New Avengers (4th series) #10

Avengers Island, a giant robot called “Avenger Five” fights the American Kaiju, a dinosaur monster let loose by the US military.

America is a giant monster? one of the five minds steering the giant robot wonders and figures the thought is kind of cynical. Sounds more like Max Brashear. The mind wonders if it is Max. Multiple consciousnesses are steering Avenger Five. Six minds mentally linked and sharing control of a 30 story punching machine.

Roberto daCosta orders everyone to keep it together. Max Brashear tells Roberto what he is planning is crazy.

Power Man admits that he loves White Tiger but she is working herself to death and won’t let him help. He can’t watch! She retorts she had power and could help. What was so wrong with that? Why did it frighten him? Dr. Toni Ho admits that she is scared for Aikku Jokinen, the woman trapped inside the Pod armor. She cares for her. Aikku replies that she knows.

Roberto orders everyone to focus on the punching while the island is being evacuated, or it’s all over.

Amidst the evacuation efforts, the island is under attack from all sides by SHIELD. Helping with the evacuation are Hawkeye and Songbird. It’s all over, she mutters. Hawkeye tells her to keep it together. Brawling behemoths in the bay? Raining SHELD agents? All in a day’s work? What does she say? He is about to nock an arrow. Wanna help him relive the old Thunderbolts days? Melissa says nothing then screams ‘yes’ with her sonic power toppling him over.… but she can’t, she continues. She’s sorry. She is surrounded by SHIELD agents who address her as ma’am. She explains she just got the word on a subsonic frequency that calls all SHIELD units to full active status. Including deep cover agents like her.

Clint splutters, Bobby trusted her! He trusted her. It’s complicated, Melissa replies. She asks him to turn himself in and she will make sure he gets… That moment, she is hit by a shield, courtesy of Rick Jones. He announces he was trained by Steve Rogers. Unimpressed, a SHIELD agent points out Rogers would have caught the shield. He was trained by the Hulk too, Rick rejoins and smashes the ground with the Thing Armor Gauntlet, causing a small tremor. He urges Hawkeye to run. Hawkeye protests as he had to leave his bow behind. That’s his superpower! It’s like Rick without his address book. Rick tells him to shut up and run.

As Rick rifles through his bag, Clint hopes he has something in there. How about Chemistro’s original Alchemy Gun? Rick asks. The same one he used to blow his foot off? Clint asks. Rick fires at the ground, turning it to glue and trapping the SHIELD agents who were giving chase. Clint shouts that he could have blown someone’s foot off!

In the meantime, robot and monster still battle. Toni warns the others the back-up reactor is running hot. She mutters she said the reactor type was too dangerous. Roberto tells her to trust him but is caught in a coughing spell. Max shouts he is having a Terrigen attack. White Tiger urges him not to go off-line. They need all of them for this.

Clint and Rick have reached the mountain where Avenger Two is supposed to be stored. Rick is suspicious, since there are no of Roberto’s toys. An AIM scientist tells them they are pretty much the last. Step through inside and they’ll get them to Avenger Two. They will all fit on board? Rick asks. The scientist replies, sort of. Most of them do all their work there already. Rick asks what Avenger Two is. The scientist promises him he is in for a treat. This all was a decoy. On Avenger Two they do the real work for the leader’s awesome master plan.

What kind of masterplan? Rick asks suspiciously. The awesome kind! the scientist raves. They’re gonna show SHIELD, show the Avengers, show the high and mighty Ultimates - show the whole world! Show them the super power of AIM! All hail the supreme leader, baby! Rick decides he has made a mistake and steps back outside.

Defensively, the AIM scientist states the Supreme Leader is awesome. He can’t help it if he gets excited. Identifying him as “Larry from Stores,” Hawkeye informs him he is a jerk and orders him to keep the portal open, while he goes after Rick. Larry points out he can’t. After EVAC, he is supposed to blow it up. There’s a schedule. Clint asks for 30 seconds. Looking outside, he sees SHIELD agents closing in and orders Larry to get moving.

One SHIELD agent orders Hawkeye not to make this difficult for himself. Clint raises his fists. He was born difficult for himself. He storms at them and tries to keep them back with his fists. He shouts for Rick to take the chance and leave the island. Rick, hiding in the bushes, hears and reluctantly obeys.

In the meantime, the American Kaiju is getting the upper hand. Toni warns the others the back-up reactor’s safeguards are off-line. Max shouts for the others to get ready to bail out. Roberto insists they can win this and, as if on cue, the robot’s hand catches the next blow.

Roberto explains everything is for a reason, including the kind of back-up reactor he insisted on. The reactor is dangerous but also a contingency plan.

The robot lifts the Kaiju. Roberto orders it to vent the gamma reactor and the Kaiju turns back to his human self.

In the helicopter, General Maverick asks for an explanation from Varghese, who explains the gamma radiation is taking out Ziller’s gamma enhancements.

Maverick orders his people to fish Ziller out of the ocean and then attack the robot. He wants prisoners!

He is told that’s not possible. The control chamber is linked with a portal gate. Brashear design. The younger one, he means. That Gamma charge flared them up and sent the Supreme Leader and his people somewhere else. Then he burned them out, so they can’t follow him. It’s kind of ingenious. Maverick vows he and daCosta are not over.

Later, in a SHIELD holding cell:
‘Dum-Dum‘ Dugan tells Hawkeye he got an earful from General Maverick. On a normal day, he’d enjoy that. On a normal day, he’d shake Clint’s hand. He understands principle. But this isn’t a normal day. Director Hill is in what used to be Pleasant Hill. Maybe injured, maybe dead. They are still waiting on the word. And Rick Jones continues to evade capture on that maze of an island. So today was not the day for his crap, he tells a beaten up Clint Barton. He’ll be detained on the station till the director returns, and he'd best pray that she does, and then she will decide what to do with him. So find a rock and crawl under it!

In another room, cyborg SHIELD agent Garret tells Songbird she probably expects him to tear her a new one, and normally maybe he would. Mission’s failed, after all. Roberto daCosta is out in the wild with his top lieutenants planning God knows what. Bad day. And the rough thing is, it was SHIELD’s screw-up. He gave a blanket order to exit cover. If he hadn’t, Songbird would be with daCosta and they’d know where he was. So, Hill will decide her next move on this. If… when she gets back. Until then, dismissed.

Songbird and Hawkeye leave the rooms and run into each other in the corridor. Melissa apologizes. Clint walks past her without acknowledging her.

Avenger Base Two, hidden in the Savage Land:
Sunspot sits in a deckchair, enjoying the sun. So AIM versus SHIELD round one, how did it go? somebody asks him. Roberto replies most of them made it here okay. He’s never understood why most superhero teams only have one HQ. Unfortunately, Songbird switched sides in the middle of this and Hawkeye got arrested. Worst of all, they lost Rick Jones because Larry scared him off. Larry, who is mixing drinks, apologizes. Bobby continues that, yes, he is awesome, and it is an awesome master plan, but there is a time and place.

Anyway, Rick is still on the island, which SHIELD is swarming over. The other man asks, they can’t go in and try to rescue him again? Not without Avenger One, which SHIELD is reverse-engineering, Roberto coughs. He tells his friend if he sees a Terrigen cloud, be somewhere else. He doesn’t know if that stuff will affect him, Sam Guthrie aka Cannonball replies. He happens to be pretty much invulnerable when he’s blasting. Roberto chuckles and decides enough moping. He orders fresh cocktails form Larry. And, after that all, Operation Secret Avengers starts.