97 Trust – 95

"Wait a moment. What did you say the party was?" Alex asked, as the name suddenly started to feel a little familiar.

"The Annual Technology and Innovations Awards Ceremony in Las Vegas, the military has arranged for Stark to be awarded the Apogee award due to his new Jericho missile I believe."

Hearing the response, the glass slipped from Alex's hand and fell onto the ground.

*Crash*

The aide hadn't even had the chance to ask what was wrong before he was tackled to the ground by a member of Alpha-1, and a dozen of them surrounded Alex and urged her to get to safety.

"Enough!" She yelled. "You!" she said, pointing at the downed aide. "My order still stands. Go and execute them."

"The rest of you, I'm fine; nothing is wrong; that said, I will be in my bunker." She said as she started to rush towards her room.

Almost running towards the secret elevator under the persistent guard of guards, she tapped her foot impatiently as the elevator wasted precious time. It didn't take her long before Alex was once again in front of SCP-216 and inputting the long, long code to get her journal out.

"What is going on? This shouldn't be happening yet," she muttered as she leafed through the pages until she reached the chapter reserved for Tony Stark's alter ego, Ironman, and quickly read her notes on the events leading up to Tony's journey.

"2010. I thought so. Which means, either I remembered the year wrong, or this world isn't going according to the canon."

This was a truly troubling development for Alex. She had expected to have another year before Ironman, meaning still around two years before the far more important events of the first Thor movie went down.

Of the remaining plots, only one was something Alex couldn't touch, given that the events leading up to it happened off-world.

On the grand scale of things, the events there wouldn't be too big, yet they would end up setting the events in motion for the invasion of New York. Something that should be around three years away, though now it seemed like it would be only two years away.

This would be the best-case scenario, the worst one being that she had remembered right, but this world just didn't stick to the script. She was fairly sure nothing she or the Foundation had done would push the events of Ironman to happen a year before schedule.

Sure, the events of Ironman 2 were completely dusted, with Ivan working for him and his father still alive; they might hate Stark but didn't have the means to act. Even if they did, they would most likely just rub their own success in his face rather than outright kill him.

This left only two possibilities: either she remembered wrong, or this world was close to canon but not the one from the movie. The latter would be horrible, given that she really didn't need more surprises.

The random SCP objects contained enough unpleasant surprises to last a few lifetimes. "Is there any way to check?"

Alex started pacing around the small bunker, muttering to herself as she thought about what she should and could do about this new situation on her hands.

As Alex paced, her mind worked furiously, analyzing every detail, every variable that could confirm the timeline she was operating within. She needed a benchmark, something undeniable, a fixed point in time that couldn't be misinterpreted or misremembered.

Yet, she came up blank; there were no big events happening around this time except for Tony's kidnapping; smaller events might already have been thrown off by the actions of the Foundation.

"Well, if I can't do anything, then let's just not worry. I will just assume my memory of which year is wrong and send people to New Mexico ahead of time. Thor's hammer is one thing that can be used to prove whether or not this is how things are meant to be or not."

The events of Thor were ones that would not be affected by the butterfly effect, meaning that they could be used as a watertight check on the timeline. Though it was about a year away IF everything went according to plan.

Thankfully it would be easy enough to take full control of the events surrounding Thor, the bigger problem Alex faced right now was Tony.

She couldn't allow Tony to die; that man was indeed one of mankind's greatest minds. Which meant that he couldn't be lost, not with the amount of dangers about to hit earth.

However, Alex found herself very short on time for setting something up. She wouldn't dare just leave this to fate and hope everything went as in the movie; the butterfly effect was far too likely to have caused some change.

After all, due to Alex, the Mandarin and his 10 Rings had been very active. Which meant that the likelihood of those terrorists might be more violent. While Wenwu himself had nothing to do with the attack on Stark, his every move did have a massive impact on the men under him.

 At the same time, she wanted Stark to still go through the transformation he did in that cave. Having met him a few times now, she had to say he really wasn't nice to be around currently.

So she somehow had to ensure that he was kidnapped but also that he survived and escaped, learning all the same lessons as he did in the movie. All arranged in a day or two, it wouldn't be easy.

Faced with the intricate challenge of ensuring Tony Stark's survival while also facilitating the transformational experience that would lead to the creation of Iron Man, Alex began to meticulously plot out her strategy.

Thankfully, she had built a good relationship with Xu Wenwu, so it should be easy enough to get his help, especially since she didn't need all that much at all.

Then, she would be left with a good three months before his escape to prepare for that, which should be plenty of time. For now, she needed to turn back into her male self, then her child self, and talk with Wenwu.

-------------------

[With Natasha Romanoff]

Natasha knew something had changed after her talk with Alexandra. She wasn't entirely sure about what changed or why, but she did feel the change.

One of the biggest changes she had felt was that she had been assigned to go out with Sarah; normally, she was chained down to Graves every moment she was out of the grounds.

Never before had she been on a mission without him, much less with Sarah, someone she was very friendly with. However, she did suspect that they only assigned her to Sarah due to them knowing about her secret relationship.

