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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Showtime
At birth, everyone is given a life to lead. Every person can choose to squander this gift and simply do what life tells them to do, or try and forge their own destiny. Those who choose the latter option, however, oftentimes find themselves beaten, battered, and left to the mercy of fate. Alison Blaire, the rock-star mutant known as the Dazzler, and Hank McCoy, the bounding, blue-furred Beast, have both been dashed against destiny’s rocks far too often, but have managed to find comfort in each other’s arms. They just do not know where to go from here.
They sit beneath a gnarled tree on the beach while the waves crash at their feet. Hank tells Alison he needed to see her again after their last fight, but admits to being very confused. Everyone is confused, Alison says; no one knows what they are doing. Hank disagrees. When working in a bio-physics lab, or while saving the world as an X-Man, Avenger, or Defender, he always knew what he was doing. Being with Dazzler has made him feel lost for the first time in his life. She tells him to cheer up; he will find his calling eventually, like how she found the theater.  The comparison upsets Hank; he reminds Alison she was practically kidnapped by the arena! She claims it was her choice, and she chooses play the hand fate dealt her. “Come on, Beast, don’t think so much,” Alison says. “Just live!” She points out the empty beach they have all to themselves, and instructs him to relax and, for once, stop worrying about his duties. Hank agrees to give it a try. They walk down the beach together, arm in arm.
Their enjoyment is cut short when they wander onto a crowded beach. Each person Beast and Dazzler pass stares at them in disgust, and says very nasty, very audible things. “They’re holding hands in public?!” “I can’t believe their kind is even allowed on this beach!” “It’s disgusting!” One man points, laughs, and makes several cruel jokes to his friends. One of the men advises his friend not to provoke the muties; they might kill them if they overhear. Beast loses control of his temper. He moves toward the group and threatens to teach the men some manners, but Dazzler restrains him. “Oops! I didn’t think he could understand English!” one of the men says. Dazzler reminds Hank that it doesn’t matter what people think. He agrees; what matters is their love. They do not need the approval of the public. However, it’s much easier to say this than it is to live it.
As they continue their walk, both of their minds linger on the disgusted looks they receive; neither one of them is having fun anymore. Daz finally breaks the awkwardness by saying she has to get back to the theater, but Hank objects to her returning to a place with such a negative influence on her. She reminds him that at least at Hugo’s theater, mutants are accepted. “And did you forget about the murder during last week’s show?” Hank responds. Dazzler brushes this off. She must return, she says, and leaves. Hank notices her hand beginning to glow out of control as she walks away. Obviously the fear of her powers is why she feels the need to hide herself in the theater; Hank only wishes he knew why her mutant abilities were flaring out of control in the first place.
Later, Alexander Flynn escorts Dazzler to the gladiators’ workout room beneath the arena. The sight of her fellow performers hacking at each other with swords makes Alison uneasy, but Flynn promptly explains she has nothing to fear. Everyone there follows a strict code of conduct, and the show would not operate without their implicit trust of each other. “How do you explain the murder at least week’s show?” Dazzler asks, still having doubts. Flynn assures her the death was an honest mistake; the fighting in the arena is more of an elaborate dance than anything. She agrees to give it a try. Hugo Longride, of all people, interrupts and tells her she Alison she isn’t ready to train with these seasoned warriors. Defying his boss’ orders, Flynn insists she participate.
Alison dives into the melee and immediately begins sparring with her old opponent, Horns. She decides this is her opportunity to prove herself to her new peers, and turns the fight into something of a performance. After topping off a series of somersaults, flips, and roundhouse kicks with a brilliant display of light, Alison once again stands in victory over Horns. The other gladiators stand in awe; she has lived up to her name and truly dazzled them. She can’t help but smile as she basks in their compliments. Hugo, however, has nothing positive to say. Angry about being undermined, he orders his gladiators to get back to work.
 Flynn speaks over his boss and tells everyone to take a break for the day and hit the showers. The fighters listen to Flynn instead of Hugo and leave. Hugo throws a fit. “Hey! I’m the boss, doesn’t anyone listen to me?” he yells as the defiant performers shuffle out of the room. Flynn nonchalantly tosses a hefty barbell at Hugo in response, and he collapses under its weight. Are you sure about being the one in charge? Flynn asks. No one seems to obey your orders. After all, who wants to work for a tyrant? Hugo sneers at his Flynn for this. He will not be made a fool of.
That night, Alison spends some quality time with her new friend Ivich. The two women discuss life in the gladiator pit, and Dazzler finds herself admitting she is starting to like the way of the arena. In a huff of excitement, Rocker bursts into the room to show Ivich his new scar. He lifts his shirt, revealing a long line of fresh stitches. Ivich marvels at it and explains to Dazzler that these scars are their medals, their symbols of strength. She shows Alison a few of her own, adding that they have some disturbing beauty. Quickly changing the subject, Rocker pulls out a new spiked mace for him and Ivich to play with. Ivich enthusiastically picks up the weapon and swings it over her head. She offers Dazzler a chance to try it out, but Dazzler, being new at melee combat, hesitates. Ivich takes her new toy back and begins sparring with Rocker.
As Alison watches them fight, she comments on their contradictory nature. In a way, they’re so nice, but also…so sick, she says to herself. And yet I become more like them everyday. Am I looking at my own future? Dazzler idly toys with her own mutant powers while her friends fight. She creates several beautiful light sculptures. Even this behavior is new to Alison; in the past, she never played with her powers. However, living with such an encouraging group of people has helped her realize the wonder and beauty she has at her disposal. She conjures up some words and images to test her limits, but her heart stops when she glimpses her latest creation: the word “Heartbreak,” and a portrait of Hank McCoy. She sheds a tear and wonders what Hank is doing right now.
Like Dazzler, Hank is brooding. He sits in the Heartbreak Hotel, alone except for the company provided by Dazzler’s mangled teddy bear. He cannot stop thinking about the danger she’s in. Sure, the arena purports to be safe, but Hank refuses to deny the memory of the man murdered in battle last week. Dazzler and the other gladiators are not murderers. They are good people who are simply misguided.
Kate and Mickey enter the room and interrupt Hank’s miserable longing. Practically reading Hank’s mind, Kate tells him to go and take Dazzler out of the arena by force. Hank claims he tried, but Kate says he has not tried hard enough. She asks how he really feels about Alison. “She-she’s the sweetest woman on the face of the Earth,” he says. If that is true, Kate says, he must try again, this time following his heart. These words breathe new life into Hank, and he bounds out of the room in glee to rescue Alison.
Mickey sighs as Beast leaves. The young boy wishes he could pursue his own desires, but whenever he allows himself to feel anything, his poltergeist gets excited. “If I so much as think, the whole world explodes,” he says. “I want to kill that poltergeist.” Kate admonishes his foolishness; he cannot kill the poltergeist, as he is the poltergeist. At some point, he will need to face his powers and emotions, she says. He cannot hide from them forever.
Meanwhile, back at the theater, the fuchsia-skinned rhino-man Horns unwinds after his workout by repeating motivational statements to himself in the mirror. “You’re the best! My man, you’re going places,” he brags. “I got more death notches on my belt than anyone!” Just in time to hear this self-incriminating statement, Rocker and Ivich burst into the room, and lasso Horns with two sets of chain. They drag him to the floor by his neck. He has been violating the code by which all gladiators conduct themselves; if he refuses to follow it, he will be exiled. Horns scoffs, claiming he can make it in the world without the arena, but Flynn interrupts and tells him this is not true. Deformed mutants like Horns have no chance in the real world; his only choice is to behave. If he violates the code tonight, Flynn says, it will no longer apply to him. Flynn crouches down next to Horns and gives the subdued gladiator a menacing glare. “And you know what that means.”
Standing in the doorway, observing this entire exchange, is Alison Blaire. Flynn and his two fighters turn to leave after finishing with Horns. As he passes through the doorway, Flynn apologizes to Dazzler for having to witness this, but adds it is important she understands how things work at the arena. She nods in approval; Horns did kill someone, after all. The rules make sense. Flynn elaborates, adding that while their show is just a sport, it can also be a battle of life and death. “Our code would seem ruthless to civilization, but for us, it means survival. It’s nature’s order of things,” Flynn says. Dazzler says she understands.
