another day off or another off day?
Cloak & Dagger chased a group of drug-peddling thugs into Times Square when Dagger notices a Heroes for Hire advertisement with their likeness emblazoned upon the billboard.
"Ty...what's that?" Tandy asked, pointing up at the massive LED screen.
"It's us." Cloak plainly answered.
"Yeah, no, i get that. I mean why are we on an advertisement between the fix-your-ugly-feet guy and the sue-your-boss guy?" Dagger questioned.
"So people can hire us. As private investigators, or security, help finding runaways or drug addicts--" Tyrone further explained.
"Eww!! You made us Heroes For Hire?! You didn't think i got called a skank enough already?!" Tandy spat in disgust.
"No, no, we will remain non-profit, only accept donations. The Heroes For Hire Franchise will just be a board of trustees to approve and provide living expenses and such." Cloak argued.
"What?! When did you do all this?" Dagger asked curiously.
"There was a seminar at the learning annex. This was supposed to be a surprise." Tyrone angrily grumbled.
"Yeah, well don't worry, it is! How did you afford the billboard anyways? This is Times Square." Tandy asked, admiring billboard now.
"We've already received some seed-funding from the Rand Corporation." Cloak dropped the bomb.
"What?! How much?!"
"I thought you would be pleased--"
-
In a Harlem bistro, Luke Cage and Danny Rand are seated in a booth enjoying deli sandwhiches. "What is wrong with you, man?" Luke Cage asked after watching Danny lull up the mask part of his Iron Fist costume so he could properly eat his sandwich.
"What do you mean?" Danny asked with his mouth full of meat.
"Why are you wearing your costume?" Luke asked.
"Oh come on man, anonymity is one of the best parts of being a masked vigilante." Danny insisted.
"There's nothing anonymous about this, Danny. People are watching us, man. Taking pictures, and probably posting them right now...all because you're wearing a mask to lunch. And why did you even call me for lunch? I just saw you yesterday." Luke irritably gestured.
"Yeah, about yesterday, I've been thinking." Danny replied.
"Oh, sweet Christmas! Iron Fist has been thinking!" Luke sighed exasperatedly.
"Seriously, think of all the great times we had!" Danny insisted.
"You mean when i was framed for your murder...twice?" Luke laughed.
"No...when we stood valiantly and honorably victorious as brothers in arms against the evil that once plagued our city." Iron Fist rambled as a twinkle glimmered in his eye.
"Excuse me…" a deep rumbling voice interrupted. Luke and Danny looked up to see the large and fur-covered Arthur 'Gorilla-Man' Magan standing beside the costumed Carlos 'Black Tarantula' Lameurto. A bad man with the power and appearance of a gorilla, accompanied by a mostly bad man with Spider-imitating powers and a mercenary prowess. "We're here to retrieve the item you stole from Hammerhead." Gorilla-Man continued.
"That's right. Hand it over, peacefully, or things will get messy in here." Black Tarantula added.
"Hold on a minute…" Luke piped in, looking back and forth from Danny to the duo of villains before them. "Did 'Magilla Gorilla' here just call us thieves?"
"That he did." Danny quickly answered, as he kicked his feet up onto the table. "And his friend, Spider-Ninja, there threatened us."
"Well, I'm sure we can talk this out. What do you say, Magilla?" Luke laughed.
-
The brothers Grimm sat idly in their car outside the bistro where one of them watched from the driver's seat with a pair of binoculars. They had spotted Power-Man and iron Fist entering the bistro, and were planning to attack when they witnessed Gorilla-Man and Black Tarantula following shortly behind the heroes. Resigning to performing reconaissance, they watched as a fight ensued.
Suddenly, Gorilla-Man and Luke Cage careen through a window and section of the Bistro's wall, locked in a grapple, to plow into the hood of the brothers Grimm's vehicle. "It's Gorilla-Man!! Not Magilla Gorilla!" Was heard in a pained scream as the two crumpled to the ground beside the car.
Luke Cage then pulled Gorilla-Man up by the fur of his chest to deliver a devastating right hook, as Black Tarantula was thrown through the broken Bistro window by a powerful spinning flying kick from Iron Fist to land in the street. "See that right there...that could've been us…" one of the brothers exclaimed inside the vehicle.
"Thankfully it isn't, cause that looks like it hurt." the other brother gratefully replied.
"Word. I felt it from in here." the first agreed.
Outside, Luke Cage wrestled Gorilla-Man into a headlock as he attempted to render the beast unconscious. Then, Black Tarantula leapt onto the back of the grappling man and began slashing at Luke's impenetrable skin with a serrated hunting knife. To defend his conpanion, Iron Fist channeled his chi into his foot and delivered Another tremendous kick to Black Tarantula who was thrown from the back of Luke Cage. "Just...ungh!...give back what you stole!" Gorilla-Man plead as he struggled to retain consciousness and gasp for air around Luke's hulking forearm.
"Um, is this something we should be getting involved in?" one of the brothers Grimm asked, while at the same time the same querie was made by one of the masked vigilantes who observed from a nearby rooftop.
