SHIELD triskelion

After Dark Claws escape Super Soldier emerged from his grave of rubble looking to continue the fight with his new adversary. Noticing the hole in the wall caused by the explosion, he made his way there an scanned the area with his super hearing to see if he could detect the sound of any aircraft in the immediate area. However as this was a military base, it proved futile, just as he was about to take to the air to continue the search.

"Where do you think you are going Captain?" asked his superior office the director of SHIELD himself

"Sir, I was about to search for the fugitive and retrieve the files which he had stolen" responded the Captain

"Leave him, we have more important matters to discuss" ordered Bruce as he turned an made his way to one of the numerous briefing rooms located in that exact hallway.

"Are you sure that is wise sir? I mean who knows what that maniac has stolen from SHIELD an who is he any way?" asked Captain Kent as he followed this superior officers lead.

"We know exactly what he took Captain, he took files which related to you. Your creation, abilities heck even your shoe size. As for who he is, not even SHIELD knows. All we have to go by are the numerous reports that come in from the various police departments" responded the General as he addressed the 'young' soldier.

"Is he working for some foreign government looking to create their own version of me?" questioned Super Soldier as he took a seat in the briefing room, in the front row.

"No, his name is Dark Claw. He is a vigilante operates right here in New Gotham City. From what we can gather he is some sort of metamutant. Statements gathered by New Gothams finest show that he has been stabbed, riddled with bullets, hit by a car, and trains an always gets back up. There is just no quit in the man, like the human version of a wolverine. He also seems to have been augmented in some way."

"Augmented? In what way general?"

"Oh Hell Clark, you had a little sparring session with the guy, you tell me what seemed unnatural about him?"

"I hit him, but he got right back up like it didn't even phase him. But I know my own strength General. He should have been incapacitated an there were those metallic claws. I think they were sheathed in his gloves, only that when they came out it looked like there was a brief flinch of pain in his features."

"The reason he got back up so quickly is that he heals really fast,secondly those metallic claws along with the rest of his skeleton is laced with adamantium. Only somehow its been changed to allow the normal process of his bone marrow so our experts refer to it as adamantium beta."

"You seem to know a lot concerning this man General"

"Not the man Captain, the project. The man you had a fight with is a test subject of Project: Weapon X."

"General what is this Project: Weapon X?"

"Weapon X was a clandestine government project which turned willing and unwilling beings into living weapons. The project often captured metamutants and ran experiments on them to enhance their abilities and also mutated baseline humans." General Wilson took a deep breath as he noticed the expression on the Captains face. "It was a long time ago Captain, the facility was cleared out. It seems that one of their experiments got loose an trashed the place. Most of the documents an equipment were destroyed however there were a few files on operatives which they possessed, nothing specific just code names. Finally there was a document regarding the bonding of adamantium to one of the test subjects skeleton. That subject seems to have been Dark Claw"

"From what you have just said, it seems that what SHIELD is doing now is no different than Weapon X"

"Not true Captain, weapon X wanted living weapons to carry out massacres and assassinations. We want soldiers who are capable to making their own decisions. We only accept volunteers who meet the necessary criteria, where as Weapon X abducted mutants and people off of the street, an their homes."

"I see your point sir, is that everything?"

"Not quite, what do you know of Mars Captain?"

"Nothing much, its a planet in our solar system an is named after the Roman God of War"

"All true, however two years ago the United States launched an experimental shuttle using wormhole technology to the red planet. It was a two man mission cost millions to finance, it was one for the few times when public and private sector companies funded a joint operation."

"What is this about General?"

"One of those astronauts was Senator Carter an he would like to speak to you tomorrow regarding his disarmament of the nuclear weapons which are stockpiled in various countries throughout the world"

"He wants us to disarm our weapons? We would be defenceless!"

"He hopes that you will act as a nuclear deterrent since any country who attacks America would inviting a retaliation from you and by setting an example several of our allies will follow there by putting pressure on other countries to disarm their own nuclear weapons."

"In all honesty General do you think this will work?"

"On a country to country scale? Maybe, however there are other individuals in the world whose existence give rise to a new acronym PMD – people of mass destruction."

"Are things really that bad General?"

"They are indeed Captain, sure there are people out there like Dark Claw who try an help out when they can. The truth is they often can not see the bigger picture an often act as show boating wild cards. That where you and the rest of the team come in. So what do you say Captain?"

"For the good of the people of the world then I will be apart of this initiative General, just tell me what to do."

"Theres more, we need you to look into what appears to be the sabotage of our deep space monitoring network"

"What is it?"

"The deep space monitoring network is a combination of radio telescopes an deep space probes. The United States government use it as part of our defence initiative to detect threats from deep space such as rouge comets an meteors. We have also been looking to use the system for identify asteroids with high concentrates of unique metals and minerals which we could mine."

"What purpose would it serve to shut down the network?"

"Probably none, however if there is a more sinister plot we would like you investigate. We believe that their next target will be the Wayne Tech Metropolis DC sub station. Your orders are to check out the facility and monitor any suspicious activity. If you feel you can, prevent any type of sabotage"

"Understood General" responded Super Soldier

"That is all Captain dismissed" ordered the General as he raised his hand in salute, which the Captain promptly returned before exiting the briefing room.