Matt Murdock, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Colleen Wing all staggered through the door of an IHOP. This was the first place they could find that was open at 3 in the morning, after making sure they weren't being chased of course.

"Hi," said the lady at the front, with not an ounce of joy in her soul. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, table for four," Matt said.

She pointed at the booth right behind her. "Go ahead."

The four of them sat down. Luke was the only one to thank her as she handed out menus.

"Jess," he said. "Are you sure you're okay. We can get you to a hospital."

"I'm fine. I just need some food in my stomach."

"Were they starving you?" Colleen asked.

Jess nodded her head from side to side. "Eh, kinda."

"So what," Matt said. "What happened? Why'd you get taken?"

Jessica sighed. "...Berkhart wanted to know what I'd found out about him. Probably wanted me out of the way too."

"Wait," Colleen said. "Berkhart, he's-..."

"Yeah. He's still around."

"But, we- we saw-"

"Movie magic."

"Hold on," Luke cut in. "What are you two talking about?"

"We," Colleen said. "I mean- I-"

"We tracked Berkhart down to a warehouse," Jessica said. "Like, a week ago. Before all this shit started. Colleen thought that she had killed him, but that was something fake that Berkhart used to get us off his scent."

"Oh," Luke said. "Colleen, I'm so sorry."

"So you saw him," Matt said. "You're sure he's alive."

"Couldn't exactly run a DNA test, but yeah. I saw him."

"And that means that, whatever it is he's planning, it's not over yet."

"I mean, obviously," Luke said. "Going after Harlem the way he has."

"I thought maybe he was just doing it cause he was mad that we got his buildings taken away," Jessica said. "Now I'm not so sure."

"So, we just have to find him again," Colleen said. "We- We find him and we-"

The waitress was back. "What can I get for you?"

"Yeah," Jessica pulled her menu back up. "Can I get the breakfast sampler."

"Ah," Matt cut in. "I wouldn't have the eggs here."

Jess shot him a look. "Fine, whatever, give me a fuckin- big-ass, the full stack of pancakes."

"What drink with that?"

"If I tip well, will you go out and find a convenience store and bring me back a beer."

The waitress looked at her with tired, tired eyes.

"Just a water."

"Can I get the french toast plate?" Colleen asked.

"Original?" the waitress asked.

"Yeah. With orange juice."

"The uh-" Matt didn't even bother with the menu. "Your, regular burger. No onions. Water as well."

"Just a coffee for me," Luke said. "Decaf."

"Alright," said the waitress. "It'll be out in a minute." And she left.

Luke leaned forward. "Whatever we do, we should figure it out soon."

"What's he going to do," Jessica said. "Berkhart's a loser, he hasn't been able to do shit except - mildly terrorize some people."

"Yeah, and those people don't feel safe in their own homes. They're being forced out, I met a family who's moving out of state because even if its inept, people are being hurt by this. They're scared. We need to do something."

"Thought you were the one telling me to give it a break," said Matt.

"Yeah, I want everyone to stop getting hurt. Including you."

The waitress came back with a tray, putting a stop to whatever was going to come from that. She gave Colleen her OJ and Luke his coffee, then handed Matt and Jess empty cups and started pouring from a pitcher full of water and ice.

She tucked the tray under her arm and turned to go.

"Wait, don't leave yet," Jessica said.

The waitress turned to look at her. Jess took her glass and chugged the whole thing in a matter of seconds.

"Hit me again. Actually, can you just leave the pitcher."

The waitress gave Jessica a look. And then decided to not question it and left the pitcher behind. Jessica chugged the whole of that as well.

"You alright?" Luke asked.

"Just great," Jessica gasped out when there was no water left to drink. "Listen, you guys can go do whatever you want about Berkhart, I'm going home to pass out and sleep for a-..."

The three others turned to look at Jessica. She was frozen, staring down at the table.

"Hey," Colleen said. "Jess?"

"...That's what his plan is," she muttered.

"Huh?" Luke said. "Wait, what?"

Jessica looked up. "I figured out what Berkhart's plan is."

"What is it?" Colleen said. "Don't just say that and leave it."

"I- okay." Jess scratched her head. "At the beginning, we were- we were wondering why- why he had put those properties under the name of Quentin Beck."

"I remember. It was a fake name, wasn't it?"

"It was but it was a fucking stupid fake name."

"So what," Luke said. "The guy sucks, you said it yourself."

"He blew one of the buildings up, if he was able to mess around with property deeds like that, he can't be that stupid."

"How did he do that by the way?" Colleen asked.

"Real estate's all, weird right now," Matt said. "Post-blip's been a mad scramble to figure out who owns what. If you knew what you were doing-"

"Exactly," said Jessica. "He had to know what he was doing. So why Quentin Beck."

"Cause he's a villain fanatic?" Colleen said. "We found that other one under Zemo's name."

"Know what Beck and Zemo have in common. No families."

"Yeah," said Luke. "That's why the state reclaimed them when they found out."

"...Which kills the trail," Matt said. "He's laundering the property."

"Steal the property, get the state to take it back and sell it off, and the question of how Quentin Beck ended up purchasing buildings in Harlem goes under. Cause it doesn't matter anymore."

"Wait, that doesn't make any sense," said Colleen. "He still needs to buy it back, why steal it in the first place then?"

"You know when those properties go to auction."

"I think it was," Matt started. "Sometime this week?"

"In the middle of a supervillain attack." Jessica looked around, to see if anyone else was picking this up. "People are panicking, they're moving out, no one wants to live here anymore. I'll bet my ass that property values are through the fucking floor right now."

"You're kidding me," Luke said. "It's a house flipping scheme?"

"Buy low, sell high."

"But what's going to make the property values go back up?" Matt asked. "People aren't going to get over this overnight. Unless he's playing the long game-"

"Which he could be," Colleen said.

"If he had the money to pay that many mortgages, he could've just bought a building," said Jessica. "This stinks of a get rich quick scheme."

"But he'd need something big and showy to recapture public trust any time soon," said Matt. "Something that immediately, gets people feeling safe again. Something like- like..."

Jessica said it. "Like the Defenders of New York saving the day."

The four of them looked between each other. Not saying a word.

The waitress returned with their food.

Matt and Colleen were still processing the revelation, they didn't touch their meals. Jessica didn't wait though, she went at her stack immediately.

"So..." Luke started. "So, what happens now?"

"If these guys get arrested," Matt said. "Then we're playing into Berkhart's hands. Nothing sticks to him."

"But we can't just do nothing," Colleen said.

"We need some way to lure him out into the open," said Luke. "We need to make it stick. Right now, we're the only ones who even know that he's behind this."

Jessica swallowed the giant lump of buttery bread matter. "When I talked to him – during, ya know. He seemed... theatric. Showy. Pain in the fucking ass."

"Okay," said Matt. "And?"

"He wants the fight between, you all and the goon squad, he wants it to be a production. Like a blockbuster fucking movie, the good guys and the bad guys face off and shit. I don't know if that was just a part of the plan or if he's actually like that but, if you want a way to lure him out, I think the way to do it is to make him a part of the production."

"You're still," Colleen said. "What?"

"She's saying," said Matt. "That as publicly known superheroes, we go public with our information. If we make Berkhart an expected part of the battle that he wants to happen, then he doesn't have a choice but to show up."

"Hang on," said Luke. "If we throw his name out there, doesn't he just turn tail and hide?"

"We don't use his name," said Jessica. "We call him by what he wants to hear. We say that the person behind the attacks is Mysterio."

The table was quiet. Everyone here seemed exhausted.

Matt quietly took a bite from his burger. "Alright. So how do we do this?"

"People may know who we are," said Luke. "But it's not like we can just call a conference at a moment's notice."

"I mean, we're still like in the public consciousness, aren't we?" said Colleen. "Talking about how people love to watch superhero battles. We were just in one."

Luke and Matt turned to look at Colleen.

She looked between them. "What?"

"Were you discharged?" asked Luke. "Or did you just sneak out the window?"

Colleen wiped a piece of french toast in syrup and popped it in her mouth. "The window was faster."

