Zoom, Academy for Superheroes: Part 3

With or Without You

        "Through the storm we reach the shore, you gave it all but I want more, and I'm waiting for you. And you give yourself away, you give yourself away. With or without you, I can't live with or without you."
-U2

*****

        The days following the wedding were quiet and calm. The guests left the day after, Dylan and Summer were in the Caribbean for their Honeymoon, and Summer and Tucker were working hard on their own projects for school, Marsha was keeping up with her studies and research and Jack was training hard.
        In fact, the team hadn't seen much of each other over the past week, they'd all been so busy. But every now and again, they'd get a text or a picture from Summer and Dylan in paradise, or Cindy and Tucker would take a break to play some kind of game together, or Jack and Marsha would run into each other and catch up until their duties called again.
        Though they'd all been busy, the team hadn't fought any real battles in quite some time. Any missions they'd been sent on lately usually involved small accidents such as collapsing bridges or derailed trains and these missions usually only required 2 or 3 team members to be sent out. At times it seemed like they were all training so hard for nothing.
        But a calm like this made Jack nervous. He was on the old Zenith Team for 7 years, he'd been on the new generation's team for about 2 years. That made for a lot of experience. He knew that a quiet period like this meant that soon there would be something big. The calm before the storm.
        Laraby and Grant felt it too, they'd worked with both Zenith Teams for as long as they'd been around as well, making them also wary of this eery calm.
        But Jack managed to brush his feelings aside, something he rarely was able to do, and carried on with his day. By around noon, he met Marsha in the lounge by chance and they began to talk about Dylan and Summer and how it would be different around here with them married.
        "How long do you think it'll be before the honeymoon stage is over?" Jack asked jokingly as he chuckled lightly.
        "Oh, I'm sure their entire marriage will be like one big honeymoon."
        "Seriously?"
        Marsha hesitated, and rethought her usual optimistic approach.
        "No, I give it a couple months, tops."
        Jack laughed as she continued.
        "But I am sure that they'll have a great marriage, it won't be picture perfect, they never are, but they'll work out."
        "You're right, they'll make it work, whatever comes their way."
        Marsha raised her eyebrows at his comment. "Wow, the always pessimistic Jack Shepherd is actually coming around to the idea that love is an actual thing? I'm surprised." She teased him as he smiled halfheartedly.
        They joked back and forth a bit more until Marsha remembered something she was supposed to do and made her way back towards her office.

*****

        Things had taken a turn by the end of the day. Cindy and Tucker weren't in very pleasant moods and had shut themselves away into their rooms after a series of temper tantrums.
        Leaving Jack and Marsha alone once again. Usually, they would talk and joke and just enjoy each other's company, but as fate would have it, the two of them were in sour moods as well. They began to argue about the silliest things, something that was usual, which soon led to a big argument with sharp words, meant to cut deep, something that wasn't as usual anymore.
        Their argument wasn't nearly finished, but Jack decided that it would be a good time to spit out some last words dripping with venom, and proceed to storm out of the room. Just like old times.

        The sun was down, the children were asleep, and the day was over. After their argument, Marsha had searched in vain for Jack, looking to apologize or at least talk it out, but she never ran into him.
        When she heard the door to the lounge open while she was sitting alone that night, she looked up expectingly, assuming it was Jack, but was shocked when it was a young military man who she'd never seen before.
        "Miss Holloway?" The serious tone of his voice made her blood run cold as she stood to face him. "There's been an incident, you'll have to come with me."
        Somehow her legs managed to take her out the door behind the man. A million thoughts were circling her brain. "What's going on?"
        "They'll explain everything when we get there."
        "Who will explain everything? Where are we going?"
        Soon enough, she found herself in a busy room filled with scientists. The noise was overwhelming, everyone seemed to be arguing, or analyzing something, or giving their opinion. But the room fell to an eery silence when she entered. Every single head turned to look at her as she scanned the room frantically for a familiar face.
        "Miss Holloway," She quickly turned to her left, where Dr Grant motioned for her to join him in the next room.
        In said room, Laraby stood, looking more concerned than ever before. On the table in front of them, were documents upon documents and a few brain scans.
        "I'm afraid that we have a problem."
        Miss Holloway just stared in horror and disbelief as Laraby explained what had happened.
        "There was an explosion. They're still determining the cause of it, but there was an explosion in one of the rooms containing gamma 13 radiation. Unfortunately, Mr Shepherd was in the area when the explosion occurred, and he was accidentally exposed to massive amounts of gamma radiation. There was no initial reaction, but soon after, we noticed a behavioural shift. He became aggressive and dangerous, his eyes have turned red. It's a Concussion scenario all over again, only this is multiple times worse."
        Marsha couldn't believe what she was hearing, finally, she managed to get out some words. "Where is he?"
        "He's in the old radiation room, the one you all like to hold dances in, we've tried to force him into isolation, but he's too powerful for us at this point."
        "Well how are we supposed to deal with this?"
        "We won't. Not yet. Let Miss Collins and Mr Williams sleep, if the situation gets worse, we may put the entire facility under lockdown. We'll try to get Jones and West back here as soon as possible to help get the situation under control."
        "Wait, so, are you saying that, that, the rest of us on the team are supposed to, what? Fight him? Kill him? Because let me tell you right now, that-"
        "Miss Holloway, I don't think you fully understand the problem we have at hand here. With Concussion, we were able to reverse his evil using Zoom's powers. In this situation, the only person who could save Mr Shepherd, is Captain Zoom, and, unfortunately, they are the same person."
        Before Marsha could even process his last words, she swiftly left the room and headed down an east hallway of Area 52.
        Dr Grant and Laraby knew exactly where she was headed. They called out some orders in hopes of stopping her, she didn't understand that Jack would kill her if she stepped into his sights. They couldn't afford to lose another member of their team, they needed all the power they could get.
        But Marsha was too far ahead to be stopped. With a deep breath, she rounded the corner and entered the room where she's made so many beautiful memories.
        From across the room, she could see a very familiar person, slowly turning around to face her, with eyes the colour of rubies.