Chapter 23: The Executioner

A gentle tremor shook the apartment room as a train passed by, an accompanying honk sounding as moonlight shined in through the window. It was late, but Grant Johnson was still up, sitting on his bed as he tended to the many bruises that remained on his body. Overall, he still hurt like hell.

A picture of his now deceased partner sat on his night stand right there by his legs, barely visible in the moonlight. It sat right next to a picture of his mom, who was also long deceased. Right next to that, was a picture of his girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend, at least. He found himself staring at these a lot, especially recently, but they rarely even helped when they did. They hurt to look at, actually. Shakily, he reached over and grabbed a whiskey bottle from the same night stand, and brought it to his mouth, chugging it a bit before he broke off and groaned.

With his shakiness only eased somewhat, he then reached to slowly put on his night shirt, not wanting to hurt his bruises more than they already hurt. He grunted a bit in pain as he did, before he eased himself down on the bed, snuggling up against his own pillows. He fully intended on relaxing and getting some shut-eye, but unfortunately for him, someone had other plans. Not long after he closed his eyes for the night, his phone went off, buzzing a little as a 'kaching' sound played.

He sighed as he slowly grabbed it, before he turned it on and held it away from his face to give himself a moment to adjust to the light. As soon as his eyes did focus, he tapped the text that was sent to him. It was from a private number.

PRIVATE NUMBER: Still want to stop to the Underdogs?

Johnson sat up, in anticipation of whatever this person was talking about. The person on the other end kept typing for a bit, before an address popped up on screen.

PRIVATE NUMBER: They're all here. Bring as much backup as you can.

PRIVATE NUMBER: And in case you think this is a trap

The number then sent a selfie, confirming her own identity. It was none other than Jessica, with her Executioner armor barely visible in the frame.

PRIVATE NUMBER: I'll be there too.

PRIVATE NUMBER: Don't be late.

Johnson stared at the screen as this unfolded, his breath getting heavy. He suddenly opened up the keyboard and desperately tried to send a text back, but at this point, Jessica had already blocked the number.

Just a week ago, Johnson would've thought this was a trap regardless, because he definitely thought Jessica was the enemy, possibly even allied with the Underdogs. But after what he saw in his last confrontation with her… he knew he didn't have all the answers yet. And this might've just been the opportunity to learn more. He shot up out of bed, going to get his work clothes.

Several Minutes Later

Inkopolis Police Station

Johnson speedily opened the door and entered, now in his Detective outfit, as he raced inside, looking for the highest ranking officer there. The station was currently on night shift, so not everyone was there, but he quickly found who he was looking for regardless.

"Detective?" An older Inkling stopped as he passed by, turning to him.

Johnson turned to him. "Captain Hertz?"

"What are you doing out of bed?"

"What are you doing in the night shift?"

"Well, someone's had to work extra hours with all the insanity that's been upturning the city lately." He walked up to him. "You're supposed to be treating your injuries. You're not at your 100% right now, Johnson, I can tell just by looking at you."

"My injuries can wait, something much more pressing just came up."

"Like what? Squidmas?"

"I just got a significant lead on the Underdogs case, and the Agent 3 case."

The room fell a bit extra silent as everyone who was nearby heard that, they all turned to look at him. Hertz noticed, and awkwardly chuckled. "Back to work, folks."

"...I'm not making this up, Captain. These people cost me my partner and my livelihood. They shot up that work building, that bank, that strip club. We know they're real." Johnson continued.

Hertz looked around, before pulling him out of the room, so that they could talk in privacy. As soon as they were alone, he sighed. "…Detective, do you know how much money and wasted time this case has cost this police department?"

"...Yes, sir. I'm well aware."

"And are you also aware that it was your own failure that kept this from being quiet? Now the whole public hates us and no one trusts us."

"This is more than just public opinion. I know, I know that there's a larger terrorist plot here. And I believe that Jessica Murdock might… might just be against them as well."

"Yeah? With what proof?"

At that, Johnson decided to finally pull out his phone and show him the texts.

Hertz stared at it, for a good moment, before he spoke again. "…The old Johnson would've recognized that this is clearly a trap."

"Well, I'm not the old Johnson anymore. People change. Opinions change."

