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Boeing C-17 Globemaster III "Gungnir", American Waters Airspace, December 13, 2012
-20 hours before Rot Schrader deadline
Author's Notes: Everyone else who throws an OC that goes with the usual tag 'HYDRA' has some sort of cute experiment that might make the ASPCA frown.
I'm a lot of things. Cute and cuddly writer isn't one of them.
This will be a revelation chapter that will reveal some background details, thoughts I've had to explain things that happened in the movies, and how to implement them. You'll see some ramifications from the movie Captain Marvel come up.
Buckle up as I saddle you up with the set-up for the two whoppers of the idea that will lead to the final ARC of this SuperARC that will conclude with what you know will happen; Avengers vs. HYDRA.
#1? You're going to meet my version of the Sinister Six :-D
#2? You're just going to love what I do for Jenn and Maria. Technically, I can get away with this, and I don't think anyone's done this.
"Y'know, this is the day where all those conspiracy theory nuts crying about the New World Order and all that bullshit get to point and laugh at us and collectively say 'I told you so!'."
Jennifer Susan Walters, Esq. And CEO of Avengers, Incorporated was having a conversation with a dead man. At least that's what most everyone thought.
"You're telling me, Tony." Jenn was currently talking to a bluetooth earpiece while looking upon a digital holographic display screen known as an Augmented Reality Display that was pretty much the same Heads-Up Display that Anthony Edward 'Tony' Stark used for his Iron Man suit, the image showing the forty-two year old billionaire in fine health with the backdrop of some location on the water. Tony was calling her from some speedboat, of all things, and she could see Colonel James Rupert Rhodes in the shot at the helm. She had finally gotten a call from Tony approximately five minutes prior, confirming for her what she already believed; that Tony Stark had more lives than a damn cat. "I still can't believe your set of assholes stole the War Machine suit and kidnapped the President with it while blowing up Air Force One in mid-flight. If I wasn't so neck-deep in my own weird bullshit, I'd call your bluff."
"We got a lead on where they're holding him, so me and Rhodey are going to take the fight to them." Tony replied breezily. "I know you've got your own set of problems up there, so you keep doing what you're doing, Jenn. We've got this shit. I've got a few tricks up my sleeve."
"I hope so, Tony. A Presidential assassination makes the country go a little bit more than nuts, and I've got pretty good evidence that the VP is in on this fucking operation." Jenn relayed to the billionaire, whose face went sour. "You do what you need to do, Tony. This PROJECT: INSIGHT mess kicks off high noon tomorrow at the Triskhelion according to the information we've gleaned, and I don't think we've got the firepower to stop seven fucking Helicarriers that have been upgraded from the designs of the Constellation when Barton blew out an engine with an arrow." Sadly, HYDRA had taken that lesson to heart. "Hopefully, Thor will be done with the mess that's going on in London that's like literally happening right now and will be able to join in. I risked a text to Bruce to tell him to stash Betty somewhere and gave him a time and a location, so hopefully we'll be seeing the Hulk. It's been… a hell of a few days."
"That it has, but we aren't down, and we aren't out." Tony reminded her. "We know the times, the locations, the enemy, and what they're bringing. We're much better off than what we had in Manhattan, and we've got people on our side that can make a difference, Avengers and others. I'm heading down to Miami to rescue Obama and Pepper, and then I'm going to bring the show back up to you."
"She'll be fine, Tony. Pepper's tough." Jenn told Stark, knowing that knowledge was probably driving Tony more than a little frantic. He had given her a quick synopsis of what Advanced Idea Mechanics had done involving the Mandarin, the airstrike on his mansion, the development of some sort of genetic modification that was turning disabled veterans into burning Super Soldiers, and the plan to have President Barak Obama executed on live television by having him set on fire over the oil tanker Roxxon Norco and attribute it to a fictional terrorist. In the process, Virginia 'Pepper' Potts had been kidnapped and evidently injected with the same genemod as the men Tony was fighting, which had something like only a thirty-three percent survival rate. Having gone through her own emotional roller coaster ride involving Jessica Drew, who was still unconscious down on the cargo deck of the C-17 Globemaster Gungnir, Jenn could imagine Tony was probably a wreck on the inside right now. "If I trip over any information pertaining to what's happening on your end, I'll send it over."
"Likewise and…" Tony paused as he looked at something that wasn't quite her, and a small smile came to his lips, "…enjoy the reunion. I'll text later." The call ended abruptly as Jenn thought it strange what the industrialist had said. Reunion?
"Mom?"
Jennifer turned quickly, her heart hitting her throat at the sound of that voice as she found her daughter Jessica Miriam Drew standing just a few feet away, her green eyes near shrink-wrapped in tears.
