Marvel Iron Age: Lady Deathstrike
Vol. 2 Chapter 3
Ngumi practically walked back into New Latveria. After getting to the border and speaking with customs agents one of them alerted the other of her identity. “Do you know who this woman is?”
Kylie and Kikune locked hands with Ngumi and looked at the border agents angrily. “No why?”
The other palmed his head and sighed. “That’s Ngumi Takada! Enemy of the state Ngumi Takada!”
“Major Ngumi Takada.” Ngumi corrected.
They both looked at her and then continued their argument, “She was the one of the queen’s top agents? Saved Doomstadt from the zombie robots? Savior of San Francisco? Was with Augustus Holland during the Chicago Incident?” The agent continued.
“Commander Augustus Holland.” Ngumi once again corrected as she walked passed them and to a train terminal leading to Doomstadt.
“Never heard of her.” The border agent shrugged.
The exasperated border agent turned back around to face Ngumi, “Sorry about—“ Only Ngumi was gone and on board a train to Doomstadt. “The queen is going to have our starks!” The border agents lamented.
Doomstadt:
Getting into the city was actually more difficult. The train station she arrived to was crawling with New Latverian military. On large monitors that hung from the ceiling should news footage from New York. A man wearing the armor and robes of the late Victor Von Doom stood before the Supreme Commander. He took off his hood and showed himself to Stryfe and to the rest of the world. It was Nathan Summers. Cable. “I’m gone for a few weeks and the world gets even more insane.” Ngumi said smiling and then bent down to hug her children.
“Who is that aunty?” Kylie asked.
“Hopefully someone we can count on. I’ll ask the queen when we talk today.” Ngumi said as she stood up.
“I think she wants to talk to you aunty!” Kiki said as she pointed up at one of the other monitors on the ceiling.
Right their blown up on the monitor was Ngumi’s face it read:
Ngumi Takada former S.H.I.E.L.D Agent
Rank: Majorin the New Latverian Army
A wanted enemy of New Latveria.
Charges include: conspiring with enemy factions, excessive force resulting in the deaths of innocents, theft of military equipment and treason.
Approach with caution.
Subject should be treated as extremely dangerous.
Last seen traveling with two female children with silver hair.
Ngumi’s blood began to boil. She wanted to scream. It all felt wrong. Ngumi always did as Carol asked. When she left she assumed Carol would understand she had no choice. Ngumi read the charges again. High treason. Conspiring with the enemy. Theft. Excessive force. Ngumi balled her fists, “I guess it’s something me and the queen need to discuss.”
Ngumi face her girls. Her tone grew hard as she ordered in Japanese, <You have to do everything as I say. Got it?>
The girls nodded. <I want you to walk away from me and out those doors. They know we’re here by now. So once you get out some Shield agents like me are going to ask you to go with them. Do it. I’ll know where to pick you up.>
“But you just saved us!” Kikki protested.
Kylie sharply elbowed her in the arm and glared at her slightly younger sister, “Shut up!”
<It’s confusing. I know. But it’s all good. Me and Queen Danvers just need to work out some… little details.> Ngumi reassured half-heartedly. Ngumi hugged them again and kissed their foreheads. Ngumi squeezed tighter and swallowed hard. The girls returned the affection.
Ngumi took a deep exhale and let go. “Now go. I’ll see you later.” Kylie and Kiki latched on for a little longer and then let go. Tears welled in their eyes as they turned around and headed for an exit.
Ngumi stood up. She looked around for signs of movement. The girls were quickly lost in the crowd. The border agents must have gotten over their argument and reported Ngumi to the rest of the military. It’s not like she made a secret out of coming back. Most of the New Latverian Military and Shield knew who she was and what she looked like.
Ngumi saw three soldiers coming her way. They cut through the crowd like the wind. Ngumi was still wearing damaged combat armor and carried a sword on her back. So obviously she stuck out. She considered letting them arrest her. Ngumi even more quickly dismissed the thought. She wanted to hit something.
Ngumi darted off to the bathroom as the officers followed her. Ngumi tossed open the women’s restroom and hugged the wall next to the door. They piled in. Three of them. Ngumi snatched the pistol of the last man coming in and shot him in the calf. The other three turned in surprise. Ngumi threw herself forward and cracked the next officer in the teeth with her pistol; then she whipped around and kicked the soldier next to her in the head.
The man stumbled into a stall and fell back on the toilet. Before he could recover, Ngumi launched snap kick that made his head crash into the wall behind him. Turned around and looked down at the other downed soldiers and dropped her knee down on the face of the officer she hadn’t shot.
