Chapters 51-55

Chapters 51-55

-Matt Murdock-

Matt Murdock stood by passively, feeling like this press conference was going to be a train wreck. It could even be almost as bad as when Tony Stark decided to shut down his company's weapons division without consulting any of his shareholders. If Matt had been Tony's lawyer at that time, he would have advised Tony against doing that, just like he had advised Layla against not being quite so gung-ho about this. At the end of the day, though, all he could do was advise her. She was an adult... by a few hundred years, apparently. She could make her own decisions.

"Oh hey there, Agent Coulson. It's been a while." Matt 'watched' as Layla addressed an obvious spook of some kind with familiarity. They were currently inside a trailer that Layla had rented for this press conference. Originally, they were planning on hosting it at a small local theater, but they quickly realized they were going to need more space... a lot more space for all the people that were going to show up. When the news broke that the Angel that had been media silent for so long was finally going to speak to the public—people went ballistic. New York was flooded with more tourists at the moment than at any other point in history. Every hotel in the entire state and even those bordering New York were completely booked.

"Layla!" "Layla!" "Layla!"

With his enhanced senses, Matt could hear the crowd of possibly a million people cheering for his client even in this soundproofed trailer. It was frankly mind-boggling for him.

"Hello again, Layla," Agent Coulson replied. Matt could sense that the agent was a bit annoyed at her. "Thanks for giving SHIELD a heads up about this press conference you were hosting," he said with a bit of sarcasm.

Layla scoffed. "I'm not a member of SHIELD, and while I would like to have a friendly relationship with your organization, I don't answer or report to it." Layla said. "To be fair though... I wasn't expecting this many people to show up." That was an understatement. There must be almost a million people crowding the park.

"Yes... well, the National Guard is currently on standby, by the way. That tends to happen when the city is on the verge of the biggest riot the country has ever seen." Coulson deadpanned.

"I'm not going to cause people to riot!" Layla said indignantly. "I was just planning on talking about my acquisition of Oscorp and the new direction I plan for the company," Layla explained.

That's not all you're going to answer though right?" Coulson asked her.

"That was all I was planning on speaking about." Layla said. Matt grimaced. While Layla would have been the perfect client by sticking to her rehearsed script–that would only work if she was literally anyone else. Unfortunately, she was an actual Angel and people had traveled far and wide to hear her answer some biblical questions. Everything else they probably couldn't care less about.

"If I can be honest, Miss Layla," Matt decided to cut in. "At this point, no one will really care about any of that." This situation had blown far out of proportion and gone way beyond a typical press conference. Matt wouldn't be surprised if there was a cult forming among the crowd as they stood in this trailer talking. Who was he kidding? She probably already had a dozen cults following her at this point...

"Exactly," the secret agent added with a nod.

"What? Then why are we even doing this?" Layla asked. "You and you're paralegal Karen are the ones who told me to stick to the script."

Matt let out a sigh. "I didn't think it would have gotten this out of hand." Matt admitted. He had mentioned before to her how popular she was, but even then, he had seriously underestimated her apparent fame.

"Maybe we should just call off this whole thing then." Layla suggested. Matt felt panic at hearing that!

"No!" "Absolutely not!"

Matt and Coulson exclaimed at the same time! "All these people came to see you, Layla. If you don't show–there will absolutely be a city wide riot." Coulson explained.

"Ok. Ok. So what? I just skip over Oscorp and start answering questions about whatever else people want to know?" Layla asked.

"Don't skip completely over your acquisition of Oscorp, that's the whole reason for your press conference in the first place. Just know that people won't really care to hear about it for more than a minute or so." Matt said. And wasn't that some of the weirdest advice he had ever given to a client...

"No one's going to care that you took Osborn's company from him. The guy's an asshole and very disliked by the public." Coulson added.

"You know how hard it is to literally be dying of a rare disease and still be loathed by the public? The answer is really rare. Dying is the ultimate sympathy card people can play, and Norman Osborn is such an asshole most people are glad he's kicking the bucket." Matt explained. As a lawyer, he'd seen this card played a few times in the courtroom. Most of the time, the people playing it were just faking though. Matt himself cherished all life and vowed to never take it. There were some men, however, that even he struggled to not change his code for. Norman Osborn, in some instances, was even worse than Fisk. His company routinely violated environmental regulations by unapologetically dumping toxic waste wherever they pleased. Whenever they were caught, they just paid a small fine and kept doing it. At one point, the entire city had to drink bottled water for 2 months because Oscorp had ruined New York's water supply. So yes, Matt wasn't going to be shedding any tears for the man once he passed.