"This sure does bring me back." Sarah said as they got into the car.

"Why do you say that?" Natasha asked, genially curious.

"The Object we are after, 247, it was the very first object I had for a field mission, and now look at me. Being a mentor to you as we deal with the very same object."

Natasha, still not a fully-fledged Foundation member, didn't have access to the database, so she knew nothing about this object or any she hadn't been told about before. "So I guess this object isn't too dangerous?"

Sarah chuckled softly, the kind of laugh that suggested a mix of nostalgia and a hint of caution. "It's not the most dangerous on our list, but it has its quirks. SCP-247, also known as the 'Harmless Kitten', is a Bengal tiger that appears to all observers as a harmless house cat. Its anomalous properties make it extremely dangerous, as it uses its disguise to get close to unsuspecting victims."

The car hummed quietly as it navigated the streets, heading towards the location where the object was believed to be. Natasha quickly started to analyze what little information she had been given.

"It sounds pretty dangerous, not to mention difficult to contain if it can disguise itself like that."

Sarah nodded along. "It's, in fact, far more dangerous than that; not only does it look like a normal house cat, but it also has a psychic effect that makes everyone believe that it is, in fact, completely harmless."

"So even as it bites and claws you to death, you won't even try to fight back, nor will anyone around offer you any help." Sarah continued, painting a better picture of the nature of this object.

Natasha absorbed the gravity of Sarah's explanation, racing through the possible scenarios that could unfold during their mission. "So, how do we counteract the psychic effect? There must be some kind of precaution or tool we use to see it for what it really is."

"Sadly, there isn't any way to do that, at least not any I'm allowed to know about, which is why this object is so dangerous. As if you fall under its effect, you are completely at its mercy." Sarah said with a shake of her head.

"Then how do we deal with this object? Is there a limit to its ability?"

"Yeah, well, for the psychic effect at least. There is no known limit to its ability to appear as a kitten; even in photos, it does. But as long as we stay outside of the range of its psychic ability, we will still be able to treat it as a dangerous object." Sarah explained.

Sarah's explanation offered a sliver of strategy amidst the uncertainty. "The psychic effect has a limited range, then. We'll need to maintain distance, use surveillance tools, and maybe even bait it into a trap where its effect is neutralized or irrelevant," Natasha suggested, piecing together a plan from her years of experience in espionage and tactical operations.

"That's the approach," Sarah agreed. "We've prepared a special containment unit for SCP-247. It's designed to be remotely operated, allowing us to capture it without direct interaction. There is some equipment in the back of the car for us as well."

They continued to drive and talk about the object and the mission. Sarah, who had already gone through all this once, told Natasha everything about her past mission, making sure she was as prepared as possible.

Their preparation was thorough, and as they neared the location, Sarah slowed the car to a stop. "We're here," she announced, her voice turning serious as the gravity of the situation settled in.

They had arrived in a normal residential area in a small city. "Welcome to Stamford, a city with little of interest except SCP-247," Sarah said as they went to the car's boot.

"This here," she said, tabbing on the trailer. This is the containment cell. Don't go in there; there is no going back out. I can't open it." She briefly explained before opening the trunk.

Inside the trunk, Natasha found various pieces of equipment, including various remote-operated drones and some very nasty-looking collars. "We'll use the drones to scout the area from a safe distance," Sarah explained. They're equipped with special infrared cameras that should allow us to spot the difference between a normal cat and a tiger due to its heat signature."

"The other drones are for baiting the tiger into the cage. They are equipped with guns that shoot rubber bullets. That should allow us to chase it into the cage if baiting it fails." Sarah explained the equipment one by one.

"And what about the collars? How are we supposed to attach them to the object? Not to mention, they seem a bit too small."

Sarah carefully picked up one of the collars. "These are for us, Natasha."

"What?! But those are clearly bomb collars." Natasha couldn't help but interrupt.

She was wearing one herself right now and had gotten somewhat used to doing that. Her were rather stylish and didn't look like one, but these? They were very clearly explosives, crude looking things.

Sarah's response was calm and deliberate. "Yes, they are. The containment protocol for SCP-247 includes a precautionary measure. Since we won't be able to consider the object as dangerous. We are, however, able to consider going outside of protocol dangerous should doing that detonate these."

Then, without hesitation, Sarah snapped the collar around her neck, at which a third type of drone suddenly activated and took off, hovering around them.

"This drone is controlled by someone at a nearby SITE. Should we act against protocol, they will warn us, and if we ignore said warning, they will kill us. So, if you get warned, even if you don't believe there is a reason for it, do obey the instructions." Sarah explained as she handed the last collar to Natasha.

Natasha took the collar, feeling the weight of dedication that members of the Foundation had for their work. They willingly put their lives in the hands of others as easily as breathing. Personally, Natasha would only trust Clint that much; here, that level of trust was given to anyone they worked with.

"Understood," Natasha said with a nod, securing the collar around her neck. She felt the device click into place, and as it did, another drone took off, hovering around her.

A/N

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