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Sub-Level 5, Camp Lehigh, Wheaton, New Jersey, December 10, 2012

-5 Days before Rot Schrader deadline

Author's Notes: Clash of the titans! Superhero battle royale! We're going to Marvel vs. Capcom this chapter like it's Mortal Kombat!

So stoked!

Captain Steven Grant Rogers (CPT, US Army, ret.) looked over to Natasha Alianovna Romanoff as he heard the explanation of whom 'Team Rocket' was when Kamala Khan warned them over their EarComms thanks to the drones she had sent to keep in contact with the team. He wondered how the hell the two enhanced were able to locate them in an abandoned Army base when the young woman had pulled the information from data that Edward Snowden had purloined from the National Security Agency and reviewed over a private server not connected to the… internet. That would have to be a question answered later.

[They're accessing the bunker you're in! Going straight for it!] The Pakistani-American alerted them through the EarComms before… [Oh crap! They found my-]

The transmission cut out.

"Guess a little breathing room would be too much to ask for." Natasha offered as she looked at him, checking her Heckler + Koch UMP45 Submachine Gun. "I recommend that you and I gang up on the Winter Soldier. The others are good, but they'll need to distract and handle Drew. At least underground she won't be able to fly." Steve nodded at the assessment, agreeing with Romanoff. He had come to the conclusion on his own that Natasha was likely enhanced at some point in time, likely by Soviet Russia. There were just… little things that made him think that the redhead was a good deal older than she appeared, and he had seen a few things to make him think that someone had come up with a decent version of the Super Soldier Serum and had put Natasha through it. If not that particular Serum, then something similar that enhanced a persons' capabilities. Hell, Nat had dug out a piece of shrapnel out of her side that she had gotten from the Lemurian Star when Clint Barton killed a bear with a grenade, and she hadn't gotten stitches or was moving with any kind of impediment. While he wanted to ask, he let it be. She was enhanced; simple as that. What mattered was that they stood together.

"Hawkeye, you heard Widow." The Captain spoke while touching his EarComm, a force of habit for him that wasn't necessary. "Take refuge with the others in some of the side rooms in the first intersection and get ready to ambush Jessica while Widow and I engage James. Remember, these people are being subjected to mind-control, so pull your shots, not your punches. A knock-out blow to the skull or a good concussion should shake off the control." Steve wasn't sure how enhanced Jessica was, the thought both breaking his heart and infuriating him to no end. James, though, was a great deal like him, considering the fight they had on the Lemurian Star. Though he had worn some protective face shield on the lower half of his face and ballistic goggles to protect his eyes as well denying the chance to identify him with facial recognition software (Steve knew sketch artists had been doing stuff like that since the Nineteenth Century for criminal recognition, so it would make sense there was a more modern equivalent), Steve knew that he had been looking at a Super Soldier. The strength, the speed, the precision, the grace; it was all there. While it was likely impossible to tell how similar they were in abilities, the Captain didn't doubt that it was more than close enough that every ounce of skill and ability would be needed to prove himself the victor against the one called the Winter Soldier.

Out of everyone, Natasha was he one with the most amount of skills and training similar to his own to help defeat what sounded like an enhanced assassin.

"Artemis, what can you tell me about James?" Steve asked as both he and Nat moved back towards the elevator, preparing themselves mentally for the fight ahead as he asked the only person who could possibly know anything of fact about the Winter Solder; Doctor Doreen Green.

"Not much, I'm afraid. I'm not even sure if James is his first or last name." The auburn-haired woman admitted over the radio. "I know they generally called him the Winter Soldier or the Asset, but every once in a while someone would call him James, like a slip. Whatever he is, he's been doing it for a long time. Like… decades." That had Romanoff grunt. "He's fast as a car, can lift the back end of a sedan up, fast reflexes, and one hell of a hand-to-hand fighter. Other than that? Brown hair, Caucasian, bit of a beard? His left arm is completely made of metal, but I have no idea how it's that advanced. I know it's his most powerful weapon in his arsenal. Damn good shot, usually carries assault rifles, grenades, explosives, knives… guy's like an even better version of the Terminator. Never heard him talk outside of status updates on missions."

"Controlled by the Scepter?" The Black Widow asked as they continued towards the elevator, almost there.

"Yes. He had the same blue eyes that Jessica had when I first met him." The Doctor confirmed, acknowledging something they suspected but didn't know. "But I got the impression he's been under their control for quite some time. More than years, probably decades."

"When the elevator opens and they exit," Steve began as they reached the corridor that the elevator faced, seeing the light going from 'B2' to 'B3', "we'll draw the Winter Soldier away while you ambush Jessica. Primary mission is to engage, apprehend, and break HYDRA's hold on them. Detain them afterwards for confirmation." Clinton Francis Barton, Lieutenant Samuel Thomas Wilson, Commander Nathaniel Troy Dugan, Doctor Doreen Allene Green, and Jessica Campbell Jones all nodded as they went for the nearest side rooms in the corridor leading from the elevator, preparing themselves with their respective weapons and equipment, the doors of the room closing so that all it looked like was that Captain America and the Black Widow occupied the hallway. The elevator reached 'B5' as there was a ding at the conveyance. "Get ready." Steve told Nat as she flicked out her twin set of electrified retractable batons, spinning them at the ready as she crouched into a position that would give her mobility in any direction as Rogers shouldered his shield, leaning forward slightly to take the impact of anything coming towards it as the doors slid open.

And out walked the opposition.

Steve saw the two of them walk out casually of the elevator, a man armed with an assault firearm that actually looked to be an Atchisson Assault Shotgun, known as the Auto Assault-12 (AA-12) Shotgun, with a large drum magazine sticking out of the boxy-looking weapons' lower receiver, and a woman not armed at all. Rogers noted that the man, like before, was wearing a black tactical vest that protected the upper torso while having a series of attachments to carry extra magazines and equipment upon his person. The vest left the man's arms bare, and while the right arm was very human, thick with muscle, the left one demanded attention, covered in metal bands that completely engulfed the limb from upper shoulder to fingertips, only broken by the fingerless leather gloves that he wore on his hands. The face was covered with a protective tactical mask that covered the lower portion of his face, disguising everything from jawline to the bridge of his nose, while a pair of protective shaded goggles adorned his eyes. Long brown hair draped down and covered the sides of his head and face, loose and somewhat in the way. The ensemble was complete with a pair of black tactical cargo pants that had a thigh holster with a pistol in its confines and a pair of black combat boots. The AA-12 Shotgun was held vertically upward in the man's right hand, the metal left arm at his side as he moved forward, the darkened shades looking right at him. James, the Winter Soldier, Steve thought to himself as he saw the telltale sign of a red star on his metallic left shoulder, an old sign of the Soviet Union.

