Author's Notes: Just wanna say, I love my readers. Thanks for much for the support!
spize666: Yes, Adams Family joke. He's used it before, too. :)
AsgardianGrizzly: *thumbs up*
Windy: And more to come.
Disclaimer: Ultimate Spider-Man is not mine. Nor are any of its characters. That's Marvel's job. Any Original Characters and art you note, however, are all me. No. I'm not making money. Don't rub it in.
Chapter 14 - Control
What would it take to finally convince them? Danny had tried everything from smiles to reassurances. Still, they wouldn't hear it. The very moment he awoke, his incomplete team had barged into the Tricarrier's Medical Ward like a stampede that pushed away everyone else. That had been not an hour ago and they continued to hover with worry around his bed as if he could expire at any moment.
"Honestly, my friends," Danny said. His tone was tinged with slight exasperation from the intense stares of Zeelan and an unmasked White Tiger by his feet. "I'm fine."
"You were stabbed, Dude; that's the opposite of fine!" Spider-Man blurted while flailing an arm that held his limp mask. His blue eyes widened then fell to the sterile floor and Danny sighed at the purple bags beneath them. "It's all my fault. I'm sorry, Danny."
"If you want my forgiveness, I will give it to you; however"—the blonde straightened his sore back against the overstuffed pillows behind him—"I see no need for an apology."
"Dude, I left you hanging!"
"Only because you were tending to White Tiger with Six Arms."
"Yeah, but—I—" The leader sighed in defeat, scratching the back of his neck with his free hand.
Danny sent him a stern look. "It's understandable. Fighting The Trackers as a whole team proved taxing. Now, our number has been reduced."
"I should have been there," Power Man injected. He sat—sunglasses removed—on the bed's right side, his large arms crossed and his dark eyes narrowed. "It should have been four, not three."
"You know Fury's rules," added White Tiger darkly.
Zeelan grimaced when Danny caught her eyeing the bandage wrapped snug around his bare torso. "Is watching me really worth cutting out a member of your team each day?" she questioned in a soft, grim accent.
"There's no choice"—Fury's sharp tone drew everyone's attention to him—"One of them is the only way to control you should you chose to ignore my request."
"Request?" Z parroted as a surge in her Chi flickered purple around her clenched fists. "More like a threat! It doesn't make sense why you wouldn't want me to find my brother and talk him into releasing Nova for you!"
"You may think you know your brother through and through," the Director added. "But I know a side you don't know. Kevin may be, as you claim, a protector. But he's also highly susceptible to the temptation of revenge. I give him you…and he'll just kill Nova."
"No. No, he won't. You don't know him!"
"He's threatened to kill Agent Reyes before."
Zeelan paused—Danny could feel the dropping of her stomach. "Th—that's a lie!" she cried, though without complete conviction.
Fury knew this and huffed lightly. "You've sensed that part of him before. This happened after the incident with your mother. I wanted to help your family through your financial troubles, but he blamed me for what happened. Though I had nothing to do with your mother's…mental impairment."
"You were offering charity?" questioned White Tiger incredulously along with everyone's suspicious stares.
"I was offering a chance for him to support his family—with his father being sick and Zeelan too young to work. That aside, Agent Reyes accompanied me often on my trips to Enderlin. That's why he chose her when he threatened me."
"So her safety is why you stopped making trips to Enderlin," drawled Spider-Man, a faint smirk on his lips.
"Of course," Fury answered without missing a beat, "I take my agents' safety very seriously."
The leader's smirk grew. "Uh-huh."
"Wait"—Z started speaking in a tentative tone that grew rigid—"when I—accidentally killed Miss Monica Reyes…did you think I did it as fulfillment of my brother's threat?"
"The thought crossed my mind," Fury admitted with an even gaze.
"You think he would share something like that with me?"
"Hence why I second-guessed it."
"That's ridiculous!"
"Maybe. I considered he might've felt differently after the Uprising."
"Well, he didn't."
"Obviously."
Danny sought Power Man's gaze when Z and Fury locked into a silent staring contest. The dark-skinned teen nodded then stood, rounding the bed until he stood between the Director and the mutant that vaguely glowed with a purple aura.
"Let's control ourselves," he noted with an open-palm towards each of them. "Sir"—his mild glare landed on Fury—"with all due respect, every available member of this team should be in the field. If you don't want to try Z's idea—"
"'Z'?"
"Hey, she's friendly, alright? But since you won't listen, that leaves us to find the group. And if you haven't noticed, our man-power has been cut significantly. Spider-Man was released from bed-rest just yesterday and already we have another member down."
"Not down," Danny interjected. "Merely hindered; I can get up soon."
Spider-Man flashed his blonde friend a look. "Again, Dude, you were stabbed. With a spear-ish thingie."
