Hercules and the bad guys Griffin, Man-Bull, and Basilisk face
Kyknos, son of Ares, and his Warhawks in what the baddie calls the war of All
Against All. The two challenge one another with Herc proclaiming himself the
city’s champion. But the crowd attacks Herc, thinking he’s the bad guy and Herc
is forced to use the Shield of Peleus to turn the mob to stone (temporarily) to
protect them from themselves. Basilisk and Man-Bull run for their lives as more
people capture Hercules to bring him to Kyknos as prisoner. But Griffin, now
transformed into mostly winged lion and a friendly one at that, swoops down and
carries off Hercules, as the Warhawks, including Helene Panayiotou, shoot at him. Herc
wonders how to help the city, drowning in chaos….
He comes upon some quarrelling neighbors in the Carroll
Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, a landlord and a tenant fighting over bedbug
control. Herc lands and tries to mediate but a little girl stabs him in the
back with garden shears and her parents assault the hero. He pushes them off
and proclaims that no one will get the object they are fighting over, slicing
it in two with his sword before flying off on Griffin. The beast takes him to
the rooftop of George Michael’s restaurant where he hopes to find treatment for
his injuries but George Michael shoots him (knocking the shears out of his
back), blaming him for the city going crazy, including his daughter. In a
nearby park, children are being terrorized by vicious dogs (the result of
Hecate’s return) and Griffin swoops down and carries the two hounds away. He
returns to the rooftop where he tries to feed raw dog meat to Hercules who
recoils though he admits he has eaten dog before, just not raw. Herc searches
through the pockets of his new garment and discovers a roll of bandages and
dresses his own wound. Herc mediates on the climax to the Chaos War and how he
had the power and responsibility to remake the world and one of his actions was
to resurrect Kyknos as the Great Villain a Great Hero needs but he did not
count on losing his powers. Now he sinks into despair….
Rhea makes it back to her apartment after negotiating the
treacherous streets of terrorized Brooklyn but she finds Helene Panayiotou and some Warhawks there.
Helene jokes about Rhea’s interest in the political theory of rights, holding
out Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan as the source of the Warhawks’ philosophy
of All Versus All. And they take her hostage….
Kyknos prays to his father Ares, thanking him for revealing
his purpose: to remake the world in Ares’ image to prepare it for Ares’
resurrection. Hecate joins him, seeking revenge for Zeus’ having forbidden interference
with the world of men which resulted in her memory being wiped. She intends to
start with Hercules, whose greatest fear is the return of Kyklos and Ares. And
she conjures up a multitentacled monster….
At dawn, Hercules awakens, rested and refreshed and adopting
a more optimistic attitude than the night before. And then he discovers the
city is a hellscape, filled with dead trees….