Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Glenda Sandoval is being held prisoner in a metal container in Eaglestar International's Regional HQ in Aqiria, by mercenaries working for Eaglestar. One of them, an ex-SHIELD agent Jake Oh is trying to get her medical attention, but her guards won't let anyone see her, on orders from the boss.
Bethany Cabe is still operating from the Colorado base that Norman Osborn and HAMMER attacked last issue. She sends a flying bug into the container to let Glenda know help is on the way. It shows that she has been beaten and is in a critical condition. Glenda's husband Parnell Jacobs is in War Machine's secret satellite base, and War Machine himself is on the way.
Eaglestar's young boss Davis Harmon is at the base. He sends drone planes against War Machine, but WM sends them crashing back. James Rhodes phones Harmon, who tells him he's now a traitor to the US as Eaglestar is coordinating anti-terrorist activities in the area. Rhodey tells him just to let him have Glenda and he'll leave them alone. But Harmon isn't going to back down. He relocates to an underground control centre and continues the fight.
Harmon fires 3 missiles. One of them detonates near WM, but he stops the other 2 and takes them away. Parnell directs him to use them against some unmanned tanks. But Jim spots infantry around the tanks, after he's relaunched the missiles. He doesn't want to harm them because most of them probably think they're on the right side. And some of them may be men who left SHIELD rather than work for Norman Osborn in HAMMER. So WM blocks the missiles path, and takes the explosion on himself.
Harmon's troops close in on WM, who has lost both legs. They think he's harmless and dying, because they don't know he's a cyborg. But he gains tank-treads and chases them back to where Glenda is being held.
Jake Oh stops WM, and warns him that the container is rigged to explode if anyone tries to break in. Jake's medics have squirted aerosol medication into the box, which should help the prisoner. The guards have run away, but Jacobs has broken into Eaglestar's database and got their names and vicious records. WM is about to send anti-personnel missiles after them all, but Glenda calls from inside the box and demands he capture them for prosecution. So instead he launches a missile that temporarily blinds them, including Harmon who has joined them.
The scene now shifts to Avengers Tower, where we find that Norman Osborn wanted Rhodes to kill Harmon. His assistant Victoria Hand initiates Plan B, and Ares of the Dark Avengers dives out of a helicopter.