The Search For Johnny Cage
Ch8: Helping Hands
The Apartment of Jessica Jones & Luke Cage the day of the Memorial Event, Luke Cage walks over to the couch with his daughter Danielle on his shoulders. Jessica is sitting on the couch with a bowl of popcorn watching the live coverage of the Memorial Event at the Hall of Justice. She turns surprised to see Luke as she thought that he would be out on patrol or at the Hall.
Jessica Jones: Hey! I thought you would you were out and about tonight.
Luke Cage: Nothing wrong with taking a night off here and there. Besides, Peter and a handful of others also decided to stay behind and hold the city down while Tony and Steve took a handful of the others to represent.
Their young daughter interjects when she sees Captain America on screen saying "Look it's uncle Steve!" which makes Luke chuckle "Ha! Yep that's your uncle Steve.". The Cage family watches the live coverage of the event and watch a handful of their colleague's in the superhero community give speeches commemorating those who have given their live's for those who could not defend themselves whether they wore a mask or not. Superman then comes back on the podium and speaks to the ground of CIA Director James Greer speaks on the good the CIA and it's various agents have done.
Superman: As we move on throughout the night and as you all have noticed tonight isn't just about "superheroes" or people who are are in the spotlight, in fact this next speaker is the mother of someone who was forced into the spot light unwillingly. This man saved the world from utter destruction and in return, we were manipulated by fear and started locking up anyone with the conduit gene. I am of course speaking of the Patron Saint of New Marias, Cole MacGrath. I'd be lying if I told you I knew him personally because the simple fact is we never met. If it weren't for Cole MacGrath and his friends Zeke Dunbar, Lucy Kuo, and a woman simply known as Nix we would not be here today. Please help me welcome to the stage Elaine MacGrath!
Luke and Jessica are pleasantly surprised that the mother of the reluctant Conduit hero Cole MacGrath is able to get some shine and she's able to give her speech for a few minutes only for Superman to seemingly catch a bullet mid air that was aimed at her. Everyone in attendance at the event in confused but that's when soldiers in black and robots begin to pour in and the footage stops for "Technical Difficulties". Luke and Jessica look at each other with a great deal of concern unsure of what to do from where they are sitting.
About a month later,Luke is at a barbershop in Harlem watching the local news watching April O'Neil talk about what has transpired.
April O'Neil: It's been about a month since the attacks on the Hall of Justice and New York City that left many baffled as the terrorist organization known as Shin-Tan alongside and electrical being calling itself the "Avogrado" fought dozens of super powered heroes and some of the most well trained soldiers on the planet to a standstill. Johnny Cage's whereabouts are still unknown but publicly leading the search for him however are Defender of the Earth Flash Gordon, the armored Avenger Iron Man, and his ex-wife General Sonya Blade, all of whom have very deep and personal relationships with the actor turned hero.
The TV is then turned off by the owner of the shop muttering to himself "I'm not trying to hear about all that shit". Luke then gets text from Tony Stark asking Luke, "You got a minute?". Luke steps into the back room and calls his Avenger colleague.
Tony: Nemo's Pizza can I take your order?
"Very funny Stark." Luke replies sarcastically but that's when another feminine voice responds to the both of them saying "Is it always like this with you Avenger types?".
Luke: Who is this?
Tony: That my friend is Barbara Gordon, also known as Oracle. She's arguably one of if not the most important resource for people in our field.
Luke: Okay I thought you sounded familiar, what do you need from me?
Oracle: As I'm sure you know, Johnny Cage is missing-
Luke: Yeah that's all the news seems to talk about.
Oracle: Yes well we have a lead on his whereabouts and because the organization that kidnapped Johnny fought some of the most powerful people on the planet no problem we're going to need every edge we can carve out.
Luke: Still unsure why you need me? Johnny was Stark's friend.
Tony: I'd join but I'm of the mind that this goes deeper than Johnny being abducted. I'm going to have a "meeting of the minds" here soon, I've had Strange and Wanda look into something that I think is somehow tied into all of this. Besides you're the original Hero For Fire! You've been doing more for New York then just Avenger stuff.
Luke sighs heavily into the phone and says "Alright fine but who else am I working with?".
Oracle: Batman, Flash Gordon, and the White Canary just to name a few. They're flying into New York airspace right now.
Tony: I already talked to Batman, I told him you're probably on your way to Ghostbuster Firehouse to help out like you've been doing for that last handful of months and you like to see if there is any trouble by Mutant Town on the way there.
Luke: You would be correct.
Oracle: Great I'll go ahead and update Batman and the others, thanks Tony!
Fifteen minutes later, Luke is walking around New York City when he sees Batman, White Canary, and Chell fighting Purple Dragon thugs. Luke takes off his hood and headphones.
Luke: Sweet Christmas.
After a brief pause Luke enters the fray, Luke grabs a Purple Dragon fighting Chell by the shoulders throwing him head first into the side of a dumpster. Luke quickly clubs another over the head while the other heroes dispatch the remaining Purple Dragons. The young mutated Rabbit looks in awe at the group of heroes.
Luke: Go home kid, you'll be safe there.
