As impossible as it seemed, there was another.

Daredevil crouched on the edge of a Manhattan rooftop, taking in as much of the city as he could-the movements, the sounds, the smells. A police car was parked nearby, and he could hear everything that came across their radio. Daredevil strained his senses and waited. He was out there, somewhere...the other man without fear.

The city had given him a name, but it had also given him that title: apparently, if you hurled yourself at armed men night after night, it eventually made an impression. They weren't wrong. Oh, Daredevil felt fear for the people that Matt Murdock cared about, like Foggy and Karen, and he feared for the safety of Hell's Kitchen. But, when it came to his own life, he was fearless. That boldness came from two different sources. He'd been angry for as long as he could remember, and his anger had choked his fear to death at some point in his teenage years. Also, most fear came from the idea of what could happen; put a human being in a dark room, and they'll wonder if their worst nightmare is hiding in that darkness. But Daredevil suffered from what later generations would call "information overload." If his window rattled, he knew that it really was just the wind, as opposed to someone trying to break in. The strength and accuracy of his senses prevented his imagination from getting the better of him.

There had been other men without fear, but they weren't quite the same. Kamikaze pilots had known that they were going to die; sociopaths were too crazy to be afraid; the more extreme types of adventurers got off on it (and then went back to their regular lives). That sort of fearlessness was rooted in either insanity or short-term conditions. But to be fearless every single day, and to avoid getting killed in the process? That was a real challenge. Halo Knight wanted Daredevil to be some sort of crazy sacrifice, but he didn't realize that he already was one. Living sacrifices were the best kind. Average people were capable of charging into certain doom, saving people, and dying. But that was a one-shot thing, something that couldn't be repeated. New York needed someone that could sacrifice themselves over and over.

I honestly thought that I was the only person crazy enough to be this fearless...but Halo Knight is, too. He thinks that our entire species is already doomed. Compared to that, everything else pales in comparison.

Daredevil heard Angel before his radar sense picked him up. The young man glided down and landed on the rooftop, saying "Hey." Daredevil never knew how a person looked-happy, sad, calm, angry-but he smelled a combination of adrenaline and anxiety. Extreme anxiety.

"You okay, kid?"

"Please don't call me 'kid.' And, yeah, I'm fine."

"Just for the record: you don't have to do this," Daredevil said. "You can still back out."

"No, it's like you said before...he can fly, and you can't. You need me."

Unfortunately, Daredevil couldn't argue with that. In time, he'd probably find a way to deal with people who could fly, but this was his first enemy with powers, and he needed all the help he could get.

Something's definitely wrong, though. The k-Angel is really nervous. Fear is just pouring off of him, and it wasn't even doing that during our fight with Halo Knight. Maybe he's just afraid of getting killed by this lunatic.

"I found some things out," Daredevil said. "Halo Knight is-"

"-he's a mutant, and he is connected to the space program," Angel said. "But I didn't get his real name."

Daredevil was shocked: Matt Murdock worked with witnesses of all ages, so he knew that teenagers saw and knew more than adults realized, and that they pooled their information in the form of rumors. He'd thought that Angel might hear some stories about Halo Knight at school, the sort of things that kids wouldn't tell authority figures. But he'd never expected him to find out that much. Stop underestimating him, Matt.

"I heard the same thing. But I also found out that the government wants to assassinate him, which could be a problem."

"Uh, wait, our government?"

"Once we beat him, we need to hand him over to the feds. The CIA wants to kill him in the field, but I don't think that they'll be able to-we'll have to be the ones that get him under control. The thing is, the CIA will still want him dead, and I think that they'll kill him once he's in custody. The FBI may be willing to keep him alive, so they're our best option." And our only option.

"But...if they decide to execute him...I mean, they do that to people all the time, right?"

"Executions only happen at the end of a trial. This would be without a trial, so it'd be murder."

"I see what you're saying, but...he wants to kill us, and he's literally trying to end the world, so..."

"Do you kill people?"

"No, of course not!"

"Do you think there's a difference between killing someone yourself and handing them over to be killed?"

"...okay, okay. I get it."

"Halo Knight was unstable to begin with, and now that they've tried to take him out, he'll only get worse."

