Chapter 26: A Little Interference
[Unknown POV]:
[Somewhere In Lower Manhattan]:
On a lone rooftop on the lower end of Manhattan, beneath a night sky, a shift in the air rustled rooftop trees and caused scattered papers to sway. And, despite the night's assurance that nothing was amiss, a deep rumbling vibrated the very air, and a large, empty stretch of roof suddenly, minutely, groaned as if something heavy had just landed upon it.
A series of clicks, groans and a few expulsions of air later and a reveal became underway: A de-cloaked Quinjet had its rear hatch opened, allowing 3 individuals to exit its ramp, two SHIELD agents in black flanking a redhead woman in a skin-tight, black suit with a black widow logo etched into her belt. And, despite the suit accentuating her frame suggestively, this woman's eyes were sharper than most others, sophisticatedly and thoroughly taking in the whole of her environment as only a highly trained super soldier operative could. She was both beautiful and fit and so clearly trained.
[Natasha Romanoff "Widow" Reference Image]:
"Environment secured," Romanoff said to her earpiece as the two agents with her — Agent 13 (i.e., Sharon Carter) and Agent Woo — spread apart across the large roof, all three agents securing their ends.
[Affirmative]
A voice on the other end returned.
"Agent Woo, are you sure this is the coordinates received?" Agent 13 looked to the superhuman tracking specialist after the trio looked high and low for… something, spending a good 10 minutes searching and finding nothing, which, for a trio of some SHIELD's greatest agents, was disappointingly distasteful. "There's no one here."
"I received the coordinates mysteriously by an untraceable address," Agent Woo typed away at his tablet to confirm his details. "I am certain that the address was accurate. These are the coordinates. So, unless we're early or his plans changed, then—"
"He's here," Agent Romanoff stared dead ahead towards a floating figure looking down on them from 80 feet in the air. He was dressed in black and red, hood up over a face mask. "Redline."
The other two agents stared in brief awe, before schooling their expressions. After all, it wasn't just that this superhuman appeared out of thin air, but the Redline was truly a myth in the eyes of most, a figure of power to others and an unbeatable force to few.
It wasn't everyday that one meets a legend.
"Widow…" his voice was scratchy through his mask but clear enough. "Tracker. 13. Natalia Romanova. James E. Woo. Sharon Carter."
At this, all three agents had to re-school their expressions. Even Widow had narrowed her eyes at the blatant reveal of what this figure knew. Some of the most classified information SHIELD possessed were the true names of their agents — and this mysteriously masked figure knew theirs.
'Is he threatening us?' Natasha wondered, tensing briefly before taking in Redline's relaxed floating stance. 'No. He's letting us know that he's here of his own volition. Not on our beck and call. He's setting the terms and establishing his presence while he does it. Interesting. He's more trained in presence than intel told us he would be.. That's a change.'
Neither side spoke for a second.
Then Natasha broke that silence.
"You're brought us here," Natasha said. "You sent the coordinates. What do you want?"
A pause.
She was straight forward because, based on the intel. She concurred that he was a straight forward kind of person. Maybe she'll learn a few things if she gave just this in?
"Your Avengers Initiative Program," Redline said. "I want in."
An exclamation nearly made its way out of Agent Carter's throat. 'He knew about that, too?' she thought, perplexed.
Widow narrowed her eyes into slits before answering.
"That's classified info," she began. "How do you know about any of this?"
'A mole? An inside person?' Natasha's mind raced through all the possibilities in a flash, clearly an expert at thinking things through. 'I need to know if SHIELD is compromised.'
"Relax," Redline chuckled, tapping the forehead of his mask. "All I know are, after all, upstairs."
'He's telepathic. Of course,' Agent Woo realized.
'That explains a lot,' Sharon thought. 'Nearly thought we had a spy on our hands.'
Widow was quiet, though. As someone who was trained to defend the mind against external intrusions by both SHIELD and the Red Room, she knew not many should be able to breach her extreme mental walls, let alone do it without her even noticing.
'The only conclusion…' Widow slowly realized with a growing case of horror. 'Is that the telepath is much stronger than any I've ever encountered.'
Despite her calm facade, Black Widow was sweating internally. This man, she realized, was incredibly dangerous.
But she kept her cool. Years of training, conditioning and experience ensured that she did. There was no point in panicking. If he wanted them dead, they'd have died by now.
"That is a swell thought," Widow began, fauxing authority with professional level accuracy. "But such a squad is built on trust. And how can we trust a teammate who wears a mask?"
A pause settled over the rooftop. Neither side said a word for a few moments.
Meanwhile, truthfully, Natasha already knew Director Fury has Redline as a potential candidate for the Avengers' Initiative. The trust requirement was a fishing for more information — not an actual issue.
But Redline didn't need to know that.
"You are correct. Trust is needed," Redline spoke. "But I won't give you my identity. That is undebatable for the moment…
"However… I will give you something else of equal value — forbidden knowledge."
"Forbidden knowledge?" asked the 3 agents at once.
"Yes," Redline confirmed. "Here goes: Lewis Blake, the billionaire philanthropist genius of multiple fields of study? He's part of a set of triplets. One of his brothers is named Luke.
"Do with that how you will."
'Triplets? Are they all superpowered?' thought Agent Woo. 'This could be exciting.'
'This information… could be vital,' Agent Carter thought, cataloguing the importance of such 'forbidden knowledge.
'Luke, huh?' Widow thought. 'I'll be sure to let Fury know of this.'
"I hope my contributions garners consideration," Redline said. "Anyway, I will see you later. A city to protect, people to save — that sort of thing. Don't be a stranger — Or do. I don't really care."
Redline, flying off at lightspeed with his psionic capabilities, decided to head in for the night. He had two things awaiting his arrival at his apartment, and he didn't want them to wait much longer.
'The real reason I revealed what I did is because Little Brother Luke is scheming something and I feel that a distinction of his actions and those of Older Brother is needed — Or at least a graspable sliver of it anyway,' Lucas thought as he flew. 'This way, whatever is being plotted, doesn't effect Older Brother too much out of control.
'That idiot little brother of mine is scheming again.Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out,' Lucas thought. 'I won't interfere, because Older Brother hasn't, but I will do at least this much. The rest will be up to you, Older Brother.'
Shaking his head, Lucas appeared within his apartment, where the bearers of the mantles Black Cat and the White Wolf awaited him...
[Luke Blake POV]:
[Unknown Location In Canada]:
Luke stood, head high in a sea of beaten and battered, unconscious mutant bodies.
Not dead bodies.
In fact, none of the 200+ mutants that lay sprawled on the ground was dead.
Just beaten unconscious.
"I kept myself held back when beating you all," Luke said to a beaten up Magneto leaning back against a tree, his helmet shattered. "I wouldn't want any permanent damage. Not when I need you to remember a name..."
"What... name?" Eric sneered out in frustration.
Luke smirked, eyes glowing a deep, psionic crimson. "Remember Lewis Blake. He did this to you. You hate him for it. You'd have your retribution."
"Lewis Blake..." Magneto repeated through clenched fists.
Work done, Luke turned and strode back to his car sent out of his pocket dimension before taking to the skies, going south.
Going home at last.
His go-away plan has a few more phases to be overseen before he was actually free to go away. And he had just the pawns to achieve those ends.
'Time to check up on Dr. Octavius/Apocalypse tag-team...'