As Manslaughter is brought to justice, the Defenders run into trouble with a mutant arsonist that was hired to kill the entire team!
A team of doctors is at Defender's home trying to cure Angel and Valkyrie from Manslaughter's poison from last issue's battle. Beast takes Manslaughter to the sheriff but he doesn't want to take orders from mutants, especially since they have no formal legal authority.
Meanwhile a man in the bar next to the station sets himself on fire, and sets fire to the bar as well. He is Blowtorch Brand, a loudmouth minor criminal pyrokinetic. Moondragon and Cloud go there to stop him. Moondragon just looks at him and seems to think he's not who she was hoping to see. Brand catches her on fire, and Cloud, in a fury at seeing the object of her love hurt, knocks all the air out of his lungs.
In the meantime Beast calls Washington and asks for them to tell the sheriff he has to arrest Manslaughter. Candy takes care of Angel while he is recovering and Valkyrie is already healed because of her Asgardian powers. Cloud is depressed because she doesn't know what she actually is, and worries that her love for Moondragon is wrong because of its lesbian nature. Angel tells Beast they must have a real leader in order to solve legal issues and problems like the one with the sheriff, while Candy help them out with just some of those very issue.
Elsewhere, Gargoyle is still missing since his mysterious disappearance last issue. He is being hold as a hostage by some kind of sorcerer in a dungeon.
Someone pays Blowtorch Brand's bail and he is released, but has to set fire in a jeans factory for the guy who had payed his bail. Two days later, he sets the fire, and the Defenders are called to stop it. There they find Blowtorch Brand again. They manage to defeat him after a surprising amount of trouble, but Cloud is severely injured by the flames. At the end the sheriff discovers two young girls are left inside the fire. He goes in and saves them, but dies himself because of the smoke. Calling him a hero, and saying that it is her duty as a Valkyrie, Brunnhilda takes his soul to the afterlife. The others are taken aback, having forgotten who she really is.
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