He paused for another moment, thinking it over. "…If you wanna scramble a small team and try and catch melted butter, then be my guest. But I'm gonna make it clear right now that if you screw up one more time, or if we lose more of our own… you're out."

"...Understood, sir…"

"...I've trusted you for years, Detective. Don't let me down again." He walked away.

"...Yes, sir…" Johnson said quietly, as if he was still there. He looked around, before he went to assemble his team as instructed.

Underdogs Hideout

It was deep into the night as Ward slept in the room next to his office. It was a mostly empty room, and only had a bed with pictures of Camila as decoration. The room was kind of creepy-looking, as a result, but Ward never cared. In fact, he was sleeping peacefully, for the most part, entering dreams about his long-lost daughter. Ayesha, who felt like a second daughter to him, frequently appeared in his dreams as well. Daniel did as well, but only occasionally.

Tonight, however, his dreams were interrupted fairly quickly as every light in the base turned red, and an alarm blared every few seconds. His eyes shot open. It was an intruder alert, and the base was currently in the process of locking down. And he had an idea of what the alert was for.

Shooting out of bed, he ran to his office and looked at the monitors, using his computer to turn a couple of them to the outdoor security feeds. Right outside, was the Executioner, the mask right in the camera, as if staring at him. At first, he thought it was Daniel, but then again, given the circumstances… She didn't even seem to be armed.

"...Agent 3…" He growled. He turned and pressed a button on his computer. "Reverse the lockdown."

"Sir? …Can you clarify?" A confused, female Octoling spoke back.

"You heard me, reverse the lockdown! It's Agent 3. Let her in, but restrain her first. And, Ayesha?"

Static could be heard as Ayesha came online, also having been woken up. "Yes, babe?"

"...You have my permission to torture and kill her once she's inside."

"With pleasure." Her line immediately went dead.

Ward turned all of his monitors to security feeds throughout the base, went to get a change of clothes, and then sat to watch.

Ayesha was still half naked when she came out into the hallway, getting dressed into her armor as she made her way in the direction of the entrance. She tightened her finger-less gloves on her hands and fixed up her hair a bit, and she already had multiple knives on her belt. When she arrived by the entrance, there were already multiple Octolings lined up with guns, waiting for the intruder.

"Well, good morning, girls." She casually stepped in front of the line, pulling out two knives and flipping them in her hand. "Boys, too."

"Ayesha." One of them replied respectfully.

"...Hope you're all ready for a show." She grinned.

It wasn't long before the doors slid open, and two guards came in, holding the Executioner, with cuffs on her hands. They kicked her legs, forcing her down to her knees, without letting her go. The armor she was wearing hid any signs that she was feminine at all.

Ayesha twirled a knife in her hands, standing before her. "…Well, Jessie, I wasn't sure you'd just show up here this fast. You suicidal?"

"...About as dead as you're going to be." Even her voice sounded masculine thanks to the voice changer.

She giggled. "How threatening of you, I like it." She got up closer, kneeling to get face-to-face with the mask. "You're cute in that mask, you know that?"

"Take it off, and I'll be cuter for you."

"Oh, in a minute, babe, I will. I'm just… so busy, fantasizing about all the ways I could torture you right now… I can't go for the neck too soon, you'd lose too much ink too fast that way, and then you're dead before I can even chop your limbs off. Can't go for the chest either, because your hearts or lungs would fail. Don't get me wrong, I do want them to fail, but I want it to be from pure shock, not direct trauma… torture isn't always easy… But, see, in my world, I like pain… I want you to feel what I feel."

"...You think that just because I came quietly, I'll be your toy?"

"Well, you came, didn't you? I know how badly you want some of this." She said seductively, holding up her knife. "…I just don't like that you brought the mask. I intend on looking into your eyes. A lot."

"I won't be looking back."

"Oh, you will, babe… people always do." She held the knife up to her mask. "…Say, by the way, where's, um… Danny boy, anyway? I mean, that's not actually you under the mask, is it? That would be awkward. I have different plans for him."

"You won't ever see him again."

"Aw, don't be a party pooper, Agent 3. You and Danny share fate, after all. You're both Murdocks. And, admittedly, you're both dumb. So, come on. Where is he?"

The Executioner remained silent.

"...Come on! Where!?" She pressed the knife up to the mask. "Where is he? Where's my toy?"

