11589/Tiger Tiger Burning Bright

Tiger Tiger Burning Bright
Date of Scene:	13 June 2022
Location:	Hell's Kitchen
Synopsis:	An arsonist calling himself Bright Tiger strikes again in Hell's Kitchen. Daredevil and Wraith reach him but he sets off his incendiary bombs and gets away as they save the apartment building's residents.
Cast of Characters:	Matthew Murdock, Evan Cooper

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Matthew Murdock has posed:
Two fires in two nights in Hell's Kitchen was bad news. The first took out an office building and damaged an apartment building next door. The second took out a multi-story brownstone that had been split up into four residences. That all of the people made it out in time was a near thing.

Matt hadn't needed to read the newspaper article by Ben Urich in the New York Bulletin to know it had been arson. A walk by the place had been overwhelming to his sense of smell, but he'd managed to pick up the scents of a few chemical accelerants, and then identified them with a visit to a supply shop that dealt in them.

Ingredients that went into making a pyrotechnic device, from what the man at the counter had said. Matt had ended up having to show his ID and a business card showing he was an attorney, claiming it was related to a case he was working, to avoid ending up on any watch lists.

Now it's late at night. 10pm, which is around the time that the other devices were set off. Daredevil stands on a rooftop, one foot up on the coping. Listening and smelling, looking for any trace of the arsonist.


An arsonist who is presently preparing his next fire. Wearing dark clothes and a tiger mask, the man agilely repels down the side of a building. He plants an incendiary bomb just so on the side of the building. He quietly cackles to himself. "Just so. Just so. The fire has to be perfect. Make it grow, help it live!" he says, quietly enough the families inside the apartment building won't hear him through the windows. The fourth such bomb he's placed, he scales back up to the roof faster than a man usually could, perhaps having some kind of winch to help pull himself back up.

But it does leave a silhouette against the clouds that are lit by the Big Apple below.

Evan Cooper has posed:
Despite his abilities, Evan suffers from a confidence problem. He has been out on a few independent patrols, clad in his black Wraith armor. Sure, he can stop petty thieves and common criminals all night long without even breaking a sweat, but he knows he is capable of so much more given the right circumstances.

His blog site typically covers governmental and corporate overreach, but the past few days have been an exception. By day, Evan Cooper collects data and crowdsources strategies for dealing with this deadly arsonist. By night, Wraith has been patrolling in an attempt to find this criminal before he does even more damage.

It's just by sheer coincidence that he sees the dude. Wraith is sitting at the edge of a building watching over the area that some of the members of his blog site suggested might be likely future targets. But he is inexperienced, not smooth like seasoned, veteran vigilantes. So when he sees this dude, he freaks out a little bit.

"Hey!" Wraith yells out. "Stop right there!" But he is several buildings away and in no position to immediately stop this guy. Rookie mistake. Big time rookie mistake.

But what he lacks in experience, he makes up for in physical capability. He leaps from the building he's on to another two full rooftops away. No way a normal dude can do something like that. He even lands gracefully! But the damage is done, he gave himself away, and the arsonist has plenty of time to flee.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
The tiger-masked arsonist reaches the roof and moves back over to his bag where the rest of his devices are. "Six. Six little beauties," he says, steepling his fingers and tapping the fingertips against each other as he looks at the two that he still has to place. "Feed the fire. So beautiful and powerful," he says, reaching down and stroking a hand over one of the pyrotechnic bombs.

The sound of the shout pops the arsonist's head up as he becomes alert. "No... no! I'm not ready yet," he says. He grabs another of the devices and runs to the far side of the building from Evan. The line is already waiting for him. He hooks a device onto it that is hooked to his belt for safety, and jumps over the edge, repelling down in a controlled free fall to reach the right spot. He attaches the bomb to a vent cover hastily, just the right spot to blow open space for the air to flow through the building and feed the other fires. "Must hurry! Must hurry!" he says, placing the bomb and then zipping back up towards the roof again when done.


The sound of some sort of mechanical device catches Daredevil's ear. Some kind of gear turning quickly. Then the words about feeding a fire!

