previously
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."
"Anthony," Patrick began as the man advanced towards him, already flinching.
Jessica shoved herself between him, but with one hand pushed harshly against her chest, he shoved her aside, hard enough that she fell to the alley ground. She gasped, the air knocked out of her, chest burning even as she struggled to get back to her feet. He advanced towards Patrick slowly and with purpose even as the man continued to plea.
Luke speeds to Jessica's aid to help her up, the weakness was subtle at first but the closer the man got the more Luke felt his power leaving him. Still after Jessica is back on her feet, Luke grabs the man by the shoulder, spinning him around , then quickly grabs him by the neck, lifting him straight off the ground.
"You killed little kids! I'm gonna break you in half!"
Actual contact with the man is all it took, Luke could feel the fatigue his muscles strain. Bewildered, Luke's arm starts to lower the man back to the ground. "What the hell??"
Jessica too is feeling the effects of Anthony's presence. She feels noticeably weaker, having taken his shove with far more pain than was normal. She felt small, somehow. Fuck, was this how her sister felt every day? No wonder she envied her!
She noted Luke's strain with horror, seeing that he too was being affected. Anthony shook him off without effort, knocking him with his arm as though he were an irritation, easily dismissed. He advanced on Patrick, seizing him by the chin, and squeezed until Jessica heard the man's jawbone crack.
Patrick choked and screamed simultaneously, blood flowing down his chin. He seemed to be nearly drowning in it. Horrified, Jessica ran forward, punching Anthony in the center of his lower back with all her strength. But the man didn't even flinch, and it was Jessica who cried out as she jarred her wrist and knuckle, pain spiking up her arm. Trying to shake it off, she grabbed his shirt with both hands and tugged, trying to force him back from Patrick.
Anthony released the other man, who crumbled in a heap to the alley ground, and rounded on her. Jessica barely saw the fist coming towards her, and when she tried to dodge, her reaction time was slower than usual. She felt her nose break with the impact, her cheek scraped immediately from his knuckle, and as she fell again, blood spurting from her nose, Anthony turned to Patrick.
"I wouldn't have wanted this. But you made your choice."
He took the man's throat in his hand, and Jessica watched, eyes bulging, as he crushed in his trachea.
Luke, getting back to his feet,was even more pissed after he looked at Jessica. Completely forgetting this monster has his invulnerability, he swings at the back of his head full force. Any other time this would kill a person but the impact shatters his fist and his wrist now. He falls back to his knees, gripping his broken hand. It's been years since he's felt actual pain, and he doesn't like it!
Her nose still bleeding, most of her body throbbing, Jessica painfully and with effort pushed herself back to her feet. She is still in shock not just from what Anthony had done to her, but what she just saw him do to Luke. It is dawning on her they are actually in danger. She stills, stunned, when Patrick's body stops moving, his eyes glazing over. When Anthony casually releases him, he turns to her and Luke almost with regret in his eyes.
"I suggest you back away. Perhaps we will meet again. It may be necessary, but for your own sake, I would hope not."
Luke, on his knees with his broken hand, looks up with a combination of fear and anger in his eyes.
"YOU'RE A COWARD! We'll never stop, not until that little boy is home safe and you pay for all those kids you murdered!" Making his way over to Jessica, he begins getting them both back to their feet. "You better kill us now or we will hunt you to hell and back! And we will kill you! No cops! No courts! One of us is gonna snap your damn neck! So you better hope we don't catch you!"
"You heard him," Jessica spat. She shrugged off Luke's hands, not wanting to appear weak or in need of help even as her body shook with suppressed pain and her voice came out slightly distorted through her broken nose. "We will never stop. You just insured your death warrant and made enemies you better fear. We will make you pay."
Anthony inclined his head in almosr gentlemanly acknowledgment, even daring to smile. Jessica lunged towards him, not giving a flying fuck how much she hurt herself again, just wanting to beat the shit out of him however possible. It didn't take more than another easy push to send her back against the alley wall, a few ribs cracking with the force of the impact. She slumped to the ground, trying to suck in breaths. She had broken ribs before, but she was astonished by how much more broken ribs hurt without supernatural strength and faster healing. She couldn't seem to think.
"Right, then I'm sure we will meet again. If you're lucky, I will be prepared for you, and you can resume your lives eventually, free of the risk you currently pose the world. But the more you pursue me, I'm afraid, the less time I will have to work on making this possible, and the more likely it is you won't resume any sort of life at all."
