matt listened to the mansion before he turned and kissed Elektra gently. “No one else is awake yet. I’m going to go get something to eat,” he told her. He slipped quietly out of bed and threw on his shorts before moving out into the hallway and down to the kitchen for food.

[“It had been two days and the red mist still hung around the city like musk in a cat house. I—”]

{“WE.”}

[“…I—”]

{“WE.”}

[“…We had been roaming the city, keeping an eye out for my—”]

{“OUR.”}

[“No! My next meal, you don’t even like blood.”]

{“….”}

[“—my next meal. The selection was sparse, anyone with any sense was staying inside to avoid the mist that lingered. My blood hunger was being heightened by that of my new companion, and we stopped to light up a Lucky, the smoke seeming to help calm her.”]

{“There.”}

[“We saw the woman at the same time Carcinogen pointed her out. Since my transformation to vampire we had been learning to see mortals’ energy signatures, Karn would probably call them auras, and the energy surrounding this woman was…off.”]

Pulling his cigarette away from his lips he blew out a stream of smoke, dark eyes watching the woman in black and red moving through the mist, a combination of Spider and vampire enhancements meaning he was able to track her despite the partial camouflage the mist provided her with.

Since bonding with his symbiote (which after half-a-day spent speed-reading books at the NYPL had decided she was both female and named Carcinogen) Noir had foregone his mask (but not his goggles) and the undermost layer of his suit, Carcinogen seeming to prefer to cling to his skin rather than fabric. It meant that as he lifted his cigarette dozens of tiny spiders skittered away from his mouth so that he could wrap his lips around the stick and breathe in, and when he pulled the cigarette away the spiders settled atop his mouth once more, Carcinogen reforming to create his mask.

“Why don’t we go say hello, kitten?” 

Noir felt the symbiote surge over his skin at the suggestion. She didn’t like blood, but she did enjoy violence (and broccoli and nicotine). Still mindful of Dollface’s voice in his head reminding him that he couldn’t solve every problem with violence, Noir reached into an inner pocket of his trench coat and pulled out a broccoli floret tossing it in his mouth before he jumped from the rooftop and floated down to land light as a feather on top of a telephone pole, his abilities as Spider-Man helping him adapt to his vampire abilities. They didn’t help with the fact that the broccoli he ate did nothing to sate the hunger ache that settled in his belly.

Crouched on top of the wooden pole he watched the woman move, curious as to whether she would notice him. Every so often the man took a drag on his cigarette, tiny spiders ebbing and flowing around his mouth in the stick’s wake.

Stealing away to go on a shopping spree seemed like a good way to lighten her mood. She’d asked Kwannon to tag along, of course, not wanting to be by herself in a city without her powers. She had nothing in the way of combat skills despite her mind being trained for such; her body was something else. They’d gone all the way up to Fifth Avenue, dodging those who meant anyone ill harm (much to Kwannon’s chagrin). Going in the front door, however, wasn’t in the cards. Large, thick chains bound them together with a massive padlock that not even the largest of knives could hack apart. What a time to lose her powers. “I think if we can go up a floor, we might find a window that’s open.” Elizabeth chewed on her thumbnail, oblivious that she’d been abandoned by her “sister.” “No doubt you’d smash one in anyway.”

@hellsguardiandevil @elektralivesagain

Frank had been doing his self-appointed patrols when he noticed people still venturing down into the subway.  Some quick recon told him he was going to need backup.  Though it was likely there were a great many people capable of such things, there was only one person he could trust to watch his six without keeping a watch on him.

Murdock woke up from his sound sleep to a familiar and uncomfortable feeling. He knew that people had slowly started to switch back. He’d hoped to be the last, or better to be forgotten and to stay.

Matt has been listening to the sounds of the other inmates moving around him. He hadn’t been acting exactly right, though he’d done his best. Some were restless, but none of them would move against him yet. He was glad for the pain that told him wouldn’t be around to see what they tried to do about him.

No. No no no. Not now. Not yet.

Thank God. I need to go home.

His first thought was to leave the bed, but he knew the power that was pulling him now and he knew there was no fighting it. He knew this would all end, no matter how much he wanted to stay. He doubled over in pain for a moment and through is blurring senses, he found Elektra sleeping beside him.

Matt laid in his cot on his side and waited for the pain to increase before it passed. He could take the pain. He could take it a thousand times if it meant going home to her.

Murdock started to call out to her, but his words were choked down. He grabbed the sheets simply to have something to hold onto as pain went through him. He had a moment, and only a moment more. He had a lot of things to say that he wasted time being unable to say and now he was out of time and his last seconds beside her were going too quickly. 

Matt’s senses blurred and the prison around him started to disappear. This world wasn’t his and there was nothing for him here. No Elektra, no Foggy, no Maggie, no Karen. He’d searched for someone to help him, but they were either dead or a total stranger.

Murdock reached up and found Elektra’s neck. He pulled her close and kissed her like he wanted to do the moment he’d accepted she was real. He held it for as long as he dared before he broke away, wanting to speak before he was gone. “Thank you,” he whispered to her. It wasn’t what he wanted to say, but it was what he could say. His hand slipped off of her as his world blurred into total static.

Murdock’s world slowly came back into focus. He was in his cell again, the small walls holding him. He fought to keep any memory that threatened to slip through his grasp. He reached out blindly for a pen and paper. He ended up knocking them to the floor before he could finally grab them and start to try and write things down. 

“Mr. Murdock?” 

“I’m fine. I simply have a few new ideas I don’t want to forget,” he lied.

Matt was shivering now that he suddenly didn’t have a jumpsuit. His world was in too much of a haze to try and find anything to help him warm up. It didn’t matter as much as finding her.

“E- E- Elektra?” Matt managed to whisper. 

This sleep felt different. As Matt slowly started to wake, he was instantly greeted with a very different feeling of the world. Everything was so muted and soft. What had happened? Had he been injured again? He remembered waking up to being partially deaf in one ear and his other senses dulled or missing. Everything had felt like he was underwater. This didn’t feel quiet like that, but it felt significantly impaired.

Matt felt Elektra beside him. She was still warm and curled up with him. Her heartbeat was masked from him, but that wasn’t uncommon anymore. She was still asleep as well, so she hadn’t felt anything off. Maybe it was just him?

Matt opened his eyes and he strangled back out a shout of surprise. He was looking at Elektra.

Matt was looking at Elektra.

Matt was looking at Elektra.

Or at least, Matt assumed the very young woman was Elektra. He looked down at his hands and then back up at her, utterly perplexed. What had happened? Why were they both so young?

“E-Elektra. You might want to wake up for this,” Matt whispered before shaking her shoulder.