5. Royal Dragon

The peculiar group of four people – a lawyer, a PI, an ex-con and a poor excuse for a businessman – stumbled into a Chinese restaurant. It sounded like a beginning of a joke, but no one was laughing. Especially not the owner of the restaurant who had closed the door behind his last customers, turning the sign to read 'closed' just few moments ago.

"We're closed!" he announced to the four people who had stumbled in.

"We need to kill the lights," the man with a scarf over his face pointed out, immediately earning a response from the only woman who had arrived with the group.

"How do you even know they're on?!"

"I said we're closed!" the owner repeated, nervous about the strange visitors.

"Look, we just need to stay out of the streets…" the blond explained as if it made the situation better. The scarf man drew the blinds.

"Then do it somewhere else! I'll call the cops."

"You can't do that, you'll put them in danger," the big black man interjected, causing the owner to snap.

"I'll put YOU in danger!"

"Duh. I'm done explaining this," the woman lost her patience as well, grabbing a cabinet at the windows, tipping it over and blocking the entrance. Only two of five people in the room looked honestly shocked at that.

"Whoa, she's very strong…"

"Sir, this is for your protection. We need this place to look closed," the scarf man explained.

At this point, the poor excuse for a businessman finally figured out he could use some of his skills and started negotiating with the owner in a different language. Hearing his mother tongue, the man actually started listening.

"You speak Chinese?!"

Just to be a show-off, the blond responded the woman in Chinese indeed.

"I still hear neon," the scarf man announced.

"Who hears neon?!" the black one wondered, not following.

"My blind and definitely more than just a lawyer…" the woman he knew – Jessica Jones – told him as if it explained something.

"Your what? What do you mean he's blind?"

"He just is… don't ask. I thought he was spying on me for some freaky reason, but now I'm not sure."

"Well, do you think he's on our side?" the big man – Luke Cage – demanded. Jessica gave him a look that spoke a thousand words, most of them being colourful curses.

"Our side of what?"

Luke had no response to that.

"Who's karate kid?" she asked, beckoning to the Chinese-speaking wannabe businessman.

"Danny Rand."

"Boy billionaire?"

"He's little off in the head, but he packs a mean right hook when it counts…" Luke admitted, a smile creeping to his face.

"So do you," Jessica smirked. The chemistry between them – either friendly or romantic kind – was undeniable. They clearly had a history.

"You okay?"

"Now, or in general?"

"Both."

"Well, I'm alive," she summed up, rather not going into details. She wasn't fond of what she would reveal. "You?"

"Just getting back into the world."

"From where?"

"Prison." The man grimaced, not exactly fond of his story either. It was one of the many things all four people who had arrived together had in common – an unenviable backstory. "Well… we'll talk about it later. How did you end up here?"

"I'm working a case."

"Yeah? How is that going for you so far?"

This time it was the PI who had no appropriate response, so she just made a face.

"All right, back door's clear. Everything is locked," the scarf man interjected, gaining a look from Luke.

"So we're gonna wait it out here?"

"You've got a better plan?"

"Is there a plan where I get my scarf back?" Jessica snarked, obviously done with the charade the man was playing.

"Just need it until this is over." He gestured between Luke and Jessica. "What, you two know each other?"

"Yeah."

"How?"

The PI thought for a short moment – no, there was no way and no need to sugar coat it. "We met. We drank. I shot him in the head."

To the surprise of both Jessica and Luke, the man chuckled.

"Why are you still wearing that thing?" Luke complained.

The scarf man was saved not by the bell, but by the Rand.

"Okay. He says we can stay."

"What did you tell him?" Luke asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer.

"Nah. I just gave him my black card, agreed to pay the rent for the next six months…"

Jessica eyed him before checking the expressions of other two men; had it really sounded so surreal only in her head? The blond offered her his hand to shake enthusiastically. "Hey, I'm Danny."

"Jessica."

"Good. Now there's just one guy whose name we don't know," Luke beckoned to the scarf man disapprovingly.

"Well, actually…" Danny started hesitantly and Luke shot him a look that meant 'Then why don't you just tell me who he is, man?'

"You know him?"

The scarf man – Matt Murdock – sighed, worried his friend might give his name away if he stayed quiet. "…we met."

"And we kicked some ass."

"Then why don't you just take it off?" Luke demanded, outraged. He did not like this. He did not like the man having the advantage of knowing them while Luke didn't know him.

"The less we know about each other, the better. This, it's too much already."

"Okay-" Jessica supported Luke, reaching for the scarf on the lawyer's face, only for her hand to be snatched away.

"Don't-"

"Jesus," the PI swore. What was his deal? Rand knew him, Jessica knew him – well, at least partly – and Luke was a cool guy. Paranoid bastard.

