In the Miami restaurant, Hellverine stands over the charred body of Daken. As he does, he tells him that he smells like chicken. How embarrassing. Horrified, Mystique says no, and then an angry no. Making his way over to a nearby table, Hellverine tells Mystique that “no” is an overrated word. Touching a young lady’s chin, he adds that he bets she never says no. Especially when she knows what’s good for her. When her male companion takes the moment to run away, Hellverine remarks that her husband certainly doesn’t have the will to tell him to back off. Such a pity. He was a fan of chivalry, once.
Turning around and seeing that Mystique has morphed into a red suit of armor with spikes at the ends of her fists, Hellverine states that a woman in shining armor never gets old. Just then, Mystique stabs Hellverine in the eye with one of her spikes. When she does so, his response is a disingenuous “ow.” As Hellverine and Mystique begin to do battle, he says to her such anger. More than he would have expected from her. Unless it’s possible that she actually cared about Daken, enough to die for him. Slamming her face first into the ground, he tells her no, he didn’t think so. When he kicks her when she’s down, he tells her to give in. She has no power.
Just then, Mystique morphs into a panther, and swipes at Hellverine. Grabbing hold of her and tossing her across the restaurant, Hellverine says he can see her soul, she pretends to be what she’s not. Deep down, she knows she’s a fraud. And he’s going to rip her apart with her bare hands.
Once Hellverine makes his way across the restaurant, he doesn’t see Mystique (who slinked away) but a bunch of frightened patrons of the restaurant. Among them, Hellverine calls out fee, fie, foe, fum. I smell the blood of a desperate woman. Be she live, or be she dead. I’ll grind her bones to make my bread. Just then, Hellverine grabs hold of a portly man and tells him not so fast. He then proceeds to tell him not so fast. They’re not done yet. He still needs to kill her. At that moment, the portly man morphs into Mystique and she defiantly tells Hellverine he can try. She then calls him a piece of crap and tells him she’s ready. She hopes he is too.
Before Hellverine can jam his claws into Mystique, members of the Miami police arrive on the scene. When they enter, one of the cops says oh my god. Plunging his claws into his gut, Hellverine tells him not exactly. After killing the cop, Hellverine turns around to see that Mystique has left and calls her a sly woman.
Out on the street, Mystique thinks about the charred body of Daken and says damn it. Morphing into the form of a raven-haired young lady, Mystique remarks that’s what she gets for meeting a man who makes her laugh.
Inside the restaurant, Hellverine stands over the charred body of Daken as the patrons of the restaurant hurriedly escape. Leaning over him, Hellverine tells Daken that he always was his favorite son.
In Daken’s memory, he recalls a time when he was a young boy and he and Romulus were sitting on top of a hill overlooking a village in Japan. Romulus told the slumbering Daken to sit up. The sun will still be shining on his face when they’re done. He wants him to see something. He wants him to see his greatest asset and his greatest weakness. When Daken asks “weakness?”, Romulus tells him that he will always be outnumbered. That was his greatest mistake. He underestimated the power of human numbers. He overestimated his own ability to combat those numbers. He let the humans see him. He let them know him. And once they knew there was only one of him, once his existence was no longer a mystery, the power he held over them disappeared. That is why he disappeared into the shadows. And in those shadows, he built his empire. The humans never knew where he was. Therefore, they assumed he was everywhere. That is power.
Daken remarks and if they can’t see you, they can’t hurt you. He then says to Romulus that he’ll always be alone. Romulus agrees. But that’s the price they pay to survive. Never care about them, never care about anyone but yourself because no one else will care about you. No one.
On a Miami rooftop, Daken has completely healed and calls Hellverine a son of a bitch. Hellverine says look at him, spitting like a kitten all because of a woman. Daken responds that killing Mystique wasn’t part of the deal. Hellverine asks what deal. The deal he made with the old man? That piece of human skin holds no power over him and even if the did, Daken would be a fool to think he’d have let her live. But that never occurred to him, did it. That someone would lie to him in order to get what they want.
