Avenging Justice 2:

Caught Between an Ultron and a Doomsday

Part XIII

Earth, S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Currently over the Pacific

Maria Hill was looking at tired faces, severe sleep deprived faces, but successful. It was scary how close things came to bringing down whole thing. As usual, Fury's belief in people, had paid off, in spades. She wouldn't have brought in a hacker, but this Terabyte had found something the best of them hadn't. Maybe it was time to update their cyber division.

"May," Fury said painfully. Those who ran afoul of the Winter Soldier tended not to be that lucky. "We're going back our roots, in the shadows. I've got Hill sticking close to Stark, he and the other Avengers are going to be more needed now than they know."

She nodded, but she still had to ask, "Are you sure, sir? With the Hydra poison cut out, S.H.I.E.L.D. is secure again."

Fury nodded, "We were never meant to be in the public eye, too many rules, too much to worry about appearances. Trust an old spy, we're better off this way." He walked over to the port nearby, watching the ocean below. "What is the latest on the reborn Hydra?"

"We have them on Madripoor, funding research from this person called the Power Broker," May explained. "Whoever this person is, they seem to be recreating things like the Banner incident and Erskine's serum. There is also word that there has been a rise in super powered crime in places like New York and Washington. Our agents advise this figure known as the Kingpin is behind it."

Fury held back a smile, "I'm sure that's infuriating the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. What about the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man?"

"Disappeared, sir," May had to swallow, this next part was the hardest to admit. "It is just like someone snatched them off the face of the Earth, we have no trail to follow."

Fury turned, and for a moment looked very weary, "I'll call Xavier, he's done some favors for us in the past, and we've returned the favor from time to time."

Earth, New York, West Chester, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters

Charles Xavier awoke to the sound of something blaring in his ear. Raising his head up, immediately his hand went over to his chin, where stubble was quickly becoming growth. A familiar weight was on his head, the Cerebro machine's helmet. He took it off, and found the button on his wheelchair that activated the blue tooth.

"Xavier, here," he said, his words feeling wooden and his mouth dry as could be. How long had he been down here? Too long apparently.

Nick Fury's voice came out of the speaker, "From the sounds of it, you're having the same issue I am. Did several of your people go missing recently."

"One doesn't have to be psychic to guess that yours did as well," Xavier felt both alarmed and relieved. At least it wasn't something targeting just Mutants. "I've been trying to find them, but I can't find them on this world."

Fury's voice didn't change, but Charles could feel his tension rise, "I'll keep in contact if I found out anything, can I count on your to do the same?"

"Absolutely," Charles cut the call and used the controls on his chair to move.

He took the elevator up, and managed to get back to his area of the mansion, without coming across any of the students. It wouldn't due for them to see him in this state. They needed him to present a calming certainty, they couldn't see how shaken he was by the sudden disappearance of his X-Men.

As he cleaned up, his computer came up, and a message came up on the screen. This is Terabyte, I work with Templar and he's investigating some missing friends. We appreciate any information that you or S.H.I.E.L.D. come across. As such anything we find is yours, together we can find the answer. Just as quickly the message disappeared.

"Interesting," was all Charles Xavier could say.

Already he was reaching out his mind, hoping the sender was nearby, but they weren't. That didn't surprise him, he'd been keeping tabs on this group of Mutants. They were good at rescuing Mutants in distress, and getting them to safe places, like his school. Some of his most recent enrollees were courtesy of this certain group.

"Where did you go?" Xavier asked, to nobody in particular.

Earth, Tennessee, Oak Ridge

Dr. Upita Oyongo felt her neck starting to cramp. She'd been sitting here staring at the numbers for far too long. Beside her, the standard microscope sat, with several slides of biomatter that she'd been studying. The reports she was looking over and the slides of biomatter were connected, all part of her research. Well, her team's research, but she had found the breakthrough.

The U.S. government had never given up on recreating Dr. Erskine's super soldier serum. Part of it was to keep other countries, not friendly to the U.S., from creating their own. It was bad enough that the former Soviet Union had created a similar enough serum for their Red Guardian and possibly the Winter Soldier. That and having an army of super soldiers would give the country more bargaining power.

She rechecked her work, and then felt her heart race. She had done better than recreate the serum, she'd improved on it. Which for the barest of instances, made her elated beyond measure. Just as quickly she sent her notes to her handlers, and then backed up her data on the server.