"There are people I need to protect-"

"Well, you're not the only one-" Luke argued.

"He's got a point."

"Jesus, Danny. I'm not dragging-" Matt kept protesting, allowing Jessica to connect the dots. She had connected a different group of dots before, which led to one kinky reveal, but she wouldn't call that out on him just yet.

'There are people I need to protect.' Jessica would bet a bottle of whiskey he was talking about his girlfriend – well, fiancée, whatever. Considering she had saved her before and Trish talked about her escapades from time to time, Jessica had to admit it was actually a valid worry.

"Of fucking course…"

"What?" Luke turned to her, still at lost.

"Look, the organization we just fought, they're powerful," Matt explained, only to be interrupted by Luke.

"Who were they?"

"They call themselves The Hand."

"Danny-" Matt warned him, not feeling good about dragging people into this. Not to mention they wouldn't believe-

"What are they really called?" Jessica asked, unimpressed.

"He's right. But it doesn't matter."

"Bullshit it doesn't matter!" Jessica exploded, raising her voice. She was already getting fed up – ninjas, masks, stupid names, jeeez. She had been following a lead on a missing architect, who had shot himself in her apartment, when did they step into this crazy-town? Oh right, when an insane ninja spandex chic entered the scene.

Apparently, the PI wasn't the only one who had enough – Luke felt the same. Obviously, these two yahoos knew stuff; and they fucking weren't sharing. "Yeah, I'm with her."

"Me too. It does matter," Danny spoke up, the Immortal Iron Fist crawling out of him. "We need to figure out our next move."

"There is no 'next move', Danny."

"And there is no 'we'," Jessica supported Matt unexpectedly. "They came at us, we fought our way out, let's call it professional courtesy, end of story."

"It's not that easy. These people, they're dangerous-"

"So am I! Now somebody tell me what do I need to know about 'the Hand', so I can be on my way."

Her not exactly polite plea got lost as the owner and a cook started bringing food on one of the tables. What the actual hell?

"…what is THAT?!" Luke demanded, really annoyed at the fact he was the one who literally understood shit in here.

"Oh. Uhm… as the part of the deal, he made me order four of everything…" Danny explained reluctantly, earning a look from everyone. Well, almost everyone.

"We're not here to eat!"

Danny ignored Luke's note. "Are those pork?"

"No. They're shrimp." Matt corrected him, sighing as he remembered Danny was sometimes just an overgrown child. Most of the time, actually.

The Immortal Iron Fist, the sworn protector of an ancient mystical city, made a puppy face, disappointed by Matt's answer.

"This guy's got pork," Matt soothed him.

"Great!"

"God, you're weird." Jessica was indeed done with this shit. But she needed to know stuff. So she followed the three men to the table.

"The Hand is an ancient criminal organization," Danny announced as if it was an explanation.

"Define 'ancient'." Seriously. What was this bullshit? Luke knew Claire had tried to make the two of them to talk about it before, but… what?

"They live forever."

"Wanna try that again?" Jessica asked sceptically.

It was Matt who spoke up, slowly giving in involuntarily. "They live by fanatical ideology and every member is willing to die to protect it."

"So they're terrorists," Luke stated and Matt made a discontent half-face.

"No. Terrorists want the world to know what they're doing; this is something more secret… more evil."

"And they're global," Danny supplied.

"So what do they do?"

"Everything."

"Including the recruitment of young men in Harlem?" Luke asked, surprised and baffled.

"Apparently. Look, they've been in New York for a while and I don't know why."

"Little warning would be nice, you know," Matt sighed again, wishing to be somewhere else.

The Hand was in New York. Perfect. Of course it was. He finally had something steady. Something good, great, amazing even. There was no way it would last. Of course his past would come to bit him in his ass. Again.

"You said you were done with it. I respected that," Danny explained gently.

Well, the Hand apparently didn't. Still, Matt was abashed. That was surprisingly mature of the other man. He sometimes forgot Danny might be a child, but also was his friend.

"I-"

"What do you mean by 'fanatical ideology'?"

"This is gonna sound crazy—" Matt answered Jessica instead of Danny, supporting him at least a little, pleased by his care.

"What do they want?"

"Immortality. They want power and influence at every level across the world. … and I think they want me."

That sentence quickly erased Matt's sentiment efficiently. Not so mature then. "And you still didn't think it was worth sharing?! Danny, I wouldn't let you fight this alone-"

"Really?" Danny asked, unsure.

"Of co-"

"Stop the drama right there," Jessica demanded resolutely, unimpressed. "What do they want with you?"

"…is this about the fist thing?" Luke wanted to know.

"There had to be a better way of phrasing that…" Danny closed his eyes, shaking his head inconspicuously.

Jessica would smirk if she knew what the 'fist-thing' actually meant. "Wait, what is he talking about?"

