20

In the pocket universe, Sterns and Owlsley take turns torturing the new captives. With glowing violet eyes, Walker joins them.

Alas, they can only torture Johnson and Murdock. They've agreed that torturing Reyes or Maverick wouldn't be wise. Reyes might escape, and Maverick might destroy the pocket dimension with everyone still inside it. For the time being, it's better that they both stay in stasis.

At some point, Mordo will probably expect Thompson to mind-control the captives like she's already done Wing, Knight, and Walker. Thompson would be looking forward to it...if she didn't have a broken arm, and if her power wasn't already spread to thin as it is.

Thompson has told Mordo that Jones is dead. She tried to control Jones, like all the others, but her time spent with Thompson's father, and opposing him, prevailed as much with her as it did with him.

Thompson's in a hospital, recovering. Or, at least, that's what she's told Mordo...

Both Typhoid Mary and Bloody Mary take turns torturing Johnson. Neither Owlsley nor Sterns have seen her do better.

Carson doesn't want to work with Thompson/Knight. He still thinks she's a Deathlok. So he's left. But he hasn't gone far. Batroc's with him. He doesn't trust Thompson...and can't help but suspect that there's a chance Thompson Jr isn't nearly as cold as her father was before her.

The other Illuminati members think him paranoid...as do a lot of the Defenders. Alas, as Mordo sees it, Thompson is reliable until proven treacherous...however long that may take...if it happens at all.

Sterns has fun psychically attacking Murdock. He takes the first shift. Owlsley still wants revenge. Therefore, Sterns always tortures Murdock for as long as he can.

With Daredevil in his clutches, Owlsley monologues. And at long last, Murdock understands Owlsley's motivation for revenge.

"I didn't kill your father," Murdock tells him. "It was a man named Wilson Fisk. He's in prison. I'm going to kill his wife if he ever escapes. Your revenge quest is a waste of time. I'd know; I've wasted a few."

"My father would've wanted you dead," Owlsley admits. "I must honor him."

Murdock grins. "I can understand that. I must honor mine too. The only difference between us is that one of us has to kill someone to do it."

Owlsley scoffs. "You're an abomination, Murdock. The world will be well-rid of you after I kill you. All I've got to do is wait for Mordo to give me the green light."

Murdock still can't believe that Wing and Knight joined Mordo...or that Jones is dead. But tough it out he must, and escape he soon must, or else those two sorcerers at Dr. Palmer's place won't defend themselves for long before Mordo kills them...with or without the lost Wizardkiller.

Owlsley approaches Walker. All three Walkers think he's cute. If only they didn't know he was crazy and evil. Not that Typhoid or Bloody Mary are judging...

He tells her, in confidence, that he owes her. He realizes that Murdock wasn't going to kill him, but... He almost didn't get his revenge. She's done a great service to the Owlsley family that Hell's Kitchen never did.

Walker chuckles, and admits that while she would suggest that he would've done the same thing for her...that's not entirely true. He would've thought she'd escaped, and that she was coming to attack him, if she hadn't knocked out Murdock when she did.

Owlsley smiles, and remarks that at least they're on good terms now. But he assures her that if they ever go on another mission together before all the multiverse's sorcerers are slain, she can rest assured that he has her back. He winks, and walks away. Walker turns her head, and stalks his ass-with her eyes-as he passes.

Walker can feel Innocent Mary creeping towards the wheelhouse of her mind. She closes her eyes, and tells Innocent to go back to her "room." All three of her know he's evil. But she reminds her other two triplets that if she was looking for a husband, she never would've joined the Army.

Owlsley is one seductive womanizer. This gives Walker an idea...

At night, Maverick slumbers in his cage. He snores. No one blames him...now. It's still hard to imagine how Red Hulk could be this far away from Thunderbolt Ross or Afghanistan...

Five people sneak in. They surround his cell. They open it. They gently pull Maverick out, and set him on a stretcher. They lift the stretcher, and sneak out. Someone comes back, and destroys the cage with a strange firearm, making it look like Maverick escaped.

Even with Maverick gone, the captives outnumber the captors three to two. But then, how could Carson have known that he'd leave such a fragile void if he refused to work with a Deathlok...who isn't really a Deathlok...who doesn't seem as biased against the name as he is against the original?

Sterns works in a lab. This pocket universe is very versatile. It accommodates for those who use it when they least expect it to. It's a miracle it hasn't yet allowed the captives to escape.

Walker takes Owlsley to the Chinese botanical garden. Here, the leaves are green. The water features sound nice. The nightjars call.

They sit on a bench. Walker's wearing a camouflage coat. It's not cold. You'd expect a night creature, like Owlsley, to notice such a thing.

They sit next to a water feature, and share some cheap wine. Walker's loaded Owlsley's shot glass with a surprise.

Their shot glasses clink together. They both drink.

Walker talks about how she can't wait for Mordo and the others to find Wizardkiller. It feels like a century since they left. She looks at Owlsley, and flaps her hair. She asks him what he plans on doing after he kills Murdock and avenges his father.

Owlsley shrugs. He doesn't seem very stumped. This bothers Walker, of course. Usually when people ask men on quests for revenge what they're going to do after they finish their quests, they fall dead silent, as they suddenly realize that life after revenge isn't as easy to anticipate as the quest for it.

Walker asks about Jones. She seems to like Owlsley a lot, and Walker asks him if he truly isn't seriously reconsidering making amends with her broken heart. She might not be an exact clone of Pamela Anderson-from twenty-five years ago-but she's a rare find. (Walker wouldn't actually say this about any other woman but herself, of course. She's just putting on a show for Owlsley. Innocent Mary would probably say this about another woman...but then, if only Innocent Mary knew Jones like Typhoid Mary thinks she does.)

