CHAPTER TWO

0202 hours

SHIELD HQ

Colorado

Tony strolled down the hallway to Fury's office, completely pissed off. The extreme weather armor all but ruined, thanks to that yellow-green wannabe Hulk. He already had Jarvis hard at work fabricating the next design, hopefully capable of combating a Hulk-sized freak like the Abomination. Round Two should be quite interesting.

Fury was sitting behind his desk, which was covered with papers, file folders, binders—the works. There was barely enough room for the miniscule desk lamp that was nearly being pushed off the corner. Tony closed the door and said, "As a point of professional pride. I never let my desk get this cluttered."

Fury looked up at him, his one eye glaring. "Your desk is probably covered in pictures of muscle cars and softcore porn."

"Muscle cars and porn, yes. Softcore, no."

"What are you doing here, Stark?"

"You owe me an explanation of that thing. Bruce been going around giving people blood transfusions?"

Fury sighed. "You're not far off. The man you met is Captain Emil Blonsky, Royal Marine. Back when you were beating your buddy Rhodes up in your house, he was working with General Ross, hunting down Banner. While Ross was hunting him, Banner got into contact with a Doctor Samuel Sterns, who got a sample of Bruce's blood and cloned a ton more of it."

"Bruce injected himself with a prototype Super Soldier Serum, what's this guy got running through him?"

"In addition to Banner's blood, which he got from Sterns, Blonsky is also playing host to the only other working sample of Dr. Erskine's Super Soldier Serum from the forties. He's the first successful trial after Cap himself." Fury took a cigar from a box on his desk. Tony noted that the cigars were top flight Cubans, illegal to everybody else, though he doubted Nick Fury had to pass through customs. "I'm surprised you haven't heard of Blonsky, his story was in the Initiative stuff we gave you just prior to the Battle of New York."

"Yeah, I skimmed. Gods, a World War II soldier and one monster were enough for me." Tony took a cigar from the box, earning him yet another glare from that intense right eye. "So he's got the Hulk serum from Bruce's blood, and whatever leftover Super Soldier stuff you guys had from the forties."

"Not us. Unfortunately, SHIELD didn't get to keep the Serum after the War ended. Your father wanted it transported to Antarctica, keep it in cold storage down there, where nobody could ever find it. Colonel Phillips, head of the Strategic Scientific Reserve, had it kept in mothballs in Virginia, just in case they could find somebody else to use it on. When General Ross took over the BioTech program, he had access to all the SSR's research data."

"Blonsky didn't exactly volunteer for this, did he?"

"Matter of fact, he did. And he forced Sterns to use Banner's blood and gamma radiation on him. Ross had to use the Hulk to beat him in the first place."

Tony sighed. "We don't exactly have that luxury. So give me something I can use."

Fury stood up. "I can't give you anything. You've got a leash on Rhodes and his Patriot armor, call him back."

"Rhodey's a little busy working for the Air Force. You've got a badass super spy or two just sitting around, loan me one."

Fury sighed.

0216 hours

Clint Barton hated being woken up at two in the morning. Nothing good happens at two in the morning. He rubbed sleep out of his eyes and yawned as he walked into Fury's office. As per usual, whenever he walked into Fury's office, Fury wasn't alone. Tony Stark stood off to the side of Fury's desk, twirling one of Fury's prized Cuban cigars in his hand.

"Agent Barton, you remember Mr. Stark," Fury said, a hint of anger in his voice. Clint couldn't blame him. Fury didn't like anyone touching his Cubans.

"How's it going, Tony?" he asked.

"Oh, y'know, big gamma monsters, ninja chicks with boomerangs on their belts, the usual. How's Agent Romanoff?"

"Last I knew, on assignment with Cap."

Fury said, "Agent Barton, for the time being, you'll be on loan to Mr. Stark. We have a situation, and he'll need your help to see it through."

"Situation, sir?"

"Captain Blonsky was retrieved from Alaska a little over an hour ago. Cap and Romanoff are down in Mexico, Banner's doing humanitarian work in Taiwan and Thor's off the grid. You two are all we can count on to stop this threat before it starts."

Clint sat down on the chair in the corner and tried to look as if he were deep in thought. "Okay, I'm in."

Tony walked over to him and patted him on the shoulder. "Let's go, Cupid."

0258 hours

Unknown Facility

Unknown location

The place reminded Blonsky of the bottling plant he'd first seen the Hulk in. Conveyors, catwalks, forklifts, crates, the place was as industrial as you could make it, and yet, its sole purpose, hidden from prying eyes, was making superweapons. He almost wanted to laugh at the sheer simplicity of the place.

