After this, The High's remains were purposely contained in the NOTB facility as nuclear waste. At this moment, The High sensed that the Reapers were being launched by the Pentagon on the orders of General Somerset to kill the NOTB's prisoners. The Authority were first to arrive at the NOTB bunker after having scanned the superhumans' presence. Due to a misunderstanding, they were forced into battle with the Paladins, who mistook The Authority as government assassins. The High immediately sped away from Skywatch towards the airborne clones in an attempt to destroy the Reapers but realized from a telepathic communication with Jackson King that the only way to stop all of his clones was by finding the "shooter". As the fight between The Authority and the NOTB's prisoners continued, Authority members Jenny Quark and the Doctor learned of the Reapers and had everyone teleported back to the Authority's The Carrier residing in The Bleed just before. However, the Reapers managed to reach the Carrier by having one of the Reapers turn into a dimensional gateway. A battle ensued between the Reapers, The Authority, and the Paladins in which one of the Reapers breached the Carrier's engine core and released its power source (a miniature universe), potentially destroying the universe. This forced Jenny Quark to shunt the miniature universe into her body right before kissing the Doctor goodbye. The Doctor teleported the Reapers and Paladins away from the Carrier, preventing further damage to the vessel, but this allowed the Reapers to spread their destruction across the world. Despite the Doctor's best efforts, the Carrier "died" and crashed into London, England. The High arrived at the Pentagon, where he confronted General Somerset and demanded that he stop the Reapers. Unfortunately, Somerset explained that the Reapers are totally compromised from their original programming and are out of control due to entering the Bleed, and now pose a threat to the world. The High was then approached by Slyxx, a Daemonite scientist who was the sole survivor of the saucer crash in 1945 given "amnesty" for working with the Americans in the NOTB program. Slyxx informed him that the Reapers were programmed to destroy all posthumans and that if they couldn't kill them all, then they would "take them all with [them]". Having heard enough of the Daemonite's information and swearing to Somerset that he and the others involved in the Number of the