"They already tried?"

"There was a shootout about an hour ago, and it was supposedly between two gangs of armed criminals, but there weren't any casualties. The story didn't make sense. I went by the building, and I could tell that no one died there." Death has an all-too-familiar smell.

"Could we pick up his trail from there?"

"If a person is on-foot, I can track them almost anywhere. But when they're in the air..."

"So, what's the plan?"

Well, I've been listening to the cop car down there, waiting to hear if anything comes across their radio. But it hasn't worked. "He isn't coming to us, so we need to go to him. We patrol."

"Sounds good," Angel said. "There's, uh, one other thing, though."

Daredevil smelled his anxiety spike.

"The...source that I got my information from, he thinks that Halo Knight could cause a national panic. I mean, not from what he's trying to do, but from what he is. He thinks that America isn't ready to find out about mutants. So, we need to stop him, but we can't let him talk too much, either."

"I understand." Even in futuristic-sounding 1963, there was still a lot of controversy around civil rights and women's lib. Daredevil couldn't imagine how the country would react to the existence of mutants. Riots, financial chaos, paranoia that would make the Red Scare look minor.

No wonder he's afraid. The potential anti-mutant danger is bad enough, but knowing that your 'kind' terrifies the rest of the world...that must really do a job on your head. Especially when you're only a teenager.

"You can't let it get to you," Daredevil said. "The life we live, the problems we have to deal with...it can be a little 'trippy,' and that's okay."

Angel laughed. "Whoa, easy with the mod slang, daddy-o. But, thanks."

"You're welcome." After an awkward pause, he added, "I end up overhearing a lot of conversations, so I know how young people are talking, but that just isn't me."

"Yeah, keep acting like you're some grizzled old man. I bet you're only, what, ten years older than me?" Angel sighed; from the angle of his head, he seemed to be staring off into the distance. "I know that he's wrong. Halo Knight, I mean. I'm not some magic savior, and you aren't some evil force...but, still, just the idea of it...yeah, it's trippy."

"It definitely is. Come on, let's go."

Daredevil sprinted, jumped off of the rooftop, and bounced off of a flagpole. He wrapped his billy club's cord around a thick cornice, swinging away. Angel ascended from the rooftop and followed. New York was relatively quiet, right now-no sirens, no gunshots-and chilly ocean air was rolling in. The streets were rivers of Chevrolets (each model of car had a distinctive-sounding engine), and Daredevil heard the Beatles on dozens of radios. Some of the more old-fashioned nightclubs had spotlights shining into the sky.

People saw them, of course. Daredevil heard their reactions. Excited shouts, disbelieving laughter, astonished cursing. They nearly caused several car accidents, as people were apparently looking up instead of ahead. Footsteps raced toward apartment windows-some of them were small, and must have belonged to children. One man on the street shouted "Go, Daredevil! Go, Angel-Man!"

Angel kept glancing back over his shoulder, making sure that he was keeping up. But Daredevil easily kept pace with him. He raced across filthy rooftops, effortlessly pulled himself up walls, and swung through the night. Whenever he was downwind of Angel, he could tell that the young man was feeling better. Flying seemed to have a calming effect on him. His breathing was more level, and the fear-chemicals had been replaced by positive endorphins. Daredevil smiled. He'd gotten into this life to avenge his father and save his neighborhood, and they had a major threat to deal with...but it could really be fun, at times.

They only came across a few criminals. A potential mugger was walking toward an elderly lady who was walking her (tiny) dog, but when he saw them, he made an abrupt turn, seeming to chicken out. The man threw something into a garbage can and vanished into the subway. Another individual was doing some late-night window-shopping: when they passed over, he backed away from the glass and ran down the sidewalk.

At one point, Daredevil heard gunfire, but it was a false alarm. Four armed robbers were exchanging fire with two patrol cops. The cops were pinned down, unable to get clean shots, and the robbers were advancing on them. Manhattan was Spider-Man's territory...but Daredevil didn't see him around, right now. He pointed, Angel nodded, and they broke off, heading for the robbers.

