Senator Robert Kelly was up to half a bottle of motrin a day, an uptick in usage noted by close staff members during the escalation of events in the past few weeks. From a junior Republican Senator from California with a small seat on the Intelligence Committee, to powerful Senate leader and an early favorite in an upcoming wide open Presidential election. Taking on the Sentinel program from it's early proposals in Senate committee hearings on the issue of defense spending, Kelly knew it would rise and fall on the back of another issue. A new kind of terrorism: metahumans.

Some were patriots, some were heroes, some geniuses. There were also villains, and masterminds, and chaotic. Mass protests broke out in Italy because of metahuman damage to private property, all of it adding to anti-government protests on record levels of jobless and poverity. That was with no more than a damn fist fight breaking out. 

Many pundits said that the metahuman issue represented a step up onto the main stage of American politics for Senator Robert Kelly. waiting in the DC lawyer's office vacant of anyone, the reception's office just outside just as empty, Rorbert Kelly lamented that narrative deeper than he'd let it burn into his brain before. If the metahuman issue represented anything to Kelly, he would tell you, it was representative of escalation. 

Few forces of nature seemed as destabilizing as all the power that appeared to randomly appear in only God knew who. Threats against their very ways of life. Kelly trusted in the need for a force such as the Sentinels. He'd rather have Iron Run it, but with the technology the military and CIA had of Stark's it was "almost as good" the boys in uniform told him. 

Almost as good? More comforting was the idea of the Sentinel initiative involving more than just man sized robotic suits. That technology had mixed with a handful of 'projects' going on under the CIA and NSA. The result had been a secret squadron of Air Force and 'civilian' personnel. It was considered by other nations as an olive branch when America agreed to put direct supervision of the squandron under SHIELD. Fury had been American, but he was respected across the board. So was General William Stryker an American, whose brother Colonel George Stryker was a primary technical director on the project. 

Kelly had played no small part in getting General Stryker elected to the position. Waiting was never an easy thing for the Senator, even when meeting with an old colleague and friend like General Stryker. Their meeting place was seen as ordinary, even if now it was anything but. Reports had come in about Stark, about a metahuman group getting together. Some analysts called it a larger metahuman concentration of force than the Avengers had been. 

But Fury's disappearance was troubling, and people were asking a lot of questions. Even the President's staff was upset about rumors that maybe they weren't getting the real story; or all of the real story. It was a fire that was starting to burn a few homes here and there, and Kelly needed to put it out before the whole city was up in flames.

"Stark met with Mystique."

An answer. That was General Stryker, Director of SHIELD's, way of greeting the senior Senator. The question had been fuel for some of the political fire going around town on the issue of the Sentinels, and if maybe initial reports of lightning strikes had been unauthorized work by the CIA or NSA. A lot of flaming talk about trying to assassinate a US civilian that some didn't think represented a lethal threat to the US or it's interests.

Until it was verified he met with Mystique. "Yes...I can certainly see how that would change the math on Tony Stark. Is he listed, then?"

"Now he is. So too is Mystique." The General walked in and closed the door behind him, his dress uniform free of lint, far from the dirty work. "A signature strike was ordered. We knew Stark might be collateral damage, but his associate with Mystique and the Brotherhood, of the Genosha Remnants, made him an acceptable loss. No offense to you, Stark."

Both men laughed at Stark's expense, though Kelly's laughter did not linger long. "If only we'd gotten him. Now they're all there. Now it's going to get a little more serious."

Where Kelly seemed uncomfortable due to the events in the last few days, Stryker appeared unbowed. "We knew where we were headed. We knew because we knew what we were doing then, as we do now. Fury's methods were well intended, but they were radical and they were far too trustworthy of metahumans. A terrorist is one thing. A metahuman terrorist would be a blood bath. Citizenship does not protect a sniper killing innocents just because I can't bring him before a court before doing what's best for the protection of safety and order. That's all these individuals are: extreme threats to the protection of safety and order."

"What's Fury got? I never agreed that Fury needed to be imprisoned."

