Freedom Reborn

The White Widow

Natasha Romanova was Russia's supreme espionage agent when she fell in love with the fledgling Avenger known as Hawkeye. Their relationship blossomed and she decided to remain in the United States, defecting from the USSR, and became an official member of the Avengers early on in the team's history. Natasha proved to be a mainstay through several incarnations of the team, and saw several members come and go. The Black Widow was an active member when they were forced to become part of the Beyonder's Secret Wars. While on War World, the Black Widow encountered a gooey substance that covered her body and became a brand new suit, replacing the one she trashed during a recent battle. Natasha found that the new substance was incredible, fitting her body in a new costume that shifted in response to her thought, allowing her to blend into her surroundings, as well as giving her enhanced strength and other powers. After the Secret Wars was over, Natasha named herself the White Widow, inspired by the white spider design on her new costume. In time, Natasha became significantly more moody and much more reckless to her foes. Noticing the change immediately, Hawkeye asked Doctor Hank Pym to examine her. Pym had an inkling that the new suit was actually an alien symbiote. Natasha kept the secret to herself, unwilling to give up the new powers she received, even though she felt herself losing control. The White Widow was then approached by the Timebroker, explaining to her that she has been unhinged from time and space, meant to correct universal wrongs. If she refused her mission, she would succumb to the symbiote and become the Red Widow, killing her teammates in the Avengers, including her lover Hawkeye. Rather than kill the ones she loved the most, she accepted the Timebroker's offer and joined Weapon X.

It all started with Victor Von Doom.

Reed was thrilled to have Von Doom assigned as his roommate, but Von Doom was an abrasive, somewhat egotistical genius, and sought a solitary bunk. His substitute was football star Ben Grimm, whom Reed admired for his outgoing personality, his football skill and his engineering knowledge. Been and Reed started a friendship that would last for decades.

Reed saw Von Doom often, and they attended many of the same lectures and classes. He was one of the few people that could follow von Doom’s more exotic formulae and calculations. He learned quickly that Von Doom did not like to be corrected.

One evening, though, Reed had just finished up one of his own experiments when he chanced by an open lab. Checking to see if anyone was there, he discovered several pages of notes scattered about the tables within. Just a quick curious perusal and Reed saw a dangerous error, almost hidden in the complex calculations. Von doom stormed in and accused Reed of all sorts of things, whereas Reed tried to convince Von Doom that he needed to re-check his math. In the end, Reed left, while Von Doom, in the paranoid belief that Reed would go to the school authorities and try to have him stopped, went ahead with the experiment he had concocted.

Halfway back to his dorm, Reed realized that he had left a book on the table with Von Doom’s calculations. In many universes, he just shrugged and decided he would try to get it the next day. In this universe, however, he turned around and went back. As he neared the building, he realized what was going on. Reed raced into the lab, intending to shut down the process before something bad happened.

He was too late.

He and Von Doom were the only survivors, Reed was bruised and burned slightly, Von Doom’s face was a mass or raw, burned flesh, but the lab assistant was killed. Von Doom ranted and raved about Reed sabotaging the experiment, and Reed found himself suspended from the college pending an investigation. The papers with the erroneous calculations were destroyed in the explosion and subsequent fire, and, truth to tell, only a half a dozen people in the world could have understood the equations well enough to have discerned that Reed might have been right. At this time, Reed also found out that Von Doom had been filing complaints against him with the Dean of Students. Von Doom insisted that Reed was engaged in some kind of vendetta against him.

Before he vanished, Von Doom was questioned by the college officials. He insisted that the experiment was, while not sanctioned by the school, not explainable to anyone in terms that could readily be understood, was going as planned until Reed Richard entered and began throwing switches. Von Doom claimed that it was a miracle that he was alive, since it was “obvious” that the intended outcome of the sabotage had been his death.

Then the bandages came off and Von Doom disappeared.

The school was unable to prove Reed guilty of wrongdoing, but Reed could not prove his innocence either. Reed’s grants were not renewed the next year, and the scholarship he had received was terminated. Reed continued his ecucation using his own money.

Then along came World War II. Reed ended up in Army Intelligence, the in OSS. He did many brave and heroic things, none of which ever showed up in the papers. His ex-roommate was a war hero, with decorations and a high number of enemy planes shot down to his credit. Reed stayed on with the OSS after the war, actually seeing a little action in Korea. He eventually headed home, where the entire world had changed.

