Huzzah, an update :D

Enjoy, for I need to study for chemistry exam. Stereoisomeri, diasteroemere, Fischer-Projection, Polysaccharide AAAAAH WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE STUFF _

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker.

Note that writing fighting scenes is soooo not my thing xD

Chapter XIV

"I spent my life as a scientist trying to create a world without weakness, without outcasts. I sought to create a stronger human being, but there's no such thing. Human beings are weak, pathetic, feeble minded creatures. Why be human at all when we can be so much more? Faster, stronger, smarter! This is my gift to you."

Curtis Connors recording himself for his personal research diary. Test subject: Himself. Tested serum: Cross-species genetic, lizard. Sanity: Someone please call the people from the nuthouse to get him.

Natasha replayed the whole video again while I just sat there, pondering about the things that he said.

To be honest, that speech kind of reminded me a bit of Loki. You know, the whole 'human beings are weak and pathetic and I'm so much better than they, so I will gift you with something special'. Guess both are corrupted by having too much power.

"How did SHIELD come across this video? It doesn't look like something you can find on YouTube." I said.

Natasha closed the window and explained: "SHIELD located the current hide out from Dr. Connors and sent an agent to investigate this place. He didn't have much time to go through everything though, but at least he managed to download this video."

I nodded and then bit my lower lip. I know that the Black Widow just talked to Hawkeye on the phone, and he somehow lost Peter out of his sight. Which I consider as really funny, since Barton has got this super good eye sight and yet he lost someone… The Lizard disappeared too, I don't know to where though. And now I'm worried about Peter.

"Didn't you have school today?" Natasha asked and crossed her arms.

"Uh yeah," I replied somewhat ashamed "I overslept and well, didn't feel like going to school anyway…"

She gave me disapproving look and then grabbed into her pocket. Taking out a medium sized vial with a blue serum, she threw it toward me. Luckily I managed to catch it before it could crash on the floor. I hold up the vial, turn it around a few times and then asked: "What's that?"

"It's an antidote."

My eyes widened. "For that Tesseract thing in my blood?"

"No. It's the antidote for the lizard gene in Dr. Connors body."

Oh man. And here I thought they found a cure for me. "What am I supposed to do with it?"

"Bring it to Peter Parker." The Black Widow replied curtly.

"Now?" I carefully asked.

"Better now than never. Plus you have to get your papers back anyway."

She's got a point there. But I don't really want to go after Peter, now the Lizard is attacking New York City. Also I kind of feel like a stalker. I'm not even sure it I want to make things up with Peter anymore, knowing that he's together with Gwen now and all that jazz… I don't think my heart can handle this much,

Natasha put a hand on my shoulder, leading me to the doorway. "Let's go now."

I gripped the vial with the antidote firmly, took a deep breath and nodded my head, signalizing that I'm ready to go.

oOoOoOo

"The lizard's headed toward Canal Street Station."

"What about Spider-Man?"

"He's inside the High School."

"I want that Spider-Man off the street."

oOo

"The lizard creature has released a biological agent. All efforts at stopping him have failed and he is now proceeding north on 7th Avenue."

oOoOoOo

You know those moments in movies, when the good guy figured out the evil plan of the bad guy, and then prepare themselves with guns and stuff, and then walk cooly to their car, get in and then drive in super speed toward their destination?

That's how I felt at the beginning. But then after fifteen minutes driving we got stuck in a traffic. I'm sure that we've been standing in the same spot for good twenty minutes now. Which really sucks for our current situation now. I was sitting nervously in my seat, while Natasha looked pretty calm. But maybe that's just a part of her job. Appearing and staying calm the whole time, no matter if it's an alien army destroying the whole city or a lizard running amok. Me on the other hand am already losing my patience.

"Can't you, like, put on the siren so we can get through this traffic easier?" I asked annoyed.

"I would, but I'm not allowed. It's an undercover thing."

Undercover my ass. Fuck you SHIELD, for being useless in emergency cases. At this rate, the world is going to end before you can evens say puny God.

"Okay, we're going have to improvise here." Natasha suddenly announced and took out her cell phone "I'll call for a helicopter, meanwhile you go and run to the OsCorp building."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why the OsCorps building?"

"In the video, Connors said something about a gift for the humans. I fear that it has got to do something with the serum he developed. All the research data are there, and that's the only leading clue we have for now."

"Uh okay…" Not really understanding her explanation, I undid the seatbelt and got out of the car.