"Jess…" The lawyer wasted no time moving right towards the younger woman, embracing her hard as Jenn felt her own tears coming up. "God, thankyouthankyouthankyou…" The first hour that Jess had been returned, unconscious and lying on some of the seats of the Gungnir, Jennifer had held her hand, distraught that all that had happened to her. But now was the time for her to be strong for her daughter, who had undoubtedly suffered cruelly under HYDRA's yoke. Whatever tears needed to be shed, whatever nightmares needed to be fought, whatever confessions needed to be said, she would be there for her little girl. Just having Jess in her arms as the nineteen-year old woman sobbed into her was as good a start as any. "Whatever you're thinking, whatever you're feeling, honey? I want you to focus on this." Jenn told her daughter as she rested her head on top of Jessica's own as the raven-haired woman cried hard into Jenn's breast, her hands clutching at her mother. "Grieve, but know that you're with your family, with those who love you." Jenn held her daughter fiercely, fighting off her own agonizing tears at the thought of what HYDRA had done to her, and at what they had done to others. "We're going to get them, baby. We're going to take down those carriers and we're going to stomp the shit out of them…"
"Blonsky." The younger woman muttered as she pulled back, still gripping the Esquire as her green eyes looked up to her, the grief fading away and being replaced with fear. "Mom, they have Blonsky."
Jenn felt her heart shuttering in her breast. She knew that name from before the Battle of New York.
"Oh fuck."
Jessica Miriam Drew found herself standing on the cargo deck of the Boeing C-17 III Globemaster known as the "Gungnir", a highly-advanced military cargo plane that, evidently, Tony Stark and Kamala Khan had re-purposed and upgraded with repulsor turbines, the Miss Marvel Project, and a few other ideas that made up for an airplane that could practically fly in any direction (up, down, left, right, forward, backward… wherever), could remain aloft for days if not weeks, and could in fact go invisible (or look like something else completely, from a commercial airliner to a cloud!). In front of her were the Avengers… now numbering fourteen, not including the members that were elsewhere. It had been a couple of hours since she had women up free from HYDRA's control to find several people helping her as she had a little bit of a nervous breakdown, begging for a mirror to see the color of her own eyes before she calmed down. After nearly two months being under the control of HYDRA, she had thought herself in a horrific nightmare where she was just dreaming she was free. That still loomed upon her every ten minutes or so, actually.
"So…" Jess was standing in front of everyone, their attention on her, "the whole aim of PROJECT: INSIGHT as was spoken around me when HYDRA had me escort high-level individuals, was global control and public containment." No one looked surprised or amused. "The plan was to decapitate not only portions of the American Government so HYDRA successors could take over while others already installed in their positions could streamline their efforts, but then use multiple ways of spreading their influence throughout the world… in which there are HYDRA members in several positions and locations in practically every government in the world. Off of the top of my head, I know two members of the Privy Council and several members of the United Nations Security Council are either members of HYDRA, or their back-up is." Shit, her mother muttered, obviously seeing where that would lead. "Other honorable mentions are China, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, Israel, and South Africa."
"Most of those nations have nukes and militaries that aren't push-overs." That was one of the Avengers she hadn't met before, Nathaniel James 'Nate' Dugan, known as Mongoose because he was a former Navy SEAL. "Their sphere of influences would certainly bleed over to other nations especially if squids are in concert."
"That was the idea." Jessica now pretty damn grateful of her CIA Training. One of the classes she had taken was Mnemonic Recall, or memory classes. She was taught how to remember conversations and information that happened only once. "Along with the use of the Helicarriers and the American Navy, they were going to start with the seas as well as their pet AI that's also on the Helicarriers. Each of those vessels were pretty much going to park themselves over a continent and begin eliminating anyone that was a threat or future threat, and use the Navy to destroy whatever vessels or preparations of war that might get geared up."
"So ZOLA wasn't just in ONI? That's not good news." Clinton Francis Barton pointed out.
"That was the main one, where the most processing power and servers were located, all integrated with laser technology and satellites." Drew replied. The Avengers had evidently uploaded as many computer viruses they could into the network before the one with the wings, Samuel Thomas Wilson, had thrown a grenade into the server room and blown it up. "While it's not down completely, it's been hurt. But those Helicarriers are a big part of the plan, along with the ZOLA Network. As long as they exist, we're screwed."
"Then we take them down." Captain Steven Grant Rogers replied. There were a lot of nodding heads.
"We're… going to have competition." The nineteen-year old countered, wincing slightly. "Metahuman competition.
