Prologue - New York City, New York, USA

A spider crept across Natasha Romanoff's gloved hand as she crouched silently in the loft apartment's rafters. Her eyes flicked down, noted the arachnid scurrying on its way, then returned to the floor below her. Though they'd held special terror for her in her youth, spiders no longer bothered Natasha - if they had, she might not have chosen 'Black Widow' as her code name.

"Where are they?" the woman pacing on the barren floor below hissed.

"They are nothing if not punctual Madame," her male companion replied. "Calm yourself, or you risk turning them away."

"Turning them away!" the woman seethed. She wore a long brown trenchcoat, and her black hair hung straight down, obscuring the left half of her face. She was Oriental - Korean, Natasha guessed.

"Do they have any idea who we are? Do they know the power we - "

"Power," a low voice intoned from the loft's shadows. The woman froze, as did the Black Widow. Natasha had been a spy most of her adult life, adept in the ways of stealth... and she'd had no idea someone besides the angry woman and serene man had been present.

"The only true power in this life and the next comes from the shadows," the voice continued, attached to a Japanese man who emerged from the loft's gloomy corners. "From the shadows... and from the Beast."

Natasha heard the whispering scuff of slippered feet on dusty wood, and suddenly the woman and man were surrounded by masked, dark-clad men, all of whom carried martial weaponry. Natasha recognized the clothing and the technique the moment the men came into view, and her blood went cold.

This was bigger than Nicholas had thought. She had to get out of here... quietly and quickly.

"The Hand remembers and honors its ties to Hydra's founder, Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker," the new arrival continued. "And so we allow this audience, this chance to please us. Spin us your tale, ask of us what you will... amuse us."

"You can't-" the woman began, but stopped as her companion put a stern hand up to silence her. Apparently, as far as he was concerned, the man before them could do whatever he pleased.

"Mighty jonin," the man replied, bowing as he said it. "We humble servants of Hydra wish to purchase the services of the Hand for a most dangerous undertaking."

The jonin of the Hand nodded. "What is this undertaking?"

"We desire the assassination of a man named An-"

"Stop," the jonin ordered. "Do not speak the name. A photograph."

The woman looked at her companion, who nodded. She withdrew a glossy black and white print from the front pocket of her trenchcoat and handed it over.

In the rafters, the Black Widow wondered why she hadn't run yet. There were nearly two dozen Hand ninja down there - much more than she could handle alone. She couldn't risk being caught here... she had to go now.

Instead, she reached up and adjusted the zoom on her night vision goggles, zeroing in on the photograph that was changing hands. She had to stifle a gasp when she saw who was on it.

The jonin was nodding. "And what will the Hand receive in exchange for this man's life?"

"The renewed friendship of Hydra," the woman's companion answered. "As well as twenty million American dollars, disseminated however you wish."

"Very well." The jonin removed a wooden match from his robe. "The man in this photograph shall be dead within the week." He struck the match on the wall beside him and set the photograph aflame, letting it burn between his fingers until there was nothing left but a scrap. Then he let the remains flutter to the floor, where the dust and dirt snuffed them.

"Now then," he continued, "the woman hidden near the ceiling. She is not one of yours, is she?"

Natasha's head came up. Oh, shit!

"What?" the woman on the floor demanded. "What woman? No, of course-"

The Widow spun, and found with absolutely no surprise that she was surrounded. Ninja crouched on the beams all around her - nearly twenty by her estimate, maybe more she couldn't see.

"Oh sure," she said, pulling the goggles down around her neck, "gang up on the girl."

She broke out in a sprint, heading for the window at the other end of the beam. Ninja poured down on her from either side, and she let every one have it with her widow's bite, the projectile weapon built into her golden bracelets. She didn't stand a chance against this many of them... not by herself. Best to cut bait and run, get help, and try to reach the face she'd seen in that picture before it was too late.

