The Sentry, one alter-ego of a mentally disturbed man named Robert Reynolds, had somehow caused a strange sun to appear in the center of Manhattan. The radiation given off by the sun had transformed the heart of the city and most of its inhabitants into strange, idyllic versions of themselves. Like something out of a vintage comic book.

Some of the inhabitants had been transformed into facsimiles from the Sentry’s supposed memories—his sidekick, Scout and his lover, the Sentress. As well as his pet, Watchdog. While the Defenders busied themselves with Team Sentry, Doctor Strange and the combined intelligence of Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man and the Beast seemed unable to make any headway into the cause of the strange sun, or a way to diffuse it.

The Sentry had just taken out the red Hulk and was about to strike finishing blows to both Doc Samson and Sleepwalker. That was when a burst of beautiful, bright energy broke through the skies, blowing right into the Sentry with enough power that even he was taken aback.

Now, the only thing brighter than the strange sun in the center of Manhattan was the figure that hovered overhead. Tania Belinsky, once known as the Red Guardian and now called Starlight. Until recently, she had been a prisoner, but with the help of the Defenders, she was released. She left shortly after, to reestablish herself in the world.

She just returned.

The Sentry rose out of the crater, seemingly none the worse for wear. But the energy that spilled from his eyes and the scowl on his face showed that he was definitely far from pleased.

“You think you can stand up to the Golden Guardian of Good? You think your evil will win out against m—”

A burst of nuclear energy from the palm of Starlight’s hand silenced the Sentry. “I spent years chained to the Presence. I’ve had my fill of speeches, thank you.”

The Sentry raised his head and solar energy fired from his eyes. Starlight fired another blast of radiation, holding the Sentry’s energy at bay. The two beams fought against each other, with each combatant pouring on more and more of their energy reserves. The Sentry got back to his feet, not relenting one bit. He seemed to gain some traction as he hovered closer towards Starlight.

The strain was evident on Tania’s face. She grit her teeth, continuing to fight against the Sentry. But his power was almost too strong. So she dropped from the sky, the Sentry’s beams now unrestricted. Before he could react, she streaked with supersonic speed and slammed into him.

In mid-air, Starlight grappled with the Sentry. The range was too close for either to use their energy projection, so they relied on their superhuman strength. As strong as the Sentry was, Starlight appeared to be his equal and with each blow, the sky lit up with their respective energies.

“He sent you, didn’t he?” demanded the Sentry, getting a grip on Starlight’s neck. “The Sun King from Beyond the Pale Storm! You’re his herald, aren’t you?”

THE GOLDEN AGE

Part IV

By Ed Ainsworth and Dino Pollard

On the ground, the Hulk held his limp wrist in place, having had it broken by the Sentry. His powerful healing factor was already knitting the bones back together. But as the Hulk watched Starlight take on the Sentry herself, he felt the familiar stirring of rage. She had just arrived and already, she seemed to be giving the Sentry more of a fight than he had been able to do.

“No one makes a fool outta me…” he grumbled. “Especially not some dumb skirt!”

The Hulk jumped into the air, wrapping his arms around the writhing Sentry. The Hulk could feel his strength growing as his body made contact with his prey. What he didn’t realize is what Starlight and the Sentry did. The Sentry’s powers were growing, and a golden aura of energy emitted from his body, blasting both Starlight and the Hulk back to the ground.

“What did you think you were doing?” asked Starlight.

“Showin’ that pansy-ass in the cape who’s the strongest there is,” said the Hulk.

“And you failed, as well as made him stronger,” said Starlight.

“How’s that work?” asked the Hulk.

“You absorb radiation, and the radiation I introduced into his body was slowing him down,” said Starlight. “Your powers detoxed him.”

“…oh,” said the Hulk. He looked up at the Sentry, whose aura seemed to grow wider and brighter. “I’m guessin’ that’s not good.”

“You’re a quick study, I see,” said Starlight.

“Who the hell invited you anyway?” asked the Hulk.

“My apologies. Next time there’s a madman beating you senseless, I promise not to get involved.”

“…good.”

