Johnny McHale and his girlfriend bought two bags of beef jerky and departed.
Jack and the other two picked and chose, and finally, two men took the hard work, each carrying a large load to the cashier to pay.
The two girls behind them exchanged glances. One of them pulled a few boxes of small umbrellas from the small basket next to the cashier and followed them. Leila poked Jiejie with a sly smile, asking if she was taking too much.
"So this is how you public figures usually go out?" Jiejie rolled her eyes playfully at Jack's back, deliberately changing the subject and teasing Leila, the "big star" who had also been recognized by Johnny McHale's girlfriend.
"Do you need me to share some tricks for disguises with just a pair of sunglasses?" Leila teased Jack, who turned back to look at the girls, carrying two cans of Budweiser.
"Did you learn that from a reporter named Clark Kent?" Jack smiled back, a hint of contemplation in his eyes.
Red recognized Johnny McHale, and he also looked like a celebrity from Jack's past life. This wasn't a good thing. While many movie stars make guest appearances on American TV series, if he appeared on a crime drama like "Criminal Minds," this cartoonist's identity in this world was either a serial killer or a victim.
"Criminal Minds," a cartoonist, Jack's mind raced, trying to recall the plot of his past. As he walked out of the convenience store and put his beer in the trunk of his car, closing the lid, he suddenly heard a faint cry for help, but it was only two short ones before fading away.
Just as he was about to release his senses and listen more closely, another short scream rang out. This time, not only Jack heard it, but the other three heard it too. It came from a dark alley not far away.
"Jack?" Jiejie rested her hand on the pistol at her waist and looked at Jack, who was closing the trunk lid.
"Red, protect Leila," Jack said, turning back to warn.
"Let's go too. I can help call 911." Leila grabbed Red and followed. With three FBI agents present, this girl was incredibly brave.
Jack didn't bother trying to persuade them. While North Hollywood's security wasn't great, it was still worse than the streets of Mexico City, wasn't it?
He thought of a Criminal Minds episode. Johnny McHale was a popular cartoonist with a beloved fiancée who was apparently pregnant.
One night, they were tragically confronted by gang members. His fiancée was raped and murdered, and Johnny McHale was severely stabbed. After recovering from his injuries, the frail cartoonist suffered from severe schizophrenia.
He imagined a superhero personality, which gradually became a reality. When he fell asleep, this superhero personality would awaken, control his frail body, and wield two swords, roaming the night, seeking out the gangsters who had murdered him and his fiancée, and brutally slaughtering them.
It sounded like the beginning of a delightful story, but when Jack saw Johnny McHale, imprisoned in a mental institution, repeatedly dialing his fiancée's phone, hoping to hear that familiar voicemail, his heart sank.
His pace quickened at the thought. In the original series, when the BAU team appeared, they were essentially just a cameo appearance, as Johnny McHale had already written everything into his comics. It was also the episode where the BAU had the least presence. This chance encounter might bethe same incident that served as the backdrop for the original story, suggesting Jack might be able to avert a tragedy.
Sure enough, as Jack rushed into the alley, he encountered Johnny McHale and his girlfriend, who had just left the convenience store, along with six men who looked like they were no good.
The two were now in a precarious situation. Johnny, his face bruised and swollen, was being beaten against a wall by two burly men with gang insignia tattooed on their arms. His girlfriend had been dragged into a corner, her mouth and nose covered, struggling in vain.
Jack's footsteps startled the six men. Jiejie, following closely behind him, immediately drew her Glock and shouted, "FBI! Freeze! Let them go!"
The leader, a bearded crew cut, stood in front of Johnny's girlfriend, unbuckling his belt, looking ready to indulge in his lust.
Hearing the "FBI" call, the crew cut shuddered, stopped, and turned to look at Jack, who was standing in the front, and Jiejie beside him. Then, he saw Red, nervously protecting his girlfriend, Leila, and a sinister smile spread across his face.
"I've never seen such a beautiful female FBI agent. Is that the one behind me too?"
He picked up the dagger he had discarded and winked at several of his men. Leaving two to restrain Johnny and his girlfriend, the others, wielding daggers, metal pipes, and other weapons, surrounded the four men.
"Don't move! I told you, if you come any closer, I'll shoot," Jiejie warned loudly, glancing at Jack in confusion, wondering why he didn't pull out his gun.
"Leave it to me. I have to go back and write the report after the shooting. Hannah sometimes throws the report to me when you're not around," Jack muttered softly, taking off his coat and the pistol from his waistband, handing it to Jiejie, before confronting the four men head-on.
