#mk jo

No pretty faces in the fight pit. That was what one sign read just outside the chain fence of the fight pit. Kano’s rule. Most of the men of the black dragons figured it was because women were too weak, but that wasn’t it at all. The real reason was much more selfish. Kano was protecting the ‘eye candy’ of the black dragons. Often called trophies. Women he’d managed to charm into joining his crime family. Despite Jo wanting to get in there and toss a few guys around, Kano’s foot was firmly planted. “You got one of the prettiest faces, girlie. No way,” he’d told her.

“I can handle one drunk asshole,” Jo defended.

“Oh, I know you could,” He chuckled, then reached out with a rough hand and gripped her jaw nice and tight. “But I love looking at this face when I shove my cock in that tight cunt of yours.”

Jo sucked in a breath and pushed his hand away. “Wish I could say the same,” she mused.

“Oi! Don’t be like that. You seemed to enjoy yourself last time.”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t fuck. I just said you’re an ugly motherfucker.”

“Well, at least I can fuck.” He grinned as he watched the fight. Erron and Lorenzo. Were they just going to circle each other and talk? What was this? “Get on with it already!”

And then the fists flew. Kano laughed as blood went flying. Jo watched with a cringe as she heard the crack of Lorenzo’s nose. After that, Erron seemed to go feral. “Jesus Christ. What’s got into him?”

“Haha! Fuck him up, Erron!” Kano was too happy to see Erron lose control like that.

“Shouldn’t you be stopping this?” Jo looked over to see Kano’s mile long grin.

“Why should I?”

“Lorenzo’s gonna die.”

“Eh. So what? He doesn’t pull his own weight.”

“He owes me money,” Jo said. Which seemed to catch Kano’s attention.

“He owe me money?”

“He lost last week’s bet and hasn’t paid up. That’s why he’s in the fight pit.”

Kano grumbled. Seeing Lorenzo die wouldn’t be a bad thing. Lorenzo failed to pay his debts… But Kano wanted his money too. Damn. “Yeah, yeah.” He stepped over to the railing of his little perch and looked down. “Hey! Turkey! Get in there!” He shouted to Alex.

“He’s got a name,” Jo sighed.

“Yeah, who cares.” Kano stepped back and fell back into the ratty old couch next to her. His legs spread out and he adjusted himself. They both watched as Alex struggled to pull Erron out and to the locker room. Then watched as a couple guys went into the pit to pull out an unrecognizable Lorenzo. “Josie,” Kano said, earning him a disapproving glance from Jo. “You think Kate would want to join us later?”

Jo’s eyes rolled and she shoved his knee away before getting up.

“What?” Kano asked, then laughed.

“Shouldn’t you be fucking Jazzie?” Jo reminded him, only to see him scowl at her.

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you should be treating your girl better than this,” Jo scolded.

“She’s fine with it!”

“Then you should be thanking her, profusely.”

He grumbled again. Jo turned and walked down the catwalk stairs to the ground floor. She caught Alex on his way back from the locker room.

“What happened?” She asked.

“I don’t know. He’s in one of his moods,” Alex shook his head. “Echo’s in there with him now.”

Jo grinned. She gave a single nod. “Ah.”

“What?” Alex asked, noticing her amusement.

“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“No. Tell me. What’s going on?” He pressed.

“Don’t think about it too hard. It’ll come to you.”

Confusion was just plastered to Alex’s face. It made Jo laugh as she left him. She followed the agents carrying Lorenzo to the infirmary.

Jo sat in the makeshift waiting area, fucking around on her phone, watching some videos that were already posted online of Erron beating Lorenzo’s face in. But one video in particular caught her attention.

It had been at the right angle to catch Lorenzo’s face as he spoke. Jo couldn’t hear what he was saying, but after several replays, she’d managed to read his lips.

The bastard had threatened to rape Echo with his friends.

Well, now Erron’s display made sense. Jo would have done the same thing. And if Alex had known, she doubted he’d have pulled Erron out. Well… This meeting wasn’t going to end well at all. Jo had only come to let Lorenzo know he still owed her money. But now…

—

About an hour later, Jo made her way in to see Lorenzo, wrapped up, braced, on monitors and an IV. Erron had done more damage than she’d thought. Good. Stepping up next to him, she tapped his shoulder to get his attention. His swollen eyes opened just barely to look at her.

