For the next couple of days the members of Task Force HAMMER were confined to the former HYDRA base that had been their headquarters under Osborne's Dark Reign. That said the new director has been lenient and while they were indeed prisoners of war SHIELD was working hard to rectify this new change in status. The main problem was that in a last act of spite Norman Osborne had published the list of all combatants involved in the Second Battle of Asgard and while a lot of people deserved everything they got under the new administration there were a fair amount of people who had been blackmailed or even physically forced into working for HAMMER. One liberty that Natasha and her team had was that Songbird had approved their request to attend Tate's funeral, albeit under armed guards.
"Ghost are you ready?" Natasha called as she flattened the long black dress she was wearing down.
"He's not coming." Geode replied as she changed her usual uniform from the crystal studded clothing to a black suit and white blouse. "Says he's going to honour Tate in his own way. Something about being on the cusp of brilliance."
"In other words he doesn't do funerals." Pat told her as the Symbiote morphed into a suit. Toxin had been cleared to go with the rest of the team to the funeral as long as he behaved himself.
"Are you really going to wear that?" Wolverine snarled as James walked in clad in his War Machine Armor.
"You seem to forget something, Nike is still out there and we are still marked men and women." James replied, "Listen the service is in thirty minutes we are just going to leave Ghost here." he added as the SHIELD escort got ready to take the Task Force HAMMER members to the cemetery. Natasha knew it was a hollow gesture after the suicide attack Tate had pulled off she could fit in a jam-jar, still it was nice to think that SHIELD cared enough to buy a coffin. Closing the door behind her Natasha sighed Ghost would have to simply just have to miss the chance to say goodbye.
Ghost slammed his intangible fist through his conspiracy board, he had removed all the former clippings and had covered the surface with everything he knew about Nike. Breathing heavily he typed into the computer looking for information about the mission that Tate had gone on in New Orleans maybe go to the source and see what scurried out. Halfway through the testimony of Chen Lu the Radioactive Man he found something; Chen had noted that Nike's relationship with Cygnus was interesting. He had claimed that Nike's behaviour towards Cygnus had been at best improper at worst illegal. Testimonies from Songbird and the Rhino collaborated this and stated that Cygnus had been raped by Nike. Ultimately it had been dropped because Tate had been unwilling to testify.
Behind him the computer beeped and brought up a pop-up message advertising a jamboree held by the local scout troop. "Tate why did you have to disable my fire walls." he cursed, "Wait a second." he said narrowing his eyes behind his mask. "Of course I was an idiot." Quickly he wrote a series of numbers onto a piece of paper. "They used a code so simple it was genius. If every number relates to the corresponding letter in the alphabet. That way 22-9-3-20-18-9-1-2-5-20-18-1-25-5-28 becomes," behind him something clicked. "So you came to do the job yourself." Ghost stated, "Wondered if you would Nike."
"You know what they say," Nike replied as she pulled the trigger sending a bullet into Ghost's brain, "If you want a job done right blow up the funeral." she sneered before kicking Ghost's body off the chair he had landed on before calmly walking out of the locked down HYDRA base.
Trinity Church Cemetery, New York - 16:22PM, 4th September
"Got it boss." Redback purred as she sat in the row behind War Machine as the jute coffin was wheeled out by the funeral director. "Let's get ready to rumble." she hissed as she squeezed the trigger in her hand sending the coffin exploding shattering the front row of the audience with razor sharp nails. As the dust cleared Redback examined her work and smiled, Task Force HAMMER wasn't dead but their injuries were fatal.
"Sorry guys," Redback said as she watched Natasha attempt to stand up despite the many wounds she was bleeding out. "Who knew that I would have to kill my team mates at my own funeral." she added throwing the trigger down as she walked over to the figure standing by the gates, "It's done now tell me where my son is." she asked.
"Tate my loyal servant. The truth is I only wanted you dead, what you have to say is to damaging for the head of SHIELD." Nike told her, "Or it would be if that harpy Gold didn't get their first. Enjoy your future Tate I see a lot of orange in your future." Nike replied pressing a trigger that sent an electric shock through the assassin's body. "Oh and don't worry about your son, Hera paid me more then you could ever imagine to have such a powerful manufacturing complex such as Matthew. I believe that that's what I promised you after you forced Redback out of the Helicopter"
Tate didn't reply and Nike turned and ran as sirens could be heard on the horizon, there was much to prepare. In the end it mattered little if Tate died in prison or survived to brag she was now a terrorist nobody would listen to here. She smiled in a matter of weeks she would be sitting at the head of SHIELD and the world would be as it should.