"If you get officially discharged," said Matt. "And someone leaks that information to the news... They might want a statement."

"What? No. Why do I have to do it?"

"You're in the best position to. Plus, you're more forward than, you know, me or Jess."

"Come on. I hate talking to the press. It's all tabloids and shit."

"Sorry Wing," said Luke. "You might just have to take one for the team on this one."

She sighed and looked at Jessica. "Are you sure this will work?"

Jessica shoved another mass of pancake into her mouth. "No. But it's the best I got."

"Great." Colleen ate more of her french toast. "Great."

Kara Kilgrave laid back against the hotel pillow, pushing an ice pack against the back of her head. Penthouse of the Hilton, Park Avenue, not exactly Times Square but she was trying to lay a little bit low.

Her head was pounding, despite the ice, and the tylenol. Stupid superheroes. Her powers sucked. Luke Cage probably wouldn't have been hurt by something like this.

The news prattled on from the massive tv hanging from the wall. No talk about the skirmish in Jersey, so that was nice. Even though she'd been forced to pack up and move out in a hurry.

Kara hated working with Shappe. And John. And Carl. All of them, they were all so gross, just a bunch of gross old guys who couldn't stop talking about weird shit. Up until this point she'd told herself that it was worth putting up with them, so she could get her hands on Jessica Jones. So she could finally... put her dad's memory to rest. And then she had the chance and she didn't go for it and now it was all ruined.

She didn't want to put up with the rest of these creeps anymore, so she left. Didn't burn the bridge behind her, but Berkhart at least understood that she needed some space. And she wasn't really needed anymore. She didn't need the money, she didn't care, she didn't care what they did now she just didn't want them to be anywhere near her.

Stupid superheroes. Stupid supervillains. Stupid, this whole thing was stupid. This was a stupid idea, Kara was so fucking stupid, what the hell did she think she was going to do. Against the Devil of Hell's Kitchen and the Immortal Iron Fist and the rest of this stupid group. Thought she would just tell them to piss off and that would be that. Stupid, she was so stupid.

Kara took a deep breath. Her head hurt. It hurt so bad.

She opened her eyes. Looking back at her from the tv was, that iron fist chick. She was confused.

The banner underneath her said "Colleen Wing/Iron Fist Discharged from Hospital". Guess she finally walked off those bullet wounds. Actually wait, wasn't that just like a few days ago?

"We understand that the police have – been doing their own, uhm, investigation," she said. "And we respect that. It's the primary desire of, uh, vigilantes like us to allow, and to help, the police do their jobs. And uh- But, we, the Defenders and me and, us, we've been doing an investigation of our own. Careful not to uhm, disturb..." She took a moment to steady herself. Didn't seem to like being in front of the cameras, that one. "It is our belief that the person behind these attack in Harlem is Mysterio."

Kara blinked.

The reporters on the news started yelling and swarming her. She had to speak up to be heard above them. "And- And we believe, that he will spearhead an attack himself in the coming days."

The video ended and the anchor started talking. Kara was too zoned out to hear him though.

She dug out her phone and dialed the number that she had to memorize for this whole thing. One ring, then Berkhart picked up.

"Hey," Kara said. "Are you watching the news right now?"

"Are you kidding me right now?" Misty Knight said.

Luke Cage had attempted to corner her as she passed through her office. He ended up getting cornered himself. He back up a few steps with hands raised. "Hey, come on-"

"You circumvented me, you kept me in the dark, and you leaked information to the public."

"Misty-"

"You and your super pals only operate because of the grace of the police department, don't forget that."

"Misty." He clapped his hands down on her shoulders. "I came here to tell you what's up and ask for your help."

Misty stared up at him. She brushed his hands off. "You couldn't have said anything before your little press release?"

Luke rubbed his face. "Look, I'm sorry. We found the guy who's behind all this but there's no evidence, so we're trying to lure him out."

"Yeah, Mysterio, right?"

"No, it's not him. It's some pretender who wants people to think he's the guy. That's why Colleen called him out like that."

"You got a name?"

Luke sighed. "His name's Daniel Berkhart. Male, Caucasian, late 30s, tall, black hair, medium length, strong chin. But look, like I said, if he gets taken in now, nothing's going to stick."

"And you want to set up a sting."

"I mean... yeah, kind of."

"You want the NYPD, to help you with a sting."

"...Yeah."

Misty took a deep breath into her hands. And when she looked back up, she was wearing her best fake smile. "Okay. What's the plan?"

"The guy, Berkhart, we think he wants to use a superhero fight to distract and aid in laundering properties for a profit."

"So he's the 'Quentin Beck' who owned all those buildings."

"Yeah. We're trying to call him out so that he shows up. But if he sees cop cars, he's going to vanish through one of those spots. We get him to the fight. We take out John Ohnn. And then he loses his escape route, and you can make the arrest."

"Alright." She sighed. "Alright. It's not a bad plan. I'll send it up the chain and see if I can get anyone else to agree with you. But are you sure you're right on this?"

"No... But I believe that we are."

Colleen finally made it back home. She propped her sword against the door and collapsed back on her bed. She took in the familiar softness, the lived-in smell of wood and food. It contrasted heavily against the stiffness of the hospital cots, and how everything there smelled like disinfectant.

It was hard to process everything. She hadn't killed Berkhart. It was a setup. Berkhart was still alive so she hadn't killed him.

This was all true. But it was really hard to shake the feeling properly. Like... he could have died. Just because he didn't doesn't mean that she didn't mess up. What if there had been a person there who wasn't trying to trick her? Or if he had been a single step closer? She remembered all the things Davos did, she knew what the iron fist could do to a human body.

If she was being honest with herself, her chi wasn't out of balance because of the act of killing someone. It was out of balance because of the fear that she could.

Danny could probably help her with this. He'd been living with and using the iron fist a lot longer than she had. But, that would involve calling Danny. That would involve talking to Danny. That would involve trying to circumnavigate that thing that happened last time in order to force him to try and resolve her own issues.

She covered her face with her hands. This was painful. She didn't want to call him, and she didn't want to just sit here and live with the uncertainty.

She took a deep breath. And then she dug out her phone and called him.

Turned out that it didn't matter. Danny didn't pick up. She didn't know if he was just busy or if he was avoiding her as much as she was avoiding him. And she couldn't bring herself to start airing her baggage to his answering machine, so she just left a generic "call me back when you get the chance" message.

She pressed the hang up button, let her arm flop down to the side and stared up at her ceiling.

God dammit.

Matt slowly tapped his way into the Nelson and Murdock office. He was apprehensive about this encounter, but it was probably something he had to do.

Karen hadn't even looked up from the stack of papers she was shifting through.

"Nelson and Murdock," came her automatic response. Her eyes glanced up. Her heart skipped, she had to double take. "Matt?"

Matt gave his best apologetic smile. "Hi Karen."

"Matt! Oh my God!" Immediately she was on her feet, rushing towards him. "Are you okay? Are you- what- what happened where have you been?"

From the office over, Foggy got to his feet and ran for the door to see what was going on. And when he saw, he stood in the door, staring at him.

"Matt," he said.

"Foggy," Matt said back.

"You look like shit."

"Yeah, well, it's not just on the outside." Matt stepped over and took a seat in one of the guest chairs.

"Are you here to get back to work? Or are you here to tell us why you won't be around for the near future?"

"Well, um, I probably could put in a day here. If you need me. But uh," he tapped his knuckles on the arm of the chair. "Mostly, I'm here to apologize."

Foggy's heart sped up a bit, his brow furrowed, his jaw tightened a smidge. Not quite anger, but he seemed... upset.

"I know you're, probably tired of hearing it. I realize I apologize a lot."

"Yeah. You do."

"Guys," Karen said. "We don't- Matt, I'm just happy to see you alive, you went missing for days."

"It's fine," said Matt. "No, Foggy's right. I just, I want to say this. I want to apologize because, I got used. I became so single-minded that I became predictable. That someone was able to use me to further their own goals. And people got hurt, because of me. When I could've been in here doing some real good. You were right, Foggy. Every single time you told me that."

"You know," he said. "A few years ago, I thought I'd never get tired of hearing you say that."

