Avengers #423

The Storm Breaks! (Part 2)
by Scott Harris

The Avengers (Yellowjacket, Captain America, Vision, Namor, Ms. Marvel and Beast along with the Black Widow) have been defeated by the Thunderbolts and lie helpless at the feet of the gloating Citizen V. (Don't worry, true believer, we'll catch you up in case you somehow managed to miss the titanic battle in Thunderbolts #31 -- Citizen Van).

Techno urges Citizen V to execute the Avengers pronto, as they have had a nasty habit in the past of coming around at the worst possible moment. V, though, explains that he needs the Avengers alive as hostages; these are just 7 Avengers, but there are dozens more, and he wont repeat the mistakes of the past by discounting the possibility of a team of reserves showing up. With this in mind, V orders Jolt and Atlas to bring the Avengers to the containment cells while the rest of the Thunderbolts (Citizen V, Techno, Songbird and Core) prepare for the second wave, in case V's interception plan fails.

What V doesn't know (but we do from reading last issue) is that the Avengers' back up is already with them: the Wasp. Left at the mansion to monitor the confrontation via remote camera and prepare a team of reserves if necessary, Wasp found it impossible to watch the Avengers go down; we see a flashback to the titanic events of Thunderbolts #31 (the Avengers arrive to confront the Thunderbolts, only to find the Thunderbolts, armed with Cap's own files about all the team members, ready and waiting with traps prepared for just such an occasion. The Avengers put up a fight, but the Thunderbolts hold all the cards and eventually take them down). Leaving Jarvis to call the reserves in, Wasp rushed to Four Freedom's Plaza to aid the team, but showed up too late. Now, though, she sees her chance and slips after Jolt, Atlas and the captured Avengers.

Meanwhile, Citizen V is already planning his PR spin; knowing that word of their battle with the Avengers is sure to leak out soon enough, V makes a couple calls to his friends in the press and lets them know, off the record, that he is on to a massive, sinister plot, involving the Avengers and the Mad Thinker, and that he may soon crack it open. He doesn't give details but hints that these so-called "Avengers" may in fact be andriods and that perhaps the FF and Avengers died after all. Happy with his results, V checks back on the defenses. Techno is setting up a systems of alarms and booby traps to slow the Avengers down, but again he insists they kill the Avengers now and deal with the consequences afterwords.

"Look, V, we're talking about Captain America here, you know he'll get free eventually."

"My dear Techno, " V replies coldly, "shall I consider this an offical rebellion against my authority? Are you refusing to follow my command?"

"Uh...no, no, that's...forget it." He returns to his work, thinking about what happened to Moonstone when she tried to tale over the team (You saw the horrifying result in Thunderbolts #16 -- Van the Undertaker).

"I thought as much. Now go and implement our back-up plan. Perhaps we can neutralize the Avenger's reserves before they even know what's going on. Then we shall consider the fate of these Avengers."

Meanwhile, Atlas and Jolt have reached the containment cells, with the Wasp secretly following them. The two are arguing; Jolt suggests engaging in some light torture while they work, causing Atlas to angrily tell Jolt to shut up. Jolt merely laughs and straps Ms. Marvel into the power inhibitor.

"Mmmm, this Captain America is quite the man. I wonder how he'd respond to a little...jolt?" Jolt grabs Cap by the neck and lifts his unconcious form off the ground.

"Put him down, witch!" Atlas shouts, growing huge.

"Or what, you huge ape? What, you going to risk hurting your precious little Jolt? I don't think so. You just stand there and look stupid like you do so well, and I'll do what Zemo should have done all along: kill the Avengers!" While Atlas impotantly rages, Jolt lifts Cap higher...and suddenly the Wasp strikes with a massive bio-blast to the throat. Stunned, Jolt collapses, grabbing at her throat while Atlas, bellowing incoherantly, begins swinging at the Wasp, who counters with a series of bio-blasts. Unfotunately they seem to have almost no effect on the nearly invulnerable Atlas, and Wasp wonders how she can ever take him down.

