Chapter Text
With Great Power One Must Go Further Beyond (Marvel/MHA alt power)
aka Power Plus Ultra
By Scriviner
PART 6:
Usually, Jess kept her patrols to Queens, but she’d felt like she was getting faster the more she did, so for the past week or so, she’d taken to doing a circuit of Manhattan Island flat out, just to get used to it. It wasn’t quite a direct flight. She did have to try and avoid airplane flight paths. And helipads. She was still trying to figure out how to apply for an FAA transponder.
Even with those problems, she liked seeing Central Park at night from high up.
She liked nearly everything about being a superhero.
Unexpectedly, the police scanner she kept handy crackled in her ear. The dispatcher called for units to respond to a break in at a Maria Stark Foundation distribution center on the west side. It didn’t sound like anything the cops might need help with, but she was closer and faster than the nearest cars that might have been able to respond, so she hurriedly pulled her phone out of her belt pouch and used the GPS to figure out where it was in relation to her.
It took her a minute to find it and manage to just barely and gingerly come down to a soft landing on the building across the street from the warehouse. It didn’t look like anything was wrong. The doors were closed and so were all the windows. Windows, that she noted, were too small for anyone to actually use to break in with.
She couldn’t really see anything weird going on.
She pouted, putting her fists to her hips (A pose that she was finding to be really weirdly comfortable). She looked around at the nearby buildings to see if there were any other clues there. Jess thought she saw some kind of purple shadow moving around on the next building over, but it was too dark to make anything out and Jess suspected pigeons.
She sighed and wondered if this wasn’t some kind of false alarm. She was about to lift off and finish up her patrol, when all the lights suddenly blazed to life inside the warehouse, spilling light out of the high windows.
Then she heard the screaming.
Then the gunshots.
Jess didn’t think, she reacted. She kicked off the edge of the roof and aimed straight for the door. Her brain caught up with her body a fraction of a second before she would’ve plowed through the metal security door. Charging right into a situation where guns were being fired where she had no idea what was going on was a sure fire way to make things worse.
She was mostly bulletproof. Mostly. Other people weren’t as lucky. She winced and angled downward at the last moment and rather than smashing through the door, she smacked hard into the concrete awkwardly, her momentum sending her rolling on the ground for a bit, but at least this time she didn’t slam into the pavement hard enough to crack it. It didn’t hurt. Her white costume wasn’t even dirty!
It was just awkward and embarrassing and she was glad no one saw that, but she couldn’t really worry about that now because there was someone shooting a gun!
But she was definitely making progress and she couldn’t help but feel a small thrill at that.
She hurriedly floated herself back to her feet and rushed the rest of the distance to the door.
Rather than rip through the door, she put her shoulder against it and shoved the way she’d learned that would pop locks open. It would definitely wreck the lock and probably some of the door frame, but she wasn’t spraying bits of door all over the place.
The gunshots and screaming seemed to have stopped, but something had flashed gold inside the warehouse, visible through the windows.
She was close enough now to hear individual voices. One voice in particular, called out. “Get going! I’ll catch up!!”
Jess threw the door open.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, the bright internal lighting of the warehouse dazzling her for a moment before the shadows in front of her eyes resolved.
Two men, one holding the other up by his throat?
She blinked, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.
The first thing she saw was a face that looked like a skull. It took her a moment to fully realize that it actually was a skull. Some kind of animal skull with a pair of large branching horns… or were those antlers? She wasn’t clear on the distinction, but whatever they were, this guy had them. The black eyeholes burned with glowing red pinpoints.
He wore a gray jacket that seemed inadequate for the winter weather. It was also too tight for him, highlighting his shoulders.His pants were tight black denim. That threw Jess for a second. He didn’t seem to actually be in a costume or uniform. The clothes were almost tight enough to be a costume, but they were still just… street clothes. Perfectly normal.
Except he had a horned skull head and glowing red eyes. He stood ramrod straight and radiated menace. The limp form of a uniformed security guard dangled helplessly at the end of his outraised right arm. His left hand was balled up in a fist. Jess could hear a strained, metal on metal grinding noise as the man’s knuckles popped.
She winced as she noticed that there was a spatter of red across the left side of his skull-face. More on his sleeve. She was too far to tell if the security guard was breathing or not, but if all that red on him was blood, she didn’t like the man’s chances.
Jess called out, “Put him down!”
The skull head looked in her direction and tilted curiously.
“Don’t hurt him anymore!” She said sternly.
The man shook his deer skull head dismissively, dropping the guard at his feet. It was a graceless slide down to the ground, almost completely boneless.
“He’s not hurt,” The man’s voice was deep, but nagged at Jess. Something familiar to it that she couldn’t place. “He’s just unconscious. He’ll be fine after a day or two and a couple of heavy meals.”