Owlsley is fatiguing. He admits that Jones is great. He hiccups. But he didn't come here for a wife. If he wanted one of those (he hiccups again) he could've used his father's fortune to buy a better place in the tropics. He's been watching a lot of videos on YouTube that portray hot models in bikinis, and that the ones that sport the nicest legs and the flattest bellies all seem to be VERY happy residents of...

Walker throws a grenade as Owlsley stammers. It's explosion startles him. He does a spiral of backflips off the bench...and comes down a lot slower than he goes up. It's late; there's no one here to watch.

Walker takes off her coat. She's brought her M4. She loads it in a flash, aims it with a slow breath, and fires with a steady finger. Right in sync, Owlsley gets two pink darts stuck in both of his ass cheeks.

He hits the ground. Walker attends to him, aims her carbine again, and puts two more darts in both his chest muscles.

"Don't do this," Owlsley stammers, with bloodshot eyes. "Murdock will kill your father too."

"Sorry, cutie," Walker hisses. "But I lost the only one I had the day Uncle Sam told me he didn't want either of me anymore."

Owlsley passes out. With luck, he'll be out for a VERY long time.

Walker looks him over, and admires him. "You talked about babes with abs and legs. Funny; you strike me as a 'boobs and buns' kind of man. Sad; if you had either or, those darts wouldn't have taken half as long to knock you out."

Two people creep through the halls of the pocket universe. They're tempted to hold hands...but don't yet.

Sterns is still in his lab. The lights are dim. The walls and floor change color. Candles light themselves. They rest in heart-shaped floating trays on the surface of a filled basin of liquid. Sterns doesn't get it...but he barely reacts.

In an elevated corner, the singers from Fifth Harmony sing, in a capella, their own rendition of "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby." They're all barely dressed, and stewing in a small basin of liquid.

"Wow, I," Sterns stammers, "I sure hope you aren't here to turn me into a toad!"

They stand, take the steps down one at a time, and surround Sterns. There's no escape.

There's someone else here, too. It's Lindsey Stirling. She's minimally clad, and armed...with a violin. This is her round table...and she's found her rival.

The fiddle's handle is a trumpet. This is about to get messy.

Sterns looks down at himself, and sees his attire has changed to an American Wild West outfit. He looks around. The setting has been changed to a small Western town. He looks around. To his right, there's a green man with an egg-shaped head. To his left, there's Delmar O'Donnell from O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Behind Lindsey Stirling, her company swaggers up. There's a Goth girl with black hair...who can't seem to lay off on the mascara, black nail polish, or the body piercings. A red snake curls on her shoulders. It's hooded, like a cobra.

And there's Cynthia Addai-Robinson, who's got several halters under her outfit. This story will prove-one way or another-whether Cynthia Addai-Robinson can dance.

She probably can't; I've never seen her do it. The characters she plays on TV shows have been way too serious...

George Nelson, from O Brother, Where Art Thou, rushes to the front of Sterns's rank. He's armed...with an electric guitar. He plays it loud. The sounds waves coming from it are intense.

Sterling and her girls are knocked down. Leader raises his fist, and rips the roof off the local bank.

In the background, "Roundtable Rival" plays. It's not a complete fantasy, after all, without the song that goes with the illusion.

Addai-Robinson flips over, and throws a pair of shuriken. She takes out Nelson's heel tendons.

"You're not withdrawing today," Addai-Robinson hisses, "George Nelson!"

Stirling leaps up, and blasts Sterns's rank with the trumpet on her fiddle. The sound waves are intense, coming from her fiddle.

Sterns gets hit by the sound. Near him, Leader, O'Donnell, and Nelson get turned into ghosts.

Stirling looks around. They're all in the jailhouse now. In front of her and her girls, Sterns stands in a cell, surrounded by the Soggy Bottom Boys. They pluck their instruments...and Sterns does a very convincing impersonation of Tim Blake Nelson while singing the first verse and chorus of "In the Jailhouse Now."

"Hit him again," the Goth girl whispers.

Behind Stirling and her rank, a tapestry falls. There are stacks of amplifiers behind it. Sterling smiles, and turns the trumpet on her fiddle towards Sterns. Sterns is in the jailhouse now; he's got nowhere to go-except awake, if only he were that bright.

It seems, interestingly, that Sterns has become dimmer than Leader, just as Banner is weaker than Hulk...

Stirling saws the fiddle. The sound waves are intense-and this time, they've got reinforcements.

Addai-Robinson looks around. They're back in the small town in the Wild West. Before them, Sterns is back in his cowboy suit. The local sheriff comes, and arrests him.

Addai-Robinson blinks her eyes. She's Johnson again. She's back in the pocket universe. The Goth girl is Murdock again. Lindsey Stirling is Reyes again. Sterns is nowhere to be found.

Reyes is still Ghost Rider, from having banished Sterns to another reality. Johnson screams when she sees him like that. Ghost Rider holds up a flaming bony finger, and transforms back into Reyes. Below, his chain is de-powered as well.

"Thank you, Ms. Johnson," Murdock says. "That's the best thing I've seen since I was a boy."

Reyes gapes. "You mean you can see Nightshade's hallucinations?!"

"I'm only blind for real, Mr. Reyes. My subconscious still works."

Johnson blushes black. She didn't know she could get the Devil of Hell's Kitchen to see. Nonetheless, Sterns is gone, and now the captives are free to escape. Johnson stumbles around, and recollects all the herbs she used to induce the Fifth Harmony/Lindsey Stirling/Soggy Bottom Boys hallucination.

"That chica plays one hot violin," Reyes admits, remembering the role he played in the hallucination. "Is she Charlie Daniels?"

Murdock snickers. Johnson sighs, and shakes her head.