The big day rolls around, and before Phil knows it he's standing in a group with his colleagues, suits on and eyes determined. He's anxious and jittery, leading him to shift weight from foot to foot frequently and fiddle with his belt. Matthias stands in front of them, his gaze intense.

"It's time," he says, placing a gun in Mark's hands. "Are you ready?"

Mark shrugs and holsters the weapon. "Ready as I'll ever be, I guess."

Matthias nods and steps back, facing the whole team. Phil glances around as well, Marzia's absence still painful and obvious. After losing his teammate and the love of his life, he doesn't know if he'll be able to handle losing anyone else today. He supposes that in the end, nothing can possibly be worse than losing Dan.

"If anything goes wrong, evacuate to the hideout. I'll meet you there," Matthias states. "Good luck."

With that, the heroes head out. The city is silent, rebel groups and gangs moving quietly in the shadows. Phil peers between buildings, curious if he could see any of them moving about or simply watching. Waiting.

"Come on out, villains! If you're so strong, prove it!" Felix yells, firing bullets into the air. They crack the silence and echo through the streets, making Phil jump. He immediately starts to shake and takes a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down. He can't panic now. He can't.

Cry appears out of thin air a moment later. Jack sprints to his side and lets Stephanie down off his back, his visible blue eye cold. Phil watches in agonizing silence, waiting for the fire villain to appear and knowing that he never will.

As everyone starts to draw their weapons, a voice that belongs to neither villain nor hero rings out.

"This looks like a party!"

Phil's gaze snaps towards the intruders. The antiheroes approach the group, Wade in the front and the other three, Arin, Danny, and Ryan, trailing behind.

"You killed Bob," he states, pointing an accusatory finger at the villains. "For that, we're joining this fight."

"We even brought a toy with us!" Arin exclaims, an excited grin on his face as he shows off the grenade launcher in his hands.

"Shut up with the chitchat!" Felix yells, whipping out his gun. His shot triggers a chain reaction, and before Phil can think everyone has their weapon out and is firing their first shots. The Brit ducks behind a car and presses a finger to the earpiece in his ear, wanting to mute the other heroes but refraining. If someone gets hurt, they have to be able to speak to him. A grenade explodes and Phil flinches, his heart beating in his chest. He needs to help fight, but how is he supposed to do that? He has a gun, but he can't fire it. Not after what happened to Dan.

His thoughts are penetrated by screams. He peers out from behind his car shield and watches, horrified, as Felix sprints after Stephanie with an army of living objects. He raises his hand and garbage cans join the fray, chasing her like a dog chases a squirrel. She narrowly avoids them, leaping over cars and debris with panic written on her face.

"You killed Marzia!" Felix screams, his voice going directly into Phil's ear and making him wince. Hot, angry tears glisten on his face, sunlight making them shine. "You killed her!"

Stephanie doesn't respond, too out of breath and focused on saving her own life to respond. Felix catches up to her and sends her sprawling with a punch to the face, and in her moment of weakness the living objects catch up to her.

A blur races up and knocks Felix down, and seconds later Jack and Felix are throwing punches at each other. Neither of them notice Felix's living car speeding towards her, and Phil's scream is lost in his throat.

It collides with her body and sends her toppling over the hood, killing her instantly. Phil ducks behind his own vehicle, dry heaving onto the ground beneath him. How many must die? How many?!

More grenades explode, rocking the very ground Phil crouches on, and then Anti's cackle penetrates the air. His blood runs cold and he can't bring himself to stand, fear pinning him in place.

"My, I thought I'd have to go that entire battle without coming out to play!" he exclaims. "Oh dear, only one casualty? That's no fun!"

After a few swift footsteps and a crash of something metallic, Phil can't just listen anymore. He peeks around the corner of his car shield and watches as Anti picks up a grenade launcher. An antihero, the combined form of Arin and Danny, picks themselves off the ground and scrambles away.

"This is a nice little toy, isn't it?" Anti asks, addressing nobody in particular. He fires it at the nearest building and Phil flinches as glass and brick shatter into millions of pieces. "Ooh, that's powerful!"

