New York City
September 22, 06:00 EDT
Kate suddenly awoke from the sound of her alarm and switched it off; she then called back up, still too tired to get out of bed. Her eyes then turned to the bed opposite her, and she began to think back to six years ago.
A little Kate was watching as her older sister, who was, in fact, a younger Domino, began packing her things.
"Please, don't go," Kate begged.
"Sorry, sis, Mom is not getting out of prison any time soon," she said as she continued to pack a bag, "and I refuse to live in this house would just Dad."
"Dad and you and me," Kate pointed out. "We have to keep this family from falling apart."
"Kate, get up!" a voice yelled.
Kate was brought out of her thoughts and set up to see her mother in the doorway.
"I don't want you like for your first day at school," she said.
Kate groaned and fell back into bed.
Regardless, Kate eventually got out of bed and changed into her uniform. She then made it all the way to Tomorrow Academy, the new school, but she felt really uncomfortable in a skirt.
"Kate," said a voice. Kate turned around to see a young girl approaching her. "I'm Julie, your new student liaison. Welcome to Tomorrow Academy."
"Thanks," Kate smiled, feeling very out of place, "I'm Kate, but you knew that."
Julie laughed. "It's your first day at a new school, and we all get butterflies. Now let me show you around."
Avengers Compound
September 22, 18:43 EDT
Peter was in the lab working on some new gadgets when the Sphere rolled up and nuzzled him.
"Sphere certainly liked you, Pete," said Johnny as he and Crystal approached him.
"Can you blame it? Peter was the one who rescued it," said Crystal.
Peter chuckled as he stroked Sphere. "We still don't know what it's capable of."
"Reed has been coming around constantly studying it, and he doesn't even know," said Johnny.
"Well, I can tell you one thing: it's friendly," Crystal smiled.
"To us, not to our enemies," Peter pointed out.
"Which is why you must keep a very close eye upon it," said Vision as he entered the lab. "Speaking from my experience, there is no telling what the Sphere is capable of."
"Don't worry. We'll keep a close eye on it," Peter promised.
"Excellent, and I am also here to inform you that I am heading to Avengers Mansion to take my ship of monitor duty," Vision informed them.
Peter frowned. "I for that you are exempt from monitor duty ever since you became our… den mother?"
"I agree to cover for Hawkeye; he has an interpersonal event with a young lady… a hot date," he said before leaving the lab.
At the same time, Hawkeye was making her way to the zeta tube in New York, disguised as an out-of-order phone booth in an alleyway. She was rather surprised to find Patriot was already there.
"Patriot?" she blinked. "What are you doing here? Don't you live in Detroit?"
"Yeah, but I came to the Big Apple to train with Cap," Patriot explained. "So, how's your first day back at school?"
Hawkeye sighed. "To say I felt out of place would have been an understatement."
Patriot chuckled. "Come on, I bet the guys are waiting."
He then stepped into the phone booth.
"Recognised: Patriot B03…"
Patriot then disappeared, and a beam of light and Hawkeye stepped into the booth next.
"Recognised: Hawkeye B06…"
Hawkeye had just stepped out of the zeta tube and saw the entire place was on fire.
"Down!" Patriot yelled.
Hawkeye somersaulted out of the way just as an energy blast shot out of the smoke and nearly struck her. Patriot then jumped out of the smoke and quickly tossed explosives into the smoke at whatever was attacking.
Hawkeye quickly drew out her bow and began shooting arrows, but she couldn't see what she was aiming at, and Patriot appeared to be having the same problems. She quickly ducked to avoid an energy blast shooting out of the smoke and saw a shadow of a muscular man within it.
"Who are we fighting?" Hawkeye asked.
"Don't know, but we're sitting ducks by these tubes," said Patriot. "Head for the exit!"
They quickly dashed towards the exit, avoiding the energy blast shooting directly at them, but then the ceiling caved in, blocking their path to the exit.
"Or not," said Patriot.
They quickly backtracked and rushed towards the gym.
"Patriot to the team!" Patriot yelled into his comm. "Spider-Man!"
An explosion blew the door off its hinges and knocked them back.
