47: Moral Differences
Badassium
was the name Tony ultimately chose after giving it some thought. Where he had gotten it from or how it occurred to him? Daniel had no idea, but since he had already decided to leave it in his hands, he didn't bother questioning it.
"For all our hard work and effort!" Tony exclaimed, smiling, handing a glass of sparkling wine to him and Natasha. The new badassium reactor now glowing in his chest seemed to have made him more energetic than usual, or maybe he was simply happy.
After the new element was successfully synthesized and Tony received his new reactor, the three returned to the upper floor, dragged by the lively billionaire without being able to resist. Caught up in his good mood, they raised their glasses and toasted along with him.
For Tony, this was the first time he'd had such a modest celebration. Normally, he would have done something extravagant and loud, with plenty of people to enliven the atmosphere, but now he felt that something small and intimate like this wasn't bad either.
Natasha, on her part, was simply friendly. As a professional spy and an excellent field agent, she knew how to read the room and blend in with ease. She and Tony may not have had a genuinely close relationship, but it wasn't difficult for her to feel happy for him.
After all, S.H.I.E.L.D. had already anticipated Tony would face problems due to the palladium and had begun making some preparations to help him if necessary. For her, it wasn't hard to connect the dots and understand that everything that happened today was so Tony could solve that issue and escape death's grasp.
The Director would surely be surprised to know this. She wasn't exactly sure what Fury's plans to help Tony had been before, but now it seemed they wouldn't really be necessary.
"Though I'd hate to interrupt the moment, it seems it's time for me to go," Daniel said after finishing his drink, drawing both their attention.
"So soon?" Tony frowned but said nothing more; after all, he understood that Daniel must have his own matters to attend to, and he'd already taken enough of his time for the day. Insisting that he stay longer seemed inappropriate.
"I should be going too," Natasha also began to say her goodbyes. From the start, she had only come to check on the condition of both of them; she hadn't expected to be dragged along and turned into his assistant halfway through. But now that everything was over, she needed to return to her duties as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
"But before that, I have a message from the Director for both of you. He'd like to meet with you soon to discuss some important matters."
Daniel didn't have to think too hard to guess what matters Fury wanted to discuss. In fact, these were things they needed to talk about sooner or later.
The three of them arranged a time and place to meet before Daniel and Natasha took their leave, leaving Tony alone in his new building to go about his business.
After all, the place still needed a lot of work before it could become what Tony was looking for as his new operations center.
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Above the skies.
Daniel looked down at the city of New York beneath his feet with unknown thoughts, paying special attention to the areas most affected by the flooding. He considered going there to see if he could help clean up a bit as compensation for not doing his usual patrol today, but before he could, his ears caught some interesting sounds in a specific direction, making him abandon the idea for now.
"Is that...?" Without hesitating for a second, his body accelerated forward, creating a sonic boom in the air, his blurred figure moving toward Hell's Kitchen
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A few moments earlier.
Matt moved nimbly, twisting his body to dodge a massive scaly hand with long, sharp claws that nearly grazed his masked face.
"Stop running!" The guttural voice, loaded with irritation, echoed in the dark alley, followed closely by the whistling of air being sliced through. A long tail covered in green scales whipped in his direction at high speed, aiming to strike him.
Easily and with grace, Matt dodged the blow, guided by his superior senses, he danced around his opponent, mocking his attempts at attack and waiting for the correct opening to deliver a good hit, since the casual attacks he had been making up until now had proven to be quite ineffective because his enemy was especially resistant, his scaly skin gave him great protection that had been quite annoying to deal with.
"Grraugh!" With clear fury shining through his sinister yellow eyes, the strange reptilian mutant unleashed a fierce blow, from which Matt quickly stepped aside, letting it strike uselessly against the ground, cracking the concrete as it passed.
And taking advantage of this opening, he counterattacked with a forceful blow, using all his strength, which made his enemy's head snap sharply to the side with a crack. Then, he executed a quick sweep that caused the huge figure to fall heavily onto its back against the ground.
"Shit!, he took down Croc!" A shout of shock echoed as dozens of figures armed with high- and low-caliber weapons entered the alley.
"Don't just stand there, idiots! Shoot him, damn it!" shouted the one who seemed to be the leader of the group, snapping everyone out of their shock and making them raise their weapons, starting a hail of bullets the very next moment.
'Shit!' Seeing this, Matt was about to leap away to dodge but hesitated for a moment. Although he didn't know exactly what he was fighting, it was clear it was humanoid and thought like a human. Even if its skin was tough, he didn't know if it could withstand bullets, so if he moved away, he might be leaving it to be killed.
Matt didn't want that, so decisively he positioned himself in front of his fallen enemy's body and crossed his arms in front of him, letting the hail of bullets hit him directly. Fortunately, his suit was able to withstand it without any problem, just like all the other times he had been forced to take a direct shot since he got it.
