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.
The Triskelion
Theodore Roosevelt Island
The Potomac River
Washington, D.C.
March 16th, 2010
"Sir, we have a situation."
Director Fury looked up, scowling at the interruption from where he was going over surveillance reports from the team shadowing Banner.
He'd had it confirmed from multiple sources now that Banner was making his way back to America for some unknown reason, and now without Ross and the military hounding his every step, it looked like he was getting braver and ready to return to civilisation properly.
That was both good, and bad. Good in that it made tracking him and keep an eye on him a hell of a lot easier. They constantly lost track of him when he moved from country to country, and inevitably ended up moving through countries that hadn't signed the SHIELD accords and where they had no contacts.
Keeping him in America and under their watchful eye would definitely make approaching him in the future a much easier task.
However on the flip side, with him coming back to civilisation, that meant manipulating him through appealing to his loneliness, his need for approval, and his yearning for acceptance would be negated. If Banner found people that could help him or accept him, he was less likely to jump on board with SHIELD and join The Avengers when he was needed.
It was a catch twenty two, and he needed to find some way to keep Banner isolated but still within easy reach.
"Report." Fury bit out, looking up at where Agent Hill had come into his office carrying a standard SHIELD manilla folder in one hand.
"I've just been told the FBI have Agent Thirteen in custody at LAC Hospital sir." Agent Hill reported once the door to Director Fury's office had closed securely behind her.
"What?" Fury practically yelled, standing up sharply and sending his chair skidding back from his desk. "What the hell happened?" He demanded.
"I'm waiting for the full reports now sir," Agent Hill explained. "From our contact in the FBI, apparently Agent Thirteen's cover was compromised somehow. The FBI were called to apprehend her at Stark Industries. She attempted to evade and initiated combat with the FBI agents."
"Who the hell gave her permission to start a conflict with the god damned FBI?" Fury yelled.
"She did not have authorisation sir," Agent Hill confirmed what Fury already knew. "During evasion, Agent Thirteen was wounded. The reports I'm hearing indicate she was shot at least twice. She was then secured for transport to LAC Hospital where she's under full guard and awaiting custody once her health has been ensured."
"God damned!" Fury yelled, slamming his hands down on his desk. "What the hell happened?"
"We don't know sir." Agent Hill shook her head, more than used to Fury's temper by now and knowing that it wasn't directed at her, but more at the situation itself. "Our FBI contacts have confirmed that somehow the FBI have a copy of Agent Thirteen's SHIELD dossier. They're charging her with enough to put her away for a long time."
"How the god damned hell did the FBI get a SHIELD file?" Fury demanded.
"We're looking into it sir." Agent Hill nodded. "I have security double checking all of our systems, but they're not reading any cyber intrusions." She explained. "It looks like someone either took the file out manually, or one of our agents is a mole for the FBI and has been feeding them our files."
"Secure everything, lock down the entire server. I want SHIELD running dark until we can figure out how the hell the FBI are getting their information." Fury ground out, already running down a mental list of anyone he could call in at the FBI to sweep this under the rug.
The problem was that SHIELD was running horrifically low on political favours and clout after everything with Ross and the whole Vault debacle. The UN were still investigating and threatening human rights violations, and SHIELD was putting out fires internationally and doing their best to stop several countries from pulling out of the SHIELD accords already.
This was likely going to be the tipping point, and if it became public knowledge that SHIELD was using their agents to infiltrate private American businesses without reason or warrant, it would be the shit show to end all shit shows.
He grimaced as he thought about what the FBI might actually know now. And with Agent Thirteen in custody, they had definite proof of economic espionage at the very least. That was a fifteen year jail sentence for Agent Thirteen, mandatory, and if they could prove she was a SHIELD agent, which they probably could if they had access to her official dossier, then it was a five million dollar fine for each of her infiltration missions into private US corporations.
He didn't need to pull up her dossier to know that would be in the fifty or six millions if they could prove every one of Agent Thirteen's missions, maybe higher if Stark took it to The Supreme Court and made her entire dossier public.
If that happened then every single mission that Agent Thirteen had ever been on would be compromised, and some of SHIELD's best technology and worst secrets would be in the public view.
"Extraction possibilities?" Fury bit out, glaring across the office at Agent Hill.
"Without more conflict with the FBI agents on guard?" Agent Hill shook her head. "We wouldn't get her out of the hospital that easily. The FBI are on high alert from what our contact tells me, a closed team are on guard and ready to move Agent Thirteen out of the hospital once she's out of surgery."
"She's burnt." Fury hissed, grinding his teeth as he mentally burnt Agent Thirteen's file. Between her being secured by a closed FBI team, and the FBI having her SHIELD file and god knows what else, extracting her wasn't viable, and getting into a jurisdictional battle with the FBI would just bring this whole thing into the public eye and make SHIELD look even worse.
There was absolutely no hope of sweeping this under the rug, especially not if Stark knew about it as well.
He couldn't even burn her effectively, not if the FBI had a copy of her dossier. God damnit, he just had to hope Agent Thirteen didn't say anything further to incriminate herself more, and hope that the FBI only had access to limited information.
"Stark's response?" Fury asked, narrowing his eyes as Agent Hill shook her head. "What?" He demanded.
"Nothing sir," Agent Hill said. "He hasn't attempted any contact. Nothing on the media, no press releases since the satellite thing. It's like he doesn't know."
"Oh he knows." Fury growled, wondering exactly how Stark was going to play this. "Reach out to the FBI. Pull as many favours as you can." He ordered. "Get her released to us if you can, if not, see what we can do to keep it out of courts, I don't care what favours we have to barter."
"Yes sir." Agent Hill nodded. "And Stark?"
"Leave Stark to me." Fury muttered, mentally dismissing Agent Hill only a few seconds before she turned and left his office on her own, leaving him to stew and glare at the reports on his desk.
"SHIT!" Fury yelled out, slamming his hands on his desk again and scattering the printed reports about Banner.
