25

Owlsley wakes. He rolls over. He flinches. Those places which Walker's needles went in still hurt.

He's in a hospital room. It's at night. Perfect. He checks his physicality, to see if he can move. He can. He creeps through the hospital, and escapes.

He visits the pocket universe. Nobody's there. He calls Thompson. He calls Wing. He calls Knight. He calls Sterns. He calls Batroc. He calls Carson. He starts to call Walker-but hesitates. Nobody answers.

He hears a faint song in the background. It sounds like Vince Gill singing "When I Call Your Name."

Owlsley sighs, and leaves. Just as he feared, Walker betrayed them and let the captives loose. That, of course, means that Murdock's free too. But on the upside, at least Owlsley doesn't have to wait for Mordo's permission anymore to kill Murdock.

He even found out Daredevil's secret identity. He's pretty sure his father never ventured THAT far into enemy territory...

Up ahead, Murdock talks on a payphone. He calls Dr. Palmer, and gives her an update as to how the defensive's going.

Wong explains that Wizardkiller's in Beerenberg with the Vorm, but that Mordo, Steel Serpent, and Murakami are currently looking for him in the Andes. Either he or Clea could teleport him and the other Defenders there-Beerenberg, of course, not the Andes.

Wong would ask Clea to transport them to Beerenberg-alas, a very awkward situation has just come up. Murdock raises his head, and asks what it is.

Owlsley climbs a pole. He leaps off, and charges Murdock. He lights a match, veers up, and drops it. The match lands next to a propane tank near the payphone.

The tank blows. The payphone booth is shot into the night sky like a rocket.

Owlsley loops around. He charges the phone booth, and shattered everything in it. Loose glass and change fly everywhere, like sparks from an exploding firework. He and Murdock are at it again.

Owlsley pins Murdock to the side of an apartment building. He poises over Murdock-and looks like a bastardization of a flying fox and a colugo while doing so.

"Now you die," Owlsley sneers, "Murdock!"

"You know," Murdock coughs, "you just made a mess of at least seven dollars worth of change!"

Owlsley gapes. "What, can you tell how big the coins are when they hit the ground, or something?!"

Jones opens her window. She sees Owlsley. He sees her. Murdock doesn't see anything.

"Lee," Jones sneers.

"Jessica," Owlsley mutters.

Jones is drinking from a shot glass full of Wild Turkey. She spills it in Owlsley's face. He falls. She catches Murdock, and drags her into her apartment.

She tells her to stay inside while she goes after Owlsley. Murdock coughs, and wishes her good luck.

She leaps out her own window, and starts falling towards the street. She remembers how much she hates Owlsley...

She closes her eyes. Like Dumbo, when she opens them and looks down, she's flying!

No time for a musical number of racist crows singing "When I See an Elephant Fly," though. Owlsley is a roasted bird she's dreamed of nuking for quite some time now...

Ah, she shouldn't've used the word "nuke." Simpson was a really bad boyfriend for Trish, even if he did die protecting her...

Ah, Trish again... Time to think about the fight!

He's airborne again, and is coming up behind her. Like a pair of dueling fighter jets, they fly among the high-rises of the Big Apple, waiting for the perfect opportunities to dogfight one another.

And this'll be a dogfight of passion. Jones just hopes this doesn't become a dogfight to remember...for with it, she'll be avenging her most recent broken heart.

In a park, Sarah Lieberman watches from a bench as her children play. Both they and she look up as Jessica Jones flies past the park, through the sky, with the Owl chasing her.

"It's a bird," Leo says.

"It's a plane," Zach says.

"Keep playing, kids," Sarah says to her children. "We all know that wasn't Superman."

Owlsley chases Jones. Jones is flying hard and fast.

"I don't want to fight you, Jessica," Owlsley calls out. "I just want to talk!"

Jones dives, and does a loop. Owlsley glides to the side and up to avoid her. Now she's chasing him. Alas, he should be afraid of her, if he isn't.

"I don't talk," Jones sneers. "I guzzle booze and break noses!"

She's gaining on him. Looks like he's in trouble...

She chases him past a Rand Enterprises building. Near the top story, a window cleaner's nest hangs by one side. Near it, a hole's been cut into one of the glass walls. The nest has the words "TOILET OF THE FUTURE" painted on the side of its deck.

High over the JFK International Airport, they fight one another. Jones has got the power. Owlsley has got almost mystical maneuverability. They loop around incoming and outgoing planes, and roll away from them.

They're probably going to call in the Air National Guard. But Jones doesn't care...although Owlsley might...

They smash through a glass wall at the Scene Contempo Gallery, startling many visitors. Vanessa Marianna used to work here...before her new husband, Wilson Fisk, got sent to prison...again...

In the center of a large room stands a mighty statue of Athena, the Greek goddess of war. An owl is perched on her bare shoulder.

Still fighting, Jones and Owlsley land within the ropes that surround the statue. Now it's like they're in a fighting ring-and in the statue's presence, they're both now twice as strong.

If only the owl didn't look so small on Athena's shoulder... But of course, there were no great horned owls in Greece back when the ancient Greeks had sex fantasies about an amazon who worshiped owls and olive wood...