The woman still hadn't revealed her name to him, and she was still leading him around. The catwalks were their prime terrain during their trek through the base. His very presence stopped more than one worker as they placed one crate or another on the conveyor belts to be shipped off to one of the world's many conflict zones. He couldn't imagine they were much more than simple soldiers, otherwise SHIELD wouldn't be so worried about keeping him locked up.

Their final destination in the building was an office. Behind a very large, very expensive oak desk that had to be far older than the ages of the room's three occupants combined sat a young man, likely no older than twenty-three or twenty-four. He was reading a piece of paper in a file folder.

The man asked, "Do you know who Steve Rogers is, Captain Blonsky?"

Blonsky searched his mind, but the name didn't ring a bell. "No."

The man looked up from his folder. "The serum coursing through your veins is the exact same as his, straight from mind of Dr. Abraham Erskine. Now does the name sound familiar?"

"You're talking about Captain America, aren't you?"

He closed the folder and set it down on his desk. "I am. He was a very important man both in the nineteen forties and, more recently, just a couple of years ago when aliens invaded New York City." He stood up and walked over to Blonsky. "Now, tell me, do you think he needed an extra dose of Super Soldier blood and some gamma rays to be as heroic as possible?"

Blonsky smiled. "I wouldn't know, I'm not some pompous jackass with delusions of patriotism." He leaned in closer to the young man. "But, I assume that's why you need me, because I'm stronger than Captain America."

The young man smiled. "You're very right, Captain Blonsky. Captain America holds no candle to you." He shrugged. "Then again, you hold no candle to the Hulk. From what I read in your file, the only thing that kept you alive was Banner's feelings for a woman."

Blonsky wanted to change, but he kept himself under control. "I'm still alive because I'm tough. I've been in more combat operations than you or your little Aussie ninja over there, and I didn't have any Super Soldier or gamma enhancements."

The man turned to the woman. "Boomerang, show him what you can do."

Blonsky turned to the woman—known as Boomerang, apparently—but even with his enhanced speed, he lost track of her. She was fast. Suddenly, he was knocked to the floor, on his back, and she held a knife to his neck. It took him a second to realize that the knife was the tip of a boomerang. She pressed it into his skin.

And drew blood.

Through gritted teeth, he said, "You're an impressive bitch."

The man clapped his hands. "Indeed she is. Very few people know that the Super Soldier Serum is not only yesterday's news, but that I've perfected it to the point that only a single injection is required for a stable, strengthened reaction. I've also enhanced it significantly; that dose of forties fluids they injected into you could never compare to what I've made."

"If you've made such a perfect formula, what the hell do you need me for?"

He smiled. "Technically, I don't need Emil Blonsky, I need the Abomination. You're also going to be a simple distraction, to keep Tony Stark away from me."

"Stark?"

Boomerang stood, pulling the knife away from Blonsky's neck. She answered, "He has something we need. But, we need him to follow a trail of fake breadcrumbs first, so that we can get what it is we need."

Blonsky stood up, wiped the blood off of his neck, and said, "Then I guess I'm in. Stark's nothing compared to me. I tore up one of his armors in seconds."

The young man said, "So Boomerang tells me. She spoke very highly of you on your way here from Alaska."

Blonsky knew that she'd never said anything, but he kept his mouth shut about that. "So, when do we start?"

The young man held his hand out. "Now."

Blonsky shook the man's hand. "What do I call you?"

"My name is Zeke. Pure and simple."

0317 hours

Tony Stark's Mansion

Malibu, California

"No, no, no, no, no!" Pepper Potts yelled, her skin starting to glow red-orange. "You told me that you were making your armors in Nevada now, not here!"

Tony grabbed her by the shoulders. "Honey, sweetie, you're starting to go red, calm down."

Clint chuckled under his breath. His relationship issues were far less complicated than these two. He had to admit, though. Tony was a lucky man. Pepper was as beautiful as Natasha, and far scarier, and just as determined. She ran the day-to-day business side of Stark Industries, giving Tony more and more time to tinker around with his armors. She was also one of the luckiest people in the world, since Tony had stabilized the Extremis serum in her body. All the glow and none of the blow-up of Extremis.

"Pepper, this is Clint Barton, better known as Hawkeye. He's going to be helping me on one of those SHIELD consulting things you can't stand so much."

Pepper turned to look at Clint. "Nice to meet you, but this is under protest."

Clint held up his hands. "I'm just here to help Tony, is all. My main business is working hotspots for SHIELD."