Even if he didn't count the loss of Agent Thirteen, which was a loss, he couldn't deny that. The FBI looking into SHIELD had the promise to be absolutely catastrophic, and needed to be shut down quietly and as quickly as possible.
The shit topping on the FBI cake was Stark though. Obviously he would know about Agent Thirteen by now, and know it was SHIELD that had infiltrated his company. There would probably be charges of espionage and god knows what else, and if Stark's lawyers got involved, then they could kiss any chance of getting Agent Thirteen released goodbye.
"Shit, shit shit!" Fury growled, pacing around his office as he tried to figure out a way that he could placate Stark and salvage anything from this complete shit storm.
This was not going to go well. SHIELD didn't have the capital, political or otherwise, to appease both the FBI and Stark. Either way Agent Thirteen would be burnt, it was just a question of how much damage she was going to cause to SHIELD on her way down.
The Red Room
Narachanski National Park
Minsk
Belarus
840ft altitude
"This reminds me of Budapest,"
Clint actually let out a snort of laughter, using one of the Stark guns to drop two more Widows as they came around the corner. The blue flashes of energy flaring out from the pistol with unerring accuracy, and three bolts hit exactly where he needed to before he turned back to Natasha.
"The mission failed in Budapest, remember?" Clint corrected her with a smirk, watching as she fired both her guns at the same time, clearing out three Widows while the two Starks were using some sort of energy weapons fired out of their hands and walking through the attacking Widows like a hot knife through butter, completely ignoring any gunfire that was aimed their way and blasting aside attackers as soon as they came into sight.
He had to admit, it was definitely nice to have some heavy firepower on their side for once. With the bulk of the Widows attacking the two Starks, who could definitely take care of themselves, it left him and Natasha to pick off the stragglers and take care of anyone coming down to intercept them.
"I'm going to fix that this time." Natasha confirmed, glaring around the room and evaluating the remaining targets. "Dreykov! Come out! It's over!" She shouted aloud, knowing without a doubt that he would be watching over the facility's security system.
"Anything?" Stark asked over the audio link as he blasted another Widow away with his repulsors, FRIDAY confirming that there was only a few more targets coming their way.
"I've got nothing on sensors," Morgan confirmed, using her suit to bring out extra repulsors from her back, bringing them out as mounted cannons and targeting the four remaining Widows at once, sending them all crashing back from the force of her blasts before she turned to Clint and Natasha. "This wing is clear." She confirmed, looking at the sensor readings FAITH was projecting into her HUD. "I'm not getting any more readings from this level."
"Then we head down." Natasha said simply, standing up from where she'd been seeking cover and looking around at the various unconscious and dead Widows that could have been her sisters, taking in each and every one of them and making sure that Yelena wasn't among the fallen.
"I've got Yelena's face programmed for automatic recognition, targeting will let us know if she's in sight so we can switch to non-lethals." Morgan explained, spotting what Natasha was doing.
Natasha simply nodded at that, looking at the younger Stark and giving her a small smile of thanks.
"Boss and grand-boss, I've been going over the schematics and have located the facility laboratories."
Both Clint and Natasha startled at the different voice, turning to look at the two Starks as one for an explanation here. "The Red Room labs?" Natasha asked, deciding instantly that it didn't matter who the mystery voice was, as long as they were directing them properly.
"Yes Miss Romanoff." The voice came back over the audio link again.
"What have we got there FAITH?" Morgan asked aloud. "Anything worth a look?"
"Unknown boss. But the internet network details are listing the laboratory is currently where Лечение is cultivated." FAITH's voice explained. "I believe that would be the source of the mind control used in this instance."
"The Treatment." Natasha bit out, biting back a growl that threatened to rumble out at the thought of how Dreykov controlled the Black Widows. "Where is it?" She asked.
"The lowest floor, southern branch. First room off the third corridor on the left." FAITH's voice directed them. "I am placing directions on your HUDS boss and grand-boss."
"Got it," Tony confirmed. "Nice render of the base, good detailing on the map." He said aloud.
"FAITH, you into the main network?" Morgan asked, indicating for her dad and the two assassins to follow her as she followed FAITH's map back into the central core and down a different corridor that apparently led to a central spiral stairway down the various levels in the core of the facility itself.
"I am boss, the security within the facility was not as complex as the external network made it appear. Decryption of the private network took eighteen point two seconds." FAITH responded, a smug tone in her voice.
"SHIELD would kill for one of her," Clint said off hand as they continued to follow Morgan down the corridors, everyone keeping their weapons at the ready for any sight of more Widows.
"What are their servers like?" Tony asked. "Give me a rundown, overlay it and give me a full directory listing."
"Feeding the information through now grand-boss," FAITH confirmed. "Server directories show twenty two point six petabytes of data. Listing now."
"I'll get to it in the lab," Morgan said after a moment's thought. "There's no way we can rip that much out through a wireless network, we'd be here all week."
"You're going to steal their entire servers?" Natasha asked. "All their data?"
"Why not?" Tony shrugged. "We're going to blow the place up anyway. Looking for any links to HYDRA or proof of their links with Roxxon will just be the icing on the cake." He said, following Morgan down the spiral stairway and keeping his repulsor systems armed to fire at a moment's notice.
"Get me a copy." Natasha said firmly. "I want to see what they've been doing, and who's been buying their services." She ground out.
"Boss, there's movement on the deck." FRIDAY's Irish brogue broke into the audio link. "Nine targets, eight female, one male. Heading towards the north east deck on the second level."
"Dreykov!" Natasha growled out, breaking out into a run and dashing ahead down the staircase and past Tony.
"Morgan you're better with the squishy sciences, go with Barton, hit the labs, grab anything on the mind control stuff, whatever other wacky shit they're pulling. Purge the servers when you're done. I'll cover Little Miss Spider." Tony shouted out as he broke into a run as well, following Natasha quickly before she got out of sight.