Beside him was a woman that the Captain recognized all too well, though only by identity. Long brunette hair swept past her ears and down her shoulders as the sight of a young adult woman walking besides the Winter Soldier pained Steve as he saw the sight of ice-blue eyes instead of green irises staring at him without a hint of emotion in either the eyes or the face that he had found himself admiring at first and dreaming of later on. Jessica Miriam Drew stalked next to James, with a menacing aire, wearing much of the same apparel as the man beside her; a black tactical vest for the torso that left the arms bare, black tactical cargo pants, and black combat boots. What was different about her was how much she had changed since he saw her last all those months ago before Jessica went to Camp Leary in Virginia to join the CIA. No longer was she a woman of average proportions, a modern-day woman who kept an eye on her weight to keep herself appealing without flaunting her body, soft and inviting in all the right spots but with a smile and a vitality that caught his breath in his throat whenever he looked at her. No, she was different now, and the sight of it had Steve's heart pained at the sight.

Oh God, what have they done to you, Jess…

What had once been the sight of a normal nineteen year old woman had evaporated to become what he saw in front of him. No longer did Jessica sport soft graceful limbs that appealed to men for their softness and grace. No, now her arms were lean and corded with muscles, easily larger and thicker than before with broad shoulder and seemingly a bit taller as well. Yet the biggest visible change that he could see were her forearms. Steve felt his blood run cold at the sight of her forearms, where green veins ran just under the surface of her taunt skin, visible through the flesh. They started somewhere near her elbows and ran down to her hands, almost like green webs decorating her arms. What had him staring was the fact that they were slightly glowing with some sort of… energy, something within.

"Oh, honey…" Romanoff whispered at the same sight that he himself was seeing, her tone wounded, "…oh what did they do to you?" Neither one of them was enjoying the sight of what had been done to Jessica Drew; that young woman who had found herself a familial spot amongst the Avengers. She had been a young woman ready to embark on that next big adventure that would be her life, and it hadn't been subtle at all that the young woman had seen herself amongst the team and support members of the Avengers and had thought I want to earn my way here. The rest of the members of Avengers, Incorporated had seen a college-bound young woman who had earned her scholarship in something she was passionate about, someone who looked up to her mother Jennifer Walters while looking out for her two younger sisters, and showed herself to be someone who was trying to find her way in doing things right. They had all been a little touched at the sight of Jenn's three daughters when they had first arrived, the girls being a little ecstatic at the sight of the men (and woman) who had defended Earth from the Chitauri. Yet Jessica had earned herself a little bit of her own place amongst them by asking good questions, helping out where she could, and getting into meaningful conversations with several of the members over the month and a half she had been at Stark Tower visiting.

It wasn't a stretch of the imagination to see those three young woman as a sort of future for the Avengers, the very thing that they were fighting for, but also something that they may one day look forward to; the next generation. Jessica had really endeared herself to the others. Surprisingly, Nat had become rather close with the young woman herself, doing workout routines with her and teaching her hand-to-hand routines in the morning. Steve had watched, giving advice to Jess when she struggled with some of the moves, showing her other methods, and helping her position and stance for the judo and ju jitsu moves she was learning, critiquing and complimenting when she performed, both Jessica and Nat enjoying the exercises and camaraderie.

But looking at Jessica now, whatever future they had once seen had been violently ripped away thanks to HYDRA.

"We separate them, we have a chance at freeing them." The Super Soldier reminded his counterpart as he held his shield in between himself and the threats in front of them as Steve saw the two Scepter-controlled individuals step out of the elevator without concern, walking forward a couple of steps before stopping in front of the elevator bay, the both of them focusing on Steve and Natasha. That's what they needed for them to do; focus on the obvious threat. Now it was his turn to really get there attention. "We didn't come here to hurt you." God, hopefully that sounded a good deal less cheesy than he thought it did. Even when he tried deepening his voice, his calls for surrender always sounded smarmy.

"We did." Jessica replied, her voice a little… off. Monotone, no real reflection to it. It was her voice but with what made it her gone. Just something following orders and a script. The nineteen year old woman lifted a hand and raised it to them palm forward, Steve catching a glimpse of something on or perhaps in the center of the palm of her hand, something like a green boil before it glowed brightly. He raised his shield as he heard a vwhip! of sound and the smell of burning ozone as green electrical energy shot out towards him, striking his vibranium/steel alloy shield, the resulting strike creating a cascade of sparks reflecting off of the disk. James was moving forward, bringing his auto-shotgun to bear as Rogers pressed the yellow button beside his first knuckle on his left hand to activate the Funnel Effect in his glove as the Winter Soldier began firing at him with buckshot, the AA-12 capable of firing 12-gauge rounds at three rounds a second; more than enough to obliterate opposition at short range with its pellets and stopping power. The nine pellets of double-aught buckshot for each round fired sprayed down the corridor as Steve held his shield at shoulder level while ducking his head instinctively behind its protective cover, seeing Nat getting behind him in the corner of his right eye as the Funnel Effect veered the nine pellets of .33 caliber buckshot towards his shield with each shot fired, the assailant firing for five seconds, spraying the corridor with one-hundred and forty-one steel spheres traveling at thirteen hundred feet per second. Sparks and the sounds of ricochets were intermixed with the deafening sound of the auto-shotguns pulsing fire as the rounds were angled towards Captain America's iconic shield augmented by the power glove he wore, electromagnetic energy attracting metal objects towards the center of the convex disk.

After five seconds of firing fifteen round, the Winter Soldier ceased as Steve clicked off the Funnel Effect by pressing the yellow button by his knuckle again. Thanks, Kamala, Captain America thought as he looked over his shield to see the long-haired man in the tactical mask toss the weapon aside, obviously empty of rounds and less than effective in the man's mind.

