Middle East nuclear facility. Six weeks ago:
Inside a heavy battle damaged facility, Captain America sits behind a computer. He uses it to report back to base, saying that all ground-to-air defenses have been disabled along with a couple of little surprises the now fallen soldiers had up their sleeves. Fury asks Cap if he still hasn’t had any trouble from the locals. Cap mentions security spotted him fifteen seconds ago, but thinks they’ll need a full half minute to react and cock their weapons.
On that very moment, more soldiers carrying guns appear behind Cap. They are ready to open fire on the legendary hero, however Cap reports to Quicksilver that they’re good to go. A moment later, the soldiers start shooting, though Pietro has already carried Cap out of sight!
Outside the facility, Quicksilver does his best to run away as fast as he can, but suddenly trips over some rocks. Both he and Cap fall down on the ground, and Cap asks Pietro what he’s doing: he’s supposed to get him four miles from the compound. Pietro reports to Fury he can’t take Cap any further, because the guy weighs three hundred and fifty pounds.
Inside SHIELD Helicarrier Hermes:
Fury tells Pietro he can relax: Sat-pics say he’s far enough from ground zero for the bombing to commence. He just needs to head for the camp and lend a hand with the EVAC. A SHIELD soldier operating the computer screen warns Hawkeye he’s clear to go. Hawkeye, wearing a pilot uniform and controlling a helicopter, gives the soldier at the base his thumb up as he Rogers that. He and some other helicopters fire missiles at the smaller factories below them, and all the terrorists run out screaming when their buildings catch on fire. P>
While more missiles are being fired, the Giant Men make sure nothing is left standing of the buildings by stepping on them and crushing them apart. Fury asks Iron Man, Blawk Widow, Captain Britain and all the other Captains, who are flying in the air, to do their part. Tony says they’re on it. Natasha explains that she and Tony will take the North end and the Captains can take the South. Natasha and Tony land on a huge rooftop and tear it open. Once inside, the Captains tear apart the nuclear missile.
Wanda fears she can’t do this. She’s freaking out and just keeps thinking about what happens if she makes a mistake. Iron Man compliments Wanda that she’s the Scarlet Witch. Magneto’s daughter. She just has to show these guys that she doesn’t make mistakes. Wanda starts focusing her powers and folds her hands together. As she opens them, a small pink energy ball appears. Wanda uses her powers to make it larger and larger, until the entire area is surrounded by a pink glow and all the missiles are destroyed!
Nearby, American soldiers led by Captain America free some captured civilians and round them up on their trucks. While they all watch at the smoke coming out of the mountains due to the battle, Cap speeches to the civilians that he wants everybody out of here and onto the trucks. They’ve got food and toilet facilities ten miles up the road, and that the Ultimates are doing this for the people’s protection. A small boy stares in front of him in disbelief. Cap notices the boy and shouts at him to move. The kid does as told and gets on a truck, and the soldiers start driving away.
The Triskelion, today…
While all of the Captains return at the base, they see below them lots of protesting people demanding Thor’s freedom. SHIELD officers have the hardest time holding them off.
Below the headquarters, Tony visits Thor in his cell and asks him if he heard about the protestors. Thor has, and mocks that billions of dollars in security and eight of his disciples still manage to barricade themselves inside the canteen. Thor also thinks this is why the Ultimates are going to lose… The tighter they squeeze, the more the people will slip through their fingers. Tony wants to know when he became one of the bad guys. With a stern look on his face, Thor says it’s around the same time Tony took part in that preemptive strike against a Third World country.
Tony defends it was a Third World country with nuclear weapons. Thor thinks that Tony will find the only nation that’s ever used nuclear weapons against other human beings is the one he pledged an oath of allegiance to. Tony asks Thor to stop being an idiot. These people were targeting neighbors at the same time they were assuring America they didn’t even have a weapons program. He wants to know what Thor would have done in their situation… cross his fingers?
A disappointed Thor thinks they’ve got Tony. All they have to do now is say “nuclear weapons” and Tony Stark just falls into line like the rest of them. He asks Tony if he thinks that’s how they’ll get him to invade all their other countries. What is Tony going to do if they decide China’s a threat a few years down the line? Tony thinks that now, Thor’s being ridiculous. Thor, ashamed, closes his eyes, mentioning he used to think Tony was the smart one.
Tony replies that he didn’t come down here to talk about politics. He just wanted to clear the air after everything that happened in Norway. He thinks Thor’s got to appreciate that these delusions he was having were completely out of control. He was hitting policemen back in Italy. Thor defends that he’s the god of Thunder, Son of Odin and half-brother to the wretched Loki, god of Mischief. Tony interrupts Thor, not wanting to listen to this “nonsense.” Thor further explains he came here to save the world from the war to end all wars and claims they still have time to stop this. Tony tells the guard they’re done there.
