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Appearing in "Batteries Not Included!"

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  • Toad's spaceship

Synopsis for "Batteries Not Included!"

It's the Christmas season, and while Wanda teaches her new pupil Holly about what midwinter and Yuletide mean to Witches, the Vision pays a visit to Avengers Mansion to talk to Captain America and Namor about their memories about the Human Torch. Vision's recent interest in the android side of his heritage leads him next to Project PEGASUS to talk to the last Evil Mutant duplicate to not be dismantled, Mastermind's, aiming to compare what he knows of the more "human" Jim Hammond and the purely artificial intelligence of the replica to hopefully identify what makes his own "humanity" real.

The visit goes awry when the Mastermind copy springs to life, boasting that the Toad King had planned for the contingency of being imprisoned at PEGASUS and designed the delayed reconfiguration to aid in his escape. Vision attempts to phase-disrupt the android, but loses his left hand due to the anti-matter energizing it. Vision tears the android apart, but its legs still reach Toad's cell and enable his escape via his spaceship. Vision barely manages to catch onto the hull of the ship as it speeds into the upper atmosphere and phases inside, though he passes out in the process. Images of other androids flash through his mind as he comes to and heads to the cockpit to confront Toad. Using the Stranger's technology to create a massive energy form around himself, Toad attacks furiously, lamenting that Wanda chose a machine over himself, whom he considers someone "real". Vision is through doubting what makes him "real" though and assures Toad that it was what's inside that counts. As Vision comes close to winning the fight, Toad uses his force-field vortex to eject him from the ship, but Vision gets one last solar blast in through the vortex to send his ship careening through space. Vision finds himself stranded in Earth's outer orbit, but by regulating his density and using his solar blast as propulsion, he shoots himself backwards towards the planet in little time. As he enters the atmosphere, there is a moment where he starts to burn up and take on the appearance of a human torch.

Vision returns home to Wanda, hiding the stump of his left wrist behind his cloak and claiming he was only out doing some soul-searching. With her lesson done, Holly heads home through the snow and decides to cut through Norm Webster's yard, where she's shocked to spy Wanda's sister-in-law Crystal kissing the handsome realtor.

Notes

  • In the flashback sequence when Churchill asks a group of super-heroes to form the Invaders, Captain America wanted a name for the team that reflected "what we really are", that being "Protectors" or "Preservers", the Human Torch suggested the names "The Revenge Squadron" or "The American Avengers".
  • The Toad is named "Toad-King" on the cover; in the story he names himself the "Terrible Toad King", while others name him simply the "Toad".

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