"Your lawyer is correct, Layla. Director Fury sent me here just to make sure that you answer people's questions but don't freak them out too much. We're already expecting some rioting just from the sheer number of people in the city right now, but we can still reduce the damage." Coulson explained. "And absolutely don't talk about 'the you know what!'" Coulson added with no room for argument.

Matt wondered what the 'you know what' was. Judging by the Agent's tone, it was extremely serious.

Layla stared into space for a moment before she pouted indignantly. Matt had noticed that she tended to do that from time to time. Maybe as an Angel she was seeing things that mortals couldn't? That was his best explanation for her odd habit anyway.

"I wasn't going to mention that! I know how it would look if an Angel popped in front of the world and announced the possible end of days to everybody." Layla said to them.

"...What?" Matt asked nervously. "What end of days!?"

"That's classified, Mr. Murdock."

"I'll tell you later!"

Coulson and Layla said at the same time. The former glared at the latter. "Hey, he's my lawyer, he deserves to know," Layla said to the Agent.

"Fine... But no one else. We can't have any hint of it getting out before we have our solution ready to go." Coulson said.

Matt heard footsteps rapidly approaching before the trailer door was thrown open. Karen Page, his assistant and their firm's paralegal, burst through the door. Matt could smell how flustered and stressed she was. "Holy shit, I've never seen so many people in my whole life! You've got to get out there, Layla, before people start tearing Central Park apart." She sputtered out.

"LAYLA! LAYLA! LAYLA!"

Now with the trailer door open, the cheering had suddenly grown so loud that Matt was starting to have trouble 'seeing.' The wave of people's voices was blanketing out everything else for him. He felt nauseous.

"Alright, I'll be heading out there to address all my adoring fans." Layla said jokingly as she stepped out of the trailer. Matt moved to follow her, but he stumbled and almost tripped due to his new lack of 'sight.' The crowd's extreme noise was blinding for him. Thankfully, Matt's 'world on fire' returned peacefully when Agent Coulson was kind enough to shut the trailer door.

"It's probably for the best that a blind-man does not go out there right now. We don't know how crazy it could get." Coulson said to him. Matt thanked him and agreed.

"You're probably right." Matt said.

"We can just observe this future train wreck on the TV." Coulson said as he picked up the remote. The TV in the trailer was linked to the stage cameras so they wouldn't miss anything. Not that that mattered much. Every news network was probably broadcasting this press conference live right now.

"Before Layla starts, Mr. Murdock, I was wondering if you might be interested in hearing about one of SHIELD's most promising programs."

Matt would be a liar if he said he wasn't at least a bit intrigued. "You've got my attention."

"Let me tell you about the Avengers program." Coulson started...

XXX

I was thankful when Karen handed me some earplugs. Holy crap, this crowd was absolutely deafening. It took me a moment to realize that Matt had not followed us out of the trailer. All this loud noise was probably agonizing for him.

"It's this way to the stage, Layla," Karen said. I followed behind her with some nervousness stirring in me. There were a lot of people out there. I hope I don't screw up and say something embarrassing...

[You won't; your acting skill will prevent it. You know what they say, fake it till you make it!]

"You're right, System." I was able to bullshit Voldemort himself not even an hour into this world. What's a few million people compared to that – right?

I stepped out from behind the curtain and walked onto the stage. The roar the crowd let out upon seeing me was insane. I actually felt the air around me vibrating from the sound. Looking forward, all I could see was a never-ending sea of people in every direction. "Holy shit..." I stepped forward and grabbed the sole microphone that was left on the stage for me. As soon as I did, an impossible silence broke over the entire area. I wouldn't have ever thought it was possible for that many people to go absolutely silent at once, but it happened.

Yeah, I'd probably have to do some in-house cleaning of my new company once I got back from New Mexico. Creating miniature suns in the middle of a populated city is a big no-no.

XXX

I stepped out of a shaky yet stable orange portal and immediately felt the blaring desert heat upon my face. Finally, I had mastered the sling ring to the point where I could freely travel anywhere on the continent. I appeared right in the middle of the street, but no one was outside to see me. The temperature felt blisteringly hot, so everyone was probably inside, surviving solely by their AC units. With no real leads to follow, I started meandering down the street, seeing where the desert wind took me. It led me to a pet store.

Puente Antiguo really was an absolutely tiny town. It only had a couple of dozen buildings in total and only one main street. At most, the population was only a few hundred people, so I found it strange that the town even had a pet store. Maybe the universe made it be here just for Thor's one funny line that takes place here.