Back at Avengers Mansion, Jarvis is on the horn, trying to contact various Avengers. Many of them are busy or he is unable to contact them. Finally, though, he gets through to Wonder Man, who, after hearing Jarvis' urgent message, assures Jarvis he'll fly directly there and check things out. Jarvis then hangs up and gets ahold of the Black Panther, who has basically the same reaction. As he calls more and more Avengers, Jarvis begins to feel that surely everything will turn out okay...a surety he wouldn't feel if only he could see the situation in Hank Pym's lab. For, standing in the lab is, amazingly, Techno. Techno is gloating over the briliance of his plan to intercept the Avengers backup, and he briefly thinks about how he got into the mansion: using the tight bandwidth of the Thunderbolts communications, Techno, now a living computer, uploaded himself directly into MACH-1's armor. Then, using his fixing powers from the inside, he animated the suit (which had been placed thrown in the corner when the Avengers put Abner Jenkins in a temporary holding cell) and linked himself to the Avengers computer systems.

Techno's ruminations are cut off when the screen in front of him suddenly begins talking. "Master Quasar, Master Quasar, come in, this is a priority message from Avengers Mansion." Activating a device at his belt, techno suddenly blurs and the image of Quasar appears in his place. Smiling with an evil twinkle in his eye, Techno turns the screen on.

"Hey, Jarv...what's up?"

Back to all out battle action! While Jolt lies in a heap, trying to regain her breath and senses, Atlas, looming at 25 feet tall inside the huge center of Four Freedom's Plaza, angrily attempts to swat the Wasp. While his reflexes are somewhat enhanced (See Avengers #9 and #21 -- Ye Olde Scott), he still cant seem to catch up to the Wasp. But Jan is equally stymied, as her bio-blasts barely phase Atlas at this size. Desperately she fights on, though, hoping she can delay long enough for the reserves to arrive. Time runs out, though, as Atlas finally manages to guess Wasp's flight path; with a huge hand he slaps at her. She twists aside, avoiding the meat of the blow, but it is still so powerful that she is thrown, stunned, to the floor.

"This is where it ends!" Atlas shouts, still in a rage, raising his foot high over the dazed Wasp to crush...

"Stop! Atlas!" The sudden shout takes the surprised Atlas off guard, but he manages to throw his weight off at the last second, just missing Wasp. Turning, Atlas faces Jolt, who has regained her footing.

"Jolt...is that really you?"

"Yes...oh, god, I can't believe what I've done! What you are!" Jolt begins sobbing and Atlas, ignoring the Wasp, shrinks down and rushes over to hug her. She pushes him back though. "You...you're one of them! You're Goliath! Don't touch me!"

"Awww, Jolt...I'm sorry, I..."

"You were gonna kill her, just like that, in cold blood like Citizen V...like Zemo killed Meteorite! Just like he did this to me!" Atlas looks angry at the news Zemo was behind Jolt's transformation, but he is also chagrined at her anger and begs off, saying he was just so angry he wasn't thinking straight; he doesn't know what he wants anymore, but he's tired of all the killing and games.

"I'm tired of all the deaths...well, all except one." A look of anger crosses his face and he shoots back up. "One...damn you Zemo!" With a mighty step he reaches the spot where Wasp knocked Jolt down with a shot to the neck, and reaching down he scoops up a small choker. Holding it up to his face he grimmaces. "You sick twisted creep...you got any more wise comments now, Malice?"

"Wait, Jostens, Zemo will..." Malice says, the cameo's tiny face twisting with fear.

"Zemo wont do anything when I finish him!" Atlas shouts and crushes the choker; a tiny scream is cut off as Atlas grinds Malice into powder. Dusting his hands, Atlas grimly turns towards the command center where the rest of the team is...and finds the Wasp and Captain America standing behind him. Cap briefly explains to the surprised Atlas that the special potion devised by Techno to keep all the Avengers unconcious had failed to take into account all the aspects of his super-soldier serum, thus allowing Cap to regain awareness while the other Avengers are still KO'd. Cap then suggests that if Atlas wants to get out of this in one piece he'd better tell Cap everything he knows about V and his defense plans. Atlas thinks about it for a moment then begins spilling it all.

