Chapter 27: At the City's End

Jessica's shirt collapsed onto the ground as she quickly slipped on the black jacket that came with the Hero Suit, followed by the yellow safety vest itself, before she propped her feet up, one by one, to get the shoes on. She looked over her weapons and other equipment. A whole assortment of bombs and grenades, both ink-based and fire-based, her grapple hook, the remote to her old platform, and her Hero Shot, which she cocked.

She gave her weapons brief test runs on the nearby squid bumpers, which she took out with great accuracy and efficiency multiple times, while she used some trees in the area to test and swing around a bit on her grapple hook. Everything was working perfectly. Finally, she went back over to the suitcase to finish setting up, where she slipped on the Hero Headset, and pressed a button, causing the lights on both it and her shoes to light up in blue. Immediately afterward, she slipped on the Ammo Knights goggles, which briefly lit up in a green tint as it powered on.

Last but not least, she spun the cape around herself before she hooked it around her neck, and it lightly flowed behind her in the wind.

One Hour From Detonation

Inkopolis was still filled with fires, alarms, and the screams of the panicked, as the streets were filled with crowds and crowds of people, illuminated mostly by police car lights and nearby fires.

Unseen by everyone, Jessica was alone on top of a skyscraper as she overlooked the city, her cape flowing behind her while she scanned as much as she could with her goggles. She didn't have time to help out with smaller situations like she normally would; instead, her intentions were solely set on getting in touch with Johnson, before making her way to the address Vanessa gave her so that she could find Daniel.

On the goggles' 3D UI system, she scanned over the city until it located the address, and highlighted it from behind several far away buildings, while a map of Inkopolis with directions popped up in the corner of her vision. Now that she had that, it was time to locate the Sergeant.

"Give me the location of Sergeant Grant Johnson." She spoke to it.

Although it wasn't possible for the goggles to just scan the city and give a direct pinpoint location, it was able to gather all sorts of current, up-to-date information, including from records, news, and even police scanners, to eventually lead Jessica to the general ballpark vicinity of where he was, which it highlighted on the map. Having all that she needed, she transformed into her squid form, before she blasted off into a super jump in Johnson's general direction.

Underdogs Hideout

Just under one hour remained on the weapon's countdown, as it was still flashing its lights throughout the room.

Daniel was standing still, arms crossed as he watched as if he was mesmerized by it. His fingers and his eyelids were twitching a bit, as the voices continued to attack him from seemingly all sorts of directions.

'Don't do this, Daniel.'

'Destroy the weapon.'

'You still have time.'

'Undo everything.'

'Shoot yourself.'

'Save Jessica.'

'Don't kill her.'

'What are you doing?"

"We're one hour from detonation, sir." An Octoling interrupted, walking up to him.

He jumped a little as he was torn from his thoughts, and he turned to her, nodding. "…I know…" He cleared his throat. "…I want every available Underdog standing guard, in case someone shows up."

"No one has come so far."

"...The voices find a way…"

"What?"

"...N-Nothing… just… get everyone on guard, please."

She stared at him a bit before she nodded, and she motioned to other Octolings to follow her as she walked out.

Daniel continued staring at the nanotech weapon's lights for another few minutes, before he sighed, deciding to turn his attention to something else, as he turned around. He was about to leave the room, but instead jumped as someone was standing in front of him, blocking his path, while strangely cloaked in shadow. He sighed. "What are you still doing down here? I told everyone to stand guard. Go." He pointed.

"...But I've never left you before, have I, Daniel?" The familiar voice returned.

He froze, and the figure stepped out from the shadows, revealing to be the face of his long-gone mother.

"...Mom?"

"...Hello, sweetheart."

He just continued to stand there, silently, as he stared her down.

His mother looked around, surveying the room and the weapon. "…You've been pretty busy… haven't you? Still playing with toys, after all these years, are you? Adorable as always." She smiled. "…My sweet, little Daniel…"

He gripped his charger a bit. "…You're not real…"

"...How do you know?"

"Because you're dead. I killed you."

"...I've always been in your hearts, Daniel." She returned softly.

He suddenly pulled the charger out and fired at her, and she disappeared just as suddenly as she appeared.

"Now that wasn't very nice." The same voice said behind him. He spun around. "…I've told you not to play with weapons, Daniel."

"...Get out… of my head…"

"Put down the weapon."

"You're not real…" He shook his head and repeated himself. "Get out of my head…"

"Put the weapon down, Daniel… I won't ask you again."