When they fell into silence for a moment, Ayesha groaned.

"...I hope you're excited to see your stupid parents…" She reached up to finally pull off her mask. "Because you're out to see them ag-" She was interrupted as the nanotech spear suddenly formed itself from the Executioner's hand, and cut Ayesha's hand clean off in a swift motion. She screamed and backed off, her hand falling to the ground like a discarded glove, as ink poured out of her arm.

The other Octolings opened fire on Jessica, but failed to get past her armor, as she used the spear to slice the cuffs and then the two guards next to her. She stabbed one of them in the stomach, before turning and swiftly decapitating the other. The Octoling's head flew off, and ink spewed out of her neck like a fountain as the rest of her body collapsed to the ground like a ragdoll.

The other guard, still alive, collapsed by the wall as she held her bleeding stomach, before Jessica decided to put her out of her misery, turning the spear back on her to stab her in the eye. She, too, collapsed after she pulled it back out, splattering her ink on the walls.

The rest of the Octolings tried to take her on, but were unable to do much as Jessica suddenly used her squid form to duck into a vent.

One Octoling tried to use his squid form to follow her in, but was splatted by a sudden explosion from some kind of bomb Jessica had left when she crawled in. The explosion, although ink-based, was enough to get the nearby Octolings as well, knocking Ayesha down.

"She's loose!" Ayesha screamed into the com system, still holding her arm. "She's in the vents!"

A few minutes passed and the base was again placed on lockdown, and every single guard in the building was now on high alert, while Ward had locked himself in his office. There was no vent that led directly to Ward's office nor bedroom, which was an intentional choice, but regardless, Jessica could've still been anywhere in the whole base. Some of the Octolings were actually quite terrified, but stood their ground. Ayesha, meanwhile, had covered up her arm with a rag to slow the bleeding, and was leaning on a wall.

An Octoling turned to her, without lowering her weapon. "...Ma'am, I really think you should sit d-"

"SHUT UP!" She snapped at her, still gritting her teeth in agony. "…Kill the girl… then worry about me…"

She just nodded. It had gone eerily long without a sign of Jessica, and everyone was getting more and more tense, but soon, they suddenly heard fleeing footsteps down one of the empty hallways. They all turned their weapons in that direction, slowly making their way down, before they heard the same footsteps in another direction. And then another direction. And yet another. Most of them were sweating, gripping their weapons tightly.

"...How…?" Someone asked, turning his weapon is all sorts of directions.

"...Where the fuck is she…?"

Ayesha, of course, was the most pissed out of them all. "…WHERE ARE YOU!?" She suddenly screamed.

And then, just as suddenly as the sounds appeared, the area went dead silent. They tensed up further, having no idea where she really was. Then, things only got worse for them, as not long after that, all the lights in the base suddenly shut down, forcing them into darkness. This even impacted Ward's office, shutting down all of his monitors.

They all turned the flashlights on their weapons on. Ayesha was still holding her arm, ink soaking through the rag, as she tried her best to stay upright and strong. Despite her efforts, her breathing was getting heavier, and she looked more and more on the verge of passing out.

An Octoling turned her flashlight on her. "…Ayesha, I really think you shou-" She was interrupted as Ayesha suddenly threw a knife at her throat with perfect accuracy, and she gagged.

"I told you to shut up…" Ayesha grabbed her arm again.

She tried to pull the knife out, but became too weak before she could, and collapsed to the ground. The rest of the Underdogs in the room didn't even dare speak up on the act, not wanting the same fate.

"...Why isn't the backup power coming on?" She hissed. "Someone check the generator!"

"S-Sorry, ma'am…" One girl went to leave and do so. The Octolings stayed in their defensive position until, finally, the power came back on, even if the lights were dimmer than usual. She returned a moment later, but with something… gruesome, in her hand. "Ma'am… this was in the break room…"

"What?" The other Octolings turned to her, and were met with the horrid smell of a decapitated head, ink pouring down from its neck as she held it from the hair. Some of them groaned in disgust.

"...I couldn't even find a body…" She admitted.

As Ayesha stared at it, it didn't take her long to see that there was something off. "…What is that?"

As the head slowly turned in her grasp, they could see some kind of small disc that someone had attached to the back of the head. And the realization of what it was hit Ayesha suddenly.

