Free Web NovelTo say Director Nick Fury was having a terrible week would be an understatement.
Sitting propped up in a medical bed, Fury took a sip of lukewarm black coffee and glared at the SHIELD pad sitting on his lap.
“Motherfucker, I don’t even get a single goddamn day off for losing arn arm.”
The surgical team had done a twelve-hour replantation process to reattach his severed arm. The newly-attached arm was wrapped in thick bandages and secured in a specialized brace. He had zero feeling or control in the reattached limb at the moment. The surgeons had happily informed him it would take months of rehab just to regain half the effectiveness he used to have.
He should’ve hated Skullfire for tearing it off, but strangely, he didn’t. Maybe it was because the bastard had done his best being a shield for New York than the real SHIELD had been. Maybe he was simply too tired to hold a grudge.
Maria Hill, standing nearby with her arms crossed under her chest, offered an unsympathetic smile. “I’ll be more than happy to take care of the paperwork.”
Fury lifted one eye toward her. “Some processes require my decision. It can’t be helped.”
He set the coffee on the side table and scanned the first page on the tab. The initial report detailed the recent terrorist attack at a mall, orchestrated by someone calling themselves the Green Goblin. A new masked freak had joined the city, except this one was here to blast innocent civilians with pumpkin-shaped grenades.
Fury skimmed the photos and leaned back against the pillows. “I’ll leave this one to Skullfire and his band.”
The man might be directly responsible for ripping Fury’s arm off, but ironically, Fury knew he could trust Skullfire to hunt down psychopaths who actively harmed the city. The Green Goblin had killed a few people, but he hadn’t committed the greatest crime on SHIELD’s current radar—being a mutant. Fury had more important tasks than chasing a goblin freak, like observing mutants.
Maria nodded. “Understood.”
Fury flipped to the next page on the tab. The next report detailed a bizarre, highly coordinated string of international thefts. Mysterious, hooded figures had been spotted infiltrating museums and famous libraries. They were stealing ancient books, historical scrolls, runic texts, and sometimes just seemingly ordinary pieces of old parchment. The thieves were just disappearing into thin air without triggering a single alarm.
“No clues at all?”
Maria contemplated the question for a moment, then shook her head. “We’re still digging. It’s difficult when they leave nothing behind.”
“But we can confirm a large organization is behind this,” Fury whispered, rubbing his bearded chin. “Put Coulson and Clint on this. I want these thieves caught as soon as possible.”
“I’ll relay the order.” Maria pressed two fingers against her earpiece, murmuring the directives to the command center. She looked back at Fury. “Do you think Kamar-Taj is behind this? Natasha mentioned them having an entire sect of sorcerers. They could easily pull it off.”
“We don’t know enough about the magical community to point fingers yet. We’ll see where Coulson's investigation leads. I hope he does a fucking good job this time.”
“Another question. How long will we contain Natasha?”
Fury felt a splitting headache coming on. “...Until we receive the order to release her.” freewёbnoνel.com
The Executive Board had unanimously voted for Natasha’s continued containment. Their official reasoning was that she needed to "serve time" for her past crimes as a Russian assassin, claiming it was the only way to publicly redeem her.
But Fury wasn't stupid. He knew the real reason was to control the variable. The Board was terrified that Natasha might choose Skullfire’s side. Containing Natasha in a cage and threatening her was their plan to keep her from switching sides. To put a firm leash around her.
Maria let out a heavy sigh. “Okay. I’ll keep the agents locked on her Widows.”
Fury nodded and checked the next file. It was a statistical analysis detailing an unnatural surge in people disappearing from the streets late at night. SHIELD normally wouldn’t be notified of local missing persons cases, but the number had spiked so violently that the algorithm flagged it as a superhuman threat.
“I’m assigning this one directly to you, Hill. Take Gambit and do some midnight scouting in the major hotspots. See what you two can dig up.” Fury closed the tablet and tossed it aside. “And keep a very close eye on Charles and Erik. They’ve been more active than I’d like.”