"And take this with you." Natasha handed me a small pocket knife with the SHIELD logo on it "You might need it."

I stuffed the pocket knife into my jeans pocket and looked ahead of me. The OsCorp building was a tall tower. I think if you'd stand on the roof top, you may have a beautiful view over the city. Okay, if I sprint now, I may reach the tower in like thirty minutes.

Taking a deep breath, I jogged out of the traffic zone to the walking pavement and started to sprint to the OsCorp building.

oOoOoOo

"Hey, where are you?"

"I'm in OsCorp."

"You have to get out of there right now, okay?"

"The antidote is cooking."

"No, no, no! Connors is on the way. He's coming to your right now. He means to disperse them with the device, he's gonna infect the whole city!"

"There's eight minutes left."

"You're gonna wait there for eight minutes after what I just told you? People are gonna die! You leave right now! Listen, that is an order! Okay?"

"I'm gonna get everybody out."

"Did you hear what…? … Gwen! Gwen? You mother hubbard! Are you serious?!"

oOoOoOo

Canal Street Station.

And boy, it's a huge mess here. Cars half destroyed and people lying on the street, looking half dead and somewhat… Green. I couldn't really see what the green things were, so I took a closer look.

I wish I hadn't.

Seeing as their faces were half covered in lizard skin, I let out a shriek and clamped my hand over my nose and mouth. Not sure how the hell it happened, but I have the feeling that the substance is in the air, so I think at least by covering my mouth I won't get infected too.

I started to panic more and more. Okay, so why the fuck do I actually have to bring the antidote to Peter again? I mean, I'm a teenager with zero fighting experience, for Odin's sake! Couldn't SHIELD send out a professionally agent to do that? No, of course not because they have to stay undercover.

Tch, secret government organization.

When I was sure that I was out of the danger zone, I quickly took a deep breath of air and let myself sack down to the ground. Damn, it's the first time in my life I have ran this fast. And this much. And I'm totally out of breath now.

Leaning against a street lamp, I ignored the weird look people were giving me as they passed by. After few minutes, my breathing started to get even, and I looked ahead of me. OsCopr building wasn't that far away anymore.

Yay.

I stood up and dusted myself off. While doing that I also touched my face to see if it was covered in lizard skin or not. I couldn't feel anything, but just to make sure, I looked into the reflecting shop mirror. Still the same old me. Good.

I started sprinting again. But then I stopped and carefully listened. It sounded like something loud was coming to my way. I lifted up my head and looked around, searching for the source of this noise.

A helicopter came into my sight. It lowered itself down. Clint Barton stood on the door and attached a rope on himself and got out of the helicopter.

"Come Jackie, there's no time to waste." He said to me.

I nodded and took his hand to get into the helicopter.

oOoOoOo

"Freeze! Down on the ground! Put your hands behind your head! Now! … Parker!"

"It's headed to OsCorp, and your daughter's there right now. You gotta let me go."

"Hold your fire!"

oOo

"Dad! I have got to get this to Spider-Man!"

"Get in the car, let's go."

"No! No, no, no! I can stop the lizard!"

"Get in the car."

"You don't understand!"

"I do. Your boyfriend is a man of many masks, I get it. Give me this. Get in the car."

"Please make sure he's okay."

oOoOoOo

"There, I can see them!" I shouted as I looked out of the window and pointed at Spider-Man and the Lizard fighting on the roof of the OsCorp building.

"Tasha, there is something attached to the mast." Clint said and prepared an arrow.

I squeezed my eyes together to get a better look at what it was. All I could make out was a machine and that it contained a green serum. "Is that weirs green stuff the lizard serum?" I asked.

"Yes it is." Natasha confirmed, while piloting the helicopter "It's a machine that sets the serum into the air all over New York City."

… Well, that's not good at all.

"And then all the people will be infected and turn into a lizard-human species." I stated, thinking back to Canal Street Station and all the people there "We have to stop it!"

"I'm working on it!" Clint announced and stretched the string of his bow, aiming for the machine.

He looked very concentrated and I watched in awe as he did his job, when suddenly I remembered something.

"Wait, don't shoot!" I screamed out and grabbed his right arm, to prevent him from letting go of the arrow.

Hawkeye looked annoyed, so I explained: "There are already infected people. We need to put the antidote in the machine so they can be healed!" I hold up the vial with the blue serum.

Barton thought for a few seconds and then nodded, putting his bow and arrow away, and then pointed at the outside. "Still we need to help them."

