Subject Unknown
Chapter 2
"Ooh so what did you bring for us today?" Chatter asked as she saw Nova in the kitchen, unloading seafood out of crates and into the fish and seafood refrigerator in the kitchen.
"Scallops, oysters, grouper, salmon, king fish and flounder," Nova answered. "Here, help me with this smoked salmon," She invited.
"Sure," Chatter replied happily.
"So I take it Mr. Murdock got back to his office alright," Nova ventured after they loaded four fillets of smoked salmon into the fridge.
"Yeah, he asked about the nick name thing," Chatter replied.
"And?" Nova inquired.
"I told him I got Chatter from being a chatter box," Chatter answered.
"Ok, that's good, thank you." Nova nodded.
"He did ask how you got your nick name tho." Chatter added. "I told him that I didn't know."
"Did he believe you?" Nova asked, stilling her motions to look Chatter in the eye.
"I think so." Chatter nodded.
"Alright, I'm going back to get more, keep me posted," Nova said, wheeling the dolly with the now empty food crates back into the middle of the kitchen and disappearing into thin air with it.
"Didn't even ask me if I wanted to come along, rude," Chatter joked, shaking her head as she went to the drinks refrigerator to grab some orange juice to go with her bagel.
She walked back to her 'office' which she shared with Gig who did her job at night.
"Good morning Gig," Chatter greeted as she set her breakfast snack down on the desk and wheeled her chair over to it.
"Good morning Chatter," Gig greeted with a warm if not a little sleepy, smile. "We had a Daredevil incident," he enticed.
"Ooh ooh, where?" Chatter demanded, looking at the city map on one of the larger computer screens.
"Here, an attempted mugging, VIC was a 35yr old woman with a child," Gig informed her as he pointed to a red circle over an enhanced top view of the city.
"People have no respect, especially for children these days," Chatter shook her head.
"Tell me about it, anyway, Daredevil, gets the jump on the two baddies, breaks elbows, knees and seven ribs between them." Gig laid out.
"Oh, a man after my own heart." Chatter cheers. "And the VIC?"
"Other than her child getting the living daylights scared out of him, they're ok," Gig assured her.
"Good, anything else?" Chatter inquired.
"Everything else is in here," Gig answered as he handed her a large binder of read outs from every frequency they monitored. "That was the only thing I knew you would want me to inform you of in person."
"Sweet, thank you, get some sleep, Nova just stocked the seafood refrigerators, said she got oysters." Chatter informed him as she took the binder and started her overview as she began to eat her breakfast.
"Her name should be Genie, she makes all our wishes come true." Gig hummed happily as he logged out of his computer. "See you tomorrow," Gig said as he pushed back from his desk, grabbed his back pack before leaving with the rest of the night shift.
Chatter looked over the information before peering more closely at a few of the pages. "Is that...a pattern?" Chatter whispered to herself before she got called out of her office.
A few weeks later Nova was awoken to the sound of her dogs growling before barking ferociously, she sat up in bed with a gasp before guys in full on battle gear burst into her apartment, shot her four large dogs, swarmed her and her daughter and kidnapped them in the middle of the night. They were taken to a basement of some kind where they were separated.
"Shit, shit, shit," Nova cursed under her breath as she reached for her fidget ring and twisted it around her finger in a pattern, praying Gig would pick up on it and a rescue would be ensuing soon.
All she had to do was keep them there and talking and keep Layla out of as much danger as she could.
What she didn't know was Daredevil had heard the gun shots and had followed the sound. He picked up on her heart beat, that double heart of hers put out a hell of a sound when she was distressed.
He came just as the perps took her hood off.
"So we meet again Lady Sephira, or should we say 'Nova'?" The leader, his thick Eastern European accent coming through.
"Nova is what my friends can call me, to you I'm Lady Sephira," Nova answered angrily. "Now if you're looking to prove a point, fine, you caught me, but you leave my daughter out of this," Nova snarled.
"Oh I think our employers will be happy to know that 'Subject Unknown' now has a 'Subject Unknown Jr." He taunted.
"Fuck," Nova hissed.
Daredevil hesitated before he crashed the party, his curiosity peaked.
