The Iron Monk stood perfectly still in the middle of the wreckage, eyes closed, breathing calmly.
Frank landed first. Yelena and Natasha dropped beside him.
"Three-on-one," Yelena said, cracking her neck again. "Seems unfair."
The Monk opened his eyes. "It is."
Then he moved.
He didn't sprint or fly. He simply stepped forward and vanished. The sand rippled outward in a ring. Frank's HUD flashed red with a warning. He spun, raising his forearm just in time to block a glowing fist. The impact sent him flying back ten meters. His armor's kinetic dampeners flared, absorbing the blow, but the force still rattled his ribs.
"Fuck!" he grunted, landing hard.
Yelena launched forward. Her plasma blades ignited, cutting through the haze. The Monk met her midair, one hand behind his back, the other flicking aside every strike. Sparks burst from the collisions. She swung again, faster this time, her blades tracing golden arcs.
The Monk caught her wrist mid-swing. Energy rippled between their armor and his skin. Yelena was confused as her systems flickered. She has never seen anything like this before. "He's pushing his weird chi inside the suit!"
Natasha fired a charged repulsor blast. The Monk released Yelena and twisted his palm toward the beam. The blast bent around him like water, spiraling away into the ground. The sand erupted.
"Energy redirection," Hermes said through comms. "Unknown chi frequency interfering with repulsor trajectory."
"Keep analyzing, Hermes. We need a way to counter his chi," Natasha said. She dropped low, fired her grappling charge, and zipped across the field. Her armor reshaped mid-movement, forming twin tonfa that glowed red. She closed the gap, striking with rapid bursts. Each hit sounded like mini explosions.
The Monk blocked every hit with the edge of his forearm, sparks lighting his skin. He didn't look to be struggling against them. One counterpalm to her chest sent her flying backward. The suit absorbed the damage, but the feedback wave knocked her offline for two seconds, and the chi penetrated the suit and reached her ribs. She felt the pain.
Frank flew up above him, armor plates shifting into missile pods. "Let's see you block this."
He fired. A salvo of micro-missiles streaked toward the Monk. The explosions blanketed the field, swallowing everything in fire and smoke.
Yelena changed her weapons to electric cannons. "You think that did it?"
"Negative," Hermes replied.
The smoke cleared. The Iron Monk stood in the center of a crater. His robes were torn, glowing faintly with golden energy underneath. Around him floated a shimmering sphere of compressed chi. Every missile had detonated just inches from his body.
The Monk's voice carried across the battlefield. "Your technology is impressive. But sadly, no weapon, technology, or man can kill me."
Frank gritted his teeth. "We'll just see about that." His arm cannon charged, glowing blue.
The Monk pressed his palms together, forming a pulsing orb of yellow light.
They fired at the same time.
The plasma beam and chi orb collided midair. The impact detonated with a shockwave that rolled through the desert like a hurricane. Sand lifted in walls. The shockwave knocked out the surrounding fires. For a few seconds, the world went white.
Yelena and Natasha were already in motion. Their Arc Reactors flared like miniature suns.
"On my mark," Natasha said, aiming.
Yelena smirked. "Let's melt an evil monk."
[Uni-Beam Charge: 400%]
The Iron Monk moved to counter, pressing his palms together as golden light gathered between them. His chi flared, shaping into a massive orb ready to unleash.
Before he could release it, the air filled with the high-pitched whine of engines.
Dozens of drones streaked out from Frank's armor, forming a loose ring around the Monk. They fired a volley of electric chains. The glowing cables lashed through the air, wrapping around the Monk's arms and torso. The instant they made contact, arcs of electricity surged across his body. The sudden interference disrupted his chi flow. He quickly tried to stabilize his energy and that created a little opening.
His calm expression flickered for the first time.
Natasha shouted, "Now!"
The Uni-Beams hit.
The explosion tore through the night, lighting up the desert like a second sun. The ground trembled, sand blasted into the sky, and the shockwave rolled outward for hundreds of meters.