But his good deed didn't earn him any reward. Instead, a massive hand grabbed him roughly by the ankle and easily lifted him into the air, where he was spun at high speed before being hurled forcefully toward a nearby dumpster.
The metal crumpled on impact.
"I told you not to interfere!" the so-called Croc shouted at the men, causing them to shudder and halt their indiscriminate attack.
'It seems even bullets can't fully penetrate his skin,' Matt quickly recovered and noticed that the shots that had hit Croc before the hail of bullets stopped hadn't deeply pierced his scaly skin. In fact, the bullets soon began to be expelled from his body, and the minor wounds they caused started to close and heal.
'And he can heal fast too. Just great, this time they really went all out to bring someone problematic.'
Since he set out to attack the core of crime in Hell's Kitchen, things had started to escalate for him slowly but steadily. The incident that affected the entire East Coast a few days ago didn't help make the situation any better either. Matt had been making an extra effort to help people and attack criminals to prevent them from doing more harm to the city and hindering its recovery.
This had clearly irritated those important people he had been going after, and since his "immunity" to bullets became known over time, it seemed they had finally decided to bring more than just guns and thugs to deal with him.
But even though the difficulty had increased a bit, he wasn't worried. So far, he hadn't been seriously hurt and still had plenty of energy. His enemy was dangerous due to his strange anatomy, but his fighting style was predictable and even clumsy in some aspects, so Matt just needed to stay alert, and he could end this one way or another.
Then he was going to find out where this scaly guy came from and maybe, with luck, get a clue about who had brought him here.
Seeing Matt stand up without appearing affected by his attack, Killer Croc grinned, revealing his sharp, yellowed teeth.
"So the rumors were true... you're a tough little devil, huh? But is it just the outer layer, or are you the same on the inside? Bah, doesn't matter. I'm going to enjoy chewing you down to the bones to find out!" His words were sinister, and Matt's expression under his mask hardened. He knew it wasn't an empty threat because he could smell the scent of blood and human flesh mixed with his foul breath.
But if his enemy thought this would make him hesitate or feel fear, he was wrong. No, instead, it only made Matt's anger rise. Without bothering to respond to the provocation, he began to run toward him, ready to unleash all the hellish fury burning inside him.
Seeing him charge, Croc slammed his tail against the ground and roared with excitement, then also began running toward Matt, causing the ground beneath his feet to tremble with every step.
Soon, the two met head-on. Killer Croc opened his jaws wide, aiming to bite Matt's head, but that attack was met with a powerful knee strike to his jaw, making his teeth grind and his head jerk back with force.
Without wasting a second, Matt lunged, mounting him and starting to unleash a flurry of quick and precise punches directly to his face, each one more forceful than the last. One after another, the impacts fell mercilessly until, with a brutal final elbow strike, he crunched Croc's nose, causing a spray of blood to spurt into the air.
With a sharp thud, Killer Croc collapsed back onto the ground, and Matt calmly stood over his body. His figure, wrapped in the dark suit and blending with the shadows of the night, made the remaining thugs swallow hard. One by one, they retreated with trembling steps, their faces showing clear panic.
"I-I'm out of here!" one of them couldn't take it anymore and, without hesitation, turned around, ready to start running. But before he could do so, a strong gust of wind blew, and in a blur too fast to be seen by normal eyes, the dozen men were knocked out in an instant, their bodies piled on top of each other, their broken weapons scattered across the ground.
"I knew floods usually bring strange things with them, but this really exceeded my expectations," Daniel spoke with amusement, approaching the fallen Killer Croc with a curious look.
Not looking surprised by his arrival, Matt stepped down from Croc's fallen body and faced the caped hero head-on.
"Defiant," his greeting was a bit cold, causing Daniel to raise an eyebrow, but he quickly understood the reason for his attitude.
It had been some time since they had seen each other in person, and he knew they had matters to resolve. Daniel wasn't foolish and understood that his actions since the skirmish with the Ten Rings in Afghanistan would cause some friction in his relationship with the vigilante.
After all, the fine line between killing and not killing and the moral questioning it entailed wasn't something easy to overcome for most people. Earning the disapproval of some for this was something he had already accepted since choosing his way of doing things. At the same time, he had no intentions of reproaching people who were against his methods, as, in his opinion, everyone was free to have their own morals and boundaries, and he never intended to impose his will on others.
Still, he couldn't deny that it would be truly disappointing if this ended up causing him and Matt to drift apart completely. He hoped it wouldn't, as he liked the man even if their ideologies about justice and how to carry it out differed. Perhaps they needed to talk to clarify their stances and prevent things from getting complicated.
But he didn't think this was the time. He had only come for a quick look, not to have a deep conversation about what was right and wrong. He had already spent enough mental energy that day dealing with Tony's problem and preferred not to spend more if possible; after all, he still had other matters to attend to.
"Seems like you've encountered some interesting problems. Fortunately, I know the right people to handle our scaly friend here," Daniel said, pointing at Croc, who was starting to writhe as if he were about to wake up.
