by Revis Edgewater His daughter had played a game on his phone this morning , draining a little more than a quarter of his battery . He still had some time before work , so he plugged it into his charger and went about his normal morning routine . After showering , putting his clothes on , and going downstairs to make his lunch , he kissed his daughter goodbye . It wasn 't until he was halfway to work that he realized he had left his phone at home on the charger . If he turned around to get it , he would be late . He couldn 't be late . He would have to go the day without his phone . It felt strange to him to walk around with an empty pocket . He never noticed how much he had grown used to having it with him at all times . The absence of it almost made him feel naked . Still , he had work to do , so he tried to push it out of his mind and get to it . It was almost enough to make him jump . As it was , it increased his heart rate and momentarily sped up his breathing . Out of instinct , he reached to his pocket before remembering he didn 't have his phone with him when he came up empty . A glance at the clock showed that it was only twenty minutes until he went to lunch . The day 's half over , he reminded himself . Only four more hours after I get back from lunch . His lunch dragged on , him not having his phone to update or browse through his social media sites . He was forced to pay attention to some soap opera that was playing on the television . It was mounted on the breakroom wall too high for him to reach the buttons and he couldn 't find the remote . One of his coworkers must 've hidden it again . Bastards . After the hellish lunch he just experienced , he was happy to go back to work for once . He had just reached a productive groove when he was interrupted again by the sound of his ringtone . This time he did jump because of how loud it sounded in his head , although he was able to keep himself from reaching for his pocket that time . The clock said that he had only been back from lunch for an hour . Only three more hours to go , he thought . The next hour breezed through and because he didn 't have his phone , he decided to skip his final break . He found his groove again , doing well above his normal production . Before he knew it , a bell on the wall rang out , signaling that there was ten minutes left in his shift . With his quota hit , he stopped what he was doing and planned on not doing anything until it was time to clock out . Then , he heard his ringtone again . When he got home , he found his daughter playing with his phone once again . He took it from her and told her to go play with her own toys . She huffed , but did as she was told . As she was walking away , she told him that he was getting texts all day . Only one text showed up , from his wife asking what he wanted to do for dinner . He was going to ask his daughter about it when he saw that he had voicemails . Those had the same alert tone that his texts did . That must have been what she heard . The first message was from his brother . He listened as his sibling frantically told him that their grandfather had been rushed to the hospital . As the message was playing , he looked through his phone log and saw that the only missed calls he had were from his brother . The other messages had to be from him as well . Another frantic rambling greeted him on the next one . His brother was practically begging him to call back , saying that it didn 't look good and that the doctors were saying that his grandfather didn 't have much longer . The third message consisted of his brother bawling , telling him that their grandfather had passed away . Tears began rolling down his cheeks as he put his phone down on the table in front of him . Through the tears , he saw that his phone log was still open . The first call came in twenty minutes before he went to lunch . The second call came an hour after he got back from lunch . The final call came ten minutes before he clocked out . Crying even harder now , he went through his phone 's settings until it let him play his ringtone . As the music came from the speaker , he buried his face in his hands . His wife came into the room , asking what was wrong . He didn 't hear her , though . He was listening to his ringtone . by Revis Edgewater He sat staring at a blank computer screen . The words bounced around in his head , begging for release . It was a release that wouldn 't come . No matter how hard he tried , the words remained trapped inside of his mind . His foot began tapping on the ground , as if that would help his situation . His fingers hovered over the keyboard . He needed to start typing something , anything . It didn 't matter what it was . All it needed to be was words . Still , he was greeted with a zero in the word count . Panic seized him . He could see the words swimming in his vision , but they refused to travel down to his fingers . Tears streamed down his face . His eyes closed when his internal clock registered five seconds . The gun erupted , sending its projectile forward . Cracks