This all is on the far side of the block. Daredevil backs up from the roof's edge, about the time he's hearing the shout that indicates someone else has seen the man. Daredevil sprints forward, leaping over the wide alleyway to land on the other side. He's not got a themed car or aircraft or the ability to fly. And only limited ability to swing using his batons, nothing like Spider-Man. But still, the Devil's of Hell's Kitchen makes his way speedily forward, jumping from one rooftop to another, or running across a line between buildings like a high speed tightrope walker. He's a little ways away though, still.

Evan Cooper has posed:
Likewise, Wraith is no Spider-Man, but he has a trick up his sleeve. Literally. He holds out one arm and from his forearm a grapple on a monofilament cable fires and sinks into a building. Evan swings on the line effortlessly. He is a bit tunnelvisioned on the arsonist so he passes by two of the devices.

Landing just one building away from the fleeing criminal, Wraith shouts an order: "Stop right there. I don't want to have to hurt you."

He tugs two wicked-looking throwing knives from a couple spots on his belt. With their matte finish, they barely gleam in the nighttime. "But I will if I have to." Anyone with, say, enhanced hearing would hear the equivocation and nervousness in Wraith's tone.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
The arsonist is back at his bag when Wraith lands on the building across from him. He straightens, cradling the final incendiary device to his chest like another man might a baby.

"Why, why do you want to stop me? The fire needs me. To grow. It hungers and needs to be fed! And I, The Bright Tiger, shall make this town a monument to it!" he says, with a high-pitched cackle thrown on the end.

Bright Tiger begins running over towards a corner of the building, ducking low to make a difficult target for the figure on the other building should he throw one of those knives that is gleaming in the faint light.


Daredevil launches himself, legs pumping in the air, across a gap that is wider than what he can leap. He pulls out his batons, hooked together by wire and throws one to wrap it around a fire escape ladder on the corner of the building. He swings himself up, tugging to free the baton and landing on the roof. Ahead he can sense a figure on the next building over. And beyond that, the footsteps of someone running across a roof, cackling. He continues forward!

Evan Cooper has posed:
At the edge of his vision Wraith sees the new figure arrive. Although it can't be outwardly seen, beneath his mask he blink-blink-blinks. "Holy shit," he murmurs softly to himself. "That's fucking Daredevil." His heart rate, already going quite fast, goes up a notch or twenty. "C'mon, c'mon, Evan, don't mess this up." He says that in a quiet murmur to himself. Nobody with normal hearing could make out the masked vigilante basically outing his own first name publicly. Rookie.

Then, like lightning, he throws the knife. It sails through the air at a velocity that no way came from some normal person with some normal arm. And it sinks into the back of the arsonist's hand with pinpoint accuracy. From a rooftop away. At night.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
A cry of pain issues from the far rooftop. Bright Tiger stumbles and his basketball-sized incendiary crashes to the rooftop, bouncing once and then rolling over before coming to a stop.

He clutches at his hand, pulling the knife free and throwing it to clatter to the rooftop. "Fool!" he shouts. "I am the guardian of the flame! Mere knives cannot stop me!" He turns and runs for the farthest section of roof, away from Wraith.

There's the sound of cushioned footfalls as Daredevil leaps across to Wraith's building and then continues on at a sprint. "Nice throw," a deep, gravelly voice says as the dark red costumed hero runs past and makes the final leap to land over on the rooftop with Bright Tiger.

"You nearly killed people last time. There are four families at home here tonight. Don't do this," he yells at Bright Tiger. Daredevil throws a baton, tangling his feet and sending the arsonist tumbling, but still a few dozen feet away.

Evan Cooper has posed:
Yeah, Daredevil just complimented his knife throw. No big deal, it was just DARE-FRICKIN-DEVIL! From a standing position, Wraith easily leaps across the distance and lands near Daredevil. Outwardly, he looks just like any average dude who is dressed head-to-toe in a black suit with skull motifs. Run of the mill. But DD might hear some faint noises from inside his body, which is powered by ultra-advanced, futuristic biological cybernetics.

Wraith has absolutely zero clue how you go about talking to Daredevil. He, of course, makes a bit of a fool of himself. "Oh, hey. Yeah that knife throw? Thanks, man. You know, just throwing a knife...you know...at the...at the bad guy and stuff." Idiot.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Wraith's arrival on the rooftop gets a brief nod of Daredevil's head, though he keeps looking towards Bright Tiger. Or, you know, it seems like he's looking that way. Daredevil pads forward. "You need help, 'Bright Tiger'," he says, unable to keep a tiny bit of scorn from his voice when the name is said. "Nothing wrong with liking a good fire. But when you're hurting people and destroying things for it... let us take you to someone who can help," he says as he walks up a half dozen feet from the downed arsonist.

