In Doom’s Head, Illinois, Logan and Hawkeye are riding in the Spider-Buggy and being chased by a Venom-Tyrannosaurus Rex hybrid. Upon hearing Logan curse, Hawkeye asks him what the hell is going on. Concentrating on the road, Logan exclaims that he doesn’t know. It’s a T-Rex with Venom’s face or somethin’. Does it really friggin’ matter? Hawkeye mentions that he must have bonded with one of the Savage Land dinosaurs. They haven’t got a chance. Logan asks him if he would just shut up an’ start blowin’ holes in him please and activates the double-headed machine-gun in the back of the buggy.
As Hawkeye starts to fire upon the Venom T-Rex, in an undisclosed location, a blonde-haired lady informs her followers that it’s Logan, she’d recognized him anywhere. He’s got Hawkeye with him and they’re both being chased by that alien thing that was always annoying Spider-Man. She then orders them to send Black Bolt. If memory serves, the symbiote was very sensitive to sound.
As Hawkeye continues to fire upon the Venom T-Rex, Logan asks him if he’s knocked it on its ass yet. Hawkeye replies ‘I’m blind, you idiot. You tell me!’ After Logan tells Hawkeye that he’s useless, Logan sees a bald man wearing all black and carrying a cane walk out in front of him. Swerving the buggy, Logan flips it over and crashes. Just then, the man whispers the word ‘stop.’ When he does, the T-Rex is knocked back and, a moment later, lies unmoving, the Venom symbiote shredded and scattered on the desert.
Picking himself up, Logan wonders in amazement what just happened. Hawkeye then asks if somebody would mind telling him what just happened there. After the man in black holds his finger up to his mouth, the three of them are teleported to another location.
The location is known as the Forbidden Quarter. Upon their arrival, a young looking blonde-haired lady walks up to them and greets them. She adds that she hopes they’ll forgive Black Bolt’s lack of explanation but he’s a man of few words she’s afraid. She then introduces herself as Emma Frost and welcomes them to the Forbidden Quarter.
Shocked, Logan asks Emma? Enraged, Hawkeye tells her that they know who she is sweet-cheeks. They just wanna know why she kidnapped them and their six hundred dollar automobile. Emma replies that, first, the Spider-Mobile didn’t cost him, Hawkeye, anything. He won it playing cards with the Mandarin twenty years ago and even then he was cheating with a plant and an earpiece. Secondly, he hasn’t been kidnapped. He’s been rescued and this car he’s so worried about is being repaired by their technicians. She tells him don’t bite the hand that feeds him. They’re his first good news since he started this adventure.
Logan replies that he doesn’t get it, how come she’s still so young. Emma informs him that she’s the most powerful psychic in the world; he sees what she wants him to see. Even this place they’re in isn’t quite as pretty as it looks. While they put on fresh clothes brought to them by Emma’s followers, Logan asks where they are at. Emma tells him the last place on Earth where their once great race can live without the fear of persecution. They’re not the future anymore, didn’t he hear? When Logan asks her what she means, Emma tells him that those theories about them being the next stage in human evolution were simply that she’s afraid – just theories. There are twenty of them now and not a single mutant born in close to forty years. They’re a blip, nothing more than a brief genetic anomaly.
Hawkeye replies boo hoo, maybe they’d feel sorry for her if she hadn’t sold them down the river. Emma asks what he’s talking about and Hawkeye tells her that she knows exactly what he’s talking about. Emma defiantly tells him that she’s a survivor. Marrying her husband saved a lot of lives. Hawkeye tells her not to give him that, she had Black Bolt on her side. Emma responds and they had Loki and Dormammu and Magneto. Should she continue, they simply forged a pact in the interests of their species. Hawkeye replies “whatever.” Emma asks him that it’s still in him, isn’t it? This super-hero thing, deep down he hasn’t changed at all. She then tells him that she knows what’s in the box. Looking in her direction, Hawkeye tells her ‘Well, let’s just hope you can still keep a secret, skank.’
Outside, Emma’s technicians push the Spider-Buggy out of the garage and inform Miss Frost that they fixed it and that it’s operational again. Emma replies excellent and asks them to show their visitors the eastern exit. Turning her attention to Logan, Emma asks him if he ever found that peace he always craved. The life he’s built for himself in California, is he happy with his wife and children? Did he finally find contentment? When Logan replies that she’s the mind-reader, Emma tells him congratulations then. As Hawkeye and Logan drive out of the Forbidden Quarter, the man known as Doctor Doom watches them from a nearby building.