"HYDRA calls them the SIX." Jessica took a remote given to her by Kamala and pressed a button to turn on a holographic screen where files that had been extracted by Edward Joseph Snowden first and then later by Natasha Romanoff who had shoved a wi-fi router into the ZOLA system to access it from the outside and dump as much information possible into news sources and the cloud. "I guess years ago someone by the name of Director Nick Fury had come up with an idea of creating a response team of extraordinary individuals to handle threats that were extreme or exotic. Something about an alien attack in the mid-90's." No surprise, everyone looked rather stunned at that revelation. "There's this group called the World Security Council that is supposedly in charge of multinational threats and capabilities, and in charge of SHIELD. Each of them represent the five major continents, excluding Australia, and each of them is a member of HYDRA." Motherfucker, Major Maria Hill cursed under her breath within the group. "When the Battle of New York happened and this Director Fury activated the individuals that he put on the Avenger Initiative without approval from this Council, I guess that was an eye-opener for them, because according to what I overheard, they had gone and immediately activated a shelved plan that was PROJECT ARGUS when some other plan during the Battle failed. They went and made anti-Avengers to be able to defeat a group that they have no control over as well as the possibility of gathering and leading a resistance."
"The nuke." Jennifer Walters said out loud, looking over to Maria. "The one the Council approved of to wipe out Mid-Town that Tony sent through the wormhole. It would have killed the Chitauri and the Avengers. HYDRA would have likely used that to their own means like they did the insurance companies."
"Wait… the nuke that the news said was sent express package to Tony Stark… was meant for Manhattan?" That was Jessica Jones, a woman that Jessica had met only a short time ago minus when they fought in the underground bunker in New Jersey. Evidently, the woman was a super-powered private detective. By the sound of her voice, Jess had to guess that she was an inhabitant of New York City.
"Yes." Her mother replied simply. "The public and political damage was mitigated when the Secretary of Defense, Alexander Pierce, by the way, made it sound like they had sent a nuke to the one man they believed would do what Tony had done, but that wasn't the case at all. Director Fury, the Director of Operations for SHIELD, had flat-out refused to send out the order, and had actually even shot down one of the planes himself to prevent it. He warned Tony what was coming, and everything that happened after that was an act of desperation. Sparing millions while sending that nuke through the wormhole in retaliation? All Tony." There was a soft snort and a smile on the attorney's face. "That man has a habit of pulling out the weirdest miracles in the most desperate of times."
"When you showed up to the scene and started making waves," Jessica pointed out Walters, "HYDRA enacted several things, including PROJECT ARGUS; the creation of meta-humans as enforcement with the addition of making a 'team' that would thwart any kind of exotic threat that would hinder their plans. The Avengers, a few others dotting the world that have mostly kept hidden. HYDRA used prisoners, recruits and trainees from various Government facilities, PCS'ing military members, homeless veterans… the kind of people that didn't just disappear with a lot of people asking questions such as families and co-workers." Jessica had to shut her eyes as the grief welled up on her, forcing it back down. "I don't know how many people went through the PROJECT, but I know what the survival rate was. Around eighteen percent." Jessica didn't want to think of what happened to those that the PROJECT didn't work on. That had been a horrific nightmare beyond comparison. "When you guys disappeared from New York and showed up on the Lemurian Star, taking Snowden and capturing Doreen," Jessica's eyes went to her best friend, seeing her free and amongst a group of heroes, "they created the SIX in earnest; the six most powerful metahumans they had, all of them controlled save for one."
"How bad are we talking?" Doctor Hank Pym asked, resting against a cargo box alongside his daughter, Hope van Dyne. "Anything similar to what you and Doctor Green could do?"
"No, but also worse." The former CIA-trainee replied. "No two ever came out alike in powers and capabilities, that I do know. But the SIX were meant to be individuals who could beat the Avengers, either on an individual basis, or as a group effort. And having actually met all of you, including Thor… they aren't far off the mark. Anything less than the full team will have these guys win." Jessica turned to the one of the picture she had Kamala find amongst information leaked from HYDRA. "This one is Alexsei Sytsevich, aka the Rhino." The first photo showed a mug shot of a brutish Russian man. The second one showed what he was today.
"He's a Russian Mob enforcer that basically got conned into agreeing to work with HYDRA, probably got promised a work-release program for some favors exchanged to get him out of prison and into a room. What he is now is a seven foot tall human-rhino hybrid with thick skin, increased strength and speed, and yes, that is a big ass horn growing out of his forehead. The second on is MacDonald 'Mac' Gargan, the Scorpion." Again, there was another mug shot of the human version of Mac Gargan, and then a much more recent photo. "A convicted murderer sentenced to life without parole for first degree murder for killing six people, Mac was conned like Alexsei; get out of jail free for agreeing to what HYDRA wanted. He has an biological armored exoskeleton with these plates of his, supposedly harder than ballistic steel. And then there's the completely functional five-foot tail that secrets some kind of venom from its barb. You do not want to experience that, trust me." Jessica shuddered a little at the memory.
