Shoutout to Franco, Jackson, Ogami, and Moretti. Appreciate all of you.
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I slipped out the window after midnight. Flicked my wrist and suit appeared. Spiders had tagged three shoplift calls, one robbery, and something weird near the pier. I picked the weird.
Warehouse district. Nothing new. But this one had a thermal bloom ten minutes ago and zero heat now.
That usually meant one thing. Someone lit something up inside, torched it fast, and bailed.
I landed on the roof. I climbed down the wall slow. Avoided the broken glass pane near the fire escape. Slid under a security camera that was already webbed dead. Entered through a cracked panel near the loading dock.
Inside, half the place looked like it just got used for a black market yard sale. Burn marks on the wall. Scorch trails on the concrete. But the fire was contained. Which meant someone with skill and maybe gear just tested something inside this warehouse, then left.
I took a look around but found nothing. "A bust. Next one."
[System]: Mmm~ you just wasted ten minutes of rooftop cardio for an empty crime scene. Fitness achieved, progress denied.
I crawled out the same way I entered. Web swung across a billboard, landed on a laundromat's cracked AC unit. Three minutes later, I was on the streetlight post across the lot. Grocery behind her. Closed. Windows taped. Handwritten signs said "renovation" but looked more like "abandonment in progress."
I scanned the interior. Two guys near the back, one messing with a crowbar. Another pacing, phone to his ear. One more was halfway up the shelves, stuffing what looked like vape pods and canned goods into a plastic crate. All in black. Masks up. Not pro. Local trash on a discount crime spree.
[System]: Mmm~ nothing screams high ambition like stealing expired ravioli and menthol sticks.
"Could still be payday."
I slipped through the rooftop vent, lowered myself onto the beam above aisle five. One of them walked underneath, muttering something about splitting the haul. I dropped on him. Elbow to the neck. He dropped like a folding chair.
Second guy heard it. Turned.
I grabbed the first guy's belt, yanked, threw it into the air. His gun clattered out. I caught it, chucked it into the dark, then slammed his head into the frozen foods sign. He bounced off with a grunt. I webbed his arms behind him. Used the spillover to slap his mouth shut.
Third guy froze. Started backing toward the loading dock. I jumped the aisle. Landed behind the register, grabbed a can of tomato paste off the shelf, and threw it into his shoulder. He yelped. Dropped his bag. I webbed his foot. He tripped. Head smacked the tile.
Bag spilled. Chips, condoms, a taser, and three vape mods.
[System]: Mmm~ peak urban crime.
Rest of the night was same. Find crime, beat up criminals, record and repeat. Thieves in alleys, a drunk dude trying to mug a tourist, two guys selling fake iPhones out of a stroller. One guy even tried to flash a badge at a hooker. I webbed his pants to a bench and left him yelling about being an undercover priest.
One more near Brooklyn. Rooftop crawler. Not gang. Solo. Not a rookie, but not polished either. The kind of thief that lived on the edge of poor and desperate. Nothing graceful. Just fast hands and a good pair of legs.
She dropped into an alley behind a pawn shop. I landed ten feet above, clinging to a rusted pipe. Watched her toss the bag inside a trash bin and fish out a different one from under the dumpster. Old-school misdirect. Classic trick, executed clean.
I dropped behind her. She froze.
"You aren't gang. You don't use guns. You hit a box that belongs to the Red Bones. That means you are either really dumb or really specific."
She turned. Hoodie dropped. Face in shadow. Light brown skin. Blue streaks in her hair. Nose ring. Looked young. Maybe twenty. She didn't flinch. Just tilted her head like she was waiting for a test.
"You are Spider?"
"Sometimes."
She studied me. No fear. No reach for a weapon. Not even a step back.
"You going to stop me?"
"I was curious. You hit that box with skill. Not speed. Not rage. You knew where to cut. Who trained you?"
She tilted her head, looked confused and lost. Like the answer was funny only to her.
"I don't remember."
"Amnesia?"
"No. I just remember him. He matters. Nothing else does."
I couldn't help but grin. 'Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.'
[System]: Mmm~ it is him, doesn't it?
I grinned wider. 'Damn right he is.'
The girl gathered her stuff. I watched her walk away, turned, then flicked one spider toward her ankle. It landed clean. Buried itself in her boot seam. She turned the corner and vanished.
[System]: You want the spider to record her shower habits?
"Hell, no. Just the crimes."
[System]: Define crimes. I feel like nipple piercings are illegal somewhere.
"Crimes with victims. Not jewelry and kinks."
[System]: Lame. But noted.
I leapt to the next roof. Scanned the street below. Few stragglers. One drunk couple making out near a bus stop. One guy jerking off behind a dumpster. One raccoon stealing Cheetos from a knocked-over vending machine.
The girl handed over her bag to another, who took it and left without saying a word. I followed the bag.
[System]: Ohhh~ look at this relay race. Mission: Paranoid Drug Rat, stage one!