Her new understanding of the code, however, does nothing to quell her feelings about Henry McCoy. That night before the show, as she sits in her dressing room, decked out in a glorified Native American costume, all she can think about is Beast. To her surprise, he pushes open the door and enters the room. Why is he here? she asks herself, noting he looks very grim and determined. Hank is having his own reservations, but brushes them aside. He walks right over to Alison and kisses her, gently caressing her chin. He shouts at her as soon as this moment passes, however.
“How can you do this to yourself?” he asks, referring to the knives strapped to her ridiculous outfit. Dazzler once again claims the theater makes her feel alive by giving her the chance to be a star. Besides, the knives are only props. Beast makes a sarcastic remark about last week’s death during the floorshow. Alison claims that particular incident was merely an accident. As she turns back to face her mirror, Hank notices a long scar on the side of her neck, and asks about it. She echoes the words of Ivich and says the scar has its own certain beauty. She must be brainwashed, Beast tells her.
The distraught Alison pulls him close and buries her face in his chest. She has no choice but to stay at the arena; her powers keep leaking out of control, and she cannot risk letting this happen in public! She begs him to stay her with here. People like them have a home there, and are not viewed as beasts. “Remember the beach?” she asks Hank. “I can’t forget. Those mocking voices, those people found us ugly, so we in turn felt ugly. It made us act strange towards each other.” While she stares in Hank’s eyes, he discretely reaches down and grabs a tube of lipstick off of her vanity top. “The world’s lousy attitude towards mutants would drive a wedge between us.”
Hank, without warning, smears the lipstick all over her face. “You’re blind to this stinking place,” he yells. “They condone murder here! Now, so do you! You disgust me! You might as well finish off with some war paint.” Hank steps back so she can glimpse herself in the mirror and see her face striped with lines of red lipstick. Hank tells her she can stay and perform if she wants, but he will not be in the audience.
He leaves Dazzler alone with her tears. As he makes his way out of the warehouse, kicking at the phony sets and decorations, he happens by two armed guards standing in front of a door. Hmm…where there’s guards, there’s something to hide, Hank thinks. Spotting a gap in the wall of the guarded room, Beast leaps overhead and enters the room, completely unnoticed. It’s a laboratory, and Beast quickly finds a beaker of mysterious fluid labeled “Dazzler.” “What have they been pumping into her?” he asks.
Back at Heartbreak, the young albino mutant Poltergeist dwells on Dazzler’s absence. It seems every time he begins to care for someone, they disappear. He tries to divert this line of thinking before his emotions activate the Poltergeist, but he fails. The hanging plants on the porch begin swaying uncontrollably in response to his frustration. What’s the use? he asks himself. Spider-Woman said the Poltergeist is part of my own mind. Kate did, too. He won’t die ‘til the day I do. This train of thought leads the boy to a definitive conclusion: he will unleash his powers on whoever has kidnapped Dazzler! “So what if it kills me – what have I got to lose?” He does not consider his constant state of emotional repression to be “living,” anyway.
Mickey runs into the hotel and announces his plan to Kate and Link. Kate urges him to settle down before he breaks the windows again; his mere presence in the room already rattles an end table and a fancy vase. Link telekinetically stabilizes the table and prevents the vase from breaking, but as usual, Mickey is too busy ranting to Kate to notice. He invites her to come with him, but she declines, as her superhero days are long past. However, Link volunteers to go. Mickey is shocked; he asks Link what kind of powers he has. “You haven’t noticed?” the surprised Link asks, cracking a smile. “Oh, well. You’ll see them soon enough.”
Meanwhile, it is showtime at the coliseum. Dazzler makes quick work of an opponent atop a faux-rock sculpture; with one blow from her tomahawk, the man falls off the structure and hits the ground with an unsettling thud. At first apologetic, the roar of the crowd quickly makes Dazzler forget about the safety of her foe. She lifts her arms into the air and basks in the audience’s cheers. Flynn, observing Dazzler’s performance from off-stage with Hugo, remarks about the callousness of her victory. She seems to be further along than even he thought, he says to himself. Suddenly a guard approaches the two men from behind. He informs them of an intruder in their laboratory. Beast, it seems, has been discovered.
Hank is busy examining a slide of the enigmatic “Dazzler” chemical in the laboratory. He learns this chemical is responsible for Dazzler’s loss of control over her abilities. With the proper regulation of doses, her captors can create the illusion her powers are out of control, then ease off enough so she believes the arena is somehow curing her. Hank, unfortunately, has no chance to share this discovery, as a group of thugs burst in and clubs him over the back of the head. While one of the guards restrains him, Hugo approaches and injects him with a syringe full of the serum. “In a few minutes, he’ll lose all human control, and truly become a beast,” Hugo says with a sinister smile plastered across his face. Hank begins foaming at the mouth as his animalistic side takes over. All his higher brain functions, as well as the secrets of the “Dazzler” beaker, retreat into the deep recesses of his brain.
At the night’s final performance, the audience is treated to a special performance by two of the theater’s newest performers. Pink mist stirs across the floor of the arena, which has been redecorated to resemble a surreal French chateau and its surrounding countryside. “Inspired by the Cocteau classic,” the announcer reads, “…we are proud to present an enchanting tale – an impossible love story.” Dazzler emerges from one end of the floor, dressed in a striking pink gown. “You see…whenever there’s a beauty,” he announces as she enters, “…there is always a beast.” Out of the castle door emerges a feral Hank McCoy, hunched over and snarling at the mouth.
Shocked, Alison asks what he is doing here. Hank responds only with a growl. He lunges at Dazzler, who tries to buy herself some time while she figures out what to do. She creates a light show to entertain the audience while trying to evade Beast’s attacks. He chases her around a prop tree, pounces at her, and takes a swipe with his claws, clipping her dress. “What are you doing? Is this some sort of crazy revenge?” she asks. Hank’s only response is to knock her to the floor. “I don’t know you,” she tells him, “but I know how to tame the beast.”
 As the savage Hank stands over her, Dazzler blasts him in the face with a beam of light and follows it up with a swift kick to his chin. The crowd goes wild as she springs to her feet. Their enthusiastic cheers fuel her power, as well as her lust for attention. They love me…they give me power, she thinks. Her facial expression changes from one of fear to one of grim determination. …And in return, I owe them…a show. Acute beams of light shoot from her fingertips, which she now directs at Beast. Realizing the danger she presents, he dives out of the way, but one of the beams singes his shoulder. Dazzler pursues and knocks him into a rose bush with another high-powered blast, leaving a seared trail of charred flesh across his stomach. A murderous rage contorts her face; at this point, it is no longer clear which of the two is the beauty, and which is the beast.
Hank snaps out of his animalistic rage as Dazzler sears his arm. He hears the crowd’s blood-thirsty chants of “kill the beast!” and he comes to his senses, recognizing his former love standing before him with a murderous look on her face. “Daz!” he says. “Remember our love!” He explains they have both been drugged to lose control and been twisted into cruel caricatures of themselves; Flynn and Hugo made her into a parody of a star, and him, a mockery of a beast.  His words resonate with Alison. Her malicious expression melts into one of shame and sadness. She lowers her hands and extinguishes her deadly light. The crowd still demands death, but Dazzler ignores them. She walks over the Hank, helps him out of the bush, and braces his fall as he slips to the ground.
Enraged, Hugo Longride storms into the arena and berates Dazzler for blowing the big climax. “Are you telling me to kill him?!” she asks, clutching the weakened Beast in her arms. Well, Hugo says, she cannot just tease the crowd and leave them hanging like that! “You can’t force me to kill,” Alison sternly replies. If that is the case, Hugo says, her career is over. He orders the other gladiators to execute both Dazzler and Beast. Wasting not a single moment, Dazzler begins blasting the other gladiators with light rays; as Beast is still weak, it is up to her to defend them both. The audience, meanwhile, watches with complete captivation. This is the greatest show they have ever seen, but they have no idea it’s not a show at all.