"I NEED A HORSE!"

Lo and behold, as soon as I walked in, I heard the line being delivered. I stepped through the pet shop doorway at apparently the perfect time.

"We don't have horses... just dogs, cats, birds..." The confused pet store worker responded to Thor's comical request.

"Then give me one of those large enough to ride," Thor said with a completely straight face.

I decided to cut in and save the poor shopkeeper from, "I'll take it from here," I peered at the shopkeeper's nametag, "...Jerry." I made myself known as the two men turned their attention to me.

"Holy crap, Layla of the Fallen knows my name..." The shopkeeper did a double take upon seeing me before he openly stared, gobsmacked. Thor didn't recognize me at all, which I would have expected. He should have only been on 'Midgard' for a day or two at most.

"Ah, forgive me, most fair maiden. I did not see you come in. Do you have business with the shopkeeper here? I'm afraid he is most useless, however. What kind of animal keeper doesn't even keep proper horses? For shame, sir," Thor said as he gave the stink eye to the affronted store clerk.

"Hey, man, I just work here part-time! I don't even know why I took this job in the first place. No one comes to a pet store in the middle of nowhere! I haven't made a single sale in the past month, and yet the store owner never seems to care!" The man tried to defend himself, but it seemed that Thor was no longer interested in speaking with the man as he turned his full attention toward me.

"Actually, Prince Thor, I'm not here for an animal companion. I came here to meet you," I explained. Although some of the animals here did look absolutely adorable. There was this pure white bunny rabbit that was calling to me, and I was doing my absolute best not to immediately buy it. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to take a pet with me when I was for sure going to be getting into a fight in a day or two's time. Actually... wasn't this entire town going to be destroyed by the Destroyer soon? "Jerry," I said, getting the man's attention. "Here's ten thousand dollars. I want you to take all of the animals in this store and get them out of town by day's end." I pulled a fat stack out of my inventory and slapped it onto the counter. I gave him no room for arguments before I turned back to Thor. I directed him out of the store, and the two of us started walking down the street.

"Finally, someone recognizes my person in this dreary realm!" Thor exclaimed. "How could nobody recognize the Prince of Asgard!?"

"Well, when's the last time you were even on Midgard?" I asked.

"Hmm, it has been a while," Thor took a moment to think. "Mayhaps it would have been a bit over 700 of this realm's years ago. While not a short amount of time, it shouldn't have been that long either," Thor explained.

"Maybe by Asgardian standards, that wasn't that long, but by human standards, that would have been dozens of generations ago," I said. Thor seemed to take a moment before realization dawned on him.

"Midgardians truly have such short lives!? How do they ever get anything done!?"

"They'd probably wonder the same about your people considering you probably spent over 200 years wearing diapers," I replied with a laugh. I can't even imagine how awful that must be for the parents... Asgardian parents must be absolute saints.

Thor's face turned red from embarrassment. "It wasn't that long! I'll have you know that I was fully potty trained at 190 years old! My brother Loki took longer and wasn't potty trained until he was 211 years old," he said smugly, like that was something to be proud of...

"Woah, that's amazing! You must have been a genius!" I exclaimed sarcastically. I don't think my sarcasm registered on Thor's Allspeak though as he started preening from 'my praise.'

"So what reason did you have for wanting all of those animals out of town my lady? And was there a reason you sought me out specifically beyond simply wanting to meet with the crown prince of Asgard." Thor asked smugly. I might have forgotten that at this point in the story, Thor had yet to be humbled. He kind of came off as an arrogant ass...

When it came to the animals, I didn't want to mention the Destroyer wrecking the town and hint at my foreknowledge. Luckily I had another excuse. "There has actually been a monster around here that has been preying on the innocent. I was afraid it may go after those poor animals..."

"A monster!?" Thor asked intrigued. "What is it? Is it dangerous? If you wish it fair maiden, I shall slay the beast in your honor." He boasted. I'd honestly like to see him try without his powers.

XXX

Chapter: 55

Thor was ecstatic that someone finally recognized him. Not only that, but it was an incredibly beautiful fair maiden as well. Thor had no idea that Midgard was home to such beautiful women. First, there was the petite yet fiery Lady Jane, and now there was this 'Layla of the Fallen.' With her luscious figure, mesmerizing purple eyes, and long black hair, she was absolute perfection. Thor didn't think he'd ever seen a more objectively beautiful woman. And yet, there was something about Lady Jane that just drew Thor's thoughts to her even more than the gorgeous woman in front of him.

"Allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Layla of the Fallen. It's nice to meet you, Prince Thor," Layla introduced herself to him using her name... or title? Thor wasn't sure which it was. Regardless, he felt that it was a strange name. Part of her name sounded a bit familiar to him, but he couldn't seem to recall from where. He figured it didn't matter anyway. Her memory would either come to him eventually or it wouldn't.

"Greetings, Lady Layla. I am Prince Thor of Asgard. Most pleased to make your acquaintance. Now, tell me about this monster that seems to be plaguing your thoughts."

"The monster we're pursuing is a stray devil," the beautiful Layla told Thor. He had no idea what that was.

"A stray devil? I don't believe I've ever heard of such a creature. Can you describe it for me?" he asked. He knew he was currently weakened and reduced to but a mortal shell of his former powerful self, but Thor honestly didn't believe there was anything on Midgard that could actually harm him despite that. If there was, his mighty father would have never risked sending him here powerless in the first place.

"So stray devils are basically reincarnated humans that rebelled against their devil masters and ended up being turned into flesh-eating monsters as a punishment. They're not particularly strong in general, but they are incredibly vicious," Layla explained to Thor. Thor nodded along in understanding–he understood none of her explanation in truth. He didn't want to look like a fool in front of Layla though so he acted like he knew what she was talking about. He got the gist though. He needed to hunt a vicious monster that preyed on the poor people of this town! To Thor, that sounded bad. What if Lady Jane ended up being targeted by the beast? No! Thor would deal with it before such a thing could happen.

"Point me in the direction of the monster, Lady Layla, and I shall slay it post-haste!" he declared.

...

Thor seemed really gung-ho about slaying the stray devil himself. I would have felt bad offering to do it myself from how eager he was. I supposed there was no need to emasculate him right now by saying I would handle it–I would just wait until the stray whooped his ass before I stepped in. That'll humble the man real quick. I was also fairly certain that he actually had no idea what a stray devil was despite my explanation. I think he was just nodding along to not seem ignorant. That was a bad trait; there's nothing wrong with asking questions after all.

"Ok then, I know the stray is in this area, but I don't actually know where. We're going to need to lure it out," I explained to him.

"Ah, using some monster bait. An excellent idea. I've done the same thing in the many hunts I've participated in. So what shall we be using as bait?" Thor asked.

I held my hand up and conjured a small light dagger. This one was different from normal though. It was radiating holy power and yet at the same time, it was not powerful. It was a trick we Fallen had come up with to lure in stray devils. They're attracted to Holy Power as they want to devour their 'arch enemies' the Angels, and yet if the power is too strong, they'll run away in fear. Usually, we'd give one of these Lightbeacons to a stray exorcist priest under our command and use them as bait. Once the stray devil showed up expecting to find a weak two-winged angel, we'd ambush them. No one particularly cared about using the stray exorcists as bait because they had to have done some pretty heinous shit to be kicked out of the church. The stray exorcists also didn't care because the majority of them were straight up crazy. Some people might have thought Freed Selzen was an outlier... no, he was actually the standard.

Thor reached forward and took the Lightdagger from me. "You wield the power of Seidr? You would get along famously with my brother, Loki," Thor said. I probably would not. He's much too privileged for my taste.

[Oh please, you're the most privileged person in the universe as the Gamer...]

I suppose the system made a fair point. Maybe we would get along...

Thor asked me what the effect of the Lightdagger was before I explained it to him. I couldn't use myself as bait because my own divine power had now reached the point where my very presence would probably scare away most strays. If the current stray plaguing this town was a decently trained bishop piece, they might already sense me. I'd have to go into hiding somewhat far away, or the stray won't show itself. It's unfortunately too weak for me to sense.

"So what now?" Thor asked me.

I smirked. "Now? Now we wait at the edge of town."

"Edge of town?" He asked with furrowed brows before looking around. We were standing in the middle of Puente Antiguo's main street after all. Well, I was at least. Thor was currently falling through the sling ring portal I just opened up underneath him. With a startled yelp, he fell through and landed a mile away in the sand–I made sure he landed upright; I wasn't mean about it.

Good luck, Thor, let's get some drinks at the local bar once this is over!" I yelled through the closing portal. Once it fully closed, I let my wings out before I took to the skies. I'd probably have to fly up a few miles for the Stray to no longer be able to sense my presence and target Thor. Once it did, I'd swoop in... or maybe I'd wait a bit and see how the fight goes. His hammer wouldn't declare him worthy until he gets humbled a bit after all. I have twilight healing to fix Thor right up in case he gets hurt anyway.

XXX