35: Arrested

35: Arrested

Fury looked at the screens projected in front of him with seriousness. As expected, the news had been quite hot lately. First, what happened in Gulmira, then the Defiant conference, followed by the destruction of the Stark Industries building, and the revelation that Tony Stark was Iron Man.

As if that wasn't enough, now there were images of a real monster circulating all over the world.

Yes, his job was beginning to get more stressful, and if he wasn't bald, he would have feared for his hair.

Suddenly, his personal communicator started to ring, and without hesitation, he answered.

"I have news," Natasha's voice came through, and Fury had to take a moment because there was something in her tone that he hadn't heard in a while.

"Agent Romanoff, tell me what happens"

After the monster in San Francisco was defeated and Daniel took it with him, S.H.I.E.L.D. realized that the direction the hero headed was towards Malibu. While they couldn't track him if he went any further, Fury believed that Defiant was going to meet Tony for some reason that he still didn't know but surely had to do with the prisoner he took.

Therefore, Natasha, who was already nearby, was sent to pay a visit to the billionaire at his mansion.

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In Malibu, California, inside Tony Stark's house.

Natasha looked at the scene in front of her for a moment before responding.

"explaining it is a bit complicated. It's better if you come in person; they want to talk to you."

Fury on the other side of the line slightly frowned but nodded.

"I'll be there soon," he said, then hung up the call, and Natasha turned her attention back to Daniel and Tony, who were looking at the strangest and most grotesque being Natasha had the misfortune to see, which said a lot since she had seen very horrible things before.

"Listen, just tell us what we want, and everything will be easy," Tony said in a relaxed voice.

"Oh, you can refuse, and I'll make sure to turn your world into hell," Daniel threatened in a deep voice, deeper than his natural voice, making it clear he was making an effort.

Upon seeing them do such a thing, Natasha couldn't decide whether to laugh or feel amazed because it was actually working.

The monster, which was no longer frozen but imprisoned in what appeared to be an improvised cage made of energy shields, trembled, causing its onion-layered skin to shake unpleasantly.

It was strange and unsettling, a huge being over three meters tall shrinking like a scolded child. Natasha would certainly put it in her top ten strangest things she had seen in recent years.

"I-I don't know, I hated everything, I was very angry," the monster said through gritted teeth, its trembling turning into one of frustration, and its small dark eyes gained a clear glint of rage.

"Let's talk about those emotions. Why were you angry? What caused it?" Tony asked.

The monster squirmed, as if trying to remember.

Natasha didn't know exactly what Daniel or Tony were looking for with this, but seeing that the monster seemed unable to give an answer, she decided to intervene.

"Maybe being fired from the place where he worked for almost 20 years is the answer," she said. At her words, Daniel and Tony turned to look at her, making her shrug.

"What? S.H.I.E.L.D. finished cleaning the place and found some clues."

"Jarvis, why am I hearing about this now?" Tony asked, frowning.

"Sorry, sir. You seemed quite entertained, and I didn't want to interrupt your game."

That made both Daniel and Natasha almost snort.

"Well, I guess I can stop faking the voice," Daniel returned to his normal voice and looked at the monster, who now seemed more agitated upon hearing what Natasha had said.

"Tell me everything you learned about him," he said without turning to look at Natasha. She looked at him for a moment before nodding and beginning to speak.

"Jarol Holm, a Swedish immigrant who came to the United States with his family almost 30 years ago. There's not much to highlight in his story beyond his anger issues during his adolescence and violent tendencies that led him to be arrested several times. He calmed down for a while, took some cooking classes, and got a job at one of the oldest restaurants in San Francisco. Of course, over time, his hygiene... started to leave much to be desired. The constant complaints from customers led his boss to decide to fire him after many arguments. After that, well, I guess something happened to him."

The more Natasha spoke, the more it seemed Jarol remembered, shaking his head constantly until he heard the last part of her account.

"No!" he shouted, though it was more like a roar, steam pouring from his pores in waves, only being held back by the energy shields surrounding him.

"He couldn't fire me! He had no right!" he yelled, his fist slamming against the blue energy wall. Daniel and Tony looked at several screens projecting real-time data.

Before imprisoning Jarol, they had installed various sensors in his cell to monitor his condition, as well as in his body. The monster, of course, had been unable to resist.

"They're reacting to his anger," Tony said, astonished as he watched a screen showing cells inside Jarol agitating, changing, and altering in strange ways.