Alexander Flynn steps in and orders the fighting to stop. The spotlights center on him as he enters the arena, dressed in a regal outfit with a flowing yellow cloak. Hugo tells his second-in-command to shut up; he is the one in charge, after all, and he plans on giving his audience the death they paid to see. Flynn smirks. There will be a death tonight, he thinks, just not one Hugo was expecting. Flynn turns to his loyal gladiators and issues a mandate: as only one man can be in charge of the arena, the performers must pick one to lead. The other, they must kill. Without any hesitation, they swarm around Hugo and slaughter him. They leave their spears and swords sticking out of his corpse. After they walk away, Hugo’s cigar falls out if his mouth and rolls under Flynn’s boot, who extinguishes it with his heel. Last stinking cigar you’ll ever smoke, fat boy, he says to himself.
The audience cheers for Alexander Flynn, the new host of the arena, while the gladiators swear loyalty to their new leader. The scene is like times long ago, when men would overthrow reigning kings and become kings themselves. The people simply followed who ever claimed to be in charge, without question. At the end of this particular coup, however, there are two who dissent, albeit in secret: Ivich and Max Rocker. Ivich doesn’t like it, she says, and Rocker agrees. However, he proposes they wait and observe Flynn’s next move before they act.
Doctor Doom, from his castle in Latveria, receives news of the gladiator coup almost immediately. His messenger has very few details; all he knows is that their transmissions from Hollywood were suddenly severed. The man who claims to be Doom’s son may be in trouble, he says. Doom slaps him. “Utter no further sacrilege – if you wish to live,” he commands. It seems this problem of his estranged son could escalate beyond a mere annoyance without his direct intervention. He orders his servant to bring up all the files on the mutants Beast and Dazzler, and prepare his ship. He wants to be in Hollywood that very night.
The servant begrudgingly complies. As he rubs his throbbing cheek, he comments that Doom, who claims to care about no man, suddenly seems to care about someone very, very much.


[User]
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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Checkmate
The lifeless body of Hugo Longride, pierced by several spears and knives, lies on the ground of the deserted arena. This shocking tableau fails to surprise Doctor Doom, however; he came to Hollywood expecting to find his secret agent dead. “You were a work of art! No one ever suspected that Hugo Longride was one of my pawns,” Doom says, tearing off the dead agent’s head, “…one of the most sophisticated robots I’ve ever created!” He holds the android’s head in his hand, examining the wires and circuitry which hang below its neck. He will mourn its passing, he says, especially because without it, he can no longer receive updates on the man who claims to be his son.
This business with his alleged son must end, Doom decides, as he intends to be the sole ruler of Latveria. He has no room in his life for an heir. It is my move, Doom says to himself. Yes, it is as simple as a game of chess. It will take but a few strategic moves to topple this empire.
Nearby, in the coliseum’s dungeon, Beast and Dazzler hang by their feet in chain restraints. Hank, his face mere inches from Alison’s, tries to lighten the mood. “I remember when I was a kid, bullies would take cats and tie them on clotheslines like this,” he says to Dazzler. “No matter how well they got along before, they’d scratch at each other until they were both dead.” His anecdote fails to make Alison feel better. It actually does the opposite, and horrifies her. Hank half-heartedly apologizes; as he cannot break their chains, he at least wanted to lighten the mood. Alison assures him she understands, and adds that his ribald humor is one reason she loves him.
Beast asks Dazzler to use her power to illuminate the room. She does, but after seeing the decaying corpses of prisoners past, Beast immediately changes his mind. Dazzler complies. “I don’t mind the dark,” she says, “as long as I get to hang around with you.” Hank laughs at her twisted pun, adding that his sense of humor must be contagious. Humor helps in situations like theirs, he adds. Fate swept them into the hands of manipulators, who turned them both into parodies of themselves: Dazzler into a bleeding “star,” and Beast into a feral, inhuman monster. At least you didn’t succumb to the lure of the theater, Dazzler says. Hank eases her guilt by reminding her that rehashing the past will not help them escape captivity. Sensing an opportune moment, he swings forward and presses his lips against Alison’s.
Suddenly, Alexander Flynn storms in with some Gladiators and teases the two dangling heroes in the middle of their kiss. Alison asks why he acts so cruelly toward her and Hank. Flynn tells them they represent his only failures. He could not get them to join the Gladiators even after drugging, brainwashing, training, and hypnotizing them with his mutant power. Had they succumbed, they would have been among the best, and even become part of a secret army of Flynn’s. The true purpose of the arena emerges: Flynn uses it to filter out the weak and prepare an army compiled of the best possible warriors. “Natural selection, we call it,” Flynn adds.
 Beast objects to this inhumanity, but Flynn tells him to shut up. He does not force anyone to do anything, he says, although he cannot help revealing his mutant power of hypnotic persuasion, a gift passed on to him by his Gypsy mother. “With my charismatic charm I could convince your own mother to kill you,” he tells his prisoners. After Beast dismisses him as a super-powered con-man, Flynn snaps. He proclaims his own genius, which he believes he inherited from his father, Victor von Doom. With the army he has created in the arena, he will conquer Latveria, oust Doctor Doom from the throne, and finally procure his birthright.
Rocker, standing behind Flynn with his arms folded, makes eye contact with Dazzler. The guilt of aiding such a madman erodes his spirit while in her presence, but he does nothing about it. Flynn dons his helmet and exits.
Meanwhile, Link and Poltergeist run down the California coast in their quest to rescue Alison Blaire from the clutches of the arena. Their progress is hindered, however, by Poltergeist’s undisciplined telekinesis. Link has to continually protect them from his friend’s telekinetic blunders. He tells Mickey to keep his emotions under control, revealing to him for the first time that he uses his own telekinesis to counter Mickey’s. Mickey does not see the problem. “So we’re like a team! Like chaos and order,” he says, missing the point completely. Link reminds him they are not actually getting anywhere; if Mickey cannot keep his power under control, they might not reach Dazzler in time. “I’d kill anybody that harmed her,” Mickey says. Link already knows this. It’s what scares him.
Flynn, back in his office, hurls throwing knives at a map of Latveria while ranting about his greatness. He compares his father to men whose accomplishments he believes transcended good and evil: Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Adolf Hitler. “I shall make you proud,” Flynn announces to no one in particular. “Your greatest glory shall be your defeat at the hands of your own son – Alexander von Doom!” Flynn sweeps his arm in a grandiose motion and draws another knife from the rack. Standing behind him, however, and seemingly out of his realm of attention, are Ivich and Rocker. They awkwardly rest their arms at their sides and whisper to one another. Is he still talking to us? Ivich asks. Rocker doesn’t know. Ivich suggests they leave, but Rocker doesn’t want to alert Flynn to their presence with any unexpected movements. It matters not; Flynn soon turns his head and sees them standing there. He shouts for them to leave the room, apparently having forgotten about their presence after all.
As they walk down the hallway, Rocker and Ivich discuss the implications of Flynn’s deteriorating mental state. His hypnotic grip on them has clearly weakened, Rocker says, and now they actually have a choice in how to act. Rocker refuses to continue supporting another Hitler. Ivich, however, hesitates to abandon the glory of the arena. Rocker stamps his hooves in protest. “I guess his charismatic talent works better on the ladies,” he says. Ivich acknowledges that while Flynn has gone crazy, she has gone too far to change her behavior. She does not believe she could stand up to Flynn, she says as she walks away. Rocker, abandoned by only ally, kicks the wall in frustration.
As Rocker storms off, Dr. Doom observes silently from the shadows. The first of Flynn’s pieces have fallen, just as Doom predicted. Flynn will soon learn it takes more than charisma to be a leader of men. The water coursing through your veins is not thick enough to be the blood of a von Doom, Victor says.
Rocker goes straight to the dungeon and releases Beast and Dazzler via remote. Their leg restraints open up and they fall onto their heads, mid-conversation. While they certainly wonder exactly who set them free, they do not take their stroke of luck for granted. Beast pushes open the door, and he and Dazzler, hand-in-hand, run to the arena so they can take the fight to Flynn himself. Meanwhile, Dr. Doom continues to observe these unfolding events from the shadows. With this opening gambit complete, he only has to make a few more tactical moves to shift the balance of power in his favor.
