Jessica, texting Luke: new case came up, may be busy a while. Kidnapper, probably superpowered
Luke: Who is this? I have a girlfriend and she doesn't like anyone messing with her man!
Luke: But seriously be careful, I'm here if you need me. I love you. And yes you have to say it, back those are the rules!
Jessica: it back
Jessica: you said I have to say "it back" so...check
Luke: Haha but your defiance only makes you more adorable.
Luke: I have to meet with a few vendors and listen to an audition for a new singer, oh and some Victoria's Secret Models want to prance around for me but I'll blow all that off if you need me.
Irritated now, Jessica called him. "Ok first off, call me adorable again and unbreakable skin or not, I'm breaking bones. Second off, what the hell are Victoria secret models doing with you? Jesus, get some taste."
Luke takes a picture and sends it to Jessica's phone. The photo is of three little girls playing model, wearing dresses over their street clothes in his office.
"I'm just keeping an eye on one of my waitress's kids while she runs errands. And wow, that escalated quickly. Were you actually jealous? As if I'd ever disrespect you like that, Jessica. I will never be that kind of man. And you are adorable, so bring it. I'll be waiting for you. Actually scratch that."
He looked around his office and the pathetic back room he sleeps in.
"I really need to find a place to live. A real place, not a couch or a backroom."
Relaxing as she sees the picture, Jessica huffed. "No, not jealous, just appalled by the possible lack of taste." She had been, though. "So why haven't you got a place then?"
She is researching the missing children on her computer as she speaks to him, phone jammed between shoulder and ear.
"Never cared about someone enough that I wanted to come home to. Not that I'm asking you to be someone I would come home to. Not yet, I know you like your space and aren't ready for that, but it would be nice to have a place not above a noisy nightclub to spend time, with my thoughts not being drowned out. Someplace you could come and stay with me. Ok, I'm now a rambling idiot! I'm saying words, but not sure you get what I'm saying."
Jessica frowned, having got lost in his musing. Shaking back her hair from her face, she asked, "Nope, you drowned me in words. Are you saying you want us to get a place together or something?"
"Soon I would like that, "Luke admitted. "But first I need to find a place and I'm not sure what I like yet. Anyway, what's up with your case? Doesn't sound like your usual kind of case. So why this one?"
Jessica is quiet for a while before answering, then avoids a straight answer.
"What, you wouldn't take it? It's missing kids. Someone has to find them, and if it's someone with powers doing it, what would cops do to find them?"
"I didn't mean it like that, the first night we met you were following a cheating wife. I just didn't know you took missing person cases. But if anyone can help this kid, it's you. Hey just be careful, if someone is taking kids they have to be some kind of sick bastard. I know you can handle yourself but I'm just a call away if you need me."
"I take whatever people come to me with that I decide to. Mostly people following their dicks, but anything else is fair game too." Jessica pauses. "It just...this kid can teleport. So how the hell is he still gone?"
"I hate to say it, but maybe he teleported into something solid," Luke grimaced. " In all the science fiction I read, the number one rule of teleportation is know where you're going because you could teleport into a mountain or in front of a truck or into space. Sorry, just want you to consider those options. See this is why I can't do your job, I'm already jumping to the worst conclusion. This kid is lucky you're looking for him, because you'll not stop until you find him!"
"Are you serious? Like, the kid is walled alive?! Couldn't he just teleport out again?!"
Jessica hadn't even thought of that as a possibility. "It isn't just him though. There's a kid missing who can go invisible, yeah, I know, ironic right? And another with super strength, one who has telekinesis. There's something I haven't clicked in on yet."
Luke immediately regrets putting that gruesome thought in her head and declines to say his other thought that someone is experimenting on them in a lab.
"Multiple powered kids? Someone or thing is either convincing them not to run, either by tricking or threatening them. Like saying they can hurt their parents if they run. It would be pretty easy to convince a small child of that. You know what, I changed my mind. As soon as you find the kids or who took them, call me. I want to separate their heads from their bodies! This P.I thing is your gig, but just this once I want to help!"
"I'm thinking it's someone with powers too. It's the only thing that makes sense to me," Jessica muttered. "I'm looking into the known powered people, public and otherwise, seeing if any fit a profile. I'm guessing this person likes control and power and doesn't tolerate much of it in other people. I mean, who targets kids unless they want total upper hand? Maybe this is someone new into his own abilities, not confident over them yet, so he's starting with kids before going for people his own size. I just wonder what the hell this person can do, and what the point is."
She paused, exhaling. "I don't want a powered person registry, that's too much like Nazi shit, but it would be nice of we had that just for today. Help me narrow it down."
