"So you still don't know who did this?" Medusa asked, looking critically at Nick Fury through the holograph. Nick Fury sat in his desk, hands clasped professionally in front of him. He sent a message to the Inhumans about the gassing a while ago, but the Inhumans have had a bit of trouble with Maximum and just got to answering them.

They were not happy. Even though Black Bolt wouldn't speak, his face displayed his emotions well. He was clearly troubled, eyes narrowed dangerously, Nick was sure that is Black Bolt would talk-he would be cursing brighter than a trouble-hardened sailor. Nick shook his head at Medusa, "I'm afraid not. The footage to the Academy had been cut before we could get to any of it, we've tried getting it back, but all video feed had been destroyed."

Medusa breathed out irritably, her arms crossing over her chest. "We sent Triton there thinking he would be in good hands; please tell me we didn't make a grave mistake Nick Fury." She said warningly, her tone sharp.

Nick leaned calmly back into his chair, he didn't like being threatened. "With all due respect," Nick said, "But I don't think you fully understand what I'm saying, S.H.I.E.L.D Academy is as secure as the Pentagon itself. Whoever did do this was extremely skilled, and very cunning. We have suspects, but none that can really match up. I have every scientist and doctor on this case, working to find a cure. Triton couldn't be in better hands."

"Yet, he is being held captive in your 'secure' Academy, and is changing into a monster that humanity had mistaken us to be for years." Karnack points out. "Your logic is flawed Director Fury." Fury leaned forward in his chair dangerously. He was trying everything in his power to keep this situation contained and under control. His logic may be flawed, but it was all they had. "And what would you suggest we do?" Nick asked, raising an eyebrow in question at them. "Do you Inhumans have a magical antidote for this virus? If so, then I would love to transfer those Infected over to you. But if not, then I fear there is little that any of you can do. Is that logic flawed?"

Karnack grunted, his eyes narrowing. "I'm afraid we lack a 'magical antidote', Maximum was always good at those kinds of things." Karnack sniffed, but his eyes flickered nervously at Black Bolt at mentioning their relative-gone-bad, Black Bolt frowned. "Anyway," Karnack continued, "I can be of some use to your cause. I can either go and join S.H.I.E.L.D and apply my own knowledge about these things, or you, Nick Fury, could supply a copy of all the data you possess. I do believe I can dig up something that can help."

Nick Fury rubbed his chin thoughtfully; Karnack may be able to help quite a bit. But ever since their near-war encounter, Nick has still been skeptical about the Inhumans. The only reason Triton had joined S.H.I.E.L.D Academy was to join both Inhuman and people, to smooth over the tension between the two species. The Inhumans were still suspicious, and so was Nick. But if Karnack could really help out....

"Very well," Nick agreed. "I can send a copy of our progress, and a sample of the gas, to Atillan. If you do find something useful, it could help solve this problem faster." The Inhumans nodded, but most were still regarding him with almost distaste-like he had been part of the problem with getting Triton hurt. "I have people down there two," Nick tells them, "Kids, just like Triton. I'm sorry that Triton got attacked this way, but you must keep in mind that he was not the only one. 5 of his classmates are down there with him, in the same predicament. We're not enemies here; we're all on the same side. So I suppose we might as well start acting like it."

Black Bolt studied Nick for a few moments, before smiling in agreement in his words. Medusa watched her husband, and her expression, too softened. "On behalf of my husband, Atillan's finest doctors, as well as the expertise of Karnack, will do everything in their power to find an antidote to cure our allies." Medusa smiled and nodded at Nick Fury, than the message clicked off.

Mentally checking that off his list of things to do, Nick got up from his desk. He was quite satisfied with how the meeting had gone, threats were minimal, and any means for a war had been avoided. But now, he had to go and check on things with Dr. Connors and Tony Stark. He walked out of his office, making sure to turn the defense settings on-not just anyone could go into his office ya know. The Tricarrier had been a mess of agents running to and fro, usually with samples or data, and bringing them to different sections of the giant, floating, heavy artillery induced flying machine.

Nick Fury found Tony first, the genius was looking into a microscope, while muttering lowly to himself. Nick didn't say anything at first, and watched as Tony looked up and rubbed his chin. He picked up the thing he had been examining, and brought it to one of the tables nearby. "JARVIS, try to break this down farther, and then synthesize it. Maybe, if I can break it apart correctly, I can figure out what we're missing here."

