After changing his name, Luke Cage first planned to find a job to support himself.
However, in his youth, Luke had been running wild on the streets, and was later framed and imprisoned, leaving him with no suitable skills to find a proper job.
Not to mention that he had completely changed his identity and was now a Black man, making it even less likely to find any legitimate work.
If he didn't want to go back to the gang life, he could only rely on the super powers he had gained, starting as a security guard in a nightclub, which had low requirements.
After all, the experiments in prison had greatly enhanced his strength and granted him bulletproof skin.
With his superior strength, he was certainly qualified to be a bouncer.
Jessica Jones, looking disheveled in both expression and clothing, arrived at the bar and sat alone at the counter, drinking glass after glass to drown her sorrows.
A few months ago, Jessica's family had died in an accident. Although Jessica survived and gained the ability to fly and possess far greater-than-normal strength, she wasn't particularly happy about acquiring super powers.
Soon after, she met the Purple Man, who left a massive psychological trauma on her.
When the Purple Man, Kilgrave, accidentally encountered Jessica practicing her abilities, he treated her like a treasure and immediately used his power to control her.
During the time she was controlled, Jessica suffered severe physical and mental blows, leaving her utterly defeated. If she had previously harbored thoughts of using her super powers for vigilantism, now Jessica only wanted to drink herself into oblivion every day, so she wouldn't have to recall the cruel time she was controlled.
Jessica was able to escape the Purple Man's clutches when, one time while he was manipulating her to commit evil, she ran into the vigilante Daredevil.
Perhaps it was due to Daredevil's unwavering willpower, or perhaps his blindness allowed him to focus on his other senses, or maybe it was the training he received from his teacher, Stick, of the Chaste.
Of course, it could have been a combination of these factors, but in any case, Daredevil did possess the ability to resist the Purple Man's control.
With his control power rendered ineffective, and facing the highly skilled Daredevil, the Purple Man could only have Jessica tie up the opponent before fleeing in a panic.
Jessica thus temporarily broke free from the Purple Man's control, but she was completely unable to emerge from the shadow of her experiences during that time.
Afterward, she opened a detective agency, living a life of drunken self-pity to numb herself every day.
"Hey beautiful, why are you drinking alone? Want us brothers to keep you company?" Several young men with tattooed arms approached Jessica, speaking with a teasing undertone.
Jessica merely glanced faintly at the ill-intentioned youths, pushed a bottle of liquor, and said, "Of course we can drink together, but you guys have to pay for the drinks."
The young men were slightly stunned by Jessica's reaction, and then laughed. How much could a little girl drink? She'd probably pass out after a few glasses.
So, they happily agreed.
Jessica looked at the malicious group, a slight hint of disdain flashing in her eyes. After gaining super powers, her body's resistance to alcohol had greatly increased. This meant Jessica needed a large quantity of hard liquor to get drunk.
This was a huge burden on Jessica's not-so-optimistic financial situation, so since someone was willing to pay for her, Jessica was naturally delighted.
She was very confident she could easily drink these few thugs under the table, and if they got angry and turned violent, she wasn't afraid at all with her abilities.
"My treasure, I finally found you.
I've only been gone a short time, and how could you be drinking with these filthy bugs? That is truly disappointing."
Jessica was gulping down the hard liquor paid for by the unsuspecting saps when she suddenly heard the nightmare-like voice from her memory. Her body froze, and she tried to get up and run without even looking back.
But just as she tried to stand, she realized her body was no longer under her control.
The Purple Man, dressed in a sharp purple suit, slowly walked up next to Jessica, elegantly poured himself a glass of wine, and said with a smile, "My treasure, I won't let you leave me this time."
Jessica was drenched in sweat, her eyes filled with struggle and despair. Her body trembled with fear, and all she wanted was to escape, but she couldn't move her legs at all.
"Bastard, what do you mean? Are you looking to die?" The surrounding thugs spoke up angrily. The Purple Man's disregard for everyone else was infuriating.
