"Family. Back together again." Alexi said as he picked up the glass that was set for him. Melina had already filled up Natasha and Yelena's glasses again.
"Sure." Natasha rolled her eyes and felt that she'd been rolling her eyes a bit too much today.
They all toasted and drank the shot.
At this point, Natasha had had enough, "So, here's what's going to happen…" She started.
"You haven't aged a day since…" Alexi started flirting with Melina, completely discrediting Natasha's words.
A few more moments later, their words started getting graphic, and both Yelena and Natasha were disgusted, "Ugh, can you please stop…" Yelena commented.
Natasha tried to get the conversation back on track, "So here's what's going to happen—", "Natasha don't slouch" She was interrupted again. By Melina this time.
"I'm not slouching" She got defensive. Just because Natasha knew about the mental manipulations didn't mean that she was immune to them. Melina's motherly figure was engraved in her mind for a long time.
"You're slouching," Melina stated again in a motherly tone. "Listen to your mother, Natasha," Alexi said. The whole table started spiraling down to a family argument.
"Shut it, All of you!" Natasha snapped but it was useless, "What did I do?" Yelena asked. "Don't drink so much, Yelena." Melina was fully leveraging her status in the minds of the two girls. "I'll do what I want," Yelena said.
"Tell me where the Red Room is now!" Natasha had had enough.
Immediately, Melina's reaction was a scoff filled with derision. "Alexi, you remember when we used to tell the girls that they would be able to catch Santa Clause if they waited up long enough," Melina said to Alexi.
At this point, Natasha was done. The situation was completely out of her control and the people in the room were doing their best to push her buttons. She decided to listen to Melina while thinking of what to do later.
"Finding Dreykov is not a fantasy. It's unfinished business." Natasha said.
"You can't defeat a man, who commands the very will of others, Natasha," Melina said to Natasha who had skeptical eyes.
"I'll show you something, Natasha. Something that will tell you just how out of your depth you are, going after Dreykov and the Red Room." Melina understood that Natasha would require convincing and grabbed her tablet before tapping on it a few times, "Come in." She said into the tablet.
There was the sound of the creaking of a door and a pig came into the room.
"Did that pig just open the door?" Natasha asked, impressed.
"Yes, it did. Good boy, Alexi. Good boy." Melina scratched it under the chin.
"You named a pig after me?" Alexi, the Red Guardian, was offended.
"You don't see the resemblance?" Melina said unapologetically, "See, he's just like a dog. Sits like one, acts like one, and everything." Melina looked at Natasha and Yelena.
"Now. Stop breathing." She moved a slider on the tablet. And the pig stopped breathing. It was as if it didn't know how to breathe and was just looking up at Melina.

"This is what the mission in Ohio was about. 3 years undercover. Acting as a big happy family with him and both of you girls. All to get the formula that could bring this to fruition. It was a front for Shield scientists. Or well Hydra. I'm sure you know more about it than me." Melina looked at Natasha.
Melina turned to Alexi who was still offended and said to him, "We didn't steal weapons or tech. We stole to key to free will itself." Melina drank the shot and filled up her glass of vodka.
"All right, you made your point." Nat eyed the dying pig that was still not breathing.
"It's fine. Alexi could've survived for another minute or so." Melina said and sent it away, "Dreykov has such chemically subjugated agents planted all around the globe that he can order around whenever he wants. It's completely out of your depth." Melina stated.
"Do you know whom they used this stuff on?" Yelena interjected.
"Hm? No, that's not my department. But it's usually orphan girls with no one to look after them. They're the easiest to manipulate after all." Melina didn't realize how each of her words was hurting Yelena more and more.
"Ahh. Come on. Don't lie to them. You're Dreykov's architect. You definitely know." Alexi said, "No I—"
"Shut up. You are an idiot," Nat said to Alexi, "And you? You are a coward." She snapped at Melina.
"Oh, bullshit—" Melina was interrupted by Yelena again.
"You know… those agents. Those agents that you chemically subjugated around the globe. Those orphan, easy-to-influence women. That was me…" Yelena broke down as her voice started cracking, "And you," She looked at Natasha, "You got out. After you, Dreykov made sure that no one could escape. But you got out." Yelena blamed Natasha.
"Yelena…" Nat said as Melina brought her hand to Yelena's shoulder. But Yelena ignored Nat and shook Melina's hand off before grabbing the bottle of vodka and getting up.
"I'll go after her." Alexi got up and went after her, leaving Natasha and Melina alone to talk.
Natasha got up and Melina followed after her, "What? You're going to do it alone?" Melina asked.
"If you're not helping then I'll look for another way. You won't be the first mother that abandoned me." She said and looked at Melina, only to see her stiffen up. Nat narrowed her eyes as she felt an old doubt surfacing in her mind.
"Right?" She asked Melina again.
"I believe that you weren't abandoned…" Melina trailed off, thinking about what to say.
"What…" Natasha had a dark expression and asked with a frigid tone.
"You were taken… Dreykov had this system that could determine if children had the genetic potential for his training. Your parents were paid off, I believe," She said, "But your mother. She was relentless. She kept snooping around." Melina said.
"What happened to her?" Natasha asked with the same frigid tone.
"Dreykov had her killed," Yelena saw the slight confusion in Natasha's otherwise cold expression and explained, "Normally a snooping civilian wouldn't warrant an execution. But as I said, she was relentless."
"That so, huh?" Nat's voice lost its coldness and was not flat.
"I'm… sorry. I've already informed the Red Room." Melina finally stated, "They should be here any minute."
"I know," Natasha said with a smile, but her eyes were cold as she stared at Melina.
"Hm?" Melina was confused about how Natasha was so confident.
[Alex is she under control?] Natasha asked Alex.

[Nope, fully conscious. I've checked those pigs and the widow from before. They were all chemically subjugated. But not Melina.] He explained to her.
"We're done here." Natasha walked to Melina as the sound of whirring aircraft was heard from the outside.
Before Yelena could even react, Natasha reached her and shocked her, sending her to the land of dreams.
