36,000 Feet

Matt's hands grasped the armrests of his seat, and his knuckles turned white.

"We should have driven," he said, his breathing heavier than normal. "You sure do have a way of convincing me otherwise, though, don't you?" He forced a laugh.

Karen put her hand on his shoulder. "We are going to be fine," she reassured him. He nodded, but that didn't help with the loudness of the plane engine pounding in his ears, or the air whooshing around them. Even the elevation was something that he could feel strongly. His senses were on the fritz.

"Yeah, I know," he said. "It's not our safety that I'm bothered about." She understood.

"Here," Karen said, taking his hands. "Focus on my voice. Drown everything else out; just listen to me."

He nodded again.

Karen began to tell a story about her brother. Matt listened intently, grunting quietly as he struggled to hone his senses. It felt just like the day in the hospital, when he'd first woken up after losing his sight. The noises, the feelings...everything all at once, everything so strong, so different.

After a couple of minutes, Matt finally sighed, then loosened his tight grip on Karen's hand. She stopped talking and smiled at him.

"See? You got it." She lifted her right hand and cupped his face with it, and he smiled back.

"You think anyone on this plane would mind if I kissed you right now?" Matt asked her.

"I don't care," she replied.

Matt's grin widened and he gave her a light kiss, only touching her lips for a couple moments.

"Well, we've got a couple hours to kill," he whispered, now only inches away from her. "I, uh...I can't exactly watch a movie."

"It's a damn shame," she said. "I guess you'll have to just do a little studying, instead." She dropped the Carl Lucas file into Matt's lap, then leaned back into her chair.

"A damn shame," Matt repeated, opening the file.

°•°•°•°• ó-ò •°•°•°•°

Hell's Kitchen

Foggy knew they needed a list of all of the Resurrected in order to find the Restitutionist's pattern. Matt and Foggy had gotten some information from the cemeteries, but they needed an official list from another source to see if they could get any extra information. But they couldn't get it legally...not as lawyers, anyway. Not without special permission from high-ranking people that they didn't really want to get involved with right now.

Which meant that Daredevil needed to get it. Which is why Foggy was already holding a sheet of paper with all of the names written on it. Let's just say Matt had been busy the night before his flight.

With this new information, they could combine the information retrieved from the police with their own information. Foggy typed up the list on his laptop and kept rearranging the names, alphabetizing them, looking for anagrams, anything. What frustrated him was that the police didn't know the exact dates or order that the people were resurrected. They only had their best guess.

Foggy organized the names by that order. He looked at first names, last names, birth dates, death dates, anything that could form a pattern. He even looked at middle names and relatives.

When nothing was working, he moved around a couple of names to see if it looked any clearer. Suddenly, a sequence of letters caught his eye...a sequence that formed a word:

QUICK

The word was formed by the last names Quincy, Underwood, Ingalls, Campbell, and King.

There were so many other names on the list, that this could have been a coincidence, but Foggy grouped those names together and began searching for another word. And he found one.

Barnett, Ridley, Oglethorpe, Warner, Nayar. These names formed:

BROWN

Foggy put these two words together:

QUICK BROWN

That's when Foggy thought he saw a pattern. He looked for another word, but he already knew which words he was looking for this time.

Franklin, O'Dell, Xavier.

FOX

Jackson, Urban, Murdock, Parker, Smith

JUMPS

Foggy was able to finish the sentence to its entirety, and he only had to rearrange a few names, which still had a believable order of resurrection.  He had used 35 names to form the famous pangram:

"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."

Five names remained.

Taylor, Hwang, Eastwood, Quinn, and Campbell.

The first four names repeated the pangram, like the Restitutionist was following the pattern a second time. But the last one on the list baffled Foggy.

Campbell.

Both David and Charlie Campbell had been Resurrected. If the Restitutionist was truly following the pangram--and it seemed pretty likely--then that meant that he should have only Resurrected one C so far. But the extra C meant that he'd grabbed one of the Campbells out of order. David Campbell had said that his son, Charlie, had begged the Restitutionist to resurrect his father. Maybe the Restitutionist had made an exception.

Or maybe there was more to the story.

When Matt had gone to investigate David Campbell's house, he'd had a very strange security system. What was he trying to hide?

And why had David acted so strangely in the video interview?

There was more to the story; Foggy was going to find out what.

°•°•°•°• ó-ò •°•°•°•°

The Streets of Hell's Kitchen
Midnight

Danny chased a man through the alleys on 10th. The man was ready to kill another man (one that he'd already beaten half to death) if Danny hadn't stopped him.

They rounded a corner, and that's when the criminal pulled a gun and fired it at Danny, who quickly summoned the Fist to block the bullet with.

Danny then lowered his fist back down to his side, and its yellow color faded away. The criminal watched in horror. Danny looked up, challenging the man with his gaze.

The man, having been frozen, broke out into a sprint once more. This time, Danny caught him quickly, because he tripped over a pile of trash.

Danny stood over the man, who had broken his leg, breathing heavily.

"Who the hell are you?" the man asked. He searched Danny's masked face, trying to find anything familiar in him.

"I am the Immortal Iron Fist." Danny hit him with a blow that knocked him unconscious.

°•°•°•°• ó-ò •°•°•°•°

Rand Enterprises
An Hour Later

"You're still here?" Danny asked, finding Ward sitting at his desk.

"Unfortunately." He sipped a glass of alcohol. "The real estate agreement for Dad's stupid building is being a pain in my ass."