"This… is Angelica Jones, the Firestar." The next set of photos showed a government-oriented one that was attached to a government clip-on badge that stated 'FBI'. "Angel was, like me, a trainee who was collected due to her superior performance in Quantico, pulled aside and hit with the Scepter along with several others in her class. She now comes with the ability to immolate herself and survive unscathed, as well as projecting flames up to about twenty-five feet. In that range, she has complete control and can manipulate it at will. I was there for one test; she can burn up to an excess of a thousand degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to melt iron and steel. The next person is really unusual," Jessica clicked over to show another mug shot of a man who, while tough-looking, had a hint of sadness around the eyes, "Flint Marko, the Sandman. This guy is now literally a living body of sand. The others are enhanced, but this guy is exotic. It's almost impossible to hurt him as he can form, collapse, and reform into sand at will, almost everything passing right through him. You punch him? Your hand just sinks in, and he has a hold of you. Other abilities include turning into a sand cloud for limited gliding, turning into a sandstorm, knocking you about, and turning his body into a variety of weapons to batter you. Not strong, but we might have to get creative to defeat him." The CIA-trained woman frowned for a moment. "They are controlled by the Scepter, but out of all of them, I think Angelica might be the only one who might be knocked out and free. The others are either so durable that it might not be a possibility, or in Flint's case, he doesn't even have a physical body to punch. It might be that killing them is the only solution."
"You said their was six of them. That's only four." Sam Wilson pointed out.
"I… was number five." Drew had to repress a shutter at that. "Each of us were selected to take on an Avenger. Rhino is strong and durable enough that he was selected to take on Thor. Scorpion was for Captain America due to his armor plates and toxin that could disable him." Jessica looked to Steve, who didn't look too thrilled at the thought. "Firestar and Sandman were for the Black Widow and Hawkeye, but also to help with the others if needed. I… I was for Iron Man." With the ability to fly and conduct bioelectricity as a weapon, not to mention that she could survive a great deal of damage, it was a heady conclusion. "I'm sure they have someone in mind to replace me. Lonnie, perhaps."
"And then there's the one that they were going to send after the Hulk."
Jessica changed the picture to that of a military-oriented photo of a man in a dress uniform normally called Class-A's, showing a middle-aged man wearing a dark-blue military jacket festooned with medals and a tan beret. The nametag indicated his name was 'Blonsky', and the pair of bars on each lapel labeled him a Captain. Yet it was the flash on the front of his beret that would have someone who knew anything about the British military that would have him known for what he was; a part of the 22nd Regiment (Parachute), most commonly known as the British Special Air Services. The man was a British Commando, British Special Forces, amongst the best in the world.
"Captain Emil Blonsky is a member of the British SAS, their version of the Navy SEALs, and was originally hired by General Thaddus Ross to apprehend my Uncle Bruce when he was discovered to be hiding in Rio de Janeiro." Jessica knew of this from her mother. "Doctor Banner was hired right after September 11th to create a serum to protect from radiation poisoning, the threat of terrorist dirty bombs a credible threat at the time by General Ross and the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project. What my Uncle didn't know was that the serum that had been delivered to him by Ross was some half-baked copy of the Super Soldier Serum that Bruce thought was an anti-radiation serum. When he tested the Serum on himself and dosed himself with gamma radiation to test its effectiveness because he didn't believe in human experimentation… things went south. The Serum was catalyzed and transformed him into the Super Soldier that Ross was hoping for, albeit in a much more monstrous form."
"Jesus Christ." Edward Snowden muttered.
"When Ross discovered my uncle working in a bottling company in Brazil, he got top-of-the-line mercenaries and Captain Blonsky to capture my Uncle." Jess continued, knowing this from her mother and her Uncle. "Ross again didn't tell them details, I believe they thought Uncle Bruce a person-of-concern to the American Government. What happened was… well…"
"He went green." Jennifer Walters said simply. Nobody needed a further explanation of that.
"Blonsky survived, and sometime between his first encounter with the Hulk and the second at Culver University in West Virginia, Emil had been enhanced with the same Serum that my Uncle had save that it hadn't been catalyzed." Drew changed the picture to that of a video, captured by a cell phone. The quality was terrible and the improvised cameraman unable to hold their phone steady, but it was easy to tell that there was a man fighting the Hulk, leaping over him, flipping over him, avoiding large green fists and surviving for something like a minute. "According to Doctor Elizabeth Ross, who had been on the Bio-Tech program as well as the one my Uncle went to when he was being hunted, Blonsky survived being kicked by the Hulk and smashed into a tree, seen later when Ross tracked both Betty and Bruce to Greyburn University, where they were in contact with a Doctor Samuel Sterns. Bruce was hoping to find a way to prevent the transformations or at least get a control of them, and they did meet a measure of success. But General Ross and Captain Blonsky caught up with them and captured both Betty and my Uncle. Sometime right after that, Captain Blonsky went to Doctor Stern, who had samples of my Uncle's blood, seeking to become even better.