Jo held up two fingers. “How many?” She asked. But he couldn’t answer her. His jaw had been busted. “Three?” she asked. Jo saw the slightest shake of his head. “Two?” She then saw the slightest nod. “Good. Then you’ll be able to see this.” Jo then held up her phone and played that video of him making that threat. Lorenzo watched it, then looked back to Jo. She could see his confusion even through all that swelling. “I can’t hear what you’re saying. But I can read your lips.” She then pocketed her phone and leaned forward, resting her arms on the bed rails and looking right into his eyes. “You threatened to gang rape Echo, didn’t you?”

Lorenzo’s eyes magically grew wider. His heart monitor beeped as his heart rate sped up.

“I’m going to take that beeping as a guilty plea,” Jo told him. “You better hope you die from these injuries. Because if you make a miraculous comeback, I’m going to dangle you from a helicopter and fly low over a heavily wooded forest. And I won't stop until there’s nothing left of you. And then I’ll find one of your boys and do the same to him. And the next. And the next. And the next. Until every one of you disgusting pieces of fuck are wiped out of existence. Do we have an understanding?”

Lorenzo’s heart rate had only raised more and more as Jo spoke with such venom. He couldn’t nod fast enough to her.

“Good.” She flashed him a forced, but convincing warm smile as she stepped away. “You still owe me and Kano ten grand each. Make sure we get that before you decide to die.”

Alex waited for the red light above him to turn green and jogged to the end of the ramp; he felt his chest swell with fear for a moment before he hit the point of no return and jumped. His jump lead disconnected and he felt the air whip past him, roaring in his ears as he dropped rapidly.

“Count to five, then deploy your chute-” Jo demonstrated the motion of pulling the ripcord, “Simple as that.”

Alex yanked on the ripcord and felt a tug when his chute deployed and his fall slowed. When he finally opened his eyes, he glanced down to see the twinkling lights of the city between his feet. He swallowed, hard, to quell the nausea welling in his stomach as the ground rapidly approached.

He landed, catlike, on the roof of the target building and discarded his harness and chute.

“Tigue?” he whispered. There was no response. He flipped his NOD over his eyes and with a high-pitched whine, the goggles came to life, illuminating his surroundings in bright hues of green.

“Tigue-”

“I’m here!” Tigue’s whisper nearly sent Alex back to the jet and he cursed in Turkish.

“What’s the sitrep?” he pulled out his GPS and Tigue leaned over it, pointing at the screen.

“Asset is here,” she pointed to the center of the building, “Eighth floor. I can grab it, easy. Weak points are in the basement,” she gestured to the four corners, “support beams there, plus one in the center. If you plant the explosives, I’ll get the asset. Ten minutes, tops.”

–

Alex dropped his backpack to the concrete floor with a thud and began pulling out the charges. The basement was almost pitch black, save for the light generated by his LED headlamp. He worked quickly, placing the semtex on each beam until he had covered all five.

“Charges placed-” he radioed to Tigue and waited in silence for her answer.

“Copy. I have the package. Six minutes until dust-off.”

Alex pulled out his phone and began programming the timer, fiddling until he had set it for seven minutes. A narrow window, but that’s how Kano liked to play it.

Alex’s finger hovered over the “START” button when he heard a sound somewhere behind him; he scrambled for his shotgun and turned on his heel, brandishing the weapon in the direction of the noise. His headlamp fell on the frightened face of a small child, no older than seven, dirt-covered and trembling.

“Hey- hey what are you doing here?” Alex jogged over to the child and knelt down to his level, “You have to get out of here, bud- it’s not safe to play right now.”

The child sniffed and glanced over his shoulder; Alex adjusted his gaze and his headlamp illuminated the faces of several more children in the darkness. Behind them, he could see the dim glow of what looked to be flames and a few more, older faces hovering around it.

Shit.

“Do you…do you live here?” Alex knitted his brows and the child nodded.

Shit.

“Tigue-” he hissed her name into his radio, “We have a problem. Get down here.”

There was a pause, no more than a few seconds, and Tigue phased through the ceiling, landing gracefully on the concrete in the center of the room. Her eyes widened when they fell on the child, illuminated by Alex’s headlamp.