Without anything further, he jumped straight up, landing atop the closest building using Jessica's skill to do so. She could hear him jump down somewhere on its other side dimly in the distance. He was gone, leaving nothing behind him but the broken body of his brother and the two heroes who had failed in being heroic.
In the distance Luke can hear police sirens coming, most likely because he threw the dumpster into the street. He looks over at the dead body, then at Jessica in the condition she's in.
"We can't stay here, we can't be here in our conditions with a dead body!"
Lifting her up in his arms, he grunts when the pain shoots through his wrist and hand. Luke takes off running through the alley away from the incoming sirens and continues to run till the sound fades away. He didn't know if Jessica could make it with her injuries all the way to a hospital. Hell, can a hospital even do anything for her anyway?
"You still with me? What should we do now?"
Luke can actually feel his strength slowly returning, but it's doing nothing for his injuries. The pain is dulling but still hurts like hell.
"We should get you to a hospital!"
Jessica wants to protest Luke lifting her, but with broken ribs and slowed healing she is going to be slower than usual. She too hears the sirens and knows what that means; she doesn't have time to be hauled into a police station or jail cell about now. Gritting her teeth, riding out the pain still steadily pulsing through what seems like every part of her, she shakes her head at Luke, stubborn, irritated even by the suggestion of a hospital.
"No! I'm not going to a fucking hospital, I will jump straight out the window if you put me in one!"
Even to her own ears her words are still difficult to understand. She puts one hand over nose, trying to slow the bleeding, but does little but make more of a mess.
"Fuck...fuck..." She looks at Luke, trying to assess his condition. "Your hurting your hand more. Put me down, I'll be fine. I'm fine."
Trying to think, unsure of whether or not healing will start kicking in soon, she shakes her head, grimacing when this sends fresh pain through her nose.
"Fuck...okay, okay. Take my phone, call Trish. She's patched me up before, she can at least wrap my ribs. Put something on my nose and your hand. Then we can regroup and figure out how to get the fucker."
Luke stopped and let her down." You sure you can stand on your own? Your head has to be in a complete fog."
Going into his own pocket, he pulls out his phone.
"Don't worry, I have her number in my phone." He calls her number and holds the phone to Jessica's ear. "Tell her to have Danny double back and grab my truck, I don't want the cops to see it and trace me to that crime scene."
He turned his attention to his broken hand and grimaced in pain as he began to reset the bones in his hand and wrist. Each bone makes a crunching sound as he snaps it back. His healing didn't help with the pain one bit.
"Fuck! I'm gonna kill him! I'm going to fucking kill him!"
Jessica does waver a little when Luke sets her down but makes herself hold steady. The only time she can accept letting herself be carried is if it's to a bed for sex or if she's unconscious; she damn well is going to walk if she can make her legs go. She is secretly glad when Luke dials and holds the phone for her though. She doesnt want him to see her fumbling with shaky hands to make a simple damn call. As Trish answers, sounding surprised since Jessica so very rarely actually calls her, Jessica gets to the point without elaboration.
"Trish, Luke and I need you and Danny to come pick us up. We got our asses handed to us, we need some things taped up."
"Jessica, what happened, you're hurt?" Trish demanded, sounding alarmed. Jessica was definitely not in the habit of asking her for help, especially not over the phone, and she immediately took this seriously. "Where are you?"
"Alley by the pub at fifth street," Jessica answered, avoiding elaborating about her question, of being hurt. "Come get us, and hurry. Well, we're actually a block or two over, closer to Courtney Blvd. And Luke wants Danny to come too and get his truck to drive it home for him."
"I'll tell him," Trish promised, sounding no less worried. "We're on our way. Jess, please be careful. I love you."
Jessica didn't reply, hanging up. "They re coming."
Danny was in earshot of Trish when the call came. "Don't worry, we'll get the truck first and pick them up."
Danny orders a car to pick them up, using the app on his phone his able to track them remotely open and start the truck. "Ok which way?"
Luke's hand and wrist still agonized him even after he reset the bones. It's only a minute or two after Danny and Trish reach the truck, which was on the edge of the police crime scene, that they have to back away and circle the block to reach Luke and Jessica.
"Get in the truck!"
Luke helped Jessica despite knowing she'll hate the help. Danny speeds away, looking at Luke and Jessica in the rear view mirror.
"What the hell happened? Who could do that kind of damage to you?"
