At Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, Seraph tells the gathered Defenders that she knows the secret of the enigmatic Cloud and intends to restore her memory. Some don’t trust her motives but Cloud wants this so Andromeda offers to accompany her, prompting Valkyrie to volunteer the rest of the team. Candy Southern notes that Andromeda has attached herself to the Defenders pretty quickly and asks her who she is. Lady Andromeda is a warrior of Atlantis but limited in her advancement opportunities because she is a woman. So, hearing Prince Namor’s tales of glory with the Defenders, she studied Earth history and culture until she could pass for a land-dweller and, donning a specialized gas-mask, she has come to join the team. Candy is okay with letting her join on a tentative basis and puts it to a vote. Beast, speaking on behalf of the others, welcomes Andromeda to the team….
The next day, Beast goes to lunch with his longtime girlfriend Vera Cantor. She complains that he never has time to see her anymore; he apologizes and assures her he still cares for her deeply. Hank presents her with a Beast Signal Watch that will contact him when she activates it. He then excuses himself and heads off on his next adventure. Vera sheds a tear as she activates the watch, knowing it will do no good….
The Defenders are in flight in one of Angel’s private jets, where Hank suggests Warren consult a doctor about his eyes while in New York. Suddenly Cloud has a fit, splitting into her male and female sides before emitting lightning bolts. Hank is shocked, losing control of the jet and sending them crashing toward the ground. Angel asks to be placed at the controls and directs Gargoyle what to do while Iceman creates an ice shield, protecting them from Cloud’s lightning. He pulls them out of the dive as Cloud settles into her male side; Seraph opines that her mind picked up the bad vibrations of the area….
In Siberia, the Interloper comes upon a Soviet tracking station. He enters, his Cloak of Fear turning eyes away from him, and finds an office where he rifles through the maps, finding the one he needs to find his destination. A pair of terrified soldiers draw their guns and order him to halt but he shrugs off their gunfire and crashes out. Reaching the coast, he begins to walk across the ocean, heading toward New Mexico….
Arriving at a hospital in West Virginia, the Defenders are denied entrance by an administrator until Seraph hypnotizes him into taking them to see patient Carol Faber. Cloud is afraid to enter the room and pleads with Bobby to take her away but he persuades her to open the door. In the room, they find a pair of patients, Carol Faber and Danny Milligan, in adjoining beds, each in an oxygen tent. And the two patients are the female and male versions of Cloud, each in a coma. Cloud painfully recalls how she saw them driving on a mountain road and she sensed danger but when she tried to warn them, she sent their car crashing into a ravine. To extinguish the fire she formed two bodies but they grew nervous systems and she felt pain, panicked and fled. She was found by the Secret Empire who lied to her about her origins. Seraph asks what was the danger she sensed that day? But Cloud can’t remember so Seraph tries to go deeper….
They take Cloud to the scene of the car accident and she panics and faints. Beast figures it’s because they brought her to where she became human and first knew pain so if they took her to a place before that…. Gargoyle lifts her and flies her high in the sky where she awakens and exclaims that she remembers everything, shifting into her cloud form and emitting lightning. She screams about the danger and the fog rolls down and when it is gone the Defenders have vanished…..
Give that special marvelite a timely gift