"You're gonna have to use good old fashion leg work cause the idea of the government up our asses and monitoring our every move is not an option," Luke tells her.
Right then the mother of the girls walks up to Luke and silently gestures to them to come, smiling and waving goodbye to Luke, who returns the gesture.
"You, know what baby...I'm headed your direction. If you're on the move call me, and I'll meet you."
"Ok. Meet me outside the pub on 4th street, see you there in about twenty."
Jessica hung up, running a hand through her hair, and cracked her knuckles. Standing, she stretched, the, slung her camera over her neck, pulled up her hood, and headed out the door, mentally noting a few more people to interview.
Now that Luke has his own truck he doesn't have to wait for an Uber or Lyft to show up. He easily makes it to Jessica in 20 minutes. After parking he gets out and slides on his jacket. He crosses the street to meet Jessica, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Hey, you lead and I'll follow your play."
Jessica gave his arm a quick, somewhat affectionate squeeze and nodded.
"Well, your huge ass doesn't really blend into the shadows, but we can make do. There's a few powered people I want to follow today, ones I've marked as potentially having the personality or history to be involved or know of the people that are involved. One works here," she nodded towards the pub, "and I work better with a drink in hand anyway. Their shift will be over in an hour, I'm following them after."
"Hey, you want me to park myself at a bar and just watch your back? That I can do, and honestly I could use a drink myself. Watching little girls all day took a lot out of me," Luke admitted. "So how about we go in separately, that way we won't stand out. I mean as a couple, we really stand out! I'll stay in ear shot of you."
For the first time he's a little worried about her. It's one thing going against some dumbass thug, but the idea that someone can overpower other supers is unsettling. Sure they were kids, but Luke doesn't know how the kidnapper overpowered them. The not knowing is what worries him.
"I know I keep saying it but Jessica, be careful."
Jessica smirked, enjoying the thought of big manly Luke chasing after three little girls awkwardly.
"So a bunch of little girls have you wrapped around their finger, huh? Damn, you sure would be in for it If you knocked someone up." She nods in acknowledgment of his suggestion.
"Sounds smart, good point. Two of us together do sort of draw eyes."
When he warned her again, Jessica looked up at him seriously, losing the sarcasm. "Luke, careful is not really my lifestyle, if you haven't noticed. It doesn't seem to be yours either. I can't promise careful. Best I can say is I won't do something deliberately near suicidal, unless there's a damn good reason I think I should."
Knowing pushing this any further is useless, Luke sighs and walks towards the door , but still gives her a smack on the ass and grins as he moves away.
"I'll be watching you, so do what you got to do."
Even without Jessica, Luke can tell he's still gonna stand out a little. Jessica calling this place a pub is an understatement, this place looks like a piece of Ireland was dropped in the middle of NYC. Hopefully the patrons are too invested in their ale to pay much attention to the 6 ft plus black giant of a man who makes his way to the corner of the bar, where he can see the entire room. Luke ordered himself an ale and sits to wait for Jessica to come in.
Jessica knew that Luke wasn't overly satisfied with her response to him, but it was the best and most honest one she could give him. She could hardly promise him to be careful when she had no idea yet the full scope and potential danger of the case that she was working on or the person behind the kids' disappearances. Even if she did have more knowledge, she still could have promised him no such thing. It wasn't within her nature to be cautious, even if she was very much anxious or afraid. Reckless, impulsive, and sometimes stupidly determined to do what she wanted or needed to do was a far better description of how Jessica lead her life
She lingered on the sidewalk outside the pub, allowing Luke to go in ahead of her as he had suggested, to deter anyone who might notice them from thinking of them as arriving together. Leaning mock casually against the wall of the pub's exterior, she removed her phone from her jacket pocket and pretended to be texting someone, then spent several more minutes scrawling through nothing much in particular to kill a little more time. She was getting ready to put the phone up and enter the pub when something caught her focus. Stilling, she continued to pretend to pay attention to her phone, even as she looked around herself out her peripheral vision.
She didn't see someone nearby, at least not anyone she could pinpoint as appearing threatening or to be paying attention to her. But the hairs on the back of her neck prickled, and she was nevertheless feeling sharp unease. She felt, without knowing yet why, that she was being watched.
Pivoting suddenly on her heels, she turned towards the alley two doors down from herself, checking for any signs of a possible camera or other equipment that may be monitoring her. There was nothing she could see, but that meant nothing, and the feeling of being watched only pressed more strongly.
Acting on instinct, she hissed out the corner of her mouth in the alley's direction, "I see you. You've got five seconds to come out in the open and tell me what the hell you're doing or I'm going to fuck you over, got it?"
