Spider-Man: Duty and Loss Chapter 84: The Situation

(X Mansion)

Wolverine and Charles Xavier quietly looked ahead as they stood in Cerebro. Images flashed beside and around them, but they kept their gaze firmly on the red head sitting in the chair. "You sure this is a good idea Chuck?" Wolverine was the first to speak up in the tense silence.

Charles, who was next to him, gave a small side glance before continuing to look at Jean. "She will be fine my friend. And..." *Sigh* "She might be our only chance. I don't know how Laura escaped the mansion or got out of those Adamantium cuffs, but you saw the room she was in..."

Charles stoped for a second as he remembered the sight which used to be the room Laura stayed in. "Something happened that night and whatever it is, it has shielded her from me. I have tried my hardest but have only been getting erratic signals from her ever since, I can't pinpoint her." *Clench* Logan gripped his hands hard enough that they made a small sound.

When he found out Laura, his de-facto daughter had gone missing he had been the first to want to find her, but it had been raining the night she escaped, he couldn't track her scent and even when Chuck used Cerebro he couldn't find her.

Charles saw and felt the frustration that Logan was projecting but didn't mention it. "Jean might be our only hope in finding her now. I don't know why Jean's powers have been increasing ever since that day, but if there is a chance it will be all up to her."

Charles was telling the truth and also lying when he said that, he truly didn't know it happened, but he did know why her powers were increasing. He knew something happened when she first fainted, but he didn't know what. All the barriers he had placed in her mind to help her control her powers were being taken down faster than he could do anything about it.

He had tried to put the barriers back up, but they had been destroyed in seconds. He didn't want to keep trying in case Jean caught wind of what he was doing. He wanted to protect her but knew she might not see what he had done that way.

He didn't actually want her to be flexing her new powers so soon, he wanted her to wait, but Jean had been insistent for some reason on doing the task, and he could find no reason to deny her. Both turned quiet as they continued to watch the back of Jean as she went searching for Laura.

If they could have seen her face at that moment they would have noticed her eyes open, open but blank to the world around her. Her beautiful green eyes held a ting of red to them, like an inferno waiting to start and with every second the inferno grew brighter and brighter. 'Where are you?'

(Avengers Tower)

"I don't think he'll respond." "Yeah, he only left recently." *Sigh* Steve let out a sigh as he and Clint walked into the infirmary. With high tech equipment littered about, there was only 1 bed for patients. Tony and Natasha stood talking about something quietly as the screen behind the bed had a holographic picture of the woman on the bed.

A small device was hovering over her body as it slowly scanned up and down, taking down every piece of information that it could. A small IV drip came out of her arm and lead to the small bag off to the side. Steve looked at the black haired girl for a second before moving over to the others.

Clint lagged behind for a second as he looked at the young girl. Though the features were completely different, his mind still wandered off to his daughter for a second. For that one second he thought of her, all grown up, in the same position, in a hospital bed looking half dead.

His heart gripped in pain before he calmed his breath and continued forwards. Though in the back of his mind he was raring to tear apart who ever put this child through hell. Cause Laura did look like hell, even with the IV drip the messy hair and dishevelled state still shone through.

"Natasha what's the situation?" Clint's ears honed in on the conversation instantly, wanting to know what was going on, more now than ever. Natasha looked over at her two friends with a slight bit of hesitation. Clint was the only one who noticed this small slip from the super spy.

While she was trying to find the words in her head, Tony spoke up. "She wanted to wait for you guys to get here first before she explained." Sending a small look at the hesitating red head he continued as if nothing happened.

"I'm having Jarvis scan her now for any internal damage..." He paused as he looked up. "Jarvis what's her status?" It took only a second for the AI butler to respond. "There seems to be no internal or external damage that can be found."

Jarvis stopped letting the words sink in. "Her body however is malnourished and sleep deprived. I don't know where Miss Romanoff found her, but it is no wonder she is completely comatose. I have not finished my scans, but she is recovering surprisingly fast from her state."

"After a few hours on the Nutrients bag she should wake up naturally tomorrow morning or tonight." Tony gave a slow nod as he looked at the scans before him. Though he wasn't a doctor he was smart enough to know what half of the information in front of him meant. In Tony's eyes there seemed to be something off, a higher rate of metabolism than normal, especially in a malnourished patient.

As well as high levels of metal found throughout her blood stream. Actually the levels were off the charts, a person should be dead with so much running through their system. His curiosity was peeked once again.

Chapter end