It’s All Under Control (October 2001)

Isabella sighed and looked at Steve. "We're not talking about storming SHIELD, but we need to figure out what's going on and work out a plan."

When they came out of Steve's room Tony had been able to shift the drone enough to get a better view of its surroundings. "What the hell is that?" Frank asked as the blue glowing cube came into the cameras view. "I've never seen anything like it," He said in amazement.

"Is this what Phil was talking about?" Logan asked. "I don't know but it appears to be what the focus of that machine is using as a power source," Tony answered.

Isabella returned to her seat next to Tony and found herself staring at a blue, glowing cube. Something about it gave Isabella a shiver and based on the fact that it appeared to be hooked up to some kind of machine made Isabella wonder if this wasn't what Phil had told Kate about. 

As they watched and listened they would be able to hear voices...Erik's and Kate's. They called the cube the "Tesseract" and Isabella looked at Tony. "Have you ever heard of that before?"

Tony just shook his head. "I have," Steve said in a soft voice. "The Red Skull used it to power weapons. Well...that makes sense then. He referred to the Norse Gods as to its origins," Steve said. "If Loki is involved, I highly doubt this machine is good for us," Steve said. "We need to stop...whatever it is he's going to do," he added.

In the background there was talking. "Wait, what are they saying?" Ava said as she leaned forward. "What? Oh, let me turn up the volume," Tony said and the voices came through more clearly.

"We need those electromagnet dampeners from Stark Industries. 6 should be enough," Erik said. "I'll assemble a team to retrieve them," Kate said. Her eyes were an odd color of blue as they glanced toward the camera for a moment.

"Well thats not scary," Frank said sarcastically.

Isabella's bad feeling about this whole situation was growing by the second. Now, she knew Loki was definitely involved. After Tony turned up the volume, the team was able to hear more clearly what was being said. They could hear Erik and Kate's voices talking about retrieving 6 electromagnet dampeners from Stark Industries. Kate turned slightly towards the drone camera for a moment and Isabella's heart froze in her chest when she saw Kate's strange blue eye color. She glanced at Steve and could see that he was rather upset by that.

"Ok, so we know that Kate is going to be bringing a team to Stark Industries to try and steal some electromagnet dampeners. I say we meet them there."

"Ok, everyone suit up. Natalya, I know Kate usually flies the jet. Will you be alright?" Tony asked. Everyone else went for their rooms to get dressed and armed.

Natalya nodded to Tony. “Yes, I can fly it.”

Natalya and Logan went back to their room to get changed and Ava and Frank went to their room. Natalya had a special suit that Tony had designed for her after spending months the studying the way she moved during a fight. It was a flexible, black, one piece suit that had bullet resistant material and the red mark of a Black Widow on the upper back. She had also worked with him to design her gauntlets. They featured tasers, sedative darts, and a grappling hook. Of course she also had her hand gun strapped to her thigh.

Once everyone was dressed and ready to go, she fired up the jet and did the pre-flight checks before getting the jet into the air.

Frank looked at his weapons. They were all designed for 'non-lethal' infiltration. Stark weapons but still....non-lethal? He had never used one before. He had grappler and flashbang grenades and Tony had made Ava special goggles and ear inserts so, like Frank, Natalya and Steve, she was impervious to flashbangs which SHIELD was famous for.

Steve co-piloted the jet and Natalya did not hold back on the throttle. Tony and Isabella's suits were fast but it was an effort to keep up. They were there in no time and the alarms had already gone off. Tony instructed Natalya to to a low hover and everyone would bail out onto the roof. This meant though that the jet would have to return to the tower on auto pilot. Natalya had to remain until the last minute and Logan stepped up to her.

"We might need to hurt Kate...are you alright with that?" Logan asked her. "I know you two seem to get along," He said.

Natalya got the jet there as quickly as possible. She had to hover the jet above the roof while Logan, Steve, Ava, and Frank bailed out. She then activated the auto pilot and hit a button that would send the jet back to the Tower. She bailed out and looked over at Logan as he approached her. She sighed a little at his question.