"Subdue them. I will look for the others." Drew told her metal-armed companion as she turned to stalk down a different hallway while the Winter Solder loomed towards Captain America and the Black Widow, leaning forward as he began to rush towards them at a speed that exceeded that of even a good sprinter. The metal-armed man collided with Steve with a speed and force that had Rogers grunt from the impact as he used his shield to protect himself from the strike as his boots skidded against the linoleum floor of the underground complex by a foot or two as he felt arms encircling him to crush him. His arms were stuck behind his shield as it was pressed between them as he felt the arms wrap around his waist, forcing the breath out of him as the metal arm grinded into his flesh when an impact of flesh against flesh was heard that made the man drop Rogers as the assailant dropped to one knee, having received a kick to the back of the knee from Natasha, who was already moving forward with a knee thrust to his face as Steve prepared himself for a fight against the Winter Soldier.

Doctor Doreen Allene Green (DVM) exited her hiding spot in a bullrush as soon as she heard Clint Barton command 'go!' with the twang of a bowstring punctuating the point.

The sight of her best friend, Jessica Miriam Drew, under the control of the Scepter had her heart skip a beat as the arrow that Hawkeye fired exploded into some sort of weird jelly-like substance that plastered itself all over the brunette's face as Doreen dashed right towards the young woman, Commander Nathaniel Troy Dugan right by her side along with Jessica Campbell Jones. Whatever the jelly-like substance was, it was adhering to Drew's face, forcing her to wipe her eyes clear as Doreen and Jones went for the limbs, their augmented strength to be used to take away Jessica's primary weapon; her green electrical discharges. As the strongest members of their five-man team and the only ones with enhancements, it made sense for both her and the private investigator to take the upper-hand and deny the nineteen-year old woman her most powerful capability. Being stuck in an underground facility would practically deny her ability to fly, so denying her the use of her electrical weapon would make her outnumbered and at a great disadvantage.

At least, that was the idea.

Jessica Jones quickly grabbed the left arm of Jessica Drew while Doreen grabbed the right, using both arms to keep the singular arm pinned by tucking it under one armpit and using her arms to lock it in, Jones doing so in a similar manner with the other arm. Nate was grabbing one of Drew's legs to hoist it up as the young woman struggled in her half-containment, lashing out with her feet as the Navy SEAL caught her right leg while Lieutenant Samuel Thomas Wilson grabbed her flailing left leg, the four of them bodily picking her up off the ground and holding her horizontally, their arms gripping her limbs tight as they apprehended her physically.

"Jesus, she's strong!" Jones called out, struggling to keep Jessica's left arm held as Sam and Nate took her thighs just above her knees into their arms, the HYDRA-controlled woman flailing her feet uselessly as she twisted her hips and flexed her legs to break free of the hold. Thankfully, the two normal men were able to hold her, but Drew was struggling hard to break free as she grunted and yelled savagely to force herself out of the trap. The private investigator hadn't been kidding about Jessica's strength; it was all Doreen could do to hold onto her best friends' arm as she tried to rip it out of the Veterinarians' hold.

"Clint! We need a knock-out punch!" Green called out, remembering how she had been the recipient of such a blow from the archer who had managed to defeat not one but three enhanced individuals with a rather anachronistic weapon if truth be told. Doreen couldn't think of anyone who would willing use a bow and arrow in combat when firearms were available, but the archer had certainly showed the Doctor that her opinion only applied to most people; he was most obviously the exception. Hawkeye was already pulling out another arrow (God, was he going to shoot her right there with something!) when Jessica curled up slightly and let out a defiant scream as everything exploded green.

Doreen wondered for a moment why she was looking at a ceiling. She blinked several times and realized that she was lying on her back and felt like she had been fried.

I think Jessica just flash-fried us, the Veterinarian thought as she slowly stumbled upward, seeing that the others were incapacitated, their bodies strewn about in the corridor as Jessica Drew stood there, looking a little wobbly for a second before moving over to where Jessica Jones laid, reaching down to grab the investigators' ankle to start dragging her away towards the elevator. Wait… NO! The Doctor got onto her feet, still feeling like barbecue as she moved forward, her stumbling brain making sense of what she saw. Doreen bolted forward on tingling legs as she pounced forward, dropping onto all fours and bounding forward like a feline as she pounced upon her best friend, tackling her with her shoulder in a classic football tackle, making the nineteen-year old woman fall to the ground, releasing Jones' ankle as they tumbled to the ground with Jessica Drew below the Veterinarian. I'm going to rescue you, Doreen thought as she pulled herself up, seeing the ice-blue eyes of the photographer underneath her, and I'm certainly not going to let you bring anyone else to be warped by that damn Scepter! The auburn-haired woman's hands clutched at the tactical vest that Drew wore as the Doctor got on her feet and used her augmented strength to bodily haul her best friend upward and careening to a wall, Jessica's back hitting the drywall hard enough to splinter it as the younger woman's bare hands gripped Doreen's wrists painfully.

Fuck, she had forgotten that Jessica was actually stronger than her.

Green's hands were slowly pulled away from Jessica's vest, her grip failing to hold on as the Veterinarian gasped from the pain in her wrist bones as she felt them grind from Drew's grip as the controlled woman pulled her hands away and aside before releasing one wrist quickly and delivering a sledgehammer-like blow to the Doctor's sternum, knocking her across the hall and practically half-embedding her into the opposite wall as Doreen coughed, almost losing her breath from the blow as she pulled herself from out of the wall, drywall and plaster cascading from her back and the hole she had made as she landed on her feet.

"Guess asking nicely is going to be out of the question." The auburn-haired woman said huskily as she let her fingernails extend outward, now two inches in length as Doreen felt it; that shift, that change, that thing that was within her ever since she had broken out of that shell after being injected with some foreign material and dosed with some noxious-smelling gas. She hadn't wanted to tell or show the others, but she knew it would eventually come to light, what she was truly capable of.

She was only half as capable in her human form, after all.

