When Hades had been arrested, di Angelo had stayed off camera and given only vague comments to very few news outlets.

This would be his first real public appearance; and given who his father was, the DEO wasn't taking chances. If he was anything like his father, he might use this spectacle as an opportunity to do harm, and if he wasn't, better safe than sorry.

A handful of agents, including Thalia, were scattered in the pitiful crowd of about fifty people. Jason stood in the crowd as well, but not positioned to keep watch. If anything he was just curious about di Angelo.

Security guards were already in place when di Angelo walked down the sidewalk and onto the platform prepared for him. He seemed to take a moment to collect himself when he got to the podium.

"Thank you all for coming today." He began. There was a slight feedback from the microphone, once it settled he continued. "I know my father hurt a lot of innocent people. My family owes a huge debt to all of you for that, and I intend to pay it by taking back this company, and turning it into a force for good. To make it into something that my family could have been proud of. I know it won't be easy, but I believe that together we can work towards a brighter and better future."

Before he could say anymore, the sign of his company blew up a few meters behind him. Something else exploded and everyone scrambled to get to safety. More explosions went off and had di Angelo stayed where he was he would have gone up in flames just like the platform he had been standing on.

Jason used the chaos to change discreetly and within moments he was up in the air. Quickly he put out the fires with his freeze breath. Once that was taken care of he scouted the area below, looking for anyone that was in immediate danger. Thankfully no one seemed to be harmed.

When Jason's eyes found di Angelo he was walking towards a cop; but something felt off about it. The cop reached for his gun. Jason quickly informed Thalia of the situation through his comm as he flew down, just in time. The bullet bounced off his shoulder as he rose from his crouched landing.

"You know that doesn't work on me." He remarked.

The cop aimed to shoot again anyway. Thalia came at him from behind and pushed his arm down before he fired off two more shots. Gripping his arm she spun him around so she was in front of him and elbowed him in the face before throwing the gun away. As soon as there was distance between them the cop pulled out a small knife and swiped at her face, but Thalia once again grabbed his arm and yanked him forward; she slammed her fist into the bend of his arm, causing him to loose grip on the knife, and then hit him in the face before pushing him down. He tried to get up, Thalia restrained him before he could.

Jason and Thalia shared a nod before he turned to see if di Angelo was okay. But no one was there, he must have run off at some point during the fight. Jason searched through the crowd for him and once he found him, he took off after him. Jason wasn't sure exactly why he felt so compelled to follow him. He didn't even think, he just went.

Jason watched him run into an alleyway, probably to find a quiet place to gather himself or to calm down. When Jason finally touched down at the entrance the alley was empty. Normally this wouldn't be any cause for concern, but the ally was a dead end, there was nowhere he could have gone. Though perhaps his mind had been playing tricks on him, and he only thought he saw someone come this way…?

"Superman?" Thalia said through the comm. "Everything alright on your end?"

"Yeah...everything's fine." He shook his head. It didn't matter; this had been stupid. "I'm on my way back now."

Jason looked down the alley once more, still seeing nothing, before taking off.

Unsurprisingly, as it turned out the cop that supposedly was behind the whole thing wasn't actually a cop. According to Thalia he wasn't talking either, so the motivation behind the attack was still unclear.

Jason figured that maybe di Angelo would know something, since he seemed to be the focal point of the attack.

Gracefully, he landed near the open door on the balcony outside di Angelo's office. In hindsight it probably wasn't the best way to approach him after the previous events of the day. Mostly because before Jason could even knock on the glass to alert him to his presense di Angelo had spun around and had a gun aimed at him. Jason quickly raised his hands to show he meant no harm.

"Oh," di Angelo said, his eyes widening in realization. "It's you."

Jason's eyes flicked down to the gun still aimed at him, even though it couldn't hurt him, it was unsettling to have it aimed at him. Di Angelo's eyes followed the movement and he lowered the gun with a grimace.

"Sorry, I actually hate guns, but safety precautions. Especially after today."

"That was quite the spectacle."

"That's one way to put it." He gestured slightly, as though to invite him in. The office was darker now. Only dimly lit by the pale moonlight and the lamp on the desk; which overcasted long ominous shadows across the room.

"Is there something I can help you with, Superman?" He asked once Jason entered his office.

"In all the chaos earlier I didn't get to see if you were alright, you just kind of vanished."

"Can you blame me? I don't exactly have superpowers to protect myself with."

"No, I suppose you don't."

"Is there a reason you're here? Because if you wanted to see if I was unharmed you could have done that through the window."

"We have your assailant in our custody, but we're still unsure why he did what he did."

"And you were hoping I might know something about it."

"Do you?"

"No." Jason must have looked like he didn't believe him because then di Angelo said, "you can believe what you want about me, but I don't know anything. Even if I did why would you help me?"

"...Why wouldn't I?" Jason asked a bit confused. "After all I helped you today."

Di Angelo looked slightly taken back by the comment, as though he had forgotten that fact.

"I suppose you did."

A bout of awkward silence passed between them.

