Across town, Natasha gave Carol a wink and a smile before Widow covered her and they separated. It had been a good day, promoted by Livs little revelation to the group.
Was she really bi now? She had been trained by the Red Room, and before Peter, a man and a woman held no emotional difference when they were a target. But after Peter, with Widow and everyone else, she did find that what started out as just Peter, soon became Peter plus partner and then moved on to just partner. She hadn't even noticed until Liv told them all bluntly. But was she really?
The best way to find out was to just try, and she picked Carol. Natasha had spent the night giving as good as she got, and as the pair lay, satisfied and very sweaty she knew that yup, she was most certainly bi, at least when it came to the women in the warehouse.
Carol had been the only one who actually never slept with anyone else. Even threesomes were out, preferring to keep Peter to herself. So it made sense. If anyone was suddenly different, it would be her, but they hadn't cared.
Gwen of course had picked up on this and as the pair laughed and giggled their way to the breakfast table, Gwen was waiting, with everyone else ignoring her while they ate their breakfasts. A banner with 'Congratulations it's a Bi' on it was erected and Gwen happily stuck rainbow stickers on them both. The '-oy' part of the lettering written over with thick black marker to change it.
Natasha had just laughed, a brief moment of levity for the normally stoic woman, but Carol knew if Gwen wasn't put in her place, the teasing would continue.
"I guess I am, but sorry Gwen. I prefer someone a bit more butch, and with a lot more padding," Gwen looked confused as Carol leaned over and kissed Felicia on the cheek. She slid her hands down and gave her much larger chest a squeeze, "Maybe once you grow up."
Gwen's pout was adorable, and Felicia's laugh had them all in fits. It was a good day.
Right until that stupid fucking asshole ruined it. They could be lazing in the pool having fun, they could be doing anything else, but no, she had to be out here, smashing more stupid robots.
She hadn't even noticed her training had kicked in and a broken Sentinel was laying at her feet. Shit, she thought, that might have been bad, but Widow scoffed,
As if you need to pay attention, we are more than capable of taking these apart.
Widow lifted the massive head of the Sentinel and stared into its slowly fading eyes,
"I'm in a really bad mood. You ruined my day off, so I hope you have a lot more of these things."
As she threw the head of the Sentinel away she heard the vans approach and saw the military logo on the side,
So not Shield or Sword huh, kept the big guys just for me.
Widow knew there was no point in running. The block would be cordoned off, with helicopters tracking her position. She could get away but it was better to clear the board first and she waited patiently as the soldiers disembarked.
As the Gamma Troopers pointed their pulse rifles at her, Widow's phone rang, connecting and answering it, "I'm a bit busy now Sis, can I call you back?"
She heard Yelena sigh on the other end, "Hey Sis, we got some nice men here, big, strong, and very angry. You know. When you said come to America I thought, hey, shopping, boys, catching up, not hiding in a safe house, bored until the army kicks the door in."
Widow cursed, "Sorry Sis, I got you mixed up in all this."
"Oh no, don't be sorry, I mean, it's only been 5 years, I'm sure prison will be nice. Dad already broke a few bones, his of course. He is really bad at this, since you know, he got fat and old."
Widow had to resist laughing, "look, I'm sorry, I need to call you back."
"Oh no, don't worry, love you, kisses, auf wiedersehen," and Yelena hung up.
Widow took a breath, to anyone else, it was her overly attached sister, but her final message was one of their codes, don't worry about us, and don't hold back.
Nat?
Not now Pete, kinda busy.
Just to want you, they hit all of us. Carols fighting an Enhanced like her, the Avengers are either under arrest or crawling around the labs, and I've got Tony and Vision here. Be careful, who knows what they'll pull.
Right, stay safe Pete. Love you.
After the phone call from Yelena, Widow was stood surrounded by Gamma troopers, and she was now in an even worse mood.
"I feel insulted," she said, "I mean, they sent an Enhanced after Ravage, Avengers to our labs, and Vision and Iron Man after Venom, and who do I get? Some jerk off crew cut Ross wannabe. So, got a name or just asshole number one?"
The soldier snorted, "Major Glenn Talbot. And I am the Thunderbolt's second in command. You need to come with us, Miss Romanov. We have your family, and we will go easy on them if you cooperate."
Widow snorted, "You think that holding my family will work? You really have bad intel."
Got me to Pete, they sent out Ross's goon squad. It should be one hell of a fight though. Might not be back for bedtime, maybe visit me in jail?
Peter laughed through their link, I might be right next to you if Tony gets his way. Love you.
The upgrade Widow had asked for clicked and extended from her back, covering her in a thick set of adamantium chest plates, thick greaves and bracers. She had tried the harness but her fighting style didn't match having more than one set of arms so she abandoned it. What she did like was the stolen and upgraded repulsor tech, that began to glow and whine as faint blue around her wrist.
