Rikki Barnes

For a few brief weeks, she’d thought that maybe the whole business with Black Widow at Milliways would dull the way the Black Widow of this world effortlessly makes her feel so tiny, but nope. Rikki’s all snug in her bed when the Widow strides in like she has all the right in the world, and bam. Rikki goes from confident teenage superhero to subatomic particle, just like that.

In five minutes, Rikki’s awake, changed into the Nomad uniform, and listening to the Widow give her a briefing on whatever it is they’re about to do.

“The Second Shadow operates in a closed system. No information in or out. My source inside was only able to clue me in very recently. They plan to take the chemical agent offsite later today for mass production.”

The chemical agent. A nice neat way of saying they’ve developed a way to turn people into bombs, and they’re going to unleash their nice new explosive humans on the public.

The Widow’s still talking. “It’s being stored in the center of the facility, which is housed half a mile beneath the building. To get there, we’ll need not only stealth and grace but quick wits and the ability to neutralize any threats.”

So why am I here? Rikki wants to ask, but she bites it back. Instead, she watches the Widow finish setting up her zipline.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah.”

On the other side of the zipline is the roof of the building they need to infiltrate. The Black Widow has some kind of laser, which she uses to carve a hole in the outer wall. The Widow takes point, obviously, cutting through the various defenses like they’re nothing.

It’s kinda beautiful, actually. Even if Rikki still has no idea why she’s here, it’s undeniably amazing to watch the Black Widow in action. She can only wish to be that good someday.

They have a pretty simple plan of action. She’ll provide backup for the Widow until they reach the room used to store the chemicals, at which point Rikki will break off to extract the inside man, who’s busy erasing any trace of the formula from Second Shadow’s records.

Only they don’t get that far. There’s way more guys than either of them expected, and even a legendary superspy can’t take them all out. Nomad’s fighting a totally defensive battle, using her shield to block any shots the Second Shadow goons take at them, but it’s just impossible to block everything. Something hits her in the neck, and the world goes all confused and fuzzy. Through the buzzing in her head, she can only just make out the Widow trying to tell her something. “Whatever they try, do not – “