45: Friendship
His consciousness, which seemed to have been submerged in a deep well of darkness, began to return thanks to a vaguely familiar sound.
It was something irritating, a continuous and monotonous beeping. It brought back annoying memories of his old days as a rookie agent, when he got into more trouble than he should have. With a groan, his eyelids, which felt extremely heavy, began to slowly open.
The blurry vision took a few moments to clear, and when it did, it was only for the light of a white spotlight to almost blind him again.
A hospital. Why was he in a hospital? The answer didn't take long to be revealed, as memories abruptly started flooding back.
"HALL!" he wanted to shout, but the oxygen mask on his face prevented him. Of course, his body still tried to get up, but a hand on his chest pushed him back down, making his wounds throb in pain, the annoying beeping becoming erratic.
"Take it easy, Director," the voice made Fury refocus his gaze. Seeing one of his trusted agents by his side made him sigh, and his dwindling consciousness sank back into darkness.
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"The internal injuries are numerous, but fortunately, nothing we haven't dealt with before, so we were able to act in time to prevent any lasting damage. it will take time but you will recover" Fury, now more awake and without an oxygen mask on his face, nodded toward the doctor who had come to give him a report on his current condition.
"Thank you very much, doctor." The doctor nodded, said a few more words, and left, leaving Fury alone with his loyal assistant, Maria Hill, who had been quietly by his side.
"How are things?" At his question, the SHIELD agent pulled out some pre-prepared reports.
"Well, the world's in a panic, governments are on high alert, and Washington D.C. might not be rebuilt in the next twenty years. Maybe the only good news is that the president wasn't at the White House, which, by the way, no longer exists."
Fury grimaced upon hearing this and seeing the images of the now-empty lot where the presidential residence once stood.
Yeah, this wasn't going to be easy to fix.
"In other news, although the death toll hasn't been fully calculated yet, it's low enough that we can work around it. Given the magnitude of everything, it might be the best outcome we could have hoped for."
Seeing the reports of the verified deaths, Fury frowned. After all, the initial attack took place at the SHIELD headquarters, meaning most of the deaths were his agents—hundreds of them. After that, while an entire city was nearly destroyed and many others along the East Coast were affected, the number of civilian deaths was still relatively low by comparison.
Something truly unreal, considering everything.
"Looks like Defiant and Iron Man had their hands full this time."
"Well, not just them."
With that said, Maria Hill handed over two somewhat thin folders. Curious, Fury took one and opened it, only for a look of surprise to form on his face.
"Seems like there's still a lot we don't know about Defiant."
Fury couldn't help but agree, nodding as he closely examined the image showing a female figure bearing the same symbol as his ally, carrying a massive bridge on her shoulders. The only difference was the helmet with a dark visor obscuring her facial features, but otherwise, the suit she wore was almost identical.
"Has this spread already?"
"Like wildfire, people are going crazy, and so are the media. If Defiant wanted to keep this hidden, it's no longer possible, even if we tried to help him cover it up. After all, she alone saved tens of thousands of people, and the witnesses to her existence won't stop talking about it."
Fury looked through the rest of the reports on the mysterious woman. It seemed her involvement had been key in keeping the death toll lower than expected, at least in Washington D.C. and its surroundings. There wasn't much more to review, as all the information on her was limited to this last incident.
Finally, Fury reached the end of the folder, where he found the front page of one of the country's major newspapers, a close-up featuring the first image he had seen, accompanied by a striking headline.
"Defiance? Seems like the media isn't very original these days." Hearing this, Maria smiled.
"I think it fits. She's using the same symbol, after all, and people seem to like it. So unless she says otherwise, the name will stick."
Fury didn't believe that would happen anytime soon. If she had wanted to step into the light, she could have done so much earlier alongside Defiant. The fact that she stayed hidden and even wore a helmet made it obvious she didn't want the attention, even if she had it now.
Setting the first folder aside, Fury reached for the second one, which was even thinner than the first.
"Not a single clear image?" For the most part, the folder was filled with written reports and witness accounts.
"Well, not for the media, but we managed to get something—mostly security camera footage," Maria Hill said as she pulled out a decently-sized tablet. Fury took it, scrolling through several files. There were dozens, with varying levels of quality, but regardless of which one he looked at, even when slowing the footage down, all that could be seen was a red blur speeding across the screen like a flash, saving people.
Even using SHIELD's image enhancement software, which had been developed to get clearer visuals of Defiant, was useless for providing a proper image—everything was just a blurry figure.
"This feels familiar," Fury muttered, frowning until the memory clicked.
A while back, there had been some strange news in Central City that caught his attention. Since he'd been in the area, he had sent Agent Coulson to check it out, leaving Natasha to handle the Stark situation in his place.
It seemed like it was time to see if Coulson had uncovered anything and if this was related in the way Fury suspected.