Maria gave a crisp nod. “I’ll handle it.”
Just as he was about to dismiss Maria, the pager in his coat beeped. He immediately took it out and read the message, then turned toward the window. “Hill, you’re dismissed.”
Maria seemed to want to stay and see what the pager signal was about, but she had to follow orders. As soon as Maria left, Fury got off the bed and unlocked the latch on the window.
A familiar blonde woman in a red, blue, and gold suit was hovering outside, faintly glowing with her cosmic energy.
“Danvers.”
The most powerful person on the planet had finally returned from her space odyssey.
Even Skullfire, for all the havoc he could cause, might not be able to touch her, or so Fury believed.
“Fury,” Carol greeted, landing lightly on the floor. “We need to talk.”
***
Dante ended the connection with a lot on his mind.
‘I forgot about the love triangle between her, Scott, and Logan.’
Jean’s early life was like a high school drama mixed with superpowers. She had been the only female member of the original team, and all the boys had a crush on her. During those early days, she was mostly occupied with fighting Magneto, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Juggernaut, Sentinels, various rogue mutants, and countless other immediate threats.
The truly defining events of her life occurred when the team traveled into orbit to battle advanced sentinels. A massive solar radiation storm struck their space shuttle during the return. She piloted the damaged space shuttle utilizing her mutant powers and crash-landed in Jamaica Bay. Unfortunately, she died from the severe exposure to the solar radiation.
When the shuttle hit Jamaica Bay, the Phoenix emerged from underwater while Jean’s original body lay dormant at the bottom of the sea.
Thus began the Phoenix saga, where Jean, merged with Phoenix Force, went on her evil arc. She committed some terrifying deeds, which included unintentionally killing billions while feeding on stellar energy.
He had only synced to the end of Dark Phoenix saga. Even so, he had learned a tremendous amount about Jean. He understood her deep confidence in her power, her desperate struggles with her new Phoenix identity, her connection with the X-Men, her rage, her grief, her trauma, and her fear of losing control.
‘Null, what’s the progress?’
Jean Grey data resonation has reached 62.5%]
Jean Grey]
‘Does it include Phoenix’s powers?’
‘Got it. Start the link at five percent.’
A surge of psionic energy flooded his mind. He felt a crushing pressure around his temples like someone was squeezing his head in a vice. Jean handled exponentially more psionic power than this on a daily basis without breaking a sweat. It took him a few painful moments to adapt to the change, then his senses achieved a strange clarity.
‘It’s like I opened a third eye.’
He looked at Felicia and Gwen, who were still clinging to him on either side. Felicia looked utterly relaxed, showing a look of content. Gwen, however, wore a slight, troubled frown on her face, as if something was bothering her even in her dreams. He decided to see what type of dream they were having.
He reached out with his newly enhanced telepathy to peek into Gwen’s mind first.
Her dream unfolded like a horror dream. She was frantically running through the bright, familiar streets of her childhood neighborhood. A massive sea of blood chased her, swallowing everything in its path.
The path ahead suddenly ended in a dead-end wall.
She desperately clawed her way up the rough surface of the wall, but she lost her grip and fell back down. She didn’t have access to her spider powers in this nightmare.
“Gwendolyn…” Two distinct echoing voices called from the sea of blood as the liquid formed two recognizable faces.
Norman Osborn and Harry Osborn.
“You killed us. You’re a killer.”
Her guilt had manifested as a nightmare.
The spectral faces of the Osborns continued howling at her, throwing vicious comments to tear down her confidence and her sense of self.
Gwen clutched her head tightly, pleading through tears, “Please, just leave me alone.”
Dante withdrew from her mind and stroked her hair gently. That soothing physical action eased her frown a little.
She felt guilt for both not helping Harry earlier and killing him. Such a trauma needed time to recover from.
