Chapter 20
Fury frowned in frustrated worry as he read the report of what happened to the search team, before looking up to Maria, who was waiting patiently for him to finish.
“This is getting very dangerous,” Fury announced grimly, feeling like things were getting more complicated with each passing second and he couldn’t do anything about it. “It is a spaceship. There is no more doubt about that. It came from somewhere in the wide unknown space, to prepare for an invasion.”
“There is no proof of that yet.” Maria cleared her throat, trying to hide her worry and conflicted feelings.
“What do you mean there is no proof? What about all of this then?!” Fury exclaimed at her face in utter frustration, waving the report in his hand pointedly. “We don’t have that type of technology! And I am pretty sure no other country has it either! No, Agent Hill, there is no need for any further proofs!”
“Just because we don’t have that kind of high technology, doesn’t mean that another country doesn’t.” Maria pointed out with a frown, still standing her ground in the face of Fury’s frustration. “Maybe Japan does or even China. They could have made a new weapon and are testing it on our land. We can’t dismiss that option!”
“We can’t dismiss the option of space invasion either.” Fury shook his head firmly, “We will put that on the top of the list and take all precautions against it until proven otherwise. Don’t you remember that space message we intercepted earlier? The one that said ‘Everything is ready, prepare for invasion’? it was sent from Earth towards somewhere else in the vast universe! Doesn’t that mean that someone here is reporting back to his bosses that the Earth is ready to be invaded?!”
“That was just a reflected message, sir,” Maria muttered with a frown.
“That’s lucky for us!”
“Or planned by them.”
“What do you mean?” Fury was taken aback by her retort, not understanding her point.
“I mean if I was truly a professional Space Spy, with high intelligence and professionalism, and I wanted to send a secret message back to my home planet, in preparation for invading the planet I am in right now, I won’t make the simple mistake of sending a message only to be reflected the planet we are going to invade, while knowing fully well, that their technology can decipher that message easily enough,” Maria stated firmly, still standing her ground about the entire situation. It all seems wrong to her in a way. Like something wasn’t adding up.
Fury stared at her for a few seconds, and couldn’t help but think that she did have a very good point.
Did that imply that the Spy let them see the message on purpose? What for? Are they trying to distract them from something more important?
Before he could voice any of that, a ringing came from his private phone, before one of his agents’ faces appeared on the screen.
“Sir, we located the new location of the target.” The agent reported firmly.
“Really?” Fury’s eye gleamed at the news. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, sir. One of the fallen soldiers had managed to shoot a tracker in the target’s body before the fell. Thanks to that we managed to track the target’s movement through the desert until we managed to pinpoint its exact location accurately, despite it hiding between another set of boulders.”
“Perfect.” Fury nodded in appreciation of his agents’ efforts. “Don’t try to provoke it, or make it feel threatened in any way. We don’t want it to know that we discovered its new hiding place. Just keep watching it from a distance and don’t let it out of your sight.”
“Yes, sir.”
Fury ended the call and then started dialing to make another call immediately.
“What are you planning to do?” Maria asked curiously, watching him start the call.
“I am calling the Air Force,” Fury answered shortly, without clarifying more.
“Why?” Maria tilted her head in confusion, frowning a little.
“That ship declared war on us,” Fury announced firmly, eyes burning with silent rage, as the face of James Rhodes appeared on the screen, answering his call. “So, it is only natural to answer in kind.”
***
Dr. Johnson and Alex stood watching in confusion, as Tony fiddled with the EEG device, that was connected to Castiel’s brain, showing his brain waves as he slept off in his silent coma.
Tony was fiddling with the machine. Connecting wires from it to a special laptop he modified specifically for this. Bruce and Charlie were also standing in the corner of the room, watching him silently with interest, wondering what Tony was up to this time, but not daring to interject his line of thoughts and ask him.
Dr. Johnson, however, couldn’t just stand there and watch anymore.
“Mr. Stark, do you know what you are doing exactly?” Dr. Johnson asked in frustration, making Alex turn to him indignantly as if asking how dare you ask Tony Stark that?! Shame on you! but he ignored her looks, as he kept glaring at Tony.
