Issue #4
"GATHERING OF SHADOWS"
Part IV
by Will Short
Doctor Strange
Namor
Hulk
Luke Cage
Hellcat
Valkyrie
Silver Surfer
Beta Ray Bill
"Surfer, I am sorry...your home planet is gone." Namor, the Submariner, also frowns as he delivers this heartbreak wrapped in a message.
Tremors begin at the very bottom of the Silver Surfer's being, both physically and emotionally, making their way up his entire body until they reach the nucleus of his person, the head, the mind...the mouth. Concern turns to anger as the Surfer forces his rage into his arms and pushes Namor down to the ground and stands over him menacingly, pointing at the Son of Atlantis.
"You lie, Namor! My beloved planet still exists...I was there only a few days ago. This is not true!" The Surfer reaches to Namor and holds him down with his superior strength as his fellow hero struggles beneath.
"Unhand me, Norin! I'm telling you the truth...why would I do any different?"
He would not, because Prince Namor is an honorable man. This, the Surfer knows, and he looks away from his friend as he lets him back up. Namor rises, ready for more violence from his overreacting ally, but Norin remains silent, apparently staring at nothing.
Hellcat approaches the Surfer and places her small, feminine hand on his shoulder, speaking softly like a loving mother would to her fretting child.
"Norin, please, let it out...it's okay." But the Silver Surfer does not acknowledge Patsy's attempt at helping him in the only way she knows possible. He is far too taken by his own thoughts...his own memories.....
Under his breath, his usually commanding voice looses its strength and nearly whispers without hope, "Zenn-La ... Shalla-Ball ... everyone...."
The Hulk, too, steps forward, and says in the most encouraging way he knows, "It's the truth, Surfer...I saw it too. I dunno why or how, but it was all rocks and debris when we got there*..." But Bruce Banner stops when he realizes that his words fall on deaf ears.
(Back in Defenders #1. -Will)
Looking to the sun's light, which is gradually faltering as the hours of the afternoon slowly slip away, Norin Radd feels a complete and utter numbness about him, one he has rarely felt before.
Were the Silver Surfer able to cry, to shed a tear for his fallen home, he certainly would, for the planet of Zenn-La has often been the most important thing in his life. But as to Galactus's design, the Surfer has neither the ability nor the need for bodily functions. Those strings tying him to humanity were destroyed long ago. And now the final, thickest rope of a string holding the man once called Norin Radd to his former life has been broken, shattered into all he can think of as a field of jagged rocks and debris, surrounded by the loneliness of space.
The Silver Surfer is silent and unchanged in appearance, and the others can only imagine what happens in the mind of their space-faring friend.
The Hulk is the first to speak, albeit, with a hush and directly to Valkyrie
"Brunnhilde...what's the deal with this big group? Looks like something big has been going on..."
"Aye, Hulk, a great battle hast taken place...though I must admit, a portion of it has been erased from my mind, as some force seemed to control me for a short spell." She answers, and Patsy overhears them, taking it upon herself to inform them.
"She was taken over by something when she took Beta Ray Bill's hammer from him, and the same thing seemed to be controlling Bill when he followed the Surfer here. The force seems to be evil, since whoever has held the hammer has attacked us..."
"Sounds bad...but still, why all the people?" the Hulk asks, confused.
"I, mineself, felt the presence of Beta Ray Bill's Asgardian mallet, and followed it to the battle already taking place." Valkyrie explains.
"What about these others?" Hulk asks, looking over the expanse of mainly familiar faces. Luke Cage, or Power Man. Hellcat .. Valkyrie .. Silver Surfer...someone who looks like Beta Ray Bill, not without the costume...and then that huge woman.....
"Who's the giant over here?" he asks his female friends as he points to the towering woman among the other heroes.
"Actually, that's something I've been meaning to ask her myself..." Patsy says, confusing the Hulk, and she walks over to their newfound comrade and yells to her.
"Hey! Um...Gina! Yeah that's it..." she remembers the woman's name. "Can you come down here for a sec?"
The woman takes notice and kneels down to hear the small costumed Hellcat speak. Patsy shakes her head, "Haha...not exactly what I had in mind. Can you maybe shrink down...like, to normal size?"
"Oh, I guess." She replies almost annoyed, and concentrates only for a moment before shrinking her body down to its usual size.
