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Schwoz was the first.
They found him in the Man’s Nest garage, like a discarded doll on the cold floor. Tools lay scattered, some bent at odd angles, others dripping with something darker than grease. Blood pooled thick beneath him,
His favorite wrench lay inches from his hand, as though he’d tried to crawl toward it.
But it wasn’t Schwoz’s body that froze them.
It was the wall.
Written in Schwoz’s own blood, uneven and dripping:
"This is your fault, Ray.”
From that moment on, the Man’s Nest felt cursed. Lights flickered like heartbeat rhythms. Comms crackled mid-sentence, leaving only static. Mika tried to hold it together, but even she couldn’t replace Schwoz. She couldn’t fix what was already broken.
A few days later, Miles went on patrol.
He didn’t return
They found him in a back alley, slumped against a graffiti-stained brick wall. A screwdriver was jammed deep into his eye, disgusting and final. Above him, painted in thick streaks of blood:
"One by one, I’ll take them from you, Ray."
Ray snapped. No one left the Nest alone. Patrols doubled. Every mission required his direct approval. He told himself he was protecting them. He told himself he was in control and that no one else was going to die
Until Mika.
She never made it out of her bed. A pillow pressed over her face. Her hand had been sliced open, blood smearing the walls where she’d tried to fight back, the killer had written another message the letters jagged and uneven:
“You can’t save anyone, Ray.”
That broke him.
He called Henry.
“The killer has to be someone with a vendetta against you,” Henry said firmly
“I’m Captain Man,” Ray snapped, voice trembling. “I’ve made enemies all over. It could be anyone!”
“No,” Buddy muttered. “This isn’t about Captain Man. It’s about you.”
Drex leaned against the wall, arms crossed. “The messages don’t call you Captain Man. They call you Ray.
Bose’s voice cracked. “The one in Mika’s blood… it said you"
The silence that followed was suffocating.
“So it’s someone who knows Ray,” Chapa whispered.
“And knows who matters to him,” Buddy added, voice low.
Days later, Ray couldn’t breathe inside the Nest anymore. He drove to Credenza’s house, desperate for something normal. Something human.
But the moment he saw the front door, his chest felt like it was going to explode
Blood ran down the wood in jagged lines:
“You’ve always wanted a family, Ray. Now you’ll have one forever.”
“No… no, no…” Ray’s voice cracked.
He shoved the door open.
Credenza, Drex ans Buddy sat upright at the table, throats slashed open, silverware untouched beside their plates. Napkins folded neatly in their laps like they were waiting for him.
At the head of the table, an empty chair waited. His chair.
Across the blood-soaked tablecloth, written in red
"I made this just for you"
After that, he was gone. Captain Man became a ghost of himself. Patrols were covered three times over, locks checked and re-checked, alarms reset every hour. For a while, it seemed to work. For a while, no one else died.
Until one night.
Ray wandered the Nest, restless. Then he smelled something burning.
He ran down to the source of the smell, In the main room, a body sprawled on the floor. Smoke curled from singed hair. A knife stabbed into the chest, slick and glinting red.
“Guys! Get in here!” Ray shouted, his voice cracking. He prayed,begged, that it was a prank. Something reversible.
But when Henry arrived and froze, Ray knew.
It wasn’t a trick, It was Chapa.
Ray’s voice collapsed into sobs. “No… please, no… this has to be fake…” But Chapa was gone.
On the wall above her, fresh blood dripped into words:
"This isn’t the only surprise today.”
Ray’s heart dropped. Smoke seeped from the garage; the same place this nightmare began with Schwoz’s body. He shoved the door open.
A burnt body lay crumpled on the floor. Charred beyond recognition.
Ray staggered forward, trembling, forcing himself to look. Then he saw it, something half-melted in the ash.
A bracelet.
The one Bose always wore. Bright, plastic beads Mika had made for him when they first became a team. Bose never took it off. Not once.
Ray’s knees buckled.
“No… not Bose…” His hands shook violently. “Not him too…”
The bracelet was enough. The killer had taken him too.
Ray collapsed into despair. Danger Force was shut down. Henry helped him pack. The Nest was silent, empty, hollow.
“So… where next, Ray?” Henry asked softly.
“I’ll just go in the Man Van and drive. No plan. No destination,” Ray muttered.
Henry’s face fell, concerned. “I’ll be with you—”
Before Henry could finish, a sharp pain erupted in his back. He gasped, eyes wide in shock, as a jagged blade entered his body from behind. It slid through his torso, and blood poured from his mouth as he collapsed immediately,
Ray froze, “No… Henry!”
Bose stepped forward calmly, knife dripping, a faint smile on his lips.
“It’s you,” Ray whispered, voice breaking.
“It’s always been me,” Bose said, tone steady, chilling.
“They were your friends!” Ray shouted
“You think I enjoyed killing them?” Bose asked softly. “I hated it.”
“Then why?” Ray demanded.
“Because I hate you more,” Bose said simply.
Ray’s voice cracked. “I did nothing to you!”
“That’s true,” Bose admitted, stepping closer, knife. “You didn’t do anything to me, But you destroyed my dad. You’re the reason he’s in a wheelchair for life. You ruined him, I wanted you to feel what he felt Alone. Broken. Helpless.”
Ray’s chest heaved. “Then why join danger force?"
“To study you. To learn your weaknesses. To make you watch as everything you loved burned. I wanted you to feel it. Every smile, every mission, you bought the lie.”
Ray’s hands curled into fists. “I won’t let you win!”
He lunged, Ray managed to shove Bose against a wall, disarming him with a desperate, last-ditch effort. He held him there,
“You’re done,” Ray said through clenched teeth.
Bose laughed, . “Maybe… but I broke you, I won even if I rot in prison for the rest of my life, I won"
"You didn't win" Ray said with anger in his voice
"I wanted you to suffer and you have" Bose stated
Bose was arrested. Ray collapsed to the floor, shaking, tears streaming down his face. He cradled Henry’s lifeless body, sobbing uncontrollably.
The Nest was silent. His family,his friends all gone. Captain Man was left a hollow shell of grief and guilt, a man who had fought to save everyone and failed.
Outside, the sun began to rise. Ray looked at the ruins of the Man’s Nest, at the blood and ashes and echoes of laughter that would never return.
And for the first time, he understood the cost of being a hero.
Alone, broken, but alive