"Looks like it's you and me kiddo." Clint said with a shrug as he moved up ready to back Morgan up with his guns, feeling more than a little bit useless with only his bow and two small firearms, no matter how advanced, compared to Morgan's stupidly powerful armoured suit.
"Fine by me," Morgan nodded as she continued down the spiral stairway, picking up the pace now and reasoning that if Dreykov was abandoning the base, then he'd likely ordered the Widows to abandon the place as well, and possibly even set a self destruct. "FAITH, anything on the network about a destruct sequence?"
"Nothing here boss," FAITH replied.
"Doesn't mean there isn't one," Clint grimaced at the thought. "Just means it's not on their computers."
"That's what I thought." Morgan muttered, breaking into a sprint as she darted down the last three levels with Clint in hot pursuit, aiming to get to the labs as quickly as possible and finish up what they were aiming to do here.
"DREYKOV!"
The eight Widows surrounding Dreykov turned as one at Natasha's scream as she ran out of the central core, her guns flashing blue lights and downing two of the Widows before they'd even recognised the threat that was coming.
"Game over asshole," Tony broadcast his voice aloud as he came out onto the deck, immediately taking to the air and aiming his repulsors down at the collection of assassins and leading asshole who were making their way to one of the larger jets on the landing strip.
Natasha growled as the six remaining Widows targeted her as one, all of them dashing towards her at once. She got of two more bursts from the guns, dropping two more of the Widows before the remaining four of them were on top of her, forcing her to drop the guns and move to hand to hand combat.
"Not happening," Tony's voice came aloud as a heavy repulsor blast knocked the Widows apart, giving Natasha some breathing room to grab her taser batons from her back, striking the nearest Widow as she tried to get up and sending her rolling back to the floor unconscious. "I've got these." He said easily as he swooped down, aiming his repulsors at the remaining three Widows who were staying on the ground and glaring at him murderously.
"He's mine." Natasha hissed out, flexing her batons and sending a crackling electrical charge through them as she stalked forwards towards where Dreykov was watching her, apparently completely unbothered by his impending death.
"So, you returned to us." Dreykov smirked, watching as Natasha came towards him, threats of violence and an imminently painful death practically broadcast by every movement she made. "I thought you would. One day. To finish your pathetic attempts." He said calmly, putting down his briefcase and actually smoothing his suit out, completely disinterested in Natasha's approach.
"I'll kill you." Natasha said simply, reading her batons as she closed within striking distance.
"Will you?" Dreykov looked at her, tilting his head as if staring at some interesting new experiment. "No, I think not." He said simply as if stating a fact that could not be denied. "You are no threat to me." He said, watching as Natasha raised her batons ready to strike. "Your friend however..."
He paused as Natasha swung the batons at his head, but her hand froze barely a few inches from striking him, causing her to gasp aloud and try to force her arm to continue the attack.
"Yes? No?" Dreykov looked at her, shaking his head. "You could never kill me little Natasha. You are no threat. None of you ever were." He said calmly, reaching out and peeling her grip apart to pluck the baton out of her hands before tossing it aside.
"How are you doing this?" Natasha bit out, forcing every bit of her hatred to show on her face and right into her eyes as Dreykov reached down for her other baton.
"A pheromonal lock, trained since you were knee high. You were never a threat to me." Dreykov explained simply, like it was completely meaningless information as he gripped her other baton and pulled it out of her hand, pressing the active button on it to charge it up fully with a deadly release of electricity crackling around it. "Now, you will tell your friend to stay where he is." He said, moving around behind Natasha and raising the charged baton to her throat.
"Spider?" Tony said, speaking directly into the audio link as he looked at her, ignoring the three Widows around that were starting to get to their feet. "I've got a target lock. Yes or no."
"Yes." Natasha said aloud.
"Good, then we understand each..." Dreykov started to say but was cut off as a flurry of micro-missiles were launched from Tony's shoulders. Three of them flying directly at him over Natasha's shoulder and exploding on target, coating Natasha's head and back with blood, gore and pieces of bone, while forcing her to stumble forwards from the force of the miniature explosions.
Three more missiles each locked onto each of the Widows surrounding Tony, blasting them aside and ending their lives instantly.
"You good?" Tony asked, moving forwards a few steps to catch Natasha from where she'd stumbled forwards in the miniature explosions.
"Pheromonal lock, I couldn't..."
"I heard." Tony nodded. "Probably a genetic treatment. Brain chemistry. Could be anything. Sorry, messy sciences aren't my thing. Morgan might have some idea though, that's more her wheelhouse than mine."
"I wanted to kill him." Natasha whispered, extracting herself from Tony and staring back at the bloody mess on the floor that had once been her long time tormentor and living nightmare.
"Well, he's over now." Tony frowned at the thought. "Should I apologise? Kinda feels like taking out your main villain in the story should be something I should apologise for?" He asked.
"I'm happy he's dead." Natasha said, turning back to Tony. "How are the others doing?"
"Dunno," Tony shrugged. "Morgan? Mission's complete on our end? How are you two doing?" He asked aloud, watching as Natasha headed back to Dreykov's remains and collected both of her batons, returning them to her back before retrieving Dreykov's briefcase and opening it up, looking at the wealth of money inside along with several hard drives and reams of old looking papers.
If nothing else, this would help her investigation into The Red Room, and top up her finances a bit. Using Dreykov's money to finance her fighting HYDRA and leaving her assassin days behind her felt almost ironic, and definitely fitting.
Earlier
Clint span around with his bow ready, having returned to his bow and arrow for stealth and familiarity rather than relying on Stark's fancy ray gun thing.
Though he barely got chance to notch his arrow before the fancy energy blast shot out of Morgan's hand, blowing the attacking Widows clean into the wall and scattering all three of them as they were blasted apart and fell to the ground in a tumble of limbs and weapons.
"I had them," Clint complained as Morgan simply walked on, completely disinterested in the attacking Widows.