“We may have a chance,” said Doctor Strange. “If I open a portal to a pocket dimension, perhaps we could contain the sun within there.”

“Tearing a rip in the fabric of space and time could have other consequences as well.” Mr. Fantastic’s eyes watched the energy output readings on his handheld computer. “With the reactions it’s already caused on the environment and the types of energy it’s giving off, there’s no guarantee a pocket dimension could hold it.”

“Plus we still don’t even know what it is,” said Iron Man. “It’s—”

Tony Stark felt something strange in his mind. The complex heads up display in his armor suddenly vanished. Now rather than the full view the armor’s cameras could give him of the area, he could barely see out of two eye slits. The outward appearance of his armor changed as well, going from the futuristic appearance into something far more simplified and clunky. Not unlike his early prototype. The strange thing is that it all felt very natural to Stark.

“Tony, what’s—” The Beast was the next to be affected. Not so much his appearance as his mind. “—the big deal? You’d think all this light would give people asunnier disposition,” he quipped.

“Hank…?” asked Reed.

“It’s the sun, it’s begun to affect the both of them,” said Doctor Strange. “If we don’t hurry, we may be next.”

Mr. Fantastic placed a pipe in his mouth and stretched out a hand holding a match to spark it against the street. He lit the pipe and began to puff on it. “Perhaps if we found a way to generate a smaller moon, we could cause a localized eclipse.”

“Hoary hosts of Hoggoth,” muttered Doctor Strange. He concentrated, trying to generate a spell of protection on himself, to keep the sun’s radiation from affecting himself as well. “I could use a drink.”

The Valkyrie brought her sword, Dragonfang, down on the Sentress. But the Sentress clasped the blade between her powerful hands, holding it at bay. The two warrior women struggled with each other, their eyes locked. In the Sentress, the Valkyrie could feel something similar.

“I know what you experience,” said the Valkyrie. “I spent years trapped in different forms. Unaware of mine true form, forced that way by others. Even now, I know not mine true place in this world. I know not why I have taken residence in this form once more. But of one thing I am certain—the path I walk was chosen by none, save I.”

The Sentress felt something within her, a spark. She could sense something was strange. Her grip on Dragonfang began to weaken. She collapsed on the ground in a heap. The Valkyrie kept her grip on Dragonfang, but did not strike. She stood casually, yet prepared to slide back into a battle stance.

“To thine own self be true,” she said.

“This…this isn’t me,” said the Sentress. She looked down at herself, in obvious confusion. And she looked back at the Valkyrie. “What’s happened?”

The Valkyrie pointed towards the sun with her blade. “I know not the how. Yet the means appears to be thus.” She offered her hand to her fallen opponent. “Perhaps together, Sentress, we can discover the truth?”

The Sentress took her hand and got to her feet. “Lindy.”

“Pardon?”

“My name’s not the Sentress, it’s Lindy.”

The pair went towards the sun, where Iron Man attempted to diffuse it by battering it with repulsor rays. Mr. Fantastic and the Beast were busy trying to find a way to generate a localized eclipse. Doctor Strange, Doc Samson and Sleepwalker stood together, trying to contemplate their next move.

“What madness hath gripped them?” asked Valkyrie, watching their three companions.

“The sun has transformed them and I fear we will be next,” said Doctor Strange.

“How can I help?” asked Lindy.

“She has woken from the spell,” said Valkyrie.

“And yet, she still retains her powers?” asked Doctor Strange.

“Of course!” said Mr. Fantastic, stretching his head between the group into the center. “That’s the answer.”

“What is?” asked Lindy.

“You have both the real and the fantastical merged together,” said Mr. Fantastic. “That mixture combined, released into the heart of the sun, could cause an infusion that would reverse the effect.”

“That…doesn’t make any sense,” said Samson. “It may make even less sense than the localized eclipse.”

“Madness caused this problem, perhaps madness offers a solution,” said Doctor Strange.

“So I fly into the sun, and everything goes back to normal?” asked Lindy.

“In theory,” said Samson. “We don’t know if it’ll actually work.”

“It’ll work. I’ve done the math in my head,” said Mr. Fantastic.

“…there’s no math involved,” said Samson.

