Thank you so much for the reviews! =D

lego lover 99: You'll just have to wait and see (muhahaha). Thank you!

BowTies23: That makes me feel so happy inside. =) I try to update at least every day, I'm sorry. ;-)

Again, my apologies for the Author's Note about Taekwondo forms yesterday in the middle of the chapter, I hope it made some amount of sense.

DISCLAIMER: no own Ultimate Spider-Man. Do own Emma (OC), idea, and poetry.

Chapter 9: That Place

"Remember that everyone you meet

is afraid of something,

loves something,

and has lost something."

-H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Emma's POV

It's the last week. I never have to go back there again. I'll never set foot in that place again after this week. Nobody can force me to go into that- that High School again.

That's what I've been telling myself the whole time at breakfast today, silently dreading the coming day. I know I shouldn't be afraid, but it's Monday morning again, and I have to go back there. Ava notices me playing with my oatmeal but not eating. "What's wrong, Em?"

Shrugging, I say, "Nothing." As though nothing could make your whole day miserable. As though Ava didn't know better than to think that I meant 'nothing'. She's known me long enough to realize I'm not a very open person, and for a very good reason. I simply don't trust everyone I meet anymore- if she had seen what I have seen, then she wouldn't either.

"Come on, what's the problem? 'Nothing' doesn't make you look this sad."

Ava and I are the only people at the table. Peter doesn't live in the Helicarrier, Danny's mediating like he always does on Monday mornings, Luke usually arrives at breakfast right as I'm leaving, and I haven't seen Sam not sleep through his alarm clock yet. (S.H.I.E.L.D. really needs to get the sort of alarm clocks for us that you can't smash when you're half awake and frustrated- we're going through so many each a week that I'm doubtful that Sam even has an alarm clock now; he tends to ruin them on Mondays and Thursdays.)

I mumble, "It's nothing, I said."

"What is nothing?" inquires Danny as he walks in, despite the fact that he likely already knows the nature of our conversation.

"Nothing's nothing," I snap, standing up and shoving the oatmeal at him. "Here, you can have it, I didn't eat any."

Danny watches sadly, still holding the oatmeal, as I walk away. I guess he's remembering how lighthearted I was Saturday. Well, Sunday was a different story. I kept having these visions, during whatever I tried to do. Basically, I ended up sitting in my room all day, attempting to read but being interrupted every so often by brief images flashing through my mind. This hasn't ever happened before, but I think the dream triggered it. Since I've had it 'so under control' lately, it's just bottling up inside of me, and I don't want Nick to notice and have another 'talk' with me. I had the wolf dream again last night, so I didn't really get any sleep either.

By the time I'm at school, I regret storming out like that. It was probably better that I didn't tell them, though. School will be over in just a few more days, and this is nothing. Once I walk into the building, I bitterly realize that nothing has indeed become something.

The huge kids approach me, shouting insults. They throw the cruel, twisted words at me as if they bear no weight, and I try to pretend they don't affect me in the least, staring at the ground. These kids just don't understand; it's not their fault, really, it's just that nobody ever told them why I'm this way, and they immediately see me as an easy target. If they knew I am a mutant, then they wouldn't dare approach me.

One of them shoves me to the ground, kicking me. It's easier to just stare at the floor until they're finished, and stand up once they're gone. As soon as they've had their 'fun', that's just what I do; I go to my locker, grab my books, and walk to homeroom.

At the end of second period, though, my head is throbbing so badly I can't think. All these people, all these individuals have so much energy, they're so excited for school to be over. I'm stumbling over my own feet, hardly able to hold my books. I sway to the side, right into Danny's arms. Danny? How long has he been walking by me?

"Emma? Emma? Are you okay?" I can hear Ava shouting, but her voice is far away, so distant from all this buzzing in my hands.

I can see the blurred shapes of Sam and Luke above me- above me? Why am I lying here? "Weird," I slur, more to myself than them, before gratefully greeting the still, quiet black fog that's creeping over my vision.

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"I do not know," I hear Danny saying.

"Well, there has to be something wrong, people don't just faint for no reason at all!" Ava is nearly yelling.

I feel so full, overwhelmed with power. Everywhere is buzzing, so fast, faster than I've ever felt it before.

"Guys, what's she doing?" I can hear Sam, sounding completely horrified.

