A young Hawks, whose real name was Thud Featherstorm, was watching a TV news report. There was a fire at an oil refinery, and it was pretty bad.

"Don't worry, citizens," said Skullcrusher as he landed in front of the medical and firefighting crews carrying the unconscious workers on his shoulders, "because I am here."

He then watched another news report, which showed Hellfire battling against a dangerous villain within a city. He took down the villain, who resembled an elephant, with a single burning punch.

"I'm afraid you never stood a chance against someone of my stature," said Hellfire.

People immediately cheered for him.

'I saw heroes every day as a kid. They were always giving speeches to the cameras, but they didn't seem real. More like people in another reality, characters plucked from dreams.'

Thud lived in a rundown old house on the outskirts of the town with his parents.

"Thud!" his father yelled, striking him. "I know you snuck into town! Do you think I'm stupid? That I wouldn't find out? Start fessing up, dammit! What were you doing there?"

His mother just sat there, the TV playing with the remote, but nothing appeared on the screen, no matter how many buttons she pressed.

"Who did you talk to, boy?" his father demanded. "If you sold me out!"

"My wings were tingly," he said. "I thought maybe something bad was happening, but then they went back to normal. I came home straight after that no one saw me, I swear."

"Stop lying to me! You speak to no one, don't even take a step out—"

"Hey!" said his mother. "The TV is busted."

His father groaned in annoyance. "Who the hell cares?"

"Wait, you're not leaving again, right?"

"You ever think that maybe our crap would work out if you found us some cash?"

'Apparently, my father ended up killing someone over an absurdly small amount of money. My mom let him hide out with her and kept him fed and out of sight. I was born pretty soon after.'

While his parents argued, Thud tried to repair the house, but his father marched towards him.

"Move it!" he yelled, kicking him aside. "How many times do I have to tell ya? Don't turn your back on me, got it?"

"I'm sorry," said Thud.

His father then opened the fridge which was empty. "She earned have allied on Kelly's useless power. No… the real problem is that Kelly got knocked up! If that brat had never been born, I would still be free goddamnit."

"Please just come back," his mother sighed.

His father fell asleep on the floor while his mother continued playing the TV. His only other hand sat in the corner, hugging a doll from Hellfire that his mother had gotten him.

'My mother and father were broken souls, but I endured them, hoping I wouldn't turn out the same way. I figured if I kept my head down when I grew up, I'd be free.'

Then, one rainy day, everything changed.

"Baby, your father got caught," said his mother. "What should we do, Thud? He stole a car to get away, but it was slow. He then got himself arrested by Hellfire."

"The fire guy?" said Thud shocked.

'In that instant, fiction became a reality. A hero, someone I had only seen on TV, was real a part of my life.'

"They'll come," said his mother. "We can't stay here. They'll take us to."

'Paranoia took my mother. She feared that she would be punished for harbouring my father, so she took my hand, and we left the only home I knew. Unfortunately, my mother was completely unequipped for survival.'

They were now squatting in a train station, and passers-by looked at them as they continued their daily business.

"The police," said Thud. "They'll help."

'I tried to make sure we did things right.'

"Thud, do what you have to," said his mother. "Just get us money, your daddy son. If you can't do this, I don't know why you were born. Was the point of all those damn feathers, huh? Go!"

'If I use my powers, it would be easy to steal wallets and purses, but I couldn't.'

Instead, he used his powers to help a great number of people, which got the attention of the Safety Commission. It didn't take them long to track them down, and they came up with a generous offer.

"It's Kelly Featherstorm, right? And your son is named Thud? Your child is gifted, ma'am; he can become a great hero one day. If you accept our proposal, I can assure you that will happen. Plus, we will provide total support for you and your family. You won't want for anything."

"My family?" she glared. "Does it look like I have anybody else?"

"Right, well, except for our payout, and you give up all connections with your son and start a new life. Of course, you can trust we will take impeccable care of him."

It was on that day that Thud gave up his name and became Hawks. True to their word, he became a great hero, but he was here to work directly for the Health and Safety Commission, which meant doing a few shady jobs.

"Hawks!" said a voice. "Hello!

Hawks' suddenly woke up and found himself sitting in a car driven by Best Jeanist. During the raid, he had been badly burnt by Diablo, and while he was able to walk, his road had suffered a few nasty burns, making it difficult for him to speak, which was why he was now using his phone to communicate.

"Oh good," said Best Jeanist. "Thought you died there for a minute. We're getting close."

"Sorry that I got nothing and you didn't," Hawks apologised, using his phone to communicate.

"Think nothing of it. If they hadn't sewed you up so well back in central, you would still be wandering between the halls between life and death. Their work is impressive; if not that, then we wouldn't have pulled off that Red Death-inspired gambit. The near-death state they put me in has taken a toll on my body, though."