"And your rib was fractured."
"That healed overnight. Kinda."
"And my artery was cauterized."
"But that doesn't mean it can't be stressed open," Fury stated. He sidestepped Z and Power Man and walked until he loomed over Danny in bed. "You're lucky it was a nick instead of being severed."
There was a chuckle, followed by, "A 'nick'."
The man need only glare in Spider-Man's direction as silence filled the room. "That's not including the blood loss and muscle damage you've sustained. You'll be watching Miss Weir until you're healed. Or, the group finds Kevin's hideout."
"And our man-power continues its dive," Spider-Man remarked sorely.
Fury turned to him. "Not exactly." The arched a brow at the SHIELD leader, and the black-clad man raised his strong chin, saying, "You'll find out. Meanwhile, White Tiger, Spider-Man, Power Man—you come with me. You can visit Iron Fist later."
"What about Z?" Power Man asked, glancing at the white-haired mutant. She sent him a weak smile.
"She'll stay here with Iron Fist, so he can keep an eye on her," Fury replied while walking towards the exit across the long room.
"You're leaving her in the ward of someone wounded," Spider-Man noted as he reluctantly tagged along.
"That's fine"—Fury spoke loud enough for his voice to drift past the three heroes behind him—"Because if she tries anything funny, she returns to solitary. This time, with no hope of a lighter sentence."
Pop! Pop! Danny jumped and winced. A searing pain ran through his gut to beneath his left lung—one that left the blonde breathless for several long seconds. His strong fingers and toes curled around the sheets, gripping, strained. However, he kept quiet while watching more Psionic bubbles pop behind Z, aware of the fact he declined extra morphine in favor of retaining his cognitive abilities.
'No sudden moves,' he reminded himself before sucking in a short yet deep breath.
"Zeelan, remember what I said about focus. Control your anger; release it. For holding on to it is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."
More pops erupted, though softer and less frequent than those before. The nasally seethes of the mutant sounded like an uneasy slumber across the air, but Danny noted with relief that the white-haired teen straightened her form, turning to him with a cool glint in her oil black eyes.
"That saying sounds familiar," she stated while meandering towards the blonde's bed. "Is it Buddha?"
"It is," answered Danny, watching Z take a seat.
The semi-tan mutant folded her hand in her lap then sent the hero a small smile. "Do you have a quote for everything?"
"Life itself is a quotation."
"Spider-Man's 'Fortune Cookie' nickname makes more sense every day."
Danny returned her smile. "I can only be that which I am."
"'That which I am' is angry," Zeelan grumbled with a snort. Her eyelids lowered slightly over her hooded eyes and a thin line spread across her moist, dark lips. "Usually, I'm not easy to rile up, but Fury just—just"—she screamed silently into the fist she bit like an apple—"Ever since I was young, I couldn't stand him. Now it's just worse. How am I supposed to control myself when he's accusing my brother of such terrible things? Hunting him?"
"I admit, sometimes controlling anger is like containing a fire with your bare hands," Danny replied. "But with the right tools, it can be done."
Z's fist slammed against the nightstand beside the bed. "I don't care about tools. Fury wants to arrest him, Danny—I know it. K doesn't deserve that!"
Black eyes—wide and glistening—kept the blonde still. They wavered in their anger then fell to the white comforter as Danny frowned.
"I'm sorry, Z," he started calmly. "You've lost so much already. I—I know how that feels. But he did kidnap Nova. Without good reason, he'll be held accountable for that—as well as whatever has been done to Nova in his care."
"Stop!" the mutant suddenly cried along with a fierce pop of another force-field. Her hands covered her ears and her eyes screwed shut. "I'm tired of hearing such things. My brother's good. He stood up to bullies in school. Made friends with the outcasts. He helped me with chores and homework. He did Papa's work when he no longer could and looks out for others. There's no way he would interrogate like a tyrant. No way! It's not in him; it's not!"
"Z!" Danny's fingers shot out to grasp Zeelan's wrists and pulled them down until her eyes reopened. "I'll take your word for it," he added as she sniffled behind a faint stream of tears. "The assurance in your Chi is why I don't feel as anxious about my comrade as when the news had first been delivered. So, there's no need to justify him to me."
With great difficulty, the mutant nodded, releasing a shaky breath. "If Fury would just trust me to look for him alone, I'd find them all."
"But you wouldn't bring your brother back, would you?"
The mutant remained silent as she touched her reddened cheeks like she hadn't registered the tears yet.
"It will be difficult, but it's for the best if everyone meets in a single place," the blonde added. He felt a slight shake in the wrist one of his large hands still grasped and before he knew it, his fingers tightened in comfort. "Once The Trackers are dealt with and SHIELD talks with your group, we all can rest easier. Perhaps…you can even return home."