This is the first time Hellcat, or any of them, have gotten a good look at their mysterious helper Regina. Her hair is cut right at her shoulders, brown and thick, and curving like her body. She appears to be an older woman, but still in her physical prime, and very attractive with her bright green eyes, voluptuous body, and strong but womanly features. The only thing strange about her, besides the fact that she joined the battle randomly*, is that she did so in completely average street clothes.
(*Along with the others, Regina Garney joined in the battle with Beta Ray Bill in Defenders #2. -Will)
Patsy offers her hand, and Regina shakes it loosely. "I go by Hellcat...glad to have you help us out, but I'm sure all of us are wondering...who are you?" The other woman answers.
"I don't have a special name or anything...this isn't usually my type of thing. My name is Regina McB.....er, I mean Garney. Regina Garney." Patsy does not notice the stumble in her phrasing.
"Glad to meet you, Regina." Regina does not echo Hellcat's friendly tone, or even respond.
"Thou claim to not be a hero, yet so freely you joined our battle...why so?" Valkyrie asks, joining the conversation, and Regina sighs.
"To tell you the truth, I was just trying to hurry things up so me and my son could get home." She says, and the Hulk's eyes bulge some as he exclaims aloud.
"You what?"
"Listen, I've had a long day, and Mark and I were coming home from the grocery store when you super heroes' important battle got in the way like usual. I didn't really care, but we couldn't get back to the apartment until this little squabble was done. So I figured I'd help out...and now it seems like everything is done with, so if I can just get back....."
Patsy interrupts her. "Actually, we have a few problems to deal with still, and I'm sure your growth powers could come in handy..."
It then becomes Regina's turn to interrupt. "I don't have growth powers...or at least, this is the first time I've had them, so far."
"What do you mean?" Patsy asks, but Namor cuts into their discussion.
"The explanation does not really matter, but the answer to the question: will you help us? There are still two problems left to deal with...Beta Ray Bill's hammer, and Doctor Strange's attack in space."
The Hulk has wandered during Namor's sentence, and speaks loudly to the others while looking around at the ground. "Where is the thing, anyway?"
"What 'thing'?" Namor asks.
"You know, Beta Ray Bill's hammer...I don't see it."
Beta Ray Bill walks over and helps Hulk find the frail wooden staff, which the Hulk picks up. "In this form, the presence isn't nearly as strong, but as a staff, I still cannot use its power!" the alien claims, and Hulk looks at it closely.
"This is your hammer? I can't really see anything good about it...doesn't even seem sturdy."
As he says this, the green behemoth strikes the staff on the ground thrice to test its mettle, and as he does so Beta Ray Bill yells, "Hulk, no! The staff..."
But he is too late as another flash of lightning and the sound of thunder are made, and the staff in the Hulk's strong hand changes once again from plain wood to the mystical metal uru, to Storm Breaker, the hammer of Beta Ray Bill.
The Hulk, who rarely yells for any reason besides aggression or anger, nearly screams in agony.
"rrrrrrRRRRRAGGGGH!" The giant creature thrashes about, still holding onto the hammer and drawing the attention of all those nearby.
"Sweet Christmas...everyone get outta the way!" Luke Cage yells, and everyone does so, with or without his encouragement.
Those who took cover wait for some sort of sign to prepare for a fight, one that would be basically hopeless against the world's mightiest mortal possessed. But in their respective positions and places, they hear nothing after the Hulk's scream, and feel no more crashes or rumblings.
Raising her head to see what has happened, Valkyrie frowns and speaks, "What be this? I neither see nor hear anything of danger."
Power Man gets up to force Valkyrie back down into a crouch, but Brunnhilde easily keeps the mortal man from keeping her down.
"For soothe, Power Man...do not attempt to hide me! I need no protection like some sort of pathetic child. And alas, there is nothing to have protection from."
"Huh?" Patsy grunts, and lifts her head up to inspect the scene, and finds the Hulk, as she had expected. But what surprises her is that the emerald goliath is not raging for destruction, or attacking much of anything for that matter.
"Stupid freakin' hammer...."
Not much of anything besides the hammer itself, at least. He throws it down on the ground and dents the road with their combined power. Beta Ray Bill flinches, and speaks.