[Give her a few nightmares while you're at it, Alex…] She asked Alex. Natasha was unbelievably angry right now. She'd expected all of this from the start. But that didn't change the fact that she was disappointed and angry.
She didn't waste any time before kicking open the door to the room where Alexi and Yelena were. She saw an unconscious Yelena who was sitting on the ground leaning against the bed and Alexi struggling to keep his consciousness while looking at the curtained windows where the lights were shining from.
"Go to sleep, Alexi. I'll be taking over from here," Nat said and within two seconds his resistance failed and he also succumbed to the drug that Melina had fed them through the vodka.
Nat looked at Yelena and asked Alex, [Could you wake her up?]
[It'll take a minute.] Alex said as a tendril extended from Nat's sleeve and wrapped around Yelena's neck, forming a choker.
[Don't wake her up, yet… And what is it with you and chokers?] Nat asked as she was formulating a plan in her head that would get her access to Dreykov in the easiest way possible.
[I don't know.] Nat could imagine Alex shrugging as he replied to her question.
[I presume that you've already checked Melina's memories?] She asked Alex.
[You know me so well.] He smiled inwardly.
[I need concealed earpieces.] She told him.
[Behind the bookshelf right side, corner most cabinet. There's a set.] He said.
[I also need you to turn me into Melina, and turn her into me.] She asked him.
[Easy.] He agreed as Nat went into the bookshelf cabinet and got what she needed. She'd already turned into Melina.
[You have got to take over the Red Room.] Alex said to her in an excited voice.
[What?] Natasha asked while waiting for the cavalry to enter into the mansion.
[Nat. It's a fortress hiding in the clouds. Trust me. We want it.] He told her.
[Why?] Nat didn't share his fascination.
[Think about it. What will you do with the army of mind-controlled assassins that Dreykov has under his control? It's practically impossible for most of them to live normal lives. We might as well take them in and use the Red Room as a base of operations. You could make them into a general crime-fighting division of the Avengers. The main team deals with large-scale threats while these girls who don't know anything better than to kill can put their skills to some use by taking a more street-based approach. It's a win-win.] He said to her, appealing to the person inside her who wanted to do good.
[We'll discuss this later.] Nat decided to think about it later.
And soon, Dreykov's Trickster Project walked into the living room where 'Melina' was standing.
"Let's not keep him waiting," Nat said to the intimidating armored individual in front of her while copying Melina's mannerisms. She'd observed her enough to copy her well enough.
***
Alexi groaned as he was the first to wake up. It made sense, his super soldier serum may not have increased his metabolism to the point of reaching Captain America, but it was still very high. His system was the first to get rid of the drugs.
"Request clearance for landing," Melina said into the intercom as she looked back and noticed Alexi having woken up.
"We're touching down in a minute." She told him.
"Then why are we still going up?" Just as he asked, the fortress in the sky became visible, hidden by an artificially generated cloud.
"And now you know how Dreykov stayed above the radar all these years," Melina said and the Trickster pushed a needle into Alexi's neck, drugging him to unconsciousness again.
…
A while later, Natasha, in disguise as Melina, was walking through the corridors with familiarity while getting directions from Alex who'd already read through Melina's memories.
[They haven't kept Yelena with Alexi and 'Natasha'] Alex told her.
[I guess they're going to start experimenting on her. She got through their mind control after all. They probably want to understand how the cure worked so that they can reverse-engineer it…] Natasha said. Not too worried. After she meets with Dreykov, Natasha was going to take over the entire ship and crew. Courtesy of Dreykov's mind control stuff, no one would have the power to disobey her.
She reached a door and waited as a camera detected her presence, there was a beep and the door opened to let her in.
"Melina… Look at you. It's been so long. How was the family reunion?" Dreykov was a large, chubby man with white hair and was wearing a suit and thick glasses. He got up from his couch and walked toward her.
"Annoying. They were clingy, needy, and overall annoying." She said to him as she looked around the room, noticing only one other person in the room apart from them. The Trickster.
"Yelena Belova. What's the deal with her? Are there more like her? Who got free." Dreykov got straight to business, not interested in hearing what she had to say.
"As far as I know, she's the only one who got free." She told him, [I'm waking Yelena. Her face is about to be skewered.] Alex told Natasha.
"This whole gasses and antidotes and more gasses thing… It's a pain in my ass. And you need to solve it." He ordered 'Melina'.
"All right, this has gone on long enough." Natasha wasn't interested in hearing anything more from the guy. She grabbed her face and pulled, [Alex…] She signaled and he understood that she did this so that it would seem as if she was taking off a standard Shield issue mask.
"Oh dear, what a surprise." Dreykov didn't seem surprised to see Natasha here.
"How are you, Natasha?" He asked as he smiled.
"You seem awfully confident." She smiled.
"Of course. Though I never expected that Melina would betray me like this." Dreykov said.

Natasha smiled, deciding not to clear up the misunderstanding, "So why are you here?" He asked her.
"To finish what I started I guess. I failed the last time, but not this time." Natasha said and put a finger in her ear, "Yelena? I hope you're up. Get yourself out of there and get the gas to the widows."
"About damn time," Yelena said from the other side.
"You should find a knife in your hand just about now," Nat told her and Yelena's reply was a series of grunts.
Nat knew that Yelena could take care of herself and looked at Dreykov again, "Can't let my baby sister get hurt, can I?" She smiled.
"What is this… overconfidence that I see in you? I never trained you to be like this." Dreykov looked disappointed.
"It's not really overconfidence." Nat shrugged her shoulders and fired a supercharged taser shot at the only other person in the room, immediately immobilizing the Trickster, "See?" She smiled as she walked to Dreykov who still seemed to be fearless as he looked at her. He had a specific stoic attitude that only old people with too much pride have.
"What do you think about her? Hm?" Dreykov pointed at the unconscious Trickster.
"Her?" Nat had an ominous premonition.
"Yes, her. She's my pride and joy, my greatest creation. To be honest I should thank you for giving me my greatest weapon."
"What are you talking about," Natasha asked as she frowned.
