and Masquerade woke up near each other. During the fight, the Fox reached into Fade's mind and revealed that Fade is gay, something he did not want his teammates to ever know. Masquerade overheard, right before taking a severe beating from the Fox. Fade woke up before Masquerade, and saw that Masquerade had reverted to a female form when knocked cold. Fade promised not to tell anyone that Masquerade was born a woman, and Masquerade threatened that if he did, he'd tell everybody that Fade was gay (he used an anti-gay slur to drive his point home). Soon after they survived the Demon Fox, a super being named Rift with reality warping powers nearly destroyed their reality and the one inhabited by the DC superheroes. The Syndicate had to fight alongside the heroes they knew (Static, Icon, Rocket, Hardware) and with Superman, Superboy and Steel from the DC universe. Eventually they all manipulated Rift into reversing the damage he caused and to go into hibernation, where he couldn't alter reality any further. Wise Son's son Edmund and his little sister Cornelia developed teleportation powers, presumably from following Wise to the Bang. They wrote their destination on mirrors and could then travel through said mirrors to get there. The team's tensions escalated. Wise Son embarrassed Boogieman by forcing him to reveal that he was a white male under all his fur. He acted like he put Boogie off the team for lying to them, but then told him he could stay and don't lie to them ever again. This furthered dislike of Wise's leadership, particularly by Third Rail. He and Brickhouse developed a romantic relationship and contemplated moving out on their own when Masquerade betrayed the team. They chose to raid one last crackhouse to raise money (they'd spent most of their reserves on renovations to their headquarters). Kwai was shot during this raid and nearly died. Wise Son blamed Flashback - he'd told her to watch out for Kwai since she was new, but Flashback was more interested in stealing some of the crack to fuel her habit. They got Kwai back to their headquarters at her request; she was able to heal herself supernaturally. As the rest of them made their way home, Masquerade stole the money and successfully made a break for it. This widened the growing rift in the team and prompted Third and Brick to take