The Nine Tailed Foxx
Chapter 17
((A/N: No, I haven't forgotten about my other stories. Just waiting on one muse to step back and let others have some time.
A wonderful thanks to my friend Lady Moonhawke, who is also my co-writer, co-conspirator, Idea tester, plot hole finder, monkey wrench thrower, and ghost editor.))
Mindscapes
Third week of February, Medical…
Johnny was sitting on one of the plain beds in comfortable fitting sleep pants and sleeveless top. One foot was drawn up onto the edge and his chin resting on his knee as he waited. His thoughts drifting back to earlier….
He along with Clint, Nat, Bruce and Wanda had discussed what method would be used to secure him if something went wrong. When the idea of sedation was brought up, Bruce shot the idea down when he learned only natural occurring drugs would work on Johnny. The use of opium from poppies was not only highly dangerous without proper medical personnel but was illegal as well. The suggestion of strapping him down was also discarded almost as soon as it was brought up.
"Listen, do you trust that she knows how to use her powers?" Clint finally asked Johnny.
Johnny, for his part, studied the Sokovian girl sitting across from him. "Yes. But it's not her or her powers that I don't trust. It's what I might do, thanks to whatever it is that Doom did to me. You've seen how I've reacted to others."
"If she was able to put the entire team out of commission, you won't hold much of a problem for her," Clint pointed out.
"Gee thanks….," Johnny said sarcastically.
"...you ready kid?" Clint asked as he settled down on a stool in front of Johnny.
Dropping his foot down, Johnny straightened up. "As I'll never be," he said.. "Tell me again why it was decided to use a normal bed instead of one of those bio-beds?"
"The bio-bed records everything and is also monitored by FRIDAY. If you're stats drops below safe levels alarms will sound. I don't think you want too much attention drawn to what we are doing just yet," Bruce explained as he attached the leads for several pieces of equipment.
While neither man caused Johnny to completely lose track of the two women behind him, they did distract enough to allow Wanda to slip into his mind without a hinderance. Slowly his eyes dropped shut as his mind emptied of thought, he slid into a zen like meditative state.
Wanda gently manipulated Johnny into laying down and stretching out on the bed. She accepted the stool Clint offered her and settled on it at the head of the bed. Resting her forearms on the bed, hands on either side of Johnny's temples, she took her time in scanning everything Doom had planted. Every mind she had ever touched had their own unique way of creating organization and structure, Johnny's was no different.
If Tony Starks was of blueprints and schematics and Natasha's was all shadows and webs, and Captain Roger's was that of an Army Base hosting a USO Tour, then Johnny's was that of a masquerade ball. The moment she crossed over into his mind, she found herself in a beautiful dress of reds and golds that had a corset styled top that belled out into a wide skirt and the shoulders were designed like fairy wings. It felt like silk and glittered softly as she moved. In her hand she held a half mask, also red and gold, that matched the theme of the dress. She slowly walked across the floor, watching as dancers moved gracefully through slow waltzes. Each one was masked and in costumes, some elaborate some simple, some both. She turned and twisted, searching for what she was looking for. Always just on the edge she would spot Johnny, dressed to match the area, before he slipped away.
Wanda tried to follow several times but she would lose her way and find herself back at the start. She could use her power to clear a path but that could cause disruptive damage and would delay her search. So instead she stopped and started watching patiently. Curtains and drapes, pillars and mirrors, doors and arches, glitter and glam, so many things for the eyes to catch on and be distracted by. Her eyes moved along, place to place, following dancers as they moved until there! Movement that slid through the pattern without breaking it, but wasn't part of it either. With her eyes fixed on the point, she maneuvered through the crowd until she found a gossamer draped archway leading to another area.
Wanda noted a subtle shift of themes within the masquerade as she moved from one area to another. Memories and cherished times were slightly worn at the edges and the color faded, but still crystal clear. Darker times in his life created ballrooms of an equally dark nature. Colors once bright were now dark and shadowed, torches flickered in wall sconces creating moving shadows. When she found the happier memories, the ballrooms were light and airy, costumes representing mythical creatures of light abound and whites and golds were predominate.
Something changed, for Wanda started to feel cold as the temperature had dropped and her breath plumed into the air. A large set of double doors was ahead of her, they were dark with gleaming sigils of cold, electric blue carved into the wood. And they were guarded by what looked to be Doom himself. Before she could get too close, a hand caught hers, pulling her back slightly and spinning her to face the way she came. When she turned, she found it was Johnny. Or the Johnny that haunted this part of his memories. She drew back in horror at the sight. He was dressed as a white fox, including a tail and ears to match. The whites were dingy and gray in most areas, ripped through and bloody in the rest. A gaping hole in his chest where his heart once was bleed sluggishly, staining the fabric a dark red.
