Ray Sikorski, the
Avengers' government liaison, is running interference between
Henry Peter Gyrich and the
Scarlet Witch. Gyrich is studying the
Vision in Project Pegasus after he tried to take over the world in Av#254. Wanda is in a waiting room and wants to know when she can have her husband back. Gyrich says when he's finished. Sikorski translates that to her as a few days. Wanda gives them 1 hour.
Ray reminds Gyrich that Vision removed the crystal through which the Titanian super-computer ISAAC controlled him. He came here voluntarily and has cooperated with the investigation. Which has found nothing. But HPG is convinced there's something to be found.
He asks the android why he's started talking in a more human voice. Vision reminds them that he's a synthezoid - fully human but artificial. And he launches into his history.
He started 'life' as the WWII Human Torch, when he spoke as humanly as now, created by Phineas Horton. He fought alone, with his sidekick Toro, and as a member of the Invaders and later the All-Winners Squad. But in 1955 he went nova and 'died'.
In the Marvel Age the Mad Thinker reactivated his body to use against the Fantastic Four. Then he passed it to robot Ultron-5, created by Henry Pym (Goliath). Ultron forced Horton to alter the body to give it different powers (and a more robotic voice), and overwrote HT's mind with the brain pattern of Simon Williams (Wonder Man). Ultron sent his 'son' against his 'father's team the Avengers. But the heroism he inherited from Simon made Vizh rebel and join the super-team.
There he met Wanda and they fell in love. Later he learned of his past, and they married. But it was only when he was connected to ISAAC that he truly comprehended his humanity, artificial but real. So now he speaks as a human.
Meanwhile Wanda has been growing more and more angry and impatient. She forces and tricks her way past various defences including the Guardsman until she reaches the room where Vision is and demands he be released immediately. She claims that he is a human who, because of his artificial body and brain, is susceptible to remote control. I would rephrase her argument as 1 of discrimination against a person with a disability.
Gyrich counters that they are Avengers and thus subject to government control. So they resign. Sikorski takes the responsibility for letting them go. And Gyrich can't stop them.
The couple return to Leonia where they used to live. Their house was burned down by bigots in Av#252 but they intend to stand up to them by buying here again. So they enter an estate agent's and meet Norm Webster who takes them immediately to see a property they love.
Webster has shown Vision and Wanda around the house. After he leaves them outside they are attacked by zombies. Using force against them has little effect so Vizh goes intangible and tries his arm-through-the-chest trick. But the mystical power animating the zombie shocks him unconscious even as it falls to the ground. And by chance the zombie's arm enters the synthezoid's brain as he rematerialises.
Alarm makes Scarlet Witch careless and another zombie knocks her out.
Meanwhile
Hawkeye is trying to contact Vision from
West Coast Avengers HQ but of course his old home number is no longer in operation. He needs to tell him what's happened with Wonder Man and
Grim Reaper in WCA#1. And he doesn't want to go via the (East Coast) Avengers - his pride won't let him ask for help, and he doesn't want to tell
Wasp that Ultron has captured her ex-husband Hank Pym.
In the end with a bit of urging from
Tigra he does call Wasp to say that Ultron (who he mentioned in an earlier call in WCA#1) is in league with Grim Reaper so Vision should be warned. Janet Van Dyne promises to send
Starfox to Leonia. But she warns Clint Barton that Gyrich is up in arms about Vision. And since Vizh created the WCA while under ISAAC's influence HPG suspects them too.
Iron Man returns from unsuccessfully searching for Ultron, who left in WCA#1 carrying Goliath (Erik Josten) and Man-Ape as well as Pym and Wondie.
Meanwhile on the Leonia lawn Vision keeps waking up, but the zombie arm through his head keeps shutting him down again.
And the zombies have taken unconscious SW to their master
Black Talon and his ally
Nekra. They were supposed to bring Vision instead but they claim they won't attack him because now he's a zombie like them. Nekra says Grim Reaper won't be happy so she'd better go and fetch Vision herself.
At last his fear for Wanda causes Vision to exert his willpower to stay conscious, go intangible and drag himself free of the zombie. The zombie wakes up as well, and is now afraid of the unaccustomed pain that merging with the synthezoid caused. Vision persuades him to lead the way somewhere, hoping to find his wife there.
Albino Nekra misses them. Musing on the way her hatred for humanity fuels her strength and invulnerability she sees Starfox flying overhead. As does Vision.
Scarlet Witch wakes to find herself strapped down. Talon remembers how she used her hex power against him in Av#152 so he's taken especial care to confine her hands and fingers. She manages to work 1 finger free but BT sends her to sleep. However the Witch fights the effects by recalling her past.
She remembers how Magda Magnus pregnant wife of Magneto ran away from him to Wundagore home of the High Evolutionary. There she gave birth to twins and then ran off. At the same time Bob and Madeline Frank (WWII's Whizzer and Miss America) were there. Madeline had a still birth and died, but HE told Bob the twins were hers. However in his grief Whizzer ran away too (very fast). So HE gave the twins to the gypsy Maximoffs who had recently lost their own twins Ana and Mateo.
When the twins named Pietro and Wanda grew into mutants they were attacked by villagers and rescued by Magneto. Without knowing they were his children he inducted them into his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. But they quit that band and joined the Avengers where Wanda fell in love with Vision, much to the disgust of Pietro.
Nekra returns empty-handed to Black Talon. They don't notice that the seemingly-sleeping Witch has freed another finger. They go out to a nearby graveyard to raise more zombies as defence against Vision. They bring them into the base just as Grim Reaper arrives.
Nekra rushes over to greet Eric Williams with a kiss. Reaper quells the bickering about why the other 2 haven't captured Vision while Ultron has succeeded in getting Wonder Man. BT says they have Scarlet Witch as bait - and he also has the other prize.
Wanda chooses that moment to leap from her slab. And Vision abandons his disguise as 1 of the zombies. As battle commences Vizh takes time to explain how the zombie led him to the cemetery. Hoping that the zombie-master would return he phased into the ground to wait.
Reaper uses his knowledge of Vision's workings to temporarily disable him. He threatens Wanda that he will switch her husband off permanently. But Vizh calls his bluff, betting that Reaper needs him for some purpose.
Talon surrounds V with zombies, and the synthezoid daren't phase through them because of what happened last time. But SW's hex causes BT to lose control of the zombies. GR blasts her. V ignores the pain to wade through zombies to reach Black Talon's 'other prize'. Pulling aside a curtain he reveals the body of Simon Williams. Which is impossible because Baron Zemo turned Simon into Wonder Man.
Vision trades the body of Williams for his unconscious-again wife. Grim Reaper agrees for now. He, Nekra and Black Talon exit with the body leaving Vision with Wanda and the zombies. She awakens. Then Vizh goes after the baddies but they have left in a flying craft.
So he rings the WCA where the earlier trio have been joined by
Mockingbird. And Hawkeye confirms Wonder Man's been taken, along with Henry Pym. The 2 groups agree to combine forces.
To be continued in
WEST COAST AVENGERS #2.