They fell into silence for a moment. Daniel actually felt compelled to listen to her. His fingers loosened, and his charger dropped to the ground at his feet.

The hallucination smiled as he did. "Thank you…"

Daniel just stared at her, tearing up slightly. Thank god there was no one around to see him.

"…I missed you, sweetheart…" She said.

"...I-I missed you, too… but… I-I don't know why you're here now… of all times…"

"Because you're making a huge mistake, Daniel." Her gaze was serious. "You can still turn the weapon off and leave all of this behind."

"...No… I-I can't do that…"

"And why not?"

"...B-Because it's what Ward wanted me to do… h-he taught me that I have to show everyone how flawed they are…"

"Daniel, you are the one who's flawed. More than anyone."

"...That's not true…"

"Look around you and look at yourself. Ward has twisted you. He's taken advantage of your mental illness and turned you into a weapon."

"...No, that's not true… he… he was my family… don't you understand that? The Underdogs are my family."

"...And we weren't?"

Daniel looked down slightly. Now, child Jessica was hiding behind Mrs. Murdock, as if she was hiding from Daniel himself. "…J-Jessica…?" He walked forward a bit.

The vision of Jessica ducked behind her mother, and by the time Daniel could walk around to find her, she had disappeared entirely.

"Leave Jessica out of this, hun." Mrs. Murdock continued. "She's not the enemy."

"...I am what I am because of her, though…" A tear fell down his cheek.

"...Maybe to an extent. But don't forget that Ward has twisted you worse than she ever did."

He didn't respond, and more tears were falling down his cheeks.

After a moment, she held out her hand. "…Come back to me, Daniel… leave the Underdogs behind… just take my hand… I'll help you turn off the machine…"

"...We can't turn it off… there's no way to…"

"...We can find a way." She gave him a reassuring smile.

He had to do it. He didn't want to be apart from her any longer. He wanted to listen to her. More tears falling, he slowly reached to take his hand, but instead jumped back as he heard a louder-than-realistic stabbing sound. His eyes widened.

Mrs. Murdock arched her back, starting to bleed profusely from her chest and her mouth, as she gagged for air. "…Daniel…"

"...Mom? MOM!?" He tried to lean forward to grab her, but she collapsed to the ground, revealing that Ayesha was standing behind her, holding the knife. He backed off again as he stared at her; her eyes were unrealistically large, and blue ink- his own ink color- was pouring from her mouth like a waterfall.

"You shouldn't get attached to her." Another familiar voice said from outside the room. He again turned to see that Hugh Ward was walking into the room, toward him. Again, he backed off. "…Don't forget… your mother has been dead your whole life."

"...You're dead, too…" Daniel replied.

"Perhaps… but at least I've had a role in your life. At least my memory still has purpose." He put his hands together behind his back. "…So don't take your focus off the mission, Executioner."

"...But I…" He tried to look back at his mother, but she had already disappeared, with the horrifying Ayesha vision standing where she used to be, grinning at him. "…I loved her…"

"...No. You murdered her. And don't forget why you did." Ward continued.

"...She was in my way…" He remembered.

"And she didn't believe in you, as I do."

"...You believe in me…" He stared at him, almost as if brainwashed. Tears were still flowing down his cheeks.

"We're your family, Daniel. Now all that's left for you is to take out the traitor who used to call herself family."

"...Jessica…" He looked down. "…I can't do it…"

"Oh, Executioner… don't talk like that…" He leaned toward his ear, whispering. "…You can do whatever you want…"

He jumped and backed up, but when he tried to look at him, he saw the hallucinations had finally disappeared. He looked around, breathing heavily.

Meanwhile

After their attempts to evacuate the city, Johnson and the rest of the police had gone back uptown, where the bulk of the people were, with the plan of huddling as many people as they could underground. Police sirens wailing, they drove through a crowd of people, before they came to a stop in the middle of the street. Johnson got out, holding a megaphone.

"Everyone!" He called out with it. "This is the IPD! We need you all to calm down, so that we can get as many people as possible underground!"

"Come on, people, let's move!" Other officers started to round people up, which Johnson soon went to assist.

Although it was a ludicrous task, partially because many people were too panicked to cooperate, they soon started to get people together, and started leading them into nearby buildings that had basements. Johnson was desperately looking around for more people when he heard something.

"Sergeant!" Jessica shouted, as she landed on the hood of his police car.

He jumped and reached for his gun, but didn't pull it out, seeing it was just Jessica in her full Agent 3 gear. "…Murdock?" He was actually relieved to see her again.