Doctor Doreen Green hissed as she felt her body ache and tense as muscles tightened and popped as she felt her gums bleed as her upper and lower canine teeth extended outward as her upper lip grew puffier and split slightly at the middle, her cheekbones pressed outward and her ears grew taller and pointer. Muscles in her chest and back bunched up and swelled as she became more lean and graceful, her body shifting towards something more streamline, something more… feline as she reached behind her to rip a tear in the upper portion of the back of her pants to free the growing nub that was extending from her tailbone as a long prehensile protrusion grew long and sinewy. Tabby-like fur tuffed from her arms at first, more short hair exploding from her skin as she lowered herself in a semi-crouch, feeling the arches of her feet growing longer as her heels went higher, becoming digitigrade. The pupils of her hazel eyes grew ovaloid at first before points became more apparent at the tops and bottoms, growing a slitted appearance as long whiskers began to extend from above her swollen upper lip and raise cheekbones as she hissed and hackled in warning, baring her feline-like teeth as she moved like a panther stalking its prey, circling the woman in front of her as her three-foot cat-like tail swished angrily as Jessica moved in a circular fashion, her forearms already beginning to glow green with electrical build-up as Doreen shifted fully into her werecat form, possessing the traits of the lethal grace of a creature of the felinoid kingdom.

Jessica raised her arm to blast her silly with her lightning, but Doctor Green was much faster than that now.

The shifted Veterinarian pounced forward, covering the distance between them in a quick bound as she dodged slightly to the right to miss being zapped as she impaled Drew's left shoulder with the claws of her right hand, the nails easily sinking in and embedding themselves into the younger woman's shoulder as her left hand caught Jessica's right wrist, capturing it to prevent the controlled woman from hitting her with her bio-electricity. Jessica grunted as her left hand grabbed at Doreen's right forearm, attempting to pull her claws from out of her shoulder as they spun and struggled in a circling dance of attempted dominance as the Doctor's hackles raised and she hissed in anger, struggling to hold Drew's right arm while fighting against her left one from pulling out as they pushed forward against one another, Doreen's digitigrade legs pushing harder than they would have if they had been in their normal plantigrade configuration, matching the strength of Jessica Drew's greater strength. Doreen twisted to one side to gain the advantage as the claws of her left hand dug into Jessica's wrist as she gripped it, pushing forward to slam the brunette's back into a wall, the sound of breaking drywall accompanying the sound. She then pivoted and thrusted herself forward to slam Jessica into the opposing wall, the extended nails in her right hand gripping the flesh of Drew's shoulder for purchase as the wall buckled from the impact as ice-blue eyes stared at her with intent.

It was Jessica Drew's turn to thrust her backwards, and Doreen found herself being slammed through a wall and onto her back in the room beyond it.

The cat-like Doreen coughed from the dust and debris of the shattered drywall and cotton-candy pink fiberglass insulation as she laid on her back with the nineteen-year old on top of her in the low mount position, the younger woman's legs straddling her waist as she held onto Doreen. The Veterinarian grunted as she lifted both of her legs while pushing Jessica backwards, her claws coming out of the other womans' shoulder as she looped her ankles in front of Drew's face, bringing her legs and the woman down as the lightning-wielding woman was forced onto her back with a slam. Green sat up and forced her opponent to buckle in half as she returned the mount position, but containing Jessica's legs in her arms as she stood up and spun, hoisting the woman in the air as she twirled once before releasing her best friend to crash her into a series of metal filing cabinets, buckling the standing containers with the force as the woman landed on her front after slamming into the filing cabinets, getting up on her hands and knees to rise to her feet as the cat-like woman crouched at the ready, determined to pounce forward but able to leap to the side if necessary.

Instead of walking towards her, Jessica flew at her in a tackle.

Electrical discharge propelled the young woman faster than Doreen had expected, and both women ended up in an adjoining room after the Doctor broke a wall with her back again, the both of them tumbling in another office as she painfully got onto her knees and elbows, wincing in pain as she spat out bloody spittle past her cat-like lips and fanged teeth, her slitted hazel eyes turning to see Jessica Drew already on her feet, her forearms pulsing with green energy as she raised a green boil-centered palm to zap her.

Sorry, Jess, I tried, the cat-like woman thought as she yowled in pained protest, unable to speak. I forgive you, Doreen thought as she saw the boil in the center of Jessica's right hand glow, knowing what would come next.

Except that Jessica Drew was bodily thrown through one wall and slammed into another hard across the hallway, falling a few feet to the ground onto her chest.

"Bitch, that's enough out of you." Jessica Campbell Jones said as she stood in front of Doreen, her eyes widening in surprise at the sight of the Doctor as Green looked right back. "Jesus, no one told me you could turn into a weretabby." The private investigator said as she looked at the ground below the Veterinarian, no doubt seeing the blood she had spat out. "You rest up, Doc. It's my turn.

"I've got to plug me an electrical socket."

Natasha Alianovna Romanoff dashed forward and ducked into a ninja roll to avoid getting kicked in the abdomen by an enhanced assassin as a leg went to snap kick her in the guts as a metal arm flew forward to deflect a red-gloved fist from hitting the face of the Winter Soldier as Captain Steve Rogers continued to press the attack while Nat got back on her booted feet behind the metal-armed man and spun into a spinning back kick to strike at a kidney to degrade physical movement when the masked man turned to block and grab her ankle with his flesh arm, twisting it to where the redhead had to flip herself over to keep her ankle from being broken as the man blocked a blow from Captain America's vibranium-and-steel shield with his metal arm at the same time, as vicious a combatant as she had ever fought. And she fought Steve in training. A lot.

The two Avengers continued to press the Winter Soldier as Nat's flip reversed itself as she launched her foot towards James' right elbow to disable it and strike at the several nerve points there not only so he could release her foot, but also take out an arm and further disable him as he wrenched her foot up while blocking another strike by Steve and returning with a jab of his own with his metal arm, blocked by the round disk shield as Natasha was physically picked up off the ground by the long-haired man, dangling upside down. She saw one of his feet and decided to return the favor by grabbing the ankle of his support foot while folding herself in half; pulling with her hands while trying to touch her toes. The unexpected move had the Soldier lose contact with the ground with his back foot, almost stumbling forward as Rogers belted him with a meaty fist with a right hook to the short ribs at his unprotected flank, nearly folding the assassin as James let go of Natasha's ankle, dropping the Black Widow. Romanoff landed in an acrobatic way, rolling from mid-back to shoulders as her hands went above her head to press themselves onto the floor as she curled her legs, bringing her knees nearly to her face as she flipped herself up onto her feet in a ready position as she saw Captain America and the Winter Soldier still battling hard, metal arm and metal shield clanging in both assault and defense as flesh limbs moved to strike and protect as Nat reached behind her back to grab her two retractable batons holstered past her shoulders, pulling them out and flicking her wrists to extend them as she moved forward, seeking to strike the assassin in the most ironic location possible; a strike to the back.