"Hello. My name is War Widow. You took my family. Prepare to die." She ad-libbed and with a mad laugh, launched herself at the troopers.
As expected the troopers swelled and became mini Hulks. Even Ross wasn't stupid enough to completely infuse a subject with as much Gamma formula as they could accept, and the soldiers, while multicoloured looked more like Captain America than Hulk. Only Talbot was different. Most of the men were either red, green or in a few cases blue. Talbot was grey, and a lot bigger.
"Nice name," he said as he pulled off his tattered uniform, "War Hammer, only officers got a full dose of serum, the enlisted only got enough to juice them up. So, Widow, you know you can't beat me, you know what I'm capable of and you know you'll lose. Come peacefully, and I won't peel you out that tin can and parade you around in your underwear." Talbot said, and like Ross, his crew cut and moustache had grown with him, making Widow want to laugh, but right now,
"I think I'll take my chances. Liv did a pretty good job of taking down Ross and Blosky, and I'm better."
War Hammer snorted, "yeah we know, and it won't work again." War hammer pulled off his shirt and underneath was a thick silvery metal form-fitting top. "See, we now know about vibranium, and the alloys, so we pulled all the crap out of storage and actually used it. Feels good too. So, want to surrender now?"
Widow snorted and laughed, "Yeah, formula and extra arms are more a Venom thing. I just break things." and as the Widow's bites on her wrist whined as they powered up, she grinned at him, "wanna see?"
The Gamma Troopers were new to their powers, and Widow danced and flipped between them disabling each man with nerve strikes and takedowns. War Hammer stayed back, well out of her reach, and watched, taking note of how easily someone who was trained to use their powers took apart even the best of his men, it didn't matter though. They were new recruits and he was one of the first to receive the serum, staying as a Hulk until he could hold an egg without breaking it.
As the group lay at Widow's feet, War Hammer stood and shook his head, "My men deserved that, and now you'll get what you deserve as well."
He lunged at her, hoping to grab her and Widow ducked under his swing but as she righted herself to return a blow he stopped mid-swing and backhanded her, sending her spinning, "Special Forces, maybe not up to the Red Rooms standard but good enough," and he advanced with his hands up in front of his face.
War Hammer didn't have her outclassed in speed or technique but in power, Widow was overwhelmed. For every kick or punch he missed, he hit with one and one was enough. The Gamma Enhanced strength was powerful enough to bruise and mangle flesh, even through adamantium enforced armour and Widows symbskin.
Not that Widow was slacking off. For each hit he got, she got two or three more. Each kick that connected dyed his top shirt red with his blood, his skin bruised purple and burned just as easily as any other man. Even his healing was having trouble keeping up, as Widow had been working with Logan on how to deal with someone who could regenerate. Armour was great against the slashing attacks that Liv and Peter preferred, but against her strikes, unless it was thick plating, it wasn't helping.
Black Widow was trained to kill men, not monsters, so they devised that even healing took stamina, small but painful injures to weak and sensitive spots, groin, eyes, liver, spine, joints all weakened even the hardiest constitution, and as War Hammer was finding out, eyes took a while to recover, and testicles were sensitive as they regrew, and Widow was relentlessly smashing both.
Her Widows bite had been improved by Liv and modified to draw power from the arcstar reactor in her armour, and it send blast after blast of bioelectric current into War Hammer. It didn't matter how often she hit him, only that each time she did he took a little longer to recover. Her ribs were broken, and Widow was keeping them knitted together but he hit damn hard and it was turning into a war of attrition. Would he give in to the torture she was inflicting, as angering a Hulk to make them stronger seemed to apply only to the original, or would she succumb to her own injuries as Widow failed to keep up with the truck like blows he was managing to score on her?
Hey, if I got Extremis would you get mad? she asked as he ducked under another blow and drive both fists into Hammer's elbow, resulting in a roar of pain as it bent at an awkward angle.
No, we want to be strong, we are tired of stupid Hulks beating on us, and as Widow grabbed on to the arm and anchored herself with tendrils around it, the elbow popped and Hammer's forearm was now the wrong way around.
Widow flipped away and Hammer fell to his knees and grasped at his arm, turning it slowly and ignoring the pain and horrible grinding noise and the joint reset. Widow capitalised on his pause and flipped back, driving her knee into his temple before stomping and kicking him in the same spot with an armoured boot.
War Hammer shrunk back down, and Talbot sat, his arms flopping down by his side as the energy to maintain his from finally gave out. "No mercy," Widow said and she pressed her fist to his temples and charged both Widows Bites into his head. Tabot screamed and collapsed onto the ground. Taking and letting out a breath, Widow touched the side of his neck and checked for a pulse.
Even after unloading all that current, he was still alive. A testament to the improved Banner formula. Gwen was smart that way, but sometimes she was too smart.
With a grin, Natasha thought of suitable ways to punish her later for that. Carol might have been first, but Natasha was going to make sure she was not last.