“Oh-” she looked fearful as she spoke, “How many?”

“I don’t know…maybe a dozen.”

“Alex…dust-off is in four minutes-” Tigue fidgeted with the silver briefcase she clutched in her hands.

Alex cursed and fumbled with his radio, “Kano- I…I’ve got people down here. In the basement. At least a dozen. I can’t blow the place.”

The radio was silent for a moment before it crackled to life, “Like hell you can’t. Get to the roof for fuckin’ pick-up and blow the charges, Demir!”

“Kano, there are kids here-” Alex was pleading as he released the call button.

“You heard me. Blow the fucking charges or I will have your fuckin’ head!” Kano snapped and the line went dead.

Alex took his thumb off of the call button and threw the radio against a nearby wall. The plastic shattered on impact and Tigue flinched as shrapnel phased through her form.

"Alex," she paused before continuing, weighing her next words carefully. She had never seen him like this before- he looked as if he was about to erupt. The entirety of his hulking figure was tense, vibrating with an emotion she couldn’t place, "We have to move."

Alex finally met her eyes and she instinctively took a hesitant step backward.

"No," he sounded calm, but his expression betrayed him, "We have to get them out."

Tigue knew it could be done- with her powers and his strength they could have the whole encampment out within ten minutes.

Ten minutes too many.

"Alex, we can't," she pleaded, "Kano will-"

"Tigue, listen to me," he fumbled with her hands for a moment before clutching them in his own, "I will not let these people die."

Tigue squeezed her eyes shut and sighed in defeat. Her own moral compass wasn’t skewed enough to let this happen.

"Okay. Let's go."

–

“What the fuck were you thinking, you fucking idiot?” Kano was yelling, his teeth bared as he berated Alex, “Do you know how much your little humanitarian effort cost me?”

Alex was silent, staring at the tiled floor at his feet as the Aussie’s voice boomed through the compound.

“I don’t pay you to go on your fancy little rescue missions. And on top of that, you roped one of my best agents-” Kano gestured at Tigue and she averted her gaze to the floor, “into your stupid little side quest!”

Something in Alex snapped and he took a step forward, closing the gap between himself and Kano in a fraction of a second.

“Choose your next words carefully.” Alex shoved a finger in Kano’s chest and the Aussie sputtered on his words, taken aback at the sudden burst of bravery.

“The fuck did you just say to me?”

“I will not kill kids for you, you piece of shit!” It was Alex’s turn to yell, and the others in the room flinched at the sound of it. Kate blinked in surprise and the compound’s lights flickered; she had never so much as heard him raise his voice- at least not like that.

Erron turned to Echo and cocked an eyebrow; Echo shook her head almost imperceptibly, her sage-colored eyes never leaving the spectacle in front of her.

“You’ve got some nerve, Turk-”

“Fuck you,” Alex snarled, his face twisted into an expression that looked foreign on his soft features.

“You talk to me like that and I’ll gut you like a fish, mate,” Kano rested his hand on the handle of the buck knife on his waistband.

There was a pregnant pause, bloated with tension. The whole room was silent as the others watched, eyes darting between Kano and Alex, waiting for their next words.

Alex finally broke the silence- his voice was barely more than a whisper-

“You can try.”

A sudden realization seemed to wash over Kano. He wasn’t looking directly into Alex’s eyes- no, he was looking up into his face. Alex had him by at least 30 pounds and four inches- he was covered from the neck down in body armor.

And every single person in that room was on his side.

The tension was palpable. Erron was the first to rise from his seat and move across the room; he was amused by the display, but he wasn’t stupid.

“Break it up,” he sauntered between the two of them and shoved his hands into their chests, moving them apart. Kano moved easily, but Alex planted his feet and glared at Erron, “I said, break it up-” Erron nodded his head pointedly and Alex finally backed down, turning on his heel and storming out of Kano’s office before any of the others could catch him.

“Wise move on his part-” Kano drawled as Alex disappeared into the hallway; his voice was calm, but devoid of his usual cockiness, “I’d have killed him.”

Erron scoffed and raised his eyebrows, “No you wouldn’t have.”

“The fuck you mean?” Kano folded his arms and leaned back against his desk.

“That boy would have ripped you in half. And I think everyone in this room might’ve helped him.”

