The Defenders

“Clash of the Titans”

By Edward Ainsworth

Warehouse D, Richmond Industries

Kyle Richmond was starting to regret ever re-forming the Defenders. Ever battle that had occurred, every event that had broken its way through dimensional barriers, had been met with the X-Men or the Avengers or the Fantastic Four...even the bloody Power Pack.

Now he was sat in silence as the rest of the Defenders milled around him in their ‘communal’ area. He'd purchased a warehouse for them as place where they could all stay, and had provided them all with their needs...places to sleep and live, company, food, companionship as well as entertainment. He'd sold his loft and spent some of his own company’s money on converting the place.

He was waiting to hear back from some more potential ‘outcast’ recruits, like Shadow-Woman. Jillian had actually approached him for a place on the team. Perhaps word was finally getting around.

The living area was massive: seven sofas around a huge 50 inch plasma screen TV. On the screen currently was some horrid abomination of an MTV reality show about Mutants. It made him sick to his stomach but the other members of the team appeared to be enjoying it.

He looked over at the people sharing the room with him. Gargoyle, the 100 year old World War One vet, slept with large, deep snores on the sofa, a book and an empty cup of tea resting on his face and chest respectively, while Red Raven and Hellcat sat on another sofa, leafing through the pages of a gossip magazine. Patsy was teaching Dania about fashion and she appeared to be enjoying it a lot.

Kyle looked behind him toward the Kitchen area. Considering how dangerous and violent Daimon was, it was especially incongruous to see him teaching Devil-Slayer to make tiny French pastries, although the smell was incredible and it set Kyle's stomach off gurgling.

He closed his eyes again, listening to the banter between Blue Shield and Woodgod as Valkyrie watched the awful show on MTV. Suddenly, the room went dead, as vibrations shot through the warehouse and MTV interrupted its broadcast to show shocking footage.

Whatever had created the shock-wave was directly on the TV before them.

“Suit up, Defenders!” Kyle leapt to his feet, looking around the room to his fellow warriors in arms. Patsy's clothes dissolved into her Hellcat gear, as most of the other members of the team ran towards their respective rooms to get hold of their costumes or armor.

“What are we facing, Kyle?” she asked, pulling her dark blue gloves taught against her fingers.

“Not sure really; hold on, I'm getting a call,” he looked down at his pocket, as he pulled the Blackberry the other Defenders had given him free. It was Jillian.

“Kyle, It's Jill. There's something big going on in the center of the city. I don't really recognize anyone, but there's a blue Hulk in there as well. I think it's a Hulk; certainly looks like one anyway. I'm going to try and engage, but I hope to God that you're going to come along shortly.” The call went dead, as the other Defenders began to line up around Kyle.

“Okay, we've got a big fight going on in the city. Apparently, one of those colored Hulks is there. We need to get in, beat these guys up and rescue anyone we can...and for god sakes, will someone wake up Issac?” He thumbed over his shoulder to Gargoyle who was still sleeping like a baby. A very loud baby.

The City Center

The billowing folds of the Shadow Cloak opened with the sound of crisp leather being pulled taught. Devil-Slayer's form flickered into existence first, then the other Defenders all walked from the folds of the Cloak.

“That was fucking horrific, even by my standards,” Daimon said, shaking his head and running his hand through his long hair.

“You always were a moaner,” Patsy said, firing him an angry look, quickly followed by the same look again from Red Raven.

“No infighting,” Kyle said, holding his stomach; his own face was covered with tiny beads of sweat. He hated that thing...Hated It. “We don't have time for it now. I want you and Patsy to at least be civil with each other, Daimon.”

Daimon offered a scowl to Kyle as he pulled his trident from the depths of Hell. “I am being civil, Richmond. You'd do well to talk to me with the respect my station deserves,”

Kyle screwed his face up and walked over to Daimon, grabbing him by the lapels of his leather coat, pulling him close to his face.

“I have the eyes of a devil and super strength in darkness, and I don't need any of that to take you apart, you little arrogant shit. You agreed to follow me in the Defenders, so you shut your mouth and you act like you deserve to be here, rather than impaling idiots who are stupid enough to under-estimate you're words and lies down in your little hellish hotspot, ALRIGHT?” Kyle yelled, releasing the demon and letting him take a step backwards.

