Chapter 33.2

Alina continued running up the building as fast as she could until she nearly reached Jason. She then jumped and placed herself underneath him, trying to cushion the speed of his descent.

"Oof!" Alina grunted when she impacted Jason; the force of the blow knocked the wind out of her lungs but she gritted her teeth and grabbed onto Jason.

"Jason! Wake up! C'mon, wake up!" She shoved Jason to try and rouse him only to end up spinning in midair even as the two continued free-falling. "Goddamnit! Wake. The. Fuck. Up!"

Each word Alina punctuated was followed by a slap or a punch that she sent to directly to Jason's face.

Oh, for crying out loud, enough with the punches! Jason bellowed in his mind as he woke up and he caught Alina's fist mere centimetres from his face. Everyone's been aiming at punching my face all day, can't I get a break?!

"Falling, falling! We're falling!" Alina screamed her reminder at Jason even as they got closer to the ground. While Jason couldn't hear her properly because of his damaged eardrums, he quickly realized what was happening when he saw the ground quickly getting closer.

Jason grabbed Alina and held her in his arms while he placed her above him. At the same time, he used his powers to create a warm airflow that slowed his speed while manipulating the weight of them both to lessen the pull of gravity. Despite that, he crashed right atop the flattened Baron, and the concrete below him didn't help absorb the impact and he cried out when he felt a searing pain on his waist.

"Mngh!" Jason growled as he loosened the grip he had on Alina. The latter grabbed Jason by the shoulders and checked his body for injuries before freezing when she saw his lower body.

"Jason …" Alina noticed blood seeping around the concrete from behind Jason and looked up at his face with concern when he grimaced.

"Just a flesh wound," Jason said with a meek smile before getting up. Although he still couldn't hear her properly, he noticed the look of concern on her face and he reassured her gently. He groaned and Alina rushed to help him up before checking his back. He winced when she leaned forward and touched his back.

"Just a flesh wound?!" Alina muttered when she saw a clean gash on his lower back. Blood was flowing endlessly from the wound but she noticed that it was healing at an incredible rate. The wound was slowly closing up but Jason coughed some blood before grimacing.

"We - we need - to ... we need to leave this place," Jason said quietly while coughing. He heard sirens approaching and Alina placed an arm around his shoulder and helped him walk away.

Alice quickly appeared and hugged them both, her face full of relief. Jason patted her head to reassure her before he had A.V.A control another car from his garage to pick them up.

Above them, the sky was filled with large unmanned drones that were loaded with fire extinguishers, dousing the spreading flames with water while first responders made their way through the panic stricken streets. By the time the car arrived, Jason's wound and internal injuries were healed and he was walking without Alina's aid. The silver-colored coupe came flying towards them, its four tires were on hover mode. Jason quickly urged them inside before driving away over the alleyways, intentionally avoiding the incoming emergency vehicles.

"What happened?" Alina asked.

Jason didn't answer and instead gestured at her to wait for his ears to heal. Thirty seconds later a call came through and Jason accepted it.

"What the hell happened, Fenrir?" A grim voice asked harshly.

A small holographic screen appeared over the dashboard and Watson, who was at a command center, appeared on the screen. People around her were scrambling, several running back and forth while many more were sitting on chairs, directing units to aid the civilians in the aftermath of the explosion.

"Your weapons have been compromised," Jason answered in a harsh voice, his voice uncharacteristically loud due to his damaged eardrums.

"Come again?" Watson couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"That was a missile shot at me, Watson. Who in Atlantis has that kind of weapon capabilities?" Jason replied and Watson shook her head.

"That's impossible, there was no confirmation or alert of a missile being launched. We'd have known immediately if it was one of ours," Watson said.

"Check again," Jason urged her after reading Ava's captions of their conversation through he holo-lenses. "It was missile from a Dragonfly or a ground launcher, I don't know. All I know is that as soon as I opened a program, I was targeted."

Watson frowned but gestured at a lieutenant that was overseeing the communication she was having with Jason. The lieutenant quickly opened a report on another screen and began checking for any recorded missile strikes. After a tense moment of silence, she handed a tablet to Watson who read it with a grim face.

"How come there's a missile missing from DA-32? Why am I now receiving this?" Watson demanded and the lieutenant stuttered, responding rather nervously when Jason interrupted them.

"Don't blame your folks, the opponent has a skilled hacker. They purposely erased all information of the missile launch as soon as my phone revealed my location. You just need to make sure that they can't do that again."

"I'll see to it. However …" Watson hesitated. "We can't let the public know this was a missile strike, they don't know that AEM has such weaponry and it would cause mass panic and riots if the public knew we had these aimed at the city."

"I agree," Jason said with a nod. He rubbed his chin while contemplating for a minute before speaking slowly. "Just say it was a spell casting experimentation that went wrong."

"Good idea, we'll lay the groundwork for that ASAP," Watson nodded appreciatively. "Also, I'll make sure there's nothing tying you to the attack."

"Thanks, take care," Jason quickly cut the feed and looked at Alina who was frowning.

"This … is wrong," Alina said. "Having missiles locked on the city? What were they thinking? Of course, the population would riot, I would too!"

