Wolverine is pulled from the murky waters by Captain America. Warbird asks if he’s okay and Captain America replies that he’s still alive, but something’s wrong. His healing factor isn’t working for some reason. In fact, his pulse is dropping. A voice from behind startles the two Avengers and they turn to see the Contingency standing before them. Rapture stands, surrounded by her four colleagues, and she laughs, as she orders them to fire at will. They are more than happy to oblige. Cap quickly grabs the deceptively heavy Wolverine and drags him into an access tunnel, taking Warbird with him. He surmises that the woman must be Rapture and the four others the rest of Project: Contingency.
Rapture obviously recognizes Captain America and knows he’s no pushover. Killdeer is eager to ice ‘em, but Rapture orders them to scatter. She tells him that they shouldn’t have announced their presence so early. They’re expecting them now. She orders them to split up and regroup at the agreed rendezvous point and they go their separate ways. Warbird is ready to use her flight speed to follow them but Cap grabs her by the collar and holds her back. He tells her that the Contingency are trained assassins. They can’t just go running after them half-cocked. They have to have a plan. Plus, they have a man down to consider.
“You call this down?” Wolverine says as he rises unsteadily to his feet. He tries to staunch his bleeding stomach with his right arm, the blood seeping through his X-Men jacket, which is riddled with bullet holes. “Just gotta, nng, shove my guts back into place,” he adds, as he grimaces with the pain. Cap says he doesn’t understand. Shouldn’t his mutant healing factor be kicking in by now? Wolverine tells him it should, but it ain’t. Cap wants to get him to a hospital, but Wolverine asks him to back off, before again falling to the ground in agony. Cap helps him to his feet and says that he can be brave some other time. He needs help, and he needs it now.
Logan is stubborn to the last, and replies that there ain’t no time. He presumes Cap knows what the Contingency has, and that the computer chip is too powerful. There’s no telling how many lives they might destroy with it. Cap ponders for a moment and Logan adds that he knows he’s right. Cap doesn’t like risking Wolverine’s health, but knows he has little choice but to acquiesce. Wolverine and the two Avengers head through the sewer tunnel, ankle deep in water. Logan tells Cap that he’s as stubborn as he was when he met him fifty years earlier. Cap reminds him that he did spend most of the intervening time in suspended animation up by the Arctic Circle. “What’s your excuse?” Warbird, walking behind them, smirks at Cap’s deadpan response.
Shortly, they arrive in an open area with several tunnels leading off in different directions. Cap points out that, since Wolverine doesn’t appear to have his animal tracking senses available to him, he proposes they split up. He adds that, although Rapture is their leader, they don’t know which of them has the chip. This makes them all primary targets. He reminds his comrades to be careful. From what he understands, Rapture, in her exoskeleton, could be right behind them and they wouldn’t even know.
Wolverine, still holding his bleeding stomach, heads off down a dry tunnel, moaning to himself about Cap’s patronizing attitude. He knows no one, suit or not, can sneak up on him. As he speaks, a swirling mist behind him materializes into the form of Rapture, who offers a nefarious smile.
(S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters)
Agent Colborn catches up with Sharon Carter and informs her that he’s noticed a huge spike in traffic in the last hour on the classified files. The traffic is for Project: Contingency, and they’re all from authorized S.H.I.E.L.D personnel, but he thought she’d want to know, seeing how they’re heading up the project. Carter replies that she doesn’t care what he has to do; “Lose those files, Colborn. We can’t afford to have any more eyeballs on this one”
Meanwhile, below ground, Warbird manages to catch up with Kite and Condor. She uses her super strength to destroy the ground beneath them, which causes a large piece of concrete to trap Kite. She heads straight for the muscular Condor, who warns her to back off. “Ain’t right to fight a woman!” he says. He fires as she approaches, but his weapon’s blasts simply bounce of Warbird’s skin. “A chivalrous creep. Well, ain’t that sweet,” she replies. As she sends him spinning to the floor with a perfect left hook, she tells him that Forge said they were cheesy. As she concentrates on landing another blow, she is unaware that Kite has managed to free himself. He says it was a big mistake ignoring him. He may look like a big wuss, but he can still pack a punch.