Daimon quirked an eyebrow.

“You've changed, Kyle,” Patsy said after a few moments, looking up at him from her position on all fours, a look that lasted too long.

“We know our roles. We're here to save the day, so let’s make sure we can actually do that, right?” Kyle barked, leaping off the side of the building and letting his wings and jet pack splay out behind him, taking him towards the centre of the disturbance.

“Oh...Jesus,” Kyle said to himself, landing on a rooftop closer to the fight. It appeared to be a monumental free-for-all. The Blue Hulk held a woman with auburn hair and a figure to die for against the ground, his massive hand pinning her to the concrete while she screamed bloody murder. To the other side of him, a man who appeared to be comprised of pure energy was pummelling his fists into another glowing man, who appeared to be much older than the others. Each blow bouncing off what appeared to be a protective shield.

Kyle put two fingers to his ear and spoke to the rest of the team.

“Change of plans: I need everyone who's strong enough to come to my position. Here's how it breaks down...” As Kyle barked orders, he noticed something strange about the Hulk: its lips were moving as it pushed down on the woman's body, her own strength holding him off her, for the moment. She appeared to be waning, or whatever the Hulk was saying was having an effect on her.

The Defenders leapt into action to attempt to separate the combatants from each other. With a slash of his trident and a club to the stomach, the Energy man was sent rocketing backwards into a nearby building. Devil Slayer and Daimon nodded to each other as they slowly walked towards the flickering being.

“Apha...An...An../And...Om...Omega,” it sputtered as sparks flew from its broken mouth.

Daimon's eyes glowed brightly for a moment, before refocusing on the Devil Slayer. “Android. Don't hold back,” he advised, running forward and throwing his trident like a javelin.

Across the road, Gargoyle's flaming breath kept the older man at bay for the moment, burning a hole in the street before him.

“Why are you doing this?” Blue Shield asked, his personal force field snapping into place as laser vision from the white bearded man bounced off it and scoured holes in the side of a building.

“Wundar wishes to know why you attack him, as the Energy man does?” he asked as Gargoyle narrowed his eyes.

“Do we...Know each other?” he asked, as the older man backhanded Gargoyle into and through some large windows of the building nearby.

Shaking some of the glass form his head, Isaac got to his feet unsteadily and leaned on the window ledge to get a better look.

“Yes, I think I do know you,” Gargoyle said with a hint of sadness in his eyes.

“Jillian?” Kyle pressed his blackberry to his ear and waited for some response. There was a low sort of cracking and then the line went dead. Kyle swallowed heavily and tapped away at the device. He was looking for a signal from her phone.

“Found it,” Leaping across the expanse, he charged through the wall before him, having thrown a number of explosive fletchettes from his ‘wings-tips’ into the wall to soften it up.

Barrelling through the wall, he skidded to a halt. Jillian lay before him, her armor ruined and her bare skin facing up to him. She had tried to coat her broken areas in Dark-Force energy, but her arm was at such an odd angle that it was barely recognizable as a limb.

“Jillian, are you alright?” Kyle asked, crouching down to grab hold of her.

“I've...seen better...” she managed, looking up with a blood caked eye.

“God, I am so sorry we didn't get here sooner,” Kyle said, grasping her good hand tightly.

She winched at his touch. “It's not your fault; I shouldn't have got involved when I did. That Hulk...it's always muttering to itself, always talking, and it's so strong...”

Kyle looked out through Jillian's entry into the building, a large hole of smashed mortar and brickwork. “We'll sort this, Jillian, and get you some medical treatment,” he said, walking towards the edge of the building. The Hulk was still there, as well as the others and, as his team approached it to do battle, Woodgod let out a scream of animalistic rage as he swung his massive fist into the side of the Blue Hulk’s face.

The huge azure creature released his grip on the red-headed woman as he hurtled off the surface of the road and into a nearby car, which was quickly returned toward Woodgod's direction. Ducking underneath it, he charged towards the Hulk, his hooves clicking on the floor as he leapt upwards and brought his linked hands down against the back of the Blue Hulk's skull, knocking his head into the Woodgod's Knee.