"Not just his anger, it's his emotions," Daniel said thoughtfully.

So, an emotional trigger... Where had he seen something like this before?

Monsters? An emotional trigger? An appearance and abilities related to what caused that surge of emotions?

Daniel suddenly stood still, absorbing this information, uncertain if what he thought it was could be correct or not.

He shook his head. No, this was a different world, unrelated to that place. It should be impossible for something like that to exist here.

But he knew he was just trying to deny it. He knew his own luck; of course, this had a high probability of being his fault. No, it wasn't his fault—or was it? It would be hard to know, and it didn't really matter. As long as he found a way to fix it, then it would be fine. He was Defiant, a superhero. Whether it was his fault or not, fixing this was his responsibility, and that wouldn't change.

He took a deep breath and sighed slowly.

"Well, this gives us a clue, though not a very useful one," How could emotions biologically affect living beings to the point of deforming their existence into something non-human? There was more to this than simple biological science—something mental. Thinking about it, he couldn't help but picture a blonde woman in his mind.

Yes, maybe he needed to talk to her again to investigate and clarify some things regarding this. Although, considering he had left without warning and hadn't sent any message in the past few days, she was probably very upset.

Well, in his defense, a lot of things had been happening, and she knew he was a busy man.

"if it's not too much to ask, I would like an explanation about this," Fury's voice arrived, though this time his arrival was no surprise to Daniel, who had been attentive to the sounds in case the literal monster in the room tried to escape.

Tony, who had been studying some of the collected data, waved his hand without looking at Fury and responded casually.

"I hope you went to the bathroom before coming because this might take a while."

Daniel began to think that he might try the teaching profession if he ever had time for it, though teaching didn't become his favorite thing instantly, it was certainly entertaining.

Of course, it helped that the students were intelligent, not counting Tony, and although Natasha and Fury weren't extraordinary geniuses, underestimating their intelligence would be a grave mistake.

It didn't take them long to summarize what was happening; they showed some of the findings and theories that Daniel had, and that Tony could corroborate even if he still wasn't an expert in genetics.

"So, something that may or may not be hidden in many or few people around the world makes people turn into these things for no reason?" After listening to the whole explanation, Fury spoke, pointing towards Jarol's cell; the monster had been isolated but was still in view for monitoring.

"Well, there might be a reason, though it's still a hypothesis, but we have enough evidence to show that this could be the right answer." Daniel then mentioned Jarol's situation and the emotional trigger, apart from extracting the information from Greg and Raza.

"The example of the former leader of the Ten Rings in Afghanistan is something Tony can explain better." At that, Tony nodded and began to detail his encounter with the man.

"I didn't think too much about it at the time, but now I feel that the emotional trigger theory makes a lot of sense. I didn't kill him immediately, I... wanted to see him suffer, to feel the same as I did," he touched his chest where the arc reactor was glowing.

"A slow and agonizing death," he was quite angry at that moment.

"Now I know that doing that was stupid and it came back to bite me immediately." Then he signaled, and Jarvis played some of the images of his encounter with Raza, images that had been taken by his armor.

He didn't show the entire encounter, just the important parts, like Raza's sudden transformation and the demonstration of his powers, and some parts of the fight.

Once he finished his explanation, Daniel stepped forward.

"I don't know exactly when or what happened to him, but thanks to the testimonies of several students, we can be clear that the boy Arkin had been getting into trouble before, well, the incident at his school. Emotional problems are more common in teenagers, but unlike Jarol or Raza, we don't have direct proof that this was his case, so we can only assume that it was and that something happened to cause him to change." This was why, even with three examples, they couldn't say for sure that an emotional trigger was really the key point.

Daniel frowned as he thought about this matter. In part, he felt responsible because Smallville was his home and base, and that something like this had happened without his notice only served to remind him of how imperfect he was.

He couldn't be everywhere or save everyone; it was something he thought he already knew, but believing you know something and having proof of it hitting you in the face felt very different, and he would be lying if he said he didn't feel a bit bad about it.

This was why he really wanted to stop this problem before it became too big.

Fury pondered all of this for a moment before speaking.

"I would like to have some samples so the scientists at Shield can do some analyses."

"Do you doubt us?" Tony couldn't help but ask with clear displeasure.

"You've always been more of a mechanic than a biologist, Tony. Besides, verification is necessary with something this serious." It wasn't that Fury didn't trust them, but as the director of the world's most important international defense agency, he had to use his own means to be sure.