"Yes Sir, right away Sir." JARVUS replied, a slot in the table shot up, and Tony put it in to allow the sample to be scanned, and analyzed. Satisfied, Tony turned around and noticed Nick Fury standing there and raised his hands defensively "I did not download my A.I into S.H.I.E.L.D's mainframe to help me figure out what is missing in this formula."

"Mhmm...." Nick hummed sarcastically, and raising an unbelieving eyebrow at Stark.

"Of course I didn't." Tony continued nervously, "Cause that would totally be a bad things, and I would be violating some, weird, international law if I did. Hee hee...."

Nick walked forward till he was in front of Tony, "If you can give me any good news about your progress with this formula, then I might think about looking past you violating Law 245, Code: Alpha-which, yes, means that you did something bad." Tony nodded, and clapped his hands together. "Alrighty then, just give me 2.4 seconds to make up some good news for you, and we can get this whole, law breaking thing behind us."

Nick Fury sighed, "So I guess that means you got nothing?" Tony held his palms upward, and made the gesture of weighing something, as he kind of shrugged with an it-sort-of-depends-on-what-you-want-to-hearexpression on his face.

"I've been digging real deep into this gas formula, and I know most of the chemicals in it. I've actually figured out the perfect way to synthesize it into a cure for this virus,"

"Last I checked, that is considered to be good news." Nick interrupted. "Buuuut...." Tony added, stretching it out a bit. "There is only 1 or 2 things that are getting in my way. I'm close to making this cure, but there are just a few factors in this gas that mess it up every time. I have no idea what these few chemicals are, I'm trying to break it down further to learn something- speaking of which, how is that coming JARVIS?"

"67% complete with breaking down Sir," the A.I immedianly responded.

"Yeah, so unless I can figure out what these unknown chemicals are, then I'm kind of stuck. None of us Scientists can continue unless we figure it out, and so far I don't think anyone has."

Nick grunted in understanding, "Anything else?" he asked. Tony shrugged, just as JARVIS announced, "Sir, the break down is complete. Would you like to display the data on the holographic screen as a benefit to Nick Fury as well?"

"Yeah, thanks JARVIS."

"Very good, Sir." The next moment a holographic screen lit to life, displaying a confusing array of chemicals, and elements that would make little sense to the average intellectual person. Not as much for Tony, he mumbles under his breath, nodding at a few of the compounds as he expected them. But then he stopped, and groaned in exasperation. He reached into the hologram, and pulled out the display of a chemical compound, it came out with his hand, as if the genius had actually grabbed it. "This little bugger is what's ruining my cure," Tony informed, examining it from all sides. "I've run this chemical through every element, and data in your S.H.I.E.L.D mainframe, and nothing identical or related as shown up." Tony glowered at the glowing holographic chemical like he wanted to pull it apart atom by atom, his expression clearly expressed that he was not happy with this little chemical. "Stupid unknown compound that I would usually love to figure out!" he grumbled sourly.

Nick gave the chemical a peculiar look, "S.H.I.E.L.D had no information on it?" he asked, more to himself than Tony. Because that seemed highly unlikely, it was very hard to hide anything from S.H.I.E.L.D, especially weird, fatal chemicals. But this little thing managed to do it; but how? "Very well, I'll leave you to your research Tony." Nick turned to leave him.

"So...is the whole, downloading an A.I into your mainframe okay now? Or..." Tony called after him.

"Since when do you care whether you broke a law or not?" Fury retorted, not even stopping his way to the door.

Tony chuckled behind him, "Hahaha, touché."

"Sorry Director Fury," Curt told him sincerely, "I'm afraid I haven't made much progress on this either. I'm close each time, but once I nearly finish, there is this one-"

"Chemical that ruins it for you?" Nick guessed, watching as the baffled doctor turned to Nick with a surprised look. He nodded slowly, "Yes, but, how did you know?"

Nick got up from the seat he had occupied, and handed Curt's papers back to him while saying, "Stark has been having the same problems. So, I suppose you haven't any clue about what our mysterious chemical is, do you?" Curt sadly shook his head, setting his papers back down on the table with a tired huff. "I'm afraid not." He replied. Nick expected that.

He nodded in understanding, and turned his attention to the monitors that displayed the current physical conditions of all Infected. Every hour or so, the sensors in the Academy would send out an invisible scan that picked up the body signatures of the Infected. Using this, they could watch and observe just how much the Infected were changing. "Anything new?" Fury asked, dipping his head toward the monitors.