"You listen to me you disgusting maggot, you have to the count of three to let my daughter and myself go and I'll let you escape with your lives, you answer back to your 'employer' that you came up empty and I'll give you twice what your employer promised you and a week head start to vanish before I find and kill all of you." Nova offered.
"So tempting, but I think not." The leader smirked before another guy came closer with a tazzer.
Daredevil took that moment to crash in just as Nova used her double heart to create an electromagnetic sphere around her chest that also cut out all the lights, using her inhuman brute strength to pull the duct tape apart that had been used to keep her hands together. Both Nova and Daredevil reveled in the opportunity to deliver sweet violent justice in the form of kicking ass. Just as they were about done, eight, gigantic dogs, the size of large ponies, with glowing red eyes came running into the space, ripping the guys who had kidnapped Nova and her daughter to pieces with their large, abnormally sharp jaws.
Their cries of pain were almost deafening. Matt looked over at Nova and had to shield his eyes from the brightness emitted from her chest. The thought occurred to him, he was blind, but yet he could 'see' this sphere created in her chest as bright as day. That shouldn't have been possible.
Just as the last of them died, the sphere vanished, leaving a breathless Nova gasping for air as she called out to Halah.
"I'll get her, you stay here and catch your breath," Daredevil offered, using his hearing to locate the terrified little girl.
"Daredevil?" Layla asked fearfully as he came into the small and dark room.
"It's ok, the bad guys are all gone, your mom is safe," He assured her. He reached out to pick her up and to his surprise, she leaped into his arms as he carried her back to her mother.
When he got back he heard the lights flicker back on and the eight dogs became four once more shrinking down to regular enormous dog size as they did so. Matt stopped in his tracks as Layla wriggled out of his hold and went to her mother as she sat on the ground, gasping for breath.
"Are you ok?" Nova asked, tears in her eyes as she took her daughter's face in her hands to look into her daughter's eyes.
"I'm fine mama," Layla assured her mother.
"Did they hurt you?" Nova asked, looking her daughter over frantically before pulling her daughter into her arms and lap, embracing her daughter tightly.
"No, I was just scared," Layla answered, hugging her mother just as tightly. The dogs circled Matt before sniffing at him and his hands. Once they were satisfied that he wasn't a threat they laid down around Nova and Tess creating a wall around them with their bodies.
"Thank you," Nova said, looking up from her daughter to Daredevil. "You should go," Nova urged. "And please," she added. "Please forget everything you heard and saw tonight. For your own good." She pleaded.
Red dots suddenly found themselves on her as her team stormed the building and finding the carnage, Daredevil slipping away into the shadows undetected.
"What happened?" Shadow asked as she looked at the bodies on the floor, letting her gun hang from it's strap around her shoulder as she leaned down to look at the remains.
"I was kidnapped, they knew me as S.U." Nova answered, slipping back into her authoritative voice.
"Fuck," Shadow growled. "What do you want us to do?"
"If you call the police, they'll have issues with 'the girls' killing them," Bishop pointed out as he helped Nova breathe easier with the help of his little oxygen tank and mask.
Nova nodded in agreement as she looked around at the dead bodies on the ground again.
"Gather everything you can on them, fingerprints, blood, full workup, then call the Cleaners." Nova ordered as she stood up and picked her daughter up into her arms. "Secure the perimeter, I want a full detail at my apartment and we'll talk about the rest when we get in the office tomorrow."
"Si Patron," Shadow nodded before directing people to do as her friend had ordered then left with Nova and put Bishop in charge as she and a few of the others helped Nova, Layla and their dogs back to their apartment.
The next morning, everyone from all shifts gathered for an impromptu company meeting. Everyone could feel the rage practically roll off Nova as she came in and took her seat at the head of the table.
"Alright, let's recap last night shall we?" Nova invited as she put her elbows on the table and threaded her fingers together, cracking her knuckles. "Last night, six guys, in heavy combat gear, storm my home. They capture my daughter and myself, carry us off but not before they shoot all of the dogs in the head. They then take us to what I can only assume was either a staging area or a holding area. Where I was 'saved' by fucking Daredevil of all the vigilantes. Way to keep me off the radar people." She angrily accused before taking a deep breath to calm herself down.