"Sure you did. You get every action report. You had the eyes to see where it was headed. Then he plans to leak out delicate details of the Sentinel initiate itself? Fury made his choice."

Fury was a traitor? To the metahumans?...it left Kelly bitter. Irritated. His need for another dose of motrin growing quickly. "Fine. Then clean him up, and bury it."

"What about the school?"

Kelly blinked. "Xavier's?" When the General nodded, the Senator gave the matter a second thought. If there were children present..."Only if any known X-Men makes a move with this group."

---

"I just sent you a text. Keep it in your pocket for later. We may need a ticket out." 

It was one of the longer phone chats that Natalia had with the man codenamed Hawkeye in a year. If it seemed short, then such was the heart of a spy. Ramonoff told herself what was [i]impossible[/i] when she agreed to work with Jean Grey. The computer driven data of those sessions had been the basis for most modern psy-blocking technology. They worked very well for most telepaths. They were worthless against Jean Grey. 

Just as worthless as what Natalia told herself was impossible before the sessions began. It was Natalia who initially teased Jean as a way to get under her skin, one telepathically linked mind to another. Every thought a piece in the puzzle game that was a telepathic link where secrets were kept. Natalia knew that now. She didn't know it then. 

If only she'd known the rest back then. Her first hour in Cuba was spent opening that link again, a wonderful part of her returning from death. But just as quickly Natalia started to see other things in Jean. But trying to focus on them telepathically was like staring at the sun. There was just no chance in getting to see or feel or know just what it was she'd seen with those 'sun spots.'

Maybe it was that mystery, or the euphoria that came with the link. It was easy to imagine a telepathic link as something intrusive or encroaching. And yet after it was gone it was difficult to feel anything but lonely in a way you never knew existed before you'd met and connected with that person. Getting it back so randomly was a happy thing. And Romanoff did what she always did with happy surprises; she approached them suspiciously. 

But it was Jean. Really, really, it was Jean Grey. And how could the girl Natalia knew hide something? It was so unthinkable for Jean Grey, of all souls, to hide something. Unless there was a good reason? But was that enough of a reason for Natalia? Some good reason she would never know. If it was a good reason, after all. A lot of risk. Or Natalia could just ask Jean the next time she saw her in person.

So she did. At three in the morning, Jean Grey broke down in Natalia's arms and admitted everything in a language forbidden to all but two people in creation; the two of them. At five in the morning, Jean was asleep and Natalia was haunted by some of what it was she'd heard and experienced hours before. Two hours before the briefing, and Natalia was waking Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and Thor. Both to get them up and moving, and to tell them that she suspected there was some part of that cosmic entity left in Grey. 

Then she was gone before any of it could be processed. Natalia had little time for full conversations with any of the Avengers. She needed a danish, and to prepare for the outbrief. At six fifteen she knew Jean was awake, and moving. Since Natalia could only hope the rest of them were as well, she went back to a pesky phone conversation. That was finished two minutes after 0700, when the next briefing was set to occur. 

Lucky her everyone was present and seated when she walked in. Even Stark. 

Natalia started the only way she knew how. Directly. "Information narrows Fury's location down to two targets: one in England, one in the U.S. We'll have to divide ourselves. Those going to England include Tony, Calvin, Domino, and myself with Hawkeye set to meet us once we're wheels down. Those going to the U.S. include Thor, Hank, Steve, and Jean. UK target is a prison, US target is a private air strip. Vehicles will be waiting just out the hotel front doors in an hour to take you to the jets. That's it. Please remember one group will likely be rescuing Fury, while the other group will likely be walking into a death trap. Thanks."

The Widow smiled faintly at the group, before moving behind the seated Jean, and leaning over to whisper something in the telepath's ear. For a moment all Jean seemed capable of was staring, until finally she nodded to the former spy. That was Natalia's chance to try to cleanse her mind, force it into observation mode rather than continuing to think the same cycle of thoughts hyperfocused on Jean Grey's plan, and how much the plan made Natalia feel things the Widow thought she and her heart were long past.