"Patriot to Avengers Mansion! Helicarrier come in!" Patriot yelled as they rushed into the showers. "Communications are being jammed, but at least things can't get any worse."
Suddenly, they heard big, heavy footsteps; something large was approaching them.
"Or not," said Patriot.
Patriot quickly placed an explosive against the wall, which would create enough force to create an opening for them to escape. They found themselves in a then quickly ran down towards the kitchen.
"We need to get lost," said Patriot.
"The air vent!" Hawkeye yelled.
"Good go!" Patriot ordered.
While Hawkeye went to the air vent, he immediately went to the console and appeared to be downloading something into his glove.
Hawkeye removed the vent and looked back at him. "What are you—?"
"Downloading the compounds blueprints," he said.
"And when you get that?" she asked, looking at his glove.
"Spider-Man made it for me, thought it might come in handy in missions," he said. "It uses his special algorithm, and with it, I can hack through pretty much anything and download anything I want."
They then suddenly heard those same heavy footsteps coming down the corridor.
"Go, go!" he hissed.
The two of them quickly climbed up the vent and began calling around what appeared to be a maze.
"Go left," said Patriot, looking for the schematics.
They had just turned left when an energy blast suddenly shot past them.
"That was too close," said Patriot, continuing to crawl through the vents. "Take the next right. There should be a vent cover right in front of you."
Sure enough, there was a vent cover, and Hawkeye quickly removed it. They began sliding down the vent and found themselves in the generator room.
"This way," said Patriot.
They quickly made their way to the exit when suddenly they heard an explosion from the vent, indicating that their pursuant was behind them. They still couldn't see who it was from the smoke from the explosion, but whoever it was was unleashing a massive surge of heat energy.
The two of them quickly jumped down from the walkway and landed next to one of the generators, and they could see that it was overheating.
"That's not good," said Patriot.
They quickly ran as steam began shooting out of the pipes, and then the pursuer began shooting energy blasts at them again.
"I know that another access tunnel is somewhere here somewhere," said Patriot, looking at the schematics.
"You mean this one?" said Hawkeye, opening the access shaft on the floor.
She quickly jumped into the shot, and Patriot followed, but not before placing an explosive next to one of the generators. It exploded when he jumped down from the shaft; they had a good hunch that it didn't take out their pursuer.
"Hold on," said Patriot.
He quickly ripped off an access panel and inserted a USB into one of the ports.
"I'm locking out all the compounds' heat and motion sensors to prevent the enemy from tracking us," he said.
"And I ask again, who is the enemy?" Hawkeye asked.
"Let's find out, downloading cave security footage…" he said, bringing out security footage of the hangar bay, "there!"
He then brought out an image of the rest of the Secret Warriors working on A-Bomb's bike.
"Torque wrench," said A-Bomb.
Torch past the torque wrench.
"So Crystal, do you have any problems juggling schoolwork and our hero work here?" Torch asked.
"It is a bit difficult," Crystal admitted.
Spider-Man chuckled. "Believe me, I had a similar problem when I first started. Sometimes, when I did late-nighters, I was so worn out that I actually slept through class."
"I would pay to see that," Torch laughed.
"You know you don't have to take part in school," said A-Bomb. "I mean, me and Johnny don't."
"No, I may have no memories of my past, but it can't hurt to know about your culture," said Crystal.
"Speaking of school, both Eil and Kate will start school today," said Spider-Man. "I wonder how their first start of the new school year is going?" His eyes then suddenly lit up the tug of a fighting stance. "We've got trouble!"
Then suddenly there was an explosion, which took out the camera.
"What happened?" Hawkeye asked.
"Explosion took out the camera; I'll find another angle," said Patriot.
However, the cameras were destroyed almost seconds later whenever he switched to another angle.
"That's it. All four are dead," said Patriot, who then noticed the horrified look on Hawkeye's face. "The cameras… I meant the cameras. I'm sure the others are okay. Just give me a sec to find the fastest route to the hangar."
"Yeah, they're fine," said Hawkeye, looking a little shaken, "they've all got superpowers. They can handle anything."
Patriot soon found another route, which took them to the library.
"There is a secret passage behind one of these bookcases," said Patriot as they ran down the stairs.