Jessica slumps back against the truck's seat, head against the window, still trembling. As Luke had predicted, she is light headed, barely conscious, and the reality of what had just happened and what it could mean for them is beginning to sink in. She doesn't answer, eyes beginning to glaze. Her hand and arm, nose, ribs, cheekbone, and every part of her body that had been jarred by hitting the wall and ground seemed to pulse steadily with pain. She keeps picturing the horror in Patrick Innis's eyes as his brother so easily crushes in his throat, and a panic attack is beginning to set in.
Trish, shocked and horrified as she is by Luke and Jessica's obvious injuries, is more immediately concerned by Jessica's distant, empty expression. It's one she recognizes, and she leans toward her, putting her fingertips very lightly on Jessica's undamaged cheek.
"Jess, look at me. See where you are. I'm here, Luke's here, Danny. Say your streets."
As Trish lightly tapped her cheek, drawing her focus, Jessica drew in a breath, her eyes starting to clear. She muttered a string of names under her breath, and once she had finished Trish took her hand back, still rigid with worry.
"Who did this? Luke, do you know?"
Luke leaned forward in his seat, almost doubled over in pain. "I got not a damn clue! The guy took my damn powers and beat us like a couple of step children!"
Danny pulls into the parking garage of building with the tunnel in it, he jumps out at first to help Luke but Luke stops him, indicating he can walk on his own.
"Don't worry about me, help Jessica."
Danny moves to the other side to help Trish with Jessica. "Hey, I know you don't want it but let me help you walk, Jessica. You won't make it if I don't help you."
Luke slams the truck door shut and shouts over it. "Let them help Jessica, we don't have time to be stubborn!"
Jessica still looks grim faced, her mouth a thin line and her eyes very dark, but she lets Danny and Trish move close to help. When Trish slides an arm around her waist to try to support her, she hisses, and Trish stills, apologetic.
"Ribs," Jessica grunted. "Ignore it, I'll be fine."
"I'm not ignoring it," Trish said firmly. "Danny, watch her ribs. Pick her up if you have to."
She moved her arm higher so it was wrapped more around Jessica's upper back and chest than her waist to support her with less strain to her ribs. She nods in response to Luke as they began to make their way into the building. Trish notes that escalators will be easier, but stairs would mean less people will see them.
"But who was it? Why did he do this? And how?" Trish asked.
"Can we get in the fucking building before you interview?" Jessica snapped. "Please!"
"We'll take my private elevator, don't need the guards asking questions."
Danny walks with Jessica and Trish to the door, types in his code, and proceeds through the hall to the elevator and up to the Penthouse. Coming out into the spare bedroom, he gently lays Jessica on the bed. He looks back at Luke, who slumped down into a chair.
"Luke can wait, let's deal with the more serious wounds of your sister," he said to Trish. " On the surface a broken nose, broken ribs."
"Need to check her for internal bleeding!" Luke shouts from across the room.
Danny has been on more battlefields than he wants to think about. The only good thing about that is he knows how to triage a person.
"Trish, in our room there is a chest with a first aid bag, grab it."
The other benefit of being the Ironfist, Danny can to a limit use his own Chi to heal, but doing so he'll lose his ability to use the ironfist for a day or two, and he may not heal someone entirely.
"Jessica, I can stop the internal bleeding, but I can't do anything about your ribs or your nose. When I do this it's gonna hurt at first, me passing my chi into you is gonna feel like lava. It will only be a few seconds but it's still gonna be painful. Do you want me to proceed?"
Jessica is starting to feel dizzy again, enough that she doesn't say anything or protest when they lay her on Danny's bed. Trish casts another worried look towards her and Luke before hurrying to get the first aid kit Danny indicated. She returns quickly and hands it to him, then stands close, her brow furrowed.
"Be careful, Danny. You know how, you're sure? Will it hurt you? Or her if you mess up?"
Jessica nodded tightly in response to Danny. "Yes...do it."
"I'll just need to sleep for a few days, usually in battle there are healers near by so I wouldn't have to do this. Taking myself out the fight isn't a good thing. But we don't have a healer and there is no battle. When I pass out, don't panic, I'll be fine. Just finish with Jessica, then help Luke."
Danny's right fist starts glowing. He takes a long deep breath, holding his open hand over Jessica's ribs. Pouring in his chi, i's just like he described it, hot lava pouring into her, the energy seeking out the internal wounds and forcing them to heal. Using his chi like this is far more draining than using it to destroy. It is after all easier to destroy than it is to create.
After 20 seconds Danny collapses to the floor. Luke gets up and picks Danny off the floor, looking to Trish.
