Noelle - Day 97 (Decision has been Made!)

So remember yesterday...
I told you we're going to do something wacky for the ONE HUNDRED DAYS mark, this Saturday?  Well, I've decided what's going to happen and...I'm not going to tell you.  I know, I'm incredibly evil.

I don't have a ton of time, but I will say that I'm going to try to post RVing America photos tomorrow (no guarantees) and that I have R.M.S. Part(s) for you.  Gotta run now, so read on!

Random Marvel-based Story (Part 51 & 52)

What was going on?  What was that cold feeling on her hands?  Why am I so light-headed?  Jess woke with a start, trying to pull herself up.  She was handcuffed, feet tied, and strapped down so much that she might has well have been a mummy.  She tried to scream, but her throat was so raspy that nothing came up.

She swallowed, but that took so much effort that she fell limp afterwards - not that it made a difference, she was so tied up.

Minutes passed.

Her voice was slowly recovering.  She didn’t open her eyes, even though she was pretty sure that she was too weak to even try.  It was pretty obvious that she had let down her guard for too long and somebody had hit her from behind.  Judging by the lack of headache, tranquilizer.

She did a blind check - her cuts were almost completely healed, so she didn’t have to worry about that anymore.  Did I go nuclear?  She wondered, when she was unable to find anything seriously injured.

Omigosh, did I hurt somebody else?  What all had happened in the past few days were too fuzzy to tell.  I attacked my own team.  I remember that, Jess thought with a mental wince that never made it out to her body.  Ok, I’m somewhere dark or blindfolded.  I’m not gagged, but I’m roped up and down - not an enemy then, just S.H.I.E.L.D.  I can deal with S.H.I.E.L.D., but - yep, they took away all my tech.  Fine, I can do this the old way.  It’ll take a few days but I can do this.

Suddenly, a pressurized door slid open, somewhere in front of her and slightly to the left.  Definitely on board the helicarrier.

Finding her words, she said, “You going to put me down like an animal, Fury?”  Her voice came out like a nail file, scraping against her throat and making her hack.

“No, Jess,” Replied a voice, and it wasn’t the director.  She tried to lift her head, but nothing moved.  “Don’t try to move yet, the tranquilizer that I designed to cooperate with your system hasn’t worn off yet.  Relax I said!”

Jess stopped struggling and whispered, “I’m sorry, Tony.”

“Hey, don’t be!  If I had put a knife to Nick Fury’s throat, I would be dead,” Said the familiar voice of Iron Man.  “Heck, I wouldn’t even have been able to get off the cot and disappear if I was as injured as you were.”

“That’s why I’m me and you’re not,”  Jess joked.  Her voice turned serious and she said, “So what happened?  The last thing I clearly remember was the Art Gallery.  Something...happened.” Her voice sounding like it had been scraped against sandpaper.  Still, beyond all that, she was safe.  No evils to battle past, no angry Avengers attacking her.  Yet.  A tiny, happy feeling bubbled up in her stomach, but she pushed that away.

“No kidding!”  New voice.  Director Fury.  Feeling definitely past.  “You ever try to kill me again, Willow, I might have to return the favor!”

She pulled herself up a little, glancing around what of the dark room she could.  There was nothing but a black ceiling to look, but something flashing at the corner of her eye made her wince again - another movement that never made it to her limbs.  Still frozen in place.  “They’re watching, you know.  They’ll find out.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Tony said at the same time that Nick barked, “Who cares?  As long as you stay in control, who’s going to care?”

“Me!”  Jess said furiously, but she was spit out before a coughing fit struck.  She continued, “I can’t do that again, especially not now,”  She whispered.  “Tony,” she said, racking her tied body with even more coughing.  “What’s wrong with me?  And don’t say nothing because I know when something’s up.”

“I-”  Stark stuttered off, supplying no answer.  “There’s nothing wrong with you Jess, you’re fine the way you are!”

“No I’m not,” She said stubbornly.  “We all know that I would be better off...fixed.”

“That would kill you, and we need you here.  There’s no reason for that,” Tony said, just a stubborn.  Fury cut in before this could become a full-blown argument.