Greek men were quite the cougar bait, weren't they?

Jones chases Owlsley around the statue. Owlsley climbs the statue, leaps off, and glides in a spiral motion around the roped-in area. Jones climbs one of the posts, leaps off of it, intercepts Owlsley mid-glide, and pins him. She rolls him around on the ground, and hammers his ball sack to a pulp.

From upstairs, Mrs. Fisk starts to come downstairs. She stops and screams when she sees Jones and Owlsley fighting each other in Athena's bronzed presence.

Jones looks up, while strangling Owlsley. He shakes angrily, and beholds his father's boss's new wife, while bloodshot-eyed and upside down.

"Sorry about this, Mrs. Fisk," Jones calls up. "Congrats on the wedding, BTW."

Mrs. Fisk gapes, and shakes her head.

"I would've loved to have been there, except," she starts rolling around on the floor with Owlsley again, "I HAVE A REALLY CREEPY AND SNEAKY EX-BOYFRIEND, WHOSE BONES," she body-slams him on the floor, "I'LL SOON NEED TO REARRANGE INTO TURKEY STYLE!"

Jones presses her heel into Owlsley's throat. Up above, Mrs. Fisk still can't process what she's seeing.

"Oh by the way, Mrs. Fisk...have you got anything up there besides red red wine? I don't know how, but it's just that whooping my ex-boyfriends' asses makes me thirsty enough for some Wild Turkey bourbon..."

Owlsley kicks Jones in the face. He leaps from the ring, climbs a stone column nearby, and glides away. Jones runs after him, and takes off. She gets to sign an autograph for a little girl before doing so.

"O Wilson," Vanessa sobs, "why ever did you have to go and piss off the Devil of Hell's Kitchen?!"

Jones and Owlsley both splash down into the pond at the Pond and Hallet Nature Sanctuary. Here, they can beat the shit out of one another without fear of judgment.

There are many species of invasive plants here. They'll come in useful, as heroine and villain work arduously to overpower each other.

Owlsley finds an alianthus vine. Jones finds a wisteria vine. Using them as weapons, they whip each other, and try to strangle each other. And when they can, they try to tie one another up.

Nearby, there's a groundskeeper, who tries to make sure the invasive plant species don't try to outgrow the nature sanctuary. He stops, and watches the fight.

Owlsley lures Jones into the forest. In here, he ambushes her, ties her up in an alianthus vine, and leaves her. He leaves her for a moment, and wiggles a bare branch off a black cherry tree. It's as big as a sword.

"No beautiful woman," Owlsley sneers, "beats the shit out of and humiliates an Owlsley and gets away with it!" He stands over her chest. Jones is tied up so well, she can barely move. Owlsley may be a rich pretty boy, but he sure knows his knots-or the Big Apple, for sure.

"I've got enough trouble in love without a PI who looks and acts like she ought to be fighting Ronda Roussey in the UFC. It's been fun, Jessica, but old lovers have gotta move on sometime." He raises the branch to impale her through the chest. "Good night, Jessica...forever."

For Jones, it seems hopeless. But she's no Jewish princess; she keeps her eyes open, and watches as her ultimate demise impends...

A scary shrieking noise fills the forest. Owlsley stops, and looks around. Next thing he knows, he's broadsided by a sonic weapon. It pitches him halfway through the forest, where he inadvertently slices a nurse log in half.

Someone comes and unties Jones from the vines. She pulls Jones to her feet-like an angel.

It's a black girl. She's dressed to kill...in a cybernetic winged harness. The wings are black-as is most of the rest of the wingpack. She wears a sexualized top made of chain mail, and night-vision aviation goggles whose lenses appear to vanish whenever their wearer is grounded...as she is now.

"Ah, Tilda!" Jones slaps her on the shoulder, and bumps her head against her hawk head-shaped helmet-only to find out that hurts.

Johnson giggles. "Good to see you again, Jessica. I would say I wish it was under better circumstances, except... I just fooled Sterns into thinking I was Natasha Bedingfield."

Jones gives her a strange look.

Owlsley climbs a tree, and glides back into action. He charges Jones and Johnson head-on.

Jones punches him in the face, and punts him across the city. Nighthawk takes to the sky, swoops on him, grabs him, sprays a Nightshade chemical in his face, via her gauntlet, and drops him into the Lincoln Center.

Owlsley hits the ground. He looks around. He's in a dark forest. It smells of dead leaves and wood. There's a full moon out. It's quiet.

He hears a noise. He jumps. A little screech owl is perched on a branch, looking down at him with big eyes. Owlsley can't really tell how he feels, but...he seems anxious, about something...

Someone whispers. Owlsley looks towards her. Something scarier and shadowier is in a tree higher up. She tells him he could've cared for that owl better. She tells her that owl could be bigger...and healthier...

He asks who she is. She leaps from the tree. He backs away. She spreads her black avian wings, and approaches him.

She's black. She wears a mask. Her lips are big. Her black clothes are revealing.

In the background, opera music plays. Some or most of the lines that follow are sung...

"You can still have me, your dark angel," she whispers. "But if you want me, you must choose against that deep cold grave that your quest for your father's revenge will lead you to."

