TITLE: Iron Maiden - Days of Future Past
DISCLAIMER: The Marvel Cinematic Universe characters and everything from Earth-199999 belongs to Marvel under the umbrella of The Mouse of Doom, ahem, sorry, Disney... anything from other Marvel Universes / dimensions / timelines belong to their respective comic creators… basically, if you recognise it, it isn't mine... Please don't sic SHIELD on me, I'm just here for the fun.
Hanger 17
Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Aeropuerto
Avenida de la Hispanidad
Barajas
Madrid
March 16th, 2010
At midday, right as the clock struck twelve, Tony and Morgan were waiting by the Stark jet outside hanger seventeen of the airport.
They'd both been up most of the night, with Tony going over all the specifications and design of the flying Red Room Academy, paying specific attention to it's defences, flight capabilities, and what sort of technology they might have access to.
Romanoff had been right in saying The Academy was strictly Soviet era tech, it was a mess. He could see where they'd cobbled together some vaguely modern tech over the last ten years or so, but the infrastructure and actual base design of the flying fortress itself was so out of date it was laughable.
It was like they updated the internal rooms whenever they managed to fund bits here and there, but left the main structure alone. Obviously they couldn't land it anywhere without making it vulnerable, and the entire thing didn't even look like it was made to land anywhere without falling apart, let alone be structurally sound enough to survive a landing and then re-launch.
There was definite links to Roxxon though. The engines, the power generation, it was all petroleum based tech, literally gas powered and about as reliable as an old Soviet car was. Built like a tank, but out dated, rusty, and painfully antiquated in all the worst ways.
He wasn't joking when he said a few missiles would take care of the whole thing. The design was based on a star or a cross, with three layers of four spokes coming out from a central section where the power generation and engines were housed, keeping the whole thing in the air from a central hub.
It looked fragile as hell from what he could see, and couldn't imagine how the thing had stayed in the air for any decent amount of time. A strong storm or heavy weather would have been catastrophic for it, let alone any well planned attack from the ground with any decent missiles.
Two missiles, maybe one, to the base engines at the bottom of the central tower would destroy the entire thing, causing it to come crashing down and wipe out the so called Red Room altogether. Hell, a single Jericho would have turned the entire thing into scrap with a single shot, and they wouldn't have had to do anything at all.
"Dad,"
Tony looked up at Morgan's voice, looking over to where the two assassins were walking out of the hanger towards the jet. Both wearing dark outfits and carrying heavy black holdalls with them as they approached.
Barton had a bow slung across his back and was wearing some sort of lightly armoured sleeveless top and pants, looked like Kevlar weave, probably SHIELD armour. It would protect his torso, but his arms, legs and head made for rather easy targets, and it definitely wouldn't protect him from shrapnel or anything like that.
Romanoff however was clad in some sort of form fitting jumpsuit type thing made out of the same Kevlar weave, at least she had a gun-belt on with two semi-automatic pistols hanging down and strapped to her thighs, and what looked like two electronic taser batons in holsters on her back and peeking up over her shoulders.
The simple deep navy suit with gold belt and some sort of tech on her wrists was a good look, the red flourish on her belt tipped it off nicely, and definitely harkened back to the navy blue, red and gold Spider designed suit that he'd seen in FAITH's future databases, confirming that he had actually made the suit for this spider themed assassin at some point in the next few years.
"Stark." Romanoff said as they approached. "Starks." She corrected herself, nodding at Tony and then to Morgan.
"Looks like you're both kitted out," Tony nodded, evaluating their armour and weapons, and wincing slightly at Barton's bow and arrows. From a quick count he only had two dozen arrows in the holster slung over his back, he probably had more in the holdall he was carrying, but any weapon with limited ammunition like that was just asking for trouble.
"I've got the coordinates of the Academy, we can fly in above the base and get down onto it from the jet." Morgan explained. "Rappel lines down or you want us to carry you both?" She added with a smirk.
"Lines are fine." Romanoff said with a nod, silently agreeing with the plan while making a mental note that the younger Stark's attitude and sense of humour was terrifyingly like her father's. Great. Wasn't that just what she needed right now.
"Sounds good, lets get this show on the road then." Tony clapped his hands together with a grin before he walked to the stairs of the jet and started making his way up. "FRIDAY, lights on baby girl, prep for take off."
"Aye aye boss." FRIDAY's Irish voice came out of the speakers around the jet itself as Tony walked through, casting a weary glance back to where Morgan was following him, looking completely confident and at ease with herself, while Romanoff and Barton looked dubiously around as they followed behind her.
"Button it up baby girl," Tony said automatically as he walked through to the cockpit of the jet, idly looking over all the various instruments and readouts to make sure everything was in the green before he swivelled the pilots chair around and sat down comfortably.
"All systems are green boss," FRIDAY reported as the stairs retracted and folded back into their place underneath the fuselage of the jet itself, the door closing and sealing automatically as the Arc generator came online fully and warmed up the repulsor engines.
"Stark can fly a jet?" Clint asked, looking wearily around at what was clearly a luxury and custom built jet, only the best for Stark apparently.
"We built this entire jet from scratch, you don't think we both know exactly how to use every single piece of technology we design?" Morgan asked, raising an eyebrow at the insanely stupid question that had just been asked. "Grab a seat, we'll be in the air in a few seconds."
Clint and Natasha looked at each other cautiously at that before moving to take two of the extremely comfortable looking cream leather seats that were scattered around the jet, each set out with forward and back facing chairs, with their own tables and more than enough room to stretch out or even walk around.
It was Natasha that spoke up first as she sat down, idly looking out the window of the jet and down the wings, admiring the design and technology that must have gone into such a project. "VTOL?" She asked in surprise, watching as the two engines that she could see in the wing actually rotated on their axis and pointed down, firing up with an audible hum that didn't sound like any jet engine she'd ever heard in her life.