The coliseum is pitch-black when Beast and Dazzler arrive. After taking a few steps into the darkness, the lights flip on and flood the arena, temporarily blinding Beast. Dazzler, thanks to a perk of her mutant ability, can still see. However, she tells Hank he is lucky to be blinded; standing before them are Alexander Flynn and the entire Gladiator army. While surprised by their escape, Flynn refuses to deny his Gladiators an opportunity to practice for the upcoming invasion in Latveria. He orders his minions to kill the escaped prisoners. The Gladiators circle around Dazzler and Beast, who prepare themselves for the fight of their lives.
Meanwhile, outside the entrance to the underground arena, Link telekinetically supports a crumbling brick wall, once again preventing Poltergeist’s raging power from killing them both. He asks Mickey why his powers are so unstable right now, to which Mickey replies he is scared. “You’re a coward, aren’t you?” Link asks. Stuttering, Mickey concurs. “That makes two of us,” Link mutters as he opens the back door, revealing two burly guards. Link makes quick work of them. After telling Poltergeist not to look at what he is about to do, he gestures with his hand, inducing horrifying screams from the two men. They fall to the ground in a crumpled heap. Mickey shudders in revulsion as he walks by the bodies, but Link tells him to keep moving; they must find Dazzler quickly.
Dazzler, however, is doing just fine with Beast’s assistance. She blinds their enemies with beams of light while Beast bounds around the arena, neutralizing the dazzled fighters. Against impossible odds, the heroic duo manages to stave off every one of the Gladiators’ attacks. Synergistic displays of teamwork and skill such as this are the stuff of legends, and as the awe-struck Flynn observes the battle, he can’t help but worry that he may be forced to enter the fray himself.
An armed Gladiator sneaks behind Alison and prepares to decapitate her with his axe. It would be her end, if not for a timely intervention by Rocker. He leaps at the Gladiator and knocks him off his feet. Upon hearing the commotion, Dazzler turns around and sees that Rocker has saved her life. Max announces he is no longer under Flynn’s control. “With odds like these, switching sides is like choosing to die,” Dazzler tells him. However, she and Beast are grateful. Beast looks beyond the differences they have had in the past and tells Rocker he is a good man.
The trio continues to fight off the Gladiators. Dazzler blasts them with rays of light, Rocker thrusts and blocks with his sword and shield, and Beast dives headlong into the fracas. Dazzler soon finds herself standing against her old friend, Ivich. While she cannot bring herself to kill her old friend, Ivich has no such reservations; she raises her blade to strike down the starlet. Rocker tries to convince her to switch sides and fight for their cause, but Ivich refuses. “I chose my side a long time ago – the other side of the tracks,” Ivich says, striking at Rocker. “That’s where I belong!”
Is it, Ivich? Dazzler asks herself. Fighting against your friends – your family?
Up above, in the empty stands, there is one who observes the melee. Dr. Doom, cloaked in shadows, delights over the impending failure of his would-be successor, Alexander Flynn. It takes more than the army of one pretentious peon to overthrow Dr. Doom, he says. As he watches, Link and Poltergeist enter and arena and run toward the battle. “The two final pawns have entered the game,” Doom says. “Checkmate is near.”
Link telekinetically strangles a pair of Gladiators. Using his power this way fills him with guilt, but he refuses to let his friends die. Mickey, meanwhile, finally not having to worry about harming innocent bystanders, unleashes the full, unrestrained totality of his Poltergeist. The floor shakes and cracks beneath the Gladiators, while entire pillars topple and collapse on top of them. Mickey does not even have to consciously use his powers, as they act on their own.
Flynn’s courage erodes as he watches his troops get obliterated by a quintet of misfit mutants. He watches the sudden upheaval of the ground in awe, but fails to connect the quake with its source, Mickey Silk. Nevertheless, he orders his remaining Gladiators to defend him; as their ruler, he must come to no harm. From his observatory position, Flynn sees Beast and Dazzler motion toward Poltergeist, and immediately connects the boy to the source of the awesome power. Flynn dashes toward the young mutant, blasting at Beast and Dazzler with a ray-gun as he runs. He manages to hold them away long enough to grab Mickey by the throat and hold him hostage. Move, and he dies, Flynn tells his enemies. Sweat drips down Mickey’s terrified face as Flynn levels his hand-cannon against the boy’s head. His cowardly tactic produces the desired result; both Beast and Dazzler cease fighting and stare helplessly at their poor friend. Unfortunately for Flynn, he failed to consider the other wild card in the room: Link. After vowing to save his friend, Link mimes with his hands and telekinetically releases Flynn’s grip, lifts him into the air, and closes his windpipe. Flynn chokes for air.
Not wanting Link to lower himself to Flynn’s level, Dazzler and Beast try to convince the young mutant to release his grip. Link subdues his emotions and complies, releasing Flynn moments before he would have died. However, Link collapses from the strain of using his powers for that purpose. Poltergeist, Beast, and Dazzler rush to his side. “Yeah, I’m okay,” Link says, “just hope I never have to use my powers again. Ever.” Dazzler escorts both Link and Poltergeist to the safety, tells them to go home, and returns to deal with Flynn.
Beast stands before Alexander Flynn with his hands balled into fists. Light spills from Dazzler’s clenched knuckles. She tells Flynn to prepare himself, but Flynn refuses, ordering his minions to come to his aid instead. None of them do; Flynn’s decision to take a boy hostage exposed his true character, which they now reject. Flynn decides to go down blazing. He whips out his guns, but before he has time to fire, Beast springs into action. He leaps forward, plants his hands, cartwheels to the side, and then lunges toward Flynn, dismantling the deposed leader’s guns in the process.
 Dazzler follows this gambit with a few well-aimed photon blasts. Flynn begs his former minion Max Rocker for help, but Rocker turns his back on his dethroned leader. “The show is nearly over, Flynn,” Dazzler says, preparing her next attack. Before finishing the battle, she reminds Flynn of what he did to her, how he robbed her of her power, and how he tried to control her. “Well, we’ll see who’s in control now,” Alison says. She knocks him back with a photon pulse. “You built your kingdom on words. We all fell for your charm, but there’s no one left for you to manipulate. Where’s you charisma now, Flynn? Let’s see your words win this battle.” A blinding flash of white light envelopes Flynn, and when it subsides, he lies on the ground in a defeated heap.
“Enough of this prattle,” a bold voice booms, “…and enough of this senseless battle.” Dr. Doom finally steps forward from the shadows and stands over the man who claims to be his son. Everyone in the arena stands at attention before this awesome figure as he addresses Flynn. “So, Flynn, this is the great army you have amassed? These are your faithful legions?” he says, motioning toward the mutinied Gladiators. “It seems you pose a far greater threat to yourself than to the rule of Doctor Doom over Latveria.” Doom grabs Flynn by the cape and hoists him off the ground. “You are not possessed of the indefinable essence that makes a man truly great.” He orders the misbegotten miscreant to concede his claim to the Doom bloodline. He mercifully decides to let him live, however. Killing him would serve no purpose. Doom leaves, releasing Alexander Flynn to the mercy of his once-loyal Gladiators.
Sensing his own opportunity to lead, Rocker leaps onto a crumbled pillar and announces his plans for a new theater. His theater, however, will not promote killing, and it will be entirely voluntary. He asks his friends to join him. While Ivich is the first to join, the rest of the Gladiators soon follow. They jokingly ask Flynn if he wishes to join as well; after all, they will need someone to bring them water and polish their boots! “Nah, let’s just leave him lie in the ruins of his ‘kingdom’,” one Gladiator says. Dazzler and Beast decide to leave. Their work here is done.
In a private room in the Heartbreak Hotel, Hank and Alison finally get some time all to themselves. Hank tells Alison that one day, society will take responsibility for the misfits it creates. Alison agrees, believing as more mutants are discovered, the world should grow more accepting. Hank hopes so. If not, mutants may rebel in the face of oppression. Alison doubts this will happen. “They’ll probably have to start lynching us before we’re pushed far enough to fight back,” she says.