–

“Alex?” Kate rapped gently on the door to his bunk and called to him through it. She could hear movement on the other side, but got no response, “Alex, please let me in.”

Inside, Alex ignored her. He hadn’t left his room in two days, and he had no desire to start now. He was still furious at Kano, and the rage was taking longer to subside than he expected.

Kate wasn’t the first to stop by- Agnes had dropped off food without a word and even Kabal said he’d “break the fucker down” if Alex didn’t come out.

“Alexander Demir. Do not make me get Tigue over here,” Kate pressed her ear against the wood and heard the muffled sounds of Alex moving across the room toward the door. She straightened up and felt her heart sink when he opened it.

Alex looked terrible. His hair was disheveled and there were large halos of darkness under his eyes. The t-shirt that was draped over his broad form was wrinkled and full of holes; she could see one of the large cuts from the mission on his chest- it looked red and angry, the start of an infection.

“Alex, I am taking you to the infirmary,” Kate grabbed his hand and he yanked it away, “What is wrong with you? That cut is going to make you go septic.”

“I don’t care-” he tried to swing the door shut and Kate jammed her foot in its path. There was a sickening crunch as several of her bones were snapped by the motion, “For Christ’s sake, Katie-” he stopped, he never used that name for her, not when he was in his right mind.

Kate pulled her foot back and waggled it gently, grimacing at the way her boot flopped like a limp fish, “Ah, give it a couple hours- but you, we have to get you to the infirmary. Please.”

“Fine.”

The two of them wandered toward the infirmary, Alex looming over Kate like a stormcloud as she limped along on her broken foot.

“You know, if you’d have punched Kano, we probably all would have joined in,” Kate glanced up at him with a grin. He didn’t return it, “Everyone is worried about you. Echo even came up with a rotation schedule for us to check on you.”

Alex exhaled through his nose and Kate caught the slightest glimpse of a smile before it disappeared.

"I tried to get Tigue to phase me through your door in the middle of the night, you know, ninja-style," she paused to make karate motions with her hands, "but we didn't know if you had set booby traps."

The half-smile bloomed into a grin and Alex stopped in his tracks, "You know, you're something else, Kate," he finally met her gaze and she returned his grin.

"Yeah, I know, now come on," Kate pulled his arm and dragged him toward the infirmary.

Doctor Mikhailov was bent low over a bed when they entered, speaking quietly into a tape recorder.

"Cause of death is...exsanguination," the Doctor murmured in his thick Russian accent, "Extensive bites from a serpentine creature in Outworld-" he paused and looked up when Kate and Alex entered.

"Yo doc, we need some help here," Kate called and Mikhailov rolled his eyes.

"Have a seat, Murphy-"

"No, not for me," Kate sighed, exasperated, "For him." She gestured at Alex and the doctor's eyes widened.

"Ah, Mr. Demir. Come, let's get those wounds looked at, hm?"

The doctor completed a thorough exam and cultured Alex's wounds while he stared at the floor like a chastised child.

"He will have to stay off of his feet for a while," Dr. Mikhailov handed Alex an orange bottle with no label and tapped the lid, "And take one of these with food, twice a day."

"Roger that, Doc," Kate mock saluted and steered Alex out of the infirmary, "Come on, let's get you back to your bunk."

--

"I don't need an escort, Kate," Alex protested as she walked with him down the hall.

"Nonsense, yes you do," Kate replied cheerfully, "Alright, here we are-"

Alex put his key in the lock and turned the knob, ready to be back in his bunk and free from Kate and her good intentions. He blinked and raised his eyebrows when the door swung open to reveal his bunk full of people.

"What-" he paused to take in the occupants- Erron, Kabal, Echo, Jo, Tigue, and Agnes were all packed into his small living quarters, "What are you all doing here?"

"Once Kate got you out, Tigue busted us in," Jo gestured to Tigue, who smiled sheepishly, "We were worried about you."

"Your behavior was unusual," Echo piped up from next to Erron, "We needed to make sure you didn't consider anything reckless."

"Yeah- very few of us have ever stood up to Kano like that," Kabal grinned, "And lived to tell the tale."

Alex felt a tightness in his chest as he looked around at the others in the room- they were a mess, a rag-tag group of fuck-ups working for a clan run by a maniac.