She stood up. "Getting those people underground is pointless, it won't be enough for them to escape the nano-spikes."

"Well, we still have to try our hardest! Evacuation is no longer an option!" He replied.

"I agree. We're taking the fight straight to Daniel. Shutting down the weapon is our last and only option."

"...You know where he is?"

"Vanessa did and she was kind enough to share. He's in a construction building in the center of the city. I know I'm not in the place to give orders, but I need you to follow me there and back me up. I can't guarantee I'll survive going in alone."

He stared up at her. "…We're on it. And screw being unable to give orders. You're in charge. At least for this."

She just nodded, before she turned back into her squid form and launched off in another super jump.

Johnson watched her take off, before he turned to the other officers. "Alright, people, we have our new objective! We're giving Agent 3 assistance, so let's move!" He climbed back into his car and turned back on the siren, before the other officers followed suit.

Half an Hour from Detonation

Using a combination of super jumps, her grapple hook, and acrobatic moves, Jessica made it to her destination quite a bit earlier than the police did, and perched herself up on the nearby building, towering above the building she needed to get to. She looked it over. It was indeed an incomplete skyscraper, and some of the upper floors didn't have walls yet. A helicopter was circling the building all the while, guarding it.

She pressed a button on her goggles, and it turned green again. "Scan the building."

The goggles got to work, giving her an infrared view of the building, while also scanning its layout to provide a map for her. Jessica came to a quick conclusion: it was lined to the brim with every available Underdog they had, with Octolings standing on every floor, while a massive heat signature for the nanotech weapon she needed to get to rested in the basement, on the very last floor. Even worse, there didn't seem to be an easy way in except for the upper floors, which meant that she had to break in near the top and make her way all the way down to the basement, with no time for stealth.

The odds didn't at all look to be in her favor, but she had no choice but to go in. Less than 30 minutes remained now, so she really had to move. Now. She took a moment to make sure everything was ready, including her bombs and especially her grapple hook, before she took off her goggles and stood up straight. She took a long, deep breath, with her eyes closed, as she gripped her grapple hook in one hand and a splat bomb in the other.

Finally, her eyes opened again, and without any more hesitation, she leaped from the building, sending herself into a free fall in the buildings direction. As soon as she as she was close enough to the highest floor, she fired her grapple hook at it with expert accuracy, just barely latching on, and fell a bit more as the rope tightened, taking her for a swing. She swung herself inward toward the building, throwing in the splat bomb before her into the last wall-less floor, as she flipped inside after it.

The closest Octolings that were standing guard on that floor were unable to do anything but notice the splat bomb, which quickly exploded in a larger-than-usual burst of orange ink, splatting anyone in its vicinity.

Jessica landed swiftly inside only after the explosion, and swiftly pulled out her Hero Shot, as other Octolings on the floor caught onto her presence.

"SHIT!"

"SHE'S HERE!" Octolings screamed.

As they all began closing in on her and firing at her, Jessica didn't bother taking cover for time reasons, and instead ran forward as she fired back, successfully splatting someone from a distance before she whacked someone else in the head with her gun.

As all of this was happening, Daniel was down in the basement, sitting somewhat cautiously in case any more hallucinations decided to show up, when static erupted from his radio. He jumped a bit, before he pressed the button to speak into it. "…What?"

More static. "…A-Agent 3!"

"...What…?" He repeated.

"Agent 3! She's here!"

His eyes widened a bit, and his breathing got heavier. The voices were starting to come back on full force, too. "…No, no no no no no… stop her…"

"We're trying! But she's-"

"KILL HER!" He suddenly shouted. "She can't get down to the basement!"

The line went dead, and he lowered the radio a bit, silently panicking.

A small army of Octolings from the very top floors were going down the stairwell to the floor where Jessica was, and barged the door open, pointing their guns at him. What they didn't expect, however, was that Jessica had thought ahead and had thrown an autobomb at the door the moment before, which had patiently waited for the door to open before it detonated, splatting them as well.

Jessica ignored the ink explosion, keeping her focus on the Octolings that were already on the floor, shooting at distant ones while beating on people who had managed to get closer. One specific Octoling that she knocked down landed at her feet, and she punched him a couple times, before bringing the gun to his face and pulling the trigger.