Outside, a different duo embarks on its own journey. Link and Poltergeist decide to head to Wyoming for their next adventure, but Mickey wonders if a coward like himself would make a good cowboy. Link senses his excitement and tells him to calm down; he needs to keep his ornery Poltergeist under control!
Continuing to muse about the state of the world, Hank asks Alison if she wants to face the world as a couple. Alison hesitates. She realizes they will only truly understand themselves if they spend time alone. Essentially, she ends their budding relationship, but Hank understands her reasoning. “Each of us must find the strength to stand alone on this planet,” he says. The world may be against them…but not for long.


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Mission to Nowhere
Time: sometime in the not so distant past. Place: a country road southeast of Nellis AFB, Nevada. A Lotus 7 with Canadian plates speeds up the two-lane blacktop from Las Vegas, having made the turnoff from Route 15. The driver’s name is Logan, and he is on a mission but he doesn’t know what it is yet. That’s fine by him. What isn’t fine by him is getting buzzed by a Phantom jet for no good reason at all.
When the jet buzzes Logan’s car, he yells out to its pilot that fun’s fun, but he just crossed the line. Flying off, the pilot laughs and tells the tower that they shoulda seen the look on that mug’s kisser when he buzzed him. Serves him right for drivin’ a wussy foreign sports car instead of a T-bird or a ‘Vette. The man in the tower informs the pilot to cease and desist the unauthorized aerobatics and enter the downwind leg of the landing pattern. The pilot replies that he had to test the high-g pull-up capacity, didn’t he? Besides, no harm done, the little go-cart is back on the blacktop and tooling around. Following the plane, Logan says you can run bub, but ya sure can’t hide.
As the jet flies dangerously close to the control room, freaking everyone out inside, one of the controllers states it’s that crazy hot-rod Major Grimm, barrel-rolling right by the tower. Over at the main gate of Nellis AFB, Logan crashes through the restricted area. When he does, one of the soldiers blows his whistle and tells him to stop but his pleas fall on dead ears. Noticing that the car isn’t stopping, the guards call a red alert and proceed to give chase.
As the car heads down the runway, Grimm prepares to land his jet. Once the jet completes its landing, Logan pulls his car in front of it. When he gets out of the car, Grimm begins to exit the jet and notices that he is the guy he just buzzed on the highway. No hard feelings, right? Logan tells him he doesn’t carry no grudges, he works out his aggressions on the spot. With that, he punches Grimm in the face.
When they begin to brawl, a bunch of military policeman get involved and try to pull the two combatants apart. As they do, Grimm tells Logan that he doesn’t take any guff from sawed-off runts like him. Logan tells him howsabout callin’ off all his buddies and they’ll get down to a one-on-one throwdown. Before their battle can escalate any further, more MP’s join in and cuff the two of them and take them away.
As Grimm and Logan are tossed in a cell, the MPs tell them they can cool out in the brig until the next millennium for all they care. After Logan replies that it suits him, he’s got time to kill; Grimm says he doesn’t. He’s got places to go, people to see. Just then, he asks Logan doesn’t he know him from somewhere. Logan replies that he smells familiar to him too. Has he ever been up Ottawa way? Grimm replies bingo! He went up there to ferry some black-bag type Canucklehead down to Washington, D.C. That was him, huh? Logan admits that it was and then tells him that he’s now on loan to the U.S. for another mission.
Just then, the leader of the other prisoners comes up behind Logan, calls them lugs, and asks if they have any smarts. There’s a peckin’ order in this joint. They gotta show them old hands some respect. Turning around, Logan asks him he wants respect, bub. He’ll give him respect. With that, Logan punches the knee, taking the large man out. Balling his fist, Grimm tells Logan now he’s done it, it’s clobberin’ time!
After a brief moment later, the cell doors open and a soldier shouts atten-hut and tells the men in the brig to get their toes on the yellow line, Colonel Fury ain’t got all day. As the soldiers line up, Grimm and Logan okay, and the rest doubled over in pain, Fury tells them that they’re a sorry bunch o’ goldbricks, losers, and reprobates. After asking which two of them cluster foul-ups are Logan and Grimm, they step forward. Logan tells Fury “I’m Logan.” Grimm asks him “Logan, what?” Logan replies “just Logan.” Lighting a cigar, Fury remarks that he was tryin’ to tell him to say “sir.” If it was up to him, he’d leave them there to rot but the brass hats in the Pentagon want them two for a suicide mission so who is he to argue with them.
Later, in a briefing room, Fury tells Grimm and Logan to listen up gentleman, and he uses the term loosely, Mr. Tony Stark of Stark Industries will give them the technical background for this mission. Entering the room, Stark tells them that he will be brief and to the point. The Russians are up to something. And what they’re up to is ultra-low frequency radio wave transmitters. They’ve built twenty of these giant things near Vladivostok and they’re all pointing straight at the good ol’ USA, beaming low-freak radio waves at them 24 hours a day.
When Logan asks what ultra-low frequency radio waves do, Stark informs him they don’t have a clue. It’s technology that has been completely ignored in the west. That’s why it’s imperative that they run a spy mission over the site and use the instruments he is going to provide to them to measure the wave output. Grimm proceeds to ask how they are gonna penetrate Russian airspace without getting shot down. After Logan remarks good question, Fury tells them that they have a special aircraft for him to pilot. As far as they know, it’s invisible to radar. There’s only time for the most rudimentary familiarization on the plane as the mission takes off tonight. The main reason Major Grimm has been chosen for this is that he is an experienced test pilot who shouldn’t be too put off by a new craft.
Logan states that explains why the meathead is goin’ but it doesn’t explain why he’s on the mission. Fury tells him that as far as he knows, he’s the wild card. He’ll be given sealed orders to be opened in transit to the site. Even he doesn’t know what’s in the orders. He then tells them that it’s time to get crackin’.
That night, as they begin to make their way towards the hangar, Grimm mentions that the tech crew had him strapped in the simulator all afternoon to familiarize him with the controls and instruments but he sure wishes he had let him take the real thing up for a shakedown. Fury tells him that if they let him fly it in the daylight, it wouldn’t be a secret, would it. Entering the hangar, both Grimm and Logan are in shock at the size of the aircraft before them. Logan proceeds to ask how they’re gonna sneak into Russia into something that big. Stark informs them that it’s a YB-49 Northrop flying wing. It’s got a completely automated and remote-controlled weapons systems. Power is supplied by eight jet engines. The avionics suite is totally state-of-the-art.
Logan remarks that it looks like it’s missin’ some part – where’s the fuselage. Stark replies that it’s a flying wing. Without the vertical surfaces of a fuselage, it has less of a radar profile. Drawing a diagram on a nearby board, Stark explains that radar waves bounce straight back to the source from a slab-side aircraft, giving a strong radar signal. A flying wing deflects the radar waves obliquely, creating a much weaker signal. Looking over at Grimm, Logan asks him if he’s buying this. Grimm replies that he just flies ‘em, he doesn’t analyze ‘em.
As the instruments begin to be loaded onto the aircraft, Grimm says that he does have a question about all the scientific gizmos being loaded on board. How are they gonna operate them, do they even get a manual? Just then, an attractive blonde-haired young lady walks in and tells him he doesn’t have to worry about that at all, that’s her bailiwick. She introduces herself as Carol Danvers and she’s on loan to this mission from the Department of Defense. As Grimm says that he thinks he’s in love, Logan remarks D.O.D., his Canadian butt.
Walking up to her, Logan says to her the puzzle palace is more like it. Didn’t he run into her in Washington along with Fury? Isn’t she from the Defense Intelligence Agency? Putting one of her fingers up to Logan’s lips, Danvers tells him that nobody else needs to know that. With that, the trio enters the aircraft and prepares to take off. As they lift off, Stark asks Fury if it bothers his conscience sometimes when he sends people out on missions like this. Fury informs him not in the least. He took the oath to defend the Constitution and if this is what he has to do, then so be it.