"Well, if you want a sample, then you can have it," Daniel said suddenly, pointing to Jarol, causing both men to look at him in confusion.

"Did you plan to keep him in your living room until the end of time?" Daniel couldn't help but ask with amusement as he saw how Tony looked at him.

The man frowned. "Well, you know, I thought you'd take him to your secret base or something."

"I have a base... but it's not a prison." Daniel wasn't going to turn his farm into a prison, and although the fortress could be adapted, he would never take a prisoner and enemy near it in any way. That's how things tended to go wrong.

Of course, there was the Phantom Zone, but Daniel wasn't going to build an entrance to that place anytime soon. First of all, he didn't have the necessary resources at hand, and secondly, opening a door to what was essentially a dumping ground for criminals just to put more criminals in sounded like a very bad idea.

Although not completely, his memories about Superman had almost returned. There were still things missing, of course, but several gaps had been filled, and he knew that not infrequently, prisoners from the Phantom Zone tended to escape one way or another.

Therefore, he wanted to wait until at least his superhero team was mostly complete before opening a door to that place.

That way, even if something went wrong, he would have enough help to handle it.

Maybe it was a bit paranoid, but if suddenly three or more angry Kryptonians escaped, Daniel wasn't sure that he, Tony, and Carol could stop them without half the world going up in flames.

So yes, he was going to be cautious.

Fury looked at the monster over three meters tall and almost as wide as a car and couldn't help but smile ironically. While Shield had several prisons around the world, their facilities were... designed for less monstrous prisoners.

Still, it didn't mean they didn't have options.

"I might have a place."

That caught Tony and Daniel's attention.

"Wait, you really have a prison for monsters?"

To Stark's question, Fury shook his head.

"Not for monsters, for a monster. A very green and very angry one. Although it's not completely finished yet, it should be enough to hold this guy. Of course, I would like your help to improve it," he said, looking at the energy shields containing Jarol.

At the request, Tony almost refused, but before doing so, he began to think more deeply about it. He remembered Raza, the boy Arkin, the monster in front of him, and those strange ninja-like guys with fire powers.

If more monsters, people, or strange beings with abilities beyond the norm kept appearing and wreaking havoc around the world, they would need a place to put them.

Killing each and every one of them could be the easy solution, but it was also too ruthless and inhumane. Even if Tony had already crossed that line, it didn't mean he enjoyed doing it or wanted to become a complete murderer. No, that was not the legacy he sought to leave.

"I'll think of something," Tony simply said, with some ideas beginning to form in his mind.

Fury knew this was the best he could get for now, so he shrugged and accepted it.

Then he looked at Daniel. "Do you think..." he pointed at Jarol, and Daniel understood. Of course, they needed to transport the monster to the cell Fury mentioned, but letting Shield handle it alone was like inviting Jarol to escape one way or another.

"Jarvis, deactivate the shields," Tony said, and soon the monster was free once more. Of course, in the next instant, a fist struck its face, leaving it unconscious, and its body was encased in a block of ice.

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Carrying a monster in an ice block in one arm and a person in the other wasn't as comfortable as he thought it would be.

On the other hand, seeing Nick Fury's irritated face while he held them was more entertaining. Daniel was pretty sure the man was completely regretting accepting his offer to bring him along.

Well, he never promised it would be a comfortable trip.

"We're almost there," Fury said, pointing to a distant place. Daniel squinted, noticing a slight distortion in the sky. In fact, an ordinary person wouldn't have noticed that something was wrong at first glance.

He rose through the clouds and soon went beyond the distortion. Then he saw it.

'Pretty cool,' he couldn't help but think. Although he had seen more advanced technology, it didn't change the fact that seeing a full-sized aircraft carrier flying through the clouds was awesome.

Soon he landed, and along with Fury, they entered the place, drawing a lot of attention.

"You certainly have an interesting place up here," he said, greeting some of the people who were staring at him.

"Not only superheroes can have cool stuff," Fury responded with a smile.

They passed through several areas until they reached their destination.

"You know, when you said you had a place, I imagined a lot more metal, maybe some chains and spikes, certainly not glass," Daniel remarked, though calling it entirely glass would be a lie since it still had metal-reinforced corners. Still, he couldn't help but look with interest at the cell with translucent glass walls.

"Don't underestimate this material. It's a special creation of reinforced glass beyond anything you can imagine. It was made to withstand great amounts of impact." Fury actually sounded somewhat proud, and he had the right to be. Creating this material had been very challenging for Shield and had cost many resources and time.

