Secret Defenders Spider-Woman and
Wolverine have defeated new bad guys Tokamak and Decimator in an alley in
Phoenix, only to be confronted by the slinky Dreadlox. She unleashes her power
and Logan finds himself fighting the first two bad guys again only for his
berserker rage to take over and when it clears, he sees he has slaughtered his
X-Men friends. Meanwhile, SW has just seen her young daughter die violently in
multiple ways. Dreadlox reveals that her power is to make her victims see what
they most dread. As firefighters and police arrive at the burning hotel, the
three villains depart, leaving the heroes to their own devices….
In another alley a few blocks away,
homeless Mary and George are confronted by Nomad and Darkhawk who want to know
about the bank robbery, if the three bandits said anything that might help the
heroes identify them. Mary mentions that one of them called her “Grannie,”
which is her nickname on the streets; was the robber just being rude, or did he
really know her name? Nomad and DH take them to the police station where they
identify the teen crook who aged to death as their friend Lester. Nomad and
Darkhawk meet up outside the city with Wolverine and Spider-Woman and they
catch each other up on events. They decide they need to talk to Doctor Strange;
a phone call to his home gets the answering machine, leading to a frustrated
Logan ripping apart the phonebooth. They theorize that Strange’s previous
mental contact with them may have created a psychic link with him so they
concentrate and it works: they are transported to a mystic realm where they see
Doctor Strange in combat with Nightmare. The villain unleashes a pack of
soul-eating nasties on them. Strange orders them out so they break mental
contact and find themselves safely back in Phoenix. They are approached by fans
asking for photos and autographs but make their getaway….
As the police are escorting
Tabitha, the female robber to the downtown precinct, they notice that she seems
older. Then Spider-Woman webs the cops and snatches Tabitha away….
Elsewhere, Mary and George arrive
at a darkened doorway, the address of the Second Chance Institute and they
enter; Darkhawk, assigned to follow them, changes into his Chris Powell
identity and sneaks in after them. He spies on a meeting presided over by a
skull-faced woman called Macabre who is rebuking Dreadlox, Tokamak, and
Decimator for failing to eliminate Logan and SW. Then Chris knocks something
over, alerting them to his presence and he tries to escape, running into
Stasis, a bad guy. Chris punches Stasis who hits him back, knocking Chris out,
as his power consists in absorbing any force turned against him and returning
the same amount. The irony is that had Chris just run past him, Stasis could
not have stopped him. And then the Defenders crash through the wall, knocking
Dreadlox out and engaging in battle with the others, not recognizing Chris as
they have never seen him without his armor. Then Macabre stops them, holding
Chris and Tabitha by their necks, she threatens to drain their life forces, killing
them unless the Defenders surrender….