The two metal batons hit the upper cervical spine of the Winter Soldier, where the fifth cervical bone and a major nerve cluster was as Natasha bent forward to make an arch as the assassin, slightly arched back from her strike, received an opportune hit from Steve Rogers' right fist to his protected face as the Soldier stumbled back to fall, landing on Romanoff's prepared back as she leapt straight up to slam their opponent into the ceiling before twisting her body so she landed on top of him while he came crashing onto the linoleum floor.

She didn't even see the metal fist that boxed her ear, and that was saying something. Felt like a truck hit her skull.

The redhead blinked several times as the corridor swam in her vision, struggling to get up as a mostly-blue blur fought against a mostly-black one, the clang of metal and the pounding of flesh distorted in her ears, as if listening to a fight underwater. The Black Widow got up on unsteady feet, her hands empty of her batons as her eyesight sharpened rapidly, seeing Steve and the one known as James still fighting as Rogers took a low kick to the back of one thigh and a hard shin to the opposite side in his ribs, bringing the Captain down to one knee as he wrestled for his shield, the Winter Soldier having the outer edges of the disk in his hands, trying to rip it out of the WWII Veteran's grasp as Steve's right hand gripped his left forearm to keep the assassin from obtaining it while taking blows. Nat ran forward and used the kneeling Captain as a pommel horse as she mounted his shoulders with her hands and swept her legs around and over the contested shield to give the protected jaw a swift kick to the face as she twirled, her hands moving to opposite shoulders as she spun like an acrobatic top, her opposite foot clipping the Soldiers' right temple, sending him reeling as he let go of the shield and staggered back a foot or two, his head jerking back to look at them with malevolent intensity.

Nat had kicked the protective goggles off, and she saw a pair of familiar ice-blue eyes staring at her. There was something about them that seemed… familiar. She couldn't put her finger on it.

Steve moved forward, launching himself from his kneeling position in a brazen shield thrust, charging ahead with his disk as a battering ram as he impaled the assassin on its smooth surface, hitting him in the gut and pushing him back several feet as Romanoff moved right behind the Captain, leaping over him to deliver a spinning back kick to their opponent's face. The long-haired man jerked back, causing her to miss as Nat practically landed in the man's arms, her thighs landing on his shoulders as she crossed her ankles and rotated her upper body in a counterclockwise motion, a surefire way for a person of less mass to take down a bigger opponent with momentum, inertia, and gravity. Unfortunately, she felt a pair of hands grabbing her hips and turning her so when she spun down at the lower arc of her Lucho Libre move, she was bodily tossed off and sent sailing into a door frame, striking the wooden frame and falling to the ground in a body-jarring thud. She was grunting in pain as she watched Steve throw his shield at the Soldier in a semi-detached manner, seeing the metal arm raise to deflect it as it flew away somewhere as Rogers and the Soldier rushed forward to start battering one another with fists, elbows, knees, and feet. Nat got up, coughing up a little blood as she put her feet under her and moved forward as she watched the long-haired man grab the back of Steve's head and slam his face into his rising knee, sending Rogers back, the Captain falling on his back in a dazed stupor as Natasha pressed a button at her wrist as she moved forward to engage the Winter Soldier.

What the long-haired man hadn't been expecting was for her Widow's Web to pull Captain America's shield to her, the rim of the circular object to strike him in the back of the head.

Thank Kamala later, the Black Widow thought as one hand snagged the shield while her right fist belted a hard hook to the man's chin, twisting him from the impact as she spun and used the shield's edge to crack him against the side of his head. Sending him to one knee, Natasha shoved her left arm into the shield's handles as she delivered a snap kick to his head from the opposite side, his lowered head snapping back from the force of her foot as he staggered upward and backwards as Romanoff took a step forward and launched herself into a spinning back kick into his diaphragm, knocking him back several more feet as she pressed the advantage. Natasha leapt up and forward as she cocked back her left arm and thrusted Captain America's shield in a Superman Punch while using the disk as a melee weapon to strike the assassin on his forehead, making him stumble backwards in a semi-drunken manner as the Black Widow jumped up into the air to execute a Muay Thai strike known as 'Knight Throwing An Axe' to crack her elbow right at the crown of her assailants' skull for a knock-out blow.

Something hot exploded in the middle of Romanoff's back, blasting her forward and landing her in a crumpled heap of twitching, unresponsive limbs as agony crawled through her nervous system from an electrical blast as Cap's shield slid away from her grasp.

Jessica.

Nat found herself somewhat looking down the hallway as Jessica Miriam Drew sauntered down the corridor dragging something in one hand, a black leather jacket in her clutches; Jessica Jones unconscious and in her grasp. The Winter Soldier had finally collapsed to the ground, eyes closed and unresponsive as the young woman walked towards her while dragging an unconscious Jones with ease, the private investigator's body dragging along the ground without any bodily resistance. Nat moaned as she struggled to move, seeing Steve struggling to rise from the ground as well as the Black Widow saw Jessica's right forearm beginning to glow with internally-produced green energy traveling down from her elbow to her wrist as she raised her hand up in a 'stop' fashion to show off a green boil at the center of her palm as it, too, began to glow.

Фуцк. Фуцк. Фуцк. Фуцк. Фуцк.

Then Nat was shocked to see Drew's head snapped hard to the left, a look of wild confusion on her youthful face as she looked at the proned Widow at her feet, only for her head to be snapped just as hard in the opposite direction.

What in the fuck?

Jessica Jones' body was dropped to the ground unceremoniously as the altered woman looked around, both of her arms glowing as she buckled in the middle from some unseen blow before her head snapped back up as if she had been uppercutted, knocking her back a couple of steps. Nat had no idea what the hell was going on as she struggled to stand, her limbs not cooperating as she watched, with utter amazement, something swell into human shape and size to deliver a roundhouse kick to the controlled woman before seemingly disappearing from view…

Romanoff could have swore she had just seen a woman in a suit grow and then shrink in the blink of an eye.