"That night, the Abomination was born." Jessica switched the picture from one of a man to one that was that of a monster.
"Oh fuck, I remember that thing." Jessica Jones shifted and held herself. "That thing wrecked like a quarter of Harlem."
"The Hulk was able to stop it, but with a great deal of property damage and casualties involved," Jessica continued, "and the Abomination was held in cryogenic stasis in Barrow, Alaska, kept on ice to prevent him from being away. Unfortunately, the people keeping him on ice were SHIELD."
"So HYDRA had him, too. I figured he might make an appearance." Her mother said, her tone wearied. "It would make sense that they would have something to oppose the original Avengers if they have the ability to make their own versions, and when we learned that HYDRA was within SHIELD practically the whole time, I assumed the possibility that Blonsky would be brought out." She just sighed as she looked to Kamala.
"Which is why I had the boys bring in your pet projects from the Tower."
"You brought them?" The young woman asked excitedly, her face aglow as Jess looked over to the others, everyone looking mystified, even Clint, Nat, and Steve. "Oh, Tony is going to hate that he's going to miss out on this."
"Um, do we want to know?" Hope van Dyne asked, curiosity filling her tone. "I know I saw you working in some partition on robotic parts before, but other than that…"
"When school started after my summer internship but me being allowed to visit the Tower after school and on the weekends," Kamala began filling them in, excitement lacing her voice, "Tony gave me two pet projects. He was teaching me and mentoring me, but he also wanted to see what I could come up with on my own besides the Miss Marvel Project. Besides coming up with additions and improvements on tech toys for you," wait, Kamala was rearming the Avengers now?, "I was working on two bad boys for worst case scenarios. The intent was that if the Chitauri or something else big and weird showed up, we could throw two more people that would be much more capable than a normal man. Superhero in a shell, in other words. May I?" Kamala was all smiles as she looked over to Jenn, who gave her a nod of approval. "So if everyone could stand back, and get ready to feast your eyes.
"Meet PROJECT: SHAGOHOD and PROJECT: DOCTOR OCTOPUS." Kamala smiled as she brought up the (wtf?) holographic interface over her left wrist and typed something out. Two objects expanded almost instantly into sight, Jessica Drew recognizing a QuadCon container and a TriCon container, metal shipping containers that were the smaller brethren of the standard 42-foot long ConEx. Both sets of doors unlocked themselves magnetically as the doors opened to show what Kamala had been working on as Natasha Romanoff nearly jolted upward at the sight and Clint guffawed.
"I thought those were destroyed!" The Black Widow exclaimed as she rounded on Jenn, sounding pissed. "That's what we were told at SHIELD."
"Tony likes to keep his toys close to his chest, and I guess everyone was none-the-wiser." The lawyer replied, shrugging her shoulders. "Believe me, I didn't know we had them until Kamala came to visit me practically gushing about what she was working on back in September. I went and saw them for myself and knew what they were; wild cards for a time of desperation. I okay'ed when Tony reiterated for me that they were only for extreme circumstances, such as an alien invasion or something of similar nature. Which I think what HYDRA is about to do qualifies. If SHIELD wasn't in the know, then HYDRA isn't in the know. And thus they are perfect."
"I'm not even sure what I'm looking at, save…" Nate Dugan stared at the smaller one for a minute. "Isn't that the thing from the raceway at Morocco?"
"Yep! The Whiplash suit!" The fifteen-year old exclaimed, all smiles. The identification had Jess's jaw drop as she looked at a man-sized mechanical apparatus that, at first, looked like some sort of exoskeleton harness. "Created by Ivan Vanko to take on the Iron Man suit, it has a duel set of ionizing plasma channel coils that exceed fifteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit, able to cut steel with a blow. Mister Stark defeated the convict and destroyed Ivan's Arc Reactor, but the suit he took back and put into storage and substituted its destruction with a look-alike. He gave it to me to work with, to teach me how to make battlesuits in case Earth ever came under alien invasion again with the idea that we might make several for responders and augmenting Special Forces if necessary. I up'ed the cycles on the channels for better efficiency, added a leg apparatus to better take the weight while making it easier to move with power-assisted mobility, added some Kevlar plating for defense, and then added a helmet and an integrated Operating System for protection and threat analysis. The idea was that I could give this to a soldier during a time of need and basically have him walk onto the battlefield with little practical experience but capable of making a difference."
"I remember how much damage that thing caused. I was there for it." Natasha remarked. Jess hadn't known that, and by the look of most of the others, they hadn't either. "The other one surprises me, though. I know for a fact it was destroyed. Phil told me."