A guard opens the door for Tony to walk through but, before he leaves, Thor tells Tony that Fury has to turn back now. These aggressive acts are only confirming the worst fears of his enemies and they’re already taking steps against the Ultimates. Tony waves Thor goodbye and leaves. After that, Thor says that Tony has to tell his boss he has a wolf in his fold. Tony has to tell Fury he has one last chance before the other side retaliates.
Downtown Manhattan
Janet, wearing sunglasses, is sitting in a café with… her ex-husband! Hank, also wearing sunglasses, and a cap sits in front of her. Janet can’t believe she’s having an affair with him. Hank jokes and asks since when lunch constituted as an affair. Janet jokes it happened since she told Steve she was meeting with Betty Ross. Hank thinks that’s Cap’s problem. If he wasn’t so psychopathically possessive, Janet wouldn’t have to lie to him. Janet smiles that Hank’s very brave when Hank’s not around. Hank jokes he’s brave behind everyone’s back.
Hank asks Janet if Cap’s still driving her nuts. She tells Hank he has no idea: if Cap’s not complaining about what she watches on television, he’s complaining about what she’s eating or the clothes she’s going out in. It’s like living with your father. Actually, she corrects, its like living with your grandfather. She can’t remember the last time she just had a good laugh. All they do is hang out with old people. It’s like working in a care home sometimes and she’s worried she’s starting to smell like them. Hank jokes he didn’t like to say that. Janet smiles at him, telling Hank to shut up.
She’s glad they’re at least all having dinner at Hawkeye’s place tonight. Wanda and Pietro might not be great conversationalists, but… Hank interrupts, realizing that at least the twins don’t wet themselves when they sneeze. “Exactly,” Janet responds as she takes off her sunglasses. So, she continues, between this and the fact they haven’t used her on the last two missions, she’s starting to feel a little alienated up there. Betty Ross said she’s scoring really low on all the market research they’ve been doing. She’s even behind these new Giant Men they brought over from the Green Berets.
Hank hates those guys. He asks if Janet saw them on that Sixty Minutes special last week. Janet calls them morons. Anyway, she wants to change the subject. She asks Hank to cheer her up and tell her what’s been happening with him. Hank smiles, “nothing special.” The Defenders turned out to be a complete disaster and this company she’s working for now is just really, really boring. He would rather talk about Janet.
While the two continue to talk, they don’t notice they’re being watched by a shadowed man sitting in a car nearby…
Hawkeye’s place…
While doing the dishes, Laura asks Clint if he thinks there was an atmosphere between Steve and Jan tonight. When Clint wonders aloud what makes Laura say that, she doesn’t know. It’s like every time he said something she was rolling her eyes. She just seemed to be poking fun at Cap all the time. Clint never noticed anything. Laura jokes that, for a guy called “Hawkeye,” Clint doesn’t really notice much. Clint tells his wife she can go to bed and get some sleep. Callum and he got this covered. He mentions that Nicole’s going to be through in a couple of hours, so she might as well grab a catnap while she can.
Laura wants to know why Clint’s making coffee at this time, as he knows it’s only going to keep him awake. Hawkeye explains it’s not for him: it’s for the security guys. They always used to appreciate a little coffee when he was on an all-night shift. He just doesn’t want them thinking he’s some kind of jerk. Laura reminds him they’ve got sweepstakes to see when Clint gets to be their bodyguards. He’s John Wayne to these people.
The doorbell rings. Laura goes to answer it, thinking that must be Wanda back for her purse, which she forgot. The poor girl was so tipsy going out that door she could hardly string the words together for their disappearing spell. Holding Wanda’s red purse ready, Laura opens the door. Suddenly, a red dot appears on her head, and… Laura gets shot! She falls down on the floor, and loses a lot of blood…
Clint calls out to her. Two masked soldiers carrying guns come through the door, reporting to their friends that two more kids are upstairs and that they’ve got to go. More soldiers jump through the kitchen window, freaking Hawkeye out. All of the soldiers start shooting at him! Callum gets scared and rushes to his mother, but gets grabbed by one of the soldiers. The soldiers want to shoot the little boy, but one of them gets hit by a knife in the head! Hawkeye’s still alive and, using the forks, knives and spoons as his weapons, mocks the soldiers they shouldn’t have dropped him in the kitchen.
He throws his “weapons” into the soldiers eyes and necks, killing some of them. Callum tends to his daddy, but Clint warns him this is no time to be a bay. He has to go next door to Fitz and ask him to call the special number he gave him. A moment later, Callum gets shot right in front of Clint’s eyes! The child dies in his arms.
A soldier enters the kitchen, telling Clint to relax: the boy’s with his mother up in heaven now. He asks Hawkeye if this is a big surprise for him. Starting to cry, Hawkeye angrily shouts out he swears he’s going to kill them for this! The soldier places his gun against Hawkeye’s face, telling him that now he’s just being stupid. He pulls the trigger, and spent shells fall out of the gun…
