Captain Uni
Eddie Brock
Master Bruce
Sep
Cyberlad
Sweat beaded on the bridge of Natasha Romanoff's nose as she hung precariously above the floor. Her morning workout involved weights, cardio, and the hot yoga she currently was deep into. Sure, it was trendy. Yea, it was for housewives and valley girls when instructed by a coddling teacher in some suburb. But Natasha never did things the easy way. The Black Widow was once the word's preeminent assassin and provocateur. She didn't know the definition of simple. Her muscles burned as she stayed cemented in one of the most difficult poses yoga had to offer. When she felt as if she could take no more, Natasha held the pose for five more minutes before heading for the shower.
Her life had changed drastically since getting and offer from Captain America to redeem herself and leave her life of contract killing behind. At first it seemed to be an easy way out and a way to finally have her own life which she desired so deeply. She did not count on the fact of Stephanie Carter's stalwart leadership and infectious heroism, however. Nat often ribbed her now-best friend on the fact that her boyscoutish ways spread quicker than the common cold. Still, Romanoff would have it no other way. She was an Avenger now. Little girls looked up to her, and she was a hero her past life would never have allowed her to be.
As she began to shower, she thought of all she had done. She stood up to HYDRA, AIM, Doctor Doom, and even an alien invasion. She fought alongside gods and monsters to protect the people of this planet with only a few bullets and her wits are her disposal. Natasha Romanoff had never expected to be proud of her life. Hell, she had never even considered a life where she made choices for herself.
But she was damn proud of herself now.
When she stepped out of the shower, her mirror, which doubled as a communications hub, flashed with a text message. As the single word appeared on the screen, Natasha knew it was time to get to work.
**********
Sparks flew up from the workbench as Hank Pym cursed under his breath. He had been working on this suit for ages, and nothing seemed to work. It was maddening for someone so brilliant as him. Hank Pym wasn't a patient man. All you had to do was ask Janet about that. The two had more yelling matches over him working too long or too intensely then Pym could count.
And Hank Pym could count to 1000 places of pi.
He pushed the chair away from the table as Janet came into the lab. She rolled her eyes as she noticed what he was working on. She wiped the sleep from her eyes as she passed through the lab into the bathroom. She was a scientist, same as Hank, but she wasn't nearly as dire as he was about it. Still, his passion and drive were what drove her to him to begin with. She did wish he spent a little less time with his work and a little more time with her, however.
Once she was done brushing her teeth, she came back to find Pym staring at a message from SHIELD.
"And I was really looking forward to a day off," Janet sighed.
**********
Clint Barton's head swam with the lingering effects of last night at the bar. It wasn't a hangover. At least not one that would be debilitating. He had shared a few beers with Adam before heading home, a small, spartan apartment in the city. He had a bed, a TV, a microwave, and a fridge. A few pizza boxes where stuffed in a trashcan they clearly had no chance of fitting into. The only thing that was out of place in such modest quarters was the high tech armory on the wall that contained his bows and specialty arrows. Clint wasn't someone who needed extravagant things, but he was never going to give up his bows.
He groggily made his way to the toilet and filled it up a bit before pouring himself some stale coffee and a bowl of cereal with some milk that he was pretty sure was beginning to turn. He'd have to have one of the other agents in the building get him some more later. He sat at the small table in his room and thought about what his life would be like if he led a normal life. Maybe he'd have a family on a farm somewhere. But his life wasn't normal. He was a hero now. A guy who shot arrows at aliens and Nazis and robots. His life made no sense whatsoever, and he freaking loved that.
His phone vibrated on the table. He glanced down as he slurped the milk out of the bowl and smiled.
"Time to go to work," he hummed to himself as he tossed the bowl into the sink.
**********
Nathaniel Adam lay motionless in his bed and stared at the eggshell white ceiling above him. His unblinking eyes were an eerie, endless blue and there was an eerie quality to their stillness as Nate’s thoughts drifted to that fateful day in Fallujah that had brought him here. He remembered the sound of the bullets as they riddled his fighter jet and the pain he felt in his hand as he hammered it against the eject button. More than anything he remember the feeling of dread that swept over him as he saw the three US Marines that he had gunned down laid faced down and dead in the dirt. They had been trying to help him. And he’d killed them. He’d spent the year that followed trying to clear his name and fighting Wade Eiling’s attempts to run him out of the Air Force. If you’d told him then that half a decade from then he’d be working for SHIELD alongside Captain America he’d have laughed you out of the room. “Avenging” hadn’t quite sunk in for Nate.
He sat up on his bed and stared emptily in the direction of a mirror before his eyes caught his reflection and they remained there for several moments. His face was youthful, his features deep set, and his eyebrows thick and striking. From what he could tell he hadn’t aged a day in the past five years. It was startling. Nate took a long, heavy breath and a reflective metal that coated every inch of him replaced his youthful skin. His eyes were completely pupil-less and glowed with a throbbing, yellow light. The metal coating his skin was so reflective that looking at his own face in the mirror created a seemingly never-ending loop of reflections, each slightly blurrier and less recognisable than the last. It was hard not to get existential sometimes.
From the kitchen the sound of a phone jarred Nate back to reality and he reverted back to his unpowered form before he left his bedroom. He didn’t need to do it. He knew everyone in his apartment block were SHIELD agents, it was standard SHIELD procedure for their more delicate assets, and despite his own military record he knew he wasn’t an exception to that. The nature of his powers, the damage he could cause were he ever to go rogue, meant they were obligated to keep tabs on him. He understood it: duty came first. It always had and always would with Nate. As Nate approached the kitchen he saw a cell phone that lay flashing on the counter and his expression, once wistful and empty, was replaced by one of steely determination as he read the word that flashed across the screen.
“Assemble.”
**********
Captain America entered the Avengers briefing room next to Fury where she found the entire team assembled. Clint looked like he was sleeping. Natasha smiled at her friend as she entered. Pym looked like he was deep in thought, while Janet and Nate were talking away about something or other. Realistically, Janet was the one talking, as Nate snapped to attention when Fury entered the room.
"At ease," Fury waved Adam's show of respect away. As serious as Fury was about the mission, he was rarely one to stand on ceremony. He kind of hated people treating him like he was better than others. Steph liked that about him.
"So, who's trying to take the world over today?" Clint grumbled from his seat.
"We don't know," Cap answered truthfully.
"But someone is trying to destroy the world?" Hawkeye's eyebrows raised.
Steph shrugged, "Probably."
"Good, I was worried we'd have to do something new," Barton coughed.
Cap ran down the situation as Stark and Fury had told her about an hour before. The EMP disruption, the worldwide blackout, and the unknown source.
Pym's mind, she could already see, was racing, "A worldwide blackout is nearly impossible to create. If this was a weapon there's only a handful of people that could create something like this. Especially in secret."
"You're thinking AIM," Steph nodded. They were the first ones that came to mind for her as well.
"It would make sense," Natasha shrugged. "Hold the world ransom using their tech."
"They really need to get a new MO," Janet sighed.
"So what do you think, Nate?" Cap smiled at Atom. "Wanna go bust some skulls and find out what they know? I figure we go in hot and hard. Let them know we mean business."
"We have been getting reports of a new AIM base," Fury nodded. "Could be a good place to start."