He shifted his focus and peered gently into Felicia’s mind. The contrast almost made him laugh out loud. She was dreaming of herself as a giant, fluffy black cat who was lounging on the surface of the sun. Her warm dream was almost certainly influenced by how tightly she was currently clinging to his warm body.
‘What a silly girl.’
After recovering her father from Norman, she was living a stress-free life. Meanwhile, Gwen was battling her demons, which would only escalate in the future.
He exited the dream and looked at his phone on the nightstand. The phone instantly flew over and landed in his hand. This level of Telekinesis didn’t even require practice. For the level he wanted to reach, he had to sink a lot of time into it. A level where he could manipulate matter on a molecular and subatomic level.
‘I’ll get there one day.’
For now, he set an alarm for 4:30 AM and sent the phone back on the nightstand before closing his eyes again. There were still 4 hours of sleep he could enjoy.
***
Jean had always been an early riser. Even after everything that had happened recently, she couldn’t get rid of this habit. She slipped out of bed carefully around four, not wanting to disturb Ororo, and walked over to the window. Pushing it open, she was greeted by the thick, ghostly fog blanketting Manhattan.
Streetlights glowed softly through the dense haze. The cold, damp air carried the faint scent of snow that hadn’t quite fallen yet. Bare trees stood along the sidewalks, their branches glistening with frost. Cutting through it was the low rumble of traffic of the city that never slept.
It looked almost dreamlike.
She let out a sigh.
‘Not the best season for morning runs.’
She would have to make do with the treadmill and some light calisthenics exercises. At least an incredible gym facility was just a quick elevator ride away from her room.
She turned around and saw Ororo stirring awake. The former goddess sat up slowly and stretched her arms overhead. Even half-asleep, Ororo carried an elegance that made Jean feel a little self-conscious in her simple tank top and shorts.
“Jean…” Ororo covered her yawning mouth, looking incredibly relaxed and far less dignified than the regal persona she presented during the day. “Going for a walk?”
“Well, I can’t. Dante doesn’t want me going alone.”
“He is right to be cautious. We shouldn’t give any free openings to our enemies.”
Jean understood their concern. Still, she felt confident she could defend herself by enveloping a whole block to sense hostile intentions toward her. Even if she was caught off-guard, she had telekinesis to fight back or escape.
Ororo frowned. “Did you forget the bullet? One shot would make you defenseless.”
The redhead’s eyes widened. “Okay. My bad for being cocky.”
“As long as you don’t forget the stakes.”
Jean leaned against the window sill. “This is another reason for you to recover your powers ASAP.”
Ororo shook her head, brushing her long white hair back. “I don’t want him to rush. He is already overwhelmed with responsibilities as it is.”
“Responsibilities he takes great pleasure in fulfilling,” Jean whispered. “I saw you holding onto his suit. Please don’t tell me you also…”
Ororo raised her eyebrows, looking troubled by the accusation. “I was feeling cold after losing my powers, and so, he lent it to me.”
“I’m glad it was a misunderstanding. As much as I admire him, he is the worst man to catch feelings for.”
She remained very neutral on Dante having four more relationships than one person should realistically have. Even with her telepathy, she still might not be able to fully understand exactly why Felicia and the other women willingly chose to accept such a complicated compromise. Then again, their choices were not her place to judge.
However, if Ororo started getting involved in that romantic mess, it would certainly become her business. Ororo deserved so much more than being relegated to the role of someone’s fifth choice. Ororo deserved a man who would exclusively love her and fiercely cherish her alone.
Ororo stared quietly at Jean. There seemed to be a heavy thought resting on her mind, but she ultimately chose not to share it.
“Is something wrong?”
Ororo shook her head and turned her gaze toward the door instead of answering. A knock came through a moment later.
‘How did she know someone was there?’
Confused, she opened the door and stared at Dante’s face. He was wearing a black track jacket and matching running pants. She didn’t need telepathy to know why the man had knocked on her door so early in the morning.
He beamed a bright smile. “Morning. Ready to leave?”
