And there was a day unlike any other, when Earth's Mightiest Heroes found themselves united against a common threat! On that day, the Avengers were born--to fight the foes no single superhero could withstand...

Avengers

Issue #4
"VENGEANCE"
Part II

by Shawn Goodspeed

Steve Rogers, a scrawny boy, volunteered to take an experimental serum to serve his country during World War II. The risk he took made him the pinnacle of human physical perfection. Wielding an unbreakable shield, Captain America became a living legend, and after being frozen for decades in suspended animation, was awakened by the Avengers. He is the ultimate soldier and an Avenger until the end.
Captain America

Wanda Maximoff posseses a mutant hex ability to control probability fields as well as knowledge of the arcane arts. The daughter of Magneto and twin sister to the X-Men's Quicksilver, Wanda has been a longtime Avenger for years. Now seperated from the Vision, Wanda is currently seeing Wonder Man.
Scarlet Witch

Millionaire industrialist and technical genius Tony Stark built an advanced suit of armor to keep his heart beating after shrapnel nearly took it from him. Free of that problem now, Stark continues to don it to fight for justice as Iron Man. The armor is constantly changing but always has numerous weapons and helpful machines.
Iron Man

A founding member of the Avengers, Hank Pym has the ability to either increase or decrease his size using specialized Pym Particles.
Giant-Man

A reformed criminal and longtime Avenger, Clint Barton posseses no superhuman powers, but his archery skills are unmatched. Armed with a variety of trick arrows, Hawkeye has also served as leader of the West Coast Avengers and the Thunderbolts.
Hawkeye

A former Avenger who apparently died in battle, Simon Williams is a being composed of ionic energy. He possesses incredible strength and flight while in his ionic form. Recently, he was resurrected by the Scarlet Witch and the two are currently pursuing a romantic relationship.
Wonder Man

A founding member of the New Warriors, Vance Astrovik was once known as Marvel Boy. With the mutant ability of telekinesis, it has been his lifelong dream to become an Avenger. Now, after accomplishing that dream, he finds that he may not be cut out for it.
Justice

A founding member of the New Warriors, Angelica Jones has the mutant ability to control microwave blasts. While somewhat reluctant to join the Avengers, she has found that she has a valuable place on the team.
Firestar

Giant-Man stood there, staring at the hole in the wall. He finally decided he should tell the others. Just as he rushed out of the lab, Justice approached him.

"Come quick! Wonder Man is saying something about a traitor."

Justice flew to Wonder Man's room, where Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye were listening to Wonder Man. Giant-Man rushed into his room; Captain America soon followed.

"...Ultron...Avengers..." Wonder Man said, with heavy breaths.

"Come on Simon, get it out, please," Wanda begged.

"Before he said something about a betrayal, but we can't get anything more out of him," Hawkeye informed Cap and Giant-Man.

"NO! TRAITOR! AVENGERS! ULTRON!" Wonder Man yelled as his body jolted.

They all hung their heads, knowing what Wonder Man meant, but nobody could bring themselves to say it. Firestar and Iron Man soon rushed in.

"What's going on?" asked Iron Man.

"Wonder Man believes that someone has betrayed us," Captain America said with a sigh.

Scarlet Witch squeezed Wonder Man's hand, trying to get him to snap out of it. Wonder Man shook his head.

"Someone...screwed me up," Wonder Man began, but couldn't finish.

Wonder Man closed his eyes in pain. He fought the pain to be able to finish.

"Hank...Ultron is...in one of your old labs...go get him and bring Vision back...!"

Giant-Man's mind raced. He had to think of possible labs. Finally, one came to mind. He wasn't too sure about it, but he could think of no better place. He suggested that he would fly the others there. Captain America agreed.

"If you don't mind, I am going to stay here with Simon," Scarlet Witch said.

Captain America agreed and ran out to the Quinjet. Giant-Man and the others followed. Hawkeye and Justice began to voice their suspicions to each other.