"SON OF A B-" She backed off, just as a light on the disc turned red, before a fiery explosion engulfed the room. The Octoling that was holding it was incinerated, some of the unfortunate closer Octolings were quickly killed by the explosion, and everyone else was knocked away down the different hallways, left extremely stunned even has the explosion melted to nothing but smoke.

And that was it. In an instant, everyone in the area was either taken out of commission, or stunned and separated, and that was exactly what Jessica needed. Still in her full Executioner armor, she stepped out from the shadows, spawning her spear before she stabbed a defenseless Octoling through the face, tossing her body aside.

The Octolings closest to her barely knew what was happening, but did catch on that she had arrived, and stood up to their best ability to shoot at her, screaming. Jessica quickly apprehended one, slicing her weapon in half and then her throat, before she turned to a second Octoling, slicing her arm off. She screamed in pain, and then gagged as Jessica moved the spear to stab her through the throat.

As this happened, a third Octoling attacked her from behind, screaming at her as she shot loads of ink right into her back. Again, it didn't breach the armor, but the direct force was enough to knock her down a bit. In retaliation, she turned around and ruthlessly stabbed her right through the brain before she could do anything else, pinning her to the wall.

As other Octolings made it to the scene, they quickly saw that fighting Jessica up close seemed hopeless; instead, they opted to fire at her from a distance. But not even they were safe. The Executioner pulled out the spear, took only a second to aim, and threw her weapon at the ceiling above the Octolings, shattering a light and raining down a wall of sparks above both of them at once. They screamed out in pain and collapsed, but before Jessica could make her way over to them and reclaim her weapon, more Octolings attacked her from behind.

Groaning in frustration, she turned and straight up punched one of them away, before she grabbed the second Octolings weapon and turned it against him, firing multiple powerful shots of ink through his stomach, chest, and then finally, his head. As he collapsed, she fired at and killed the Octoling from before, and then turned back to the direction of the light she shattered, successfully landing headshots on both the Octolings that were underneath it from a distance.

Her armor covered in multiple colors of ink at this point, she walked down the hall, ripping her spear down from the light as she passed. More Octolings turned the corner, as if they had no idea what was coming to them, and were of course quickly dealt with as Jessica used her spear on them and left their corpses behind with everyone else.

As this was happening, Ayesha was still on the floor in a hallway, separated from everyone else, only now waking up after being knocking unconscious. She coughed and groaned as she breathed in the smoke, and quickly entering a state of fight-or-flight, she forced herself up to her feet, using the wall for support. "…Jessie…!" Breathing in pretty much nothing but smoke, she coughed some more, desperately looking around. "…Jessie! Come and fight me!" She started making her way down the hall, toward where she could hear the fighting.

After walking past an entire hallways' worth of corpses, all of them Underdogs, she finally turned a corner and was able to see the Executioner, still killing a few more Octolings and leaving them dead at her feet. "…Hey…!"

Jessica pulled her spear out of the last Octoling, looking down the hallway at her. "…Still want your party?"

There was no way Ayesha was gonna go down without a fight. Dropping the rag and letting her arm bleed freely, she pulled out a knife with her last remaining hand. "…We've not even started…" She grinned weakly.

Spear still in hand, Jessica started making her way down the hall toward her, and Ayesha did the same. To Jessica, this looked like an easy fight, but Ayesha didn't plan on making it easy. Suddenly, mustering her strength, Ayesha flipped her knife in her hand before she began running down the hall, jumping and kicking off the wall as she attacked Jessica. She successfully slashed at the Executioner mask, cracking it only slightly, before kicking the spear out of Jessica's hand.

She went for more slashes at her mask, but Jessica blocked them, and countered with punches. Missing a hand, Ayesha was weak in hand-to-hand combat, but luckily for her, knife play was her speciality. She slashed at her several times, occasionally throwing her knife into the air and quickly catching it again in order to stay unpredictable and keep Jessica on her toes. Slowly, she was chipping away at her armor, creating more and more of a second crack in the Executioner mask. She soon had her against the wall, and went for a piercing, finishing blow, but Jessica ducked to dodge such an attack, and the knife instead got stuck in the wall.

