After the events that happened in the Academy, the occupants of the tricarrier were worked into a frenzy. Nick Fury had everyone on an assignment, the scientists and doctors worked alongside looking for the cure, agents observed the infected and gathered provisions that they might need; Nick Fury had all the video footage sent to Avengers Tower for the team to watch.

As busy as everyone was, there was one group of kids who felt absolutely helpless. The teen heroes sat in their dorm, either laying down or pacing the floor, with nothing to do after being sent back there by the Director. "I can't believe Fury sent us back here!" Power-Man grumbled in disbelief, he lay on his bunk, hands behind his head while looking up.

"I know, there has to be something we can do." Dagger agreed, she was mindlessly playing with her light daggers. Cloak, who was on the bunk next to her, nodded in agreement.

Nova was floating in the air, lying on his back. "Let's face it," he said sourly, "Nick doesn't think we can handle the situation. That's why he won't let us do anything; he thinks we'll mess up."

"But that's crazy," Agent Venom declared. "Yeah," Amadeus agreed, "We handled it just fine when Spidey first broke out of the sick bay; you don't see any of us freaking out about that." Agent Venom tensed a little, and looked down without saying a word. No one noticed though, and they all kept talking.

"It does seem as though Director Fury lacks some trust in our ability to control our situations." Iron Fist agreed, he saw on the floor at the far end of the room meditating. "Lacks?" Nova scoffed, "Puh-lease, he doesn't think we can handle anything. Sure there are those mission he has us do, but he always hovers over us like were going to screw up any minute." The other's couldn't help but mumble their agreement.

It might have sounded childish of them, but it did seem as though Nick Fury had a problem with trusting them in a situation like this. Their friends were in trouble, it's not like they would completely freak out and have no control over the situation. They all wanted to help, they needed to do something, not only to help their friends, but for themselves too-to know that they were doing something helpful instead of lying around doing nothing.

It was quiet in the dorm for a bit, each dwelling on their own thoughts. Before Power-Man asked, "Hey Iron Spider how's your research on a cure coming?"

"Pretty well actually," Iron Spider answered straightening up his posture with excitement, "I've finished isolating the chemicals, and I've virtually modified the molecular structure of some of them. I have a few ideas where to start synthesizing some of it, maybe even condense some of the molecules for a cure. But I need a lab with the right tools to do any of that, and-you know, were kind of stuck in here." He huffed and slumped back on his bed.

They all huffed with him, not only were they not helping anything, but they were bored too. "Who says we have to stay in here anyway?!" Agent Venom demanded stubbornly, crossing his arms. "Fury never said we HAD to stay in our dorm."

"Well where else are we supposed to go?" Cloak asked. Agent Venom shrugged, "We could go back at watch the monitors; Fury did say he would have full access to them." The others perked up with interest, Power-Man sat up in his bunk in thought.

"You have a point," he smiled, "Come on, I'm holding Fury up to his part of the deal." He got up from his bunk, and the others followed.

They followed the familiar route to the main deck, Nick Fury wasn't there anymore. There were still agents observing the monitors, a few scientists too, who were all writing down any information that seemed important. Power-Man tapped an agent on the shoulder, "Excuse me, where's Director Fury?" he asked.

"In a meeting with the Avengers in his office." The agent hesitantly said, looking them over like he was unsure if they get to know this information.

The teens tensed with surprise, "Really? When did the Avengers get here?" Dagger asked. The agent scowled a little, kind of unhappy with them bothering him. But he answered none-the-less, "They arrived a few hours ago and have been in their meeting ever since, now if you'll excuse me." The agent pushed past him and went on his way.

"Grown-ups," Nova grumbled shaking his head. "That's all I have to say. Grown-ups."

"Couldn't agree me," Power-Man nodded. They all turned to the monitors to watch what was going no. Spider had successfully grouped all the infected, he got Triton and Zabu from the rooms and already got them to submit to him. Right now they were exploring the Academy; though Spider was having trouble keeping them under control.

Like Spider, the rest of the Infected were going crazy. They started fighting and attacking each other and refused to stop, so out of desperation Spider cocooned them all in webs to make them cease their fighting. Right now they were all squirming and growling on the floor, bodies completely bound while Spider watched from a high corner of the room. He was softly growling as he observed, looked both agitated and frustrated like he didn't know how to handle what was going on. "Ah, poor guy." Dagger said, "He looks so confused."