Reaching Osborn County, Ohio, Logan asks Hawkeye what Emma was talking about back there. What is he carrying in the case? Hawkeye simply tells him to mind his own business. Asked if it’s drugs, Hawkeye tells Logan that he said mind his own business. Near Pym Falls, Connecticut, Logan mentions to Hawkeye that they’re only twenty minutes from Pym Falls and asks that’s the entrance to New Babylon. He then mentions that he wonders why they called it Pym Falls. Hawkeye tells him to keep his eyes on the road, he’ll find out soon enough. At that moment, Logan sees what he’s talking about. Henry Pym’s skeleton, in Giant-Man form, lies perpendicularly across the road, creating a tunnel of sorts.
Once the duo reaches New Babylon, Logan is shocked and surprised at what he sees. It is a run-down version of New York City, complete with busy streets, billboards, hookers, winos and even a gigantic statue of the Red Skull holding the Avengers in a clenched fist. Hawkeye tells him it’s New Babylon, where anything can happen. As they continue to drive through the city, Hawkeye asks Logan if he can be frank with him. This trip they just made wasn’t what he thought. That drug-running thing was just a cover story. Reaching their destination, Logan tells him that he better not be ripping him off. If he goes back home without that cash, the Hulk’s gang’s eatin’ his kids for breakfast.
Hawkeye tells him to Logan remarks and an ex-super-villain. Hawkeye asks him if he could shut up. He’ll get his cash, the guys they’re meeting got money to burn. He just wanted to give him a heads-up before they made contact. He thought he’d be glad he wasn’t running drugs this time. When Logan tells him that he is glad, Hawkeye tells him to smile then for @%$’s sake.
Entering a building, Hawkeye asks out loud if anybody’s seen the fat man around there. Standing up, a man wearing a suit and a Hitler-style moustache tells Hawkeye that he’s so pleased to see him. They heard he got killed back in Utah; they thought he’d never make it. Hawkeye tells the man, Tobias, that it was nothing they couldn’t handle. They got blown off course for a couple of days but the merchandise is as safe as houses. As Hawkeye puts the case on the desk, Tobias takes a look at the merchandise. Hawkeye tells him that it’s ninety-nine vials of super-soldier serum for the ninety-nine members of his rebel alliance.
After Logan surprisingly asks “what?,” Hawkeye informs him that Tobias is the front-man for a super-team being put together and his contacts on the west coast are only too pleased to lend a hand. Tobias tells Hawkeye that it’s beautiful. This is all they need. The villains are dead or divided or fat, this is all they need to start the next Avengers team.
Taking a seat, Hawkeye informs Tobias that he’s afraid there’s still some tiny little small-print they haven’t spoken about. Tobias replies not a problem and asks him how much he needs. Hawkeye tells him it’s not money, not for him anyway. All he’s after is a cast-iron assurance. He wants a place on this super-team and a vial of the super-serum. When one of Tobias’ men asks if this is a joke, Hawkeye states that the Red Skull killed his friends. When they’re going down, he wants a piece of them. Now either he counts him in or the deal is off. Tobias asks once an Avenger, always an Avenger, huh? He then tells him that it’s a deal; he’s got his place on the team. Ecstatic, Hawkeye tells him awesome. He has no idea how much this means to him. He feels like he felt when they first made him an Avenger. Just to have someone believe in him like this…
When he sees one of Tobias’ men raise his rifle up, Logan calls out ‘Hawkeye?’ Just then, the man unloads his rifle upon Logan, knocking him to the ground. Hearing the gunfire, Hawkeye asks what the hell and is promptly shot in the chest by Tobias. Standing over him, Tobias tells Hawkeye that the men around him are undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agents – he just walked into a sting. One of the agents informs Hawkeye that there is no super-team, no rebel alliance. Tobias then asks him if he really thought the president wouldn’t know every conversation that goes down in this town.
Clutching his chest, Hawkeye asks him what he wants him to do – beg? Does he think because he’s old and blind he’s gonna give him that satisfaction? With his empty eyes, Hawkeye looks at Tobias and tells him to do his worst. Expressionless, Tobias tells him okay and proceeds to shoot Hawkeye in the head, killing him.