"I'll put him into your bed, please take care of Jessica."
Trish regards him with increased worry for a few second as Jessica consents, but accepts the other's decision, trusting he can handle it. She sits on the bed on the other side of Jessica, watchful of both.
As Danny focused on healing her, Jessica's body stiffened, and she screwed her eyes shut, choking back a scream at the burning sensation flooding through her. Her body's instinct was to thrash, her mind's instrinct to scream aloud from the pain of it, but Jessica held her breath and bit the inside of her cheeks, making herself endure. Gradually the heat he is pushing inside of her subsides, and she realizes she can move and breathe more easily. The pain in her ribcage and nose is still present, but Jessica no longer feels like she is struggling to remain conscious and aware. She tries to sit up, intending to get out of bed, but Trish pushes her back gently.
"You idiot, he didn't make himself sick healing you just so you could immediately undo it. Stay put."
Biting her lip, Trish watched Luke carry Danny's supine form, face lined with concern, anxiety, and empathy. She wants to go to him, to attend to him, but he had assured her he was fine, so she tried to trust.
She set to work on Jessica, first pushing up her shirt to assess the state of her ribs, and noticed the dark bruising forming. She taped them up carefully, then inspected her nose. She handed her an ice pack to hold on it, then worked to splint it, instructing her to sit up with her back against the bed's headboard to keep it elevated. Then she turned to Luke.
"What can I do, where are you hurt most?"
Luke smiles at Trish. "Thanks, I managed to do a piss poor job of resetting the bones in my wrist and hand, if you can wrap it for me, it should heal completely in a day or two."
He looks over at the job she did on Jessica. "She wasn't kidding, you do know your stuff when it comes to bandaging up dumbass folks like us. We got sloppy and over confident, thought we were the big bad wolves! Should know by now there is always a bigger badder wolf! We won't be sloppy again!"
Luke shook his head, unable to take his eyes off of Jessica. "I know she doesn't need my protection but it still kills me that I failed her.I can't do that again!"
"Of course I will. Let me know if I hurt you," Trish says. Usually this would be a ridiculous request, given their vast difference in size and strength, but she is sincere. She is very careful as she wraps his hand, glancing over at both Danny and Jessica periodically to check on them.
"It isn't your fault, I'm sure," she tried to comfort him. "I'm sure you did everything you could, I know you would never let her be hurt if you could stop it. Jess doesn't exactly always aid peoples efforts at protecting her."
"Hey, screw you," Jessica muttered, but she isn't serious in tone. Lifting her head, she backs Trish up. "She's right, it wasn't your fault. I'm the idiot that kept trying to attack him. Fuck, that was...I've never seen someone like that."
She shook her head, still pale and shaken, but her eyes are sharper now. "He took our powers," Jessica explained at Trish's question from before, even as she opened her mouth to ask yet again. "Not just that, took them and took them on for himself. So when he hit us, or we hit him, we had no strength, but he did."
Trish's eyes got huge, horrified. "But...then he could have killed you!"
Jessica shrugged, her mouth pressing into a thin line. "The man killed kids and his own brother, so not surprising."
"So why didn't he? He's ranted about how we're wasting his time and messing up his schedule, but when we told him no, when we promised him we'd never stop till he paid for what he did to those kids, he didn't kill us! I would have! So either he's so sure we can't touch him or he's an idiot! And after today, thinking you're untouchable is a mistake for us and now for him. Especially if he thinks having my powers is going to protect him. If anyone is aware of weakness in those powers it's me! Ask Danny about that, he's the first person to bring me to my knees since I got my powers!" Luke muttered.
"How?" Jessica asked sharply, narrowing her eyes as she turned to look at Luke. "I thought you had no weaknesses. What did he do?"
But although her voice is hard, she is speaking in fear for him. Seeing Luke being hurt had badly shaken her, more than she herself being hurt. She had thought Luke to be the one person in her life who was invulnerable.
She started to try to move off the bed, but Trish put her hands on her shoulders.
"Don't even think about it, Jessica. Sit your ass down right now!"
"What are you, hospital security? I'm fine," Jessica protested, but Trish didn't let go.
"I am today, and I say sit down. Now."
Jessica was going to ignore her, but when she saw the tears in Trish's eyes, she relented. "Fine."
Luke tries to laugh. "Well he literally knocked the crap out of me with that fist of his. I learned that with enough force I can be concussed. See my skin is invulnerable and I can heal quickly but my organs, my brain are all just like anyone else'. A strong enough shockwave can hurt me. Problem is the only person that's ever been able to do that even slightly is unconscious."
