7

Something stirs in the shadows. It's huge. And it smells like fire. Jones stays her hand over the mysterious black ant, and listens.

A glowing pair of eyes appear in the dark. And soon, their owner. Jones sees it, but she doesn't believe it. Wong doesn't dare move.

"Mr," Jones corrects herself, "MASTER Wong, you won't believe this, but there's a huge scary dragon standing behind you."

"Mrs. Jones," Wong says, "you won't believe this, but I do believe you."

Behind Wong, the dragon inhales. Something in his mouth glows...

Wong spins, and does an about-face. He opens a portal. The dragon breathes fire. The dragon naively blows the fire into the Dark Dimension, where Wong sends it.

The dragon keeps breathing. Jones would help...except she still can't believe what she's seeing.

Wong flinches. The Black Ant has bitten his neck. Good thing it's not a vampire. Alas, this is about to get worse.

Again, Jones reaches to swat the ant. But all around, others rain down on him. They surround him. They bite him. Wong can't bear it. He cries out, and shouts for relief.

Jones blinks, and realizes that that first ant wasn't an ant at all. It was bipedal; every ant she's seen has six legs...

Jones peers around. The dragon has a rider. She wears a purple robe. She glares back at her, with glowing purple eyes. She can't see her face, of course. But there's something about that shade of purple...

Wong can't fight. Jones hurls him out of the way, and faces the dragon. The dragon narrows its eyes. So does its rider.

"Say hello," the rider whispers creepily, "to the Wizardkiller!"

"Hello to the Wizardki-" Jones covers her mouth. She doesn't know why she said that. But then, she looks the rider in the glowing purple eyes...and knows.

The eyes glare back. Indeed, the ghost of Kilgrave has come back to haunt Jones.

"The Wizard," she hisses. "Stand away from him, bitch!"

Jones is tempted to...but doesn't. Too bad daddy couldn't've lived long enough to warn his bastardess about the sex slave he once had who escaped and became a superheroine.

Kilgrave Jr sighs, and pats the dragon on the neck. "Wizardkiller," she whispers, "roast them both!"

The dragon inhales. Jones charges him, and punches him in the nose.

The dragon stops, and inhales in shock-freezing his own insides. He stumbles around the warehouse, dazed. Kilgrave Jr struggles to stay saddled. All around, the dragon knocks over bookshelves with the spasms in his coils.

"Snap out of it," Kilgrave Jr hisses.

The dragon staggers more slowly. It regains its balance, and straightens himself out.

Behind Jones, the warehouse doors fly away. Wing and Knight storm in. Jones points at Wong. Knight grabs him, and drags him away.

Wizardkiller blinks. He's back. He turns and faces his attackers. The rider's hood is still low over her head-but her gaze blazes just as purple.

They both look around, as if they'd lost something. BOTH their eyes light up...

Colleen assumes a fighting stance. Her fists glow white. Jones flexes her muscles, and takes her stance. No one's going home early tonight.

Knight drags Wong away. The ants try to climb her prosthetic arm. The arm defends itself, and electrically shocks the ants. Wong moans. He's been hurt pretty bad. Jones's hospital ward is about to get bigger...

The Black Ant realizes what's going on when he senses the defeat of some of his ant-warriors. With that, he leaps off Wong, and re-sizes himself to normal. He gets up, and stands before Knight. She hesitates.

He looks scary in his Black Ant suit. Knight doesn't know what to do; she can't abandon Wong.

The Black Ant raises his visor, and unmasks himself. He's Mitch Carson. His suit owes its powers to Cross particles-the same ones he stole from Pym Tech the day Ant-Man blew up a building and crashed a sale. Now Carson's gone back to what he's good at.

Exactly what this has to do with that... That remains to be seen.

Carson sees Knight's prosthetic arm. There's something about it... He thinks she's one of Garrett's. He thinks she's a Deathlok.

Knight asks him who he is. Carson growls, lowers his visor, shrinks, and leaps at her.

Knight's arm gives her enhanced reflexes, and she swats Black Ant away. She grabs Wong, and drags him away.

The gate is far. Knight and Wong will both be lucky if they get out of here before that dragon comes back for more.

Black Ant resizes himself to normal, in the sky. He lands atop Knight, pins her, and starts punching her. Knight doesn't understand. She's not a Deathlok, and she's never met Jon Garrett.

And she never will. Jon Garrett's been dead for years.

Somewhere nearby, a Hemi roars. Black Ant slows down, and looks around. His visor is still down. Knight seizes the opportunity, and throws Black Ant off her.

A black Dodge Charger charges into the midst. It spins to a stop, throwing up gravel and smoke in the process. The driver door flies open. A still-young and -handsome Robbie Reyes jumps out.

"He's hurt," Knight shouts. "Get him out of here!"

Reyes isn't sure what's going on. But he sees Wong's injured body, grabs his robe, and drags him into the backseat of his Charger. Meanwhile, Knight and Carson continue to have at it. Reyes re-mounts his Charger and drives away in a flash.

Reyes feels bad about leaving Knight alone with Black Ant. Alas, Wong will die if he doesn't get medical help, so away he must drive.

He finds the back road, and takes it. He speeds. He must. He doesn't want Wong to die en route to care.

Reyes's haste is cut short, of course, by flashing roof sirens behind him. They flash red, blue, and very bright. Reyes sighs, and looks for somewhere to pull over. He won't have to.

A brighter orange light blazes behind him. And an explosion blows the Charger a few feet forward. Reyes looks behind him. Part of the Charger's rear end is on fire.

He looks in his rearview mirror. He can't believe it, but something else is chasing him. He thinks it just blew up the cop car behind him, but he's not sure. It looks like something straight out of a Daenerys Targaryen episode of Game of Thrones.

Wizardkiller's airborne, and is chasing him. Reyes has fair reason to believe that that dragon is MUCH faster than a Charger.

(Sorry, Dukes of Hazzard...)

Reyes slams the brakes. In the back, Wong moans. Reyes throws a blanket over him, and tells him to stay where he is. Wong coughs up blood while trying to laugh at that.

Reyes grabs a chain, and goes outside. He approaches the dragon. The dragon flies up a bit, and lands. The Purple Rider is still atop him.

Reyes's head transforms into a flaming skull. He takes the chain in hand, augments it with fiery power, and swings it like a lasso. This reptilian bastard is going to hell. Wizardkiller bares his fangs, as if he's ready-and as if he has no idea what's coming.

The Purple Rider narrows her glowing purple eyes. Reyes doesn't yet know what she's capable of...

"Stand..." she starts to whisper.

Behind Reyes, a portal has opened. Mordo is standing in it. He's shaking his head, and signalling the duo inside. Reyes stands still...as he's inadvertently been told.

The Purple Rider sighs, and flips the bird at Reyes. She also holds up a finger, as if signalling him to wait. Reyes regains control over his actions. There's no need to have him wait in suspense as long as Purple Rider doesn't know when or if they'll meet again.

They'd better, though. Wong's Wizardkiller's target-and Mordo's, for that matter...

Wizardkiller spreads his wings, and flies through the portal. Reyes doesn't see Mordo inside before it closes.

On the downside, the bad guys got away. On the upside, Reyes won't likely be attacked again between here and...

A motor runs in the distance. Reyes looks around. Jones has caught up. She rolls down her window, and tells Reyes to follow her.

Reyes gets back into his Charger, and does. Once again, the infirmary in Jones's apartment is in business...as if it wasn't already too busy.