"When your bomb exploded. It nearly killed my daughter. My dear Antonia. I had to put a chip in the back of her neck. It seems that she needs some modifications though." He said with disappointment as if he was talking about some tool to be modified.
Nat couldn't even bother to hear any more from him and moved to punch him in the face but stopped mid-way. It was more like she was forced to stop mid-way, "What the fuck?" She exclaimed, [Alex?] She asked in her head.
[Give me a moment.] Alex hadn't remembered this moment from the movie and only now recalled it. Dreykov had conditioned every single Widow from the start to be conditioned to his pheromones. They couldn't attack the person that was emitting those pheromones. Alex could notice a specific conditioning in Natasha's brain that was forcing her to react in that manner.
[Didn't you read Melina's memories? I'm sure she knew.] Nat asked.
[I just glanced at them. I haven't processed every moment of her life from her birth to now. I just got the stuff that was deemed important.] He defended.
Meanwhile, Dreykov said, "See? I told you. You should never be overconfident. You are always going to be my creation." He said.
[Try now.] It only took Alex a moment to remove that specific conditioning from her mentality. He could alter people's memories, something as simple as removing mental conditioning was child's play for him.
Natasha grunted as she kicked at Dreykov, and this time she didn't freeze. As the kick connected, Dreykov was thrown off to the side, reaching his desk.
"How?!" He screamed as he desperately held his desk for support and tried to get up.

"I told you, Dreykov. I'm here to finish my mission." Nat said to him as she walked over to the fainted girl in the armor. She had to see.
At the same time, Dreykov started discretely moving to the terminal that was built into his desk. He was going to call in the Widows that were within his Flying Fortress to deal with Natasha. He'd truly panicked after how easily Natasha was able to bypass his pheromone lock.
Natasha walked to the person who still had her feeling guilty for everything and kneeled beside her, [It wasn't all your fault.] Alex tried to console her, but he didn't know how.
[It was, Alex. And it was meaningless…] Natasha grabbed the helmet and pulled it off. She took a sharp breath as she looked at the burnt face of the woman who was just a little girl when Natasha blew her up.
"I'm sorry…" She whispered as she got up from there and looked at Dreykov who was pointing a gun at her head.
"Realized that you can't use your terminal?" Nat smirked, hiding the guilt that she was feeling.
"You called in help?" He asked, assuming that she had someone like Tony Stark helping her.
"What? No… Why does everyone think that I'm a weakling." Nat grumbled as she walked to Dreykov, uncaring about the gun that he was pointing at her.
"Go on, take a shot. You can't do shit to me, dude. You're a weak pathetic man who can do nothing but hide in the dark and from today, you'll be dead too. Though, I do have a question for you." Nat said.
Dreykov was getting more and more rattled as his hands were shaking while pointing the gun at Natasha.
"What was the name of my mother?" Natasha asked. She wanted to know.
"Really? That's what you ask me?" Dreykov said and finally got the courage to shoot at Natasha. Though the bullet was stopped by an invisible wall in front of her face. It couldn't even touch her skin.
"Told you. You can't do shit to me." Nat reached him and grabbed his head, [I presume you've got his memories, Alex?] Nat asked.
[Totally.] He said and that was all Natasha need to know before releasing an intense electric current at Dreykov's head, frying his brain to mush. It was a controlled strike that completely destroyed his brain and killed him.
[Well, that was anti-climactic.] Alex said in her head.
"Yeah, you're right…" Nat took a seat in Dreykov's seat, "What now?" She asked out loud.
[I still have my suggestion about giving the Widows a choice between either becoming your personal assassin task force or retiring. For now, though, assemble every single one of them in this fortress, quite a few of them are currently out on missions. Then we can collectively give them the choices that they've never been given.] He said.
"I like that…" Nat started operating the terminal and gave instructions to all of the Widows that were out on missions. She told them all to converge in a specific location where they would be extracted and brought to the fortress.
At the same time, Nat put her finger on the earpiece and said, "Come to the control room, you should be able to find your way here. I've already taken care of everything. We have a lot of stuff to talk about."
"I didn't get to do anything…" Nat heard Yelena's sad voice from the other side.
"You are going to have a whole lot to do, don't worry," Nat told her. Meanwhile, she made sure to keep everyone in the fortress keep their positions and instruct them as necessary. Dreykov had quite a few firewalls in place, but with his memories and dead body beside Natasha, Alex was easily able to get Natasha access to all of his systems without any issues. And Dreykov is no Tony Stark. It wasn't going to be too difficult for Alex to brute force his way through either.
While Natasha was giving instructions to the people within the fortress and the Widows outside, she heard a whistle. It was a very specific whistle which was clearly a signal.
***
While Natasha was giving instructions to the people within the fortress and the Widows outside through Dreykov's terminal, she heard a whistle. It was a very specific whistle which was clearly a signal.
Remembering the reply to that signal from her childhood, Natasha whistled back in that specific pattern.
"You seem comfortable." Yelena showed up from the main door that Natasha had left open.
"If you say so…" Nat said. Yelena walked to the dead body of her captor and the person that she hated with a fiery passion.
"So it's done?" Yelena looked at Dreykov's corpse.
"Yep." Nat nodded.
"Good fucking riddance." Yelena was glad and stomped on Dreykov's face.
"So what do we do now?" Yelena asked.
"For starters, I've called in all the Widows that he's got deployed around the globe. We'll gather them all together and hit them with the gas that removes their mind control. Then… We'll give them a choice." Nat told her.
"Choice?" Yelena asked.
"I thought about it and realized that these girls were trained as killers for their entire lives. And I'm sure that it's going to be extremely difficult for them to transition to a normal life, for some it would be practically impossible." Nat continued with a look in her eyes that Yelena both understood and related with.
"Oh… That makes sense." Yelena nodded while looking to the side.
"Yeah. It's better than them becoming contract killers for people who make them do bad things. I was thinking of doing some sort of vigilante operation where we deploy teams of Widows to sweep through cities and slowly root out the deep crime syndicates that are no more than tumors for the world." Nat shared her thoughts with Yelena.
"I want in." She said.