First guy took the side street. Passed it to a second who came out of a vape shop pretending to talk on the phone. Second one walked to a parking lot, handed it off to a delivery boy on a scooter. The scooter zipped across three blocks, no hesitation, merged into traffic. Trained, or used to it.
I swung low, clung to the underside of a traffic cam to watch the handoff to a car parked near the gas station. Black SUV, tinted windows, license plate sprayed.
[System]: Damn, they playing hot potato with your trail. Someone has paranoia issues. Man was hurt before.
I grinned. 'Of course he is. Otherwise I would have found him much earlier. I have been looking ever since Spider Whisper came online. I knew he lived outside the city though, chances were low. Not anymore.'
The SUV drove like it was paranoid too. Took lefts when rights were faster. Never more than five blocks without switching lanes. Stopped once, let a guy cross, then made a full loop around a housing complex. It didn't stop until the highway. And even then, only for ten seconds before merging again.
I stuck to the overpass. Webbed between signs, swung between pylons, made sure none of the highway cams caught the same angle twice.
Twenty-three miles later, the SUV turned into a suburb. Cookie-cutter homes with the usual dead plants and Amazon packages no one would ever claim. SUV pulled into the fourth house down. Garage opened. Swallowed the car. Closed.
I watched from the roof across. "You sure I won't be affected by him?"
[System]: Mmm~ sugar, I already laced your neurons tighter than a nun's asshole. That pheromone trick? Blocked. You will see him, hear him, but your dick and brain stay yours. Besides, his pheromone field's range is twenty-five feet indoors, up to forty with direct wind. You are outside. Elevated. Masked. Plus I coated your inner liner with a suppression weave. Unless you french kiss him, you are clean.
Driver stepped out, moved like someone following GPS instructions in his brain. He walked up the porch, dropped the black bag by the door, rang once, then turned around.
He left without waiting.
[System]: He is conditioned. Not hypnotized. Not chemically lobotomized. Just trained like a damn drone. Probably gets fed, paid, and reset.
I zoomed the lens. The front window was tinted but not opaque. I caught silhouettes. One seated. One standing.
The seated figure's head tilted back, like resting. Arms limp. Her shoulders were bare. Tank strap hung off one. Hair tied tight. That was Jessica Jones.
The standing man had one hand on her shoulder. Purple shirt. No shoes. Just socks. One step closer and I could have counted the veins in his foot.
Killgrave.
He was real.
[System]: And still barefoot like a Craigslist predator.
'I am going in there.'
Jessica moved. Barely. Twitched like someone trying to resist a nightmare. His hand stroked down her arm. She shivered.
[System]: Saw that, baby? She is fighting back to touch. You got to her soon. He still didn't do anything to her.
Good.
I hated rapists the most. Reason, method, chemicals, pheromones, mind games, it didn't matter. The second you took someone's will and made it your plaything, you were bottom-tier garbage. And Killgrave? He was the goddamn poster boy of that trash pile.
I didn't hunt him just because Jessica was on the main girl list. This was personal. He needed to go down like a trench-coated freak in public daylight.
I crawled down the wall, avoiding windows. Landed on the ledge two floors above. Nothing but flower pots. Plastic. One had a cigarette butt stabbed into the dirt like it was trying to grow a nicotine plant.
I flicked a spider. It latched to the upper corner of the living room glass. Sent a ping. Interior scan returned.
[System]: Audio incoming. Want it raw or filter the background?
"Raw."
"Jessica, my dear. You keep flinching like I am going to bite. I don't bite. Unless asked. Did I not give you wine? Food? Company? You are safe with me."
Her voice was low. Like sandpaper trying to form words. "You drugged the wine."
"No, no, no. I suggested it would taste better. You agreed. Big difference."
She shifted. Her shoulder twitched. The spider caught it. Microscopic muscle data. She was resisting.
[System]: She isn't cracked yet. You can yank this before it turns ugly.
Killgrave opened the bag. Pulled out a vial and syringe.
"This will calm you down," he said, shaking the vial like it was perfume. "You are the love of my life, Jess. But that power makes you too feisty. I adore your fire, but this? This does not work."
Jessica shifted again. Her wrist moved an inch. His head tilted.
"No, no," he said. "None of that. You promised not to run. Remember? You promised."
Her voice came out tight. "You made me promise."
"I helped you see the better choice," he replied, prepping the syringe like he was stirring cream into a bad idea.
He took a step closer. I jumped.
Window cracked when I crashed through it. Killgrave flinched. Syringe flew. I caught it mid-air, crushed it in my fist. Jessica slumped in the chair, hands twitching.
Killgrave stepped back. "You. You are the one from the videos. The new thing. Jess stop him!"
Jessica lunged forward. Fast, clumsy, like a drunk athlete shoved off a ledge. Her muscles twitched, jaw clenched, eyes wide but glazed. She was not in control. Her legs barely followed the command. Arms came out, ready to grab.
I caught her wrist. Twisted just enough to push her off balance without hurting her. She stumbled sideways. I webbed her ankle, then her hand to the wall behind.
Killgrave tilted his head. "Stop!"
I froze.
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You can read up to Chapter 85...
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