Avengers Academy (2010 series) #37

Billionaire Jeremy Briggs (the matter-transmuting Alchemist) developed a 'cure' for super-powers which he called Clean Slate. He'd already cured ex-Avengers Academy student Veil (Maddy Berry) whose power was slowly killing her. He invited other AA students Finesse, Hazmat, Lightspeed, Mettle, Reptil, Striker, White Tiger and X-23 to come and see if they wanted the cure too. Hazmat (Jenny Takeda) whose radioactivity and toxicity meant she had to live in a hazmat suit and Mettle (Ken Mack) whose skin had been replaced by red metal with a skull head took the cure so they could have a normal life together. Striker (Brandon Sharpe) joined them but the rest declined.

But then Briggs revealed that he was going to release Clean Slate into the atmosphere worldwide, depowering nearly all superbeings. He and his associates had already taken a permanent antidote and he would offer some to any he deemed 'worthy'. The other 5 students deemed this unacceptable, as did his associate the robot Jocasta. Briggs sent J's consciousness to 1 of her other bodies in the China office and told the 5 students they'd *already* been cured, and the 2 magic-users (Reptil and White Tiger (Ava Ayala)) had the artefacts which gave them their powersconfiscated. Then he sicced villains from the Young Masters Of Evil on them but they escaped.

Striker now rebelled secretly and managed to get 3 doses of the antidote. He drank 1, and Hazmat and Mettle gave up their chance of happiness by taking the others. The other 5 got the artefacts back and broke into Briggs' vault to get antidotes for themselves. Then all the students raced to the roof but found that Briggs and Enchantress (Sylvie Lushton) had already launched the Clean Slate rockets.

Now Reptil (Humberto Lopez) sends Lightspeed (Julie Power) to catch the missiles, but Briggs gets Enchantress to magically zap her in flight. Then he uses his alchemical power to alter the brain chemistry in some of the teens while Lushton traps the 2 magic-users in the Crimson Bands Of Cyttorak. However Mettle slams his hands on the ground causing a roof-quake which unsettles the 2 villains allowing  X-23 (Laura Kinney) to slash Jeremy's chest with her claws and Hazmat to zap Sylvie with radiation. Then Striker hits them both with electricity. Lightspeed is now free to chase the missiles which Veil is tracking with Briggs' equipment. She catches 1 and rips its electronic innards out and ask Maddy to direct her to the next 1.

The baddies have recovered and Enchantress now has all but Mettle in the CBOC. Alchemist Briggs tries to hold Mack off with chlorine gas but Ken reminds him he doesn't breathe, and then knocks the breath out of him with a metal fist to the stomach. 'Berto and Ava use their amulet-magic to break through the Bands. Reptil turns dinosaur and slams Enchantress with his tail while White Tiger channels the Tiger God to slash her face with *her* claws. Sylvie blasts them both away and then complains that she only joined Jeremy because she was tired of super-battles. Now her face will be scarred and she's quitting, and she vanishes in a puff of smoke. Briggs now faces 7 angry heroes (including Finesse (Jeanne Foucault) who hasn't done anything so far) alone, but he uses his power in some unspecified way to cause explosions beneath their feet.

Julie is still destroying missiles guided by Maddy who's worried that the remaining ones are about to exit the atmosphere. Veil knows they need help so she contacts the China office of Briggs' company and shows them their boss under attack. She tells them to open Vault Theta because he needs what's in there. They're unsure what to do without direct authorisation from Briggs but Maddy tells them to activate the camera inside so they can see what's there. They obey and see a female robot. But up to that point the vault had been sealed against all electronic transmissions but now Jocasta is able to reach out to disable(?) the system and then just use her robot strength to break out by brute force. She then seemingly transfers her consciousness back to her body at HQ to join Maddy and takes control of the remaining rockets to bring them to Lightspeed.

The teen heroes are trying to get through Briggs' barrage of explosions. X-23 succeeds and stabs him the shoulder but he sets off an explosion in her stomach. Then he turns her sweat to acid. Finesse gets to her side as Laura passes out, but Jeanne grabs her wrists and forces the Wolverine clone's claws into the foe's forearm and thigh through the radial and femoral arteries. She tells him he'll bleed to death unless he surrenders. So he capitulates and she rips pieces of his shirt off to use as tourniquets. But he can't help boasting how it won't matter if they stop Clean Slate or distribute the cure. The Government wants superbeings gone and will give him whatever he wants to achieve that. Jeanne agrees so she removes the tourniquets. He says she's supposed to be an Avenger, a hero,  and they don't kill. But she reminds him that they weren't recruited for the Academy because they were the most heroic but because they were considered at risk of becoming criminals.

Lightspeed gets back from destroying the rockets to meet Jocasta and Veil coming up to the roof. The other teens make it through the smoke from Briggs' explosions to find him already dead. X-23 recovers (her healing factor doing its job) and thinks it was her stabs that killed him, and Finesse doesn't disabuse her but says it was necessary. Mettle comments that he felt bad about killing someone in the war against the Serpent (the Fear Itself event) but he doesn't care about Briggs.

Some hours later the NYPD are on the scene and liaising with Jocasta. The Young Masters Of Evil females (Enchantress, Coat Of Arms and Big Zero) have got away. Medics are patching up Brandon's facial scars (from #35). Maddy hopes they can be treated as 'Berto's burns were (from Electro in #14). Brandon says he doesn't care about that. He's just sorry that Jenny and Ken lost their chance at happiness after having it so briefly. And he's glad that Veil herself is still cured and not being killed by her power. They embrace as friends. The head cop tells Jocasta that Briggs' death will be logged as a self-defence 'righteous shoot', so the kids can go back to their lives. But Jocasta thinks this day will scar some of them mentally.