Every top-rated technical institute had heard about the trouble with Von Doom. They all managed to be “full up” when Reed applied. He managed to finish college at a little known school in Massachusetts. At home, the “girl next door” had grown into a beautiful woman. She wouldn’t have anything to do with him, though. This was, of course, because her own father was accused of murder, and she was leery of a relationship with someone whose past had a shadow over it.

Years went by, with Reed working at low-paying jobs assisting men who were, while geniuses, not in Reed’s class. A couple of times, Reeds ideas were stolen and passed off as his employer’s own, and the old college incident was brought in to haunt Reed again when he tried to take credit for his own inventions.

In the late ‘50s, Reed started working for Grim Aeronautical Engineering as a lab tech. When Ben heard about it, he pulled Reed out and set him up doing experiments of his own. While many of Ben’s contemporaries though he was crazy, Ben had never believed the story about Reed sabotaging Von Doom’s experiment. Ben, too, had a run-in or two with that particular old school chum.

By the early ‘60s, Reed had built the first spaceship. He was ahead of NASA, and had reason to believe that The Soviets knew that. He and Ben planed to launch the ship in secret. Come the day of blast off, Ben was nowhere to be found. Soviet agents had kidnapped him and were trying to get the information as to the location of the launch so they could stop it. They, in turn, were caught by military police when they tried to enter the testing area. None of this stopped Reed from climbing into the cockpit and taking of himself.

Reed knew the cosmic ray shielding was light; it had been a struggle to have enough shielding without increasing the weight so much as to have to send a dog or a monkey into space. They figured that maybe 10% of the rays would get through. Not too bad if they didn’t go flying in space for a couple of month afterward. What Reed did not know was that there was a sudden increase in the amount of cosmic radiation in his path. Even shielding 90% of the rays, the exposure was going to be many times higher than if there had been no shielding at all under normal circumstances.

Reed was not as good a pilot as Ben Grim, but he should have been able to land the ship where he wanted it. For some reason, a control circuit supplied by a small electronics firm in the country of Latveria, malfunctioned and sent the craft plummeting back into the atmosphere out of control. The returning spacecraft plowed into a residential neighborhood. Six people were killed, and almost fifty injured. Reed did what he could for the survivors, but he did not wait around for the authorities. H didn’t trust things to go any better for him this time than when he was in college. So he ran.

And was surprised to find that he was taking 30-40 yard steps as he ran.

Reed hid for a couple of years, surviving mostly by stealing. This was fairly easy for someone with his abilities. Every once in awhile, he would allow himself to be caught. After a filling meal and a good nights sleep, he would flow between the bars of the cell and escape.

Then one day an old war buddy entered a bar, sat down next to Reed, and told him “Don’t bother running; we’ve got the place surrounded, and we know all about your ‘special’ abilities”.
Reed asked “What do you want, Nick?”
Nick Fury smiled and shifted his stogie. “Your old unit wants you back. The initials have changed, but we're still us.”
Nick slid a card across the bar to reed. The initials Nick was talking about were CIA.

For forty years, Red Richard has worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. He has done research, espionage, and wet work (h can reshape his body into blades which are useless against most things, but sufficient to use on “soft” targets). He is cynical and more than al little bitter about how his life has gone. Oddly enough, the is still an idealist within his heart. When offered a position in Weapon X, he took it, actually hoping that he could make some worlds a better place.

Elektra Natchios was the daughter of a Greek ambassador to the United States and a freshman at Empire State University. Elektra's father knew that Elektra was in a vulnerable position, due to his political stance, so he made his daughter train with various skilled martial artists throughout most of her life. Unfortunately, her learned skill was not enough to prevent terrorists from kidnapping Elektra and her father on campus grounds. The New York Police Department arrived to the scene immediately when a young recruit, Frank Castle, took the initiative to engage the enemy. Frank Castle was able to stop several of the terrorists, with Elektra dispatching a few on her own, but were unable to stop a bullet from killing her father. Grief-stricken and despondent, Elektra found solace in the heroic police officer that offered help, Frank Castle, and in time fell in love and married. One day the couple were enjoying a day in the park when several gangsters targeted Frank Castle and instantly murdered him in front of Elektra. She became determined to avenge the death of her husband, as well as her father and to disrupt all organized crime. Continuing her martial arts training around the world, Elektra returned to New York City to find her revenge by taking down the Kingpin, whom she knew was responsible for the death of her husband. Adopting the vigilante name of the Punisher (Lady Punisher? Elektracutioner?), New York's newest vigilante has placed fear in the criminals of New York, battling both Kingpin's forces as well as superheroes who have opposed Elektra's fatal approach at vigilantism. The Timebroker approached the Punisher on one of her missions when he informed her that she had been displaced from time and space. She would join the team of Weapon X or, on her planet, she would accidentally kill a member of the Avengers, leading her to be hunted by the world's greatest superhero team.