"I'm the Immortal Iron Fist. The sworn protector of Khun-Lun."

"What are you on, lithium?" Jessica questioned his sanity and honestly the sanity of everyone in the room. Okay, this was getting really insane. This was not her division.

"…okay. Let's say you're right. Who was the woman with the swords?" Luke changed topics to Jessica's not exactly delight, considering, but at least swords and guns she could handle.

"I don't know. But I fought her in Cambodia-"

"You were in Cambodia again?!" Matt burst out. Danny had said he was just going abroad!

"…and she showed up at my doorstep," Jessica added.

"She's the one who came after your client?"

Matt was getting more confused with each second. Not that he could make any sense of what he had thought he had seen at Midland Circle. It was impossible. He must have been losing his mind from too much stress and repeated head traumas. He had been hallucinating. He hadn't met… her at Midland Circle. No.

"Why, do you know her?"

"No." And Matt actually believed that, because he really, really wanted to.

"Well, she sure knew what she was doing."

"The Hand trains their fighters to be merciless, but, man, she was something else." Danny turned to Matt. "We never fought anyone like her."

And that was the ceiling to Luke's patience. There was a crazy ninja cult, with crazy ninja chic with swords, this scarfed guy looked like he was lying about not knowing her and he was cryptic as hell ever since Luke had met him.

"Okay, that's it. You need to put it all on the table-"

"I really don't," Matt protested, losing patience as well. The Hand was in the New York. In Hell's Kitchen. Last time a ninja cult had appeared in Hell's Kitchen… "What I need to do is to check up on-"

"Hey!"

"Look, I don't know you Mr. Cage and I don't owe you anything-"

Matt started walking away, mind already at home. The Hand didn't mean Stick, the Hand might not know where he lived, they had no idea he had been in Cambodia with the Chaste, but he just couldn't take any chances. If they figured out it was Daredevil fighting them at Midland Circle, they might come after her. If they figured out he was Matt Murdock, they would definitely come after her, apart from others. If they figured out he was both… well. Fuck.

Luke's hand tightly gripping his shoulder stopped him. "And I don't trust you. You're not just walking away."

"You wanna take your hand of my shoulder?"

"Take. Off. The mask," Luke demanded, emphasis on each word.

"Let go of me or you're not gonna like where this is heading."

"Try me," the taller man challenged him with a smirk, the atmosphere in the room suddenly much thicker.

"Whoa, whoa. Stop it. I think we can trust him-" Danny tried to calm Matt down, vainly.

"I don't."

Jessica rolled her eyes. They so didn't have time to compare dicks right now. "Oh, boy. Counsellor, a word?"

She eyed Matt's sort of a friend, disappointed. Shouldn't he know how to reason with him?

"What? He's stubborn…"

Kindergarten, seriously. She led Matt away and he grabbed his jacked on the way, taking it on.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, tone challenging.

Home. "None of your concern. You're gonna need another lawyer."

"Why did you follow me to the building?"

"Ms. Jones? Lose my card," he advised, asking himself the same question. Maybe he had really just wanted to keep his word and keep the PI away from trouble and it had gotten out of hand. To his defence, he had no idea this case was that shitty.

"I wish I could."

"Look, I've been down this road before-"

"Yeah, I kinda got that. I know who you are," Jessica stated. She wanted her scarf back. And she wanted this shit to be over with and apparently, this guy was – apart from being a paranoid bastard which was something she couldn't quite blame him for – essential for that.

"No, you really don't," he cooled her down smugly, ready to leave.

"You're the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. Or Devil Boy, or whatever you like to be called."

That erased the smugness from his face, making him freeze. Matt was fairly certain his heart just stopped. He should have seen it coming. She was a PI, she was Trish's friend, she knew Vera, hell, she had saved Vera's life right before Matt finally had gotten his ass to the alley where Vera had been assaulted. But he was not ready to admit she was right.

"Whatever you're insinuating-"

"Oh, please. We've met back in the day when you were still wearing your black pajama and I had to save your girlfriend's ass. I'm a PI. I put two and two together. And you leaping around the city like a Russian gymnast didn't exactly help either."

She didn't even hesitate. She was sure of whom he was. Wonderful. This day just kept getting better.

The only thing he could do was to state the obvious. "You don't have any prove."

"I did! You smashed it!" she complained. If she didn't have more pressing issues, she would bully him into buying her a new camera. Sadly, she had much bigger problems. "I'm not threatening you, I'm just stating the obvious. Karate Kid apparently already knows and Luke saw you fight and hide your face. He's two seconds from figuring out himself."

Matt set his jaw tight. This was a loss of time. He needed to go. "What do you want from me? A thank you for saving Vera's life? Thank you. But that's what I'm trying to do here. Again."