Curt glanced at them, "Well, they are STILL growing. At a slower rate, but growing all the same. Though, I do believe Rhino is near the peak of his height, if he grows any bigger he can get stuck in the Academy halls; which would be a big problem. Triton, Zabu, and Tiger though, theirs is slowing down. Squirrel Girl is still at a pretty high rate, but she too has showed signs of stopping. Spider-Man, on the other hand, has actually been steadily increasing in his growth rate. I don't know why, he just-is! I'm not sure what makes his case different from the others, but I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation for it."

So many questions, and not enough answers. "Thank you Curt," Nick told him, "I appreciate all you've done for this." He placed a soft hand on the scientists shoulder. Curt frowned slightly, his eyes flicking down. "I only wish I could do more." He replied.

"You're doing all you can," Nick told him firmly, "If not more. You are helping in this more than anyone."

Curt shrugged off Nick's words carelessly, "Maybe," he muttered. "But.." Curt paused, and closed his eyes as if trying to get his thoughts together. "Its just...when I turned into the Lizard, Spider-Man never gave up on me. He made a cure, tracked me down, and made sure I turned back into my-well, regular self I suppose. I'm not happy for what happened to him, or any of the other kids, but...I like to think of this 'disease' as a way to make up for all the trouble I caused him. To save him for once, instead of burdening him with my problems; to make it all up to him. It's, just ridiculous I know, but...he has made sure I wouldn't go through that-that lizard thing again, and watched my back continuously. I've got to fix this, to make up for my past mistakes."

Nick was quiet for a moment, watching Curt closely. "Spider-Man wouldn't see it that way," he finally says. "But I understand what you're saying Curt. I'll leave you to finish your work." Curt nodded, and allowed Nick to turn away and head out of the lab station Curt had been working at. "But Dr. Connors," Nick called before he was completely gone, "Remember that you've done so much for Spider-Man; perhaps Spider-Man watched out for you, to make sure you wouldn't turn back into the Lizard, because he was trying to make it up to you. You're his friend; it's just something he does." And with that, Nick left.

Did Nick wish he could have a peaceful night for once? Absolutely.

Did he get a peaceful night? Oh, of course not! Because that would just be too easy.

Nick Fury got the alert from his communicator at 1:00 in the morning, having left Coulson in charge while he got a couple hours of sleep. Unfortunately, some strange, divine force didn't think sleep was important-that's what it felt like for the Director as he pulled on his trench coat, making sure his gun was tucked inside, before hurrying to the Main Deck.

Right as he got there, he knew something had gone terribly wrong. He could tell by the frantic rush, and yammering from the agents at the computers, and he could tell by the too-calm look on Coulson. "What happened?" Nick asked, immedianly walking up to Coulson.

Agent Coulson moved so the Director could take a look at the monitors while saying, "We were sending out the midnight shipment of food to the Academy, but we got caught. We didn't see Spider hiding up in the rafters, and he jumped the Food Sub right as it came in. Fortunately, he couldn't make it out of the room into the water, but he damaged the Food Sub, as well as the cargo doors. If we try to bring the sub back, or even attempt to move it, it can cause too much pressure on the cargo doors and can possible break them. With an inhuman meta-fish in the Academy, I didn't think it could be a good idea to chance it. Not that we can anyway, the sub isn't responding. Spider really did a number on it." Coulson brought up the images of the sub.

Spider DID do a number on it. It was slashed, and cut, with acid/poison burning holes on some parts of it. The food had already been removed by the monster Arachnid, and set neatly in a corner of the room. But Spider remained in the cargo hold, staring intensely at the sub, in a dark corner of the room, like he expected it to do something. "We need to send someone in there to fix it, so we can get both the Food Sub and cargo doors fully operation." Coulson finished.

Nick internally growled; this was bad. There were more Shipment pads they could use to transport the food, of course. But that cargo door really was badly damaged, and if it did break, then there is no doubt Triton would get out, not to mention that Shipment pad was the farthest from the main area the Infected use as a home/base, and made it faster to get in, drop the food, and get out with enough time before the Infect got there. If Triton did end up swimming out, the rest of the Infected could soon follow, if they figured out how to swim. This was bad indeed.

"Okay," Nick replied calmly, keeping himself level-headed. "We need a group of specialized agents to go in there and fix the cargo doors."

"Already done Sir," Coulson reported, with the smallest of smiles. "All we need is the word from you." Sometimes Nick really loved having Coulson on his team. The director nodded a small feeling of relief settle in his muscles at knowing he didn't have to pick out the Agents. "Send them down immedianly," Nick told. "Good work Agent Coulson.

