Holden Viller looked at the unconscious figure lying by his side, dressed in a white bodysuit with a black trench coat, complete with a full face-mask that had pointed ears. Viller himself was huddled into a ball behind his car. Moments ago, an assassin’s bullet meant for Viller took out the vigilante known as the White Tiger.

Silence filled the air, but Viller felt like the pounding of his heart was loud enough to signal his would-be assassin to his location. Not as if it would have taken much. Viller had been frozen in that position since the assassin first opened fire.

A metal hand grabbed Viller by his hair and raised him off the ground. The assassin stood on the hood of the car, his face framed by long, brown hair and a domino mask protected him from positive identification. The cybernetic arm had a star emblazoned on the shoulder and in his other hand, he held a handgun, which he placed against Viller’s temple.

The Winter Soldier said nothing and his face remained blank as he started to squeeze the trigger.

But instead of the sound of a gunshot or his own screams, Viller heard only a grunt from the Winter Soldier and found himself released, back on the ground. The White Tiger had sprung up, an energy dagger striking the Winter Soldier’s hand and causing him to drop his weapon.

The Winter Soldier jumped back from the White Tiger. In a rapid motion, he was armed with the rifle previously slung on his back and fired. The shells struck the White Tiger in the chest, but the vibranium microweave sucked all the momentum from the bullets, rendering them completely ineffective.

Golden claws extended from the White Tiger’s fingertips. He cut through the air and the Winter Soldier raised his cybernetic arm to defend himself. What he didn’t know was that the White Tiger’s claws were composed of a material known as anti-metal, capable of breaking down the properties of the Winter Soldier’s cybernetic arm.

The arm’s exposed wires sparked and it began to flail about. The Winter Soldier tried to compensate as best he could with his setback and tackled the White Tiger, the pair of them rolling on the ground. The hydraulics in the arm were damaged and it was difficult to get it to move in the fashion desired. But the Winter Soldier was able to gain some measure of control over it in order to slam his mechanical fist against the White Tiger’s face.

Kasper Cole could feel each strike even with the buffer of his costume.

The deafening sound of rapid gunfire caused the Winter Soldier to spring from the White Tiger. War Machine descended from the sky, the gatling gun mounted on his left shoulder spinning round and firing shell after shell on the scene.

“Careful Rhodey, we don’t want him dead.”

“Riot-control rubber bullets, Jack. I know what I’m doing,” said War Machine.

The Winter Soldier broke out into a run, using parked cars as cover as War Machine tried unsuccessfully to get a clear lock on him. He charged into an alley but once War Machine got there, he found no sign of the would-be assassin.

“Dammit,” he said. “I lost him.”

“How’d you lose him?”

“Sensors are picking up some residual energy signature. Must have access to a teleporter,” said War Machine.

When War Machine returned to the White Tiger and Viller, he saw Photon checking over the both of them for any injuries. She stood once Rhodey touched down on the street.

“We’ve got an all-clear,” she said. “Any idea where the Soldier ran off to?”

War Machine shook his head.

“That’s not true,” said the White Tiger. He held out a small device, which appeared to be a tiny mirror. “I struck him with my energy dagger. My Kimoyo card can now track him. Once he shows up again, he will be quite easy to find.”

“Good.” Photon looked over at Viller. “Now we just need to find out why this guy is a target.”

SECRET FILES AND ORIGINS

Part II

By Dino Pollard

Stark Enterprises

James Rhodes sat behind his desk, signing off some paperwork and handing them to his assistant. He smiled at the young woman who thanked him for his time and then left the spacious office. Rhodey reclined in the high-backed leather chair.

“You can come out now.”

Nomad emerged from the shadows of the room, dressed in gray with red trim. He stared at Rhodey through the opaque lenses of his domino mask. Rhodes finally rotated his chair to face the mysterious new visitor.

“Not bad,” said Nomad. “Didn’t realize you were that good.”

“I was a mercenary and a soldier. Even without the armor’s sensors, I still know when I’m being watched. So what do you want? Last I heard, weren’t you running around with SHIELD?”

“That’s what I’m here to talk to you about. Under Fury’s orders, I’m putting together a special unit. One that could use a guy like you.”

Rhodey motioned to his office. “In case you missed the memo, I’ve been appointed COO of Stark. Doesn’t leave much time for running around in a piece of advanced military weaponry.”

“I know, that’s one of the reasons I came to you. Not only do I want my own Iron Man, but I need people with backgrounds like yours—people who can stand the heat and know the value of working in secret. But your new job also puts you in a unique position—you have access to information that can be very useful to us.”

“What information is that?” asked Rhodey.