Drew fired off a blast of green electrical energy down the hall where she had been attacked, only to get knocked forward by the new opponent, making the young woman whirl to engage… nothing. Then Natasha watched in shock as Jessica's left arm went violently behind her for no apparent reason, twisting up and behind her back in a classic Greco-Roman wrestling move before the figure of a full-sized suited woman with four gossamer-like wings protruding from her suit reappeared to deliver a swift soccer kick to Drew's abdomen before zapping back down to… minuscule size. The twisted arm went further behind the HYDRA-controlled woman's back, bodily flipping the woman up and over an unseen pivot point to crash her face-first into the linoleum floor with a healthy smack, getting the nineteen-year old woman to grunt from the force. Steve was finally getting to his feet, pressing something on his left glove as his shield came back to him, Cap looking a little wobbly with blood running down his nose and mouth as Jessica Drew pushed herself off of the ground, looking pissed.

"Cap!" Nat croaked, her body feeling like barbecue. "Look out!"

Jessica fired another volley of green lightning at Steve Rogers, who tucked himself behind his shield as the current splashed over its convex surface, spraying around him as Drew's extended arm was yanked to one side before the appearance of the suited woman showed up once more, literally mounting the younger woman's arm above it as her weight caused Jessica to lose her balance as the unknown woman thrusted herself downward into a roll that had Jessica being slammed onto her back hard, her arm held in an arm-bar by the full-sized suited woman. Green energy glowed in Drew's captured arm as she tried to fire at the woman pinning her, but the suited woman immediately shrank down to size to avoid being blasted by her electrical discharge, freeing Jessica from the pin. The younger woman got up to her feet, looking wild as her ice-blue eyes looked at the standing Steve Rogers, the unconscious Winter Soldier, the still-grounded Widow, the unconscious Jessica Jones, and then the corridor that led back to the elevator. She pivoted and twisted to avoid a flying projectile as an arrow flew just past her face, exploding into some white powder as Clint Barton came back into the game from whatever happened before. Then Romanoff was shocked to see a human-sized feline pounce forward, intending to tackle Jessica Drew as the woman leapt up and stuck herself to the ceiling with her hands and feet, literally hanging off of it. By her hands and feet alone.

That's new.

Jessica grunted as something hit her in the belly hard, no doubt the minuscule warrioress as Drew launched herself forward from the ceiling and took flight straight forward towards the elevator, landing inside of the car before twisting around to look back down the corridor at the Avengers, ice-blue eyes furious as she leapt upward and plowed through the metal ceiling of the elevator car, taking flight through the vertical shaft to escape.

"Jess…" Steve called out belatedly as the large tabby-human… thing yowled mournfully, sitting on its haunches as its feline head turned to look at Nat, and the redhead saw slitted but recognizable hazel eyes on the auburn-colored shorthair… weretabby. It was the only thing she could think of.

"D-Doreen." Romanoff struggled to get up, Rogers giving her a hand by gently picking her up under her arm pit, her legs a little unsteady as she made her way to the human-sized anthro-feline. "Are you okay, Doctor?" The felinoid face just looked at her, the tail that she had swishing… mournfully. Nat resisted the urge to pet her. "Can you… change back? Is that okay to ask?" The large feline got up and walked towards the nearest room, the tail swishing once as if to say 'no following' before disappearing inside. Romanoff steadied herself against the nearest wall, feeling frazzled and charred as she heard slight moans and grunts of pain and… something cracking and popping, like knuckles cracking as gasps of pain were accompanied with it. The Widow looked to Captain Rogers, who took off his helmet, his blond hair a sweaty mess as the front of his face looked like a bloody waterfall as he looked to the room with concern. They hadn't known about that particular ability of Doctor Green's, and likely the woman wasn't exactly thrilled with it. A moment later, Doctor Doreen Green came stumbling out of the room, clutching her side and looking as if she had gotten the shit kicked out of her. Hell, they all had. Nat moved forward to help the Veterinarian, whose hazel eyes looked at her with worry and conflict.

"It's okay, Doreen." Romanoff said softly as she helped the auburn-haired woman steady herself. "What do you need?"

"Food, water, sleep." She croaked in reply, looking as if she had just finished an ultramarathon, looking very pale and in considerable pain. "Broke a few rooms facing Jessica after she zapped us all. Jones got the shit clobbered out of her, too, though she fared better than I did. Watched that girl punch Drew through two rooms and a bunch of clutter." Nat looked at the unconscious private detective, whose face was bruised and bloodied. "I don't think she knows how to fight. Never had to, I think." Doreen informed Natasha, the Widow nodding in understanding. The corridor became the host of someone else as the unknown suited woman enlarged into existence once more, her helmeted head disguising her features, though it looked insect-like in appearance as the four gossamer wings draped downward.

"Tried following her, but she flew too fast for me." The woman said through her helmet, panting a little. That voice… Nat thought to herself as she looked at the woman in question.

"Hope?"

A gloved hand went to the side of her neck as the helmet split open three ways; top, left, and right. Each retracted backwards to reveal the face of a thirty-two year old brunette-haired woman who was slightly sweaty, but smiling a little as Natasha recognized the face of Avengers, Incorporated's Chief Financial Officer, Hope Van Dyne.

"Thought you could use a little help." The CFO said with a quick wink. "Jenn called Dad and I when you guys were flying over the Pacific, and we made arrangements to get here as soon as we could. Glad we did." She looked around at the ruined hall and that fact that some of their members weren't even conscious. "Jesus, my Dad told me stories about HYDRA, but I wasn't expecting anything like this."

"None of us were." Captain Rogers replied as he moved to the downed Winter Soldier, still unconscious and splayed out on the floor. Nat was already moving towards Steve as she got on the other side of the unconscious assassin as Clint loomed close by, a nocked arrow in his bow as he gave a nod indicating he was ready as the redhead took a knee to open up one of the man's eyelids.

"Brown eyes." Romanoff confirmed, remember seeing the ice-blue color of one controlled by the Scepter. "Seems this wasn't a complete lost if we're winnowing their numbers. What do we do with him?"

"Detain him for now until he wakes up and we can determine where he stands." Steve replied, wiping the bloody smear from his face. "He might want to take a crack at HYDRA, and he certainly has the skills to put forth the effort if he's interested. Take off his mask and bind him up." Nat was already nodding in compliance as she peeled the protective face mask off the man to find what looked to be a rather young-looking man with about a weeks' worth of stubble on his cheeks and chin. Yet she heard a sucking breath that had her looking to Captain Steve Rogers, who looked… haunted.

