Defender Zik lands on the central peak of the crater again, debating internally how he should handle this trap of Morren’s. If he stays completely out of the line of fire, Morren will kill Lia, but if he stays in the open, it’s only a matter of time before Morren succeeds.

With very few options, Zik tries to goad Morren into making a mistake.  He begins to insult his foe, but just as Morren is about to hurl some invective right back, Sten and Tanaka’s efforts at the top of the crater rim succeed! A huge crack opens in the cliff face!

Defender Zik calls for his crew to cease fire, recognizing Morren’s voice.  He asks how in the world Morren could have survived their last encounter, which ended with Morren getting spaced with a broken visor! As it turns out, Jairian trooper uniforms have redundant visors for just such an emergency.

Morren sets out the situation for the Temerity team: he intends to kill them all! But to make it interesting, he’s placed the ZEMM flight crew at the top of the crater’s central peak, and he challenges Zik to try and make it to the top. He promises to free the hostages if Zik makes it.

An understandably skeptical Tanaka objects, saying that they can’t trust Morren to keep his word. But Morren doesn’t care, he holds all the cards! The hostages can just be eliminated right away. Zik hastily agrees to play Morren’s game, if only to buy the hostages more time.

Defender Zik helps a shocked Amelia to her feet. The vile Jairian thug Morren has just assaulted her! But as Zik helps her to the infirmary, he hears a groan from the mess hall — Morren is already getting back to his feet! Realizing that the thug must be on performance enhancing drugs, Zik turns back, and recognizes Amelia’s assailant!

It’s the same Morren from Zik’s first encounter with the Jairians, during the incident at Baker Mine. Morren reveals that among the Jairians, Zik is hated, and referred to as the Butcher of Baker Mine! Donning his helmet, Morren vows revenge!

Amelia sets the factory system to flood the big tanks under the catwalk that Zik and the Clonoid are fighting on. Then she shuts down the main power to the machinery. Meanwhile, Zik and the Clonoid square off, ready to fight! Amelia runs off, leaving Trent to guard the control panel, and ready to spring the last phase of their trap. But first, she has to take care of some cables! What are they up to? Zik dodges a mighty punch as the giant Clonoid super-soldier charges him.

Wow, this was a tough page to draw! Zik site members can see my first pass of pencils in the Progress Blog, where I talk a bit about how I lay out the page. Be sure to check it out!

Also, thank you to those who are voting for Zik on topwebcomics.com! I appreciate all the support. If you haven’t yet, you can vote once per day at this link! You can also find a Vote button at the very bottom of the page. The more people who visit the site, the better the comic will get for all of us, because it will enable me to add more and more content!