"I want nothing. And I want zero to do with this ancient organization. I just want to crack my case. And judging by the way you sprang into action and talked to Boy Billionaire, I think you don't exactly want to stay behind either. Yes, you can run check up on your girl right now or we can at least share some fucking info so we know better what we're dealing with. Your call, Murdock."

Jessica walked back to Danny and Luke, eyeing them confidently. She knew Murdock wouldn't leave. She might have met his civil persona only this morning, but despite the popular opinion she was trying to spread, she was giving a shit and she had heard stories. And she could read people.

It was maybe fifteen seconds later when she heard his footsteps approaching and her scarf was shoved back into her hands.

"My name is Matthew."

"And here I thought you prefer 'Matt'…" Danny hummed, earning a sigh from the blind man. Luke just nodded approvingly.

They were all siting at the table, finally eating. While Matt did not like the fact two other people knew about his double life, he appreciated the food at least. He couldn't remember what was the last time he had eaten.

Besides, Jessica had apparently already knew before. Luke was a little bit more surprised.

"I heard a lot about him. He went awol for three months – they said he was injured."

"That's not exactly what happened. I was in Cambodia, where I met Danny," Matt explained shortly, uncomfortable. Food was okay, planning was okay, but spending too much time here – not okay.

"But that doesn't make any sense."

"It's a long story. One that I'd rather not tell," Matt admitted, shifting in his seat. Too much time. The Hand in New York. Vera. "More importantly, my identity is a secret I keep not just for the sake of protecting myself, but also for the people that I love."

"Okay, I get that. Still don't get the other thing though. How can you do what you do? You're blind."

"Well, sight is overrated."

"He's got super-senses," Danny supported helpfully.

"Huh. Okay, I guess…. Now, we need to come up with some kind of a plan here."

"The only plan is how we get these people off our backs. Ideally, in a way that doesn't incriminate us," Jessica said, pointing out yet another problem.

"Incriminate us? What are you talking about?" Danny asked, not following.

"None of us is on police payroll."

"What we did there was trespassing and aggravated assault," Matt explained to Danny. Danny was still new to all this, the normal world. Though Matt wasn't sure what the definition of 'normal' was anymore. Well, it wasn't a life in a mystical city with a whole different set of rules, that was for sure.

"And vigilante bullshit," Jessica added.

Well, she's not wrong, Luke thought. He watched the exchange, his mind racing. This thing was big, way bigger than they could handle alone. They needed help. Someone who was on policepayroll.

"Look, there is one cop I think we can trust. I think we should bring her in."

"No, you'll be putting her in danger," Matt protested immediately.

"As will anyone who go against the Hand. As for doing this any legal way… well, you all saw what happened when I tried that."

"Is that what that was?" Luke doubted.

"Well, it started that way. I mean, look, I ever put on a tie!"

"You could have called me," Matt offered, his eyebrows furrowing.

"Matt-"

"Anyway. I promise you can't fight these people, Luke. Not even with whatever powers you have. Going on them head on, it'll only get you killed."

"Only if we do it alone," Danny hummed, gesturing lightly among all of them. Silence fell.

"No," Jessica protested, half disgusted, quarter amused and quarter horrified at the idea.

"Look, these people took everything from me. I'm gonna take them down one way or another."

"Danny-"

"I wanted to help one kid. One family," Luke stated, gesturing as well.

"I'm the first to admit, when I'm over my head and this is way past my threshold," Jessica exclaimed, feeling like she was the last person in this room who was thinking rationally. Though Matt and Luke had their moments.

"What are you talking about? Bulletproof. Blind ninja," he listed, pointing in the direction of Luke and then Matt. He hesitated with labelling Jessica. "Whatever it is you are-"

"Classy."

"I tried being a one man army and I failed. But this? This feels like something else it's at work here… the four of us, showing up to fight this criminal organization at the same moment? How obvious does it have to be? This… this cannot be an accident."

Matt's smile was a little patronizing. Danny was like an alien in this world. A child. Naïve and optimistic, a good friend and a fighter, a kid who was put too much responsibility on.

"Okay, Danny I know you mean well, but the four of us… we're not what you think we are, alright? We're four very different people and while we might all have been trying to do some good, we need to be rational about how we proceed-"

Matt stopped in the middle of his thought, his ears picking up a sound he was hoping not to hear – a lock clicking. Someone got in. One person.

An old man with a katana, familiar footsteps and too familiar heartbeat. This day was turning fabulous with each minute passing.

"Oh, you gotta be shitting me."

"What?" Danny pried, recognizing Matt was focused on something no one else could pick up.

Two seconds later, he heard the newcomer as well and three of four people jerked to their feet, startled, ready to fight.

The man entering the room was enough of an answer to Danny's question.