"But, it's all fine now, right?" said Karen. "You're back. You're safe. You can tell us about what happened out there later, but for now-"

"But," said Foggy. "There's a but, isn't there Matt? There's always a but when you come back to apologize like this."

Matt sighed. "I need to go out. One last time. I need to fix this mess that I helped to make. But after that, I'll take a break. I'll put away the mask for a while, I promise."

Matt looked towards Foggy. Foggy huffed. "Go on. Do it. I'm not your keeper, and honestly, I've given up trying to be. You're always going to be an asset, but we can get by without you if you're going to be gone."

Matt nodded. "I understand. After this I- I'll try my best to make it up to you. I will, make this up to you. No matter what it takes."

"I mean," said Karen. "Slow down here a second. Maybe you could work on your life balance a little but, Hell's Kitchen always needs people like you. Are you sure taking a break's a good idea?"

Matt took a deep breath. "I think it'll be fine," he smiled up at her. "It's not like I'm the only superhero in Manhattan."

Jessica Jones sat in her chair, behind her desk, and drank.

She sent Gillian home. Actually, she'd been surprised that Gillian had still been showing up during her kidnapping stint. Said that her schedule was backed up now. Jessica told her to call them all up and tell each one to fuck off personally.

She didn't do that, but Jessica didn't actually want her to. But she needed a day. Maybe a week. She needed time to drink and stare at the wall and try and shove everything back down where it belonged.

There was a knock at the door. She was really starting to resent that door. Nothing good ever came from it.

"We're closed," she yelled.

Jessica didn't recognize the voice. "I have a message for Jessica Jones."

"Did you not hear me."

"It's a message from Kara Kilgrave."

Fuck. Fuck! God dammit, she just wanted to be left alone for one day.

She stood, took the bottle with her, and walked off to the side. If the message was 'bullets', she wasn't keen on receiving it.

"What does she want," Jessica said.

"She said, if you and your friends want a rematch, same time same place."

Same time same place, like Jess even remembered where or when the fuck she'd even stumbled across that massacre to begin with. "Got it. Thanks."

"Okay... Bye."

Footsteps down the hall. Jessica cracked the door open to peak out. Watched a woman in a business suit clack her heels back to the elevator.

Same time same place. Goddammit. She pulled out her phone and started texting the others.

Let's just get this over with.

Same time, same place. That's what Jessica's message had said.

Luke Cage reread the text again, making sure he didn't miss anything. Making sure he was at the right place at the right time.

He was nervous. Always looking over his shoulder. Not that he didn't expect a bunch of conniving, manipulative, wannabe supervillains to keep their word but, well he was nervous.

The police had a soft perimeter around the area. Nothing explicit, but a few undercover cops were stationed about, warning civilians away. Luke hated that they had to do this in such a public area. But that was what Berkhart wanted, and they were playing by his rules right now.

He started walking towards the meeting spot. It was a little hard to retrace his steps, but he knew this neighborhood like the back of his hand. He'd find his way sooner or later.

Jessica Jones fell into step beside him.

"Hey," he said. "You showed."

"Surprise," she said with her usual enthusiasm. "Figure if I get enough of these assholes arrested, they'll stop coming around to my office."

"That's all?"

"Eh." She shoved her hands into her jacket pocket. "Revenge for the kidnapping and torture doesn't hurt much either."

The two walked in silence for another couple blocks. She was following his lead.

"You think this is gonna work," asked Jess.

"I hope so. If we can't catch Berkhart, I'd at least like his goons off the street. I'd like Harlem to go back to normal. I'd like people to not live their lives in fear."

"Oh. Yeah. I mean, I was just worried about looking like an idiot for coming up with this whole idea. But that's good too."

They rounded a corner, and nearly ran into Colleen. She jumped back, hand already on her sword.

"Jesus," said Jess. "Try not to slice your only backup."

"Sorry," said Colleen. "This place gives me the creeps."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," said Luke. "These spots, I can't stop thinking about when someone's gonna jump out of one."

"God dammit, I wasn't even thinking about that," said Jessica.

They moved deeper into Harlem.

"So, you think this is gonna work?" asked Colleen.

"I already asked," said Jess.

"Sorry. I'm just-"

"Yeah. We're all on edge. I got it. Thanks."

"So- Okay."

"We're gonna get through this," Luke said. "It'll be fine, Berkhart will show up, everything will go like we planned it, and this whole thing will be behind us by tomorrow."

"Wishful thinking," said Colleen.

"Has it ever gone like that," Jessica said. "In the years you've been doing this hero shit."

"I mean," Luke said. "Depends on your definition of 'according to plan'."

"So everything's going to go wrong and we're going to get our shit kicked in. Got it."

"Yeah, maybe." Luke turned a corner. "We should be getting close now."

"Matt's still not here though," said Colleen. "Should we wait for him?"

"Uh..." Luke scratched his head. Saw something move out of the corner of his eye.

He almost punched it before realizing it was Matt.

"I'm here," Matt said.

"Oh Jesus," Jessica jumped back.

"Dude," Luke said. "Stop doing that."

"Get ready," Matt said. "They're close."

He nodded to the center of the street. A particularly dense cluster of holes sat there. It's not something he would've noticed had it not been pointed out to him, but... yeah, that looked pretty suspicious.

Conditions weren't idea. Soft perimeter or no, people were still lingering around. Phones were up, photos were being snapped. Slowly a wide ring was being formed.

"That's not good," said Colleen.

"Hey guys," Jessica called out. "Can you all fuck off? We're kind of doing something here."

"It ain't your street, lady!" some guy yelled back.

"Well, I tried."

"People," said Luke. "This is seriously dangerous. For your own safety, please, clear out. There's gonna be guns, there's gonna be rogue enhanced looking to cause some collateral, I don't wanna see anyone hurt."

The crowd dispersed... kind of. A number of people took that and left, more than a few at a good sprint. But many still stayed behind, if anything ducking into alleys or behind benches and poking their heads out to watch.

"Come on, I'm serious here," said Luke.

"Yeah we know," said another guy in the crowd. "We live here man, we've been dealing with these motherfuckers more than you have."

Luke sighed. "I mean..."

"It was a good attempt," said Jessica. "Really. More than I would do."

"I don't like this," said Colleen. "Them plus these guys, that's a lot to worry about."

"We'll figure something out," said Luke.

Matt turned to the rest of the group. "They're here."

"Defenders of New York!" a voice called out from the hole. It was louder than Luke was expecting, and carried better too. That alone was enough to send most of the rest of the crowd running. That and a figure emerging from the center-most hole.

Luke got his fists up. Matt, Jess, and Colleen fanned out around him. Colleen drew her sword. Matt, his clubs.

John Ohnn stepped out, arms held casually behind his back. That black spot in the center of his face swept over Luke and his group, as well as what remained of the crowd still filming this. Following him out was Joss Shappe, walking normally for once. He still hadn't changed out of his prison jumpsuit, but he had at least put on his helmet and pads. A machete held in one hand, a police baton in the other. Then was Carl Burbank, his right hand already a pistol. Then came Kara Kilgrave. As soon as she stepped out, she moved to the back of the group. Her eyes were locked on Daredevil, clearly she was afraid of catching another baton to the head.

And finally, out of the blackness, stepped Daniel Berkhart. An emerald green suit with striped, purple tie. A matching purple cape, clasped to his breast with golden broaches in the shape of the all seeing eye. And a glass dome covering his face.

Berkhart continued. "So wonderful of you to make your appointment on schedule. I know you hero types enjoy showing up fashionably late."

"Told you he was a pompous asshole," Jess muttered.

"I'm afraid however, that this is your last battle. You are no match for the might of Mysterio. I, and my Sinister Six!"

They all counted in their head. Luke knew they all did the same thing.

"But there's only five of you," said Colleen.

"Why'd you have to say that," said Jessica. "Why'd you have to give him that."

"Whatever," said Luke. "Just bring out your last Halloween store reject so we can beat them too."

Berkhart scoffed. He waved an arm towards Kara. "Ms. Kilgrave, if you would."

"Yeah, come on out," she said.