Something cut into the back of her thigh and she cried out, stumbling. Her exquisite balance faltered with her concentration and she tumbled over the side of the beam - falling just beneath the swinging blade of a ninja who'd landed in front of her. She grabbed this ninja's leg as she fell, yanking him down so that his crotch slammed against the beam. The ninja didn't make a sound, just silently toppled and fell over the side. By the time he hit the floor, Natasha had already pulled herself back onto the beam, and resumed running.

Her head felt light, and she realized with despair that she'd been drugged. The sharp pain that still moved in the back of her thigh was a shuriken - a throwing star. It was how the Hand poisoned their prey. It had happened to her once before* and she'd very nearly died. How was she going to save anybody now?

(* See Daredevil #186-190 - Russ)

She shot one last ninja in the face and, as he crumpled, threw herself over his head and through the window. The glass shattered outward, raining down ten stories to the streets of Soho. The Widow let herself freefall for a moment to clear the building, then fired a safety line from her left bracelet. Despite that her head was now beginning to spin, her aim was perfect, the line slipping around the banister of a nearby balcony.

She didn't have to look back to know the Hand would be swarming out of that window she'd just escaped through, much like spiders themselves. Natasha gritted her teeth, willed her head to stop spinning... and ran.

The Southern Coast of Iceland.

"There it is," Pepper Potts said.

Through the window of the jeep, Tony Stark could just make out what she was pointing at - a small colony of tents less than a mile away, snuggled in a small depression in the earth not nearly big enough to be termed a 'valley'. The tents were scattered around a small excavation site and about half a mile from a steep cliff.

Pepper Potts undid her seatbelt and stood up in the jeep's passenger seat, lifting her camera to her face.

"Pepper!" Tony snapped. "Sit down! This isn't a paved road we're driving over here!"

"In a second. I want to get a picture of the site."

Tony sighed and returned his eyes to the dirt path. Pepper took her picture and fell back into the seat.

"Fill me in on what's going on here again," Tony said.

"Archaeological expedition out of ESU," Pepper replied, stowing her camera in its case. "Unearthing the remains of a large Viking homestead. Expedition led by one Sekhmet Conoway, and largely funded by the Maria Stark Foundation."

"And why is Maria Stark funding this expedition?"

"Because Maria Stark also funds the Avengers, who are closely tied to Thor, and Thor inadvertently put a bug in your ear one day by commenting on how many dangerous, magical artifacts the Norse Gods left lying around here on Earth. Maria Stark has been fiscally involved with every major Viking excavation ever since."

Tony grinned across the seat at her. "What would I do without you, Pep?"

"Waste a lot of time looking for someone else to tell you which shoes to put on which feet, I imagine."

The jeep stopped at the edge of the encampment. There was nobody watching the road, but as Tony and Pepper stepped out of either side of the vehicle they were approached by a young man in glasses and dusty khakis.

"Can I help you?" he asked, spying Pepper's camera. "I'm afraid the site is closed to the press. We'll be having a tour next week, if you'd like to sched--"

"We're not reporters," Pepper said, extending her hand. "This is Tony Stark" - Tony nodded at the young man - "and I'm his executive assistant, Pepper Potts. We phoned ahead and requested a special tour of the site."

"Tony Stark," the man repeated, shaking Pepper's hand but looking at Tony. "It's an honor to have you here, sir - both of you. Let me go find Sek... she was probably the one you talked to."

The young man rushed off into the encampment. Tony and Pepper glanced at each other, eyebrows wagging in amusement.

A few moments later, a woman emerged from the camp, trailing the young man behind her. She was young - not yet 30 - and moved with grace and arrogance all rolled up into one. Besides that, she was beautiful, her long black hair and olive complexion telling of a middle-eastern heritage. Tony stepped forward to greet her.

"Mr. Stark," she said. "It's a pleasure to finally get to meet you. It seems today is our day for visitors."

"Ms. Conoway," Stark replied thoughtfully. "Sekhmet Conoway... weren't you involved in the excavation of the Temple of Hsien in China last year?"

Sekhmet rolled her eyes. "Yes... and it's unfortunate that you know of that embarrassing episode. We took every precaution on that site, and we were still beaten to the prize... by a metahuman thief, no less." *

(* See Marvel's Gambit #1 for that story... and some kickin' Steve Skroce art - Russ)

"I take it there haven't been similar problems with this project?"

