Even if he'd been waiting for it for the last two weeks, Nathan still wasn't expecting Agnes's voice over the comm channel saying "Lunatic has been sighted in the area."

"Wow," he heard Dragon Kid say. "It's been months."

"He's been inactive since last fall, hasn't he?" Blue Rose said. "I wonder what brought him out."

"Maybe it's the fact Tiger and Barnaby are out of retirement," Origami suggested. "But the Second League heroes are nowhere near here."

"We've alerted them," Agnes said. "Remember, you need to protect the suspects from Lunatic in addition to arresting them. Absolutely do not allow them to escape, and don't engage Lunatic more than necessary." Conspicuous silence greeted that instruction. Sky High would probably go after Lunatic, Nathan thought. In their earlier encounters with him, before Nathan issued his challenge, Sky High had made a point of fighting Lunatic to defend the criminals in his sights. Blue Rose and Dragon Kid would go straight for the arrest — they might have the firepower to take him, but not the experience — and Origami would probably be in there with them, just to get on camera, though he'd been a bit more aggressive about points in recent months. Antonio was likely to set himself up as a defensive bulwark if the criminals were at all stationary, but that might not happen, since they were reportedly on the move in a car right now.

Best for Nathan to give chase, too, then. It'd get Antonio into position as a defender more readily, and maybe even get the poor guy some points. Nathan's presence might draw Lunatic that way, and closer to the criminals, but Nathan suspected the vigilante just wanted to make a kill to prove a point to him; if he wanted a fight, he probably had the means to find Nathan whenever he wanted.

"Where to, sweetheart?" Nathan asked, pulling up alongside the Rock Bison staging area. He didn't need to see Antonio's face to know how relieved he'd be at not getting launched, for once.

"I think you have a better idea than I do," Antonio's voice echoed through his helmet as he climbed onto the back of Nathan's car, wedging himself in front of the spoiler. "Ready when you are."

Apparently the idea had been for the heroes to intervene in a planned drug deal, but the dealer in question and his cronies had taken off, spooked by the Hero TV helicopters. Which was a reasonable but remarkably rare response by criminals. Clearly these men weren't interested in spending some prison time to buy fame. Nathan wove through the traffic, slowed a bit by Bison's presence on his car. He could see Dragon Kid ahead of him, and wondered, not for the first time, what it must be like when you were in one of the cars she used as stepping stones. He passed her, and heard her voice over the comm channel — "How come you give Bison rides?"

"Because he's not breathing down my neck on points," Nathan replied with a smile, closing on the suspects' car.

"Hey!" Bison protested. The police cars he passed abruptly put on their sirens, shutting down traffic, and as they passed the barricade he threw the car into a spin, letting Bison jump off. He shot ahead, braking and spinning again, and heard the squeal of the other car braking abruptly. Something prompted him to glance up, just then, and he saw Lunatic, standing on the railing of an overpass, blue-green flames flickering in his eyes as he looked down on the criminals' car. Distantly, he heard the panicked commotion from the suspects' car, but his attention wasn't on them anymore.

"Lunatic?!" Blue Rose gasped, pulling up short on the crest of ice she was riding. Lunatic's head rolled on his shoulders, and his upper body flopped to one side like a puppet with cut strings. He was playing to the cameras, performing the role in a way he hadn't been doing in their private face-offs.

"You sinners and false heroes have grown complacent in my absence," Lunatic intoned, his cloak dissolving in flames. "It is time to remind this city of the voice of Thanatos." His torso leaned backwards, then flopped upright again.

He had some kind of audio equipment in that helmet, Nathan thought, something to amplify his voice, and maybe distort it. This was the public Lunatic, not the one he'd been fighting until now. What had prompted this? He didn't think he'd done or said anything that different in their last encounter, yet clearly it had shaken things up in his opposite number. Was it just the fact that they hadn't fought, hadn't given Lunatic his fix the last time? Yet he wasn't moving as aggressively as he used to when he targeted criminals. He was doing all the talking and showboating first, rather than saving it for after he struck.