"I, uh, read the article about you. The one from CatCo." Jason finally said. "I agree, everyone should be given a fair chance." He paused. "I don't want to be your enemy, I have enough of those already."

His dark eyes practically pinned Jason to the spot. "Then don't treat me like one."

Sirens wailed in the distance, close enough for di Angelo to hear.

"Duty calls." He said.

"It was...interesting to meet you," yet again. Jason said walking backwards toward the door.

"Likewise. I assume I'll be seeing you around?"

Jason tipped his head to the side as if to say, yeah probably . He turned onto the balcony, giving di Angelo one final look before flying off into the night.

Jason hit the ground hard, the cement spider webbing beneath him. He panted slightly as he stood, brushing the cement dust off himself.

"That all you got?"

The masked man didn't look amused. Instead he recharged his weapon again; some sort of super fist contraption. Which, pun intended, packed quite the punch. Briefly, Jason considered how much Leo would enjoy that pun.

The masked man charged at him again. Jason tried to fly up away from him but the man grabbed his cape and yanked him back down. He hit the ground with another crack , nearly knocking the breath out of him. He rolled with the landing to try and get back on his feet more quickly.

Enough playing around. Jason thought. He focused all of his attention on the weapon as the masked man walked toward him. He felt his eyes heat up as the lasers shot from his eyes. The masked man threw up the weapon to protect himself, but that just made it an easier target for Jason.

Sparks flew, and smoke began pouring from the fist.

With the masked man's attention on the dysfunctioning weapon Jason made his way toward him; he could see Thalia off to the side, with a couple other agents, ready to help if needed.

When he was only a few feet away from the masked man, the man rushed at him and slammed his hand against Jason's chest. But unlike before it didn't throw him back, in fact it had no effect on him at all.

"Looks like your toy is broken." He quipped.

But the masked man didn't seem perturbed, going from the glint in his eyes.

Before Jason could think about it too much, it hit him. He stumbled back away from the hand to see a thick needle jutting out from the palm. It didn't makes sense, his skin was impenetrable...how?

His world spun as he fell, everything around him sounded extremely far away. All of his senses felt blurred and slowed down, he could only vaguely feel his body convulsing on the ground.

Hands were on him, and another turned his face and he saw Thalia, her head blocking out the sun. She was saying something to him but he couldn't understand. The edges of his vision began to fade as he assumed his eyes were closing, which only made Thalia look even more panicked.

But there was nothing he could do as he plunged into darkness. He couldn't move. He couldn't speak. In all his life Jason had never felt so utterly powerless.

Jason woke with a start, the room spun a bit from sitting up too fast. A pair of hands gently pushed him back on the bed.

"Easy," Thalia said. "You might still be a bit lightheaded."

"What…?"

She sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at him. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I….I got in a fight and….I don't-he shouldn't have been able to hurt me like that."

"I know."

Jason sat up a bit, as if just realizing something. "Did-?"

"He got away." Thalia said before he could finish. "We managed to injure him and retrieve at least a piece of the weapon, but he got away."

Jason swore and fell back onto the pillows rubbing a hand down his face.

"I know you hate it when the bad guys get away," Thalia tried. "But on the bright side, we don't think he'll be able to use that weapon again without the part we got our hands on."

That seemed to mollify Jason for the moment.

"So what happened? What did he do to me?" When she didn't answer right away Jason started to worry. "Thalia?"

"...We're not a hundred percent sure what it did to you. Something like this shouldn't even be possible. The only conclusion we've come up with is it has to be some form of Kryptonite, but we've never seen anything like this before." She took a breath. "You really scared me."

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's not your fault. It's just, you've always seemed so...untouchable. Even when you do get hurt in fights you always get back up, and this time you didn't."

Jason pushed himself into a sitting position and wrapped his arms around his sister.

"I'm sorry."

They both knew he meant more than just those two words. They'd had this discussion before. They knew that their jobs were dangerous, they knew the risks, the worry they would cause each other every time something didn't go according to plan. But they also knew that at the end of the day if they had helped just one person it was worth it.

Jason let go when his head started throbbing. Thalia reached over to the nearby table and grabbed the juice pouch and a plate of cookies and donuts.

"Here, you should eat."

Jason looked mildly confused but took them anyway and started eating.

"After we got you stabilized, all we could do was wait for whatever it was to get out of your system. So we figured we should take a few blood samples for future incidences. 'Cause who knows when we'll get that kind of chance again." Thalia explained.

There was a knock at the door before it opened.

"You're awake!" Leo said relieved, he made his way over to them. "How are you feeling?"

"I've been better."

"I'll bet. You didn't look great when they brought you in, we were all kind of worried."

"Have you finished the analysis on the weapon yet, Leo?"

"Oh yeah, that's actually what I came in here to tell you, it's almost done."

Jason sat up fully and started to get up.

"What do you think you're doing?" Thalia asked.

"Uh, going to look at the results?"

"No. You're going to rest, it's only been a day and we still don't know if whatever it was is completely out of your system yet."

