"I have the information you have requested Lady."

Lady Dragon looked up from her sushi dinner. She had been dreading this particular moment, because she knows this information is going to be all bad. She placed her chopsticks upon the plate and picked up her glass of red wine. She had a feeling she would need it for courage.

"Proceed."

"Lady, Advanced Idea Mechanics has completely destroyed our bases in Honolulu, Brisbane, and Quezon City. 100% of staff and supplies have been lost in each of those facilities. The base in Kagoshima was also hit hard, with nearly 80% of the supplies and 50% of all staff killed. Because of the SHIELD intervention here in Tokyo, the damages to this base was less extreme, but severe none the less. Nearly 50% of all supplies and 30% of staff are gone . . . "

"DAMN!" Lady Dragon cries as a glass of red wine shatters into the wall, spraying its red content everywhere, "Those foul beasts! They had no honor! We are ruined!" She screams in an insane rant as she flings the table containing her dinner over and into the wall.

Feeling vented, Lady looks around at the hotel room in disgust. This will be a lovely cleaning bill she thinks to herself as she heads out onto the terrace, ignoring her stunned Dragons, for a moment of fresh air. She is angry still, unsure of what to do. As she stares out onto the bright lights of Tokyo she sighs, because it took her along time to build her Silicon Dragons, and now it was all rubble. Her organization had been crushed by AIM. She had now made herself a huge enemy in SHIELD after this little 'war' resulted in the destruction of the SHIELD Helibase, killing hundreds of their agents. Both organizations would be after her head now.

"Problems?"

Startled by the voice, Lady Dragon swiftly pulled her sword from her belt and swung it in the direction of the voice. To her shock, she saw a man, sitting calmly at her patio table, feet propped upon the table, wearing an expensive Armani suit and lighting a slender cigarette.

"You are either a very brave, or a very stupid man, you have 10 seconds to tell me why you are here."

With a wry smile the stranger speaks, "I am Sinobi Shaw, and I have an offer you can't refuse . . . "

"How does it feel, big mama, to know you are gonna rot in the world's nastiest prison for the rest of your worthless life?"

Jeremy Carson smiled a sadistic sneer as he looked around the armored car he had been assigned to escort. He and seven other soldiers had been given the special task to deliver some secret cargo. The destination was Hugo Maximum Security Prison. The cargo was convicted terrorist Amanda Waller. Carson had read about Waller in the paper. She use to be a high-ranking fed, ran her own agencies and everything. It seems she was using those agencies in a guest for personal gain and power. Guess it got so crazy, she even tried to assassinate President Kelly and everything. Corrupted a whole bunch of his security and everything. If it hadn't been for SHIELD and some spies they had in her organization, she would have pulled it off to. Crazy woman.

"So how does it feel, least you know you won't be somebody's woman, I think you'll be the butch . . . "

Carson stopped. Seemingly uncaring towards his insults, Waller just stared at him. It made him very uncomfortable. Those eyes of hers. It was like she knew something he didn't.

She did. Jeremy Carson, army private, age twenty-four, barely had time to open his mouth in awe as the soldier sitting next to Waller smiled and pulled the pistol from his holster, and fired one shot into Carson's head, killing him instantly. The silencer made the shot silent as the shock settled into the other five soldiers sitting in their positions. Those few seconds were all the assassin needed, before any of the men had even reached their holsters they were all lying dead from fatal gunshot wounds.

"About time Lawton, if I had to listen to that scumbag any longer I was gonna murder him myself."

"Whatever Wall.." Floyd Lawton, aka Deadshot, said nonchalantly as he pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it up. "Lets get out of here . . . " He replied coldly as he tapped on the glass and the driver pulled the armored vehicle to a stop, his face shifting features from a thirty-something african-american soldier into the albino features of the assassin known as Chiller.

Waller looked over and smiled "Looks like the Assassination Bureau is still in business. Hahahaha."

John Walker sat on his knees, staring at the tombstone sitting before him. He tried hard to force back the first tears he felt welling up in him since his parents' deaths. He clenched his fists in anger and beat the ground before him.

Lamar Hoskins had been Walker's best friend for many years now. They started in the army together when they were both just eighteen years old. They went throught the ranks together, and were chosen together to join Taskforce X. There they were given super-human enhancements and became part of the Freedom Fighters as USAgent and Battlestar. They fought alongside Uncle Sam, Silent Majority, and Lady Liberty. Then when the group disbanded after the deaths of Lady Liberty and Silent Majority at the hands of Kobra during the Janis Directive, both joined SHIELD in hopes of making a difference. They were both on distinguished agents, receiving numerous citations and rewards.

Then came the Silicon Dragon-AIM War. Walker had been on the ground fighting AIM troops. Lamar had been in the Helibase. Then came the explosions, and the Helibase was going down. Hundreds of good SHIELD agents dead. Lamar Hoskins, John Walker's best friend, dead.

John Walker stopped beating the ground and cried. The anger just wasn't there anymore. Now there is only heartache and despair.

When he was done crying John picked himself up and started walking. He had to start thinking now. Thinking about his future. Thinking about SHIELD, and if it still held a place in his life to come.

"Okay Jessica, give me the daily scoop."

Oliver Queen, newly appointed Director of Field Operations for SHIELD, looked sarcastically at his new assistant Jessica Woo. A nice girl, if somewhat overly technical girl, she is the daughter of legendary police detective Jimmy Woo, famous for his exploits versus The yellow Claw in the fifties. From what Ollie has heard of the man, she is a spitting image, tenacious, hard working, and very meticulous in detail.

"Okay, Mr. Queen here goes . . . Advanced Idea Mechanics has apparently gone into hiding to lick their wounds for awhile. Satellite scans of Boca Caliente reveal that nobody is currently home, and zero activity has occurred there since a mass hiatus three days after the Helibase fell in Tokyo."

" . . . and the Silicon Dragons"

"Apparently destroyed, all known bases have been crushed and they have suffered casulties in the hundreds. Although Lady Dragon has so far eluded us, we have agents in Tokyo searching for her right now."

Ollie sighed at the last comment, after the destruction of the Dragons, he had hoped that Lady Dragon would be easier to catch.

"President Marlo was on his television station again last night, preaching for a purification of the Middle East. He said that he is not afraid to strike against Asearia and is threathening war . . . "

Damn, Quarac has become a continuous thorn in SHIELD's side. Ollie knows that soon that problem is going to require serious intervention, because word is that Marlo has both biological and nuclear weapons in development, besides as growing super-human program. Luckily, SHIELD has successfully placed an operative amongst Marlo's Inner Circle.

" . . . and the United nations has requested our aid in stopping reported genocide on the Wakanda-Kenja border. Apparently it has gotten worse . . . "

Ollie had seen the news, and she was right, it had indeed gotten worse. Both the countries seemed unable to resolve their conflicts and innocents were being put in the middle. Ollie decided this situation was the one in most need of action. "Which Alpha Primary Ops are avaliable?"

"Sasha Martens, Ben Turner, Frank Castle, and that Duchess woman are all here . . . "

"Good, call them up . . . because it appears they are headed to Wakanda. Please inform The Prince that he will be receiving visitors soon."