Nathan spared a glance backwards. The suspects had left their car, but stood huddled together. Blue Rose hadn't frozen them, thank God, or they'd be sitting ducks. Rock Bison had maneuvered himself between the criminals and Lunatic. No good, Nathan thought. Bison's suit was metal, and Nathan could melt metal at full power. Bison's powers might hold out against Lunatic's flames, but he didn't want to find out for certain. Lunatic's eyes flared, and Nathan attacked. His fireball wasn't going to burn out or consume Lunatic's bolt, especially not when he'd had no time to shape it or put much force behind it, but it knocked the missile off course. Lunatic was already descending, blasts of flame from his hands slowing his descent, and without waiting for anyone else to act, Nathan charged.

He heard shouts — both behind him and in the earpiece he wore — but he tuned them out. Lunatic seemed to hesitate, and Nathan was able to aim a snap kick at his chin. He was almost surprised when he felt it connect, but not too surprised to follow through. The next kick planted a high heel in Lunatic's chest, but he felt a burning hand close around his ankle, and he unbalanced when he jerked back. He staggered, giving Lunatic time to recover, but Nathan was angry, motivated, and he hadn't actually been hurt, so he was on the offensive again before Lunatic was. He knew better than to let Lunatic get any range, so he swung, his fist burning, and connected with the mask. A second punch actually knocked it askew, but his next swing hit air.

Lunatic was about ten feet away, adjusting his mask, and Nathan flung a torrent of fire at him. No art, no aim to speak of, the equivalent of swinging wildly. Lunatic sidestepped it easily.

"So you'd say this man is evil?" Nathan asked him, panting. "And everyone with him? Kind of a loaded term, isn't it?"

"Perhaps your standard of behavior is low, Fire Emblem." A blast of blue flame shot past Nathan's head, solid as a fist.

"Perhaps you just jumped at the first opportunity."

Lunatic's eyes flared, and he turned away from Nathan, leveling his crossbow. Nathan snapped his fingers, engulfing Lunatic's crossbow hand in flames — or so he hoped — and running, shoulder lowered, to tackle him around the midriff. Not fast enough. The bolt left the bow, someone screamed, and Nathan and Lunatic both hit the ground. He could hear the screaming. Fuck. He punched the pinned man with another fist full of flame. Lunatic intercepted his second blow, held his fist still. But there was still no fire on his hand.

"You do not wish to see who I hit, Fire Emblem? You are not worried about your friends?"

"Of course I am," Nathan said through gritted teeth. He was remembering everyone he'd ever hit, remembering the prisoner and the bomber dying in front of him, and for once fury felt like ice. "The best I can do now for whoever you've hit is bring you to justice."

"A word that means very different things in different mouths," Lunatic responded. How could the man be so calm? Nathan sparked another burst of flame, hoping to burn the vigilante, free his hand, but no luck. He shoved at the mask, which actually seemed to be cracked, and caught a glimpse of pale skin before the hand on his fist glowed green. He screamed, too shocked to manage any self-control; his fist was an agony, and it was just one hand. He'd live through it.

And then Lunatic let go of his hand and reached for his shoulder, the shoulder he'd burned months ago.

Nathan knew enough to know that the fact the pain stopped was very bad news, but he felt like he was moving in slow motion as he tried to wrench the arm away. Then something hit it, jerking it back. He looked up to see Tiger, one of his wires wrapped around Lunatic's wrist, and then he was knocked back, scooped up, and carried, in arms that he vaguely recognized as a little pointy and uncomfortable. He was going somewhere, moving fast, and his eyes could barely focus.

Barnaby. Barnaby was princess-carrying him and he was too close to passing out to even give this the gloriously over-the-top treatment it deserved. He did manage a worshipful "My hero," though, before Barnaby got him to the waiting ambulance.