Jess glanced at the guard. Now that he wasn’t being held up by his neck, she could see the man was breathing.
“So, that’s not his blood?” Jess asked, taking a step closer. The man acknowledged her move and took a step back from the guard.
That earned her a snort. Still dismissive. Now faintly amused. “What, this?” He gestured vaguely to his sleeve, then sniffed. “This was his fault.”
As Jess kept moving closer, he kept backing away, allowing her to approach.
She took position next to the guard and dropped to one knee to check on him. Deer-skull was right. The guard did seem to just be unconscious. His heartbeat was steady, his breathing was even, if a little shallow, but otherwise the man didn’t seem to have any injuries. Not even bruising around the neck, which Jess had found out purely by accident that picking people up that way tended to leave bruises.
Up close, she could see powder burns on the guard’s sleeves and the empty holster at his belt. The guard had been the shooter. It bothered her a little that she’d gotten familiar enough with it that she could easily identify gunshot residue.
She glanced up and noticed that Deer-skull had sidled around, trying to get around her so that he could get a direct line to the open door.
Jess half-floated, half-sprang back to her feet and repositioned herself between him and the door once more. The guard seemed fine, so now she had to figure out what was going on.
“So, he shot you?” She made a vague gesture towards the red splattered mess on his sleeve and skull face. “Are you okay?”
He opened his left fist, allowing a crushed and still smoking gun to fall to the floor. She could swear he was somehow smirking despite not having visible lips.
“It’s fine.” Deer-skull swiped at his sleeve with his forefinger and scooped up a small dollop of red. “He got me right in the strawberry preserves.”
He put his finger to where his mouth should have been under the skull and licked it clean. Then his whole body seemed to flinch and he spit off to the side, cursing faintly.
“Uh, are you okay now?” Jess had to blink as she realized that his voice was now much higher than it had been earlier.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Shouldn’t’ve done that. There was some glass–” He trailed off, then straightened up again and coughed into his fist, then dropped his voice once more. “Nothing to worry about.”
He made a dismissive gesture. “In any case, as you can see, he’s fine, I’m fine, so I’ll just be leaving–”
Jess grinned. “I don’t think so.”
“No one’s really hurt and any damage was actually your fault–” Deer-skull gestured towards the door.
Jess flinched slightly, but stood her ground. “Yeah, but, you still broke into a food bank in the middle of the night. That’s pretty suspicious.”
That seemed to startle him. “This is a food bank?”
She frowned. “You didn’t know?”
He shrugged, seemingly indifferent although his artificially deep voice cracked for a second. “It’s my first time.”
“Your first crime?” Jess pressed.
The burning red pinpoints of light in his skull’s eye sockets seemed to roll. “Fine. Yes. You’ve forced me to admit it. It’s my first crime.”
Jess grinned and cracked her knuckles. “It’s kind of a poor career choice, but since it is your first time, I’ll try to be gentle.”
He held both hands up in front of himself defensively. “Hold on there. That’s going a little fast. Shouldn’t you at least buy me dinner first? Maybe tell me your name?”
That fetched her up short as she reran what she’d just said through her head and she blushed slightly. This deer skull faced dork, who had just eaten glass and was pretending to have a deeper voice… was he flirting with her? She sputtered a bit, but rallied as best she could. “Haven’t you heard of me? I’m Jewel.”
“Oh, right! The superheroine, yes. Sorry.” He replied, “I’ve read about you in the paper, but they never have photos.”
That irritated her slightly as she gestured down to the large (admittedly fake) jewel at her belt. “This wasn’t a big enough clue?” She chuckled.
He shrugged. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Only a superhero would be flying around mid-winter wearing just a tube top.”
She fumed. “This isn’t a tube top!”
He looked puzzled for a second. “It’s got no sleeves, no straps–” He held both hands up again. “Look, I’m not an expert on women’s fashions.”
She gave him a glare.
He gestured vaguely. “It does look nice, though. Shows your shoulders off and everything.” He paused then added. “They’re very nice shoulders if you don’t mind me saying so.”
“It’s a little late to butter me up now.” She sniffed.
He grinned. “Like I said, not an expert on fashions. Women’s or superheroic.”
“Or an expert on crime either, apparently.” She snarked.
“I’m doing my best here.” He seemed offended.
“Yes, well, you managed to get caught, so apparently not good enough.” She grinned and floated off the ground, fists at her hips, doing her best to be intimidating.
From his tone and his body language she could tell he was grinning back. “You haven’t caught me yet.”
“What is your name anyway? I keep calling you Deer-skull in my head, but I’m betting that’s not right.”
He tapped the side of his skull. “This is a reindeer skull, thank you very much. As for a name… call me Dumas.”