Matt cocked his head to the side. "Huh."

A sixth figure did emerge from the black spot. Tousled, curly blond hair with a short beard and mustache. His forest green jacket sat over nothing, and was partially zipped down. Revealed across his chest, was a large, dragon tattoo.

Danny Rand cracked his knuckles.

"Danny?" Colleen said. "Danny!"

She moved forward. Jess only barely caught a hold on the back of her hood.

"Colleen, wait," she said. "He's under Kara's control."

Luke looked at Danny's eyes. Even from a distance, he could've told you something was off. The eyes that used to be full of fire and hunger, were now listless and passive. The exact opposite of his body, which took his stance.

"This complicates things," said Matt, stepping forward and giving one of his clubs a spin. "But not by much. Stick to the plan. I'll focus John."

"I'll try to..." Jess said. "Shake Kara. See if I can't kill her concentration and get Danny free."

"Okay," Colleen said. She was trying to center herself. "Okay. We'll take the bruisers."

Luke nodded to her. Then turned back to Berkhart and his gang.

"Mysterio!" He motioned to himself with both hands. "Bring the noise."

Berkhart crossed his arms. "Finish them quickly. We have work to do."

There was a burst of air. Predictably, Shappe was the first to enter the brawl. Luke stepped to the side, gave Jess enough cover that Shappe bounced off of his chest instead of impaling her. Jess stepped out from behind him and hit Shappe with a haymaker that sent him spinning on his toes.

Burbank raised his gun hand and fired. Colleen ran in, swiped the shot out of the air, and gave Luke enough time to charge him. Ohnn stepped back into a hole and popped out right behind Colleen, aimed a sucker punch right into the back of her head. Colleen stumbled. Matt threw a baton at Ohnn's head. Ohnn leaned back out of the way and the baton flew past. Jessica had to grab it out of the air before it hit her. But she tossed it back.

Luke attempted to tackle Burbank, he braced his arms and caught Luke. With his one free hand he gripped one of Luke's hands and blocked the other with his elbow. His pistol snuck up and shot Luke, point blank in the chin. He staggered back.

Ohnn reappeared, still targeting Colleen. With a shove he sent her through a portal to across the street, stepped through, caught her by the skull cap and slammed her face into a brick wall. Immediately after, she overpowered his grip and swung her head back, catching him in the chin.

Danny ran for Jessica. She immediately got her hands up. Her block was sloppy, full of holes, but she was still able to absorb most of Danny's blows. He noticed as well. One hand twisted into the crook of her arm, and suddenly she was being flipped to the ground. Matt ran up behind him and leaped. His legs wrapped around Danny's neck, and his momentum pulled both of them away. With a twist of his thighs, Danny was the one being pulled the ground. Unlike Jessica though, once he was out of Matt's grip he instantly cartwheeled back to his feet.

Matt pushed the offensive, threw a hook, and an uppercut. Danny weaved around his strikes, hopping back to just out of range when need be. When Matt overextended, Danny pulled him past and elbowed the back of his head.

Burbank went for another shot to Luke's head. He batted the gun away and shoved into Burbank's chest. He was sent flying back and crashed into a parked car.

Danny turned his attention to Colleen. Despite her back being to the wall, she put up a decent defensive, blocking both Danny's punch and kick with her sword while putting a boot into Ohnn's gut. She shifted her sheath down further, by her hip, to make sheathing her blade easier so she could fight Danny hand to hand. He threw a punch which she pushed to the side that he used to grab her arm and twist her around to face the wall in a lock, but she ran up the wall and flipped overhead and then she was the one with the armbar forcing Danny against the wall.

Kara spoke up. "Hey, big guy!"

Luke looked up. Jessica also looked up. She got to her feet and sprinted towards Kara.

Kara panicked. "Protect me!"

Luke left Burbank and Shappe and ran for Jess instead, blocking her path. All he wanted to do right now was stop her from hurting Kara.

"We're not doing this again," said Jessica.

Luke responded by opening his arms wide and going for a bear hug. Jessica ducked and slipped under his arms and grabbed the front of his shirt. With a grunt, she tossed him, threw him down the street where he rolled to a stop against a lightpole.

Jessica didn't lose a beat as she started towards Kara again.

"Oh, shit." Kara turned and ran as fast as her legs could take her, far away from the fight.

Luke shook the control from his head and got back to his feet. That was good. Kind of. That was the first issue dealt with.

Burbank raised his gun and shot at Daredevil. The form was precise, he wasn't taking the time to try and hit Matt in the legs or go for a headshot, his aim was kept squarely on the center of mass where the most flesh could be hit. If Matt was tagged at all, he'd be immediately crippled; if he wasn't faltered enough to take out with a second shot, it'd seriously hinder his movements from then on. Matt knew this as well, he was going way out of his way to avoid the shots. He leaped from the street to a car to a streetlamp to a dumpster. Basically having to jump circles around Burbank just to avoid getting tagged, and struggling to close the distance.

Colleen was locked into an intense fist-to-fist match with Danny. She already seemed fairly outclassed. Colleen was a great fighter, but she was better with a sword, and hesitant to pull it on her friend. And Danny had gotten a lot better since the last time Luke had seen him. He was pretty damn good back then too. Every time Colleen tried to sneak an attack in on him, he'd swat it away without even looking and somehow lead that into a counterattack that Colleen would have to put all of her energy into not getting floored by. Her defenses were strong, they'd have to be for her to last this long, but Danny was wearing her down, hard and fast.

This was to say nothing of the distractions pressing on her. Every few seconds Ohnn would jump from one of his spots and strike at Colleen with something fast and dirty and then disappear again. Colleen didn't pay him any attention, she couldn't. If she tried to chase he'd disappear, if she tried to block or counter one of his hits, Danny would capitalize and tear her apart with the opening. The only thing Colleen could do was take the hit and try to shrug it off.

She was struggling, Luke moved in. Danny's vision had tunneled on Colleen to the point that he didn't notice Luke rushing up behind him. He wrapped Danny up in a bear hug, arms pinned to his side and legs in the air. He may have been skilled, but he wasn't going to overpower Luke Cage anytime soon.

Ohnn ran out again and tried to hit Colleen with a clothesline. Finally she was able to do something about it. She caught the arm, held it out, and swung a fist into his gut. The fist connected, and sank through, too far through, her arm disappeared into his stomach for a second, before she pulled it back out. He took advantage of her confusion to hit her with a hook. She quickly recovered and hit him with a hook right back. He pushed away, and went for something else, but Colleen already had her sword out, and that made him back up a few steps.

There was a burst of air and suddenly Colleen was spiraling off her feet. She hit the ground as Shappe came to a stop, twirling the police baton in his hand.

"Where the hell did you go?" asked Burbank.

"I was losing focus. Had to go refill if you know what I'm saying," he said.

"You gotta be-" Burbank was interrupted by Matt's baton cracking across his chin. He growled and reached forward, caught Matt with his hand by the front of his suit. Matt instinctively went for a twist, attempted to break, or at least dislocate Burbank's arm, but that wasn't happening, all he got was groaning metal. Burbank lifted him off the ground and tossed him at Colleen. Or maybe it was at Shappe, the throw was pretty wide.

Matt recovered perfectly, he hit the ground like a gymnast and rolled into a crouch. Shappe couldn't even react before Matt was on him, hitting him with the combination that he probably wanted to use on Burbank. In one moment he twisted the knife out of Shappe's hand, in the next he slammed his other arm with a palm at the shoulder joint and forced him to drop the baton.

Ohnn came up from behind and tried to tackle Matt. But he was preparing for it before Luke even saw Ohnn appear. He spun in place, grabbed at Ohnn as Ohnn grabbed at him, and the two of them toppled into one of the spots and disappeared.

Step two was done.

Luke helped Colleen to her feet, both of them got their hands up.

"Just you and me now," he said.

"You, me, a crazed gunman, a crackhead, and our brainwashed friend trying to kill us."

"Say what you will about the job, it keeps you on your toes."

