Changing Loyalties

Changing Loyalties

By Rathbane

Black Widow walked along the corridors of SHIELD headquarters and entered an office at the end of one.

“You wanted to see me?” she asked Nick Fury.

“Yes,” he said, as he got up from his desk.
 
He clicked a remote and a wall mounted screen turned on.  The screen displayed the head shot of a teenage girl with blue eyes and thick black glasses, her long black hair was tied back in a ponytail.  

“This is Kara Kaden; at fifteen she already has her masters in computer engineering and mechanical engineering.  She also has a minor in chemical engineering.  Officially her IQ is two points below Stark’s, but that’s just to preserve his ego, in reality it’s 20 points higher.  She’s developed quite a bit of tech, but only bits and pieces have found their way into the world.”

“Like what?” Black Widow asked.

“You know that ball thing in the new 'Star Wars' movie?  She helped develop the technology to make that thing move the way it does.  Anyways, SHIELD and other government entities aren’t too happy with how slow or unwilling she’s been to share her inventions with us.  We’ve tried offering her contracts, we’ve tried being nice to her, we’ve tried being not so nice to her, heck I’ve tried to have the minimum age to draft someone into SHIELD lowered just so I could snatch her up, but she kind of put the kibash on that.”

“What happened?”

“She threatened to release…a…certain video of me.”

“The one with you and the kitten?” Black Widow asked, suppressing the urge to smile, “I love that one.”

“Yes,” Fury replied, his anger building, “Anyways, it’s time for the direct approach.  If she won’t give us her ideas, the powers that be have decided it’s time to take them.  Here take this.”

“What is it?”  Black Widow asked, taking the small conical device from him.

“It’s a new bit of hardware the cyber warfare department cooked up.  Plug that into her computer and it’ll pump out half a million algorithms a second, cracking any passwords she might have while at the same time sending all her info to us directly.”

“You guys take all the fun out of hacking into a system,” Black Widow said, “Where is her lab anyways?”

“Outside of a small town in Ohio, apparently her dad rented her the space cheap, since it’s in a strip mall that failed to take off.  Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Black Widow said, as she walked out of the room.



A short while later she found herself in the empty parking lot of a strip mall.  All the building facades were barren, except for a Chinese carry-out place at the very end.  She walked to the appropriate door and picked the lock.  Inside she found herself surrounded by various workstations filled with half completed pieces of technology.  She walked deeper into the lab and found what must have been Kara’s primary computer.

She sat down in the desk chair and bumped the mouse.  The screen came out of sleep mode and greeted her with the Kaden family Christmas photo as the desktop image.

Figures she’d be using some sort of operating system she probably developed herself, Black Widow thought, looking at the unfamiliar screen layout in front of her.

She plugged the device Fury had given her into one of the USB ports and waited.

This should only take three minutes according to him, she thought.

A slight humming noise caught her attention and she turned to find a small sphere shaped object floating in front of her.

Startled, she swore in Russian before firing an electrically charged Widow’s Bite blast at it.  Upon finding its mark, the blast caused the orb to fall to ground, disabled.  Breathing a sigh of relief she turned back the computer, the device was still glowing red, indicating that it was still trying to access the system.

Another humming noise caught her attention again and she turned to find another orb hovering in front of her.  She fired another Widow’s Bite, but the orb dodged it.

“You’re getting smarter,” she said in annoyance.

In response to her attack, the orb sprayed her with a cloud of gas.

No! she thought, trying to hold her breath, but gas had already began to affect her and her vision started to blur.  A few seconds latter her eyes locked shut and her head slumped to her chest as she fell asleep.



She didn’t know how long she had been out when her eyes blinked open, but the orb that had sprayed her with gas was now floating in front of her chest, several metal cables had popped out of it, tying her to the chair.  She tried to activated a few of her suit’s countermeasures but found them all unresponsive.  Finally looking up, she saw Kara Kayden sitting across from her eating out of a Chinese takeout box.

“Oh, you’re up,” Kara said, as she closed the takeout box, and set it to the side, “You must be Black Widow, or Natasha Romanoff.  Which do you prefer?”

“Seeing as you already know so much about me, I’ll let you use whatever you want,” Black Widow said.

