Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Captain America, Firestar, Hawkeye and Iron Man swim underwater towards Moses Magnum's floating base in the Caribbean. It is officially the resort vessel Evangeline for the super-rich, and Justice, Scarlet Witch and their new teen ally Silverclaw are inside undercover. Iron Man gets the submarine team in through a hatch. And then we flashback ...
The morning after last issue Lupe Santiago is still apologising for her unwilling part in the battle which gave her 'uncle' Edwin Jarvis some bruises, and also for not telling him in her years of letters from Costa Verde that she had shape-shifting powers due to being the 'daughter of the Volcano God'. (We'll learn more about this in #28-30.) Wanda Maximoff is 'radiant' after her tryst with the 'ghost' of Simon Williams last night (which she doesn't know that her ex-husband Vision knows about). (Confused? You won't be after this episode of Soap.) Hawkeye tries to tell a distracted Vision about his need to run his own team. Angelica Jones and Vance Astrovik arrive for breakfast from the place they seem to be sharing with another ex-New Warrior Namorita. Angel tells Wanda how using her microwave power at high-level (as she did in #7) risks radiation poisoning, so she's thinking over leaving the Avengers. Wanda says she'll try to think of a better solution.
Captain America calls for attention to discuss the Moses Magnum problem. Jarvis thinks Lupe should leave but Cap asks her to stay. Vision is currently only a hologram confined to Avengers Mansion, and Warbird and Thor have quit so they're undermanned. And Lupe was in at the start of the story last issue, and proved she could fight. Edwin reluctantly concedes that she is actually older than Firestar. Last issue Magnum's army stole an experimental Seismic Cannon designed to control earthquakes. But Magnum has a history of using earthquakes as a threat.
Vision relays a message that Triathlon, the new hero who also helped them last issue, has sent on 1 of their private frequencies (though they can't figure out how he knew how to do that). He tells them he stowed away on the plane that Magnum stole last issue and sends them the location of Magnum's base. He also says Magnum is involved with Apocalypse and whatever he's doing will kill millions. The X-Men have told the Avengers how dangerous Apocalypse is so they set off immediately. Which brings us to where we started.
The 4 invaders from the sea have split up. We see Cap and Firestar dealing with 3 guards each and Iron Man battling some of the armoured Magnum Shells from last issue. This sets of an alarm but Scarlet Witch has dropped her disguise to wreck the comms centre as Justice and Silverclaw KO more guards. But a defensive system has already been triggered which floods the lower decks with nerve gas, even though that hits their own men. Hawkeye is safe behind his respirator, IM's armour would protect him, and presumably Cap and FS get out safely too.
Hawkeye meets up with Triathlon. As they make their way through ventilation ducts to the central lab Triathlon relates his origin. He's Delroy Garrett Jr, a US Olympic track athlete who was found guilty of using steroids. Afterwards he found the Triune Understanding group who taught him to find inner peace and how to unleash the triple power.
They reach a grille looking into the lab where Moses Magnum is hooked up to the Seismic Cannon ordering the power to be increased. He says he intends to impress Apocalypse by taking his 'gift' and turning it into a weapon. But before they can hear more the grille gives way and dumps the pair amongst the villains and they are surrounded by various Magnum troops.
But then the other heroes smash their way in from both sides of the room and Hawkeye fires a blast arrow at Magnum destroying his link to the machine. Cap sends their heaviest hitter Iron Man to deal with the boss, and Wanda knows that he's avoiding asking her to bring Wonder Man in. Silverclaw turns crocodile. But Magnum turns immense seismic power against them all. He rants that the Cannon has increased his control of his power as well as its strength. If he wished he could direct it to demolish the US Eastern Seaboard.
However he suddenly finds something blocking the power. Scarlet Witch declares that recently she found she could tap energy fields, those of Morgan Le Fay (#3), Moonglow (#6) and Corruptor (#6 again), so now she's tapping *his*. Moses starts to panic and throws the Cannon at her, burying her unconscious in debris. Magnum thinks he's safe but Wonder Man materialises and takes him crashing up through the levels of the ship to the sky and then down onto the island of Martinique.
As Wondie beats him up Magnum suddenly laughs and says "I'm cured!". He thinks the Seismic Cannon worked even better than he expected. But then the ground shakes and he hurls WM away shouting that he's got to get off the island and back to the ship. But then the rest of the Avengers arrive to gang up on him as the shakes get worse.
He begs them to let him go. He explains how Apocalypse rescued him (Classic X-Men #25 after Power Man Annual #1) and gave him seismic powers in return for being 1 of his Chaos-Bringers. After he wasn 't successful in succeeding ventures Apocalypse punished him by removing Moses' control of his power, so that whatever ground he touched would suffer earthquakes. Since then he's lived on the Evangeline. He needed the Seismic Cannon to regain control and get back in Apocalypse' good books. But it obviously failed.
But then the earth opens up and swallows him, screaming that Apocalypse has found him.
Wanda is awake but now knows that Simon Williams can appear when *he* wants, without her even being conscious. She's even more determined to find out how it happens, and whether Simon is still alive. Hawkeye looks at the well-functioning team and thinks that will make it easier for his next move.
Back at the Mansion the next day Lupe leaves to attend Empire State University. Triathlon goes too but leaves his contact details in case they need him. Wanda has her arm in a sling but is otherwise uninjured. But no-one's seen Clint Barton. Then Jarvis finds a note magneted to a fridge door saying he's left.