Frank lowered his arm, visor dimming against the glare. "Target neutralized?"
Hermes began scanning. "No life signs detected within blast radius… Teleportation detected. Right before you."
Frank's sensors screamed a red alert.
The Monk reappeared in front of him. One blink, and he was there. His golden fist came crashing down like a meteor.
The punch connected squarely with Frank's helmet. The ground beneath him cracked from the sheer force. Normally, that kind of hit would have pulped his skull inside the armor.
But Frank was ready for it, and so was Hermes.
The MK-1 glowed white for an instant, the impact energy channeling through the armor's lattice. Instead of absorbing it, the suit discharged the stored kinetic energy in reverse—right back into the Monk within 0.5 seconds of the impact.
There was a thunderclap. The shockwave blasted outward.
The Iron Monk was thrown across the battlefield, tumbling through the air before crashing into the sand hard enough to carve a shallow trench. He slid to a stop, smoke rising from his burned robes.
Frank flew up in the sky with zero damage. "Not so untouchable now."
The Monk stood, slower this time. His aura flared again, though weaker, flickering like a flame fighting for air. He extended his hands, forming new chi constructs: Jagged blades of energy.
"Your body is steel," the Monk said calmly. "But your spirit is still human. It will break."
"Guess we'll find out," Frank replied.
He rocketed forward, repulsors screaming. Yelena and Natasha joined him, flanking on both sides. The three of them hit the Monk at once.
Frank's plasma fist slammed into his chest, Yelena's blades swept for his ribs, and Natasha fired rapid bursts point-blank. The Monk blocked with impossible precision, his movements like water—redirecting, flowing, striking back.
Each clash sent shockwaves through the air.
Frank caught one of the Monk's arms, twisting it, and slammed him into the sand. The Monk rolled, using the momentum to kick Yelena square in the chest, sending her flying into the air. But she recovered midair.
"This bastard!" Yelena cursed.
Natasha swung a tonfa, aiming for his temple. The Monk caught it, then twisted and shattered it. Before he could throw a punch, Frank tackled him full-force.
They hit the ground together. The Monk slammed a palm into Frank's chest, trying to flood chi into the armor again. But the suit pulsed white, ejecting the energy back in a burst that sent both of them sliding apart.
"Confirmed," Hermes said. "Adaptive redirection functioning. Chi interference can be reflected if contact is maintained for under 0.7 seconds."
Frank grinned under his helmet. "Good to know."
The Iron Monk stood again, blood now seeping from a cut on his lip. He wiped it away with his thumb and looked at the three armored warriors circling him.
For the first time, he smiled.
"Then let us see," he said quietly, "how long you can endure enlightenment."
Yelena made her face plate transparent and grinned at the Monk. "Yeah, well. We got enough data on chi and your teleportation. Thanks to you, next time we fight someone annoying with chi, we'll be ready. Now, bye-bye."
The Monk took a breath and shifted his stance, preparing to attack again. But the movement never came. His brow furrowed slightly. His body refused to respond.
Something was wrong.
He tried to channel chi through his limbs, but the energy backfired, spasming through his chest and spine. Pain ripped through him like wildfire. His body locked up mid-step.
A guttural sound tore from his throat, half scream, half groan, but even that caught in his chest. His muscles seized, his vision blurred, and he fell to one knee.
Yelena tilted her head. "What's wrong, monk? You look… surprised."
The Iron Monk's face twisted, eyes widening as the veins in his neck bulged. Golden light flared and flickered across his skin, now mixing with a darker shade, like ink bleeding into water.
He tried to raise a hand, to gather his chi again, but the moment he did, his nerves screamed. His entire body convulsed. The pain was unbearable. It was as if something was eating him inside out.
Blood spilled from his nose. Then his mouth. Then his eyes.
Yelena walked closer. She crouched in front of him, smiling through her helmet's translucent faceplate.