"And hungry," Nova noted with a tilt to his head. Spider had a hand over his stomach; it could clench uncomfortable every once in a while and leave Spider growling a little more. "Didn't Fury say he had a plan for feeding them?" Power-Man asked.

Amadeus nodded, "Yes, he was going to use the underwater transport and cargo hold located beneath the Academy to ship food in there through there. I'm still not sure how else he planned on doing it, but he does have a plan."

"Well he better hurry," Nova replied, "Or their just going to end up eating themselves, even Spidey is going to get hungry."

"Uh, ew!" Agent Venom commented. There was a murmur of agreement as they continued watching, although soon even this began to get boring. They wanted to help, and watching wasn't doing anything. Besides, nothing interesting was happening, not that they wanted anything interesting to happen, but still... "Hey do you think Fury would notice if we interrupted the meeting?

Everyone else gave him a deadpanned look. "Yes I do believe the Director would take notice," Iron Fist answered after a moment's silence. Nova folded his arms and grumbled under his breath. But they stayed there, watching the monitors while conversing in small talk occasionally. Nothing really big happened, the cocooned infected eventually got tired of struggling, and fell asleep. Spider got down from his perch and created a comfortable and big web, before carefully placing the sleeping mutated heroes on it.

"You know it's almost, kind-cute how much he cares." Dagger mused while watching.

"He is still Spider-Man, and cares deeply for his teammates." Iron Fist said.

"Oh, I know," Dagger quickly replied, "I was just saying it's kind of cute how motherly he is." Nova cocked his head to the side, and pursed his lips as he watched the monitors. "Yeah, I guess so." He shrugged boredly. "Spidey's always been kind of...what's the word?"

"Reckless?" Cloak supplied.

"Rebellious?" Power-Man offered.

"Too curious?" Dagger said.

"Awesome!" Agent Venom exclaimed.

"Protective." Iron Fist said.

Nova beamed, "Yeah, protective! I mean seriously, he's like a mother hen or something." The others laughed in amusement. Spider-Man always was very protective of him, the Ultimates remembered the times when Goblin attacked them and how angry Spider-Man had gotten.

He was very protective indeed. "I don't think mother-hen covers it." Power-Man chuckled.

"Yeah, how about...Daddy Longleg?" Dagger suggested. They all erupted into laughter again. "Oh that was perfect," Amadeus laughed.

"Yeah, remember when we called Spidey that?" Agent Venom asked.

"Exactly," Dagger smirked. "Besides, Spidey does have long legs. Has anyone ever noticed that?" they all laughed again, remembering a couple month ago when they had teased Spidey about his protective nature and dubbed his Daddy Longlegs'. It was a great memory, and helped ebb away the sad atmosphere that had overcome the tricarrier earlier.

But their ruckus was getting too loud, and was disturbing the other agents in the room. When the teens refused to leave, they resorted to calling out the big guns. Nick Fury popped up on their communicators, he pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation as he looked at all of them.

The teen sat their innocently as they waited for him to talk. "Must I babysit you?" he mumbled tiredly.

"No," Nova said, "We're just watching the monitors. You did say we'd have full access to them, remember?" Fury sighed, and nodded his head. "Unfortunately," he muttered.

The Director looked back up at them, "Since you insist upon annoying my agents, I want you all to report up here to my office. Now." The comm turned black. The teens all looked at each other hesitantly, "You don't think we're in trouble. Do you?" Cloak asked.

"Only one way to find out," Power-Man said, heaving to his feet. They all left the main deck, to the great relief of the agents, and headed up to Nick Fury's office. Once they got in there, they were greeted with the sight of the Avengers and Nick huddled around a conference table. There was briefing papers scattered among the table, as well as some layout designs of the Academy. All eyes turned to them when they entered. "Take a sit, and don't talk." Nick said motioning to the chairs.

The teens immedianly sat, and the Avengers and Director continued their meeting. "We're not kids ya know." Nova grumbled as he sat. Nick raised an eyebrow at him, "Humor me," he said.