"WELL, THIS JUST SUCKS!" Ava screams at the top of her lungs, over the buzzing.

"GET THE OTHER KIDS OUT OF HERE!" Now Peter's joining the shouting match.

It's so warm and cozy here, in this little bubble, this wonderfully swelling bubble of buzzing energy. The energy is moving even faster, and there's more, inside this little bubble, so overwhelming, it's just going to make this bubble pop, like a balloon!

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Ava's POV

What the hell is she doing?! What's happening?!

Emma's in the middle of this huge rainbow sphere, which is making a really loud buzzing noise. I feel really jumpy and excited for no reason at all, and I'm fighting to keep calm. Well, my definition of calm, anyways.

"DO SOMETHING!" Danny still looks deep in thought, so I try again. "DANNY! QUIT THINKING AND ALL THAT CRUD AND HELP US!" That gets his attention.

"THE ENERGY SPHERE IS EXPANDING!" Danny (calmly) shouts back.

"SO?!"

"IT CANNOT KEEP EXPANDING FOREVER!"

I realize what he means. The sphere won't just keep getting bigger. Something else is going to happen. "WHAT IF IT EXPLODES? WHAT IF THE SPHERE THINGY POPS?!"

"WE MUST MOVE HER TO A SAFER LOCATION!"

I get what Danny's trying to say. We have to move Emma before that thing explodes, or whatever it's going to do. "HOW?!"

Danny doesn't reply right away. He just stands there. Finally, after what seems like an eternity of waiting, even though it was only a minute or so, he screams, "DO NOT TOUCH IT! THERE IS NO WAY TO MOVE IT!"

"HUH?!"

Peter shouts at us, "YOU WOULD BE USING ENERGY TO MOVE IT! KINETIC ENERGY! YOU HAVE ENERGY! YOU'D ONLY GIVE HER MORE TO ABSORB!"

"OKAY, SO WHAT DO WE DO THEN?" Nobody bothers to answer me. They're too busy herding students out of the school. Coulson runs up to us, but I can't hear his voice above all the racket.

I see Danny making his way, slowly, toward the sphere. What's he doing? The idiot, he's going to touch it! I'm too late, though, his hand is already reaching toward it, and then- Danny's gone?

What happened to him? What did she do to him? A million thoughts are running through my mind, but nothing can answer those questions.

"DANNY!" I scream, my voice hoarse, but there's no need to yell anymore; the noise, the sphere, they've all disappeared. It's suddenly, unbearably silent.

"Yes?" I hear a voice answer me from the place where the lockers used to be- now there's just a pile of crumpled metal with Danny sitting on it. Nothing else has been touched.

"Are you okay, dude?" Luke asks, helping him up. Danny doesn't answer. Ugh, sometimes that boy is so hard to understand. (Aren't all boys, though?)

"What happened?" demands Coulson, running over to examine Danny.

Danny frowns. "Where- where is Emma?"

I realize that he's right- Emma's not here. Where did she go now?! "Is she under the lockers?" If she is, there's no way she's even alive now. What did she do?

Luke and Sam rummage through the ruined scraps of metal. After a while, they shake their heads. Danny walks over to the middle of the hallway and bends down, picking something up. I walk over to see a necklace clenched in his hand. It doesn't look like anything special- just a small, ordinary stone on the end of a long chain. "Emma's?" I wonder aloud. Danny turns the stone over, and I see a small engraving on there.

"'The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step'. A famous quote from Lao Tzu." Danny clenches his fist around the stone. "Yes. I have seen this chain around her neck, though she kept the pendant tucked under her shirt. She wore it every day."

Woa. Sometimes Danny really surprises me; I spend at least as much time with Emma and I never noticed that. "So…?"

"It has a certain… magical aura. It would take her to the 'first step' of her journey, or wherever she is at this point in time."

"Okay, that made no sense whatsoever," Sam says.

"That would be a physical place my friend, not a philosophical one—for our purpose, anyways, though I do believe it is both in unison." Which makes no more sense than Danny's previous statement.

I frown. "Journey? What journey?" Danny opens his mouth to explain, but I cut him off. "Never mind. I don't want to know. The point is, where is she?"

"Wherever she is in her journey."

"Danny! I'm serious here! I need you to speak English!"

