A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I've been super busy with work and over endeavors.

From a Wasp to a Black Widow

Janet was the first one to step out of the secret passage. One glance around told her that they had walked into an underground laboratory. It was unlike any lab she had ever been in. The halls, at least, were dimly lit. The floors were dirty; her boots crunched on what she hoped were dry leaves. Bloody handprints were smeared on nearly every wall.

"What do you think they do down here?" Parker asked as he ran a gloved finger along one of the smears. It was dry and faded, meaning it was at least a few days, maybe weeks, old.

"Experiments," Black Panther said gravely. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he was alluding to.

"Those smaller Sentinels?"

He nodded. "They were deceased, with carbon fiber armor welded directly onto their flesh. They weren't very strong, but I imagine that they're much easier and quicker to manufacture."

Meaning that they could have hundreds of those things standing between them and finally putting an end to all this madness.

"Doesn't look like anyone's here." Jen spied a look inside one of the adjacent rooms. They were much more brightly lit than the hall. They were also much, much more bloody. Dismembered arms lay strewn across the floor. Bloody, ground up cadavers laid on the operating tables. Fresh blood dripped from the tables to the floor. "How could they do this?" she whispered, disgust quickly rising in her voice.

Janet had to turn away. In every room, it was more of the same. People were being carved up and turned into monsters. They were dying, and were still being turned into monster. And for what? An army to rule over innocent people with an iron fist? How did that possibly justify brutally torturing these people?

He was a monster. No matter how impossibly attractive Mandarin was, he was a complete monster. He was here, and she would do what she needed to to get the location of his hiding place from him, but she wouldn't enjoy it.

Black Panther stepped inside one of the cleaner rooms, which wasn't saying a lot. Stepping over and around a few limbs, he plucked a medical chart from its place on the table. As he read down the list of names that were highlighted on the medical sheets, he became visibly tense. "These are SHIELD agents."

Janet frowned, but didn't step any further than the door. Being that close to so much death and bloody cadavers was still too much. "All of them?"

"I am uncertain, but the ones operated on in this particular room, including this one," he gestured to the body on the table, "are. Or were." He replaced the chart and walked out. "It is now imperative that we shut down all three Sentinel factories. Not only to ease our own endeavors, but to save as many innocent lives as possible."

She nodded and followed after him silently. Was this what Tony had to deal with when he became a hero? Watching mad men carve up innocent people and not being able to do anything about it right away?

"That's the plan," Peter said in his annoyingly optimistic manner. Seriously, nothing got this guy down, and it pissed her off. She didn't like him; him or his stupid face. He was too optimistic, too preachy, and too happy to stick his nose in her face to judge her for her own decisions. She was an adult, and didn't need or want some kid telling her what she could and couldn't do.

She glared intensely at the back of his head. She hoped, prayed that after she killed Viper, he tried to say something. Better yet, do something. All she wanted to do was – Her thoughts were interrupted by an elbow nudging her on the shoulder. She looked over, and way up to see She-Hulk smirking down at her. "Don't bother," she whispered. "He's not legal yet."

She looked bemused. "You think I'm – With him?" She would have laughed, if she wasn't so peevedat him. "No. And this is hardly the time to for that," she mumbled ironically.

Her green eyes rolled. "Just a fair warning."

They both tensed when five Bio-Sentinels burst through both adjacent walls. Before either could react, T'Challa and Peter had already finished off two. Janet shrunk down and barely avoided an energy ball. She returned with her own blasts, hitting it twice in the face and again in the chest. Jen smashed her fist through its chest, ending any chance it had at answering her attack.

She couldn't understand, as Panther finished off the last two with those cool glowing knives of his, how Mandarin could think wasting his time with these… these monstrosities was a good move. They weren't very durable, especially when she cranked up her Stings. Yes, there were a lot of them, but it was more of a hassle than a serious problem to take them down.

Panther bent down to remove his knives from the Sentinels. "We'll have to be alert," he said obviously. She knew he was talking to her and Jen.

She sighed. "Of course. We should hurry before Mandarin gets away."

"Where even is he?" Peter asked.

How was she supposed to know? God, why couldn't he just shut up? Jen snickered. "Do I amuse you?" she whispered testily.

She smirked. "Yes. Yes, you do."