"I'm sorry. I'm the one who told the Safety Commission to take drastic measures because the League wouldn't be fooled by a cheap trick, especially if that crazy doctor got his eyes on you. It worked out in the end; you looked like a corpse when I brought you to Diablo. Even have your identity identified.

"If it weren't your real body, we'd both be dead. That madman believed that I killed you, and then he suggested that we preserve your body so they could use you whenever the perfect time came. For a while, you slept in suspended animation, floating in one of their secret facilities. Luckily I got a chance to sneak in and revive you in time for you to save the day."

"Hang on," said Best Jeanist as he made a sharp U-turn.

"What was that?" Hawks asked.

"Some loose threads."

A small group of thugs were running rampant, shot in a nearby street.

"Time for a food revolution, brothers!" said the gang leader, immediately eating hotdogs from the nearby cart. "Oh yeah, Gluttony and the gang are taken over this entire district!"

However, they then heard the sound of a vehicle approaching, which was the same one Best Jeainst was driving.

"Fibre on," he said as he pulled down on the lever. "Fibre fire!"

Kate was then suddenly shot out of the car, and Gluttony swung some goo at them. However, Best Jeanist skidded around them and instantly wrapped them up with the cables.

"You're finished, Gluttony," said Best Jeanist.

When the car came to a screeching halt, it immediately exited, and everyone smiled upon seeing him.

"Apologies for the flamboyant capture," he apologised. "My body is still on the mend."

"Thank you so much."

"Awesome!"

"You're the greatest."

"That's the number three hero for you."

"Where are the local authorities?" Best Jeanist asked.

"Not coming," said one of the bystanders. "The police have their hands full trying to chase down those group of villains that escaped from prison, and the heroes they closed up shop as soon as the public began criticising them… just vanished."

"Because they're cowards," said a shop owner, who was wearing a support item on his arm, "who needs them."

"I see," said Best Jeanist. "Then I'll send you some of my own sidekicks."

Best Jeanist looked at the crowd, and while some smiled happily, he noticed a few were not as enthusiastic.

'They're angry,' he noticed.

Hawks was still in the car but observed everything. 'Every day, more and more people stop believing that the heroes are looking out for them.'

They eventually returned to the road and stopped in a block of houses.

"Which one?" Best Jeanist asked as they exited the car.

"I'll show you," said Hawks as he approached one of them, "I need to check something before I recover and go public again."

They entered one of the houses where Hawks' mother lived. However, when they got inside, he found the place completely deserted.

"She skipped town?" said Best Jeanist.

Hawks then noticed a note on the table and began to read it.

Dear Thud

Please forgive me; these scary men came into the house and threatened me. Shouting that they wanted to know about my family. I ended up telling them about you and your father. I couldn't help it. I feel so ashamed. I don't want to cause any more trouble, so I'm leaving.

Please take care of yourself. I want you to know I am very, very proud of you, son.

"Diablo must have tracked her down," said Hawks. "I can't believe he found so much Intel. I figured if there was a leak, it came from my mom."

"That's tough," said Best Jeanist. "Sometimes we don't like the fit—"

"No. When I gave up the Featherstorm name, I gave up my relationship with her too. That was fine by me, but… I abandoned her instead of saving her, even though I wanted to help people. This is my fault, the result of my mistakes. I actually feel relieved, though, as relieved as I can be right now. The Safety Commission is essentially out of business, and as a result, nobody is around to tell me what to do. Now there's nothing…"

Hawks then removed his mask and began to speak with his own voice. "…that's tying me down."

He then remembered the day his mother took him into town.

"Don't tell your father, okay," she said.

'I've been begging to leave the house. Eventually, my mother relented and took me out shopping to shut me up.'

While out shopping his mother bought him a plush toy of Hellfire.

"He's good enough, right?" she asked. "Skullcrusher is too expensive; I hope you're strong like this guy when you grow up."

'Little did I know.'

Hawks then turned to look at Best Jeanist. "You know, Jeanist… a person's true nature comes to light whenever they're cornered or whenever they get a taste of real freedom. That's why I think Gruffnut Thorston was a good guy. He backed the wrong team, sure, but at heart, he wanted to help other people. I strive to be like that."

Hawks then began to remember how he saved so many people using his feathers for the first time.

"Even if Diablo told the truth about the Jorgenson family and history, everything is different now," said Hawks after a long silence.

"So… what will you do?" Best Jeanist asked.

"Good question. There are thousands of small fires I need to put out. First of all, I've got to face my origins by helping Hellfire. He's in trouble."

Things certainly did get worse as the days went by. The chaos was bad enough if it had just been from the raids, but adding to the freed villains and the confirmation that Red Deaths actually existed pushed people over the edge.