"Mister Coulson saw what he wanted to see; that it fell and was consumed in an explosion." Kamala replied as the nineteen-year old remembered being told that there had been an Agent of SHIELD who had died personally fighting Loki. Evidently, he had been involved with much more. "But the explosion didn't hurt it. All that happened was that its internal electronic components were fried. In which I replaced those, upgraded the software, improved the HUD, and came up with a couple of ideas for the weapons, but kept the original armaments."
"What am I looking at, exactly?" Captain America asked, looking a little lost. Most of them were looking at the giant… metal suit that looked a lot like the Iron Man suit save that it was gray, larger, wider, and… meaner.
"It's the Ironmonger." Jennifer Walters replied.
"Back in Los Angeles of 2009, there was a battle involving two men of iron."
Kamala Aisha Khan stood in front of the group of Avengers beside her own works, one which practically towered over her; the suit that Obadiah Stane, Chief Financial Officer of Stark Industries, had created to bring about a new weapon of war and what would likely be a new arms race. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Kamala's hand graced one of the arms for the suit known as the Ironmonger, a nickname that Tony had given it as a twisted joke between Iron Man and warmonger.
"When Obadiah Stane hired a terrorist cell to kill Tony Stark, he had been feeding them weapons and munitions from Stark Industries for personal profit, the weapons coming from factory rejects and Quality Control failures that were sent to a disposal plant but were made to fall off the books by Stane so he could sell to both sides of conflicts." Kamala didn't bother hiding the scorn in her tone about that. What most didn't know was that weapons companies were very strict on their sales; what went where, the numbers, the price, the units shipped, and the units received. One only needed to look at the collapse of the Soviet Union to see what happened when entire armories were sold under-the-table and black market-style to see what happened when high-grade weaponry went into the hands of the highest bidder, not to mention more exotic products and means. "Mister Stark came back with an extraordinary advancement; the miniaturized Arc Reactor that he had used to power an eight-foot tall mobile tank suit to provide his escape from when he was captured while destroying the weapons he had found in the hands of the same terrorists that had kidnapped him." Stark Industries had only sold to America and its proven allies; not fair-weather friends or platitude-only's. England, South Korea, Jordan, and Israel were all sold StarkTech for their longevity and closeness, while a few others got smaller items. Tony didn't sell to neutrals or enemies, and despite his reputation at the time as a warmonger, he never made a weapon or an item that undercut the bottom line. He made excellence, and he guaranteed it.
"Unfortunately, the original suit, the Mark I," Kamala continued, "was recovered from where it crash-landed in the deserts of Afghanistan by the same terrorists that he had blown up and escaped from, and they had sold it to Stane on the hopes he would create more for them. Instead, while Mister Stark was seeking his weapons in the hands of enemies and destroying them, Obadiah Stane had opened up a secret project called Sector Sixteen and created a metal Goliath that he envisioned would be the new face of war save for the fact that he was missing one vital component." Kamala pointed to the glowing circle in the middle of the Ironmonger suit. "He couldn't run it without an Arc Reactor, and no one could replicate what Mister Stark had created."
"I remember the Senate inquest thing where he said it'd take five to ten years to make up something similar." Doctor Doreen Green said as she leaned against a cargo box. "Maybe that's what he really meant. Not the suit, but the power source."
"Correct." The teenager replied with a smile. "Obadiah Stane had this made," she wrapped her knuckles softly against the arm, "to defeat armies. Its shell is osmium steel, an extremely high-grade alloy that's a replacement for Depleted Uranium for armor, artillery shells, anti-armor warheads, and bunker busters. It's about the fourth hardest metal known in existence, y'know, behind Uru, Adamantium, and Vibranium." That had Clint Barton snort. "The shocks, struts, hydraulics, chassis, and frame are rated for extreme combat, and for all intents and purposes, this thing is a shagohod."
"Treading Behemoth." Natasha Romanoff translated from Russian for everyone else. "Let me guess… video game?"
"Metal Gear Solid 3." Kamala just smiled. "The Whiplash suit was resurrected because after watching videos of the Battle of New York, I noticed that normal humans had great difficulty bringing down Chitauri troopers, and even you guys had to come up with different means to bring down a Leviathan." Kamala turned to point out the rig in question. "This was brought up and upgraded so that, if that day ever came again, we could put a team or two, or a SHIELD Agent," Kamala looked significantly at Major Hill, "into suits that proved effective in cutting Chitauri steel as well as possibly damaging a Leviathan. The Ironmonger suit, on the other hand," the teenager indicated the eight-foot tall robotic suit, "was a collaboration of Mister Stark, Doctor Banner, and myself. We have a project called VERONICA that's in the works, but we wanted to have a stopgap on-hand in case the worse-case scenario came to be.
