He pressed his hands against the invisible barrier, testing to find a weak point. But he met only resistance. He pushed his back against the ground, hoping that perhaps the barrier is only above him. The ground gave way for a moment, but only enough to increase his frustration as the lower half of the field declares it's presence.

He triggered the transformation. He felt his molecules start spreading out. Slowly at first, and then increasing in speed as they drift further and further apart. To the untrained eye, the transformation from solid into mist is an instantaneous process. To one going through it however, it's a painfully slow and detailed process, one that exacts a toll of it's own. He tried to flow through the cracks in the field, but after an exhausting search, he found none. The force field was complete and intact, despite the series of blows he had dealt it from within.

As Hannibal King reformed his body, he allowed himself a moment of panic. But no more than that. After all, he reasoned, letting it out momentarily was only realistic. But falling straight into complete panic, even in when all appeared hopeless was the surest way to complete a self-fulfilling prophecy.

He continued to lay on his back, all attempts to get into a better position had yielded enough information to let him know that it wasn't just a random attack on whomever had been happening by. The field was set to his own specifications, his own height and girth. There was only enough space for his prone body, and none to spare.

He stared up at the stars, wondering who has done this to him, and why. The who was the hard part. He'd made enough enemies during his time hunting his own kind - and more during his time with the Defenders. But who would come up with using technology like THIS? The why though... he stared up at the stars and had figured that one out early on. The stars were only going to be visible for so long. After which they would be replaced by their closer cousin.

At which time - he would be dead.

Hannibal King stared at the stars and watched the journey of the moon across the sky, counting down the time remaining in his undead life.

MV1 #188 December Year 3

United Nations

Moonstone looked off to her left and nodded. Moonglider catches her movement and returned the gesture. They, as well as Northstar and Ceciliia Reyes of the Defenders were surrounded by the forces of the Crime Cartel, but that didn't mean they were down yet. "Now" Moonstone mumbled, more to herself than anyone else.

No one would know that from the result though.

Moonglider took to the air, ramming into the rapidly descending assassin Boomerrang. Moondancer flipped into the air, coming down between Hammer and Anvil. She grabbed hold of the energized chain between them without a wince. Without a single word, she moved with an eerie grace and tremendous strength throwing the chain, with the two former convicts attached, hurling toward the river.

Moonscythe jumped forward from a full standing position to meet the attack of Nitro head to head with the blunt of the latter half of his namesake.

Moonstone herself took to the air, avoiding the pounding fist that was Hydroman as his water form took shape and began attacking from the river itself.

Northstar moved Cecilia out of the way of the first blow, but found himself watching with more than a bit of envy when the second literal wave bounces off the surface of her glimmering force field.

South of Houston Street (aka SoHo)

The city opened up to her. It did it every time her feet hit the pavement. It spoke to her, showed her some of it's secrets. Not anywhere near to all of them, nor even the more important ones. But they were secrets just the same. Ones that Rina sometimes enjoyed seeing and sometimes wished would just go away.

They were flashes of time, she realized from the first time it had occurred. Channeled through the city, the moments of time in the fastest city on earth flowed through the acres of concrete into her, seeking someplace warm to grow and fester, wanting someone to see them, to acknowledge that they too had once existed, that those things had occurred.

She saw all comers. But the ones that kept creeping up were the ones that kept her up at night. Moments containing the lives of those she had served with in the New Warriors, of the people she hadn't been there to save.

She saw them going to the store and buying mac and cheese. She saw them having sex. She saw them dying. Every moment she thought possible came to her, from the streets, from the birds and the rodents of the city - she saw them all.

She heard them... screaming...someone was screaming. No, not screaming...crying. Someone...she turned the corner and saw something on the sidewalk... someone nearby.

She approached cautiously, realizing that it was a picnic basket. The sound was coming from inside. She reached down and opened the lid. There was a baby inside, it's face bright red with tears.

She looked around, but there was no sign of anyone else. "What's your name little fellow?" she wondered aloud, as she looked back into the basket.

The baby's face lit up, his tears evaporating into thin air. He smiled at her and reached his tiny hand toward her.

She reached out to take it...

"STOP!!!!!" a familiar woman's voice called out. Rina froze her hand and turned toward the voice.

A woman wearing a hooded cloak pulled down over her features was standing in front of her, as if from thin air.

"Don't take his hand." the woman warned.

"Who are... is this your baby?" Rina asked.

The woman nodded. "You mustn't come in contact with him. Not yet at least. It was enough of a risk to send him here... but with everything going on, I had forgotten..."

"Forgotten?" Rina started, trying to catch a glimpse of the face of the woman who sounded so familiar, and yet not so. "Do I know you?"

The woman didn't answer. "Just stay away from the baby. For now at least."

Rina thought she heard a smile in the woman's voice.