"I was hoping you'd say that." Natasha smiled, "I can't exactly take care of so much all alone." Nat said with a little smile.
Yelena suddenly perked up and looked at Nat with narrow eyes, "Now. We have the time, we've even completed what we set out to do. You have got to tell me." Yelena walked to Natasha and sat on Dreykov's desk, right in front of the chair that Nat was sitting on.
"What?" She acted dumb, just to fuck with her.
"Come on! Tell me." Yelena held Natasha's shoulders and shook her.

"Fine, fine. Stop…" Natasha agreed, "I'm being helped by an alien slime monster. He can take any shape and that's how I am able to instantly change my clothes." To drive the point, Natasha's combat suit morphed into a hoodie and leggings. She didn't even move from the seat and her clothes changed.
"Woah… That's so cool." Yelena practically had stars in her eyes.
"It is. He's also the person that helps me turn invisible and shoot lightning out of my fingers." Nat said bringing her fingers up and giving Yelena a demonstration by creating a bolt of lightning between her index and middle fingers.
"Can I also get one?" Yelena asked with a pleading tone. As if she was a little girl asking her big sister for a toy.
"No, I—" Natasha was just about to refuse when she heard Alex tell her, [I'm thinking of making some automated armor mechanism for the Widow system. Something to give them a basic enhancement to their strengths and also protect them from harm. Tell Yelena to touch the choker on her neck and think about activating it.]
Natasha was impressed by Alex's idea and said, "On second thought, you feel that choker on your neck?" Nat pointed to Yelena's neck.
"What choker? When did this get here?" She grabbed it and started looking for the unclasping mechanism.
[See, they're weird.] Nat said, [Won't change the fact that I like them.] Alex was adamant.
"It's not coming off without my slimy friend wanting it to. But that's not the point. Think of activating the choker while holding it." Natasha instructed Yelena.
Yelena was a little freaked out and decided to follow Natasha's words and just as she thought of activating it, the collar burst into life and started expanding, taking over Yelena's clothes and forming a black combat bodysuit with red tones. There were two baton holsters at the back, forming an X shape and the entire suit had multiple storages for guns.
"Now don't deactivate it, or else you'll be buck naked when it goes back to become a collar," Nat was amused and warned Yelena who was too surprised at the situation.
"Tell the suit that you want to hide," Nat told Yelena again. And she followed instinctively. She didn't feel any different and brought up her hand to look.
She was surprised to see that she couldn't see her hand. It was camouflaged.
"You can't shoot lightning from your fingers since it's a bit more of a complicated ability, but you have quite a bit of strength augmentation. You can stand toe-to-toe against quite a number of super soldiers with your melee prowess being boosted by the suit. You can at least beat up Alexi if nothing else. And at least kinda stand toe to toe against Steve." Nat told Yelena, much to her shock.
"Holy mother of fuck." Yelena looked at Natasha with wide eyes. This wasn't really a big deal for Alex. He'd already made a similar collar for Cindy and he just reused the capability of the collar. It had the same monitoring system installed that could send the wearer to unconsciousness in case they were deemed volatile. But Alex saw no point telling Yelena or any of the other Widows about that little tidbit.
"I know. You can also set clothing modes for this. Mode 1 will be your default combat suit and from mode 2 and ahead, you have custom clothing options, you can just input any clothing outfit that you see and tell the choker to designate it to a specific mode. It's very flexible and you can explore it by yourself later." Nat told Yelena.
"Do you also have all of this?" Yelena asked.
"That's a dumb question, I have a lot more capabilities. I have the real deal, what you have is just an automated item that Apex made for you." Nat decided to namedrop Alex in front of Yelena. They'd already discussed it and Alex thought that Apex would suit him. It painted him as a sort of apex predator or apex symbiote which he quite liked the thought of. The name was also pretty close to his actual name while also matching the ideology of the symbiote names in Marvel. Venom, Carnage, Apex, etc. all of them were suitable names for the theme that symbiote names usually follow.
"I understand." Even knowing that she had a nerfed version didn't stop Yelena's enthusiasm.

"I'm thinking of giving this to the Widows that stay too. They would be an extremely deadly force when their prowess is boosted." Natasha said to Yelena.
"That's a good idea. We would be an unstoppable force in any scenario… We could do so much good. All while living in a huge air fortress." For the first time in a long time, Yelena was looking forward to the future.
"It'll be fun." Nat smiled at her enthusiasm.
"For now, I'll gather all the Widows in the training room and you can go there to blast them with the gas," Nat told her.
"About that. I couldn't find the gas. This fortress is huge and I have no idea about what is where." Yelena told her.
"My bad, I guess. I'll guide you on the way." Nat tapped her ear, signaling to the earpiece that Yelena still has.
"All righty…" Yelena left the room.
"Take a left…" Nat started guiding her through the fortress.
At the same time, she kept making preparations and coordinating with the Widows to have them rendezvous at the fortress.
…
A few hours later, 100 free Widows were standing in front of her in her office.
'Wasn't the number of Widows that were already in the base fewer?' Alex thought as he looked at the higher number of combatants in front of Natasha, 'Whatever,' He didn't care too much about it.
"So girls. I presume that you all understand your situations?" Natasha looked at each and every girl in the room and most of them nodded in response.
"So, as I see it, you have two main choices. One is to retire, look for a way to make a real family, and move to the real world. The other is to stay and become part of the Avengers." Nat told them and took a pause to let them digest her words.
Instantly, there were murmurs from the crowd as they all started discussing.
"You all should have a basic idea about who I am. I'm Black Widow. An Avenger. What you might not know is that I'm one of you. I came out of this very Red Room. Granted, it wasn't a flying fortress back then, but you should get the point." Nat told them. These were all relatively most likely initiates, and she wasn't familiar with any of them. So she wasn't sure if they knew about her coming out of the Red Room.
The murmurs got slightly more intense and were threatening to drown out her own speech so she said, "Silence." In an authoritative tone. At the same time, Alex imbued a mental suggestion in her voice to make it more effective. Natasha wasn't a born leader like Captain America so she needed some help to become a competent authority figure.