"It… it can't be." He said softly, almost looking as if he were going to collapse as Nat looked back at the man, the sense of familiarity returning. She was good with faces, and she was certain she had seen this man… somewhere…

"Oh my God…" Hope said, standing behind Natasha as she, too, was looking at the man in question. "I… I thought he was dead."

"You know James?" Doctor Doreen Green asked as she limped over, wincing as she did so, looking to the others. "I mean, you recognize him?"

"I do." Steve replied, and Natasha Romanoff felt very uneasy about that. How would Steve Rogers and Hope Van Dyne know the same person when they were born decades apart?

"…it's Bucky."

FINE - ARC V: Of Traitors And Assassins

ARC VI: By Our Powers Combined

Boeing C-17 Globemaster III "Gungnir", Pennsylvania Airspace, En-route From New Jersey To Maryland, December 10, 2012

Staff Sergeant James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes (SSG, US Army, KIA…-ish) was rotating his flesh-and-blood wrist as the handcuffs were taken off, mostly a symbolic gesture considering, as Jennifer Susan Walters, Esq., (CEO, Avengers) stood in front of the seated World War Two Veteran that was miraculously alive sixty-seven years after his reported death. God, had he been in HYDRA hands the whole time?, Jenn thought to herself with a shiver, seeing the face of a man who looked younger than her but was actually sixty-one years older. She had asked a few questions to the Staff Sergeant, finding him to be cognitive if a bit confused on a few things, gaps in his memories and seriously asked what year it happen to be now. Seeing the man in front of her broke her heart; this had been a heroic legend who was held in the same esteem as his best friend, Captain Steven Grant Rogers, a man she had learned of from her own father when she was a little girl. Now he sat in front of her, alive and… well, alive at least. And no longer under HYDRA's control. That was a start.

"We swept as much of that bunker as we could in the time that we had." Commander Nathaniel Troy Dugan told her as Doctor Henry Jonathan 'Hank' Pym performed a medical assessment with the medical suite that was installed on the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III "Gungnir" on their only 'qualified' medical person, Doctor Doreen Allene Green having completely lost consciousness after turning into, of all things, a human-sized cat-person that evidently took a lot out of her as well as the beating she had taken. Practically every one of the Avengers had suffered some injury, though Captain Steven Grant Rogers and Natasha Alianovna Romanoff had quickly recovered from their ordeal fighting Bucky Barnes and Jessica Miriam Drew. Jessica Campbell Jones had suffered the second-worst amount of injuries, her faced bruised, bloody, and swollen, yet already she looked as if it had been days ago instead of two hours. Her comment on the first time in my life I've ever gotten my ass kicked showed that the woman never been in a serious fight before despite the fact that she seemed to be on par for strength with Jenn's daughter. That… scared the lawyer. What did they do to you, honey? "We didn't find any indication of where SHIELD or HYDRA or who the fuck ever might have moved their central data collection point. Kamala's on the right path, just ended up a bust."

"Yeah." They were back at square one; five days before a potential HYDRA takeover, and they had no idea where to go or how to stop it. Kamala Aisha Khan and Edward Joseph Snowden were plowing through the information the former NSA hacker had taken while at Kunia Tunnel in Hawaii while working for Booz Allen Hamilton, but there was twenty-five terabytes of information and they were running out of time. Walters was looking around the cargo bay of the Gungnir seeing her team rocked back on their heels; she had time, money, technology, and effort training to be better than anything possible for the day when something like this came. And they had lost.

The Avengers had months to prepare. HYDRA… had years. Plus the ability to make enhanced individuals with one-hundred percent loyalty thanks to the Scepter.

"Miss Walters?" Kamala had come down from the loft with a StarkTab in hand with Edward Snowden, the fifteen-year old looking dejected. "Mister Snowden and I have gone through a great deal of search perimeters looking for possible locations or hints for a central location that he found in the data. But we're not finding a physical location. It might be a possibility that he doesn't actually have it or it's information that's only kept word-of-mouth to prevent electronic sabotage or counterintelligence." The young Pakistani-American woman's face said it all; she felt like a failure unable to identify the one thing the needed. Snowden had the grimace of a man frustrated, an electronic spy who couldn't find that one clue.

"Alright, we'll go back to the drawing board and see if we can think of possibilities or eliminate others for possible locations for this HYDRA AI or the possible data cache-"

"Wait, what did you say?"

Everyone turned to look at Bucky Barnes, who was looking at Jennifer oddly, his head slightly cocked as if he hadn't heard her right.

"We were looking for a central location where we think HYDRA is storing all of its intercepted electronic data…" The lawyer began until she was interrupted again.

"You're looking for ZOLA." The metal-armed man spoke, rising up from his seat as he looked… different, changed. Something was waking up within him, and his brown eyes were alive. "The HYDRA Mainframe that's the brainchild of Doctor Armin Zola."

"Wait. Isn't that the guy…" Clinton Francis Barton looked over to Captain Rogers, who nodded slowly. "Jesus, please do not tell me that Hitler managed to fucking survive and is running around somewhere. Though I'll put an arrow in that bastard with a smile." Natasha shooshed the archer as Jennifer looked at the cybernetically-armed Super Soldier in front of her, focusing on him.

"You know where it is?" Jenn asked, her heart racing in her chest. God, if Bucky's been in HYDRA all these years… he might know the very locations we need!

"Yeah, I do. I was there… I think it was about four months ago." Barnes replied, slowly nodding his head. "They drove me right through the front gate of the government installation it was in, so I saw the main gate, the entrance, the sign… I walked right in with a suit and a pass and was led right in protecting some Pennsylvanian Senator that's been with HYDRA for years. Part of… some sub-committee. Threats and Capabilities, I think?"

"Senator Gerald Stern." Jennifer Walters guessed, having looked up that name earlier on the PROJECT: INSIGHT hit list. His name hadn't been included. "The asshole that wanted to take Tony Stark's suits a couple of years back." If she had been Tony's lawyer back then, the man would have ended up on the street with a tin cup for donations when she got done with him. Hand over your multi-million dollar suits with its Nextgen power supply and fighter jet capabilities without reimbursement or one thought for the Constitution my ass, the lawyer thought with a snarl, remembering that particular public debacle where the billionaire pretty much told a Congressional Sub-Committee to kiss his ass with a smile. Pure Tony.

