That's why she sleeps with one eye open {but that's the price she'll pay}
August 2nd, 2016
2:45 PM
It’s official.
Jessica hates New York.
From giant aliens to ninjas, to perverted powered bastards and secret science organizations, New York is just a bundle of surprises. If someone walked up to her and told her that the Illuminati were secretly running everything and aliens were abducting cows to take into their spaceships, she would believe them. She would drink the rest of alcohol, but she would believe them.
Holy fuck.
Just-
Fuck.
So, there’s these arm-dealers. Assholes who’ve been selling shit since the Incident. Crap that’s been made from scraps of Avenger squabbles. Ultron, Alien guys, Iron-Man fights, pretty much anything that had to do with super-powered beings. They steal the scraps and make them into weapons, selling them on the streets.
Really nothing big. Just track down the dude who’s in charge and deal with him. Easy.
That’s what Spider-Man had been doing, doing surprisingly well for someone in such a shitty costume.
And then this thing had come out of fucking nowhere.
And it bit someone’s head off.
And Spider-Man had let the other arm-dealer go so he wouldn’t get eaten. Fuck, he’d protected Turk while the self-proclaimed Shocker was having his temper tantrum.
That thing, it attacked Spider-Man.
It had nearly killed him. Spidey had been so much smaller than him, so short and skinny. He looked like a child. Punching and fighting a thing that was several heads taller than him and definitely was a better fighter than him. And he had gotten hurt, so Jessica had pulled out her gun, something she rarely ever used, and shot the thing.
Of course the fucking thing was bulletproof.
And then Spidey, the genius that he was, grabbed the dropped weapon the shocker had, and shot the thing, sending it into the Hudson.
So it was gone, and Turk had run like a coward, and so had the other dude, and Spidey didn’t even have the decency to stay behind so she could just talk to him because that’s literally all she had to do.
So she was left with a headless corpse, a van, and eighteen thousand more questions.
That thing literally ate someone’s head.
With the police sirens wailing in the distance and coming closer to the docks, she ransacked the van and took anything she could find that might help her with-
Well, with everything,
Anyway, thank god for gloves.
Lugging everything onto her apartment, which consisted of some bastardized tech, a laptop, and her photographs of the van and the fight between the thing and Spider-Man, Jessica Jones drank half a bottle of whiskey and slumped into her desk chair, silently cursing everything in life.
Okay, first things first.
First, she needs to find Spider-Man.
Which is going to be hard considering her best lead ended up in a flaming dumpster fire. But she knows he exists, and that he indeed does have a crappy costume. It’s basically leggings and a hoodie.It also offered no protection against literally anything, which was why Spider-Man now probably had giant gashes around his legs from the cannibalistic nightmare creature that ate someone’s head.
So what she knows is:
- Spidey’s injured
- Spidey has a no kill-code {evidenced by the way he stuck mostly to defense}
- Spidey is fucking terrible at fighting
- Spidey is really small. Like, really, really small.
- Spidey lives in Queens.
- Spidey took the one of the Shocker’s weapons, more specifically the one that knocked down the nightmare creature.
So, she was lost.
Great.
Jessica found some tequila and drank that, scowling at the laptop in front of her, which was fucking locked. She could probably hack into it, but that’s hard and she doesn’t exactly know what’s on the damn thing anyway. She’s hoping something useful, but you never know. Could be a way to locate the arm’s dealers, could be a rough draft of Lord of the Rings fanfiction, you never know.
And on top of that.
She thought ninjas were the weirdest thing she’s ever seen.
Nope!
Just had to be a cannibalistic nightmare creature. One that’s bulletproof and has really long claws. And teeth. And a really ugly tongue. With black eyes.
See, this is what you get for helping.
Jessica snarls, angrily taps a pen and finally gives in.
Her phone rings, Jessica waiting impatiently on the other end. It keeps ringing for a few seconds and Jessica takes the time to take another swig of tequila because she deserves it after that shitshow of a night.
C’mon, pick up. I know you’re awake.
Finally, he picks up. “Jess? How’s it going?”
“Luke,” Jessica runs a hand through her hair, “You haven’t seen anything wrong these last couple of days, have you?”
“No, can’t say I haven’t.” Luke sounds very confused. Which, given the fact that if you told Jessica there was a flesh-eating monster in New York, she’d say that was so 2012 and if Trish were there, she’d smack her upside the head. “Why? Is something wrong?”
Jessica barks a laugh. “Oh, nothing big. Just a huge cannibal with giant teeth and claws. Nothing to worry about.”
“Sweet Christmas.” There’s a sound of rustling on the other side of the phone. “Where’d you see it?”
“Docks.” Jessica kicks a book lying on the floor. “Hey, do you know anything about Spider-man, by the way?”