"My friend, please...Storm Breaker is not a toy to be thrown about!" the alien says, but Hulk does not answer as Hellcat speaks.
"Hulk? Is that you?" Patsy asks him, as the others join her in revealing their bodies once again.
"Of course it's me...no thanks to this damn mallet though." He says, pointing at said weapon and looking back over at his friends.
"What's the deal then? The thing didn't take you over...?" Luke asks, confused like the others, and walks over to the Hulk and the hammer on the ground to figure it out.
"It's not like it didn't try...I felt something trying to control me, but I forced it out. I was too strong for it."
Valkyrie wonders. "Thou was able to shake that which I was completely taken by?"
"Well, I am the Earth's strongest man."
She frowns. "Dost thou hint at something by 'man'?"
"Huh? What're you talkin' about, 'Hilde?"
"Listen, it doesn't matter," Patsy begins, "What does matter, however, is that we've got someone who can touch the hammer without being taken over."
"Ya know Patsy, there's something else about that thing..." the Hulk says to her with some sort of discomfort, and Hellcat can hear it.
"What is it, Hulk?"
"The presence that tried to take me over.....it seemed really familiar, like one I've felt before....."
"Do you know who it is? What it is?" she pleads.
"I'm...really not sure." He does not want to say anything too early, but he has a feeling...
"Think, Hulk. You must know, and so must we." Namor eggs him on, and finally Bruce gives.
"Well, I'm not quite sure...but I meant, I've felt it before...when I used to be around Daimon." He struggles to say this.
"What?" Patsy is the first to wonder.
"Daimon Hellstrom...Hellstrom. Your Daimon, Patsy. I didn't want to say anything yet but I think that's who it is."
A tingling feeling rushes through Patsy Walker's body and she is reminded of someone who she thought was gone forever...her ex-husband, and former fellow Defender, Daimon Hellstrom. She lets her mind wander to the thoughts of him as Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, and the last time she saw him...
Namor interrupts this reminiscence, "Hellstrom is involved?" he asks, and Hulk nods his head slightly.
"I'm pretty sure...I have a knack for feeling that type of thing."
Regina, feeling out of place but still shamefully intrigued by their discussion, speaks out. "Seems like everyone in the super hero in the business knows each other..."
"I guess...but it's hard to put it like that." Hulk says to her.
"What do you mean?"
"You can't always define people as heroes or criminals...some people do stuff different. Some of them are bad at times and then good at times, but it's hard to even say what they do is, for good or whatever." Patsy answers for the Hulk, and Regina nods her head, not completely understanding but finding the urge to want to learn more about what they speak of.
"Enough talk," Namor says, and calls the group together. "We must devise a plan to save Stephen, and after that we can have him exorcise the hammer of whatever force controls it."
"Good deal, but how do we do that?" Hulk asks. "None of us but Surfer here can really do much space traveling, and if the guy took out the Doc, then I dunno how Norin would do against him..."
After a long spell of self-induced silence, the Silver Surfer speaks up. "I will fight more valiantly than ever before for Zenn-La's vengeance." He says boldly and plainly, and almost as if to defend his honor.
"I know you will, buddy, but like I said, I dunno what you'd be dealing with," Hulk explains, "The guy easily took Doc Strange, and to tell you the truth, we don't really know what he's done to him since..."
The Hulk's sentence is abruptly ended when there is a short flicker of light, and another more ominous voice speaks.
"I believe you will find out what the good Doctor has gone through to be quite impairing..."
The large gathering of heroes turn to find Stephen Strange's body, floating unconscious in the air, and stripped of his trademark artifacts...the Cloak of Levitation and the Eye of Agamotto. They find that the man floating erect beside him now wields these two things, a young and strong bald man wearing a flowing brown robe underneath the mystic red cape, power seeming to flow freely about his form.
"...though not quite as permanent as what we have in store for you." The man finishes, and smirks horridly. The others react instinctively.
"Stephen...!" Patsy exclaims, and both the Hulk and Namor take their battle stances below their foe.
"This is the guy who attacked the Doc over by Zenn-La...who are you?" the bulging Hulk asks angrily, pointing his strong finger at the man above.
"I'm sure if Stephen were awake, he could answer you. But alas, he is not..." the man answers, once again avoiding an answer.
Regina immediately grows to her enhanced size and strength, and approaches the mysterious man in the air to strike a giant's blow to him.