She waited, body tensed, hands forming fists in preparation for a physical confrontation. She had counted to four and was beginning to wonder if this was a miscalculation, her PTSD rearing its head again, before a man somewhere in his thirties came forward, his body slumped sheepishly, eyes fixed on Jessica's with clear trepidation. Jessica stared at him, looking him over with sharp intensity for any signs of threat. He was too clean and neatly dressed to be just another homeless person or junkie, but she was sure she had never seen him before.
"I'm not going to hurt you," the man said quickly, holding his hands up as though to show Jessica he had no weapon or violent intent. "I promise, this isn't like that."
"Damn right you're not," Jessica barked, eyes narrowing. She made no move to come closer to him; harmless looking didn't equal harmless in reality. "What the fuck are you doing, skulking around in alleys staring at me? What do you want?"
The man blinked, appearing somewhat intimidated by her hostile presentation. His voice came out more like a question than a statement as he responded. "You're Jessica Jones, right?"
Now Jessica's heart stuttered, and her muscles pulled still more tightly with tension. Her eyes flitted briefly towards the doorway of the pub, wondering if Luke was beginning to notice her lengthy delay in following him, before refocusing on the man.
"Who the hell is asking?"
"Patrick," the man said quickly, taking a step back from the bite of her tone, as though her words alone could somehow attack. "I'm Patrick, Patrick Innis. I swear, Ms. Jones, I'm not here as a threat! I just want to help you- I want to help everyone!"
Jessica continued to eye him skeptically, eyebrows raised. "We never met, Patrick Innis, so just how do you know who I am, and what makes you think I need help? Or that I'd take it from someone who stalks women on the street?"
"It isn't like that," Patrick insisted, taking a step closer, then seeming to think better of it when Jessica took on an even more overtly defensive stance. "I'm not- I'm not trying to stalk you. I'm not here for you- it's for the kids. For Gabriel."
Alarm bells clanged in Jessica's brain as he spoke the name of the missing child she was assigned to investigate. She strode forward, seizing the man roughly by the shoulders and slamming his back against the alley wall, out of side of pedestrians and those driving on the street. As Patrick's eyes widened and he uttered a frightened cry, she stuck her face close to his, digging her fingers into the bone of his shoulders.
"What the hell did you do to that little boy? Where is he?"
"I didn't do anything to him!" the man yelped, turning his face partly away from her and flinching. "I told you, I'm here to help you, to help him! It wasn't me who took him, I'm trying to help you!"
He was beginning to pant, eyes shiny with his fear. "Please, Ms. Jones, there might not be much time before he starts to figure out that I've gone to you. Please, just listen to me, before it's too late…before he makes it too late for you to help."
He looked and sounded sincere, both in his anxiety and in his intent. Jessica hesitated, eyes boring into his, before reluctantly loosening her grip on him just a tad.
"Then start talking. What the hell is going on?"
Luke had been babysitting his beer for way too long. Jessica should have been a minute or two after him at worst. It's been almost ten, he knows this because he kept staring at his watch. Did he not hear her plan right?
"Screw this, she's just gonna have to be pissed at me if I'm overreacting!"
He jumps up and heads for the door. Reaching the street, he looks around, not seeing her immediately. Luke starts walking, not knowing which way to go. It's by pure chance he picked the right direction and catches Jessica in the alley. A quick feeling of relief rushes over him, at least until he sees that she has a man pinned against the wall.
"HEY! What the hell happened to the plan? And who the hell is the hobbit?"
Jessica barely flicked her eyes towards Luke, maintaining her focus on Patrick.
"Someone who stalks around in alleys knowing way more about me than he ought to. And he's just about to start singing, aren't you?"
Patrick gulped, giving a quick if not too eager nod as he took in the considerably larger man. "I was just telling her, I'm here to help-"
"So do it then, get to the point," Jessica interrupted. "What do you know about Gabriel?"
Patrick took a breath, eyes still on Luke, before he answered. "I...I spoke to him yesterday. Not the others, just him. He's the only one whose name I got, and his mother's name. That's how I found her, and that she reached out to you-"
"This is fucking sick," Jessica muttered, shaking her head, jaw taut. She could only think of a boy her brother's age, held helpless against this pathetic man, and it took all her will not to punch him out. "I don't give a damn who has him or why, you just take me to them. Now."
"It isn't that simple," Patrick protested. "I'm not like you, Ms. Jones. I'm just a normal guy, probably worse. I dont have your powers, but even if I did, it wouldnt matter. My brother-"
"It's your brother?" Jessica cut him off. "Your brother has the kids?"
The man blinked, appearing startled and then guilty. It was obvious to Jessica he hadn't actually meant to say that much. She squeezed his arm until he gasped in pain, just enough to show him a taste of what she could do.