The mutated teen looks in awe and terror at the heroes but Luke reaffirms the kid is fine by telling him "I won't tell the rat just go home.". With that the rabbit goes back into the sewers and presumably back to Mutant Town. Luke turns to Batman with a somewhat disappointed look on his face.
Batman: What?
Luke: When I got the call I was hoping for the new guy, the Batman in New York. You know the black guy.
Batman: Sorry to disappoint.
The sound of Flash Gordon's spaceship can be heard hovering over them and the group all look up at the ship. Over the spaceship's PA system Flash tells them "All aboard!". The group gets in the spaceship and Batman begins to Luke on what's going on.
Luke: So you this Hydra knock off kidnapped Johnny Cage but you don't know why and you're assembling people from Johnny's wishlist of hero team ups?
White Canary: That sounds about right.
Luke: So... Batman, Flash Gordon, a former Assassin, Myself, and a mute survivor of Aperture Labs are all going to be apart of this team to locate Johnny? Do you even know where he is?
Chell murmurs to herself quietly saying "I'm not a mute". The other three heroes look at Luke Cage with some concern in their eyes.
Batman: We're working on that right, in the meantime however we have to find a few more people first.
The computer of the spaceship than projects the holograms of Turok, Skulldugerry Pleasant, Prince Valiant, Rock N Roll, and the San Francisco Mummies. Oracle radios in bearing good news for the group.
Oracle: Hey everyone looks like I got some good news! My mystic contacts have located a network of caves in North Dakota that act as portals to Turok's home, I'm sending the coordinates now.
Flash: Thank you Oracle.
Oracle: That's not all I found, I've been tapped into Shin-Tan communications. There's a lot of communication and movement from them in San Francisco.
Oracle begins to play a video of Johnny in a cell in what looks like modern day Alcatraz being tortured by what looks like Ming, Celia Penderghast, and a large man wearing garbs of Egyptian garbs holding a golden cobra themed scepter.
Luke: That girl! Tony' s been trying to find her for forever!
Flash: I had a run in with her not too long ago. She's angry at the world and Ming is manipulating her. Who's the priest?
Oracle: Unsure but he appears to be heavily involved in San Francisco's occult scene. Some of the mystic experts in The Network have called him "Scarab".
The computer then pulls up multiple news articles about the San Francisco Mummies fighting a large Purple Beetle man in the mall or in Chinatown. A list of possible associates include Kan Ra, Daloan Wong, and Baron Mordo.
Flash: We have our coordinates, I'm setting a course for North Dakota right now. Oracle, send a message to Mandrake and let him know we're going to be visiting Xanadu before we get there.
Oracle: Way ahead of you Flash. Any questions for me?
Batman: None, just keep us in the loop.
The holograms then fade away and the video call ends and the ship flies off to North Dakota to recruit the next member of this rag team searching for Johnny. Luke sends a text to Jessica saying "Not gonna be home tonight" which within seconds her caller image of the two of them with Danielle pops up on his phone. Luke quickly walks out into the cargo hold to talk to his wife on the phone.
Jessica: So where are you that you're not going to be home tonight?
Luke: Would you believe me if I told you I was on a spaceship with Batman, Flash Gordon, a former assassin, and a traumatized science experiment?
Jessica: Anything else you need to tell me?
Luke: We're looking for Johnny Cage.
Jessica laughs in the phone and responds with "So just another day in the life right?". Luke nervously lets out a laugh. "Tell Dani girl I love her and I love you too.".
Jessica: You don't know when you're coming back do you?
Luke pauses and looks out the window to see that he can no longer see New York City instead all he sees is lush green below him unsure of where exactly he is.
Luke: I don't but, I know everything is going to work out... It's worked out so far.
Jessica: Alright, well if you need help please don't hesitate to reach out. Stay safe, I love you.
Luke: I love you too.
The conversation ends and Luke walks back to the bridge and takes a seat in his chair. Luke looks at the lush green below as they zip through the sky at lightning fast speeds, he sits down and takes a deep breath and tells himself "Just another day in the life of a bullet proof black man.".
Author's Note: What's up everybody! This chapter has been a long time coming, to be completely honest I wasn't happy with how the story was panning out I just felt like it was becoming very fan servicey and I know for a fact I'm not catching every error and I genuinely thought about scrapping it and starting from scratch because this story is essential to the over arcing plot I wasn't sure what to do and some of the characters I planned on using for this story I feel like needed proper introductions and I feel like I needed to write some other stuff to really build out the world.
While I was procrastinating on this I wrote "Return of the Old World" which is a crossover between Jackie Chan Adventures (one of my favorite cartoons growing up) and Mummies Alive! (Characters from this show WILL be integral to not just this story but also the over arcing plot!). I also wrote We Angry Few which explores the dynamic of Kratos, The Doom Slayer, Hanzo Hasashi, and the Hulk (currently almost done writing the sequel to it). In We Angry Few it delves into the mystery of time being broken. Don't worry I haven't abandoned you, expect the next chapter of this as well as prequel story about Luke Cage and some of New York City's other heroes (think mutants and paranormal) teaming up. Thank you for rocking with me and reading my stories, this has become a fun little hobby almost like a puzzle figuring out how certain characters interact with one another and the narrative I've had fun plotting out!