Mideastern rebel
leader Dagan Shah is captured by the government forces and brought before the
commander; he is silent before his captors…until he spits out a grenade and
runs as his enemies die. He flees into the desert where he hears a strange
chanting from the ground….
Over
a year later, Red Hulk is battling General Fortean in his Redeemer armor until
Fortean receives a message and departs suddenly. Rulk returns to his truck
where LMD Annie has intercepted the message received by Fortean and he changes
back to Thunderbolt Ross. The message contains intel that Will Krugaler has
been killed in action in the Middle East. Krugaler was a colleague of Ross and
Fortean who, bitter over being denied a promotion, resigned from the army and
joined a private security firm. Ross doesn’t believe that Krugaler would have
been easy to kill and learns that some highly advanced weaponry is in the hands
of their opponents. Ross turns back to Rulk and leaps away. Annie sighs and
contacts Steve Rogers….
Ross
hijacks a plane and flies it across the Atlantic and when it runs out of fuel
and crashes, Rulk swims the rest of the way. He arrives in Qatar where the
separatist forces are making great strides with strange hand-held rocket
launchers. Red Hulk challenges them and is shot down with the missiles,
surprising him. He recovers and attacks them but suddenly he is pushed from the
battlefield by War Machine, with Valkyrie and Black Widow of the Secret Avengers
sent by Steve Rogers to bring him home….