The address led him to a bar, on the border between the seedy part of downtown and the nice one. The neon letters above the bar wrote out SCHMIDT'S. The C and the D were flickering, but the M glowed resolutely. The building itself was uncared for, with paint scraping off the outer walls, the windows filthy. A large man with a shaved head stood in the entrance, giving the stinkeye to people passing by.

Evan smiled to the bouncer as he walked in. A huge meaty arm blocked his entrance.

"ID?" The bouncer asked. A slight smile was playing on his face.

"You know, I dropped it in the sewer grate," Evan said. "Let me in, come on."

"No can do."

"Then you mind checking the grate for a second?" Evan asked, then lashed the man's face downwards. With a crack, the bouncer's face slammed against the sidewalk. "You missed it. I'm sorry, hope you don't mind, I'm going to walk in. I'm sure you'll find my ID."

The bar had seven people in it. A bartender and six patrons. Two at the bar, three around one round table, and a sixth alone, reading a book. The Turner Diaries. Because of course it was.

"I'd like a Stalingrad," Evan said.

"What's that?" the bartender asked him. He was a stocky man with short hair and a toothpick in his mouth.

"You take some crushed ice, pour a German beer like… I see you have Weihenstephan, pour that on it, and then drown it in proper Russian vodka. You know, get that German taste out of the drink." Evan smiled at him before grabbing his head and smashing it against the bar with one hand. He pulled his pistol out with the other and pointed it at a man seated at the bar, who was in the middle of getting up. "Now, I understand that Bradley Meadows likes to drink here. If he's around here, can someone call him?" He looked around. Everyone was staring at him. The man with the book had a pistol out and aimed at him. "Okay."

Evan lashed the bartender to the man his pistol was pointed at and raised his barriers just as the man with the bullet fired and missed. The other man at the bar had gotten up and raised his chair. Evan ducked to dodge his swing, and swept his leg under the man, toppling him.

"Don't overextend when you hit someone," he said. The man with the pistol missed another shot. "Learn to aim." He ignored the ringing in his ears.

The three men at the round table walked towards him in unison. Evan began to swing his arms, but stopped – He wasn't in his armor. He didn't have the biotic focusers for his whips. Instead, he charged. Time froze, for an instant, a moment becoming eternity as Evan transformed into light and passed through the three men to hit the man with the pistol and the terrible aim, transforming back into himself with a blast of force. The man crumpled against the wall, cracking it where he hit.

"So does one of you know where Bradley Meadows is?" he asked. "I'll leave that one conscious."

"He's a fucking cape," one of them muttered.

"No fucking shit he's a fucking cape, Dylan," another answered. "Got any bright fucking ideas?"

"Meadows is in the basement," the first one said. The other two gave him dirty looks. "I'm not dying because fucking Hookwolf pissed off a –"

His words were interrupted by Evan slamming all three of them into the floor with a lash. He walked into the storage room. Bags of chips, barrels of beer, bottles of different liquors and an open trapdoor, with stairs leading down.

Evan walked down to find Hookwolf waiting for him.

Hookwolf was a monster of a man, leaning back on a pool table. Greasy blond locks and an orange beard almost obscured a scarred, angry face. He wore a wool sweater and baggy jeans. His hands, peeking out of his sleeves, looked like slabs of scar tissue. He laughed at the sight of Evan. "I heard the fight upstairs, I imagined someone big and scary. You? You look like I could eat you for dinner."

Evan looked around the basement. Cardboard boxes were stacked one on top of the other. The pool table had balls strewn haphazardly around it, like a game was abandoned in the middle.

"So where's the other player?" Evan asked.

"Upstairs," Hookwolf responded. "Why are you here?"

"Why did you just lie?" There were four stacks of boxes the person could be hiding behind. Where was his armor?

"So you wouldn't notice me," a voice hissed behind him, before a huge pressure hit his barriers around his back. He turned the momentum of the hit into a roll, and lashed a stack of boxes to Hookwolf.

The man in front of him looked more like a convict than a supervillain. Tall, muscular, and pale, in black slacks and chains. The only conceit to superheroism was a blue-white tiger mask on his face.

"Stormtiger!" Evan smiled. "I was worried it would be a threat, like... anyone else, really."

"Did you come to die?" Stormtiger asked.