"This isn't Lord of the Rings, you're not Legolas." Morgan said, her grin audible over the communications link as she followed FAITH's map that was projected on her HUD down through the various corridors to where the lab section was highlighted ahead.
"Does that make you Gimly?" Clint snorted as he followed on behind her, keeping his arrow notched and ready to let fly at a moment's notice. "Because..."
"If you make a short joke, I'm leaving you here." Morgan said, interrupting whatever Clint was about to say.
"Just saying," Clint grinned as he followed her around one of the corridor bends. "You could..." He trailed off, looking ahead to where the laboratory was clearly visible, with four guards outside. The three widows he could make out easily, but the fourth was in very different armour, and stood taller and stronger than the three Widows standing guard.
One of the Widows he recognised instantly from the photos and intel he'd been searching for. The blonde hair drew his attention immediately and he knew without checking that this was Yelena.
"I'll take the big one." Morgan said over the link, watching as the guards spotted them and drew their weapons, the big armoured one actually pulling a sword from down their back and striding forwards towards them.
"Fine by me," Clint nodded as Morgan took the lead, firing a repulsor blast head on that staggered the big armoured soldier but didn't seem to stop her in the least.
He stared for a moment before letting one arrow fly, watching it piece the chest of one of the Widows while he slung his bow over his back, pulling out Stark's ray gun and firing a burst at Yelena without hesitation, dropping her and taking her out of the fight so that she wouldn't attack and get injured further.
That much was all the remaining Widow needed to close the gap, and by the time he'd turned his aim to take the shot she was close enough to grab his gun, twisting it in his hand sharply before pulling it free and tossing it aside in a smooth and easy motion.
Morgan however was having a much easier time as the attacker in the blue and orange armour came at her silently, the skull carved face covering staring her down as they brought the sword around for a clean slice, only pausing and tilting their head when a shimmering blue shield appeared on the side of Morgan's arm and blocked the attack easily, parrying the blade away as Morgan twisted her body to bleed off the momentum.
"Not your day," Morgan broadcast her voice aloud through the suit as she kicked out, landing a firm kick to the attackers stomach and launching her down the corridor, her suit enhancing her strength far more than any of her attackers.
"Boss, scanners are indicating multiple cybernetic implants." FAITH's voice reported. "I'm scanning now, she's being controlled boss!"
"Block it," Morgan ordered, sending another repulsor blast down the corridor to keep the armoured attacker away from her.
"ECCM is on boss, blanketing but it looks like the implants have already got their commands and aren't being controlled remotely." FAITH explained.
"That's some dark shit," Morgan muttered, firing a two handed repulsor blast to knock the attacker back further, scorching her armour and knocking her down to her knees. She'd seen cybernetics used in some pretty twisted ways over the years, but intentionally programming a human being like some sort of robot? That was definitely the nastiest.
She spared a glance to the side to see Clint and one of the Widows fighting hand to hand, to be fair he seemed to be holding his own, but she could definitely see that the Widow was far more skilled than he was, and was likely to break through his defences sooner or later to land a killing blow.
A single repulsor blast put end to that, catching the attacking Widow in the back and blasting her against a wall, leaving her to stride forwards and kick out again, this time catching the armoured attacker in the head, cracking their face plate in multiple places and snapping their head backwards where they fell to the floor unconscious.
"I could have managed," Clint breathed out, glaring down the corridor as he caught his breath and cleared his vision from where the Widow had managed to slip in a particularly strong blow that had caught him on the side of his head. "That's new." He commented, looking at the shimmering transparent blue shield that had come from somewhere and was glowing from where it was attached to Morgan's right arm.
"Sure, but that was quicker." Morgan said offhand, kneeling down and checking the armoured woman was still alive, dismissing her shield and causing the emitter to sink back into her suit. "FAITH, run a deep scan, what am I looking at here?" She asked aloud.
"I'm unsure boss," FAITH's voice came back. "It's not like anything on record." She confirmed. "There's no wireless connection, it appears to be hard wired in to the subjects nervous system, connecting directly between the C-Two and C-Three vertebrae."
"What's that?" Clint asked, coming forwards to look at the armoured figure himself.
"Whoever it is, they've got an implant stuck in the back of their neck." Morgan said through the audio link. "Some sort of control, I can't make it out without getting a proper look at it."
"Doesn't look like any of the other Widows." Clint frowned, looking down at the cobbled together armour and skull faced mask. "Another brainwash victim?" He asked.
"Could be, I'd have to get a proper look at the cybernetics to see what they did to them." Morgan said, looking down at the armoured figure curiously. "I didn't know anyone was using cybernetics this early, especially not screwed up shit like this." She said with a frown. "I want to figure out what they did to them."
"Taking her with then," Clint nodded, not really wanting to argue the point. "We've got Yelena too." He said, nodding over to where the blonde Widow was slumped unconscious by the laboratory doors where she'd fallen.
"We'll get them both out of here then, give me a minute and..."
"Morgan? Mission's complete on our end? How are you two doing?" Tony's voice came over the audio link.
"Tell Nat we've got Yelena," Clint replied before Morgan could say anything. "And your kid's got a new science project by the look of it." He said with a smirk over to Morgan.
"Kiddo?" Tony's voice came back.
"Some sort of armoured soldier." Morgan confirmed. "Cybernetics, I haven't seen anything like this before. It's wired right into their spine, cutting right into their nervous system from what I can make out from my scans."
"Who is it?" Natasha's voice came over the line this time.
"No idea," Clint shrugged as he answered. "Got some sort of skull mask on. Blue and orange armour. Used a sword. Anyone you've met before?" He asked curiously.
"No." Natasha's voice replied.
"I want to take a look at it, whoever did this, they managed some pretty good links to the nervous system. That's tricky at the best of times. It might be the nastiest type of cybernetics I've ever seen, but the design is damn near genius from the scans I'm getting." Morgan explained aloud.