Bright Tiger has a bit of a cloak-like jacket on. Something like you might picture classic Sherlock Holmes wearing, just in black. He rolls over, and the eyes of his tiger mask gleam brightly. Just an effect, not his eyes.

The arsonist looks between Daredevil and Wraith before speaking, his voice carrying a sneer from beneath the mask. "In what distant deeps or skies, burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire?"

Daredevil suddenly starts and motions to Wraith. "Watch out!" he says as Bright Tiger's hand comes up from the cloak with what ends up being the detonator. He hits it, and all six devices ignite at once. Some have a bit more explosive component to clear airways for the fire to quickly turn into an inferno. Others are intended to set everything alight.

That on the roof? It was a mix of fire and explosion, and the blast wave hits Daredevil and sends him tumbling. Worse, with his sensitive hearing, he's effectively stunned by the loud noise for a few seconds as his ears ring with the blast.

Splashes of propellant land everywhere on the roof, some on Daredevil's leg. Bright Tiger lets out a cackling laugh and scrambles back to his feet, rushing for the edge of the roof.

Evan Cooper has posed:
Wraith, of course, is caught completely by surprise. In fact, he was just about to add his two cents into the bad guy admonishing that Daredevil was doing. I mean, what's even the point of being a hero if you can't admonish a bad guy? And with one of Hell's Kitchen's most famous vigilantes!

The next thing he knows, he is propelled backwards off the roof. No small amount of flames wash over him, but his curious body suit doesn't burn away. However, Wraith is falling quickly. With a grunt, he extends both arms and his grapples fire out of his forearms and sink into the side of the building. It stops his fall, and that's great. Because falling from this height sucks. However, the inexperienced grappled didn't account for, you know, physics. He smashes into the side of the building with almost as much force as he would have hit the ground with.

Looking around to make sure that Daredevil didn't see him do that, he pulls the monofilament lines into his body, which hoists him back to the roof, much of which is burning now.

"Daredevil?" he calls out as he looks around. "Daredevil?"

Matthew Murdock has posed:
With Daredevil momentarily down, and Wraith blown off the buildings, Bright Tiger makes it to a zip line that he had set up in advance. He swings a metal handle bar over it and looks back at them. "Devil of Hell's Kitchen! You of all should appreciate the fire. Fire and light and heat! Long shall they reign!"

With that he slides down the zip line, which deposits him in an alley down the block where a vehicle is waiting for him to make his escape in.

Daredevil is back on his feet after his head stops ringing. He hurriedly swats at the fire on his leg, though winces as he takes some burns before extinguishing it.

Taking stock, he turns to look at Wraith. "There are families on the third and fourth floors. Two adults each floor, 1 child on the 4th, two on the 3rd. Can you get them? I'll get the bottom floors," he says, already moving to the edge of the roof to head down and save the people.

Evan Cooper has posed:
In the heat of the moment (surely, no pun intended) it doesn't occur to Wraith to question how Daredevil knows with such precision who is where. He knows two things: 1.) Neither of them are dead, and 2.) DAREDEVIL JUST ASKED ME TO HELP HIM!

His cybernetic enhancements help him store the data that DD just gave him. "On it!" Wraith says. He runs toward a metal rooftop access door. He tries the handle. Locked. Gripping it firmly, his wrenches the handle, breaking the locking mechanism, which grants him access to the building. Fourth floor. Two adults and one child. The hall is filling quickly with smoke. Normal vision is useless, so Wraith switches to infrared. It's...better, but still not great. He literally runs down the hall forcing each door open as he goes until he hears cries for help. He bursts into the apartment and sees what appears to be a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter. Forgetting that he is literally dressed all in black with skull motifs on his costume, he rushes in. They scream so loud that is startles Wraith and he screams.

"Wait, wait, I'm here to help you!" he says. "Look, Daredevil and I were..." Did you hear yourself, Evan! You just said 'Daredevil and I'. How cool is that? Focus! Focus! "...on the roof trying to stop the arsonist that's in the news. We didn't quite make it. C'mon, let me get you out of here."