“How much do you know about Control?” asked Nomad.

“Never heard of them.”

“Control is an organization formed during the height of the Cold War,” said Nomad. “They started out with six members—four of them high-ranking military brass and two who were captains of industry.”

“Let me guess—Howard Stark was one of them,” said Rhodey.

“Exactly. Which means Stark Enterprises may have some old files pertaining to Control, stuff that can help us piece together their history.”

“Why are you so concerned about these guys? What have they done?”

“In the Sixties, there was a coup de’tat,” said Nomad. “The United States went from democracy to dictatorship overnight.”

Rhodes started to chuckle. “I think you’ve been watching too many Alex Jones films.”

“This is serious, Rhodes. Control has been manipulating this country and its people for decades.”

“And Fury believes this?”

“Fury’s the one who assigned me to this project.”

Rhodes sighed. “Okay. Tell me everything you know.”

“Doctor Viller?”

Viller still sat in an almost comatose state, staring blankly at the floor of the Quinjet. The Black Widow had been speaking his name for several minutes with no response. Now she took a small capsule from her gold belt and broke it open, holding it under his nose.

Viller’s response was instantaneous, his body snapping out of the state. He rubbed his eyes and then looked at the strange gathering of people around him—the Black Widow, War Machine, the White Tiger and Photon. Sitting nearby at a small computer terminal was Goliath.

“What is this? Who are you people?” he asked.

“The people who saved your life. Question we wanna know the answer to is why was it in danger anyway?” asked Photon.

“According to his tax returns, he was working for Cybertek, a subsidiary of Roxxon,” said Goliath.

“What do you mean according to my—how would you know that?” asked Viller.

“It’s what we do,” said Goliath.

“Goliath, what sort of information do we have on Viller’s research?” asked the Black Widow.

Goliath tried to look up that information but was met with a flashing box that read CLASSIFIED. “My access is blocked.”

“Doctor, we need your help,” said the Black Widow. “The man who was sent to kill you will not relent until you are dead. But if you tell us what you know, we can protect you.”

“I was mostly brought in as a consultant,” said Viller. “They had the technology, they just said it wasn’t quite reliable enough.”

“What do you mean? What technology?” asked War Machine.

“It’s a classified military contract, I have a non-disclosure agreement.”

“They don’t seem to think you take it too seriously if they’ve sent a hitman after you,” said War Machine. “What technology?”

“It was a man…kind of. The tissue was dead—almost decaying. Like something you’d see in a zombie movie. And the rest of him was some of the most advanced cybernetics I’d ever seen in my life.”

“That sounds a little too familiar.” The Black Widow stood and moved towards the cockpit. “When we get back to base, we arrange security for the doctor and then we’ll have a full debriefing.”

Nomad flew the Quinjet as the Black Widow came and closed the cockpit door behind her. She sat in the co-pilot’s seat. Glancing down, she saw a holographic video screen on the windshield, showing the cabin.

“You were watching?”

“Of course,” said Nomad. “You know what Roxxon’s up to, don’t you?”

“No, but I have a theory. I need to confirm it with Nicholas first.” Natasha fixed her gaze on the team’s leader. “Jack?”

“What?”

“You’ve barely said a word since we left the base. Since Faustus told us about the Winter Soldier.”

“I’ve been preoccupied, don’t like to chat too much during a mission.”

“And I can read body language. I know when someone’s lying,” said Natasha. “You think it could have been you, don’t you? That what happened to James Barnes could have easily happened to you.”

“What do you know about him?”

“Bucky? Only what Steve told me—”

“No, not Bucky.” Jack turned and fixed his gaze on Natasha. “What do you know about the Winter Soldier?”

“Unfortunately, even less than what I know about Barnes’ life before he became the Soldier. He was mostly a myth in the intelligence world during the Cold War. The Americans said he was a Soviet agent. But those of us on the other side of the Iron Curtain, we knew that wasn’t true. We thought it was disinformation, so to find out he actually exists is a little bit of a surprise for me.”

“What about after your defection?”

“After the Cold War, I can’t recall any mention of the Winter Soldier. Which led even more credence to the theory that it was fiction. Even when I was with SHIELD, no one had any solid proof that the Soldier even existed, let alone who he worked for.”

“So you never knew that Bucky Barnes was still alive?” asked Jack.

“What? No, of course not,” said Natasha. “What makes you—”

Natasha paused for a brief moment. She looked down at her hands. “You think Fury knows something about this, don’t you?”

Jack shook his head. “To be honest, I don’t know what I think. What I do know is that Control is involved with turning Barnes into the Winter Soldier. And they also kept Burnside and me in suspended animation after the serum we were given drove us crazy. Why would they do that?”