"I want to avoid that at all costs, but if we need to...then we need to." 

They joined the others and Ava looked towards Tony. "Alright, so what's the plan?"

"Loki is not likely to be with them. He likely has bigger fish to fry. That means that its going to be SHIELD tech against ours. And we'll be outnumbered. We need to stop them from getting all the dampeners and also get Kate back. Steve, the dampeners are the priority here. I have a feeling I know what they're doing but stopping them from getting them is paramount. Destroy them if you have to. Just stop them," Tony said.

Just as he said it several SHIELD drones and armored vehicles broke through the concrete wall that surrounded the campus to the factory. Isabella and I will take the heavy stuff. Those will be the distraction. Focus on the people and the smaller vehicles. They can get that equipment out on something as small as a pickup," Tony said then he and Isabella took off. Just as they did Jarvis squawked in their ears. "2 anti-personnel missiles have been launched at your location," He said. "It might be a good idea to vacate the area," he said. And then everyone just flung themselves off the roof in all directions.

When they all landed, they found themselves fairly split up and on different sides. The missile exploded onto the roof of the building.

Frank and Natalya were together on the east side. Steve and Ava were on the west and Logan was by himself to the South in the back of the building. Just as he picked himself up, an off-road vehicle ran right into him. It flung him up into the air and they were shooting at him even as he landed.

"So that's how its gunna be, is it!" Logan growled as he stood up. When the vehicle turned toward him he started to run toward it.

Frank twisted his ankle on the landing but he was quick enough to toss a flashbang at the truck that hurried by them. One of the Agents leaned out and began shooting at them with full automatic fire as the grenade went off. It blinded the driver and they ran right into a half wall and flipped over.

Steve and Ava landed amidst several agents and they suddenly found themselves into a brawl.

Chaos ensued as Loki mind controlled SHIELD agents faced off against the Avengers. Natalya started out using her hand gun, but then she got a different idea. She ran over to the vehicle Frank had caused to flip with a grenade and she managed to pull out the automatic rifle the man had been using to fire at them. It was undamaged and Natalya began to use it to fire at vehicle tires. Because these people were being mind controlled, she didn't want to kill them unless she had to. She was looking for non-lethal hits. 

Ava was fighting hand to hand combat next to Steve. The White Tiger amulet gave her strength, speed, endurance, and mastery of martial arts. She fought hard and fast. As Steve was fighting, he would suddenly sense someone watching him. As he looked up he would see Kate standing about 10 yards away. She was glaring at him and she suddenly rushed straight towards him...

Tony and Isabella were assaulting the larger vehicles and the drones. Two of the vehicles had cannons and they pounded at the side of the building. The metal and concrete stood no chance as it burst open with destructive force. Isabella was being pelted by the drones that had armor piercing ammunition and rockets. Tony went for the larger ground vehicles but soon found the unmanned drones to be just too much to ignore them. They used their suits weapons and took out several of them but there just seemed to be in a swarm. Isabella saw Tony take a missile hit and he landed hard and then skidded on the parking lot until he hit a light post. The post snapped like a twig and Tony rolled several times before he came to a stop.

Logan leaped right at the windshield, claws out as he crashed through the windshield. He landed inside the truck and flailed around, slicing everything and anything he could with deadly intent.

Kate wasn't alone. She had Maria Hill with her and several other SHIELD agents with arm clubs and sidearms. Ava had to dodge and move to avoid being shot but Steve ran right into them with his shield and fought them hand to hand. He hit a man in the head with his shield then twisted and kicked at another and sent him flying back. Maria and Kate were on him after that and it was all he could do to keep their clubs away from him. The clubs had an electric stun charge on the ends that would definitely hurt if not incapacitate him. Kate was really trying to get in under his defenses and he saw the angry determination in her odd, blue eyes. He managed to kick Maria back but Kate got inside his shield and he had to grab her hand.

"You look angry? Were your eyes always so blue?" He told her.

