Sorry for the long wait. Chapter 6 is now here, and I hope that you enjoy this.

Warning: minor swearing, it only happens once.

When they reached the lab they found Tony sleeping in a chair, his head tipped back over the headrest. Steve, in an act of uncharacteristic impatience, shook the billionaire awake. Tony jolted upright due to the none to gentle awakening and was about to make some sort of sarcastic comment but stopped when he saw the faces in front of him. It was going to be a long day.

Tony stared up at the heroes in front of him, breaking his gaze only of the purpose of blinking the sleep from his eyes. His heart was hammering on the inside of his chest, each and every beat echoing loudly against the inside his skull. It was not a nice thing to wake up to. No. Not at all.

It took the billionaire a couple of minutes to calm down enough for conversation and he fought to say something quickly. He hoped that they had a good reason for waking him up after only- he glanced at the clock- two hours of sleep.

He needed coffee. Lots of coffee.

Tony considered resorting to snark before he caught sight of the grim expressions before him. The looks of stern impatience drained all of the fun out of him and all he could force past his lips was a serious "What now?"

The super soldier shared a look with the child genius before explaining what he knew, the younger occasionally adding his own little gems of knowledge, while the normally arrogant inventor listened in silence. The explanation of what they suspected the ray had done lasted only a couple of minutes and the pair moved on to other important information: the locations and problems of the individual super-teens.

"Spider-Man, Peter, came through to the kitchen this morning at around seven thirty," Steve began, taking a breath before continuing, "I was the first person to notice him. He asked for help but it was quiet. He seemed really uncomfortable. He seemed to be having trouble waking and was avoiding touching everything and he seemed to be having some sort of sensory overload, like everything was too bright and too loud so I left him in my room, it's soundproof."

Amadeus then took over the conversation. "I went to see Miles when I woke up this morning. He appeared to be having some sort of panic attack. I talked him into calming down and gave him a strong sedative, it should last at least another 30 minutes but I don't know if his metabolism has sped up as well.

"Flash and Ben are in their rooms and are having similar issues as Miles and Peter. They both refused to let me but talked to me through the door. Flash reported the same symptoms as Miles and Peter and he also said that the Venom symbiote was acting strange and he didn't want to risk it getting out of control or attacking someone and Ben said that he was having 'control issues' and told me to tell everyone to 'breathe quieter'.

"Ava is also experiencing more acute senses than normal and her claws won't retract. We tried removing her amulet but we failed. She's in her room with the lights off and the door shut. She doesn't seem to be having any problems controlling her feline instincts so far, which, before you ask, is a good thing.

"Luke and Danny are still in their rooms but they should be able to manage easier than the others. Luke's only powers are super-strength, invulnerability and a higher than average metabolism. Danny has a measure of control over his iron fists- apparently, they are only activating when he closes his fist and he is able to open his fist normally."

There were several minutes of contemplative silence before Tony opened his mouth, asking what most would consider a perfectly acceptable question but caused Amadeus to roll his eyes, "What about the other one? The one with a bucket on his head?"

"You mean Sam. He's fine. His powers come from the helmet. He wasn't wearing it overnight and I manged to convince him not to put it on. Last I saw him, he was heading down to the kitchen. He agreed to tell the other Avengers what Steve and I just told you. Whether or not he has actually remembered to tell them or not is a different issue."

Tony adopted the facial expression of a goldfish, his mouth hanging slightly open at the thought of a child- a child- lecturing him in the same tone that one would explain to a toddler that two plus two equalled four! Never mind the fact that this was one of the smartest people on the planet! He was still a child. Tony would be willing to bet that the child in front of him hadn't even reached puberty!

Steve cleared his throat.

Tony schooled his expression into a neutral mask and turned to his computer. He needed coffee. A pot full if possible.

It was as if Steve was a god answering his prayers when he found a steaming mug of black, unsweetened coffee on his desk and clocked his fellow Avenger nursing a mug of his own. Now he could work, he thought, as the caffeine flooded his system.

Someone still had to tell Fury. Shit. He could ask someone else to do it but the Avengers would tell him to do it himself and he would get into trouble with the good ol' captain if he were to try convincing one of the children to do it for him. Maybe he could get the others to join him? They could be there to bring up things that he forgot about. That's what he tell them (he couldn't tell them that he wanted them there for moral support or they wouldn't show up).  Yeah, that could work!