Even Clint was watching out of the window with wide eyes as the jet lifted off, the engines being far quieter and providing far more thrust than any plane he'd ever been on in his entire life. Even SHIELD's Quinjets didn't have VTOL capabilities, and they definitely didn't have engines like he was looking at right now.
A quick glance with Natasha told him they were both thinking the same thing. Future tech. Whatever designs this jet was built on, they were from forty or fifty years in the future, and probably held more surprises inside than he could ever imagine.
They both just watched as the jet lifted up above the airport before rotating around in mid air, then the engines started to move more to a diagonal position and the wings themselves adjusted position, swooping back on a far more aerodynamic angle before the engines fired at a much greater thrust and set the jet going out and soaring above the city of Madrid at speeds Clint couldn't even imagine as he was practically slammed back in his seat from the sudden acceleration.
"Skies are clear, flight path is locked in." Stark announced as he walked back out of the cockpit, smiling widely as he glanced over to Morgan to make sure she was alright. "Should be over Belarus in about eight hours, give or take." He said with a smile, heading over to a set of chairs on the other side of the jet from where the two assassins were sat, and collapsing down onto a chair to relax for the flight properly.
"Who's flying this thing?" Clint demanded, his eyes flicking between Stark, where he knew the cockpit was, and the window showing they were still flying and climbing in altitude very quickly.
"Obviously one of his AI's." Natasha said simply, causing Clint to look at her with wide eyes. "The Irish one probably." She shrugged, not bothered at all by the idea.
"Think of it as a more advanced autopilot," Morgan smiled as she sat down in the chair opposite her dad, getting comfortable herself.
"Right, autopilot... that... OK, that makes it sound better." Clint admitted. Autopilot was something he was familiar with, it was the same principal really, just probably a thousand times more advanced than anything normal planes or SHIELD ever had access to.
"I've been looking into that mind control stuff you mentioned, pretty nasty." Tony said, drawing both assassin's attention over to him. "There's a group, or someone, I'm guessing a group though going on how complicated the idea of removing mind control is. Morocco, apparently they have a way of removing it."
"How?" Natasha asked, focusing her full attention on Stark now.
"No idea," Tony shrugged. "Nothing online, nothing on any network I could get into, only hints and a few leads here and there. One name though. Oksana. No idea if it's a person or..."
"It's a person." Natasha said flatly. "Another Widow. One that managed to get out, like me." She said, keeping an emotionless tone of voice as she thought about it. "She has a cure?" She asked.
"That's what it's hinted at," Tony nodded. "Like I said, there's no hard data or anything. Looks like this Oksana is playing things pretty close to the chest whoever she is, probably keeping things on hard copies and out of big labs to make sure she doesn't get tracked down."
"Morocco?" Natasha asked, getting a nod from Stark in return. A single glance at Clint told him that that was going to be their destination next, though hunting down Oksana while keeping multiple Widows captive and subdued was definitely going to be a nightmare logistically.
"That's the plan then," Clint nodded back. Facility first, then Morocco. Two targets, he could deal with that. "Alright future girl, you gave us a couple of hints last night, and the videos you gave us told us more. Spill, how bad are things going to get?" He asked, looking at Morgan now and staring across the jet at her.
"What do you want to know?" Morgan asked, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms underneath her nanite reactor core.
"Red rifts." Clint said simply. "According to the video, they're the shit storm that's coming. How bad?"
"Apocalyptic." Morgan said bluntly. "By the time I left, the death toll was in the billions." She explained, keeping a blank look on her face. "I estimated that within six months, a year at the outside, the rifts would have covered the entire planet. No more Earth. No more humans." She said, laying it all out for them.
"What caused it?" Natasha asked, narrowing her eyes at the thought. SHIELD never went up against apocalyptic levels of threat, nothing on that scale. They went after enhanced people, alien technology, weird stuff, but nothing that ever reached end of the world levels of threat.
"Wanda Maximoff." Morgan said after looking at her dad and getting a shrug back in response. "She got some weird powers that let her screw with reality, HYDRA experiments. She was a HYDRA volunteer, is is, maybe will be in a couple of years. Her history is kind of a mess, and dad never got the full story in the future, not that we'd trust anything she says anyway, but..." She trailed off with a 'there you go' gesture with her hand.
"And we didn't put her down in the future?" Clint asked, unable to comprehend why they would have let a world ending threat like that go on without countering it somehow, it didn't make any sense at all, especially not if him and Nat were close enough to see what was going on.
"Rogers put her on the team, that's when dad quit and left The Avengers altogether. Things went to shit pretty quickly after that." Morgan explained.
"Putting her on the team makes sense," Natasha said calmly, making a note of 'The Avengers' name. She knew Fury was looking to put a team together of Enhanced to focus on problems the average SHIELD agent couldn't, but she hadn't heard of any name attached to the idea yet. "Keep a close watch on her. Keep her where we can see what she's doing. Stop her if she gets out of line."
Morgan snorted at that, shaking her head. "That didn't happen. She'd killed billions by the time someone took her out. Rogers kept saying she was just a little girl who'd made mistakes. Makes me sick every time I saw the great Craptain defending HYDRA." She said, the disgust plain on her face as she spat out exactly what she thought of Craptain America.
"And the rest of the team?" Natasha asked. "Stark, me, Clint, Rogers?" She asked, looking at Morgan again for her to continue. "You've mentioned Rogers a few times, so I assume he's found and active again soon."
"Originally, you three. Bruce Banner, an alien God named Thor." Morgan listed off. "He's the brother of the alien that mind fucked you by the way." She explained, looking to Clint at that.
"Not Rhodey?" Tony asked curiously.
"He stayed with the Air Force, did a few missions with you here and there, but didn't actually join The Avengers other than a part time thing when you got him to sign up for a few months. I asked him why he'd never joined up a couple of times, he said that he didn't trust Rogers command and wanted to stay out of it." Morgan explained with a shrug towards her dad. "He always used to rant on about Rogers calling himself Captain when it was just a ceremonial thing. According to Uncle Eightball, Rogers never even finished boot camp before getting the serum. He only got given the Captain promotion by some Senator, it got pushed through officially, but it's still only a ceremony thing."