"Seriously?" Hawkeye stared. "Cliche much?"
"This place was designed by Tony Stark, remember," Patriot pointed out.
They began looking through the bookcases when suddenly they heard a noise directly above them. They quickly dashed towards one of the nearest bookcases and hid and could hear footsteps making their way down the stairs.
"Patriot… Hawkeye…" said Vision's voice.
"It's Vision," said Hawkeye relieved.
She instantly jumped out from behind that bookcase but found it was not Vision. It was certainly an android with the same build as Vision, but it was completely covered in silver-like metal and had appeared to be metal tubes attached to its shoulders. It then began to reach out towards her, but Peter Patriot shoved her out of the way.
"That's definitely not Vision," said Patriot as they rolled underneath the table.
The android smashed through the table as they ran to the exit, but the android immediately fired out an energy blast, which destroyed the exit. The two of them quickly jumped onto the bookcases and began jumping around.
"Who is that?" Hawkeye asked.
Patriot quickly jumped down from one of the bookshelves, and Hawkeye began firing some explosive arrows. However, the android blasted it to pieces and began knocking down the bookshelves.
Hawkeye jumped down next to Patriot, who had just found the right book to activate the secret passage. They quickly jumped into the passageway just before the bookshelf landed on them. The bookshelf closed behind them, and the android checked behind the bookcase and discovered they were gone.
"So, did you know that Vision had a sibling?" Hawkeye asked as they ran down the corridor.
"No," said Patriot.
They soon reached a fork in the road, and Patriot was about to turn left. Hawkeye grabbed his hand and pulled him back.
"So now what?" she asked. "Vision is one of the powerhouses of the Avengers; how are we supposed to find a copy of him?"
"They do seem pretty user-unfriendly," Patriot admitted.
Hawkeye narrowed her eyes. "You've been spending too much time with Peter. We—"
"Attention Patriot! Attention, Hawkeye!" said the android over the speakers. "You have exactly 10 minutes to surrender, or the lies with your teammates will be extinguished."
The rest of the Secret Warriors were still in the hangar, and all of them were welded in place by what remained of their bikes. Additionally, Sphere had been slammed against the wall and was currently unable to assist. If that wasn't bad enough, the android had also bused a water main and caused the water to rise up to their necks, which prevented Torch from using his powers. Spider-Man and A-Bomb tried to break free, but there was no leverage.
"Nine minutes and 45 seconds," said the android as he floated above the heroes.
Patriot and Hawkeye quickly made their way to the hangar.
"Eight minutes," said the android.
"We can access the hangar from here," said Patriot.
They then heard the sound of water and saw what appeared to be a massive tidal wave heading straight towards them.
"Or not," said Patriot.
"Will you stop saying that?" Hawkeye snapped, and they quickly ran down the corridor.
They tried to outrun the water but were soon swept up. Patriot quickly grabbed a breather, placed it over his mouth, and looked back at Hawkeye. Hawkeye, unfortunately, lacked a breather in the surge of water, causing a number of arrows to float out of her quiver.
Patriot quickly swam up to her and gave her her breather, but then the android appeared out of nowhere, grabbing her leg and knocking the breather out of her mouth. She began hitting the android's faceplate, but he merely grabbed her hand. Patriot quickly jumped in, plunging one of Hawkeye's arrows into his eye, causing him to release her.
He then quickly grabbed her and swam away, leaving behind a few explosives that exploded in the android's face. They quickly swam to the surface and found themselves in the hangar.
"Look out!" Spider-Man yelled as he felt his Spidey sense tingling.
The android suddenly shot out of the water and fired an energy blast at them. They quickly dived back into the water and soon emerged next to Spider-Man.
"You guys okay?" Patriot asked.
"We've been better," said Spider-Man.
"Yeah, we're peachy," said Torch.
The android began firing another energy blast at them, and they quickly dived back into the water. They swam as quickly as they could back into the air vents, making sure they weren't followed.
"Six minutes," said the android.
"What do we do now?" Hawkeye asked.
"We saved them," said Patriot, "that's how it works."
"Maybe that's how it's supposed to work, but that robot has already taken out our four superpowered friends!" Hawkeye yelled.
"You sound a little distraught," Patriot noted.