Her voice had an instant effect as everyone quieted down. She inwardly smiled as she realized that Alex had a hand in this. She wasn't charismatic to the point of instantly silencing a crowd of competent women like the ones here.
She continued, "So today, I am extending you an offer. The ones who choose to stay will become provisional members of the Avengers who will act as a peacekeeping force for the globe. I will give you all some time to think. Meanwhile, the ones who absolutely don't want to take part in the Avengers can stand on the left side here, "Nat pointed at another spot in the room.
***
Hearing Nat's words, some of the women were hesitant and quieted down to think. Some had resolute looks on their faces as they decided to stay.
At the same time, some of them didn't even think before moving to the left side.
By the end, the numbers practically halved as half of them wanted to never fight again.
Nat looked at the ones who wanted to leave, "Yelena will guide you all to the hangar, there is an aircraft that will take you away from here. Yelena," Nat looked at Yelena.
She guided the Widows out to the hangar. Nat had already shown her a rudimentary map of the fortress so she knew where to go.
"Now, to you guys. Are you sure?" Nat asked just this.
"We're sure." There was a collective answer. One of them came forward and said, "I think I speak for everyone here when I say, it will be extremely difficult for us to get used to a normal life after so many years doing nothing but killing and destroying. We can't have a normal life. Even with free will, we would've become mercenaries and bounty hunters." She said.
"I appreciate your honesty. And this is one of the main reasons that I decided to take over the Red Room and make it a subdivision of the Avengers. We will act as a peacekeeping force for the world. Uprooting the Cartels and the Families which have too much of an unfair advantage and are unrestrained in their actions. We will be targeting them."
Seeing that none of them budged, Nat didn't ask again. She got up from her chair and walked up to them.
"Fine then, you guys can move to your common room and do whatever you want. I'll be deploying you all on missions in groups of two's to gauge your capabilities and understand how everyone works and does things together. Then I'll decide on everything and make a streamlined communication process. By then, the widows that are deployed around the world will also most likely come back." Nat told them.
"Also, I'll be setting up benefits and a job structure for you all. You aren't eternal slaves and will be paid for your services just like employees and will be contacted by me. I'll let you all know about it after I set everything up." She dispersed the widows.
"This might be a bigger pain than I expected…" She commented.
[It'll be fine. I'll tell you about something that I ended up doing recently. I took over Wakanda.] Alex dropped the bomb on her.
"What?!" She jumped up from her seat. Black tendrils started extending from her body and Alex's figure formed in front of her.
"Yes. I've taken care of Killmonger and taken his place. I'm in control of that entire nation now. And I have a huge number of things planned." He told Natasha.
"You've taken over Wakanda." She looked at him with disbelief marring her face.
"Yep." He told her.
"The same one that we went to?" Natasha just couldn't believe it.
"Yes." He walked over to the seat that Nat was sitting on and sat on it.
"Holy fuck…" She was going to need some time to come to terms with everything.
…
In Research Earth.
"Finally!" Alex looked at the vial of substance that would allow him to make himself immune to the whole sound and heat bullshit.

Ever since he'd gotten the data to create Extremis from Laura's Earth, he'd been working to incorporate its properties into himself.
This was the method that Tony Stark had used during the run of Superior Iron Man to create his strongest suit— The Endo-Sym Armor. It was basically a suit that he'd created using Venom and incorporating it with Extremis to combat Venom's weakness to heat and sound.
Alex looked at the vial that would fix almost all his problems with an almost longing look before shaking his head.
'Not yet.' He wasn't going to directly inject it into himself. He would be running some tests on this first.
Alex looked at a glass box beside him and separated a part of his body before sealing it inside the box. Though this was different from his usual body creation.
This time, he didn't forcefully control this body with his own will. He gave this part of the body free reign so that it could develop its own consciousness. He was basically using the usual reproduction method of the Klyntar race.
A part of the symbiote body that wasn't controlled by a consciousness would automatically develop its own consciousness.
'Now we wait.' He thought. This process could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few days.
"What are you doing, Alex?" Gwen asked from the side. She'd been a part of the whole process of the development of the cure. She was a vital part since she was at her core a biochemical engineer and she was perfect for this job. He hadn't told her about his testing process.
"You know how we made this to combat an issue with the suit, right?" He asked.
"Yeah." She said.
"Well, what I just did was instruct that bio-suit to split a part of itself and store it in that container. Now the catch is that it's not controlling that split body, unlike the other times that it has formed clones, this time, it's not in control of that part of its body. What this does is that it allows this piece right here to form its own consciousness to become a living being. It's like how cells divide, or how microorganisms asexually reproduce." He gave an example.
"I see… And how long will this process that?" She asked as she looked at it with fascination in her eyes.
"Probably an hour or so. Normally this process isn't that long and can be completed within a few minutes, but the situation is a bit complicated. Less time is taken when the reproduction process is natural, but what I did is to force the reproduction, hence it takes more time to develop its consciousness." He explained to Gwen.
"So interesting…" She and Alex spent the next hour or so studying the unmoving blob of black slime while Gwen asked more about the symbiote's physiology.
Finally, there was a twitch in the blob that was present in the glass case.
"It's developed its consciousness." Gwen looked at it and Alex thought, 'Could I devour more of these to increase my mental capacity?'
Not wasting any more time, Alex injected the fluid of substance into the blob that had just developed its consciousness.
'Now we wait before the testing period…' He thought. A few seconds later, "This might take a bit longer…" He said as he turned to look at Gwen with a look that told her about his intentions.
"No horny!" She bonked him on the head.
"But, Gwen…" He looked at her incredulously.
"Come on, big boy. Not here. We have so much more to do. The shield still hasn't been completed." She appeased him.
"Fine." She could've sworn that he was pouty as she looked at him.
…

Soon, Alex left Gwen to her tasks and came to test out the effects of the Extremis formula on his new symbiote 'child'. One that he will be devouring soon.
He pressed a button and an imperceptible high-pitched sound was released within the chamber of the symbiote. It was isolated within the chamber so that it wouldn't affect Alex.
