Punishment: Prelude

Written by: Robert

The body was a mangled mess. Hardly recognizable after what I did. He had it coming. All criminals have it coming. I looked around the apartment of the now previous owner, who I had personally relieved of duty. It was a mess. Garbage, drugs, what looked to be a decaying body. That explained the smell. The rotten corpse was small. Too small. If I had any pity for this guy, it was long gone. He had it coming.

The man I just killed was a lead. There had been a new drug cartel that sprung up seemingly overnight. I've recently dedicated my time to tracking down and killing this cartel off. And I've got all the time in the world.

I looked through some papers on a desk. Found what I needed. An address not far from here. I had to be getting close. If I could find out where the money was coming from, I'd cut the head off of the hydra of crime. It always grows back, but they'll remember who cut it off. Crime will never stop, but I'm there to slow it down.

I took a short drive to where the address lead. There were a few punks there. I've seen it so many times I've lost count. Big shots, thinking they'll never fall. I'll make sure they're well acquainted with the ground. I knocked on the door and waited for an answer. I pulled the trigger the moment I saw the doorknob move. One down. I kicked the door in and shot the next in the chest. Two down. The last one was too afraid to do anything. I asked him about what I wanted to know. He told me the money they got came from a bank robbery. They sat on the cash for a long time before they moved any of it. I asked if anyone else involved in the robbery is still living. He mentioned a few names. He wasn't aware that I'd killed most of them in the past few hours of tracking him down. Then he mentioned someone else. Harley Quinn. Never heard of her. I thanked him in the only way I could. Three down.

It took some time to figure out just who Harley Quinn was, but I got the information I needed. Real name Harleen Quinzel. Clever name, Harley. Someone with a sense of humor may find that funny. I don't. It turned out she was living in Long Island. Short drive. It was time to take a break from the cartel hunting. Harleen wasn't involved with them from what I gathered. She hadn't been involved in crime; organized or otherwise, in quite some time. But her police record was one of the longest I've seen. Stretched back years. Murder mostly, robbery, you name it. The opportunity was too good to take. Harleen may have left crime a few years ago, but she still got away with everything she'd done up to that point.

She's a murderer.

And I'm the Punisher.