As she laughed, Jessica's body gradually began to tremble.
She looked at Heisenberg with a twisted, ugly expression, but after only one glance, she forced her face under control.
She did not want Heisenberg, the person she'd acknowledged, to see her ugly side.
But she couldn't.
The hatred and humiliation Purple Man buried in her had been carved deep into her heart.
No matter how much she trusted Heisenberg's power and promises, it could not change the fact that she was afraid.
So what did Purple Man do to her?
Probably the kind of despair a woman never, ever wants to experience…
Purple Man was an empowered person who could control others through pheromonal signals.
Back then, Jessica hadn't withered away yet. She was still a naive, kind, weakened little "supergirl," using her tremendous strength and high speed to do the kind of crime-fighting every superhero liked doing.
And back then, her hero codename was Jewel.
Until Jewel met Purple Man.
In an instant, she was controlled.
The first thing Purple Man did after controlling her was order her to take off all her clothes.
After that, he controlled her to kill, controlled her to do that kind of thing, controlled everything about her.
It lasted a full eight months.
Eight full months of imprisonment and "training" meant that even after she escaped that cage, she had almost lost the courage to take revenge.
She was so scared she couldn't even form killing intent toward her enemy.
That, perhaps, was what hurt her the most.
Jewel back then, trash now.
Even Jessica herself thought she was trash.
But Heisenberg didn't think so.
After all, Jessica was so pale…
Noticing the pain on Jessica's face, Heisenberg pressed his lips together thoughtfully. Then he rubbed his chin lightly against the hair at her temple.
"What are you thinking about? How about I take you somewhere fun to clear your head?"
"Where, your big bed?" Jessica sighed, forcing out a joke.
Heisenberg didn't answer. He simply held her and flew toward Earth.
Not long after, the two of them stood atop endless snowy mountains.
The wind and snow had no effect on them, and the scenery under the sky felt like it belonged entirely to their eyes.
That was the charm of the world's highest peak.
It also made Jessica look at Heisenberg, thoughtful.
"Standing on the highest mountain in the world, would you still be afraid of the height of the Burj Khalifa?" Heisenberg asked her.
Jessica thought for a moment, then asked back, "So you're telling me the gap between you and that demon is like Everest versus the Burj Khalifa?"
"No." Heisenberg asked casually, "I'm asking if you're afraid of heights. If you aren't, we'll ski down."
"Go to hell."
"Haha."
The joke made Jessica's expression look a little better.
Then Heisenberg carried her straight through the clouds, plunging all the way into the Atlantic.
The ocean showed them its surface beauty first, then told them it was deep, dark, and full of water.
In the near-bottomless trenches, Jessica could already see enormous creatures over 100 m100 m long.
Jessica covered her mouth in shock.
"Well?" Heisenberg asked. "After seeing these giant creatures fifty thousand meters below the sea, do you still think Purple Man is something terrifying?"
Jessica hesitated for a long time, but in the end, she still nodded.
Maybe nothing could wash away the fear Purple Man left inside her.
That result disappointed Heisenberg. He'd thought this would at least dissolve a tiny bit of her fear.
Even a tiny bit would've been fine.
But clearly, Jessica's mind had been hurt too deeply.
So there was only one last method. Find Purple Man, tie him up, and let Jessica kill him with her own hands.
Maybe before Purple Man died, Heisenberg could even arrange a few hundred sets of "torture play" for him and let Jessica enjoy her enemy's misery.
If so, it should be fine.
Thinking that, Heisenberg picked Jessica up and brought her back to New York.
He didn't go anywhere else. He went straight to his nightclub.
He pressed Jessica down onto the couch in the club.
"Sit here. I'm making a call."
Heisenberg called Bullseye.
A moment later, the call connected, but the first voice Heisenberg heard wasn't Bullseye's. It was…
"No phones while we're changing your dressing. Hang up!"
"Get lost, change your dressing. This is the Boss calling, Bos… AHHH, holy shit, AHHH, be gentle, I was wrong, AHHH!!!"
Click.
After the screaming, it sounded like someone snatched the phone away.
A moment later, a greeting came through the line.
"So you're Bullseye's boss? You're the one who did this to Matt?"
"Mhm." Heisenberg's face stayed blank. "You're Elektra, the only assassin under Kingpin who didn't defect to me?"
Heisenberg lightly patted Jessica's head.
"Be good. Sit here a moment. My subordinate ran into a small problem."
"Mm. Go deal with it." Jessica's face looked calm, but she had her own way of caring about people. "You probably don't need help, right? I mean, if you do, I'm not totally useless."
Being cared about, Heisenberg smiled and shook his head.
