With a plan in place, life moved forwards. Natasha's advice was not to force anything, continue to work on the War Machine armour, continue to act as if Liv had nothing to worry about other than completing her job, and with Octave keeping her steady Liv excelled at it.
Natasha herself was accepting of the conditions from receiving a symbiote. She now understood it wasn't like the horror movies, a slug wasn't going to take over or eat her brain. She would be a home and in turn, it would provide her with extra-human abilities, copied from Peter himself. Hosting Octave gave her a perfect example of what to expect and as the others revelled in their new abilities, and Peter was given a headache trying to keep up with them all, Natasha was gifted Widow.
Happy to name herself after the code name Natasha had the pitch-black symbiote modelled herself on the sleek bodysuit Natasha wore, including the red hourglass symbol, forgoing the usual spider motif so many of them used. Of course, she huffed when it was pointed out that the black widow spider wore similar markings,
Of course, of course, that's where we get it from, she complained and soon enough, Widow had been moved to everyone and now they all shared in the newfound abilities. Natasha's first bonding experience lessening the blow of a new fully integrated host. She did however still spend several hours mopping the floor with Felicia and then several hours having Peter do some pounding of his own, and she thoroughly enjoyed both.
She also agreed to help with the training. Felicia was trained to be a thief, who could fight her way out of a situation. Elektra had been trained in several martial arts, each one deadly on its own but requiring a different mindset and discipline the warehouse wasn't used to.
Natasha had been trained as a spy, a killer, a saboteur, and a whole package of jobs and skills that no one outside a military organisation would have access to, and both Felicia and Peter threw themselves at her in anticipation of expanding their knowledge.
It was also Felicia who, looking disappointed, came from her home and a slightly pissed off looking Nat following her,
"Definitely no woman," was all Natasha said, but if there had been a disagreement in the bedroom then it was forgotten soon after and the pair bonded on the fighting mat. With Gwen just teasing Peter, "I said, cute and bi, asshole," to which he simply threw her over his shoulder, winked at Liv who followed, and they showed her that there were plenty of cute and bi residents in the warehouse already.
With Natasha still suspended pending an investigation into Tony's allegations she had time to adjust to her new abilities, keeping to the ground floor as Peter was in the rafters finishing adding the floor in.
Thick girders of reinforced steel and his own web now crisscrossed the roof, cable boxes slid underneath neatly hiding not just the writing but soon the plumbing as well, tapped from the sprinkler system with added pressure to ensure a clean supply.
Natasha had provided aid. As she adjusted to her new strength she tore down the old homes, carefully exercising new muscle power to remove, without tools, studs and other fixtures. Moulding her symbskin into tools instead, practising moulding it to the desired form. With help, being able to swing the side panels up into the roof without too much effort the pair soon had the new central upper apartment built.
To ensure the new fixtures didn't impede the normal lighting in the warehouse, and to make sure their bills didn't rise Peter installed some reflective mirrors, to add in more natural sunlight to the warehouse interior, softening it with light baffles once it was reflected down.
As Nat and Peter sat, drinking soda and enjoying taking a break, Nat looked up, looked at the walkways and frowned, "how are you getting furniture up?" and as Peter did the same he swore. As Nat laughed, he went back and added in a walkway to one side of the apartment, a main double door, reachable from an extra-wide staircase, and making a quick adjustment of the design, moved the living room from one side to the other, and stuck his tongue out at her.
"The hearing for Tony's case is tomorrow, so can't help, but once it's done, that'll be me back to work, have you made a decision on Fury yet?" and as she peeled the label from her soda bottle Peter shrugged,
"You're part of this now, so, make the call."
"He is my boss you know, what if I say yes and you know?" and Peter laughed and shook his head,
"Really? You think that now, after the past month, after Widow and the games, and everything? Nat, if we didn't trust you, you wouldn't be sitting there."
Nat rested her head on Peter's shoulder, "I know, it's just nice to hear it," and Peter shook his head and kissed her on the top of hers.
"How many, and when?"
"You guessed?" and Peter nodded,
"You never ask permission, you just do and then clean up. So I figured it was one of those occasions."
Nat snorted, "fine, five. And one volunteer for your program."
"The CLS was taken by Tony, you need to get him for that," and Nat sneered,
"Tony said no, and I know you and Liv have better. Tony has the first draft but you have more, plus whatever you and Liv came up with," and Peter raised an eyebrow but nodded,
"The agent who got me out, saved me from the Red Room was hurt, his hand was uh, it's gone, and I was hoping that,"
"That Liv and I can replace it with a cybernetic one?" and she nodded.