Seeing the look on his face, Maria Hill sighed. She thought about reminding him that the doctor had advised extended rest, but she knew it would be useless. Injured or not, the Director wouldn't take a day off.
Especially not when all of this had happened because of SHIELD.
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"This feels really weird, don't you think?"
"Eh? What do you mean?"
Chloe thought about how to explain what she meant as she and Carol walked onto the school grounds. Stretching both hands out, she gestured at the crowd of students flooding the campus, as well as the oddly youthful atmosphere, and spoke again.
"The world almost ended, and here we are, back to classes like nothing happened. I just... I don't know," she struggled to put it into words.
"You do know that the United States isn't the whole world, right?" Carol said in a monotone. Sure, Graviton's gravitational power had caused major destruction across the planet, but the only place that was really affected on a large scale was North America, with several coastal U.S. cities entering a temporary state of emergency—cities that were quite far from Smallville.
"Hey!, for the record, I got pretty good grades in geography, of course I know! It's just... I thought things would be different. I mean, I expected there to be more consequences, but I guess, with Defiant helping everywhere, the situation isn't actually as bad as some of the news outlets made it out to be."
Though not many days had passed since the incident, it was noticeable to everyone that the effect had been felt across the entire Earth. Several scientific institutions even issued serious warnings about the potential chain reactions that such abrupt changes in the gravitational field could cause.
This raised alarms that the media outlets around the world quickly turned into headlines, generating significant concern among the public. Some even spoke of various end-of-the-world theories, claiming this was just the beginning of such events and similar things.
The worry and panic soon calmed down, however, as Defiant had been traveling all over the planet, effectively managing damage control by addressing the consequences before they could cause significant harm.
Which, in Carol's opinion, made all the fuss that people were making seem a bit exaggerated once everyone realized that life was continuing just as it always had.
Of course, there were still problems. After all, Daniel couldn't be everywhere at once or prevent every "natural" disaster triggered by his fight with Graviton, but at least he made sure to be there for the truly dangerous ones.
Like the massive tsunami with waves over 30 meters high that almost hit Japan's shores just a few hours ago. If Daniel hadn't arrived in time to stop it, it would've been more than just a morning news headline.
"Sometimes the media tends to exaggerate things. Don't worry or overthink it. As long as Defiant's here, the world will always be safe, that's a fact."
Hearing the certainty in her voice, Chloe nodded, agreeing to some extent with her friend, though still far from being as much of a fangirl as she thought Carol was.
"Well, it's not just Defiant anymore, right? I heard there's a new heroine, though no one has seen her since the incident. I wonder why. Do you think she doesn't like going out in public, like him?" Upon hearing this, Carol almost frowned.
Even though she knew that going with Daniel that day could lead to some people learning about her existence, she hadn't thought things would escalate as much as they did. Watching the news stopped being fun when they kept dedicating more than half an hour to talking about her. She didn't like it, and thank heaven her parents hadn't suspected anything, or she would have had a hard time explaining it.
"We can talk about that later. It's better if we hurry. I don't want to be late for the first class," her voice was somewhat curt, making her blonde friend raise an eyebrow.
Huh? Chloe thought Carol would be more enthusiastic about the topic, given how much she seemed to like Defiant, but it seemed like the opposite, which confused her a bit. However, she couldn't give it much thought because Carol was right; if they didn't hurry, they were going to be late.
So both entered the school, ready to continue with the remaining school days, as their graduation was just around the corner.
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"So, what do you think? I know it's still modest by my standards, but I plan to change that very soon." Daniel admired the view from the terrace of the top floor of Tony's new building.
With everything that had happened lately, it seemed the billionaire had finally decided to move to New York, even starting a rather considerable funding project in the city to help rebuild the damage caused during the Graviton incident. It seemed he had taken his words seriously when he spoke to him about damage control.
"I'll say 93 floors is an odd number. Maybe you should add another 7 since you've decided to invest so much in this."
"Seriously, that's the only thing that caught your attention? Your thoughts are really strange."
Tony approached him, admiring the view by his side with a grass-green drink in his hands. Daniel glanced at him for a moment. He hadn't forgotten Tony's problem, and though his hands were a bit tied at the moment, he decided he needed to fix that issue before it became a real nuisance, so he abruptly changed the subject, catching the man off guard.
"How much has the palladium advanced in your blood?"
"You..." Seeing his surprise, Daniel gave him a small smile.
"You know my senses are far superior to those of ordinary humans; it's not hard for me to notice. I didn't want to intrude too much, but I can't keep watching a friend in trouble and not do something." If he left things as they were, maybe Tony could find a way to solve it on his own, but Daniel had decided he needed to be more proactive. After all, the last time he left a friend alone, things didn't turn out well for her.
He preferred not to keep taking risks, especially since he had the ability to help.