"The right people?" at his doubt, Daniel explained further.
"You know, a regular prison isn't going to hold this guy. He needs something more specialized, and I know certain people who have been looking to contain him for a while," Daniel, of course, recognized Killer Croc at a glance as one of the threats SHIELD had its eye on and that Fury had talked about in their first meeting.
"I see, that's good to hear. But first, let me interrogate him. There's something I need to know," Matt had been wondering what he would do with Croc after extracting the information he needed. Now that Daniel told him there was a place to lock him up, he was more than relieved.
At his request, Daniel nodded and, pulling a V-element rope from his tool belt, tied the reptilian's hands, feet, and tail to prevent him from attempting to escape or doing anything unexpected.
Then he gave him a light slap to wake him up fully.
The humanoid reptile shook himself, and soon his yellow eyes refocused, noticing Matt. A low growl of defiance began to escape his throat, but that defiance stopped and was replaced by fear when he noticed the other figure standing in front of him.
"Oh… fuck."
"Alright, let's keep things simple, buddy. Just tell the man what he wants to know, and I won't throw you into the sun. How does that sound?" Daniel asked with a big, radiant smile, to which Croc gulped and quickly nodded, knowing that any fight or attempt to flee was utterly futile.
One had to know when to pick their battles, and trying to fight Defiant was not something he was willing to attempt.
"Who hired you?" Matt got straight to the point, wasting no time, which made Croc refocus on him, regaining a bit of his courage.
"For someone with so many enemies, you're really ignorant about a lot, aren't you?" the half-crocodile man chuckled, making Matt growl and clench his fists audibly.
Seeing this, Croc scoffed. The mere threat of physical torture wasn't enough to scare him, but knowing Defiant was there, he reluctantly decided to cooperate with the masked vigilante, just this once.
"I don't actually know his name, but I know he's someone pretty important. He paid a lot for your head and gave me a lot of freedom to roam this city as I pleased. If you want to get to him, you should start with the Russian mafia and the Chinese; they're the ones he deals with the most and should know him better."
Others might hesitate to give clues about the one ruling from the shadows of New York's underworld, but Croc wasn't one of them, so he spoke without holding back.
Thanks to his superior hearing, Matt could hear Croc's heartbeat and knew he wasn't lying. It wasn't as much information as he'd hoped for, but it was a start. He asked a few more questions to ensure he didn't miss anything useful, but nothing else of value came up, so the interrogation ended quickly.
Daniel knocked Croc out again and prepared to take him to S.H.I.E.L.D. before returning to the fortress. Though he felt a bit curious about this whole situation with New York's criminal gangs, he decided to leave it in Matt's hands. After all, he'd given him the suit for a reason, and he trusted that Matt could handle this on his own.
"I think we need to talk," Matt spoke before Daniel could leave, a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
Daniel turned to him seriously and then nodded.
"I have some things to take care of, but I'll make time for a proper conversation at some point."
"I understand, in that case, I'll be waiting." Matt didn't say anything more and began to leave, ready to continue his patrol and see if he could gather more information now that he had a few leads.
Watching him go, Daniel couldn't help but sigh internally. Trying to be a good person and avoid making enemies was really complicated, wasn't it? But this was the path he had chosen, and if it were easy, it wouldn't be nearly as satisfying to walk, right?
'Maybe there's a bit of a masochist in me after all.'
Still, he wasn't going to force things. While it would be beneficial to have many trustworthy people by his side for the sake of his third advantage, [Feeling of Tomorrow], he knew that relationships weren't so simple to maintain. He could have goodwill toward others, but if the feeling wasn't mutual, it would just be a waste of time he wasn't interested in engaging in.
In the end, even he had limits to what he was willing to tolerate.
'Let's put this aside for now. I should take Killer Croc to S.H.I.E.L.D. quickly so I can return and check on how things are going with Harleen.' Thinking of this made him frown with concern. She had already recovered from her injuries thanks to the Kryptonian immersion chamber, but the changes caused by the chemical soup in her body seemed reluctant to disappear and instead began to sink deeper within her.
He didn't know if this was good or bad, nor what effects it could have, which was why he decided to keep her unconscious in the immersion chamber for now, at least until he could get more concrete analyses of her strange situation.
It would be best if she could recover and return to normal completely, but the chances of that happening didn't look promising.
"I just hope this ends up being something good for her and not something bad." Since this universe operated by "comic-book fantasy" laws, he wouldn't be surprised if she ended up gaining some benefits from this incident. But just as good things could come, so could bad ones.
'Well, whatever happens, I'll take charge and solve it; that's what I'm here for, after all.' With that determination in his eyes, he rose into the air and began to fly toward one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters.
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Note:
And that's the end of the chapter! I hope it doesn't feel too short.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and don't forget to comment if you notice any mistakes so I can correct them as quickly as possible.
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