Owlsley chuckles. "Not everyone dies of revenge, bimbo. Just some. M-most," he stammers...

"My love nest is dark and peaceful," she whispers. "Although, I can be aggressive when I'm down. Many say I always am. Alas, there is another love nest, which you've rejected, whose host may still have longing for your owl mind, your owl grip, and your owl sleight of hand-traits, no doubt, that'vde been passed down through the Owlsley family ever since the first one dared settle in this forest many centuries ago..."

Owlsley hears footsteps. He dreads their maker.

A full-bodied feminine shadow creeps into the light. The light hits her. She's blonde and brown-eyed. She looks a spooky lot like Shakira.

"This is almost embarrassing," she says, in Jessica Jones's voice. "This'd better work."

The Dark Angel spreads her wings. "Two nests ready for you, Lee. You can have hers, or you can have mine. But it doesn't matter which you choose; both require you to compromise your father's memory, any fondness of Kingpin you might have, and the hate for Daredevil you still harbor."

Owlsley hears heavier footsteps. And, he hears snarling where those come from.

A bipedal wolf, with palomino-blonde fur, steps into the moonlight. She looks scary. Blood trickles from her jaws. And there are spots of it all over her.

"Melodramatic," the wolf says, with Walker's voice. "But I'm sure all three of us can agree it beats a Sokovian POW camp."

Dark Angel sighs comfortably. "Werewolves," she muses. "I've always had visions of commanding a pack of them. Alas, Palamina here will just have to do."

A wraith floats into the mix. A skeleton glows orange beneath his robe.

"No need to ride," Wraith Writer says, in Reyes's voice, "when you can levitate!"

An arrow hits an oaken tree trunk nearby. There's a heart carved into it-which the arrow hit, of course.

An archer stands on a branch. She leaps, grabs a cable, and slides down on it, and into the mix. She swings away from the cable before she hits the ground. She looks like...Keira Knightley in Princess of Thieves.

"We all anticipate your choice, Lee," Dark Angel croons. "Alas, we won't wait indefinitely."

Dark Angel, She-Wolf, Palamina, and Gwyn all surround Owl. They sing arias, and do their best to seduce him.

Wraith Writer ventures farther away, levitates, and watches. He'd hate to hurt Owl...but then, they'll all have to if he doesn't choose love over war.

Owl looks up, past the seductresses. That screech owl is still there...and even smaller than before.

"The devil killed my father," Owl whispers. "I must kill him..."

The seductresses scatter. The Wood Devil falls from the trees, and stands before the fallen Owl. On his head, he has dead twigs in lieu of horns. His eyes are big, and furious...

"You're a fool," the Wood Devil damns. "And when you fall," he secretes serpents from his fists, "only your critics will give a hoot!"

Owl screams. The Wood Devil's snakes surround him, elongate themselves, and spin around him, like string around a spool. And they both bite him. In the snakes' coils, he sobs frailly...and goes limp.

Murdock and company are standing in the middle of a ballet stage in the Lincoln Center. Owlsley lies before his feet. Once again, he's tied up in Daredevil's coils. All around them, the were-rehearsing ballet dancers watch in awe.

A few of the dancers are taking photos with their phone. Some of them ask Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Nighthawk, Typhoid Mary, Hawkeye, or Jessica Jones for their autographs.

At long last, Bishop has arrived to deliver her message to the three Defenders and the two Secret Defenders present. She's amused at having imagined that she was Keira Knightley without trying to...

"Brunnhilde," Reyes repeats, after she fills them in. "I've heard of Sif...but that's the first I've heard of her."

"She's at Beerenberg," Bishop tells them, "but I don't know for how much longer. Mordo and the others will soon be there to recollect Wizardkiller if she's the only Defender there to stop him."

Jones scoffs. "Defenders?!' I wasn't aware we'd reassembled." She kicks Owlsley in the head, as he lies unconscious, while trapped in the coils of Daredevil's club.

"Villains these days," Walker mutters, staring down at Owlsley. "They're not even major threats...and they still take way too much effort to put down."

"We'd better get a move-on to Beerenberg," Murdock tells them, "before Owlsley wakes up. Thanks again, Johnson, by the way, for the vision."

"Would still like to know how your seductive illusions work," Jones remarks.

"Me too," Johnson admitted. "I saw you and Owlsley in one of them earlier, as I was seducing Sterns. Owlsley was a snowy owl. And you were Captain Panties, chasing him...and you looked like Dreama Walker in Don't Trust the B- in Apartment 23."

Jones snickers loudly. "I like the title. Although it seems a little dark for Dreama Walker. Isn't she that cute blonde who played one of Blair Waldorf's peeps in Gossip Girl?"

"Yes...but she's just the title character's roommate. The title character, oddly enough, looks a lot like you."

Jones snickers even more loudly. "Me?! The title character of a TV show?! That'll be the day I become besties with James Van Der Beek!"

Johnson just sighs, and shakes her head. That woman's got NO idea what she's missing out on...

"So many cute blondes named Walker," Jones mutters. "You'd think other families would breed more." She snickers. "I barely remember the time the Joneses still bred like rabbits."