With most of the teams leaving for their targets the night of the party, there wasn't much FRIDAY could do against HYDRA for the time being. Sure, JARVIS was on the prowl for any still hidden Hydra assets, but that was it. Any further actions could risk bringing attention to Boss, especially with the rogue agents' operations in a few days. They had decided to let the HYDRA operatives in the States for the time being, instead, focusing on the ones in Europe and their stronghold, Russia. The attacks would be made in a pattern that would seem like the work of an intelligence agency. While the first to be targeted would be one involved in the Stark Tower attack, the leaders would be the next.
The team heading to the HYDRA base in Siberia was lead by Ms. Romanoff, with strict instructions to search the facility upside down. FRIDAY had also dispatched two modified Mark 18 suits along with that team. Boss had done the modification at her request, making the suits as portable hibernation modules. The suits were for two of the four supersoldiers in hibernation there; Erica Green and Jonathan Meyer, both members of SHIELD, were captured during the cold war and brainwashed to act as HYDRA's pawns. Going through the records of HYDRA, FRIDAY had seen both of their files. Unlike the other Supersoldiers, Erica and Jonathan did not lose control and riot; instead, they were prone to attack other HYDRA agents. Their handlers believed that both supersoldier's brainwash was not wholly successful, as evident by their few attempts to contact SHIELD during long-running missions. She had decided to trust these observations and bring both agents to States. While FRIDAY's intentions were not completely noble, she did not want two innocents to die as Erica and Jonathan had never got any assassination missions under HYDRA. FRIDAY hoped that the procedure for Bucky Barnes might also help the other two. Boss had not been ready for it until she had shown him the real reason. Erica had been one of his father's closest friends once, and her loss had made Howard Stark look for Steve Rogers more.
With nothing major to do and Morgan once again spending her day at the Clint farm along with Mordo, FRIDAY had spent the day upgrading and performing maintenance of her sibling's codes and servers. Virgil had also got her attention as he continued learning everything possible about the Hulkbuster armor. The alternate self of Boss Lady had flown along with Nela to an old fabrication factory some distance away from New York, one which was being modified as a completely autonomous and off the grid location to manufacture Iron man suits. With the required output volume low, the factory remained unnoticed. Right now, FRIDAY could see that Virgil was trying out the Unibeam. With five reactors powering it, the Unibeam of the Hulkbuster was much more potent than any other suits. Virgil, it seemed, had forgotten about her warnings, as showing the only drawback of the weapon, the entire suit flew backward, crashing against a wall, not that it put even a dent in the strengthened material. Leaving DIANA to keep an eye on them, she focused on the ongoing treatment of Bucky Barnes. The Winter Soldier was still unconscious, having kept so by special sedatives. The three doctors had decided to start with full-body scans before going any further. An X-ray machine modified to act as a full-body scanner by Boss was moving over Barnes. Boss had modified it with her help after studying Dr. Cho's most advanced Cradle.
FRIDAY was also keeping an eye on the rest of the group during these events. The most interesting sight for her right now was Boss's floor had made Penny a small lab of her own. Laura Howlett, who had spent her every bit of free time cooped up in her room, was trying to converse with Penny. The young Parker was using JARVIS to translate their words. It seemed that Laura wanted to know more about the school project Penny was working on, a..., one which was personally supervised by Boss and Nela. FRIDAY wasn't sure that the project would leave the mansion, especially with the additions done by Boss and Nela, as Ms. Potts had already objected to it, and May Parker would follow soon. Both Laura and Penny were under the watchful eyes of Logan and Ben, discussing the Alien Invasion. Leaving them be, she took an update on all the people on her watch list.
Princess Shuri seemed to have difficult days for the past few weeks. Her Lab time had been cut in half, and she was forced to attend a multitude of protocol lessons. It was her parent's lessons that she hated the most, though. She was forced to stop using the words like Colonizer for anyone outside Wakanda and made to learn many things she wasn't interested in. Her problems, though, were very minute compared to her Brother's. T'Challa had been assigned a minor role in the court, for now, one which restricted him to managing the internal affairs of Wakanda. Despite his removal from the line of succession, his views about outsiders, especially Tony Stark, was still the same. One which his father and other leaders had recognized as dangerous and taken steps to mitigate it. The King knew that if his Son didn't change, his daughter might have to make some difficult decisions one day.
Despite her advancements, FRIDAY couldn't help but marvel at Wakanda's internal engineering designs. It was true that they were mostly based on something stolen from outside the country; the modifications they had done using Vibranium were nothing to scoff at. The designs for the hovercrafts had already been copied to her own systems, and alterations were being made to it for some of her projects.
Dr. Cho was nearly done with the prototype of Regeneration Cradle. FRIDAY had already scheduled a meeting between Dr. Cho and S.I., with Boss and Boss Lady's permission. The maximoff twins, on the other hand, had disappeared off the grid. They were not in the HYDRA stronghold at Sokovia, although their names had been spoken once or twice. FRIDAY believed that the experiments that gave them powers had kicked off. She was still not decided about what to do with the twins. While Peter Maximoff was someone she was interested in, Wanda was a difficult point. The easiest solution was to put a bullet in the girl's head as soon as possible, but FRIDAY was not unaware of the potential the older twin held.
Harley Keener was still going on with his life, but not for long. Boss had decided to leave on a group vacation once the matter with HYDRA was sorted. During the vacation, Boss and Boss lady would be meeting the candidates shortlisted for an internship under Tony Stark. The announcement was scheduled to go out the next day. FRIDAY would make sure that Harley Keener applied to it as he would be the one who would be selected. Any application except him that Boss found worthy would be sent to the H.R. department with Boss's recommendations.