The blow is forced back on herself, as Regina hand comes back and strikes herself in the face roughly, causing her to fall down from the power of the blow. Patsy runs to her side, passing by while she approaches their common foe.
"Gina, please be careful...when you're dealing with this type of mystic, you can't just rush him! You have to use your mind and skills..." she says, and Luke Cage agrees negatively.
"That's right, and usually you can leave that sorta thing to the Doc up there...but he's out for now, so who knows what we're gonna do."
"You and the others will do nothing, Luke Cage, as I gathered you all here for a reason. " The man above them announces, and they decide to listen. "For many years I have been gone from this plane of existence, dead to this world and alone in the Astral Realm, as I watched a lesser sorcerer grow happy and gain recognition as a hero, while I wasted eternity as a ghost of a man."
Namor intrudes on him. "A lesser sorcerer? The Doctor is the Sorcerer Supreme...there are few, if any, better than him!"
"Silence." The man responds calmly, and holds out his hand, pointing a long nail at Namor and causing him to grab his chest in pain and fall to the ground, grunting as he does so.
"Woah, watch out there, Subby," Hulk says and catches his partner.
"Now, as I was saying...I could not stand to simply allow this magician to enjoy the fruits of magic after what I had done for him. So throughout my time away, I gathered and absorbed any and all energies in the Astral Realm that I could, until finally I was able to create a new, powerful body for myself in the physical world, and I set out to take what is rightfully mine, and to destroy that which this 'Doctor Strange' has made for himself."
He pauses for a moment, and stares into the faces of those below him. "This is not an attack...this is an execution. Have you not noticed that most of you have all at one time or another been called Defenders?" They look around and notice, with the exception of Regina, that they all have been Defenders at one time or another. "The Defenders have always been the children of Stephen, his pride and joy. If he is without his tools, his title, or his precious creation, then how can he live?"
"So you're just going to kill us all? What about the Surfer, and the Hulk? They're not that easy to get rid of..." Patsy says, trying to intimidate him.
"It is a mere feat for me to kill this man-monster...and as for the former herald, I've already made sure that, even if he were to survive, his life would not be worth living..."
"What do you mean?" Norin says, as his name is mentioned once again and suspecting the foulest of play.
"I believe you know, Surfer...your precious home is no longer in space, or not as a whole, at least."
The Surfer's rage floods him once again. "You? You destroyed Zenn-La?" he says angrily, zooming close to the man on his fabled board and giving him a look to chill most others.
"It was all a part of the plan, boy...Zenn-La, giving the three original Defenders the same vision of your distress call, providing Beta Ray Bill's hammer with a vengeful spirit, making sure that all of you were gathered here today.....none of you, with the exception of this towering woman, are a victim of circumstance."
The Surfer flies in closer and fires strong cosmic energies from his eyes and hands at the man, but he does so in vain. The powerful man simply absorbs the incoming energies as if they were nothing, and Norin realizes that his foe is more powerful than he imagined.
"All of those people...what did they do to you? What have I done to you to deserve such a thing?" the Surfer cries.
"You are a part of this mock sorcerer's organization, and have been involved in bringing joy to the man's life. That is enough." He answers coldly.
"You still haven't told us who you are." Namor says with some pain, still reeling from his previous assault.
"I?" the man asks, smiling slightly as he says so. "I.....I am Stephen Strange's teacher in the mystic arts, I am sorry to say. I am the one called the Ancient One."
The others below remain silent still.
"Well? What have you to say, before you die?" the Ancient One says.
"Um..." the Hulk speaks first, "I don't think any of us really know who you are, buddy."
"What?" the villain's face looks similar to his former frail body's in his scowl, and nearly yells, "You do not know who I am? The Ancient One, former Sorcerer Supreme?"
The others are silent again for a moment, and before the Ancient One can say something else, they finally answer.
"Well...not really." Patsy answers.
"Hmph.....well, fair enough, children. You may not know my greatness, but I am sure that you are quite well acquainted with the being within Beta Ray Bill's hammer, the Storm Breaker."
