2. Sat On a Wall, Humpty Dumpty Part 1
Zspunk Nightclub,
The Edge of Hells Kitchen
Mid-morning
Jono hit the mats with a thwack. "No No No No NO!" screamed his instructor Brock Rumlow. "You stop-thrust after blocking and lead to a sweep kick; if you thrust then block, you'll get smacked mid thrust. F¤(in' retard," he muttered. Sighing, Chamber got up off the mats. This was the second week of his time in the rooms underneath the Zspunk nightclub. He doubted many people knew this was here. He'd never known this was here. It certainly wasn't in the minds of the majority of people in the club above. Zspunk was one of the happening places on the New York scene and people were coming from far and wide to the edges of Hell's Kitchen to this classy little club that could satisfy any desire. Coke, MGH, Kick for the mutant customers, it was all available in Zspunk, as was a huge variety of women and men both of their own choice and for hire. All you had to do was get in. Not as easy as it sounded. Once you were in, if you knew the right person, a huge amount of money or a service would get you back here and into this, the training academy of Taskmaster. Here was where those with powerful backers worked with specially trained combat instructors to reach some potential. Jono was not finding this particularly enjoyable.
After the agony of his manifestation at Senator Cockrum's assassination, Jono was barely capable of not sending out a constant stream of some kind of explosive energy. When he found out that he could keep the fire contained to where his chest used to be, he wrapped himself in bandages, which promptly combusted. He wrapped himself more carefully and these bandages have survived for a while but when he looses control they go. He has taken to carrying spares. Lots of spares. Domino had taken him to see this guy. It was really weird. The guy was just looking at Jono. Then, Jono suddenly felt dirty, filthy, like the guy was touching him all over. It was sick. He'd lost control of the fire a bit and burnt through the bandages, frightening the creepy guy back. He'd stormed out angrily, wrapping himself again in the bandages. Domino had followed a few minutes later. He hadn't gone back inside. He'd already learned what happened when people overstepped themselves with Domino. "It' s psionic energy," she said suddenly. Huh? he asked, not paying a lot of attention. "It's psionic energy. In your chest. It's like distilled psi power." Hmmmmm he muttered. Psionic energy. Well, at least he knew that much. That didn't tell him a lot though. He already knew he had some kind of psychic powers. He was talking without half his face, wasn't he?
Over the next few days, Chamber had experimented with his powers. The group had holed up in a warehouse after Cockrum's death while Northstar healed and Feral had gone catatonic. Blink had gone out and brought Feral and Cockrum's body back shortly after Jono had regained consciousness and she had barely spoken since. Once they got to the warehouse, Feral just lay down and refused to move. She went completely catatonic. Jono expected Domino to freak but she just looked sadly at Feral and refused to be near her. Blink and Northstar had all the work of looking after her while Jono played with his powers and Domino was in and out calling ín favours. Northstar healed really quickly for someone with 2 broken ribs. But then he did everything quickly. Jono watched Domino with interest. She was the one who was in charge. The dangerous one. She seemed to have quite a few contacts in the local area. There were also a few she didn't like. She came home bloodied sometimes but more often she came back just plain bloody. Not a nice person at all was Domino. One day she took Blink with her and brought back this asian guy. No word as to where he was from and no word as to what he could do or why he was there. Called himself Red Lotus. Spoke English with an Australian accent of all things. Knew how to fight. One day Blink had been doing what Jono now knew was kata, moving meditation, so he walked over and joined in. They had begun to spar and Blink was down and out in about 5 minutes. This guy was fast. Jono had avoided him as often as possible. Then, one night, Domino told them that Red Lotus and Chamber were to come with her. Jono had no freakin' idea who "Chamber" was but everyone just assumed it was him so he went. You didn't disobey Domino. They went to a nightclub of all places. Jono was surprised. He hadn't picked Domino as the type. They marched right past the bouncer, despite the fact that Jono was clearly underage' and straight to this guy inside. "This is them," Domino said to the stranger. "Payment is as we agreed. As soon as they're done here, we'll deliver.". Red Lotus didn't look up. Jono looked at Domino. Was she selling him? Could she sell a person? Of course she could, there wasn't a lot Domino couldn't do given the right incentive. But she'd talked about being finished here. What was that? "Good," the man grated out. His voice sounded like gravel. "Take them out back. I think they'll work best with Rumlow." He waved to two goons who moved forward and escorted the guys out the back. Domino looked at the man. "You do know what will happen, once you've trained them, don't you, Taskmaster?" she questioned. "We'll deliver on our payment. We'll get rid of the Kingpin for you. I hope you're prepared for what'll come after," she said and she turned sharply on her heel and walked out. Taskmaster turned to one of his men and said, "I want Domino left alone. She will do what she said as long as we do." They all nodded.