"He's not a real captain?" Clint asked in surprise.
"Nope," Morgan shook his head. "According to Uncle Eightball, he didn't even go to college. No college degree, no officers school. No officers school..."
"No Captain," Tony nodded in agreement. "Makes sense, the who Captain thing was a publicity stunt back then anyway, they just used him to sell war bonds and drum up morale with dancing girls. No wonder Rhodey wanted to stay away from him. He worked hard for his rank, seeing Rogers flaunting it when he didn't do anything to deserve it must have really pissed him off."
"Like I said, Uncle Eightball didn't want anything to do with him or The Avengers really. He stuck around and helped you out now and again, but he never wanted to join up properly. He was Air Force back then, and you know that means more to him than joining Fury's pet team." Morgan scoffed at the thought.
"Rhodey's got some brains at least." Tony snorted at that, happy that Rhodey had had the common sense to stay away from Fury's shitstorm.
"Any others?" Natasha asked, already making a note of the names Morgan had listed off.
"The Scarlet Bitch, she was Rogers little princess." Morgan scoffed. "Pretty sure he was just using her though. Show that he could rehabilitate one HYDRA bitch, then getting people onside for his boyfriend wouldn't be so hard." She explained with a roll of her eyes. "Bucky Barnes." She clarified when the three other people in the jet looked at her curiously. "He's a brain wiped HYDRA killing machine right now, Rogers finds him in a couple of years, goes crazy on a rampage tracking him all over the world, finally gets his boyfriend back and puts dad in the hospital for a few months after daring to get between them."
"Holy shit," Clint breathed out, there was a lot to unpack right there.
"Is that it?" Natasha asked again.
"Sam Wilson, he stole some old Falcon EXO flight wings from the Air Force, took the name Falcon and became Craptain's little bitch boy," Morgan shrugged. "He took over the Captain America name when Rogers ran back to the past to get away from all the countries screaming for his extradition. Rogers had his face on more 'Most Wanted' posters than anyone in history, the nineteen forties were about the only place that didn't want his head on a spike." She explained with a scoff at the thought.
"The future video mentioned a Sam, didn't give me a last name or anything though." Clint said, memorising the name now for future reference.
"He won't be a thing this time around," Tony shrugged. "The wing designs have been black listed and the contracts pulled, I've got my own designs in contract with the Air Force. Rhodey's in command of the squad, he won't put up with any shit from the team under him." He explained with surety, knowing full well that Rhodey didn't put up with any shit under his command. "I've got Wilson's name on a 'no no' list along with a few others that I don't want anywhere near my tech."
"No one else?" Natasha asked, just to be sure.
"Just another, Scott Lang. Uses some weird psudo-fringe-science crap to shrink and grow to stupid sizes." Morgan shrugged. "He never really joined the team. Had some hero worship thing going for Rogers, became a pain in the ass then came back when there was a whole time travel thing after the invasion." She explained. "Not even worth worrying about, he's not involved in anything big that happens anyway, so I'm just writing him off as a footnote in history to ignore."
"Fine." Natasha nodded at that. Maximoff was the target though, stopping her would save the world. She could put out a few feelers to find out where she was located, and put the bitch down before she caused problems in the future.
"What's the timeline then? Twenty twelve? You said that's an alien invasion?" Clint asked.
"New York, May." Morgan nodded. "We've already got plans to deal with it, but some extra help wouldn't be missed." She admitted.
"Aliens coming through a wormhole apparently," Tony explained. "Bottle-necked attack, take out the mothership and it's game over for them and a win for us." He explained. "I've got plans for some pretty heavy missiles, send them through the wormhole as soon as it opens, blow the entire thing sky high and order pizza when it's done." He explained with a casual smirk.
"And after that?" Natasha questioned.
"If we do that right, then we don't get anything until twenty eighteen." Morgan nodded. "Eight years from now until the big invasion." She explained. "That's when it's all hands on deck, and we'll want the sniper setup to blow his head off before he can finish off his plan."
"And SHIELD?" Clint asked dubiously.
"You mean HYDRA?" Morgan scoffed. "Take them down after the invasion. We need them to be around until at least twenty twelve. After that, I'm going full scorched earth to wipe the entire slate clean."
"Do you have a list of HYDRA facilities?" Natasha asked curiously, already planning assaults out in her mind. Taking revenge for how HYDRA had used her and everyone she must have killed on HYDRA missions that were fed to her through SHIELD.
"We've already blown one sky high," Tony smirked knowingly.
"I can probably get you a list," Morgan nodded. "HYDRA facilities and a list of names?"
"Get it to me and I'll take care of it." Natasha said calmly, her blank face hiding the fury she was feeling at being manipulated by HYDRA like that. Killing her way through HYDRA bases would definitely help clean out the red on her ledger and balance the scales properly.
"So, I just went off the deep end after this alien screwed with my mind?" Clint asked, really needing clarification on this.
"From what I know," Morgan shrugged. "I know someone else got mind fucked as well, but they got proper treatment for it and didn't turn into a complete asshole... but SHIELD..."
"Didn't bother." Clint nodded, knowing full well how SHIELD operated. "So, keep my brain from getting scrambled this time, and I won't turn out to be a giant ass. Sounds simple enough." He said, his brain reeling at the thought of having some alien screw with him like that.
"What else happens?" Natasha asked, fixing her stare at Morgan. "Between now and twenty eighteen. Big events we need to know about?"
"If we do the invasion right, it stops a ton of stuff." Morgan shook her head. "We stop that, and there's nothing for Fury's Avengers team to do. Just take care of HYDRA and little crap like that."
"HYDRA is little crap?" Clint laughed at the thought.
