Chương 41: Public Opinion

With the help of Izo and Danny, Mason miraculously healed from all his injuries by dawn of the next day. It had left Izo extremely tired, meaning he raided the fridge for any trace of alcohol, and Danny somewhat spent, but Mason was back in fighting shape. That healing did not extend to his Spirit, of course, but Mason would rather not mess with his Spirit Awakening if he could help it, so it worked just fine for him.

Of course, Mason also took the time to tease his master by showing him his mastery of both the Gravity and Fire Dao, which Izo had described as elemental and conceptual Dao that were virtually impossible to learn. The old man threw a bottle at him in response, which made Mason wonder where Lady Bullseye had learned her ability to stay so calm. Meanwhile, after a full day had passed, the news of the slaughter of the Hand had spread like wildfire, alongside a video of the whole fight.

Mason guessed that was his father spreading the video so it would not be 'mysteriously lost'. It resulted in a pretty strong polarization, from what he could see. But more than anything, the issue went over people's heads, because of just how out of the ordinary it was. Supers had disappeared from mainstream attention for decades, and although a few had emerged in the past year, between Iron Man and the Fantastic Four, they remained a matter of hearsay and existed mostly outside of the public's sight.

So seeing a superhero, or someone once recognized as such, fighting over a hundred ninjas dressed in bright red, alongside a couple of people in Super Villain costumes, broke any notion of common sense the ordinary people had. There were those who hung on to his image as a hero, taking his actions as self-defence and assuming the murders at the construction site were also ninjas. There had been no pictures of that incident, so it was easy to chalk it up to a first confrontation.

There were also those who thought he was a mass murderer, a supervillain hiding from justice because he knew what he had done. Someone who had gotten drunk on power and thought he could do whatever he pleased. The authorities had not yet made a statement, but just as Eric had predicted, there were also plenty of people interested in the legal precedent, or lack thereof, as they pondered whether he truly acted in self-defence.

Had he been an ordinary person, then that would have certainly been the case, but the problem was that he was not. He was a Super, and no one knew if the ninjas were ordinary or Super, which posed a very large difference. Because an important component of self-defence that was often forgotten but paramount in importance was that one could only use justified force. And that brought its own set of debates.

Some pointed out his injuries as evidence the Hand ninjas represented a deadly force for him, even with the difference in power, while others used those very same injuries as proof the force was not deadly. The correct answer, in Mason's opinion, was that he was protecting Minx, who was facing some very lethal force, but most people missed that because of how focused they were on Mason, so the debate remained stuck on a non-issue.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Normally, Mason would not have concerned himself with public opinion, but this had the potential to evolve into a much larger issue, and might directly impact his own status. If he could choose, Mason would much rather not be wanted, as it made his life much more complicated. Still, the best thing he could do for himself was to bring down Fisk as fast as possible.

Actually, that was the best thing for himself, his close ones, and the world at large, as it meant handling the Hand that much faster. Because only by eradicating them could he reliably stop the opening of the Eighth City. Mason snorted as he caught himself thinking of 'eradication'. It was not that he had grown bloodthirsty overnight, but that the revelation that the members of the Hand were corrupted demons made it much easier not to consider them people.

Anyway, Mason's goal was to bring down Fisk before the Chaste found the remaining two Immortal Weapons. They were called weapons, but they were people who, much like the Iron Fist, had merged with the Essence of a mythical being. The overwhelming, alien Essence made their other two Treasures impossible to sense, so they were stuck at the initial stage of the Awakening Realm, but in exchange they got overwhelming power capable of reaching beyond the limit of the Awakening Realm, at least, in theory.

For the task of bringing down Fisk, Danny and Daredevil had already gotten the locations of most of his bases in the city, so now it was only a matter of dismantling them all. Their targets were those that were large enough that they could not be moved in a matter of days, and that once destroyed, would impact his operations. Of course, there was also the gathering of evidence against Fisk, but that was up to their luck more than anything.

Mason's first target was a steel factory on the periphery of Hell's Kitchen, which was legally owned by Fisk. They did genuine business there, but according to the files they had gotten, Fisk was also using it for his criminal activities. That was the tricky thing with Fisk. His legal company, Fisk Industries, was mainly a holding company that managed plenty of smaller, fully legal companies.

Of course, even for those legal companies, Fisk had taken control of them through illegal means for the most part, mainly through extortion and the like, but it allowed him to hide those few criminal ones. This particular steel factory was important because it not only supplied materials for his construction businesses, but it also helped construct weapons on the side. And since Mason's true goal was not only to cripple but also to incriminate Fisk, he did not go in guns blazing, and instead snuck his way in.

With no Supers, or even trained people to stand guard, Mason easily got in. There was a manager inside, but he only got to notice Mason's presence before he was grabbed by the throat. His grip was like a steel vice. Mason stared into the manager's eyes, saying, "I'm sure you know why I'm here. I need access to that computer." The manager looked at him with fear, struggling to answer with the hand pressing down on his throat, "I can't! It's all encrypted!"

Mason shook his head, his hand moving from his throat to his shoulder, pinning the manager down in his seat.

"Do I look stupid to you? Even if Fisk knew this place would be targeted, he can't just halt all his operations. When you get hunted by a predator, you don't just shoot yourself. I want the logs, the messages." Mason felt the manager intended to press a button under his desk.

"And don't press that button. All that will do will be to force me to beat the shit out of everyone, and land us back here." The manager froze and gulped as he looked up at Mason. He looked like he was about to start crying.

"P-please, don't kill me. I have a f-family."

"Everyone does. Didn't stop you guys from going after mine." The manager's hands were shaking as he placed them on the table.

"But I can't! Fisk will kill me if I give you anything." Mason gave him a smile, which looked absolutely diabolical in his eyes, and muttered, "Don't worry about that; Fisk will be too busy to care about you. All of your operations in the city will be targeted, so there will be plenty of talkers. And you even have my permission to tell him that. Besides, I'm going to need witnesses when we bring him down. So, chop chop." The grown man started sniffling as he slowly pulled up what Mason had asked for.

It took a while, but Mason managed to get everything on a USB stick. Finally, patting the man's shoulder, he escaped the same way he came in, unseen.