I looked out and saw how the Lizard first smashed Peter's web shooting device away, then ripped of his mask and finally tried to strangle him.

I shrieked: "Peter!"

That got their attention. Both of them looked up. Peter was surprised to see me in the helicopter. The Lizard also looked a bit surprised. Spider-Man took the chance of this small distraction to free himself from the Lizard's claw. It of course didn't like the fact that its prey escaped, so Connors started to chase after Peter, but also mocked him at the same time. "Poor Peter Parker. No mother. No father. No uncle. All alone."

Ouch, that was mean.

But then out of nowhere Captain Stay appeared with a shotgun. He cocked it and said: "He's not alone."

I saw how Clint stretched his fingers. "You know, if you really want to shoot something, now is the best time."

Barton let a small smirk pass over his feature, and then in a speed I didn't know was possible he had his bow and arrow ready and began to shoot at the Lizard.

The arrow hit its tail. The reptile stopped the chase after Peter for a few seconds and let out a growl. The arrow exploded, leaving the Lizard tail-less. Sadly it only lasted for a while, because the tail grew back again.

Ew ew ew.

Unfortunately for us Clint's explosive arrow provoked the Lizard. It ripped some part of the building out and threw it at us. Lucky for us Natasha is a good pilot and therefore managed to elegantly dodge the thing. Unlucky for me is that I have a very untrained balance, so naturally I fell off the helicopter.

I screamed and desperately tried to grab something to hold on, but didn't get anything. A sudden flashback came into my mind, that time on the airship after Loki's glorious appearance in Stuttgart. Bastard threw me out of the jet, but Tony was there to save me that time. Mentally preparing myself for a a heavy impact onto the rooftop and eventually to a grave injury, I didn't expect to land into someone's arm.

"I got you!" Someone said.

I opened my eyes and saw Peter's face. He looked relieved and quickly set me down to the ground. Captain Stacy was standing next to me, aiming his shotgun at the Lizard.

"You stay behind me." He commanded. Surely he meant me, since I'm the most useless one here right now.

Peter already jumped back into the fight with the Lizard. Arrows were flying down from above, distracting the Lizard once in a while.

"Hey, gift from Gwen!" Captain Stacy shouted to Peter and threw something at him. I recognized it as the antidote, the same I have in my hands right now. He said it's a gift from Gwen, so I guess Gwen made it. I must say, I am impressed.

"I got this, Peter. Go!" The Captain ordered and cocked his shotgun again. But before he could even shoot the Lizard appeared right in front of him and scratched Captain Stacy with its claws.

"No!" Me and Peter yelled, as Mr. Stacy fell to the ground.

Dr. Connors then looked at me with a sadistic smirk. I gripped the vial with the antidote and quickly smashed it into the Lizard's face. It screamed and clutched its face, stumbled a few steps back, hitting something here and there and then sunk to its knees.

Not having the time to care about what's going to happen next, I got hold of Captain Stacy and dragged him to a wall so he could lean against it. He looked very pale, losing a lot of blood.

"C'mon Captain, you can't die now." I pleaded. Meanwhile something blue exploded over the city.

Captain Stacy looked at me with tired eyes. "You're that girl… From that day, when Captain America visited us at the police station…" He recognized me.

"Yeah, that's me. Jackie Walker." I replied, and then searched my mind to find something to say, anything. I felt like keep talking and would at least make him stay awake.

"You're associated with lots of great people." Captain Stacy said, and nodded toward the helicopter, meaning Natasha and Clint, and probably Peter. "But association with great people also will often get you hurt, won't it?"

I nodded. Partly true, but most of the time it's actually my own fault to get into trouble.

The captain of the police department slowly reached for Peter's mask, and hand it to me. "I want you to tell Peter what I just told you… I was wrong. This city needs him. But… He has to make sure the people closest to him are safe… Please let him know that… And tell Gwen I'm sorry…"

He leaned his head back. I started to panic. "No, no, you can't die! Stay alive Captain, and you can tell Peter everything by yourself! Please!"

Captain Stacy closed his eyes and didn't respond.

He was dead.

A tear escaped from my eyes. It's the second time someone died in my presence, and in both situations I couldn't do anything.

I whipped the tears off with Spider-Man's mask, stood up and turned around. Peter was standing there, bruised and scratched, crying. Not needing to say anything, I knew he just heard the whole conversation.

"He wants me to stay away from Gwen, doesn't he?" Peter asked, although it was more a statement.

I nodded solemnly. Captain Stay didn't say that directly, but basically that was what he wanted me to tell Peter.

