Defender Zik and Dakaasin are out of immediate danger, as they stay close to the side of the cliff that Morren and the other sniper, Rick, can’t see. They attach some ropes to the cliff and keep their jets off to make them even harder to locate as they climb the central peak of the crater. At the top, three frightened hostages await their fates!

But Morren isn’t so easily dissuaded! Adapting quickly to Zik’s ploy, Morren prepares a grenade launcher, and begins launching grenades at the peak to dislodge his mortal enemy!

Meanwhile, outside the ship, Tanaka’s fighter has taken critical damage! He ejects in the nick of time, and his ship explodes behind him.

Trained for just such an emergency, Tanaka engages his EVR system. He uses his grappling hook and rocket boots to get to safety. Landing on the roof of the Kodiak’s bridge, he draws his pistol, and prepares to continue the fight!

Zik space-walks over to the Kodiak to help investigate the Clonoid stuck to its hull.

They scan it and determine that it’s dead, but still transmitting a signal to the Clonoid central computer. That means Queen Elcyra used her hapless drone as a tracking device!

James Anchor gives the order to float the Clonoid behind the main engines. A curious Trent is informed that once then engines are lit up, the Clonoid will be atomized!

Zik and Amelia rejoin the Kodiak, and they all set off again for the convoy that the Kodiak is supposed to be protecting.

And that’s a wrap for Episode 2 of Defender Zik! I hope you enjoyed these tales from your favorite hero’s past! Next week, we start the exciting Episode 3, where we rejoin the convoy only to find Ramesh… well… no spoilers!

Zik has to use his grappling hook to make it the rest of the way to Ramesh’s crashed ship, but he finally gets there! He discovers that his friend is alive, but unconscious. Tying Ramesh to his back, Zik prepares for the trip back. But before he leaves, he sets the ship to fire its engines once per revolution of the asteroid so as to push it in a uniform direction, as well as to slow it’s rate of spin. That accomplished, Zik starts to haul himself back to his own ship with Ramesh in tow. Upon his return, he stows his friend in the bunk, which Zik explains doubles as an escape pod for the mining ship.

Hey Zik pals! Do you use Webtoons to read comics? Well, Zik is now on Webtoons as well!  I’m reformatting my back catalog of pages and uploading them as soon as they’re ready, so it’s a good opportunity to rediscover Episode 1: Prison Planet. Make sure you hit that subscribe button so you know when a new page is up!

The giant Clonoid soldier takes the bait! While the great mass of muscle leaps up to the catwalk, Zik launches his grappling hook into the ceiling and swings out behind him! He uses his momentum to land with all the force he can muster right onto the spine of the Clonoid! While the two combatants recover from the blow, Amelia and Trent spring into action! What are they up to?

In this still from the film Inception, notice how the actors are holding their pistols. This is good trigger discipline!

Important note for you kids out there! See how Trent is holding his guns? See how his index fingers are resting on the triggers? NEVER DO THAT! I drew it like that because Trent has never held guns before and doesn’t know about trigger discipline. Basically, in order to avoid accidentally pulling the trigger, you should never even put your finger in the trigger guard until you’re ready to shoot! It’s incredibly important to treat firearms with extreme caution.

If you’re interested in knowing more about using guns, please make sure you contact a qualified instructor and are well supervised before picking one up for the first time. And do a lot of reading and learning! I don’t want any of you guys getting hurt.

All that said, I love target shooting, and I used to do biathlon (cross-country skiing and target shooting). It’s a great sport, but again, you need proper training before even touching a firearm!

Also: You might notice a few new buttons on the page. I’ve connected Zik to topwebcomics.com, and if you’re so inclined, you can click the buttons and vote for Zik once per day per computer. I’d really appreciate your help whenever you have a moment! The more votes we get, the more people will see the comic, and the better this whole experience becomes for all of us! This is the link to use for voting. Thanks in advance!!

Whew! That was quick thinking by Zik! Good thing he’s got that emergency grappling hook! It certainly comes in handy! And nothing breaks the tension like a near-death experience. If you can’t laugh at that, you can’t laugh at anything!

The Clonoid soldier vows death, so Zik attacks with his grappling hook! That thing is pointy! Looks like the Clonoid’s going to need to go shopping for earrings.