“You believe they kept you around in case they needed additional subjects. In case they needed another Winter Soldier.”

“Who’s to say they didn’t do just that?” asked Jack. “Think about it, Natasha—with all the myths about the Winter Soldier, who’s to say he was just one man? And you heard what Faustus said—they wiped his memory after every mission. What I’m thinking isn’t that I could have been the Winter Soldier. I’m wondering if Iwas a Winter Soldier.”

A holographic projection of Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD, stood in the center of the so-called Secret Avengers. He rubbed his chin as he reviewed the information the Avengers had just passed on to him.

“Lemme get this straight. Bucky Barnes survived the explosion that we all thought killed him. Then he was brainwashed, given a robot arm, and transformed into the Winter Soldier.”

“That’s the gist of it,” said Nomad. “And we also know that Viller was involved in experimenting on some sort of cyborg that was merged with a corpse. Natasha thinks she knows what it might be but she wanted to confirm it with you first.”

“Alright ‘Tash, I’m all ears.”

“Have we received any report on the current status of Jack Truman?” asked the Black Widow.

“Truman, you mean Deathlok? Far as we know, he’s still runnin’ around with that new Force Works outfit.”

“So there have been no reports of his demise?”

“If he ain’t alive an’ kickin’, I sure as shit haven’t heard about it.”

“What’s this about?” asked Spider-Woman. “What does Truman have to do with Viller and Roxxon?”

“Nicholas?” asked Natasha.

“Go ahead. We’re gonna need to trust them with classified information at some point.”

“The Deathlok prototype was a cybernetic organism developed by SHIELD through a front company. When the prototype almost fell into the wrong hands, a SHIELD agent named Jack Truman was able to salvage it by uploading his consciousness into the prototype. His own body was destroyed and he carried out SHIELD missions under the codename Deathlok.”

“At least until a few months ago when he suddenly went missing. Then he pops up in North Korea with a bunch of other costumed nuts calling themselves Force Works. I’ve had the UN’s Security Council breathin’ down my neck about ’em.”

“I’m confused. This doesn’t sound anything like the Roxxon thing,” said Ant-Man.

“Kid’s got a point, Nick. What does this have to do with Roxxon?” asked Rhodey.

“Several years ago, there was another hero who called himself Deathlok, but he disappeared. It’s where SHIELD first got the idea for the project. Roxxon may have gotten ahold of him and found a way to duplicate the process.”

“So they’re trying to recreate this Deathlok? Viller also mentioned this was done with a military contract. Any chance you can get us some of that information?”

“I’ll see what I can find. Meanwhile, it’ll be up to you all to figure out just what the hell is going on with Barnes.”

“I’m able to track him. And I’d like another shot at him,” said the White Tiger.

“And I think I might know someone else who can help us figure out what’s going on with Barnes,” said Nomad.

“We’ll also need to get into Roxxon’s files. They could have information we need,” said Rhodey.

“Good.” Nomad looked over the rest of the team. “Would you guys mind stepping outside? I’ve got to have a word with Fury.”

“’Break me off a switch, son. It’s time for a whuppin’,’” said Ant-Man with a grin.

“Shut up,” said Rhodey.

The rest of the team left the conference room with the Black Widow hanging back for a moment and stealing a look with Nomad. Then she followed, closing the automatic doors. Nomad circled the holographic projection of Fury, who lit a cigar and began to puff on it.

“Yer makin’ me dizzy, kid.”

“Natasha said when she was with the Soviets, the Americans were spreading rumors about a Soviet assassin nicknamed the Winter Soldier. But the Soviets never had any assassin by that name. She said the KGB always assumed it was disinformation designed to discredit the Soviets and justify America’s actions in the intelligence world.”

“And?”

“And I want to know how much truth there is to that,” said Nomad. “You were active during the Cold War, weren’t you?”

Fury nodded. “Yeah, we heard rumors about the Winter Soldier. But back then, I didn’t have the security clearance I’ve got now. We only knew what we were told and what we were told was that the Soldier was a Soviet agent.”

“And you never knew that he was actually working for the Americans? For Weapon Plus?”

“Kid, what are you gettin’ at here?”

“I just want to know who I can trust, Fury.”

“Last time I checked, I’m the one who’s kept your butt outta the fire. If you can’t trust me, who can you trust?”

“If I find out you’re lying about this…”

“Jack, you gotta trust me. I’m on your side. What’s happenin’ right here, this is exactly what the enemy wants. They want us fightin’ amongst ourselves. We can’t play into their game.”

“Fine. Then don’t give me a reason to.” Nomad terminated the connection and the hologram vanished.