Meanwhile, at Avengers Mansion, Techno has freed MACH-1 and the two of them are ransacking Pym's lab, looking for weapons; since Techno is using the MACH-1 suit, Abner doesn't have anything to fight with. With only Jarvis in the mansion, the two of them want to try and mess things up a little and perhaps steal some key information. MACH-1 finds a new disruptor gun that Hank has been working on, and now armed the two of them head for the door, ready to kick ass. Suddenly, though, Thor walks through the door. Techno takes one look and flees; the MACH-1 armor clanks to the floor, leaving Abner and his rifle facing a somewhat perplexed and unhappy Thor. Abner quickly surrenders and Thor begins trying to make sense of what's going on. But can he figure it out in time?

Back at Four Freedom's Plaza, Techno returns to his body and hurriedly finds Citizen V and informs him that they have 5-30 minutes before Thor and any number of other Avengers show up. V thinks about it and decides that they should take their captives and head for a safehouse he has set up. They can stay there awhile while he perpetrates his scheme to discredit the Avengers as robots of the Mad Thinker; perhaps he can even dupe Alpha Flight into helping him again (as they did in Thunderbolts #25). Having reached this decision, he orders Songbird, Techno and Core to rig the plaza to explode (which he will then pin on the Avengers through his media contacts).

As he prepares for their departure, Jolt and Atlas arrive. Citizen V asks if the prisoners are secure and ready to be transported and Jolt answers affirmative, trying to do her best Malice impression. It isn't good enough, though, as V realizes instantly that something is wrong. He shouts out for the other Thunderbolts, but his cry is cut off as Jolt decks him. The others rush to his aide, but are intercepted; Atlas grows to mammoth size and gives Core a massive backhand, while Captain America attacks Techno and the Wasp intercepts Songbird (the two Avengers rushing from their hiding place to strike).

Cap flings his shield at Techno, but Techno's computerized reactions allow him to respond instantaneously; his techno-pack sprouts a pair of arms that catch the shield before it can strike and Techno responds with a barrage of force beams and small rockets, which Cap has to scramble to dodge. Citizen V has recovered from his surprise and responds to Jolt's strike with a vicious slash which she barely avoids, while Songbird half-heartedly attempts to catch Wasp in a sound bubble to no avail.

Core is back on his feet and wades into Atlas, who stumbles back as much from Core's radiocative force field as from his titanic blows (C'mon, you remember when Core used to be Radioactive Man, before he joined the Thunderbolts in #20, don't you? -- Professor Van). Atlas pulls himslef together and begins striking back, but his punches do little as Core, now prepared, begins to power up his radioactive abilities.

Cap, for his part, has dodged Techno's blasts, acrobatically dodging and moving sideways. Techno continues blasting, but suddenly realizes Cap has set him up; his shots go past Cap directly into the area Citizen V and Jolt are battling. Caught by a blast from behind, V stumbles forward and Jolt catches him with a kick, then uses her momentum to leap across the intervening feet and slam into Techno. The crushing blow jars Cap's shield free and Cap grabs the shield, with one fluid motion, and swings it back at Citzen V, who barely manages to get his sword up in time to block. Jolt and Cap, having switched opponents, begin fightin their new, off balance sparring partners.

Wasp, meanwhile, has her hands quite full with Songbird. Songbird isn't sure if she really wants to fight at all, especially since she was creamed by Wasp once before (Avengers #271 -- Mansion-Manglin' Scott), but she figures she better fight unless she wants to be humiliated again. So fight she does; unable to catch the Wasp with one of her constructs, Songbird quickly forms a bubble around her own body and begins rapidly expanding it outwards. Wasp, caught by surprise, can't get out of the way, and the expanding shield hits her -- and Songbird instantly reverses the field, placing it around the Wasp instead of around herself.

Meanwhile, things are going badly. Core has Atlas down; the radioactivity is interacting oddly with Atlas' pym particle/ionic energy mix and Atlas finds himself losing strength with every passing moment. Still Core pours it on, and Atlas finally collapses to one knee, crying out. Jolt, hearing his cry, instinctively turns to help and is cought full force by one of Techno's barrages. Techno moves in to administer the coup de grace while Cap, tied up in combat with Citizen V, is helpless to assist.

