Hydra-Man was mounting noisily and awkwardly up to his feet. Danny crouched down predator-like across the room from him and slipped escrima fighting sticks down out of his sleeves into his hands. He tossed those two into the air, slid out another pair that he threw upward, and then after pulling out a third pair, he juggled all six.
After snagging them all with webs, he whirled them around and around. He came at the still reeling Hydra-Man, jumping here and there off the walls and ceiling all around him, bashing and battering at him with the fighting sticks. He moved too fast for Hydra-Man to grab or hit. The monster was still obviously disoriented from the flash grenade, but he tried ducking and covering up.
Nonetheless, Danny proceeded to beat him down to the floor where he quickly emptied his web shooters out onto him. Having buried Hydra-Man in messy, sticky web slop with the fighting sticks lost somewhere in there, Danny flipped a small switch on his utility belt. Electricity flared and flicker-flashed out of the fighting sticks, shaking, shocking, and shuddering Hydra-Man inside his web cocoon. The webbing heated up, sizzled, blackened, and smoked. However, Hydra-Man roared and tried tearing up through the webbing.
Danny slammed his heel palms into Hydra-Man’s lower back and pressed down on him with his bio-electroshock. He held on as Hydra-Man struggled, shook, and screamed before finally dropping back down to the floor. He lay motionlessly, but his heaving chest showed that he was obviously still breathing.
Outside, Nightshadow almost applauded.
Whipping around, Danny found the Glow, despite his webbed-up feet, diving down on top of the razor-rifle Hydra-Man had discarded. He fumbled with the rifle and aimed it up at Danny.
“
DIE, FREAK!” he shouted, but Danny slapped the rifle out of his hands before he could pull the trigger.
The Glow whimpered and burned a sulky purple. “Please!” he rolled over onto his back and squealed, pressing his hands together. “I have cash! Loads of cash! I can get you anything you want! Anything!”
“
Anything?” Danny growled, his voice tinged with angry disbelief.
Watching, Nightshadow tensed up.
Come on, Danny!
he thought.
Don’t give in!
“
Yes! Anything!” the Glow shouted.
Danny snapped out a hard, wild kick. His boot connected and knocked out the Glow’s fluorescent front teeth.
“
Anything,” Danny muttered, turning away in disgust.
Sighing in relief, Nightshadow tapped a button on his utility belt. The moon emblem on his chest glistened and shone palely up into the dark, mournful clouds. S.I.L.E.N.T. helicopters tromped down from out of nowhere, skimming harsh white spotlights across the Glow’s property.
***
Danny and Nightshadow hitched a ride on a S.I.L.E.N.T. helicopter back to Salome City. The pilot up front regularly reported in on the radio, but otherwise kept quiet as the chopper blades above noisily whipped and whirled. Standing near the open hatch, Nightshadow and Danny held onto the safety rail and gazed out at the miles of wild, overgrown grass and the thin trees swaying in the wind.
“
I’m proud of you, Danny,” Nightshadow said, patting him on the shoulder.
A quiet little smile spread across Danny’s mouth.
“
It means a lot for me to hear that,” he replied and paused. “They all thought I was you. That scared them and made them stupid. They were too afraid to think straight.”
“
I’ve built a reputation,” Nightshadow replied.
“
Yeah, but they saw me using webs back there, so they’ll know something was up and will figure it out eventually. Word will get out in the underworld that it was really just me in your outfit.”
Underneath his mask, Nightshadow’s mouth arched up in a wicked grin.
“
Will it?” he asked. “I have Ghosteyes patrolling Hong Kong and Scimitar Sword One down in Georgia City. They’re both wearing versions of my wing-suits. Wrath has a couple of S.I.L.E.N.T. agents we’re training to pick up the slack in New Daedalus. Dynamo-Man has a robot version of me he’s been tinkering with. The Answer’s even going to be performing missions for us part time with a new inviso-suit I designed that’s a cross between my gear and his. It’s something to see, believe me.”
“
So what?” Danny asked. “You’re going to have an army of Nightshadows?”
“
It’s going to seem that I’m everywhere and can do things criminals never imagined. They won’t know what to think and all that will play to our advantage.”
“
Then that means the Spider-Specter’s done for good?”
Nightshadow nodded. “It’s probably better if everyone believes he died fighting Cold Snap. Wrath and I have set it all up with stories that will trickle throughout the underworld and tabloids. We even planted some false evidence. Nobody will come after you anymore, Danny. I guarantee it.”
Danny frowned, but nodded.
“
Thank you again, Night,” he said. “For everything. I don’t think I deserve the second chance you’re giving me by letting me work for you.”
Nightshadow shook his head. “You’re working
with
me on this. I hate to admit it, but I’m getting older and can’t do everything myself, nor should I have to—not when I’ve been building up this network of mine for years. You’re my partner in this, Danny, you and the others. We’re all in this together. We have to be. It’s the only way we can all get by.”
***
S.I.L.E.N.T. had found Don’s headless body bobbing along in the Indian Ocean. Soon after, the Silver Seraphs had come upon Cal floating comatose through space, looking mostly dead and barely human.
Liandra probed the spirit world for answers and Gilgamesh called upon his divine relatives. Wrath’s telepaths searched for psychic residue. With their help, Nightshadow headed up a full investigation, using Danny’s testimony of his encounter with Hyperman as a starting point. Once Nightshadow put it all together, he thought he had a decent enough idea of what had happened between Hyperman and the Whorl.