"Yes. Exactly. I came here to die. Pissing off people who idolize the biggest losers in history was better than shooting myself." The sound of blades clanging together came from behind him, and a moment turned into eternity as Evan turned into light and flew sideways, against the wall. He turned to see Hookwolf had turned into a beast made of chains and blades, and was bearing on where Evan stood a moment ago. Hookwolf scraped against the ceiling as he ran.

"Hey," Evan said. "If you want to bring down the building, let me know. I'd be happy to help." He prepared biotic energy in his hands, extending them towards the two, when a scream pierced his ears. He collapsed to his knees, nausea bubbling up his throat. Through tear-filled eyes, he saw another form walk down the stairs. The form of Stormtiger approached him. He felt his barriers break to a blast of compressed air.

He threw the energy, blasting a hole in the air, twisting reality into a point. A singularity, pulling everyone in the room but him to it. Boxes tumbled, contents spilling out. His armor among them. The scream stopped.

Where reality twisted and spun, Stormtiger was suspended along with a woman in a mask shaped like a birdcage. Cricket. Hookwolf's blades were taut as they attached him to the floor. He gargled out a metallic laugh as he started to crawl across the room in Evan's direction.

When he was directly under the singularity, Evan detonated it. Reality snapped back into place in the blink of an eye, violently displacing everything in the tear. Stormtiger and Cricket slumped where they hit. Hookwolf was driven into the floor. Evan's armor flew to different corners of the room, smacking against the walls. He lashed it to himself, his barrier absorbing the shocks. Dust erupted from the walls and the floor, filling the room with a gritty fog.

Hookwolf pushed himself up. Evan wouldn't get his armor on in time, but his gauntlets, yellow on black on white, were at his feet. He put them on, feeling the biotic channelers in them. He extended his whips, and swished them around. They left scorch marks where they touched the walls. He let them rest on the floor, and smiled at Hookwolf.

"Your move," Evan said.

"Enough!" A voice boomed from the stairs. Kaiser strode down in full metal armor, both sinuous and solid. Once he descended, he looked at both of them. "Stand down, Hookwolf. Phoenix, stop."

"It looks like I'm winning from here," Evan said.

"You said you wanted your armor," Kaiser said. "It's yours. You have it. I was on my way here to get it for you. We're even."

"Even?" Evan laughed. "No, we're not close to even, Max. When I made my offer during the meeting, your response should have been 'yes sir.' Now? I'm going to take something of yours, like you took something of mine. Jared, Bradley, or Melody. Your choice. I'm taking one of them, bundled up all nice and pretty. You have opinions, Bradley?"

Hookwolf had transformed back into his human form. "Fuck you."

"Is that any way to talk, Bradley Meadows?" Evan asked. He pointed at Cricket. "Melody Jurist." At Stormtiger. "Jared O'Grady." At Kaiser. "Maxwell Anders. Your choice. Fight me, lose, I take all of you in, and go after your friends, or let me go, and I take one of your people. I'd prefer Bradley, to be honest, but Melody and Jared are both fine."

"Are you threatening my identity?" Kaiser asked him, an angry edge to his tone.

"Yes. You have mine, I have yours. It's mutually assured destruction, except I can survive a nuke. What can you survive, Max?"

"We can kill him, Kaiser," Hookwolf said.

"One more thing," Evan said. "I left the meeting with Salvo. She isn't here right now. Told her I didn't need her help, but that on the off chance I did lose? Maxwell Anders, Kayden Anders, James Fliescher, Jessica and Vanessa Bierman, Bradley Meadows, Jared O'Grady, Melody Jurist… I've got a few more on a list somewhere. She's got those names too, and the cape names they correlate to. If I don't come back, there will be no one to tell her not to act on her names."

The words hung in the air between them, a challenge hanging in between Evan's gaze and the blue eyes peering out from Kaiser's mask.

"We can kill her too," Hookwolf said. "We know what she looks like, I can take Othala and Stormtiger and find her."

Evan threw a lash at the ceiling, bringing down another wave of dust. It creaked. "How stable do you think this place is?"

"We can rescue Stormtiger from the PRT later, Hookwolf," Kaiser said. "Take Cricket, and let's go."

"Kaiser," Hookwolf snarled.

"We leave now, Hookwolf," Kaiser said.

"This isn't over," Hookwolf threatened, before picking Melody up and slinging her over his shoulders. He walked up the stairs.