"I don't know about the… suit thing," the long-haired man said, shaking his head slightly in confusion, "but the name's right. Had to escort the guy right into a central room that had some pretty heavy security in it that we had to pass through. I'm talking some rather ridiculous security and protection. More advanced than anything I've seen, and… I've seen a lot." Barnes eyes grew distant, no doubt plagued by some of that a lot he was recollecting.

"You're not walking in through the front door, hacking or accessing something with all the electronic turnstiles, cameras, motion detectors, security, and equipment." The ninety-three year old man explained. "Even with proper access, it took us… thirty minutes to get into what he called 'the Vault', which was a large room containing the ZOLA Mainframe and the main access computer. The things they had protecting it was unreal. Temperature gages, pressure sensors, thermal imaging equipment, audio detectors… the works. It was in some old building built before the War, supposedly shut down but it kept serving its original purpose as HYDRA supposedly kept upgrading it right underneath everyone's noses…"

"OH MY GOD! I'LL BE RIGHT BACK!" Kamala squealed as she dashed towards the loft, running up the flight of stairs cackling in delight.

"So, this location?" Jennifer asked the Super Soldier.

"It's in DC. Front door sign called it 'awnee'." James replied, looking to the lawyer, who shook her head, not getting it. "O.N.I." Bucky repeated himself by spelling it, getting nothing but blank stares.

"The Office of Naval Intelligence!" Kamala came running back down with something bundled in her arms, practically sprinting down the stairs as she rejoined the group, everyone's attention on her. "I chuckled when I saw the acronym earlier because I recognized it from a video game, the Halo series, but it was a legitimate US Government agency prior, during, and after World War II where Naval signal interceptors and Army Air Force spy planes would gather intelligence and report it back to the nations' first foreign intelligence-gathering operation in the post-war years. I looked it up and it makes perfect sense since ONI was shut down in 1954 for its modern-day successor. But they never shut it down!" The young woman's face was all aglow with glee as everyone looked at her. "It's been gathering every piece of data for the past sixty-six years while pretending to be an old government building that was a host to a now-defunct government agency! A location unclaimed by any component of the government, meant to collect and store data, supposedly unused and abandoned for decades with everyone none the wiser! It fits!" The fifteen-year old smiled triumphantly.

"By our powers combined, we're breaking into the original CIA!" Kamala proclaimed with a raised fist in the air.

Everyone looked at one another, and then the rather elated fifteen-year old tech prodigy.

"Okay, so why did you run to the loft and grab… whatever that is?" Hope Van Dyne asked, looking at the bundle in the young woman's arms that looked to be a couple of straight bars and a pair of… wires? Kamala just grinned even bigger as she grabbed the top and unrolled the device to show off what was a wire harness suspension rig that was most recognizable for use for Hollywood stuntmen performing feats of acrobatics no normal man could perform. "Alright… what's that for?" Hope wondered out loud. Jenn was thinking the same thing.

"I thought you'd never ask." Khan replied with an impish smile as she began to 'bomp-bomp, de-da-bomp-bomp, do-dum' a tune that once came from a television series from the mid-60's and later a series of movies involving a man named Ethan Hunt that had everyone groaning.

She was singing the soundtrack to Mission: Impossible.

Author's Notes: Fuck yes Hope van Dyne to the rescue!

I know some of you probably wanted to see the Jessica vs. Jessica fight, but I thought it would be better to have Jones lose off-screen while Cap and Widow got a beatdown by Bucky. Nat almost won that fight, though. Normally I don't have 'last-minute rescues' but I went off-script off my own path because a) sometimes it's good to be king and b) Hope is going to be a legit Avenger (which many of you probably saw coming considering Hope and Hank are in Avengers, Inc. anyhow) as well as a part of my AU of CA:WS.

The Atchisson Assault Shotgun (known as the AA-12) can be seen in movies such as what Hail Caesar carries in The Expendables and Adrian Brody's character (Dwight?) carries in Predators. It is a rather boxy-looking weapon with few protrusions, heavy, and probably a nightmare to reload in combat. Yet in short-range firefights or inside a building, it's probably extremely devastating. Having carried a shotgun myself on many missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, I know the difference between what the movies say and what happens in real life when using a shotgun. It's still a mainstay for firepower and a favorite of law enforcement agencies for a good reason, as the nine pellets in double-aught ('00') buckshot are driven by a great deal of powder, and the force is more than enough to splinter and shatter two-by-fours in close range, breech doors, clear hallways, and injure several people at once in the right situations. Plus that classic sound of the pump-action really is a showstopper; clack that sucker back and forth to remind home invaders that size really does matter.

Yes, I turned Doreen into a weretabby… thing. There were a few mutants who did shapeshift into more animal-like beings (both Wolfsbane/Rahne Sinclair and Feral/Maria Callasantos had lycanthropic-like traits). Considering that someone in Marvel thought having a half-squirrel/half-girl that could defeat Thanos with the squirrelpocalypse, pick up Mjolnir, beat up Doctor Doom, and do it while being 'cute', I decided to make her a little more feral.

I don't know the actual 'martial art' that one sees Scarlett Johannsen use in the movies, but considering much of the rotating throws I've seen is used in Mexican Wrestling known as 'Lucho Libre' (most especially with Rey Mysterio), I went with the variant of the corkscrew spin throw that one sees her perform in the movies. It could be Wing Chung as well, or even Escrema.

Фуцк - Jersey, you potty mouth, you. This is, in Russian Cyrillic, the letters 'f', 'u', 'c', and 'k'. : ) I don't know if this is the actual Russian word for 'fuck' though.

Yes, the name of the next ARC is a reference from Captain Planet. #GoPlanet!

ONI is, in fact, a real agency in the United States Government (that does in fact mean the Office of Naval Intelligence) and is the original American foreign intelligence agency (created in 1882) responsible for maritime intelligence and naval capabilities. What I wrote for the chapter is actually inaccurate on purpose as I'm not going to tell you how to break into an intelligence community building. That's just bad juju.

Yes, I referenced the first Mission: Impossible movie with Tom Cruise.

Prepare for the impossible! This chapter will self-destruct in five seconds…