Earth-500 Volume 1 Issue 2

"I don't work for anyone, Hashim. I only work for the freedom of the oppressed. I have no business in this, even if I helped you the other day. I simply disliked the concept of terrorists. That's why I'm inviting you, dummy. We... No."

- Moon Knight and Arabian Knight

Part of The Beginning story arc.

Featured Characters

 * HATE
 * Dirk Anger
 * Victoria Hand
 * Arabian Knight
 * Moon Knight
 * Wolverine (first appearance)

Supporting Characters

 * El Aguila
 * James Howlett (first appearance)
 * The Goblin (first appearance)

Location

 * Egypt
 * Cairo
 * The Pyramid of Khonshu (flashback)
 * HATE Aeromarine, UNN "Epsilon"
 * Howlett Estate, Canada

Plot for First Defense
12.00 PM

Cairo, Egypt

At midnight, in a house, a woman was seen taking his son to bed. When the woman told his son to keep attempting to reach his dreams, his son asked her of another question: does "different" people exist? The woman smiled and told him that they don't. But after saying that, the two heard of a distinct noise on their house's rooftop. The noise sounded like sounds of footsteps, but with a bit of rushing added to it. The son, terrified, asked her mother what was that, but the woman simply told him to go to sleep.

Going to the outside, apparently the man that was running on the rooftops was Navid Hashim, AKA Arabian Knight. Thinking to himself, Navid thought that Dirk's orders of gathering "special people" were apparently not too easy, even if he's an enhanced himself. His mind also said that either Dirk was getting under his skin or he's simply stupid, it's a bad idea for him to send him to recruit a certain individual. The individual Knight was tracking was Abner Al-Hassan, AKA Moon Knight. Recalling what the HATE files refer to him, Navid memorized the details. He had a history with him, but he knew nothing of the man beneath the suit of bandages. Abner Al-Hassan was an Israeli-Egyptian archaeologist and adventurer who started his adventures at a very early age. Abner was partly like Navid: they are two Israeli people that got hold of things that enhanced them, and they came from outside of Israel. But he thought to himself that Abner was the one that was clearly worse. During an excavation of a historical site, Abner stumbled upon a hidden pyramid and got stuck in there for a week. His team tried to free him, until Abner resurfaced himself in an... unorthodox way: breaking through the stone blocking the entrance with his bare hands, with a completely different appearance. Abner allegedly was approached by the Egyptian Moon God, Khonshu, who offered him to become his fist; the bringer of justice and the keeper of order. With Abner's breaking mind, he accepted such offer, and ended up being a metahuman himself. Since the incident, he has been branded a vigilante, and was hunted down by nearly all the countries in Middle-East. Navid, still running, said that Dirk should've gone mad if he's going to make "Moon Knight" go international.

After freerunning for a while, finally he found the whereabouts of Moon Knight: he's been behind him all along. Stopping his tracks, Navid realized that Moon Knight has been following him since he dropped down. He turned back and saw the mummy-like vigilante standing behind him with nearly no emotions shown. Navid shrugged, and asked him whether he knew what he's there for or no. Moon Knight replied no, but since he has attracted HATE's attention three days earlier, he knew that Navid was sent there for him to handle things. Hashim responded by saying that they barely got time for him because the moment the megastructure blew up, Moon Knight was gone. Moon Knight bluntly told him that he had to keep his existence secret. Navid sarcastically replied that HATE's got a track of his activities and at least five countries labelled him a terrorist. Navid continued by telling him that a week after his re-emergence, a secret HATE agent planted a tracking device on him that could last for four years. Abner responded by pulling something out of his cloak: the tracking device. Navid's eyes widen, and Abner told him that everything that was transmitted to HATE had its data corrupted. Navid asked how, and Abner simply said that Konshu kept him "safe".

Feeling screwed, Navid then tried to explain what he's there for, but Moon Knight continuosly said "NO". The two then got locked in an argument, until Navid's emotions overcame him and turned things personal. While Navid was "ranting", the other part of Abner's mind told him that if he joined HATE's "Defenders", they'd use him as a weapon. Interestingly, Moon Knight agreed with this one, and told it to Arabian Knight directly. Navid responded by telling him that HATE needed a group of special people in order to eliminate ULTIMATUM. He continued by explaining that ULTIMATUM had grown more powerful than before, but Moon Knight shrugged and said that the only reason he came to him was because of yesterday's incident; HATE didn't want to get blamed for blowing up one of the tallest structures in the world. After a series of provocating conversation, Arabian Knight finally lost control and engaged in a lengthy combat with him.

In combat, Navid managed to get the upper hand on Moon Knight, initially. But Moon Knight's superhuman physicality finally managed to get him to victory. Abner ended the fight by kicking his centre mass and knocking him out. After being knocked out, something rang out of his pocket. But before Abner could hear it ring, he moved Navid to a "safer" place with his grappling hook. After landing on an alley, the ringing object was apparently a... cellphone. He muttered to himself about how ridiculous Arabian Knight is: being an agent of a poweful counter-terrorism agency, with a simple phone brought as a method of communication. He did a facepalm after knowing that the model of his phone was an extremely old one. Seeing the contactor, Moon Knight answered the phone and told the contactor, who's no other than Dirk Anger, that if he wanted to discuss things with him, then speak it right in his face.

Trivia

 * By the time First Defense happened, Flag-Smasher has already managed to fetch the bio-weapon in Brazil that was mentioned in the previous issue.