"No, and I don't foresee any," Sekhmet replied, turning and leading Tony, Pepper, and the young man back into the camp. "Not unless your friend Thor is into graverobbing, that is."

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Then we should be good to go, as they say."

"I've got to get back to the cave dig, Sek," the young man interrupted. "I'll have the radio on if you need me."

"Thanks Rudy." She waved him off as he rushed away. "Rudy is knee-deep in some caves we found over that cliff-face yonder. Seems they may have been inhabited around the same time as the settlement we're digging up here. It might even be a bigger find than the village itself."

"You said something about other visitors?" Pepper asked.

Sek nodded. "Yes. Another philanthropist. She dropped by unannounced about an hour ago, otherwise I would have scheduled her for another day. It's best to give your contributors their own tours... the money-people get a little uptight sometimes when they realize their pockets aren't the only ones being raided... no offense, Mr. Stark."

"None taken. We don't plan to stay long anyway..."

"Well now, that's unfortunate."

The trio stopped and turned at the new voice. "Mr. Stark, Ms. Potts," Sek said, "meet Ms. Encantare."

"Amanda Encantare," the beautiful blonde woman elaborated, stepping forward and offering Tony her hand. Pepper looked on in astonishment as Tony bent to kiss the woman's knuckles... she was simply the most beautiful creature Pepper had ever seen - long blond hair, heavy eyelashes, a figure that would put an hourglass to shame. Normally when she found herself face-to-face with someone who was obviously prettier than her, she felt inferior and slightly resentful. At the sight of this woman, she was simply too stunned with admiration to be either of those things.

"Ms. Encantare is a private donor, interested in the history of her homeland... and very generous with her contributions. Tony Stark is..."

"I know who Tony Stark is," Encantare interrupted. "What eligible woman on this planet doesn't? It's a pleasure, Mr. Stark."

"The pleasure's all mine."

Pepper rolled her eyes, and was amused to see Sekhmet do the same. Then the archaeologist clapped her hands.

"Well, if we're all friends here, you won't mind taking the tour together. Step this way, and I'll show you a remarkably well-preserved example of the tres fascinating Viking burial mound."

Harold "Happy" Hogan pounded the heavy bag, ducking and weaving in response to imaginary counterattacks. The bag's chain jangled with each impact. It was the only sound, save for Happy's steady breathing.

He spent three afternoons a week here, in this gym, with underprivileged kids, teaching them how to fight. Happy Hogan had never been much of a pro boxer, but he'd turned out to be a great teacher. His kids all loved the exercise, the sparring. And he loved showing them all how it was done. He liked his job as head of the Community Outreach Program for Stark Solutions, but he loved spending those three afternoons in this gym every week.

The kids weren't here today. Now it was just him and the bag. And that was plenty.

The thing was, the jabs weren't making the hurt go away. The hurt of getting rejected by his ex-wife Pepper - again - when he'd asked her to accompany him to a charity function. The hurt of finding out that she'd instead spent the evening with Jim Rhodes.

Happy was tired. Happy was lonely. Happy's only release was pounding on this damn bag, and even that wasn't helping much anymore.

"Jesus, Happy, do you have any idea what time it is?"

Happy gave the bag one more jab, then turned. Standing in the entrance was a blonde woman in a bomber jacket and jeans. She had a look of amused resignation on her face.

"Hannah," Happy puffed. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same of you, Mr. Hogan," Hannah Donleavy said, looking at her watch. "I'm driving home after a late night - it's nearly 10, by the way - and I see the lights on in the Puget Sound Youth Gym. Figure I'll stop in and see if we're being vandalized or something, and I find Harold Hogan himself burning the almost-midnight oil. What's the story?"

Happy started in her direction, unlacing his gloves as he went. "Just working out some aggression, I guess."

"Huh." Hannah crossed her arms and gave him an appraising look. "If I was a gambling gal, I'd say it probably has to do with Pepper."