"Compared to genocidal aliens wanting to wipe out half the life in the universe, and the Scarlet Bitch turning the planet into a swirling rift of energy that kills anyone it touches? Yes." Morgan said bluntly.
"Point, Morgan." Tony smirked over at her, amused at how she'd shot that down so quickly.
"We can help." Natasha said calmly. "HYDRA bases, between twenty twelve and twenty eighteen, that's six years to clean out HYDRA."
"If we get involved going after HYDRA, then we'll probably run into Rogers and SHIELD." Morgan pointed out.
"Is he going to be a problem again?" Natasha questioned, mentally running down everything she knew about Steven Rogers and the super soldier capabilities. She knew Russia had worked on the super soldier serum as well, and wouldn't be surprised if other countries had their own programs working on something similar.
"Probably," Tony nodded. "I haven't gone through the history files yet, but from what I have seen, something came down to a big fight between me and Rogers." He explained. "I've got counters for all of his bullshit ready and waiting, so I'm not worried about him."
"If we take down SHIELD after the New York invasion, Rogers won't have any backup or funding." Morgan explained. "He'll probably be transferred back to the Army, I'm sure they'll find a use for him somewhere, they can use him as a cheerleader for all I care, it doesn't really matter as long as they keep him out of our hair." She said with a shrug.
"He's still a super soldier." Natasha said, knowing they couldn't take any enhanced lightly, especially not one of Rogers' calibre.
"He's an antique from a hundred years ago," Morgan scoffed, making a dismissive wave with her hand. "Taking him out of the picture would be easy enough. Either a few missiles, or the anti-serum stuff my dad developed. The only reason I'm not planning on anything with him is because his name still carries some weight, and would have politicians bitching and whining about turning their precious Captain America back into Steven Rogers: The Asthmatic Asshole." She said, drawing a laugh out of her dad at the picture she was painting.
"You can reverse the serum?" Natasha asked, her eyes going slightly wide at that as she looked between the two Starks. "Strip his enhancements?" She asked, remembering Alexei all too well and knowing fully that other countries like Russia had their own super soldier programs in development, and would probably start pumping even more funding into their experiments after Rogers came back into the world.
"Dad created the counter after they fought, I've got everything I need to turn him back into his whiny little pre-serum body and leave him twitching and crying on the ground." Morgan said with a grin. "I'd actually look forward to doing it if it didn't mean dealing with all the politicians and assholes that'd come out of the woodwork and complain about it."
"You created an anti-serum?" Natasha clarified, looking at the older Stark now. "Could you recreate the serum itself?"
"Apparently at some point he pissed me off enough for me to really put my mind to it." Tony nodded. "If I got a look at the formulae and reverse engineered the anti-serum, maybe." HE said after a moment's thought. "That was my dad's white whale though, I never wanted to even look at the stuff after growing up and hearing him fawn on about Rogers and how great the famous Captain was supposed to be." He muttered, rolling his eyes in disgust at how much of a Craptain fanboy his dad had been.
"It might be helpful." Natasha countered. "Multiple alien invasions. I'm just saying, a super soldier or two or more, might come in handy."
"Not really." Morgan shook her head. "Thanos is far stronger than a super soldier anyway, so they'd be useless against him. He's packing Hulk level strength on his own, he could crush Rogers' head like a grape and it wouldn't even make him stop for a minute." She ticked off one finger. "They're barely a notch or two over peak human strength, way below the enhancements even my dad's first suit gave him." She ticked off another. "And their healing is only slightly above normal, enhanced regeneration, but nothing special. A bullet will still take them down, and the aliens will be packing plasma weapons that can vaporise half of your body with a single shot. Makes super soldier regeneration useless."
"So... super soldiers aren't worth shit?" Clint asked, blinking in surprise as he reasoned that out in his head. He'd grown up hearing all about how great Captain America was and how the super soldier serum had made him the perfect soldier.
"Compared to our suits, they're fossils." Morgan grinned. "Hell, I could put together a dozen pieces of tech that would give anyone abilities that'd outpace any super soldier." She said with a dismissive shrug. "Proper armour, decent weapons, flight, sensor capabilities, lethal and non-lethal counters?" She listed off. "Rogers is an antique, and the super soldier serum is worthless. Even if we recreated it and made it public, the only people who would be interested are body builders and egotists."
Clint snorted at that, highly amused by Morgan's rant, and unable to really disagree with anything she was saying. The extra strength, speed and healing would be nice, but she was right in saying they wouldn't do shit against a trained sniper or fancy alien weapons.
Against what was coming, she made super soldiers sound practically pathetic. An outdated idea that had had it's glory days and now needed retiring for better and more powerful ideas.
"Speaking of non-lethal," Tony said, standing up from his seat and walking over to another area of the jet, picking up a single black briefcase and coming back over, placing it down on the table between Clint and Natasha. "Christmas presents." He said, opening up the case and showing the five sleek and future looking handgun looking devices that were slotted neatly into foam packing inside.
"What are these?" Natasha asked first, eyeing the sleek black guns curiously and reaching in to lift one out. "It's heavier than a standard handgun."
"Electric charge, three shot burst." Tony explained with a nod. "Think of it like a taser without the wires."
"Ray guns?" Clint asked in amusement, looking at the gun in Natasha's hand that she was examining.
"SHIELD's been working on something similar." Natasha said simply, comparing the gun in her hand to the prototypes she'd seen floating around SHIELD's technical departments. "They're barely out of prototype stage from what I saw." She said with a frown. "The scientists called them night-night guns." She said with a scowl as she checked the gun over and found no reloading or moving parts at all.
"Terrible name," Tony said dismissively. "Single second between three shot burst, automatic trigger. Should make it through armour, but it won't be as effective." He explained. "Three shots will put someone out for about fifty hours, give or take depending on their resistance. It'll be cumulative though, there's probably a limit where it'll become lethal or have lasting effects, but I haven't tested anything more than ten bursts to see how far it goes."