spiderwebbed out from the bullet hole that appeared in the screen . Drops of blood mingled in with the cracks , running down towards the bottom of the monitor . by Revis Edgewater With five guns now swinging my way , I didn 't have time to check on the Punisher 's condition just yet . I hoped that I could get all five men with one long burst from the automatic pistol . After I mowed down the first two men , the gun began clicking . Damn . I was out of ammo . I dropped the empty gun and drew the two pistols I had in my shoulder holsters . By that time , the remaining three men had trained their guns on me and opened fire . I was hit by a barrage of bullets . None of them really did any major damage to me . Most of my coat and shirt were gone . My left pinky finger and my right middle finger had been shot off . Although I wasn 't a hundred percent sure , I was pretty sure my hat was now gone too . Their shots did nothing to slow my own attacks . My trigger fingers worked furiously , sending speeding metal at the jackasses who were doing their best to kill me . Two of them fell with new holes in their bodies . The third man had taken cover before I could get him in my sights . A metallic ring sounded off to my left and I remembered that he was the grenade thrower . I dove to my right and hoped that it 'd be enough . The explosion came as I hit the floor . Looking back to where it had gone off , I saw that I was now missing my left foot . It wasn 't ideal , but it could 've been a lot worse . My guns had miraculously managed to stay in my hands , so I made ready for when the grenade thrower moved from cover to check on his handiwork . Sure enough , he peeked around the corner to look in my direction . I shot the second I saw his head . From the other side of the room , someone else shot at the same time I did . Grenade thrower 's head literally exploded as two bullets tore through it . The Punisher stepped out of the doorway he had been using for cover , the barrel of his assault rifle smoking . There were some dents in his body armor , and some small cuts on his arms and legs , but the grenade didn 't do him any major damage . I assume he found something to hide behind before it went off . " What 're you doing here , " he gruffly asked . Grunting slightly in response , he did as I asked . Once I had my foot back in place , I picked my two fingers off the ground and reattached them . To test them out , I held up my right middle finger up to the Punisher . " It works , " I said . He ignored my awesome joke and moved further into the mansion . We made our way through the rest of it with ease . I would go into a room first and draw all of the fire . That left the Punisher free to take them out without having to worry about being under fire himself . It was the most efficient fight I had ever had in my " superhero " career . Well , when working with someone without powers , anyway . The last room we got to was the master bedroom . When I busted down the door , Dallos stood alone . He was unarmed and holding his hands in the air . " I give up , " he pleaded . " I surrender . " I wasn 't sure what he was going to do to Dallos , but I was sure that I didn 't want to be there when he did it . Besides , the sounds of the gunfight had been noticed . Police sirens played outside the house . Flashing red and blue lights could be seen in the windows in the front of the house . I needed to get the hell out of there . I took off my shirt and trenchcoat , since they were nothing more than tatters now , and grabbed replacements from one of the other bedrooms . The shirt was fine , but there wasn 't a coat as good as my trenchoat at obscuring my face . Grabbing the best thing available , I threw it on and vowed to put my ring back on as soon as I possibly could . I also tucked a change of clothes under the jacket for when I found a place without any cameras . The police were only at the front of the mansion at that point , so I was able to slip out the back undetected . I took a random route for a while , just in case someone was behind me . After finding a suitable place , I put on my ring and changed my clothes . Once that was done , I hailed a cab and took it back to my office . Just like last time , I walked in to find the Punisher sitting behind my desk . " I 've seen firsthand that bullets don 't do much against you , " he grinned as he pulled something out of his pocket . " I also saw you run from a grenade . You made my work tonight far easier than it normally is , so it would be a shame if I had to use this on you . Give me the file , and we 'll part ways as friends . " He began to frantically look around , but didn 't see anything . I could tell he was debating using the grenade , but there was no guarantee that he 'd be able to escape the blast when I was this close to him . Within seconds , his arms began to droop . Not long after he slumped over completely . " Paralyzing gas , " I told him . " A friend of mine got it for me from S . H . I . E . L . D . It works really fast once it gets into the bloodstream . Another