Initiative 2030

New York Stories

Dare

Daredevil vanished not long after President Richards came to power. Matt Murdock, well known lawyer, often suspected of being DD, also vanished around the same time. But New York still needed protecting...

The figure looked like a husky, well built guy. The costume was mostly black, with red accents on the shoulders, a red 'D' logo on the shoulder and red gloved and boots. They moved with incredible speed and agility, bounding across rooftops.

Seeing something they slowed, then dropped into an alley.

"Gimmie your money!" the ragged man demanded.

"Eeeeeek!" the pretty blonde screamed, fighting to get her purse back.

The black figure dropped onto the mugger with a loud thump.

"ACK!" the man yelped.

"Eeep," the young woman staggered back, thankfully with her purse in hand.

With a loud crunch the black clad figure rendered the attacker unconscious, then rose.

"Wow," the woman managed weakly.

"Call the police," the masked figure ordered, then was off.

The woman stood, stunned there for a minute. Then waved, "Thank you!"

There were several more stops across the city, then much more secretly it entered the old safe-house. Once used by Captain America and the Avengers, it had been taken over...

"Welcome back," the woman signed.

Maya Lopez, the deaf hero once called 'Echo' took off the mock Daredevil armor. "Thanks, Widow," she said wryly.

Natasha Romanov, the adventurer once known as Black Widow smiled back at Maya as she signed, "Any injuries? Anything new to report?"

"I'm fine," Maya looked embarassed. With her lack of hearing coupled with the armor, she hadn't realized she had been shot, once. "No signs of Matt, so far...," she added.

Natasha nodded slightly, not really surprised.

"Ben Ulrich and reporters from Front Line are looking into us, I've heard," Maya added.

"Heard?" Natasha teased.

Maya scowled at her jokingly.

"We should probably contact Ben," Natasha signed, "he's basically a straight shooter. Who knows, he might have info we don't."

Maya watched Natasha walk carefully across the room, clearly still suffering vertigo issues. The Red Room, Russia's Super Soldier project, had cloned Natasha repeatedly, transfering her memories into new bodies. For years. However over time the cloning process began to break down, to the point where now Natasha was physically ill... possibly dying.

Devil

And sometimes you just have to break things.

The Hand had an odd relationship with New York City. Despite multiple defeats, the Satanic cult of Ninja kept trying to get a foothold there. This time they had usurped a hedonistic cult, converted the leaders, and using the sex parties to spread the corruption. Right up until he got word.

The ninja heard him coming, and loosed a rain of arrows on him. A few stuck, but the red costume appeared to be armored. He shrugged off the attack, then charged.

"Get him!" a sword wielding man yelled. Over a dozen men with weapons charged, blades gleaming with deadly intent.

The first man's neck broke with a wet noise, then the Devil tossed him aside. With inhuman speed and strength the man ripped into the ninja, smashing them around like toys. He wasn't even that big, but somehow he casually overwhelmed them all.

"Archers! ARCHERS!" one of the ninja yelled desperately.

"Like that would help," Devil laughed, then bodily chucked the screaming man up at the archer's crows nests. With that same inhuman speed and strength, he killed several more ninja, then watched the bodies dissolve into mist.

"Eeep," the cult leader made a fearful noise as the man in red advanced on him.

The big man casually picked him up by the collar. "The Kingpin knows you tried to set up shop here," Devil noted coldly, "and he's not happy. If he so much as sees you around again, we're declaring war on the Hand."

The Devil dropped the man, and he ran away in terror.

Kingpin

Once upon a time, the Kingpin had been Wilson Fisk. Posing as a 'respectable business man' he had kept an iron grip on the criminal underworld in New York. He tangled with many super heroes, but his greatest foe had been Daredevil, the two of them nearly destroying each other several times. From his towering skyscraper, he had ruled New York.

But times change...

"Talk to me," the muscled, brown haired man ordered.

