Red ice upon the snow, and a spirit among the trees.
Gunfire, the sound of which echoes through the snow-covered forest. Small lights flicker in the darkness that night brought, soon followed by the loud blasts that herald the flock of bullets that glide through the air, ready to extinguish the life of the enemy.
Soon, a short scream filled the air, followed by a soft thud. These wordless voices hint toward the arrival of death. A curious figure bears witness to these events, huddled inside the green hair of a pine tree. He parted the small quills of his conical refuge to perceive the situation more clearly.
Beneath him, he saw four more men trek through the snow towards the place of battle. Within the makeshift hide-away, two small spots of yellow light grew slightly brighter, indicating his amusement.
“Four more begin to play. Oh what fun I shall have this night.” He whispered to himself gleefully, and then he vanished with a small jingle.
**********
The man kneeled down to examine his fresh kill, feeling a grim sense of satisfaction. His name is Frank Castle, but to the criminal scourge, he has another name that is greatly feared by the underworld that he hunts, the Punisher. Known by his title and his mark of a white skull upon the garment on his chest, he brings bloody justice to the guilty.
The snow behind him prances and leaps to the staccato of a machine-gun. He leaps for cover, cursing himself for being so careless and simultaneously drawing his own firearm. The moment his boots touch the soft snow, he returns fire with a hail of his own bullets.
They embedded themselves deep into the thick bark of a tree instead of his intended target, and so they continue their exchange of cold deadly lead whilst running through the forest.
The Punisher skidded to a halt behind a large tree, and getting a glimpse of his new opponent hiding behind another. He whipped out a Magnum pistol and fired a few high-powered bullets into where he expected the man to be. He was rewarded with a grunt of pain and the sound of a body falling down into the snow.
Cautiously, he walked over to the other side of a tree, to see a man lying facedown in the snow, and red ice forming around his body. Suddenly, he heard a snicker and a soft tinkle. He spun around; weapons ready, only to find nothing save snow and trees.
He surveyed the area for a while longer before he decided to hunt down the last hunter. He walked past the corpse and through the trees, oblivious to the fact that a plain white mask was looking at him as he left. A gloved hand pushed apart the leaves whilst the simple face gazed at his back.
He had no nose, only three holes on a white mask that doubled for his face, two that were his eyes, with yellow light pouring through it, and the third being his mouth, a wide grin with naught but dark black emptiness inside.
He snickered once more and left with another jingle.
**********
The darkly garbed vigilante trudged through the snow, holding his rifle steady with both arms. His finger hung a mere fraction of an inch away from the trigger, ready to fill his foe’s body with a dozen bullets. His features were as calm as the soft breeze that teased his ebony hair, but his eyes were alert and flitting left and right like a predator seeking out his prey.
“Behind thee.” A voice whispered in his ear. The moment he heard those two words, he whirled around; swiftly falling onto one knee and sighting the man who had been about to shoot him in the back.
Three bullets and a spray of red mist later, the final hit man he had been hunting was no more. He fired a couple more bullets into his body just to be safe.
“A cold man thou truly must be, to shoot a dead man when he is down.” The same voice chuckled.
“Who are you?” The Punisher shouted, combing the area with his eyes, searching for the person who would be the source of the strange voice.
“A spirit that wanders and wonders.” It answered. “Why doth ye hunt? Doth it be for sport? Or perhaps thou doth hunt for revenge…”
“Where are you?” He shouted, and he was rewarded with a soft chortle before it faded into silence. After a few minutes of waiting for an answer, with his weapons armed, he decided that to return to his cabin and get Kylie to a haven that was safe from the mercenaries that her ex-husband would send.
He knows that he’s going to be followed by the owner of that voice, but right now he knows no way of finding out who that person is, or his intentions.
And true enough, just out of Frank Castle’s sight, the curious stranger leaps from tree to tree. And just out of Frank Castle’s hearing range; the jingle of bells could be heard every time the figure leaped.
**********
A half-hour of treading through the snow later, the Punisher had returned to the wooden hut that was his temporary base of operations. The badly aimed bullets of one of the scoundrels that had been hunting Kylie had snuffed out the lights within, leaving it almost undetectable.