“I’m guessing you’re not planning on surrendering peacefully, Mr. Dumas?”
“You guessed correctly, Miss Jewel.” He seemed to be getting his full confidence back and made a dramatic flourish.
“This is on your own head then!” She sprang forward, pulling a fist back to give him a quick knock-out tap. She’d had enough practice with her strength that she could accurately gauge if she was hitting someone hard enough. She was reasonably sure he had at least some degree of enhanced durability, so a bit more than the baseline was going to be needed.
What she hadn’t expected was for him to almost effortlessly slide around her incoming fist, slapping it aside so that her punch missed entirely. She ramped up her speed and strength, going past human baseline and he easily did it again, handily blocking or dodging her blows. She kept increasing the strength she was hitting with and he seemed to be matching her blow for blow, even to the point where his fists were colliding with hers.
They paused for a moment. His hands and hers tangled up in one another. Although he seemed to be holding his own, she was sure that he hadn’t had any more training as a fighter than she did. Or at least it didn’t seem that way. He was just fast. His reflexes were ridiculous. She hadn’t ever had to fight anyone who came even close to her strength, speed or durability. At least not if you didn’t count the sand guy.
As she was distracted by her own thoughts, in that brief moment that they were up close to one another, he seemed to take a quick indrawn breath and everything flashed gold and she could feel her strength falling off sharply and he seemed to suddenly overpower her.
She sprang back, moving away from him which seemed to break whatever effect he’d used, and she dropped to a knee, winded, but could feel her strength coming back to her. “What the–?”
Her hurried, panicked movement away from him and whatever that effect was had sent her further into the building.
That left him with a clear run for the door. “It was really nice meeting you, Miss Jewel, but I’m afraid this is where we part ways.”
He ran for the door and was almost through… until the horns or antlers or whatever on his skull caught on the doorway and he struggled to duck and twist to get them loose.
Despite not being quite up to her full strength yet, Jewel shot forward, confident in her speed at least, especially given his distraction. Caught as he was on the doorway, her arms closed on his waist. She grinned to herself. He wasn’t getting away from her this time.
He jerked his head back, finally freeing his antlers, but for a second, she thought he was trying to headbutt her. Almost entirely by reflex, she arched her back, avoiding the blow, but in the process also pulling him off his feet. He flailed for a second, and she was already fully committed to the move before she even realized she was doing it.
She fully arched her back, slamming his head and shoulders into the concrete floor with enough force to shatter it.
Jess belatedly realized what she had done and hurriedly let go, to immediately spring back to her feet. “Oh, God! Are you okay?”
He rolled back to his feet, shakily standing a few feet away from her. He had concrete dust and chunks embedded in his jacket and the skull… which she only just now realized was actually a mask… was not only askew, but had parts of both antlers snapped off. “Did… you… just suplex me?”
“Oh, you’re still in one piece.” Jess gave a sigh of relief. “That’s good.”
As he self-consciously straightened his mask and brushed dust off his shoulders, he seemed to turn his full attention on her. “I don’t like how that sounds.”
Jess’s face burned and she almost felt herself wilting slightly under Dumas’s disapproving tone. “I might’ve put my first bad guy through the floor the first time I did that.”
Dumas winced with a full body twitch of sympathetic pain. “Was he okay?”
She waved him off. “Oh, he was fine. He splattered–”
Dumas recoiled. “He what?!”
Her eyes widened. “No, no. Not like that! I mean he was made of sand! He was just a little stunned!”
“Oh. Well, you know, as strong as you are, you really need to be more careful.” He replied.
“Wait, you’re the villain here! You don’t get to lecture me about being careful!” Jewel shot back, annoyed.
“I’m not the one causing all the property damage.” He pointed out calmly. He reached up and fingered the broken sections of the antlers on his mask. “I mean, look at this. You broke my antlers.”
She winced. “Sorry.”
“I guess it's not so bad–” He took her momentary hesitation at his conciliatory tone and dashed past her almost faster than she could see. “-- now they won’t get caught on the door!”
He threaded past her, past the door and had made it onto the street before she even realized he had moved.
She whirled in place and shot out the door after him.
She flew for a few seconds before she realized that he had completely vanished. She spun around in mid-air, before catching sight of his footsteps in the snow. They had led out the door, but then stopped after a few yards, right in the middle of the street with no obvious signs of where he’d gone.
A second look closer to the door showed an extra set of footprints tramping around the immediate vicinity of the doorway, but there didn’t seem to be anyone that she could see.
Was he a teleporter? Could he fly? Did he have an accomplice? Accomplices?
She wasn’t sure. She shot up into the air to see if she could find him again, but she was getting the feeling that he’d gotten away.