"We've got walking nukes, literal walking nukes, and you're worried about missiles?" Jason asked while gesturing at himself and Alina, his intention clearly meaning them. Alina looked at Jason with disapproval when she heard him.

"You're agreeing with their methods? What's wrong with you? How could you possibly accept this?" Alina asked incredulously.

"It's just a precaution, Allie," Jason shrugged. "A single Practitioner can wipe out a battalion and we ... I -" Jason paused but didn't elaborate: Alina understood his meaning clearly. "It probably was locked on the penthouse because of me. If I ever went rogue …"

"They'd blow you to pieces," Alina finished grimly. She was indignant that the AEM would do such a thing even if it was just a 'precaution'.

"I don't think they'd pull the trigger, kid. As I said, it was just a precaution. One that someone used to their advantage," Jason added with narrowed eyes. He was slightly annoyed at himself for gleefully accepting the bait and pulling the trigger; it was clear that the two years of peace had made him complacent.

"Why do you even bother working for these … these assholes?" Alina asked bitterly. "They're so afraid of you and yet you've done everything they wanted! Everything the Council's wanted!"

"Simple," Jason answered calmly. "They swore to protect you, no matter what. If I do anything or, god forbid, something happens to me, Silvia will look after you. And that's enough for me to do their dirty work."

He turned to look at Alina with gentle warm eyes filled with affection. "To me, you're worth it, sis. I'd slaughter the world if it meant saving you, or Alice."

Jason's eyes traveled to Alice who was sitting in Alina's lap with the same affectionate eyes and Alice refused to look back at him, the guilt at the fact that her mother was involved in this attack was too much to bear.

"Don't worry, kid," Jason patted her head as he talked, it was as though he knew what she was thinking. "It ain't your fault. So don't blame yourself."

Alice nodded but felt otherwise. Seeing the destruction and the innocent people who were harmed by it was unbearable. She could still see the fearful crowds, their eyes filled with panic, and the screaming echoed relentlessly in her ears.

"What do you mean? Are these the same bastards that attacked us in the carnival?" Alina asked with gritted teeth, misunderstanding the underlying notion of Jason's words. "They're still after Alice?"

"Something like that," Jason replied evasively. "I promise I'll tell you everything once … once I've done what needs to be done."

"And until then?" Alina asked.

"Until then, we act normal," Jason shrugged. "So that means it's still movie night."

"Seriously? You've just had a - a missile blow you up and now you're just gonna, what, pretend nothing happened?" Alina looked at Jason with surprise and concern.

The missile didn't hit his head and turn him cuckoo, did it?

"Why not? It's not like it killed me," Jason shrugged but relented when he saw Alina's angry but worried face. "Well, I mean, yeah, it did almost kill me. Besides, I just said I'd go through hell and back for my daughter and there ain't no way I'm going to cancel her first time to the theater. Right kid?"

And besides that, I'll take care of the bastards when night falls, Jason thought as a gleam of feral anger passed through his eyes. Seems I've been getting soft recently … I'll need to rectify that.

***

Emily walked into the same room that she and Asami once visited when they had first bought Accelerant. Sitting on the sofa was the dealer who previously sold it to them.

"Yo," the dealer said smugly and Emily narrowed her eyes. She realized that he was expecting her, especially from the way he greeted her. The dealer looked behind Emily with an amused face. "Where's your friend?"

"Just outside the arcade," Emily replied coolly. "And she has the cops on speed dial. So, if I don't show up fifteen minutes later, you'll be getting some company soon."

"Ha, smart. But unnecessary," the dealer said with admiration. "It's bad for business if our customers disappear. Besides, the cops wouldn't listen to a level 0 Esper like you." The dealer smiled knowingly as she continued. "You're from the Sumps, you know the cops cater to the elite, not our kind. But you're a tough cookie, I like you."

"Pity the feeling isn't mutual," Emily said. She understood that the gang behind this had clearly researched her. Perhaps if she went to the police or AEM, she'd have gone missing by now. "Care to tell me why I'm having side effects to using Accelerant?"

"Well, for someone smart, you're pretty dumb," the dealer laughed below standing up and approaching her. "Let me spell it out for you. We're selling a miracle drug that only works one time. How exactly are we supposed to cover our expenses, keep our business running, if it's a one time deal, eh?"

"You mean …?" Emily's eyes widened as a foreboding feeling struck her.

"Bingo!" The dealer clapped his hands when he saw Emily's look. "We decided to add a little something so that our customers would return for our … side products. It's nothing so bad, just a little cocktail of heroin with a possible dash of meth." [2]

"You …"

"And since it's your first time buying, I'll even throw in a discount!" The dealer said with a grin. He raised two fingers as he spoke. "Double the dose, for the price of one. Whaddya say, beautiful? You in?"

[2] The foreshadowing of this was there a while back when Emily was sick. The side effects of Heroin withdrawal (mild withdrawal) are: Nausea, Abdominal Cramps, Runny Nose, Sweats, Sleepiness, Muscle and Bone Aches. (Information about this and more was gathered from: https://americanaddictioncenters.org/withdrawal-timelines-treatments/heroin)