When Kenta awoke, he was in the bowels of a vehicle of some kind. No humans were with him, and he was bound in bonds that he could not brake—not with the drugs flooding his system.

Relaxing drugs.

"You are awake," Armsmaster said. "The drugs I am using on you are a derivative of THC designed to relax you and prevent you from using your power to its full extent without harming your cognitive abilities."

Kenta snorted. Only a tinker would engineer weed.

"Kenta, cape name Lung," another voice said. Dragon, her name was, even if she served instead of ruling. "You have been sentenced to the Birdcage. We will be arriving momentarily, at which time you will be removed from this vehicle and sent down. Do you wish to communicate any last message to your associates or family members?"

Kenta snorted. "Oni Lee is dead."

"How do you know?"

"He did not return. How did he die?"

Armsmaster paused. "Another parahuman dealt with him. Your pardon if I don't tell you which one."

"Then I will speak to you. How long do you think you can control those 'wards'?" Kenta chuckled. "Trollhunter had no thoughts for PR—do you know his first move was to try to kill me? Then he drove for my heart and only my regeneration saved me. If not for Oni Lee, I would be dead, I think. It will be sometime before I regain my hand." The thought, oddly, brought Kenta little anger. Perhaps from the drug. Perhaps because the fight had been… If not close to his battle with Leviathan in scale, certainly in stakes. And Trollhunter, far from being to docile pet that the PRT liked to show on the boardwalk had proven to have a core just as feral as Kenta's.

"You—" Armsmaster sounded angry. "You accuse him of trying to kill you? Without Shadowdancer's reflexes, you would have killed them both, and the family—and that would have merited a Kill Order. Why?"

Kenta heard the anger in Armsmaster's voice. He chuckled. "Why did I work harder to kill him than you, or any of your heroes? Because Trollhunter was not playing a game. I am Lung. All fear me, and that is as it should be. Trollhunter did not fear me. He mocked me, brought down my property, not as a way to avoid facing me, but as a way to force me to face him." Kenta faced the camera squarely. "He named me as coward and dog. Do you think he was a fool? No. Trollhunter knew what he was doing. Your rules did not bind him. The customs used by the weak of the Bay, the pretensions of a game that they can hide behind, did not bind him." Kenta tilted his head. "I think others would have attempted to barter for the traitor and his family's freedom. Trollhunter did not. He merely denied my right to have them."

"And now you are heading to the Birdcage." Armsmaster's image came up in the screen, glaring down at Kenta. "Where we put the animals."

"So you say," Kenta said. He smiled. "It must do your pride good that they allowed you to strike me… after the children had done the hard work of defeating me."

Armsmaster twitched, and Kenta smiled. Then he nodded. "I do have a message to send. This is required by law, correct?"

"Correct," Dragon said.

"Good," Kenta looked up at the camera squarely. "Trollhunter. James Lake Jr., since you walk without a mask. You named me Dog and Coward. And you defeated me. Tell me, now that Hookwolf is free to rampage through the neighborhoods that I once owned, who will protect them? When Night and Fog come? You named me coward and you battled me, and you won—and now, all that I had is yours. That is my gift. So, Trollhunter, will you be a coward and dog, or will you protect those you have claimed?" Kenta paused. "That is all," he said.

"What good do you think that will do?" Armsmaster hissed.

"I do not know. It depends on if your chains of paper are any more successful at binding the Trollhunter and his friends in the future than they were in the past." Kenta nodded. "I have nothing else to say."

"Good," Dragon said. "Because we're here at the Birdcage."

Kenta smiled. There were always ways to find out what was happening outside of a prison, no matter how inescapable. It would be interesting to see if that also went for the Birdcage.

He did so want to see what the Trollhunter would do now that Kenta's challenge had been thrown down.