Look! The Young Avengers in a Young Avengers story! Sorry that took so long. This story takes place sometime after the first series, and sometime before Civil War #1 - Oh who cares?

Teddy looked around the building site. "Anything?" he said.

Billy shook his head. "I can't sense anything out of the ordinary. I'll keep looking."

Good thing too, Teddy thought. Workers had been scared off the site by a series of mysterious lights. One of the men had said he'd seen 'some dude with a green-and-purple head' stalking the site. The Young Avengers had immediately volunteered. If Kang had somehow returned from their lst encounter with him, the would be trouble.

Behind him, Patriot was straining his super-hearing for something he couldn't see. The Vision's sensors were going over everything. Speed was a blur, searching the entire building-site every few seconds.

Teddy walked over to where Stature and Hawkeye. "It's enough to make you feel useless sometimes, isn't it?"

Hawkeye shrugged. "If he's here, we'll find him eventually. What I can't understand is why he'd be here anyway."

Hulkling had been wondering about that himself. "A time-traveling B&E? Laying mines for some future conflict? Who knows what's going to happen on this site, or already has?"

"Or maybe he just thought that a building that hadn't been built yet was the perfect base for a future time-traveler," said Stature.

Hulkling smiled. It was as good an explanation as any he'd heard today.

Suddenly, a bright blue light flashed over the building site, and Speed did something that Teddy had never seen him do.

He tripped. He suddenly stopped running and fell over. His team-mates ran over to help him.

"It is good to see that your skills have not diminished," said someone behind them. Hulkling turned, and stood still in horror as Kang the Conqueror walked calmly towards them. "Much good it will do you. This entire area has been placed under my latest acquisition: the Supressor Ray. When fired, it supresses all superhuman abilities in the target area."

"Then you're in for a shock," said Patriot, but stopped as the Vision fell over, inert.

"In addition, the ray contains a switch, so that the target area can be reduced to a smoking hole in the ground. Protonic bombardment. Quick, but that's about all you can say for it."

Hawkeye pulled an electro-stun arrow out of her quiver and set it on the drawstring. "Turn it off. Now," she said.

Kang smiled. "Miss, please try to understand: I'm not really here," he said, passing his hand through an I-beam a few times. "This is a soft light projection. But yes, I will turn it off. I have... entered a wager, for which I require your services. As a founding member of the Young Avengers, I now ask you to help me. Or, I can activate the weapon. You choose."

Patriot gritted his teeth. He hated Kang deeply in that moment. "What the hell is this wager?" he said.

Kang shrugged. "Nothing you cannot succeed at. My opponent believes he can construct a team to best you. I am attempting to disprove his idea."

There was a pause. Then Kang's hologram pulled out a remote control device. "Do you accept?"

"Yes, damn you," said Patriot.

There was the flash of a teleporter, and all seven teenagers vanished.