“I see we have both changed, Hulk, since we last battled,” Woodgod began, as Valkyrie shoulder-barged the Hulk into a building and brought the hilt of Dragonfang upwards into his jaw.

“YIELD!” she yelled, as the Hulk simply looked upwards, his lips moving silently, as he muttered under his breath.

“What are you saying? WHAT IS IT?” Valkyrie yelled, as the Woodgod put a hand on her shoulder.

“It's an equation, Valkyrie, and equation that just got more complicated. He's adding in more variables he's...” The backhand from the Blue Hulk caught her off guard, sending her hurtling through the air and past the red-headed woman. Her Sword clattered to a halt next to her, as she hit and broke through a lamppost and crashed into the side of a car, turning it over onto its side.

“If you've hurt her...” Woodgod began as the Blue Hulk grabbed hold of his horns and swung him in the air, smashing him three times into the floor and then drop kicking him upwards into the sky.

“Good Lord,” Kyle muttered to himself, watching Woodgod fall towards the surface of the street.

He put his fingers to his ear again. “Patsy, Dania...I want you to disengage your attack run on the red-head and get after the Blue Hulk. I want him contained. See if you can get the red-head to help us.”

“Her Name's Thundra,” came Hellcat's reply, as she bounced along next to the other-dimensional Warrior. “I've fought with her before. She's very, very strong. We're going to engage the Hulk, but Dania and I are keeping our distance. We just saw Valk and she's not looking so strong at the moment.”

Kyle spun around and slammed his fist into a piece of mortar work. “Damnit! This is all falling apart so quickly! We need to contain this quick. Devil Slayer, are you there?”

“Busy, Richmond,” came the annoyed response from Devil Slayer. His mace had just been burned to slag by a beam of energy from the Android, with Daimon's trident lodged in its chest.

“That wasn't the best move in the world was it?” Daimon asked, swinging his fist into the side of the Android’s head. It shot backwards as the robotic entity spouted more musings of Alpha and Omega, before kicking Daimon through a wall.

“I'm not going to stand for this you know,” Simon said, pulling two swords from his cloak and swinging them both towards the automaton. It threw its hands upwards, grabbing one of the blades and twisting it, forcing Devil Slayer to let go. The other sword lodged itself in the armor of the human facsimile. Simon put all of his considerable strength into it, trying to push it further into the robot as Daimon came charging back with a halo of fire burning over his head; his elbow cracked into the neck of their combatant. Stumbling forwards, the robot left off an omni-directional burst of energy, knocking the pair of them off their feet.

Devil Slayer heard a scream of pain and, spinning around, he saw Blue Shield engaging the Blue Hulk and being flung through the air and into a building some distance away. “Damnit, we're losing this.” He reached into his cloak and pulled out a massive axe, which he swung through the air towards the robot's shins. It clattered against one, knocking it off balance. As the robot tried to get to its feet, Simon ran forward and forced a boot up against its jaw, kicking it out of alignment.

Daimon grabbed hold of his trident and rammed it further into the body of the machine as it sputtered more sparks.

“I think we've got him on the ropes, Daimon,” Devil Slayer said. He turned around to see the Hulk charging towards them. “Uh, we've got incoming!” he said, leaping out of the way of the Hulk, vaulting over his shoulders as he swung his massive fist into the android and Daimon, knocking them both through the building before them.

“Shit!” screamed Kyle, watching the proceedings below. “We've got Defenders down! I need a sit-rep!” he yelled into his ear piece.

“Valkyrie, Woodgod, Blue Shield and maybe Hellstorm are down. Gargoyle’s back in play,” Patsy relayed to him.

Kyle spun around and went back to Jillian. “Jill, I know your arms are broken, but we need you, the Defenders need you. I have three confirmed and one possible man down; I'm going to need you to help us out. We need darkness, well, I need darkness. My strength comes from the night – Do you think you can simulate it?”

