An abandoned town in the middle of nowhere. Two groups faced off against each other. One of them a seasoned team of Avengers, with the Black Widow standing at the front of the group. Her teammates stood ready behind her—War Machine, Photon, Goliath, Ant-Man, and SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson.

The other team was led by the Winter Soldier, a high-powered rifle in his hands. The so-called Young Avengers behind him—Patriot, Wiccan, Hulkling, Marvel Girl, Spider-Boy, and Speed. Teenagers who had been experimented on by Control and brainwashed by Doctor Faustus. Intended to be Control’s own team of Avengers. A contingency plan for the next generation of marvels.

But just before a battle could be launched, there was a flash of red, white, and blue. An energy shield thrown between the two groups. And now, all eyes were on the figure responsible. A man everyone believed to be dead.

“It can’t be…” muttered Photon.

“LMD, perhaps? Or a clone?” asked Goliath. “Rhodey—?”

“Way ahead of you, Dr. Foster. Scanners seem to suggest this is the real deal,” said War Machine.

Steve Rogers was dressed in a navy-blue uniform with a white star emblazoned on his chest, an energy shield around his hand. He jumped from his position on the roof of an old house, flipping in the air and landing in a crouch between the two groups, facing the Winter Soldier.

“It’s him,” said the Black Widow. She glanced at Coulson and he nodded in confirmation.

“Think you’ve got some explainin’ to do, Romanoff,” said Ant-Man.

“Another time,” said Rogers. He fixed his gaze on the man who stood in front of him. A man who had at one time been like a brother to him. Who was now corrupted and twisted into something else. “Bucky…”

“Steven Rogers, Captain America. Supposedly deceased,” said the Winter Soldier. “Let’s make it more permanent this time.”

The Winter Soldier raised his rifle and fired.

“Avengers…” Rogers was quick. He brought the energy shield up to block the bullet, then lunged forward. As he did, he finished his sentence: “…Assemble!”

CONTINGENCY

Part III

By Dino Pollard

Goliath started growing in size as he ran towards the battle, but he was intercepted by the young woman dressed in blue and red with a lightning symbol over her torso, the same logo once worn by Carol Danvers.

“I don’t wanna hurt you, miss. So it’s better if you just surrender n—”

Goliath’s words were silenced as Marvel Girl matched him in size as well. His shock quickly turned into a weakness as her fist, growing even larger, connected with his jaw. He staggered, falling a few steps back and then she struck again with her other fist. The second blow forced Goliath back even further and he tripped over one of the buildings, crushing it beneath his massive frame.

She towered over him with a smug look on her face. “You were saying?”

“Nice trick,” said Goliath. He picked up a chunk of wood and flung it at her.

Marvel Girl swatted it away, but the distraction worked. Goliath barreled right into her, body slamming her.

War Machine took to the air, his thrusters carrying him above the Young Avengers. His armor ran scans on them, trying to see if he could find a weakness. The caped kid holding a staff—Wiccan—met him in the air.

“You’re in over your head, son,” said War Machine.

Wiccan held out his staff, directing magical energy through the weapon and blasting it from the tip. War Machine’s armor was hit right in the chest and his armor assessed the damage.

“Magic, great…” muttered War Machine. He switched ammunition type to rubber bullets and the mini-gun on his shoulder targeted Wiccan. It began to spin, bullets shooting in rapid-fire.

Wiccan held out his free hand, generating a magical shield to protect himself from the attack. War Machine flew towards him as he continued to fire, and Wiccan’s shield suddenly expanded, slamming into the armored Avenger.

War Machine activated his armor’s energy siphon. The shield Wiccan had generated around himself was quickly dissipating. He looked surprised by the attack.

“It may be magic, but it’s still energy,” said War Machine, just as the arc reactor in his chest unit started to glow with bright-red energy. A uni-beam struck Wiccan, knocking him from the sky.

War Machine flew after him, grabbing Wiccan by his foot and gently carrying him to the ground.

Photon fired energy blasts at the white-haired Young Avenger called Speed. But true to his namesake, he easily dodged them with his superhuman reflexes. He gave her a smirk when he came to a stop.

“Catch me if you can!”

Speed spun around and raced off into the distance. Photon scoffed.

“Okay, if you wanna play it that way…”

She converted her body to pure light and flew right after him. She could see him moving below her, occasionally looking over his shoulder to see if she was still in pursuit. When he saw she wasn’t, he skidded to a stop, kicking up dust along the dirt-covered ground. Speed turned and looked back the way he came.

