Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Maria Hill, Director of SHIELD, sent Cannonball and Sunspot into the future to cut AIM's supply of advanced technology off at the source. Instead the came back with the Next Avengers, teenage children of some of the current Avengers.
Hill is not impressed. She was expecting the future version of the robot Jocasta to deliver some warriors, but she expected them to be older. Their leader James Rogers (son of Black Widow and Captain America, with a photonic shield) suggests they could always just go back home. Francis Barton (son of Hawkeye and Mockingbird) has obviously inherited his father's impetuousness, and decides to prove their worth by taking on SHIELD with his arrows.
Torunn (daughter of Sif and Thor) joins in with her big sword. Azari T'Challa (son of Black Panther and Storm) unleashes his mother's lightning bolts. Henry Pym Jr (son of Giant-Man and Wasp) blasts soldiers with what are probably his parents' stinger weapons. Soon all the agents present are down, including Maria Hill.
As they help her up they tell her they know what they have to do. They need Manifold to take them through the defences of AIM Island. They say that AIM's Scientist Supreme has seen the end of the universe and wants to make it happen now.
Said Andrew Forson is now making a broadcast to the US with a biased report of last issue. He claims that AIM offered to give their advanced tech to the world, but Iron Man attacked their representative at the conference causing death and destruction. (Actually it was a robot version of Forson that exploded.) Now AIM has laid siege to the White House, claiming that the US government sent Shellhead against them.
Manifold prepares to take the Next Avengers to Barbuda, and Maria Hill is going with them. The teens claim that SHIELD is not well thought of where they come from. But they greet Eden Fesi as a great hero.
When Manifold teleports them all to AIM Island, Pym produces a device which he claims will do what they want. Which is to prevent AIM's future info getting out into the world. It's a Sigkill, which will be commissioned by President Snowdon after the 3rd Information War. It analyses data at source, destroys it, then spreads out through the Web corrupting any copies of that data it finds.
But the attack force is now confronted by AIM troops led by Graviton and Superia, 2 of AIM's ruling council. Graviton easily deals with Torunn's frontal assault. The others have some success against the troopers until Graviton pins Barton to rock, and deflects Rogers' shield. But Manifold redirects it through a portal so it hits their foe on the back of the head. Meanwhile insect-sized Pym has been stingering Superia's inner ear until she collapses.
Their foes are now all unconscious, but then the Scientist Supreme arrives and casually traps them all in force bands. He taunts the youths with knowledge of their future history. James Rogers' parents never(?) knew he existed. Thor and Sif abandoned Torunn, Forson refers to Francis Barton as the Aberration, and says Francis doesn't know who his mother really is.
But young Barton gloats that AIM has played into their hands. The troopers are all biologically linked to AIM's central network. Pym has attached his device to 1 of the unconscious soldiers, and it by now has burrowed into their database and found its target.
Barton says Forson should also be worried about another effect of the process. As the island city explodes, Manifold teleports his allies back to the SHIELD Helicarrier.
Meanwhile Captain America, Captain Marvel, Hulk, Iron Man and Thor have flown to confront the AIM troops at the White House.