“Enough you two, we’re not talking about this now,” The Director said.  “We need you to pull yourself together and try to figure out what happened.”

“I’m not saying a word until you tell me everything that’s happened since the Art Gallery,” Jess growled.  She was tired of all the hiding, and Nick had slipped up when he said that S.H.I.E.L.D. needed her secrets.  “Start talking, Fury.”

*******

“So you’re saying that I’ve been out of control since the Art Gallery?”  Jess whispered, shocked, “And that was three days ago?  But- all I remember was...I came the morning after the party, and I was bleeding all over, then I woke up in the sick bay.  Somebody knocked me out and then I woke up here...Right?”

Tony shook his head.  “That’s not what happened Cl- Jess.”

“There’s at least three blank spots in your memory then,” Nick Fury said, his voice logical and emotionless as he paced up and down the dark room, making Jess dizzy.  “The night after the Art Gallery, after you woke up Danny, and between Sick Bay and now.”

“I told you something was wrong with me,” Jess said, prodding a very tired-looking Tony with her finger.  He glared at her and said nothing.  “Wait...”  She patted her pockets frantically before looking up.  “Where’s all my tech?”

“We took that away from you after you tried to shut down the helicarrier,” Fury said sarcastically.

“Wait a minute, I did try to shut down the helicarrier,” Jess said, patting her pockets again.  “That’s it!  Why would I try to take the helicarrier?  Even with memory lapses, I’m still not a uncontrollable animal.  I would have to have a motive, right?  I remember, I wanted you to explain what was going on, but none of the answers that you gave me sounded right.  So what was wrong?”

At this point Nick Fury and Iron Man were leaning against the wall, waiting for Jess to get wherever she was going.  “My feet...I left a trail...my feet were bleeding really bad, but it wasn’t anything too deep, because it healed up really fast.  Glass!  I remember glass, but where does that fit in?  I need medical scans, anything, in fact really just some access to a computer.  You can hover over my shoulder if that makes you feel better, but I need to work on a computer.”

Nick Fury glared and complained, but eventually Jess convinced him.  “Alright,” Jess said, finally free of the dark, cold room.  “Yes, there was definately glass involved.  Look, see?  Those cuts are too triangular to be anything else.  Not even a sword, unless it was like Deadpool or someone like him handling them.”

“What’s your point, Jess?”  Fury said grumpily.  “What does glass have to do with anything?”

She rubbed her forehead.  “Nothing, it just feels right.  I mean, where did the glass come from in the first place?  How did it get there?  It’s almost like...AHH!!!”  Jess collapsed to the ground, her arms clasped around her head.

“Jess!”  Tony tried to pull her arms apart, but they were too tight together.  “Jess, are you alright?”

“No she’s not alright you idiot, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one on the team,” Nick Fury commented angrily, kneeling on the other side of Jess’s shaking figure.

She groaned and her back arched, then she fell limp for a few seconds.  “Jess!  C’mon....wake up,” Stark whispered, shaking her a bit.  Nothing seemed to work.  In fact, she went rigid, shaking and groaning.

“What the heck?”  Spider-man rushed in, pushing passed Nick Fury.  “You said you would tell me if there’s any difference!  Where’s her tech?”

Nick Fury shook his head and growled, “That tech is dangerous and has been disposed of correctly!”

“She needs to be injected with something that she has in her pockets, along with her tech - Vitreum - and I looked it up, that stuff is a radioactive compound that numbs pain and has amazing fixing powers.  It’s also highly unstable, but if that’s what she’s taking she needs to have a vial of it.”

Jess moaned, her back arching again, and Stark snapped, “Nick, why is she drinking Viterium?”

“It was her choice,” Nick growled, batting Tony’s questions away, and pulling a tiny bottle of the evil-ish liquid out of his trench coat.  “This is Viterium and pure-strength adrenaline mixed.  It’ll be nasty for the system, but whatever going on in her, it might fix it.”

Tony’s eyes flashed and he snatched the vial away from Nick.  “This isn’t over, Fury, and my girl?” He hissed, pouring the cackling potion down Jess’s heaving throat.  “She doesn't need to be fixed.”