"No need. Just a small matter."
"I'll get you two bottles of alcohol. Low-proof. Don't get too drunk. I've got a surprise for you later."
As he spoke, Heisenberg grabbed a bottle of champagne and tossed it to Jessica. The instant she caught it, Heisenberg was already gone.
…
On the other end, inside the hospital's special care ward, Elektra went stiff.
She never expected Heisenberg to have such a hot temper.
A boss was supposed to be like Kingpin, showing no emotion, right?
Yet she'd only planned to say two hard lines before backing down, and he was already coming to kill his way over?
At the same time, Bullseye, while being brutally treated during a dressing change, howled and spoke with schadenfreude toward Elektra.
"Boss is fast. If you don't kneel now, it'll be too late in a second!"
"Bullshit, I…"
Elektra's tough talk hadn't even finished when Heisenberg pierced through the glass and stood beside Bullseye's bed.
When he stabilized his footing, the sound of shattering glass hadn't even had time to ring out yet.
Crash!
Only then did it happen.
The young nurse looked up in shock, glanced at the broken glass, then looked at Heisenberg.
"Aaaaah…"
She fainted on the spot, voice trembling.
As for Heisenberg.
Smack.
He slapped the back of Bullseye's head.
"Who are you calling fast…"
"Haha, Boss, I was wrong." Bullseye laughed. "Do you have any superpower that can get me out of the hospital earlier? I'm dying to work for you, Boss!"
"No."
As he spoke, Heisenberg sat casually on Bullseye's bed.
He glanced at the bed beside it. That bed held Matt Murdock, of course.
Elektra stood at Daredevil's bedside.
Less than five meters from Heisenberg.
"Elektra, hello. I heard you're a bit unhappy with me, so I came to meet you."
Heisenberg greeted her, then without waiting for the stiff Elektra to answer, he continued.
"You worked for Kingpin before. You were satisfied with that work, so you're unhappy with me?"
"Not really," Elektra replied coldly, turning her head away.
Hearing that, Heisenberg nodded.
"It's because of Matt Murdock. Because of love, because you want a new life, or because you yearn for something about the ordinary world?"
Heisenberg suddenly stood and strolled to Elektra.
"Matt is destined to hate me to the bone. His personality means he won't let go of hatred for me."
"Tell me, if I give him one chance today, how many chances do you think I'll give him in the future?"
"You won't give him another chance," Elektra answered flatly.
Her face had gone blank because she knew Heisenberg was right.
Matt was that kind of stubborn man. He clung to the justice he believed in forever.
But no matter how great his justice was, it would never beat Heisenberg's fist.
Heisenberg patted Elektra's shoulder.
"Woman, your gender gives you the right to be emotional, but the future you want won't follow an emotional road."
"You want me to show mercy to a Matt Murdock who will keep provoking me in the future? That's impossible."
"But let's change the way we understand this."
"The person I send to deal with Matt Murdock might be me. It might be Bullseye. It might be some other assassin."
"But it can also be you."
"I'm a generous person. As long as you do your work well most of the time, I can tolerate the occasional failure on specific missions, right?"
As he spoke, Heisenberg leaned close to Elektra's ear and whispered softly.
"I heard your status under Kingpin was higher than Bullseye's. Then let me see how rational you are first, how about it?"
"No problem." Elektra lowered her head to Heisenberg immediately.
Elektra did love Daredevil, but love wasn't enough to make her lose her brain.
She was certain everything would unfold exactly the way Heisenberg said.
Since Heisenberg was offering a balance for her and her lover within that outcome, she had no reason not to accept.
Seeing Elektra submit as desired, Heisenberg smiled with satisfaction and sat back down on Bullseye's bed.
In Elektra's eyes, Heisenberg no longer had the spoiled arrogance and irritability from a few days ago.
This Heisenberg looked even larger than Kingpin.
And this Heisenberg raised his right hand toward her.
Thud.
Seeing the gesture that looked like an order was coming, Elektra dropped to one knee, waiting respectfully.
Heisenberg gave his instruction with satisfaction.
"After your lover wakes up, I'll give you one day to talk about love and live it up."
"Then go do something for me."
"Purple Man. I don't care whether you've dealt with him before."
"Within three days, I want his exact location."
"S.H.I.E.L.D. will cooperate with your work. Note it, they cooperate with you."
"You're my subordinate, and I'm behind you. Don't fear them, and don't let them steal the spotlight."
"Purple Man's ability is extremely useful to S.H.I.E.L.D., and I don't want Purple Man ending up in their hands, understood?"
"This subordinate obeys!"
/-\
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