Hell's Kitchen - A hotbed of Supers

Hell's Kitchen surprised me. Several powers had pinged across my senses on the way here. But as I stepped out of the station at 50 Street, and grew closer to Jessica's office, no less than three strong ones shone against my senses.

One of them was Ms. Jones, somewhat diminished by my siphoning yesterday. The other two? No idea.

One was perhaps stronger than Jessica, and I'd started to get a certain feeling, a gut reaction, that made me convinced that whoever it was had a similar powerset as her. Physical.

The third was weaker, but different. I couldn't identify how it was different, exactly, but I somehow knew that it was.

That was new. Interesting.

The auras weren't clumped together, they were streets apart, so I wasn't concerned about some sort of ambush. But I had to wonder why so many strong supers congregated in Hell's Kitchen.

Jessica's aura drew me like a moth, making the directions from my omni tool entirely superfluous as I headed inside the building and dodged a few neighbors on my way up the stairs.

Alias Investigations, huh?

<knock, knock>

Footsteps approached quickly, and the door opened to reveal the petite raven-haired detective.

"Welcome to my humble abode, kid." Jessica looked tired, worn out, but there was an undercurrent of something positive. Satisfaction?

"Hey," The smell of chicken fried rice hit me, and it almost made my head spin. Alias Investigations was more of a living room with a desk than an office. A bit of a dump, but a charming one. "Cool place."

She gestured me inside towards a desk brimming with takeout boxes. "Go ahead, dig in. We can talk while we eat, right?"

"Sure," I agreed readily, opening up a box of chow mein and digging in. Jessica slumped down in the chair behind the desk, opposite me, and picked her own box with less urgency. "What was it you wanted to talk about?"

This close, I was basking in the aura of powers radiating from her. Tempting, but I had no intention of taking it away from her. I could spend the time to replicate the rest passively, with no negative impact.

There was a brief flicker of confusion on her face as she chewed thoughtfully, watching me shovel noodles, beef and paprika in my mouth without restraint.

"Is Killgrave's power really gone?" Was the question she settled on, her smoky dark eyes boring into me, making my heart beat quicker. Did she suspect that I had-?

"...Permanently?" She continued, quieter, her eyes un-focusing slightly. "We told the cops to keep him gagged, just in case, but..."

She sighed heavily, "Of course they didn't fucking listen. They ungagged him for interrogation, but his compulsions didn't take. It helped that he tried to boss them around, and freaked out when they didn't obey, but the cops didn't know what to think. We all spent the night in lockup until the recording made it's way to the DA. We made sure to cut the footage before you got there, by the way."

Damn, I hadn't even considered that.

I paused with another shoveling of chow mein half-way to my mouth, seeing her look at me expectantly. I dropped the chopsticks back in the box and swallowed, responding slowly, "Thanks for that. I can't be a hundred percent sure his power is gone forever, but... I think so."

How much should I tell her?

"I've only used my ability to seal someone's power once before, and I didn't keep tabs on him after high school." I elaborated, "But we had classes together for almost a year and a half after I did it, and he didn't show any signs of getting it back."

"Yeah, I guess it wouldn't come up too often for a student..." Jessica leaned back and chewed thoughtfully, unhurried, "Why were you there? How did you even find us?"

Slightly dangerous territory. Her power had recovered some as she slept, and she was probably stronger than me, if she went hostile.

"First of all, you can trust me, Jessica. You can feel safe with me. I wouldn't hurt you, right?" The exhausted detective nodded in agreement, her eyes glassy, so I continued.

"I can feel powers. Biotics, super-strength," I made a gesture towards her, "And Killgrave. I spotted you on the train. Most powerful person I'd ever been near, but you looked so angry..."

"Killgrave has that effect on me," She cut in, dryly.

"Yeah, no kidding... I heard what he did." Jessica flinched slightly, so I reminded her, "It's okay. You can trust me. But when I saw you, I just saw a super who was about ready to blow up, you know?"

"... I can see how it would've looked from your perspective." She hedged.

"So I skipped my stop and I followed you."

"Kind of a dangerous instinct, kid." She quirked a faint, tired smile.

I waved it off. "Probably. But I tapped into your powers, not enough to take them away, just enough so I could feel where you were, and follow about a street behind you."

"I haven't gotten as sloppy as I feared then."

"Probably helped that you were preoccupied with Killgrave." I agreed, "But I snuck in behind you, hid in a nearby room and listened. Trying to decide what to do, you know? You had a guy in a cell, it didn't look good, but I could feel that he had powers too. Didn't want to get caught up in anything I didn't need to. Definitely didn't want to step out until I knew what was going on."

"All pretty good instincts, considering..." Jessica's omni lit up, a message probably. I could see her eyes flitting across the HUD, before plopping her takeout box on the desk and grabbing a bottle of brown liquor from her bottom drawer, pouring herself a glass.

"Clemons." She admitted, seeing my curiosity. "Looks like the DA isn't a total shithead. Still hasn't dropped the **** charge against me, but they'll be charging Killgrave for murdering his mother, and several counts of attempted ****."

"Right..." I swallowed thickly. The old lady hadn't made it, then... I fucked up, should've been quicker. "Good to hear. He belongs behind bars."

I could do something about the **** charges, but I wasn't sure I should.

"... Or six feet under." Jessica muttered, hint of anger bleeding through. Her eyes looked far away. She slammed down the shot of whiskey before focusing back on me with a sigh. "So what did you learn from your little hiding spot? What made you jump in?"

"The lawyer. Hogarth?" Jessica nodded, so I continued. "She was about to let him go when you came back. Killgrave promised to help with her divorce."

"I figured," She didn't look shocked, just angry. "She was the only one who could've cut the wire."

"Huh. I thought you might've suspected that blonde girl, Patsy."

Jessica chuckled slightly, "Too young to have watched her show, I guess? She goes by Trish now. Trish Walker? She's my sister."

"The radio show host?" Jessica nodded, pouring herself another shot. Oh, damn.

My mom listened to Trish Talk religiously, but I hadn't made the connection. A real life celebrity. Cool.

Jessica gestured for me to continue, and I took a moment to put it together in my head.

"Well... Once I understood what was going on, I started dampening Killgrave's power, but it's weaker at a distance." I explained, frowning, "I should've revealed myself earlier. I could've stopped him from killing the old lady... But I was kind of freaked out. Guns and cops and superpowers, you know?"

"I get that. You're not to blame here, that sociopath is..." She gave me a weak smile, "And you did help put him away. Not sure we could've stopped him without you."

"Yeah... I don't know. I heard that the electricity wasn't working, I heard what he told her to do. So... I tried to interfere and lock his powers away." I paused a while, considering. I could keep hiding exactly how my power worked, and maybe that would be the smarter move, but...