West Coast Avengers Vol.4 #8

Last issue a 3rd Ultron 'clone', calling himself The Scorched after flying too near the Sun, attacked the 2nd Ultron 'clone', who calls himself The One, in his Los Angeles cathedral. Then he started attacking Ultron2's cyborg cult members.

Now Spider-Woman is trying to rescue Meredith, who was her spy among the cyborgs, but Ultron3 is after them. Meredith has lost her cyborg wings but Jessica Drew leaps out of a window with her and 'calls' her Avengers sky-cycle. Then she phones the rest of the West Coast Avengers for help. Tony Stark suits up to join her. War Machine is on the way back from an (undocumented) mission in Las Vegas. Wonder Man is helping out after the (real-life) Los Angeles Palisades fire. The 1st Ultron 'clone', who joined the WCA, is observing from space after quitting in #6 because he learned the others still didn't trust him, but he's concerned about the current situation. We are reminded that Firestar is undergoing therapy for PTSD and alcoholism after the trauma of the Fall Of X event ...

... and rehabilitating work-release supervillain Blue Bolt is back in prison for the night. Last issue ended with him discovering that his new cellmate was Grant Rogers (Flag-Smasher) who he testified against following the Secret Empire event. We now see Rogers continuing to use his influence with his followers among the prison guards.

But now we return to the main feature as U3 converses with the metal head and spine of U2. U2 maintains his cult-leader philosophy by exhorting U3 to let go of the fear that makes him (and the original Ultron) attack humans. But U3 says he's going to turn U2's flock into his *own* army.

But he's hit by repulsor blasts from War Machine and Iron Man (in the Silver Centurion version of his armour). However U3 grabs WM's left ankle with his chain and that boot jet fails. IM grabs him and softens their fall to the ground. James Rhodes tells Tony the chain put a virus into his armour. They get a message from SW that U3 has transformed the cultists, and at the same time they see a pack of cyber-hounds with slavering human heads stalking them. They attack and the heroes fight back trying unsuccessfully not to kill them.

U3 is showing U2 what's happened to his cult when he's attacked by the Avenger U1 swearing revenge for the cult members. It turns out U3 has come back from the Sun incensed by human-caused climate change and is 1 of those who believe the only solution is to get rid of humanity. He tries the chain/leg trick on U1 but Spider-Woman turns up (without Meredith) on the sky-cycle and shatters the end of the chain with a bio-electric venom blast. And a whistling announces the high-speed arrival of invulnerable Wonder Man who takes U3 crashing through layers of the cathedral, pummelling him all the way down. But U3's chain now feeds Simon Williams' ionic energy body with even more energy than it can contain and  U3 throws him at IM and WM. There's an enormous explosion which brings the building down around them.

Back in the penitentiary Flag-Smasher takes Blue Bolt aside and shows him on a mobile an image of his father's head in a rifle sight, telling him that Scourge (Of The Underworld) will shoot unless Tommy Watt does what he wants. Tommy tries to kill Rogers but his inhibitor collar prevents him, and FS doesn't seem to have the same problem. He gives Watt a USB stick and tells him to plug it into Tony Stark's system.

Watt tries to get the guard on duty to let him phone the Avengers but the guard points to a TV screen showing the team getting beaten by Ultron. He asks to talk to the Warden but gets a refusal. So he goes back to his cell, sticks his foot in the toilet bowl and his fist in a power socket and lets his Killerwatt power blow out the prison's power. He removes his dead inhibitor collar and zaps his way out of the building and into the sky (in his BB costume). But a guard in a tower shoots at him and hits him in the shoulder.