NATASHA ROMANOFF
It had taken them a day and a half on flying to reach the HYDRA base in Siberia. There only rest had been a half an hour refueling stop on a small S.I. facility in Belarus. Since the twinjet was designed with Stealth as the main factor, Human comfort was relatively low in it for six people. Their destination wasn't any better, a partially hidden crater 1 mile from the base, which looked abandoned. After a quick recon, they decided to leave for the base immediately. Small drones controlled by FRIDAY were scouting ahead of their snow bikes, with two Iron man suits flying high above. She had reservations about FRIDAY's instructions but kept them to herself. Half an hour later, FRIDAY's prediction had come partially true. While the base was abandoned in most parts, there was a team of HYDRA agents in the area where the supersoldiers were stored. From the cleaned up room with a chair and an empty pod, it was clear that these guys had been the ones to reactivate and deploy the Winter Soldier. All of them died quickly; their bodies disposed in a corner. As three of her team ensured the two HYDRA supersoldiers were dead, she led the other two in taking out the ones FRIDAY wanted. The A.I. presence on the mission was something she was really thankful for as it helped them to detach the pods from the base's power source and connect them to the suit. It was simultaneously impressive and terrifying to watch as the suits disassembled and reassembled. The end result was something like a weird metal flying organism. Once the setup had left the facility through a blown-up wall, they started placing explosives at predetermined points.
Three hours later, they stood by the twinjet and watched as, after simultaneous small rumbles, the facility fell down on itself, disintegrating entirely in a much larger single explosion. With the two pods taking up most of the space inside the plane, their return journey was much more harrowing. By the time they landed at their new base, all she could think about was finding a bed. When she woke up next, the pods had already departed for the mansion. With Clint's team scheduled to come back in the next 12 hours, she decided to wait for him. The reports of the other teams started coming in soon. She had not recognized it first, but the pattern FRIDAY had planned the attacks around was clear now. While a considerable number of attacks were made to look like accidents, the ones on the Country heads were not. FRIDAY was cutting off all the heads of HYDRA at the same time. From the constantly updating list in front of her, she could see that the next command line was also targeted. There was no mention of the fact about the families of those agents, but she didn't bother questioning.
When Clint's team arrived, she had expected him to be acting normally, but he was anything such. The entire team looked shaken, and the reason was evident after a few seconds. Three-body bags were brought out of the plane, one of them uncovered. The state of that tortured body was enough to make her feel nauseous. As he neared her, only one word left his mouth.
"Wakandans"
There was no need to say anything more. Clint, it seemed, had not informed FRIDAY about it. When the A.I. learned from her, a silence spread in the comm channel. FRIDAY's next reply was very robotic in nature.
"Thank you for that information, Ms. Romanoff."
TONY STARK
He was going through a design for a large area weapon when the entire Holographic structure powered down. Before he could say anything, other things started powering down. The only thing that remained were the lights, his computers, and the Ironman suits in less than a second. His voice was frantic as he addressed his oldest friend.
"J, what happened?"
JARVIS's voice seemed to be strained in the reply.
"I apologize, Sir. FRIDAY has tasked me and KAREN with a new task. She has prioritized it relatively high and has paused every nonvital process."
The feeling of being powerless and the blistering anger once again swept inside him before he controlled it. FRIDAY had her faults, but she would never do such a thing without reason.
"What happened, J?"
It was the FRIDAY who replied instead of JARVIS.
"Mr. Barton's team have arrived back at the Headquarters from the mission, Mr. Stark. They brought three dead bodies along with them."
Since the night of the party, he had first heard FRIDAY, never before he had heard such a cold voice from the A.I.
"Were you able to identify them?"
There was no reply from FRIDAY, but photos popped on the computer screen along with live recording from the Headquarters. By the time his brain processed everything, his hands had started shaking.
"Find everything about them, FRIDAY, and compile it. Look in each and everyone you can. I want to know everything."
"Yes, Mr. Stark."
Calling a suit, he blasted off the balcony, wanting to divert his mind a little. By the time he returned, his lab had gained more occupants than before, all of them suited up. While Clint and Natasha were a bit tired, they didn't show it much. Nela was already in her suit, with Virgil standing next to her, fully armed. Rhodey was in there too, but this time in a nanotech suit. As soon as he exited out of Mark 47, FRIDAY opened up.
"I found four more locations, Mr. Stark. Three in Europe and one in States. The agents volunteered to leave again after a few hours rest for the locations in Europe."
"And we are going after the one here. Very Well, give me one of the suits."
As the nanotech suit started covering him, he looked towards Mordo.
"Are you coming with us?"
"Only to take you guys there. I won't take part in any other event."
"hm, Okay. FRIDAY tell Ben and May about this, and keep the infirmary ready."
"Mr. Stark.."
"We might need a doctor, FRIDAY, someone more knowledgeable in healing than Bruce."
"As you say, Mr. Stark."
"You also need to look into a doctor for all of us. Someone who can be trusted with all the knowledge."
JARVIS replied instead of FRIDAY.
"I have some candidates for that, Sir."
He looked at the camera, confused.
"Why were you looking into Doctors, J?"
"With your frequent injuries and the poisoning, I thought it would be prudent to find someone if you ever needed one."
Even though the words were said in a simple tone, the sarcasm was unmistakable. He flexed a little inside the suit as FRIDAY handed over the control to JARVIS. It was something they had practiced for already, and the results showed. JARVIS controlled the nanites just as he wanted.
"Let's go."