“I’m going in. I’ve gotta do something.” Lindy flew from them, leaving a golden streak in her wake, and dove into the heart of the sun.

Above, the Sentry cried out in objection. “NOOOOOO! LINDY, NOT YOU!”

He dove towards her, but the Hulk pounced, blocking the Sentry’s path by slamming into him. “You owe me a rematch, Goldielocks.”

The Sentry rose to strike again when radiation coursed through his body once more. Starlight hovered behind him, continuing to hold him in place that way. “I trust you didn’t forget about me?”

“Sc-Scout!” shouted the Sentry. “I…n-need…you!”

The boy who had been transformed into the Sentry’s sidekick had been left unconscious after his battle with Doc Samson. But now he stirred, slowly waking. He rubbed the back of his head.

“Gee-whiz, feels like I’ve got ten ice cream headaches!”

“SCOUT!”

“That’s the Sentry!” shouted Scout. He watched Lindy fly into the heart of the sun. “Golly, the Sentress is being controlled! I better stop her before she does something crazy!”

Scout plunged into the sun after Lindy. He grabbed onto her leg, pulling her back before she could reach the center. Lindy tried to kick him off, but to no avail.

“What are you doing, kid?” she asked. “I’m trying to help you!”

“Holy hypnosis, Sentress! Can’t you see you’re being mind-controlled by the Sun King?!”

Energy fired from Lindy’s eyes and knocked Scout off her leg. “Shut up! Do you have any idea how annoying that is?”

“We need more than just Lindy,” said Doctor Strange. “Somehow, Bob’s mind is causing all of this, I believe.”

“So we have to make him see reality, huh?” asked Sleepwalker. “I’ve got an idea.”

Rick Sheridan flew towards where the Hulk and Starlight were battling the Sentry. Together, the pair seemed barely evenly matched against the Sentry, whose power only grew with each passing moment. Rick hadn’t been in possession of Sleepwalker’s body and powers long, but he knew that the strange eyebeams had an ability to warp physical objects. On sentient beings, it could physically contort them but also release them from outside mental control or, in the case of other-dimensional entities, banishing back to their place of origin.

Sleepwalker concentrated hard, funneling all his energy into a powerful warp-beam that fell on the Sentry. The Golden Guardian of Good began to twist and contort, his body morphing into various twists and shapes. He screamed in pain as he transformed from the Sentry to the Void to Robert Reynolds and then back again. This cycle repeated continuously as the Sentry tried to fight back against the effect of the beam’s power. Still, Sleepwalker would not relent and continued the onslaught.

Inside the heart of the sun, Scout cringed in pain, bunching up. Lindy struck at him then, with enough force to send him flying out of the sun. She continued on her path, moving into the center. At first, she wasn’t sure what to do, but then she felt the energy coursing through her and she could feel her powers weakening. The sun’s energy diminished around her and she fell limply to the ground, now back in her true form with no trace of the Sentress.

Scout too had transformed back into his normal form and Iron Man, Beast and Mr. Fantastic all reverted to their true forms. The landscape around them began to change, reverting back to the Manhattan of present-day.

The Sentry watched all this happen as his body twisted into impossible contortions, stretching bigger and smaller. “NO! YOU’RE KILLING THEM! YOU’RE DESTROYING EVERYTHING!”

Golden energy exploded from the Sentry, blinding everything within the blast radius with its intense brightness. Once the light had faded, the Sentry and the sun were gone, but everything had returned to normal.

On the ground, lying in a smoking crater, lay the naked form of Robert Reynolds. His hair was long and straggly and he sported a full beard. Mr. Fantastic moved towards his sprawled form and passed his scanner over him.

“He’s completely clean,” he said. “There’s no increased energy readings from him at all. He’s baseline human.”

Doc Samson moved into the crater and slowly helped Bob to his feet, bracing the weak man against him. “Easy Bob, it’s over now.”

“L-Len?” asked Bob. “D-did you see what happened?”

“We all saw it, Bob.” Samson helped Bob out of the crater and the heroes surrounded him. “It’s over now.”