Luke looks at Jessica sternly when she keeps moving. "You stay put or I swear to God, broken hand or not, I will put you over my knee!"
"What are you, my father?" Jessica scoffed, rolling her eyes. "I got the message, I'm sitting. Even though if you ask me, what we need to be doing is going after the son of a bitch before he takes another child."
"Don't be stupid," Trish burst out with. A few tears escape before she wipes them away angrily. "You might not care what happens to you, but other people do."
Jessica shifts, uncomfortable as usual around emotion, and exhaled, reaching to touch Trish's
hand. Trish took it in hers, squeezing gently while minding her bruised knuckles, and got herself back in control, although she kept glancing worriedly towards Danny.
"Okay, I got it. Okay," Jessica muttered. "I'll use old fashioned, lame computer research for a little bit. Can I at least get a damn drink?" She looked at Luke hopefully, wanting not only the drink, but for him to come closer.
Luke walks to the bed and lies next to Jessica.
"Trish, thanks for the help, but you should go to Danny, make sure he's the first face he sees when he wakes up."
He put his arm around Jessica."Well, that went all kinds of wrong. Hope you got a plan B?"
Danny is sleeping in the other room, slowly rebuilding his Chi, but it will still be hours before he'll be awake and maybe a day or two before he can use the ironfist again in any way. Trish nods and leaves the room, first telling them to get her if either need anything. Jessica has no intention of doing so.
Lying down beside Danny, Trish wraps her arm around his waist and rests her cheek on his chest.
"Thanks for helping Jess," she whispered. "I love you. Please be okay."
Jessica leaned into Luke, letting her head rest against his shoulder. "Seeing as I didn't know the man existed until ten minutes ago, no. Fuck, this is a mess." She paused, then asked with a guilty glance towards the room's door, "is Danny really going to be okay?"
Kissing the top of Jessica head, Luke nodded. "I've never seen him use his power like that. It's usually him knocking the crap out of people. But when I put him in bed I checked his pulse. It was steady, his breathing was normal. I'm more worried about you.I love you, Jessica but you smell like old beer and maybe urine." He sniffed his own shirt. "No,the urine is me. Huh. Must have fell in something and honestly I'm too damn tired to do anything about it."
Danny somehow feels Trish's presence and still asleep, slides his arm around her. Trish cuddles closer to Danny, closing her eyes. She isn't tired physically, but emotionally she is strained, and she lets herself give into it a little, crying softly as she continues to curl into him.
Jessica sniffed Luke's shoulder, then attempted to wrinkle her nose before realizing this was a bad move and flinching in pain.
"Yeah, you reek, dude. Definitely rolled around in something rank." She sighed, her voice dropping as she admits, "I thought...I thought he might hurt you. Worse, I mean. I...I didn't know what to do."
She had reacted on impulse bred of emotion, and now with the immediate danger died down, the emotion is less sharp and urgent, but not absent. With physical pain now manageable, anxiety, fear, and anger are threatening to rear up and take control.
"I dont have a plan. I don't know what the hell to do, and I need to."
Luke softly laughs. "Maybe my smelly shirt will take him out, that or a nuke." He pauses a second. "Thing is, I was ok if I died if it meant you didn't. Seeing you get hurt was scarier than anything he could do to me. You think Trish is ok? She seemed really shaken up but I get the feeling she's kind of pro at this. Maybe she should have been a doctor instead of a actress."
Closing his eyes, Luke tried to ignore how badly he smells. "I'm just gonna shut my eyes for a minute."
It doesn't take long for him to fall asleep.
"I don't want you to do that," Jessica said emphatically. "Try to protect me at your own expense of life. I want you alive. I need you."
She looks away, embarrassed and flushed, as she realizes what she just said. "I hope Trish will be okay," she mumbled, sighing. "She's been though a lot. I've put her through a lot. I just hope she's strong enough now not to fall back to self destruct to cope."
She could be talking about her self as much as Trish but doesnt notice. "She's patched me up a lot over the years, and her self sometimes even. Her mother beat her, you know," she said quietly. "Before I stopped her."
As Luke fell asleep, Jessica kept her arm around him, too wired to join him in sleep. She rubs his arm, alert and anxious, mind spinning. On impulse, mouth dry, she leans in near his ear, barely breathing out the words that choke her when she even thinks them.
"I love you, Luke."