"How many shots?" Natasha asked, lifting out another one of the guns and replacing the two handguns in her holsters with them. She might not trust Stark, but she definitely trusted his weapons. He was known for them, literally all over the world. If it was Stark tech, then it was trustworthy.
"Millions." Tony shook his head dismissively as Clint moved to take a pair of the pistols as well, leaving a single one alone in the case. "It won't run out of charge for decades. Personal builds, I'll be selling rechargable versions of these off to the emergency services under contract after Expo." He explained, closing the briefcase down and taking it off the table now that the two assassins were properly armed.
"The police will love that," Clint said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, well, having a few thousand cops around with these guns during the invasion will even the odds quite nicely." Tony clarified as he walked back to his seat. "Obviously can't test them on aliens, but if every cop in New York has one and starts unloading on the skies when they come through..."
"It'll be like shooting fish in a barrel," Clint nodded with an approving glint in his eye.
"Then us two, Rhodey, we've got some more projects on the go, flight suits, more weapons." Tony rattled off. "We'll be ready, I'm making sure of it." He said firmly. "We're making sure of it." He corrected himself with a nod to Morgan.
"I heard you'd built a suit for the Air Force," Natasha nodded, adjusting her gunbelt to get used to the different weight around her hips. "The War Machine has been the talk of a lot of agencies. Heard a few companies are trying to recreate the same thing."
"They don't have a chance," Tony snorted, shaking his head at the thought. "Maybe in twenty or thirty years, but they couldn't even meet the power requirements, let alone make a functioning suit."
"You're sure?" Natasha asked, looking at Tony and then over to the younger Stark.
"No one ever got anywhere close to Stark tech." Morgan clarified with a grin.
"See," Tony grinned with a self-assured pose as he relaxed in his chair. "Get comfy people, we're still about eight hours out, and I've got nothing to do but relax." He said with a smirk, leaning back in his chair and threading his hands behind his head, intent on relaxing as much as possible with two assassins in the jet with him.
Clint simply stared for a moment before he sat back in his own chair, fitting the two guns into his belt and getting used to the weight of them as he looked out the window and marvelled at the fancy engines that were still in sight.
A fancy future tech jet flown by an AI with god only knows what technology built into it. He still hadn't seen either of the Starks fancy suits yet, but had to assume they were around the jet somewhere ready for them to put on when they were needed.
He was still reeling from everything the younger Stark had told him about what the future was like, and what was coming. Learning he had had his mind screwed with was definitely worrying, and he was definitely going to do his best to ensure nothing like that happened in his future.
It was still a struggle to think about everything she'd said about Captain America though, but it all backed up the video the future him had sent back, warning him not to trust Rogers and to stay as far away from him as possible.
He didn't know exactly what had happened in the future or why Captain America had turned out to be such an asshole, but he was definitely going to take both of the warnings to heart and stay clear of anything involved with SHIELD or Captain America in the future now. His future, the worlds future, depended on it apparently.
For Natasha, she simply sat back and closed her eyes, mentally reviewing each name that the younger Stark had mentioned.
One The Red Room was destroyed and Yelena was safe, she would focus her attention on tracking down this Wanda Maximoff, and make sure she was in no position to cause the end of the world. One last assassination mission for the Black Widow before she turned her attention towards HYDRA and started cleaning out the red from her ledger.
She could do that.
And if it stopped the end of the world from happening, she would walk up to Maximoff and put a bullet right between her eyes, and sleep the sleep of the just afterwards.
Stark Industries
Los Angeles branch
In her office at Stark Industries, Pepper smiled fondly at the photos she'd had FRIDAY print out from Tony and Morgan's little expedition into space.
She had two of them printed out now and sat on her desk in a frame, one of them in space together hugging while the planet Earth span in the background, and the other was the now world famous one of Tony and Morgan carrying the Stark International satellite and standing beside it in their futuristic armours.
That photo had caused quite the stir when the press had started printing it, everyone was discussing the 'unknown woman' working with Tony and her suit that was extremely similar to the Iron Man suit that Tony was wearing in the photo.
There were a few gossip columns that had hit the nail on the head in suggesting that she was Tony's daughter, but she'd made sure that the official word from Stark Industries was 'no comment' on anything to do with Morgan, most of the other media simply assumed she was Tony's flavour of the week or another Stark Industries scientist that was working with him on advanced technology and had helped him build his suit.
Other media outlets had focused more on the satellite itself, noting the chrome Stark International logo emblazoned across it rather than the more familiar white Stark Industries logo that was known around the world.
Again, she'd made sure that 'no comment' was the standard reply sent to any enquiries about the satellite and the future of Stark Industries, but she knew from the volume of calls and emails she'd received from their government contracts that people were worried already and the US government was running around and putting out fires while trying to reassure people that Stark Industries was still the biggest home grown corporation in America, and it was always going to stay that way.
She'd laughed at a few of the comments and promises politicians had made, knowing full well that they hadn't received any official word from SI, or spoken to Tony officially, so any promises or decisions the politicians made that went against Tony and Morgans plans were going to be going up in smoke in only a few short months.
A few other more reputable media outlets like New Scientist and Time had focused more on Tony and Morgan's suits, speculating about their technology and how advanced the suits must be, discussing their obvious capabilities if they were capable of orbital flight. There were a few outlandish conspiracy theories about Tony creating space ships next and funding interstellar travel that had amused her.
As it was, Tony had a huge backlog of emails and requests to go through when he got back from Spain and England. With more than a few big corporations like Virgin and Boeing looking to enter contracts with Stark Industries to build low orbit capable planes and even space capable craft of some description.
Tony also had requests from government agencies looking for contracts to create new and updated satellites for them. The CIA, NSA and FBI were apparently very interested in his capability to take any satellite up they wanted without the ridiculous costs that were normally associated with launching shuttles or rockets into orbit.
"Lady Boss?"
