He wouldn't say that he underestimated his enemies. But he would admit of being just one man with limited and dwindling resources. Not as young as he used to be and his anger has changed. There wasn't as much spite or cockiness in him, not after being overwhelmed with grief.
His instincts were still sharp...but it was like trying to run in water. No matter how hard you try, the tides and waves were stronger. Before, he might have been too tempted to letting go and let the waves wash over him and pull him under.
But there was a difference.
A difference that once he began to notice how deeply in trouble he really was, he called him. Wolfgang came in time to help him, but he'd been roughed up by that point.
His mind was buzzing wildly, but he focuses on Wolfgang. His voice, his hands, their connection! There's a different buzz and he thinks he feels a familiar tingle in the back of his head and the whispers of voices...but they're in a distance and maybe even in languages that Jack recognizes but doesn't fluently understand.
"I'm not going yet...we gotta get in some trouble that's not sad...I'd like that..." Jack mumbled as he tried his hardest to stay awake.
Wolfgang hadn’t hesitated for one second, relying on his own street-fighting style more than anything but gratefully accepting Sun’s help for the hand-to-hand battles he had to fight in order for them to eliminate the threat to Jack. Kills, for him, were always a means to an end -- something he rarely gave a second thought to -- but he could honestly say he enjoyed ending the lives of the fucks who’d been stupid enough to hurt Jack.
Now that the danger was gone, his cluster returned to the quiet but present rumble in the back of his mind. And Wolfgang -- he was hit with a sudden wave of emotions at seeing Jack like this. Hurt. The light in his eyes growing duller by the second. The way his breathing was coming in short and stuttering breaths. It rocked him right down to his knees and he carefully cradled Jack’s head in his hands, “I got you... I’m here,” he said.
That was when he felt it -- it was something he had felt hints of before but now, with Jack actually touching him and both of their emotions running rampant, it was jarring. He could feel him... feel him inside and out and fuck it was the most terrifying and thrilling thing he had ever experienced. Shivers ran down his spine and he stared at him for a moment, unsure of what to say or what the fuck to do in this situation but, before his thoughts could get more tangled up, Jack broke through the tension with his typical humor.
Wolfgang let out a stuttering and relieved laugh, shaking his head at him; he did everything to ignore the tears streaming down his face even when a few of them hit Jack’s bloodied up face. “Fucking crazy motherfucker,” he muttered almost to himself before he managed to get his wits about him and did a look over Jack’s body for the source of the biggest injuries.
This is when his cluster helped out again, Kala calmly doing her examination and adding pressure to the worst of the areas before she returned to Wolfgang’s side instead and told him, “you should get him to a hospital or ... if you take him back to your place, I’ll do what I can.” Wolfgang looked at her then down to Jack before sighing and hooking his arms under his knees and back to get him them both off the ground. “Hospital,” he informed his cluster and Jack at once before he slowly made his way to his car.
The connection was there still. It felt faint but raw at the same time like everything they shared or the longer they touched the more deeply they felt one another. He looked at Jack again, deciding to visit even while he was carrying him to see what would happen, “do you feel it?”