Back to the figuring out how to fix the teens.

The first thing that he needed to think about was what to do in the meantime.

Step one: take inventory.

◾Seven teenagers with out of control powers.

◾Five teens with over-heightened senses.

◾Five teens with enhanced strength.

◾At least three, maybe four, teens sticking to everything.

◾One teen having difficulties controlling a known dangerous symbiote.

◾One teen with magical glowing fists.

◾At least five teens with increased metabolisms.

Okay. He could work with that.

Step two: find solution for each problem on the list (see step one). 

◾Heightened scenes? Easy. There were several soundproofed rooms in the tower with adjustable lighting- it wouldn't be too difficult to make them liveable. There would easily be enough for one each (they could share if they really wanted to, isolation isn't very fun). Pens and paper as well, for ease of communication .

◾Enhanced strength? More difficult but doable. Most of the tower was hulk-proofed anyway so nothing drastic would have to change.

◾Spider-stickiness? Short of coating everything with a nonstick substance, there wasn't much he could do. All of the teens in this category were going to be in soundproofed rooms anyway.

◾Dangerous symbiote? Again, separate from others anyway.

◾Magical iron fist? This one had him stumped. It sounded as though it was under control anyway.

◾Enhanced metabolisms? His food bill would go up. So what? It was sky high already.

He needed to get to work on those rooms; pillows and blankets and a mattress would probably be enough, maybe a couple of chairs as well but Steve said that only soft things was best. He also asked Jarvis to double the amounts of all the food items on the pending order.

Step three: decide who he could use as lab rats.

The philanthropist decided to use Danny, Sam and Amadeus- no enhanced senses or sensitivity in any of them. He could use Danny as an effected model, Sam as a dormant model and Amadeus as a guinea pig for effects on non-super-powered individuals.

The perfect plan. 

There was only one step left to his master plan now, step four: find the cure.

🕸️🕸️🕸️

Amadeus visited the Ultimates and his fellow web warriors before going to the meeting with Fury. Stark had set one up and Fury wanted anyone who could be present to be present. That included Luke and Danny, although, neither of them seemed too bothered by this.

Ava was hidden underneath her bed with the lights off and her bedclothes wrapped around her shoulders in a comforting embrace. He noted that she had changed into what appeared to be very soft, comfortable sweat pants and an overlarge S.H.I.E.L.D. issue sweater. If there was one thing to be said about S.H.I.E.L.D. workout gear it was that it was always comfortable and always gentle on the skin (apparently, someone up the chain of command was of the idea that people would work better if they had good clothes).

Flash said through the door that Venom had calmed down but was still a bit agitated. Venom wasn't appreciating the hypersensitivity and was making sure that Flash was well aware of this. Flash also said something about webs but t wasn't very clear.

With the door still shut tightly, Ben complained about the situation in a whisper so low that Amadeus had to strain to here the words said. He caught some words about headaches, itching, stingers, webs and stickiness. When he asked if Ben wanted food he revived a very faint 'yes'.

Miles had woken up by the time that Amadeus had arrived. He was still a bit drowsy, which was good because it meant that he couldn't feel the full effects of his body's betrayal. Amadeus noticed that, once or twice, Miles fell into camouflage mode but it didn't seem to bother him so the boy genius declined to say a word about it. He was also fairly certain the Miles had given the bed a couple of venom blasts but he neglected to mention as well. The two boys remained in silence together until Amadeus had to go to the meeting with Fury.

As Amadeus walked to the conference room, where Fury was going to visit them in person, he thought back to Peter's condition. He hadn't stayed long because Peter seemed fine by himself. He had one of Steve's blankets wrapped around his shoulders and he was curled up in the far corner, using his bare arms as a pillow, and his uniform was strewn around the room, some of it torn where Peter had grabbed at it while he was removing it.

Fury was stood at the head of the table in parade rest. He had a look of anger splashed across his feature but he didn't make a comment about it if Amadeus showed nearly ten minutes late. In fact, the look on his face could almost be described as understanding. It was going to be a long day.

Again, I'm really sorry for the long wait. I hope that you liked this.