- - -
The discordant TWANG noise was still ringing in Peter’s bones when the dark of New York city streets gave way to the dark of the New York tunnel systems.
He swooned for a fraction of a second as he adjusted to the disorientation of the sudden teleportation and would have been fine after a moment. Except something smacked into him, causing him to exclaim in surprise and get knocked entirely off his feet.
Still slightly dazed, but not hurt, Peter simply lay on his back trying to get his bearings. He was pretty sure he’d almost made it to the grate and could’ve lost Jewel in the tunnels if he’d had to, but he was suddenly no longer there… but instead here.
He heard Tommy’s voice yell, “Hold on, Hump! Stop pushing! We hit something on the track!”
Peter sat up, his eyes finally focusing on Tommy’s rainbow gradient face and hair. She was standing in the open doorway at the front of their getaway subway car, smiling down at him. “How’d you get ahead of us?”
“I… I have no idea,” Peter replied, still somewhat dazed.
Tommy squatted down and reached a hand down to him. “You look like crap.”
“I’m fine.” He replied back, taking her hand and letting her help him back to his feet, stepping into the subway car.
Tommy called out over her shoulder. “It’s Dumas!”
From the end of the car, Peter heard Hump call back, “Cool! Can I push again?”
“We good? Are you good?” Tommy asked Peter, who nodded. She turned and yelled back. “Yeah! Keep going!”
The train car lurched forward and Peter could hear Hump grumbling quietly from where he was pushing.
Peter followed Tommy back towards the rear of the car where the seat was. He walked around the large pallet of rice and the multiple boxes of other food and medicine that they’d grabbed piled hastily around it.
Mole was standing near the seats, holding onto the wall to keep his balance. “Glad to see you’re okay.” The older man greeted Peter.
“Hey, boss.” Brute groaned from where he was laying down on the seats.
Peter dropped to one knee, putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You doing okay? You got shot–”
“Nah, I’m good.” Brute muttered, one hand still pressed to his midsection. “I feel like I took a nut shot from Sunder, but I’m fine.”
Mole added, “He’s a little bruised. It’s a little tough to see through the fur, but he’s not bleeding or anything.”
Brute gave a thumbs up, his voice strained. “I’m great! Really!”
Tommy rolled her eyes. “He’s trying to macho it out, but he does seem to be mostly okay.”
“I can take my turn pushing later,” Brute insisted.
“I got this bro!” Hump yelled into the car from where he was pushing. “No problems!”
Peter nodded approvingly, even though the boy couldn’t see him. “Don’t worry, Hump. I’ll take a shift in a bit. Just let me catch my breath first.”
“Sure thing, boss!” Hump called back.
Something chimed from Tommy’s pocket and she reached in to pull a cell phone out, looking at it curiously.
"I thought you were just taking the rent-a-cop out,” Mole asked while Tommy was distracted.
"I was. Except a superhero showed up and decided to go Crusher Hogan on me." Peter complained as he took the reindeer skull mask off and rubbed at the back of his neck.
Mole frowned. “What does that even mean?”
Brute perked up. “Oh, who was it?”
Hump’s voice called out, “Was it that Daredevil guy? He’s cool!”
Peter shook his head. "Nah, she said she was Jewel."
"Oooh. She's cute." Hump’s voice filtered forward.
“How would you even know that?” Peter asked curiously. “I’ve seen her mentioned on the news, but no actual pictures in the newspapers–”
Brute huffed in amusement, then winced. “Cause you’re old, boss. Who even reads newspapers anymore? They got some videos of her up on YouView. White outfit, no sleeves, with a blue sash thing? Purple hair?”
Peter nodded. “Yeah, her.”
Brute nodded. “Hump’s right. She’s cute.”
Peter grumbled. "Less cute when she suplexes you."
Hump called back, "But you still got suplexed by a cute girl! You're lucky!"
Peter tried to convey his disbelief through the rear door to where Hump was. Brute and Mole were both laughing.
Suddenly, Tommy gave an incoherent shriek of excitement. “She really did suplex him!”
She turned her phone around and rewound a video on it. “Caliban just sent me this.” Tommy explained. “I’m guessing he was keeping an eye on us and had Bouncer pull Dumas out when he was running from Jewel!”
“Wait, what?” Peter stared. “Caliban was keeping an eye on us?”
“He does that sometimes.” Tommy grinned. “Anyway, he got your entire fight.”
Peter watched on Tommy’s smartphone a video of Peter’s banter and subsequent fight. The angle looked like it was from just outside the door. The audio was tinny, but clear enough to be audible.
“You were flirting with the superhero.” Tommy sing-songed.
“I was trying to keep her distracted so she didn’t realize I was buying time for you guys to escape.” Peter replied, pouting.
“When’s the wedding?” Mole purred.
“I hate you guys.”
- - -