Ant-Man (Eric O’Grady) has hitched a ride on the pants leg
of Ideal of the Adaptoids, stealthily accompanying them into the underground
home of the Descendants known as the Core. The Adaptoids are greeted by Lady Deathstrike
and Skullbuster before they turn the captive Yalda and her son over
to Father who welcomes them home….
At the Secret Avengers’ miniature Lighthouse space station,
Hank Pym and Beast debate their relative superiority over one another as well as
Beast warning Hank not to create another AI for any purpose. Hawkeye is
concerned about not hearing from Ant-Man….
Captain America talks to Jim Hammond, the original
Human Torch, about Hank McCoy’s opinion that the miniature version of Captain Britain
is based on Jim’s design. At a Veteran’s hospital they meet with Flash
Thompson, currently Agent Venom, about joining the mission….
At the Core, Father explains to Nalda that she is a
High-Breed of the Descendants, an advanced race of robots which he plans will
achieve a universal consciousness and invites her to join the group in their
fight against humans. She refuses and Father sees she is beyond reclaiming so
he orders her killed. Ant-Man rises to full height and fights the Adaptoids;
his helmet is smashed and Yalda is killed in the fight before he seizes the boy
Parvez and leaps from a window, able to miniaturize one more time and land
safely in a sewer with the boy….
Cap and Jim accompany Flash to the Lighthouse where Hawkeye
refuses to have the symbiote on his team no matter how much they claim it is
under control. Clint assembles the team and orders Cap and Flash off the
station….
The team (Hawkeye, Black Widow, Captain Britain, Valkyrie, Human
Torch, Beast) traces Ant-Man’s signal to the middle of the desert where they
are teleported to the Core where they are set upon by hostile robots, Hawkeye
and Beast facing Deathlok versions of Wasp and Miss America. The Adaptoids catch
up with Ant-Man who fights to protect the boy and he is killed by his foes, his
last thoughts that he died saving an innocent child….