In the dead of night, under a bright full moon, a demon walked among the ranks of men. No one would recognize him in this form, at least not at first glance. They would see an expensively dressed man approaching his middle years, powerfully built with features that commanded the eye for a second glance.

Mephisto entered the Bar with No Name, ordered a backdraft, and observed the patrons of the bar. Many would eventually patron his kingdom in the afterlife. Oh yes, oh so many souls to claim. Death in this world could be fleeting. Many people, especially the supervillain types, always found a way to cheat and come back to the living. But death always had a way of catching up, permanently. Yes, for a lot of these people, it was a long waiting game, one he could easily play. And the sins wracked up across such long life spans? They were worth the wait.

He smiled when his eye caught a bucket with an array of cash and change. There was a small note on it, asking people for donations for Shocker's bail. These villains. They wouldn't hesitate to backstab and betray each other, but in here, they suddenly had morals and a need to help their fellow man. This place.

There was a commotion happening behind him. He turned around and saw a woman rushing out of the bar. From what he could hear, she had been going around, trying to solicit business.

He downed his fiery shot before the bartender could extinguish the flames. Then he followed the woman outside. He spotted her standing by the curb, smoking a cigarette. She was tall and very thin, almost too thin, and her pale blond hair was cut short in a pixie style.

"You look like you need some help."

"Excuse me?" She snapped.

"I beg your pardon," he smiled. "I was in the bar, and I saw you. Looked like you needed something. But if not, you have a lovely evening." He turned around, and started to walk away.

"Wait," she called, just as he suspected. "I'm sorry," she said as he walked back. "I, uh, I probably could use your help." She took a long drag on her cigarette. "I hired Shocker to steal some tech from ESU. He got caught. And now he wants us to pay his bail or he'll tell the police we hired him."

That was an amateur move. They should've written up a contract, explicitly stating they would not be responsible for bail if the thief got caught.

"And I refuse to work with that jackass again. We need someone else, but I'm having trouble getting that set up." She eyed him up and down. "You aren't a thief by chance?"

"Not the kind you're looking for. What are you trying to steal?"

She took another long drag. "What does it matter? Doesn't look like you can help." She threw her cigarette to the floor, and stomped it out with her worn, dark shoes.

"I can, in a different way. So tell me."

"AI tech. ESU has been doing some promising experiments."

"And why do you want that?"

Silence, then, "My son. He died a few months back. This, I don't know, maybe it could bring him back to us." She took a breath, and wiped at her eyes.

"Artificial life. It's not the same, you know."

"It's better than dead."

Yes, desperate indeed. "You have other children?"He wondered how far she'd go for a resurrection.

She nodded. "One other. His sister."

Not far enough. Something in how she answered his question told him all he needed to hear. The price he'd demand for resurrecting her son would be the souls of her entire family. Alas, she didn't strike him as the type to make that deal. But if he set the stage just right; perhaps they'd fall into his grasp on their own. This could be fun.

"Why not take matters into your own hands?"

"I can't steal from ESU. I'd get caught, like that!" She snapped her fingers.

"You wouldn't get caught if you had power."

She laughed bitterly. "I don't even have the power to protect my family. I couldn't go up against someone like Spider-Man. That's who stopped Shocker, by the way. Spider-Man and his family."

He smiled. "What's your name."

"Alexandra."

"Your daughter's."

"Amanda," she said softly.

"And." He pointed at the wedding band on her finger.

"My husband. William."

"Alexandra. I can give you the power to defeat Spider-Man and his family, and anyone else who stands in your way. You can take whatever your heart desires."

"You can do that?"

"Yes, I can give that power to you, to William, to Amanda."

"No. Not her. I want her left out of this." Concern clouded her weary brown eyes. "I don't want her fighting or stealing, or anything like that."

"Ah, well that's too bad then. It's all or none. That is my price."

"Your price?"

He smiled, showing all of his teeth. "Think about it." With flare, he pulled out his card, and handed it to her. "You have until sunrise to decide, or no deal. The choice is yours."