One Octoling took the opportunity to pull out a knife, thinking that she could surprise her, as she ran up and slashed at her. Of course, not even that could faze Jessica, as she suddenly swiftly did a dive-roll out of the way, although at the cost of dropping her own weapon. Turning back to the armed Octoling, she stood up and did a roundhouse kick in an instant to knock the knife out of her hand, but the girl simply responded by pulling out two more. She stepped forward and started slashing them at her to her best ability, but Jessica either dodged or blocked most of them, yet was unable to hold off a cut on her Hero Jacket and a nasty gash her cheek. She grunted, but was too desperate to stop, as the Octoling kept slashing at her.

She intercepted one swing midair and grabbed the knife from her hand, before swiftly slashing at her throat, without hesitation. The Octoling gagged and grabbed the wound, before Jessica swiped the second knife from her, slashed at her cheek as some kind of payback move, and kicked her away, leaving her to bleed out. Unable to catch a break, she then noticed a charger light come to center on her, followed by a shot of high-pressure ink, which she swiftly dodged. She jumped up onto some boxes and did a spin-jump back off, throwing the knife at an unlucky Octoling's forehead just before she landed and ducked behind them.

The number of Octolings on the floor was growing, too, as more Octolings came down the stairwell and began hunting her, shouting commands at each other. She sighed, and in her moment to breath, wiped some ink from her cheek before she turned behind her. A group that was trying to sneak up had lined up behind her in an honestly tactically stupid way, and she rolled her eyes slightly before she suddenly pulled back out her grapple hook. She fired it at the person in the back, stabbing her chest with it, before she pulled on her, sending her flying into the rest of the Octolings, knocking them down like bowling pins.

As the hook then slinked back to her, she then fired it at one of the lighter boxes behind them, before she pulled on it as hard as she could, grunting as she did. Using all her strength to hurl it over her head toward the remaining Octolings, she knocked one Octoling over the head with it, breaking his head open. He collapsed to the ground next to the box, forming a puddle of ink , before the box abruptly exploded in a somewhat small explosion, engulfing a few nearby Octolings and lighting them on fire.

At least now, a good number of Octolings were subtracted. Jessica climbed back onto the boxes, seeing that about five remained. She fired her grapple hook at another box beneath her feet, which she again tossed at them, successfully crushing one, before she dived off to avoid more gunfire. She threw her other knife at an Octoling, but missed the lethal areas that she was aiming for and instead hit her leg, causing her to scream out in pain. Dodging more gunfire, Jessica again dive-rolled to grab her discarded Hero Shot from the ground, which she immediately used to splat two nearby people, before she tossed a splat bomb at a third. He screamed before he was inevitable splatted by the resulting explosion.

The last remaining Octoling pulled the knife out of her leg, screaming out in more pain, before she limped over a bit and tried to throw it at her. Jessica ducked in her squid form to just barely dodge, before she briefly charged up a super jump, launching right into the Octoling's chest. She was immediately knocked back, flying right off the edge of the building, while Jessica did a backflip off of her and landed in a ducked position as she watched, panting slightly.

She looked at the time. Only twenty minutes remained now. She had to get down to the basement now, although the sounds of more Octolings on lower floors could subtly be heard from the direction of the stairwell. She sighed. She wasn't so sure that she was gonna make it in time.

She started walking toward the stairwell, when she was stopped by the louder sound of rotating helicopter blades, and she stopped to look as a light focused on her.

The helicopter that was guarding the building had flown up to her floor, as the passenger Octoling onboard aimed a powerful, lethal Spatling at her. "Agent 3! Stand down!" The pilot announced.

Jessica looked around, looking for a quick exit strategy.

"Stand down, NOW!" He repeated. "Final warning!"

Having one idea, Jessica pulled out one fire explosive from her belt, and in response, the Octoling with the Splatling immediately began firing at her. She did another dive roll to dodge, and kept running to avoid the stream of ink, looking back at the helicopter briefly. The Splatling quickly had her cornered, leaving her no choice but to dive off the side of the building. Airborne once again, she quickly turned and fired the grapple hook at the ceiling above her, before she let it unwind a bit and swung back toward the helicopter.

The Octoling caught on to where she had gone and tried to aim the Splatling at her again, but was unable to do much as Jessica tossed the explosive inside. "SHIT!"

Jessica was sent back into free fall mode as she winded the grapple hook back up, and she was gaining some attention from the citizens beneath. As soon as the hook came back to her, she fired it back at the building, fell some more as it unwinded, and then swung back inward, flying back inside through where a window should be.

It was only after she disappeared that her bomb went off, killing the Octolings onboard the helicopter.