The symbiote acted as if it couldn't hear or feel anything. And that was all the reaction that Alex needed to know that everything was perfectly fine.
'4 different tries…' He thought as he looked at the symbiote that was finally unaffected by sound. He'd already tried this 3 times on his own before bringing Gwen into this since that involved telling her about his weaknesses which he didn't want to do. But in the end, he had to ask for her help. And it worked perfectly with her assistance. She was a genius biochemist for a reason.
Looking at the immune symbiote, Alex decided to devour it to see if his plan about devouring his own offspring is viable.
Another press of the button caused the released sound to cease and Alex put his hand within the jar before devouring his immune offspring.
"Dammit…" He cursed as he couldn't feel himself getting stronger. Neither did he feel like the immunity affected him. It was like the devouring process was no more than him merging back with a clone of his. All of its properties disappeared and all that was left was Alex.
'Worth a try, I guess." He thought before injecting the second injection that he'd prepared into his own body. It didn't matter if he injected any of his bodies since they were all connected to the same consciousness. So he didn't waste any time.
"Fuck, that hurts!" He held his head as he felt like his mind was about to burst apart. He kneeled on the ground in a fetal position while pressing on the sides of his head to feel some sort of relief but it was useless.
And within seconds, he lost consciousness. It wasn't just him, but all of his bodies. Be it clones or hosts or the body in the spaceship. All of them lost consciousness.
His main consciousness within the Klyntar Soul Dimension had gone dormant while its natural glow was fluctuating in intensity.
…
"Alex! Alex!" Laura screamed as she tried to wake Alex up but to no avail.
…
[What's going on, Alex?] Wanda asked as she felt Alex's presence disappearing, [Alex?!]
…
"Hey, wake up." Natasha shook him as she tried to wake him up while he was sitting in Dreykov's seat, [Alex!] "Alex?!" She called out.
…
"Alex!" Gwen screamed as her training session was interrupted. Alex's body just slumped to the ground as she was fighting him, "ALEX!"
…
The scientist Gwen came to the lab to check up on Alex and saw him slumped on the counter, seemingly asleep, "Alex? Come on, come to bed." She shook him. "Alex? Wake up." She tried but to no avail.
***
"Alex… Wake up. Please!" Wanda desperately begged as she focused within herself on the connection that was Alex's body. It had just gone dormant and she couldn't feel his presence anymore. All she could feel was his body, but his consciousness was gone.
"Alex! Please…" She knelt on the ground at the spot that she'd just been training on.
"Please…" She whimpered while clasping her hands together and begging him to wake up.
"Don't leave me…" Tears were falling down her eyes as she begged everything within her power to protect Alex. She didn't realize it, but her eyes had started glowing a deep crimson as she pleaded and pleaded. The tears that were falling on the snowy mountain were boiling as they melted the snow and made steam rise up.
Wanda's body itself had grown warm enough that she was melting the snow below her and was slowly sinking within the snow. Thin tendrils of pure crimson Chaos energy were extending out from her body and were connected to the ground as they pushed her energy within the ground while also sucking it back in.
It was a loop that was concentrating and purifying the energy that she was naturally creating. Purer energy meant that the effect of her magic would be greater with the same amount of energy.
But she wasn't focusing on any of this. She just kept focusing on her dormant connection with Alex as she begged again and again. Her Chaos energy gathered around her instinctively, responding to her request.
This process lasted for no more than a few minutes, but Wanda was just repeatedly begging Alex to not leave her like a broken tape recorder. And the concentration of Chaos energy within her body had grown to alarming levels. If she could use it with full proficiency, it would be enough to completely destroy the Earth multiple times over until nothing remained.
This was when she felt her connection with Alex fluctuating, "Alex!" She tried to call him but to no avail. He was it was just a momentary flicker before he went dormant again.
But this broke a switch in Wanda, "ALEX!!" She screamed desperately and the huge amount of Chaos energy that she'd gathered exploded out, practically vaporizing her surroundings completely.
But that was no more than the remnant energy that was released due to her bad control and unfamiliarity with the energy.
Most of that gathered energy had been thrown into the connection that she had with Alex, passing through space and even dimensions to reach his consciousness as the milky white sphere that was his soul, suddenly gained a light red hue.
…
Just then, "Huh?!" Alex woke up with a jolt, 'Is it done?' He focused on how long it had been and realized that it had only been a few minutes, 'Shouldn't it have taken longer?' He thought. He'd assumed that due to his huge consciousness, he should've taken even longer than the offspring.
That was when the situations of his worried hosts came to him, most of them were just worried and were fine so he decided to appease them with a little explanation.
But that was when he noticed Wanda's situation.
"Fuck…" He was standing in the middle of a wasteland with no traces that it was ever a beautiful snowy mountain with a collapsed Wanda in front of him.
He hurriedly picked her up in his arms and looked around.
'Miles around her destroyed… I fucked up. I should've warned her.' He didn't realize that Wanda would be so perceptible to his dormancy. He knew that the rest of his hosts would be fine and he would wake up by the time it got worrisome. But he had forgotten to account for Wanda's insecurity in this.

'She is why I woke up early…' He had just now noticed the red hue around his soul that seemed to be strengthening and protecting it at the same time. It also seemed to be compressing his soul into a denser form.
'What did you do, Wanda…' He looked at the fainted girl in his arms with a worried look and thought about where he would take her. Her actions had resulted in the surrounding mountain range getting completely obliterated and the mansion hadn't survived either.
'I guess I could take her to Wakanda…' He thought, 'I should wake her up, first.'
"Wake up, little Scarlet…" Alex held her lovingly in his arms as he brought her face close to his and nudged his nose against hers.
"Wanda…" He shook her awake again while revitalizing her slightly.
"Alex…" Wanda comfortably shuffled slightly and pressed her face against Alex's face.
"Wake up." He shook her awake again and she finally woke up, "Alex!" Her eyes shot open with desperation within them.
"I'm here… I'm here." He shushed her and held her close.