Shappe scrambled to pick up his baton with the arm that still worked well and would hold up. Then there was a burst of air and he crashed into Luke's chest. He swung the baton at Luke's chin, Luke didn't even feel it. Then there was another burst of air and the baton crashed into Luke's chin at breakneck speed, and he felt that. Staggered back and massaged the sore spot.

Danny went at Colleen again, forced her on the defensive again, hook to the head, knee to the gut, stab to the sternum, Colleen's defense was strong, nothing was getting through and doing as much damage as it should've. Luke just wondered how long she could keep it up.

Burbank rolled to the side to get a clean shot. Luke grabbed Shappe around the midsection and dragged him along to intercept. Burbank fired and the bullet bounced off of Luke's hand. He then threw Shappe at Burbank and forced him to either get moving or take a hundred pounds of skinny white boy to the chest.

Colleen's backfoot finally caught up to her. She paused as her heel teetered against the edge of a spot laid on the sidewalk. Lost her balance, her arms went out to try and steady herself. Danny struck her with a palm to her chest and she was sent flying in. At the very last moment she did the only thing she could, grabbed the front of Danny's jacket and dragged him in with her.

They were gone too. Now it was just Luke by himself, versus Berkhart's two main muscle.

And he sure as hell wasn't going to give them round 3.

Jessica sprinted after Kara. Every time she looked back, Jess saw the fear that she was striking in the girl. And worst of all, she couldn't say it wasn't a little cathartic.

The people who were still hanging around were quick to hear them coming and get out of the way.

Kara pointed at one of them. "Hey you!" she said as she ran past. "Distract her!"

The guy she'd pointed to ran up to intercept Jessica. She shoved him to the side without breaking her stride.

"You!" Kara pointed to a new person. "Hit her with something!"

A woman on the sidewalk picked up a loose 2x4 from nearby and swung it at Jessica as she ran past. Jess let the board crack over her forearm and kept going.

If the goal was to shake Kara, then mission successful. Jessica came off as nothing less than the goddamn Terminator, and with every step the distance between them shortened.

"Stop, stop, just stop!" Kara turned and yelled at her. Jessica dug her heals in and screeched to a dead halt as fast as she could.

Jessica and Kara traded glares with each other as they caught their breaths.

"You know what I like about you," Jessica said. "You know why I keep telling you that you aren't him. It's cause that's never your first thought."

"Stop fucking talking about him!" Kara screamed. "Stop fucking comparing us! I don't give a shit about some stupid, damage that you have that you can't let go of!"

"Fine. Let's stop talking about him then. Forget whether you're like him or not, if you're a decent human person, you'll leave this behind and go home. Trust someone who's been there, killing me isn't gonna make you any happier."

"No! I mean-" Fingers scraped through her hair. "I came all this way. I don't... I don't want to leave empty handed."

"Then what do you want. You're the strongest person here. Just spit it out."

"What do I want!?" Kara's eyes turned to steel. Jess's went wide. "I want you..."

It was actually coming now. Jess didn't think she was going to get lucky twice.

"...to DROP..."

All of Jessica's muscles went limp. She was already falling into a heap on the ground.

"...DEAD!"

Matt and John tumbled to a stop in the middle of a plaza, between two fountains. Both got to their knees.

Matt chucked one of his batons at John. He turned to stare at it, let it fly through his face. It slammed into the back of Matt's head. Sent him back to the ground.

"Ah, Matthew," John said. "I suppose, I cannot blame you fully. We haven't been talking much since that, um, first encounter. But I'm not falling for that trick again."

John stood over Matt to taunt him, so Matt kicked up. Caught John in the chin and knocked him back. Used the momentum to get to his feet.

Matt picked the baton off the floor and swung. John's hands went up. The hit was blocked, but Matt could hear his bones shake, the hair thin fracture lines forming.

But the swing was stopped. John used the opportunity, swung into Matt's gut. He went for a second, but Matt caught his fist and twisted. John was sent spinning through the air and landed hard on the ground.

Matt ran at him. Went for him with a downward swing with both batons. John rolled out of the way. He kept rolling, through a distortion in front of the fountain that was actually the interior of a store. Then the distortion shifted, and he was gone.

Matt caught his breath, tried to take stock and focus. It felt like there were hundreds of people surrounding him, when there were actually dozens scattered across everywhere that those portals touched. Finding John, any version of John, in that crowd wasn't easy. Find the oddity, find the guy who didn't feel quite right. The kind of thing that sounds easy, but try scanning a Where's Waldo page for the one character without a face.

Matt spotted him. For an instant. Grabbing a weapon. Staring straight back at him. Then the world shifted and he was gone.

Matt was on edge. Full alert. He had to be somewhere.

What pointed him out was not his appearance but his movement. Running, full speed, with a baseball bat cocked back over his shoulder. This wasn't an issue, Matt could redirect the momentum of his swing and disarm and pin him. He'd practiced this kind of thing as a kid.

John was steps away at this point and closing in, so Matt threw his hands up and moved into the motion. Then the image in front of him shifted and he was gone. And a baseball bat cracked into the back of Matt's skull.

Matt fell to one knee, rubbed the back of his head. He hadn't even realized he was looking into a distortion. Well, no, it should've been obvious, but, he wasn't sure exactly where it had been. He hadn't thought about how John could use the distance to confuse him.

Something whizzed towards him. On instinct he grabbed it.

That was an arrow. It had been flying at his face. John was at the end of a hallway with a crossbow. He reloaded and fired again.

Matt was getting tired of fighting on the backfoot. He swat away the arrow with a baton and ran for John.

There was a moment where, instead of a part of his vision distorting, the world distorted around him. When he went from being outside in Harlem with holes leading to other places, to inside of a shopping mall with holes leading outside.

He shook off the confusion, just in time as the next arrow was streaking by his face. He jerked his head out of the way, just soon enough that all the arrow did was carve a slit in his cheek. No momentum was lost. No serious injury was sustained.

John reloaded as Matt closed the gap, and instead of firing forward again, he shot to the side. Even if Matt wasn't sure what John was doing, he had an idea. And his suspicions were confirmed when, out of nowhere, a John appeared to his side as he ran. Matt tucked, rolled, the arrow shattered the glass wall to his left, and he sprung into a lunge.

John tossed the crossbow to the ground and drew a circle in front of him with a finger. The space in front of Matt shifted, as he was lunging, and he rolled to a stop in the middle of a game store.

A few people inside, mostly the employees, scattered and ran for the back room. Matt didn't pay attention to them. He was trying to find John again.

John came flying in, through one of the distortions, Matt hadn't seen him until he was a foot away, and crashed into him with a knee. Matt was shoved back into the shelves on the wall behind him. Plastic cases flew through the air and tumbled to the ground. Matt grabbed the shelf behind him, ripped it off the wall and swung it at John.

It hit at least, slammed into his back. John was shoved off his feet and stumbled to a crouch. Matt tried to hit him again, but John was already scrambling away, back through a distortion. Matt leaped after him. The distortion changed. Wherever Matt landed, John wasn't there.

Actually Matt had to be careful. Where he had landed was the lip of the roof of a building. He dug his heels in and just barely managed to catch himself before tumbling over.

Then a pair of hands shoved into his back and he went over.

Matt flailed for a second. Then he gathered his wits and forced the panic down, focused on what he could use. He passed by an open window. He could use that.

He grabbed his batons, clicked them together, and flicked it up. The wire whizzed out as half flew into the air and latched onto the window sill.

Matt immediately came to a dead stop. His right arm was yanked out of its socket. He winced but didn't cry out.

Now that he could actually look around, he realized just how close that fall had been. Only a few feet below him was the sidewalk. He gave the baton a flick, shook the other end loose, and dropped to the ground, landing on his feet. He slammed his shoulder into the brick wall next to him to set it back in place.

The space behind him shifted. John stepped out. He had a pistol pressed into the back of Matt's head.

Even with his strange biology, Matt could still tell, John was panting. His hand didn't waver, but the heavy rise and fall of his chest was unmistakable. He was tired out.

"Well," John said. "This was... fun. But... whew. A little more intense than I thought it would be. So I think it's high time... we wrap this up, don't you think?"

