#hohevent2

Fear pushed people into a corner. It forced them to become their worst selves, to become selfish, to become evil and vicious and cruel. There was a reason why Matt had always tried to force it out of his heart, and that was why. Stick had another reason, though. He said that fear affected your fighting ability, affected your focus. That it changed how you struck, made your punches weaker, your injuries more severe. All Matt knew was that fear made people do crazy things, and seemingly, the Man Without Fear was not exempt.

The latest crisis to hit New York had began, relatively speaking, quite well. Tony had been doing his patrol of the city during the time, his suit helmet had managed to filter out the grand majority of the toxin, and he was in prime of place to help out the people who were affected on the ground. Hours later he ventured out of the workshop to get more samples himself, and that’s when a piercing pain erupted in his head.

Stumbling down to the workshop, shedding the suit as he went, Tony focused on what was real, on what was logical. The alien ships flying through the ceiling right now - those weren’t real. The pain in his head, that was brought on by a neurotoxin, nothing else. There was no threat to the Avengers, there was no part of his family in danger, and his workshop was a safe place.

“Hawkeye is currently in your workshop, sir. I hope you don’t mind me letting him in,” FRIDAY said. Tony nodded, waving his hand dismissively, a thick lump in his throat. Clint was a good idea right now, after all - he was one of his closest friends, he knew most of the fears that ran through his mind, he would help.

Science was based on objective, rational process, and that process led to results. The fear gas, as Tony was dubbing it, was absolutely no different. Others in Gotham had tried to decipher it, had tried to protect themselves against it, with meagre success. Tony might have been over-confident, but he believed they were looking at it the wrong way. He needed to remove himself from the effects, and focus on it as if it’s any other neurotoxin. Symptoms, dispersion, rational approaches to antidotes and containment. Still, the vision of his father in front of him couldn’t be dismissed so easily out of hand.

It was pretty much a given that when you were a single parent, you were going to be extremely busy. Sue had never doubted that fact, and she had also never been afraid of it. Inactivity was what grated at her, after all, ad luckily she had never had a significant period in her life where she was haunted by it, and it didn’t seem to be anywhere in her near future either. Luckily, Sue had an absolutely amazing support system, which was an absolute blessing. Today, Sue was running more than a little late, which always had the tendency to stress her out. She was a prodigal scientist, she was a literal super-hero, and that meant that she was more than capable of getting her kid to school on time! As it turned out, this morning certain circumstances had gotten in the way, which had her putting in a distress call - three hamster emojis, behind which a story that Sue didn’t want to recount lay - to her darling brother.

“Did you stop for bagels on the way here?” Sue asked, holding Franklin, who was thoroughly enjoying the entire situation, in an invisible dome far above all the drama. With her other hand, she had formed a shield between her and several civilians who clearly thought she was something horrific and terrifying (if she hadn’t had her coffee this morning, maybe she could understand that, but she had got a cup on the way, so she knew something else was going on). “You know, I’m beginning to think Tony didn’t just call me five times in a row to beg me not to tell you about him peeing in the suit.” Oops! It was out now. 

There were few in the city - indeed, in the world as far as Sue knew - that had the level of integrity and intelligence Gwen Stacy possessed. Many spoke of her in the highest regard, and Sue had always taken her friends’ word as gospel, but besides that Sue had formed the same opinion within moments of hearing about the woman’s accomplishments. At a young age she had been uninspired by promises of wealth and a powerful position, and instead took a chance coming to work for a friend, doing work that would help people, but didn’t provide half the salary. If there was anyone Sue could trust to help her look over some of the fear toxin samples she had collected, it was Gwen!

“I come bearing gifts,” Sue announced with a smile, holding up a bag from the local Chinese in one hand, and a paper bag filled with samples in the other. “Franklin is with his dad and Ben is taking over my patrol for tonight, so that means I have all the time in the world to work through these, if you’re up for helping me out.” Gwen was always inquisitive, eager to help and learn, and that meant Sue was confident she wouldn’t hesitate. “Have you been affected by the fear toxin at all? My shields seem to protect me somewhat, but I’m not planning on tempting fate by staying out too long.”

Although Matt was firmly against the idea of vigilantes having ‘shticks,’ he had to admit that fear - or overcoming it, at least - was something that was strongly associated with Daredevil. Before he gave himself a name, they had called him simply the Man Without Fear, and it stuck as a catchy slogan for journalists to blast all over their papers. Truth be told, Matt was still afraid the grand majority of the time. His fears were shown to him just the same as they were to other people. The only difference was his introspection, and the fact that he was more than aware of what would come up the second he inhaled the gas. The hallucinations were disturbing, sure, but terrifying they were not. His mind had already reached the possibilities a hundred times over.

Matt had never really assumed that he would actually meet Captain America. After all, for most of his life the man had been a legend, lost in the ice more than seventy years ago. Then, he emerged from it once more, became an Avenger, and swapped bodies with Matt’s girlfriend. (Was Elektra his girlfriend? That was a conversation for an entirely different day.) Matt had managed not to embarrass himself completely, mostly because he was preoccupied with actually being able to see, and he had then assumed he would never meet Steve Rogers again.

Clearly, that had been wrong as well. The streets were in chaos, and Matt had quickly discovered that there was little he could do to help people face their fears. It was a deeply personal battle, and that meant it had to be fought on their own terms. Matt ducked into Fogwell’s, letting out a breath as he dropped his bag by the door. It took only moments before he picked up on the other heartbeat - kind of impossible to miss, considering it sounded like an army marching across wooden floorboards.