A super-speed battle in a higher reality that damaged the real world helped explain the random firestorms and machine wreckage that had pelted a number of cities a few weeks ago. S.I.L.E.N.T. was cleaning it all up, but people were demanding answers. It was exactly the type of incident that Hyperman or the Whorl normally saved them from after all. Where had they been? Hyperman hadn’t been seen in a while. Was he safe? Was anybody safe without him?
Paul Wrath concocted a cover story about Phoenix Bright escaping captivity and having a big showdown with the Invincibles on Mars. There was some fallout from the fight that hit Earth, which explained the firestorms and falling wreckage. However, Hyperman and the Whorl sacrificed themselves to exile Bright to another realm and ended up lost in time. The Invincibles would never stop looking for them, but painful as it was, everyone had to pick themselves back up and move on with their lives.
The press and Internet exploded, gushing with praise for their heroes. Statues and monuments went up in every city. Memorials were held, both for them and the other superheroes and S.I.L.E.N.T. members who’d died on Mars. Books and movies were planned.
At their secret cemetery on the moon, the Invincibles held a quiet service for the Whorl and buried his body next to Miracle Merlock and Night Flower, two of their founding members. The Invincibles put up a memorial for Sea Devil on the moon too, but Atlantis insisted on placing his remains in an honored undersea tomb.
Nightshadow attended a memorial for El Dorado, though he’d never actually met him. The only other attendee was Wrath. El Dorado had shamed his family and they had disowned him, so they didn’t want to acknowledge his life, let alone his death. S.I.L.E.N.T. went cheap on the funeral expenses, since nobody wanted to break the budget for a dead super-villain. So there was just a plaque and a wreath in an old upstate New York cemetery. It might have been better than what El Dorado deserved. Still, Nightshadow wished there was a grave and a body in it.
S.I.L.E.N.T. was cutting up the body and probing it for the secrets behind its powers, which disgusted Nightshadow, but what they’d found was already paying dividends. It’d helped them devise a new anti-radiation treatment for Mutagen, who had hung on so far and was now looking like he’d make it. With those results, Nightshadow found it hard to argue with Wrath over the whole thing, but it bothered him deep down inside. He vowed to do whatever it took to prevent S.I.L.E.N.T. or anyone else from performing such grotesque experimentation. He’d accept whatever consequences came his way.
In the meantime, Nightshadow asked S.I.L.E.N.T. to turn its attention to any cults that worshipped superheroes. So Paul Wrath bankrupted each and every one of them, whether they worshipped Hyperman, the Whorl, or any other superhero. Wrath claimed that they had caused too much trouble already and none of the Invincibles were comfortable with letting them stay around.
“
The world’s better off without them,” Wrath had said.
To ensure the cults didn’t somehow survive and regroup, Wrath rigged up a number of fines and violations for all the more affluent and influential cult members. That’d keep them busy and tied up in too much red tape to ever reform their organizations or make any kind of waves. Still, S.I.L.E.N.T. would be watching all the individual members closely. If they worshipped privately in their own homes, there was nothing S.I.L.E.N.T. could do. However, if they ever thought of causing any problems, Wrath’s agents would be onto them right away.
Nightshadow hadn’t heard whether or not he had a cult dedicated to him, but he preferred not knowing. It helped him sleep better and not feel sorry for poor, misguided people who should be placing their faith in themselves.
He did make a point to watch out for Alexander Mors in the future, especially with Hyperman not being around to keep him in check. Mors held a big press conference to announce that his company would be using all its resources to seek out Hyperman and the Whorl, no matter where they were. They could be in another corner of the universe, lost in time, another dimension, universe, or a realm unlike anything the human mind could process. They had survived far worse, and he vowed to dedicate his life to saving them as they’d done for him and so many others.
As per usual, Nightshadow, Wrath, and all the Invincibles were chomping at the bit for a chance to pounce upon Mors. They were all keeping an eye out for the right time and the right evidence to bring him up on charges. Until then though, they’d face down any new monsters he created and repair any damage their battles did.
At Nightshadow’s insistence, Wrath put Cal’s friend Lindsey and her parents into witness protection. They all sorely needed new lives. Lindsey’s parents had needed to start taking anti-anxiety medication to fight back against their panic attacks because they worried Hyperman or his enemies might come for them. Lindsey, on the other hand, had become a basket case. She’d shut herself up in her apartment, refusing to come out or answer her phone for weeks. According to Wrath’s spies, she shrieked at the slightest sounds and no longer slept at night, certain that Hyperman would fly down out of the sky for her at any second.
Nightshadow asked Liandra and Wrath’s telepaths to alter her and her parents’ memories so they could be at peace in their new lives. He hated the idea of resorting to Doc Lethe’s methods, but that poor girl would be far better off. Besides, he trusted Liandra and Wrath far more than Lethe’s technology and knew they’d only change what they had to. The girl and her parents’ personalities would be the same. They just would forget the nightmare Lindsey had been through and could be at peace again. It was the best Nightshadow could do for her and her folks. He still often found that wanting; he wanted to do more for them and everyone else, but accepted that he could only achieve so much.
He’d actually thought long and hard about giving up being Nightshadow. He’d actually considered going public and taking full responsibility for all the lives Piper had taken. He’d have accepted whatever judgment was bestowed upon him. In the end though, he couldn’t give it all up, not when he could do something to help other people. The world still needed Nightshadow. Danny did. The Invincibles did. There’d always be another Death Reaper or Phoenix Bright or other menace that nobody else could handle.
Doubtlessly, in time, he’d make many more mistakes and many, many more lives would be lost. However, in the meantime, he could help people that otherwise would have had no hope. If he only ever saved one more person, then all the pain and suffering would be worth it.