Jessica, carrying Jim who was seriously injured and unconscious, found Luke Cage and Daredevil.
"Who are you?!" The moment Jessica appeared, Matt immediately adopted a wary, defensive posture as if facing a formidable enemy.
"Mr. Daredevil? It's Jessica who's back," Luke reminded him, a little confused.
Although Jessica had already deactivated her transformation beforehand, Matt's keen senses instantly felt an inexplicable, immense sense of danger, as if a savage beast that could devour his life at any moment was standing before him.
Being blind, Matt relied entirely on his superhuman senses for external identification and awareness.
His extraordinary acute perception subtly sensed the power emanating from Jessica.
"Mr. Daredevil, it's me, Jessica. Mr. Jim was injured by a grenade fragment, his life is hanging by a thread, and I rescued him," Jessica said immediately, noticing Matt's strange, defensive stance.
Matt recognized Jessica's voice, relaxed slightly, and calmed down.
The frightening feeling he had before was gone; the momentary sensation seemed to have been a hallucination.
Matt was slightly puzzled, but he immediately heard a weak breathing sound beside Jessica, and the heartbeat seemed to be getting weaker.
He realized this person was the Jim that Jessica and Luke Cage were talking about.
"Let me help Mr. Jim stop the bleeding first."
In this situation, Matt, as Daredevil, was clearly more professional than Jessica and Luke Cage.
Matt, the masked hero who upheld justice, inevitably got injured and often had to treat his own wounds.
"All right, the wound has been simply treated.
Next, we need to send him to the hospital; whether he can be saved depends on his own luck," Matt sighed softly and said to Jessica.
"Okay, we'll take him to the hospital right away," Jessica reacted immediately.
"By the way, what exactly happened at the factory?
The commotion seems too big, even missiles were used?" Matt asked Jessica in confusion. Such a huge disturbance was practically a military operation.
"Actually, I'm not quite sure either. It seems like someone used something called a Gaia Memory to turn into a giant monster.
But what exactly happened, I'm stumped," Jessica knew very little about the Gaia Memory, even though she had seen it in the hands of the Purple Man before and had even obtained the golden Claydoll Memory herself.
However, Jessica concealed from Matt the fact that she also obtained the Claydoll Memory.
Although Daredevil should be a good person, there was no need to reveal everything without reservation when they weren't familiar with each other.
After all, Daredevil hadn't asked her.
"Gaia Memory?" Matt muttered the unfamiliar term under his breath, deep in thought.
"Mr. Daredevil, we should go now," Jessica and Luke Cage supported Jim, intending to head to the nearest hospital.
"Wait, I'll go with you," Matt immediately spoke up and followed the two.
The so-called Gaia Memory was very likely the item Jim was bringing for the transaction, so perhaps they could get some information from Jim once he woke up.
However, just as they had walked a short distance, a dark blue Fear Sludge suddenly appeared around them.
Kingpin and Evolto emerged from the Fear Sludge.
"Who are you people?" Jessica asked cautiously.
Matt and Luke Cage, however, looked drastically different, their faces pale, as if they had encountered something terrifying.
Especially Matt, whose senses were far more acute than ordinary people, felt the maliciousness of the fear even more intensely.
However, he had a stronger willpower and could barely stand, relying on the stick in his hand.
"You can call me the Emperor Of Fear, the person in charge of the Gaia Memory project. Jim is my employee," Kingpin glanced at Jessica, who seemed unaffected, and a glint flashed in his eyes.
Originally, the plan was to use the Memory as bait to stir up conflict among various parties and muddy the waters, and he wasn't supposed to show up personally.
However, he didn't expect the Claydoll Memory to happen to encounter a suitable user.
Evolto, who was using the Utopia Memory, came to notify Kingpin, and Kingpin was indeed curious and wanted to see for himself.
Moreover, since Jim, who was supposed to be the bait, had managed to escape successfully.
Kingpin would naturally fulfill his previous promise to let Jim gain the power of the Gaia Memory and become a member of his organization.
As a gang leader with principles and integrity, Kingpin's goal was never just destruction and crime.
Instead, he wanted to unite the underworld, become the true Kingpin of Crime, establish his own dark order under the shadows, and make everything in the underground world orderly.