She gave him a slightly longer look, then asked, "Wait, you were in New York, weren't you?"

"I was."

She turned back to Tony. "Is this an Avengers thing, again?"

Tony once again grabbed her by the shoulders. "I swear to you, this has nothing to do with the Avengers. I mean, I did kinda get my ass kicked by one of Bruce's accidents, and Fury loaned me Clint to take him down, but Cap, Thor and Natasha have nothing to do with this."

"You swore to me that Fury wasn't going to con you into SHIELD business again."

"Well, a lot of things happened, and I got pummeled by a yellow-green dude rocking some gamma steroids. This isn't about SHIELD, it's about putting that guy's ass back in a super human prison cell. Or, sending him to Asgard so that Thor can kick his ass."

Clint said, "Hey, that sounds like fun."

Tony's AI butler, Jarvis, interupted. "Excuse me, everyone, but sir, the suit you requested is nearly completed. It's waiting for you down in the garage."

Tony clapped his hands. "Excellent work, Jarvis. Clint, if you'll follow me, I'll show you the Showroom." He turned to Pepper. "Honey, I swear to you, this is the absolute last time I get suckered into fixing one of Fury's half-assed whatevers."

Tony led Clint downstairs, into a room that would be nearly any man's dream. Cars lined two sides of the long room, ranging from vintage muscle cars to their newer counterparts and more. The far corner of the room held a showcase of armors, what Tony had described as the Mark I through to the Mark VII, the Mark I being the armor he'd built to save his life in an Afghanistan cave, and the Mark VII being the armor that got field-tested during the Battle of New York. An eighth armor stood in a more separate showcase, labelled the Mark 42 (this one with a number instead of Roman numerals). Clint considered asking him where the Marks VIII through XLI were, but there were more important things to worry about.

Tony took off his coat and draped it over a chair then tapped a button on his glass keyboard and a hologram of the Abomination appeared in the center of the room, slowly rotating. "What do you know about him, Clint?" Tony asked.

Clint tried to think of the specifics of his briefing back when Blonsky had been locked up in Alaska. "Emil Blonsky. Russian, though he was raised in Hertfordshire, England. Joined the Royal Marines when he was nineteen, worked in combat missions almost exclusively. Turned down a great many promotions to stay on the battlefield. After a tour in Afghanistan—about the same time you were there, actually—he participated in a trade program with Special Operations Command, that's when he was assigned to General Ross's Hulkbuster unit, and when he was given the Super Soldier Serum, and got himself stuffed with gamma rays."

Tony nodded. "You do excellent homework, Agent Barton." He waved his hand to the side. The Abomination hologram was replaced by one of a woman, dressed entirely in black, with a pair of boomerangs on her belt. "What about her?"

Clint rubbed at his chin. "I don't know. Nobody I've ever seen before."

"Punching her in the face caused a twenty-three point six percent drop in my left repulsor's efficiency, which makes me think there's something up about her, too."

"Do we have the security footage from inside the facility?"

"As a matter of fact, we do, but don't tell Fury." He waved the hologram away again, and a different hologram showed the security camera footage from the Alaskan facility.

The first video showed the front door, with three agents standing guard. Well, one standing, the other two sitting down. They appeared to be watching a football game on a laptop. The lights went out, and the emergency lighting kicked in immediately, illuminating the slaughter that followed the lights out. The woman grabbed the standing man and flattened his face—quite literally—on the desk in front of them. One of the sitting men went for his gun, the woman had picked up the laptop and flung it at his neck like it was a blade. It decapitated him instantly. The last man had gotten his gun out and started shooting, but the woman dodged each and every shot, at close range. She then grabbed his hand, and the gun, and put the barrel of the weapon under his chin. She forced him to squeeze the trigger, and his brains splattered all over the ceiling.

The second video was similarly disturbing. Thanks to the soundproof nature of the rooms in the facility, the men in the next room hadn't heard the murder from the previous room. The woman walked in and picked up the first man she saw, lifted him over her head, and threw him at the other man in the room. She then walked past their bleeding bodies and slit their throats with one of her boomerangs. Their blood pooled around their bodies together.

The rest of the footage was similar, mutilation and death were the common themes. When they were done, Tony shut off the holograms and sat down at his desk. "I'm pretty sure this babe could give Cap a run for his money."

Clint said, "And then some. I've been to some of the worst trouble spots on this planet, and I've never seen anything like that."

"So, we've got Blonsky and a chick with enhanced Super Soldier Serum running through her. Makes you wish we were gettin' the band back together, doesn't it, Elwood?"

"Naw, Jake... It makes me want to shit my pants."