benefit of being dead is that I no longer have blood , so it doesn 't affect me at all . I wasn 't sure that I 'd ever need this setup , but I like to be prepared . " I could easily kill you right now , and I bet that I 'd be the best friend of many spirits roaming the city tonight if I did , but I won 't be doing that . What I am going to do is drop this off at the police station . I 'm pretty sure that a lot of the people in this file probably have enough people paid off that this won 't hurt them too much , but I think some of them will face some time because of this . " All I 'm really sure of right now is what will happen if you get your hands on this : My city will gain a lot of new spirits . You may not care , because you 're done with them once they 're dead , but I do . I don 't want to have to deal with a lot of disgruntled mobsters that you set your crosshairs on . " I walked over to stand in front of him and put my face right in front of his . " I know you can hear me , so listen up . You 're going to stay right where you are until the gas wears off and then you 're going to disappear from my life forever . I 've heard you 're not to big about letting things go , so if you ever get the urge to come after me , I want you to remember something . I want you to remember how many people you 've killed . How many of those spirits would help me against you ? " Sure , you could hurt me with that grenade , but you still wouldn 't kill me . And , once I recovered , I would use every one of those spirits to find out every single thing about you . With help like that , I 'd be able to take you out before you even knew I was coming after you . Or , maybe I 'd use them to warn every person you 're targeting that you 're coming after them . I suppose I could always scare away anyone who supplies your gear , too . There 's really no end to the things I could do to disrupt your crusade . " I walked to the door , put my hand on the knob , and turned my head towards him . " No matter which option you choose , I will always be ok in the end . All you 're really doing is choosing how hard your life will be from now on . It 's up to you , Frank . " by Revis Edgewater Aa much as I wanted to run out the door to help the Punisher , there was some unfinished business to take care of here first . The fate of an innocent child was far more important to me than the fate of a man who spends his nights on a murder spree . " Why 'd you take the boy , " I asked . " Are you , or one of your sons , his father ? " " What , " Cook cried , his face crinkling up in disgust . " God , no . I 've known her since she was born . She grew up with my kids . She was like a daughter to me and a sister to my boys . It 's just that if I didn 't get him , who knows where they would 've stuck him . I took him because I thought he should stay with family . " I let my gaze drift over to Robert , who was studying Cook 's face . Making up his mind , he gave me a slight nod of his head . " Ok , Cook , " I said . " Here 's the deal . From now on , you 're out of the business . " " After tonight , you 'll never see Dallos again , so don 't worry about it . I 'm going to assume that , like McKenzie , you have a number of legitimate enterprises ? " Cook nodded , so I continued , " Good . You 're going to focus on those and raising Amanda 's son . You will care for him as much as you do your own . I will have someone watching you at all times , Cook . If you do anything to hurt that boy , I 'll be back and when I get done with you , you 'll look worse than me . " That last part put a little fear in him . I didn 't have time to stick around and press the issue . Instead , I took the elevator back downstairs and ran outside . A couple was out front about ready to climb into a taxi . Once again , my horrid appearance worked in my favor . Not only did the couple run away upon seeing me , but the driver did too . It was about time something went my way . I punched the address McKenzie gave me for Dallos into the GPS and gunned the engine , letting the navigation unit catch up as I went . I knew the general area fairly well , from my own time as a taxi driver , but I didn 't know exactly where . Another throwback to my taxi days was knowing the best routes to take to avoid traffic . It still took longer than I liked to get there , though . The last few blocks were a little odd . Through the city , I moved at a frantic pace . Out here , among the large estates that made up this neighborhood , everything seemed calm and serene . I started wondering if I had come to the wrong place . That 's when the sounds of gunshots began echoing through the night sky . A gate barred the entrance into Dallos ' estate , so I plowed the cab right through it . Or , I attempted to , at least . The gate was a lot sturdier than it looked . It stopped the car flat . Still , the taxi did enough damage to it that I was able to squeeze through it . I ran the rest of the way to the front door . When I flung it open , I was greeted by one of Dallos ' men . With one look at me , he dropped the