That last few weeks hadn't been particularly enjoyable for Jono. He'd had his face blown off, caused a girl to go catatonic, was hiding out as an accomplice to murder and conspiracy to commit murder and to top it all off, he was being beaten in the name of instruction again. He let his mind wander as Rumlow turned his attention to Red Lotus. The other student rarely needed instruction more than once. His body memory was superb. His physical co-ordination was perfect, part of his mutation. His speed was superhuman. He floored Rumlow on the first day. He often had special instructors including Taskmaster himself. Today, Chamber ignored what was happening and began to use his new telepathy on Rumlow, just a bit. In the front of his mind, he found the standard garbage and then it was….there! Rumlow's knowledge store. He began consuming the information in huge chunks, hoping Rumlow wasn't aware of what he was doing. When he finished, he turned to Lotus but found severe shields which he couldn't get past. Maybe he could but not without making Lotus aware of the intrusion. Suddenly, Rumlow turned and demanded Chamber start sparring. He always called him Chamber. Gulping, Jono walked out onto the practice circle with Rumlow, Red Lotus watching. In the circle, you fought for real, only pulling back killing blows. Jono's mind calmed. He was in trouble. They squared and bowed. Suddenly, Rumlow launched a blinding volley of kicks that would have taken Jono out 20 minutes ago. Jono parried them easily, realising that he'd managed to use Rumlow's memories. Cool. Psy power had something going for it. Awesome, actually. He was holding his own against Rumlow. He was winning against Rumlow. It was surprising. It was fun. Suddenly, he felt a kick spear into the side of his leg and a blow to his head sent him flying. He saw Red Lotus standing over Rumlow. "We already established you could do that you, moron!" screamed Rumlow. He jumped up and stormed off to the side, grabbing a towel. "Go home for today. From what I've seen, we're pretty much done now that your telepath friend is in condition and noticed he's got powers," Rumlow stated calmly for once. "Tell Domino that payment is due soon. Taskmaster doesn't do this for free.". They left the club silently, walking out the back way to avoid the cleaners in the club. They headed back to the warehouse to rest.
"You're done?" Domino demanded of the immediately on their return. "Good. Northstar, Red Lotus, come with me. The rest of you stay here. Chamber, you watch Feral. It's your fault she's catatonic, you look after her." The three left the building and headed onto the street. Jono wandered over to Blink. "Where are you keeping her?" he asked, knowing she was the one doing most of the looking after. "Over there, behind those crates," yawned Blink. "I'm going to get some sleep." "Yeah sure." Jono replied. He wandered over to the crates she'd mentioned and found Feral curled in a ball sleeping on some sacks. She'd probably hadn't moved for three days. He sat down beside her, tired and a little sore from Red Lotus and Rumlow, and relaxed a bit. His bandages were instantly burned to ash. He lay back, controlling the fire. He let his mind relax and fell asleep.
Who's there, he asked. Weird. His voice made no sound. Anyway, he could hear someone sobbing. He floated towards them — floated? Yep. He was floating. Again, weird. Oh well. It was Feral. She was sobbing out words, over and over again. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not kill. A bad man killed Mamma. Thou shalt not kill. He reached out to her. Hey, he said in his voice without sound. She heard him and looked up, not stopping her chanting. Suddenly, her voice broke and she jumped up staring at him. You're dead she said, voice making no sound either. Ummmm…….No? he replied hesitantly. I'm sort of not. As you can see. Yes I can, she replied quietly. Is…Suddenly, there was a noise. A slamming and a yelling. He grabbed her and felt something hit his body, something heavy. He convulsed and Feral slammed into him, sliding into him. With a yell, Jono woke up.
He found a body on top of him. Not Feral, still curled in the corner but a stranger. Some guy he'd never seen before. The man grabbed his arms and pushed them back, trying to turn them behind his back and snap them. Jono resisted but could only stop the turning. He tried to let go of his fire but he was so tired and it was so low from his little talk with Feral that it didn't even singe the man. He kept struggling. In the main area of the warehouse, he saw Domino bolt in and scramble up to the top of a stack of shipping crates. Five more men walked in after her and 5 shots later there were no more men. Northstar sped in a moment later and Red Lotus ran in not long after. They saw the 5 on the ground and looked at Domino, obviously understanding what had happened. "Where's Montana?" Northstar asked Domino. "I don't know," she replied. He got here before me. Jono tried to yell. Stupid useless psychic voice. Doesn't work when you're tired. Red Lotus looked around as though he heard a noise but seeing nothing, went back to studying the men on the ground. The man, Montana, suddenly gave Jono's arms a wrench and pulled them behind his back. He walked into the main area carrying Chamber and demanded, "Passage back to the Kingpin gets the kid his life." Domino just looked at him and said,"Jean-Paul would you pl…." and trailed off. Suddenly the man screamed and dropped Jono. He rolled and came up facing Montana who collapsed as Feral slashed his Achilles tendons in a spray of blood. "I…I…" she stuttered before collapsing. Jono ran over to her, as did Northstar. Lotus and Domino continued to Montana. "You go back to the Kingpin, Montana. You tell him he's next." Grabbing the man, Domino threw him out the door in a furious heave. Turing she walked over and hugged Feral, surprising them all. "I'm glad you're ok." she said and then walked into the darkness of her corner. The others looked at each other in surprise.