Yeah Wraith looks pretty scary, but you know what's REALLY scaring? Burning death is really scary. So they decide to trust him and rush toward the masked vigilante. He quickly leads them through the thick smoke toward the stairwell. "Stay low, as low as you can!"

Matthew Murdock has posed:
When he's sure Wraith is on his way, Daredevil runs and jumps off the building, flying across the alley in the air, planting both feet on the other building then flipping back towards the burning brownstone. He extends his hands above him like a diver to smash through a window and roll to his feet inside.

The flames are spreading fast. Bright Tiger knows what he's doing. Smoke is starting to fill every floor, and gouts of flame begin to grow along ceilings.

"Let's go, the building is on fire, we need to evacuate!" he yells. He can hear the racing heartbeats from the people who heard the fiery explosions and smell smoke.

Daredevil passes through a doorway into a hall, finding the family's father stepping in there as well. "Get your kid and wife and get out. I'll get the older woman," he says. The scent of the bedridden woman and her medications made it clearly enough her condition.

He hurries over. "I'm going to take you out because of the fire," he tells the elderly woman. Which doesn't stop her from screaming. Oh yeah, that's pleasant with his ears still ringing a little from the explosion.

He waves to the father to head for the stairs, following behind the family of three. They get downstairs and outside, then Daredevil rushes back to the first floor. Though they are already coming out on their own. Soon they are safely outside, and Daredevil stops to listen for signs of Wraith and the others.

Evan Cooper has posed:
When he gets the three to the third floor, Wraith says to them, "Keep going, it's alright. Stay low. I need to make a quick stop. I'll be right behind you!" The reluctant family looks uneasily at Wraith but follows his instructions and stays low and continues down the stairwell.

Wraith bursts into the third floor hallway. With the assistance of his infrared vision he sees two men in their mid-thirties, holding each others hands. Between them are two small, crying children with wet towels over their heads. They are trying to get their children out but they are disoriented from the heavy smoke and the heat. Wraith bursts down the hallways in their direction. His internal system filter out the smoke and toxins in the air.

"Guys, my name is Wraith. I'm here to help." Perhaps later he will have time to unpack how freakish that sounds. Maybe Wraith wasn't such a great codename. "Please trust me. Stay low. I can get you to the stairwell. C'mon!" Essentially completely immune to the smoke, Wraith begins to lead the couple and their two children to the stairwell. They quickly catch up to the folks from the fourth floor and Wraith leads the lot of them outside to fresh air.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Daredevil is there to help Wraith with the final people as they come stumbling out, coughing and smelling badly of smoke. The fire is consuming the building rapidly. Without the heroes having gotten them moving, they probably would not have made it out before it turned into an inferno.

The howl of firetrucks can be heard, their red and blue cycling lights visible as they bounce off buildings in the distance. "You'll be ok now," Daredevil tells one of the families. "I'm sorry about your home. But you got the important things out," he says, gently touching the head of one of the children.

Daredevil moves over to Wraith then. "Appreciate what you did up there. What do you call yourself?"

Evan Cooper has posed:
Wraith watches as the families all embrace. It's a warm feeling to see the positive results of the things you've done, but maybe laced with some bittersweet notes as you realize that families and children and normalcy are for other people, forever locked away behind the one door that, despite all your strength, you can never open.

Daredevil's voice pulls him from the labyrinth of his thoughts and he turns to look the other costumed vigilante over. "Hi, um, I'm Wraith. I mean, that's...that's not my name. My name is...well, y'know...I can't...y'know." Idiot. "I'm Wraith."

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Daredevil's mask leaves his mouth revealed, so Wraith can see as the man gets a quick grin. "Nice to meet you Wraith. And thank you for your help," he says. He turns to look off towards where Bright Tiger escaped.

"Probably long gone by now. I'm afraid the way he sounded, there isn't much chance he won't be back at this again. Though, maybe we gave him pause from doing it nightly. Will have to be on guard for him," he says.

The firetrucks are pulling up now, and police cars. "Time for me to be going. The police still aren't sure what to make of me," he says with that faint grin again. The images of him fighting during Loki's invasion were a PR boon for Daredevil. But the people of Hell's Kitchen are still undecided on whether he is a benefit or a menace.