Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Asgard (hovering outside Broxton, Oklahoma) has fallen (in Siege #3) and Young Avengers Hulkling and Wiccan are flying over the ruins. As Wiccan travels via magic force-bubble he tells his winged boyfriend why he originally called himself the Asgardian and dressed more like Thor (YAv#1-5). He's always been a Norse mythology geek.
Their teammate Speed zooms up and says he's been looking for the others. Stature and Vision are OK but he can't find Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) and Patriot. Then he rushes off to help as many survivors as he can. We see that Kate and Eli Bradley are trapped in a pocket under the rubble of Asgard.
Billy Kaplan and Teddy Altman continue flying above the ruined city looking for survivors but finding only the dead. Wiccan can't understand why Asgard had to get destroyed. Hulkling blames the whole hero community for not stopping Norman Osborn much earlier. Meanwhile Tommy Shepherd is pushing himself to the limit to speed-carry survivors out of the city. And Kate is spurring Eli on to use his super-soldier serum strength to push the trapping rubble out of the way to give them an exit. But Patriot is worried that he'll bring the whole thing down on them. Kate says it'll fall and kill them eventually anyway, so they may as well *try* to escape.
Billy and Teddy hear a noise and see Wrecker and 2 of his Wrecking Crew fighting the 3rd, Thunderball. TBall thinks they shouldn't desecrate Asgard, but the others just want to loot the ruins for whatever they can find. So Eliot Franklin gets beaten up and the other 3 have they're own way. Hulkling thinks they should leave them to it and go looking for injured Asgardians to help, but Wiccan uses his magic to encase them in rocks. However the villains easily break free.
Speed is frantically digging into debris hoping to find his missing comrades, or just anyone. But down below somewhere Kate has hatched a plan which Eli vetoes as too dangerous - she wants to blast their way free with explosive arrows. Kate asks why Eli is suddenly averse to taking risks. He answers by kissing her. (They once went on a date which didn't go well. But here Eli is indicating he doesn't want to risk *her* life.) He is saved from too much embarrassment by a shift in the rubble over them opening up a wide crack. Hawkeye tells Patriot to hold it open while she wriggles into it.
Up above Hulkling fights Bulldozer and Piledriver while Wiccan tackles the boss man, Wrecker. Billy asks him why he's pillaging the place he got his powers from (accidentally from the Norn Queen in Thor #148, and the Wrecking Crew got *their* powers from him) - has he no respect? Dirk Garthwaite basically answers no. As the other 2 pummel Hulkling, Wiccan unleashes lightning bolts which fry all 3 villains.
Exhausted Speed meets Ronin (Clint Barton, the original Hawkeye) who bucks him up by telling him he's doing everything anyone could ask of him. Elsewhere Hulkling and Wiccan embrace, and Billy tells Teddy how his father used to read him Norse myths when he was little (until 1 day in a fit of pique he told his dad he hated the stories).
Down below Kate plants some explosive arrowheads deep in the crevice, and says she can feel a draft of air. Then she backs out. She tells Eli to keep holding the crack open until she fires another arrow in to detonate the explosives, and let go straight away so the closing gap will protect them from the blast.
Up above Billy and Teddy hear an explosion, and then see a whirlpool of dust and small rocks funnelling down a hole. And then Patriot's shield breaks through to the surface, followed by him and Hawkeye. The pair say they're alright (but exchange glances). Teddy tells them he's seen Vision and Cassie Lang fighting beside Captain America. And Tommy runs up to join them, glad to see everyone OK.
Speed then speeds off to do more rescuing. Hulkling and Wiccan fly after him, bantering about Billy's Norse nerdity - and his awesome thunderbolts. Kate tells Eli it was a hell of a kiss, before they too rejoin the fray.