Coulson nodded, and raised his hand to the communicator in his ear and spoke into it, saying that the specialized agents had permission to head toward the Academy. Nick stood in front of all the monitors, watching as Spider dropped down from his corner for a second, to inspect the Food Sub-scratching and sniffing it experimentally-before scurrying back into his original position. Nick kind of wished he could reach through the cameras and give Spider a good sized whack on the head for causing more trouble. Bad Spider! Just stop making more problems!

Sadly, his raging mental message was not transmitted and Spider gave no vocal response. A moment later, Coulson came back with his hands intertwined in front of him and he took his position by Nick's side. "The Agents are in position and ready to go Director Fury."

"Don't send them in just yet," Nick told him rising up his hand, while watching Spider intently. "We can't send them in there with Spider still in the Shipment Pad. We might need to gas him before allowing our Agents inside; I'm not sure how Spider would react to seeing anyone." Nick paused for a moment as a thought passed through his mind. "Coulson, get me Dr. Connors."

"Yes Sir," Coulson obeyed, he left the Main Deck and toward the labs. Nick rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he kept his sharp gaze focused on the arachnid before him. It wasn't long before Agent Coulson was back, with a concerned Dr. Connors following behind. "Uh, you wanted me Director Fury?" Connors asked, a tad nervous.

Nick gestured to the screens, "I'm going to gas Spider-Man to allow my Agents access into the Shipment Pads, before Spider-Man was infected, drugs and tranquilizers have a weaker hold on him. How long would you estimate it would take for Spider-Man to snap out of the tranquilizers now that his body has gone through some...changes."

Connors looked at the screen, doing a quick mental estimation. But he fidgeted nervously, and says, "Are you sure you don't want Tony on this? He might have a better chance of calculating it correctly." The good doctor didn't look so sure of himself, and Nick wondered if it was partly because of the conversation they had earlier.

"I trust your calculations," Nick tells him honestly, "You've been watching and observing the bodily conditions of the Infected the longest out of anyone. If anyone knows this, it's going to be you."

Connors gulped, but nodded. He took a deep, steady breathe, "Very well, but there are chances my estimation could be incorrect. We would have no way of knowing if the unknown chemical can snap Spider-Man out of drugs faster than normal, and his current enhanced metabolism might've improved. But...I will give it my best shot." Nick nodded. Connors examined the screen intently.

He already knew how much tranquilizer was in each of the gas releasers in the Academy; it was all a matter of calculation the mass of Spider's body, and how faster it would be to flush out of his system. After a moment, he tells Nick, "You have about 6.3 minutes until Spider-Man will come too. I would suggest gassing him right as your Agents are about to enter the Academy." Nick smiled at Connors, "Thank you." He says.

"Don't thank me yet," Dr. Connors mutters, but offers Nick a nervous smile anyway.

Fury nodded at Coulson, and the agent muttered a "Go," into his communicator and it started. Nick watched as the divers entered the water below, and began their track toward the Academy. It was quiet as they waited, but Coulson scooted closer to Nick and bent down to whisper, "Do you want me to notify the other heroes about this?" the way he said other indicated that Coulson meant the teens.

Nick immedianly shook his head in objection, "No, let them sleep. If they wake up for any problems we have, then they won't be suitable for battle. Even if this virus has become one of S.H.I.E.L.D's top priorities, it doesn't mean any other villains on the loose will stop, and so neither can us. Let them sleep, they can whine about it in the morning after I put them through a full-body training."

Agent Coulson nodded, and took a step back. If he agreed or disagreed with Nick he didn't say anything about it, and simply watched the progress of the divers. It wasn't long before they got to the cargo doors and waited for the signal to manually open them. Nick got ready to signal for the gas, but before he could, one of the divers got bumped and he hit into the cargo door; the breathing equipment on his back gave a quiet, but sharp,ping! as it hit against the metal. Everyone held their breath as Spider jerked up, obviously hearing the almost inconspicuous sound.

He grumbled out a low, throaty growl as he slowly maneuvered around his web, sniffing the air curiously and cocking his head as he listened. Outside in the water, the divers were deadly still, the only sound coming from the air-bubbles they breathed from their masks. Spider slowly got off his web, and approached the cargo doors, his muscles still twitching as he focused with all of his senses. When he made it to the cargo doors, he growled again, louder this time-causing the divers outside to flinch a little and swim a ways back so he couldn't pick up on their breathing.

