The word “reverie” is repeated throughout the issue, signaling
someone’s memory is being manipulated. Starting…now….
[Reverie] Hawkeye awakens on a rooftop in Budapest, three
bullets in his abdomen and no idea of where he is or how he got there. He is
captured by soldiers who bring him before their boss, arms dealer Andras
Bertesy who questions him. Torture, truth serum, a psychic, and a nasty
octopus-like creature inserted in his nose—all confirm that Hawkeye does not
know where he is or why. Then Black Widow enters, shooting….
Ten hours earlier, Hawkeye and Black Widow met with SHIELD Agent
Phil Coulson who told them that SHIELD was putting together their own version of
the Secret Avengers and he would like them to join. Clint is reluctant. Coulson
mentions that memory implants would play an important part and Natasha rebels.
Coulson mentions an incentive, a mission the two Avengers would like to deal
with themselves, which they will be permitted to if they join the team. They
are reluctant until they hear about the case (redacted from the readers’ view)
and they agree. Then Coulson reveals they have already been injected with the
memory implant nanotech when they shook his hand. Hawkeye is angry but Coulson
is oh-so-reasonable….
Aboard the SHIELD Helicarrier Iliad, Maria Hill
explains to Clint and Natasha that the memory erase program will be activated should
there be any deviation from the plan. Nick Fury Jr. arrives to explain the
mission: arms dealer Andras Bertesy is selling a piece of Darkforce to give a
terrorist group the power to teleport and they are planning a high profile
assassination against an American target….
Hawkeye and Fury are soon on a Budapest rooftop, chasing the
last link in their chain when they capture a terrorist as he jumps through a
portal. Watching from the Iliad, their magic expert Sebastian Druid tells
them the man controls the portal with his hands so Fury breaks some fingers, trapping
him there and forcing him to turn over the coordinates of the target. Fury
shoots the man in the head, eliciting a shocked reaction from Hawkeye; Fury
explains it is a special type of bullet that has a healing factor, reviving the
victim in a few hours. Another enemy shoots Clint three times in the gut and
Fury shoots him down. Fury takes off to save the target while Clint is captured
by the baddies, bringing us back to the beginning. Hawkeye is rescued by Black Widow
and taken to a hospital….
Meanwhile, a terrorist walks through a portal into he Oval
Office but finds Nick Fury in the President’s chair; Fury shoots him….
Later, in the hospital, Hill tells Fury that the unreliable memory
implant systems was being tested on Hawkeye and Black Widow and it was a
success. With the code word “reverie,” Hawkeye will never learn that it was
Nick Fury who shot him, not a terrorist….