Hercules, with his
companions Recorder 417 and Skyppi, is escaping from the planet Deniciere via
the chariot of Apollo when they find they are being pursued by the planet’s
patrols. Herc seizes the opportunity to leap onto one of the patrol craft and
force the pilots to parachute to safety. This, however, leaves the chariot
uncontrolled and it crashes into a building, causing Skyppi and Recorder to
smash into private rooms terrorizing the occupants. Cleaning up, Herc finds
that Recorder is damaged so they head to Starstation Philord where he can be
repaired….
At the Starstation,
members of the maintenance workers union are greeting their candidate for Union
President, Parnal Banak. But one of the workers suddenly metamorphoses into the
armored hero Red Wolf. Red Wolf accuses Banak of being a Skrull and
assassinates him. He fights off security guards until they join forces to shoot
him down—but Red Wolf is gone, replaced by an ordinary man. And then they
discover that Red Wolf was right, Banak was a Skrull in disguise….
As they approach the
Startstation, Skyppi convinces Herc to avoid violent confrontations, the Greek
god resolving to contain himself and seek reason. Herc and Skyppi (disguised as
a little human girl) drop Recorder off at a repair shop and they are
immediately surrounded by guards who have been warned about him by Deniciere.
Skyppi suddenly turns into a bug and clings to a guard’s boot, while Hercules,
restrained by his resolve, meekly surrenders and is placed in a cell….
On Mount Olympus, Zeus
moves through the palace, killing each god he encounters, including Dionysus
and Hephaestus, but Apollo flies through space to safety, or so he thinks….
In his cell, Hercules
looks in a mirror and discovers he is aging, and it is a shock. His cellmate,
Rojohn Smythe (i.e. Red Wolf) reveals that he was an archaeologist who, on the
legendary planet Talbos, entered a temple where he was transformed into Red
Wolf, embodiment of the Talbosian god, and dedicated to the mission of
destroying the entire Skrull race who had earlier exterminated the Talbosinas.
In the days that followed he found himself turning into Red Wolf in the
presence of any Skrull and tasked with killing it. Then Skyppi arrives,
disguised as a guard and Herc warns him away but Smythe turns into Red Wolf and,
smashing out of the cell, attacks him, also fighting Herc when he tries to
protect his friend. The battle between the two powerful heroes sees them
crashing though the floors into the lower decks, which becomes a problem when
Red Wolf shoots a hole in an airlock, casting them both into space. Herc saves
Red Wolf who promises him a boon in return. And the boon Herc asks is for Red
Wolf to distract the guards while Herc, Skyppi and the newly repaired Recorder
hop in their chariot and zoom away….