Initiative 2030

Defenders and Others

The US White House, the President's office...

"So Black Widow escaped?" President Richards sounded unhappy.

Daken met her eyes calmly as he reported, "We grabbed her, but she declared diplomatic immunity. Flew back to Russia."

"And Gyrich allowed that?" Richards blinked.

"She has a biological kill-switch," Daken revealed, "capturing and questioning her would be pointless. And as Red Room is supposedly rogue, now..."

"You don't buy it?" Richards asked.

"Well, having Red Room be officially a rogue operation works well for the Russian government," Daken said thoughtfully. "Plus they can just plead ignorance if the Red Room or any of their agents get caught."

"And we can't prove it either way," Richards. "Why didn't Gyrich tell me this?"

"It makes him look a little bad," Daken shrugged. He added cheerfully, "Not that I mind squealing on him, of course."

Once again, Val Richards had to firmly remind herself that Daken was not a nice man. He'd clearly happily through Gyrich or anyone else under a bus. Not that she could really blame him, at least as far as Gyrich was concerned. Man was a ass.

"All right, thank you for the briefing," Richards nodded.

Once Daken left, val used sensors to check if he had tried to use his subtle pheromone powers on her. Apparently, no. Interesting.

'Sorry, Daken,' Richards thought, 'I still don't trust you as far as I can throw you.'

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The bar was a absolute dive, and was in the part of Washington DC that was more known for drug dealing than politics. It was also the kind of place political operatives met so their bosses didn't know. Officially, anyway.

The short, hairy man strode over to the bar, nodding. "Beer, and scotch," he ordered.

"Double," Daken said as he came up. He nodded, "Hi, Pops."

Logan nodded to him, "Kid."

"President Richards wanted me to thank the X-Men for stopping Apocalypse' latest thing," Daken quietly noted.

"He apparently salvaged the Evolutionary Bomb the High Evolutionary wanted to detonate years back," Logan drank his beer, "dunno what it would have done, but it'd be bad."

"Sounds like it," Daken drank. "Anything Scott wants passed on to Richards?"

Logan and Daken were a unofficial, off the books conduit between Richards and the X-Men running California. Richards officially didn't recognize Scott Summers as Governor, accusing him of using telepaths to swing the vote. As the dispute ran through the courts, Scott didn't want to communicate with Richards.

(Plus the whole President Richards sending the Shadow Initiative to try to assassinate Scott thing that happened...)

"Several new candidates were made into Horsemen by Apocalypse,"Logan admitted, "they escaped when we brought him down."

Daken frowned, "Anyone I need to be worried about?"

"Havok," Logan scowled.

"Shit," Daken cursed, "he's really destructively powerful."

"Tell me about it," Logan said, "He burned most of my skin off, along with a leg."

"I'll pass along to bring him in alive, if we run into 'im," Daken noted. "Remind Scott he owes us one, though."

Logan frowned at him, but didn't argue it.

"Any news on Moonstone or Winter Soldier?" Daken checked.

"I ain't squealing on Barnes," Logan shook his head. "Besides, Sublime was a sick fuck. Couldn't have happened to a better scumbag."

'Which pretty much confirms our theory that he did it,' Daken thought but didn't say.

"Mind if we brawl later?" Logan suggested with a grin.

"Damn right," Daken raised his beer mug.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Winter Guard headquarters, Soviet Union...

"What the hell, woman?" Red Guardian demanded.

The new Black Widow had flown back to Russia yesterday, and was taken into custody by the Winter Guard. Though what they were going to DO with her was another issue...

"I don't answer to you," Black Widow noted, dressed in a variation of the Black Widow body suit, with red accents.

Red Guardian made a frustrated noise.

"Why DIDN'T you kill Ms America?" Darkstar asked, the blond mutant frowning at her.

"None of your business," Widow smiled coldly.

Crymson Dynamo grunted in annoyance, the armored hero helping guard her. Theoretically, anyway. There was some question if he'd ACTUALLY shoot her.

Red Guardian pulled his hood off, and Alexi grabbed a beer from the fridge. "You won't tell us who's running the Red Room, I suppose?" he asked, drinking.

"I don't know," Widow admitted.

"Huh?" Vanguard blinked, his cape fluttering dramatically.

"I've never seen or directly interacted with them," Widow said bluntly. "I assume operational security/need to know."

"That's hardcore," Ursa Major admitted. Once a shapechanger, he was now trapped in his huge humanoid bear mode.

"Vocal patterns indicate truthfulness," Sputnik II, the team's robot member, noted.

"You should have killed the US bitch," Lady Perun noted. The amulet containing the Russian Storm God had fallen into a women soldier's hands after Valeri Soyloyev's death. Who the woman WAS was a mystery, but she was a bloodthirsty type.

"All right everyone, settle down," their handler ordered, entering the meeting room.

Yelena Belova had been a 'Black Widow' too, and had trained to defeat Natasha Romanoff. Eventually she rebelled against the Red Room, becoming a solo operative. After MANY twists and turns, she ended up back in Russia working for the government.

"Vasilia, congrats on succeeding on your main mission," Yelena said calmly.

"WHAT," Red Guardian yelped.

"Is it not still classified?" Widow asked calmly.

"The US will figure out what you did eventually," Yelena shrugged casually.

"Explain," Red Guardian prompted.

"Before I went to engage Barbara Monroe, I got biological samples of the super soldier Liberteen," Widow explained. "My going after Monroe was cover."

Everyone looked stunned at that news.

"Can I go on the record that those augmentations are a horror show," Widow noted. "I posed as a medical aide, and the child was miserable."

"Agreed," Yelena nodded, "but our researchers want the data. They hope to perfect our own augment process."

"So you weren't a rogue operative?" Darkstar asked.

"I'll never tell," Widow smiled coolly.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Wait, they did WHAT?" Ezekiel Stane demanded.

Zeke Stane was the member of President Richards' inner circle most responsible for superhuman tech, both biological and implanted. He built the Iron Spiders, the Iron Patriots and helped oversee the processes that they used to give folks powers.

Camilla Black was there, as the liason for SHIELD, and was delivering the bad news. "We think the Black Widow got into close contact with Liberteen," she told him, "we think she got samples and scan data."

"So the research data is compromised," Zeke concluded.

"It seems so, sir," Camilla nodded.

"Good," Zeke said.

"Good?" Camilla blinked.

"The process used on Liberteen is horribly flawed," Zeke noted, "there's a reason we've never widely used it. I'm perfectly happy to let the Russians be saddled with it."

"And what about her?" Camilla had to ask.

Zeke gave her a look, clearly not liking her critical tone. He answered anyway, "We're working on a nanite based treatment to fix most of her biological issues. I'm not trying it until it's been fully tested, though."

"Oh. Thank you sir," Camilla responded meekly.

"Can't have her die from our process," Zeke noted, "it'd be bad PR."

Camilla bit back a sigh.

To be continued...

Note: Regarding the earlier chapter, I realized I used Moon Knight in Avengers, will have to edit that chapter probably. Might make it be BLACK Knight, instead. Heh.