"Alright kiddo, your choice." Tony's voice came back. "Got to the labs yet?"
"Outside now." Morgan said, standing up from the armoured figure. "Give me five minutes and I'll have everything on their servers." She said, nodding to Clint as she turned and moved into the lab rooms, looking around for the nearest computer that she could get access too.
"Clint, look around for anything on pheromone controls as well. Samples of their mind control treatment. Grab anything you can." Natasha's voice came through. "See if there's anything there we can use to create a fail-safe against their mind control being used in the future."
"Got it," Clint nodded, following Morgan through into the labs, clearly eager to look into anything that might be able to protect him and anyone else from mind control.
He watched from the corner of his eye as something from Morgan's suit snaked out like some sort of flowing liquid cable and connected to the computer, leaving her standing there silently and simply staring at the computer system.
"Freaky," Clint muttered under his breath, looking around the lab and through the various glass cupboards, searching around for anything that might be linked to what they were searching for. "You know, this'd go a lot easier if I could read Russian." He said aloud, frustration tinting his voice as he read through a few of the jars and glowing vials that had writing down them that he couldn't decipher.
"Russian Cyrillic, not Russian." Natasha's voice corrected him over the link.
"Whatever, doesn't matter if I can't read it," Clint complained. "There's not much here anyway. Some vials, a few jars of something yellow, could be piss for all I know, some more vials with injection guns next to them, scalpels, operating tools... what the hell were they doing here Nat?" He asked in horror as he looked through the cupboards with a growing sinking feeling in his gut.
"You don't want to know." Natasha's voice came through the link, cold, emotionless and clamped down tight.
"We'll get the jet ready, get whatever you can." Tony replied.
"Just bag stuff up," Morgan said, pointing over to the side of the lab where there was a decent sized rucksack hanging from a wall mounted hanger. "Grab a bit of each, toss in those big files too, they might be important."
"These?" Clint asked, opening the first cupboard and reaching in, pulling out the first of three file binders that were filled with papers and god knows what else. When Morgan nodded at him he moved over and grabbed the backpack from the wall, tipping it up and emptying it's contents all over the floor before returning to the cupboards and stuffing the three binders in first.
"Seventy eight seconds until I've got their full server." Morgan said aloud.
"Shit kid, you're quick." Clint grinned in appreciation, moving faster to grab one of each of the vials and jars, doing his best to stuff them into the backpack carefully and secure them as best as he could so that they didn't smash into each other or crack.
"Jet's coming down, second floor, north east. We're ready whenever you are." Tony's voice came over the link again.
"Just finishing up dad, give me a second." Morgan replied with a smile, watching her HUD as FAITH tore through the Red Room's servers and copied everything they had through to her suit's redundant memory.
"Got everything here," Clint said, double checking through the cupboards to make sure he hadn't missed grabbing at least one copy of everything on their shelves.
"We're good, on our way up now." Morgan said into the link, walking out of the lab and moving back to the armoured attacker, kneeling down to pick them up easily and bracing them to carry them back up the spiral staircase. "You got her?" She asked, looking over as Clint awkwardly slung the rucksack over one shoulder so it hung next to his quiver and replaced his bow over his other shoulder so he could pick Yelena's unconscious form up.
"Yeah, but I can't shoot like this." Clint reminded her, looking at how they both had both of their arms full.
"FAITH, keep sensors at full, overlay the map with any signatures." Morgan ordered. "Keep watch, I need to get to dad without running in to anyone else."
"Lighting them up now boss," FAITH's voice confirmed.
Morgan nodded at that, walking forwards back down the corridor with Clint following her silently, both keeping watch down each corridor while Morgan kept one eye on the map FAITH was projecting onto her HUD that was currently only showing various unconscious life signs that they'd already dealt with.
It didn't take long for them to get back to the central core, with Morgan taking the lead and carrying the armoured figure up the central spiral stairway and back up to the second level. Though she could hear Clint behind her struggling with Yelena's body as he climbed up the steep metal stairway that definitely wasn't built with carrying people or large objects in mind.
"How's it looking kiddo?" Tony's voice came through the link.
"Nearly there, got Yelena and the mystery armour to look at." Morgan said aloud. "Probably going to need some help getting them into the jet."
"Way ahead of you," Tony replied. "FRIDAY's got the jet down to our level, get out here and we can take it from there."
"Thank god," Clint muttered as they reached the second level, watching as Morgan kicked open the door forcefully, the impact of her foot actually tearing the metal door off of it's hinges and sending it flying off into the sky where it fell down off of the edge of the flying installation.
He thought he'd never be happy to see Stark, but seeing him floating there with the invisible plane behind him, the door open and Natasha waiting in the doorway for them, was the single best sight he could ever have imagined.
"You weren't kidding huh?" Tony smirked, heading over as Morgan and Clint started walking towards them, before reaching out and taking the armoured body from Morgan's arms. "Cybernetics then? Thought you were the only one playing with that sort of stuff?"
"Apparently not," Morgan said with a frown as her dad flew across the gap, carrying the armoured body over to the jet and handing it over for Natasha to carry it into the jet and dump it into one of the chairs. "Give her to me." She said, turning to Clint and taking Yelena from him, flying up and following her dad's path over to the waiting jet.
"Your turn Robin Hood," Tony came back, floating around a few feet above the ground and holding his hands out for Clint to grasp on.
"I hate this already," Clint groused but grabbed on to the offered hands anyway, resisting the urge to squeeze his eyes shut as Stark lifted him into the air and carried him across to the jet, lowering him down so that Morgan and Natasha could grab hold of him and pull him through the open door and out of the rushing wind.
"Still want to blow this place up?" Tony asked, staying outside the jet and looking inside to Natasha who was staring back at where she'd laid Yelena down on one of the chairs.
"Do it." Natasha confirmed, not bothering to look away from Yelena as she spoke to Tony.