"Who do you think could be the...the traitor?" Justice asked.

"I don't know, but maybe if I think like Cap...I'm sure he has it ruled down to a few of us. We all pretty much know it can't be him. I figure Wonder Man and Scarlet Witch would be ruled out too. The state that Ultron left Vision in pretty much leaves him..."

"That means Cap's gonna suspect you, Firestar, me, or Doctor Pym?"

"Makes sense kid. I would normally say that Pym's out of it, but he has broken down in the past because of Ultron and he did come a little too late for battle. But rest easy kid, seeing as how you and Firestar just joined, you wouldn't know exactly how to screw with Iron Man or Wonder Man. Cap's probably focusing on me, but I'm sure Pym's not too far behind me in the suspicion race."

"Well I don't think you are the traitor type, and I definitely know it's not me or Firestar."

"Yeah, I definitely know it ain't me...."


About half an hour later, they arrived at an abandoned building.

"This would be the most logical place to check. Ultron was built here and it's hidden pretty good," Giant-Man said.

The Avengers jumped out and rushed into the building. They found nothing but rats and bugs. Giant-Man thought for a second, then rushed to a room on the first floor. The others followed. He scuffled around a bookshelf and finally, found what he was looking for. As he pulled out the hidden lever, a part of the floor behind him opened up. Giant-Man hopped down and the others followed cautiously.
They landed in a large, cold room, filled with machines. Before they could have time to think, ten robots flew out from two doors on the opposite side of the room. Hawkeye quickly took two out with his arrows. Captain America threw his shield through two more. Giant-Man smashed another one against the wall, causing it to explode, while Iron Man and Firestar took care of the rest. Justice felt useless once again.
Ten more robots flew out and the Avengers went with the same defense. While the five of them were taking care of the robots, Justice was tackled from behind. Justice fell and turned to see...THE VISION! Justice quickly put up a telekinetic shield around himself, not knowing what else to do. Vision just hovered above him, not saying a word. The robots were quickly defeated and the Avengers turned to see The Vision floating there.

"WHAT?! I'm gonna..." Hawkeye began.

"That's enough Hawkeye," interrupted Cap, "Vision...why?"

"It is none of your concern! My quarrel is not with you. I had thought the others would come, but they have not, therefore, I shall leave you! "

Vision phased through the floor.

"Well, let's see. Vision betrayed the Avengers, but doesn't want to hurt the six of us. That leaves Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, and Jarvis. Anyone wanna put money down on..." Hawkeye began.

"That's enough Hawkeye," Captain America interrupted, "We get the point. If Vision won't attack us, then we only have to concern ourselves with Ultron. Simon and Wanda should be able to hold off Vision."

"If this guy interrupts me one more time..." Hawkeye began, to Justice.

Suddenly Ultron busted through the floor, keeping Vision in front of him. He hovered there for a moment.

"He won't attack you, but will you attack him? Your only way to me is through him. And if you don't make it to me, I will press one little button and this whole place goes boom. Guess which two of us will be most likely to survive?"

"Are you a fool Vision? If you're not careful, you'll go along with us," Iron Man yelled.

"I say screw him! He chose to harm another Avenger. And last time I checked, Avengers stuck together. Or has something changed? Plus, he just interrupted..." Hawkeye said, being interrupted once more.

"Avengers do stick together. Which is why we cannot hit Vision. He is still an Avenger," Captain America reasoned.

"5...4..." Ultron began counting down.

Hawkeye aimed his bow at Vision.

"With one shot, I'll take 'em both out! And I don't care what you say Cap, he isn't an Avenger in my eyes!"

The others remained still, not having a clue of what to do. They knew Vision betrayed them, but their leader's telling them not to hurt Vision. Captain America glared at Hawkeye, not knowing if he should stop him or not. Before Hawkeye could release his arrow, Ultron fell to the ground. Vision stood over him, looking down at him. Hawkeye shot at Vision anyway. Vision just phased through the attack.