“I get my living by working with machines, doctor, in case you forgot,” Tony answered easily without deterring his focus, as he connected extra two wires to the laptop.
“I didn’t forget, Mr. Stark, but you don’t have any medical experience to be fiddling with the machines like that.” Dr. Johnson insisted, his frustration increasing. “What if what you are doing right now hurt your friend? Who will take responsibility then?”
“What I am doing will never hurt my friend, Dr. Johnson, otherwise, I wouldn’t have dared to do it.” Tony finally looked up at him, giving him a pointed firm stare. The idea of him hurting Castiel in any way was offending enough for him to focus on the doctor long enough to make his point. “All I am trying to do here is transfer his brain waves to the laptop, where I will use a special program that I just created and improved.”
“What kind of program?!” Alex asked with gleaming eyes, looking like the entire situation was exciting to her.
“A program that will translate the brain waves.” Tony started to explain, as he returned to his work on the wires. “Translate it to a language that the system will understand. In return, it will change it into letters and words, in turn, making full sentences of the thoughts happening in the brain.”
“Oh my god, you made a telepathy program?!” Bruce exclaimed with wide eyes, Alex’s excitement transferring to him as he understood what Tony was doing.
“Exactly.” Tony nodded in confirmation, smiling a little at Bruce’s reaction. “It’s just a prototype, I never actually tried to do it before, so we are about to find out if it works though.”
“What are you hoping to get from this, sir?” Alex asked curiously, her gleaming eyes zeroing in on Tony, as her boss stood next to her, still confused and trying to understand Tony’s motive.
“I am hoping to get everything.” Tony looked at her with a manic grin that made Dr. Johnson very nervous.
“What do you mean?” Charlie was the one to ask tiredly. She was so tired. The moment Castiel had dropped, she had been so very tired. Everything was so tiring for her now, that her brain just refused to work on its own by now.
“Well, to answer that question, let me point out three very important points.” Tony relaxed back in his chair, facing his four audience. He was so very glad he found something for his brain to work on, otherwise, he would have gone mad. He raised a finger to start counting his points. “Firstly, the results of the brain wave deliverance to the Nerve Fibers. Those results showed that the brains are very much active, even though they are all in a deep coma from the outside, but that activeness is not computing to the rest of the body, it stops at the seventh vertebrae.” He raised a second finger. “Secondly, a mysterious man came here, impersonating a doctor, so he can be alone with Steve and Erik, injecting them with a truth serum to get information from them. didn’t anyone ask, how can someone get information from someone in a deep coma?”
“That’s a very good question.” Bruce frowned as he thought about that. If the team members were in a deep coma, how did that man manage to get information from them like that?
“But he injected them with the antidote to that coma.” Alex pointed out helpfully, thinking about Tony’s words carefully as well.
“That’s raises another question.” Tony snapped his fingers as he pointed at Alex. “Antidote to what? the coma? Or the real injury they are suffering from?”
“The real injury?” Dr. Johnson repeated in surprise before he frowned in frustration. “Sir, you are making this very complicated!”
“It is complicated,” Tony confirmed with a pointed look. “To understand this, we need to go to the third important thing, or what I think is the most important point of all of them,”
“Which is?” Charlie wondered with a titled head.
“It’s Dean. Dean is the third important point here.” Tony announced with a firm look.
Surprise showed on all of their faces as Bruce asked in concern, “What about Dean?”
“Everything about his case is different!” Tony started to explain excitedly, waving his hands around as he emerged himself in his explanation, unable to stay still. “From the beginning, he was the only one who managed to regain consciousness for a few seconds after getting hit by the fireball. The few words that he said then were very confusing. He said ‘It’s not a coma. I felt like he lost his battle and followed the others in their coma. Then when we checked the deliverance of his brain waves to the rest of his body, it was three times more than Steve and Erik. So, what does that mean?!”
“You tell us.” Dr. Johnosn murmured with a frown.
“It means two things,” Tony answered immediately like he was waiting for this. “Firstly, when we fell in the river, after Dean’s hit immediately, that led to a change in the chemical substance that Dean got hit with, allowing him to regain consciousness for a few seconds.”
