Avengers, The (1963 series) #377

Quicksilver is waking through Central Park, brooding over his recent injury. He spies a young man being attacked by three punks and dashes into action, knocking them down and carrying the young man to safety. The kid isn’t grateful since the punks would attack him again once Quicksilver is gone. Pietro suggests he go home which only starts him brooding over his own lack of a home. On impulse, he takes a taxi to the Transian District of the Lower East Side, which was an enclave of his countrymen. As he walks the streets, he comes upon another young man being attacked by a trio of punks but this time the kid can fight back, using electrical powers. The flash of light briefly blinds Pietro so he doesn’t see where the kid went. He walks into a bar to ask and discovers the place is full of bigots, wanting to kill the kid themselves and suspicious of Pietro. So he zooms around the room, knocking out the baddies while lecturing them about the Transian immigrants who built the place they are standing in. The baddies follow him down the street but are suddenly driven off by the kid from before with two others, calling themselves the Circle of Pavane. Ampere with electrical powers and Brawler with super strength plow into the punks while the girl, Wanda with specialized vision, takes him to a deserted theater where he is introduced to their father Pavane. Pavane recognizes Pietro, calling him his lifelong enemy, confusing Pietro who doesn’t recognize him. Pavane relates how he went to school with Pietro and Wanda back in Transia; he had a crush on Wanda but Pietro would always tear her away from him, even after Pavane saved her life (having engineered a boat capsizing to put her in danger), Pietro felt she needed to be protected from everyone else. Pavane reveals that his wife was killed a short time ago but they have the three children to carry out the father’s wishes. Ampere burns a hole in the floor so that Pietro falls through and is trapped halfway; Brawler then bends scrap metal to bind Pietro in place. Pavane then informs the hero that he is planning to join his powers to Ampere’s to set the theater on fire, watching it spread to destroy the entire neighborhood. But there is a miscalculation, their lightning bolt strikes the clock tower, causing it to collapse on the building, endangering them all. They free Quicksilver to rescue them; the hero dashes about to extinguish the fire but the ceiling collapses, critically injuring Ampere. Pietro rushes Ampere to the hospital where Pietro lectures Pavane that, despite his efforts to raise his children with his prejudices, they were able to accept Pietro who ponders whether a strain of self-hate runs through all mutants….