"I, uh, I need to talk it over with my family."

"Of course. Understandable." This was almost too easy.

"How will I find you, when our decision is made?"

He smiled. "Oh don't you worry about that. I'll find you. Have a lovely evening Alexandra."

He left her there in the parking lot, holding his card, feeling her eyes borrowing into his back.

Alexandra and her husband sat at their cluttered dinning room table, a card of thick stock lying between them. The card was a pristine white with a capital M, typed in blood red with an elegant font. A thin black line underlined the letter, the end points of the line curving in dramatic flare.

They sat in silence, processing everything Alex had said. She just told her husband about the stranger at the bar, and his deal.

Will sighed, his broad shoulders hunched forward. His normally trimmed beard was starting to become unruly. "If we say yes," he began.

"We can stop relying on two-bit criminals."

"But we'll be criminals."

"You think we already aren't? Will, we blew through our savings to hire a goon for theft."

"Oh come on, Alex. This is different. Besides, we do it your way, and Amanda gets involved."

"She gets superpowers. That doesn't mean she gets involved." She gripped the table. Her head was starting to throb. She grabbed her pills and paced into the small, dated kitchen, the sounds of the city seeping through too thin walls. She filled a glass from the tap, and drank down the pill.

"And what exactly is she supposed to do with those powers?" Bill followed her in the kitchen; his large frame leaning against the counter.

"I don't know! Maybe protect herself?" Alex thought of the Shocker and his kind. Why the hell did they get involved with him? What if he or his buds decided to avenge his arrest? Would they come after Amanda? Would she lose her daughter too? She clutched her pounding head.

Will rubbed her back. "So you think we should say yes?"

"We'd be able to handle…everything ourselves. And maybe, just maybe it will work."

"We're risking everything for a maybe."

"We're risking everything for our family!" she seethed. How could he not see that?

"Superpowers," he laughed. There was no humor in his voice. "That's going to change us, change her."

"Maybe that's not a bad thing."

"The hell does that mean," his blue eyes flared with pain.

"She hasn't been the same since Paul."

"Of course not, none of us have been."

He was right, but it was different with Amanda. "Will, she doesn't eat, she'll sleep for days, her grades are horrible. She won't call her friends. You don't see it? If we don't change, we'll lose her too."

He stalked across the kitchen, a caged animal trying to escape. "There's got to be another way."

"She blames herself, Will." Alex opened a drawer and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. With trembling hands, she lit one. "Amanda blames herself for what happened to Paul. And that guilt is eating her alive." Perhaps superpowers would help her through her storm; buy her some time while she and Will figured out how to bring Paul back.

Alex exhaled a smokey breath.

"Gimme that," Will said, taking the cigarette from her. He took a long drag, and coughed. "What kind of powers would we have?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know. Of course. And who the hell is this guy?"

She was silent.

"Let me guess, you don't know."

Alex felt as if the walls were closing in and the oxygen was being sucked out into some endless void. "I gotta check on her," she said, needing space. She walked to Amanda's room and opened the teen's door. Her daughter slept, almost lost in mounds of pillows and blankets. The light from the hallway cast eerie shadows in the dark room. Will joined her.

"Remember how small he was," she began. He nodded. It had been a rough pregnancy, and Paul came early. The doctors soberly told her he may not make it. But Paul survived. Her little fighter. But now, only seven years later, he was gone. Her family forever broken.

Will tiptoed into the room, and gently kissed his daughter's head. Something in the bed grabbed his attention and he picked it up. He choked back a sob.

In his hands, he held a picture frame, and she knew without seeing the image was one of eight-year-old Amanda cradling the infant Paul.

Will reverently placed the picture on Amanda's night stand. Together, they left her room.

Silence passed between them.

"She's not allowed to help us steal anything," he said.

"Agreed."

Will grabbed her hands, and they locked eyes. For a second, she could see the college boy she had fallen in love with. When they broke their gaze, they startled at the stranger standing in their home. Well, he was a stranger to Will.

"It looks like we have a deal," he smirked, extending his hand