“Right!” Bruce exclaimed excitedly. “The river! Dean’s fall in the river made the chemical on his skin dissolve a little, so he managed to wake up after it, even for a short while!”
“Exactly. The water slowed down the absorption of the chemical into Dean’s body.” Tony nodded in confirmation. “That’s the first point. The second point is Dean’s words themselves, which we should have focused on from the beginning, especially the first part, which gives us the whole answer from the start.”
He furrowed his brows, repeating Dean’s words firmly. “It’s not a coma.”
“That’s right, we should have focused on that from the start.” Alex frowned as she thought hard about those words. “He experienced everything himself, and came back long enough to report that what he felt wasn’t exactly a coma.”
“Can you take the word of an injured man in a situation like this?!” Dr. Johnson exclaimed indignantly.
“Of course, I will take Dean’s word for it,” Tony stated firmly with no ounce of doubt in his voice. “Dean won’t struggle through whatever he was dealing with then to give us misinformation. He fought through it to tell us something, so I will take his words very seriously. Especially the second part of his sentence. That he felt like something. Do you know what that means?”
“It means he still managed to feel despite what happened to him!” Alex felt like her brain lightened up suddenly, understanding everything Tony was trying to imply. “It didn’t matter what he was feeling! What was important was that he felt something! He can’t feel if it was a coma! So, he was right! This is not a coma! Not a coma at all!”
“We were wrong from the start.” Bruce’s eyes widened as he also understood all that. “It was a mistake to translate this into a coma. We should have trusted the brain waves, that indicated the full activeness of the body despite its stillness.”
“But it is not a coma, that what is it?” Charlie asked in confusion.
“A state of complete paralysis, caused by a mysterious substance,” Alex stated with certainty. “A paralysis that affects the entire body, starting from the seventh vertebrae.”
“But that means all the special senses are working just fine.” Dr. Jonhson announced with wide eyes.
“Exactly. And we can prove that right now!” Bruce grinned at him excitedly, as he turned and walked purposefully towards Castiel. “Castiel. I know for a fact that you can hear us from the start. You feel everything around you and you understand us perfectly fine. I am asking you to give us something right now.”
“Wait, Bruce, let me finish my work so we can-“Tony started, but Bruce kept going with purpose.
“Give us a sign that you hear and understand us.” Bruce talked firmly to Castiel, not hearing Tony’s words. “Focus your thoughts. Think about a memory that makes you feel strong emotions. A very happy or sad memory. You just need to feel strongly, for your brain waves to show us that.”
Everyone’s eyes stared at the EEG device’s screen, watching the steady waves, as Bruce encouraged Castiel “Come on, Cas, give us a sign!”
Tony stared at the screen too, his own heart beating loudly in his chest.
But the waves remained steady and unchanged.
Tony almost flinched. Was he wrong? Did he understand the whole thing wrong? was all his work now based on wishful thinking?
Before he could linger on those dark thoughts, one of the doctors stormed inside the room, looking frantic.
“Sir! It’s Mr. Winchester! he’s-he’s-” The doctor struggled to form a full sentence as he hyperventilated from his panic.
“What? what about, Dean, what?!” Tony exclaimed, already starting to panic as everyone turned to the doctor nervously.
“He’s-uh, he is deteriorating at an alarming speed all of the sudden, as if-as if he is-“ the doctor swallowed through the lump in his throat. “As if he is dying.”
“Oh God, Dean!” Charlie screamed in panic as she stormed out of the room, followed by a very frantic Tony and Dr. Johnson, as everyone rushed towards Dean’s room.
When Bruce was about to follow them, Alex grabbed him by the arm tightly, stopping him.
“Dr. Banner! Look! Look!” Alex exclaimed frantically, pointing at the EEG device screen, her eyes turning impossibly wide.
Bruce turned to look at the screen where she was pointing, only for his own eyes to widen to match hers, as they stared with gaped jaws at what they were seeing.
That’s because the brain waves had gone crazy. It was jumping up and down in a very alarming way.
In a way that meant that Castiel was having a very strong emotion right now about Dean being in danger, despite being still on the bed.