Danny and Colleen came to a stop somewhere indoors. It took Colleen a second, to catch her bearings and sweep the hair from her face. The two were in a roller rink, currently closed by the look of things, probably cause the entire rink was filled with dark floating circles.

No sooner had she noticed this and gotten to her feet when Danny was on her again. A jab that she pushed to the side, and elbow and knee that she tried to block, and then a punch to her chest that knocked her up against the wall.

"Danny," Colleen said. "Danny please tell me you're still in there somewhere."

"I'm here," he said, cold enough to put Colleen off more than it comforted her. "I can hear you."

"Do you know what you're doing?"

"I know exactly what I'm doing. And what I have to do. I must defeat you."

His hand glowed yellow, Colleen ducked and rolled out of the way as he launched a punch directly where her face had just been, causing the entire back wall of the rink to explode.

"Danny, I don't want to fight you." She ducked his roundhouse and countered with a shove. "So I need you to fight this."

"Can't really see that happening. Sorry." He threw out a jab, one that Colleen easily swatted away and countered. That seemed to be what he was looking for though. Without issue he knocked away Colleen's attempt at a counter and rapid-fired punches into her chest, then knocked her on her ass with a flat palm.

Colleen groaned. Then rolled out of the way of an axe kick from Danny, one that cracked the wood-paneled floor beneath him.

She hopped back onto her feet and fell right back on the defensive. Danny had no openings, every movement was fluid motion with no start or stop, just the moves before and after it. Danny was completely calm, completely still in his mind, Colleen wasn't. She was panicking, doing nothing but reacting. Her chi was turbulent, confused, she needed nothing more right now than to find a way to calm it.

"Danny, I'm-" The words spilled out. And once the floodgates opened she couldn't stop. "Danny I'm sorry. I'm sorry I never called you back, I'm sorry I've been ghosting you, I'm sorry that I don't have an answer for what we are. I'm sorry that I feel like I can't recognize you anymore."

Danny jumped into a swinging double side kick. Colleen absorbed the hits with her shoulder. She was sent skidding back but still standing, and she used the opportunity to charge Danny and tackle him. He maneuvered smoothly out of range, shoving her away again.

"I can't. I can't recognize you anymore. We're too out of sync now and I don't know what to do anymore. But the further I feel from you, the further I feel from this thing that you've given me and I don't know if I have what it takes to use it anymore."

Danny ran in, Colleen ducked to the side and prepared a roundhouse for when he hit the wall. Instead of hitting, he ran up it, jumped off and went for his own roundhouse to Colleen's head. She ducked, weaved under, grabbed him and slammed him to the ground. He immediately flipped back onto his feet, without missing a second. Colleen painfully pushed herself up.

"I can't tell if I'm worthy of the iron fist anymore. You could, back when you gave it to me. But you're a different person now. And I don't know what that means for it, or for me."

"Calm down, Colleen," Danny said.

Colleen's thoughts slammed to a halt. Danny didn't stop attacking, just as Colleen didn't stop defending, but he still spoke to her like they were talking over lunch.

"You cannot think about the iron fist as a gift, from me or from Shou-Lao. It's not a present that I can ever ask for back. It is a title. There have been hundreds of iron fists before me, and there will be more to come after you and I are gone. It is a title, one of great honor. It's not something you need to be worthy of, it is a code that you strive to live up to."

"But what if I can't? What if I fail?"

"Then you will get up, and you try again. That is what marks the iron fist, more than anything."

"But-"

"Colleen. It's your fist. It's your chi. It's how you choose to use it. The code of the iron fist? It's not just mine, or Shou-Lao's, or K'un-Lun's to decide. You are the immortal iron fist. It's yours to decide as well. I chose to give you the fist because I knew you could make that decision."

Colleen swallowed.

"For what it's worth," he continued. "I'm sorry too."

"For what?"

"For this."

He cocked a fist back, and it began to glow yellow. On instinct, Colleen drew back her own. Chi flooded into her arm, bursting free from the dam that had been holding it back. Her fist glowed white.

Both punches were thrown at the same time. They connected in the middle. Colleen was thrown off her feet and her head slammed against a back wall. Her world went white.

Luke Cage swung a clothesline at Shappe. Burst of air and he was gone.

Luke groaned. This fight was going predictably. Shappe was a pain in the ass to catch. And Burbank-

There was a flash and a bang and a sharp pain in Luke's temple. His eyes squinched closed and he staggered back. Burbank must've had some thousand caliber bullets or something, but those shots hurt like the punches he took before he become unbreakable.

One clean hit on either of them would take them down. The only enhanced part of Burbank was his arms, and Shappe- Well Shappe was a tough son of a bitch, but he was thick-headed, not invulnerable.

Burbank aimed and fired again. Luke covered his face with his forearm, tried to absorb the impact of the shot, and charged. He threw a punch, but he knew damn well it was half-blind. He was too busy covering his eyes to get a clear shot in. Burbank's hand caught the punch, easily pushed back on it, Luke already had his free hand up by his head to try and block those bullets.

There was a burst of air. Shappe shot by and slammed the police baton into Luke's chin. He was rocked, sent stumbling. Burbank followed up, a shot to Luke's gut, making him double over, then three shots to the head.

Luke was knocked off his damn feet. That hadn't happened in a while. He lay on the ground, wincing from the pain.

When he opened his eyes, he was staring straight down the barrel of Burbank's hand.

"Night night," he said.

Luke rolled to the side. The gun went off right next to his ear, but at least it only hit concrete. As Luke moved to the side he swung a leg out, hooked Burbank by the ankles and swept his legs out from under him. Luke got to his feet, got ready to knock Burbank out, and took another of Shappe's swings to the head instead.

Burbank shot from the ground, hit Luke in the shin. Luke cried out, it was all he could do to stop from hitting the pavement again.

Luke was breathing heavy now. As much as he thought of himself as invincible, these guys could and would wear him down at this rate. He needed to stop trying to muscle through everything and fight smarter, not harder.

He got his fists up, defensive, but with an obvious bias on his left. It made sense, that's the arm Burbank was shooting from. But that wasn't why he was doing it.

There was a burst of air. As soon as he heard it, Luke shouldered to his right. He never really saw Shappe, but he felt him as they collided, and Luke won out. Shappe was sent tumbling to the ground. He was moving again quickly, but those clunky boots made it hard for him to get back to his feet.

Burbank put a shot in his chest. It hurt but it wasn't going to put him down. Luke stepped in and started laying down the heat. Punch after punch, Burbank couldn't grab one out of the air, he was forced to block. He wasn't doing much, Luke might be able to wear those arms down if he had a day to go at it, but he didn't. Instead he gave a shove, knocked Burbank off balance.

But distance was made, and Burbank made to take advantage. He brought his hand up, aimed and fired.

Aimed and fired half-blind.

Luke knew before he acted that this was going to hurt. Probably a lot. The hope was that it would hurt Burbank more. As he lifted his arm to aim and fire, Luke shoved a finger down the gun's barrel.

There was a loud explosion, messy, filled with tearing metal. Luke was right in that it did hurt, his finger felt broken. But he was also right in that it hurt Burbank more, his hand now resembled a car's front fender after a head on collision. Crumpled, split, torn to shreds.

Burbank stumbled back, gripping his arm. He pressed the button on his elbow, tried to fold the busted up gun back in. But the slot in his arm was compact and precise. The banana peel gun on his hand wouldn't fit, and his whole double ended arm got jammed in an awkward T-position.

In desperation, Burbank ran up with a hook to Luke's face. It was a wholly predictable attack, so predictable in fact that Luke was able to catch the fist in his hand. He then used his free hand to slam a hook into Burbank's. He went down in one hit.

Luke looked over to Shappe. He was finally back on his feet, raring up for an attack.

There was a burst of air. Luke held his arm straight out to the side.

Ping.

Shappe tumbled through the air, a mess of limbs, and crashed into the brick wall behind Luke. When he fell off it to the ground, he didn't get back up.

Colleen's body was sore, and tired. She just wanted to lay there for a while, maybe forever. That rush of chi had drained her dry.

She forced her eyes open at least. Danny was slumped against the opposite wall. But he was getting himself back up to his feet already.