"It was made with the thought to stop the Hulk." Kamala told them all.
"Can it actually stop him?" Clint asked, his voice concerned. "I've seen him up close. You can't believe how terrifying he is just standing near him. You can feel the lethality and rage radiate off of him. I don't care how awesome the suit is, the pilot is going to need nerves stronger than steel to face that."
"We do have someone that's faced the Hulk and survived face-to-face, not as an ally, but as a potential victim. Four times, in fact." Kamala replied softly, looking to the one person known to have faced the Hulk no less than four times during his darkest days; right after he had transformed for the first time. She wasn't thrilled with the thought of who.
"What? No!" Jessica Drew had seen what direction the young woman had looked to as well as knowing that story as well. The recently-rescued woman looked not at all pleased at the thought of who would enter the Ironmonger suit to battle the Abomination personally. "M-Mom! You can't!"
"I can and I will." The lawyer replied softly, looking to her daughter, Kamala knowing full well what the nineteen-year old was feeling. Right now… Jennifer Walters was the only family the young teenaged woman had left, rescuing her after her parents had been executed by HYDRA and promising to take her in and raise her as she had her daughters. None of the others looked thrilled, but there had already been a discussion amongst Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Doctor Hank Pym, and Maria Hill considering what they would need to do to stop HYDRA. The world itself was in danger… and everyone would be in the fight in some form; Kamala included. "There will be nowhere safe if HYDRA succeeds, and this plane will be in the fight as well, Doctor Pym using it and a ribbed firing mechanism that will utilize Pym Particles to shrink armor and damage components of the Helicarriers while it is under fire. And as much as it pains me, even Kamala will be doing her part to hinder their efforts." Jess just looked at Kamala with wide-eyed shock, knowing Jenn's stance on putting kids in danger. But the CEO of the Avengers was right; there would be no running and no hiding if HYDRA succeeded. Dropping Kamala might put her in danger, and the Gungnir would be going on the offensive despite the fact it would be coming under anti-aircraft fire. A plan had been made, and it was being refined so as to stop HYDRA and their plot to overthrow the American Government and the world.
"Everyone's in this fight, Jess, even though it means putting people in danger that I care for and swore that I would serve alongside." Jennifer told her daughter. "I made a promise that I would fight for this world to make it a better place, and I will keep that promise no matter who dare tries otherwise. Especially a pro-fascist Nazi experimental research and development organization that's about to go on a nationwide murder spree so they can rule over the remaining ruins." There was no give in her voice. "We've tried to tactically eliminate them, we've tried to expose them, and we've even tried to outright destroy their damn supercomputer. But that deadline is still there, that plan still a go-ahead. No longer is it time for strike missions or tactical insertions. Now it's time for war, to draw a line in the sand and say 'this we'll defend'. And I will man that line right along with everyone else who wishes it, because I believe in the cause of making a better tomorrow."
"Amen." Nate Dugan replied, nodding his head in agreement. He was hardly alone in that regard.
"Jess?" Kamala spoke up, getting the distraught-looking nineteen-year old to look at her as the Pakistani-American woman took a few steps towards her and slipped her hand into Jessica's own, feeling the strange green boil-like protrusion in the center of her palm as she held Jess's hand. "I know why you're worried and scared. I am, too." Kamala could see Jessica's green eyes threatening to tear up. "But I can't allow them to get away with this, to do what they've done without answering for their crimes against all of us. We may never know the full extend of their efforts over the past decades, whatever plots and murder they had to do to keep themselves in the shadows and with their tentacles in as many pies as possible. But I do know that there are people who would be here right next to us if they could, kept in the dark or fighting their own battles. And there are those who would be here with us but will never be again, their minds or lives taken away just so some we happy few can oppress us all with a digital overlord, death from above, and a superhero death squad. I'm not living in that world; I'm living in this one. We're not just going to protect the people.
"We're going to avenge them." Kamala finalized, no doubt in her tone. Like the rest of them, she knew where she needed to be; alongside this family of hers, one unlike any other, the one where she belonged.
"You're really something, you know that?" Jessica replied softly, wiping away a tear before bringing the young woman in for a hug. "Miss Marvel, indeed." Kamala wrapped her arms around Jessica, feeling the woman who was only a few years older than she trembling slightly from the ordeal she had been rescued from oh so recently.
"If Sarah and Libby were here, they would be holding you, grateful to know that you're alive and free." Kamala whispered. "Since I'm here, I'll be the one who will do it for them. Considering we're sisters now." That had a sob and a chuckle come from Jessica, who held her even tighter. "Don't let them have the satisfaction, Jess. Don't let all that they've done to you and others bring you down or running in the other direction. Tomorrow, they aim to succeed.
"Tomorrow? We fail HYDRA."
