Gray remembered what Linden told him in Tony Stark’s Crowning and seeing Firo’s reaction gave those words weight, “Remember that we’re the strange ones here, they want to experience a water-down version of your life…and we should be honored for it.” He hoped his mobster friend caught the implicit irony of what he said: They send us to die for their entertainment and then celebrate our lives as if it were theirs.

Making their way out of the catacombs was considerably easier than it was coming in, each step seemed familiar in some way. The sun was still up when the pair came out, giving Phil some much needed peace of mind. There were so many images of death and rot he could take before a wave of workplace horrors took root in his mind.

“All ribbing aside…Are you going to be okay? Do you have someone to fall back on?”