Pepper looked down at her watch in surprise when she heard FRIDAY's voice, seeing the little golden circle glowing around the black and inactive screen. This was the first time FRIDAY had actually spoken up asking for her, instead of the opposite where she normally spoke to the AI's first with questions or giving them something to do. "FRIDAY? What's wrong?"
"Little Boss had me going through employment records and looking for anything that stood out. I think I've got something that someone needs to see." FRIDAY's voice reported.
"Alright, show me." Pepper nodded absently.
Instantly a holographic display flickered into existence on top of her watch, causing her to lift her hand up so she could get a better look at the screen and what FRIDAY was showing her. "Sarah Client?" Pepper asked, reading off the professional looking resume and the SI security forms that showed Ms Client had been hired by the legal department a few days ago. "What am I looking for FRIDAY?" She asked, scrolling down the resume and security checks and not finding anything that really stood out to her as a red flag or anything.
"Here you go Lady Boss," FRIDAY's voice came back as a second holographic screen came up next to the first. This one showing what looked to be an official SHIELD dossier for someone called Sharon Carter.
Pepper's eyes narrowed as she came down to the photos, comparing them both side by side and proving they were the same people. Scrolling down she felt her anger rise as she read off SHIELD's evaluation of Ms Carter and her prior targets. Noting she was an infiltration, espionage and manipulation expert who had been placed in dozens of corporations previously for various missions, either to steal secrets and technology from them, or manipulate the company into signing deals with SHIELD and providing them with contracts.
Not even bothering to clear the screens from her watch she picked up her phone, getting automatically connected to her secretary as she ground her teeth in anger at whatever SHIELD was trying to pull here. "Janice, call our FBI contacts and put me through to them as soon as you can." She barked out, waiting for Janice to confirm the request before she put the phone down.
"FRIDAY, can you print these out for me. Everything we've got on this SHIELD spy, all her security checks and everything she went through for employment." Pepper asked, glaring down at the screens projected from her watch again.
"Will do Lady Boss, printing now." FRIDAY's Irish tone came back. "Miss Client went through the upgraded security for access to the full SI building list Lady Boss. We've got her fingerprints, iris scans, and bio-metrics on file." She reported.
"Copy them all for me, everything we've got." Pepper said, hunting in her desk drawer for a little USB drive and sticking it in the ports on her desk. "Onto the USB drive I've just plugged in."
"Copying data now Lady Boss." FRIDAY announced as Pepper's phone started to ring again.
"Agent Smith from the FBI on line for you Miss Potts." Janice explained once Pepper picked up the phone.
Pepper waited for half a second before a tone indicated the call had been put through. "Agent Smith, this is Virginia Potts from Stark Industries. We have a mole." She said flatly, watching as FRIDAY cleared the screens on her watch and it went back to a simple silver watch with a black display.
"A mole?" Agent Smith's voice sounded surprised as he questioned her. "What have you got Miss Potts?"
"According to what I'm looking at, a SHIELD agent infiltrating Stark Industries legal department." Pepper ground out. "I'm putting a list of charges together. Fraud and industrial espionage will be top of the list."
"I'm having agents sent to the premises right now." Agent Smith confirmed after a beat. "You're sure of this?" He asked.
"I have her records printed out for your agents to take, along with our own security records. I'll have full video surveillance of everything she's done at SI waiting for you when you arrive." Pepper explained. "Our legal team will be pushing for all charges and the highest penalties against her personally, and against SHIELD. Once I've finished speaking with you, I'll be speaking directly with our contacts in the Department of Justice and bringing them up to speed."
"Yes ma'am." Agent Smith's voice came back, sounding a bit shocked at the vehemence in Pepper's voice. "Agents should be with you in under twenty minutes. Do not approach the suspect without their presence."
"I'll be waiting and have our own security escort your agents to take her into custody." Pepper said calmly. "From the records I've got, this isn't the first time SHIELD has put her into private corporations and tried to infiltrate them."
"You have records of that?" Agent Smith asked, the surprise audible in his voice.
"You'd be surprised what our contacts can get access to." Pepper gave a dry laugh at that, not really wanting to know where FRIDAY got the SHIELD dossier from, or how she got access to it. "I'll have everything I have on her printed out for you."
"Can you send over digital copies? I'd like to get started on confirming everything you've told me." Agent Smith asked.
Pepper was about to say something when her computer monitor showed her email program automatically coming up, a quick professional email being typed out without her even touching the keyboard, before the SHIELD and SI security files were attached and it was sent before she could even say a word.
"It should be on your email now Agent Smith." Pepper said, resisting the urge to thank FRIDAY aloud for taking control like that and making things easier for her.
"One second," Agent Smith's voice came back before falling silent for a moment. "I've got it, these... holy..." His voice fell to a whisper as he was clearly reading through everything that FRIDAY had sent over to him. "Miss Potts, I'd advise you to stay in your office and have security guarding you. From these records you've sent, this Agent Carter looks to be an extremely dangerous woman, and I don't know how she's going to react with her infiltration being uncovered."
"I'll stay here and have security bring your agents up to me as soon as they arrive then." Pepper replied, happy that Agent Smith seemed confident and on their side about all of this.
"I've dispatched two further teams to Stark Industries. I hope this doesn't turn violent, but these records do not show Agent Carter to be someone to take down lightly." Agent Smith replied. "Agent Jay will be in command of the teams being assigned to Stark Industries, please hand any evidence you have over to him when he arrives."
"I'll be waiting." Pepper said. "Thank you for taking me seriously."
"The teams will be there soon Miss Potts. I hope we can extract Agent Carter from the building peacefully." Agent Smith confirmed before the line went dead.
"Thank you for that FRIDAY," Pepper chuckled to herself as she put the handset back down on the receiver on her desk. "Can you go through surveillance, find every piece of footage we have, track everything she's been doing since she started work here."
"Combing through the servers now Lady Boss," FRIDAY's voice announced from her watch.