At that moment, Sergeant Johnson and the other officers were driving up to the construction site, when the helicopter that Jessica had just blown up was spiraling out of control above their street, before crashing onto the roof of a nearby building. Barely even phased at that point, he hit the breaks, followed by the other cars, before he opened the door and stood up, looking at the chaos. "…Holy shit…"

The other officers got out, surrounded by flocks of screaming people. "…Murdock's here?"

"I believe so." He pulled out his gun as they approached the building. "…Murdock needs backup, and we're gonna give it! We have twenty minutes from detonation, so we-" He was interrupted as a gunshot sounded, hitting an officer next to him. He jumped, and backed up. A few Octolings on the first floor had already noticed the police and had come out to hold them off.

He ran back to hide behind his car and pulled his gun up, and the other surviving officers did the same. "Open fire!" He shouted, before they all began to fire back.

Meanwhile, in the basement, Daniel was sweating a bit and pacing around the glowing weapon, gripping his charger. He was trying his best to ignore the voices, but they were still on full attack.

"The police are here." The radio confirmed.

He stopped pacing to answer it. "Hold them off."

"We're already on it."

"...What about my sister?"

"...Still alive and in the building. She took out our helicopter. We don't know what floor she's on."

He sighed and looked around, shaking more. He thought about what the next move should be. "…Detonate everyone above the first floor."

"...Sir? That would collapse the whole building if they expand too much."

"...Shit…" He paused again as he thought about more about it. "…What about the suicide bombers?"

"I don't recommend large-scale explosives, sir."

The voices got louder, and he grabbed onto something as he rode out his panic attack. As he blinked, he noticed that a vision of a younger Jessica was once again appearing before him. He stopped and stared at her.

"...Sir? Are you there?" The Octoling continued.

"...Let her come."

"...What?"

"Tell everyone above the first floor to stand down…" He clarified. "Let her come… and I'll deal with her…"

"...Sir, I also don't recommen-"

"Just do it!" He shouted.

"...Yes, sir." She finished, before the line went dead.

He dropped the radio, and looked back at where the vision was standing, seeing she had disappeared. His eyelid twitching, he turned back to the weapon. Around fifteen minutes remained. This was going to be his ultimate end.

He was going to kill Jessica Murdock.

The building fell into an eerie silence as Jessica located and entered the stairwell, pointing her weapon inside before she cautiously entered. Even she had noticed the silence at this point, and looked around, an eyebrow raised. It was as if the Underdogs had suddenly given up. But she didn't have time to question it; only fifteen minutes remained and she had about half the buildings worth of stairs to climb down. Staying on guard as she made her way down, pointing her weapon in different directions, she hurried down, until she reached the very last floor, fairly deep into the basement.

Taking a deep breath, she kicked the door open and aimed her weapon before she entered, but to her surprise, it was… empty, at first glance. "…What the hell…?" She cautiously yet somewhat quickly navigated through the rooms, until she was drawn to the center room with the pulsating lights, and she slowed down a bit as she made her way to the source.

As she turned the corner, she was met with the weapon, in which the countdown listed only another ten minutes, and Daniel, who was leaning against the wall nearby, was waiting for her. He looked up at her.

She slowly inched her way inside, half-expecting to get blown up out of nowhere. "…Daniel…?"

"...Jessica…"

Without daring to take her gun off of him, she looked down at the weapon, seeing the complicated looking control scheme, before she looked back up at him. "…Tell me how to turn it off."

He stood up straight. "...It can't be turned off. Once the countdown's set, it can't be shut down. Why do you think it was so locked up?"

"Bullshit. You're lying. Just like you lied to me and the Splatoon before."

"...I'm not lying, sis." He shook his head a bit, before he scoffed slightly, looking like he was holding back tears. "…After all this time, you still think I'm the bad guy…"

"You think you're not!?" She hissed. "You're about to take millions of lives! Innocent lives!"

"They had it coming. Ward taught me that."

"Ward was a piece of shit and you know it. He manipulated your illness and took advantage of you. You wanna know what his last words to me were? He called you a loose cannon that he aimed at the city."

He shook his head, refusing to believe it. "No… no… Ward was my family… he was like my father…"

"...Only because you killed your real one…"

"...He had it coming too…" He couldn't stop himself from tearing up. "…All of you treated me like a stick that was about to break."

"Because you were sick."

"Yeah, and then you made me worse! All I wanted was a sister! A friend! But you shut me out whenever I came to you, you bullied me despite the fact that I was sick, and you left me afterward!"

"I didn't leave you! You got arrested because you burned our house down! We were forced on separate paths because of what you did!"

"You think I asked for this!?"