Colleen couldn't let this stupid body hold her back. She screamed at her muscles until they decided to listen to her and she pushed herself up. Held onto the wall behind her for leverage.

She and Danny were both panting. It looked like that punch had taken just as much out of him as it did her. If she acted now, if she could pull herself together before he did, she could knock him out now and put an end to this.

She ran forward, fists up.

"Wait!" Danny threw his hands up. "Wait! Colleen it's me, I'm back, I'm fine!"

Colleen stopped. "Really?"

Danny shut his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, I- I think. I don't know exactly what happened. We got off the plane and there was this girl waiting for us and she told me I needed to beat you guys up with my sick kung fu."

"Those were her words?"

"They weren't mine."

Colleen gave a great exhale, stumbled forward, and wrapped Danny up in a hug.

"Thanks," she said between breaths. "Thanks Danny."

"Uh, you're welcome. I'm still... confused. Does this have something to do with that case you were working on?"

She broke away. "Look, I'll explain everything in a second. But right now, we should probably grab the guy who did all this, okay?"

"Yeah," Danny's mouth twitched into a smile. "Sure. That sounds good."

Matt felt the barrel of the gun press against the back of his helmet. Heard the pieces of metal slide and scrape against each other with every minute, unconscious movement that John made. He heard his finger press against the trigger, preparing to squeeze.

This was honestly the best situation that Matt could be in.

John believed that his powers made him powerful. That being supernatural was the same as being superhuman. He believed that he could win this fight through his abilities alone.

Matt had abilities as well, abilities that had saved him countless ways over the years, and in ways that someone without these abilities could never do. The powers mattered. But if Matt hadn't spent most of his life learning how to fight, he'd be a lawyer with some good hearing.

What it came down to was this: Matt had never had to deal with these portals, these gaps and duplicates in reality before. They threw Matt off balance, they made it hard for him to even know where he was, let alone where everyone trying to kill him was. John had been using these portals to run circles around Matt this whole fight.

Matt had dealt with a man pointing a gun at the back of the head a thousand times.

John pulled on the trigger. Matt heard every half a millimeter of metal scraping on metal. He whirled around, knocked the gun to the side as it fired, grabbed it, got leverage on John's hand, yanked it away, swiped it across John's face, shot the clip out and tossed both pieces to the ground.

John was just beginning to realize what had happened. Matt moved in, hook to the face. Knee to the chest. John stumbled back, unable to do anything. Unable to do anything so he just turned and ran. The space in front of him distorted and he was gone.

Matt sneered. He was tired of this run around. John was full of himself, and reliant on his abilities. There had to be something Matt could take advantage of to put an end to this.

He found John again, blocks away. That was the easy part. But there was a ring of Johns surrounding him and Matt couldn't tell which was the real and which were fake.

How did John navigate this? He didn't seem to need to be close by to see, so long as you were around his portals. So did he see using them?

He called himself the man with no eyes. The portals must substitute for them in some capacity. John saw the world like he was looking at security cameras. But Matt saw through them like gaps, or connections in the space. He looked through them like shortcuts.

He realized. He was thinking about all the half-faded images folded over everything as fakes, as illusions projected on top of the real world to confuse him. But it was all real. Every John he saw was a real John, he just didn't become real until the right path was taken.

That was his edge.

Matt found the John closest to him. He traced the world that surrounded that John until he found a distortion. Then he followed where that distortion lead, traced the world around it to another, to another, to another, until he found himself.

Matt drew one of his clubs and threw it. It flew, into a wall, across a street, through a store, bounced off a pipe, and a manhole, and a street light, through an open window until it left a distortion right behind John's head.

There was an impact. John was knocked off his feet. The moment he hit the ground, every hole and distortion closed up. The space was clean, connected the way it was supposed to be.

Harlem was whole and one again.

Jessica Jones slowly and painfully pulled herself off of the pavement. Her head was pounding. The light stung her eyes. Everything was bleary and fuzzy and it wasn't just because she was drunk.

Something was off. She kind of knew that from the second she woke back up. Something was off, something was wrong about the way she was existing. Something had changed from before she passed out and she wasn't- she couldn't tell what was going on because she was so dizzy.

Jessica sat up and massaged her head. She wasn't ready to open her eyes yet, but she could at least, shake the fog from her brain and start answering questions. What happened. Why wasn't she dead. Why did she feel so weird.

She followed the sensation back to their source, somewhere in her brain, somewhere in her memories. And here she realized why she felt off.

There were new memories inside her head.

Old memories. Childhood memories. Like from around the time before the accident, but Jessica wasn't living in her house in them. And her parents weren't her parents. Her- the mom, she didn't recognize. But Jessica recognized the dad. Her dad was- that was Kilgrave. Younger than Jessica ever knew him, but unmistakable. These weren't her memories inside her head, they were Kara's.

She remembered living in a nice house in the suburbs. She was doing homework on a coffee table. Dad- Kilgrave was in the kitchen, fiddling with something. Even in such a casual setting he dressed fancy. And expensive. Purple satin shirt, with the sleeves rolled up, and dress slacks.

"You doing your work in there Kara?" he had asked. Thinking about his slimy accent again made Jessica shiver and wince.

"Yeah," Jessica had- Kara had said. "Um, but, I am but could you help me?"

"Oh, I don't- I couldn't help you with that. I never went to school, I don't know any of the useless bull- trollop they fill your head with in there."

"Oh... Okay." She went back to struggling. Jessica couldn't remember what she was working on, just that she was struggling to understand it.

The front door opened. Her mom walked in. She looked exhausted, bags under her eyes, shoulders tense and tired. Jessica remembered that- Well, she remembered Kara having the thought at the time, that her mom always looked like she was getting worse. More tired, more worn out, every day. She was worried about her but didn't, know what to do.

Her mom and her dad- Kilgrave – exchanged a quick kiss before her mom collapsed on the couch next to her.

"Kilgrave," her mom had said.

"Yes, honey?"

"How much longer is dinner? I might take a quick shower before we eat."

"Well, about that. I swear I followed the instructions to the letter, but I- I didn't exactly make anything worth eating."

Her mom had groaned. "Kilgrave-"

"It's fine. It's fine," Kilgrave had assured. "We'll just order something in."

Her mom sat up a little and turned on the couch to face him. "Are you sure? We're already... in the red on our finances."

Jessica remembered not knowing what in the red meant. She sure fucking knew now.

"Don't worry about it. I'll talk to the delivery guy and-"

"No. Kilgrave, no. I told you."

"What's it- what's it matter? The bloody business isn't going to go bankrupt off of one family meal."

"Don't." Her mom sighed as she pushed herself up from the couch. "It's fine. I can-"

"No, no, no, no, no. Take your shower, I'll- I'll put something together. Okay?"

"Alright." She trudged her way to their bedroom as her dad- as Kilgrave went back to rifling through pantries.

She remembered waking up late to the sounds of shouting. Not that night, later. Sometime that month. Ironically the first words she could make out clearly were "Would you quit shouting? You're going to wake up Kara."

She had snuck her way out of her room and by the door to the living room. The door was cracked open, she peered through. Her parents were standing by the couch, facing each other.

"I'm sorry, okay," said Kilgrave. "How many times do I have to tell you that I'm sorry. You know, you know that I never mean to control you. But I can't- anything I say-"

"I don't care, Kilgrave. That's not the problem here, it's just a piece of a larger – thing."

"What's the thing? What is the thing, tell me what the thing is then."

"I can't carry the weight of this whole family on my own. I have to work, I have to take care of Kara, I pay all the bills, and I have to help you through your, whatever you've got going on."

"It's not- Okay, look, I've told you, if you need money, I can get it. Easily."

"Stop! Stop talking about controlling people, it's freaky. It's not right."

"You calling me freaky?"

"I'm not calling you freaky, but you can't do that."

"I can't control it. You don't understand how hard this is for me."

"It's always about how hard it is for you, that's the problem."

"I'm sorry, you want me to shut up about it? I'll just shut up about it if that's what you want."

