Well, we did it. We managed to stop Yarger and the angels from opening a portal into Hell. It was largely thanks to Cole, and he paid the ultimate price. Last time we saw him he was buried under tons of ice. A few days ago, he was a kid—a kid with amazing metahuman abilities, but still a kid. He died a hero, and I won’t forget him.

The three angels—Dominion, Melvin, and the guy they got to replace Raptor—were at the end of the tunnel in a huge ice chamber along with Razor (the ninja chick who trashed the loft) and an array of six portals. The portals were active, all pointing at the ceiling. We knew we didn’t have much time before the cruise missiles struck and all Hell was unleashed (maybe literally). We needed to put the angels down so we could figure out how to disable the portals.

I got in a lucky shot and managed to put Razor out of the fight (or at least I thought I did). We were hammering on Melvin, but the tough son of a bitch just wouldn’t stay down—he kept regenerating from whatever we did to him. Meanwhile, Dominion was shooting his energy orb at us and Raptor’s “replacement” was trying to pound Raptor into the ground. Trying to earn his spot on the team, I suppose. Frostburn managed to encase the new angel in ice and keep him out of the fight for a while, and then managed to bury Dominion under a ton of ice after Raptor knocked him down.

It was looking like it was going OK for a while, but we just couldn’t keep up with their healing abilities. Then that ninja bitch (who had been quietly bleeding in a corner) lashed out at me with her laser-whip. I even saw it coming, but couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. She really opened me up, returning the favor for how I sucker-punched her.

It was time for a change in tactics. Cole turned plasma and started melting through the ice columns that held the roof up. I concentrated on holding my guts in, while the other two tried to keep the angels distracted. Cole had melted through two of the columns and the ceiling was getting unstable, huge chunks of ice crashing to the floor.

Frostburn then laid his hands on one of the portals, flash-freezing it. “Smash it!” he called out, right before Melvin dove at him and seriously tore him up. Raptor grabbed him and flew for the exit, where I had been slowly making my way—it was clear that this cavern would not be a good place to be once Cole finished melting through the columns.

Cole melted through a third column and a lot of the ceiling came down right away. Luckily he was in plasma form at the time—he just melted his way out. Then he turned to his solid iron form and smashed the portal that Frostburn had weakened. We had seen these things take a lot of punishment with no effect, but it shattered into a thousand pieces. The rest of the portals went dark, just as another huge chunk of the ceiling came down on Cole. We got the hell out of there, but Cole and the angels weren’t so lucky.

The cruise missiles hit, annihilating Yarger’s force topside. There was no sign of Yarger. The military thinks they got him. I doubt it.

In the public eye, the military saved the day and we were just along for the ride. And honestly, that’s OK with me. We weren’t doing it for praise, we were doing it because it needed to be done. Not like I really thought anyone would believe us anyway—it’s a crazy story, portals to Hell and angels and new gods and all. But I know who the real hero of the day was, and I won’t forget what you did Cole.