The man she had shot was seething. He held in any panic and glared at Ngumi. “How vexing.” She said coldly.
She walked over to him and knelt next to him. Ngumi shoved the barrel of her pistol into the wound she had inflicted. The pressure had caused him to wince and let out a pained grunt. “That’s better.” Ngumi said in a leveled monotone.
“You know who I am?” Ngumi asked as she dug the barrel deeper. The man nodded. “Then you know my reputation. Maybe you heard stories. The worst of them are most likely true, depending who you ask and you should also know I’m in a really $%&@ mood.”
“I’m not… afraid of you!” The officer replied defiantly.
Ngumi smiled. “Good. That makes you better at helping me.” Ngumi grabbed the soldier by the scruff of his neck and brought him to his feet. She forced him forward and out of the door. The man hobbled out as he followed Ngumi’s lead. The assassin fired several shots into the air. The whole station just as quickly swept into frenzy as they tried to hurry out of the exits.
Ngumi looked at her hostage and then patted him down to find a radio. “Talk to them!” Ngumi ordered.
The soldier complied. “This is Private Petrovesky. My team has made contact with the subject. My team has been disabled and I’ve been captured.”
There was a long silence and then a shaken response. They knew Ngumi was listening. “Agent Takada this is Sargent Tully of S.H.I.E.L.D.We’ve been ordered to use deadly force. Please cooperate.”
Ngumi kicked her hostage in his leg wound hard enough to cause him to buckle under and cry out. Ngumi picked up the radio and replied in Japanese, <Come get me.>
Ngumi turned around and went back into the restroom. She ran for the vent high on the wall in the opposite end of the room. She pried it off and crawled through the ventilation shafts. The swarming mass of people would hopefully distract the snipers outside for a little while; if there were any. Ngumi realized she may have made things worse. She didn’t care right now.
“Agent Takada are you there?”
Ngumi realized she kept the radio and answered as she crawled. “So what? Are you guys going to arrest me? Throw me in the dungeons of Castle Doom.”
“Be reasonable, Major! Believe it or not in my book you’re a starking hero. Give up!” Agent Tully ordered over the radio.
“Not a Major anymore soldier.” Ngumi replied. “You’re also not convincing me.”
“We have your nieces in custody. They’re right next to me.”
Ngumi’s eyes rolled at the obvious ploy to manipulate her. “Can they hear me?” There was another long pause as Numi climbed up a duct as she ascended the tight confines of the air shafts.
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Keep up the good work kids. I’ll see you soon.” Ngumi said as she saw daylight emerge. <And tell Agent Tully to review his negotiation tactics and if possible correlate any psyche profiles available on his subject to adjust tactics accordingly.>
<What?> One of the girls asked, probably Kiki. “Ow! Kylie!”
Ngumi chuckled and said in English before shutting off the radio. “Tell him to stop sucking at his job. Love, you both!”
Ngumi climbed up one long shaft and pushed open a grate and rolled onto the roof. “Agent Takada!”
Ngumi looked over and saw she was spotted by a Shield agent. Just one. A man she saved and remembered. “Makkari.”
Makkari was a member of the Eternals. An immortal race of beings that, Stryfe is using to power his megatropolis’ in North America. Ngumi and an S.H.E.I.L.D team saved Makkari from the Chicago power plant. “I am going to arrest you.”
“Come to read me my rights then?” Ngumi said as she raised her pistol and fired. Only to miss as Makkari used his superior speed to side step the bullets. In a literal blink of an eye, Ngumi was scooped up and as she opened her eyes she was dangled over the edge of the building.
“It’s over, Agent Takada. Now come in peacefully or I drop you four stories and break your legs.” Makkari threatened with his hand squeezed around Ngumi’s throat.
“Sloppy, Eternal!” Ngumi gasped as she took aim and fired into Makkari’s knee caps and into his stomach.
Makkari growled in pain and dropped Ngumi. Ngumi caught the ledge and shimmied over to a ladder and slide down to the alley. Though she dropped her gun in the process and remained armed with her sword. Ngumi sprinted to the street. She drew her sword and she felt a gust of wind and then felt a fist form around her belly as she folded around it and dropped to the floor.
“That really hurt, Agent Takada.” Makkari who had recovered from the gun shots stood only feet away. He hadn’t left Ngumi time enough to react to his attack. “You can’t win. You know that though don’t you?”
