S.H.E.I.L.D, Hellicarrier

Natasha Romanoff sat in front of the computer screen staring at the photos it produced. "This is going to take forever" she thought pushing some red hair from her eyes. She had been excited at the idea of being in command of her own team when idea was pitched to her. Fury had approached her with the idea of creating a team S.H.E.I.L.D could use for less heroic actions than the Avengers. At first Natasha had been surprised, this wasn't the sort of thing Fury condoned but since Norman Osborn's take over a while back his view seemed to have shifted. The only problem was finding people that could be used for these sort of missions. Natasha wasn't a monster but she was no saint either, she had killed many people in her time. Most of them deserved it. After another hour of looking through images of potential candidates she realized it was a lost cause. This team wasn't meant to be like the Avengers and none of the people in S.H.E.I.L.D's database fitted the right profiles. What was it fury had said?

"I want a team that can do whatever is necessary to win. The Avengers are the body of our defence we need you to be its shadow."

He really is a drama queen Natasha thought as she left her seat and began to make her way to the front of S.H.E.I.L.D's hellicarrier. Natasha needed a word with Fury.

"Ah Widow" the S.H.I.E.L.D leader greeted as she entered the large control room.

"Sir it's about the taskforce" she began but Fury quickly silenced her by raising his hand.

"Not here" he replied sharply before gesturing to a door no his right. "What is the problem agent Romanoff?" he asked after shutting the door behind her.

"I've gone through the database and no-one on the list is a good fit for this job. I've looked through every available hero and none of them are going to be prepared to do this" Black Widow replied "Well Wolverine fit the profile but he doesn't play well with others and I don't particularly want to have him around besides he's on the Avengers at the moment."

Fury looked at her sternly for a moment. "When did I say we needed heros?" he replied watching as his words sank in.

"You mean? That's insane why should any of them help" Natasha gasped.

"Criminals aren't difficult to understand agent Romanoff you simply find what drives them and use it" Fury replied.

"You're truly suggesting that we pay villains, criminals, people who have probably tried to kill us in the past, to work for us?" Black Widow asked looking at him disbelievingly.

"Would you prefer to have them out there working for our enemies or here working for us?" Nick Fury said as he walked out the door.

Natasha stood frozen in place for a few moments before composing herself and leaving the room. As much as she hated this idea she had to admit Fury had a point. Returning to her quarters she started to search again this time in a slightly different list than the previous one. As she scrolled through the names until one caught her eye.

"Tony Masters" she murmured as she clicked on the link. She knew that name. It was only as a photo of a skull-masked individual appeared she remembered where from. Tony Masters or Taskmaster as the world knew him was a former S.H.E.I.L.D agent who took an experimental formula that gave him photographic reflexes. The formula had side effect unfortunately and his memory was erased. Having no memory of S.H.E.I.L.D he used his new found abilities to became a mercenary. Had Natasha not seen the man in action herself the notion of photographic reflexes would have seemed bizarre to her but Natasha had seen Taskmaster fight before.

His ability allowed him to instantly copy any fighting style or movement he saw. She remembered the shock on Iron Fist's face when Taskmaster had perfectly executed a chi attack that he had spent years of his life perfecting only after a few seconds of fighting him. The second time she had seen him was during Norman Osborn's siege on Asgard. Taskmaster had been cutting through the Asgardians as if they were standing still and if that wasn't impressive enough he successfully fought both Bucky Barnes and his mentor Captain America at the same time.

Natasha knew Steve Rodgers well and he was one of the most skilled fighters she knew but she'd seen the look of surprise on his face when Taskmaster disarmed them both without hardly any effort. Masters was good she'd give him that but was he what she was looking for?

One thing Black Widow did know was that Taskmaster could be easily controlled. As he was a mercenary his loyalty was to whoever paid the most and S.H.E.I.L.D's budget was huge. Natasha quickly added his name to the list of possibilities before looking through the others. After four hours she had her list of possible candidates. It was time to go find them.

Beijing, China, 10pm local time

"Did you acquire it?" the well-dressed Chinese man asked looking at the costumed man in front of him apprehensively from behind his desk.

"Of course I did" Taskmaster replied in Chinese eyeing the man through his skull mask. He then proceeded to pull an object from one of the many pouches on his belt and handed it to the Chinese man.

"You have done us a great honour Taskmaster" the man replied as he turned the object in his hands.