"That obvious, huh?"

"Might as well be written on your head in neon," Hannah said. "Hit the showers, Hap, and I'll take you out for a late dinner. You look like you could use an ear to bend, and I've got some things I need to get off my chest too."

Happy smiled. It was the best idea he'd heard all night.

"The cave is down there," Sekhmet Conoway said, pointing over the edge of a cliff that dove nearly 500 feet to the churning North Atlantic below. "About halfway down. Rudy is a rabid rock-climber, and sometimes he'll rappel down vertical cliffs just so he can climb back up again. That's what he was doing when he stumbled upon the cave. It's deep, and it shows every indication of being inhabited at about the same time the farming village we're excavating was. The only problem with that is: there's no other way in or out except for that one cliff-side entrance."

"There's no indication of a bridge, or some other raising and lowering device?"

"Nope. Apparently, whoever the cave's inhabitants were, they had no problem climbing up and down 250 feet of vertical rock whenever they needed to make a grocery run. We seem to have had a race of Spider-Men living in Iceland around the turn of the first millennium."

Pepper leaned forward and looked over the edge. The ocean crashed against the rock a dizzying distance down. She gulped.

"So. That's our site in a nutshell. Any questions?"

Pepper looked at her boss, who seemed to have missed the last half of this lecture, gazing dreamily as he was at the mysterious Ms. Encantare. "Tony?"

He started and looked around. "Huh? Oh... questions? Actually, yes... I was wondering if it would be too much of an imposition to stay on for a couple of days, just to get a look around."

"What?" Pepper cried. Beside her, Sekhmet grunted in disapproval.

"That's highly irregular, Mr. Stark, and with all due respect, I'm afraid you'd be a hindrance... if you weren't outright getting in the way, you'd distract the crew."

"Tony, we've got meetings and contracts up the wazoo back in the States. We can't just-"

He put up a hand to still Pepper's protests, then turned back to Sekhmet. "Ms. Conoway, I would consider it a personal favor if you let me stay on for another day or two. I find this dig fascinating, and I'd really like to see your crew do their work. I don't need luxury accommodations - put me in a spare tent for the night. I promise I won't get in the way."

"I too would love to stay for a while longer," Amanda Encantare chimed in. Pepper glared at her.

Sekhmet sighed, and Pepper could guess what was going through her head. The Maria Stark Foundation was a large contributor to the dig, and Tony Stark was its chairman. If she wanted to stay in the good graces of the money people and keep her crew adequately funded, she would have to do everything possible to keep Stark happy.

"One day," she said finally, sternly. "Two at the most."

Tony nodded. "Fine. And Ms. Encantare?"

"Same goes for her," Sekhmet replied. "But if either of you hinder my crew in any way, I'm going to ask both of you to leave. Fair?"

Tony Stark nodded, as did Amanda Encantare. "Fair."

"So she said she couldn't go out with you because she had a heavy workload, then went out with this other guy instead?"

"That sums it up, yeah."

Hannah grunted and took a sip of her cappuccino. Starbucks was packed with college students and yuppies tonight, so they'd settled on a small table in a remote corner of the shop.

"Tell me, Happy, are you... content working for Tony Stark?"

"For Tony? Well... yeah. I mean, I usedta just be his chauffer, now I'm in charge of Community Outreach. The charity is the main reason Tony started Stark Solutions, and it's where most of the money goes. In a way, I'm the most important guy in the organization besides Tony himself."

Hannah nodded. "And this makes you happy?"

"Hey, where is this going?"

"Nowhere really," Hannah shrugged. "It's just occurred to me that working for Tony Stark - whose only other employee happens to be your ex-wife - may not be the most rewarding situation in terms of your self-image."

Happy leaned back in his seat and sighed. "Hannah, I know you haven't cared much for Tony since he stood the Puget Sound YO up for that fund raiser, but..."

