Synopsis / Summary / Plot
An MVP clone is stalking through Camp Hammond's Subbasement 9, shooting people with Armory's Tactigon. Now he sets his sights on insect-sized Yellowjacket, announcing that he's on his list. He blasts YJ and declares him 'killed in action' (which connects with the KIA cut into his bare chest). Then he reverses his route back to a room full of downed trainees, and faces their trainer Taskmaster.
We now flashback to a training session earlier that day. The new bunch of recruits (Ant-Man (Eric O'Grady), Diamondback, Dragon Lord, Geiger, Geldoff (who's now been given the name Proton), Melee and Red 9) try unsuccessfully to defeat Taskmaster. All except Crusader who sits it out because he figures it's not possible. TM commends him as the only 1 with any brains.
Actually Crusader is secretly a Skrull, but unlike the rest of his race he's on Earth's side. And the Freedom Ring he wears would enable him to easily beat Taskmaster, but he wants to keep that secret too.
TM
explains the point of the exercise was for him to determine the extent
of their individual abilities before designing their combat simulators.
Cloud 9 and Trauma are in the Infirmary, deserted apart from Gauntlet in a coma. She's hurting over having killed a Hydra agent (#2), and he's practising his psychotherapy. He lets her see an image of the agent so she can confess to him personally.
Beast and Dani Moonstar are watching. Dani thinks her work training Trauma is now complete. Henry Peter Gyrich is throwing her off the base in disgust because she's turned his potential superweapon into a healer.
Thor Girl approaches and bows to Moonstar as a Valkyrie, despite Dani saying she no longer is 1. She lost that attribute when the old version of Asgard fell (during Avengers Disassembled). She has no connection to the recent new Thor and Asgard. Beast wonders why Tarene didn't lose *her* power too. Thor Girl doesn't know why either.
Tarene actually came to see Trauma. She has a crush on him after he took on the likeness of Thor (#5).
In Subbasement 5 HPG and Yellowjacket are entering the Omega Weapons Cache to get the Tactigon. Since they threw Armory off the squad (#1) none of their soldiers have been able to make it work successfully (we saw 1 try in #5). Now they hope 1 of the MVP clones might do better.
In YJ's Subbasement 9 lab Baron Von Blitzschlag
has decanted the latest MVP clone. There's already a sign of the
instability that will soon manifest as this 1 stubbornly refuses to
accept any name other than Michael Van Patrick. Blitzschlag tries to explain that they already have 1 clone using that name, pretending to be the original with his family.
This
new MVP has been programmed with all their recorded data on Armory and
the Tactigon, as well as their info on Michael. But as soon as it bonds
to his arm he goes berserk, knocking YJ and Blitzschlag aside. 1 thing
that the scientists have excluded from MVP's programming is how the
original died. But now the clone uses the Tactigon to access secure
files, and sees his original being (accidentally) killed by Armory and
the Tactigon in #1.
The clone at 1st refuses to
believe that Michael is labelled KIA - he thought that *he* was the real
Michael. But then he turns to anger at all those involved in the death.
Unlike all the previous clones he won't accept the Baron as his
'father'. And his weapon stops Henry Pym from growing to giant-size. But YJ manages to escape insect-size.
Now the clone fully accepts his situation and his new mission. And he carves the initials KIA on his chest.
In
the Combat Simulator Room in Subbasement 9 Taskmaster has given his
students a scenario to play out. They have to keep some robots at bay to
give Dragon Lord time to brew a potion. The exercise is interrupted by
the clone busting through a wall into the room where he died.
The trainees attack, and the Tactigon responds. The effects are felt throughout the building.
In
the Infirmary Thor Girl grabs Trauma and flies towards the battle with
him. She tells 'weak' Cloud 9 to go find reinforcements. Trauma protests
that he's not an action hero like Tarene. But she won't believe him -
she saw him defeat Korg and stand up to the Hulk during World War Hulk (in #5). (Actually he frightened off the 'Stone Man From Saturn'
by appearing as Thor - to Korg's race Thor has achieved the status of a
mythical demon. And his (unsuccessful) tactics against Hulk were as
much psychological as physical.)
In the War Room Gyrich refuses to ask for help from Tony Stark or the Avengers.
In
the Simulator the students are lying around dead or unconscious. Except
Crusader (again) who's nursing a severed hand. MVP tells Taskmaster off
for allowing his untrained trainees into a real fight. Then he ignores
him in favour of tracking Yellowjacket - who's 'on his list'. And
catches up with him as seen in the opening scene.
Next he comes
across Thor Girl and Trauma. Astonished Trauma recognises him as MVP,
who he knows is dead. The clone recognises *him* as the person who
caused Armory to fire the shot that killed him - Trauma is on his list.
Thor Girl steps between them with a 'you'll have to go through me 1st'
speech. That's OK with MVP and he zaps her in the face.
Terrance Ward
catches her as she falls. Sickened by her burnt head he attacks MVP,
automatically becoming his foe's worst nightmare. Or in this case the
Tactigon's nightmare. (As we learnt in the Annual the
Tactigon is a weapon owned by an alien, who lost it during a fight with
an enemy alien - that is the form Trauma attacks in.) But that doesn't
stop the clone. The Tactigon morphs into a blade which pierces his
enemy, and MVP declares Trauma KIA.
The clone now heads to the
Infirmary to find Gauntlet, the instructor who organised the training
session in which he died. But he finds the bed empty where the comatose Joe Green had been.
Joe
also has a weapon fused to *his* arm - hence his codename. Gauntlet
uses that to break into the Omega Weapons Cache. There he grabs the
blade that was found with the gauntlet. But his eyes are rolled up in
their sockets, and he's speaking an alien tongue.