Synopsis / Summary / Plot
This title continues to switch between 3 ongoing stories.
Previously in this strand in #1 Cannonball, Smasher and Sunspot were sent to investigate AIM Island which appeared to be evolving rapidly. They were captured, and in #2 Smasher was transformed into an AIM operative Messenger. In #5 Captain America got Manifold to teleport Captain Marvel, Hyperion and Thor past the Island's defences. But in #6 Messenger sent them packing. meanwhile cannonball and Sunspot have been having their injuries seen to.
On the SHIELD Helicarrier Iliad a golden version of the robot Jocasta awakens. Agent Coulson tries to inform Director Maria Hill, but she's busy with Captain America (overseeing the 3 strands of this title).
In the AIM hospital Sam Guthrie and Bobby Dacosta are being looked after so well they almost don't want to be rescued. But a hologram of Maria Hill, sneaked in with the failed extraction team, Apparently she *has* been informed of Jocasta's awakening, and the damaged robot has already explained that AIM have contacted an AIM some decades in the future, and that's where their advanced tech is coming from. Hill wants Cannonball and Sunspot to go through AIM's time portal called the Veil and cut off their supply line.
The duo get to the portal (with unbelievable ease) and pass through. They find themselves in a bar full of exotic aliens, many of them female, because this is a spaceport. Bobby persuades Sam that they take advantage of the situation while waiting for their arranged contact.
But a robotic-looking Taskmaster has them in his sights. But his boss says he wants the pair taken alive.
Sam tries to impress the locals by telling them that they defeated
Thanos. But it turns out that Thanos is a hero around here, and
apparently an Avenger. A bar-room brawl follows. Until it is
interrupted by (an undamaged) golden Jocasta.
Jocasta also defends them against Taskmaster, who chooses that moment to attack. Then she leads them out to a waiting flying car. Taskmaster gives chase in a hovercopter until Jocasta drops a billboard on him.
Then she takes them to a space station. And tells them that she's not
going through with Hill's plan to blow up this end of the time portal. Jocasta says that AIM *must* be allowed to do certain things, and *then* stopped with something she will give the 2 Avengers.
But she also gives them some information. Maria Hill formed a secret team who willingly had their mind's wiped after each mission (the 2013 version of Secret Avengers). Jocasta now claims they agreed to the conditions because the lives of their descendants were at stake. She introduces them to the Next Avengers:- Francis Barton (son of Hawkeye and Mockingbird), Henry Pym Jr (son of Giant-Man and Wasp), James Rogers (son of Black Widow and Captain America), Azari T'Challa (son of Black Panther and Storm) and Torunn (daughter of Sif and Thor).