"Hard drug sales are down across the city," Owlette, the daughter of C-list villain the Owl, reported calmly. "In a month or less we'll have it fully shut down, Mr Parker."

Kaine Parker, a clone of Spider-Man, and a former villain himself, smiled wryly. "Good, we'll replace that income with the legal cannabis shops," Kaine noted.

"We're going to get pushback from the other crime lords," Owlette warned, "Mr Fear, especially, is going to be angry."

"Good," Kaine smiled.

Before they could continue, a figure in red armor swung in through the window. Owlette brought her wrist guns up, defensively, then relaxed once she recognized him. "Mr Reilly, could you not do that?" she demanded.

"Sorry," the red armored figure said as he pulled off his mask. Ben Reilly, fellow Spider-Man clone, sighed as he said, "I took care of the Hand, Kaine."

"You all right?" Kaine went over him, looking the other man over.

"Some arrow hits," Ben admitted.

The two men had a long and strange history together, and for much of it they had been enemies. Kaine had hunted Ben, believing he meant to harm Peter Parker, and vice versa. Both had become super villains at different times, and had tried to kill each other too. But time passed, and they knew each other well.

When Daredevil and Spider-man disappeared, the criminals of New York ran wild. Someone had to step in, and Kaine had a daring plan: control crime by taking over the mobs. Ben thought he was crazed at first but eventually agreed to join him. They took over a gang out near Queens first. Then took the nearby groups over. And with that as their base, they swiftly expanded...

Owlette, on the other hand, was in it for the money. "I'm glad the Hand has been dealt with, Sirs, but there IS other business..."

Ben gave her a wry look, "Oh sure, never mind the shot guy..."

Owlette flushed a bit, "Sorry."

Kaine shook his head wryly but sat at his desk again. "Anything else?" he asked Owlette.

"The head of NY State's Initiative is demanding a higher bribe to keep the Scarlet Spiders off our back," Owlette added.

Both Kaine and Ben looked amused, having used the Scarlet Spider identity themselves at times. "I'm tempted to snitch him out to Gyrich," Ben noted wryly from the couch he had flopped down on.

"But then we might end up with someone ethical," Kaine replied dryly. "Pay him off," he decided, "but I want recordings. If it comes down to it, we'll blackmail the bastard."

"Yes sir," Owlette smiled as she took a note, then left the office.

Ben waited until she was gone before offering, "She's going to turn on you, you realize."

"Well, duh," Kaine agreed mildly, "she hates our guts, and is loyal to her father, the Owl. On the other hand, she's a great admin..."

Ben just laughed.

Spider-Woman

Reilly Parker finished explaining.

"They're all clones?" Julie Power asked in disbelief.

"Yup," Reilly agreed. She was meeting with Julie as a follow up on the missing Peter Parker situation, and Julie had been catching her up on the new 'Kingpin'.

"Uhm, I thought YOU were the Ben Reilly clone...," Julie had to ask.

"I found out somewhat later that the Jackal had made multiple copies," Reilly admitted. Her face went grim, "He even stress tested one Ben clone by killing and restoring him dozens of times. Drove him nuts."

"That's horrible," Julie winced.

"Agreed," Reilly nodded. She curiously asked, "And you think they're taking over the mobs with good intentions?"

Julie nodded, "That's what it looks like. They're pulling out of harmful businesses like hard drugs and moving into semi-legal stuff."

"Here's hoping they don't end up in a 'power corrupts' situation," Reilly sighed.

"Agreed," Julie sighed.

To be continued...

Notes: Dealing with a retcon, basically. ORIGINALLY, Marvel had Ben Reilly die at the end of the Clone Saga. Which is what I based my story on.

Years later, however, Marvel decided to bring Ben back. As a 'new' Jackal, and later on as Scarlet Spider. I was gonna ignore it, but as I had brought up Kaine earlier too, I figured why not toss it in.

For the Black Widow bit, it's actually comics canon that she's died then been revived by being cloned.

But after this, no more clones for awhile.