Valkyrie
and Hellcat leave the Defenders’ HQ at the Riding academy to attend to some
personal matters. Hulk gets tired of Nighthawk talking and bounces off for some
alone time. Nighthawk takes a bubble bath to revel in being millionaire Kyle
Richmond for a while….
At
the oil refinery, Nick Fury (actually Max Fury) has his men take the
unconscious Jack Norriss away. Moon Knight, watching from above, swoops down
upon them to rescue Jack and ends up in a punishing fight with Fury. Jack
recovers and fights back against the henchmen. At this, Fury decides the
mission is blown and he tosses a gas grenade and he and his men escape….
Val
returns to the Sanctum Sanctorum and is admitted by Wong. She meets Clea who
asks about the golden costume she made for Val in issue #40; Val reveals that
when she magically changes to Valkyrie, it’s the old costume that appears. Clea
modifies the spell and makes some changes to the costume and Val is ready to
go….
Hellcat
heads to Avengers Mansion and discovers Wonder Man alone. Assuming he’s an
interloper she challenges him and, startled, he accidentally wrecks some
machinery. Believing she’s under attack, she puts up a fight and then realizes
Wonder Man is trying to protect her from some collapsing infrastructure, which
is a bit hard to do….
Jack
has Moon Knight take him to Dr. Strange’s mansion where he finds Valkyrie and
Clea. Jack gives them a guarded synopsis of his troubles with SHIELD (involving
the disappearance of Ruby Thursday in DEFENDERS ANNUAL #1) and Val suggests
consulting the Avengers. They head to the mansion and find Wonder Man standing
over an unconscious Hellcat and jump to the same erroneous conclusion. Wondy
finds himself fighting Val and Moon Knight. When Hellcat revives, she tells her
teammates that Wonder Man saved her life, ending the scuffle. Then Nick (i.e.
Max) Fury contacts the Avengers, asking them to find Jack Norriss and turn him
over to SHIELD….