"But it's happening." William's gaze turned to the window, towards Hell's Kitchen, where the night sky seemed to be stained with an ominous dark red hue.
"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s 'purge' will only make things worse. They can't distinguish between enemies and... former friends."
"They'll treat Matt as a Terrorist."
Tony instantly understood what William meant.
If S.H.I.E.L.D. forces went in, facing a Daredevil with superhuman combat abilities who had abandoned all his principles, they would only choose one way to deal with him.
Kill him on sight.
"I need to go in." William's voice was firm. "Stop him before S.H.I.E.L.D. makes a move."
"You alone?"
Tony frowned.
"He's my client, my responsibility."
William didn't offer further explanation.
"Alright, alright." Tony raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Don't rush to be a lone hero. Master of risk management, have you forgotten what your greatest asset is?"
William looked at him.
"It's your handsome, wealthy, and coincidentally also a superhero, good friend."
Tony's face once again showed that confident smile.
"Give me five minutes. Wait for me on your penthouse helipad."
"Iron Man, is about to deploy."
...Rand Tower.
Danny Rand had just finished his daily meditation.
But his heart could not find peace.
William Rodriguez's phone call made him feel vaguely uneasy.
Matt was out of contact.
This was very unusual.
Just then, the office door was violently pushed open.
A red figure rushed in.
It was Elektra.
Danny's pupils instantly constricted, his body instinctively tensed, and the fist containing the power of the Iron Fist had already begun to glow golden.
"Elektra? Aren't you..."
"Dead, right?" Elektra interrupted him, her voice urgent and powerful. "Like Matt, I crawled back from Hell."
"Matt?" Danny seized the key information.
"Something happened to him." Elektra didn't have time to explain much. "The Hand resurrected him, but they controlled his mind. He is now The Hand's puppet, their king."
The surprise on Danny's face instantly turned to solemnity.
He knew The Hand, the sworn enemy that had plagued K'un-Lun for centuries.
He also knew what resurrection meant.
"He killed many people." A trace of pain was in Elektra's voice. "He's turning Hell's Kitchen into his own kingdom. In The Hand's way."
"I saw another person's end." Moon Knight's breakdown flashed through Elektra's mind. "I can't let Matt become like that too. We can't."
Danny was silent.
He looked at Elektra before him.
This former enemy, at this moment, had a resolve burning in her eyes that he had never seen before.
It wasn't for slaughter, but for... salvation.
"We need Luke." Danny made his decision. "Only we can bring him back."
"The Defenders must save him."
...Harlem.
Luke Cage had just tossed a robber into the Police station entrance.
He was about to go home when two figures appeared before him.
"Luke, something big has happened."
After listening to Danny and Elektra's account, Luke Cage's face showed rare shock and anger.
"Matt, he... The Hand..."
He couldn't imagine that his friend, who always solved problems with law and wisdom, would become a ruthless tyrant.
"William Rodriguez's people are handling it, but they'll only mess things up." Elektra said. "They don't understand Matt. Only we do."
"Moreover, we cannot entrust a friend's life to a group of businessmen."
Luke looked at Danny, then at Elektra.
He nodded.
"I'm in."
...The "Nightingale" stealth shuttle was silently cutting through New York's night sky at an extremely fast speed.
Inside the cabin.
William was calibrating various parameters of the "foolproof plan" forearm armor.
The voltage of the stun probes, the toughness of the nano-cables, the output power of the bio-electric resonance... He adjusted everything to the highest alert state.
Across from him was Tony Stark.
"So, what's the plan?" Tony asked. "Rush in, find that blind lawyer, then knock him out and bring him back?"
"The plan is to find him. Then, assess the situation." William's voice was calm.
"Assess?" Tony raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't sound like your style. I thought you'd say 'eliminate the risk'."
"If he can still be saved, then save him." William looked at his palm, the blue electric light of the Palm Arc Pulse flashing briefly.
"If he has completely become a threat..."
William didn't finish his sentence.
But Tony understood what he meant.
"Alright." Tony sighed. "I hope things don't come to that. I don't want to fight a resurrected superhero; that sounds too inauspicious."
"Entering Hell's Kitchen controlled airspace ahead." The contract's voice sounded. "Detecting S.H.I.E.L.D. drone patrol network. Evade?"
"No need." In William's eyes, data streams began to flash wildly.
"Take them over."
Mechanical Induction (MAX)!
His consciousness transformed into invisible commands, instantly penetrating S.H.I.E.L.D.'s communication network.
On the screen, the light dots representing the patrol drones, after a brief pause, began to continue their patrol along a preset route that perfectly avoided the "Nightingale."
They became William's eyes.
"Cool." Tony whistled. "Your ability is even better than my backdoor program."
The shuttle landed smoothly on the rooftop of a building.
The two walked out of the cabin.
The streets were empty, with only flashing Police lights and occasional sporadic gunshots in the distance.
"He's turned this place into his hunting ground." Tony's voice was somewhat heavy.
William said nothing; his Tactical Vision was already active.
In his vision, the entire city transformed into a three-dimensional model composed of countless structures and energy nodes.
He saw the distribution of The Hand ninjas.
He saw the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent's hiding spots.
He also saw... that vast and evil energy, like a black hole devouring everything, entrenched in the city center.
At the center of that energy was an old Gothic church.
Matt was there.
"Found him." William pointed in the direction of the church.
Just as they were about to act, three figures also emerged from the shadows in another direction, moving rapidly towards the church.
It was Elektra, Danny Rand, and Luke Cage.
Two groups of people, by coincidence, arrived at the final battlefield.
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