Weakly, Ayesha attempted to pull it out, but she had already made too much of a tactical mistake; Jessica was too quick for her, and had already picked back up her spear. With one almost effortless swing, Ayesha's entire arm was sliced off, and she again screamed out in pain. Now, she didn't even have a single hand. And just like that, Jessica had already won. Now, it was just time to finish it. Putting her spear away, she grabbed Ayesha's knife from the wall, and shoved her up against it, holding her in a choke position. Before she could make the killing move, however, she was interrupted as Ayesha suddenly broke down into a laugh.

A single, long, haunting laugh.

Here she was, missing both hands and an arm, bleeding profusely all over the floor beneath, yet laughing above all of it. Jessica actually felt a chill run down her spine.

As soon as Ayesha was done laughing, she leaned her head forward, staring into the mask. "…I wish I could see your eyes, babe…"

Jessica didn't respond.

"...This is how you fall… how we fall… we think violence is the answer, and then we take pleasure in seeing our enemies bleed… and then you think you can feel that same pleasure in making me feel pain, but the thing is, you already made me feel pain long ago…" She laughed again. "We're the same, Jessie… so show me your eyes…"

Angrily, Jessica decided she had enough. Using Ayesha's own knife against her, she pierced her right in the chest and let go of the weapon, leaving it inside of her. Ayesha immediately choked up ink as this happened, and yet, she was still staring at her, an evil grin on her face.

Although her eyes were met with the Executioner mask, her mind was going elsewhere, her life flashing before her eyes. Memories were flooding in. Memories of a hospital room. Of the girl she loved.

A pot of fake flowers, the only type of flower they had in the domes, stood still on the nightstand by the hospital bed. A slow, steady heartrate beep came from a monitor, as Camila laid in the hospital bed. It was getting dangerously slow, actually. Ayesha was sitting over the bed, holding Camila's hand quite tightly.

Camila stared back, before she started to feel something was wrong. "…B-Babe…?"

Ayesha looked at her. "Babe… I'm here…"

Ward, who was also in the room, went over. "Hello, darling…"

Camila looked at both of them. She was feeling weaker and weaker, and her heartrate was getting slower and slower. Indeed, the doctors had confirmed earlier she only had so much time to live, and there wasn't anything they could do about it. "…I… I think I'm slipping away…" She teared up.

"We know…" Ward said, tearfully and shakefully reaching over to hold her hand. "Just stay relaxed…"

"...I'm slipping… I'm slipping…" Fear started to take her over.

"Just relax…" He repeated.

"...F-Father…"

"Yes…?"

"...I-I wanted to do better…"

"...You don't need to… you did just fine…"

"...I failed you…"

"You failed no one. You're my daughter…" He kissed her hand. "And I love you… with all my hearts…"

"We're going to make Agent 3 pay…" Ayesha said, although it's a line that she had repeated multiple times. "We're going to make the Inklings pay… I swear it…"

Camila then looked at Ayesha. Although when they met, they didn't get along as well, and they happened to have met the day that she was injured in the first place. But despite that, Ayesha had spend every day since then by her bedside. They had grown quite fond of each other. If only she was strong enough to feel her lips a last time… "…Babe…"

"...Yes, babe…?" Ayesha replied.

"...I'm slipping…"

"I know… but you know what…?"

"...What…?"

"I think that you're strong… you're too strong to slip… you've endured a life of pain..."

"...I don't like the pain…"

"It'll go away now… but at least it's a sign that you've lived… because pain is beautiful…"

"...B-Beautiful…"

"...Just like you…"

"...Beautiful… beautiful…" She repeated the word a few times, until her eyes rolled inside her head and her head relaxed. Her eyes closed themselves, and her hand went limp under Ayesha's.

A flatline echoed throughout the room.

The memory faded with the rest of Ayesha's consciousness as any last sign of life left her eyes, and her face muscles relaxed as her head drooped forward. Jessica finally let go, and her body slid down the wall before it relaxed in her pool of ink. She stayed there, standing over her fallen enemy.

Not too many people remained in the base at this point; for the most part, it was just Jessica and multiple hallways of Octoling corpses, some of them beheaded. However, there was still one group of Octolings left, and their leader was absolutely pissed.

"NO!" Jessica could hear right as she turned to walk away, as she was suddenly hit point blank in the mask by a shot of ink, knocking her back a bit. She grunted, before two more shots hit in her same spot. The mask was cracked further, and she fell down, convulsing as her body fell into another seizure.

