Defenders Prompt Post #1

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Defenders-only Discussion Post

This post is for prompts involving everyone in Netflix's The Defenders! Crossovers between anyone in the four individual shows should go here. Prompts only including characters from one show should still go on the relevant show prompt post.


Rules:

• General
  
  1. YKINMKATO. Play nice. If you don't like something, scroll on.
  
  
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  3. Subject lines should only be changed if you're posting a prompt or a fill (indicators like OP or Author!Anon should go in the body of the comment).
  
  
  4. RPF is allowed. Crossovers, characters from the extended Marvel Universe and comics canon are allowed, but must relate to the 2017 TV show in some way.
  
  
  5. Drop a comment on the mod post if you have any questions or problems.


• Prompts
  
  1. All types of prompts are welcome.
  
  
  2. Use the subject line for the main idea of your prompt (pairing or characters, keywords, kink).
  
  
  3. Warnings are nice, but not mandatory. Get DW Blocker if there's anything you really don't want to see.


• Fills
  
  1. Put [FILL] or something similar in the subject line when posting a fill.
  
  
  2. Announce your fill on either the Completed Fills Post or the WIP Post.
  
  
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  5. Fills can be anything! Fic, art and vids are all welcome.



Please post any prompts related to Season 2 of Punisher over on the dedicated Punisher prompt post, and put SPOILERS in the subject line!

Comments

Fill: Suicide is Painless, It brings on many changes (7/?)

[starwinddancer]

Title: Suicide is Painless, it brings on many changes (7/?)
Author: StarWindDancer
Pairing: Frank Castle/Matt Murdock, Danny Rand/Colleen Wing, Defenders together!
Warnings: Explicit. Major character deaths ahead.

If you're looking for part 6, it isn't here yet. I keep getting stuck! I could really use a beta reader. I'm only posting part 7 b/c I'm putting this on the back burner b/c I'm still stuck and it's driving me crazy!! I'm taking a break from this temporarily while I work on another fic. Hopefully it will clear my head. I also have a HUGE section of back story. Random ideas & history to put up. Maybe. And yes, my e-mail is the same as my pen name. Have had it since the 90's. StarWindDancer at yahoo dot com.

*** **** ***

“You can’t kill him, Frank?” DD’s voice is pleading.

Karen struggles against her attacker. The gun pressed to her temple.

“I got this,” Castle’s hand is steady as a rock. He has the shot. He’s just waiting for the dumb ass to focus back on him and DD. He doesn’t want to risk the death throws from the gunman pulling the trigger.

“No, I don’t think you do,” the gunman blows Karen’s brains out. They splatter across the wall, her body thumping to the ground.

Castle’s not sure what happens next but the gunman’s face is a bloody pulp under his hands. The perp is laughing as DD pulls Castle off him.

“I’m going to murder you! I’m going to end you, you son-of-a-bitch!”

“You can’t, please, you can’t,” DD yells in his ear. “Karen wouldn’t want this.”

“The fuck to what Karen would want! She’s dead. She’s gone. I’m going to end you,” Castle points as best he can in DD’s strong grip.

The gunman is laughing, using the wall as leverage to stand again. Karen’s hand canon of a gun in his hand. “Not before I end you,” he shouts.

Instinctively Castle ducks. Throws himself to the side.

**BAMM**BAMM**

In horror, Castle looks back to where he left DD standing. Two holes in his torso gushing blood. Shocked & surprised. The vigilante hero crumples slowly to his knees. Hands out, face tilted up as if he was in prayer at St. Agnes Church.

But there are no prayers answered here.

Just a soft crumple of a body in death.

Castle doesn’t even feel the other bullets as they kill him. He’s got moments before he’s dead. Moments to get at that damned gunman. The neck snapping as it got a 360 view of the hallway.

His own knees crumple under him then. A hand barely catching himself from face-planting into the carpet. He reaches out, his fingertips barely reaching to touch DD’s still ones. Darkness comes but not before he could feel his hand, his fingers lacing with Red’s as if folded in prayer.

Their final prayer.

*** **** ***

“You’re stronger than this.” And how can Murdock’s voice be so full of sadness and pain?

