The interior of the Medi-Pod was a pressurized tomb of glowing cyan light. Inside, Arthur Steele was being unmade.
The Abomination's Bio-Suit adaptation wasn't a gentle upgrade; it was a structural invasion. Arthur's teeth were clamped onto a high-density polymer mouthguard as he watched, through the HUD's internal sensors, his own skeletal system begin to thicken. Bones grew; fractured and fused, knitting into a lattice-work of reinforced calcium and carbon nanotubes. His muscle fibers tore and reformed, braiding themselves into dense, rope-like bundles capable of absorbing kinetic impacts that would liquefy a normal human.
"Vitals spiking. Heart rate at one-hundred-ninety. Arthur, your cellular stress is reaching the 'spontaneous combustion' threshold," Astra's voice drifted in, stripped of its usual warmth. She was focused, her digital mind calculating the exact millisecond to vent the pressure.
Arthur couldn't scream. He could only feel the cold, white fire of the system rewriting his DNA.
[ASSIMILATION COMPLETE: BIO-EXOSUIT INTEGRATED
HIGH GRADE BONE DENSITY: RESISTANT TO FRACTURE
HIGH GRADE MUSCLE DENSITY: RESISTANT TO PIERCING]
[MINOR REGENRATION INTEGRATED
REGENERATION RATE+50% FASTER THAN AVERAGE]
[STRENGTH GROWTH INTEGRATED
LOW GRADE SUPER STRENGTH]
An hour later, the pod hissed open. Arthur rolled out, his skin steaming as the cooling gel evaporated. He felt heavy—solid in a way that felt alien. He stood up, his joints popping like small-caliber gunfire.
"You're alive. Congratulations on being the universe's most resilient idiot," Astra said. A mechanical arm extended from the ceiling, holding a chilled metallic flask.
Arthur took it, his throat parched. "Thanks, Astra. Is this—"
He took a deep swig and immediately gagged. The liquid was thick, grey, and tasted like a blend of rusted iron filings and used motor oil. He coughed, looking at the flask in betrayal. "What is this? The NECTAR unit is supposed to have a nutrient drinks of flavor based on my preferences."
"The Nutrient Enhanced Cellular Therapy & Advanced Recovery unit is functioning perfectly," Astra replied, her holographic avatar appearing on the console with her arms crossed and a smug, digital pout.
"That's what I said...the NECTAR. Why does this taste like shit"
"The Nutrient Enhanced Cellular Therapy & Advan—"she started again making Arthur groan.
"Alright ! Alright...I get it already" he said feeling a headache coming, from her antics.
"I manually adjusted the flavor profile to 'Iron filing with Motor oil Smoothie'." she boasted sounding a bit to proud of herself.
"You're still in the Time-Out Zone, Arthur. If you want strawberries, stop letting monsters use you as a stress ball."
Arthur wiped his mouth, the grit of the shake lingering on his tongue. "Fair enough." He said exasperated.
'Wait a minute...how did I forget?' his expression suddenly sharpened as the adrenaline of the fight finally ebbed, leaving behind a cold, tactical clarity. "Astra... where is Samuel Sterns?"
Sensing the shift in his tone the playful tension in the room vanished. Astra's avatar flickered, turning serious she accessed the satellite grids.
"Scanning... I've got a hit. Moving vehicle, black SUV, armored. They're three miles from Grayburn College, heading toward a secure transit point."
"That's likely a SHIELD transit station...Ok Astra; I need you to access the back channels and break into the SHIELD systems through the internet. Get me the details on the escort team of that Vehicle."
"On it..." she affirmed.
"And meanwhile pull the footage from Grayburn. I need to see what happened after we left that lab."
A window bloomed in the air. The footage was grainy, salvaged from a damaged security puck. It showed Samuel Sterns standing over a pale faced, desperate Emil Blonsky on the table.
