This comic includes three short stories: "Patriot", "HYDRA Bob", and "Sanctuary".
Patriot
Rayshaun Lucas, the boy who brought Rick Jones' information to the Underground's base and has subsequently remained there, notes that HYDRA took advantage of divisions between the heroes to take over the world and much of the world is more or less okay with that. But even though the Underground base hasn't been found by HYDRA yet, Lucas still can't sleep. He doesn't want to take medications and also feels ashamed of this, since many people who have lost more than him are nonetheless able to sleep fine, as are the heroes. He wonders if the heroes have just acclimated themselves to tragedies over the course of their work, but then decides he can't know for himself since he isn't a hero. Heroes, he thinks, fight to save the world no matter what their personal problems are; Lucas is struggling just to stay sane.
Lucas walks through the base and talks to Simon "Wonder Man" Williams, who asks him to finish fixing his Walkman. Lucas agrees and then goes to the cafeteria to serve food to the refugees who found shelter in the Underground's base. A couple of muscular thugs push their way through the line to steal a little girl's iPad, and Lucas notes that some people don't wrestle with concern over being heroic or not but just try to benefit themselves. He jumps over the counter, noting that his mother taught him not to associate with bullies like this but he wasn't good at listening, and then demands the thugs return the iPad. Unfortunately, they beat him up and leave with it once he's been punched to the ground.
Clint "Hawkeye" Barton comes over to ask if Lucas is fine. Lucas says he is, bitterly griping to himself that Barton saw him get humiliated and wishing he was strong enough to do something about HYDRA. Barton sends him to the lab that the Tony Stark AI is using, and Lucas goes there, only to be confronted by the Stark AI. The AI is holding one of Lucas's notebooks which has sketches of a superhero suit; Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff found it in his things. Embarrassed, Lucas tries to change the subject by noting how the Stark AI looks cleaner now, and the AI says he'll be leaving on a mission soon before saying he won't let the subject be changed. Lucas thinks to himself that Stark is an expert hustler and won't let himself be confused, and so admits that he wants to be a hero because he wants to be able to fight evil like the other superheroes do.
To Lucas' surprise, the Stark AI says he supports this and gives Lucas a new Patriot suit. Lucas is stunned and asks why, so the Stark AI explains that this is a 'thank you' for delivering Jones' information and helping him to break out of his depressed funk. He also programmed a holographic Romanoff to provide him with physical training. Lucas is at first dismayed by the thought of physical training, but the Stark AI presses him and he gives in.
A few minutes later, Lucas enters the cafeteria wearing his armor. He approaches the thugs from earlier and demands the iPad back, calling himself 'the Patriot' when asked his name. The thugs attack him, but Llucas leaps around their attacks and uses the blasters in his shield to knock them back. He quickly defeats the thugs and recovers the iPad for the little girl who owned it, and she thanks him. Lucas thinks that, even if he's still a very junior hero, he's happy to be able to do his part to fight evil. He also wishes his mother could see him once he gets really good at being a superhero.
That night, Lucas messages Miles "Spider Man" Morales and Joaquin "Falcon" Torres on the girl's iPad to tell them what happened. They already know thanks to the Stark AI and encourage him to get into action soon. When the call ends, Lucas returns the iPad and then goes to bed, thinking that at last he feels like sleeping.
HYDRA Bob
A rogue Inhuman throws a fit in a Cleveland grocery store, using her sonic emissions to wreck the place after being unable to find her favorite cereal. A few HYDRA agents are dispatched to bring her in, including Bob Dobalina. Bob and another agent named Johann go up to the roof of the apartment building where the grocery store is, while a few more agents go in through the front door. Johann is nervous about his chances with the incompetent Bob watching his back, but he and Bob manage to climb up to the roof on ropes without incident. While waiting for the ground team to get into position, the Inhuman uses her sonic emissions to blast through the whole building, sending Bob flying off the edge.
Bob's rope catches him and he stops falling exactly at the level of the Inhuman, who is now standing on a pile of rubble and bodies of other HYDRA agents. She introduces herself as Tirade and says she's going to kill him while Bob muses about his terrible luck with women. She then blasts him and he swings away on the rope, but then swings back and smashes into her, knocking her out and resulting in a win for Bob.
Sanctuary (Part 2)
Namor McKenzie sits on his throne and asks a guard how the new prisoners, Jim "Inhuman Torch" Hammond and Thomas "Toro" Raymond, are doing. The guard tells him they're doing as expected, and Namor notes that they're likely putting up a false front. In their cells, Hammond gripes about his confinement and Raymond tries to convince him that they ate worse in World War II when they both fought as members of the Invaders, but Hammond cuts him off by saying he's heard the story before. Raymond muses that he misses the 'good old days' of World War II.
Namor's guard says that the prisoners are suffering from isolation. Namor just notes that they wanted sanctuary and now have it, and adds that such will be the fate of anyone else who shows up at his city asking for Atlantis to get involved in the war against HYDRA. He yells that people keep forcing him to do bad things and then calling him evil, and declares that he's only a villain because he's been molded into one by the surfacers. At that moment, a huge explosion reverberates through the complex.
Hammond and Raymond feel the blast and decide to take advantage of the opportunity so they can flee. Meanwhile, Namor announces that he wants to go into battle with the attackers, even as his guards tell him it could be people trying to assassinate him. Hammond and Raymond blast through the ceiling of their cell and escape even as Namor, in another part of the complex, gets onto a balcony and looks down at the attackers.
Hammond and Raymond find themselves forced to swim upwards through a narrow channel, with Raymond expositing that he'd been weakening the ceiling with his fire powers for a while just so it was weak enough to crack when they had a chance to escape. He also wonders where the guards are, at which point eel-like monsters with needle-like teeth attack them. There are so many that they can't all be fought, and Hammond says they need to just swim for it. The two race to a grate at the top, and though Hammond is bitten by one such monster, someone appears on the other side to remove the grate and help them through.
Namor reaches the fray and finds a fleeing assassin. He personally uses his trident to pin the attacker's leg, then demands to know what the attacker was thinking since the single explosion didn't seem to accomplish anything. The attacker boasts that he succeeded, and Namor realizes it was just an attempt to distract him, which it did.
Hammond and Raymond are greeted by more citizens of Atlantis and say they were sent to find them. Hammond says they're not going back to their cells, and freaks out when one of the 'rescuers' calls for his 'majesty.' Before he can do anything rash, though, someone behind Hammond and Raymond says that she (the speaker) fought by their sides many years ago. Hammond and Raymond turn to see Aquaria "Namora" Neptunia, Namor's sister. As they look at her, Hammond displaying obvious surprise, she welcomes them to the fight.
Tropes:
- Black Comedy: 'HYDRA Bob' is a wacky, slapstick filled story... which ends with an Inhuman being knocked out so she can be taken to a HYDRA internment camp, where she'll be at risk of medical experimentation and other monstrous cruelties.
- Jumped at the Call: Rayshaun Lucas is very excited to have the chance to be a real superhero.
