Black Widow and
Hercules walk along a California beach, talking over their last adventure in
Olympus. Suddenly, they are attacked by a madman who is strong enough to
overcome Hercules and fight Nat until Herc recovers and beats up their foe. The
bad guy turns out to be an elderly (and frightened) man who calls himself
Billy. Then six armed men appear from the sea to capture Billy; Herc stands up
to them and is shot with their guns….
Hercules and Black
Widow recover and find themselves prisoners in a rundown psychiatric hospital
in San Marine. Their captor is Dr. Edward Lansing and he plans to keep Herc
under control with a collar that delivers a shock to Nat when he misbehaves. Lansing
is trying to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum, using the hospital’s inmates as
guinea pigs. For now, the treatment turns the subjects either simple or
vicious. And now he has two new subjects….
At Warren
Worthington’s beachfront cabin, Ivan Petrovich is worried about Natasha’s
absence but Angel and Iceman aren’t so concerned. Then Hercules smashes through
the wall, followed by Black Widow and several super-strong inmates. Lansing
manipulates the two heroes with a control box and having them kill their friends
will complete their conditioning. But then Ghost Rider arrives and takes on
Hercules with the help of Iceman and Angel. Black Widow fights Ivan but seeing
her friend at her mercy causes her to snap out of her conditioning. She attacks
Lansing, dodges his gunfire, knocks the control box out of his hands and
smashes it. He runs for safety to his mutated inmates but the control box was
for them too and they kill him….
Later, Herc
bemoans the inmates, innocent victims of a villain; Angel admits there is evil
but it is up to them to help the helpless as the Champions!