"That's not- Look, it would help me so much if you just, got a job or something. Doesn't have to be a hard job. Doesn't have to be full time."

"I can't. Every time you bring this up I tell you, I can't. If people found out about my powers they would lock me away. Treat me like a lab rat, I know cause I've gone through that before!"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I can't go out, I can't socialize, I can't work because then everyone I control will know."

"Then just don't control them!"

"You're still not listening to me! I keep telling you and you won't listen! Why don't you just-"

Jessica had burst into the room. She yelled at her dad, "Stop yelling at her!"

There had been a moment where both of her parents were just staring at her. Like they had forgotten she lived in the same house as them.

"Did you just control me?" her dad had asked. "You- You can- You controlled me."

Jessica had been freaking out, she had no idea what to say or do here but she didn't want to back down.

"Smack yourself," he said. Without hesitation, her own hand crashed into the side of her face.

"Kilgrave!" her mom said.

"What? If she has the same powers as me-"

Her mom turned to her. "Kara. Please. Go back to bed, I'll be there in a minute."

Jessica had looked between the two of them. Still too afraid to do anything but stand and stare.

"Listen to your mother," Kilgrave had said.

Jessica, in that moment, turned and left back to her room. And as she left, she made sure to listen to her mother.

"What were you thinking?" she said.

"I'm not going to let her control you or me. It might be harsh but she needs to learn. I was a rat bastard to both of my parents, I'm not letting her get away with doing that to us."

Jessica remembered later that night, her dad came into her room. Saw she was still awake and sat at the foot of her bed.

"Look, Kara, I'm- I'm sorry about earlier. I am, I shouldn't have- it's no better than hitting you myself and that's bad and I should never do that." He swallowed. "But we do need to talk about this. If you are developing powers like- like I have then... then things are going to get a lot harder for you from here on. It's like... with great power comes... it's- it's a lot. It's a lot. The world is at your fingertips and you can't- you have to be careful not to shatter it. You have to watch everything you say, because suddenly every word is a weapon. And um... you can get in a lot of trouble using it without thinking. I just want you to be safe. Just try to... try to avoid telling people what to do from now on. Okay?"

"Okay." Jessica had nodded.

"Love you, Kara."

"I love you too, dad."

"Try to still get a good night's sleep, huh?"

"Okay."

She did fall asleep soon after that.

Jessica remembered... a vague impression of the weeks that followed. She remembered being terrified of even talking to people after that. She made sure to listen to what her dad- to what- to what Kilgrave had told Kara to do, and to not give anyone direct orders to do anything.

She remembered there was a moment when she let her guard down. She was playing a game on her 3DS, Kirby or something, and her mom gave the door a knock and poked her head in.

"Bedtime, Kara," she said.

"C-" Kara stopped to review her words. "Can I stay up a little longer? I'm almost through this game."

"You've got school in the morning. The game will still be where you left it tomorrow."

Temptation had tugged at Jessica's heart. She really wanted to see the end of this game. She was so goddamn close. And all she had to do was say the words.

They spilled from her lips before she could stop herself.

"You should let me stay up a little later."

Her mom froze. Her gaze went wide.

"I'm sorry!" she said immediately. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to!"

Her mom knelt down. Looked her in the eyes. Pulled her into a tight hug. Jessica hadn't understood what was going on.

Her mom whispered into her ear. Her voice was shaky. "Kara... Kara I need you to pack your bag."

"What?" she'd asked. "For- For school?"

"Get all your clothes, anything you want to keep. Pack a bag. Right now, go fast, please."

"Mom, what-"

"Kara, please." Tears were welling up in the corner of her mom's eyes.

Jessica had, without thinking, done it. She shoved as much as she could into her school backpack, her clothes, her hairspray and her makeup, and her 3DS. And her mom took her by the hand and dragged her out of the house.

"Mom, where are we going?" she had asked.

"We need to go," was all her mom had said. "We need to go. We need to go now."

She unlocked the car and Jessica hesitantly got in the back seat.

"Is dad coming with us?"

Her mom hadn't answered. She got into the driver's seat, didn't even buckle her seatbelt, twisted the key and turned the car on. She backed out of the driveway, fast enough to almost bump into the car behind them, then drove away. As the headlights swept over her house, Jessica remembered seeing Kilgrave staring out at them from the door. In his pajamas. Watching them go.

And she remembered that was the last time she ever saw him.

Jessica slowly opened her eyes. Well that was... something. A lot more than she ever wanted to know about either of the Kilgraves. Was she crying? She felt like she was crying. Just a little.

She looked up. Kara was on the ground, about as far away as when she'd passed out. Curled up, knees to her chest, and shaking uncontrollably.

Oh fuck.

"Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck."

Jessica scrambled over to where Kara was. Sat her up, made her look at her.

"Kara. Kara are you okay."

Jessica got nothing in return but a blank stare.

"Shit shit shit. Kara look at me, look at me right here." Shit fuck. There were like, things you were supposed to do- to tell people to do in situations like this. Jessica remembered from all that therapy but she forgot cause she'd been trying to block out that time in her life for so long. "Say- Say the alphabet. Backwards."

Kara blinked. Confusion stirred in her eyes. "What?"

"Please just do it, say the alphabet backwards."

"Um. Z... Z, Y, X... W? W, V, U... T, S, R. Q, P, O, N, M, L – K, J, I, H, G, F, E, D, C, B, A."

"Okay. Okay. Good." What now? "Fuh- Find the um- Find red shit."

"Huh?"

"Find things that are red in your surroundings."

"Uh... there's the uh, there's the stoplight. It's not red right now but it- like. Ya know. There's the um, there's that sign, down the street over there. Frank's Pizza. Frank's NY Pizza. Pizzeria. In the- In the planters next to... there's red flowers."

Kara shifted to sit up. Rubbed her face.

"Jones, what- what happened?"

"...I gotta figure you've got a better idea than me."

Kara couldn't stop touching at her face. If Jess was nearing tears, Kara had already broken out.

"What do you," Jessica said. "What do you remember?"

Kara swallowed hard. She was still trying to keep it all together. "I remember... standing on the ledge. Dreaming about jumping off. I remember... not being sure if the fall would kill me or not. And I remember thinking either would be fine. And then Kilgrave- my dad- he- he..."

Kara touched behind her ear. Instinctively, Jess touched the scar that she actually had.

"I remember... I remember digging until my hands bled... I remember... I remember..." Her face went tight as she held back a new wave. "I remember punching her. And when she- And when she fell. I remember when Hope, when she-"

Jessica bit her lip. Could be a lot worse then, but... wasn't great either way.

"This is why I don't like letting people in my head," Jessica said. "It's not a fun time in there."

"He did all that and you- and you were- and I- I wanted to kill you. I tried to kill you."

Jessica tried to smile awkwardly in front of this girl having a breakdown. "Well... you didn't so, already doing better than me."

"I'm- I- I- I'm-" Kara was beyond words at this point. Just blubbering to herself.

Jessica sighed. "It's fine. It's okay. Sorry it uh, had to go like this."

"I- It's my- It's my fault... 'm sorry."

"No, really, it's... it's all cool. You're forgiven and shit. Let's just go," sigh, "let's go wrap this up and get you home."

Jessica got Kara to stand, and to walk. And the two made it back to where the fight had started.

The cops were already on the scene. Shappe and Burbank were unconscious on the ground, officers stood over and cuffed them. Luke talked with some of the responding officers, pointing out things and important spots of damage and stuff like that.

Jessica urged Kara to keep hidden behind the corner as she continued to watch.

Berkhart was also cuffed, though still on his feet. One officer kept his hands where they were, another reached over and pulled his helmet off.

A small trickle of blood ran down his forehead and over his face. From under his scraggly brown hair, past his wide nose and soft cheeks, before collecting in the frazzled mustache just above his mouth.

Jessica's eyes went wide. That wasn't him. That wasn't Daniel Berkhart.

She turned back to Kara, leaning against the wall with a far-off look. She remembered what Kara had told her when they first met.

Jessica had asked how many people Kara could control at a time. Kara had told her, three on a good day.

Danny Rand.

Jessica Jones.

Whoever the fuck this was.