*** **** ***

“This might be a dead end,” Cage is saying.

"I smell blood," DD said.

"Yeah, there is a bit of it around," Jones said, looking at the carnage inside the building. "Wait, can you tell which blood is whose? That's effed up."

"No, I can..." DD head seesawed then jerked to the right. Cage grabbed the smaller man before he could tumble over. He did an arm twirl thing that knocked the strong hero's hand away and led to a palm hand strike to his arm pit. It jolted them both.

"Oops, sorry. Reflex," said the red ninja but there was too much humor in his tone for Cage to take it seriously. "Yeah, I had it for a second. I'm just having trouble concentrating. Focusing. Too much sensory input. I need... to... focus..." DD slowly walks a couple of steps then stops near the open garage door. He reaches out, waving a hand, stops, takes a small step to the left, a small wave, then grabs onto the door frame. "Ok, perceptions off. Watch the distances," he says quietly to himself.

Luke steps up to him and pats the crook of his arm twice, indicating that DD can take it. "Please, just, no hitting. It doesn't hurt, exactly, but I still feel it," Luke says.

"Noted," DD replies. He points ahead of them and a little to the right. Luke goes slowly as DD scents the air, his head tilting, moving as he takes in their surroundings. Cage following the direction the finger is pointing him to. "Stop," with accompanying gesture. He points down an ally way. "Castle doesn't drink beer much, not like these guys. He takes vitamin, iron supplements that he started in the army. It has a fruitier taste, eh, smell to it than most men. He went that way."

"Really! Wow! That's awesome," Danny said, starting down the alley. Jones nearly strains her eye balls rolling them so hard. Luke starts leading DD after them.

"I'm pretty sure you're just messing with Danny at this point." Luke said, voice low. "Can really track him using his blood?"

DD snorts. "No, but it makes a great story. I mean, yeah, I can kind of pick up the smell of his blood, just a whiff of 'Eau de Castle,' but I'm really following the smell of his boot polish. He doesn't use the cheap stuff on his boots like the rest of these guys. Castle uses different body products to see if it'll throw me off, so that's out. But there's also the gun and knife oils he typically uses in this direction. Some at the bar uses the same type, so I'm sniffing that out with a grain of salt. Tracking is harder than normal but I think we're on the right path."

"Hey, I think I found something!" Danny shouts, running back to them with an empty black holster vest and a pair of Tac gloves. Both tacky with blood. "Do they smell fruity?" He asked, thrusting them under DD's nose.

DD jerked back, pushing the items away from him.

"Danny, he's not a dog," Cage said, exasperated.

"That's Franks," DD said, instead, before the two friends could start arguing. He took off one of his gloves before taking the items from Danny. HIs fingers ran over the tac gloves and vest straps, mapping out the objects. His fingers catching on the blood, feeling the thick viscos liquid that hadn't dried yet.

They were well worn but of high quality. Fingerless but they didn't start out that way. The rough edge cut along some of the finger tips, a tiny slit to allow more thumb movement. The reinforced knuckles sanded down just a tad.

Just the way Frank Castle likes them. Even if they didn’t reek of the gun oil the marine favored, Matt could ID them anywhere.

Jones was farther down the ally, kneeling down in the lee of a small concrete staircase. The door to the building nailed shut. But it was the things beside it that she was examining. Or rather things. Abandoned lighters, empty starting fluid can, little tiny zip bags, creepy looking plastic bottles, raw tobacco, cigarette butts & pack, and an empty syringe. "This stuff looks fresh, even the starting fluid can is still cold. I think some junkies were hanging out here last night. What do you say they saw something extra interesting last night?" Jones asked the team as they caught up to her.

But Luke and DD don’t get far before the ninja is jerking Luke back to whisper in his ear.

"Why are there four pedals in a car? And which ones the brake?" DD asks.

"It's the long skinny one, in the middle," Luke answers confused.

"That doesn't help." DD has taken his hands off the tall man and is pantomiming finding something with his hands.



"What's it like? What do you see? Are you able to do anything in these dream things?"

"Well, I can see the sky for one," DD said. "It's been 20 years. I'd kind of forgotten what the blue sky looked like. And green. I think that's the only good that's going to come out of this. I was starting to forget what colors looked like.