"Oh, you must be wondering what's happening," she said. "See, we could have killed you a lot earlier. But we needed data on chi energy, its frequency, and its response to tech interference. So, we dragged this fight out."
The Monk's hands twitched weakly. He couldn't even lift his head. His breath came out in short, trembling gasps.
"Right now, there are thousands of micro-man-made machines destroying your body from the inside out. What was that again? Something about nothing can hurt you?" Yelena leaned in, her grin widening. "Nanomachines, son."
The Monk's body jerked violently. His aura shattered like glass, fragments of golden light scattering into the air. Beneath his skin, thousands of micro-machines are working in unison, tearing through muscle and bone. His chi channels collapsed. His organs liquefied.
The golden glow dimmed, replaced by a dull, bubbling black.
Within seconds, his flesh began to melt, dripping from his frame like wax. His form slumped forward, collapsing into the sand in a steaming pool of thick, viscous liquid that sizzled under its own heat.
"Nanomachines, son?" Natasha looked at Yelena. "And what's up with that long monologue?"
"What?" Yelena squared her shoulders. "It was a nice game. And I always wanted to say that. It was cool as fuck."
From the hidden bunker...
Emma and Sue walked out. Behind them were the goons and Owl, following them like puppets. Emma took out all the information she needed from them.
Frank shifted his attention toward Owl. He walked over to him as he deactivated his suit.
"All yours," Emma said as she flicked her finger, releasing Owl from her mind control.
"What the..." Owl looked around, confused, when his eyes fell on Frank walking toward him slowly. "Castle! Wait! I can explain..."
Owl stumbled backward, fear cutting through the confusion as realization set in.
Frank's fists trembled at his sides. Every muscle in his body felt like it was wound to the breaking point. His eyes locked on the man who had destroyed everything he loved.
"All this time," Frank said quietly. "All the blood. All the graves. And it was you."
"Castle, wait," Owl said, backing away. "You don't understand. It wasn't personal. It was just—"
"ARGGGGGG!!!!"
Frank's roar tore through the night.
He charged.
Owl turned to run, but Frank was already there. The impact hit like a truck. They crashed into the ground, rolling through the sand. Frank ended up on top, his face twisted with pure rage.
He punched.
Once. Twice. Then again. Each hit came harder than the last. Flesh split. Blood sprayed across the sand. Owl's head snapped back with every strike, his arms flailing weakly before falling limp. Frank didn't stop. He couldn't.
His fists were drenched with blood, every punch driving years of hate and grief into the dirt. The air filled with the dull, wet sound of bone breaking. Frank's breathing turned ragged, every exhale a growl torn from his chest.
"Frank," Natasha whispered.
He saw flashes of Maria's smile, his son chasing a ball through their backyard, his daughter laughing in her arms. The warmth of their faces flickered before his eyes.
Then the gunfire.
Frank could hear their screams.
Then silence.
He hit Owl again. His own tears blurred the world.
"Why?" he rasped between punches. "Why them? Why my family?"
Owl didn't answer. He was dead.
Frank kept swinging until his arms ached. Finally, he froze mid-motion, fist raised, chest heaving. The anger that had carried him for a decade started to collapse under its own weight. His breath hitched. His eyes burned.
Then he heard it.
Maria's voice. "It's alright, Frank."
He blinked. The night around him seemed to fade to quiet. The battlefield, the blood, the heat—all of it slipped away for a moment, replaced by that voice and the faint echo of his children's laughter.
"It's over. Let it go now, Frank. Please."
Frank lowered his fist. He sat back slowly, staring down at what was left of Owl. The sand around them was drenched with blood and brain pulp.
A wisp of cold wind blew past them...
He looked up at the sky.
It stretched endlessly and clear above him, stars burning cold and distant. For the first time in years, Frank Castle didn't feel rage. He just felt… empty.
Yelena walked over to him and grabbed his shoulder. She gave a small squeeze.
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