Symbiote 0260: Resource Channel

Natasha dropped all of the work that had anything to do with the widows on Yelena and freely returned to her home Earth.

A portal opened in the Avengers Compound that was in Upstate New York. In dropped Natasha decked out in her new Black Widow outfit that sported six parallel red stripes that outlined her suit. Her appearance instantly triggered multiple alarms despite her signature being familiar. The way she had entered was just that off.

"Miss Romanoff," Vision appeared in front of Natasha as she raised a brow.

[Didn't you decommission Vision when you took his stone? It seems to me that he even has his density-shifting ability.]

[Who knows? Stark is smart enough to restart his pet robot with or without the Mind Stone. Plus, Vision's body is still made of Vibranium. He wouldn't let all of it go to waste.]

"Hi, Vision, how are you?" Natasha smiled, "Is Tony in? I have some stuff to talk to him about."

"I will first need you to follow me for some verification procedures since your arrival was unannounced," Vision said, making Natasha frown.

"Since when do you need to perform verification procedures for the Avengers?" She raised a brow.

"Since someone snuck in and took away the Mind Stone," Vision's tone got slightly hostile. "Please don't make things more difficult than they are, Miss Romanoff."

"Fine, whatever," Natasha shrugged.

[Your little heist with Yelena put a nice toll on Tony's paranoia.]

[It's understandable. I would be disappointed in Stark if he didn't take any precautions to check up beforehand. I wiped every trace of Yelena from the cameras and sensors before leaving with the Mind Stone. Even Vision's memory ended the moment before the portal appeared. I'm sure he has more than just this explicit detection mechanism.]

[Hopefully, our upcoming conversation will help lessen his paranoia somewhat …]

[We'll see about that.]

Vision took Natasha through a few different scanners that examined her biometrics, her mannerisms, and more. Vision even asked if he could draw her blood for a test, to which she just looked at the synthetic life form blankly. It understood, withdrawing from the identity verification process.

[Everything checks out, Miss Romanoff. I apologize for any inconvenience you had to experience. Mr. Stark will meet you outside in the living room.]

Natasha let out a tired exhale as she walked back out to the living room, only to see Tony eating a pizza as he watched something on a holographic screen in front of him. With a closer look, Natasha realized that it was a satellite image of the fortress leaving through the Mystic Arts portal.

"I cannot, for the life of me understand how you managed to take care of the logistics of moving a flying fortress through a portal into another world. The resources this must've taken …" Tony said with a slightly blaming undertone. Natasha understood his unspoken question about her being supported by another force.

"Good morning, Tony," She said with a smile. "How are you doing?" She sat on the couch adjacent to his and crossed one leg over the other, tilting her head toward the right to look at him.

"I'm doing great, thanks for asking," He replied cheerfully. "Now tell," He troped the tone. "What's the deal with the fortress? I thought you were going to devote your people to creating a new department of the Avengers."

"Plans had to change," Natasha said. "I was contacted by an external force, one not from our planet."

Tony released a heavy breath in response to Natasha's words, leaning back with a serious expression. "What did they want?"

"To utilize the widows for a certain clean-up procedure on a different planet, one of the Earths," Natasha said. "It is a post-nuclear war wasteland infested with zombies on steroids. Some of whom can even match Banner."

"And they think that the widows can take care of such an enemy?! Correct me if I'm wrong, but you are talking about the Earth that broadcasts its name as Earth-TRN04863, right?" Tony said. "I have seen that planet and merely the satellite imagery I see terrifies me to no extent."

"What broadcasts are you talking about?" Natasha asked.

"After I returned from Kamar Taj, I started tweaking with some sensors and identified a unique frequency that each planet emitted. When deciphered, it gives out a sort of codename. Ours is Earth-199999."