"Are you taking him back..." Rina started, but the woman was already shaking her head.

"I won't be touching him either. It's too dangerous. There will be someone coming for him soon. Actually there's a couple different people coming for him, but hopefully the good guys will get here first."

"Would you like me to wait?" Rina asked, concerned.

The woman started to shake her head, but then nodded. "I can't very well say no now, can I? But try to keep back. And whatever you do - whatever you see - don't interfere... unless..."

"Unless...?"

"It's better not to even think of THAT. Just don't interfere, ok?"

Rina reluctantly nodded. She looked back to the baby. He smiled at her. She found herself smiling back.

Lower East Side

She watched from a distance as Northstar and Cecilia Reyes fought alongside the Moonguard against the Crime Cartel. She saw Northstar take down Boomerang with a series of lightning fast blows to the head and chest. She noted that Solarr blasted Moondancer. She watched as Moonglider picked up the Balilisk from behind, and left him pinned by his armored chest plate catching on top of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines flagpole. At least she hoped it was an armored chest plate. She watched, and waited... and probed. Lorna Dane, better known as Polaris, reached out her mind along the natural magnetic ley lines, manipulating them subtly. A touch here, a touch there... and it was done.

She reached out to the unique energy signatures of her teammates, tapping out what was happening - as well as who else she had detected in the vicinity.

She closed her eyes tight and let her energy flow through the ley lines - and hoped that it would be enough.

She opened her eyes just in time to see the man in the metal mask appear before her and smile a condescending grin. Before she could reach out and grab him with her powers, or even begin to identify him - he had returned into thin air.

Elsewhere

In the dark, he mutters to himself. He mutters to nothing. To everything. To all and to what is not.

He tells of a time when he knew. Not just knew but knew what was true - what was to be. No longer.

He sits in the darkness and counts the moments he has until he will die. Then he counts them over again. Something is missing from his life. Some piece is gone. That much he knows. A crucial piece. The reason for living - the reason for knowing - the reason for reason.

Without it, there is no need. No need.

He fears the darkness. He fears the light. But he does not... does not What he wonders to himself. Something important... he does not know... but that is not it. If that were it, he would indeed know...

No, it was not knowing... it was Strange. He knew Strange. He was powerful, more powerful than ever. But it didn't matter. Nothing mattered.

He looked up to see the two men and the woman enter his domain of darkness.

"We wish to help you" the red one said.

"To help you remember." the green one said.

"To give you back something you have lost." the woman, also in green, said. "And the opportunity to avenge your loss."

He stared at them blankly. Their words meant nothing to him. The word "avenge" momentarily lit in his mind before being blown out by an unseen wind.

"Do you want to remember?" the green one asked.

"Please" he heard his own pleading voice.

The three reached out and touched his temple with their hands, working as one. He saw their faces lost in concentration.

"It is done." They said as one.

He looked around. He instantly knew his benefactors. He instantly knew who and what he was. And what he had lost... He knew what he had lost - and who had taken it from him.

"Join us - and they all will pay" the red one said.

He reached out and joined his hand with theirs in a circle. "They will pay" he vowed. "They will pay for daring to challenge my will.”

United Nations

Valkyrie strained her voice forming around a battle cry as she descended astride her fabled winged stallion. Hydroman launched his watery form into the air to cut her path off - but found himself being split on by the edge of her sword. He allowed himself to fall back to the water to reform.

(Keep her away) the voices in Maximus the Mad's head told him. He watched the spectacle from his hiding place, and wondered how best to act. He looked over to his right and smiled. It was time to add a new twist to the fray.

Nitro looked around and saw that he was surrounded. Northstar and Cecilia Reyes were coming up from one side, with Moonstone, Moonglider and some guy with a big blade in his hand coming from the other. There was also the fact that Valkyrie was now fast descending on his position with a big sword of her own. Sure, Hydroman was still somewhere out in the water... and who knew when the others would be coming around... but still...

"Come on boss" he muttered under his breath. "Show your hand or it's all over..."

A foot met his face as an answer, throwing him back to the ground. He looked up to see a lithe woman dressed in pure white kick him in the face again. Then he only saw darkness.

"Patsy?!" Valkyrie yelled as she leapt from her stallion to what appeared to be her friend.

The woman in white shook her head. "I am Moontiger" she said, and then turned away.

Valkyrie put a hand on her shoulder. "What's going on here?" she demanded, then shifted her attention to the nearby Moonglider. "Who are you people?"

Moonglider took a step forward, and moved his hand to his face. He pulled off his mask in a fluid motion. The face of the long thought dead Kyle Richmond, the former Defender known as Nighthawk stared back at her.

"You know who we are, Val" he answered. "We're just people fighting for justice."