He fires it again, this time at Arin and Danny's combined form. They split apart in order to avoid it and cover their heads, panic obvious in their eyes. Anti raises his eyebrows.

"You're two people? I prefer you as one, honestly."

Arin and Danny scramble for each other, and Phil doesn't look away in time. A grenade collides with Danny's chest and tears him apart to the tune of Arin's blood-curdling scream.

"This just in, the death toll has risen to two!" Anti exclaims, firing two shots into the air.

"Danny! Danny!" Arin shrieks, pressing his hands to the blood-soaked concrete in a desperate attempt to find some part of Danny to hold onto. Phil covers his mouth, a violent sob tearing itself from his chest. The hollow, empty feeling in his heart hurts so badly he can't breathe, and he's fairly certain that if he doesn't do something soon, he's going to die. So, he pulls himself to his feet and faces Anti despite the terror it causes.

"Please, can you hush a moment?" Anti asks, looking to the decimated group of antiheroes with his demonic eyes. He presses his hand to his ear, listening to nothing but the sounds in his own head. "Yes, Jack is certainly sobbing now. Wait, I should rise the death toll by killing a hero? Ooh, that sounds FUN!"

Anti raises the grenade launcher and the heroes scramble. Phil backs away from the car, silently praying that he spares them and not him.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe," Anti chants as he moves the aim of his weapon from hero to hero. It lands on Ken and the monster cackles as Phil's heart sinks into the pits of his stomach. "You're the lucky winner!"

The shot goes off and Phil is immediately sprinting towards him. His brain screams at him, begging don't let him die please you can save him we've lost so much already as the grenade clips Ken's side and blows him sideways, leaving behind bone and blood where there should have been muscle and skin. Blood spurts from the wound as Phil finally reaches him, pulling water into his hands as Mark takes his hand.

"Ken, oh God," Mark chokes out.

Ken opens his mouth, but makes no sound. Before Phil can get a single drop onto him, he takes his final breath. Felix dashes over, but falters when he realizes it's too late.

"Aww, they're mourning their little friend," Anti mocks. "How sweet."

Phil looks to Mark through tear-filled eyes, waiting for him to give the order to retreat. He doesn't. Instead, he sneers and looks back. "Take Ken's body. I'm going to finish this fight."

He's gone before they can protest. Panic gripping him, Phil turns and grabs Felix's shoulders. "You have to take Ken's body back to our hideout. I'm going to wait here for Mark."

The Swede shakes his head. "No way. I've already lost everything. If I need to jump in and help Mark, it won't be any kind of loss."

"I've lost people too! We're in the same boat! The only difference is that if Mark gets hurt, you won't be able to save him. So GO!"

Felix's face crumples and he stands, scooping Ken into his arms. He glances back at Phil for a moment, blue eyes pained. "You'd better come back, Lester."

"I will."

Felix heads off and Phil straightens up, ducking behind a nearby vehicle. From here, he can see the fight between Mark and Anti and at the same time, Anti probably won't notice him.

"You're evil. You've killed people. Not Jack!"

Anti sighs and drops the grenade launcher, trading it for the gun on Jack's belt. He aims it at Mark and grins. "Everyone has a little evil in them, don't they? Even Jackaboy!"

Anti's eyes flash back to their regular colours for just long enough for Jack to scream Mark's name before the monster returns. Both Mark and Anti fire at each other, the hero's cure reaching its target just as the monster's bullet hits Mark's stomach. He falls to the pavement and gasps for breath, eyes trained on the sky.

Anti's screams ring in the Brit's ears as he sprints over, throwing water onto Mark and scooping him up. His pulse is weak, but there, and Phil couldn't be more relieved. He speeds up his pace, the American's head thumping gently against his chest.

"Mark, you are not allowed to die. I've lost teammates and my boyfriend, and I can't afford to lose you too," he states, knowing full well that Mark can't hear him.  "Jack can't afford to lose you, either."

He continues to administer the liquid that will heal him or, at least, keep him alive, and hurries back to the base.