Peering out a broken window of their warehouse hideout, Emmy Doolin thinks to herself that her father was a hero. What does that make her? He never sought attention for what he did but he got it anyway. Everyone loves a hero. As a girl, that made her so jealous. As a girl, she thought that she had to love her father more, so that he’d notice her. She’s not a girl anymore, and her father is long dead. Only now does it occur to her that maybe she was never jealous of them, she was jealous of him. Maybe that’s why she’s done things she’s done.
Reporting from the scene, Alma Baine tells the watching public that they’ve been asked not to disclose their location but she can tell them that Moses Magnum, having just escaped HAMMER custody, has been tracked to a location near there.
In some nearby bushes, Norman Osborn calls Daken on his earpiece. Daken answers his call and tells Osborn “hello mother” and asks what he told him about cutting the apron strings. Osborn ignores the comment and informs Daken that his HAMMER agents are there as a redundancy. If everything goes according to plan, he’ll never see them, and neither will the news crew. He then tells him to put his COM link back on and get to work. This is his show. Daken asks isn’t it always?
Calling his HAMMER agents, Osborn asks them what their status is. When the commander informs him the team is go, Osborn tells them that his gut tells him that, intentionally or not, Daken’s gonna blow this. On his signal, they will return the favor. Just make sure the news crew is clear, and that their cameras are rolling. Everyone else is expendable. When the commander asks even Wolverine, Osborn replies especially Wolverine.
Inside the warehouse, Emmy thinks to herself what her dad used to say. Watch yourself, watch what you will become. It’s so easy to fall. As Daken walks up to the warehouse, the news crew begins to follow the action. When Moses informs the others that the news crew is there, the Inquisitor places his puppy outside the building and rejoins the others. Turning to Moses, Emmy asks if they should. Moses says yeah, sooner the better. Surprised, Cutthroat “asks what?” Emmy informs him that they’re going to surrender in front of the cameras. It’s the only way to make sure they get out of this alive.
Just then, Daken enters the warehouse and asks and rob him of his moment? He doesn’t think so. Inquisitor states that they were careful, how did he… Daken asks get in there? Through the same access tunnel that they planned to escape through if things went badly, which they have. Turning to Moses he tells him to go ahead but realize that he’ll bring this whole structure down on their heads. There’s only one way they’re going to get out of here. And that’s with him. Throwing his hands up in the air, Cutthroat tells him they surrender and asks Daken to take them to jail. After Moses agrees, Daken tells him that he’s afraid that’s simply not an option. They didn’t really think that Norman Osborn was going to keep his word, did they?
Watching from a control room, Osborn curses Daken and informs his troops to go with plan B. After setting explosives, HAMMER agents rush through the streets and tell the news crew to get back, it’s rigged to blow. This was a trap! Just then, a massive explosion rocks the neighborhood. The news crew asks if there were people living in there. The agents tell her not anymore and she can thank Moses Magnum for that. Emerging from the rubble, Daken calls Osborn a bastard. Osborn tells him to let this be a lesson to him. The only thing he trust him for is to fail when given the simplest of tasks. But as far as anyone will know, Moses Magnum caused this explosion. He’ll come out looking like a hero by just being there. Mission accomplished, thanks to him. And the next time he needs some D-list bad guys taken down maybe he’ll call his daddy.
From the scene, a shaken Alma Blaine reports from the scene of a nightmare. They came there to cover the arrest of the mutant Moses Magnum and his crew and instead found themselves witness to brute savagery at its worst. A trap, a bomb which ripped through a housing project at a time when most people were probably in their beds. All those innocent people – dead. As she speaks, Moonstone, Wolverine, and a number of civilians watch what is going on. Alma asks who is responsible for this carnage. Given the circumstances, and the utter disregard for life shown earlier this week during what is now called the Courthouse massacre, it may be safe to assume that Moses Magnum and his co-conspirators are to blame for these deaths.
As a rescue worker pulls the Inquisitor’s puppy alive from the rubble, Alma’s cameraman tells her to turn around. When she does, she sees a burnt and beaten up Daken, clad in his Wolverine costume, carrying a baby in his arms. Once he makes his way free of the rubble, Daken falls to his knees on the ground and collapses. Alma asks the viewers if they saw him coming out of the burning building. They’re taking the baby from him now. He, no she appears to be unharmed. As she says “My god, what a hero,” Wolverine angrily turns away from the television. Inside the control room, the shocked agents ask Osborn if that was planned. At first, Osborn angrily asks “planned?” He then tells them of course it was. This was all planned. Over at the scene of the bombing, Daken is helped up by emergency personnel and cracks a sly smile.
Two hours later, Norman Osborn holds a press conference in front of a slew of reporters. He tells them that it was planned, he must emphasize, by a ruthless maniac whose only desire was to hurt others. He is happy to report, however, that the threat has been neutralized. When one of the reporters asks him if it’s true that he hasn’t yet recovered the body of Moses Magnum or his co-conspirators, Osborn tells her time, give them time. They’re far more interested in aiding the rescue and recovery effort. Rest assured though, Moses Magnum and his people no longer pose a threat to the public. When a reporter asks about Wolverine and if he’s available to answer questions, Osborn informs them that he’s afraid Wolverine is still recovering from his wounds.
One hour and thirty minutes ago, Osborn asked a doctor “gone?” The doctor replies that he’s sorry but this isn’t a prison. And as far as they knew, Wolverine was free to go whenever he… Osborn then asks the doctor for descriptions of everybody he has in his morgue. The doctor asks why he needs them and Osborn tells him because he needs bodies, dead bodies. His seem to have disappeared, along with his would-be star agent. He then asks where the hell that little bastard is.
In Chelsea, now, Daken, dressed in plain clothes stands in an apartment with the dead body of the Inquisitor and a severed arm lying next to him. He then asks Emmy, who is held up in a bathroom how many bullets she has left. Is it enough to kill him, or just herself? When Emmy asks him why he is doing this, Daken asks her why did he help them all escape the housing project, only to slaughter them himself? He could tell her, or he could just let her chew on it for the rest of her life.
Emmy replies “uh-huh.” She guesses that’ll be about five minutes worth of deep thoughts. Of course, feel free to tell her she’s wrong. Daken tells her she’s funny. Emmy says she tries and then asks Daken if he ever gets tired of it, the killing. Daken replies no. To get tired of something, you have to be interested first. You have to care, just a little. And he doesn’t. Emmy asks so they’re nothing to him, this was nothing. Daken tells her not nothing, payback. Emmy asks payback for hurting his pride? Is that worth their lives?
When Daken tells her that a man has to have his priorities, Emmy says so does a woman. She then tells Daken that she tried that once, revenge. Someone killed her father. After Daken asks if she made him suffer, Emmy says not enough. Daken’s father is a hard man to kill. Her father was a hero, too. What does that make her? Daken tell her nothing. Nothing to him, at least. He then tells Emmy to finish this, or he will. Emerging from the bathroom, Emmy tells Daken he’s wrong; she’s not nothing. Daken asks then what is she. And make it good, because these will be her last words. Emmy thinks for a moment and then tells an enraged Daken that she’s the beautiful woman who let him live.
Elsehwhere in the apartment, a single, spent bullet, covered in blood, sits in a sink.