"You're okay… You're okay…" Wanda held on to him tightly and felt his presence soothing her. Alex felt his chest getting wet as Wanda's tears fell on his shirt.
"I'm here, Wanda. I was just asleep. You didn't have to worry, so much…" He told her before creating a couch on the ground. He sat on it with Wanda in his lap.
"This was different. Even when you're asleep, I can feel you. But—but this time… I couldn't— I couldn't feel you… I was terrified that I'd lost you…" She cried even harder as she said those things.
Alex shushed her gently while rubbing her back and running his other hand through her hair. "I'm fine, baby. I'm fine…" He felt comforted inside that she cared so much about him. While also chiding himself for not informing her ahead of time.
Some more time later, Wanda fell back to sleep, this time she was as at peace as she could be. She knew that Alex was fine and felt safe while being enveloped in his warm arms. Alex spent that time deep in thought when finally, a ship descended to the ground close to them.
It was Wakanda's Royal Aircraft. It could only be used by the Wakandan Royal family. As it landed, the ramp lowered, and 'Killmonger' stepped down from the craft.
He nodded toward Alex and signaled him to walk to the craft.
This was all for the sake of appearances as Alex wasn't planning on mind fucking anyone in Wakanda unless really necessary. In fact, he was planning on taking over the country in the most normal way. By controlling the politics to be in his favor. He wanted all of Wakanda's manpower and intellect under his control, and mind-fucking people was a very inefficient way of doing that.
Alex walked up the ramp of the aircraft with Wanda in his arms. 'Killmonger' followed Alex and the ramp closed behind him.
"Go back to Wakanda, the Royal Palace." 'Killmonger' told the driver after walking up. Meanwhile, Alex set Wanda down on a bed in one of the bedrooms in the craft. It was a luxury craft with multiple rooms and everything.
…

"Mhm… Alex." Wanda woke up feeling the warm arms of her lover wrapped around her.
"Morning sleepyhead." He kissed her on the forehead as she looked at him with sleepy eyes.
"Alex!" Wanda hugged him tightly and nuzzled her face against his chest. She kept rubbing her face on him and clung to him as if her life depended on it.
A few minutes later, there was a growling sound coming from Wanda's stomach.
[I'm hungry…] She was a little embarrassed, but her actions didn't stop. Her face was still nuzzling on his chest and her legs were tangled up with his.
"I'll need you to let me go so that we can get up to eat…" He told her.
[I don't care.] She wasn't planning on budging. She was terrified that she'd lost Alex too and she would need some time to get herself together. Alex understood this and ran his fingers through Wanda's hair while whispering soothing words to her.
Around half an hour later, she was finally satisfied and her hunger was starting to get a little unbearable. After all, she had just exerted herself to an extreme extent and nutrition was very much necessary.
'I'll talk to her about the level 3 bond after we're done with the food.' Alex thought.
"I'll call someone in for the food." He told her after Wanda was finally willing to separate from him.
"Aren't we at the mansion?" Wanda frowned and looked around, finally realizing that this wasn't their room in the mountains.
"You were too busy cuddling to realize that this isn't our room," Alex smiled at her, "We're in Wakanda." He said.
"What?!" Wanda's lazy expression instantly changed to a vigilant one and she was about to get up. Alex noticed a red glow in her eyes.
"Hey, hey! Calm down. We're safe. I made some moves and took over Killmonger. I'm essentially the king of Wakanda now." He told her, holding her back from destroying the entire palace.
She had a slight surprise on her face as she looked at him with a deeper frown, "You aren't lying?" She confirmed.
"Why would I lie to you? And how would we be in the royal castle of Wakanda if I was? In the master bedroom of the King, no less." He looked at her with a helpless smile. They were in the best room in the castle, which was obviously the King and Queen's chamber.
"Cool…" She didn't treat it as a big deal and continued, "I want the stuff that you made for me on our date in the snow…" She told him.
"Your wish is my command." He said, "Meanwhile, as it's being prepared, we can continue where we left off." Not giving her any time to reply, he pressed his lips over hers and started making out with her again.
***
As the duo of Wanda and Alex enjoyed their time together, Alex's thoughts were also focused on his changes.
The red hue that his soul had gained was just one of his concerns. His main concern was about immunity to his most prominent weaknesses. And he was glad to say that he'd truly achieved immunity to the effects of Heat and Sound waves.
One would need to know what Alex had gone through when he was unconscious for a few minutes to understand what exactly happened.
…
Mere moments after Alex went unconscious, he was thrown into a scene that had him reeling in instinctive pain.
As he looked around the area, he seemed to be in some sort of cave, and a clanking sound was reverberating throughout the cave.
'The forge of the Necrosword…' Alex realized where he was. This wasn't just any average forge, this was the corpse of a dead Celestial at the dawn of the universe. The very corpse whose head would come to be known as Knowhere in the far future. Celestials are among the strongest beings in the entire Marvel Multiverse, and the corpse of one of those beings was used to forge All Black the Necrosword.
All Black was the prime symbiote. The first one to be made using the shadow of Knull. It was imbued by the divine power of the dead celestial and took the form of a sword. All Black was the prime symbiote and the symbiote race was derivative of the prime symbiote.
*Clank*
Alex was brought out of his thoughts by a clank that made him shudder down to his soul and with each Clank, he felt his entire existence whimpering with an instinctual fear. It was the kind of fear that wasn't just felt by his consciousness, but also by his body, his entire existence was permeating with the fear that struck him with each clank.
Trying his best to suppress the pain and fear at the sounds that were created by the hammer striking the anvil, Alex looked around, 'It's like I'm lucid dreaming…' He thought. He had rudimentary control over his movements.
He tried to look around to understand why he was brought here and the significance of the current situation.
As he got closer to Knull, the sounds got louder, but contrary to what he expected, Alex was feeling the pain from the effects of the sounds less and less. It was a very weird situation, but he could understand that this was the effect of Extremis.
As he looked at the repetitive process of the hammer striking a pitch-black substance on the anvil, Alex felt himself getting lost in the rhythm of the sounds. He stayed quiet as he looked at the process of one of the most deadly tools in the universe being created.