"It's begun," Red muttered excitedly from the entrance of the alley. Leila, who was protected in his arms, hadn't seen Jack in action much, but she had heard plenty of stories. There was no panic in her eyes either, and she subconsciously watched the scene with her phone in her hand.
The crew-cut guy wasn't intimidated by Jack's demeanor. After all, judging by his appearance, he and his accomplices all looked much more muscular than Jack.
The temperature on a winter night in Los Angeles was only around 10 degrees Celsius. They were all dressed in tank tops, revealing their muscular bodies. They'd just taken some potent white stuff for fun, and the effects were taking effect.
Seeing Jack approaching alone, they exchanged glances. One of them, wielding a curved iron pipe, rushed forward impatiently
brandishing his weapon. Just when everyone thought Jack, seemingly undeterred, was about to get hit, there was a teeth-grinding crack. The gangster's left knee, which had been slightly bent forward due to the shift in weight, instantly bent backwards.
Before the man could even scream, Jack had already retracted his right foot, which had been kicked out at random, and easily snatched the bent iron pipe from his hand. He swung it hard into his cheek, blood mingling with shattered teeth, and the scream that had already reached his throat was silenced. Meanwhile, the man on his left, already exerting all his strength, executed a standard batting motion. The metal baseball bat in his hand made a sharp arc and slashed diagonally towards Jack's left ribs.
Bang! Although the metal bat is usually hollow, it was still quite heavy. When it struck Jack's raised left arm, it felt like hitting a solid wall. It spun and flew a long way, landing on the ground with a clang, and then rolled again.
The boy holding the baseball bat was horrified, feeling a sharp pain in both hands. He looked down to see that his knuckles were cracked and his hands were covered in his own blood.
The next moment, the wind whistled as the curved iron pipe, driven by Jack's wrist, spun clockwise. Accelerating and gathering momentum, it smashed the man's jaw from bottom to top, sending blood splattering everywhere.
It all happened so quickly, in a split second, that before the remaining crewman and his other gangster, their drug-addled minds, could process what had happened, Jack, with a powerful kick, was in front of them.
"Ah!" the crewman screamed, thrusting his dagger forward. Jack leaned slightly, and the curved end of the pipe caught his wrist and twisted it gently.
A sharp pain shot through his wrist, and the crewman desperately tried to pull his hand back. Another gangster swung his fist, visibly covered in brass knuckles—the same man who had pinned Johnny against the wall like a punching bag.
"AH!" "OUCH" Two screams rang out simultaneously as the crew-cut man's elbow and wrist were broken in opposite directions. The dagger in his hand now pierced the fist of a nearby man. A spark flew between the dagger and the brass knuckles, and the tip of the blade broke off. The remaining piece, after tearing off several fingers, lodged in his palm.
The crew-cut man, holding his broken right hand, fell to his knees and wailed in despair. Jack ignored him and swung the iron pipe, hitting the burly man who had been pinning Johnny against the wall and was now turning to run.
"Help!" The man with the brass knuckles, whose palm was pierced by the dagger, held his bloody palm and trembled as he tried to pull the dagger out. But Jack grasped it and grinned at him.
The brass-knuckle man watched in utter horror as Jack forced his right hand, still pierced with a dagger, flat against his abdomen, then delivered a knee-kick.
"Don't move! Pull it out, and you're dead. You'll bleed out before the ambulance arrives."
Slowly lowering him to the ground and whispering medical instructions, Jack stepped around the still-kneeling crew-haired man and walked over to Johnny, who lay limp against the wall. He helped him up and picked up the slightly bent elbow of the pipe from beside him.
"Can you move"Seeing he didn't seem to react, Jack couldn't tell if he was frightened or just too badly beaten to the point of being unable to move. He casually cast a healing spell. Okay, several ribs were indeed broken and dislocated, but they just needed to be slightly fractured. The hospital would take care of the rest.
"Hey, I'm fine, thank you." Johnny, already barely breathing, took a deep breath and instantly recovered. He quickly looked at his fiancée, who had been dragged into the corner.
Of course, Jiejie couldn't just sit there and watch. As Jack was killing everyone, she took the opportunity to put her gun to the head of the last gangster who had restrained Johnny's fiancée.
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It's rare for Jack to engage in a hand-to-hand fight, and I didn't want to be scolded for cutting it off, so I wrote a whole chapter. It was exhausting. (From author btw)