12

In an alley behind Jeri Hogarth's new law firm, it feels desolate. Barely a breeze blows.

Above it, a portal opens. A witch falls through. Above her, the portal vanishes. She opens her magnificent, hypnotizing eyes, and gazes around...

In Jones's apartment, Wong sleeps. He's been doing that since he got here. He snores. Murdock, with his super-hearing due to his blindness, can't get any rest as long as he has to share the only bedroom in a PI's apartment with a snoring Master of the Mystic Arts.

In another room, Johnson does her yoga. She wears headphones, on which Cecile's "Hot Like We" plays. She misses McIver's inspirations, and his business...but from what she heard, he was a bit of a freak. She would know; she saw him naked while empowering him for his fights against Luke Cage and Black Mariah's expendables.

He was rather hot, actually. Mustn't dwell; he's back in Jamaica now, for all she knows or cares...

Her eyes are closed. Thus, she isn't watching when someone walks in. He calls a few times. But either he's speaking in Spanish, or the music's turned up too loud.

He caresses her bare shoulder. She spins, and faces him. He seems taken aback. She sighs, turns off her music, and pulls out the earbuds.

It's Reyes. He's looking for Jones.

Johnson shrugs, and recounts that Jones went out a long time ago. She didn't say much, but she did say something about going after an escaped convict who never really escaped.

Reyes gives her a strange look. Johnson asserts that those were Jones's words; not hers.

Reyes is thankful. He'd hate to think that a hot black bitch like her is insane asylum material.

At this, Johnson would blush...if she weren't black.

In the bedroom, Wong sits bolt upright in bed. His eyes are bugging. Murdock hears him. He asks what's wrong.

Wong's panting. "Mordo's coming! He's after us! He's coming!"

Murdock shakes his head, in confusion. "Who?!"

Reyes tells Johnson that he's felt some more interdimensional travel in the area, and that he would've come to tell Jones about it. He thinks he knows where it's happening, but he hasn't gotten a chance to go spelunking into it yet.

Johnson laughs, and admits that she doesn't know who sounds more crazy: Jones for hunting an escaped convict who never escaped, or a cute Latino like Reyes believing in interdimensional travel. And to think that Johnson's helping Jones take care of this scarily-injured friend of his-especially since she seems to be unfairly biased against people who've committed matricide.

Reyes arches his brows, and admits that had to kill his uncle once. But he felt no remorse. His uncle turned a lot of people into wraiths, and stole a lot of matter from Hell. Johnson finds this testimony amusing, but tries not to laugh; he's so cute, and she just can't believe he's crazy.

Johnson admits her mother was a bitch too. She killed her own cousin-Johnson's second cousin-and then she killed the only person who witnessed her killing Cornell Stokes. She ran for public office while financing underground crime. And then she dumped liquor all over an innocent Jamaican, lit him aflame, and shot him with a pistol. What's worse, she poisoned Luke Cage against Harlem. And the whole time, Johnson abetted her cause for that by abetting McIver. But then at some point, Cage and McIver became allies, so it wasn't all in vain. It took a lot of willpower for Johnson to kill her mother...but she did it for the common good, and to permanently rid Harlem of the painful memories of the scars the Stokes family has ever left on them-which, for a time, will run so deep that they make Abomination's fight with the Hulk seem petty and forgettable.

Reyes doesn't follow most of that, but he can tell that Johnson's a kindred spirit. He invites her to go out on a date with him when he's not spelunking in the new pocket universe he thinks he's found.

A woman surprises them, at the front door, by recounting her experience with pocket universes. In the future, her mentor teaches her a lot of very valuable lessons about the use, and more usual abuse, of pocket dimensions.

Johnson shakes her head, and admits that this neighborhood just keeps getting weirder.

The new visitor dresses similarly to Wong. She introduces herself as Clea. She's from the future. She's also a sorceress.

Reyes and Johnson stare at her. Johnson breaks the ice, and says she's just going to check on the patients.

But her patients soon rid her of her need. They both surprise them in the doorway of Jones's bedroom. Murdock tells them they've got a problem. He seems recovered; Wong not so much.

Clea beams excitedly, runs to Wong, and hugs him. Wong embraces her, confused. Clea acknowledges this, and shakes his hand. She says who she is, and how she knows him in the future.

Wong holds up his hand, and reminds her that it's dangerous to tell someone from the past too much about the future. Clea admits this, and recounts that her mentor, in the future, teaches her this.

They're all joined by a blonde medic-who bears remarkable resemblance to Regina George in Mean Girls. She scurries in, and checks Wong's wounds. She's crept out by them. She asks Wong if he's been pretending to be a statue while standing on an ant mound.

Johnson grins, and admits that that's what she said.

Wong introduces the nurse as Christine Palmer. She's a surgeon at Metro-General Hospital, and the ex-lover of one of Wong's fellow Masters of the Mystic Arts.

Reyes trades looks, from Wong to Clea, gaping. He accuses them of being the interdimensional travelers he's been sensing.

Murdock interrupts them, and tells them it's a lot more complicated than that. There's a very powerful sorcerer in town. He's recruited a team of vigilantes, and he's sworn an oath to eliminate the multiverse of sorcerers. That won't be hard for him to do on Earth, since Earth is currently without a Sorcerer Supreme of sorcerers.

Wong trades monologue passages with Murdock, and suggests that Mordo might be hiding in the pocket universe Reyes thinks he's found. He thinks that Mordo's imported a dragon from an alternate reality, and plans to use it as the vanguard in his assault on all of Earth's sorcery. Mordo's already killed a sorcerer named Jonathan Pangborn. He's also killed a few others that Wong knows of.