Jillian nodded slowly, as the sky began to cloud over with Darkness. It was only a tiny dome of Darkness, but it was enough that Kyle began to feel himself growing stronger. He smiled at Jillian, who had managed to get herself sat up.

“I'll be back soon,” he said, leaping out of the window and destroying a patch of asphalt as he landed.

Racing towards the Hulk, he shot past Thundra, who was wiping blood from her split lip. “He hits hard,” Thundra said, getting to her feet and running after Nighthawk.

The Robot got to its feet, energy glowing around its eyes and fists. Devil Slayer managed to avoid the first punch, ducking low and thrusting the spear he'd just yanked from his cloak into the already broken chest area of the android. It pieced the armor, but stuck fast. Simon didn't have time to avoid the other fist that came down hard on his lower back. A sickening crack was heard and Simon didn't even have enough time to scream before he was unconscious.

“Damnit!” Kyle screamed, leaping through the air and pulling his foot back. He landed the kick squarely in the side of the android’s head, knocking it almost clean off. Sparks and energy gurgled out of the half covered neckhole as the Android fell over, sputtering and muttering about Omega and Alpha the Unknowns.

“Sorry I'm late,” Kyle said as the Hulk threw his fist down into the ground, muttering still. Thundra leapt on his back, ramming her elbows down onto the back of the beasts head as its words began to get louder.

“Where the hell is Gargoyle?” Kyle asked. As if answering his prayers, Gargoyle and the Shielded man shot towards the Hulk from above. Wundarr's fists were firmly forwards as he plowed into the Hulk, smashing into the back of his head and driving his face and all of his body into the ground.

“We just need to have a talk,” Isaac said, landing next to Kyle, watching Wundarr and Thundra belt the hell out of the Hulk, who was pinned to the ground.

“Hang on a second, I have a plan,” Kyle said, pulling his ear plug out and opening his hand to Gargoyle. “Give me your ear-plug,”

Isaac removed it and placed it in Kyles hand. He smiled and jumped in the air, slamming both of his feet down on the Hulk’s head. Moving quickly, he pushed both the ear-plugs into the Hulk’s ears and vaulted back off.

He landed in a crouch and opened up his wrist panel, pressing a few buttons on the communicator.

“What are you doing?” Gargoyle asked, leaning over Kyle's shoulder.

“Well, from what it seems, this Hulk's been going and going and going and all the time he's muttering something. I heard Woodgod saying that he's doing an equation, so I thought that might have something to do with his staying power, right?”

He looked over at Gargoyle, who was busy processing the information. He looked across at the fight, as Thundra's face exploded through the asphalt, bouncing her off the pavement and into a lamppost.

“I'll explain in a minute, Isaac.” He pressed a button on his wrist and the Hulk stopped and screamed in pain. He grabbed hold of his ears and tried to reach inside.

“Stop him from pulling them out!” Kyle called. Wundarr put two large force fields around his hands, preventing him from getting his fingers inside his ears.

“So, I figure if we interrupt his concentration and he can't do this equation...what happens?”

Isaac still paused, watching the Hulk, as the rest of the Defenders manage to pull him on the ground.

“So, What does happen?” Isaac asked.

Kyle rubbed his brow softly and got to his feet. “He's getting weaker, Kyle. He's getting weaker and now that's he's weak enough to contain, we're going to need to bring him, as well as everyone else, back to the warehouse and make sure that our injured are treated.”

“How is he getting weaker though?” Isaac asked again.

Kyle rolled his eyes. “Because he can't concentrate, because I'm pumping Korn into his brain at the loudest setting available.”

Isaac whirled around, only to receive a fist to the face from the still barely functioning form of the android.

“Ome...Omeg...Omega the Unknown-wn-wn-” It sputtered. It stumbled forwards, grabbing for Kyle. It slipped and fell, but its body slowly melted away. Despite his inability to move and the searing pain in his back, Devil Slayer was slowly pulling the Android down into his cloak.

“That proves that I'm better than you, you piece of crap...” He looked upwards at Kyle, who offered him a supportive smile.

“We'll get you fixed up, Simon,”

His eyes lulled and his head dropped to the floor as Daimon managed to push the last piece of rubble off his bruised form.

