Revamped!

[If you think about it, Daniel's novella is called Antibiosis and this story arc is called Symbiosis. The two are antonyms and I think that's symbolic]. [2020: Quit being so passive, it is symbolic].


Chapter 54: Symbiosis Part Seven

SHIELD Headquarters - 20:05 PM

Once Agent Tapper ratted them out for current events, the Council entered the picture. After talking with the Council, Bruce and Betty join the team and that's when they take a look at the experiment's layout that they got from the Antarctic lab. They mutter to one another as Angela, Xavier, James, and Merida standby. The shocked and stunned expressions coming from the scientists as they read through it don't help in any way whatsoever. Their confusion is unsettling because if anyone was supposed to have an understanding of this, it's them.

"This project is incredibly advanced," Bruce states, running a stressed hand through his hair. "It's way beyond our time."

"How could someone have created this?" Betty asks. "Scientifically, yes, it does make sense but I would've never been able to put this together."

"Me neither."

Merida steps in. "Maybe Daniel is a gamma baby." The two of them look at her strangely. "You know, like a crack baby but change the crack for gamma."

Bruce and Betty look at one another, repeating the words "crack baby" and "gamma baby" with wrinkled and confused expressions. For a moment, Merida thinks that they're judging her for coming up with a ridiculous theory but Bruce and Betty keep talking about it.

"Bruce, that makes sense," Betty says.

"It does," Bruce replies. "Crack babies have been given crack since their conception and since they were still a developing embryo at the time, it adapts to whatever environment is provided for them in the womb."

"Daniel inherited the gamma gene from you so when he was conceived, his body must have just assumed that it was essential, a natural part of him."

"According to the moment, it's essential."

"This isn't some case where we could provide supplements, we need his actual, physical Hulk back in his body."

"How do you think we do that?" James asks.

Bruce and Betty have no answers.

"First off, we don't have Daniel's Hulk," Angela says. "We don't even have trackers to follow it around and meet it somewhere. We have to wait for a lead and hope it's still there when we arrive."

"So you're saying that Daniel's Hulk can merge back with him?" Xavier asks the scientists. "Even if Daniel doesn't like the idea of it? We know he won't go through with it."

"If they could separate, then merging them back should be possible," Bruce says. "It's like facilitated diffusion - Daniel's body being selectively permeable. If it knows that it needs the Hulk then it should just accept it. We just need a boost of some sort to allow it to happen biochemically."

-o-

SHIELD Recovery Room - 20:10 PM

Daniel types away on a laptop that's semi-hidden underneath his bedsheets. He isn't allowed to have one since he's "healing" but he persuaded one of the nurses to let him have one. It helped that he changed his IV while she was paging another nurse to help a patient down the hall. As he browses through the Internet, articles about his Hulk rampaging through Egypt. There are no articles that mention Emily's presence which was good for him since he didn't want to read about throwing a car at her. Speaking about Emily, she's still not talking to him. It has nothing to do with Egypt but with this whole situation generally. He understands what she's feeling because if she was in his position, he would be pissed as well.

"Why are you working?"

Daniel looks up and sees that his mother has walked in. As he shrugs as a response, Betty leans over the bed to hug him tightly. Daniel knows that his mom isn't saying anything because she knows that he doesn't want to talk about this. But to his surprise, he does want to talk about this.

"Mom, what the hell can I do about all this?" Daniel asks her. "It's almost as if I'm missing half of my brain. Instead of hearing the Hulk's voice haunting me, there's nothing. As sadistic as it may sound, I miss being spooked because it meant that I'm alive and will be alive for long."

Betty smiles a little, rubbing his shoulder.

"Emily told me about your plan again and I know that you don't want to care because you're deeply terrified but believe me, you need this. I don't want to hear you say that ending your life is the only option because it sure as hell isn't. Daniel, when you turned into your Hulk as a teenager, it pained me to have to see you recover when such an event traumatized you the way it did, worse than when you were a child. But after that, Emily became your girlfriend. Then after graduation, your fiancée. Wait until after this and she'll be your wife."

Daniel knows that his mother is being optimistic since no parent wants to picture their child dead, especially her engaged child. However, he believes that his mother has other reasons for her words.

"What's your point?" Daniel asks her.

"If basic science anything to live by, you should've been dead the moment you and your Hulk separated. How much longer you have left depends on your cells because now, they're in charge and you're just following absentmindedly. Everything in your body is deciding your future. You just need to make an impact on it."

Daniel tries to respond but is cut short when his mother holds a finger in her mouth, silencing him. She waves her hands downwards with piercing eyes. Daniel quickly closes his laptop and slides it under his pillow as he pretends to be asleep.

Betty turns around as a SHIELD official representing the Council walks in.

"The Council wants Daniel to be taken into custody due to current events," The Official tells her.

"You'll have to come back later," Betty replies. "Possibly tomorrow. He's had a long day and he's in an unstable condition."

The Official nods before walking out. Leaving the door ajar, Betty walks over to Daniel and kisses his head.

"I'll see you soon," she whispers to him.

Daniel hears his mother walking out, closing the door behind her. That's when he wakes up and takes out his laptop again. He closes the articles about Egypt and opens up the scans of the virus that caused all this to study it better. It's his issue so he should be able to figure it out. He has to come up with a way to solve this before SHIELD comes back to detain him or worse, he dies.

-o-

SHIELD Headquarters - 8:09 AM

As for the rest of the team, they spent the night at SHIELD, sleeping on their quinjet. Their sleep wasn't as good as they hoped with the lingering thoughts of Daniel and his estranged Hulk, and the Council, being mad at them for not being honest under oath. They'll have to face punishment for their perjury which they accepted way before they even created their lie after this whole problem is swept clean.

They wake up with the sound of an alert. Xavier goes to check it and wakes up his team when he sees that it's a Hulk spotting.