Enraged, Daken goes to punch Hellverine. Before he can get close, Hellverine grabs hold of him and calls him a naïve child. He has much to learn. That’s why he’s letting him live. With that, he tosses Daken into a nearby window. Picking himself up, Daken tells Hellverine that if he thinks he somehow owes him, he’s going to be waiting a long time to collect. Hellverine answers not that long, not long at all. With that, he disappears.
Looking down at the burning restaurant, Daken remarks long enough. He’s only just begun, after all. He then realizes that he’s done it. He’s dead to the world. The king is dead. Long live the king. Alone. Safe. All loose ends accounted for. Getting into a car, Daken drives down the streets of Miami and in time passes Mystique, and eventually a disko that Johnny Storm is leaving with a female companion.
As they do, Johnny remarks to his female companion, Georgette, what a dance floor. Seeing a burning building down the street from the disko, Georgette points it out to Johnny and asks him if someone got killed. Johnny asks what she said. The music is still making his ears buzz. Georgette repeats “did someone…” Before they make their way down the street, Johnny checks his beeping cell-phone. When he looks down he sees that he has a message from Daken that says “call me.”
Making their way down the street, the couple unknowingly passes Mystique along the way.
Seeing the crowd, Georgette remarks that it’s nuts over there. Johnny says tragic is more like it. When Georgette asks Johnny if he can asks them what happened, Johnny tells her no. Georgette asks no he can’t or no he won’t. Johnny replies pick one. Just because he flies around on fire doesn’t mean he gets to butt in every time he sees some crime scene. The police know what they’re doing. His job is to take care of problems they can’t. Georgette asks like monsters and sexy beasts from outer space. Johnny tells her that’s right.
As they pass by one of the witnesses, Johnny overhears her giving a statement to one of the policemen. She says that one of the men was covered in flames. He wasn’t human. And his eyes – when he looked at you, it was like he could see into your soul. The policeman then asks about the man who died. The young lady says she doesn’t know. It happened so fast. He saved a woman, a blue woman. The man had a Mohawk and claws, claws that came out of his hands. Upon hearing that, Johnny says no and frantically tries to call Daken but there is no answer.
At that moment, one of the workers emerges from the building carrying a bag of ash. He tells one of the cops this is all that’s left. He can’t even tell if the victim was a man or a woman. The cop says man, according to witnesses. The worker says well, whatever. He’s ash now. With a shocked look on his face, Johnny tells Georgette that he needs to cut their night short but he’ll drive her home. Georgette says okay and then asks him what’s wrong. Johnny tells her that he wasn’t there when a friend needed him.
At Four Freedoms Plaza, Franklin Richards is working on a shuttle while his mother, the Invisible Woman looks on and his father, Mr. Fantastic continues one of his experiments. Franklin proceeds to tell his mom that dad already gave him the launch codes and he said if he and Valeria built their own space shuttle, he could fly it. Val showed him what to do. He just has to put in the last part, and…
Sue begins to ask Reed about it but he changes the subject and says he has to answer the phone. He then tells Sue that he can’t help it if their children are geniuses. Sue tells him to remember that the next time they can’t find them. If they end up on the moon again, he’s sleeping in this lab for the next ten years. Reed remarks that’s where he usually sleeps and Sue says doesn’t she know it.
Once he answers the phone, Johnny tells him he’s in Miami and there was a fight at some restaurant. He doesn’t know what happened. He then tells Reed and Sue that Daken is dead. After what happened to him in Osborn’s Avengers, they promised him they’d be there for him, and now… this was no accident. When Reed asks Johnny if he’s certain, Sue takes Franklin out of the room. Johnny tells Reed that he’s absolutely certain. He was murdered. He knows it. Daken said that might be a distinct possibility. Reed and Johnny then recall back when Daken handed them a piece of paper that said “If it happens, this is who is responsible…”