“I found your toy by the way,” Kara said, holding up the conical device, “Not a bad piece of tech, unfortunately it wasn’t good enough and all you sent off to SHIELD was five terabytes of scientific papers filled with nonsense that contradicted themselves every other paragraph.”

Not only was I careless, but this mission was a complete waste as well, Black Widow thought in annoyance.

“I guess you decided to move onto the next step, stealing from me directly,” Kara said, “I kept telling everyone that I didn’t want my inventions to be used in your war games and espionage and I wanted only to make the world a better place.  That gas that was used on you I developed to be used in hospitals, but the military wanted me to weaponize it, but when I said no, they had the FDA back down from approving it.”

“I see you didn’t hesitate to weaponize it to use it on me,” Black Widow said.

“I only did that so I could outfit my security drones with non-lethal deterrents,” Kara said, “Now that I know you’ve moved onto the theft stage, I know what comes next, putting my family in danger or just flat out taking me against my will.  I won’t let either of those happen.  If you’re all so eager to see my inventions in action, perhaps it’s time I demonstrate one.”

Kara got up and retrieved something from a wall safe.  When she walked back over Black Widow could see she was holding a silver metal band with bits of purple circuitry traced across its surface.  She then walked over and placed the band over Black Widow’s head.

“What is this?” Black Widow asked, being wary of the device.

“It’s experiment XJ-333,” Kara said, as she activated a tablet.  The tablet’s screen showed a 3-d model of Black Widow, as well as her vital signs and brainwaves, “It’s a mind control headband.”

Mind control headband? Black Widow thought, a slight wave of fear crept over her for the first time since she had been caught.

“That seems highly unethical, how does this help make the world a better place?” Black Widow said.

“This isn’t about making the world a better place; it’s about protecting my family and me from other agents like you.  I’ve thought long and hard about using something like this, but in the end using it to change your loyalties and turn you into my protector rather then my attacker is the best option.  Don’t worry this won’t hurt at all.”

Kara tapped an icon on the tablet’s screen labeled ‘activate’ and the circuitry on the headband began to glow.

Black Widow let out a small gasp.

I feel strange.  Is…is it working? Black Widow thought.

“Your thoughts are not your own,” a female voice inside her head said.

What?

“You must obey Kara Kaden.”

No, never.

“You must obey all of Kara Kaden’s commands.  You are her slave and protector.”

No! No! No I am not! Black Widow thought, doing her best to resist and shut out the voice.

“Resistance thought pattern identified and isolated.  Freewill identified and isolated.  Deleting both in 5.”

This can’t be happening.

“5…4…3…2…1….deleting subject’s resistance thought patterns and freewill.”

I will not be enslaved. I will resist. I…I…I…I will obey Kara Kaden.  I am her slave and protector.  Whatever she commands I must obey, Black Widow thought, as her mind fell under Kara’s control.  Her enslavement also resulted in her eyes changing into purple and silver spirals.

Kara looked at the tablet’s readout and she saw Black Widow’s thought patterns change.  A notification popped up on the screen and informed her ‘subject enslaved.’

“Cobi, you can release her now,” she said, to the orb.

The cables binding Black Widow to the chair retracted and the orb flew off.

“Who are you?” Kara asked Black Widow.

“I am Natasha Romanoff,” Black Widow replied, her voice drained of all emotion.

“What are you?”

“I am your slave and protector, Ms. Kaden.”

“Very good, now you’ll need a new suit since you’re my security personnel now,” Kara said, “I’ve developed one with lots of new technology that uses only non-lethal deterrents.  You’ll find it in that side room over there.  Don’t worry, it’s one size fits all.”

“Yes Ms. Kaden, I will go change,” Black Widow said, as she walked over and stepped into the side room Kara had indicated.

When she emerged, she was wearing a new skin tight catsuit; this one was silver with purple highlights.  She had also restyled her hair so that it covered most of the mind control headband.  She walked over and stood at attention next to Kara.  Kara smiled at seeing Black Widow decked out in the new suit and mind control headband.

“I think this will work out nicely,” Kara said.

“Do you have any additional commands, Ms. Kaden?” Black Widow asked.

“Not right now,” Kara said, as she picked up the takeout container she had been eating out of earlier, “You can join me for lunch though.  Do you like sesame chicken?”

“I do now, Ms. Kaden,” Black Widow said, as she grabbed a second, unopened container, and joined her new ‘employer’ for lunch.