break free of their captors, escape the ship and fly away. But somewhere else, the Champions also inspired another well-known, but troublesome hero: Gwenpool. They later appear in a small town that is experiencing a wave of hate crimes. Gwenpool arrives to help them and they figure out that the town sheriff is responsible for the spread of the hate crimes. They later encounter the Freelancers, a group of super powered delinquents who were hired to tarnish the name of Champions. After being defeated, the Freelancers decide to do good but are later revealed to have bought the rights to the Champions name. While dealing with the fallout, the team learns that the Freelancers have been using the Champions name for financial purposes, until Nova posts a video online that convince the people to burn the Freelancers' merchandise. During the 2017 "Secret Empire" storyline, Amadeus Cho's Hulk form was with the Champions when they joined up with the Underground following HYDRA's takeover of the United States. The Champions later followed Black Widow when she makes her own plans for Captain America. During their training, the Champions argue over Black Widow's brutality and mercilessness on HYDRA. During a mission, they infiltrate a HYDRA base to find someone crucial to Black Widow's plan. Black Widow then assembles the team when she discovers that the Underground resistance was attacked and possibly killed. In Washington DC, during their assault, Spider-Man goes to fight Captain America until Black Widow intervenes and gets killed. Spider-Man then tries kill Steve out of revenge until the others convince him to not do it and they get arrested. They are later released by Taskmaster and Black Ant, who defected from HYDRA, and join the Underground resistance during their attack at the Capitol, until Steve Rogers arrives wearing a Cosmic Cube-powered armor. They later witness the final battle of the Hydra Supreme Steve Rogers against the real Captain America and the restoration of the United States. While looking for Ms. Marvel following the defeat of Hydra Supreme Steve Rogers, Spider-Man, Hulk and Viv find a walled-off compound, disguised as a normal small town, that houses Inhuman prisoners. Amadeus reveals that he helped build the facility years ago, which was meant as a prison for the original Hulk. The heroes manage to defeat the robot guards and prevent HYDRA from finding them. After HYDRA's attack on Las Vegas, Nevada, the Champions