(the future)
Logan and Hawkeye have traveled from Sacramento in what used to be called California, to Hammer Falls, the new name for Las Vegas. They have hooked up with Clint’s ex-wife, Tonya, and her robot employee, Ultron Eight.
Clint tells Tonya that he never pegged Ashley as the super hero type, but she replies that this is because he walked away when she was three months old. Ultron Eight is the only father she ever knew. Ultron asks her not to start any trouble, but she continues to have a dig at Clint. She asks what he means anyway. Her grandfather was Spider-Man and her dad was an Avenger. Being a super hero is hardwired into her DNA.
She always struck Clint as an evil badass type. She never seemed especially altruistic. Tonya is amazed they’re even having this conversation. Their daughter is about to be executed by the Kingpin. Is he gonna help her or just allow her to die? Clint assures her that he’s not a complete dirtbag.
“Speak for yourself,” adds Logan. Clint asks what he means. Logan tells him that he was hired as his map reader. He ain’t getting dragged into one of his stupid adventures. Clint asks if he’s kidding him. His daughter’s about to die and he’s arguing about the contract? Logan reminds him that the deal was, he would help him get to New Babylon. He ain’t going up against the Kingpin. It’s bad enough he has him running drugs for him. Clint looks down and tells Logan that he’ll pay double. He needs help to clear his debts, right? He helps him save his daughter and he’ll double his money. Logan remains stubborn, and says he still ain’t fighting.
All Clint wants is for him to read the friggin’ map. Scout’s honor. Logan says fine, so long as he knows the deal. He’d rather die than pop his claws again. Clint reckons he can fight his own battles. They should make a move. The Kingpin lives in Salt Lake City and that’s already a twelve-hour drive away. Ultron Eight hands an X-Men key fob to Logan before he leaves. “For luck, sir,” he says.
(flashback)
The key fob brings back an old memory. Logan recalls kneeling before a moving train, bloody and battered, just before it’s about to hit him.
(present, Cedar City, Utah)
As they drive through the rocky hills, Clint tells Logan that he knows the schedule was tight, but Salt Lake City is still on the way. He swears this won’t take long. He’ll be back in time to pay his landlords. Logan turns to him and says they’re both in this for their kids. They’re only doing what they have to. Clint can’t believe that she’s actually out there calling herself a super hero. It’s insane in this climate. He’s gotta be honest with Logan: he’s proud.
As they approach the town, they discover that only a few buildings are visible. Most are buried up to their rooftops in earth. They find a guy clinging to a church steeple and Logan calls up to him and asks if he’s okay. The guy looks terrified. He tells them that Moloids swallowed the whole town. He climbed to the highest point, but everybody else… they just went under. Clint tells his passenger that there’s nothing they can do there. Ashley needs them more than he does.
(later, Rice-Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City)
The Kingpin makes an announcement to the crowd. He introduces them to Daredevil and the Punisher, two of the super heroes who waltzed into town to save everyone from the Kingpin of Crime - namely himself. What they seemed to forget is that they were going after one of the most evil badasses in all creation. He’s the man who killed Magneto, after all. Do they remember Magneto, he asks, rhetorically. He got the place after the super hero holocaust he engineered with Doctor Doom and the president and all the other bigwigs. However, the man made one stupid mistake. “Bitch got old.”
In the center of the pitch, Daredevil and the Punisher are chained to a large stake. Matt Murdock wants to know what he’s done with Ashley. The Kingpin rises from his throne and asks if he means his skinny ringleader. He has something nasty lined up for her. They get off light. The two heroes turn to see two hungry velociraptors about to pounce. The crowd goes wild as the creatures make short work of their shackled victims. One of the Kingpin’s guards says he can’t believe those punks went after him. The Kingpin says that he likes a little blood-letting every now and then. It reminds everyone who is top dog.
Watching from a nearby rooftop through a pair of binoculars, Logan sees the Kingpin leave the stadium to a rock star’s reception. What’s the matter with these people, he wonders. The guy’s a psychopath. Clint reckons that it just shows how bad things were under Magneto. The Kingpin’s a street fighter; a man of the people. He worked his way up from nothing and folks respect that. Plus, he keeps them entertained.
Logan sees that Ashley is locked up in the customized Wal-Mart across the street. His binoculars come with an infrared capability, and he sees maybe fifty bodies in there. Each one is armed to the teeth. Good thing Clint has a genius plan. Logan asks him to make sure it doesn’t involve him. He’s already told him he won’t be a party to violence. Clint asks ‘powder-puff’ to relax. All he has to do is drive.
(Ashley’s cell)
Two guards stand outside the cell which has a row of vertical laser beams preventing Ashley from escaping. One of the guards tells Ashley that he doesn’t understand why she’s so angry. She should try living for a week in Doom’s quarter. His colleague adds that the Kingpin looks after them. All he asks in return is a little loyalty. The first one reckons it must be in her blood… her dad being Hawkeye, and her grandfather Peter Parker and all. But, what the hell was she thinking? She and her friends were gonna save everyone? Ashley doesn’t respond. It’s like she knows help is on the way.
Meanwhile, Logan drives the Spider-Buggy across the side of an adjacent building. Clint reckons they need to reach two hundred if they’re to make it. Logan asks if this genius plan of his would involve smashing through the walls and killing everybody. “Yep,” replies Hawkeye. Logan says that ain’t genius. Clint replies that it is if it works.
Once up to speed, the buggy takes off and launches itself towards the building where Ashley is being held. Debris is scattered onto the crowd below. The buggy crasher through the wall and Ashley hears the commotion. “That’ll be dad,” she states, calmly.
As soon as the buggy comes to a halt, Clint leaps from the vehicle and swings into action, taking the first guy down with a sword slash to the head. Their voices alert Clint to their position. He takes the second one out with a slash to the stomach and the third receives a fatal blow as Clint’s sword goes right through to the other side. A fourth is decapitated and a fifth is stabbed through the head, despite hiding behind a table.
Clint calls to Ashley and asks where the control panel is. She informs him that it’s thirty-one inches to the left of her voice. Clint grabs his bow and arrows, shoots another guy through the head and puts another arrow into the panel. The laser beams disappear and Ashley emerges from her cell, grabbing a shotgun. The Kingpin barges in and asks what the hell’s going on. Ashley brings the shotgun over her shoulder and replies that he’s just made his first big mistake. The swung shotgun takes his head clean off. Clint asks if that was as messy as it sounded. “Worse,” replies his daughter, as she clonks him on the head.
Clint drops to the ground and he asks her what she’s doing. Ashley tells him that she’ doing what she came here to do - seize control of the Kingpin’s quarter. Clint thought she came here to free everybody. Guards stand by, doing nothing, as Ashley tells her father that she killed the Kingpin like he killed Magneto. Now it’s time to show these boys what their new boss is made of. She raises the shotgun over her head, preparing to bring it down hard on her father, but watching from the next room, still sat in the Spider-Buggy, is Logan. He grabs the steering wheel tight, damning Clint to hell for making him do this.