Home—the word turned Zeelan's face stony. Instantly, she snatched back her wrist with a force that whitened Danny's vision. She held it close to the lavender shirt beneath her black jacket then said, "You'll need a new game plan to defeat The Trackers. You've faced them, what, twice already?"
"Three times, actually," Danny answered, blinking the white from his vision.
"And look where you are now…"
"Set backs are merely hurdles in life."
"What happened exactly?"
The white-haired teen scooted closer for a better look at Danny's wrapped torso. The stark-white gauze was wrapped high from his waist to above his diaphragm. Its snugness made breathing that much harder with such little drugs in his systems, especially when he concentrated on it. So, he forced his gaze on Z, whose face darkened red beneath the dense dusting of freckles across her face. Huh. Strange.
When Zeelan sat back in her seat with a slight shake of her head, the blonde said, "We started our patrol off with detective work. Spider-Man found a few street vendors that had been robbed by a pair of small figures in hoodies. The clothes description matched Trent and Minerva—from what I remember—so we continued to search for other possible hits like a trail. Along the way, we ran across a robbery by Whirlwind."
"Whirlwind?"
"He's a mutant villain we're quite familiar with. He's made it to SHIELD's most wanted list, which gave us all the more reason to engage him in battle."
"I see."
"The fight didn't take long, but just when we took him into custody, The Trackers showed, ready for a fight."
"Oh"—Zeelan frowned—"They sought you out this time?"
Danny shrugged, solemn. "I can't say. Until now, they've fought us like we were only a nuisance to their goal. Perhaps that's why they sought to kill us."
"And they almost succeeded," noted the mutant grimly.
"Their force felt over-powering with the absence of Nova and Power Man, but we have persevered through equally as challenging battles," retorted with blonde. He considered mentioning Dracula then thought better of it; the mutant couldn't even bring herself to believe in general. Besides, his heart sped up at the mere thought of the immortal's wicked grin and invasive mind control.
"Who did you fight?"
Danny blinked at Z, hoping to clear his slightly blurred vision and floating head. "I fought Six Arms before partners were switched. I then fought Smokescreen."
"Is she the one who…?"
"Yes. She wielded weapons this time. Which seemed strange. Her powers are mid-to-long-range worthy."
"Didn't Spider-Man say it was a spear-like weapon that hurt you?"
"And he explained it to Fury as 'claws'."
"So…which is it?"
"Neither." The hero shook his head, smiling at the overdramatic memory. "They were Lujiao Dao."
"Chinese weapons?"
Danny's thick brow rose at the slight cock of Zeelan's head. "You know of them?"
The teen brushed aside a wavy lock of white hair from the corner of her eye. "Library nerd, remember? I learned about them from Chinese history books when I was ten. But I don't remember what the name means."
"They're called Deer Horn Knives, though they have other names such as Crescent Moon Knives or Duck Blades."
"They're used in Baguazhang, right?"
"A soft-style Chinese Martial Art, yes. You have an excellent memory."
"Have to, when you run on facts. So, if it's not her specialty, then how did she get the better of you?" Z blurted her words and immediately sighed at them, smacking a palm against her face.
"Don't apologize," Danny said. He tried to smile, but felt the action difficult with his new headache. The room felt hotter than earlier, humid, and as the temperature slowly climbed, the hero focused harder on Z as a distraction. "She surprised me with her mastery over them, honestly. The art requires a great amount of discipline, which I had never detected in her before. Once I identified and accommodated to her new style, I regained an upper-hand. Until the end."
"I'm surprised she didn't gut you." Pausing, Z smacked herself again. "Oh, I don't mean it like that," she added miserably as her hand fell. "I'm just thinking out loud. Mind tangent. Those weapons are easier to slice than to stab cleanly."
"The wound wasn't exactly clean," noted the blonde through labored breaths.
"I—I guess my question is this: if she's skilled with the Lujiao Dao, why didn't she, well…No. I—I'm sorry, Danny. I'm glad she didn't."
The mutant's head shook fiercely. Or perhaps that's what it seemed to Danny. A coat of sweat had formed over his aching body and anything his dry eyes focused on seemed to rock like the ocean's current in a hurricane. Everything else swam in mass of colors in his peripheral vision, his stomach churning from the intensity.
Zeelan spoke. Her Midwestern words were muffled, though—as if he were drowning beneath the surface of blinding white haze and scorching heat while a sense of weightlessness hit him. Soon, sounds grew deaf. White blocked all color. And only one image lingered in his mind.
Smokescreen glanced upwards from her slight hunch, her too-green eyes lit with a strange relief. "This should keep you busy," she whispered as the blade dug deeper into his torso.
Author's Notes: I'm a little evil. Yes. Don't forget to review about it!