"How interesting," Natasha said. "I'm not sure about your number but I think we're talking about the same planet. I just call it Earth-Z for zombie," Natasha said with a shrug. "As for the widows, they will be fine. The man who contacted me — he calls himself Apex — showed me a certain biosuit that can enhance the widows' attributes so that they can at least stand toe-to-toe with those abominations. Not only that, the suits also have a healing mechanism that can even help them regenerate limbs."

"Benefits," Tony said. "I understand that. But why would you let our own planet's forces move to another planet, risking our own security in the process? We've already lost Wanda for who knows how long in her expedition. Now the widows as well."

"The offer was too lucrative, Tony," Natasha said. "Not only did Apex provide each and every widow with those suits, he also promised a certain level of protection from the external threats that we might face."

"And do tell me, how did he convince you about that," The skeptic in Tony asked.

"Infinity Stones," Natasha said. "He is the one who took not only the Time Stone from Strange but also Vision's Mind Stone. Not only that, he told me that the ones he took were merely pieces of the real deal, a one-fortieth piece of the real deal to be exact. He has collected multiple such stones and has promised that he will come to our aide when we require."

"And we're just supposed to take his word for it?" Tony asked. "After the amazing show of his trust by stealing our stuff."

"It wasn't a choice, Tony," Natasha said, her tone filled with helplessness. "I'm not that naive, but I was strong-armed into accepting his offer."

"God damn it," Tony clenched his teeth. "Do we know anything about this man who calls himself Apex?"

"Nothing much," Natasha said. "He just showed up out of nowhere with a flash of blue, which I presume was the utilization of the Space Stone. He's arrogant and prideful though, and extremely confident in his abilities. That portal was also his doing. While he seemed to be using the abilities of the sorcerers of Kamar Taj, I don't think anyone has the capability to create such a massive portal other than Wanda from our lineup."

Tony sighed, "That doesn't give us anything. Are you still in contact with the widows?" He asked.

"I am. I have a communication device that can connect me to the widows along with a way to automatically form a portal to them whenever I want," She said.

"With how established he sounds … does he have something to do with Earth-96283 and Earth-120703? The two Earths that are conjoined together by means of a planetary shield."

"He seems to have some sort of connection with them," Natasha said. "I was able to pull out the name of the two-planet cluster from him, but nothing more. He called it the Gaia Federation. Now I'm not sure if it is some kind of dictatorial regime or what."

"If he is a part of that Federation or whatever … I'm worried about him wanting to make us dependent on him to eventually incorporate our planet into that cluster," Tony said.

"To be honest," Natasha said. "I don't see too many problems with that. Yes, we will be coming under a possibly dictatorial regime, but with the tech that they have and their forces, we might just end up being in the safest position in the Convergence."

"Maybe …" Tony had many thoughts of his own but decided to put them aside for later. "So, now what? We don't particularly have any Avengers-level threats at the moment. Are you planning to join Rogers in his work with Coulson and New Shield?"

"Did he change his mind?" Natasha asked. "I thought that he was against the re-establishment of Shield in the first place."

"A little pep talk after the whole stones business and Kamar Taj changed his mind. He is now the director of New Shield with Fury and Coulson as his deputies." Tony said.

"Interesting," She said. "But no, I don't plan to join any organizations for now. Instead, I wanted to see if you could find a way to get us funding for the settlement that we are creating in Earth-Z."

"Isn't your sponsor Apex helping with that?" Tony raised his brow.

"He only gave the suits and means of travel," Natasha said with a wry expression. "The rest of the logistics have to be dealt with by me."

"Can't say I'm stoked about the idea, but what do you need? Some basic necessities for a hundred women. That it?"

"More," Natasha shook her head. "I want to set up an actual base of operations there that's separate from the flying fortress. I'm going to call it The Sanctuary. And to make that, we will need more than just basic necessities."

"Which means funneling billions into the project …" Tony said.

"Pretty much, yeah. That's why I want your help to tap into military funding for it instead of your money. If we can somehow sell the idea of establishing a base in another world, our government will gladly give us not only endless money and resources but also endless manpower."

"I'll see what we can do about it …"

***

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