New fanfiction: Batman and Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, confront Nick Fury with their info on Natasha Romanova and learn Fury’s startling secret.
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“Dialing,” Friday’s robotic yet decidedly female voice responded.
A moment later, Fury came on the line through the helmet’s external speaker.
“The only reason I answered this phone is because I think you’re going to tell me something very important,” Fury said.
“Hello, Nick,” Stark said. “Here with the Batman. He has a name for you.” Stark motioned to Batman.
“Who is Natasha Romanova?” Batman asked.
Fury was silent for a moment. “How is she related to this?”
“She was the lovely redhead who stole the data chip from the Legionnaire Mark II,” Stark said. “Batman tells me she’s also in cahoots with a Gotham mob boss… Black Mask.”
To Batman, he whispered, “The colorful names your mob bosses have.”
“I’ll take that under advisement, gentlemen,” Fury replied.
“Tell us who she is, Fury,” Batman demanded.
“We haven’t had the chance to talk before, Batman. We know each other by reputation only. And I must say yours is formidable. But I’m not one of those costumed clowns you scare half to death in Gotham.
“Now I appreciate all you and Mr. Stark have done in this case (minus the property damage), but SHIELD will handle it from here.”
Stark looked to Batman. The Dark Knight didn’t look finished.
“Answer me this, general,” Batman began.
“The cyanide used by the thieves in Gotham and here in Vegas was standard potassium cyanide. I also examined the tooth itself. It was made exclusively by Terminus Cosmetics.
“Terminus has an exclusive contract with SHIELD for the same teeth.”
“Your point?” Fury said.
“Either it’s your people working to steal from Stark, or you have a mole.”
Stark did a double take, then gave Batman a thumb up. Batman didn’t react.
“Okay,” Fury said. His pained expression signaled they were entering territory Fury would rather not disclose.
“Romanova’s one of mine. But she hasn’t gone rogue. She’s been on lockdown at the Triskelion ever since Stark told me about the redhead in Gotham.”
“So who is the one in Gotham?” Batman asked.
“That’s a bit more complicated. Easy answer: she’s a clone of my agent.”
Stark leaned forward on the sofa. “You can do that?”
“SHIELD can’t,” Fury responded. “But someone can and did. Cloned several of my agents a few weeks ago. We destroyed them all, save Romanova’s.”
“You’ve been in this business long enough to know your enemies, Fury,” Batman said. “Who are we dealing with?”
“An organization calling themselves HYDRA.”
Stark looked to Batman again. “Never heard of them,” he said.
“I’m surprised,” Fury said, “seeing as your father helped the early incarnation of SHIELD fight them in World War Two.”
Stark was genuinely surprised. “Well, that’s not the kinda thing you talk about at dinner. Then again, family dinner night wasn’t exactly a thing either.”
Batman cut in. “Are you saying the organization that co-opted the Nazis near the end of the war survived?”
“At least one of you knows your history,” Fury said. Stark frowned at the rebuke. Fury continued.
“From what we’ve uncovered in the past year, HYDRA went underground after the war, regrouped and solidified power. Instead of playing it big as a nation-state of terrorists, they’ve quietly infiltrated world institutions.”
“Including SHIELD,” Batman said.
“Unfortunately. And we’ve yet to access the depth to which HYDRA has infiltrated.”
“That in mind,” Stark said, “maybe you need us to handle this for you.”
“The thought had grudgingly crossed my mind. You have any leads on Vanko?”
Stark looked to Batman and shrugged.
“Batgirl encountered a middleman between the rogue Romanova and Mask. She found an encrypted USB drive.”
“And I’ll add this,” Stark said. “Vanko did enough reverse engineer work on my tech that he could probably build a robot drone. He’d need the interface data chip to get it working.”
“So where ever he’s gone,” Fury began, “it’d be a safe bet that he has everything he needs to have a functioning knock-off Legionnaire.”
“Seems that way,” Stark replied. “And judging from his tampering with the gauntlets, HYDRA must already have a manufacturing base.”
Silence from Fury.
After a moment, he said, “I’m having Coulson standby with a quinjet. Batman: the moment you hear from Batgirl, you and Stark are on that quinjet and headed to stop HYDRA.”
To be continued…
While writing this fanfiction, I used Green Ronin’s Mutants and Masterminds, 3rd Edition RPG, to leave some things to chance. Check it out!
Like this fanfiction? Check out Mark’s original “Shadowdance” saga books!
Copyright Info
DC Adventures, Copyright 2011, Green Ronin Publishing; Author Steve Kenson. Now it’s Mutants and Masterminds, 3rd Edition
Advanced Player’s Manual, Copyright 2005, Green Ronin Publishing: Author Skip Williams.
The characters Iron Man, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Vanko, Black Widow and Nick Fury are Copyright Marvel Comics
The characters Batman/ Bruce Wayne, Batgirl/ Barbara Gordon, Black Mask, the Penguin/ Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, Renee Montoya, Commissioner Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth, Robin/ Dick Grayson, KGBeast and Bane are Copyright DC Comics
None of the characters belong to me as this is fanfiction, done for fun, and as a creative exercise.