Danny nodded. "Yeah."

Ward looked at Danny, his brow furrowed. "What are you here for? Aren't you supposed to be running around the streets in that hideous mask assaulting criminals for the devil guy?" He scoffed. "I don't understand him. I don't understand any of you." He continued to sip his drink.

"I'm done for the night. And I just wanted to drop by, you know, to grab a couple things for J-Money regarding Harold's cremation."

Ward nodded. "Stop calling her that, would ya? It gets on my damn nerves."

Danny smirked, his shoulders bouncing a little, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Okay."

Ward finished his drink, setting the glass on his desk with a thud. "I guess I'll head home, try and get some sleep." He pointed at Danny, eyebrows raised. "You should do the same."

"Yeah, all right."

Ward stood to his feet and put on his coat.  He grabbed a stack of papers, stuffed them in his briefcase, and left the room, turning off the light.  Danny followed him out to the street.

"Oh, and tomorrow we have a board meeting about the shipment for Chicago, 9 a.m.  You've got a nice record for meetings, now.  What is it, three in a row without being late?  You should keep it up."  Ward smirked.

Danny chuckled.  "I'll be there."

"Yeah, you--"  Suddenly, Ward's briefcase was ripped from his hand, and the thief--wearing a black hoodie--sprinted down the sidewalk.  

"Hey!" Ward and Danny both shouted.  They ran after him. 

"That little fucker better give it back.  I've got important documents in there," Ward huffed. 

"Hey, what's a purse-snatcher to make your night a little more interesting, huh?" Danny said as he ran.

"You're seriously making jokes right now?  Shut up and get this guy!"  

Danny picked up his pace, quickly closing the gap between him and the thief.

The thief looked over his shoulder, finding two men close on his heels.  "SHIT."

Danny grabbed his arm, and they stumbled forward.  The thief threw a punch, but Danny deflected it with his arm, punching him in the stomach.  He loosened his grip on the briefcase, so Danny jerked it out of his hand.  

It was then that he saw the thief's face.  He was young, probably 15 or 16.  There was a nasty scar on his forehead, resembling one that would result from a gunshot wound.  He was one of the Resurrected.

Danny's hesitation left an open opportunity for the thief to run away, and soon he was out of sight.

Ward approached Danny's side, panting.  "What the hell?  You just let him get away?"  

"Here," Danny said, handing him the briefcase.  "You got your briefcase back, so let's go."

Ward hung the strap back over his shoulder, rolling his eyes.  "Daredevil needs to find someone else if he actually wants the criminals to be caught."

Ward walked back to his car and drove home.  Danny walked back to his own car slowly, thinking about the boy he'd seen.

°•°•°•°• ó-ò •°•°•°•°

Savannah, Georgia

Nighttime

"I don't meet with Luke until 8:00 tomorrow," Matt said.  He leaned his cane against the wall, then set his bag on the floor in front of it.

"So, what do you think we should do?" Karen asked, flirty.  She set her bag down as well, tucking her hair behind her ear.  Matt stood in front of her.

He smirked, stroking Karen's cheek with the back of his hand. "I don't know," he whispered.

"Well, I don't know about you, but after that plane ride, and the airport, I could really use a shower," Karen said. Matt nodded, and they were silent for a few seconds. "How about you join me?"

Matt grinned, and they entered the bathroom. They both stood there, removing each other's clothes a little forcefully, but still graceful. When they were naked, Matt leaned in for a kiss, his abdomen pressed against Karen's.

Eventually they broke away, and Matt began stepping toward the shower, holding out his hand. Karen took it, allowing Matt to guide her into it. He was walking backwards, and he stepped over the ledge easily.

Karen turned on the water, which trickled on their faces and down their legs. Matt massaged her shoulder, soap bubbles forming quickly. They lathered each other for a few minutes with soap and shampoo, kissing off and on throughout the endeavor. Afterwards, they dried themselves off and went straight to bed, not even bothering to get dressed.

°•°•°•°• ó-ò •°•°•°•°

Nelson and Murdock
The Next Day

Foggy was at his desk, thumbing through files.  He looked up when he heard a knock on the door.  He opened it to see Claire, Danny Rand standing beside her.  

"Claire," Danny said.  "Hi."

"Hey," Claire said.  "This is, uh...Danny.  You probably know him from TV."

Foggy nodded.  He wanted to address the new elephant in the room as to why the Iron Fist--the guy who Matt had "hired" to watch the city--was at their office.  He wasn't supposed to know Matt's identity, which meant that there was no connection between Danny and Foggy.

"Yeah.  You want to come in?"  He led them to their conference room.  "So, uh, what can I do for you?"

"Danny approached me with questions about the Restitutionist, and I knew you and Matt were researching it, so I thought you two could work together," she said.  

Foggy raised his eyebrows, shooting Claire a look of irritation.  

He looked at Danny, then said, "Hey, can you excuse us for a second?"

"Sure," Danny said.  Foggy and Claire left the room, shutting the door behind them.

"It's bad enough that Matt has him watching the city, but now he has to work with us too?"  Foggy wasn't angry at Claire; he could never be angry at her.  He was just confused, and a little shocked at the spontaneity of the situation.

"Look, this wouldn't have been my first choice, but Danny can help you.  And judging by how serious this Restitutionist guy is, and the fact that Matt isn't here right now, you guys could use all the help you can get."

Foggy sighed, scratching the back of his head.  "Well, what's he got?"