Angel hit them with knockout gas. It was windy, so the gas quickly blew away, but it got them startled and coughing. Daredevil swung down, simultaneously kicking the biggest man in the head. The guy's gun bounced across the concrete. Daredevil landed right in the middle of them, shaking his grappling cord loose, and the other three robbers flinched as it whipped around and retracted. He used the opportunity to break one man's ribs and nose and throw another man head-first into a fire hydrant. The fourth man tried to aim at Daredevil, but Angel imitated him, kicking the robber while still in the air. Daredevil then ripped his gun away and clubbed the fight out of him. The big man was stunned, but he wasn't down, and he tried to find the gun he'd dropped. Angel wing-swatted him, flipping him head over heels. The man crashed on the hood of a parked Cadillac.

All told, it took fifteen seconds. By the time that the cops poked their heads out, Daredevil and Angel were already gone, continuing their search for Halo Knight.

"Hang on," Daredevil said. Angel didn't respond. He'd never had anyone to talk with while he was swinging around, and he realized that, with the air rushing by, Angel couldn't hear him. He repeated himself, shouting. Angel looked his way, nodded, and landed on the nearest rooftop. Daredevil swung to it and joined him.

"What, do you need a break?" Angel said, a smile in his voice. "Having trouble keeping up?"

"That's hilarious," Daredevil said, trying not to sound insulted. Then, speaking to the darkness: "Sorry to bother you."

A young couple was busy pulling their clothes back on, and gathering up a blanket and a bottle of wine. The woman was holding her dress and the wine with the same hand; Daredevil's radar sense told him that she was struggling to cover her chest with just one arm. When Angel saw them-or her-he must have blushed, given the sudden level of heat in his face.

"Sorry, sir," the guy said. "We're, uh, we're planning on getting engaged, really."

They raced back inside, and Angel struggled to speak for a few moments. Well, if we run into some seductive super-villainess, I'll have to keep Angel away from her, because he might be...vulnerable in that area.

"Picked the wrong rooftop," Angel muttered.

"This isn't working. I don't think that Halo Knight is trying to hide from us-he wants us to find him-but his thinking is skewed. He's probably off doing something that makes complete sense to him, assuming that we'll figure it out and track him down."

Angel rubbed his jaw. "He's obsessed with this end-of-the-world stuff, so, maybe we should be looking in churches."

"No...I think that religion is just a tool, for him. A means to an end. Underneath all that, he's a man who's given up, and that's what really matters. He wants to lure us to him, and the easiest way to do that is to attack some third party. But it won't be just anyone. He'll pick someone that represents everything he hates-the exact opposite of what he believes in."

"So, some group of people that hasn't given up on life? I don't know, uh, doctors? Firemen?"

"Good thinking, Angel. We should swing by the hospitals and station houses. It'll be someone like that, or someone that's trying to make the world a better place. Philanthropists, social groups, or maybe even other superheroes."

Judging by the noise that Angel's forehead made, he raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, Halo Knight might be crazy, but I don't think he's stupid enough to attack the Baxter Buildi-" Angel suddenly gasped. "There's a hospital fundraiser, tonight! At the Barrington Arms Hotel!"

Daredevil nodded, firing his billy club's cord. "Come on!"

With that, they were off, again. Daredevil didn't know Manhattan as well as Hell's Kitchen, but he had a general idea of the direction that the Barrington Arms was in. Angel was ahead of him, anyway, so he let him lead the way. People once again reacted to them in a positive manner, but Daredevil ignored it. He felt guilty for letting himself enjoy what they were doing. They hadn't just been having fun-they'd stopped some crimes-but if those distractions meant that they didn't get to the hotel in time...

For all you know, he isn't even there yet. And the rematch could be in your favor. You know what his powers are like, now, so he's lost the element of surprise. Plus, he might be in rough shape from his tussle with the CIA hitters. But, if he beat them, it means that he's getting better at using his powers in fights. So is Angel, though. And then there's the sanity issue. If he thinks the entire world is out to get him, god only knows what he'll do next.

As they got closer to the hotel, Daredevil started to experience doubt; a hospital fundraiser seemed like the perfect target for Halo Knight, but it was too quiet. A science-criminal attack should have been accompanied by sirens and gunfire. Cop cars should have been keeping pace with them, heading for the same place. Maybe it was a good sign-maybe they'd beat him there.