"Do you mind if I test it? Just to be sure, of course," Daniel said, placing the large ice cube with the prisoner on the ground. Although he didn't believe Fury was lying, he still remembered that the man had said this cell wasn't completely finished and he didn't want to leave something as dangerous as Jarol without ensuring it wouldn't escape, because if it did and ended up killing everyone in the place, that would definitely sit badly with him.

Therefore, he needed to make sure that, at a minimum, it was impossible for Jarol to break out of this cell.

Fury thought about his offer and nodded.

"Go ahead, do it," he said, stepping aside to give him space.

This was a great opportunity to see a direct demonstration of Defiant's capabilities while also testing how effective the reinforced glass was.

Of course, Shield had already tested it with high-caliber military weaponry, but that was still very different from testing it directly against the one who was meant to remain there. Although Hulk wasn't present, Defiant seemed to possess equally impressive strength, so from Fury's perspective, this could show just how effective this type of cell really was.

With permission granted, Daniel approached the cell and extended his hand with a closed fist, his knuckles a few centimeters from touching the glass. Then he mentally calculated the distance and, with a single finger, exerted the same amount of force he had used to pierce Jarol's body in their fight.

His index finger shot forward at lightning speed, hitting the glass with such force that the generated shockwave created gales that sent fierce gusts of air through the room.

Fury had to cover himself with both hands and couldn't help but step back a few paces, almost stumbling.

Then an extremely intense vibration spread throughout the place for a few seconds, causing alarms to start blaring all over the helicarrier.

Seeing this, Fury quickly took out his communicator and calmed the situation.

On his part, Daniel looked with astonishment at the crystal he had struck. Of course, he hadn't done it with all his strength; he had only used one finger after all. But even so... it was incredible that it was able to withstand an impact of such caliber. One had to understand that he had penetrated the armor of war tanks in Gulmira using much less force than he had just now.

For a moment, he was tempted to give it a real punch, but recalling the tremor that had shaken the place a moment ago, he knew that was a bad idea, so he dismissed it from his mind.

"Yes, this will do," he finally said, giving his approval.

On his part, Fury had a much less content expression than before. Although the crystal had withstood as expected, realizing that Daniel had only used one finger to shake the entire place made him understand that until now, Defiant had not really shown what he was truly capable of.

"You probably also want to add something to deal with the steam it expels. Certainly, he's been waiting to use it again, hasn't he, Jarol?" Daniel, of course, didn't believe that the ice in which the monster was encased could hold Jarol forever. He had already anticipated that it would try to use its ability to expel scalding steam to try to break free and escape.

The monster, which had awakened not long ago and had been biding its time, trembled and looked at Daniel with fear.

"Y-you!" Then the steam began to come out at high speed, but from Daniel's perspective, it was like watching a cloud move slowly.

He waited until the ice was almost completely melted before rushing in and grabbing the monster by the neck, causing it to let out a shriek. Then he hit it again until it was unconscious.

"At least it saved us the work of defrosting the ice," Fury couldn't help but say as he saw the pool of water starting to reach his feet.

Soon, Fury opened the cell and let Daniel put the unconscious monster in it. Then Fury began to activate all the security mechanisms that hadn't been active before, the main one being something that would make Jarol experience a fall of thousands of meters if he somehow managed to damage the cell.

"Well, I still have some matters to attend to, so I'm off. If any problems arise, don't hesitate to call me; you already have my number," Daniel said goodbye, deciding he would do a quick patrol before going to see Harleen.

After all, being a hero wasn't just about fighting bad guys.

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"Eyes boring a way through me

Paralyze, controlling completely.."

The song blasted at full volume, echoing inside the sports car and pouring out through the open windows, flooding the road.

"Now there is a fire in me!"

The sound of the engine revving was drowned out by the rhythmic sound of the guitar. The exhaust let out a reverberation as the car began to travel at over 100 kilometers per hour.

"A fire that burns

This fire is out of control

I'm gonna burn this city, burn this city

This fire is out of control

I'm gonna burn this city, burn this city

This fire is out of control

We're gonna burn it, I'll burn it, I, I, I'll burn it down"

A quick gear shift made the acceleration increase even more, adrenaline flooding his veins and his heart pounding like a drum.

"Eyes burning the way through me

Overwhelm, destroying so sweetly

Now there is a fire within me

A fire that burns!"