"Now because my dogs had to use Lazarus, they killed the assholes and because of that, I couldn't call the police. We had to call the Cleaners." Nova informed them, crossing her arms. Everyone had a grimace on their face and the tension was palpable to say the least.
"Before they were ripped into bite size pieces, they said they had captured me for an 'employer'. The leader had an Eastern European accent and they were going to tazer me into submission. The 'zinger' is they knew me as 'Subject Unknown' and referred to Halah as 'Subject Unknown Jr.'." Nova added.
Everyone's eyes went wide with fear as many of their jaws fell.
"Yeah, I would call that a fuck up. Halah couldn't even go to school today, she's spending her day in the safe room with 'the girls'. Do you have any idea the psychologists I had to get in touch with for her?" Nova replied to their reactions.
"Now, here is the good news, we ran face recognition and fingerprinting so we found out who they were..." Shadow interjected as she dimmed the lights and put the projector screen down as she started her 'slide-show' and explaining who each person was and all pertinent information they had up to that point.
After the meeting, everyone got to work on finding out more on the guys who had ambushed their boss and all other important information they could find. The in-house chef even delivered everyone's lunches to their desks as no one dared to walk away from their new number one priority.
Matt gave it a few days before going to the police to ask Sargent Brett Mahoney to see what had happened to Nova and her daughter and if they needed a lawyer for their dogs at least.
"We haven't had anything like that reported. I've never heard of a 'Lady Sephira', what is she? Some lady of the night or something?" Brett inquired.
"No, she has a bit of British accent, she's mentioned London a few times, she must be part of that hierarchy or something," Matt guessed.
"Oh so one of those classy dames," Brett concluded.
"She's a CEO of her own company that set up shop a few floors above my firm." Matt defended.
"CEO of what?" Brett asked.
"It's a security assessment firm." Matt spurted.
"By the looks of it, you should be a client, get you some body guards or something." Brett cracked.
"So she didn't even report getting assaulted or kidnapped?" Matt inquired, moving the conversation back on subject.
"Nope, believe me, if I had heard of anyone mentioning a Lady whoever, I would have noticed. You must have overhead inflated gossip, girls talk and 'exaggerate' the truth all the time. What probably happened is her dog bit somebody who then chewed her out for it. Chances are if she's a CEO she probably paid off the poor guy to not report it and press charges, besides, we have real crime to deal with." Brett brushed off.
"Yeah, just looking out for my neighbor I guess." Matt nodded.
"You're a good guy Murdock, shame to hear you and Foggy split."
"Me too," Matt agreed before turning and leaving.
Matt walked several blocks before he came across the somewhat abandoned and mostly closed off parking garage, he walked all the way to the bottom where they had been keeping Nova and Halah. He smelled cleaner, bleach, and oil. He knelt down and touched the floor where he knew the dead bodies had been. It had been cleaned, scrubbed and then dirtied. Made to look like nothing had happened there. Whatever his new 'neighbor' was, she didn't want to leave a trace.
Matt paused to think this over. If she had called the police, there would have been a report, an investigation, they would have kept the dogs and taken blood samples. Whatever was in those dogs, it made them split apart and come back together, to grow in size then shrink back down again. Nova would have had to answer why she had them, she clearly was knowledgeable about their condition then an investigation would have been done into her. That was probably what she didn't want.
Her business hadn't even done any marketing or advertizing. They weren't even on the stock market.
The business itself seemed legitimate enough, they had real clients, gave real services, had real employees. It was too sophisticated to be a shell corporation. Matt walked back to the office, wondering if he should leave it alone. But since when was he good at that?
When Matt got back he was surprised to find Foggy already there.
"Been here long?" Matt asked.
"No, just had a meeting with your neighbor upstairs. I don't know if you've been up there yet, but god damn are there a bunch of ridiculously good looking people working there, mostly women. Very hospitable, they had a leg of Iberco ham on a table, just carving away. I think I gained ten pounds they wouldn't stop feeding me the most amazing and delicious food." Foggy appraised.
"Oh?" Matt inquired, his eyebrows raising in surprise.
"She's looking into political and legal asylum, both domestic and international," Foggy answered. "First for me,"
Matt knit his eyebrows together in concentration. "That's not...unheard of,"
"Do you think I should do it?" Foggy questioned.
"You're free to do what you want." Matt answered.