"Your actions imply it! Look around you, Daniel, all of this that's happening right now is your fault!"

He actually started crying, as he did look around a bit.

She was tearing up as well, but looked back down at the timer. Time was running out. "Dammit, Daniel, we don't have time for this, I need you to help me shut this down!"

"I told you it can't be shut down!" He cried.

"Then help me destroy it! I have explosives!"

He looked down at the weapon, having another panic attack. His trigger finger and eyelids were twitching.

"Look at me! Daniel, look at me! Ward doesn't have to twist you anymore, he's gone and he's not coming back! But I'm still here! I'm still here, you haven't killed me! You help me, and I will be your sister afterward! Ok? I can help you afterward, I promise, but we're not gonna make it to that point if you don't help me shut this down!"

"YOU'RE LYING!" He suddenly shouted. "You're always the one that's been lying, Jessica! You made me think as a kid that we could be friends, before you shut me out! You made me think that we'd be spending our lives together! That we could be heroes! Remember those conversations that we used to have!?"

Tears were streaming down Jessica's cheeks. What she had to do now really hurt, but they no longer had time to debate this. "…You're right… I failed you…"

Daniel stared back, and they fell into silence.

"...But now I have to fix it." She pulled the trigger on her Hero Shot, but to her dismay, it had magically shut off, just like what happened during the confrontation at the lab. She looked at it in confusion, before Daniel raised his charger and fired it at her. She barely dodged, dropping her gun as she leaped over the weapon to desperately fight him head on.

Daniel fired another lethal shot at her, but Jessica again dodged and knocked the gun from his hand, before shoving him into the wall and punching him a few times. He hit back with a strong blow to the stomach, knocking her back into the weapon, but she didn't waiver. In fact, she had never been more desperate, with how high the stakes were. She pulled out her grapple hook and fired it at him as well, but he dodged, and it instead pierced the wall.

Unfortunately for Jessica, Daniel was just as desperate, even if for more personal reasons. He grabbed on it and tugged on it hard, forcing Jessica to discard it, before he pulled out a knife. He stepped forward and slashed it at her, which she dodged like usual, before he slashed several more times. She dodged each one, and then kicked his arm to knock it out of his hand, before she punched him a few times. He blocked some of them with his arms and punched her back, before he managed to grab her, turn her around, and press her against the wall. He punched her more times, this time in the face, successfully stunning her. As she fell into a brief seizure, he grabbed her and tossed her back over the weapon, where she collapsed limply.

He reached over and grabbed his charger, picking it back up as he aimed it at her, but Jessica quickly recovered from her seizure, looked at him, and rolled out of the way to dodge the first shot. He fired more times, but Jessica performed a backwards somersault to get back on her feet, before she dived out of the room to avoid all of them. He groaned, angrily chasing her out.

The opportunity to manually shut down the weapon had seemingly been lost to her, so it was time for plan b. Reaching into her belt, she pulled out just one of many fiery explosives Cuttlefish had supplied her with, and without stopping to keep her distance from Daniel, she attached it to the wall.

Five Minutes from Detonation

Outside, more police backup arrived on the scene as more Octolings came out of the building, the gunfight getting larger and larger. The police definitely seemed to be on the losing side, and things only got worse for them when the Octolings suddenly brought out a large Killer Wail, aiming it at their cars.

Johnson's eyes widened a bit. "Retreat! RETREAT!"

The police scrambled away as the Killer Wail highlighted nearly the whole street, before it fired a blast at them, powerful enough to blow their cars away, destroying them. Johnson and most of them were able to jump out of the way, while some of the slower ones were fatally splatted by the stronger-than-usual blast, and it successfully split up the whole group. It didn't take the police long to get back to their feet, but now, their cover had been drastically reduced. Regardless, they didn't let themselves lose hope yet, and continued firing back.

Four minutes remained on the weapon's countdown, and the lights were pulsating a bit faster now, as if in warning.

Jessica was running and jumping around the few different levels of the basement, planting as many bombs around as she could. She was sweating and exhausted at this point, partially thanks to the seizure, but didn't stop. Another gunshot rang out as a lethal blast of ink narrowly missed her, and she looked down, seeing that Daniel was on the level below him.

"Come down, Jessica!"

She ignored him, and continued planting as many bombs as she could, continuing on. She only had a handful of bombs left, but once she planted them all, and as long as they were spread out enough, she would be able to decimate the entire basement and collapse the building, destroying the weapon with it.