And before anyone can inquire as to who exactly is in the mallet in question, the Ancient One holds out his hand, in the direction of Storm Breaker, and the hammer begins to float in the air just as Stephen Strange's body does. The weapon slowly glides over to the Ancient One, animated by the touch of magic's unseen fingers. The gathered heroes merely look on as this occurs, and finally Storm Breaker reaches the Ancient One and holds its place seamlessly in midair.
"You may now reveal yourself, Daimon. I am sure you need no introduction."
Elsewhere...
Where there once was an empty alleyway, there is now an inhabited one. The thick form of a sword-wielding character is shrouded with the overbearing buildings around him when he drops as if from nowhere onto the welcoming ground.
"This...this is New York, once more, not England," says the man in a rather archaic fashion. The not-so-distant sound of quaking and loud voices pricks his ear before he may even fully realize his placement.
Thus he runs off towards the direction of the sounds, his cape flowing behind him as the breeze blows through it, leaving the alleyway once again lonely.
There is a shaking within the floating hammer. From its very core comes a rumbling accompanied by a swelling high-pitched scream almost like a violently strong whistle, and within a few short seconds buildings nearby lay in jagged ruins, sidewalks are cracked beyond repair, and the shards of glass from shattered windows sprinkle around the onlookers below as a shower of beautiful, menacing crystals. The sound created is deafening, and Regina turns to the crowd and her home.
"My apartment!" she exclaims with worry, distracted from what occurs in front of her. Regina turns back when the strong, ominous voice takes her ear.
"Your...apartment? It is nothing."
"And who the Hell are...y.....oh..." Regina retorts angrily, stopping herself when she sees the man, or creature, or whatever it is in front of her. The others look on at him too, with astonishment. And Hellcat feels sick to her stomach.
The lightly red-haired being stands tall and noble with an air of heat and madness radiating about him. For some reason, he smiles, revealing a fanged set of teeth.
"Who the Hell, indeed. I am the Son of Satan, little woman, and the Ancient One has released me from my place of imprisonment upon this Earth, and upon you and your friends first."
A wide-eyed Hellcat stands among the others before the man, or half-man, that she once called friend, lover, teammate...husband. Among the mix of emotions she feels is a suddenly conjured memory of the feelings she once had for him in a time that seems quite far away from this moment, all found in the burning eyes of the fiery devil-spawn. Daimon Hellstrom, Son of Satan, Hellstrom...all these and more are the names for this being, and Patsy Walker is frozen beneath his presence.
"I figured it was you, Daimon...You left us a loooong time ago, pal," Hulk states, standing still but ready below the three aloft figures, "And it doesn't look like anyone's too happy that you're back."
"Yet he is returned, mortal, and he is under my power to end you all." The Ancient One claims proudly.
"He is the Son of Lucifer, Ancient One!" Valkyrie adds, herself, "He is under no one's hold but his own!"
"Hold your tongue, Asgardian. You obviously do not realize the power of one who was once mentor to your sorcerer supreme. Daimon was captured under my power before I even left the Astral Plane, and once free, I placed him within Beta Ray Bill's hammer. Possessions are rather common to his blood..."
Still almost frozen in time, Patsy continues looking at her former husband in awe and says to him, very quietly, "Daimon? Is it...true?"
"I'm not one to often speak of truths, woman!" His harsh words are a spear through Patsy's sometimes still girlish heart, and in the pain she feels she fails to notice Daimon's own awkwardness at her question. He raises his cuffed fist, a trident in the other, and flames find form at his fingertips, after which quickly spreading to the seven men and women. They are engulfed with the Hellfire, not burned but lifted in a state of motionless above the tattered streets.
"This is my freedom from the word 'Defenders' ... this is my freedom from all manhood and Earthly ties. This is your END, all of you, and the beginning of a new age for both Hell and Earth." The Devil-Son's tone is as stifling as the field of flame around his victims. "I will be a prisoner or Defender no longer..."
"And for which you will no longer stand, demon!" Ebony black metal shines in the high afternoon sun and the connecting line of Hellfire from Daimon to the Defenders is split. As the seven fall to the ground, each finds a surprising and hopeful sight, the glistening armor and cursed Ebony Blade each making the Black Knight. Hellstrom quickly casts his arm in the direction of the Knight, and he falls from the invisible force of the infernal blow. But he jumps to his feet again with no hesitation, this time blocking another attack from the Hell Prince with his dark sword's blade.
"...Dane?" asks the Hulk.
