In the latest installment of fanfiction from “Shadowdance” author Mark Wooden, Batman confronts SHIELD agent Coulson for letting the Widow kill the clone. Fury debriefs a recovering Tony Stark.
Want to read this from the beginning? CLICK HERE!
Down below, SHIELD agents converged on the location, their weapons aimed at the rooftop.
“Stand down!” Coulson said over his earpiece. His men lowered their weapons but remained on the alert.
“Widow told me you were upset,” Colson said.
“That woman didn’t have to die!” Batman said.
“We couldn’t have a clone of one of our top agents working for the enemy. The other clones were dealt the same hand.”
Batman glared at Coulson. “The information she could have given us —”
“Is moot. Now kindly put Agent Coulson back on his feet.”
That was the real Black Widow.
Coulson looked over Batman’s shoulder to see the red-haired agent standing behind them. Her hands were on her hips in a show of defiance.
Batman glanced over his shoulder. “She was contained.”
The Widow looked away from Batman. “I’m not in the mood for a pissing contest. Please let Coulson down so I can go process the fact that Fury just had me shoot myself.”
Batman glared at Coulson, then threw him on the roof.
“Before you executed her,” Batman began, “she said she’d already uploaded the info on the data chip to HYDRA.”
Coulson got to his feet. “We’re taking Vanko’s computers. Let’s hope she did it from one of them so we can trace it back.”
Off Batman’s grimace, he added, “I know you don’t approve of our methods, Batman, but you did a lot to help us wrap this up. The general thanks you for that.”
“You want to thank me?” Batman asked. “Stay out of Gotham. And stay out of my way.”
Both Coulson and the Widow could tell Batman’s words were not a request.
The Dark Knight reached to his utility belt and pressed a button on a cylindrical device. A moment later, the Batpod roared into the area. The SHIELD agents parted to let it through.
Batman stepped off the roof, using his cloak to glide to the ground. He then mounted his motorcycle and drove away from the scene.
“Fury wants us to let him go?” the Widow asked.
Coulson turned to her, showing his incredulous look. “You want to stop him?”
Thanks to the timely arrival of the SHIELD cavalry, Stark was rescued and moved into a SHIELD safe house in Russia. They woke him enough for him to deactivate the booby-traps on his armor, so they could remove it.
Days later, he found himself at home in Manhattan’s Stark Tower, specifically his lavish bedroom.
Thanks to the lavish part, he could fit the necessary medical equipment to continue his recovery.
Stark knew who to thank — Nick Fury. Unfortunately, that also meant he had to do the debriefing with him, now that he was up for it.
“Pretty ballsy blowing your hand off like that,” Fury said. That was as close to a compliment Stark would ever get from the man.
“You get back my data?” Stark asked from the bed, still groggy from all the efforts at healing him.
Fury turned away from Stark, which meant the answer was “no.”
“Thanks to you and Batman,” Fury began, “we at least know what HYDRA knows about making a man-machine interface.
“We also have Vanko, so until they find another scientist who can think like you, we’ve slowed their progress if not rendered it DOA.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll kidnap Luthor,” Stark quipped. “What happened to Batman, anyway?”
“He wasn’t too pleased with my solution, but he did his part. Hear he’s back in Gotham dealing with some lethal vigilante calling himself the Electrocutioner. Where they come up with these names…”
“Don’t look at me. ‘The Daily Bugle’ gave me mine.”
Fury pretended to look at the medical equipment’s monitors. Stark used the lull to look at the stump of his right arm.
Losing the hand had hurt all right, but at the time he couldn’t trust hitting KGBeast with a Unibeam shot.
Even if he did, he’d still have had to deal with the three other guards waiting for him. His armor wouldn’t hold up to their blasters forever.
Again, he made the right call, but at what cost? He’d have to make one more robotic part — a permanent hand. Stark was slowly becoming a true Iron Man.
To be concluded in a double-sized epilogue!
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. It’s now 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.