Now was her chance. In a fraction of a second, Photon shifted her form to electricity and shot down into him. Speed’s entire body convulsed until he collapsed. Photon emerged from him and returned to her physical form.

Spider-Boy fired a sphere from his web-shooters and Ant-Man tried to swat it away. Instead, it exploded, wrapping his arm in webbing. “The hell is this stuff?”

“Dude, I’m Spider-Boy. What do you think?”

As Ant-Man tried to remove the webbing with the stinger of his free hand, Spider-Boy webbed his arms together. The Young Avenger leapt at him and delivered a swift kick, knocking his head back. The former SHIELD agent glared at the young man in the black and red costume through the lenses of his helmet.

“Oh, you’re gonna regret that, kid…”

“How’s that?” asked Spider-Boy.

“Because I’m Ant-Man. What do you think that means?”

Before Spider-Boy could retort, Ant-Man activated his armor’s Pym Particles and shrunk down, freeing himself from the webbing’s confines. Spider-Boy squinted behind his mask lenses, trying to see where the Avenger had gone to.

“Hey, no fair!”

Spider-Boy felt a buzzing in his head. He turned and saw nothing. But something struck him, staggering him. Ant-Man grew to full-size and Spider-Boy tried to go for a counter-strike. While in the process of grabbing his wrist, Ant-Man shrunk back down and flipped Spider-Boy onto his back.

Once again he returned to full-size. Just as Spider-Boy tried to get up, Ant-Man jammed one of the stingers into the young man’s neck, releasing the sedative toxin into his bloodstream and the Young Avenger fell unconscious.

Patriot charged at the Black Widow, holding a replica of Captain America’s original shield. The Widow easily sidestepped his attempt and he charged past her. She fired her Widow Line from the bracelet and the cable wrapped around his legs.

The Black Widow pulled hard and Patriot collapsed, falling flat on his face. He raised his shield, trying to jam the pointed, triangular end against the cable in a vain attempt to break it. For her part, Natasha smiled and gave him the opportunity.

“This isn’t going to end well for you, boy,” she said. “If I were you, I’d leave that cable where it is.”

“Shut up!” Patriot reached for his belt and drew something from one of the pouches. He flung his arm out in an arc.

Metallic stars patterned after those on the American flag flew from his fingertips. The Black Widow flipped through the air, nimbly dodging the projectiles. The ones she couldn’t, she took out with electric blasts from her bracelets.

Patriot had managed to free himself from the cable and was back on his feet. He threw a few more stars to keep the Widow distracted as he charged at her, the shield at the ready.

He grunted as something struck him in the back and stumbled, falling unconscious at the Black Widow’s feet. Natasha looked up and saw Coulson emerge from a hiding spot beside one of the abandoned shops, an ICER pistol in his hand.

“You know I had him, right?” said Natasha.

“I know. But I didn’t want to feel completely useless out here,” said Coulson.

Natasha smirked.

At close range, it was almost impossible for the Winter Soldier to use his rifle. Instead, he discarded it and opted for melee combat. He threw a punch with his cybernetic arm, but Steve’s energy shield protected the Living Legend from the blow.

“Buck, this isn’t you,” said Steve.

“Stop calling me that!”

Steve back-flipped and as soon as he landed on his feet, the energy shield altered its shape, becoming a staff. As the Winter Soldier came at him, Steve jumped forward, jamming the staff into the ground and using it to push him right into his foe.

His boots connected with the Winter Soldier’s chest, throwing him through the window of an abandoned shop. Steve approached the shattered glass, the staff returning to the form of a shield.

Shots rang out. Steve raised the shield, expanding its size to protect him from the shots. The Winter Soldier was up again, wielding a pair of handguns.

“Bucky, remember!” shouted Steve. “The drone plane! Zemo! Your sister, Rebecca!”

Bucky stopped firing. The grimace on his face started to falter. Steve saw a flash of recognition in his old partner’s face as the rest of the Secret Avengers gathered behind him.

“Cap, you want me to—” began War Machine, targeting the Soldier.

“Stand down, Rhodey,” said Steve, slowly approaching him. “Buck…remember.”

Bucky’s hands fell to his sides, the guns slipping from his grip. He blinked several times and looked down at his cybernetic arm. There were flashes…

“I remember…the plane taking off…trying to defuse the bomb…and then fire and pain and…cold…”

Steve nodded. “That’s right.”