"FRIDAY, get the jet clear, take it up and out of the blast zone." Tony said aloud, drifting away from the jet and flying around before swooping down to the base of the structure while the jet took Morgan, Natasha and Clint up and away from the danger. "We've got proper missiles on this right?" Tony whispered, not having actually checked through the complete long range armaments of the suit yet.
"I've got you boss," FRIDAY's Irish tone came back full of mirth at the situation. "Targeting now."
"Wait until the jet's out of range," Tony said firmly, watching his HUD light up as sensors tracked the various weak points of the structure along with the engines and the various rocket thrusters that were keeping the damn thing in the air.
"The jet is clear boss, eighty feet above the Red Room to avoid debris, outside of the blast radius." FRIDAY confirmed.
"Let her rip." Tony grinned, watching as FRIDAY launched various tracking missiles from his suit that shot forwards and struck every single one of the points targeted. He watched with glee as the structure was rocked with explosions, the entire base of the central core lighting up in one giant fireball as one of his missiles hit the engines and fuel depots, lighting it up like a burning Christmas tree and setting off more explosions that rippled their way up and through the cylindrical core of the Red Room.
"Time to get out of here I think." Tony grinned to himself, firing his repulsors and heading up and away from the exploding and falling structure, happy that FRIDAY had automatically plotted a path up and for him to follow and intercept the jet where Morgan and Natasha were waiting in the doorway, watching him destroy the flying fortress for good.
"It's over." Natasha said simply as she stood aside, letting Tony into the jet before the door automatically closed behind him.
"No more Red Room." Tony confirmed. "FRIDAY, get us out of Belarus airspace. Keep stealth on, I don't want anyone to know we've been here baby girl."
"On it boss," FRIDAY's voice came back through the jet's speakers. "Plotting a flight plan back to Madrid."
"Best speed," Tony laughed, relaxing now that their mission was complete and there was nothing left for him to do. "Happy now?" He asked, double tapping his nanite core and letting the Iron Man suit retract back into it's nanite form and swarm back into the nanite reactor core itself. "Got your bad guy, and... your blondie?" He asked, looking over at the blonde Widow that was laying one one of the seats, slumped down and completely unconscious.
"I'll sleep better." Natasha said with a firm nod. "You want me in two years. I'm there." She said, definitely intent on holding up her end of the bargain. "And the sniper, whenever you want me."
"Deal." Tony nodded. "What's the deal with skullface then?"
"I'm still figuring that out," Morgan replied from where she was crouched next to the chair they'd put the armoured figure on. Examining their armour and looking over the wrist controls dubiously.
"Sure it isn't anyone you know?" Clint asked curiously. "Took quite a beating to put them down. Not seen many people use a sword before."
"I'm certain." Natasha said, staring at the chrome mask that was etched with a skull design over the lower face area. "They're not Red Room, or they weren't when I was there or when we attacked them last. Might be one of Dreykov's new enforcers, or hired muscle from someone else."
"I think there's a release here," Morgan muttered, holding her hand out and directing her suit to send out a connection cord so she could link into their armour through the nanite core. "Yep, give me..." She trailed off as the helmet hissed loudly, splitting open in separate pieces around the head.
"Well that's not creepy at all," Clint muttered, reaching down to lift up the helmet and pull it off of the concussion body.
"Ебать!" Natasha spat out as Clint lifted the helmet off, her hand flying to her mouth in shock and horror as she stared at the scarred and burnt face underneath.
"You know her?" Clint asked curiously, looking down at the unconscious woman curiously.
"Antonia Dreykov," Natasha whispered. "I thought... I thought I killed her in Budepest."
"The guy we just killed?" Tony double checked. "His daughter?" He questioned. "Oh this is going to go down great." He muttered.
"She..." Natasha started but trailed off, not knowing what to say in the face of her greatest regret.
"Well whatever Dreykov did to her, she went through some pretty nasty implants." Morgan confirmed. "I'm reading more under the armour, but I can't be sure what they're for until I can connect with them properly and take a decent look." She explained. "The one in her neck, that's definitely hooked into her nervous system though. Might be controlling her, or something else, it's definitely doing something though, it's got a low voltage charge running all the way through her nervous system and lighting it up like a fuse box ready to blow."
"Can you help her?" Natasha asked, looking directly to Morgan now.
"Once I get proper scans of the implants and figure out how they were tied in to her system, yes, I can get them out of her." Morgan confirmed. "But I wouldn't want to do it here, it's going to be delicate work. Messing with the nervous system is tricky enough when I know exactly what's been done, with this..." She trailed off with a grimace. "There might be something in their files somewhere, I'll have to go through everything I ripped off of their servers."
"He did that to his own daughter?" Clint asked in horror, staring at the woman and unable to imagine any father doing anything as horrible as that to their own daughter.
"Shoot her with the gun, I only knocked her out, she won't stay down for long if these readings are right." Morgan said, looking to Clint again. "FAITH, connect to the satellite. Upload everything I got from them to our private servers and start collating it, tag anything that mentions cybernetics or modification like this."
"Uploading now boss," FAITH's voice came back.
"I'll do it." Natasha said, holding out her hand for the gun in Clint's holster. She nodded when he handed it over wordlessly before taking aim and firing a three shot burst straight into Antonia's chest.
"They'll both be out for at least fifty hours, long enough to get back to Madrid and get them secured." Morgan said, tapping her nanite core and letting her suit retract finally, leaving her to relax in her casual clothes again. "I'll need a hospital or something to take a proper look at her though, definitely a clean room."
"Lets get back to Madrid first kiddo," Tony said, looking at her with a proud smile. "We've done everything here, now it's just cleaning up the mess left behind."
"What Nat said, alien invasion?" Clint said, looking between Tony and Morgan now. "I'm in too. If you want me." He said.
"The more of us we have, the better," Tony nodded back.
"We'll deal with the mind control stuff first, leave us in Madrid, we'll take care of it from here." Natasha said, looking at Tony now. "I'll get in touch back in America. Get me the list of HYDRA bases, and I'll start crossing them off for you."