"I like the sound of that." Jessica sniffled once more, ruffling Kamala's hair a little, much to the younger woman's admonishment. "I hope you have a better plan than show up and start swinging."
"We do." Captain Rogers replied, a smile on his face. "Kamala came up with something."
"I swear that girl's got wild cards up her sleeves that'd bust a Vegas casino." Barton said with a smile. "I saw a portion of it. I couldn't stop laughing."
"If you guys got popcorn, I'll show you the prelim idea." The fifteen-year old wiggled her eyebrows and smiled. "Because HYDRA needs to be taught a lesson, and I know what makes the difference between a hero and a superhero."
"Yeah? What's that?" Doctor Hank Pym asked, the original Ant-Man bemused.
"An epic entrance and a killer soundtrack." She winked at the physicist, getting Dugan to chuckle. "If you want to pull up some seats, I'll show you the rough idea before I clean it up. But I got the idea from classical literature. I call it The Second Labor."
"Wait, isn't that…?" Hope van Dyne began to ask, obviously recognizing the reference pertaining to The Twelve Labors of Heracles.
"If you want to kill a Hydra?" Kamala asked rhetorically as she queued up her holographic wristband, tying in a command.
"You bring a demigod to the mix."
Author's Notes: As I've slightly mentioned before, Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World are approximately happening at the same time. Yes, the attack on the Roxxon Norco was actually on Christmas Day, but HYDRA (and AIM) had to shift their timelines. I'm not going to bother to come up with a reasonable explanation of that Convergence thing in Thor 2, as a celestial alignment wouldn't really affect anything. I'll just leave as Doctor Jane Foster finding the Reality Stone in a quark hole (those exist theoretically) and that unleashed the Dark Elves.
To avoid confusion of having two Jessica's (Drew and Jones), Jessica Drew will be known as Jess while Jessica Jones will be known as Jessica.
Normally in media, the sitting President is never the current President in real life. In the MCU, the President was Matthew Ellis (seen in Iron Man 3 and Agents of SHIELD). I changed that since I've blended in four different universes (Earth-616/comics, Earth-1610/Ultimate, Earth-199999/MCU, and Earth-1218/us) to suit my needs.
Yes, that Abomination. Along with a couple members of Spidey's rogues' gallery (such as Rhino, Scorpion, and the Sandman). I technically name five as Jessica wouldn't know what her replacement is, though I'll tell you know it's Lonnie Thompson Lincoln. If you know who that is. (Hint; he was in Into The Spider-Verse as a recent media portrayal though I'm going a different route)
Angelica Jones/Firestar is one of the few 'good guys' that HYDRA converted, with many being prisoners, murderers, enforcers, or even volunteers.
I mention the nuke and Jessica Jones' lack of knowledge of its true purpose. Earlier, in The New Hire, V, I have Jenn bring this up to Maria because the American Government would never ever admit to nuking one of its own cities unless it was evacuated, completely taken over, or pretty much written off as a loss already. So I had it to where the US Military 'delivered' a nuke to Stark to send to the wormhole as a cover story for the public to believe in… and at the least Tony kept with that script, knowing that the ramifications would probably be worse than the revenge on the WSC.
I mention that not only does Jessica Jones knows of the Abomination, that it's possible she was physically there and might have witnessed it since she lives in that portion of NYC at that time.
In one of the Agents of SHIELD episodes, Coulson threatens some Agent with 'guarding Blonsky' in Barrow, Alaska, defining his fate.
The Whiplash suit was never 'destroyed', only its Arc Reactor taken out and smashed, its fate afterwards unknown. The Ironmonger suit (which the name comes from the comics, never named that in Iron Man), did fall into the massive Arc Reactor during the Stark Industries Incident, but the suit was made of osmium steel (a fictitious canon metal) that was suppose to be tougher than just about everything else. Iron Man didn't destroy anything on it (yes, he ripped out some cables, but that was it) and its internal components were fried. But the suit itself I had survived as Obie did build the thing to be like a Metal Gear; a walking battle tank.
I tease a little bit of the idea that I had in Iron Man: American Gods where Stane was selling lackluster weapons that didn't pass inspection to terrorists and whomever since weapons companies are VERY stringent about their products. This is actually true in real-life. So Stane was basically selling knock-offs, didn't pass QC's, things that failed NDT's, weapons of that nature while Tony was only selling to America and her allies.
So Jenn is going to be a She-Hulk in a repurposed Ironmonger suit like it's a Hulkbuster?
"The difference between being a hero and a superhero is an epic entrance and a killer soundtrack." We can all thank Hollywood for that one.
What does Kamala have up her sleeve? :-D Why, an epic entrance and a killer soundtrack! Stay tuned for more as I reveal what I have planned since June of 2019!