Synopsis / Summary / Plot
War Machine is attacking a passenger jet, with members of his support staff Suzi Endo and Parnell Jacobs in a shuttle plane alongside. His old buddies from West Coast Avengers (Mockingbird, Ronin (Clint Barton, ex-Hawkeye), Tigra and Wonder Man) have arrived in a quinjet to stop him. Clint has faith that James Rhodes knows what he's doing, but the other 3 aren't so sure.
Wonder Man knocks War Machine off the plane while Tigra breaks into the shuttle and KO's Suzi and Parnell. War Machine uses his cyborg suit's special power to disassemble the shuttle and quinjet in mid-air (incorporating some tasty bits into his armour as a bonus). He leaves Wonder Man to save the falling bodies, and sets off after the jet. But Ronin hitches a ride with a line arrow.
Clint reminds Rhodey they fought side-by-side in San Revilla, and says he might help if Jim tells him what's going on. James explains, while Suzi does the same for Wonder Man and his passengers.
They describe how Reginald Gunderson, Assistant Director of the US Agency for Alien Quarantine and Technology decided to exploit the captured alien Ultimo robot for private gain, and distributed various parts to various companies for research. War Machine and gang have already dealt with an Ultimo virus in #1-5, and Ultimo's head last issue. Now they are seeking its neural net, memory banks and emotional core, each in a different place.
Inside the passenger plane the CEO of Stark Solutions drinks Ultimo's neural net. And the front of the plane explodes into liquid metal.
The assembled cast enter the plane through a hole. The liquid metal is eating the plane from the front backwards. They get the passengers to the back half of the plane, and War Machine and Wonder Man split the back off before the living metal can get to it. Rhodey uses his suit's abilities again to remove the jets from the wings and attach them to the half-fuselage, forming a mini-helicarrier.
The man they think is Tony Stark uses the metal he has absorbed to form a proto-Ultimo around him. And Suzi Endo detects him sending out messages to locate the other 2 parts of Ultimo's brain.
Last issue Bethany Cabe and Jake Oh donned other War Machine armour to go after these components. Beth as WM 2.0 has just blown up the memory banks in a Roxxon facility. Jake as WM 3.0 destroys the emotional core at Transcore Artificial Intelligence Solutions.
Rhodey tries to talk Tony Stark into abandoning his Ultimo, but discovers it's really Tony's cousin Morgan. He wanted Ultimo's computing power, but now Ultimo's programming to kill all living things has taken over. And Morgan claims to have thought of a way for Ultimo to wipe out life from the Earth.
War Machine strikes with Ultimo's own eye-blasts (he assimilated one of Ultimo's eyes last issue). Morgan appears to give in, saying that without Ultimo's emotional core he feels no compulsion to continue with his plan.
Rhodey tries to help Morgan extricate himself from Ultimo. But when they touch Morgan absorbs an emotional core from Jim. And his Ultimo self-destructs. The scattered liquid metal ignores people, but infects surrounding vegetation.
In Avengers Tower Norman Osborn and his assistant Victoria Hand are watching. And Norman suits up as Iron Patriot to go deal with the problem personally.