"Distraught?!" Hawkeye yelled indignantly. "Our friends are captured, we have no powers, and I'm down to my last arrow! Of course, I'm distraught!"
"Kate, get your head in the game, or else we're dead," said Patriot.
"How can you be so calm?" Hawkeye stared.
"Experience," said Patriot as they crawled their way through the vent, "Cap taught me how to remain calm under pressure."
"What good is that now?" Hawkeye asked. "What chance do we have against an unrelenting machine?"
"Oh, duh!" said Patriot. "They're machines, and one electromagnetic pulse will shut down any machine within range."
"Great, but you better have one handy because I certainly don't have one in my quiver."
"No, but I'm betting we can make one," Patriot smiled and reached for his radio. "What you say Webs doable?"
Patriot had left a small bug on Spider-Man's restraint, which allowed him to talk to him just in case.
"Totally doable," said Spider-Man.
"Five minutes!" said the android.
"You know, if you have more time."
Both Patriot and Hawkeye use the vents to get into the medical lab and began following Spider-Man's instructions.
"We're in the med lab," said Patriot.
"Good, now get to the X-ray machine," Spider-Man instructed. "You will find a small vacuum tube called a vircator. It converts high-energy pulses; you just need to reprogram the microwave conversion from X-rays to EMPs with a cascading energy vector aiming outward."
Patriot followed Spider-Man's instructions and carefully removed the tube. "So it's basically dropping a stone in a pond."
"A stone with ten million pounds wattage, but yes."
"So I'm going to have to look it up to the compound's main generator."
"Which is where exactly?" Hawkeye asked.
Unfortunately, the main generator was out in the open in the hangar bay where the android was currently guarding.
"Four minutes," said the android.
Patriot and Hawkeye exited the vent and landed on a terrace overlooking the generator.
"Okay, make with the distraction," said Patriot.
"Hey! Bolt for brains!" Spider-Man yelled. "What's your name, Uglynator!"
"Yeah, and by the way, worst deathtrap ever!" A-Bomb yelled. "We can escape any time we want."
"Even under all this water, I can still flame up!" Torch yelled.
"And I have control of the elements; I can easily manipulate this water!" said Crystal.
"Cover me," said Patriot as he lowered himself down to the generator.
Hawkeye drew her bow and pulled out the last of her arrows as Patriot landed on the generator.
"And you can't drown a Hulk!" A-Bomb yelled.
"Yeah, and I can easily break out of this restraint you made," said Spider-Man.
Patriot inserted the tube into the generator and used his glove to hack the system. "Revamping power now."
"You might as well surrender now because the Avengers are no doubt on their way at this very moment," said Crystal.
"Along with the Fantastic Four!" Torch added.
"It's not working," said Patriot, noting the androids were still online.
He carefully examined the tube and saw that it wasn't physically connected to the main power generator.
"Circuit is incomplete," he said. "I need something deductible… a piece of metal."
"Patriot lookout!" Hawkeye yelled.
Patriot barely had time to ready his shield as an energy blast hit him with immense force. Hawkeye then quickly fired the last of her arrows, but the android quickly found an energy blast at her, causing her to misfire.
Realising she could do nothing to help Patriot, she quickly ran back to the vent, narrowly avoiding getting roasted by an energy blast. She made her way through the vent and found an opening that allowed her to see what was going on in the hangar.
The android had now picked up Patriot, who appeared to be unconscious, and she suddenly had a panic attack.
"No," she said as he hugged herself and repeated herself. "I surrender. I die with the others, but if I find a way out," She began crawling through the vent, "out of the Compound, I can get help. Call in the Avengers."
She soon found herself sliding down the vent and landed in the evidence room.
"Three minutes," said the android's voice.
"Who am I kidding?" Hawkeye moaned as she picked herself up. "The best I can do is hide and hope the Avengers find me before the android does."
She then looked at Domino's mask. "I know you understand."
She then began thinking back to 6 years ago when her sister had to leave.
"We have to keep this family from falling apart," Kate pleaded.
She thought she had talked some sense into her sister for a brief moment, but instead, she walked off.
"Toothbrush! Duh!" she said, facepalming herself. "I knew I was forgetting something."
