Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Orchis attacked the latest Hellfire Gala (in the 1-shot) and forced most mutants to leave Earth. Captain America asked some of the remaining mutants (Penance (Monet St Croix), Pyslocke (Kwannon) and Rogue) to join with some Avengers (himself and Quicksilver) plus Deadpool in the latest Avengers Unity Squad. Opposing them is the unidentified Captain Krakoa leading a new Mutant Liberation Front (Blob, Fenris (Andrea Von Strucker and Andreas Von Strucker) and Wildside) out to steal a nuclear weapon from a military base. At the end of last issue Captain K broke Captain A's left arm.
Now CK stands over his fallen foe about to kill him. But a bullet strikes his armoured chest. And we see that it is fired from a sniper rifle wielded by Black Widow standing amidst fallen Orchis troops. (Apparently she's been tailing CA since Orchis tried to kill him in FCBD 2023: Avengers/X-Men.) CapA proposes to continue the fight 1-handed, but 1st he sends Pietro Maximoff to deal with more Orchis troops inside the base actually stealing the nuke. Q zooms off but not before giving Andreas Strucker a superspeed slap. Inside he proceeds to take down all the troopers. But 1 of them stops him with a gas bomb (they're all wearing breathing masks of course). And they drive away with the bomb towards their waiting plane.
Outside Blob (who believes they're the good guys working for Cyclops inside the CK suit) faces Monet but tells her he doesn't want to hurt her. But CK does and he charges at her like a bull and sends her flying. He reminds Fred Dukes that she and the others are traitors to the mutant cause, and he orders Wildside to finish her off. The feral mutant leaps on her to obey. However frustrated Blob stamps the ground causing a mini-quake which accidentally(?) separates the 2. Deadpool attacks Captain Krakoa with pistols blazing but the enemy downs him with vines fired from his wrist.
Then the 5 villains are beamed up into the X-Men's Blackbird plane that CK has appropriated. But Black Widow gives chase in an old SHIELD craft. However the combined Andrea & Andreas blast it out of the sky (BW ejects safely). CapA tells DP to track it via satellite. Kwannon has an Orchis trooper pinned and threatens to cut his throat with her swords unless he tells them where CapK has gone to. But the goon swallows a cyanide pill. And a psi-blocker in his head stops Monet from reading his mind before he dies.
The team regroup in their Ellis Island base. Steve Rogers' Super-Soldier Serum is starting to heal his arm but Natasha Romanoff and Wade Wilson sheathe it in an old shell of Winter Soldier's robotic arm. Steve tries throwing his shield with it and it bounces off some objects to return to his hand as intended. But Rogue leads a delegation of the other team members to suggest that Cap step down as leader. The world sees Captain Krakoa as a mutant terrorist, and if he kills an Avenger then it will turn even more people against mutants. But Rogers reminds them that the US sent him to Europe to fight Nazis in WWII, and when he 'died' others were inspired to replace him. He dons civvies and heads off to a meeting with a contact.
When he's gone Wade points out that the mutants have a history of losing fights like the 1st Mutant Massacre and Decimation. And now they want to sideline Captain America, the guy you can always bet on to win. He suggests they think again. But in the meantime he wonders what Orchis want a nuclear weapon for.
Meanwhile in their orbital base The Bloom some of Orchis' top guys (Dr Stasis and MODOK) are wondering the same thing. MODOK reminds the other that they just wound Captain Krakoa up and let him go and now they can't control him. Stasis muses that CK nuking a US city *might* be a good move. Personally he never liked Cincinnati.
In a decommissioned US military base somewhere the MLF are 'tucking in' to some ready meals. CapK wants them all to get a good night's sleep ready for the morning. We skip to Blob snoring while Wildside's earplugs don't help. Andreas is reading while Andrea has a shower. But CK walks into the shower with her and takes off his mask. She immediately recognises him and she melts into his arms as he sheds the rest of his armour. He warns her not to tell anyone of his identity, and then they make love while Andreas fumes outside.
Meanwhile Steve Rogers meets with Ben Urich atop the Daily Bugle building. Ben tells Steve he owes him from the time Cap helped him take down Kingpin (at the end of the Born Again story in Daredevil vol 1 #227-231). Steve tells Ben that the man in the CK suit isn't Cyclops and he's working for Orchis. Ben says he needs proof before he goes into print with the story. But he says he's heard that there were survivors of the human ambassadors supposedly murdered by mutants at the Gala, and that the mutants have 1 of them. Steve leaps off to investigate (looking more like Spider-Man than CapA).
In the last scene of the issue we learn that Orchis has the stolen nuke in their science centre at Empire State University.