“I…I…” His metal hand tightened into a fist. “No!”

“Cap!” shouted Photon.

“Stand down!” said Steve.

He dodged Bucky’s wild punch and grabbed the arm. Raising the energy shield, Steve drove it onto the arm, cutting through the metal and separating it from Bucky’s torso. Then, he slammed the shield’s flat surface against Bucky’s face and knocked him unconscious.

“It’s over,” said Steve. Then he took in the faces of the rest of the Secret Avengers. “And we have some things to discuss.”

“Wait, what about Monroe?” asked Coulson.

“Don’t worry, he’s being taken care of,” said Steve.

Elsewhere

Thunderbolt Ross grumbled around the end of his cigar as he looked at Jack Monroe, whose body was locked in a stasis tube. He looked over his shoulder and saw the Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine busying herself at the computer.

“There,” she said. “Is Scourge prepared for transport?”

“Yeah, he’s all set,” said Ross. “What about the Soldier? The Young Avengers?”

“They’ve gone offline,” said the Contessa. “We can only assume Monroe’s team is responsible.”

“Dunno why we’re takin’ him with. The conditioning obviously didn’t take,” said Ross. “He’s useless to us.”

“Never say never, Thaddeus.” The Contessa turned away from the computer and walked over to the mobile stasis unit and stared at the man behind the glass. “Monroe spent quite some time in Fury’s inner circle. There’s much Control could learn from him. And with some more time in Faustus’ care, Scourge could easily return once more.”

A crack appeared in the stasis tube followed by a hissing sound. The Contessa examined it and saw the crack was actually a bullet hole and the sedative gas inside was rapidly escaping. She snarled and turned.

A figure in navy and white dropped from the ceiling, slamming into Thunderbolt Ross and throwing him against the wall. The figure rose from a crouch and picked up the cigar Ross had dropped. He sniffed the rolled tobacco leaves and made a face, then tossed it away.

“You always had shit taste in stogies, Thunderbolt.”

“My, my, I certainly wasn’t expecting you,” said the Contessa with a wry grin.

“Well, y’know what they say, Val. Speak of the devil…” Nick Fury raised his gun and pointed it at his former lover, “…and he’ll turn up to kick yer ass.”

“How did you find me, Nick?”

“Think that should be obvious by now.” Fury gestured to the still-unconscious Jack Monroe. “We knew all about yer Scourge conditionin’. Knew once word got out to Control that Nomad was runnin’ his own black ops team, you’d find a way to flip the switch.”

“So all this—your Secret Avengers capturing Faustus, the Hand, Area 51…it was all just to get our attention? To what end, Nicholas?” asked the Contessa.

“I knew someone with SHIELD ties was runnin’ with Control. Had a list of suspects, but I had no idea it was you,” said Fury. “’Til now.”

“Be honest, Nicholas. You didn’t know…or you didn’t want to know?”

“That’s neither here nor there. But now yer comin’ with me. You and Ross.”

The Contessa scoffed, and lunged forward. A powerful kick took Fury by surprise and knocked the gun from his hand. She grabbed his arm and flipped him with a judo throw. Fury hit the ground hard and blinked his one good eye.

“You remember that one, don’t you, Nicholas? Same way we met.” The Contessa turned back to the computer. “Ross, get—”

She looked over her shoulder and saw Ross had already made himself scarce. She rolled her eyes and continued to busy herself at the computer. “This facility will be blown to Hell, Fury. And you’ll go with it. It really is a pity, I’d hoped I could one day convince you to join us.”

The sound of glass shattering caused the Contessa to spin around just as she activated the self-destruct. Jack Monroe stood there, having broken through the stasis tube now that the gas had escaped. He was disoriented but filled with rage.

Jack lunged at her and the Contessa tried to draw her gun, but he was too fast. He took it from her and then grabbed her by the throat, raising her off the ground. With the Super Soldier Serum in his veins, he was strong enough to break her neck with his bare hands.

“Monroe…don’t—!” Fury shouted, but it was too late.

Monroe squeezed and as his hand broke the Contessa’s neck, Fury saw something remarkable. Metal and exposed, sparking wires broke through her flesh. Jack was just as surprised it seemed and he dropped her in shock.

The robot impersonating the Contessa fell to the ground. Fury got to his feet, looking down at the face of his former lover, stretched over the frame of an advanced robot.