Spider sniffed the doors, and lifted a barbed finger to tap experimentally on the doors, and flinched away as if he expected something to happen. When nothing did, he tapped it again, before scratching it. Still nothing happened. Spider raised a fist, almost as if to punch the door, and Nick got ready to release the gas, afraid that Spider would end up damaging the ruined cargo doors even more than they were.

But Spider didn't, he paused for a moment, before let out a huff of air and turned away; everyone in the Main Deck let out a breath of relief. Spider glanced at his web in the corner, looking ready to head back over there; before deciding against it and instead headed out of the Shipment Pad.

The taut muscles of the agents on deck immedianly soothed as the Spider threat alleviated. But Nick didn't relax, something didn't seem right. The divers in the water got the go-ahead to proceed, and hurried to open the doors. The Shipment Pad was open, and water flooded in; but it was quickly sealed off once more as all the divers got in. Triton was currently in the showers of the Academy, with all that water around him he wouldn't notice the smell of salt water before it was too late.

The divers brought out their equipment and set to work. They all worked fast, smoothly, and professionally. They didn't talk; they simply assessed the damage and got to fixing it. It didn't take them all too long, and soon the doors were fixed and functioning properly once more. They gathered their equipment and prepared to leave.

But as one of the divers went to pick up his air mask, a gun felt out of a space in his suit. It was meant for emergencies, in case the situation got dangerous. It hit the floor with a clang that reverberated off the walls, and all 5 of the diver stilled. It was quiet for a few antagonizing moments, but nothing happened and they all relaxed once more. The diver reached down to pick up his gun-though right as he did, it was met by a loud, angry yell.

Spider came charging out of the shadows, fangs poised, and eyes blazing as he went straight for the diver with the gun. The diver gasped, and brought up his gun to shoot. Before he could shoot though, the trang was released. At seeing the gas, the agent hurriedly strapped his air-mask on, something that was also designed as a gas-mask as well, and ran from Spider's furious rage. Spider stopped his attack once he was assaulted with the gas, he lifted his arms up as if to block it-but that did little good.

The giant arachnid swayed on his feet as the trang gas entered his system, he stumbled a few steps before dropping to his knees. Before he was completely under, he let loose a loud, high shriek that left the divers flinching downward and covering their ears through the masks. Then Spider was down, lying on the floor and breathing heavily.

Whereas throughout the Academy the other Infected perked up. What they heard wasn't a cry of anger or pain-that was a distress call, and they certainly recognized who it was coming from. Zabu hissed loudly, Squirrel Girl chattered angrily, and Rhino grumbled deep from his chest and swung his horn around from side to side in protective agitation. Within the showers, Triton got rigid from under the water, and immedianly exited the cool waters. Tiger snapped away from her nap, and sniffed the air. She yowled loudly, and was up full-out running toward the Shipment pad, the rest of the Infected ran after her in a thunderous roar.

"Shit!" Nick swore. He shouted into the microphone connected to the divers, "GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!" The divers didn't need to be told twice. They sprinted for the doors that opened a crack, just the size for an adult to fit through. The first 4 got to it safely, but the 5th wasn't so lucky. He stumbled over a cooked turkey that was washed there by the water from Spider's early stacked stash of food. He slipped, and faced planted into the watery ground. The doors were already closing.

Nick couldn't stall them, the Infected would be upon the Shipment Pad at any moment, stopping the doors even for a few seconds could give them-especially Triton-a way to escape. The divers swore colorfully, and stumbled to his feet. He ran/sloshed through the slowing torrent of water escaping through the doors. He was almost there, when the roar of the Infected reached his ears and he stumbled again in panic.

Tiger burst in the room, the others at her tail, with her fur bristled and teeth bared into a snarl. She scanned over the room, and when she saw Spider laying on the ground motionless, and everything went further downhill from there. All of the eyes of the Infected, eyes blazing and red-hot with scorching anger, trained onto the lone, suspecting diver almost toward the safety of the water outside. They rushed forward, water exploding in cascades around them.

Sick with fear and panic, the diver stumbled again, but he was too late. The door closed right as he got there, and he slammed at it fiercely as if to open it that way. The thundering behind him got him whirling around, at the sight of the snarling, vexed creatures calling for his blood had him screaming with terror.

The Infected got to him in a matter of seconds, Tiger was the fastest though. Most of the agents up on the tricarrier had to look away as the first pained scream tore from the lone divers throat.