Wanda took several steps back away from the doors and the horrible visage before her before she realized it. When she did, she stopped where she was and watched. Neither he nor the guards made any move to approach her. Frowning, she straightened her back and stood tall and proud. She was an Avenger, this was now her duty to protect people and prevent these things from happening. She stepped forward with a purpose now, ignoring the silent plea for her to turn back, only pausing to give him a sympathetic look before striding up to the doors and throwing them open.
Everything seemed to be going fine. So far only a few spikes here and there, a few twitches from Johnny and not much more than fingers slowly waving back and forth from Wanda.
Then all hell broke lose.
Wanda jerked back off the stool, scrambling across the floor on her backside, a scream dieing on her lips before it was uttered. She stared wide eyed in horror at Johnny as arcs of electricity traversed his body leaving streaks of frost in its medical equipment went berserk as alarms started wailing. His back arching, lifting him off the bed as his feet dug in for purchase, fingers clawing at the mattress. The wail of equipment sputtered to silence as they were shorted out.
"Hold him!"
"What does it look like I'm doing!"
"It wasn't this bad last time…."
Wanda watched as the other three held the thrashing body on the bed, watched as electricity continued to arc and sweat turned to ice crystals.
"Wanda!"
Wanda jerked, the sound of her name enough to break her paralyzation. With a determined air, she got to her feet and hurried to the bed. "I won't be able to hold him and undo what Doom did to him…" she said as she placed her hands directly against Johnny's temples this time.
"Just deal with that, we'll take care of this…"
Once more Wanda dove into Johnny's mindscape…
… The scene before her could have made even the most twisted and macabre film directors green with envy. The ballroom was a large rectangular affair with tables to either side, a few placed down the middle and a raised platform at the other end. The tiles were shattered as if a clawed hand raked across them and the mirrors lay broken on the ground, reflecting the flickering light of sputtering torches and low burning candles in the chandeliers above. Half the dancers were dressed as nurses and assistants of a bygone victorian age. The masks they wore covered their mouths instead of their eyes and they held wicked instruments in hand. Each time they made a turn, they cut and gouged at the bodies strapped to the tables, leaving trails of blood splatter in their wake as they laughed madly before spouting off something in what sounded to be Romani. The other half were dressed in the green, black and red accents of Latveria and wore mask and hooded capes like Doom. Instead of blood, trails of electricity and ice followed.
Stepping past the threshold, Wanda intended to go straight to the other end of the room, but was stopped. Her hand captured in a secure grip as the Johnny from the passageway bowed over her hand. He guided one hand to his shoulder then wrapped an arm about her waist before sweeping her out onto the floor. She was waltzed around the room to the never ending music with the rest of the dancers. After the third circuit around the room, she started picking out what didn't belong.
They danced for hours or moments, it was hard to tell with the timelessness of the mindscape. Each pass around the room, Wanda used her powers to pick at the places Doom had invaded. She eradicated the glowing sigils, destroyed masks and capes that didn't belong. The room started to thaw, causing blood once frozen to start flowing again, but each pass of the nurses long dresses wikked it up before it could form puddles. Romani was replaced with English as the words of the dancers became medical jargon. The last pieces she needed to deal with was stopping at each of the tables and obliterating the Avengers doppelgangers. Her's, Vision's and Thor's were easy because they were so nebulous. The ones for Clint and Natasha were easy to deal with as well, neither were positioned where Doom had wanted them, but off in the shadows instead. With a nod, both vanished. The doppelganger of Dr. Banner was a little harder, he wanted to stay and watch the procedures being done, both horrified and fascinated at the same time. Iron Man turned out to be an empty shell since Johnny always met Tony when he wasn't in armor and Pepper wasn't even present. They passed the platform, and as they did, she tried to remove the Captain but it deflected the attack with a blood encrusted shield and a sneer. Johnny shook his head, the pointed up towards the ceiling. Sam and War Machine swung back and forth on what looked to be trapeze swings. As with Iron Man, War Machine was a hollow shell, but Sam was trickier as it wove in and out of the chandeliers.
