Ethan spent a day getting settled into the new place with Treya, trying to ignore his meeting with Stormbringer. He found solace in his wife-to-be, and she told him, “You should just give him some time and space.” That helped him push aside the feelings of regret and remorse quite handily.

  His phone was surprisingly quiet – and when inquiring with Walter, the man just said, “Really small stuff so far – the Bolt Twins are taking care of a lot of it.”

  The police had no use for him at the moment, either, and even Fred had told him to hold off on healing until he got some stuff set up with the state’s governor.

  Which was just fine for Ethan. He had been going nonstop since he returned from the dead, and having a bit of downtime to enjoy the new house was nice. Fred gave him a contact for an interior designer, and both he and Treya had a great time just planning out everything and setting up an order list. As Fred said, “Our merch is flying off the shelves faster than we can re-stock. Just get whatever you want. We’re golden on the finances end.”

  It was approaching dusk. Ethan and Treya were sitting on the rooftop patio, looking over the college campus and the city skyline. He had a beer that he sipped from – mostly for the flavor, as it technically counted as poison and his Divine Protection kept him safe from that.

  Treya looked at him and smiled softly, squeezing his hand. “Here’s to us,” she said as she raised her margarita-in-a-can.

  He raised his beer in response, “To us.” He took a sip of the bitter liquid and grimaced slightly at the hoppy flavors. “Figured out where you want to get the knot tied yet?”

  Treya nodded and stood up, “I think we just go somewhere in the mountains. Lots of options.” She glanced at him, “And not mountains like here in LA. I’m talking Switzerland type mountains. Something I can post and brag about.”

  “Do some research about places that’ll do the ceremony,” Ethan replied. His phone began buzzing, and he quickly pulled it from his pocket. “Huh, the detective. Must be urgent.” He put the phone up to his ear, “Hello-”

  Detective Matthews sounded frazzled, as if he had almost no sleep. “You want some revenge?”

  Ethan felt a stirring in his chest. A feeling of righteousness that boiled up from within. “Sure.” He stood up and gave Treya a kiss on the cheek as he went inside and down the stairs from the rooftop.

  “Juarez has made some moves.”

  “Who?” Ethan asked.

  “Ah, right. Full Metal Gangster. He’s told the Mayor’s office that he’s expanding his territory – taking everything between the 605, 91, 39, and down to Katella on the south end – just shy of the Joint Forces Training Base.”

  Ethan went down to the garage level and entered the small, cement room that was featureless save for the armor stand which was currently invisible, and the footlocker that held his sword, earpiece, and other gear. He began putting the gear in place and dismissed Denial of Light on the items. “He doesn’t want to mess with the military, eh?” Ethan asked, as he knew the training base was where the National Guard along with other forces trained. He had gone on a tour, once, back when he had considered joining the military but ultimately decided against it.

  “Yeah. That’s how it looks. The Mayor doesn’t want to give up more space. And honestly, it’s like a Hitler situation. We can’t do…Pauly! What’s that called? ...Yeah, that appeasement thing. We can’t do that with him.”

  Ethan put the earpiece in and made sure it was synched up to his protected phone before he shut the footlocker and began getting his armor on. “I just need to capture him, right?”

  “Capture? If you can,” Matthews replied.

  Ethan frowned as he continued to put on his pauldrons and snapped them into place with the latches inside, affixing them to the chest plate. “Walter has a way to suppress powers. I just need to meet up with him and get it.”

  Matthews’ response was grave but calm, “No one would cry if the guy died, Radiance.”

  “Read off his rap sheet,” Ethan said as he finished with the upper body and moved onto the lower body.

  “Shit. Too long to go through.”

  “Give me the highlights.”

  Paper rustled in the background, “He’s suspected of being involved or directly responsible for at least four murders. That was before he became Imbued. Since then, he’s done a lot of damage. Easily in the millions. He’s killed fourteen police officers, a handful of federal agents-”

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  “He doesn’t deserve mercy,” Ethan replied. He’s taken so many lives. He doesn’t deserve life. “What about the whole situation when he’s gone? What happens?”

  “Well, one of his sergeants or lieutenants will step up and try to fill the power vacuum. There will be some internal fighting, but they will eventually recover. But, if you can put on a show – really scare them into submission…it’ll make cleaning up with the National Guard supplementing us a lot easier.”

  Ethan took in a deep breath as he snapped on the helmet, “Do I have permission to end him?” he asked, seeking the validation from someone else. Wanting someone else to pass the sentence so he could at least feel a bit better about what he intended to do.

  “If anyone deserves it, it’s Juarez,” Matthews replied with a firm and confident voice. “Don’t feel bad for sending scum like him to hell.”

  You’d be pissed if you learned he went to a paradise, Ethan thought. It makes me sick to think that he gets to live in his own miniature world. But he won’t be here to make others’ lives miserable. “Heaven’s Gate,” he said as he opened the portal and arrived at the Imbued Initiative.

