only bring him pain. In order to stop two Daemonite lords from acquiring a spaceship which could be used to destroy or conquer Earth, the WildC.A.T.s allied themselves with Hightower, a Daemonite who had killed Grifter's friend Lonely. Grifter voiced his objections and, once WildC.A.T.s founder Jacob Marlowe threatened to kick Grifter out of the team, Cole chose instead to quit on the spot. During the scramble for control of the spaceship, Grifter killed Hightower, avenging Lonely. The ship's self-destruct sequence was activated, however, and the other WildC.A.T.s were forced to enter it and try to defuse it. They succeeded, resulting in the ship entering warpspace, taking it and the WildC.A.T.s back to Khera, while Earth's post-human population, including Grifter, believed the team dead. While another iteration of the WildC.A.T.s was created shortly thereafter, which included Cole's brother Max, operating under the codename Condition Red, Grifter opted to operate independently, eventually becoming a mercenary once again. Cole, with help from special agent Brockmeyer and I.O. officer and friend Alicia Turner, managed to get Del Gracci on tape confessing to Cole's father's murder. Grifter eventually found out from Max that his father had faked his own death, and confronted Winston in New Orleans. Winston revealed that he had stolen money from the Mafia, and had faked his own death to escape retaliation from the mob. Win tried to manipulate Grifter into protecting him from a man he had partnered on a con with and had come to the conclusion that Win was exploiting him. Grifter realized that his father was did not love him, and was a psychopath who was trying to use him. Cole then unraveled Win's latest con, and threatened to kill him if he ever came to Cole's attention again. Ultimately, letting his father escape before the police arrived. The WildC.A.T.s eventually returned from Khera, and Grifter rejoined the team. Cole still had feelings for Zealot, and was particularly hurt when Zealot and John Colt, who had previously been Spartan until Colt's memories and personality implanted in him resurfaced, briefly rekindled their relationship. Cole and John Colt both insisted Zealot choose between them and, though she was initially unwilling to deal with the situation, she eventually decided she needed to choose in order to preserve the team's cohesion, and initially chose Colt out of a sense of loyalty as a Kherubim, eventually parting ways with him. Grifter began