That night, Blink was on guard duty when they had a visitor. He simply walked across the rooftop with complete assurance that he had the right to be there. She saw him. For some reason he was wearing red leather. Who the hell? "Oohhh" she murmured quietly to herself. That's who. "That's right" he replied, having heard her from the other side of the roof. "Daredevil. Bring the black and white one out. We have something to talk about." Blink laughed out loud. "Domino doesn't get up for everyone. I'm pretty certain she wont get up for you." She created a quick portal and jumped behind him planting her feet solidly in his back. He spun around and there was something in his hands, something hard that arced and smacked her in the head. "Ow," she replied. She jumped up and charged Daredevil but he easily avoided her and knocked her sprawling across the roof. She didn't get up. He turned to go into the building but a soft growl stopped him. "It's not nice to hurt people," Feral whispered- ferally. (Sorry). Daredevil smiled and swung his billy club in a short lot arc, taking Feral in the stomach, followed by a quick kick to the head. Feral was down. Dropping silently into the building, he found Chamber sleeping and knocked him out quietly.
He got up to find Northstar looking at him nonchalantly. "Something on your mind? You are, after all, a strange man in red leather standing above a sleeping child. Should we be worried?" Swinging the billy club again, Daredevil found his target gone. A small laugh behind his ear- right behind his ear- sent him spinning into motion. A fist swung up, found no target and Daredevil overbalanced slightly as Northstar appeared behind him and loosed a kick of his own. Daredevil whipped around and all that was left was a mocking laugh floating in the darkness of the warehouse. "I suppose you think the children were easy meat. That might prove fatal one day," Northstar taunted from somewhere among the rafters. Suddenly, he dropped to ground level in a flurry of blows and most of them connected. Daredevil grunted at the onslaught but Northstar flew away again before he could retaliate. Daredevil began to spin his billy club, waving it around in apparently random patterns.
Red Lotus advanced on Daredevil silently. All his attention was focused on searching for Northstar among the rafters. He struck quickly and silently, a blow that numbed one of Daredevil's arms and a kick that numbed a leg. Daredevil still managed to spin and swung his numb leg hard enough to knock Red Lotus aside. Suddenly, he was hit by Northstar flying from above like a bullet. Slamming into a crate, he grunted as the wind was driven out of him. Northstar backed off already, retreating to the rafters and Red Lotus advanced again as Daredevil pulled himself to his feet. A quick flurry of blows left Daredevil slammed against the crate, Northstar dropping down to the ground beside them.
"Boys, boys, boys," a voice floated over. Domino strolled out of her corner to lean against a crate, looking at Daredevil. "I can't leave you alone can I? But what has strolled into our lair tonight? How utterly bizarre. The protector of Hells Kitchen. Just the man I wanted to see." She smirked. "Let him up," she snapped to Lotus who backed away. "Now, I have a little…proposal for you," she cooed. Lotus looked at Northstar. Cooing? Domino? What the hell was going on here? His grandfather had recommended her too him as someone who could get things done but this was…bizarre. "Over the next few days there's going to be some serious changes in the Kitchen my little duckling, and one of those changes is going to involve the Kingpin. More accurately, I should say, the lack of the Kingpin." With a smile, Domino looked over at him. "Now do we have something to talk about?"
Epilogue,
Zspunk,
The next morning,
"So are you interested?" the man asked. Red Lotus turned in his seat to face him. "Yeah, I'm in" the younger man answers. "Excellent. You will find the rewards of service to be most…..pleasant." He reaches into his coat and clicks a device, teleporting the two away in a brief flash of light. On the other side of the apparently deserted club, Brock Rumlow emerges from the shadows. So…that's what he's after he thinks but not to himself. Turning, he returns to the dojo where he trains students for the Taskmaster. It wasn't a bad job but there were far more….lucrative careers. As Red Lotus was no doubt discovering. Brock Rumlow smiled and then sat in the lotus position and prepared himself, opening for the telepathic contact. As always, two bright red drops trickled down his cheek like tears but he hardly noticed as he delivered his report. As always, after a service well done, ecstasy consumed him briefly. After a few moments, he stood on slightly shaky legs and wiped the two tears off his face. His mistress knew and that was all that mattered.