"JESSICA!" Daniel shouted again, performing a super jump to get up to her level, before firing another shot at her. She jumped to dodge, before placing another bomb. She turned a corner and ran to place a couple more bombs on that level, before she jumped right back down. He ran over to where he saw her last and looked over the railing, yelling like an animal in absolute anger, before he jumped down after her.

Jessica nearly had all her bombs planted, and the last thing she needed to do was plant the last of them around the weapon itself, to ensure its destruction. She let herself fall back down to the lowest level, and went back into the central room, starting to plant bombs in there as well. At least, she tried to, before Daniel suddenly super jumped directly onto her, tackling her, and they collapsed into a roll together. With both of them down, Daniel crawled on top of her, beginning to beat on her.

Jessica tried to block the hits to her best ability, but he was too angry at this point, and he wrapped his strong hands around her throat, strangling her as hard as he could. She tried to gasp for air, but was completely unable to breathe, as Daniel gritted his teeth in pure rage.

Outside, the police were getting more and more backed up away from the building, as the Underdogs had their hold on them. They were losing more and more officers, but Johnson remained vigilant and strong, shooting at the Underdogs to their best ability. As soon as they had a moment to duck behind some civilian cars and refill ink, an officer briefly checked the time.

"...Three minutes!" He told Johnson.

Johnson looked at him, then looked down. Perhaps Jessica couldn't save them after all.

Mustering as much strength as possible, Jessica punched Daniel so hard that his grip loosened, and she punched him again, knocking him off. She gasped for air, as she struggled up to her feet. Daniel tried to land another punch on him, but she punched him again before he could, pinning him against the weapon. Furious, she landed a whole flurry of punches on him, screaming a bit herself, until his face was starting to swell and bleed. Just to hopefully put him out of commission, she kicked him in the crotch and tossed him aside, before she desperately reached into her pocket for the detonator. She had to blow the building as soon as possible.

However, Daniel did his best to ignore the pain, and suddenly lunged at her again, tackling her and knocking the detonator from her hands. After all, he had spent his whole life learning how to tolerate pain. He landed his own furious flurry of punches on her, punching her so hard that she did fall into another longer seizure, but even then, he didn't stop. He wanted to kill her so horribly. Orange ink coated his fists as he continued punching her, as her face was also swelling, as she meanwhile shook from her seizure.

It was time to end it. It was time to finally find closure for his life, for all the pain Jessica had sent him toward. Only if his sister was dead, could he die peacefully himself. Holding her down, he reached for his charger, aiming it at her face as she came down from her seizure. He panted heavily while they otherwise fell into silence, as Jessica stared back up at him, defeated. She choked up some ink. His trigger finger twitched heavily, but yet… he was struggling to actually pull it. His finger was twitching in the opposite direction.

'Kill her.'

'Don't kill her.'

'She's your sister.'

'Don't kill her.'

'Kill her."

'Don't make the same mistake.'

'Forget Ward.'

'Forget family.'

'You have your family.'

"Shut up…" He shook his head and closed his eyes. "…Shut up…"

"...Daniel…" Jessica choked.

He opened his eyes again, and instead of the swollen face of present-day Jessica, he was met with the young, innocent face he knew from his childhood. From a time before anything bad had happened to them. And just like that… the voices had silenced. "…Jessica…?"

"...I'm sorry…" She choked some more.

He didn't respond, shaking and breathing heavily, tearing up some more.

"...Don't let… this control you…"

"...I-I can't…" A tear fell down from his eye, onto her face.

"...Please…" Jessica continued.

He started crying more, unable to contain himself. He couldn't kill his sister. He wanted to, but he just couldn't do it. And now that he thought about it, she was right. He was letting Ward, his mind, his past control him.

Jessica stared up at him, silently pleading for him to let go, and he finally refrained, gasping a little as he shakily let go.

She gasped for some air herself, and Daniel climbed off of her, collapsing next to her. As Jessica started struggling to her feet, he looked around, at the explosives and at the weapon. It seemed to be too late. They were going to die anyway. "…Jessica…?"

"I know…" She held out her hand.

He stared for another moment, before he took it, and she pulled him up. They looked around, and Jessica grabbed the detonator.

"...I need more time… I… I feel like there's too much I want to say…"

"...We still have a minute or so… I'll get you out of here…" She replied. After all, she didn't want him to die either.

"...You can't… we can't…" He blinked at her, and the vision of child Jessica faded, as he once again saw the face of present-day Jessica. In fact, the voices were coming back. "We still to have to…" He trailed off, as Jessica stared at him suspiciously.

'You have to die.'