Clea continues the monologue, and adds that in the future, when she's from, he kills many more too. She's come to here and now to do what she can to make sure that doesn't happen.

Murdock adds that Wong and Clea are both in danger as long as Mordo's nearby. They both need to ferry themselves to somewhere safe.

Wong laments that Mordo is a powerful sorcerer, and that hiding from him will be impossible. There's not likely anywhere in the universe or the multiverse where he won't find him and Clea and kill them both.

Clea looks around, and asks whose place this is. It looks shabby, she says.

Reyes tells Wong that he knows of a few dimensions. If he and Clea are thinking of a hiding place...

Wong stares at him, and asks who he is. Johnson laughs, and admits that she just got done asking him the same thing, and nothing he's said so far makes any...

In front of the other five in the room, Reyes transforms into the Ghost Rider. His skull blazes with illusory flames. Johnson, Clea, and Palmer all scream. Wong gapes.

Murdock, a blind man, admits that he can't see any of this, but that he does smell something burning. He asks why the fire alarm hasn't gone off.

Reyes changes back into himself, and tells them that his body plays host to the Ghost Rider. He can make demons real, and banish them to Hell. He came to New York because he felt it when this "dragon" Wong speaks of came to this reality. He's already tried to send it back once.

Johnson is too overwhelmed to add anything, but she asks him why he didn't. Reyes shrugged, and recounts that at first it acted like it wanted to play rough. But then it backed down, and ran through a portal nearby and disappeared. The portal closed before he could see where it went to.

Wong asks him if he knows from which specific reality the dragon came from. Reyes shrugs, and admits he hasn't been doing this for very long; his plan, at the time was to send the dragon to Hell.

Reyes also recounts that when he was preparing to lasso the dragon, its rider spoke to him. She only said one word, but for a very long moment-which felt eerie, even to him, the Ghost Rider-it felt almost like she was controlling him...

Johnson's confused. She asks how the dragon's rider was controlling him.

Murdock reminds the two sorcerers that they need to get them to safety. And something needs to be done about Mordo and his team of vigilantes, who won't likely stop until they've all done Mordo's bidding for him. Murdock isn't sure, but he thinks the Owl might be working for him too. There might be some members of the Hand under his command too; Murdock doubts that Owl could've beaten him the way he did without a Hand ninja's help-or the help of an army...

Reyes knows a few things about the Hand. They're in Los Angeles too. But ever since the Hand lost three of its fingers, the Hand's been less active. And therefore, if there are any Hand ninjas working with Mordo, they're not likely great in number.

Murdock admits that this seems correct. It seems like fewer foes he's been up against in Hell's Kitchen have been identifying themselves as Hand recently. And he's already tortured a member of the Yakuza; they're not recruiting around there, either. And Wing and Knight have told him they're not recruiting in Chinatown, either.

"So," Clea recounts, "there's Mordo, an owl, and a ninja... Who else?"

Wong recounts that an ant attacked him as he was fighting the dragon-or something that could've fooled him that way. And it had an army. They're the ones who made him sick. Their leader, whoever they are, is probably a member of that team too.

Palmer arches her brows, smiles, and admits that she KNEW these injuries had something to do with ants.

Reyes has been keeping up with SHIELD's affairs. He knows, from his recent tunings-in, that Samuel Sterns has escaped SHIELD custody. Mordo probably helped him escape. Reyes would've gone after him himself, except Sterns isn't much of a reality-traveler or a demon.

Johnson recounts that Jones has been following someone who she keeps describing as "Kilgrave's bastardess." It isn't clear to her, but based on the loathing way Jones often talks about the bastardess, whoever she is, she might be working for Mordo too.

Murdock admits that while that is a possibility, he wouldn't leap to conclusions. Jones has held bigger grudges against smaller people before, and this bastardess is probably no more loyal to her father than Johnson is to her mother.

Johnson appreciates that-VERY much. And then she reminds everyone that when Jones left, she said she was going to find an escaped convict who never escaped. Whoever he is, he might be working for Mordo too. It does seem rather suspicious that she hasn't come back yet...and they're all talking about an impending attack on a brace of sorcerers in her apartment/office...

Murdock reminds them that finding Jones can wait. But for now, they need to get Wong and Clea to safety before Mordo comes after them.

Palmer volunteers to take them to her place. She can't imagine that they'll be any worse company than her ex-boyfriend would be nowadays...wherever he is now...

Murdock admits that that sounds good for starters. Meanwhile, they need protection.

Reyes nods, and volunteers his help. He'd like another try at sending that dragon back to where it came from-and finding out from which reality it did, if he can.

Murdock smiles, and admits to having super-hearing. He can help Reyes with that, if he needs it.

Johnson stands, and admits that if she doesn't need to be a nurse to Murdock or Wong anymore, she'll aid the defensive as well. She's not sure what she can do with her herbs and her nightshade...but she's sure she'll think of something.

Murdock smiles, satisfied with the defensive's numbers as they stand. He regrets, and apologizes, that Jones is missing, Cage is in a bad place, Rand is in Asia, and Castle is in Europe. They'd be helpful if they all weren't detained. Although Murdock admits that he's not really looking forward to working with any of them again...

Reyes smiles, and claps his hands together. He asks how they're going to do this.

Murdock begins, by outlining that first, they separate. And then...they defend.