Bitter Pill

Over the past month, Hawkeye had made it his mission to take down the Stone Perfs street gang in order to stop their blood gang war. However, the conflict ended when some unknown party murdered the entire gang in a rock quarry. Clint Barton is now on a mission to find their killers and bring them to justice as well. He first confronts the members of the Mode Blanks, a rival gang, to find out they were responsible. During the clash, the gang’s hideout is lit on fire, forcing Hawkeye to rescue them from the burning building. As the authorities arrive on the scene, the leader of the Blanks tells Hawkeye they had nothing to do with the execution of the Stone Perfs, as they only act in defense of their turf, not deal in wholesale slaughter. Having hit another dead end in his investigation, Hawkeye heads back to Avengers Compound to figure out his next move.

What Hawkeye doesn’t realize is that the person responsible for killing the Stone Perfs is Lotus Newmark, a real estate magnate who used the gang as part of her illicit drug operation. When the gang attracted the attention of both Hawkeye and a local vigilante named the Terminizer, she had her right-hand-man Fernando Torres lure the Perfs into a trap to eliminate them. Pleased that he followed her orders on the letter, Lotus has decided that she can trust Fernando to stop meeting at safe-houses and take him to her actual home in a huge mansion. Torres is blown away by how massive her mansion is. Once inside, Lotus offers Torres a drink and in her private office. There he is shocked to see two severed fingers in a display case and asks why she has such a grisly trophy.

Lotus reveals that the fingers belonged to her father and decides to amuse herself by telling him the story. Lotus explains that her father was an importer of goods from Hong Kong and that she was born and raised in Los Angeles. However, he wanted to move up in the world and moved his family to Hong Kong when Lotus was just six years old. Her father overlooked the sweatshops that operated in Hong Kong as he was only interested in money. One day tragedy struck when Lotus’ mother was struck and killed by an out of control taxi cab. Her father took it hard and began neglecting his daughter and racking up gambling debts. Eventually, the local mob wanted him to pay up. When her father didn’t have the money to give, they wanted to take two of his fingers. Fearing for his own safety, Lotus was given to the mobsters instead.

While the leader of the mob accepted this offer, however, rather than forcing Lotus into the sex trade the man took her under his wing and gave her the father figure she was sorely lacking. He trained her in martial arts and academics so she would grow up to become a powerful woman. Once Lotus had become a full grown woman, she was offered the opportunity to start her own criminal operation. Lotus decided to set up in Los Angeles as she wished to track down her own father and learned he returned to the United States. When she tracked him down, he discovered that he had all but forgotten about her until she revealed to him who she really was. Rather than reconcile with her father, Lotus came to claim his two fingers. Recalling these events give Lotus a good laugh, but Fernando is disturbed by everything he has heard.

The following day, Clint Barton and his wife Bobbi — aka Hawkeye and Mockingbird — are out with the the Gutturize family to celebrate Luis’ birthday. As the boy goes to blow out the candles on his cake, he spots Fernando Torres walking the street and tells Clint that he is a surviving member of the Stone Perfs. Clint decides to confront Fernando to learn what he knows about the death of his fellow gang members. Not taking kindly to this interrogation, Torres pulls a gun and in the ensuing struggle a shot goes off, fatally striking Luis’ sister Antia, killing her instantly. Luis is horrified to see his sister get killed and vows to get revenge.

Meanwhile, Fernando manages to grab the remote control for Clint’s sky-cycle and uses it to escape. Vowing to hunt Torres down, Clint calls Avengers Compound and has US Agent deliver another sky-cycle and his bow and arrows.

By this time, Torres has fled back to Lotus for help and she is furious that he would show up with Hawkeye’s sky-cycle since the vehicle is likely loaded with all sorts of tracking devices. She orders him to get rid of it and as he is doing so, Fernando is ambushed by Clint. Fighting on a nearby rooftop, Hawkeye quickly subdues Torres. Unfortunately, before he can get Fernando to reveal everything he knows, the Terminizer shows up and shots Torres to death. Clint is horrified to discover that the Terminizer is just a little kid and suspects he knows who he is. However, when the Terminizer offers to take off the stocking that obscues his identity, Hawkeye asks the boy to keep it on, not wanting to have the one good thing in all of this destroyed. He tells the Terminizer that it is all over and that he will keep the boy’s secret as long as he stops his killing spree.

Back at Avengers Compound, Hawkeye reports what went down but US Agent can’t understand how Clint encountered the Terminizer and allowed to let him go. Clint doesn’t want to get into it and when the Agent leaves the kitchen, Mockingbird presses him for the truth. Clint refuses to tell even his own wife, at least not for the next ten years to see if he made the right decision, grimly reminding her that people die young in the streets of Los Angeles.[2]

Recurring Characters

Hawkeye, Mockingbird, US Agent, Lotus Newmark, Terminizer

Continuity Notes

1. This entire backstory turns out to be false. Lotus Newmark is actually the World War II villain known as Lady Lotus. This was revealed in Captain America: Forever Allies #1. Her false identity as Lotus Newmark was then explained in further detail in Marvels (vol. 2) #6, revealing that this backstory was all a lie.

2. We haven’t heard from the Terminizer since as of this writing (April, 2022). Based on the Sliding Timescale, this story takes place during “Year Eight” of the Modern Age. As such, 10 years time in universe would make it “Year Eighteen” of the Modern Age, which won’t come to pass until the November 2029-October 2032 publication cycle. I’m willing to bed that nobody is going to think to revisit this story. If you’re reading this in 2033 and the Terminizer is the biggest Marvel character of all time, please feel free to send me an e-mail to tell me I was wrong.

Topical References

• When Clint says that Bobbi will have to wait ten years to learn the truth, she says it’ll be the year 2000 by then. This should be considered a topical reference as it is calculating time based on the year this story was published rather than the standards of the Sliding Timescale.