A Message From An Old Friend (August 2004)

“Those don’t look like any Hydra agents I ever saw and those weapons...they’re armor piercing,” James said as he hunkered down with Natalya behind one of the large pillars that had been knocked over due to the fighting. Tony had been thrown through several of them and landed hard and smashed into a large earth moving vehicle. Isabella was above the buildings, the large complex had a main building and smaller buildings around the main one. James felt at his side and Natalya saw him pull his hand up to look at it. It was red with blood but James only just looked at her. Several agents fired at the pillar they were behind, their powerful rounds knocked large chunks of the concrete away. James used one of Tony’s battle rifles and it had a mini grenade launcher underslung that held 20 mini grenades that exploded like the regular sized sort. James had body armor on but the round had gone through it and through his side and straight out. He still looked hail though.

Steve rushed three as they shot at him. One fired a grenade at him but he shifted his shield just enough so that the grenade deflected off of his shield than fell in an arc at the feet of several of the agents that were about to pop up to fire at him from the side. The grenade exploded in a spray of red that covered the space they had been in. Three other agents had suits like Isabella and Tony had but much more streamlined for combat. Isabella employed her new shielding and their bullets all bounced off of it as she blasted back at them. The shielding held but it was draining her suit's power. Slowly but surely. Tony finally got back up onto his feet.

One of the guards had a massive suit, built for strength and durability. He had punched Tony and sent him flying. The suits were all black and the large one caught sight of Isabella.

“Come here little fly!” He said. His words were in english but he had a definite accent of some kind. He flew toward her.

Tony had made a special gun just for Natalya. It could either be a handgun, or it could be transformed into a sniper rifle. She had started out with the handgun, but had quickly switched over to the rifle. She was hunkered down behind some debris and was trying to take out as many as she could. It was difficult because several of them had suits much like Tony and Isabella and could fly. Natalya was not wearing body armor, but her body suit had built in protection. She could not wear armor like the others as it hindered her movement and the team needed Natalya's agility and speed. Natalya looked over at James and saw him pull his hand back. It was red with his blood. Knowing that the weapons they were using were armor piercing was extremely worrying to Natalya.

"Are you going to be alright?" she asked with some concern evident in her voice.

Kate was back behind some debris and she covered Steve with some gun shots as he rushed at several of the agents. This was not an easy fight. She yelled out to Steve when one of the agents threw a grenade at him. Thankfully, he managed to get his shield up in time to deflect the grenade. She could see that Steve hadn't been hurt, at least as far as she could tell, but she was still worried about him.

"Are you alright Steve?" she asked through her earpiece.

Isabella was trying to stay away from the agents in suits that were pursuing her. She had been terrified when she saw Tony thrown through several pillars. One of the agents were in a massive suit and she was using her suit's shielding capabilities to keep herself safe. However, the shielding was draining her suit's power. The drain was slow but constant. She kept dodging the agents in the suits but she knew she needed a better plan. As the man in the bigger suit spoke she couldn't help but notice his accent. However, her mind was too busy trying to keep her alive to place it.

"Tony! I could use some help!" she said desperately.

James nodded as he removed the clotting agent from his belt and applied it to his wound, first in the front and then the back. He heard Natalya fire her rifle as he spread the substance on his wounds.

“I just got thrown into...never mind, I’m coming!” He snapped as he stood up then took off into the air. He sped toward the large suit and attacked its rocket boosters with his beam cutter. The rockets suddenly stopped working and the large suit plummeted back to the earth.

Steve bashed at an agent, ducked, spun and bashed at another. “Define ok!?” He said in a rush as he shifted forward and threw his shield at another agent. It hit him in the chest and Steve tumbled forward and caught his shield up again on the run.

Natalya was relieved to know that James was ok. As he took care of his wound she covered him and fired at several more of the agents. "You know, Tony and Isabella might like to go out to fancy restaurant and Steve might buy Kate flowers, but this is what I call a romantic evening," she said with a little grin.

Kate saw an opportunity and she got up from where she was covering Steve and she sprinted forward and fired at another agent. Suddenly, she saw an agent coming towards her out of the corner of her eye. Steve saw it too and he tossed her his shield. She spun and used it to bash the agent. She then tossed it back to Steve so smoothly that one would know they had done that move a dozen or so times before.

Tony and Isabella flew back down to the ground and readied their repulsor beams as they approached the man in the massive suit. "Who are you?" Isabella demanded.

The large suit’s legs were nearly destroyed as he landed. His suit was damaged and he was hurt. Tony stepped up to him and ripped his helmet off of his suit. “The lady asked you a question,” Tony said threatenly,. He was done with being civil to these people. Whoever they were he didn’t think they were Hydra.