Hugh Ward, the one who fired the shots, walked up to her and Ayesha's body, followed a few Octolings that had just as much armor on as Jessica did. He dropped his weapon and immediately knelt down, checking Ayesha's pulse. "Ayesha… Ayesha! Wake up!" When he didn't get a response, and realized he wasn't getting a pulse either, he stood up, staring down at her sadly.

Jessica had already recovered from her seizure, but was too weak to do much now, and was unable to do much as an Octoling reached over and pulled off her mask, finally revealing her face.

"...You did this…" Ward turned to her.

Jessica stared up at him angrily for a moment before she responded. "…You're damn right I did… and you're next, once I-"

Ward suddenly kicked her in the face, and she went limp as she fell unconscious. He kneeled down next to Ayesha again, sadly gripping her shoulder, as his eyes started welling up. "…I'm… sorry I wasn't there… to protect you… I… I should've done more…"

"...What do we do with them, sir?" An Octoling behind him asked.

He took a moment to think it over. "…Tie the agent up… bring her to my office…"

"...And Ayesha?"

He paused again, and planted a kiss on Ayesha's pale forehead before he stood up. "…You know what to do with her…"

They nodded. Two Octolings went to grab Jessica, and another two went to pick up Ayesha's body.

Several Minutes Later

Jessica's eyes fluttered open as she finally came to, groaning as she was greeted by a horrific headache. She tried to move her arms, but was unable to do much with them, as they were both chained to the ceiling, and she was actually hanging off of them, dangling just above the floor, with her legs chained to the floor as well. She was stripped of her Executioner armor as well, leaving her in the tanktop she was wearing underneath.

At least she could move her head, and she turned to see that she was in Ward's office, with all the monitors lined up on the wall, that were currently displaying nothing but a static image, giving the room an ominous feel. Ward himself was at his desk, setting up an assortment of different torture weapons. Needles, knives, her confiscated spear, what appeared to be surgery tools, a nanotech bomb, and even a chainsaw. She gasped slightly when she realized her situation, struggling to escape her bonds.

Ward looked up at her when he heard her. "…Oh, good. You're awake."

Jessica didn't respond, continuing to struggle to no avail.

"I was going to wake you up regardless. I have… adrenaline, right here." He held up a needle to show her. "Wouldn't want you passing out, while I'm working on you, would I? That'd be… disappointing." He continued preparing. "…Say, Agent 3, have you ever been opened up and gutted while you were still alive?"

Jessica whimpered slightly as she heard that, getting more and more desperate with her struggle. One of the chains did seem a little loose from where it hung from the ceiling, but it still wasn't budging.

"Hm… I thought not… not really a… common, sensation, I suppose. But, I imagine now…" He picked up the needle and went over to her. "…You'll be able to know what it feels like. So, I hope you have an… adventurous spirit, like your career suggests."

"...You try anything, and I will-" She was interrupted as Ward suddenly injected adrenaline right into her neck, and she gasped, its effects quick.

"Ahh…" He gave her the full injection before he pulled it out. "Feels good, doesn't it? The adrenaline rush?"

Jessica only responded with heightened breathing, and widened eyes, as she shot her gaze all around the room.

"No, no, no, look at me. I want you to look at me." He reached and grabbed her head, pulling and holding her so that her eyesight was restricted to his face. "…I'm sorry that it had to come to this, Agent 3… really, I am. In a perfect world, this city would've gone done in nothing more than a blip. A whimper, rather than a bang. But, I'm afraid that there's no such thing as a perfect world… we instead live in one, where I have to show the Inklings their flaws, and one where you've taken everything that I've held dear. My daughters. One of them, my best friend. My loyal servant, who meant the world to me. Do you understand? Do you understand what you've taken from me?"

Jessica only glared into his eyes, gritting her teeth.

"...I thought not." He continued. "Because Inklings, are incapable, of feeling love." He suddenly slapped her. "True love." He hit her again. "And now-" Another hit. "-I'm going to show you hatred." He kept hitting her. "I'm going to show you suffering." He hit her a last time, and she starting convulsing in his hand as another seizure hit her. He ignored it, and instead went to grab his first tools, a knife and the nanotech bomb, before returning. As soon as she recovered from her seizure, he lifted up her shirt. "You're going to die slowly, Agent 3. And you're going to feel every waking second of it."