Isabella and Tony were using their repulsor beams to try and take out as many of the larger vehicles as they could. However, as they attacked the vehicles that had canons attached to them, Isabella was attacked by the drones. She and Tony began to work together to try and take out as many of the drones as they could. The drones appeared to have armor piercing ammunition as well as rockets. Suddenly, Isabella heard the unmistakable sound of a missile being launched but before she could warn Tony she saw it hit him. He was flung hard to the ground and the skidded across the parking lot until he hit a lamp post. The lamp post snapped and Tony rolled several times before he came to a stop.

"Tony! Are you alright?"

Kate felt cold, hard anger towards Steve. He had hurt her and now she was going to hurt him. Kate and Maria had clubs that had an electric stun charge on the ends and they both fought to try and get past his shield. As Steve was momentarily distracted by Maria, Kate managed to get inside his shield but before she could do anything he grabbed her hand. She heard what he said and her angry look only became angrier. She twisted her body and kicked him in the stomach. At the same time she pulled his shield from his grip. Just as she gave him a cocky grin, Ava rushed at her from behind. Kate's senses went off, but not in time. Ava and Kate went flying to the ground and Steve's shield slid back over to him. Ava grabbed the club from Kate and touched her with hit. Kate yelled out in pain as the electric stun charge coursed through her body. Ava knew it wouldn't kill her, but it knocked Kate out. 

"Kate's alive but down," Ava told the others.

"Never better," Tony groaned as he got back up. It was clear what was happening. Several vehicles went inside the gaping hole in the side of the building. "There's too many drones and their protecting the hole they made. I saw 2 trucks make it inside. They have us separated. You guys need to get over to the front like now!" Tony demanded. Unfortunately, disengaging for anyone was nearly an impossibility. Logan had several agents stunning him over and over to keep him down. Steve picked up Kate and tossed her over her shoulder. "Ava...we need a truck!" Steve said.

Natalya and Frank were holding their own and they managed to nab an off-road vehicle. Natalya drove as Frank used the vehicles mounted weapon which was an auto-cannon. 'Thum, thum...thum-tjum' he fired at other vehicles and the weapon either disabled or seriously damaged the other vehicles.

"We're comin!" Frank barked into his wrist comm.

Ava was surrounded by SHIELD agents. She was kicking and clawing at them. She managed to kick one agent into several others and take them down like bowling pins. At that moment, Natalya and Frank came flying up in the off-road vehicle and gave them some cover as they got into the vehicle. Kate didn't move, but she was breathing. 

Natalya spotted Logan and pressed the accelerator and gunned the vehicle towards him. She hit several of the agents and sent them flying back. This gave Logan time to get up and get into the vehicle as well. She floored it and got the team back to the front.

Isabella thrashed one of the armored vehicles and then picked it up and threw it into another one. They exploded into, one big fireball and she knew there were going to be some dead agents in that but there was nothing for it. Tony focused hard on the drones to keep them off of her but too many smaller vehicles had made it out of the factory. They managed to hit several of them but there was no way to tell if they had gotten enough of them.

"They're buggin out!" Frank said. "Get em Tony, Get em!" Frank said as he fired the cannon as Natalya drove. Isabella had to outright dodge the remaining drones as they were just trying to ram into her now that they had what they wanted. Tony had to stay low as well as they were after him also. Frank managed to shoot some of them as they came toward them. After the last one fell the factory complex looked like a warzone. Dead and injured SHIELD agents were everywhere.

The team took out as many of the vehicles as they could, but there had just been too many drones and too many SHIELD agents. When it was over and the dust cleared, the area looked like a war zone. Thankfully, the team was, for the most part, unharmed. Unfortunately, there was no way to know if they had been successful in preventing SHIELD from getting the 6 electromagnet dampeners. Isabella though had a strong feeling that they had failed. 

After the authorities had been called, the team returned to the Tower. Kate was still unconscious and they had no way of knowing if she was still under Loki's control or not. She was taken to the medical suite and a decision was made to restrain her just in case when she woke up she was still being mind controlled.