automatic pistol he was carrying . " Oh , hell no , " he said as he raised his hands and started walking out the door behind me . " First , the Punisher and now some dude who looks like he 's right out of Night of the Living Dead ? Nope . I 'm done . I ain 't getting paid enough for this bullshit . " I watched him go , not knowing what to do . That was definitely a first for me . Shaking it out of my head , I picked up the gun he dropped and went deeper into the house . Trying to pinpoint where the gunshots were coming from based solely on the sound was impossible for me . Having no ears has its drawbacks , folks . So , basically , all I was doing was blindly walking around . In the second hallway I walked down , I found the billiards room . Going inside , I quickly located the flash drive behind the vent , grabbed it , and put it in my pocket . Before I had a chance to put the vent back , a shot rang out behind me . The bullet tore through my trenchcoat and out of my chest . I turned to see another henchman standing there with a smoking gun . His hands trembled when he saw that his shot did no damage to me . He replied by repeatedly pulling the trigger . The only thing he accomplished was putting more holes in my coat . Now , I was angry and he wouldn 't like me when I was angry . One squeeze on the automatic pistol sent a small spurt of lead in his direction . He fell backwards , landing with a groan . I didn 't see any blood coming from his torso , so he must 've been wearing a vest . There were holes in both his left thigh and the opposite shoulder . I thought about finishing him off , but just walked out of the room instead . As a general rule , l avoid killing people , especially since they might come back to haunt me . If this guy ends up going , it won 't weigh on my conscience . I gave him the chance to walk away and he chose to shoot me . I checked my pocket to make sure that the man 's barrage of bullets didn 't hit the flash drive and breathed sigh of relief when I found it intact . I continued on into the next corridor and hoped that the growing decibel level of the gunshots meant that I was getting closer to the action . I was . As I rounded a corner , I saw that there were five men firing into an open doorway . Three other men lay dead around the room . Obviously , I had found the Punisher . I raised the automatic pistol just as one of the men threw something into the room with Frank . " Punisher , " I yelled to get his attention . " Grenade ! " The men , hearing my cry , turned their guns on me . My weapon started barking out seconds before the grenade exploded . I glanced at the doorway long enough to see nothing but a cloud of dust come out of it . by Revis Edgewater Once again , the Punisher looked pissed that I was having a conversation that he couldn 't hear both sides of . I didn 't care . " Cook took your grandson , " I asked , not really believing . " With you and Amanda both dead , your grandson gives him no leverage over anyone . Why would he do that ? " " He has two sons around that age , " the Punisher interjected with a shrug . " Maybe one of them is the father . Or , maybe it 's Cook himself , if she had a thing for older men . " " They had better not be , " Robert fumed . " She told me it was some boy from school . I swear if any of those three even thought about touching my daughter , I 'll kill all of them . " " Focus , people , " I hollered . " Let 's get back to what matters . We have a deal , McKenzie . If you tell me where you hid those files , we 'll go get your grandson . " " Good point . Wouldn 't he notice that the air flow is being disrupted , though ? There 's no way those files are letting air go by them . " " Do you know how many people in this city are in the business ? I 'd need a warehouse to keep files on all of them on paper . I was forced to make an exception . " " I don 't think so . I 'm going to Dallos ' house to get the files . " The look on my face must 've shown my confusion because he clarified , " I still heard your side of the conversation , genius . " By the time I turned to try to convince the Punisher to change his mind , he was already halfway out the door . " Let him go , " McKenzie said . " We don 't need him . You 're immortal , right ? " I stood up and got my gear together . Once I had both of my shoulder holsters on , and full , I put a couple of extra clips of ammo in my pocket . An old rickety jacket was thrown over my shoulders to cover the guns up as I walked out of my office . When I was around halfway to Cook 's house , I ditched the old jacket in an alley and put on my tan trenchcoat , that I had been carrying underneath the other jacket . I put on the other garment that I had under my jacket , my brimmed hat , and pulled up the collars . My face needed to be as obscured as possible . Once I had it hidden as best I could , I pulled off the magic ring . Immediately , I returned to my actual appearance . " As far as the world knows , " I replied , ignoring the ghost 's tone of voice , " Jonathan Martin is just a regular private investigator . If a surveillance camera catches him entering , or even near , a place right before a gun fight breaks out , his life becomes far more difficult . For tonight , I 'm Ghoul . " The remainder of the walk was fairly uneventful . Most people ignored my horrid appearance . I told the few who didn 't that I was on my way to a zombie walk , which they applauded . That 's one of the great things about living in New York City . Nothing is considered weird here . Unlike Dallos , who had a house out in the suburbs , Cook resided in a fairly swanky building in the city . Swanky enough to have a doorman , anyway . I had a way around him , though . All I had to do was walk up to him and show him my face . Naturally , he freaked and tried to run away , but I grabbed him by the collar of the ridiculous looking jacket they made him wear and made him open the door first . Once he did , I released him and he ran away screaming . After I got inside , McKenzie , who had been here many times before , directed me on where to go . I got on the elevator and hit the floor number he indicated . While I was going up , I pulled my guns out of their holsters , expecting trouble as soon as the doors opened . There was none . The doors opened up directly into the living area , an entertainment room by the looks of it . Cook sat on the couch watching TV , with the infant in his hands . Obviously , he heard me approach because without turning around he said , " It wasn 't supposed to happen like that . Amanda wasn 't supposed to die . But , Dallos moved too quickly . I couldn 't stop him . " He turned to face me for the first time . To his credit , he didn 't react to my visage . " I thought you were the Punisher , " he admitted . " No , " I responded , " I 'm much more charming than he is . I can , however , kill you just as dead as he can if you keep lying to me . Now , where are your bodyguards ? " " Dallos killed Amanda because he didn 't believe her when she said she couldn 't get the file for us . He thought she was working with someone else to hide it from us . After he killed her , he said we wouldn 't need to look for her partner because they 'd come after him for revenge . So , now he 's got all of our guys , plus some extra muscle he hired on , waiting for whoever shows up . " by Revis Edgewater As soon as the Punisher told me that he wasn 't planning on killing her , I should 've known something was wrong . The aura of death surrounding Amanda told me it was coming , but I pushed it aside when I took her away from him . I still felt it , even if I didn 't admit it to myself . Had I listened to it , maybe she 'd still be alive right now . " Well , I got the green part down . I just can 't pick up cars . What I can do , though , is talk to the dead , and Amanda 's spirit just came to me . " " So do ghosts . And I have three of them here that want to talk to you . . A woman with two children . Do you want to talk to them … . Frank ? " If I were in a different situation , I might laugh at his facial expression . It was rage , confusion , and sadness all rolled into one . I didn 't have time for laughs right now . " What 's it gonna be , Frank , " I asked impatiently . " You gonna talk to them ? " " Fine , " he conceded with a snarl . " You can talk to ghosts . But if you ever bring up that woman and the children again , I don 't care how unkillable you think you are , I will find a way to end your existence . " Once again , I wanted to laugh . Oh sure , he could blow me up into a million pieces . That would certainly slow me down while my body put itself back together , but he couldn 't kill me . Trust me , more powerful people than him have tried . " I 've gone up against a lot of gangsters in my time , but McKenzie was one of the smartest I 've come across . Hell , I didn 't even know about him until about a month ago . The only reason I know about him is Cook . He never said how , but he and Dallos found out about him . They weren 't very happy that their old friend had been conning and using them . " So , they decided to start making some side deals on their own . The problem with that was they weren 't as smart as McKenzie and they caught my attention . I busted in on a deal that Cook was making with the Russians for some guns . He started cowering when the shooting started . After I killed everyone else , he tried making a deal with me . I played along with it at first , but eventually we came to an understanding . " " He 'd tell me everything he knew in exchange for me not killing his two sons when I took down the family . They were low level guys who really hadn 't done much anyways , so I was ok with giving him that one . That 's when he told me about McKenzie and what was in his files . " " Sorry , but I kinda tuned you out when you told me what was in there earlier . I was shocked when I saw Amanda walk in . What 's so important that 's in those files ? " " Dirt on every mid to major organized crime figure in the city . I don 't know how he did it , but he got incriminating evidence on all of them . That way , if anyone