(http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h137/excelsior420/elektracutioner.jpg)

For the design, I actually wanted the skull to be right in the middle of her shirt, where the teeth would come down through the loincloth part of her costume, but the skull was too distorted and it didn't look good on the loincloth, so this was a second version of it.

Northstar, a member of the Canadian superhero team known as Alpha Flight, was brought into battle against the terrorist organization known as Hydra, after their latest plot. Having kidnapped the Alpha Flight member Wolverine, HYDRA brainwashed the Canadian hero and used him to ambush his former teammates, killing Northstar in the process. Northstar was subsequently resurrected and brainwashed by Hydra, using him to lead their super-powered army in an attack on SHIELD, and their vaunted Helicarrier headquarters. However, Northstar was not satisfied with bringing down SHIELD and continued on a killing spree, using his army to murder anti-mutant and anti-gay supporters. His vicious rampage was halted by the Timebroker, who told Northstar that he was unhinged from time and space. If Northstar did not accept the Timebroker's offer to join Weapon X, Northstar would be fated to die in a battle against the Wendigo. Northstar, realizing his need for change, accepts the offer and decided to create a new identity, modeling himself after his first mentor, James Hudson. Now known as North Guardian, he fights alongside Weapon X, his bloodlust getting the better of him more often than not.

This story branches off of the Wolverine and Kitty Pryde mini-series story.  Kitty Pryde's father ran into trouble with the Japanese Yakuza. In order to help him, Kitty followed him to Japan but is captured by an evil ninja Ogun, who brainwashed her into becoming a deadly ninja assassin. After defeating a group of ninjas, she is ordered to kill Wolverine.

A confused Kitty uses her "phasing" abilities to kill Wolverine with a "Half phased" Katana.  Realizing that she has murdered her friend and mentor, Kitty turned on Ogun. The assassination of two major players in the Far East attracts the interest of the Hand.  She is indoctrinated into their ways and sets out on the path of being an assassin.  In this time line, Kitty, who has now adopted the name Shadow Cat, goes on to be the number one Assassin in the world.  She specializes in contracts against robotic foes, and is even hired by Tony Stark to destroy the nigh indestructible Ultron.  After that mission, she went on a rampage and accidentally killed the Vision.  She escaped back to the Far East, where she was forever on the run from SHIELD and the Avengers.  Until the Timebroker contacted her to join Weapon X.  Shadow Cat, is merciless and specializes in phasing her traditional Japanese weaponry so that they can penetrate any object or being.  Her abilities to walk through walls, floors, and even float through the skies combined with her Ninja training make her a powerful killer.  Her ability to scramble computers, circuitry, and most importantly robots, make her skills extremely useful against heavily armored and robotic "targets".

Glue Gun Gus

Paste Pot Pete was a meek and mild criminal. Though dreaming of lofty heights, he never really amounted to anything. After getting whupped by just about every hero in the book, he decided to try something grander. He took the entire city of New York hostage through his use of super advanced adhesives in the water supplies. Unfortunately this caused the accidental death of many, and as things escalated with more and more heroes becoming involved, Pete lost control. He didn't mean for things to go quite as far as they did, and the only way out he could see was suicide.

After this his identity was revealed. Gus was devastated that his brother had become what people called a modern day Hitler. He knew this villianization wasn't Pete's idea. Seeing his brother's name strewn through the mud like that mad Gus go a little unhinged. He stole into Pete's gear and began studying. After learning all he could from his brother's files he donned one of Pete's old costumes and took to the streets, systematically murdering heroes one by one. He was finally cornered just after he had slain Captain America. Finding himself in the same bunker his brother killed himself in, Gus tried to seek other options.

That's when the Timebroker appeared before him. He was told that his reality was an incorrect one. His brother shouldn't have tried his master plan, and was suppose to remain a buffoonish criminal, and Gus himself would have never been on this path. For a chance to redeem his actions, and spare his life, he was offered a position on Weapon X

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