“You don't have to hide,” Toby Johnson said as he stood by his father's fresh grave. The headstone read simply Gavin Johnson with a date for his birth and another for his death. There was no mention of him being Doctor Nocturne.

“I didn't want to disturb you,” the Other said as he emerged from behind a nearby tree.

“Nonsense, we're family. Get over here.” The Other did as directed and took his place next to Toby.

“It's such a modest grave,” the Other said, “no different from any of the others here.”

“That's all dad wanted.”

“But lesser heroes have received monuments. Captain Crusader, for example. The man has become infamous, and he still received a monument.”

 Amy Winter stood atop a landscape retaining wall at the Battery Park refugee center and scanned the crowd. She clutched a doll which, upon inspection, proved to be alive. Living Doll had spent the first couple of hours at full size holding Amy while they searched the crowd, but the little girl insisted that she should hold the shrinking superhero like an actual doll. Living Doll even allowed Amy to brush her hair, a mistake she would not make twice.

“I don't think mommy's here,” Amy said.

Living Doll hugged the little girl as best she could with her tiny arms. “There's a lot of people here, Amy. It might take a long time for us to find her.”

 At her smallest Living Doll stood less than one inch tall. She didn’t like that height. It was uncomfortable and made her ache, but she did not dare increase her height. The Jailor sat just a few yards away at his control console and she was otherwise in plain sight.

 His beard was dark and full, and his hair hung to his shoulders. He wore a medium length tunic, and his well-muscled arms and legs were bare. His war cry echoed down the ruins of Broadway. The giant monsters called back and one of them was soon in view. It was a multi-headed serpent with one hundred stubby legs and it shook the earth with each step.

“Only three heads?” the bearded man said. “Phah!” He fired three lightning bolts like they were arrows from a bow, each bolt struck one of the heads and each of those heads exploded. The monster fell dead. The other monster saw this and charged the man as it roared in rage.

Farther down Broadway, Justice and Tempus Fugitive stood together and watched. Justice stroked his chin.

 A Gray patrol saucer glided into one of the landing decks of the New York prison ship and landed in one of the available cubicles that covered every available vertical surface in the deck. The pilot exited, walked once around his craft and then left to file his report. As soon as the door closed behind him a figure dropped from the underside of the craft and crashed to the floor.

“Nobody said it'd be that noisy in there.” the Lynx complained.

“Careful, idiot,” Living Doll said. “You almost crushed me.”

 Living Doll did nothing to hide her hatred and contempt as the Lynx walked by. The tiny hero sat on Redstone’s shoulder and glared at the feral villain.

“What?” the Lynx said.

“You talking to me?” Living Doll replied.

“Yeah, you’re giving me the stink eye, and it’s pissing me off. Why are you doing that?”

“Like you don’t know.”

“I don’t know.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Listen, I know there’s a lot of hero/villain tension here, and that’s understandable, but you got something against me that’s personal. Why?”

“I shouldn’t have to tell you.”

“Christ sake,” Redstone said, “she’s pissed because you tried to eat her once.”

“That’s all?”

 “I can say your name.”

Amy Winter sat on her perch behind the Jailor’s workstation. She had a comfortable pillow and some miscellaneous Gray items that she pretended were dolls.

“It would surprise me if that were true,” the Jailor said as he observed his console. Hypnos’ brainwaves were showing a bit too much activity again. The Jailor increased the power of the stasis field to compensate.

“I really can. You want to hear me?”

“I don’t, but I will indulge you, pet. Let’s hear your attempt.”

Amy let loose with a horrible shriek.

“That wasn’t even close to being my name.”

“Was too.”

“It was not.”

“Was too.”

“It was…“

 “They’re on a Gray spaceship? That’s your big news? The Grays have spaceships all over the planet. Hell, I can see two of them from right here,” Boulder Boy said as he pointed into the distance at the ships hovering over New York City.

“Any information can help,” Redstone said. “Given the limits of Hypnos’ telepathic range we can assume the ship is somewhere around the Eastern United States. It might even be one of those over there.”

Augur sat on the ground sketching furiously and filling a legal pad with his visions. He wanted to record the telepathic message from Hypnos before his memory became tainted by imagination. Zephyr sat beside him creating a soft glow so that Augur could see the page.

“What’s that?” she asked.

 A sharp stinging in his nose prodded Hypnos to consciousness. His vision was blurry at first, and when he focused he found himself looking into the face of a Gray.

“Smelling salts,” the Gray said. “Ammonia capsule actually. It’s a crude way to rouse a person, but when in Rome…”

 The dull thumping sound yielded the collapse of a section of the underground room's ceiling, flooding the area with dust and light. A large rock dropped through the opening, landed with a heavy thud and then stood revealing a humanoid shape.

“It's clear,” Boulder Boy said.

“Bryan, you should have waited for me to scan the area,” Richie Benson said as he dropped through the opening with Living Doll clinging to his shoulder.

“Not much can hurt me, and who’s going to be here anyway?” Boulder Boy said. “Only the five of us know about the place.”