"You think you're scared of your brother? You haven't spied on me enough to get a good idea of who I really am, then. Start talking, and dont leave anything out. Who is he, where is he, and what can he do?"
Luke is not used to not being the intimidating one in the room, but even he got a bit of a chill watching Jessica. Was he really even needed here? She's so in her element here, he could actually be slowing her down, kids' lives are at stake.
"My man, she's not playing around with you, give her everything she wants, otherwise the only thing that's gonna beat you to the ER will be the headlights on the ambulance carrying your broken body!"
"I'm talking, I'm on your side!" Patrick sputtered. "Please, just...this isn't easy. It's my brother."
His Adam's apple bobbed before he exhaled, beginning to explain. "His name is Anthony Innis. He wasn't always like this. Once he was just a normal person, other than the powers he had. He didn't hurt anyone, he was just living his life."
"And now he takes kids," Jessica pointed out. "He's no innocent or victim."
"He was once," Patrick muttered, looking down. "He had a wife, Stella. She wasn't like him...or you," he added, nodding towards Jessica. "She was normal, but Anthony loved her, worshipped her. Thought the sun and moon rose on her. So when she was murdered...it changed him."
He swallowed again. "The man who did it had powers too. Mind reading. He used it to lure Stella and...well, she died, because of him. Anthony wanted to track him, avenge her. I understood it...I supported it."
"Who was it?" Jessica demanded. "Does your brother have him with the kids too?"
Her mind was whirring with the implications of this; holding a murderer with children was definitely bad news. But Patrick shook his head.
"No, he's dead. Anthony got him almost six months ago. But...he didn't stop there. He wasn't satisfied. He didn't think it was enough to stop with Stella's killer. He...he started talking about all the potential of everyone with super abilities, how it was nothing for the world but danger, trouble and pain. How they should be outlawed...stripped away, to keep things like what was done to Stella from ever happening again."
Jessica narrowed her eyes at him. "But you said your brother has powers himself," she reminded. " so what, he's a damn hypocrite? All the power just to him? What the Hell is it he can do anyway?"
The man pressed his lips together, looking to the side briefly before answering. "That's the thing...most of the time, Anthony is normal. It's only around other people with abilities that his kicks in. He...he takes their powers on. The person with strength or flight or whatever, around Anthony, it goes off of him and onto him, for as long as he is near them."
It hit Jessica then as the implication sank in. This was how the man was getting the kids...and how he was keeping them, too. Around him, they truly were powerless.
Luke's eyes widened. "Wait, he can take powers just by being near someone?"
His mind took in with horror what could happen if he took Luke's invulnerability. He could be more dangerous than Luke ever thought before. Someone like that has to be stopped.
"Don't care about his super villain orgin story!" Luke punches his fist straight through a large dumpster. "Where is he?"
His eyes darting towards Luke, alarmed at his anger, Patrick practically squeaks his answer. "With the little boy! He wants to find a way to strip him of his power permanently, but so far it hasn't worked with the other kids. They-"
"How many does he have?" Jessica interrupted. "How many missing kids are we talking about?"
Patrick hesitated, his face tightening, and seemed to be bracing himself for the rage the two might give in response. "Right now...just one. The others...he says the others are...gone. He didnt mean to, but they...they're gone now."
Jessica didn't need him to elaborate. She got it; the kids were dead. Murdered. Sickened, she let her hands on Patrick slacker slightly as her stomach churned. It was clear now just how urgent this case was; if they didn't get to Gabriel, and fast, he would undoubtedly join the other victims, with another child taking his place.
"Take us to him," she ordered. "I don't care what you have to do, just get us there. Now."
She was speaking on impulse, driven by feeling and urgency. Logically, she knew she needed more information, because if the man could strip and take on the powers of her and Luke, it would require more than a spur of moment non-plan to defeat him and safely retrieve the kid. But logic wasn't in the driver's seat of her brain then.
"He will kill me," Patrick said desperately. "Can't I just give you directions...or, or..."
"No need for that, brother," a steely voice spoke from close behind Jessica. "I saved you the trouble and met you halfway."
Releasing Patrick abruptly, Jessica spun around, body tensed for a fight. The man who had entered the alley behind them was barely taller or larger in frame than she was, but he held himself with a confidence that implied a much more massive form. As Patrick gaped, face draining of color, and began to stammer, the man she assumed to be Anthony Innis drew closer, ignoring Jessica and Luke as he zeroed in on Patrick.
"I'm sorry to find you to be a traitor, brother. I thought you had an understanding of the reasons, the need in this world for my work. I'm very sorry to find out I was mistaken. You made your choice, and you knew very well how I would feel about it."