Jessica tried her best to fight him off, but he held her still, and she was unable to do anything as the knife slid into her abdomen just enough to break the skin and start cutting her open. A blood-curdling scream escaped her mouth.

As this was happening, multiple police cars were pulling up outside the base, and a whole team of fully armored policemen stepped out, Detective Johnson leading them. Thankfully for them, the bases defenses were currently low thanks to Jessica's massacre, but they still had some work to do before they could get inside. Johnson walked down to the base entrance, seeing just how fortified it seemed. Thankfully, he had already foreseen this. "…Get the bombs!"

"Yes, sir!" His new, temporary partner responded as he returned to his car. They pulled some stronger, police issued splat bombs out from the trunk, and then took them over to the front gate, starting to set them up.

Inside, Ward was about to place the nanotech bomb inside of Jessica when the base once again turned red, and the alarm sounded. He looked around. "…Son of a bitch…"

Jessica panted and was crying from the pain, and there was currently a hole in her stomach.

Ward returned to his desk and turned the monitors on the wall to the outdoor security feeds, seeing the police outside. Jessica, seizing the moment, returned her attention to the chains, particularly the one that was a bit loose, and mustered all her remaining strength as she pulled on it.

Ward was too busy to notice, instead focused on keeping the police out. In absolute fight-or-flight mode, Jessica screamed as she pulled so hard on the chain that her arm just about came off and was actually ripping slightly, and finally, the top of the chain fell from the ceiling. He heard this, and ran back in an attempt to stop her, but was stopped as Jessica swatted the chain at him like a whip. The hook cut him, and he stopped to hold the wound.

Jessica's arm now hurt and was bleeding from the immense strength she just used, but she still had to break the rest of herself free. Eyeing her spear on the table, she used the chain to whip the table leg, multiple times, until it broke and knocked everything off.

"NO!" Ward again tried to stop her, but it was too late. Jessica had already reached and reclaimed her spear, and popped it out, immediately stabbing him through the stomach, before quickly pulling it back out. He gagged and stepped back, collapsing by the wall, as Jessica used the spear to cut all of her limbs free. She panted and collapsed to her knees afterward, holding her stomach to make sure her insides didn't spill out.

Ward coughed up ink as he held his wound, staring at her. "…You…"

Jessica weakly looked at him, now sweaty, pale, and exhausted.

He coughed up even more ink. "…You think… you can win…?"

"...I'm counting on it…"

"...You think… after everything you've done… you can have a happy ending…?"

She shook her head, slowly standing up. "…No… not for me…"

They then heard an explosion, followed by the collapse of the front entrance. Jessica turned her head in the direction, before looking back at Ward.

"...This city… will fall… you will fall…" Ward continued. "You'll pay eventually… you have to…"

"...What makes you so sure…?"

"Your brother…"

Jessica fell silent.

"Don't forget your brother… a crazy Murdock… just like you… he's… a loose cannon… and I've aimed him at the city… and once he's done… you'll understand pain… it's in you-"

Done listening to him, Jessica suddenly swung her spear at him, slicing his head off in only a split second. His head awkwardly toppled off and rolled away, leaving his body to collapse all the way onto the ground. Jessica retracted her spear, wheezing a bit as she backed up slightly, limping. She watched as his remains formed a puddle of ink.

"Move! Move!" Some police officers that were now searching the base had apparently heard that, and she could now hear footsteps heading straight for her. It wasn't long before she could hear banging on the office door. She sighed.

It took several bangs to knock the door down, but Jessica didn't even bother fleeing. Instead, she waited patiently for them, and even dropped her spear. Finally, the door broke from its hinges and collapsed at her feet, and three officers stepped in.

"IPD, don't move!" Johnson yelled, leading them as he aimed his weapon at her.

Jessica stood still, staring at them.

Johnson fell silent for a moment as he observed the scene: the headless body, torture weapons on the floor, chains on the floor and one hanging from the ceiling. Not quite understanding what was going on, he turned back to Jessica. "…Jessica Murdock… You're under arrest…"

Showing no signs of resistance whatsoever, she let herself collapse to her knees, and slowly put her arms behind her head.