He crept up slowly to the hut, just in case. He stood flat against the wall of wood and sidestepped over to the window. He peered inside, and when he saw no one inside, his suspicion grew.
And it was proven when a man hopped out from behind a corner with a machine gun in his hand. The grim self-made lawman reacted instantaneously. He ducked before the mercenary could aim and grabbed the weapon. He gave a sharp pull, sending his new foe stumbling into his lethal grasp.
“I wouldn’t kill him if I were you, especially when we’ve got the bargaining chip.” Someone behind him sneered. Frank whirled around, his right arm locked around the thug’s neck whilst his left holds the firearm he had recently purloined.
Before him stood three men, and a silent and frightened Kylie with a pistol to her head.
**********
It was a standoff. But unfortunately, the Punisher knew that it was a matter of time before the trio before him realized that the reward would be split into larger portions if they were not a quartet.
And so he reluctantly released his hold on the fourth member and his weapon. Rubbing his neck, the goon hastily picked up his machine gun and backed off, keeping it trained on the vigilante.
“Ok, now throw the rest of your weapons onto the ground. No sense in getting them messed up.”
With a growl, he tossed the rest of his blades & guns onto the soft snow with a soft thump. The one who had been holding Kylie hostage then roughly shoved her into the Punisher.
He aimed his rifle at the two, and gloated, “My it was really lucky we came across this little shack of yours. Unlucky for you though, so say good-”
“Stay thine hand cad!”
Everyone turned to see a bizarre person balanced on the branch of a tree. He was garbed like the jesters of old; a funny-looking purple hat with bells on it, a yellow and orange patch pattern adorning the portion on his chest and back, and another two bells, one on each funny-looking shoe.
His face was just a simple white mask with two gaps that revealed a golden glow and a third that revealed an empty gap. He juggled five balls as he stood on the thin branch, apparently defying gravity.
“Oh I know thou doth wish to put paid to these four ruffians good sir,” the jester said to Frank, “But thou hath already slain the first six. Surely thou would not be so greedy so as to want four as well?”
“Waste him!” yelled the leader and four guns were leveled at the curiously garbed stranger. But before they could react, the jester caught all that he was juggling and hurled them at their feet. They exploded and threw them off their feet.
He laughed uproariously as he watched them flailed about in the snow, trying to get out, but unfortunately, one had escaped his attention and fired half a dozen bullets into his body.
He was flung off the branch and into the snow, lying still. All present would have believed him dead, if he had not leapt to his feet a few seconds later. Flabbergasted, the shooter could only stand there and stare as the clown dusted himself off.
“Thou truly art most friendly, thou hath just meet me and already several gifts you have sent to me. But what can I do with these curiously shaped pellets of lead?” He said as he revealed the six bullets he held in his gloved hand. “Allow me to return them to thee.”
And having said that, he hurled the six bullets into the body of their original owner. Before he could even fall backwards into the snow, his slayer bounded over his head and towards another who would soon join him in an eternal sleep.
He landed on top of the mercenary’s head, balancing on one hand. And with a sharp twist, snapped his neck like a twig, a sickening crack echoing through the trees, coupled by the ever-present sound of the bells he wore. And then he leaped again, kicking out with both strangely garbed feet, knocking the last two foes back into the snow.
He faced the third one, crouched with both hands on his knees and a constant grin on his face, waiting for him to rise to his feet and fight.
Shakily, he got up and suddenly took a swing at the jester. With natural ease, he leaned back and watched him stumble from the momentum.
He chuckled, and said, “Doth that be the best thou can do? Or doth ye only know how to fight the unarmed and defenseless, being the coward that thou art?”
Stung by the affront, he let out a roar of rage, and proceeded to swing and punch rapidly at his opponent. With each swing and punch, the clown leapt back just milliseconds before it could connect. Frequently, he would leap back and put his hand over his mouth as if he were yawning.
“Would thee hurry up? Thou may have all night, but not I.”
Furious, he charged at the court jester like a mad bull charging a matador. Calmly, he sidestepped to the left and let him charge all the way into the hard trunk of a tree. He slid down to the snow-carpeted ground in an unconscious heap.