Arthur watched in silence. He didn't see a scientist forced into a corner. He saw Sterns' eyes—wide, manic, and glistening with a sickening curiosity. He watched as Sterns didn't just help Blonsky; he revelled in it. "I can finally see what Abomination comes out of you! " Sterns had crowed as he injected the serum. Even after Blonsky began to mutate into a jagged nightmare, Sterns hadn't flinched. He had leaned in, his face twisted in a grin of pure, unfiltered ambition.
"Well this makes things easier...it's not like I didn't give him a chance."
He took the semi-nanite jacket and started suiting up. He had to get to Sterns before it was too late, he would like to avoid going against the entire SHIELD if he can help it.
Astra's processors whirred. A screen displayed a grainy thermal capture of a black armored SUV. She ran a facial recognition sweep with the SHIELD files she accessed.
"Subject identified: Natasha Romanoff. The Black Widow."
Arthur paused, the obsidian mask halfway to his face. He let out a low, breathy whistle. "Well... this is going to be something."
---
Harlem Intersection, New York
Another day, another freak in a box, Natasha Romanoff thought, her eyes momentarily tracking the vibration of the floorboards.
Her mind drifted to Clint. He was likely a few miles away, perched on a roof or nested in a high-rise, watching the heat signatures of the city. They had been through enough together that she could almost hear the dry, sarcastic rasp of his voice.
"You're taking the long way, Nat," he'd say, probably while cleaning a trick-head arrow. "And you're letting Humpty Dumpty here talk too much. Rule number one: Never let the ones with the big brains talk."
She allowed the ghost of a smirk to touch her lips, then it vanished . Clint hated this mission. He liked clear targets and high ground. He didn't like the "science projects" Fury was becoming obsessed with.
She could never be grateful enough to him.Clint was the man who hadn't just spared her life in Kiev, but had bet his own reputation on the possibility that she was still a person worth saving. To the world, he was a silent marksman; to her, he was the reason she didn't have to look at her hands and see only blood.
Then there was Coulson. With his vintage cards and harmless smile, he was one of the most dangerous people in the room. Also last of what 'Good' left was in SHIELD.He was the one who brought the coffee and the mission files, smiling that polite, midwestern smile while ordering drone strikes.
And Maria Hill... Hill was his exact opposite. Cold, efficient, unyielding. Natasha respected Hill because she didn't pretend to have a heart she didn't use. They understood each other: the mission came first, the feelings...they had no place in this business.
And Fury. The man who sat at the center of the web, playing God with a one-eyed stare. He was the architect of her new life, but Natasha wasn't a fool. She knew she was a pawn on his board—the most expensive one, perhaps, but a pawn nonetheless. She knew that every mission was just a way to pay back a debt that could never be settled.
"You're checking the perimeter scans again, Agent," Sterns' voice slithered from the back. It was deep, wet, and resonated with a multi-tonal pitch.
Why won't this guy— Shut up!!! Natasha didn't turn around. "Sit back and zip it Sterns, or the next bullet will be for your big head."
Sterns laughed "I can hear the electricity in the walls," he whispered, a manic delight edging his words. "I can see the mathematical probability of your driver missing that pothole in three... two..."
The SUV jolted as it hit a patch of uneven asphalt.
Sterns giggled. It was the sound of dry leaves skittering on concrete. "You see? The world is just math. And I am the calculator. It doesn't matter where you take me, I will be running that facility by the end of the week."
Natasha's hand drifted to her holster. She had met megalomaniacs before, but this was different. This was new kind of crazy.
"You're assuming you'll live that long," she said coolly.
"Oh, I'll live," Sterns hissed, his eyes glowing a sickly, radioactive green.
"Because SHIELD is greedy. Fury wants my brain. He wants to know how to make more Hulks. He won't kill the goose that lays the Gamma eggs. I am the necessary evil."
He leaned forward, straining against the straps.
"And once I'm inside... I will cure you. All of you. I will cure the human race of its mediocrity."
"They need a guide for their evolution !! And...I...will...be...their...Lead—."
THWIP
A black, high-tensile bolt punched through the reinforced steel of the Armoured truck. It caught Sterns exactly between the eyes with surgical finality, pinning his head to the seat. The manic light in his eyes vanished instantly.