“I see that you fixed the situation without me, Kyle, So? What now?” Daimon asked, putting his hands on his hips.

“Gather the hurt and the prisoners and return to the warehouse,” Kyle said, without a hint of hesitation.

The Defenders Warehouse

Kyle sat in silence. Their first mission, their very first mission with him as a leader, had resulted in this many injuries. He looked at Simon, laying on his front, his body pinned in place. His back had been broken in six places by the Android. How was he going to recover from that? He was probably going to be paralyzed for the rest of his life.

It had created an odd bond of friendship between Devil-Slayer and Hellstorm, but that wasn't something to be proud of creating. Hellstorm was a duke in Hell, and all Kyle had managed to do was provide Simon with a way to never walk again.

Jillian was in the bed next to him, sat up and smiling as Jericho Drumm, a psychologist and practicing medical professional, kept by Kyle on a Defenders retainer, set her arms in splints and covered them in plaster to prevent further breakage.

Kyle shook his head again. Jillian wasn't even a full Defender and she'd put herself on the line for the team. What had he done? Used her powers to strengthen himself to beat up a Hulk and allowed her to suffer such a big injury.

Kyle averted his gaze from Jillian as she tried to look at him. He walked passed her bed towards where the rest of the less injured Defenders were resting. As it turned out, despite being bounced through a building, Blue Shield was remarkable resilient and his forcefield worked just as well inside his body as it did outside his body.

It made Kyle think that given enough training, it could potentially make him almost indestructible.

Valkyrie and Woodgod were sitting close to each other, tending to each other's bruises. Despite the beating that they’d received, they were no worse for wear than any of the other Defenders, with the exception of the two laid up in bed.

Kyle stopped at the end of the medical bay and looked down the hallway. In the distance, in two containment units, the Blue Hulk sat in silence, the walls sound proofed to the loud music that was being pumped in there all day.

Wundarr and Thundra had been offered Defenders status and some temporary quarters while they sorted themselves out, but Kyle was certain Thundra was going to make herself a problem. She'd already started a fight with Patsy and Red Raven, and they'd only been back at the base for an hour and a half.

Rubbing his temples gently, he walked towards his office. He had paperwork to complete. Pushing the door open, he quickly turned on his heels and let out a disturbed grunt.

“Patsy, this isn't really appropriate,” Kyle said quickly, putting a hand against the door frame. Behind him, spread naked on the desk was the beautiful form of Patsy Walker, her red hair falling over her shoulders and covering her nipples.

“The way you spoke to Daimon today, Kyle, it's like you're a different person. You're strong and confident and...”

“Like Daimon before you married him,” Kyle cut her off and sighed, keeping his gaze away from her body. “You and he...have some serious unresolved issues, Patsy. While you're beautiful...amazing, and while I am, extremely lonely at the moment, I don't think this is a situation I want to get involved in, you know?”

Patsy purred and sauntered towards him, running her hands over his chest and starting to unbutton his shirt.

He grabbed her wrist and pulled it away. “No means no, Patsy. I don't know what they taught you in model school, but it doesn't mean ‘Let’s say no, but do it anyway’. I’'m a man of principles. Also...I'm scared of having my face burnt off by a trident,” Kyle added, dropping her hand at her side and stepping around her, heading towards his desk.

Patsy let off a small sigh, rubbing the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes.

“It's hard, Kyle, you know? It's not often I feel attracted to someone and, more importantly, HE is always hanging over me. Always. It's like I'm not allowed to move on, to be with someone new,” she said, leaning in the doorway.

Kyle sat down heavily in his chair and leaned back, looking at the ceiling.

“Come over here and just talk to me, Patsy. That's how people really connect. By talking,” Kyle gestured towards the seat in front of him and threw his jacket onto it. “But cover those breasts of yours okay, otherwise I wouldn't be able to hold up my end of the conversation,”

Patsy offered a wry smile as she picked up and put the jacket on.

“Now Kyle, holding up is exactly the sort of effect I was after...”

To Be Continued...

Next: In Defenders #6: SPACE THE FINAL FRONTIER! These are the Violence of the Big Four Defenders.

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