On the final pass around the room, Wanda stopped in front of the platform. Further back was a mockery of a surgical suite. A single man, dressed in a tailored business suit, took his time as he performed surgery on the person strapped to the table. Looking over the man's shoulder was Doom. The Captain paced slowly back and forth, guarding the pair. Every time he passed the center of the platform he would lash out with a fist, a kick or the shield, at the person chained there. She nodded to 'Johnny' and received a nod in return. He dove forward, rolling to a stand on the platform and attacked. Long daggers screeched off the surface of the shield, as it was brought up to deflect the attack. Wanda used the opportunity to attack the figure of Doom, blasting him away from the gurney. The Captain turned, throwing his shield viciously. She smirked as she gestured, sending the shield flying away. Having trained and worked with the real man for nearly a year, she could see where this imitation failed and used it to her advantage. The two of them worked together, him distracting and pulling the Captain away while she attacked Doom, whittling down his defenses until the Captain returned again. At one point she was forced to shield the person chained to the platform to prevent Doom from siphoning off energy. The fight was taking its toll on both her and Johnny, but the other two weren't faring any better, especially with the shield in place.
A deflected blast from Doom, smashed against an object behind the platform, causing the phantom to spin in that direction. Wanda tried to get a closer look but was prevented from doing so by the Captain. When she pointed it out to Johnny, he either couldn't see it or couldn't do anything. Every chance she got there after, she would send a tendril of power in it's direction. She wasn't able to hit the same spot every time but enough hits created a crazed crackle pattern of cracks. Johnny somehow managed to work his way around the edges until he stood directly in front of the object. he used the scalpels he'd snagged off the trap like throwing knives. They were easily deflected with the shield, but they served their purpose. With a crazed grin, he blew the Captain a kiss as he grabbed his crotch in a gesture that the meaning couldn't be missed. He dropped to the floor as the shield cut through the space he was just in, shearing off part off one ear of the mask. It did its job though. The object shattered. Doom whirled to repair the damage but was caught between Wanda's power and what was released from the object. The phantom exploded into a fine mist then vanished. The doppelganger of the Captain staggered then dropped to the floor before melting away into nothing.
Breathing hard, Wanda straightened up to survey her work. Already damage done by the fight was being repaired. Though the macabre nature of the room itself was not changing, it was being put back to the way it was. She lifted her hand, the temptation to change it was a hard one to fight, but in the end she left it as it was. Johnny sauntered over, still bloody and pale as he was when she first meet him in the passage, and took her hand to bring it up to his lips. Without words, he thanked her before escorting her to the front of the room. He bowed once more before slowly closing the doors, sealing away the room again. She watched as new sigils appeared on the dark doors then frosted over with ice. Not the rotting, deadly ice that Doom created, but the purist ice found in the heart of the arctic winter.
Wanda blinked, slowly raising her head to look around. She felt exhausted and wanted nothing more than to curl up in her bed. She hadn't had to use her powers like that in a very long time. "It worked…." she said as she was helped to her feet. "Can I sleep now?" she asked Clint. The archer chuckled, sounding as tired as he lead her over to another bed and helped her get settled.
"Yeah kid, you earned it," Clint offered as he covered Wanda up with a blanket. She was out before he finished tucking her in. "How's he doing?" he asked as he watched Nat help Bruce with an IV.
"Better than I expected. Pupils are responsive which is a good sign. His vitals are coming up as well as his core temperature," Bruce said as he slipped on his glasses to take a look at the bio-bed's readings. "He's just in a deep sleep it appears."
"Deep sleep as in a coma? This close to the hearings?" Clint shook his head.
"No, not a coma. Just a very deep sleep. His brainwaves show activity, so I expect him to surface in the next twelve hours before falling back asleep again. The IV is just a precaution against dehydration."
Nat gave Clint a tired smile as she knocked shoulders with him. "Looks like you're on baby duty again."
"A hard assignment to deal with, not sure if I'm able to handle it," Clint wise cracked back. "Get some rest, both of you," he told them before moving to stand next to the bio-bed. "Better wake up soon kid, you got a son to raise," he murmured as he patted Johnny's shoulder before leaving.
"Dr. Banner, there is no need for you to stay and monitor the patient's. Both are asleep and I can alert you should anything change," FRIDAY offered.
Nat nudged Bruce with her hip. "Come on, take FRIDAY up on the offer and join me?" she asked. "I have some imported tea that you might like."
Bruce looked back and forth between the beds and Nat. The IV would be good for several hours since it was on a slow drip. He could stop by when he turned in and replace it if he needed to but there was a medical staff for a reason. "Alright… Thank you FRIDAY."
"You're welcome Dr. Banner. Have a good evening as well Agent Romanoff."