The van swerved violently. Natasha didn't wait for it to stop. She kicked the rear doors open while the tires were still screaming against the asphalt, tucking into a roll that brought her up onto her feet in the middle of the dark street.
Her Glock was up before she stopped moving. She scanned the skyline, her heartbeat steady, her eyes narrowing against the glare of the streetlights.
There.
Perched on a telephone pole, looking down at her like a gargoyle carved from the night itself.
ANUBIS.
He was darker than the shadows around him. The gold Ankh on his chest pulsed with a slow, rhythmic amber light. The mask was featureless save for the white, glowing lenses that stared back at her with zero emotion.
In the back alleys of Hell's Kitchen and the high-rise boardrooms of the Maggia, Anubis—wasn't a man. He was a ghost story told to keep enforcers in line. The criminal underworld viewed him with a superstitious terror that SHIELD couldn't comprehend. He had single handedly brought down the crime rate in New York by at leat 45%; almost half of what it used to be , as the criminals were— that terrified of running into him. The rumor was that if you saw the gold glow of his ribs, you would wish you were already dead; as what was left of you was not worth living with. And when she saw the footage of the Abomination who moments ago was toying with the military and playing with missiles; shivering at his feet after what he did to him, she believed everything that was said about him.
The only thing Natasha couldn't grasp was that as per SHIELD dossiers he had never killed. Why now ? Why Sterns ?.
"Romanoff," the figure spoke. The voice was deep, distorted by a modulator, but it carried a terrifying authority.
Great...just what I needed, a freak who knows about me..?
Natasha maintained a poker face.
"You just killed a federal prisoner," she said, keeping her tone—husky, bored, and utterly unimpressed. "That's a lot of paperwork you just caused me."
Anubis dropped.
He fell twenty feet and landed without a sound. No impact tremor. No stumble. He straightened up, towering over her, and began to walk toward the van.
She tracked him with her weapon, stepping sideways to keep him in her line of fire while maintaining distance. "Identify yourself."
Anubis stopped. He looked at the dead scientist in the back of the van, then turned his head slowly to face her.
"Your Director collects monsters, Agent Romanoff," he said. "He puts them in cages and hopes they'll behave. I don't have that kind of patience."
He turned his back on her.
It was a deliberate insult. He was showing her that he didn't consider her a threat. Natasha's jaw tightened. She could put two rounds in the back of his knee before he took a step—but something told her the bullets would just bounce off that matte-black plating.
Her ear peice buzzed "Nat, I have a clear shot of him. Keep him talking...I am doing the thing".
"If you walk away, I will engage," she warned, shifting her stance, and giving the cue to Clint.
Anubis paused. He looked over his shoulder, the white lenses flaring slightly.
He ripped the seat off the van with Sterns body still pinned just in time as the Arrow lodged itself in Sterns eye, beeping for a second and then his body burst like a melon.
Anubis looked straight towards the buildings behind Natasha.
"O—kay...I didn't see that coming. Wai—wait is he looking at me right now..??" Clint exclaimed clearly sounding freaked out.
Natasha was no better, this was not how she pictured this mission to go. Frankly it was quite unsettling even by her standards.
"Well , this saves me the time to confirm if he was dead...thanks Agent Barton" Anubis rasped in his deep gurgling voice looking straight towards where she guessed Clint was at.
"Nat—get the hell out of there right now !!!" he hissed in her ear.
Anubis then turned towards her, Natasha adjusted her stance for a fight.
"Tell Nicholas Fury, he will hear from me soon." He declared.
"He doesn't have an open door policy." she countered.
"He will open it for me...and I wasn't asking."
A sudden, blinding flash of white magnesium light erupted at his feet. Natasha threw an arm over her eyes, turning away instinctively to save her night vision.
"Flashbang!" she hissed, spinning back around with her weapon ready.
But the street was empty.
No footsteps running away. No grappling hook sound. Just the smoke clearing in the Harlem breeze and the headless dead body of Samuel Sterns cooling beside the van.
