The X-Men have been defeated by Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and Magneto is about to kill them when he is stopped by Quicksilver. Magneto agrees with Quicksilver's request, deciding that he wants his hated enemies to witness his greatest victory first before destroying them and orders them locked up in specially prepared restraints that prevent them from using their powers to escape.
When the X-Men are locked up and regain consciousness, they question why Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch rejoined Magneto's Brotherhood. Quicksilver angrily explains to them how humanity seeks to destroy mutants and that they have realized that Magneto's way is right. The nosey Toad listens to this argument and reports to Magneto, who decides that perhaps he should destroy the X-Men after all.
Left alone, the X-Men struggle to free themselves, however only Angel succeeds when he manages to grab a nearby disintegration ray that was negligently left near his cage. When attempting to free the others Cyclops stops him, fearing that the other rigs are booby-trapped, and orders the Angel to flee the scene and try and find the Avengers to get their help. Angel complies and just barely manages to escape Magneto's base without being recaptured by Magneto and Quicksilver. Caught in a storm while flying overseas, Angel decides to stop and rest on a rock outcropping poking out of the water. When he rests there, he is surprised when the outcropping suddenly rises, part of a submerged island that has been hiding beneath the ocean.
Exploring the island, Angel finds that there is a hidden complex and wonders if it's not the same base (HYDRA Island) that SHIELD destroyed months prior. He soon gets some answers when he's attacked by the old World War II hero, the Red Raven, who is angry at normal humans who he believes are mindless killers. However, the hero is easily disarmed by the Angel and the fight is quickly ended. With the battle over, the Red Raven explains how he was a normal man whose family’s plane crashed in the secret home of the Avians, a society of winged people. Surviving, the young Red Raven was taken in, given mechanical wings and dubbed the Red Raven.
When the leader of the Avians, Aerivar XVIII, plotted an invasion of humanity, the Red Raven attempted to appeal to the king to avoid any invasion plans as the humans outnumbered them. However, his impassioned pleas were ignored and the invasion plans continued further. Not wishing to see his adopted countrymen slaughtered by humans, the Red Raven created a special gas that would put all the Avians into a state of suspended animation and then he sunk their floating island into the ocean.
With explanation over, Angel tries to convince the Red Raven to revive his people and give humanity another chance. Realizing the risk that the same cycle of events would happen again, the Red Raven instead decides to return his island to the bottom of the ocean once more. Blasting Angel into unconsciousness, the Red Raven uses an anti-gravity ray to keep the mutant afloat while the island sinks. The Red Raven puts himself and his people back into suspended animation.

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