He sighs. "You have to first ask what her journey is."

Luke shrugs. "Dude, we don't know her that well!"

"Perhaps that was a mistake on our part. Each person has their own gift to offer to this world. Although… it seems to be that her life held no particular direction until now. Today, her purpose seems simply to live and learn. What role has she been assigned to lead in our lives? I sense it is a great one. Her power… it is strong. The very nature of it is destruction, yet she is a docile person. A person who fears her power. I would guess that her journey is learning to live and love in this harsh world, overcoming her power and finding the beauty in it. Unconsciously, though, she has much to teach to the world, and we, much to learn."

We stare at him. At last Sam says, "So… she's trying to control her power then? Okay… well, where would that put her?"

After today, I'd guess not very far. The Fortune Cookie is the first to reply, "I would say she has come quite far, yet has many miles remaining. The most recent step would be… S.H.I.E.L.D., correct?"

Cue the crickets.

"So that'd put her in the Helicarrier, Fortune Cookie? It would've been nice to get that without the long explanation!" I exclaim impatiently.

"Well, let's go then!" says Sam. "Right after we suit up."

Duh, we didn't even have a chance to do that in this mad rush.

By the time we get back to the Helicarrier, Fury is furious. (Ha ha ha, I know. Bad joke.) "Where have you BEEN?" he barks. Nova Creep stutters some lame excuse about trying to figure out where to go. Fury laughs. "Right. So you sit around at the scene of the crime without your uniforms on, and try to decide if you should report back to base?"

I sigh. "This is my fault, Director Fury, sir. I should've just come back to you."

Iron Fist steps forward. "No, sir, it was me. My explanation has proved too complex and long-winded for my teammates to extract necessary information from." I'm surprised that he stepped up.

Spider-Man says, "I'm sorry, Director Fury, I'm the team leader, I should have taken charge." He steps forward and joins us. I catch him glancing back at Nova and Power Man, but they don't come forward. I suppose they don't feel like they played any part in the delay, but it still makes me angry that they've hung us out to dry like this.

Fury says, "Well, I hope that you three heave learned your lessons. Cleanup duty for one week. You can go."

"What about Emmaline?" I burst out. She's the one who caused this whole mess, after all.

"She'll wake up within a few hours. I don't know what happened back there, but Rand- I expect you to explain how Carlson got here, and help me piece together what happened."

"Yes, sir!" Iron Fist says, but he doesn't look as confident as he usually does. As we're walking away, I whisper to him,

"What's wrong?"

He just shakes his head and walks away, towards the infirmary.

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Emma's POV

Drowsily, I blink, and rub my eyes, then fumble for my glasses. A soft hand offers them to me, and I slip them on. "Danny?" He's sitting next to my bed. We're in the infirmary. "Where am I? What- what happened?"

Danny doesn't say anything. He's wearing his uniform, but he has taken off his mask. Just sitting there, with his long, blonde hair slightly ruffled, he causes the butterflies to begin churning inside of my stomach. He looks so kind and understanding, so beautifully open.

Suddenly I realize that there must be a reason I'm here, that Danny is looking at me like that. "What- what did I do?" I whisper, terrified, my voice quivering.

Danny reaches out and touches my hand, and squeezes it. "It is okay. You are home now." Home? How did he know?

"How- how-?"

He smiles warmly, in spite of the situation, and hands me my necklace. "It would only bring you to your home. Look at the golden sparkle of the stone. You are at the stage of Discovery of home, family, friends, of love, loyalty- all of the little pieces of gold in time's river."

I stare into those eyes, but I only feel truth and something else coming from him- friendship? "What did I do, Danny? What happened?" I say, a lonely tear trickling down my cheek.

"Do not cry," Danny says, brushing the tear away. "You lost control. It is okay now."

"I- I lose control? What happened? What did I do?!" My voice is rising uncontrollably.

"I told you. Do not worry. The worst that happened was the crushing of the lockers."

"That's- that's all?" I can't prevent the relief flooding into my words.

Danny looks right into my eyes, so I can see the honestly there. "Yes. I am your friend. I do not lie." Then he embraces me.

I bury my face in his shoulder. His arms are strong and sturdy, but his hands are warm, friendly, and loving. I want to thank him, but there isn't a need for any more words.

So I hug him back.

;-)

-FFS