"Songbird...Mimi...look at what's going on! The Fixer's going to kill that girl, Mimi! Radioactive Man is going to kill Goliath! Is that what you want? Is it really worth it, whatever it is you think you're fighting for? Is it really that important?" Wasp says, pleading as her last air is cut off by the solid sound construct and she slumps, unconcious.. Songbird is torn, unable to come to a decision. Techno steps up and, attaching a device to Jolt's head, begins draining all of her power into himself. Jolt, too weak to move, gives out a little scream, and it snaps Songbird out of her spell.

"Leave her alone!" Songbird releases Wasp and lashes out with a sonic blast, knocking Techno off his feet, and swoops down for a closer shot, but Cap shouts to her to ignore Techno and take out the Radioactive Man. Not quite understanding, still she complies and wraps a solid sound bubble about Core, cutting off the flow of radiation.

"Techno! Activate the bomb!" Citizen V cries out. Techno, for his part, has recovered, filled with stolen power, and rushes forward to quickly kill Jolt. Atlas, though, has recovered partially now that Core is contained, and with a mighty bellow he grows to fill the room and, swinging a huge fist, crushes Techno into a billion shards with one blow. Songbird still contains Core, straining her voice to the utmost as Core tries to batter it down with waves of power, while Atlas rushes to check on Jolt.

Techno's mind wasn't destroyed by his body's demolition, though, and he zips through the Thunderbolt's computer system at the speed of light, destroying inciminating files by the hundreds and activating the bomb; he then prepares to flee the site, but one last action suggests itself to him, and he returns.

Core has burnt himself almost out, using up all his power in a futile effort to escape the sound bubble. Suddenly Techno leaps into the sound projection harness he designed for Songbird and destorys it; the explosing engulfs Songbird's head and she silently falls to the ground, her bubble dispersed. The exhausted and confused Core takes a tentative step and is immediately flattened by Atlas; he staggers, his eyes roll into his head and he collapses. Techno, for his part, launches his conciousness out of the Plaza and off to freedom.

Finally, in the center of the room, where an inlaid Thunderbolts logo also holds a massive bomb that rushes towards detonation, battles Captain America and Citizen V, neither able to help their comrades without letting themselves open. Techno is gone; Core and Wasp are unconcious; and a weak and tattered Atlas is trying to administer medical attention to both Jolt and Songbird. But Cap and Citizen V battle on, neither able to get the upper hand. Finally a signal in V's ear alerts him to the imminant explosion of his booby trap.

"You think you've won...you disgusting fool. You may have stopped my plans, but at last, at long last I avenger my father. Goodbye, my hated enemy!' As he speaks the countdown in his ear closes 13...12...11...10...9...; Captain America turns and rushes towards the console where Atlas has suggested the bomb is located, but cannot find a way to shut it down....6...5...4...3...

Suddenly a bubble appears around V and the Thunderbolts logo.

"What...?!" V spins and sees the bloody and torn form of Songbird, supported by Atlas, one sound projection unit damaged but still functioning; he barely has time to scream as the blast fills the bubble. Songbird staggers with the effort, then creates a sound tunnel to the closest window, where the explosion blows harmlessly into the New York sky. Thor, along with a quinjet full of reserves (She-Hulk, Black Knight, Crystal and Swordsman II) are just approaching when they see the explosion, and they rush to see what's going on.

Epilogue: A somewhat disheveled middle aged man in a trenchcoat is standing inside a run down apartment; it is the same man we glimpsed in #420. He is watching TV, where they are commenting on the dramatic and astonishing events at 4 Freedom's Plaza yesterday. The man clicks off the TV and stands motionless for a few moments, obviously holding back strong emotions. Finally he moves, towards the door, and we see a glimpse of a faded blue and yellow super hero costume underneath his coat. As he leaves, he mutters under his breath

"This time...god help me, it's got to work this time. It has to."

Next Issue: At last, the identity of our mystery man is revealled, but you wont believe who he turns out to be! Be back in 30 for a special issue of Avengers destined to become an overnight classic!

MIGHTY MARVEL CHECKLIST:

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Heroes For Hire #28

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Thunderbolts #33 The Thunderbolts as we know them are no more! With Citizen V dead, Techno missing and Jolt and Songbird seriously injured, can Atlas and MACH-1 keep the team together? And what does the government have to say about it? Tune in now!

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