For his part, Tony stayed silent for a moment, staring at the disgusting green smoothie he'd been drinking.
'A friend, huh?' Ever since the whole debacle with Rhodes, Tony thought it would take some time before he formed another friendship that felt real. He knew himself well enough, even if people thought otherwise. He knew he was hard to deal with and that his personality wasn't something most people could easily tolerate, or for long—reasons why Pepper was so important to him.
And because she was so important, he hadn't been able to find a way to talk about what was happening with her or with anyone. Well, there was Jarvis, but many would say that didn't count, even if Tony thought otherwise.
Having death breathing down your neck wasn't an easy burden, although Tony would say he was handling it pretty well on his own.
But if he were truly honest, a part of him also wanted to talk about this with someone who wasn't the A.I. he had built to serve him.
So, even if he hesitated for a second, he still answered the question.
"The amount is still manageable, though it's advancing a little faster every time I use the armor. It's not great news, but I've been thinking about a few solutions."
"Heh, what a coincidence, I've also been thinking about some solutions. Maybe we could think about them together and see if we can solve it."
At such an offer, Tony raised an eyebrow with interest.
"I thought you were busy keeping the planet in one piece."
"I've already handled most of the immediate aftermath, and if something comes up, I can always fly there." Besides acting as Defiant, Daniel still had many projects underway, but he could put them on hold for a moment. Plus, helping Tony wouldn't really take much time, after all, he already had the solution, it just needed to be brought into reality..
Tony stayed quiet for a moment before shrugging and tossing the half-drunk chlorophyll drink into the trash can on the terrace.
"Alright, why not? Let's do it."
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"Well, this won't be the worst thing I've tasted." He looked at the utensil, oddly resembling a spoon, with doubt, then picked it up to poke at the amorphous green-vomit-like paste with chunks of something he hoped was meat.
His wrong move caused the thing to deflate abruptly, releasing a thick green cloud that disgusted him enough to make his appetite disappear in an instant.
Alright, maybe this would be the worst thing he'd ever tasted… if he could manage to get it into his mouth without vomiting.
"It seems the snurkyack isn't to your liking. I've heard Earthlings have quite a distinctive palate," a soft voice spoke, making Hal Jordan look up to see a beautiful humanoid woman with pink skin and long, waist-length hair of light purple approaching him.
The exotic-looking woman sat across from him, placing a plate with a similar content to his on the table.
"Well, I wouldn't say it's distinctive, but rather varied. I certainly know some types who would eat anything without blinking."
"Seems you're not one of those types," Hal thought he was—until today. He supposed even he had his limits.
"Setting my dietary preferences aside, are you sure it's a good idea to sit here? Honestly, I don't want to cause more problems with your friends. They already hate me enough just for existing." It was a bit annoying, reminding him in some ways of his early days in the Air Force. Being the rookie again wasn't all that fun.
"Oh, they don't hate you. They just need time to adjust. Abin Sur was a very beloved member of the Green Lantern Corps. We all respected and trusted him. Losing him has been hard, and I know that's no excuse for how they treat you, but I still ask that you try to understand them." Seeing the plea in her kind violet eyes, Hal couldn't help but sigh. He really couldn't bring himself to be angry with someone who was just trying to be nice, even if her friends were jerks.
"I guess I can try. But let's stop talking about them. Do you have any news about the prisoner? Cuch?" Hal really appreciated the translation function the ring provided. He was pretty sure he'd butchered the alien name, even though he'd tried not to.
"He's already being interrogated. It seems Sinestro is quite eager to extract everything he can from him, even if his methods are… less than pleasant." At that, the former Earth pilot grimaced. He'd seen some of what Sinestro could do when he accompanied him on that first mission to "test" him, and he could already imagine how rough things might get.
"Is it really okay? I mean..."
"I know what you mean, it's something we've all been noticing, believe me. Sinestro has been... difficult lately, but it's because of all the pressure he's been under." She was really kind if she was looking for an excuse for a guy who clearly wasn't doing things right.
Or maybe naive, but Hal didn't know her well enough yet to say which it was.
He was already starting to miss Earth. At least there, things were easier and simpler. Surely everyone at the base was having a blast with Christmas coming up.
He wondered if he'd be able to go back by then.
Pushing those thoughts out of his head, he refocused on their current conversation.
"Saving the universe or something like that, right? They still haven't told me what that's all about." The woman nodded.
"It's a long story that goes back as far as time itself.."
"I guess I'll have to take notes." Now, how did he activate the recording function on the ring?
"Oh, I could show you directly." With that, she raised her hand, forming a fist with her ring pointed in his direction. Then she took his hand and placed it in the same position as hers, bringing the rings close until they connected, and the information began to flow through his mind.
Well, it seemed there would be no Christmas for him. Just great.
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Note:
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