No one answered Peter's question, because none of them knew. They only knew that, if the underground level was as large as the top level, he could have been anywhere. If he was even still there.

After minutes of walking, they stopped at a fork in the road. "Split up?" she asked.

It was dangerous for sure. But it would have taken them forever to search the entire rest of the level as a team. They were too far underground to contact the others via comms, so it was either split or waste who knew how much time.

"Split," Panther decided. "Spider-Man and I will go this way. You two go that way. Keep in contact at all times."

Janet nodded and turned with She-Hulk down the right side of the fork, while Panther and Peter went left. Thank God that little nuisance was finally gone. Then maybe she could actually hear herself think without him and his lame quips and stupid jokes.

Nearly as soon as they were out of earshot, Jen spoke up. "You should really lighten up on the kid," she started.

She sighed. "Lemme guess, because he means well?"

She nodded. "He made some good points in his fight with Fury."

He fought with Fury about this? Did he seriously feel that strongly about it? Was this really that big a deal to him? "Is that so?"

"Yeah. For a teenager, he's got his head on pretty straight."

She resisted an eye roll and just nodded. The kid may have had his head on straight, she didn't know, nor did she care. What she did know was that he almost always had his mouth on overdrive, and it drowned out any logic he may have had in a deluge of annoying stupidity.

The laboratory level eventually shifted into an office area. Office after office was empty. The desks inside were still filled with paperwork and files stacked on files, as of the people inside just up and left without warning. Janet frowned and scanned over one of the computers. It held more notes on the experiments, as well as deployment zones located in different major cities around the world. "This isn't good. Looks like they're planning a global police state."

Jen frowned and reached under the desk. Janet quickly saved whatever files were open just before she tore the hard drive from the CPU.

"A warning would have been nice." She started rifling through the desk.

Jen shrugged and shoved it down in her pocket. "Find anything?"

"Pictures of family, a few keys, a cup. Others words, not a thing." She slammed the drawer close, but perked her head up toward the door. "You hear something?" she whispered.

Jen inclined her head, as well. She could barely hear two people talking a few offices down. "Someone's still here. Let's go ask some questions."

From the looks of it, it seemed that most of the people inhabiting the offices had fled when word of their arrival in the factory trickled down. It seemed that two hadn't gotten the memo yet, which was just fine with her. She was in the mood to zap some skulls over what they were pulling down here.

"… tell Vancouver and Pittsburgh to double their production. Those heroes have fucked things up around here. And tell your Madame that I don't need or want her looking over my shoulder." The voice was smooth and charismatic, but tinged with annoyance. "Now, if you'll excuse me."

They froze in place. "Ah shit," she muttered hurriedly. The Mandarin strolled casually out of the office, hands in his pocket and lips pressed into a tight, but amused, smile. A woman in a business suit scurried out of the off and sprinted down the hall.

For a change, Mandarin wasn't wearing sunglasses inside. Janet and Jen could see his eyes scrutinizing them slowly. She was reluctant to admit that she wanted him to scrutinize her a little bit longer. "You and your friends," he began, the words rolling off his tongue like a smooth pour of whiskey, "have caused me quite a few problems."

Janet swallowed and rolled her shoulders back. "Expect more trouble soon," she said, her voice hard and slightly salty.

He smirked. A soft orange glow emanated from inside his white pants. "If you say so, I'll have to stop you." His left hand slipped smoothly from his pocket. Immediately, a yellow beam shot from the ring resting on his forefinger. The intense heat from the beam lanced halfway through Jen's leg.

She screamed and nearly fell to the floor. Janet shrunk down and unleashed blast after blast. Her beams ricocheted off of a pure, pitch black bubble that had formed around Mandarin. "Damn it! She-Hulk?"

"I'm fine." She wobbled to her feet, making certain to keep pressure off her injured leg. The normally green skin was blackened and smoking where the beam struck.

"Are you? We'll have to do something about that." Another beam, this one his orange impact beam, ripped through the air and struck her flush in the face. She-Hulk fell back and landed with a thud on her back. An air tight black bubble formed over her face. It wasn't a few seconds before she was desperately banging on the bubble in a futile attempt to break it.

Janet felt dread wash over her as she helplessly watched him dispatch Jen with ease. "Bastard!" She flew toward him and unleashed another volley. It was, again, blocked by the same black field.