"Next time I see you, I will kill you. And the race traitor. She showed her face too." Kaiser followed Hookwolf up the stairs.

Evan waited until he was sure they were gone, and waited a little longer. He groaned, and collapsed to the floor. He let himself lie there for another minute before putting his armor on. Breastplate first. Pauldrons, connecting between the gauntlets and the breastplate. Cuisse connected to the breastplate, and greaves connected to the cuisse, folding around his lower legs. Finally, his helmet went back on his head, coloring everything gold before the HUD turned on and corrected the colors.

Stormtiger was still out cold. Brain damage? He's breathing, but... Evan worried for a second before shoving it away. Not his problem. He lifted Stormtiger with his biotics, floating him up the stairs and out of the bar. He dialed 911 on his armor's connection to his phone.

"911, what's your emergency?" An alert male voice came in.

"I'm a cape, I was attacked by Stormtiger of Empire Eighty Eight. He's unconscious now. I'm at Schmidt's, on Basalt." Evan said.

"Do you need medical assistance, sir?" The voice said.

"No, but I think he does. We fought, and I hit him too hard. His breathing seems to be fine, but he's out cold and it's been a few minutes already."

"Who is this?"

"Phoenix."

"Armsmaster is en route. He should be there in two minutes."

He ended the call. He could stay, but... No. Better not. He lifted Stormtiger, leaving him suspended in midair, then threw himself up. Away. He was done here. A ping gave him his next coordinates.


The rooftop was empty when he arrived. Not an alien robot in sight. Pieces of scorched and broken machinery were scattered on the rooftop, centered around scorch marks.

"I'm here," Evan said. "All alone, waiting for you here."

"I see," Geth said, reappearing next to him. Burnished bronze gleamed in stark contrast to the dingy, desolated surroundings. "Congratulations on retrieving your armor."

"I almost died. If they had called my bluff..."

"You didn't die. You talked them out of attacking. I was watching."

"You were there?"

"From the moment you got the message." Geth's visor widened around its red bulb.

"Then why didn't you help?"

"You didn't need it."

"What would you have done if Kaiser had turned me down? If he had pressed the attack? I don't think I could have beaten Hookwolf. Cricket almost got me." Evan looked into his gauntlets, still dirty after beings stored in a basement, uncared for. "Fucking Cricket almost got me."

"Do you trust me, Evan?"

"What do you think?" The words burst out with a mirthless chuckle.

"I hope you will, by the time this is over." The robot's manner seemed almost offended at his words. "I would have helped you if you had needed it."

"I doubt that," Evan responded. "Mind telling me why you sent me that information?"

"It secured operational parameters," Geth responded. "There were risks posed by a united villain population led by Empire Eighty Eight, and reducing Kaiser's stature would help. I need to remove the cloud of suspicion the heroes have from you and Kara, and while your efforts in this area were imperfect they were a step ahead. Kara would not have been as helpful. She would have been more willing to help, maybe, but your refusal to kill humans made you better suited for making Kaiser look foolish rather than assaulted. Forcing him to part with one of his own harmed him as well. It was a master stroke of vindictiveness. You did well."

"And bombing heroes? Making you out to be public enemy number one?" Evan asked.

"A miscalculation."

"You were that stupid?" He sneered. "You? A geth with thousands of intelligences? The best upgrades the Reapers had?"

"I miscalculated. I did not anticipate Bakuda's rationality. It did not fit the information I had."

"Bad intelligences?"

"Ester Goh. Born in April 25th 1991. Grew up to be a brilliant french horn player, brilliant at math, a true prodigy. Excelled at school, and began to study physics at Cornell, where her natural limits finally caught up to her lack of work ethic. After a semester she was put on academic probation, then she failed at every single subject in a single semester. Threatened to demolish the university, then the home of her electricity professor, then did carry out strikes against the local police stations. Then disappeared. Bakuda showed up in Brockton Bay shortly after, now a loyal servant of a local supervillain named Lung, which lasted three months until Lung ran into Mar and was discorporated. During my own encounter with her, I estimated she was careless, callous, and angry. That she would not care about alienating the heroes, that she would take credit."

"You messed up," Evan said. "So thank you for the tip, robot. I'm going back home."

"I'm on your side, Evan," Geth said, before disappearing.

"I honestly doubt that," Evan said.

Where do I hide my armor, he thought, before leaping away. He'd figure it out.