"You know that it's the first test and he's a guinea pig?"
"Like I was you mean," and Peter coughed,
"We tested it," and as Nat gave him a look, "we did, and you know that,"
"Yeah, but I like watching you squirm."
"Only cause I'm normally the one making you squirm," and Nat laughed.
"You cheat, normal tongues can't do that," and Peter smiled and shook his head.
"It's not cheating when we can all do it, but Liv and I have a system in theory, but we need to get a prototype made," Peter gestured around the warehouse "this is a huge mess that we don't have space to do anything in, can it wait?"
"Will enhancing him regrow his hand? I mean, I know about Curt now, and he got his arm back." and Peter frowned,
"You know, I have no idea, I don't see why not, but we should ask Gwen, cause really, I don't know." Curt and Aunt May were on holiday, with Lizard under control they had opted to take some time out of the country, with everything that had happened in New York. Peter had arranged for a nice package tour around Africa, and he was confident that even with Wakanda becoming more prominent in the world's affairs that Curt would take care of his Aunt. As the CLS became more and more refined so did the neural interface and the once bulky collar that adorned Livs harness was now the size of a wristwatch, and unless Curt wanted it off, it was bonded to his skin.
"But, we should go somewhere and talk about that privately, if we're all super spy about it then with what Liv's up to. Doesn't it defeat the point if she knows?"
Nat took a breath and twitched her nose, something Peter noticed she often did when she was thinking, "how long till you get the walls and wiring done for your new place?" and after checking the time table he kept of work needing to be done,
"Water and sewage is the main issue, so maybe two weeks?" and she nodded "add in another week though, I do want to paint and air it before moving anything in."
"Three weeks then, I'll arrange it all, super spy stuff, and then we can do it once you've got your apartment set up."
We can talk like this, right? And Peter nodded, just in case, Nat moved over and sat on his lap, closing her eyes as they cuddled together to talk in secret.
Good, I doubt Rumlow planted anything. The mods to Livs phone are probably remote access, call logger and mic and camera activation program. It's not unexpected for her to leave her phone downstairs while up here. Shield this place separately and it gives you a nice bunker and we can wait until she's at work before doing anything. It'll be five, Fury and four others, Clint included, he's the one missing a hand.
We also had the after mission briefing. According to reports, witness statements and security footage, an unknown escaped from detention and massacred the outposts, you or Wanda aren't being blamed but we have no idea if whoever set us up knows it was you or not. Until we find out who they are, and we are going to assume, from the style of weapons, that it's a splinter Hydra faction. We don't know if you or Wanda are compromised or not. We have to work under the assumption that you are, and we'll be taking a close eye on you during your academy time. Accidents happen and there would be the perfect opportunity for you two to just disappear, or worse.
Worse?
Shield is manufacturing the pulse guns, the official term for the tesseract energy weapons, but we know that they were using the Mind stone for experiments. We have no idea what else they might be after but a hulking space alien? It's probably too tempting to pass over. We have to assume that any project currently being shelved by Oscorp was for them. Serum, symbiotes, cloning, armour, and the energy weapons. Add in that the Mind Stone was in their possession and Ultron was either cutting a deal or adding to the already huge pile of equipment that they have.
That's a lot to take in Nat, even for me, it seems just too easy that there is a secret organisation, Osborn was a jerk but a nazi? He was more interested in money than anything.
But as Peter thought about it, he was an arrogant son of a bitch that looked down on a lot of people, maybe being a secret nazi wasn't so much of a stretch.
If they even are Shield. All the weapons you recovered from Sokovia were from the second world war, nothing manufactured past 1945. Did some assholes just find a stockpile and raid it or is there something else going on?
A lot of that is pure guesswork Nat, for all we know Ultron was in control of everyone through the collars and there is no second faction within Shield. We still have no idea who or what MODOK that Strucker mentioned is. Another agency? A person? A computer code?.
We know, but you cover your bases. A second faction makes more sense than a whole bunch of collars suddenly appearing. Where did he make them? and why? Taking over a base is risky, especially in a warzone, so he could what? Expose a few kids to the gem, no. More is going on than we see, and without that big picture, we have to assume the worst-case scenario. Ultron, Hydra, and more. Even whoever MODOK is. We need time and patience and once we find out, we can act.
The rest can be discussed when it happens. For now, we keep our eyes and ears open. You and Wanda will be careful and we know Liv will be fine, she's taking to the training like a natural and she'll be an agent before you are at the rate she's going.
Yeah Yeah, someone keeps distracting me.
"Then how about she makes it up to you," and he ran his hands up her back and as their clothes disappeared, she leant in and kissed him.