And as am Emperor must, of course, keep his word.
"What do you want?" Jessica also noticed the strange state of Luke and Matt and asked with a lack of confidence.
"Naturally, I want to take my person back," Kingpin said, gently gesturing towards Jim.
"Of course, having been recognized by the golden Memory, I also warmly welcome you to join my ranks to create a new order for New York."
While speaking, Kingpin glanced at Evolto next to him. Seeing no reaction from him, he felt reassured.
"What if I don't join?
...Perhaps I can return my Gaia Memory to you?" Jessica asked carefully, feeling a strong sense of danger.
"Nothing will happen. Since the Memory chose you, you are its most suitable master. You should keep it and use it well," Evolto said.
Kingpin's heart stirred upon hearing this, recalling Evolto mentioning the Claydoll Memory as the "Divine Offering.
Does this Memory indeed have a special purpose?
"Hand the person over to me," Kingpin's thoughts briefly spun, but he had already decided to pay more attention to Jessica's situation in the future.
Jessica was momentarily stunned. She bit her lip and plucked up the courage to say, "Mr. Jim is the target of my investigation... I can't just hand him over to you without knowing why."
"He's only got a breath left now. Even if you rush to the nearest hospital, his chances of survival are slim.
If you hand him over to us, we can definitely keep him alive."
Evolto smiled easily and said. With a tap of his cane, Jim instantly floated up into the air.
He, along with Kingpin and Evolto, sank into the dark blue Fear Sludge and vanished.
After Jessica left, Dex, who had transformed into a gigantic Anomalocaris, rampaged through the factory. Finally, he decisively burst out of the factory and darted into the adjacent river to escape.
Dex was actually well aware that if he continued to engage in the conflict, it would certainly be highly detrimental to him.
The police and the special unit that were besieging him belonged to government official departments; even if they couldn't take him down immediately, they could instantly mobilize stronger reinforcements.
It was just that this transaction had failed, and the high-grade Gaia Memory, which was rumored to possess stronger power and which he had bought from a mysterious organization, had been intercepted by a girl who appeared out of nowhere.
Furious, he spent extra time destroying things in the factory to vent his anger. After calming down slightly, he naturally made a quick getaway.
Although Dex felt very powerful after obtaining the Gaia Memory, he was not arrogant enough to think he could fight against the national violent machine alone.
Watching Dex jump into the river, Rumlow reported to Nick Fury via the communicator: "Director, the target escaped through the river and has disappeared."
"I understand. I will notify the Quinjet to return.
You can also pull out," Nick frowned slightly. Did this operation end up being for nothing again?
And he unnecessarily owed the National Security Agency a favor.
However, while Dex's timely escape allowed him to evade S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Quinjet, he couldn't escape Hydra's tracking.
"Mr. Pierce, the signal tracker has hit the guy using the Gaia Memory.
I'll transmit the tracking signal right away," After ending the communication with Nick Fury, Rumlow immediately contacted Pierce and reported.
Pierce nodded, looking at the constantly flashing signal point on the virtual screen in front of him.
"Very good, now take your team and return to S.H.I.E.L.D. Don't let Nick discover anything unusual."
Although they didn't catch the subordinate of the Fear Monarch who was selling the important Gaia Memory this time, they did manage to gain something.
At the very least, they could get their hands on the Gaia Memory Dex possessed.
"Perfect, I can also try the power of the Weather Memory."
Having witnessed Dex's Dopant battle firsthand, Pierce was fully confident he could defeat and subdue Dex.
So he immediately pulled out the silver Weather Memory.
"Weather"
Transforming into a Dopant, he grabbed the signal tracker and rode a gust of hurricane clouds, chasing in Dex's direction.
Dex drifted downstream and came ashore at an uninhabited river beach.
After deactivating his transformation and returning to human form, he immediately discovered the tracker attached to him.
"This is bad."
Dex internally cursed and immediately removed the tracker, transforming with the Anomalocaris Memory, wanting to leave the area as quickly as possible.
"It's too late to leave now," Pierce descended from the sky, riding the hurricane, and looked at Dex.
(End of Chapter)