"Thank God...he's back!*" Hellcat exclaims while she rises with the others.
(*Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, appeared out of nowhere in Defenders #2 only to disappear soon thereafter. -Will)
"You try my patience, knight! What power will you have against the might of the Adversary's very blood?" Hellstrom asks intimidatingly, floating closer to the vigilantly standing Black Knight. "And what of the endless mystics of the Ancient One, Doctor Strange's teacher and better? What will you and your sword and your friends have against that?" Daimon's face is directly in front of the Knight's, so close that Dane can smell his sour breath and feel his acidic spittle splattering on his helmeted face.
"I have only my skills and my sword, Spawn of Satan, as ever," Dane states, raising the sword with his gloved hand, "But that sword is the Ebony Blade, which may carve even the most mystic of things! Have at you!" With these words he spins his arm and hurls the Ebony Blade, missing his apparent target...but embedding itself centered in the chest of the Ancient One himself, who struggles almost helplessly in the air.
Daimon spins to see the ancient wizard, his youth quickly fading in front of his eyes, and with it his power.
"Argggghhh! The Ebony Blade...should have been destroyed long ago, for the sake of all...magic!" the Ancient One says while he tries in vain to pull its piercing black steel from his sternum. An orange-gloved hand finds his while he fumbles with the weapon...
"That's...enough." Those below and the Ancient One himself exhale at the words of the conscious Doctor Strange. He now holds the Ebony Blade, which has on it the black blood of the Ancient One, and thrusts it deeper into his former teacher.
"Ach!" the magician sputters.
"I followed you once, and respected you...you taught me about my vanity and pride. You changed me. And now you have changed," Stephen tells him quietly, floating in front of him with the sword in his hands, "You've gone mad in the Astral Plane, Ancient One, and your pride and jealousness have gotten you this far, and no farther. You've brought yourself a second death." Coursing through the Doctor's experienced hands, through the sword and into the body of the Ancient One, are energies beyond rational explanation that slowly deteriorate the mad mentor's state even further, until his bones are visible and his skin turns to feeble dust, blowing away to reveal not a skeleton but a translucent twin to the Ancient One's destroyed body.
"Return to the Astral Plane," Stephen says to the disembodied spirit, "go there and think about this. You'll be there for a long, long time." Like fog on a rapidly heating window the projection fades, and soon all eyes have returned to Daimon, who rises high above all the others on a pillar of Hell's flame.
"The Ancient One's will was not completely my own, but he made a point I cannot deny! I'm no longer bound to you or humanity, Defenders, and this will not be the end." The pillar crumbles into scattered flames that melt the concrete itself and open a gaping, burning hole in the ground that opens to the nether regions of existence itself. He slowly descends into the orifice, like his fallen father did long ago, and yells maniacally.
"In Hell, it will NEVER end." And then he is gone, and so are his flames and all other traces of his being there, besides the giant, smoldering injury to the New York Street.
As if they were all told to do so, each of the eight assorted people gather around to look through the smoke of the hole into its endless depths. Three women and five men stare into the freshest mark of Hell on our plane, some tired, some heartbroken, some triumphant. Eight faces present themselves to the darkness...and find a temporary ending to their dilemma.
Amidst it all, over the buzzing of the crowd rear to her and the others, Regina finally asks something sheepishly.
".....What's a 'Defender'?"
A Very Private Corner of Hell...
He meant what he said, didn't he?
He really does want to rule both Hell and Earth, and finally, Heaven. He really does want to destroy everything down to the final thought of the Defenders. He really does want to finally exercise his full rights as the Son of Satan himself?
Maybe.
But he also misses the companionship of his friends and the lower rodents called "humans." He misses the thrill of adventure and battle for what should be Good. Most of all, he misses the touch and voice of a recently remembered embracing, red-haired goddess whom he cannot shake the thought of...
Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, meant what he said, didn't he?
No...he didn't. But he is the Prince of Lies, and it is his place to do something like that. He broods on his twisted throne, three-prong fork in hand...and he waits.
NEXT ISSUE: The three original Defenders hold a meeting, people come and go, while a twisted sideshow carny haunts the countryside of Colorado and Hellcat is given an offer that is hard to refuse...all this and possibly more in DEFENDERS #5.
Will Short can be reached at WeekapaugB@aol.com