*** **** ***

Castle is dragging himself across the floor. He knows that he’s leaving behind a trail of blood but he doesn’t care. He just has to get there. Nothing else matters, he just has to get there.

“Frank! Frank! Please, you gotta help me here, man,” Micro is yelling at him. His terrified screams spurring the marine on.

The Lieberman family was counting on him. The Symtec strapped to their chests mocking him. An unconscious DD tied to another kitchen chair besides them.

Inch by agonizing inch, Castle crawls forwards. They’re all counting on him to save them.

Eventually DD wakes up, the screams from Castle & the Lieberman’s getting into that thick scull of his. He takes in his surroundings, assessing the situation before doing one of those cool front flips. The chair shatters from the impact, freeing the vigilante hero.

Once freed, he rushes over to check on Castle, turning him over in his arms to check the damage. The K-bar he took to the stomach repeatedly has left him open and leaking.

“Frank, what do I do? What do you need?” DD asks of him.

“The bomb. You have to take me to the bombs. I need to disarm them,” Frank tells him. He pulls off that stupid mask so he can look into those stupid blue eyes. They seem to focus on him, look right into Frank and it’s damn creepy. His fingers had left bloody streaks across that pale face. It all seems so obscene to him. “Help me get to my feet,” Castle directs.

Getting to the now frantic family is an agony of wills. If it wasn’t for DD’s strength and pure determination, Castle doubts that they could have made it. They stumble there and the marine has to yell at DD not to poke or prod at the mess of wires.

DD is holding onto him, supporting him as he tries to run through the different wires on the bombs. His brain is fuzzy, can’t seem to figure out which ones are there to confuse him, which ones really do have power running through them. There are too damn many of them. His mind runs through his training, runs through what they taught him. Triggers. Power sources. Wires. Explosives. It’s too much. A puzzle he doesn’t have time to figure out.

But the Liebermen family is counting on him, DD is counting on him. This is what he was trained for, this is what he’s here for.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. This doesn’t make any sense,” Castle said.

“Get it together,” Micro spits at him.

He can’t do it. He just can’t!

“Get out of here, Red. I can’t do it. You need to get out of here, save yourself!” Castle shoved at him, pushing DD away.

But the vigilante hero doesn't let go, doesn’t leave. “I’m here till the end of the line, Frank. I’m not leaving you behind. I’m as tied up in this as they are,” DD said.

Looking down.

DD hadn’t gotten out of the ropes, hadn’t escaped his bindings.

Christ almighty, he was as tied up as the Lieberman’s. Detonating cord wrapped around his torso. A small detonator blinking in time to the one facing him from David’s chest. It was hard to see the orange tubing against the red background of the costume. There wasn’t enough Det cord to cause that big of an explosion. Not like the vests on the Lieberman. But it would turn DD’s rib cage to peanut butter. He’d die from the impact blast.

And it was remotely linked together.

The pattern finally made sense; the extra wires weren’t just for show. The two detonation triggers were linked. If he disarmed one, the other would go off. A hero’s dilemma. To save a few or the one.

“You know what the right choice is here, Frank. You know what to do,” DD said.

With shaking hands, Frank reached out, fingering the white wire. The snips open, ready to clip. Save a family to lose a friend.

A Nokia phone chimed.

“Ah, ah, ah, Castle. Did you really think I’d make it that simple?” A voice that was long buried, damn it, the owner of that voice was most definitely dead, mocked him. “You keep trying to be the good man that you aren't. You’re like that whack-a-mole, just keep popping up where you’re not wanted. But I think I’ve found a bigger hammer.”

* beep ** beep *** BEEP****

Castle grabbed DD to fling them both into the next room. They landed on the floor where he tried to roll them around, get them further away.

**** BEEP ***** BEEP ******

Their legs tangled together in a mockery of a lovers embrace. Faces tucked into the other’s neck in much the same way.

***** BEEP ****** BOOM *******

“Fra...” an abortive scream.

The only sound that Frank hears after that is of the ravenous fire eating away at their flesh and bones.

*** **** ***