Many hours later, Grimm informs the others that they are at waypoint “C.” Adjusting heading to 273 for last dogleg into target and that should put them within sight of the Russian coast in ten minutes. Danvers states eight minutes, thirty-two seconds to be exact. Grimm states that if they’re gonna get bounced by Migs or lit up by SAM radar, this is where it’ll happen. Logan adds that he’s been checking out their arms locker. They’re sporting quite an arsenal for what’s supposed to be a simple sneak and peek. He asks them why they suppose that is. Danvers tells him why doesn’t he open his orders and find out.
Opening up his orders, Logan looks at his orders with concern. Seeing the look on his face, Grimm asks him if it’s that bad. Logan replies believe him, they don’t want to know. Just then, the RWD (radar warning detector) begins to beep. When it does, Danvers remarks they’re being scanned by a pulse-Doppler consistent with airborne interceptors. Grimm says that he thought they were invisible to radar. Danvers replies that’s theoretical. They don’t know the capabilities of their latest systems. Logan asks what else don’t they know.
In the Russian aircrafts, one of the pilots informs comrade Shostakova that the imperialist adventurist aircraft has just entered the restricted airspace of their beloved Rodina. Shostakova, a red-haired female, says it is exactly where they were warned it would be. She then informs her comrades to maneuver into attack position for heat-seeking missiles and arm all ordnance.
In the American aircraft, Grimm exclaims that the enemy aircrafts are jockeying into their “six” and that they’re looking to get an infrared lock on them and wax their tails. He then tells his teammates to hang on for evasive maneuvers. Logan exclaims that the Russians were on them too easy. Somebody tipped ‘em off, and that somebody is on the plane, and since it ain’t him, then it’s gotta be one o’ them two. Grimm yells that’s nuts. Why would one of them alert the Russkies to shoot them down, that’s suicide. Logan answers not if the purpose of the Mig scramble was to threaten them into a forced landing and that ain’t possible without the compliance o’ the pilot.
Leaving the controls of the aircraft, Grimm punches out Logan and tells him nobody calls him a traitor. Danvers yells at Grimm to stop it, somebody’s got to fly the plane. Grimm tells her then she had best get on the stick.
Taking control of the plane, Danvers responds that she will and while she’s at it, she’s popping chaff and flares to spook their weapons systems. Just then, special agent Natalia Shostakova of the Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopastnosti (KGB) introduces herself and orders the intruder aircraft to diver to heading 185 and land on the east-west strip of the military air base. This is their first and last warning.
In Russian, Danvers replies that she is Colonel Karola Danilovska of the GRU and that she is interfering with a secret military test flight. Shostakova tells her good try but her sibilants and labials are inconsistent with a native speaker and besides, she knew full well that an American spy plane was going to be in this location at this time so if they are not ready to land, she has no choice but to shoot them down. Just then, the Russians shoot heat-seeking missiles at the American aircraft.
Upon learning of the situation, Logan mentions to Grimm that they wouldn’t do that if they knew one of their own was aboard so he guesses he’s not the traitor after all. Grimm replies that he guesses it’s nice to know he thinks better o’ him as they get atomized across the tundra.


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Midnight Train to Moscow
Time: sometime in the not so distant past. Place: inside a Northrop Flying Wing bomber somewhere over Eastern Russia.
Holding up his fist to Ben Grimm, Logan asks the uppity fight jock if he’s had enough. Grimm tells the sawed-off Canucklehead runt ‘not hardly.’ Turning around, the pilot, Carol Danvers, informs them that the Russian stealth fighters on their tail just lit off heat-seeker missiles at them. Upon hearing that, Logan tell Grimm that they’ll settle this later, to which Grimm replies that he can count on it.
Taking action, Grimm takes over command of the aircraft while Logan mans the dorsal gun turret. Grimm adds that he’s popping chaff and flares and warns the others on board to hang on for evasive maneuvers. In one of the pursuing Russian aircraft, the auburn-haired special agent Natalia Shostakova of the KGB gives one last warning to the capitalist adventurist intruder aircraft. She informs them to land at the military airfield below or they will continue their attack and shoot them down.
Aboard the American plane, Grimm states that as General McAuliffe said to the German commander at Batogne: “nuts!” The hydraulic lines are hit and number three engine is on fire. At the same time, Logan notices that none of the gun turrets are loaded and exclaims that they’ve been set up. Danvers asks him what he expected. They’re not at war with the Soviet Union. They didn’t want any Russians to get shot down by accident. Grimm adds that the hydraulic pressure is dropping fast; the controls won’t work without the hydraulics.
At that moment, Logan proceeds to tell Danvers that he wasn’t goin’ to shoot nobody down by accident; he was aimin’ to do it on purpose. He guesses they have no choice now but to bail out. Danvers replies that’s a no-go. All the ejection seats and parachutes have been disabled. If the plane went down, there weren’t supposed to be any survivors for interrogation. Logan quips ‘mighty trustin’ o’ the brass hats, don’tcha think?’
Grimm yells out to his crew that he’s putting the crate down on the nearest clear tarmac. It’s a low cloud cover, so he’s not going to have any visibility until they’re below Angel One (a thousand feet). As they begin their descent and the clouds begin to clear, Grimm asks what the large structure in front of him is. When they clip it, Logan tells him that it was one of the low-frequency transmitters they were sent to spy on. They accomplished that part o’ the mission, now all they gotta do is get home in one piece. Grimm mentions that he’s not expressin’ a lot o’ confidence in his pilotin’ abilities, is he? Logan replies that he thinks he’ll get them down all right, it’s the gettin’ off the runway without gettin’ shot part that worries him. Observing them land, Shostakova states that it’s now up to Colonel Malenky and his Spetsnaz Commandos to take care of them on the ground.
Inside the aircraft, Danvers tells the others that they can’t let the plane full of secret components fall into Russian hands. Pushing a few buttons, she sets the auto-destruct timer. Grabbing the black boxes, Grimm asks what about them; they’re built to withstand explosions. Danvers tells him that she’ll make a run for the woods with them and melt them down with thermite grenades. Arming himself with a number of guns and knives, Logan tells Grimm that it’s time to get strapped for the throw-down and then asks him if he wants one o’ the new experimental armalities.
Outside the aircraft, Shostakova mentions to the man in the armored vehicle, Colonel Malenky, that he’s just in time. Malenky orders her to stay out of this. He’s in command of the ground and the capture of the crypto-fascist adventurist bandits is wholly within his jurisdiction. He then orders his troops to move quickly and surround the landed aircraft. Exiting the aircraft and armed to the teeth, Grimm mentions to Logan that they have to hold ‘em off long enough for Carol to get away with the black boxes. Tossing a grenade at the Russian troops, Logan tells them ‘chew on this punks.’
After one of his vehicles explode, Malenky informs his troops that he wants them alive. He doesn’t care how damaged they are, as long as they can answer the interrogators. Standing back to back with Logan, Grimm points out to him that they are completely surrounded. Logan replies good, that means they’ve got a 360 degree free-fire zone. As she runs off into the woods, Danvers tells them just a few more seconds, she’s almost there.
Just then, Grimm tells Logan that he’s outta ammo. After Logan responds that he’s dry as well, Grimm states that they gave it their best shot. Logan agrees and adds that discretion is the better part o’ valor. The logical thing to do is surrender. Looking over at him, Grimm asks if he thinks… When Logan tells him naah, Grimm says he thought so and yells out it’s clobberin’ time!
As Grimm and Logan begin to beat up the Russian troops, Malenky tells his troops to subdue them and take them alive. He then adds that he wants a detachment to follow the woman into the woods and bring her back. Shostakova tells him not to bother with her. She won’t last five minutes in those woods and his troops would last even less. Glaring at her, Malenky tells her that he told him to leave this to him. Shostakova asks how can she when he’s forgotten all about the bomber. As Shostakova enters the bomber, Malenky gives chase and tells her to stop; she can’t enter it without him. Shostakova informs him that he’s more than welcome to come along as long as he’s well versed in the procedures for disarming a low-yield nuclear self-destruct device. Upon seeing the device, the concern on his face tells the story.
