Hornet also tried to win the affections of his teammate Dusk, but Dusk was more attracted to the energetic Ricochet. Hornet learned that the Black Marvel had made a deal with the demon Mephisto, to have restored powers and youth and train new heroes (the Slingers), and when Mephisto collected the Black Marvel's soul, Mephisto took the Slingers too and sent the team to Hell. He offered them the chance to leave, if they abandoned Black Marvel. While the other Slingers wanted to leave Black Marvel to this fate, Hornet was able to forgive the old man, and convinced the others to help free Black Marvel. Black Marvel died in the attempt, but Hornet's act of forgiveness enabled Black Marvel's soul to ascend to a better place. In doing so, Hornet's armor and Prodigy's powers were surrendered and lost. The team disbanded and the depowered Hornet and Prodigy apparently retired from superheroics. At some point, Johnny and Eddie returned to fighting crime together under their old identities. Hornet ended up going alone against HYDRA and Wolverine being mind-controlled as they attacked Stark International and was killed. Nick Fury, Elektra, and other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents later found his corpse at the scene. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents somehow initially mistook Hornet's body for Spider-Man's, Fury musing grimly on the tragedy of the man dying a hero when nobody could even remember his name. Elektra then cut off the corpse's head to prevent the Hand from resurrecting him. Years after his death, his teenage niece Melinda McDonough takes on the identity Red Hornet. As a child, her parents (Eddie's older brother and sister-in-law) thought Melinda was developmentally delayed but her uncle knew Melinda was in fact exceptionally smart and encouraged a love of science. Silas Burr Following Hydra's takeover of America, a man in Eddie's Hornet costume appears in Las Vegas, hired by the Forbidden City casino owner Silas Thorne to stage a robbery of a mass food delivery being sent to another casino, as Thorne claims that casino owner Cassandra Mercury will simply take all of the food for herself and her employees rather than pass it around. The Hornet is able to defeat most of casino security before he is intercepted by Scarlet Spider. Hornet declines to answer questions about his apparent resurrection and flees. When Scarlet Spider and Ricochet track Hornet to the Forbidden City casino, where Thorne works, the Hornet uses a