He reaches out and attaches a small glowing device to Carol’s back which sends her ape. Kite and Condor then make their way down one of the tunnels to safety as Warbird convulses violently. Kite reminds Condor that his motor disruptor has a limited charge, and they should hurry.
Elsewhere, Captain America catches up with Killdeer and Shrike. Killdeer carries two weapons in his hands. They appear to be some kind of electrically charged rods and he confidently tells Shrike to stand down. He wants to take full credit for dropping this one. Cap makes his first move, telling Killdeer he’s welcome to try or, if he likes, he’ll make it easy on him. Killdeer’s weapons are deflected by Cap’s shield, which opens the window for Cap to land a telling punch on Killdeer’s chin. He tells his opponent to give him the chip, or tell him who has it. Killdeer says he can go straight to hell. “Fine; the hard way then,” replies Cap as he sweeps Killdeer’s legs from under him.
He isn’t finished yet and he turns to Cap, telling him that the last person to patronize him was his old man. He ain’t around no more, and asks Cap if he’d like to meet him. He stands and uses his weapons to try and electrocute Cap, but Cap’s fighting skills are second to none and he uses his shield to deflect blow after blow. Killdeer taunts Cap, saying he’s a relic. He says that, back when Cap had to fight, there wasn’t nobody knew how. He was Army Special Forces, the best in unarmed combat; best in hand-to-hand. There wasn’t a single soldier who could touch him and he’s ten times the man Cap is. Cap, having avoided every attempt Killdeer has made to catch him, grabs him by the wrist and replies that he does have ten times the mouth! He brings one of Killdeer’s weapons down to meet the other one and the result is a powerful electric shock, which shakes Killdeer to the core. Cap finishes him off by smashing him in the face with his shield.
Shrike, watching passively from nearby, stares at Cap with his goggles glowing green in the dimly lit sewer. Cap tells him that his partner couldn’t stop babbling and asks if he has anything to say. Shrike pulls out a pistol and points it straight at Cap. “No!”
At that moment, Wolverine and Rapture launch into round two. Wolverine swings, but Rapture ducks and asks why he’s even bothering to try and hit her when she can anticipate his every move. “Give up!” she taunts. Still in pain, Logan replies that he won’t until she gives him the chip. Rapture says that his pain-stricken grunt reminds her, “How are those bullet wounds?” She punches him in the stomach, which, instead of causing him great pain, has the opposite effect of getting him real mad. He pops his claws and heads straight for her but, just as she strikes with her fist, he leaps over her acrobatically, twisting in mid air. “But you didn’t think,” Rapture says. Landing neatly behind her, Wolverine swiftly uses his claws to rip the suit apart on her left side, cutting her flesh in the process. He growls at her and asks who says he has to think to fight.
Rapture looks down at the tear in her suit, which begins to glow and spark. The look on her face turns to horror, as she realizes her suit is going to explode. She is thrown against the wall, as the suit leaks energy uncontrollably, and shrieks in agony as her body begins to burn. Her eyes light up as she clutches herself. “You, you did this to me,” she screams as Wolverine looks on, wondering what the heck is happening to her. She says he killed her, but she’s taking him with her and she leaps towards him, as flames envelop her body.
Captain America, meanwhile, takes everything Shrike has to offer in his stride, or, more accurately, on his shield. Killdeer, rubbing the back of his neck, tells Shrike that this plan ain’t working. He pulls out a timing device linked to a small bomb and sets the timer to explode in thirty seconds. He then grabs his partner and tells him to fall back. Cap stands and heads after them but, as he reaches the bomb, it explodes, throwing Cap high into the air. Before he lands, however, Warbird appears and grabs him, asking if he’s okay. He’s a little shaken but fine, although his foes managed to escape him. Same here, replies Carol as she drops him to the ground. She admits that, although there may not be half a mind between them, they sure are slippery suckers. Cap thinks it’s time they stop underestimating them.
As they come to a rest, they both hear a howling sound from another tunnel nearby. Warbird asks if that was Wolverine. Cap replies that he used to hear screams like that all the time, during World War II. “It’s a death cry!”