She made her way to the bathroom to retrieve her toothbrush and soon returned, placing it in her duffel bag.
"Dad will come after you," said Kate.
"Let him, making top just like a domino," she said.
She then put on her And began making her way towards the door.
"You should get out, too," she advised. "I would let you come with me, but you'll only slow me down."
"Someone has to be here when Mom gets out, said Kate.
"Haven't you learned anything? In this family it's every girl for herself."
She then closed the door behind her, and Kate fell to her knees, knowing that she had just lost her sister.
Back in the present, Hawkeye grabbed the mask and looked straight at it.
"That might have been true about our family, but I found a new family, and here we're all for one and—"
"One minute!" said the android.
Hawkeye put the mask back on the shelf. She didn't have much time and saw her arrow, the same one she used to save Spider-Man from the Adaptoid.
Moments later, she made her way back to the hangar where the android was waiting.
"I surrender, stop the clock," she said.
Hawkeye slowly approached the android, who then held out his hand for her bow. However, she suddenly jumped into the air, kicked the android across the face, and somersaulted backwards. At the exact same time, she somersaulted and fired her arrow straight towards the generator.
The arrow flew across the air and landed between the tube and the generator connecting the circuit. A split second later, the EMP spread out throughout the entire base, switching everything electronic, including the android.
Hawkeye rushed off to the awards at the edge of the landing pad and looked down at the others. "Is everyone all right?"
Spider-Man looked up at her and smiled. "We are thanks to you."
"That was one hell of a shot," said Torch.
"What about Patriot? Is he all right?" Crystal asked.
Hawkeye ran over to Patriot, who was still unconscious on the landing pad. For a brief moment, she felt that he was dead, but then he began to stir.
"He's alive!" she yelled, relieved.
Patriot looked at her and smiled. "Nice work."
Hawkeye and Patriot made their way down to the others in an attempt to free them from the restraints. Sadly, the laser drill that Hawkeye had found was not operational due to the EMP.
"You're sure you're all right, Patriot?" Spider-Man asked.
"A little shaken, but other than that, I'm fine," said Patriot.
Torch looked at Hawkeye impatiently. "Will you stop playing with that thing and cut us free already?"
"It's not working genius," she said. "EMP shut down all machines, remember?"
"All machines present at the time," said Vision as he arrived. "What has occurred?"
"We had a little visit from your family," said Patriot, gesturing to the android lying on the ground.
"Your extremely nasty family," Hawkeye added.
"I was unaware that I had relations," said Vision.
"Where have you been?" A-Bomb asked.
"Monitor duty at the Mansion," he said as he approached the android. "When it became clear the compound communications were down, I attempted to investigate, but your zeta tombs were also non-functional. I had to fly all the way over here."
Sphere eventually managed to free itself and quickly approached Spider-Man.
"Someone is in the to worse for wear," said Crystal.
Suddenly, Hawkeye's laser drill went active.
"The pulse has worn off!" Spider-Man and Patriot gasped.
Vision was kneeling beside the android, and when he reached out with his hand towards him, he saw a small spark of lead electricity. Certainly, the android side began to glow red quickly, followed by Vision's. He suddenly stood up and flew straight towards them, raising his hand through their chests and instantly knocking them out.
"Hawkeye! Hawkeye, can you hear me?" said a voice.
Hawkeye began to regain consciousness and saw Black Panther standing over her.
"She's all right," he said and helped her up.
Hawkeye looked around and saw a few of the Avengers gathered, including their mentors. Iron Man and Ms. Marvel were attempting to free the others.
"What happened here?" Black Panther asked.
"What happened?!" Hawkeye snapped. "The android happened. Vision and his—" She then saw Vision and the android had vanished, "wait, where are they?"
"Gone," said Patriot. "Both of them gone."
Vision was created by Ultron in 2009 in an attempt to destroy the Avengers. However, instead, he was inspired by their heroism, turned on his creator, and joined them not long after.
Vision is an android. As such, his strength surpasses that of a human. He can fire a laser out of the gym in his forehead and can fly. Additionally, he can change the density of his body, making it as hard as the diamond or decreasing it, allowing him to phase through solid objects.