“I’m radioing in our coordinates to SHIELD now,” said Iron Man. “Have them send in a Guardsman unit to escort Reynolds to a cell in a superhuman penitentiary.”

“That won’t be necessary,” said Doctor Strange. “I’m taking Robert under my care.”

“The hell you are, Strange!” said Iron Man. “Look at what he did here! He needs to be locked up!”

“Exactly, look what he did here,” said Doctor Strange. “If the Sentry emerges again—or worse, the Void—your prisons won’t hold him. We must discover exactly what Robert Reynolds is.”

“We can easily run tests on him while he’s incarcerated,” said the Beast.

“Your tests will show nothing, just as they discerned nothing about the sun,” said Doctor Strange.

“It was the Sun King from Beyond the Pale Storm…” said Bob.

“Yeah, we got that,” said Iron Man. “And in case you forgot, Strange, your magic didn’t turn up anything, either.”

“I never claimed to know everything, Tony. Part of being the Sorcerer Supreme is knowing your place in the larger scheme, and accepting that you don’t always know everything,” said Doctor Strange. “Although I wouldn’t expect you to understand that.”

“Why you—”

“Hold it,” said Mr. Fantastic. “Stephen, I understand your concerns, but this is how it’s going to happen. With further tests, we can discover what’s at the heart of the Sentry’s powers.”

“Plus, Bob needs psychological treatment,” said Samson. “And we need the proper safeguards to keep him from harming himself or others.”

“Your safeguards will fail,” said Doctor Strange.

Iron Man took a menacing step towards the Sorcerer Supreme. “Here’s the line, Strange. Don’t cross it. The Sentry’s coming with us whether you like it or not.”

The Hulk stepped forward and shoved Iron Man. “Watch it, pal. You’re crowding the Doc.”

Doctor Strange was a bit surprised by the Hulk’s sudden defense of him, but he made no outward observation of that fact. Iron Man moved forward again, his chest plate glowing with the energy of his armor’s reactor.

“If you and your freak squad want to have a go, I’ll be more than happy to oblige,” he said.

“Now you’re the one crossing a line, Shellhead!” said Sleepwalker.

“Easy,” said Mr. Fantastic. “This won’t solve anything.”

“Precisely. If we all just take a few moments to discuss this…” began the Beast.

“This conversation is over,” said Doctor Strange. The Eye of Agamotto, affixed to the magician’s collar, opened wide and unleashed a blinding flash of light. When it was gone, so were the Defenders and Reynolds.

Iron Man, the Beast and Mr. Fantastic looked around the area with confusion. The Beast was the one to give voice to his concerns. “Although the thought of embarrassing myself amongst such prestigious minds is a valid concern, I have to ask—can someone tell me what we’re doing here?”

“Your guess is a good as mine, Hank,” said Iron Man. “Last thing I remember was being in my lab.”

The Sanctum Sanctorum

“You wiped their minds?” asked Samson.

“Nothing quite as drastic as that,” said Doctor Strange. Using the Crimson Bands of Cytorrak, he bonded Robert Reynolds, who was now in an unconscious state. “I simply clouded their memories regarding their encounter with the Sentry.”

“And what are you going to do about him?” asked Samson.

“I’m placing him in a mystical cocoon, keeping him in suspended animation. Until I can discern who and what the Sentry truly is,” said Doctor Strange.

“And you’re okay with this?” asked Samson, turning to the others.

“Like I told you before, he’s the Sorcerer Supreme. If you can’t trust his word, then whose can you trust?” said Sleepwalker.

“Stephen understands the universe in ways we’re not capable of. I stand by him,” said Starlight.

“As do I,” said the Valkyrie.

Samson turned to the Hulk. “And you?”

“Doc’s the best shot I got at findin’ out who I am,” said the Hulk. “I’m stickin’ with him.”

Samson threw up his arms. “This is insane! First Banner and now this? This ‘Sanctum’ of yours should be called a sanitarium! You’re all mad!”

“You have always been here of your own volition, Leonard. If you have a problem with my methods, you are free to leave at any time,” said Doctor Strange.

“Fine by me!” Samson left, storming out the door with those words.

NEXT: Fear and Payne