Lucky Enough to Live

by flying feather scribbles

[Sequel to Explosive Energy] Emmaline has started her life over. Then she runs across a sudden fight between Superheroes and Super-Villains near Central Park and finds Danny injured. She takes him back to her apartment to find he is dying and there's nothing she can do, and his friends don't even know. Just a great new start of her final days to life.

16. I Refuse

Thank you for the list of ideas, TheOnyxDragon12! I'll be using those (muhaha) soon. Thank you for the reviews:

BowTies23: Aw, thanks. Yeah, I hate cliffhangers too, but it's so tempting to write that way...

Hamster1000: (eye roll)

TheOnyxDragon12: Thanks for the ideas! :-D

DISCLAIMER: I only own my OC's and the idea- not Ultimate Spider-Man.

Chapter 16: I Refuse

"You were given this life because you were strong enough to live it."

-Unknown

Flame's words ring through my mind. I'm killing him first. She can watch him die. No. She can't have sent her brother to kill him, not not, not ever. The world will see just how mortal that boy is. No!

Ore watches me, his face stoney. We are all ready to fight, muscles tensed, but he doesn't move. At last, he says, "You. You shouldn't be alive, Emmaline. Daniel Rand, you shouldn't kiss this girl. Peter Parker, you shouldn't be so mean to this girl. Ava Ayala, you shouldn't be friends with this girl. Sam Alexander, you shouldn't laugh at this girl. Luke Cage, you shouldn't fear this girl. None of you know this girl. None of you know her power, her mind, her soul, her... any of her."

I stare at him. This boy, he was my brother. He was my family. I cared about him. I knew him. Now we are strangers, enemies even. Ore is wrong, though, about my family.

Ava knows my secrets.

Sam knows my mind.

Peter knows my weakness.

Luke knows my power.

Danny knows my heart.

This boy, this child, knows nothing about me except who I was. "Why do you care anymore, Ian Carlson?"

His eyes. They're like two little mirrors that I can see a reflection of myself within. Ore looks so sad, I would feel terrible if it was anybody but him. "I am not Ian Carlson any more than you are Emmaline Carlson. Flame calls me Ore. I am Ian, but Flame is my only family, and if I am Ore to her, then I must be Ore to you, for both you and Flame are strangers to my heart, though my mind remembers Sofia and Emmaline, my sisters. Ore reminds me far too much of 'Orc', but perhaps that is what I am becoming. Who are you now?"

I can't help but pity him. "I am Emma. This is my family." I gesture to Sam, Peter, Luke, Ava, and Danny.

"What are their names?"

I shake my head. "They're nameless to you. They aren't your family, and you don't deserve them." Then I point to each of them in turn. "My love. My best friend. My protector. My clown. My trainer. These are my teammates, my brothers and sister."

Ore stares, his eyes a mixture of regret and jealousy, but no hate. "Have you told them?"

I hang my head. "Not yet."

"Flame wants me to kill. That's the way fire works, isn't it? Metals aren't of the same hateful nature. They can bend if the elements are in order."

"Good for you, Ore. You're a mutant. Go away. Find Charles Xavier- he can help. I can't. You're just a stranger, a whisper of my past. I've long since turned the page. It's still there, but I'm not going back. Go away. Find your own family. I have nothing for you." I have no regret at my words, because they ring true. I might care about the world, that's why I do this S.H.I.E.L.D. thing now, but I don't have any sympathy for this lost boy. I turn around, and my teammates follow.

"Wait," Ore whispers. I face him one last time. "I loved you. I missed you, sister. I don't hate you, I don't blame you. I regret that you didn't bring me. Flame thinks that I've killed your love by now, and trapped the rest of your family- readied you for death. Go."

Wise words from a thirteen year old. He had to grow up fast, though.

When we're back in the Tricarrier, I immediately pull Danny aside to talk to him.

"Danny. There's some... stuff that I haven't told you, yet. I guess you've figured that out, but... it's important stuff that you all need to know... My point is, I don't think I should keep putting you all in danger. Flame wants to kill you just because you know me."

Danny looks me in the eyes, then replies with utter calmness, "She wants to kill me because I love you. She wants to kill our friends because they are your friends. We are your family, Emma. We will not leave you."

I sigh to myself, hating Flame. "Danny, I need to tell you something."

"Then do."

"I'm... I'm dying, Danny." I can't hold the tears back any longer. "I'm dying," I choke. The tears are streaming down my cheeks, in little rivers.

Danny wraps his arms around me, then whispers, "I will never let you go."

/VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV VVVVVVVV

I'm telling my friends the Secret. I just have to spend some time alone first, to think. Danny understands how hard this is for me, even though he can't possibly know the sheer complexity of the Secret that I have to explain. After all, there is an enormous difference between knowing and understanding. As I leave to go to Central Park, Danny tucks some loose strands of hair behind me ear and kisses my forehead lightly. I smile weakly at his kindness.

In the park, I slump against a tree. Maybe I should be crying, or maybe I'm wrong to be here at all. From the corner of my eye I notice a woman starting to instruct a yoga class. I need to clear my mind somehow, so I join the session.

The familiar movements feel so completely right, flowing like water. Energy is buzzing everywhere, but it is peaceful, calm energy. By the end of the class, I feel a dozen times better. My decision to stay is made. Family is family, and this is the only chance at life I've got.

I walk home, observing the scenery, oblivious to the people around me. Ignorant to the little ball that someone chucks at me until it's too late, and I'm swimming in blue, cloudy gas, falling- down, down, down, into blackness.

/VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV VVVVVVVV

I ache everywhere. Slowly, I drag open my eyelids until I can see where I am. I am surrounded by gigantic metal machines, and am strapped to a cold, metal table, held in place by leather straps.

"Ah. You are awake. Emmaline Carlson, how long I have waited to study you. How happy I was when this opportunity arose." From the shadows, a horrifying scientist appears, held aloft by four long arms. I know this man. Otto Octavius.

I can remember Peter making fun of 'Doc Ock'. I laughed at the time. Now that I am here, helpless, I don't have the strength to even look in the madman's eyes. I close my eyes, trying to mentally prepare myself for the coming pain. When the needle pricks my skin, I am surprised that it doesn't hurt. Then, cold fluid surging through my veins, it comes. It takes everything I have to keep from screaming, crying, but I don't want to give him any satisfaction.

"Danny," I choke, coughing up blood.

"August tenth, six-thirty P.M. Injection A5 of chemical 8C, experimental, to suppress mutation as needed, trial one," Doc Ock rasps. "Successful. Mild discomfort, due to thickened blood."

So began the eons of pain, as everything melded together into one great horror. The only light I could see was somebody rescuing me, and I knew Danny would come. Danny had to. I couldn't die here.

I wouldn't die here.

End of chapter! I might post the next one tonight, sorry that this one's so short.

-FFS