Uncanny X-Men (Marvel Omega)

SuperNova, Part VI

The eyes of Natasha Romanov slowly begin to open. She finds herself laying on her back and staring up at a bare, cold ceiling. She sits up and rubs her head. Glancing around the room, she sees that the room is actually more of a cell. And she is alone in this cell. She stands from the small cot she was laying on and moves to the door. She can find no lock mechanism that she could possibly pick to free herself. And there are no ventilation shafts, at least none wide enough for her to squeeze through.

"Damn it..." she mutters.

"Natasha? You awake?"

"Steve?" asks the Black Widow, leaning up against the wall. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," replies Captain America through the wall.

"Where are we?" asks the Widow. "Last thing I remember was Gypsy Moth strangling me and then I blacked out."

"The Masters of Evil," replies Cap. "This was all a set-up."

"How are the others?" asks Natasha.

"They're here," replies Cap. "Judging from where our battle took place, I assume that we're still somewhere in California."

"Do we have a plan?" asks Natasha.

"Let's not discuss it now," replies Cap.

***

"When this is over, remind me to send the Masters a bill..." says Tony Stark as he examines the circuitry of his armor.

"Can you really fix that without any sort of tools?" asks Warbird from the next cell.

"Nope," replies Tony. "But this new armor is equipped with the latest in nanotechnology, a lot of the repairs are self-made. I just have to wait for the nanomachines to do their work, but it seems the armor's entire CPU was damaged during the battle."

"Think you'll have the armor back up to full capability?" asks Giant-Man from the cell on the other side of Tony.

"Not even close," replies Tony. "All I can hope for is to get at least some of the systems online. And I'm trying to send out a signal to the other Avengers as well. But it seems like everything's been damaged here."

"I still can't believe this..." says Warbird. "It was a trap and we walked right into it."

"I know, I know," says Tony. "But that's one of the reasons Cap wanted to keep most of the Avengers behind."

"So right now, we know nothing then," mutters Giant-Man.

"Sounds about right," says Tony. "Guess we just have to wait for some of the Masters to show up so we can get some answers from them."

***

Elsewhere in the compound, three people hold a meeting. Graviton hovers in the air, simply observing the other two. Klaw stands at the forefront, whereas the Crimson Cowl simply leans against a wall. Together, these three criminals have taken the reins of the new Masters of Evil.

"We should kill them!" exclaims Klaw. "We're just wasting time like this! The Avengers are resourceful, and the five we have represent less than half of their current roster. Why are we messing around like this? We're just asking for trouble!"

"No... no, that's unacceptable," comes the calm reply of Graviton. "I think it would be a far better idea to go public. Let the world know that we have the Avengers and LA under our control."

"We do neither," says the Crimson Cowl. "What we will do, however, is wait. Once the rest of the Avengers realize that they lost contact with this team, they'll come here. It's best to simply lure in the rest of the Avengers... and possibly the Fantastic Four if we're lucky... and then destroy them all at once."