"I feel fine now, Thalia. I've eaten," he said holding up the empty juice pouch and plate. "And as you said it's been a whole day, I'm Superman, I don't take sick days."

She sighed exasperatedly as Jason got out of bed. He swayed a bit once on his feet, but it didn't take long for him to regain his balance.

Thalia and Leo shared a look before following him out the door.

When they reached his desk Leo brought up the weapon analysis. It all just looked like a bunch of gibberish to Jason.

"Well? What does it say?"

"Give me a sec." Leo said reading it over. He seemed to notice something and clicked around a bit before opening a new window; with different, but equal gibberish.

"Wait a minute," Thalia said staring at the screen. "Is that…?"

"Yeah." Leo looked at Jason, "it has significant traces of di Angelo tech."

"Oh no, I know that look."

"Thalia-"

"No, Jason, you can't. I don't care how much better you say you feel, this isn't a good idea."

"You can't stop me."

"You're right, I can't. But if you confront him now it could be a trap."

"Fine, I'll go tomorrow then, as a civilian."

"You really think you can get another interview with him?" Leo asked.

"I have too."

It seemed Jason's positive article on di Angelo had granted him some favors. Acquiring a second interview with di Angelo was a lot easier than the first time.

"Mr. Grace," di Angelo said upon seeing him. "Not that you're not welcome, but is there a reason for this visit?"

"I have a few questions to ask you, if you don't mind."

He gestured for Jason to take a seat while he took the one behind his desk.

"It's been a bit frantic around here since the press conference a few days ago. Is that what this is about?"

"Not exactly." Di Angelo narrowed his eyes slightly in confusion. "A couple days ago Superman was...attacked by a new weapon. He managed to get a piece of it and ran some analysis on it." He paused. "The results came back showing traces of di Angelo tech."

Di Angelo didn't respond for what felt like several long minutes.

"I guess you can't judge someone off one article or interview, can you?" He finally said, sounding bitterly resigned.

Jason shook his head. "I'm not trying to blame you! I'm just trying to figure out what's going on; how they got their hands on your tech."

Di Angelo leaned back in his chair and stared at Jason.

"I haven't heard anything about this attack on the news, or anywhere for that matter. How would you even know about it?"

Jason nervously adjusted his glasses from where they'd slid down his nose.

"I-ah-I work with Superman occasionally."

"I'm not sure whether I believe that or not, but then again how else would you know about it?" He sighed and looked toward his computer. "Do you know what the weapon looked like?"

"He said it looked like a fist."

"A fist?"

"It had a needle in the palm that tried to injected him with something… The attacker seemed to only use it as a last resort."

"You're sure?"

Jason nodded. "That's what he told me."

Di Angelo got up and walked over to the wall beside his desk. On the shelf there was a small container that, once unlocked, contained a neat stack of flash drives. After glancing them over he picked one out and walked back over to where Jason sat.

"I think this might be what you're talking about. Not the weapon itself, that is, but what it sounds like it tried to do. This is all the information we have on the chemical."

"What's the chemical supposed to do?"

"It was designed to mimic the effects of kryptonite."

"But that's-"

"Illegal. I know, that's why I discontinued the progress on it. I didn't realize it had been stolen. Everything's been a bit hectic since the press conference, and we've been updating our software. I thought it was just an error in the system but...I should have known better."

Jason took the drive when di Angelo handed it to him.

"And you're just giving this to me?"

"Fresh start remember?"

"Right." Jason said as he pocketed the drive; while doing so he noticed di Angelo's hands that were moving out of view.

"Woah, what happened?" He wasn't sure how he hadn't noticed it before now. Di Angelo's knuckles were bruised and scratched up, like he'd been in a fight.

"Nothing." He said, trying to pull his jacket sleeve down farther than it was willing to go.

"You know, you should never tell a reporter nothing happened, that only leaves room for speculation." Jason said trying to lighten the mood.

Di Angelo sighed before he said, "let's just say that the press conference hasn't been the last attack on my life."

"Are you serious? Are you alright?"

Di Angelo seemed a bit confused by his concern. He shook his head.

"Look I don't want you writing an article about this."

"Of course, this is all off record." Di Angelo relaxed a bit at that. "Are you okay though? How often has this happened?"

"Not that often..."

"Usually once is too often for most people."

"I'm not most people am I?"

"Do you know who's behind the attacks?"

"No. But I'm working on it. I appreciate the concern Mr. Grace, but I can take care of myself."

"Then I'm probably overstepping by asking this, have you considered the possibility that it might be your father? Since you're changing-"

"Hades may be a villain," di Angelo said cutting him off. "And he's where he belongs, but he wasn't a bad father…he wouldn't hurt me."

But Jason wasn't convinced he truly believed that.

"Okay," Jason said backing off the topic. "Well thank you for the help, it's greatly appreciated."

Jason got up and started to make his way to the door, but stopped before he actually left the room.

"If you ever need help or anything…"

"You know Superman." Di Angelo finished. "Thanks, but I don't rely on superheroes to save me. I fight my own battles just fine."