If Drex Valen was behind this, then things had just beco a lot more troubleso.
Nick Fury did not want to believe that was the case, but he still activated Natasha Romanoff, who had already infiltrated Blade Technology Industries as a senior assistant.
Under the alias Natalie, Natasha received the assignnt and felt the familiar sting of it all. She had not even beco a truly important figure here yet, and now she was already being sent to dig into the boss's secrets.
Natasha Romanoff, Black Widow. Born Natalia Alianovna Romanova in 1928 in Stalingrad, in the forr Soviet Union. Trained from childhood by Soviet intelligence, her body had later been altered by the state to slow aging, strengthen her immune system, and sharpen her resistance to punishnt. Combined with years of brutal physical and psychological conditioning, she had beco exactly what her codena promised: a lethal spider in human skin. She had later betrayed the Red Room and joined the Avengers. Age-wise, she was only eight years younger than Captain Arica.
That ant that in the year 2000, she was already very old by ordinary standards.
According to the comics, Natasha had once been involved with the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes, and the two had even shared a bed, back when they were both in the Soviet system. But that relationship had never been allowed by the state. She had been ordered to break it off and marry test pilot Alexei Shostakov instead.
It had been an arranged marriage, but Natasha had genuinely fallen for Alexei. Then, not long after, she was inford by her superiors that Alexei had died during a rocket test. Heartbroken, she threw herself back into her work.
After that, Natasha truly beca the Black Widow.
She took mission after mission, slipping into Western social circles, using beauty as a weapon, seducing scientists, and turning them into Soviet assets.
Now she moved carefully through the restricted areas of the company, places even her superior Uld did not have clearance to enter. If there was a secret hidden anywhere, it would be there. And if the kidnapping of Tony Stark really had been done by Drex Valen, then maybe Stark was being held in that sa zone.
What Natasha did not know was that Black Queen had already spotted her the mont she got close. Black Queen imdiately inford Drex, and Drex raised an eyebrow, a little surprised. Through a pinhole cara, he looked at the intruder.
A very beautiful woman.
Unfortunately, she did not resemble Scarlett Johansson, so he did not recognize her at a glance.
"A female agent?" Drex asked, sounding mildly entertained.
He watched with interest, wanting to see how the lovely little spy would deal with the traps he had laid.
The 50-milliter-thick secondary Kryptonite door gave Natasha nowhere to begin. With too little information, she could not even figure out how to open it. She guessed it had to be so kind of advanced technology she did not understand. After all, the entire world now agreed that Drex Valen was the only real genius of the century. Blade Technology Industries had beco one of the places every top researcher wanted to get into. Before this, that sort of attention had belonged to Stark Industries alone.
Natasha took out a tiny cara and photographed everything she could. Every angle, every corner. Maybe SHIELD's researchers could work out how to open the door if she brought the footage back.
What she did not know was that behind the door was a laser corridor.
Unless she had so absurd protagonist-level luck or the soul of Alice herself riding shotgun, she would die without even understanding how.
Drex was not in a hurry. He looked away and returned to his own research.
chanical soldiers.
Krypton had once used them as battlefield units, built to fight alongside Kryptonians. After all, even if Kryptonians were not exactly few in number by Earth standards, they were still too few to rule one hundred thousand worlds without help. chanical soldiers had existed to assist with governance and control.
With a super AI controlling them, they had excellent managent and support capabilities. Since Drex had already created Black Queen, a true super AI, there was no reason to ignore the chanical soldiers too.
Because of technical limitations, the version Drex built could only be considered decent.
Each one carried four gatling guns, a 75-milliter recoilless cannon mounted on the shoulders, and a six-legged chanical lower body, giving it the mobility to fight in any environnt.
On Krypton, these machines were powered by compact hydrogen batteries. Drex had a much better option now: a Drex Elent fire-source reactor. One unit could power a chanical soldier until the machine was completely worn out, and the energy output would let it fight like a nimble steel spider, slashing and shredding across the battlefield.
The outer armor was still layered in secondary Kryptonite, which improved defense. Grade A Kryptonite was far too expensive to use on these units.
Drex built the chanical soldiers with the Chitauri and Thanos's Black Order in mind. War Machine was the stripped-down version, but it still gave nations the ability to defend themselves instead of being left unable to fight back at all.
Tony Stark was having a much worse day.
Drex did not hand him over to the Ten Rings, because that might have been too easy to screw up. Instead, he had people pose as Middle Eastern terrorists.
"He wants you to build War Machine for him. Then he'll set you free," said an old white man nad Laufi, filling the role that Yinsen had played in another tiline.
Tony Stark stared at the man in front of him, who was practically lecturing at him like a stage villain.
"He's not going to do that," Tony said flatly.
He knew it. He also could not help wondering why he was the one who had been screwed over like this. If sobody wanted War Machine built, they should have kidnapped Drex Valen instead. Stark was the one making Iron Suits, not so genius in a lab coat.
Then again, why had Drex not been kidnapped?
Tony already knew the answer.
Because Drex Valen kept himself clean.
He was not running around like a spoiled playboy dragging cover models into hotel rooms. He stayed in his lab. Tony had once thought that ant Drex did not know how to enjoy life. Now he was starting to think Drex had just been smarter than he was.
Tony also noticed sothing else inside the terrorists' base.
Weapons.
Lots of Stark Industries weapons.
What the hell?
How were Stark Industries weapons ending up in the hands of terrorists?
Tony's mood turned complicated very quickly. He knew Stark Industries probably had a mole. And not a small one, either.
He had not suspected Obadiah Stane yet. After all, Obadiah had already been attacked and lost one hand and one foot. Tony had been kidnapped by terrorists now, so he had no idea how chaotic Stark Industries had beco in his absence.
The answer was simple enough.
Stark Industries was in chaos because Tony Stark's disappearance had not been Obadiah's doing. At this point, Obadiah had not even begun thinking in that direction. And more importantly, the Iron Suit still required Tony himself to produce it.
So far, only one Iron Suit had been built.
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