To Love a Spider

Chapter 14

Elizabeth stared in horror as Clint was thrown across the room by an invisible force. There was a pulling in the back of her mind and Elizabeth realized that she was what had caused Clint to be thrown back. She looked down at her hands, then back up at Clint.

All of the Avengers were standing stock-still. They were looking at Elizabeth like she had grown two heads. Elizabeth wasn't sure she hadn't.

Elizabeth slowly backed away from the group until her back hit the wall. She wasn't sure what had happened. In fact, she wasn't sure that anyone else knew what had happened either. One second she was filled with rage that she wasn't good enough, the next second Clint was flying back to collapse on the ground with a groan.

Everything in Elizabeth screamed at her to sprint to Clint's side to make sure that he wasn't harmed. However, she knew that she was the one who caused this damage to happen.

After a couple of minutes of everyone staring at Elizabeth, Clint awkwardly pushed himself off the ground and said, "Well I wasn't expecting that."

Elizabeth frantically scanned Clint's body, looking for any signs of injuries. The last thing she wanted to do was incapacitate Clint of using his bow. "Are you okay? I'm so so sorry! I don't know what happened."

Clint glanced at Tony and then turned back to face Elizabeth. "Don't worry about it, I'm fine. How did you do that?"

"I don't know. I just was irritated that I couldn't beat you and then you flew backwards-"

Tony cut her off before she could give away any more information. "Okay that's enough training for one day. Elizabeth, follow me." With that, Tony turned and walked out the door and into the hallway.

Elizabeth turned to Thor, who had been holding Luna while she had fought. He was holding her like a baby and petting her stomach. Elizabeth tried to refrain from laughing but a few giggles escaped, which made the pain in her side flare up. She winced but said, "I'm going to need my dog back, buddy."

Thor's smile turned into a frown as he put Luna on the floor and gave the leash to Elizabeth. She felt bad for him and seeing as Luna was so comfortable around him, she added, "You can come by later and see her, if you want." Thor sent Elizabeth an appreciative smile as she walked out the room and into the hallway.

Tony was waiting for her farther down the hallway. He looked at her and said with no expression. "You're not going to school today."

Elizabeth glared at Tony. "That was part of the deal. I get to go to school." Her emotions were acting up again, she could feel her patience running thin and her anger growing.

"If training even close to an example, you are way too unstable to be going out into public. We need to take this time to learn what you can do and how you can control it. Then, and only then, will we talk about you returning to school." Tony gave Elizabeth the look that said "this discussion is over" but Elizabeth wasn't done yet.

"You keep saying "we" but you are the only one making decisions. This is my life, I'm not going to let a crazy psychopath take it over. Be honest with me Tony, why are you so scared of him? Why's he so different from the other villains you have faced?" Elizabeth looked him straight in the eye, looking for anything that would give away why one of the biggest heroes of the century feared the Green-man so much.

Tony gave nothing away. His stare was just as blank as ever. "I do not fear this guy, but you should. For some reason he is very interested in you. For the sake of your safety and my sanity can you just believe me."

When Elizabeth didn't respond, Tony started walking down the hallway. Elizabeth followed him to. the door she recognized led to his lab. He motioned for her to go in first, and for once she listened. "Are you going to run tests to see what's wrong with me?"

"Yes, the faster we figure out exactly what has changed in your blood, the faster you can learn to control it, and the faster you get to return to your normal life."

"I'm never going to return to my normal life, we both know that."

Tony didn't answer and instead told JARVIS to wake up. The lights overhead turned on and Tony pulled a hospital-like bed to the center of the room. "Hop up there and lay very still." Elizabeth looked at him skeptically, but did as he asked. Tony started to undo the bandage that kept Elizabeth's left arm to her side. He then redid the bandaging and looked at her right arm. When he deemed it was fine, he dropped it back to her side and went over to his work table to retrieve a vial. "I'm going to put an IV in you and then I will give you medicine that will knock you out for a couples hours."

Elizabeth nodded and tried to get as comfortable as she could for the time being. It shouldn't have been so hard to do. The sheets made Elizabeth feel like she was laying on a cloud and the pillow was so very soft. The only thing that made it impossible to get comfortable was the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that told her something bad was going to happen. Not to her, but to other people, her family. It seemed to Elizabeth that Tony should be protecting her entire family, not only Elizabeth. The easiest way the Green-man could get to her was by capturing her family and demanding that she find them before it was too late. The last thing Elizabeth wanted was for her dream to come true. For her family to see what had changed inside her and to not love her for it. For Elizabeth to not be able to save the ones she loves.

Eventually, Elizabeth just accepted that it was going to be an uncomfortable couple hours. She nodded to Tony, who hooked up a bottle of yellow liquid to her IV. The liquid worked surprisingly fast. After about thirty seconds, Elizabeth's eyes started to close. The last thing Elizabeth remembered before she drifted off to sleep was the Green-man leaning over her bed, cackling with laughter.