Playing With Fire (EDITING)

No Solutions

I suddenly felt as if the world were tipping on its side. Fury was throwing me out. Not being wanted was nothing new but being handed over as if I were a mere object to be bartered for was ridiculous! Dizziness set in and the floor became unsteady beneath me; or maybe it was me who was unsteady. I couldn't quite tell at the moment.

I reached for the bed to lean on but missed. It should have been there, so why was there nothing? Tipping, everything was tipping. I needed to sit but I felt only air until a firm arm pushed me against the mattress. I sank down gratefully and squeezed my eyes closed until the world righted itself and I wasn't afraid of falling over.

"Are you alright?" Doc's voice asked.

I shook my head. "Do I look like I'm alright to you?" I groaned, clutching the sheet tighter around me. I hadn't had a vertigo attack that bad in four years and I was sure I'd been done with them. Guess not.

"What just happened?" Barton's voice asked.

"Vertigo," I replied, reluctant to admit anything.

I heard his footsteps leave the room and let my eyes open slowly. Doc was mouthing something to Cap but when he saw I was watching, he stopped and gestured to the door with his head. Rogers nodded and stood, hesitating before leaving the room.

When I was alone with Banner, he tossed me my tank top and turned his back. I waited to make sure he couldn't see anything before pulling it over my head and balling the sheet up beside me. "Done," I said.

He turned around again and watched me with narrowed eyes. "Vertigo, huh. But that wasn't your first attack, was it?"

I shook my head.

"Do you remember the first one?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe. I don't really remember what it was like but I know I was nine."

"Have they ever stopped?"

I nodded.

"How long ago?"

"Four years," I replied.

He didn't answer but closed his eyes in concentrated thought. When he opened them, he helped me stand and I leaned on him until we stepped outside the room. I straightened on my own with difficulty but bit back the pain and plunged head first down the hallway. As I walked, every step jarred my insides and every breath came ragged and short. "Why does everything hurt? I thought you said I 'just passed out'?"

"I meant 'just' as in relative to time not as in measure of severity," he replied.

"Doesn't explain why my lungs are on fire," I retorted.

"When the Captain, uh, restrained you-"

"Restrained?" I interrupted. "More like he tried to choke me out!"

"When he tried to restrain you," he continued, completely ignoring my protest. "He said he was trying to not drop you on your head and in the process, he accidentally fractured one of your ribs."

I was about to growl back a reply that I would have probably regretted later when Doc stopped outside a door I didn't remember ever snooping through. He faced me and said, "Don't go anywhere okay? I'll only be a minute."

The second the door closed behind him, I strolled away, trailing a hand on the wall to keep myself steady and glaring at any agent that dared brush into me. The slightest jostle, the most meager of shoves sent a painful jolt down my side and prevented the next breath from coming when it should have.

After a minute or so of shuffling down the hallway, I passed a doorway and heard my name. The tone told me I was not being addressed, but rather discussed. I halted outside the door and pressed my ear to the wall, squeezing my eyes closed to listen.

At first, the voices were indistinguishable, but after a few seconds of intent listening, I was able to recognize the voices of Director Fury and Agent Barton. Fury was speaking in low tones that even my acutely heightened hearing couldn't pick out. When Clint answered, it was perfectly clear.

"I don't care! You can't just throw her off the ship like that!"

"I can do as I please, Barton, and if it comes back to bite me then so be it! I can't have a live wire like that running around this ship and commanding everyone as if she owns the place! She needs some respect."

"Granted, Lyrica could learn a few things, but I don't believe for a second that she's commanding anyone. And if she's such a live wire as you say, then she'd be the perfect asset for the team!"

"Good assets don't blow up in your face every time they get a little moody!" Fury snarled.

"What about Banner?! Wanna talk about blowing up when things get moody, then why do you keep him around?" Clint shouted.

"You know full well why I can't have a monster like the Hulk running loose through the streets!! The world would be in chaos! More people would be attempting the experiment in hopes for better results!"

"Monster? If the Hulk's such a monster then what's she?! Tell me that!!"

"She's a mutant!! A science experiment gone wrong like Banner except she can control it. She's a cocky brat who needs to learn her place!" Fury replied, slamming his hands onto a table.

Clint was quick to retaliate: "If that's how you see her then of course she'll look like an unreliable choice! If you viewed her the same way you view any of the rest of us, then maybe you'd see that she's exactly what we need for this team!!"

Fury dropped his voice and laced his tone with barely contained rage when he answered. "I don't care if she's your niece; I don't care if she's important to you; I don't care if the X-Men actually want someone like her. She can't be used. She's too stubborn, hot-headed, willed. She's got a mind of her own that knows the loopholes in the loopholes and an attitude that gets its way if she has to die trying. Listen close, Barton, cuz I'm saying this once and only once: that girl is no more fit to be an Avenger than she is to be an opera singer. She leaves tomorrow and that's final. I've made my decision and I won't change my mind."

A steel grip clamped itself to my upper arm and my eyes snapped open again. "I thought I told you to stay put," Banner said, leading me easily away from the door and back to where we had stopped the first time.

When he pushed the door aside and ushered me in first, I took a step and knew immediately that something was wrong. The room was revolving. Or maybe I was revolving. My ears began ringing and I felt my knees hit the floor even if it didn't feel like the floor should have been that close. The whole place began spinning faster and I closed my eyes. I plugged my ears, I gripped the floor until my knuckles were white, I tried to reason through the spinning sensation, but nothing worked. Nausea set in and I felt my stomach surrender the scant contents of water and acid.

I could feel Doctor Banner's hands on my shoulders, firmly holding me in place as the room spun faster and began to tilt. I felt myself leaning to the left, so I tried to lean to the right. Everything felt off-balance until the cold floor rushed up to meet me and I let the blackness engulf my frantic thoughts.




When the ringing in my ears had gone, the first words I could recognize were not the most encouraging. "She has Ménière's Disease," Doc's usually calm voice told a nameless figure. He sounded agitated but was holding himself together enough to not Hulk out anytime soon.

"What's that?" A woman's voice replied. It was smooth and deep, not a voice I'd heard before.

"It's a disease concerning the inner ear that causes vertigo and hearing loss," he replied. "It's usually caused by endolymphatic hydrops but Lyrica's was probably caused during her genetic alteration as a child. There's no cure and few true non-placebo medicinal remedies. The stress of the battle probably triggered the attack-"

"Is she alright to be moved to the mainland?" the woman cut in.

"It would depend on several factors."

"Like?" she prompted. The woman sounded impatient and slightly condescending.

I tried to sit up and managed to make enough noise in doing so to attract Banner's attention. He helped me sit up and lean against the pillow propped behind me. When I let my eyes open slowly and adjust to the light in the room, I vaguely recognized the woman standing beside the bed.

She had dark hair pulled into a ponytail and eerie green eyes that viewed everything with haughty suspicion. When she turned that cold gaze on me so that I was viewed down her nose, she smirked. "I'm M," she told me. "Just call me Monet though."

A mutant. The oldest of the nine it looked like and probably the most powerful from what I'd read. "Lyrica," I replied, swinging my legs over the edge of the mattress.

Banner watched me with concern but let me stand and followed me out of the room. I felt light headed but it was more likely caused by the fact that I hadn't eaten properly for awhile. Monet led me down a hallway to a room filled with the other mutants and Simba.

"Suit up, girls!" Monet announced. "Time to go!"