In the woods, Danvers continues to run further and further into the trees. As she does, she says that she can’t let them get the instruments. She has to get deep into the woods before she sets the thermite and… Just then, Danvers stops her thought mid-sentence when she sees a number of blood-thirsty wolves staring directly at her.
Inside the bomber, Malenky asks Shostakova if she is qualified to… Shostakova cuts him off and tells him not to make her lose her concentration. He doesn’t want to be reduced to a glowing patch of tundra, does he? After disarming the device, Shostakova looks at the bomber and remarks that it is a wonderful prize. When Malenky asks her how she acquired the disarming codes to a top secret American bomber, Shostakova informs him that if perhaps his security clearance was higher, she could tell him.
At that moment, Malenky is informed that the prisoners have been subdued and secured. Malenky gives the order to ship them back to Moscow on the next prisoner train from the Gulag. Calling the Turyatem research center, Shostakova tells them to be prepared to receive a captured American aircraft as soon as her tech crews can repair it.
In the woods, a starving wolf comes rushing towards Danvers. Before it reaches her, Danvers is able to smack it with her bag and knocks it to the ground. Once the injured wolf falls to the ground, the rest of its pack begins to devour it. With a shocked look on her face, Danvers replies ‘better him than me.’
Inside one of the transmitters, Malenky mentions to Shostakova that this affair is quite troubling. The ultra-low frequency transmitter operates by oscillating filaments of an extremely rare metal of which there is only twenty kilos in all of Russia. The project cover name is Red Storm. It is imperative that this experiment succeeds. They are at a crucial stage in their research. This brazen attack by the Americans could not have come at a worse time. He then asks what if this reconnaissance is but a prelude to a raid. The whole Red Storm project would be compromised if the Americans captured their entire supply of the power source. After Shostakova tells him it’s not her problem, Malenky quips that he sees it is up to him to watch his own back.
Later, at the train depot for the local Gulag, one of the soldiers asks a fellow soldier that those are all prisoners whose sentences are completed and they’re loading them into cattle cars? His fellow soldier replies why not, they’re still prisoners until they get to Moscow. Malenky points over to Grimm and Logan and informs his soldiers ‘except for those two.’ They are going straight to the Lubyanka for special interrogation. He adds that he wants a detail of Spetsnaz riding the train to ensure the safety of the strongbox before them that is being moved to Moscow for safekeeping. He wants it kept up front in the engine and watched at all times. It is the very essence of the Red Storm project. Upon hearing the words Red Storm, Logan’s ears perk up.
As he watches the prison train fire up its engines, Malenky mentions that this is all very good. With Red Storm safe in Moscow and the American bomber intact and secure, his promotion to General is a done deal. Peering out the wood wall, Logan looks over at Malenky and says the secret project. His special orders were to steal the Red Storm oscillating metal from the transmitter station and bring it back at all costs. But he has to get outta there to do that.
Just then, he calls out to the other prisoners inside the train car and points over to Grimm. When he does, he tells them that he bets his boots he can floor the big lug in less than three rounds. Backhanding Grimm, Logan tells them to put up or shut up, he’s startin’ this off with a bang. As they begin to fight, the prisoners call out their bets. Grimm asks that they’re bettin’ on the runt? They can kiss their bicuspids goodbye. As they start to fight the other prisoners, Logan tells Grimm to lay into ‘em, they gotta rock this club car off the rails. Running along the tops of the train cars, two Russian troops exclaim that it sounds like a riot in car #7 but it’s nothing that a short burst from an AK won’t solve. Opening up the top of the car, the troops order the prisoners inside to get against the sides of the car with their hands up and…
Just then, Logan grabs one of them by the neck and yanks him into the car.
Standing at the tree line, Danvers looks out at one of the transmitters and thinks to herself that maybe she doesn’t have to destroy the black boxes if she can get them back to the States. They contain the scanned data about the transmitter stations and as long as they aren’t in danger of being captured, it might be worth the risk to hijack a YAK observation plane. Running towards the plane, Danvers decides that she can’t stay in the woods for too long or those wolves will be getting hungry again.
Atop the speeding train, Grimm asks Logan why they can’t just jump off and make a run for it. Logan informs him that there’s something in the engine that he has to get a hold of.
Reaching the plane, Danvers knocks out the man filling the plane with gas and jumps in. As she starts it up and prepares to fly off, she remarks that it’s too bad about Logan and Ben Grimm but the mission comes first. As the observation plane flies off, one of the troops mentions that’s odd. There wasn’t supposed to be an observation mission for another hour. Another troop tells him that the pilots make their own rules. Overhearing their conversation, Shostakova asks them what they just said.
In the engine cab, when Grimm and Logan enter, the train engineer asks an escape? This is madness. Where do they expect to run to? Grabbing the case holding Red Storm, Logan tells him to let them worry about that, he just needs to keep going and not make any sudden stops. Once on top of the train with the case, Grimm mentions to Logan that the engineer had a point. Now that he has what they came for, where is he gonna go with it. Logan tells him they sure ain’t goin’ back where they came from, that’s for sure. What they need is some sort o’ alternate transportation. Grimm asks ‘like that plane up there circling in the distance?’
Flying the plane, Danvers states that at least the gyro-compass still works on the crate. All she has to do is get it turned around and head east to the Pacific and… Just then, Danvers notices two men riding on top of the train and then notices that it’s Grimm and Logan. Seeing the plane lower, Logan mentions to Grimm that they’ve been spotted, now they… Grimm informs Logan that was Carol, she hijacked a plane. Logan notices that she’s comin’ back and tells Grimm that on her next pass, they grab the skis.
Meanwhile, at Nellis AFB, Nicholas Fury yells into the phone and asks the person on the other end ‘what?’ The whole recon mission was just a blind to send in some poor shnook to glom some weird chunk o’ tin called Red Storm? The sawed-off Canadian operator had sealed secret orders to bring it back at all costs? But they sent him inside Russia in a top-secret American bomber with two of their own operators. Now they’re telling him that the plane has been captured?
After Fury asks where the buck stops on this cluster foul-up, the person on the other end of the phone proceeds to hang up on him. Once they do, Fury mentions to Anthony Stark that the puzzle-palace honcho hung up on him. Stark informs him that the whole thing was a set-up. D.O.D. canceled the contract for the flying wing, so having it captured is just more disinformation. Their other intel sources seem to think that the low frequency transmissions are more voodoo Russian science like their experiments in telekinesis. Slamming the phone down, Fury mentions to Stark what really burns him about this is the fact that if those three pilgrims do manage to exfiltrate themselves from this mess, the spy-meisters who fronted this op won’t like it one bit.


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Connecting Flight
Time: sometime in the not so distant past. Place: somewhere over eastern Russia.
Flying a plane over a speeding train, Carol Danvers notices that Ben (Grimm) and Logan are trapped on the prison train and that guards are running up from the rear. She then determines that, with the flaps fully extended, she should be able to make a pass at less than 80 mph without stalling. With the train going around 60 mph, that means she’ll be passing them at a relative speed of 20 mph. That should be slow enough for them to grab on.
On the train, Logan tells Ben that it’s a piece of cake. Grimm will grab one ski, and he will grab the other. Grimm tells him that grabbin’ on ain’t the worry; the trick is gonna be stayin’ on. As they each grab hold of the plane’s skis, Logan tells Grimm to think positive thoughts. While they are being shot at by the guards, Grimm asks positive thoughts? What good is that going to do? Logan tells him that it sure helped that li’l choo-choo train get up the hill in that kiddie book.
Once the plane gets further airborne, Grimm holds tightly onto the ski and mentions to Logan that using two hands might be better than positive thinkin’. Logan informs him that he ain’t lettin’ go of the box he’s holding; it’s what this mission is all about. Grimm begins to tell him that he can’t fault his dedication to duty but… Just then, exclaims “holy smoke” when he sees the flying wing bomber ahead of them that they flew in on. He mentions that they must be flying it to a research center to suss out all its secrets. Grimm then calls out to Carol to pull up, they’re gonna hit it.
