Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Deathlok (Miles Morales) accidentally took Anti-Venom, Black Knight, Cloak, Dagger, Elektra and Weapon H back to the Hyborian Age with Conan. At the end of #5 they left the Cimmerian there but then wound up in (a) 2099. Last issue they joined Punisher 2099 in fighting an army of Deathloks whose leader Ultron had taken over the world.
We begin with a crash course on the history of *this* 2099. In 2067 Alchemax successfully reverse engineered a Deathlok arm (which last issue told us they discovered in 2022). They created the nanotech Formula-D which enabled them to turn human corpses into Deathlok soldiers which they used in corporate wars. Their rivals Stark-Fujikawa responded by reactivating long-lost AIs including Ultron. Big mistake, and now 75% of humanity are Deathloks.
Now Ultron is interrogating a human at the Public Eye global surveillance site as to how the (Savage) Avengers managed to infiltrate the place. We see his explanation as a flashback of the team invading through cyberspace.
They were met by Fever protocols. Black Knight on his atomic dragon-steed was carrying a vital data-packet so Dagger and Elektra ran interference for him. Cloak used his teleportation to warp cyberspace to send Anti-Venom (also in dragon form) and Weapon H to attack the foes from behind. And Punisher (Jake Gallows) infected the Fevers with a virus which melted them. And our heroes reached the central node of the network.
Ultron rewards his informant by snapping his neck.
The Avengers now disconnect from the system where their physical forms are in the city of Valhalla where they've been linked to the Miles Deathlok for their cyber-journey. They've retrieved Ultron's files and Dane Whitman begins to decrypt them, hoping to find a way back to their own time. Elektra Natchios warns Tandy Bowen that she'll have to make her mind up between her 'boyfriends' Flash Thompson and Tyrone Johnson. Dane reports unfortunately that there is no time-travel tech in 2099. But he's also learned that the Deathlok tech is based on a Deathlok arm found in 2022, and Miles realises that it was *his* arm that got cut off in #1. This of course angers Gallows who lost his family in the corporate wars. But Elektra interrupts them to point out an interesting name in the data.
This leads the team to try to break into Hellrock prison for dissidents, run by an altered MODOK known as DEATHDOK (Digitally Enhanced Autonomous Telepathic Host Designed Only for Killing). Electrostatic generators prevent Cloak from teleporting them in so he, BK and Elektra walk in the front door pretending to be escorted by our DL with a stolen authentication code while AV, Dagger and WH approach stealthily masked by Dagger's light-bending prowess. But Miles can't contain his anger at how the other DLs treat their human prisoners, and soon all 4 are having to fight the DLs off. DEATHDOK gets alerted to the break-in ...
... but the stealth trio are already there and attack him before he can send other DL guards into the fray. However the non-stealth 4 have a bigger problem when they are confronted by Jigsaw 2099. Dagger leaves her 2 partners to deal with DEATHDOK while she heads for their target in the supermax wing. DD's psionic attack just serves to anger them. Jigsaw downs Miles/DL but Elektra borrows BK's photonic sword to disrupt the systems of the DLs. Jigsaw now makes to attack Dane but he's worked a high-voltage electric cable loose and fries his foe with it.
More Deathloks pour in but Cloak lets Punisher out of his cloak riding on his flying gun-platform. However DEATHDOK crashes in carrying Anti-Venom and Weapon H in 2 of his multiple arms/legs, and his psionic attack affects everyone. But although Miles has an organic brain his nervous system is synthetic, so he's able to shake the effects off and defeat DEATHDOK with a combination of metal fist and electric blast.
He contacts Dagger for a sitrep. She's dodging automatic defences and disabling them with her light-knives. And superheated lasers are easy for her light-bending power to deflect. She reports that she's reached the prisoner. And it's Doctor Doom 2099 who's willing to become an Avenger if it means getting revenge on Ultron.