The tension in Adrianna's apartment was palpable. As Ishmael forced Karim to reveal the Crown's location, a terrified Amon called his mother.
"Mom! Ishmael... he wants the Crown! They're in the building!"
On the other end of the line, Adrianna's voice broke. "Teth-Adam, I beg you... save my son."
That was the spark. With a dark glare, Adam blasted through the wall in a shower of concrete and vanished into the Kahndaqi sky, leaving the Justice Society stunned.
"He's going to slaughter them," Hawkman growled. "We have to intervene. For the boy, not for him."
The JSA gave chase. But the pursuit descended into chaos. A diversion by Ishmael, a false trail cleverly laid, led them astray. Meanwhile, Amon was taken to an unknown fate.
Back on the Hawk Cruiser, Cyclone used her aerokinetic powers to stabilize the injured Karim. A forceful interrogation of two captured Intergang mercenaries revealed the truth: Ishmael was holding Amon in the Al Hadidiyah mine, nestled at the foot of the desert mountains.
That's when the rift became undeniable.
"We're going, but not with him," Hawkman declared, throwing an accusatory glare at Teth-Adam, who had just landed nearby, his fists still stained with blood. "His method is unacceptable. He doesn't deliver justice; he executes."
"They took a child," Adam retorted, his voice a low rumble. "They deserve worse than death."
"That is not for you to decide!"
Provocations flew, long-contained anger exploded. Hawkman, champion of a rigid order, against Teth-Adam, embodiment of a primal vengeance. Their conflict carried them through the ransacked apartment, and in their fury, they accidentally smashed through a wall, revealing the hiding spot where Amon had concealed the Crown of Sabbac.
The discovery silenced them momentarily. Their common goal reasserted itself. Reluctantly, they all headed for Al Hadidiyah.
But Teth-Adam, consumed by a dark urgency, went ahead as a scout. His arrival at the mine was a storm. Intergang's outer defenses were pulverized, the men decimated in a deluge of lightning and brute force. When the JSA arrived, only smoking ruins and bodies remained.
Inside the mine, Ishmael, a pistol pressed to Amon's temple, awaited them.
"The Crown," he demanded, "for the boy's life."
Despite Hawkman's vehement protests, Adrianna, tears in her eyes, handed over the Crown. "I already lost my husband. I will not lose my son."
Ishmael snatched it with a triumphant sneer. "You've returned it to its rightful owner. I am the last descendant of Ahk-Ton. Kahndaq will have a king again."
Then, his gaze fell upon Teth-Adam. "You wept for Hurut's death, didn't you? Will you weep for this boy too? Is death... not the only path that leads to life?"
He pulled the trigger.
The world seemed to slow. In a flash of movement too fast for the eye to see, Teth-Adam was in front of Amon. The bullet smashed against his palm with a metallic CLANG.
But Ishmael's desperate act had shattered the last tenuous thread holding back Adam's rage. As Ishmael placed the Crown upon his head, a demonic power beginning to course through him, Teth-Adam lost all control.
"NO!"
His voice was a thunderclap. A wave of pure, unchecked brute force exploded from his body. The mine's support pillars shattered, the ceiling collapsed in a deafening roar. The JSA scattered, shielding Adrianna and Karim from the worst of it.
When the dust settled, Ishmael lay crushed under a beam, the Crown shattered beside him. Amon, shielded by Adam's body, was alive but unconscious, a head wound bleeding profusely.
Utopian, who had tried to contain the debris, looked at the scene of devastation. The guards' bodies, the ruins, the absolute violence. Then his gaze met Hawkman's. A silent understanding passed between them.
Teth-Adam had saved the child. But the price, the carnage, was unacceptable. The hero and the warrior now knew what they had to do. The Champion of Kahndaq had become a danger as great as the enemies he fought. He had to be stopped.