His radar sense only showed him part of the hotel. It was huge, a towering brick rectangle, and lengths of stone masonry wrapped around it. They were covered with ornate carvings. The doors were far from airtight, and the wind carried scents to him. Floral arrangements, furniture polish, new carpet. Outside, the block was virtually deserved, and inside, the hotel was settling-in-for-the-night quiet. Angel took them to the banquet-room entrance on the side. A large sign was sitting on an easel, next to an open set of double-doors. Daredevil couldn't read it (not without using his fingers, anyway), but he was sure that it advertised the fundraiser. They touched down near the sign, and no one even saw them.

He immediately knew that something was wrong. The old building had thick walls, and they muffled the sounds coming out...but it was strangely quiet, and even an upper-crust gala should have been a little loud.

"So...we just walk right in?" Angel said. "Shouldn't we, I don't know, go through a window or something?"

"He's here. Get ready."

"Wait, how do y-"

Daredevil put a finger to his lips, gripped his billy club tighter, and silently walked inside. Angel drew one of his guns, following.

The first clue: there wasn't any security around. At events like this, off-duty cops moonlit as plainclothes guards. There should have been cops at the door and in the hall. Instead, they'd abandoned their posts. The second clue: workers were hiding in the coat-check room. They smelled like cigarettes, cooking grease, dishwashing chemicals, and sweat. They'd really been hustling to staff this event, but something had scared them off. The third (and most obvious) clue: he could hear Halo Knight ranting.

The straight-line entrance corridor eventually split in two, turning into a circular hallway that hugged the exterior of the banquet room. Daredevil and Angel made an orbit around it. The round hallway was empty, and there wasn't any screaming or gunfire coming from inside the room. Acoustics indicated that it was a large, high-ceilinged space, which was good. That meant that they'd have more room to work with. Judging by the amount of heartbeats he heard, there were at least a hundred people inside. The six sets of double-doors that led into it were closed tight. Halo Knight was in there with them, and Daredevil heard some men in physical distress-they were down on the floor, struggling to get up.

"He's in there...trust me," Daredevil said, his voice barely a whisper. "Right in the middle of the room."

"Uh, okay. How do we play it?"

"We go in from opposite sides, so it's harder for him to attack both of us. We keep him occupied while the bystanders evacuate. We need to draw his fire away from them, but the banquet room is lined with exits, so it'll be tough."

"Isn't that a good thing, though? With more exits, the crowd won't bottleneck when they try to get out, right?"

"With that many people inside, they'll definitely bottleneck. But that isn't the issue. When they run, they'll be running outwards in every direction. There won't be some empty part of the room that we can use as a backstop."

"Wait, a backstop?"

Daredevil nodded. "When Halo Knight shoots at us and-hopefully-misses, those shots will keep going. What will they hit? No matter which direction we turn, we'll have bystanders behind us, so it'll be them. We'll have to keep the fight up high, so his misses hit the ceiling or the upper walls. Then, once the bystanders are gone, we use the entire room and beat him senseless."

Angel said "Got it" started to fly away, but Daredevil put a hand on his shoulder.

"Walk, please-your flapping is a little loud."

The young man probably rolled his eyes (eyeballs made a weird liquid sound; regular glances were sonically identical to eye-rolling), but he definitely nodded.

Six sets of double-doors led into the round banquet room. Daredevil stood at the southern one, waiting for Angel to circle around to the top. He gave him about twenty seconds (the room was massive, so it would take him a bit to get there), took a breath, and kicked the doors open. Daredevil heard Angel push his doors open at the same time.

The pent-up smells nearly knocked Daredevil over...rich food, excessive amounts of cologne and perfume, cigar smoke, and, most of all, the collective panic of the crowd. They were frozen in fear, their bodies sending out invisible distress signals. But only the guards seemed to be down. Everyone else was sitting or standing, apparently uninjured. Elaborate chandeliers held electric lights, but Daredevil could feel the difference between light and darkness, and he could tell that it was dusky in there. Half of the lights were out, and another quarter were flickering. Daredevil smelled a scorch mark on a wall outlet. One of Halo Knight's gravity rings must have accidentally hit the circuit, screwing up the power.