At the same time, he felt something changing, as if something was enveloping his entire being. The situation of this lucid dream changed as its time factor changed and started moving slower than reality. This way, Alex wouldn't be stuck here for hours or even days while waiting for the dream to conclude.
"Thee shalt be called All Black!" A loud voice filled with ancientness and authority echoed through the entire forge as Alex was forced out of his reverie. It wasn't English, Alex was sure that it wasn't any known language in the universe, but he could still understand it instinctively. He looked at the sword that was in the hands of Knull, All Black the Necrosword.
Just as the sword was forged from his own shadow, Knull casually swung the sword. And a beam of pitch black was released in the arc as he swung the sword. That black light proceeded to cut through the corpse of the celestial and cut it in half, proceeding to go even further beyond.
"HAHAHA!" Knul started laughing like a madman as he looked at the aftermath of the destruction caused by the Necrosword.

Meanwhile, Alex was left in awe at the destroyed state of the celestial's corpse. Although it was already dead, this was still the body of a celestial. Metals like Vibranium are nothing in front of these beings and the Necrosword just cut through it as if it was nothing.
After calming down, Knull looked at the sword blankly, as if trying to understand something. Abruptly, Knull struck the anvil with the hammer that he was using, and the effects were obvious. The surface of the Necrosword started losing its shape and vibrating with an intensity that conveyed its instinctive pain.
"You'll know better than to influence me. I am your creator. I can destroy you just as I created you." Knull stated. He'd programmed these weaknesses into All Black so that it would always stay under his control. Otherwise, something made from the divine power of a celestial shouldn't have such a glaring weakness.
'I didn't feel anything from that sound…' Alex had a realization as he was observing the conception of the prime symbiote.
'Finally…' He felt as if a huge burden was released from him, and he was finally safe from being affected by unnecessary sounds.
At the same time, his first action was to manipulate his interface.
«Owned Skills: ‹Superhuman Grade Physique Creation (200 Tons)› ‹True 6th Sense› ‹Intermediate Lightning Manipulation› ‹Basic Blood Manipulation› ‹High Magic Affinity› ‹Host of the Scarlet Witch› ‹Biological Manipulation› ‹Inventory› ‹Camouflage› ‹Host Enhancement› ‹Devour› ‹Copy›»
He directly removed that shitty resistance skill. Symbiotes were naturally immune to practically everything in the known universe, the only exceptions being heat and sound. And now, that roster was finally complete. He was truly immune to virtually everything in the known universe, maybe everything except cosmic energy.
He also noticed something else, "Hm?" Just as he was about to delve into it, he was abruptly pulled out of the dream and his consciousness instantly returned to all his bodies.
Though the first thing that he noticed was the new red glow around his Huge blob of consciousness, 'Wanda… I fucked up. I should've told her.' He realized. And he put the thought of ‹High Magic Affinity› to the back of his head and brought everything back on track.
…
"This is amazing, Alex…" Wanda stated as she ate the food that was brought by the same pretentious French waiter that served them during their date. It had become sort of a running gag for them.
"I know." He said.
Wanda rolled her eyes but didn't say anything, "Try this." She brought a bite that she'd held in her hand close to his face. Alex ate the bite and also sucked her finger in his mouth, giving it a thorough lick before releasing her finger.
Wanda had a slight smile on her face as she brought her hand back, but there was a slight blush on her cheek.
After they were done with the food they cuddled back down on the bed while talking.
Alex gave a thought to the reddish hue around his soul and the new ‹High Magic Affinity› skill. He felt internally grateful to Wanda for this.
"Babe?" He asked as he lightly massaged her head.

"Mhm?" She asked, her face buried in his chest as she enjoyed his caresses.
"I was thinking about increasing the depth of our bond…" He said absently.
"Let's do it." She perked up and looked at him with sparkles in her eyes.
"You don't even know what I'm talking about." He smiled amusedly.
"I don't care. If it means that I can feel you even more closely, then I'm up for it." She said as she leaned closer to his face, "I love you, Alex… So much." She looked into his eyes and confessed her feelings.
He held the side of her face and pulled her even closer, to the point that their lips were practically touching, "I love you too, Wanda…" He gently smiled as he brought her in for a kiss.
Wanda moaned into his mouth as she felt euphoric when she heard those words from Alex's mouth. She couldn't help herself and started lightly grinding herself on his crotch and slowly rubbing herself on him. She was feeling amazing right now, and it wasn't due to any external effects. Just his words made her feel such euphoria, nothing more.
She tightly hugged him as she felt herself bubbling with passion, at the same time, in her excitement, her Chaos energy was being released outward and spreading all over the room. Alex saw and utilized his own Chaos Magic to contain her magic within the room. He didn't want to create an unnecessary commotion throughout the castle.
It was just an instinctive release from Wanda's side and there was no intent behind it, so the energy was just permeating through the room without affecting anything as Wanda kissed him passionately.
Feeling her overwhelming passion bubbling, Alex was also being stimulated by those emotions. He was happy that he meant so much to Wanda.
As Wanda kept grinding on his crotch, feeling his erection pressing against her covered core, Alex noticed that the free Chaos energy in the air that Wadna was releasing was being absorbed by the Vibraniun in the walls.
'This might have some interesting effects…' Alex thought. He still made sure that the energy was only absorbed by the Vibranium within the room and didn't extend out to the whole castle since he didn't know what kind of effect it would have.
But he didn't care too much about that. His focus was completely on Wanda. She was tightly hugging him with her hands wrapped around his torso as she rubbed her pelvis over his covered hardness. He could feel her perky breasts and her hard nubs pressing against his chest as she passionately pushed her tongue into his mouth, starting a battle of tongues with him.
He wasn't passive for too long as his hands wrapped around her waist and trailed down to her butt before squeezing both her ass cheeks.
[Oh, Alex~] She moaned without separating from him as her actions increased even more in intensity.
[Let's take things up a notch…] He said in her head with a husky voice.
At the same time, Wanda's and Alex's clothes disappeared, leaving them naked.
***