Kenny awoke with a headache and blurred vision. Drowsy as he was, he fell out of bed in the trailer. He also recognized he was out of costume. As his vision returned to him, he fumbled against the wall for the door. His hand met the door handle but it was opened from the other side.

“Easy there,” said Max. Max guided Kenny to sit back down in bed. When his vision returned, Kenny saw Max’s black eye and bruised cheeks and heard the groans coming from the other room in the trailer.

“Are the rest alright?” asked Kenny with his hand on his head. The ache was made worse by the afternoon sunlight that blinded him through the plastic window.

“Yeah, there are some injuries but they’ll manage. They had us dead to rights, their suppression was interrupted. Unfortunately, UnderDog died fighting that monster. By the time we got to them, there was nothing we could do but finish what he started. But what happened, on your end, they said you passed out after the hostiles were neutralized?”

“I had to use my power a lot to get to them, I must have overdone it,” said Kenny. Get to them. Them. The snipers who shot at them must have been villains. It was coming back to Kenny now. The flare was for Anthony, it must have destroyed the depot. That was the start of the villain's attack. That’s why Kenny had to go stop them. They tried to kill him. When he got close he shot back.

Kenny blinked and in that flash of darkness, he saw a landscape of molten viscera that bubbled with screams. Kenny shivered, hunched over, and cover his mouth with his other hand. Max patted him on the back for he recognized this was no mere illness.

“Hey, you with me?” asked Max. Kenny pulled up his knees to wrap his arms around him.

“I tried to freeze them. I didn’t expect it to happen like… that. A real hero wouldn’t make a mistake like that. Is that why you wanted me to leave…” Kenny’s voice whimpered lower and lower.

“You made the right choice; you did something only you could have done. If you hadn’t, everyone here would be dead. Everyone that’s still standings proof that you made the right choice,” Max sighed, “I’m the one who made the first mistake. When I told you to leave, I told myself it was to protect you, but it was really to protect myself.”

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“Protect… yourself?”

“I didn’t want to see you, or any of the other mutants, involved in war or crimefighting. Dying was the least of my worries. Pain, power, fear—I thought it would change the Pantheon as a whole for the worse. It's not every little battle or even death that gets to you. No. The worst part is not knowing when it ends,” Max paused, unable to look Kenny in the eye for a moment, “I was wrong. Rather than a change, the war gave opportunities to reveal a person’s character and today was no different. I was taught that rangers lead the way. Today, you led the way for us. For that, I thank you.”

Kenny was too stunned to speak. He stood up on his own to go to the window. He saw the soldiers outside their barracks under the orange hue of a setting sun. When the soldiers saw him—they cheered. And waved and clapped. For their hero. The celebration felt a bit hollow without UnderDog. Still, every one of them standing proved that Kenny made the right choice. Every one of them was proof that he was a hero. His mind, his heart, could be at ease knowing that.

One soldier, fully armored as he was, fell over. He made no sound, and all around him turned their heads like a sack of potatoes was dropped haphazardly. Then another fell. Another fell after blood spurted from his neck in a stroke across the air and painted the ground red. Every autumn leaf wilted off the branch and fell to the ground without a sound. At the sight of the bodies face down in puddles of blood, Kenny tightened his grip on the window sill. Max had only just realized something was wrong when they heard a knock on the trailer's back door.

“Excuse me?” a disturbingly angelic voice rang through, “I’m here for the doctor. Your soldiers are bleeding out, but a field medic should be enough if you hurry. I saw you already carted away Anthony, maybe the doctor went that way too? If I don’t get an answer soon, I’ll just kill you all.”

Max had his pistol out when he left the room. Kenny could just barely move to look into the next room filled with occupied cots from the soldiers injured in the last fight, the medics that tended to them, and the doctor. Max opened the back door and unloaded his entire magazine with empty clicks to follow.

“Rude,” answered the dark angel. His armor which took the shape of an ebony statue absorbed every bullet. He crushed Max’s pistol and entered the room. His wings were the size of a Cherub’s right now, but he was no less dangerous for it. They were helpless as he surveyed the trailer. He saw Kenny. He stared at Kenny. Kenny strained to move because he was the only one who could do—do… what? He couldn’t do anything like this. The cryoweapons can't freeze every feather, even one would be enough to get Kenny and everyone else killed. Does that mean there was nothing any of them could do to begin with? Was the last battle just luck? Is luck all the Streaker was good for?

In the end, the dark angel took the doctor—and Captain Force—unopposed. Everyone else was left to bleed.