"Kyle!" Valkyrie exclaimed. "Why are you with these people? What happened? Where have you--"

He held up a hand and motioned to Moontiger, who slipped without effort from under the weight of the goddess's grasp to stand beside him. She removed her mask as well. Patsy Walker, the former Hellcat stared back at her old friends and teammates. "Don't take that holier than thou tone with US Val - unlike your new friends, these new 'Defenders', we know you better than that. We chose a new path - a new team. What's so wrong with that?"

"Why didn't you just talk to me, or Isaac or..."

"Would you have listened to them?" Moonstone interjected, "Or would you have simply seen it as another betrayal, you seem to have a lot of those lately..."

"Mind your manners, mortal" Valkyrie snapped at her, taking note of her lack of recoil. "This is none of your concern."

"But it is Val" Kyle explained, "That's what teammates do for each other. They watch out for each others interests. You above all should know that."

"That's all I'm doing here..."

"No it's not Val" Patsy interrupted her old friend with a stern look, "You're trying to place your own will into this situation - trying to figure out if it was Kyle who was Moonglider, even though it really was none of your business..."

"He was supposed to be dead. I just wanted to know if what I thought I saw was..."

"You just wanted to find me and drag me back to where I belonged." Kyle corrected. "But this is where I belong now... and if you're truly my friend, you'll respect that."

"I..." Valkyrie started... before Cecilia suddenly interrupted.

"Wait a second, Val!" Dr. Reyes burst out as she ran forward into the debate, followed by a confused Northstar.

"Wha..." Val started before being cut-off again by Cecilia. "How did you know what we were doing here? Or what Valkyrie's motivations might have been?"

Kyle looked uneasily at Moonstone. "They obviously know their friend and know how she puts two and two together."

"But that doesn't make any sense... how would they know what we were investigating - or more importantly where we were... you showed up awfully soon after we got here after all."

"We were in the neighborhood - saw you - and decided to make contact" Moonstone supplied with a smirk.

"Oh come on" Northstar quipped impatiently, "Let's stop with the Scooby solves the mystery against the lying badly at every turn bit. We know they're not what they seem - let's just bash them and get this over with."

Cecilia and Valkyrie turn as one toward the mutant, shooting him with glares that cut whatever further comments he had into ribbons at the edge of his tongue.

They then turn their attention back to the Moonguard. "I don't buy that anymore than he does." Cecilia responded.

Kyle caught Valkyrie's eye, "Since when does a newcomer speak for you Val? Since when does anyone short of Stephen do that... oh sorry, forgot that was a sore subject" His grin belied his words.

Valkryie's hand tensed on her sword. "I'd suggest that your consider your words more carefully old friend" she cautioned.

"Don't let him bait you, Val."

The goddess turned toward Cecilia, "I'd suggest you do the same." she growled, her eyes full of fire.

"I'd suggest turning this discussion back to the matter at hand" A familiar, gritty voice said from above. They turned as one to see the hovering Gargoyle accompanied by the Wasp. "We have some pretty serious questions for you miss," he said to Moonstone.

"I think we've already covered this before you got here Isaac" Patsy replied. "We're not bound to the Defenders, and the Moonguard is doing good work. There's no reason for these confrontational tactics."

"Then perhaps dear Patsy" Isaac said, "You might answer just one question that's still on my old and feeble mind."

"And what would that be old friend?" she responded, taking careful note of the uneasy shifting on both sides.

Isaac raised his clawed hand and Polaris re-phased her personal magnetic field into synch with the rest of the planet. "What is he doing here?" Isaac asked, nodding to the mistress of magnetism. She glanced over toward the UN building and ionized the air around a single form.

Maximus the Mad laughed as he stood revealed. He laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed... and reached out his hand into the air in front of him. He made a pass with it, then balled it into a fist. Patsy Walker fell to the ground... lifeless.

"That is what I'm doing here"

Central Park

He stared up at the face of the man with the metal mask. "Who are you?" Hannibal King asked. "Why are you doing this?"

The man didn’t' reply. Not at first. He just watched Hannibal struggle against the force field.

Finally, he spoke, "You weren't there. You will not be there." the man in the metal mask finally seemed to conclude to himself. "Perhaps here is where you die. Perhaps not." he looked up at the already lightening sky. "Perhaps it does not matter. You will not be there."

Hannibal looked up at the man as he started to walk away, "What are you talking about?" the undead Defender hollered after him, "What's going on?"

The man in the metal mask turned back, for just a moment, and seemed to smile. "You are no threat to our Secret Empire." he said, as if to respond, and vanished into thin air.

Hannibal stared after him, and then at the sky - wondering how long it would be before morning.

NEXT: The Defenders face the Moonguard! Hannibal King faces his death! And Timeslip faces something most unexpected! Plus: The forces of darkness continue to gather!

Send mail to: Gary Dreslinski