And the "filthy bugs" he mentioned clearly referred to them—they couldn't stand that.
The thugs immediately decided to teach this arrogant fellow a lesson, at least forcing him to kneel and apologize.
A look of disgust flashed in the Purple Man's eyes, and he said to Jessica, "Jessica, deal with these bugs."
"With this chick?" The thugs laughed as if they had heard a joke.
Then their faces darkened: "We've changed our minds. We were originally going to forgive you if you just crawled under our legs.
But now, we're going to break all your limbs and make you crawl out like a maggot."
With that, a few people surrounded the Purple Man and prepared to strike.
"Truly repulsive bugs. I've changed my mind too. Jessica, kill them," the Purple Man commanded, a murderous glint in his eyes.
"Bastard, you..." The thugs wanted to move but found themselves unable to, their bodies rigidly frozen in place.
"Damn it, what did you do?" the thugs asked in horror.
"Noisy!" The Purple Man frowned, activated his ability, and the thugs couldn't even make a sound.
"Jessica, get on with it," the Purple Man said with a triumphant smile, looking at the slightly trembling Jessica.
"You can't resist me."
"Even if that hateful blind man shows up again, you will absolutely not escape my control," the Purple Man thought to himself, patting the mysterious item in his pocket, the Gaia Memory, which had been sold to him by a mysterious person and could grant him immense power.
Although this Gaia Memory, named Puppeteer, granted even stronger manipulation abilities, the Purple Man preferred to use his own innate power on Jessica. He wanted to manipulate her actions while she was still conscious, systematically and completely breaking down her psychological defense.
Then, he would mold her into the shape he desired.
Now, he was going straight to having Jessica kill people with her own hands, staining them with blood.
Although Jessica desperately tried to resist the Purple Man's control and avoid becoming a killer, she couldn't control her body at all, and her fist slammed toward the head of the nearby young thug.
Despair filled Jessica's eyes; with her enhanced strength, a full-force punch to a normal person's head would almost certainly be fatal.
However, just as Jessica's fist was about to land, a hand suddenly appeared in front of her fist, blocking the deadly blow.
The bar staff had clearly noticed that something was wrong and immediately notified the security personnel.
The person who timely intervened was naturally Luke Cage, who worked as the bar's security guard.
After Jessica's punch was caught, Jessica, the Purple Man, and even Luke Cage himself were slightly surprised.
Both the Purple Man and Jessica clearly knew how powerful Jessica's full-force punch was, yet this seemingly unremarkable bar security guard had easily blocked it.
Luke Cage was also completely surprised that the woman, who looked sloppy and even somewhat frail, possessed such powerful strength—clearly beyond the scope of an ordinary person.
Giving a strange look at the few completely motionless thugs, Luke Cage said to Jessica, "Ma'am, if you have any dispute between you, please take it outside."
However, he was met with Jessica's seemingly pleading gaze, which left him a little confused.
With Jessica's superhuman strength, ordinary people shouldn't be able to bully her, so why would she need to ask him for help?
The Purple Man, hearing this, gave a dangerous smile: "So, you're a super-powered individual too.
Don't mind him, Jessica, continue."
Previously, even if the Purple Man wanted Jessica to kill someone, he would have been more cautious and discreet, not wanting to blow up the matter.
However, after gaining the power of the Gaia Memory, the Purple Man believed that no rule could restrain him anymore.
He could do whatever he wanted!
When Luke saw Jessica start moving again after the Purple Man spoke, he immediately moved to stop her, simultaneously wanting to tell the thugs to run away immediately.
Judging by the strength he felt just now, if Jessica's fist really hit a normal person, it would be fatal.
"You just stand there and watch obediently."
Luke Cage was suddenly surprised to find that his body was completely out of his control. He looked surprised at the Purple Man who had just spoken.
In that instant, he understood that both Jessica and the few completely motionless thugs were all being controlled by the man in the purple suit.
(End of this chapter)