“An LMD…” he muttered. “Damn Val, guess you learned that trick from me.”

Fury went to the computer and saw the self-destruct sequence was already counting down. He turned to Jack. “C’mon, we gotta run before this place blows!”

After escaping from the facility before it exploded, Fury took Jack to one of his safehouses. Steve Rogers and the rest of the Secret Avengers were waiting for them when they arrived. Greetings were exchanged and once everyone settled down, all eyes fell on Fury and Steve for an explanation.

“I’m sure you all have a lot of questions,” said Steve.

“Yeah, starting with how are you even alive?” asked Monica. “We went to your funeral, Steve.”

“Some time ago, Jack discovered the existence of Control. Learning that Ross was one of the members was a big shock. That was when Nick and I came up with a plan,” said Steve.

“Control had a hand in transforming me into Scourge way back when,” said Jack. “Soon as those pieces came together, we knew we could use that to our advantage. Me ‘killing’ Steve made it seem like the programming could still be active.”

“Then we brought Jack into deep cover and brought you all into this. The idea was we hadda make Control think we were onto ’em, so we could learn more about who was runnin’ the show,” said Fury. “An’ we found out it was Contessa Fontaine. Also learned quite a bit about their operations.”

“Unfortunately this latest episode required us to show our hand more than we would’ve liked,” said Steve. “But knowing Bucky was the Winter Soldier and after you all…I had to step in.”

“Dammit, Steve…” muttered Bill, slumping over in his chair. “This was wrong of you.”

“Bill’s right, you should’ve told us,” said Rhodey. “I’d expect this from Fury, but not you.”

“I understand your concerns and I didn’t want it to happen this way,” said Steve. “But we had to take precautions. Today we learned that Fontaine is part of Control. Bucky was manipulated by them. Both Luke Cage and Americop were also used by them. We couldn’t take the risk that anyone else might be compromised.”

“That’s the real reason I gave Jessica Drew the boot,” said Jack. “Working with the Hand, I was afraid that might compromise us.”

“What about you two?” asked Monica, eyeing both Natasha and Coulson. “Did you know about this, too?”

“On some level, yes. But not all the details,” said Coulson.

“I did,” said Natasha. “There was the risk that Nomad’s Scourge programming was still active. In the event that happened, someone else had to know the full story.”

“Ugh, I can’t believe this…” muttered Monica.

“So what happens now?” asked Eric.

“I think we’ve taken this operation as far as possible,” said Steve. “Control’s going to be on the lookout for us now. It’s best if we stay off their radar for the time being.”

“And what about Control?” asked Eric. “We just gonna let ’em stay around?”

“We know they got an endgame, we’re still tryin’ t’ figure out what that is,” said Fury.

“What about Barnes and those Young Avengers?” asked Bill.

“We can purge Faustus’ conditionin’. It’ll be easier with them. Barnes will take some more time, though,” said Fury.

“The kids could be useful,” said Monica. “Someone should watch out for them. Train them.”

“We’ll look into that,” said Fury. “Meanwhile, you’ve all done your jobs. An’ you’re hereby relieved of duty.”

One by one, the former members of the Secret Avengers departed the safehouse, heading off for their own destinations. Until only Steve Rogers and Nick Fury were left alone. Steve sat alone at the table, which now felt very empty. He stared down at the SHIELD emblem engraved into the surface.

“Penny for ’em,” said Fury as he approached. He placed a chilled bottle of Samuel Adams in front of Steve.

Steve took the offering and popped off the cap. Fury sat beside him, already sipping from a bottle of his own.

“I do wonder if this was the right move, Nick,” he said. “Keeping this from everyone—Sharon, Sam, Tony…”

“And now we got that Iron Patriot character runnin’ around with yer face. That’s somethin’ I wanna know about,” said Fury.

“Maybe that LMD Jack killed wasn’t as dead as we thought,” said Steve.

“Nah, I decommissioned that thing myself. But now we gotta wonder who that guy is.”

“I just hope this was all worth it,” said Steve.

“We got Barnes back. It’ll take time, but we’ll clean up Faustus’ conditioning. I’ll get the Psi Division on it.”

“Thanks, Nick.”

“Hey…” Fury held up his bottle. “To a future free of Control.”

Steve smiled and clinked his bottle against Fury’s. “I’ll drink to that.”

Follow the story of Control in the pages of Captain America and Avengers!