DEFENDERS / TRANZ #3: "Free of the Fallen World!" part three

“Free of the Fallen World!”

Everything you know about the entire fabric of the world, in its physical and mental states, undergoes a rupture, in waves of increasing change! At its core is an alien sorcerer, Remus Sharptooth, conjuring what he believes is the rapid evolution in nature and human consciousness! On a fantastic plane of the mind and soul, his head devours Earth’s Mightiest Defenders! As the Valkyrie, atop her winged steed Aragorn, flies into the maw of dread, the Flames of Faltine light the presence of two time lost Vikings connected to the great change---and fly they must. Only inside the jaws of utter destruction can they find their way to the mystery of this conjurer...only so may they reach the humanity captured within!

How is mankind reacting to the shattering of individual barriers of its minds? Amidst the blazing ruins in the wilderness surrounding this Southern Californian mountain, Pvt. Steve Holt, beside the tank he has driven, without license, over the armored form of Gnoll the Trome, watches over the body of the woman who saved his life, not an hour before, in the conflagration that totaled the Gnomlin Hutch, where this epic, for him, began.

Coming to grips with his own musings on purpose in life, Holt confesses to the entranced form of the Valkyrie, unable as yet to see into the great astral plane onto which she, with the help of Clea (having traveled with her mentor Stephen Strange to the 19th century), attempts to confront Sharptooth.

His distorting vision of the interlacing consciousnesses of the soldiers and fire fighters in the distance (as well as the Hulk and Nighthawk) suggests why unprepared humanity and Earth seem destined to shatter from this process of Tranz-Rupture.

His thoughts flow parallel to the musings of Dr. Strange, who has discerned the source of power for this change: the M’Krann Crystal, an object in the Shi’ar Galaxy, as related by his fellow Defender, the space faring Silver Surfer. Its energies created a blinking of reality: fantastically, all ceased to exist in a barely detected split second, during a battle for the crystal involving the mutant X-Men.
The futuristic sorcerer Sulinar Vix, having harnessed the signature of that energy, provides the channel to Remus Sharptooth’s efforts. The advanced science at hand seems to tap into a natural force of change inherent in the Earth, sped up now, affecting all the biosphere.

The explosions Holt hears from inside the mountain’s caverns reflect the human adventurer Hellcat and the cybernetic Machine Man confront Sharptooth, guarded by his partner the she wolf Corpse Flower, beside the extraordinary devices used to focus the M’Krann energies. Disturbances in the passages of the timeline prevent Doctor Strange and Clea from returning to the present, yet through the Crystal of Agamotto they aid and observe Valkyrie and her ghostly partners.
The Savage Submariner, Prince Namor, busies himself rescuing breeding whales trapped in the shallow waters beside Baja California, as the earth ruptures. He perceives the mystical joining of twin eternal flames, and their entry into a great mouth of darkness. He has no idea where to join the physical aspect of the battle, and continues the rescues at hand.


Before the eyes of those assembled to fire fight, Nighthawk and the Hulk begin to disappear in the physical sense...yet the darkness into which they reappear is present before everyone! They watch this central event, as thought forms of all the Defenders surround the Sharptooth sorcerer.


With the souls of Prince Nicola Dragonvayne and the Marc Kane aligned within Dragonfang, Valkyrie surprises the sorcerer with a strike of that sword, flowing with the Flames of Faltine.