Angel held his breath, waiting for him to ask the obvious questions. "How old are you?" Or, since Daredevil was such a good fighter himself, "How much combat training do you have?" Angel was ready to lie to save face, but he didn't have to. Daredevil just stood there and looked at him. The moon periodically vanished behind cloud-cover, and, in those moments, Angel could only see the opaque red lenses in his mask. They must have been like those trick mirrors, or else he wouldn't have been able to see through them.

While Daredevil went and retrieved his billy club, Angel had gathered up the ammo he'd shot (he was low, and that lunatic could come back at any second), awkwardly made his way down the fire escape (his wings barely fit), and glided down to the alley. He felt numb, which was a lot better than terrified. Daredevil had been waiting for him, and they'd walked through the alley, eventually picking another rooftop to use. By the time they got there, Angel's body was back to normal. He flew up to it, positive that he'd beat Daredevil, but Daredevil got there a few seconds ahead of him.

Angel was the one that finally broke the silence. "So...that guy's crazy, right?"

Daredevil didn't say anything.

"I mean-all that stuff about 'light and dark'-I'm just assuming, uh..."

"It was 'light and darkness,' " Daredevil said, correcting him. "Details matter."

"But he's still wrong, right? There's nothing magic about us. If-if I killed you for some reason, nothing would actually happen."

"He said that he didn't care what we were. Human beings, an angel and a demon...he seemed to think we were 'close enough' to trigger some sort of apocalypse. Halo Knight is playing Russian roulette with the entire planet. He's betting that some of the religions and mythologies are real, and that one of them will have vague, loosely-defined conditions that can be met by the two of us."

"And that's crazy."

"In a world that has people like Thor in it, I'm not so sure. I don't know anything about magic, and I don't think that you do, either. So we need to be careful. Unless you plan on killing me, though, it doesn't matter. All that matters is stopping him."

"No, of course I wouldn't-" Angel was so flustered that he couldn't get all of the words out.

"His abilities and his gear seemed scientific, to me. Not magic. The helmet, the suit, the gravity powers."

"Yeah, he looked like some crazy spaceman." A sudden realization hit him, and he added, "God, for all we know, he might not be human at all. He could be an alien or a robot or something."

"No, he's human. He isn't much older than you."

"Hey, wait, how do you kn-"

Ignoring him and interrupting him: "He talked about knowing powerful men...men that are building our future. Maybe he's connected to the space program, somehow."

"That'd make sense."

"If that's the case, then we could have more problems than just him. The Russians would kill to get their hands on someone like that. And if he worked for the government, they'll probably be looking for him."

"...wait, isn't that good, though? Shouldn't we just let them deal with it?"

"They aren't equipped to deal with something like this-we are."

Yeah, speak for yourself, buddy.

"The good news is, he's only obsessed with us. He doesn't seem to care about the civilian population."

"Oh, yeah, that's 'good' news."

Daredevil glared at him. "We can take the heat better than they can, kid. If he wanted to kill random people, he could strike anywhere, and it'd be almost impossible to stop him. But if he's only after us, it makes him more predictable."

Now that Angel knew that Daredevil was a human being-and not some sort of monster-he was honestly surprised. Hell's Kitchen was blue-collar at best, and he assumed that Daredevil was from there, since no one else would care enough to help it. Angel had expected him to sound rough and tough, like the Thing. But he seemed very intelligent and analytical. That's your stuck-up nature talking, Warren. Yeah, not everybody has been to the same fancy schools that you have, but that doesn't mean that they're dumb.

"We need to get that helmet off of him," Angel said. "Then I could gas him, or you could...you know..."

"Agreed. But it's going to take both of us to stop him-I can't fly, and you can't fight."

"I can sort of fight," Angel muttered.

"The problem is, he'll only get better," Daredevil said. "He isn't a very good shot...and he isn't good in the air, compared to you. I'm thinking that it was the first time he used his powers in a fight. But he has a little experience, now."

"Yeah, and on top of that, he was flipping his lid. When he was making his little speech, he seemed sort of calm. It was like he had this story in his head...but, when I wouldn't play my role, he lost it. That probably threw off his fighting, too. He'll be just as crazy, next time, but I bet he'll be more focused."

"That's a good point. The name he gave himself, 'Halo Knight'-he definitely thought that you'd be the hero, and he'd just be the helper."

"Well, that, and he shoots those energy rings. They sort of look like halos."

"...right, of course."

"So, uh, what do you think his next move will be? I mean, now that he knows I won't help him?"

"There's no way to know. Maybe he'll try to change your mind, or maybe he'll just attack both of us, again."

"What's our next move?"

"For now, we take his targets away from him. We go home, live our lives, and meet up tomorrow night. Right here. If he's on the run from the government, he won't want to be out during the daytime. We'll look for him, he'll look for us, and we'll probably run into each other. But we should also try to find out more about him. If your 'secret identity' has any connections or resources, use them, but don't put yourself at risk. We can pool our information tomorrow night."

"...isn't that kind of a short-term solution, though? What if he gets impatient and he tries to draw us out? If we have to go straight after him, we won't have time to meet up first."

"If that happens, just try to keep him occupied until I get there," Daredevil said.

Angel nodded. "It's weird, he seemed so hopeless. He was talking about humanity, and how we can't save ourselves, and we just need to admit it. How could anyone be that hopeless now? There are more new superheroes all the time, we're getting closer to landing on the moon, society is starting to change for the better..."

"We can ask him that after we take him down."

"Hey, have you ever fought someone like him, before? Someone with powers?"

"Only you," Daredevil said.

"Great. The blind leading the blind," Angel muttered.

The vigilante cocked his head.

Daredevil turned to leave, and Angel realized that he hadn't even told him his name. "If you're wondering, I'm the Avenging Angel, by the way. That's my...codename, I guess?"

"Well, it's good to meet you, Angel." Daredevil shook his hand. After that, Daredevil hesitated, and he said, "Cards on the table: are your powers magic in nature? If they are, and if he isn't just guessing, but he actually knows something about magic-"

Yeah, this is gonna be embarrassing. "I don't know where my powers came from. I mean, they just showed up one day. How'd you get yours?" Given some of the crazy stunts that Daredevil had pulled off, Angel assumed that he had some sort of special physical abilities.

"I got them because of an accident."

"Oh, okay. Well...I think...I, uh, I think I might be a mutant."

As soon as Angel said that, he braced himself. He half-expected Daredevil to recoil in disgust, call him a freak, and haul him off to jail.

Daredevil looked genuinely surprised. "Wait, are you kidding me? I thought that mutants were just some fringe conspiracy theory. A rumor that's passed around, like the government putting mind-control drugs in the drinking water."

"Hey, until a few months ago, I thought that you were just a rumor."

Daredevil didn't say anything else about him being a mutant, and Angel had never felt so relieved in his life. He didn't care! Angel had finally taken the risk of telling someone, and, amazingly, he'd picked the right person on his first try.