Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The Young Avengers are holding a New Year's Eve party for all the young heroes who helped them in the last few issues by fighting all their evil alternates.
Kate Bishop is getting ready for the do. The young rich girl is wearing a very expensive dress, evening gloves and a domino mask, all in the signature Hawkeye-purple. And her earrings are a 21st birthday present from her dad who got maudlin drunk and unloaded family problems on her. She tells America Chavez to stop calling her a 'princess' but the other girl tells her she sympathizes. And then opens a portal to take them to the club.
The party's in full swing. Teddy Altman (Hulkling) is trying to persuade Billy Kaplan (Wiccan) that the fruit punch doesn't contain alcohol, but Billy is sure most of the dancers are a bit drunk. But he goes to refill their glasses anyway. David Alleyne (Prodigy) corners him at the bowl to apologise for kissing Teddy (#8). They both agree that he's very attractive but David guesses that if he does it again Wiccan might blast him out of existence. Then he runs off to deal with something suspicious.
Then Billy is talking to America. He wonders if he's not good enough and Teddy might be better off with David. She reminds him he's a superhero who's helped save the world. He can't be Captain America, Iron Man or Thor but he's himself and he should own it. Then he finally gets back to Teddy with the drinks. He says he wishes Teddy had confided his fears earlier (about Billy subconsciously using his powers to *make* Teddy love him), but Teddy just leads him onto the dance floor. Billy says he *couldn't* have created a love as good as theirs.
America remembers an end-of-the-world party 10 years ago. She's playing with her friends and pretending to be the Demiurge. They look around and see that the 'holes in everything' are shrinking which means the world isn't going to end. Their Moms won't let it. 2 costumed adult females approach her and tell Princess America that her parents have saved the Utopian Parallel from being sucked into the common multiverse. It will remain apart as the most perfect result of the Demiurge's unbinding of magic. But they have to tell her that her parents won't be returning. America gets very angry and dives through 1 of the last remaining rents to land in New York, Earth-616. And now she knows that Billy Kaplan will grow up to be the Demiurge.
Kate meets Noh-Varr (Marvel Boy) who's taking a break from DJing. (Their relationship broke last issue when he said he preferred his old girlfriend Oubliette to her. And then this Oubliette turned out to be unreal.) He tries to apologise but she won't accept it. She claims that he had the girl of his dreams (her) but he was too self-preoccupied to notice.
Then Tommy Shepherd (Speed) drags her onto the dance floor. She's shocked because he's been missing, feared dead since #6. She tries to get him to explain where he's been and how he got back, but he's too busy having fun to answer. And Kate gives in and removes her mask and joins him for a dance and maybe a kiss.