"Copy it all to the thumb drive once you've found everything, and let Tony know what's going on please." Pepper said, leaning back in her office chair and taking a deep breath before picking up her phone again. "Janice, the FBI will be here in about twenty minutes. Have security waiting for them and bring them straight up to see me please."
"Of course Miss Potts." Janice responded professionally.
"Thank you." Pepper said before hanging up, staring blankly at her computer screen in anger at what SHIELD were trying to pull here. Morgan had said SHIELD weren't to be trusted, but she'd wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt since the only real contact she'd had with them had been the rather personable Agent Coulson during the whole Stane fiasco.
But this had proven to her that all of Morgan's future knowledge was right on the money. SHIELD couldn't be trusted, and she was going to make sure they never got their hooks into Tony, Morgan, or their company.
"FRIDAY, keep an eye on recruitment. Go through everyone with a fine tooth comb. I don't think this'll be the last time we have problems with SHIELD." Pepper asked, looking down to her watch again.
"Aye aye Lady Boss, I'll tag recruitment and compare all personnel against records." FRIDAY's voice came back with her signature golden glow. "Boss says stay safe and stay away from SHIELD agents. Little Boss says 'nice catch mom.'"
Pepper did laugh at that, chuckling to herself as she sat back in her chair and focused on looking at the photos of Tony and Morgan again, intent on just waiting for the FBI now so she could solve this SHIELD mole problem once and for all.
She still had a lot to do today, but catching a SHIELD spy infiltrating their company was definitely the most exciting thing that was going to happen today, she hoped anyway.
Narachanski National Park
Minsk
Belarus
880ft altitude
"Boss, we're in sight of the facility. One point six kilometres and closing. Slowing to approach vector now."
Tony stood up at hearing FRIDAY's voice, quickly moving towards the cockpit of the jet with Natasha following barely half a step behind from him.
As soon as he got into the cockpit he grimaced at the sight of the facility that was visible ahead and a bit below their current heading. It was definitely an old Soviet design, and even from a kilometre out he could see rust on the structure itself and smoke pouring out from it, they obviously didn't care about pollution or the toxic fumes they were creating by keeping that atrocity up in the air like that, and he could only imagine just how much gas Roxxon must be pouring down their engines just to keep the damn thing flying.
"That's it." Natasha said simply, glaring out of the cockpit windows at the offending structure up ahead.
"FRIDAY, zoom in, enhance. Full spectrum baby girl." Tony said aloud. He could see Natasha was about to say something, though whatever comment she was about to make fell silent as the cockpit windows flickered before zooming in to the Red Room facility, highlighting it as FRIDAY ran a full sensor sweep of the facility in question.
"Landing strips," Natasha said, stepping forwards and leaning over the pilots seats to point out the top ring of four spokes that had a few dozen small planes of some sort parked up on the top of each of them.
"Looks to be the only way on or off of that thing." Tony said with a frown. "FRIDAY, you getting anything from it?"
"Only long range boss," FRIDAY's voice came back. "In a few seconds we'll be within range. Once we're within a kilometre, I'll be able to boost up sensors and get a full grid going." She confirmed. "Stealth is active though, I'm not picking up anything else in local airspace. No signs they've detected our approach."
"Activate reactive camoflage too, keep ECCM up, no point in giving them a free shot." Tony ordered, staring at the structure that looked like it was older than he was in disgust.
"Vanishing now boss." FRIDAY's voice replied as the screens flickered again. "Sensors are recording one hundred fourteen life-signs on board. Engines are at eighty nine percent capacity and are showing extreme levels of miss-use and mechanical failure." She explained. "Sensors indicate the structure will not be flight capable within five more years without extensive restructuring and maintenance."
"It won't be flight capable in five hours." Natasha said darkly, glaring at the structure and everything that it represented to her. "We kill Dreykov, you can blow the whole thing?" She asked.
"FRIDAY, what's the situation on the ground?" Tony asked after a moment's consideration.
"No human life signs boss." FRIDAY reported. "Narachanski National Park has a large population of red deer, raccoons and badgers along with various aquatic and aerial species. None of which are considered endangered."
"Fine, we'll blow out of the sky once we've got your... whoever they are." Tony shrugged with a nod.
"Approaching target boss," FRIDAY's voice came over the speakers. "Point interception to synchronous flight forty feet above main structure in one minute thirty seconds."
"That's our cue." Tony said with a nod, giving Natasha one last look before he turned and headed out of the cockpit to where both Morgan and Clint were still in the rear of the jet and clearly listening to the conversation.
"You two need to suit up." Natasha said firmly, double checking both of the guns Stark had given them and making sure they were secure in her holsters before opening up her duffle bag and routing through for various things, pulling out a reinforced grapple line that was looped around and tied to keep it from knotting.
Tony just smirked at her, reaching up and double tapping his chest. He could have watched their surprised faces all day as the nanotech flowed out and encased his entire body before solidifying into the future Iron Man armour.
He could tell they were equally surprised when Morgan followed suit barely a second after he activated his own nanite reactor, both Natasha and Clint were staring unabashed at their suits as the nanotech finished forming, leaving them both fully armoured and ready to go.
"You think we'd sit alone in a jet with two assassins without enough firepower to back us up?" Tony smirked, though his voice carried it through and came clearly over the suit's speakers.
"You can link in?" Natasha asked simply, ignoring his rhetorical question and holding up two earpieces before handing one over to Clint. Doing her best to school her face back to her normal neutral mask and hide the amazement she was feeling at the future tech suits that pretty clearly outclassed any other weapon on the planet right now.
She'd been briefed on how deadly Stark's first suit had been, and could only imagine how many improvements and advances he must have put the thing through in the future. Thirty, forty, fifty years maybe? It would have weapons and capabilities she couldn't even imagine, and certainly wouldn't be able to counter or plan for.