pushed too hard to find out his true identity , McKenzie would blackmail them into backing off . " " I 'll tell you now , " a voice interrupted . Robert McKenzie stood behind the Punisher , staring at me . " But , if I do , you have to do something for me . " by Revis Edgewater My pal Dane , aka The Black Knight , wasn 't home . From the looks of it , he hadn 't been here in a long time . That 's why I felt confident that he wouldn 't get upset that I broke in . ( Author 's Note : From what I can gather , The Black Knight now resides in the Marvel dimension known as WeirdWorld . ) After getting Amanda settled down , I asked her what was really going on . " Most people don 't know this , " she answered , " but my father was one of the most powerful people in the city . He was the leader of one of the families . " " I asked him that once myself , when I finally caught on to what he did for a living . He reminded me of how he used to laugh at the gangster movies when the leaders would lead from out front to prove how tough they were , that they were in charge . He said it was the heights of arrogance and stupidity to do that because all you were doing was making yourself , and your family , a target . " It made more sense , he said , to be the man behind the curtain , to be the puppeteer pulling the strings . They can 't take a shot at you if they don 't know you 're there . It was how he protected us . " " He didn 't want anybody to know about it . There were only a couple of guys in his organization that knew more than half of what he had going on . I only found out because I stumbled on to the books for the restaurant and studied them . I figured it would be a good way for me to learn more about real world accounting than I could in my accounting class . When I looked them over , I saw some inconsistencies and I confronted him about them . He was laundering money . He told me everything after that . " " There are two guys who are in charge now . Both of them are named John , so we called them by their last names , Cook and Dallos . They 've been friends with my dad since elementary school . Dallos is the enforcer . Cook is the brains of the operation . They thought my father was just a flunky like them . The orders stopped coming as soon as he died , so it wasn 't long before they figured it out . " " If they were angry , they didn 't show it to me . They came to me a couple of days ago saying that they had found all of dad 's files except for those of the restaurant . Apparently , there was something missing from the other files that they really needed and they figured it had to be mixed in with those . " They said that if I found it for them , they 'd make sure I 'd be taken care of . I 'm still family to them . I said that I 'd find the papers for them , but I didn 't care about the money as long as I got to keep the restaurant . Dad really loved that place . " Amanda 's eyes dropped to the ground at the memory of her father . For a second , I thought she was going to cry , but she pulled herself together . " What happens now , " she asked . " From what I know about the Punisher , he 's not one to let this drop . At least , not without a good reason . So , I 'm going to go give him a good reason . " I turned to her in triumph , a big grin on my face . A deep frown greeted me in return . " Oh , come on , " I protested . " That was the perfect place for that line ! " The frown was joined by the shaking of her head . " Whatever . I 'm going to go have a chat with the Punisher . You stay right here . This place can 't be traced to you and the only one who can tie me to it in any way is the guy who owns it . Speaking of which , if a guy in black armor , with a wicked looking sword comes in , just tell him you 're with me . " " Don 't worry . He won 't hurt you . He 's an Avenger . " Well , he used to be anyway , I said in my head . " Don 't leave this apartment for any reason . We brought enough food with us to last you a few days . I 'm not sure I 'd trust anything left in his kitchen . I 'll come back as soon as it 's safe . I promise . " " I am a detective , you know . Besides , and I hate to have to use another movie quote , but something tells me that I won 't be finding him . He 'll be finding me . " Two hours later , thanks to traffic , I was proven right . I unlocked , then opened , my office door to find The Punisher sitting behind my desk . " Tell me where the girl is , " he demanded . " Or else what , " I countered . " You can 't kill me . I 'm already dead . And because of the dead thing , I don 't feel pain anymore , so you can 't torture it out of me either . So , here 's what I propose : Don 't kill the girl , and I 'll … " " I 've been doing this a long time . By now , I can tell who is in the business and who isn 't . She clearly isn 't . " The Punisher began talking , but I didn 't hear him . My focus was now on the ghost that had walked through my office door . " I have a son , " the ghost explained . " They were waiting for me when I went to go get him . I thought he 'd be safer with me . "