The Red Deaths had just been rumours, but when the first one of them appeared at Berk Academy, stories began to circulate. The firsthand encounters and sightings spread across the country, but no one knew what to believe.

Even still, the story scares people, and looking back, it is easy to see how these rumours started the first wave of public unease. It primed civilians to expect the worst as they watched heroes fail them repeatedly, and villains began to take over the streets overnight. The strain was far too much, and something had to break.

In some ways, this was inevitable, and people started to come up with ways to protect themselves. Re-Destro had a hand in providing everyone with the equipment they needed to fight back, but this had an unfortunate consequence. Untrained civilians were now fighting villains, which meant that the fighting was even worse and caused massive amounts of casualties and property damage.

A small group of small-time crooks were now attacking a convenience store, the same group that Snotlout and Ranger had taken out before the raid.

"Let's grab what we can hit the registers! We can take whatever we want in broad daylight. No holding back any more; this is our world now."

"You punks will pay!" said the owner of the store.

The thugs turned and saw the store owner charging towards them.

"Ah, you feeling tough today, old man?" said the thug leader. He then saw that the owner was wielding a support item. "A support item?"

Suddenly, more employees jumped at them, wielding support items.

"We don't need pros!"

"Yeah, from now on, we protect ourselves!"

At the same time, Wash made his way to the scene as quickly as possible.

"Eyewitnesses say the area has been attacked by a bunch of crooks. Nearby heroes, please provide assistance."

Wash was almost there when he suddenly saw a stream of explosions happening at the location of the incident. He managed to reach the location, but he was too late. The entire street had practically been demolished, and the return of injuries.

Wash bent down and picked up one of the support items when he suddenly felt something hitting him on his helmet. He turned around and saw a group of angry citizens who were badly injured.

"Where were you!? What took you so long? This was our home; we were minding our own business when these guys destroyed our lives! Now you show up after the damage is done!"

"We can't count on these heroes any more."

"What are you gonna do now to bring them back to life?"

Wash knew there was no point in arguing and did the only thing he could do. "I'll disaffect their wounds and get them to the hospital."

He then opened the drum on his suit, and bubbles began spreading across the area.

The heroes suffered badly; not only had they lost people during the raids, but many were now quitting. Most of them were quitting because they couldn't handle the resentment from the civilians.

The number 9 hero, Samurai, was a prime example as he had just removed his helmet and announced his retirement.

"Considering our failures, I have no choice but to fall on my sword," he said as he bowed.

Naturally, everyone at the press conference was furious and began tossing everything they had at him.

"So your solution is to resign when we need help!"

"You're responsible for this!"

Samurai then walked out without saying another word.

"Why quit when we need you the most?"

"Damnit, man! I was your fan!"

Many followed Samurai's example, and heroes began resigning in droves, forcing many agencies to close up shop. Everyone had taken peace for granted. With everything in turmoil, everyone had to ask themselves what it meant to be a hero. As the days passed, the question of how many would remain, and unfortunately, the blame was all falling on one man, the country's number one hero, who was now a shadow of his former self.

Hellfire himself came out of operation, though he still needed plenty of recovery time. He couldn't help but look out the window and look at the angry crowd down below, knowing they were all pointing their frustration out at him.

"Snotlout and the others will recover eventually, and somehow, you also managed to evade death," said his doctor. "Hellfire… please know that I'm rooting for you."

The doctor left his room as Hellfire continued and looked down at the crowd.

'I can breathe on my own; my head feels foggy,' he said. 'The anaesthesia hasn't worn off completely. I'm still alive…' He then lowered his bed so that he could lie down. 'This must have been Scorch's plan. He knew I would survive the fight. I couldn't move, just like before when my child was going to die right in front of me and I… I froze. Jeanist showed that Diablo was wrong about some things, but the truth about me is undeniable. Everything I did in the past has come back to haunt me and others.'

He leaned his head against the pillow and looked up at the ceiling. "Even if I survive the fight, the hero I was… Hellfire is dead. I can't fight my own son."

He then heard a noise. When he turned his head, he saw his children staring at him dumbfounded, especially Snotlout, who immediately closed the door.

"Snotlout!" he yelled.

Adelaide then opened the door, though her brothers turned their heads away.

"Hi there, Dad," she said. "I'm glad you are. Now we can all check in on each other."

Hellfire coughed. "Are you all okay?"

"Are you crying?" Scald asked. "What the hell, Dad?"

"Sorry," he said as he brushed the tears out of his eyes, "for everything… really. I failed, and it's too late. My regret, my guilt too… everything. My heart is breaking."

"What's this about your heart?" said a voice.

Hellfire's eyes widened as he recognised the voice as his wife's. She was standing behind her children, holding a flower in her hand.

"Regret and guilt, I understand," said Luna. "In fact, we felt it much more than you have."

"Luna?" Hellfire stared. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk to you about our family and about Scorch."