She kept blasting until she could barely keep herself afloat. She returned to normal size and immediately dropped her knees. Her chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath. His shoes clacked solidly against the floor; a sharp chill shot up her spine. His hand touched her shoulder. "Get your hand off me," she snarled.

He chuckled. His hand trailed slowly from her shoulder down her arm. An involuntary shudder escaped her. "You know, it's quite a shame you're on thatside instead of mine. You'd be quite an addition to our cause."

Her head rose and she leveled a glare on him. It was hard enough battling her body's own urges; fighting his advances was only going to – Wait. Who said that she had to fight him? If anything, she had him right where she wanted him. The glare faded into a sultry regard and she smirked. "Now that I think about it, it is a shame that I'm not on your side."

He smirked back and helped her to her feet. "Indeed. What do you hope to accomplish with those heroes? Fury is dead, apparently, and you're all on the run, backs against the wall."

Her smirk gained a coquettish edge. "I enjoy having my back against the wall."

He grinned wolfishly. Hot lust flashed in his brown eyes. Perfect; she had him hook, line and sinker. "And I do quite enjoy pinning people like you against walls. Very roughly, in fact."

She stepped forward, and allowed a finger to slowly trail down his chest. "But, we can't. You're evil and I'm good. Us mixing together would be… bad."

"Some of the most enjoyable things in life are… bad. Have a little taste of the dark side. You might enjoy yourself."

Janet appeared to think for a second, when in reality, she was steeling herself for what she was going to do. He was a monster in a handsome man's clothing. He was charming, debonair and exactly what she needed right then. She pulled her comm from her ear and flicked it down the hall. Sorry, boys, but I have to ride solo on this one. Besides, she didn't want Parker to overhear and blow his top. "Just a taste," she whispered before pulling him down into a kiss.

She felt bad that she was about to get laid, for a mission or not, and Jennifer was lying on the floor, unconscious. In his distracted state, the field that had been wrapped around her head had dissipated, but she had to have lost too much oxygen to be fine.

As soon as he pressed her body against his and deepened the kiss, that all went away. All that remained was her and her carnal desires and needs. Oh, and the mission. She wasn't going to enjoy this.

She enjoyed it immensely.

Forty-five minutes later, she laid on top of a desk in a nearby office, costume tangled on the floor. A fresh sheet of sweat gave her skin a soft sheen and matter her black hair to her neck and shoulders. Her chest heaved as she drew in breaths of much needed air.

"Wow," she said torpidly.

She caught his smirk as he quickly redressed. "I did tell you you'd enjoy it, didn't I?"

"Yeah. Yeah, you did." He slipped his jacket on and started to leave. She sat up, not bother to cover anything out of decency. "Wait, where are you going?" She was disgusted that that was actually half-genuine.

"I'm sorry, my dear, but I have other business to attend to." He turned on his heels and approached her. He gave her one final kiss, one that actually sent jolts in places that she wished it hadn't. "Until we meet again."

She sighed and watched him leave. Undoubtedly her best yet, which sucked.

Because he was evil.

But, her planned worked so much better than she could have hoped. All that she had to do was activate the nanites in the saline solution and wait. They'd have to call a team meeting or something that would require them getting together. Then, they would have them.

"I am such a genius," she told herself as she zipped her costume up and slipped her boots on. She walked outside to retrieve Jennifer, but when was nowhere to be found. "Ah, shit. She must have woken up. She-Hulk?"

"Over here," called not She-Hulk, but Peter. She turned toward his voice and saw his familiar red glove waving from behind a wall at the end of the hall. She signed and walked toward him, stopping to retrieve her comm link. "So, that was your plan," he prodded with a cheeky tone.

She sighed more heavily. Jennifer was carefully curled up in his arms. She was breathing on her own, which was great. A wave of relief washed over her. "Yeah. Here's to hoping that it worked. Listen, if either of you have a problem with what I did…"

Peter shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. "You did what you needed to, Wasp," Panther said. "Let's return to the others. We can discuss it more there."

"Actually, let's keep this between us. Somehow, I don't think they'd like this too much." More like Hank wouldn't have liked it. His disapproving fatherly glare was the last thing she wanted to see.