Peter pressed his lips into a thin line, letting his emotion dominating him. I cried with him. From a selfish point of view, I have the feeling that after this event my friendship with Peter will never be really restored again. And that thought simply made me cry.

The helicopter landed on the rooftop and Natasha got out of it. Clint was the one piloting the helicopter now.

"Let's go." She said gently and grabbed my arm to lead me away.

But before, Natasha turned to Peter. "The police will be here soon, it's better Spider-Man goes now, Peter Parker. If you have any question, then feel free to come and visit SHIELD on the Helicarrier."

He nodded and then walked away.

We got back onto the helicopter and flew away, heading for the Helicarrier.

My hands were still gripping Spider-Man's mask.

oOoOoOo

"An eerie calm has set in over New York City. Apparently some sort of aerosolized antidote was launched from OsCorp Tower, which seems to have counteracted the biotoxin. Residents of lower Manhattan can rest peacefully, knowing that the alleged mastermind of this terror plot, Dr. Curtis Connors is behind bars."

oOo

"Sweetheart. It's okay. It's alright. It's alright."

"Rough night."

"It's gonna be alright."

oOoOoOo

A doctor with a slight anger issue.

And a worried and slightly pissed off super soldier.

Both of them weren't happy to see me back from newest adventure. Ah well, at least I came back in one piece.

Right now I'm being bombarded with questions from Steve, which I meekly answer with a 'later, Steve. Later'.

After getting back to the Helicarrier, I was immediately swept off to the med-bay to get checked up. Since I ran through a zone where the lizard serum was let out, Bruce wanted to make sure I didn't have any lizard gene in my body now. At the same it's a check for the amount of Tesseract in my blood.

"Captain Stacy is dead." I finally said after Steve's never ending rambling. Honestly, I never even thought once that Steve would be the kind of person to ramble useless stuff when worried to death.

Steve stopped talking and looked shocked and sad. "He was a great man."

I nodded in agreement. First Coulson, now Stacy. Both great men, bravely trying to save them human race.

There was a silence between us now. Bruce then came back with the test results.

"Good new, Jackie." Bruce announced and offered me a smile "You didn't get infected by the cross-species serum, and the amount of Tesseract in your blood shrunk down a bit."

Hearing that I leaped off from my seat and looked at Bruce with wide eyes. "Really?" I asked, not believing what I just heard.

To proof that he was telling the truth, Dr. Banner handed me the paper with the test result from now and few months back.

"And that's not all. I also found out something rather interesting, but for now it's still a hypothesis." Bruce mentioned "Maybe you should sit down again. And if you want, Steve can hear it too, but that's up to you."

I looked at Steve, who gave me a raised eyebrow. I gave him a nod, and he sat down too.

Bruce started to explain: "Remember when you were in Stuttgart and Loki tried to blast some form of energy at you?"

I let out a snort. How could I not forget that? That's basically the thing that piped up the God of Mischief's interest.

"And Loki said that it was because of the Tesseract in your blood was protecting you, right?" Bruce continued. Steve gave me a weird look, probably hearing that for the first time.

"Mhm."

"And then there was the Chitauri invasion, but none of them attacked you."

"I think it was because I was radiating off Tesseract energy."

"Right. And today, when you ran though the Canal Street Station, you got out of it safe and sound, without any sign of changing. Since the substance was released into the air, normally a person would instantly get infected and change into a lizard."

I quickly interrupted him. "But I didn't."

This time, Steve spoke up: "Is it because of the Tesseract energy inside her?"

"Exactly, Captain Rogers." Bruce said.

Slowly I began to understand where he was getting at. "Basically, you're saying that every time in a dangerous situation, the Tesseract is going to act as a shield, protecting me?"

"That's my hypothesis." He confirmed.

I pressed my lips into a thin line, pondering about whether this is a good thing or not. Good because well, I'm protected against evil forces for most time. Bad because this whole concept scares me.

"Alright, time to go home now." Steve said and got up. I did the same, said goodbye to Banner and followed Captain America to the jet that's supposed to take us home.

Already planning out in my head what I was going to do when I get back, I stuffed my hands into my jeans pocket. I forgot that I still had the mask until I touched the fabric and suddenly all the things that happened rushed back into my mind. Captain Stacy's last wish and Peter's face. This whole scene just made me realize how much Peter loves Gwen and how happy he was with her before her father died.

Something I could never make him feel.

I gripped the mask and got into the airship.