There's a few new faces on the monitors at the Avengers' Lodge! Recognize the Red Skull? Sandman? Doctor Octopus? The Big Man? Chondu the Mystic? The Mega-Thinker? Captain America proudly displays them as heroes who have agreed to assemble should the earth have need of its mightiest heroes! Princess Python is excited. Has Mr. Victorious responded yet? She thinks that getting Mr. Victorious would be the ultimate coup. Plus, you know, she really wants to meet him.
***
Kang agrees that Victorious could lend some much-needed raw power to the team, but Egghead's ready to call it a night. He single-handedly created a database to aggregate all the information Captain America wanted, but it was a crash course to do it all in one day. The Captain praises Eggheads efforts, but says that rest will have to wait-- it was the Avengers' own turn to be recruited by another. The screen changes again, and it's now showing the face of ... the Radioactive Man!
***
As far as the Captain can make out, Dr. Lu Chen was tasked by his home country to make a superhero from radiation in the same manner that created the Hulk in America. When he learned the truth about what the government truly wanted to use his experiments for, he leapt into it himself, creating the Radioactive Man! Now, he remains hidden in the heart of China, continuing his experiments and using his powers to protect the people. Is it any wonder why such a powerful person would be a worthy ally? It's a good sign that he is seeking out the Avengers in the first place!
Egghead is concerned-- doesn't Kang think Cap is taking this too personally? He's too driven, and they still don't even know why, exactly? Kang laughs it off. After all, what kind of force for justice could they be without a strong leader? (Princess Python's like, we're a force now? Who knew?) Kang admits that, even with the absolute knowledge that is his due to time mastery, there is a 23.733% chance that Cap will fail in preparing for the threat that he believes is his destiny. Is it any wonder why he's so driven?
***
The Quin-Jump! A five-pointed platform incorporating Kang's technology, teleporting the team with starry FX to the Lanzhou laboratories of the Radioactive Man!
The R-Man wastes no time in getting down to business. (And Egghead thought that CAP was the driven one!) He's found him! Who? There! (See what happens when you're driven? You mistake a *grain of sand* as *interesting!*!)
Strange energy was detected in a backwater town in the Yunnan province, and Dr. Lu traced it to a single grain of dust. The energy signature was unmistakable-- it was the same gamma signature produced by Ricky Jones, the Hulk! There was only one explanation-- the Hulk had become trapped in a micro-dimension that shared access from within the atom space within the grain of sand.
Dr. Lu hadn't expected the Avengers so soon. He'll have to start the procedure to extract the radiation and hopefully pierce the veil, to allow the Hulk to return!
***
Princess Python remarks that this wasn't how she pictured her Avengering life. She thought it would be more glamour and excitement. Kang offers her 'excitement,' but Python just laughs. "Not in a million years. And in your case, time-cop, I mean that literally!"
***
Just at the height of light and sound, as all the machines were poised to burst the atom of a sand-grain, there were furious explosions! No, Egghead. Dr. Lu assures us that it isn't his machines! It came from outside!
The secret labs of Dr. Lu have been found! And the villainous Brothers Mandarin are here! He can either join them, or DIE!
***
The Brothers Mandarin-- Tao-yu Han, Chang, Lin, Sun and Ho! Quintuplets taken from their family and raised by the Chinese government to be their secret agents. When on a mission to the Valley of Spirits, they discovered an alien ship with ten rings of power! That was two for each of them, and the beginning of their own quest, to seek out ultimate weapons for themselves! And now, with the secrets of Dr. Lu at their disposal, they are poised to become the ultimate world power!
Well, except for the Avengers, of course.
Tao-yu Han-- Ice and Fire! He fights Captain America, who admonishes the Brothers that there is more to life than their petty quest for power. They're nothing but distractions! Sche-oo! Blasts of cold! Fwash! Blasts of flame!
Tao-yu Ho! Mind and Matter! He fights Egghead, whose hover-gyros provide a bit of defense from the mental bolts and matter rearranging!
Tao-yu Sun! White and Black! He fights Princess Python and her King Richard! But she's too quick for the zaps of energy and darkforce!
Tao-yu Chang! Sound and Fury! The powers of vortex and impacts, levitating and exploding and keeping Kang on his toes!
Tao-yu Lin! Charge and Release! The Radioactive Man holds back the electrical and disintegration blasts from the last Brother!
But is the battle too much for our heroes? They are forced back, always on the defensive, and totally overwhelmed. Of course, just at the last minute, the machines of Dr. Lu explode with their gamma energies, and the Hulk has returned!! His announcement to the world? .... "whoa."
And then, "Yikes!" when he sees the Radioactive Man. He rushes to protect the Avengers from what he sees as an imposter! Hold it! It's not me! I'm me!
Hulk! shouts Cap, not him! Them! The five identical powerhouses? Whoops. My bad.
With the power of the Hulk behind them, the Avengers turn the tide on the Brothers Mandarin! That is, until the Brothers call upon their OTHER power-- combining their bodies into a giant gestalted -- hulkish!-- body of their own. The power of the combined 5-in-1 with the ten rings brought together is almost overwhelming!
Until Egghead gets the idea to do to the Mandarin what they did to the Hulk, except in reverse. Huh? "I mean, to send the Mandarin to the microworld!"
The Avengers managed to hold back the onslaught of the Mandarin enough for the Radioactive Man to finish the final adjustments and BZHAM!! the Mandarin is gone!
***
With thanks, the Avengers take their leave of Dr. Lu, who is satisfied enough that he could help, even if the Avengers promise to someday return the favor. They, too, are happy for now to have made a new ally.
Happy, yes. Despite the Hulk's laughing remark about the Rad-Man-- that the Avengers "just couldn't help yourselves. You just HAD to have a green guy on your team, huh?"
Cover and text by Danny Wall
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