"FRIDAY, scan them, link us in." Tony said aloud, watching his interface as FRIDAY locked onto the two ear pieces and secured the frequency, running the link through his suit and patching it through to Morgan's suit as well.
"We've got it." Morgan said aloud, piping her voice directly into the ear piece frequency rather than through the suit's external speakers.
"Boss, I'm routing the schematics through. The north eastern landing strip has an access door to the central core for maintenance and access to the flight deck." FRIDAY's voice came through the audio link for all four of them together, causing Natasha and Clint to nod at the Irish tone.
"That's our entrance." Natasha said, getting a nod from Tony in agreement.
"Get us above it baby girl, as close as you can without risking collision." Tony ordered, walking down the jet and moving to stand by the door. "Morgan, you've got the best stealth. Think you can get down there and secure a line for these two?" He asked, nodding over to Natasha and Clint.
"Done and done dad." Morgan grinned, turning to Natasha and reaching out for the rappel line, nodding to her when she handed it over without comment.
"Here goes then," Clint muttered as Morgan unlooped the line, moving towards the door and securing the reinforced line around a structurally sound joist that she knew would handle both of the ex-SHIELD agents' combined weight.
"Brace yourselves." Tony said, looking to Clint and Natasha before speaking to FRIDAY this time. "Open up baby girl, we're going down."
"Aye aye boss," FRIDAY's voice came back as the door hissed loudly and slid backwards, letting in out a rush of air that caused both Clint and Natasha to stagger slightly as the air pressure equalised with the outside of the jet. "Running constant scans boss, no life signs in the vicinity of the north eastern structure. Reading multiple combatants inside each structure, but no external patrols or surveillance."
"Probably feel pretty damn secure just floating up here with radar to warn them." Clint suggested, making sure his bow was secure before double checking his gloves were wrapped firmly around his hand and ready for a rappel drop.
"See you down there," Morgan grinned, activating her stealth systems and smirking to herself as she saw both of the assassins faces when she faded from view.
The active camouflage systems didn't cover the rappel line though, only her suit, so she could see her dad and the other two following her with their eyes as she jumped out of the jet and activated her repulsors, gliding down gently and making sure the rappel line was fed out smoothly between her hands as she lowered herself down to the Red Room installation.
"Right, what the hell do you need any of us for again then Stark?" Clint muttered, trying to wrap his head around what he'd just seen, and only really able to compare it to the SHIELD Helicarrier stealth systems that were about a thousand times bulkier than the younger Stark's suit, and had power requirements that still made all the SHIELD tech's grimace whenever they saw the system used.
"You tell me," Tony's smirk came through the voice link perfectly as he stood by the door of the jet, watching closely with FRIDAY's assistance as Morgan flew down to the structure and landed silently, looping the rappel line around the floor through some grating and knotting it off, pulling it a couple of times to check it was secure and safe.
"We're good here, come on down." Morgan confirmed through the ear piece link.
"On my way kiddo," Tony replied. "Whenever you're ready." Tony shrugged back to the two assassins before he jumped out of the plane, easily flying down towards where Morgan was waiting for him below.
"Чертов Starks." Natasha muttered to herself, heading to the door and attaching a line from her belt around the rappel line and securing it firmly.
"Пошел ты тоже,"
Natasha blinked in surprise at hearing the younger Stark's voice come over the link, but in fluent Russian. OK, so either she spoke Russian, or their fancy AI's could do real time translations for them. Either way, she'd have to learn to keep her comments to herself now.
She deliberately didn't look at Clint, knowing he would be smirking at her little slip. She simply stepped to the edge of the door to look down and evaluate the line for herself, checking it was secure before gripping onto the line and bracing herself and climbing out of the door.
Wrapping her legs around the line and trusting her grip to adjust the speed of her decent she started sliding down the rappel line, looking up idly to check Clint was following her and staring in surprise at the way the rappel line fed up into an open void that seemed to just hang in the air, without any sign of the Stark jet in the air at all.
She couldn't even see the backwash from the engines or hear them in the air, and it was slightly unnerving to watch Clint climb out of what looked like just a gap in the air and start sliding down the line a dozen feet or so above her.
Morgan stood at the base of the line, holding it steady so that she could make sure the line was as taught as possible while the other two made their way down. She'd already deactivated her stealth systems while her dad was accessing the door and using FRIDAY to hack his way through.
She didn't need to say anything as Natasha disconnected her belt from the rappel line a few feet above her and simply dropped down into a crouch and started scouting out the area for herself, she simply stayed and waited for Clint to come down the last two dozen feet or so like a zip line before he landed and disconnected his belt as well.
"Cutting the line loose," Morgan announced over the voice link as she pulled the knot open and let the rappel line fly away in the high winds at this altitude. It wasn't like they could just leave it there tied to the jet, and it would be easy enough to find and re-secure it once they were done with the facility itself, or find some other way back to the jet to get the hell out of Belarus air space.
"Doors open, party's inside. Our invitations must have got lost in the mail." Tony announced as the maintenance door opened, shining a torch inside and grimacing at the deep red lights that lit up the corridors inside. "They're taking the whole red room thing a bit too seriously." He muttered.
"Remember, Dreykov's mine. Don't touch Yelena. Anyone else, they're trained to kill. Don't hold back." Natasha said coldly, readying both of her Stark issued guns and stepping forwards in front of Stark so she could take the lead.
"It's your party, we're just the guests with the fireworks." Tony said with a grin. "Lead on Little Miss Spider, lets see how far down the drain pipe we can go."
Natasha didn't respond to that, she simply stayed silent as she headed inside, and keeping her guns both trained down the corridor she started heading down at a fast walk, knowing Clint at least would have her back, and the two Stark's were carrying more than enough heavy weaponry to take out anything they might come up against.
Her only thoughts were Dreykov and Yelena, anything else was a faint second place to those objectives, and this would show her if she could really trust Stark, or if future Clint's message had been more bullshit than truth.