The man, he was fairly tanned with short dark hair and brown eyes, looked up at them angrily. Steve, Kate, Natalya and James has finished off the others and were headed in their direction.

“You’ve made a grave mistake Tony Stark. When victor hears of this, he will not be pleased,” he said.

Isabella watched as Tony ripped off the man's helmet. Isabella did not recognize the man underneath, but like Tony, she didn't believe he was Hydra. She became concerned however when the man addressed Tony directly and mentioned Victor's name. She could only assume he meant Victor Doom.

"What are you talking about?" she asked sharply.

"How arrogant you are to think that YOU are the only one with a war to fight. Hydra has wounded our Lord in ways you could not possibly imagine," he said. His face contorted into pain and he coughed. Blood came out of his lips. The crash back to the ground had seriously injured him.

"Isabella, see what you can do for him," Tony said softly. As Tony looked around now it was clear of what he spoke. They thought these were Hydra agents.

Isabella would see severe internal bleeding. He was bleeding out and by the time they removed the man's armor he'd certainly be dead.

One of the soldier's had taken off her helmet. She clutched her side as she crawled toward them. "Devaro, you're hurt!" She said. Her arm was obviously broken. None of the others had moved. The man spoke to her in Hungarian, their native tongue. "No..NO!" She cried.

"Then you shouldn't have attacked us," Steve said as he came up. "A mistake by one of my men," Devaro said as more blood came out of his mouth.

Isabella glanced at Tony and nodded at his request. She had a medical suite in her suit, though it was limited in what it could do. However, she knelt down beside the dying man and performed an internal scan. The results were not promising. He was bleeding internally and Isabella knew that he didn't have the time that they would need to save him.

She sighed and stood back up and looked at Tony. She shook her head just a little to indicate there was nothing they could do. Natalya, James, Steve, and Kate came up to stand beside Tony and Isabella.

"So, who are you?" Kate asked.

Devaro looked young, maybe in his early 20s if they had to put an age to him. An attractive man with dark curly hair. He had a mustache and goatee as well, finely sculpted. He looked vaguely family, especially around the eyes. "My name is Devaro Doom. Victor is my father," he said as he coughed again. Steve looked at Kate. Tony looked at Kate as well. James didn't really know Victor Doom and just looked at the man. Devaro struggled to breath but his face grew increasingly pale.

"We came to take back what belongs to us. To my father! And now you've only taken more from him!" He said. The armor and the weapons looked alot like what Hydra used and they had attacked them first. But Tony knew Doom and he had personally killed his son. he didn't even know he had a son.

"You attacked us first!" Tony snapped as he looked back at the man. Devaro shook his head and looked up at him. "You could have just walked away and let us do what we came to do," Devaro reasoned. He gritted his teeth and for the next few moments he looked younger. His eyes looked afraid as he struggled to breathe. And then he just stared up blankly as he died.

"Fuck," Tony said under his breathe. The one agent woman collapsed and began to weep.

Kate of course knew who Victor Doom was. He was on SHIELD’s radar. He ruled the small country of Latveria which gave him Diplomatic Immunity. What she hadn’t known was that he had a son. Clearly no one else had known that either.

Isabella felt helpless as she watched the young man die. There was nothing she could do to save him. The moment he died she knew that the Avengers were now at war with Doom.

Kate sighed and spoke to Steve privately. “I should probably call this in to Nick. I would expect we are going to receive retaliation from him because of this.”

“An eye for an eye,” the woman said in a thick Hungarian accent. “Isn’t that justice?” She asked as she rolled over onto her back. She winced in pain and her cheeks glittered with the wetness of her tears. She had long, blonde curls that fanned out around her head. She too was extremely beautiful. Likely all of these men and women were. And young, no older than Devaro.

“He will take something to equal what you have taken. Of that you can be certain. My Lord is hard but he is fair,” she said as she pulled free a dagger from her belt. She began to speak in Hungarian, it sounded like some kind of prayer.

Isabella heard what the woman said and she looked at Tony. An eye for an eye meant that Victor would likely be coming after one of their children. They couldn’t let that happen. Isabella would protect them with her life.

Natalya watched as the young woman drew a knife from her belt. She was of no danger to anyone but herself. She heard her begin what sounded like a prayer and as she raised the blade Natalya reacted. She shot forward and snatched the knife from her hand.

The woman appeared to plead with Natalya but when it was clear she would not give the blade back she just laid back down and sobbed. Steve accompanied Kate back to SHIELD with the survivors. There were 4, all seriously wounded. The others went back to the tower. In mid flight Isabella called Serena's phone and it rang over and over with no answer. When she called Theo he picked up right away. Nothing was going on and Serena had went to the bathroom. Happy was informed to the added danger and Happy informed security to bring in more people and to have 2 officers in the elevator at all times. The Stark's returned to the tower...