"I...failed," Vision began, "my mission was to fool Ultron into thinking I was his ally. That part worked, but I also planned on not losing the Avengers' trust in me. Obviously, that did not."

Vision began to float away. Giant-Man and Iron Man rushed to Ultron, checking on him, to make sure he was going to stay down.

"Wait. Vision, we still trust you. You did just saved our lives," Captain America said.

Vision kept going, not looking back.

"I say good riddance," Hawkeye said.

"If you didn't shoot off your mouth and listened to me for a change, this could have been prevented," Captain America reprimanded Hawkeye.

"Ah...Cap? Don't jump on Hawkeye yet. Vision may not have saved us," Iron Man said.

"Iron Man was right. This isn't the real Ultron. I made him better than this piece of junk," Giant-Man said.

Giant-Man kicked the body and it fell over, a few parts falling off.

"He's not even made out of anything that could be passed as adamantium. My original readings must have been screwed up. This isn't even close to titanium. This stupid thing was just spray painted to look like it was made out of adamantium. Plus, it looks like it short-circuited," Iron Man said.

"Wouldn't that mean the there is another Ultron. The one we fought was better than this. Wasn't it?" Justice reasoned.

"Makes sense, but maybe Vision didn't know this wasn't the real Ultron," Firestar suggested.

"Vision isn't dumb. Ultron was grabbing him. He would have had to have known it wasn't adamantium..." Giant-Man replied.

"I don't know, but it's over now. So lets go check on Simon and Wanda," Captain America said.

Giant-Man showed the others the way out and the Avengers headed off back home. When they got there, Wonder Man was sitting in a chair, talking with Scarlet Witch.

"How'd it go? We were going to join you, but you wouldn't respond and we didn't know where to find you," Wanda said.

"The lab was made to cut off communications. I forgot about that. I should have told you where we were going before we left," replied Giant-Man.

"That's okay, but where's Vision? Oh...he...he wasn't the...." Simon couldn't get the last word out.

"He's gone. But we don't know if he truly betrayed us," Captain America replied, holding on to his hope.

"Speak for yourself. If he was just pretending then he should have told us about the fake Ultron," Hawkeye said.

Captain America explained the story to Wonder Man and Scarlet Witch.

"He was mad at us? But why?" Scarlet Witch questioned.

"He didn't say," Iron Man replied.

"I'm really tired and worn out. I need some rest. You coming Vance?" Firestar asked as she headed out of the room.

Justice followed. They walked to their bedroom as the others continued to talk.

"I wish he would have just said something. We could have talked it all out," Wonder Man said.

"Well I say..." Hawkeye began.

"Maybe we should get some rest too Hawkeye," Iron Man interrupted.

"Sure. Another one trying to shut me up. Whatever. Fine, but shell head, you do mean in separate beds right? Cause I know I don't swing that way, but sometimes ... ah, forget it. I'm going to bed."

Hawkeye began to rush off to his room, but was stopped by Giant-Man just outside the kitchen. Captain America, Wonder Man, and Scarlet Witch continued to talk in the kitchen. Iron Man took off.

"Clint, I know we may have had our differences in the past, but we are friends right?" Giant-Man asked.

"Of course. Why?"

"I heard you and Justice talking when we were on our way to battle Ultron. You actually suspected me of being a traitor..."

"Oh, I didn't truly want to believe it, but I narrowed it down to you. I guess I mistook Vision's condition. Sorry man...."

"I understand, but we need trust in this team. Without it, we'll fall apart."

Giant-Man walked back to the kitchen and Hawkeye went off to bed.


Next Issue: Five old friends return, but only one on good terms...DON'T MISS IT!
(Oh, and if you want to know more on the Vision/Ultron situation or on what caused Wonder Man to go crazy, wait a few months. All the loose ends will be tied in one spectacular issue!)