Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The Avengers are in rural Ohio where they have just defeated the Awesome Android. Noting that his wife Marrina is missing, Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner goes out looking for her. Meanwhile, we see the Fixer has just ejected her unconscious body from his truck and another truck is coming along; the driver of that truck hits the brakes but Marrina jumps up, caving in the vehicle’s front end. Namor arrives, Marrina tells him about being abducted by the Fixer, Namor assumes wrongly that the truck driver is the Fixer and seizes him, Marrina corrects this misapprehension, the driver heaves a sigh of relief….
The “real” Fixer drives his truck to an industrial park. He enters his warehouse hideout and his detection device alerts him that someone is there….
Meanwhile back at the site of last issue’s big battle, the Avengers are explaining things to the police. Doctor Druid takes Captain Marvel aside, showing exaggerated concern for her well-being. As Black Knight examines the huge Android, it awakens, hurling BK away. She-Hulk again hits it in the ganglion under its armpit and, to her surprise, this again knocks the creature out. As Namor and Marrina rejoin the group, some new reporters arrive to make a nuisance of themselves….
At a nearby diner, a fellow named Dan Smallwood watches the news and recognizes Marrina as his childhood sweetheart….
At his hideout, Fixer discovers the interloper is his ex-partner in crime, Mentallo, whom he was expecting. Mentallo is then seized by metal tentacles and pulled into immobility against a metal wall. Confused, Mentallo asks what is going on; Fixer invites him to read his mind….
With the help of the National Guard, the Avengers load the Awesome Android onto a helicopter for transportation to the Hydrobase. Namor wants to go after the Fixer but the others do not see him as a priority over securing the Android—until each receives a mental image of Mentallo screaming for help. Captain Marvel orders Marrina to oversee the Android’s transportation to Hydrobase while the others board the Quinjet and follow the mental signal which Dr. Druid is picking up from Mentallo. As they reach the Fixer’s hideout, anti-aircraft fire shoots down the jet. Rockets are launched: each of the heroes deals with them in their own way. Entering through a hole blown into a wall, Namor is seized by cables and electrocuted; he directs the current back to its source. A heavy suction pulls the heroes into two wind tunnels. In one tunnel, She-Hulk squeezes a handhold into the wall and catches Dr. Druid while Black Knight hurls his Ebony Blade into the giant fan, destroying it. In the other tunnel, Namor grabs CM and punches his way out. She turns to light to find their way through the complex until she collapses from exhaustion. The team is reunited and CM orders Druid to take them to Mentallo, which he does. They find the villain shackled to a wall, his brain hooked up to a machine. They free him and try to question him but he can only say that it wasn’t the Fixer, the mind was alien, before passing out….
The Avengers all return to Hydrobase and the Awesome Android is secured. Dr. Druid detects a problem with a nearby containment tube; Black Knight opens it to discover the Fixer in a tube which was supposed to contain the Super-Adaptoid….
In Queens, the phony Fixer contacts Machine Man with an offer….