"If she had approached you, and asked you to do this, would you?" Foggy rephrased.
Matt exhaled out of his nose. "No." Matt finally answered.
"Why?" Foggy asked.
"Because she's hiding a hell of a lot. It would make sense for her to seek all kinds of asylum." Matt explained in a hushed tone.
"Like what?" Foggy pushed, his eyes becoming a bit wider as his heart beat sped up.
"Walk me home," Matt insisted.
"Sure," Foggy agreed, letting Matt take his arm as he escorted his friend back.
Once they were a few blocks away Matt explained what happened and Foggy was astounded.
"Fuck," Foggy cursed under his breath. "Well the bad news is the firm is making this a top priority, they're big spenders and all but doubled our usual fees. The good news is, Lady Sephira owns that building outright, when this goes through, if you get caught in your underwear, you go there, you're under that blanket protection. No one, not even the Supreme Court or the Queen of England could come after you." Foggy laid out.
Matt nodded in understanding. "Want to come up for a beer?" Matt offered.
"I can't, I have a date," Foggy explained. "Maybe another time,"
"Sure," Matt nodded before Foggy hailed a taxi and left.
On a rooftop not too far away, Nova met with Frank.
"Frank," Nova greeted, extending a hot mug of coffee to him.
"You and popping out of nowhere, at least you warned me this time." Frank smirked, taking the coffee from her.
"Well, I heard you stayed around, thought I would say 'hi'." Nova shrugged before taking a seat on some stacked up crates.
"So what are you doing around here? What happened to London?" Frank asked.
"London is still ok, it's a satellite for me at the moment, trying out a new city." Nova explained as she gestured to the city around them.
Frank nodded at this before drinking more coffee. "Where's this from?" Frank asked, nodding to the cup.
"Jamaica, blue mountain," Nova answered. "So I have to ask you, I heard, you um, got involved with some unsavory people,"
"What?" Frank asked, his tone clear that he was choosing to ignore her question.
Nova gave him an unamused look.
"I ain't doing anyone's god damn errands or dirty work. I got justice for what happened back then. I'm free and clear."
"Frank, my daughter is here with me, we got kidnapped, did you know anything about that?" Nova questioned.
"Layla is here?! Fuck, no, I didn't. If I had, I would have taken them out." Frank argued adamantly.
Nova blew out a breath of relief. "Thank god, ok, here's the deal. The guys who tried to kidnap us, are dead, I had that scrubbed and cleaned, thoroughly."
"You are thorough." Frank agreed.
"If I give you my address, will you just, keep an eye on us from time to time, come over for dinner or whatever. Layla would love to see you." Nova invited.
"Of course." Frank agreed.
"Awesome. Here's the address. Also, in case something like that happens again, here's a phone. You'll get an alert. This phone is un-tracable, even by me." Nova offered, holding the phone out to him. "You can even get YouTube." She added with a smirk.
Frank took it and looked it over and nodded.
"Thanks Frank, I'll see you around." Nova smiled before giving him a big hug. She let go after a few moments before stepping back and vanishing into thin air again.
Once Nova was back in her office, she went out and talked with her associates who had just pinpointed the 'employer' and their exact location.
"Alpha team, suit up," Nova ordered.
"Layla get's out of school in an hour," Shadow reminded her.
"Let Bishop pick her up again," Nova instructed.
"Please, let someone else go, if I get hit on by another desperate soccer mom I'll hurl." Bishop complained.
"Fine, Gidjet, can you pick her up please?" Nova asked.
"I would love too," Gidjet agreed happily. "But first I need to outfit everyone."
"Please," Nova invited as she gestured for Gidjet to lead the way.
Within a half hour everyone had geared up and had gone into the launch room, each person within the six person team besides Nova took a special tether that attached to Nova's gear.
Nova counted down from three, each person closing their eyes and holding their breath before they all vanished into thin air.
Once they appeared into a small room of an abandoned building. They all let go of the tethers that reeled themselves back into place.
"Everyone make it?" Nova asked.
"Si," Shadow confirmed.
"Yup," Bishop nodded.
"Great, let's go hunting," Nova grinned as she put her gun off safety.
Author's notes-
Again, this is unbetaed.
Some new characters
Gig- Carlos Valdes