Luek groans. “Danny won’t shut up about him. Really wants to meet him. Bout ready to find the guy myself just so I can have a normal conversation.”
Jessica snickers, despite herself. “A normal conversation? With Danny? You’re asking for too much.”
“Hey, don’t be mean,” Luke chastises, “But, honestly, why? Doesn’t he just stick to Queens?”
Jessica paces around her slightly destroyed apartment. She’d clean it up, but who cares. “Some jackass wanted me to find him. Said that his powers were going to kill him. I think that’s bullshit, but I went to go find the guy anyway.”
“Out of the kindness of your heart?”
“Zip it. So, Spidey went to go find Turk Barrett who, by the way, has got some pretty shit luck. Something about these arm dealers with Chitauri tech.”
“Chitauri?” Luke sounds alarmed. And why wouldn’t he be? Alien tech in the hands of humans? A recipe bound for disaster.
“Yup,” Jessica pops the p. “That’s probably why Spidey’s after them. Didn’t notice the freaky cannibal till it knocked him to the ground.”
“What’d the cannibal want?”
Jessica runs a hand through her hair. “Who knows? It just bit off the head of one of the arm dealers and then attacked Spidey. I shot it, but it’s fucking bulletproof. It’s got this weird thing coming out of it, too. Kind of like Spidey’s web thingies.”
“Do you think it could be one of his baddies? Someone out for revenge?” Luke’s going through this at every angle, but Jessica’s already ahead of him.
“Nah. Spidey was just as scared shitless.” Jessica huffs. “Asshat didn’t even wait for me to come down from the roof. Just swung away on those weird webs of his, right after he knocked nightmare creature into the Hudson.”
“Probably thought you were a cop.”
“Great.”
Luke laughs a little bit. “Well, I got nothing on Spidey. Danny might though. ‘Specially if Bug-Boy’s got any tech. Might help track him down.”
Jessica pauses. “I think Spidey took one of the guns. The one he used to knock down the thing. I’ve got some tech and a laptop.”
“Danny could probably help, with his powers of being rich.” Luke says, but Jessica’s five steps ahead of him.
“Shit. Luke.”
“What?”
“How do you hack into a laptop?”
“.....Why?”
Jessica’s opening the laptop, hands hovering over the keyboard as she tucks the phone between her neck and ear. “I think I can track the gun through the guy’s laptop. The weapon’s got to have some sort of way that I can trace it back to where it is now.”
“And find Spidey, with the weapon.” Luke summarizes. “‘Course, you have to hack into the laptop. Good luck.”
Jessica scowls. “Any suggestions?”
“46616.”
“No.”
“0367”
“No.”
“Thunderbolts.”
“No. Cage, your suggestions are trash.”
“Hold on. One more,” Luke ponders his options for a moment before deciding. “FuckIronMan2016.”
“Cage.”
“Just try it.”
Jessica types it in. And is met with a search browser. “Hey, Cage?”
“Yeah?”
“You psychic or something?”
“It worked?”
“I hate you very much right now.”
Luke laughs, and the sound of his footsteps and the nearing sound of the television can be heard as he walks through his and Claire’s apartment. “Well, what can I say? I’m just-”
Luke stops.
Jessica tugs the phone closer to her ear. “Luke? What’s wrong?”
“Jones,” Luke’s voice is strained, “What did you say the nightmare creature looked like?”
“Red and black. Had black lines running up the side of it, like stitches. Teeth and claws. Black eyes. Huge.” Jessica’s frantic. Is it at Luke’s apartment? Is it going after them? Luke’s invulnerable, but she did shoot him once at point-blank range and nearly killed him. And there’s no telling what that thing can do. “Luke, what’s going on?”
“It’s attacking Metro Gen.” Luke’s voice is so very tight and scared. “Claire, she’s-”
“I thought she quit?!” Jessica’s about ready to run through her door. Going after Luke or Danny or Jessica was one thing. But Claire was a civilian, despite everything. She didn’t deserve this.
“She did. But North General sent her over this week ‘cuz of the overload of patients at Metro Gen.” Jessica’s lacing up her boots, heart thrumming with panic as Luke talks to her. “Jess, you gotta-”
“I’m going,” Jess tells him, “Call Danny. Tell him to get his ass over to Metro Gen.”
“Hurry Jess. Please.” Luke’s begging, the creaking of his phone being crushed by his hands audible over the phone. “I can’t-”
“I’ll be there soon.” Jess hangs up the phone, running out the door. Thoughts of missing vigilantes and idiotic arms dealers were left with the bottles of booze and a laptop full of secrets.
If there’s so much as a single scratch on Temple, I’m going to rip that fucker’s head off.