"Sounds like a plan." Tony nodded, happy to have these two on board, even if they were both on his 'do not trust, but work with if possible' list according to Morgan.
"Mind if I keep this?" Natasha asked, holding up the gun in her hand. "Could be useful." She said with a small smirk on her lips. "Never know when you need to take someone down for questioning."
"Go ahead," Tony returned the smirk. "I've got some new toys with your name on it anyway. Might be interesting to see what you make of them." He said with a grin. "The whole spider thing still creeps me out by the way, but you do you..." He said, shrugging as he headed over to one of the unoccupied chairs and collapsed down into it, stretching out and getting comfortable for the flight. "Those wrist things?" He asked, looking at the gold devices on Natasha's wrists. "Your usual weapons?" He asked curiously.
"Widows bites." Natasha nodded.
"Yeah, I've got a suit for you." Tony grinned, noting their placement was on the exact same wrist connections of the spider suit design in FAITH's database. "Probably going to be a while until I can make it, but it's definitely yours."
"From the future?" Natasha asked, tilting her head curiously as Morgan moved to the seat next to her dad and sat down in it comfortably.
"Yup, some spider themed get up." Tony shrugged. "It's got space for those bites, built for someone far more flexible than me, and someone that doesn't mind skin tight clothes. Spiders just aren't my thing, sorry." He said with a smirk.
"What's the suit called?" Natasha asked curiously.
"It's marked as Iron Spider, but I think that's just dad's filing system," Morgan answered with a grin, getting an offended huff from her dad in reply. "Think it's meant to just be called The Spider."
"Retiring Black Widow properly?" Clint asked, looking at Natasha with a grin. "Never thought I'd see you leave that behind you."
"Maybe it's time." Natasha said, musing on the thought and considering her future. With Dreykov and the Red Room destroyed now, maybe it was time for the Black Widow to retire and something else to take her place. "I'll take a look and see what I think." She offered, not willing to commit to anything yet.
"Doesn't bother me," Tony shrugged. "Let me know how to get in touch, and I'll tell you when it's ready. Should be ready for the invasion though, would be handy as hell to have it on the rooftops taking down ships though."
"I'll think about it." Natasha reiterated, moving to the seat opposite Yelena and sitting down, looking across at her little sister and wondering how successful she was going to be in breaking the Red Room's mind control treatments.
"Whatever," Tony smiled, leaning back in his chair and threading his hands behind his head. Content to relax and unwind now and enjoy the flight back to Madrid.
"Fancy telling us so more about the future?" Clint asked curiously, taking his own seat and spinning it around so that he could face Morgan again. "I know you said I turned out to be some sort of asshole, got any info on things coming up I should definitely avoid? Or, you know, lotto numbers or something?" He asked with a grin, causing both Tony and Morgan to laugh at him and relax in their chairs.
"I might have a few things," Morgan smirked over. "Though staying clear of Loki and his mind control spear thing is definitely top of the list."
"I'll remember that," Clint said, making a very firm note of the name Loki to avoid like the plague. "Trust me, that's definitely top of my list." He said with determination. "I don't want to turn into the asshole that future me did."
"I heard you did pick up a protege at some point, like in ten years or something?" Morgan said thoughtfully. "Might have the records back home, I didn't pay much attention to American news back then." She said with a shrug. "FAITH, connect to the database, hunt down the stuff about Barton and that other archer he was running around with."
"Searching now Boss," FAITH's voice came through the jet's speakers clearly as Clint looked at Morgan with undisguised curiosity on his face.
"A protege?" Natasha asked, smirking over to him.
"Got me?" Clint shrugged. "Never thought I'd see anyone else taking to a bow and arrow like I did." He admitted, actually curious now what sort of person would pick him as someone to model their fighting style on.
"Records found boss," FAITH's voice came back. "Mr Barton was recorded on several instances with Kate Bishop and Yelena Belova in December of two thousand and twenty one."
"Got any records on Kate Bishop now?" Morgan asked curiously.
"Miss Kate Bishop currently attends the KIPP Inquire Elementary school in The Bronx, New York boss," FAITH replied.
"Elementary?" Clint asked in shock. "She's just a kid?" He blinked, trying to rationalise that out in his head.
"Apparently you don't meet her for another eleven years," Tony said with a shrug. "So she'll be in her twenties then I guess." He reasoned out. "Something like that anyway."
"She's a kid?" Clint repeated, shaking his head in dismay. Just his luck, to find out he would actually get a protege sometime to share his love of archery with, and she turns out to be a pre-pubescant kid who probably hasn't even picked up a bow and arrow yet.
"Looks like you've got eleven years to get ready," Natasha smirked over. "Best get practising." She added with a grin as Clint flipped her off, causing Tony and Morgan to break into laughter and relax further, intent on getting to know the two assassins more on the long flight back to Madrid.
SHIELD Helicarrier
Location: Classified
March 17th, 2010
The sun hadn't even risen yet before Director Fury made his way onto the Helicarrier's bridge, nodding to Agent Hill automatically as he walked through, and only vaguely listening as she gave the orders to pull out of port and head out to open seas again.
He didn't stop as he walked through the bridge and into his office, stalking over to his chair and sitting down to go over the reports Agent Hill and Agent Coulson had collated together for him.
He had been wrong last month. February wasn't the worst shit show he'd seen. March was very quickly moving to the top of his list with a bullet.
The FBI definitely had Agent Thirteen's full SHIELD dossier, he'd not only had it confirmed from multiple sources with in the FBI, but one of his contacts had actually sent him a copy of the file itself, and it was legit. A direct copy taken from the servers. It had everything on it.
Seconds after he'd seen that confirmed was when he'd officially marked Agent Thirteen down as burnt.
He couldn't erase her from the SHIELD servers or wipe her records like he would do for any other agent, not when her records were already out there at the FBI and god only knows where else, so SHIELD's usual tactics of dealing with exposed agents were utterly failing him right now.