"Finally," Halo Knight said, breathing a little harder than usual. He was still in the center of the room, and Daredevil heard an energy ring in each of his hands. "I was getting tired of waiting for you."

At the sight of the two heroes, a chorus of gasps rippled through the crowd. One elderly woman did a double-take at Angel, probably because of his wings, and nearly fainted.

Halo Knight was hurting: Daredevil could tell from the way he moved, and from the painful sound emanating from his neck. Between Daredevil himself, Angel, and the CIA men, they'd worn him down.

Suddenly, the doors slammed shut; they were heavy, and they did it on their own. Angel jumped a little.

"Let these people go, Halo Knight," Daredevil said. "It's over."

"No, it isn't. If he won't be the light," Halo Knight said, gesturing toward Angel, "then I will. And it won't be over until I kill you."

Halo Knight kept looking back and forth between them, not knowing which way to turn. But he sounded more happy than fearful.

"I finally figured out what this sickness is called, and why the two of you are acting like superheroes. You're all the same. Doctors, idealistic politicians, charity millionaires, costumed saviors. I'm trying to get us to a deity-created paradise-a golden age-but you don't think we need it. You think we can build one on our own. And the two of you want to encourage that, right? That's how I knew you'd come. When you see a problem, you rush in and fix it, because you want to make people think that it's possible to fix anything. The real monsters aren't the ones robbing banks, they're the ones providing false hope. Don't you get it? You're selling a watered-down substitute for the real thing...a silver age. Well, it's a mirage, and I'm here to save you from it."

"You know you're crazy, right?" Angel said casually. He was slowly walking toward him, and so was Daredevil, but Halo Knight didn't seem bothered by it.

"This idea of a silver age...it's the nameless disease we've always had. The idol that all of civilization bows down to. The notion that we can save ourselves, and shape our own destinies. We can't! Even in a world with men that can bring down buildings with their fists, and science that can take us to space, it's still impossible. Don't let it trick you!"

Out of nowhere, one of the bystanders threw a mostly-empty plate at Halo Knight's back. Daredevil picked up on it immediately. The throw was fast and accurate, and given how far away it came from, the guy must have been a pitcher in his youth. But, when it was still a good ten feet away from Halo Knight, he jerked in surprise, quickly floating upwards. He never turned his head around to see it; he just seemed to know that it was coming.

Daredevil's first thought: Wait, does he have some kind of radar sense, too? Daredevil's second thought: He's distracted-USE IT!

His billy club's cord shot out, wrapping around a chandelier, and he swung at Halo Knight full-speed. At the same time, he felt and heard Angel take flight.

The huge banquet room went from zero to pandemonium in a matter of seconds. Halo Knight started flying around, Daredevil gave him a double-foot kick as he swung by, and the bystanders finally broke, running and screaming. Daredevil landed on a chandelier, retracted his cord, and leapt to a second. He caught it with his hands and swung/flipped on top of it. Halo Knight shot a few energy rings at him (Angel said they were rings, anyway). His aim was better, this time, and Daredevil used the chandelier as a shield, letting the rings hit it before he leapt away. The chandelier crashed down to the floor and left a crater-sized dent.

If they tried to fight him down below, his missed shots would hit the bystanders. Up there, though, there was no one for him to hurt. Except the two of them.

Halo Knight wants to kill you, not Angel. You can use that to your advantage. Lead him on a chase, and give Angel a chance to attack him from behind.

Daredevil repeated his previous strategy: he used the new chandelier as a shield, and after Halo Knight shot it, he leapt to another one. Meanwhile, Angel smartly avoided using his fists on Halo Knight. He hit him with his wings instead. Halo Knight would fire a glorified warning shot to scare him off, but he'd go right back to focusing on Daredevil. The room was still in the process of emptying out, and Daredevil stuck to the chandeliers in the middle, as that part of the room was now deserted. But there was a logjam around the four exists; crowds were gathered around the edges of the room. They needed to stay up high for a little longer.