"Triads and their honour" Masters thought rolling his eyes behind the mask. They had hired him to steal the hilt of some sword that belonged to an ancient ruler of China. Getting it had been a piece of cake, the security at the museum had been easy to bypass for someone of his talents. "Not to be rude Peking Pete but there's still the matter of my payment" he replied as the Chinese man put the hilt in one of the many draws of his desk.

"It's through there" the man replied looking rather annoyed at being called Peking Pete.

Taskmaster smiled as he was marched through the door by a few of the man's bodyguards. "How stupid do they think I am" he thought as they walked through the door. As soon as the man had got the hilt in his hands Masters realized by his look that he had no intention of paying him. As he entered the room another two men jumped him from in front. Unfortunately for them they were unaware of who they were fighting. Taskmaster grabbed the first attacker by his wrist and wrenched it behind the man's back. The Triad cried out as he felt his wrist snap. The mercenary followed through bringing back his elbow to drive it into one of the men behind him.

Instinctively he ducked and rolled forward as the second man behind him took a swipe at him with a flick-knife. Taskmaster's hand shot to his sword, quickly unsheathed it and used the blade to parry another swipe of the knife. Spinning the weapon in his hand he hit the man in front of him with the hilt of the sword before pulling back and impaling the man behind him on its blade.

"Amateurs" he muttered as pushed the door back open, flicking his wrist to get the blood off his blade as he did. The man was still sitting behind his desk and seemed horrified that he was still alive.

"We can make a deal" he began as Taskmaster approached sword in hand.

"We already had a deal and you just broke it" Taskmaster replied coolly as he continued his slow walk towards the man.

"I'll pay you double, triple! Don't to kill me" the man continued obviously terrified now.

"As tempting as that sounds I have a reputation to maintain and money can't buy that" Taskmaster replied thoughtfully as he grabbed the man by his neck and pinned him against the wall of the room before placing the tip of his sword against the man's neck. "I just hope all Triads aren't as stupid as you" he growled before beginning to apply pressure to the sword.

Suddenly a shot rang out and the bullet struck the sword's hilt throwing it from Taskmaster's grasp. He turned annoyed at being interrupted to see a woman dressed completely in black. He couldn't see her face due to a balaclava but her stance was vaguely familiar.

"Let me finish your boss and I'll be with you hon" Taskmaster muttered turning his attention back to the man. Suddenly the woman launched herself at him. Quickly Taskmaster released the man and did a backward somersault to avoid her blow. "Although now is good to" he finished throwing a punch at the woman.

She ducked beneath his blow before lashing out with her foot aiming for his chest. Masters stepped back, instinctively bring his arms to block but to his surprise he realized this was a bluff attack and instead of kicking him in the chest she used the momentum to strike him in the head. He reeled back briefly before spinning and kicking his assailants legs out from beneath her.

"Well, well Ms Romanoff it's been a while" he said watching as she got back to her feet. Black Widow stared at him in shock from beneath her balaclava. It had taken her two days to track Taskmaster down and with all of the resources S.H.E.I.L.D had that was an impressive feat for Taskmaster in itself and here he had figured out who she was in barely a few seconds.

"How did.."

"Did I know it was you?" Taskmaster interrupted finishing her sentence. "I remember fighting styles and the people who use them. It took me three moves to guess who you were" he stated matter of factly.

Black Widow removed the mask letting her long red hair flow out. They both stared at each other for a minute before Taskmaster broke the silence.

"So you going to try and take me in or what?" he asked eyeing her and slipping into a fighting stance.

"I'm here to make you an offer" she replied. Taskmaster seemed genuinely surprised at this.

"S.H.E.I.L.D making me an offer? That's new" he replied smirking and relaxing his stance slightly.

"I'm putting a team together" Black Widow continued ignoring him. "Your skillset could prove valuable."

"Let me get this straight. You want me to believe that S.H.E.I.L.D, the world biggest goody two shoes company in the world wants me, a renowned mercenary, assassin and saboteur to work for them? Sorry sweet cheeks but I don't buy it" Taskmaster replied sarcastically.

"We're prepared to pay you" Black Widow insisted.

"Wait. Now they want to pay me? Is this being recorded? Am I being Punk'd?" he replied again with the same sarcastic tone.

"Listen Masters you can either stay here and do meaningless small jobs for these assholes" Black Widow began gesturing to the Chinese man on the floor. "or you can except the offer I'm giving you and get paid well for doing the job we assign!" Natasha finished curtly, eyeing the assassin. Tony stood there for a moment, he could generally tell when people were lying and he was pretty sure she wasn't.

"What kind of job are we talking about?" he asked sheathing his sword.


This Chapter is short as its a test run the next chapters will be longer