“And now for thee…” The jester trailed off when he saw the Punisher standing over the still form of the fourth mercenary, his grin was switched to a circular hole to display his surprise, and it was soon changed to an upside down grin of mock anger.
“Shame on thee sir, snatching this poor fool from my game. Already, thou hath claimed a victim more than me, and than thou would claim another? For shame.” He said whilst shaking a finger at the Punisher in disapproval.
“Who are you?” He questioned seriously.
“Who am I? Ha, ha! A good question indeed!” The jester laughed as he somersaulted backwards, punctuating the word “indeed” with a great leap into the air. Twisting in mid-air, he fell down towards the branches of yet another tree. He wrapped his legs around the one nearest to the Punisher and faced him whilst he hung from it upside down, arms behind his head.
“My name, good sir, doth be Laughlyn, the Jester Spirit.” He chuckled, swinging back and forth as if he were a swing, his bells ringing in time with the swings.
He began recounting his arrival, as if he were reminiscing. He rambled, “‘Twas nearly a fortnight ago, some fool had summoned me from the realm that I called home to this strange land. Yon scoundrel believed I would obey his every whim. Ha! I could have escaped from the dank prison that he had summoned me to with both hands behind my back. In fact, I did.”
“Fool eh? Would this be the guy you’re talking about?” Frank Castle asked, producing a photo from his pocket. Laughlyn took a brief glance before bursting out, “Aye! ‘Twas he who snatched me from home sweet home without even so much as a how do you do.”
He carried on swinging, only with increasing speed and force, saying, “I would have returned to my home immediately, if not for one small detail. He holds the delicate artifact that can send me back, and I dare not attack him lest it breaks, for fear that I shall be trapped here for eternities upon end! Thus I have traveled here, in search of she who would be the one who realized her folly in marrying that buffoon, and here we are now, a jester, a dark knight of justice-”
He then sprung from his branch, somersaulted through the air and landed gracefully in front of Kylie. He praised her as he bowed down low like a gentleman greeting a lady.
“A beauty who would rival a goddess in terms of loveliness and splendor. Thine name doth be Kylie, doth it not?”
“Uh… yes Mister-”
“Call me Laughlyn!” He guffawed, “Are we not all friends? If so we should forego all formalities… By the Gods! Thou art injured?” The jester exclaimed when he noticed Kylie’s broken ankle.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I can bear with it.”
“Perish yon thought from thine mind! How can I call myself a soul, valiant and true, when I stood by and let thee suffer?” Laughlyn asked. He turned to the Punisher and reprimanded, “And you, my darkly garbed friend. Hath thee no heart, to go off shooting and killing without a regard for the fair lady here? Worry not milady, I shall ease thine suffering the best I can.”
And with that, the clown leaped over to the carcass of one of the mercenaries and began ripping his clothes to make bandages. While he does, Frank walked over to Kylie and asked, “So, do you know anywhere you could lie low for a while?”
She paused for a while, then she answered, “Well… there is a place, but I don’t want my friends and family to be hurt.”
“I’ll try to find someplace safe, then I’ll be going after your ex-husband.”
“Finally thou doth think like a gentleman, leave the fair lady somewhere safe to recuperate and then hunt down the scoundrel like the vermin he is. But doth ye not mean “we”?”
“We?” He repeated.
“Aye, we. Surely thou doth not believe that I would sit alongside Kylie twiddling my thumbs whilst thou march off and vanquish foes left and right, without so much as a care for the fragile relic I had mentioned earlier?”
“From what I hear, I’m guessing that you want to team up.”
“Thou hath surmised accurately Frank.”
“Punisher, just call me the Punisher.”
“Thou doth wish me to call thee by thine title? Very well, and a suitable one it doth be for one who would punish those who choose the path of evil.”
“Mm-hm. Well, nothing left to do except wait for the two goons we left alive to wake up. Once they do, we question them and get them to tell us where their boss will be, and-”
“And then good sir,” Laughlyn interrupted, “We show him the game we have played with his men on this fine winter’s night.” He began laughing, and ended, “Oh what fun we shall have.”