"Nonono," she insisted, placing her hand on top of his. "That isn't it at all, Happy. This isn't about Stark. It's about you. You do such a great job with those kids, but whenever you're not absorbed in their problems and triumphs, you're down on yourself. You're a good person, Harold Hogan. But, in all honesty, you aren't as famous or popular or handsome or hyper-intelligent as Tony Stark is. Add to that the fact that every morning when you go into work, you're confronted with a woman who you divorced... do you see what I'm getting at?"

"You think I oughtta leave."

"I think it would probably be a good idea, at least for a little while. I mean, Maria Stark is all over the country - the world, even. Talk Stark into relocating you to Dallas or Columbus or... anywhere besides Seattle or New York. Spend a little time figuring out who Happy Hogan is besides Tony Stark's employee and Pepper Potts's ex-husband. Then decide whether you want to come back."

Happy was quiet for a moment, looking around the café. He liked Seattle, he'd grown very comfortable here... but was that because it was his kind of town, or because he was with Pepper and Tony? He didn't know, he couldn't answer that. The only thing he knew for sure was that he couldn't handle seeing Pepper with another guy. He couldn't keep his head straight like that.

"Just think about it," Hannah continued. She took a drink and then smiled, "And please don't tell them 'Hannah Donleavy said I needed to ditch youse mugs'."

Happy smiled back. "You're a good friend, Hannah. Would you be interested in letting a washed-up pug take you out to dinner sometime? Before he heads for the hills, that is..."

Hannah sighed softly. "Happy, there's something you need to understand about me. I'm... I'm not..."

"Available?" Happy chuckled. "Well, that ain't much of a surprise. Can't blame a guy for tryin'."

"Well, I'm not available either, but that's not what I meant... I'm... not into guys." Happy's face fell. "If you know what I mean..."

Happy stared at her blankly for a moment... then burst out into laughter that drew stares from the rest of the café. Hannah joined him a moment later.

"You're sure about this?" Pepper asked.

"Sure I'm sure," Tony said, looking back towards the encampment. His eyes settled on the tent he would be sleeping in for the next couple days - the tent Sek and her crew had just finished erecting - and he suddenly winced, putting one hand to his head.

"Tony?"

"Just a headache, Pep," he replied. "Probably the change in altitude. It's gone now." He smiled at her. "Bump all my appointments back a couple days. You're a pro at making excuses for me. Just pretend Iron Man has to go fight Fin Fang Foom or something."

"Speaking of Iron Man..."

"I stashed the armor under some brush a few hundred yards from the edge of the camp. Now stop worrying and go before you miss your flight."

"Our flight," she corrected him, but she climbed behind the wheel of the jeep anyway. "Tony, listen... be careful about that Encantare woman."

"Amanda?" he asked. "What possible harm could she cause?"

"Knowing your luck, she's probably a Skrull. At the very least, she's got femme fatale written all over her. Just watch your back, okay?"

He saluted. "Aye aye. Now get!"

Pepper slipped her sunglasses on, gave him one more uncertain look, then started the engine and pulled away. Tony watched her go, waiting until the jeep had diminished to a speck and slipped out of sight over a distant hill, then he turned and strode down the hill and into the camp.

He got quite a few stares, but he didn't pay them any mind. Instead, he made a bee-line for his tent, a large Army style structure that was big enough to hold an Avengers meeting in. He pushed open the flap and slipped into the cool shadows inside.

"Tony," a woman purred from the edge of the cot. "Are we alone?"

"Alone," Tony confirmed. He winced again, then shook his head to clear it as the pain retreated.

"Then come here and tell me how glad you are to see me."

Tony approached slowly. Amanda Encantare rose to greet him, and when he was standing directly in front of her thinly-clad form, she put her hands on either side of his head and kissed him passionately. He returned the kiss hungrily, hands sliding over her hips and up and down her arched back. When Encantare pulled away, he leaned forward, trying to continue the kiss, but those hands on the side of his head stopped him.

"And now you're mine, my handsome Mr. Stark," she grinned. "You belong body and soul... to the Enchantress!"

Next Issue:"Black Mist" continues as the Widow seeks out help with her ninja problem, and we find out just what the Enchantress is after.