The only slight glimmer of sunlight in this whole thing was that Stark's lawyers hadn't got involved yet. He knew they would be working with the FBI, but so far they hadn't approached SHIELD at all, and he felt like he was just waiting for the boot to drop like a Damocles sword hanging over SHIELD right now.
The FBI were apparently working directly with the Department of Justice, and this whole think had the DOJ up in arms about industrial espionage. Their contacts within the Department were putting out fires as best as they could and doing damage control, but SHIELD was expending a lot of political capital just to try and keep this quiet, and he didn't think it was going to stay that way for long.
Fortunately, if that could even be applied to this entire cluster fuck, Stark himself wasn't in the country at all right now.
He'd had it confirmed that Stark was actually in Spain when he'd tried to locate him to go and speak to him about Agent Thirteen and get him to back off, but apparently Stark had been in Spain since before Agent Thirteen's mission had even gone to shit, which meant that he hadn't had anything to do with her cover being blown or her SHIELD dossier ending up in the hands of the FBI.
Annoyingly Spain was one of multiple countries in Europe that hadn't signed the SHIELD accords and refused to have SHIELD in their air space or allow their agents within their borders. He could likely get in covertly and find Stark there, but at the end of the day it just wasn't worth the hassle.
Stark wasn't worth that much hassle.
Stark would come back to America sooner or later, and he would be able to set up a meeting then. He just had to figure out how much he was willing to capitulate to get Stark to tell his lawyers to drop things with the FBI and clear Agent Thirteen's record.
Once he got her out of the FBI's hands, then he could start wiping records and clearing out any link between Agent Thirteen and SHIELD.
As of right now, she was useless though. His contacts had confirmed that she'd gone through enough of Stark's security to even impress him, security files that had been shared with the FBI during their investigation.
The FBI had her fingerprints, DNA, iris scans, full biometrics. Everything needed that they could corroborate themselves and go through the past missions mentioned in her dossier to confirm everything they needed.
If they shared all that biometric data and used it to back up the SHIELD dossier they had, then they could almost certainly pin Agent Thirteen with her previous missions and use it to launch a full investigation into SHIELD itself.
He could definitely blame that on Stark's new security, or blame himself since it was obvious that Stark had only built up his new security measures in response to the meeting he'd forced in Stark's home. If they'd been able to get into Stark Industries' servers, they would have been able to fake all of Agent Thirteen's biometrics and fed them false data, protecting Agent Thirteen from exactly this sort of shit that was now raining down on them all.
It was a cluster fuck alright, and no matter which way he looked at it, Agent Thirteen was burnt and completely useless now. Infiltration, espionage, manipulation, worthless. If the trial went public, businesses around the world would be checking their records for anything that could prove they had been a target as well, and from there the lawsuits would only mount up.
It would get even worse if international businesses started checking as well, by then he would have to write off a lot of agents entirely, maybe even worse depending on what other dossiers the FBI had access to and what their level of knowledge actually was.
"What have we got?" Fury asked, looking up as Agent Coulson knocked on his door and entered the office, closing the glass door behind him and pacing over to stand in front of the director's desk.
"At some point last night, the Red Room installation in Belarus was destroyed sir." Agent Coulson confirmed, handing over the report folder he'd collated for Director Fury to go over personally.
"Destroyed?" Fury raised a lone eyebrow at that, looking over the file that Agent Coulson had just handed to him. "Belarus?" He noted, another country SHIELD had no jurisdiction over and couldn't enter without provoking the sovereign nation. "Who's claiming responsibility?"
"No one sir," Agent Coulson shook his head. "Poland and Germany are sharing their radar data with us now sir, but it doesn't look like there was anything in the same airspace during the time of the attack. Nothing launched from the ground either. It looks like internal sabotage to me."
"Hnh," Fury hummed to himself as he went over the data for himself, confirming that Belarus airspace was completely clear during the attack. "This feels like Romanoff." He said bluntly, glaring at the file and knowing he'd kept the existence of the Red Room secret from Romanoff for years, purely to keep her working at SHIELD and not running off to a country they couldn't go anywhere near.
"We confirmed Agent Romanoff's death sir, you confirmed their bodies yourself." Agent Coulson reminded him.
Fury nodded absently at that, still going over the file showing the destruction of the Red Room facility. It definitely felt like Romanoff, but Coulson was right. He'd confirmed Romanoff's body himself. The explosion had burnt her body to a crisp, along with Barton's, but there had been enough blood on their uniforms to confirm their identities, along with dental records and the existence of their personal equipment.
He couldn't shake the feeling though that this was connected somehow, and didn't like it at all.
The other thing that was niggling at him was the timing. The Red Room gets destroyed at the same time that Stark was only two thousand miles away? That felt off, but he couldn't see any link between Stark and the Red Room. Stark would have no reason to target them, or even know about them, and he certainly would have been flashier about it than this if he had been involved.
"Fine," Fury nodded, slapping the folder closed and dropping it down on his desk. "Increase surveillance around the Russian borders. They'll be investigating this themselves, might even have some of their assets heading to Belarus to look into it further."
"Already done sir," Agent Coulson confirmed in his usual efficient manner. "I have agents in Sokovia keeping watch and monitoring the ground for any movements across the border and into Europe."
"Keep me appraised," Fury nodded, dismissing Agent Coulson and returning his gaze to the various folders on his desk.
He already had the World Security Council breathing down his neck, and Secretary Pierce was on the warpath already about the loss of The Vault for holding Enhanced and everything else that had come out after General Ross's death.
He had absolutely no patience for politics, and didn't want to deal with the Secretary screaming and ranting about Agent Thirteen and the cluster fuck that that whole mess was going to drop on SHIELD's shoulders.
March was an utter mess so far, and they were only half way through the month. After February, this mess really didn't bode well for how the rest of the year was threatening to go.