Suddenly, Halo Knight lowered his aim, and Daredevil was afraid that he was going after the bystanders. But that wasn't the case. Instead, he shot at the tables and chairs, causing them to fly upwards...and making it much harder for Daredevil to move between chandeliers.

He's gotten better at using his surroundings.

Daredevil fired his billy club's cord, swung low, and arced up to a new chandelier. But he had to curl up tight to avoid getting blindsided by a table. The tables and chairs crashed into the ceiling, and one of the chairs hit Angel, who coughed loudly and spun away. He landed gently on the floor. Halo Knight actually started to go after him-maybe he sensed blood in the water-but Daredevil fired his cord around Halo Knight's ankles, swung up to him from below, and gave him a kick right in the stomach. When Halo Knight tried to shake him loose, Daredevil retracted the cord and used him as a springboard. He landed on a chandelier, but he was starting to run out of them, at least in the middle section of the room...

It's time to try something else. In a big space like this, he can fly around all he wants-but remember how awkward Angel was when he was fighting the goons in the office? Maybe I can lure him out into a hallway. Plus, in tighter quarters, I can bounce my billy club off the walls and get him with the ricochets.

Furniture continued to rocket into the ceiling, interspersed with Halo Knight shooting energy rings at him. The chandeliers were going extinct. At one point, Daredevil wasn't in a position to swing from one to another, he needed to leap right to it...but it wasn't exactly close. He waited for a table to come flying up, and he used it as a stepping stone, jumping onto the distant chandelier.

Halo Knight laughed and shouted "And you think I'm the crazy one?"

The room was ninety percent empty; everyone had been brave enough to run away from Halo Knight, but a few had run out of bravery on the way. They were now pressed against the circular wall, afraid to make a break for the doors. One older man seemed strangely calm. He'd lined the wall with the others, but his heartbeat was slow and steady. The older man was urging the others to inch their way toward the doors. A few people had been knocked over in the rush to get out-some were very elderly, some were teenagers that probably hadn't wanted to be there in the first place-and they'd dragged themselves (or been dragged) to the edge of the room. One girl had twisted her ankle when she fell. She was sniffling and breathing quickly, but she wasn't panicking. The guards were nowhere in sight. Apparently, the gravity-effect had worn off, because they'd run away with the others.

One of the six exits was now being ignored. The northern exit led deeper into the building, and most people had used the other five. Of those that used the northern one, they'd circled back around to leave through the building's main entrance, so that part of the hallway was empty. It was the perfect place to lure Halo Knight to.

Halo Knight started to fire energy rings at Daredevil's current chandelier, but Angel flew up from behind, swinging a chair at him. Halo Knight once again seemed to sense it coming, and he darted away so quickly that he accidentally crashed into the ceiling. He cursed and hovered away. Angel pursued him, swinging the chair and shattering it over his head and chest. Halo Knight started to aim at Angel, but Daredevil fired his billy club's cord at him, and it distracted him long enough for Angel to swoop away.

Do it.

After retracting his cord, Daredevil leapt down to the floor, backing toward the northern exit. Halo Knight hovered and followed. Instead of shooting at him, he kept glancing over his shoulder, expecting another attack from Angel. Everyone kept their distance from each other. Angel didn't get too close to Halo Knight, and Halo Knight stopped following Daredevil.

He's suspicious...he thinks you might be trying to lead him.

Daredevil turned and ran out of the room, hoping that Angel wouldn't think that he was abandoning him. The heavy doors slammed shut. Halo Knight flew after him, reached the doors, and shot them repeatedly.

"NO!"

Daredevil slammed into the doors shoulder-first, but they were unmovable, now. It was like pushing on a sheer rock wall. Halo Knight took to the air, and Daredevil heard more energy rings hitting the other five doors. Angel was trapped in there with him-and so were the remaining bystanders.

"I'm pretty sure I could beat both of you at the same time," Halo Knight said to Angel, "but I'm not willing to bet humanity's future on it. You didn't know about my door trick, did you? I wanted to get the darkness one-on-one, but this is okay, too. I don't know who or what you are, but I don't care. 'Daredevil' is the real threat, and once you aren't around to help him, my job will be a lot easier."