  Walter was asleep on the couch, a pillow tucked under his head as he lay prone. Projects were neatly labeled with immaculate schematic designs placed in small, neat piles all around the couch.

  Alice was sitting in a comfy recliner opposite Walter, and she looked up as Ethan arrived. Her face instantly shifted to that of regret and remorse. “Oh…you’re…I can only say sorry so much.” Her eyes watered a little bit, and she shut her book as she shook her head.

  Ethan frowned under the helm but kept his voice measured, “Try and help to pay it back. I’m going to deal with Full Metal Gangster. Got anything that can help?” he asked.

  Alice nodded, “I…I’ve read a lot of neat books. But my powers – sorry, Abilities, have limitations. I can’t just read something and make it exist – I need to be able to visualize it as well. It doesn’t work as well for vague concepts. And it’s got range limits. I have to be able to see what I want to effect, or where I want to make something. And really big things I have to do in my Sanctuary.”

  Ethan sighed, I was kind of hoping her power would just be the thing that saves the world, he thought. Instead, he walked over to Walter and nudged the man awake. “Hey, I’m going to fight FMG. Can you give me anything to help out?”

  The man wiped the sleep from his eyes and fished around for his glasses, before finding them and slipping them on. “Hey, Radiance…Um, you want to catch him?”

  “Not really,” Ethan replied. “But I figured you might have the power removing tech slimmed down from a giant cube.”

  Alice tapped her ankle monitor, “This thing shuts off powers until taken off.”

  Ethan glanced back at her, then back to Walter who had sat up, yawned, and stretched. “You got it down to that size?”

  Walter nodded and leaned back in the sofa with a satisfied look on his face. “Yeah. It works. I’m a genius. As long as the ankle monitor is on and the clips are seated – Abilities are suppressed.”

  That made Ethan deflate a bit, “I wanted something that could be used more offensively. I don’t think I can force him to wear an ankle monitor.”

  Walter stood up and gently stepped over one of his many designs on the ground. “I’ve narrowed it down to the pipeline. It goes from Archive, to Power, to Curator, to us. I can “snip” the line between Curator and us, using this tech. Downside is it takes a lot of juice.” He pointed at Alice’s ankle monitor. “That requires recharging every two hours.”

  “It’s a pain in the butt,” Alice added as she wiped her tears away and cracked her book open once more.

  “It’s not viable, then,” Ethan clarified.

  “Takes a lot of juice,” Walter verified with a nod. “Also, something weird about it – I can’t develop an offensive capability for it. Researcher, my Curator, said that we cannot weaponize anti-power technology. The Entity wills it.” He sighed, “It can only be used for restraint and control. And even then, eventually the Imbued will adjust to it, and it won’t work anymore. It’s really only useful for parole type situations.”

  Ethan felt his resolve reaffirmed even more. “I’m going to kill FMG.”

  That brought Walter’s head snapping up to face him, “Shit. You sure?”

  “He deserves it,” Ethan replied. “And you knows what happens when we die.”

  “Seems to good for him. I’d rather he rot for his life…but that’s not really an option.” He nodded and turned to a computer console as he put an earpiece in his ear, “Want me to use some drones to help scout things out and give an “eye in the sky” view?”

  “Couldn’t hurt,” Ethan replied.

  “Let me get a few drones over to his territory to give you a live feed. We can find him, you can go in, and deal with him.” Walter glanced at him, “Do we know what Abilities he has?”

  Ethan pulled out his phone and checked the Imbued website. “Skin immune to any physical or energy-based damage. Immovable. Anything he is touching cannot be moved without him allowing it. Super strength and durability.”

  Walter frowned, “Do you have anything that can get past his defenses?”

  Ethan put his arms behind his head and exhaled, “There’s some skills from various games that don’t do anything physical – but its all Holy, which is my power source, and counts as energy. I can probably restrain him with Chains of Light.”

  Walter clicked his tongue, “The only thing I can think of is somehow making an aerosolized substance where you get close enough to release it in his face. We have to get to his insides if his skin is immune to physical and energy damage.” He chuckled, “I’m reminded of a scene from The Boys, where they shove C4 into a guy’s ass to kill him.”

  “I don’t think I’ll have the chance to do that,” Ethan replied feeling some disgust.

  “What I mean is that if you can get to the soft flesh – inside of mouth, nose, ears, eyes, rectum – anywhere that the skin is not, then the whole “immune to damage” aspect won’t matter since it only affects his skin…at least according to that website.”

  “We don’t know if that’s the full deal, though,” Ethan added, feeling like there was no way to take the villain down.

  “It could be that it applies to his whole body, inside and out,” Walter said. “Hey, Alice! You got anything you can make that deals with impossible-to-hurt things?”

  She replied softly, “Trap them in Wonderland.”

  Ethan frowned, “I’m not bringing him to my Sanctuary.”

  Walter’s eyes glinted with inspiration. “Oh…I just got a devious idea.”