Something was wrong though, as she did all this. She expected messages to come in quickly, phone calls to verify her findings, and video calls to quiz her on what she had found. Instead, the facility she was in, started to go dark. Power being cut room to room, and instantly Upita felt her blood go cold.

"Doctor, you need to come with me," came an icy voice.

She turned, and there holding a gun on her, was a woman she'd never seen before. Being held at gunpoint, Upita put up her hands up. Quickly her eyes scanned around the room, looking for an escape. She would get her chance, but not one that she was expecting.

"We've been watching you," the gun woman said. "We figured Nagel would have been the first to crack it. He's brilliant, but it looks like you are more so. Now, if you would, put the data on the stick, and I'll take all your currently made serum."

The woman threw a USB drive to Dr. Oyongo, who was still looking for an exit. Luck was on her side, though. While the gun woman moved forward, one of the doors opened to the lab, a flashlight bouncing across the darkened interior.

"Dr. Oyongo!" called Lara Nakamura, one of the interns working in the labs. "Looks like someone blew a fuse or two." Then her flashlight lit up the form of the gun woman. "Um, did I interrupt something?"

Quick as a flash, the gun woman had Lara in her sights and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately for her, and quite fortunate for the intern, Upita slammed her keyboard into the woman's face. The shot rang out, and instantly Lara ducks for cover. Meanwhile the gun woman back hands Dr. Oyongo, and turns her gun on the doctor. Reaching up, she felt fresh blood that flowed down from her busted nose.

"That wasn't smart, doctor," the gun woman came over and kicked her hard. "Don't do anything else stupid, I'd hate for you to have an accident."

She immediately turned and stalked towards where the intern had ducked to. Jumping around and firing, she found nobody there. Turning around, she went searching, and kept an eye on Dr. Oyongo. As such, she didn't see the movement till it was too late.

Lara came up from the side, and hit the gun woman with her hand taser. She made a note to thank her sister, though at the time she had though the gift was overkill. Who could have foreseen a person attacking their lab? Well, it was lucky she had the taser.

She rushed over to Dr. Oyongo, "Are you okay? Listen we need to get out of here and call the cops."

"Thank you," Dr. Oyongo smiled. "Let me grab the vials and the data. We need to get out of here, do you have a car. I have a feeling they'll be looking for mine."

Lara shook her head, "My boyfriend is picking me up, he's probably worried sick right now."

Upita had half the files moved when the computer stopped, restarted and immediately came up asking for a command. The whole thing had been wiped, but by who, and why? That would end up being the least of her worries, as her head began to feel lighter. She did manage to grab all the vials of her formula.

"Come on, Doctor, I think we have a gas leak," Lara pulled the other woman out.

As she did, the gun woman began to move, but still wasn't a danger yet. Struggling to her feet, the gun woman grabbed her pistol and began leaden foot marching towards the fleeing doctor. She had been betrayed, more would come. With Hydra, cut one head off, another grew in its place. So, as the fire engulfed her, she screamed out, "Hail Hydra."

Behind Lara and Dr. Oyongo a wave of force and fire threw them forward, as the lab exploded. Lara yanked up the doctor, and Oyongo was breathing hard. It took a moment for Lara to realize she was practically dragging the other woman. Before she knew it, someone else helped her carry the doctor.

"Lara, what the hell happened?" her boyfriend, Seth asked as he helped her pull the other woman.

Lara was holding back her increasing level of fear, "No idea. There was a power outage, and I went looking for Dr. Oyongo. Next thing I know, there is someone shooting at me and the lab exploded."

"No time, get away from here," Dr. Oyongo weakly said. "Need to get away."

Seth looked at the doctor and then at Lara, "Well bells, let's get her back to my apartment."

Lara nodded, and then they loaded the doctor into the back of his car. Quickly they drove off, even as first responders were responding. Only by mere luck did they exit before the authorities set up a perimeter, and before anyone would have thought to stop them, to question why they were there.

High above Earth, a small skull sized probe darted away. It sent a message, a successful mission. Lightyears away, a large skull shaped ship received the message and a green skinned being, merged into the technology of his ship opened his eyes. Brainiac knew it was time, it was time to place Earth culture into his collection. They were on the cusp, if he waited they'd be beyond the precipice. That was why he had the probe wipe the data, after collecting it for him. It may be of use of yet, at least that was what he thought, as he set the ship up for its journey.