Atop a nearby building, sat Jessica Drew (A.k.a. Spider-Woman) and Gwen Stacy (a.k.a. Spider-Woman) who liesurely enjoyed a lunch from Burger King, courtesy of their third companion and mentor Peter Parker (a.k.a. Spider-Man) who balanced atop a ledge nearby. "Would you look at that? It's true! They're back together!" Jessica Drew gushed as she pulled out her red and yellow cell-phone to begin recording the fight below.
"Who are you talking about?" Gwen Stacy asked between slurps of her strawberry milkshake.
"Iron Fist and Power-Man. At least i think he's still going by Power-Man." Jessica answered.
"Wait a minute, i thought Power-Man was that cute guy that was fating that White Tiger chick." Gwen tried to correct.
"That's the other Power-Man. There's more than one, it's really confusing. Not very original, not being able to come up with your own name." Jessica smirked and Gwen giggled.
"Aren't you guys both sharing the 'Spider-woman' moniker? Sounds pretty similar to Spider-Man too, doesnt it?" Peter Parker laughed.
"More than one Power-Man, huh? More than one Hawkeye here, right? So i guess it makes sense." Gwen figured.
Below, Luke Cage swung and released Gorilla-Man from his headlock to fly through the air. "Check it out, Gwen, we might get to see some skin. I love it when guys get their shirts torn off in a fight. I am so posting this online. Oh Papa, they still have the moves…" Jessica said as she zoomed with the camera on her phone. "Come on, lose the rest of the shirt."
"Is there more than one Iron Face?" Gwen suddenly asked.
"Iron Fist." Jessica corrected while Peter nearly fell from the ledge he sat on from laughing so hard at Gwen's pronunciation.
"Iron Face sounds meaner than Iron Fist." Gwen defended, and then stuffed her empty milkshake cup into her order bag of food. "You never answered my question, Spider-Woman, should we get involved with this?"
"Only if the rest of that shirt doesn't come off, Spider-Woman." Jessica joked.
"How does Iron Face look without the mask?" Gwen asked as she watched him kick Black Tarantula in the throat.
"With a body like that, who cares?" Jessica quickly retorted.
Down on the street sounded a loud PA-PAAP as Luke Cage punmeled Gorilla-Man with a downward Elbow. "We ain't thieves, Curious George!" Luke shouted as Black Tarantula was swatted to the ground behind him by another kick from Iron Fist.
"Give us the--" Black Tarantula began as he attemptes to stand and was struck again with a chi-focused chest-kick, and Gorilla-Man misses a wide swing and was punched into the dirt. "Bbbbbooooookkkk---".
With the two villains unconscious, Luke and Danny threw their limp forms atop each other against a wooden street-pole. "Look at my shirt! This was a father's day present from Jessica!" Luke shouted as he showed off his trademark yellow T-shirt shredded to ribbons by Black Tarantula's knife.
"This is exactly what i meant by tbe great times we had!" Danny exclaimed as he caught his breath.
"Ripped shirts and unfinished sandwiches?" Luke asked skeptically.
"No! Standing valiantly and honorably victorious as brothers in arms against the evil plagues our city." Danny reiterated.
"That's fiddle-faddle." Luke sighed and slowly began walking down the street towards a small Prius. "Let's go, man, I'll take you home."
"Actually, could you take me to the hospital? I think i pulled my hamstring kicking that guy so many times." Danny asked.
"Sure." Luke laughed.
"How come we aren't using the family truckster?" Danny asked as he tried keeping his injured leg straight and climb into the compact car.
"umm...yeah…" Luke began.
-
Earlier that morning, Jessica Jones stormed into the living room and past their Daughter Danielle in her bathrobe to chastise her husband Luke. "...You're meeting with Danny, Again?! After you two got in a fight with Killer Shrike yesterday?!"
"Baby, I,..." Luke began.
"Well you're not using our truck Mr. We're-not-teaming-up-i-swear!"
-
"Jessica needed to use the truck to take care of some important stuff." Luke lied.
"That's fine. It just means we are going to need our own whip for when we're out on adventures." Danny dismissed.
"We are not teaming up. How many times i gotta tell you that, bro?"
"Why not? We work great together! We solved the monster murders!"
-
had been performing various missions for S.H.I.E.L.D. and smaller Avengers' sects when he came across a dossier detailing the monster murders and involvement of the Heroes For Hire, which he used to be a member of. Making a return visit to Chinatown he uncovers an issue if the Daily bugle that also speaks on the recent events. The articles read:
"Chinatown suicide attempt!
Yesterday evening Eddie Wong, owner of the local China Star Authentic Restaurant, tried to commit suicide by leaping from the roof of the Snyder building in Chinatown. Thanks to the daring efforts of the Heroes For Hire, Mr. Wong was unsuccessful. Allegedly Mr. Wong had been grieving the kidnapping of his wife, Mei Li Wong. Once again, the Heroes For Hire came to the rescue and freed Mrs. Wong from her captors. Next time you see these heroes, give them a smile and a wave! They deserve it!"
The 2nd article read:
"Fireworks in Chinatown
Last night, a fire at the old Chiang warehouse caused the sky over Chinatown to be illuminated with a brilliant fireworks display. With the help of Luke Cage, firefighters were able to put out the fire. Police report that the fire was caused due to gang violence."
It is also revealed that Shang-Chi has internal connections to Wu Fong and the Tiger's Claw.