The car jumped over a speed bump at full speed, leaving tire marks as it landed. The driver continued singing along to the music, not bothering to properly watch the road ahead, too engrossed in his own world.

"Oh, how I burn for you!-uueaah!?"

Of course, driving at such a high speed without paying proper attention could only result in an accident.

Jonathan Storm, better known to his friends as Johnny Storm, tried to regain control of the vehicle with little success.

"Shit!" he cursed in panic, realizing what was about to happen. His eyes widened to the extreme, and his heart almost seemed to stop for a moment.

The car flew through the air, nearly flipping over, everything seeming to go in slow motion for the boy inside who felt his pants dampen without being able to do anything to prevent it. In the back of his mind, a part of him prayed that it was his soda and not urine that had just stained his pants.

Johnny began to close his eyes, bracing for the imminent crash, but unexpectedly, it didn't come.

The car stopped suddenly in midair.

"What the hell?" Confused, the boy felt the car moving as it was slowly lowered until it touched the ground with its wheels. Without hesitation, he turned off the engine and stuck his head out the window with curiosity.

"Are you okay?" The voice made Johnny blink several times. A tall, well-built figure with a distinctive suit bearing a symbol on his chest, recognizable from frequent news appearances, greeted him.

"Defiant!" Johnny shouted excitedly as he instantly recognized the hero.

"That's my name, don't wear it out," he said with his characteristic smile. Johnny prepared to get out of the car, but before he could, a hand reached in, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and yanking him out through the window.

The movement was so fast that he didn't even feel it until his feet touched the ground.

"What-! What are you doing?!" he said in panic, feeling the hero scrutinize him from head to toe. Once Daniel ensured he wasn't injured, he pulled a capture tape from his utility belt and began tying him up quickly in a practiced motion.

"You were going almost 180 kilometers per hour on a public road. I'm pretty sure the police will love to hear why. By the way, they should be arriving soon; a patrol started following you a few kilometers back," Daniel explained calmly as he let Johnny fall beside the car.

"Oh come on! Please, man, don't do this. My dad is going to kill me," he pleaded. Daniel shook his head in amusement, noting that the boy seemed to have forgotten he was about to crash and now appeared more worried about facing the consequences.

"Maybe that way you'll learn to drive," Daniel smiled brightly, giving him a thumbs-up, earning a mortified look from the boy.

"I thought you were cool!" Johnny complained, defeated.

"I'm a hero, kid. That's the definition of cool," he said and began to prepare to leave.

Seeing that he was about to go, Johnny quickly called out to him again.

"Hey, wait! At least give me a picture, man!"

Hearing this, Daniel couldn't help but give him an incredulous look.

"I tied you up so you couldn't escape from the police, and you still want a picture?"

Johnny grinned.

"Hey, you saved me, I can't complain about that, right? But more importantly, if I have a picture with you, I could definitely impress a lot of girls!" he said, winking with a subtle expression that made Daniel snort. Then an idea came to Daniel's mind, and with a mischievous smile, he searched for the boy's phone and took it.

"What's your password?"

"127689," Johnny said without hesitation.

Once unlocked, Daniel quickly opened the camera and stood next to Johnny.

"Wait! Wait! Don't let the tape show too much," he pleaded, but Daniel ignored him and took the photo. Then he began uploading it to all the social media open on the phone, with the caption "Caught!" in all caps at the same time sending it to all contacts.

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

"Hashtag arrested. Didn't you say you wanted to use a picture with me to impress some girls? With this, I'm sure you'll have a long line of beautiful girls waiting to bail you out." Johnny looked incredulously at the hero, unable to believe what he had done.

His left eye twitched, but soon a smile formed on his lips, and he began to laugh uncontrollably.

"You! Hahaha, alright, alright, good move, man. Just wait, I'll definitely get you back somehow!" How? Johnny had no fucking idea.

"Well, I'll be waiting for you," Daniel said with amusement and began to rise into the air, then disappeared into the distance.

Watching him leave, Johnny sighed, stopping his laughter.

"That was awesome..."

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Note:

Okay guys, I'm bringing you this chapter ahead of schedule because, as I said at the beginning, I'm celebrating! I hope you like it and I wish you a great day n.n

In case you're wondering how Daniel didn't break that crystal, well, Thor hit that crystal with his hammer while he was angry, and it only cracked, so you can imagine how tough it is.

Finally remember that You can already find the next chapter (and several more chapters) of this story on Patreon (patreon.com/EmmaCruzader) All the support received is appreciated ;D