Now
that the Defenders have broken up (last issue), Hellcat calls on her friend Wasp
to pick up her and Valkyrie in an Avengers Quinjet so they can search for the
runaway James-Michael Starling as a favor to the latter’s friends Ruth Hart,
Amber Grant, and Richard Rory. They give Val and Patsy a short version of
James-Michael's history and his mysterious connection with the silent superhero
Omega. But as they head for the site of JM’s car crash that killed his parents
in Pennsylvania, they see that they are being followed by alien spacecraft….
In
Las Vegas, Navada, Ruby Thursday, disguised as a police officer, visits the
morgue. She summons her demonic pal Dibbuk and together they steal the dead
body of Omega the Unknown so that she can study the cybernetic body and perhaps
incorporate it into her own physiology….
Meanwhile,
James-Michael Starling and his friend Dian Wilkins are at his parents’ home in
Pennsylvania, where they have discovered robot duplicates of his dead robot
parents. Then the voices in JM’s head become intolerable. He recalls his
disintegrating mother’s last words not to listen to the voices. Then he becomes
aware that someone has found them and they flee….
It’s
the killer robots of Protar who have found him and the Defenders and company
see the flying saucers stop and beam down robots who pursue JM. One corners JM
intending to kill him but JM fires a blast out of the omega on his palm,
destroying his foe. Hellcat and Valkyrie jump into the fight and assault the
robots. JM convulses and hurries back into the house. Wasp arrives and joins
the battle, having stopped to let the passengers off in a safe area. Hellcat
runs to the Quinjet and sends out a call for help….
Back
in New York, Nighthawk returns to his office only to be met by a government
official serving him an injunction that prevents him from becoming Nighthawk
and going out on adventures so that they can keep an eye on him….
On
the Virginia Seaboard, Hulk encounters a large silver glob that wants to study
him to see if he would make a suitable servant for its Master; rebellious Hulk
punches the glob and bounces off….
The
three women heroes are losing to the robots when help arrives in the form of
Moondragon beaming down from her ship, already aware of the situation. She
stands before the robots and denies them entry to the house. Suddenly a massive
flash of light comes from within the house. The robots note that the energy
they were tracking has vanished and they must locate it once again, and they
depart in peace. Richard Rory asks why they would let the bad guys just leave;
Moondragon states that the robots meant none of them harm, pointing out that
they only stunned Wasp and Valkyrie when they could easily have killed them.
They hear Dian scream in the house and dash inside to discover that
James-Michael is gone and the corpse of Omega the Unknown left in its place….