Natasha stood there for a long moment, the adrenaline slowly fading into a cold, hard resolve. She holstered her weapon with a sharp click.
She reached up and tapped her comms earpiece, contacting the one-eyed madman who she knew would be beyond livid the moment he realized his precious freak was lost.
"Status," Fury barked from the other end.
"Director, the asset is dead," she said carefully.
There was a heavy silence for a full minute before Fury spoke again. "What? I specifically instructed you to restrain him. There better be a very good reason for you disobeying a direct order, Romanoff."
"It wasn't me, Sir," she replied dryly.
"Anubis intercepted the convoy. He used a high-tensile bolt that punched straight through the armored van, killing Sterns instantly before I could even react."
"Motherfu—God damn it," Fury snarled. "I don't have a single record of him ever going for a kill. Why now? Why Sterns?"
"I have no idea. But Director, we've been compromised. He identified me on sight and pinpointed Barton's position based on his shot alone. He specifically named you, too. Either we have a leak, or we severely underestimated his capabilities."
"Great. Just great." Fury sounded increasingly serious, and Natasha could tell he was already updating the file in real-time. "Did you engage with him?"
"Negative. He walked past me like I wasn't even worth his time. And frankly, I don't think I would have come out on top even if I had," she admitted, hating to voice the reality of the situation.
"Noted. Secure Sterns's body. We'll send it to Simmons to analyze the mutated blood and see if we can salvage anything."
Just wait until you find out the best part. Natasha rubbed her face, bracing herself to deliver the news.
BUZZ—
Clint chimed in at that exact moment. "Yeah... about that. Well, there is no body left, Director."
"What the hell are you talking about, Barton? What do you mean there's no body left?" Natasha could almost picture the vein popping in Fury's forehead.
"Well, you see, Director... when he walked past Romanoff, I had a clear shot, so I took it. But the guy just ripped the seat right out of the van and used it as a shield," Clint narrated, trying to sound as gentle as possible.
"And? What does that have to do with the body? Get to the point, Agent," Fury drawled.
"Well... Sterns's body was pinned to the seat by the bolt," Clint whispered. "And the arrow was an explosive tip and so It's... spaghetti on the road now."
Natasha had to physically restrain herself from laughing.
She heard him Fury slam the desk.
"FOR FUCK'S SAKE, BARTON! How did you come to the bright idea that you could do anything to a person who was manhandling a literal monster like he was disciplining a child—with an explosive trinket?"
Even through the earpiece, Natasha winced at the volume. Fury was likely ready to burn a hole through Clint with his gaze alone.
She decided to soften the blow.
"Sir, it was a judgment call in the heat of the moment. It just didn't pan out."
"Shut your mouth, Romanoff! And fuck your judgment! Get down here right now. I want to brief you on your next assignment. This one's undercover and potentially long-term."
"Copy that, Sir," she affirmed.
"And Barton," Fury snapped. "I don't want to see your face for at least two weeks."
"Yes, Sir," Clint replied hurriedly.
"Director, there is one more thing," Natasha added.
"Now what?"
"Anubis said he would be contacting you directly. It didn't feel like a threat to me—maybe he just wants to chat." Natasha prepared to move toward the new extraction coordinates she had just received.
"Hmm. Interesting. You're dismissed." Fury hung up without waiting for a reply.
"Enjoy your vacation, Barton,Try not to blow something up." she teased.
"Shut up, Nat!" He groaned.
---
A/N.
You didn't think I will let him live did you?
I frankly hated what they did with the character in Falcon movie. Yes he is not my Captain America, he was great in the comics but the MCU handled his storyline terribly right from that chessy speech in FAWS and CA4.
And also now that Arthur has the autonomy he will change some shit which will not yet disrupt the major events, to fly under the radar from HWR. Not that it will be the case forever.
And my sweet and deadly Natasha is finally here. Anyway tell me what you thought about Natasha's Pov and her interactions with Fury and Barton.
And please drop your reviews and comments people, let me know what you think of the story. I need the ego boost from time to time.
Ciao!!!