Ngumi watched his feet as he took another step closer. Ngumi thrust her sword forward in the full expectation she wouldn’t be able to see what the speedster would do next. Ngumi had guessed right. With his fist raised and ready to attack, Makkari had the full length of Ngumi’s blade through his belly. Makkari fell on top of Ngumi. The assassin rolled over and ripped her blade from the Eternal. Ngumi ran for the street and made it to a hover car that she promptly stole and took off with.
Makkari held the bleeding wound as it began to heal. Ngumi had gotten away, “Ngumi Takada is no longer in the area. She got away from me.” Makkari announced over the radio.
Over the radio he could here sounds of yelling and even one or two excited cheers. “Damn it, how!”
Makkari scoffed and returned to his feet, “Just because I can move at the speed of light doesn’t mean people don’t get lucky.”
Makkari looked up at the sky. Ngumi couldn’t have gone far. He could run around all of Doomstadt all day and maybe find her once she landed. He didn’t. Just like he didn’t have to run straight at her and take a stabbing. “Whatever you’re going to do Agent Takada, do it fast.”
Castle Doom,
Carol Danvers’ study:
Carol walked in tired from the action of her day. She snuck out of the Castle after a meeting she had with War Machine about Hamburg. She was wearing S.H.I.E.L.D issue combat armor with a lightning bolt on her chest instead of the traditional grey eagle insignia. Instead of her natural blond locks draping around her shoulders, her hair was black and short. A domino mask covered her eyes.
A ring of golden light scanned around her and changed her appearance back to normal. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
Carol snapped her attention to her desk and glared. Ngumi was sitting at her desk balancing her sheathed sword on her middle finger and having her feet on her desk. “Minor molecular control. Not hard to make myself look a little different.”
“My girls?” Ngumi questioned.
“Yeah they got dropped off here. Had them sent to a private room next to my quarters.” Carol said as she went over to a shelf and poured herself a glass of whiskey. “Sixty years of sobriety!”
The queen shot the drink straight back and grunted as the liquor flowed down her throat. “Want one?”
Ngumi walked over to Carol with sword in hand. Ngumi held back the urge to scream and yell. “How was your trip, Ngumi. I heard, Madripoor was unusually hot last week.” Carol looked at her with a half disgusted face and held her glass to tightly it started to fracture. “White Phosphorus! You burned down an entire district! You killed hundreds!” Carol screamed as the glass shattered in her hand.
Ngumi replied without looking at her. “I’ve killed more under your command ma’am. And if you ordered me to, I would still do it. But treason? May I remind you who let what go down, during Wide Awake? Who asked Commander Holland and I to kill off the New Latverian Branch of S.H.I.E.L.D, so you can swoop in with your Shield agents and contain the rest of the country?”
Carol wiped her hands of the glass and took another. “You should have come to me. You should have cut off that bastards head and brought it here. I would have done everything I could to help!”
“And my girls might be dead right now. My American Queen.” Ngumi retorted as she poured herself a glass. “You should have trusted me!”
Carol drank down more whiskey before she answered, “You betrayed my trust as soon as you left with the man who blew up Silver Sable in front of her kids!”
The wall shook. Ngumi punched the wall and put her fist through the plaster and hit the stone beneath. “Damn it!” Ngumi yelled. The assassin downed her drink as well.
Carol looked at Ngumi. The same authoritive look as North American Director of S.H.I.E.L.D emerged on her face. The face Ngumi took her orders from for two hundred years. “Why did you leave with him in the first place? He could have been lying. Anything. Because of the risks you took and while I acknowledge the citizens of Madripoor are not my own you still burned a hundred of them alive!” Carol grunted.
“The only reason I don’t…” Carol stopped her angry tirade. She looked at her full glass. Carol hesitated as she brought the glass to her lips. Then she finished her drink. “I should give you the firing squad. But in light of your previous service exceptions can be made, Agent Takada.”
Ngumi took what Carol said. She couldn’t say a word. Not this time. Carol had been right. As much as she hated it. Ngumi felt no guilt with what she had done. She would do it again to save her children. But Ngumi could admit when she was wrong. “Fine.”
Ngumi took a step back and raised her sheathed sword to Carol. Ngumi bowed her head low, her shoulders slumped as she said, “I’m surrendering.”
Carol put her glass down and pressed a finger on the hilt. “Keep it. You aren’t any use to anyone dead or locked up. After you spend the night with your girls, you can start earning my trust back in the morning.”
Carol clasped her hands behind her back. The queen walked to a nearby window. She looked out at the winter beaten landscape, “I’m in need of a fugitive.”
To be continued
Read War Machine- War Crimes for further details and upcoming plot points!
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