'You can't leave.'

'You have to die.'

'You have to kill her.'

'Don't let her leave.'

'You have to die to be reunited.'

'Don't let her leave.'

'You have to die.'

'You have to die.'

'Kill her, Daniel.'

'KILL EVERYONE, DANIEL!'

As they stared at each other for another moment, Daniel questioning what he wanted next, he finally lost his ability to think. He suddenly aimed his charger at her face and pulled the trigger, filling the room with the blast sound.

However, Jessica had already foreseen the attack, and had grabbed his charger the split second he held it up, and the blast of ink instead hit the ceiling. Daniel gasped in surprise as he stared at her, eyes wide, while Jessica just looked unfazed and unamused at this point.

"...I really am sorry, Daniel… if I could make it up to you, I would… but we both know you lost your chance when you killed my god damn parents…"

"...Jessica, ple-" She then suddenly punched him with all her strength, and he fell limp, before she slung him over his shoulder. She looked at the countdown on the timer.

Only one minute remained. She looked down at the detonator in her hand, knowing what she had to do.

"Thirty seconds to detonation!" A police officer called out. They had managed to clean up a good portion of the Underdogs at this point, and the rest had begun to retreat, knowing that time was short now regardless.

"...Where's Murdock!?" Johnson called back.

"...We don't know."

They looked around at each other, and back at the building. Jessica wasn't coming out. It seemed it was just over. The whole city was going down, and they were going down with it, thanks to their failure. Johnson looked around, actually unable to believe it, and they fell into silence.

"...Twenty seconds."

"...It was an honor working with you, Johnson…" An officer decided to tell him.

"...As with you…" He replied, somberly.

As they stood around, some of the officers sitting down or kneeling, Johnson stood still, waiting for his death like a man.

"...Ten seconds… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… thre-"

They were interrupted as a fiery explosion suddenly burst from the building, large enough that it flooded out to the first floor and outside. They backed up in surprise, and they watched as the building's very foundation began to give out. It had just hit midnight, but that wasn't the explosion they were expecting.

Johnson didn't quite understand what was happening, but soon picked up on it, as it started visibly collapsing. "…MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!"

The police all stood up and ran away as the building started to cave in on itself, along with any Underdogs that were inside, finally ending the organization for good. As a wall of dust poured out onto the street, the police were forced to super jump out of the way, as the remainder of the building collapsed into a giant heap of metal, the remains of the nanotech weapon buried deep beneath it.

It took several minutes for the dust to clear, but when it did, the police, along with curious surviving civilians, slowly made their way up to the remains of the building, as they held their guns up just in case. A helicopter flew overhead, shining a spotlight over the wreckage. The city, otherwise, still stood, once again safe, and the chaos was already beginning to die down as everyone realized that midnight had already passed and they were all still alive. They had been saved.

Johnson lowered his weapon as they saw the threat had been neutralized, and they made their way up, looking over the rubble. As the relief fell over them, however, Johnson's stomach still felt like it dropped a bit as he came to a realization.

"...Murdock was in there, wasn't she?" An officer asked.

"...I think so…" He replied, and they again fell into silence. The person they had been hunting all this time, the supposed villain that they had tried to shut down, had turned out to be the hero that saved them all along, and seemingly just gave her life to do so. Perhaps all of it could've been avoided if they had made better decisions? Johnson looked down a bit, thinking about the mistakes he had made.

"...Sir?" An officer asked.

"...What?"

"...What do we do now?"

He thought about it, and was about to request a search party to look for Jessica's body, when they were interrupted as someone fell off the side of a nearby building, dangling from a rope near the ground. They looked over.

Daniel, who had been completely tied up, was dangling upside down from Jessica's grapple hook, as he struggled desperately and tried to scream, although his voice was muffled by some duct tape over his mouth. Johnson stared at him, confused, as his eyes went upward to the roof of the building above him.

Jessica was standing over them, covered in ash and dust, although her cape was still flowing proudly behind her.

"...Holy shit…" An officer muttered, as Johnson just stared in surprise.

While a couple officers went to grab Daniel, Jessica was just staring down at them, waiting patiently, as if waiting for Johnson to make a decision.

They stared at each other for several seconds, before an officer spoke up. "…Sir, she's not moving, we can get her. What are our orders?"

"...Let her go." Johnson replied simply.

"...You sure?"

"...She's not our enemy." He gave the vigilante a reassuring nod, which Jessica returned. The police all looked up at her, as she morphed into her squid form, and soon blasted off in a super jump.