At the Russian airfield, Colonel Malenky asks Natalia Shostakova where she thinks she’s going. Preparing to enter an airplane, Shostakova informs him that she’s going to chase the female American agent who stole the YAK observation plane. She then asks him why it is a concern of his. Malenky informs her that it’s his concern because it is another example of the K.G.B.’s failure to maintain base security. That is why he, as ranking commander of the local G.R.U. detachment, is taking command of the whole operation. The brilliant plan to disperse the heart of the Red Storm project for safekeeping was his plan, after all. Getting in the plane, Shostakova tells Malenky to have it his way; she has a job to do. As she takes off Malenky yells at her to come back here and calls her a traitor.
Up in the air, Carol Danvers’ plane gets caught in the bombers back draft and is knocked for a loop. When it does, Grimm holds on tight with both hands and tells Carol that was cuttin’ it close. Losing his grip for a moment, Logan tells her too close as far as he’s concerned. As Grimm makes his way up closer to the cockpit, Carol asks him what happened to Logan. Grimm tells her that he lost his grip on the oleo strut and that he’s hangin’ on to the edge of the ski with his fingertips. Holding onto the ski, Logan says he thinks he c-c-c…
Carol mentions to Grimm that there’s only one way to save Logan, he just hopes he gets the idea. After a tight turn by Carol, Logan loses his grip due to the g-force and falls from the plane. As he does, Carol says that she sure hopes she aimed that just right. Grimm adds that he’s sure Logan is hopin’ that more than her.
Plummeting from the plane, Logan lands on top of the bomber. When he does, he mentions that Carol Danvers is a pistol and a firecracker. Once he grabs hold, the Russian agents inside the bomber recognize that they are being boarded by capitalist air pirates. The co-pilot remarks that he’ll take care of him and pulls out his gun. As he is being shot at, Logan dodges it and tells the agents that’s no way to be. From afar, Grimm informs Carol that Logan is still carrying the mystery box that they were supposed to snag and bring back. Carol replies that they had better go back and get him then. As they do, Logan tosses the box he’s carrying through the cockpit window, knocking out the shooter and proceeds to enter the plane. When he does, the pilot turns tail, runs off, and leaps out of the plane via parachute. As he runs off, Logan calls out to him to get back there, he’s gotta turn this crate around.
From their aircraft, Carol exclaims to Grimm that the pilot just bailed out. Dollars to donuts he didn’t switch on the auto-pilot before he jumped. Grimm tells her that she’s gotta get him on that bomber or else Logan’s gonna auger in for sure. Carol tells him to get ready; she’s going to match up their speed to the flying wing and get as close as she can.
Just then, they are shot at by Russian stealth fighters. When Carol remarks that it must be that female K.G.B. agent, Grimm remarks that she’s as deadly as a black widow spider. Carol then tells Grimm to hang on. She’s going to show the jerks what aerobatics is all about as she begins to dodge the fighter’s gunfire.
Inside the bomber, as it turns in circles since there is no pilot, Logan grabs the controls and mentions that he has to get this flyin’ boomerang straightened out before it goes straight to crash and burn city. He sure wishes he knew what the heck he was doin’. At that moment, the agent with the gun wakes up. After knocking the gun out of his hand, Logan says to him that he’s not so cocky without his gun. When the agent leaps out of the aircraft, Logan tells him that’s right – take the easy way out.
Hanging onto the plane, Grimm informs Carol that there’s no way she can outmaneuver these guys with him hanging on and increasing her drag. She has to take a run past the bomber and let him try to jump on it. Carol tells him that it’s his call.
In the bomber, Logan continues to attempt to take control. While he does, he mentions how hard can it be to control one o’ these things. They let Jimmy Stewart fly one and he’s a guy who talked to invisible rabbits. Making their way to the bomber, Carol tells Grimm that she can’t slow down to match the speed; he’s going to have to attempt this on the fly. Leaping off the plane and onto the bomber, Grimm remarks that at least it’s a big target. Holding on, he says he made it. Now as long as the rivets he’s holding onto hold…
Upon seeing Carol’s plane flying in front of him, Logan wonders where Ben is. Wasn’t he hangin’ on to the fuselage? He sure hopes all that jinkin’ an’ weavin’ didn’t dislodge him from….
At that moment, Ben loses his grip on the bomber and begins to roll. Logan notices this and before he can fall off the plane, Logan punches out a window and grabs him at the last moment. In the air, Shostakova orders her wingman Rostikov to go after the bomber. Inside the bomber, Logan asks Grimm howsabout some evasive maneuvers. Grimm tells him not likely. That’s like trying to steer the Queen Mary through the slalom. Seeing her teammates under fire, Carol tells them to hang tough; she’ll do what she can to get them off their tail. With that, Carol flies her plane between the attacking ship and the bomber.
Upon seeing Carol’s maneuvers, Shostakova tells Rostikov that the YAK has no guns and to ignore her and continue his attack on the bomber. As she begins to concentrate on the YAK, Shostakova knows that it has a tighter turning radius than she does. Turning his attention back towards the bomber, Rostikov makes a beeline directly towards it. Carol knows that if she doesn’t do something quick, Ben and Logan will be goners.
As Rostikov commences his strafing run on the bomber, Carol rams her skis into Rostikov’s plane, taking him out. Logan notices that and exclaims she did it, she waxed him. Ben adds that she busted up the YAK doing it. Carol knows she’s on fire, has no landing gear, and has no parachute – this does not bode well. As she begins to crash, Ben immediately goes into a power dive. It’s the only way he knows to try and save Carol.
Turning the bomber upside down, Logan reaches out for Carol’s hand and tells her that she’s gotta reach for it. Reaching up at the last moment and grabbing Logan’s hand, Carol is freed from her burning plane before it crashes to the ground and explodes. Once Carol is safely on the bomber, Logan informs Grimm to point the bomber at Nellis AFB and firewall the throttles. Grimm tells him that he’s forgetting the other stealth fighter. Too bad they don’t have another YAK to throw at it.
From her plane, Shostakova remarks that the valor of the American woman and the subsequent heroics of her friends were quite impressive but she can’t let that hinder her duty to the Rodina.
At the Russian airfield, Berenski, the Inspector General from the Central Committee arrives and asks Colonel Malenky who is in charge of this intelligence operation. When Malenky replies that he has appropriated full command there in light of the egregious misconduct of…
Berenski cuts him off and asks him if he was the one who ordered the Red Storm project to be taken away on the train. Malenky replies that was completely his idea. At that moment, Berenski orders his troops to arrest this clod and have him thrown into the deepest dungeon of the Lubyanka. The American adventurist bandits have hijacked the train and spirited the metal out of the country.
Up in the sky, Shostakova follows the bomber and prepares to shoot it down. As she does, she mentions that it is truly unfortunate that such real heroes must perish and utter swine like Malenky can flourish. Grimm mentions to his teammates that she’s closing in for the kill and there’s no gettin’ outta this one.
On the ground, Berenski asks one of his agents where the official K.G.B. case officer, Natalia Shostakova, is. The agent replies that she is up on a mission in a stealth fighter. Berenksi informs him to recall her at once; she is now in charge of this mess. With that, the agent orders Shostakova to return to base immediately. Shostakova begins to tell him that she is… The agent informs her that this is a direct order from the Inspector General. Upon hearing that, Shostakova breaks off the attack and heads back to the Russian airfield.
As she passes the bomber, Shostakova waves to Carol, Ben, and Logan. Logan mentions that there’s somethin’ familiar about her but that’s impossible, right?
Making their way back towards Nellis AFB, Carol asks Ben and Logan if they think they’ll ever know what this mission was really about. Logan asks her what does she mean “was about?” They’re not through yet… When Ben remarks that he’s gotta be kiddin’ him, Logan asks does it look like he’s kiddin?’ Ben exclaims no, no way! He’s goin’ home now – mission accomplished. Logan replies that if he thought phase one was rough, what’ll he gets a load of phase two.
Ben states that tears it, he’s said it before and he’ll say it again – it’s clobberin’ time! Carol calls out no and the next sounds that are heard as the bomber flies off are those of Ben and Logan beginning to fight.