Let me tell you what cops do when someone hurts or kills one of us. Yes, we get the guy. That goes without saying. But we don't just bring him in. We send a message. Not just to the perp or his buddies, but to the world. And that message is this: you do not do this to one of us. 
Stormwatch: Post Human Division #12 is an issue of the series Stormwatch: Post Human Division (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 2007.
Synopsis for "The Big Payback"
The 18th Precinct has been bombed into ruins by the Walking Ghost as vengeance against the PHD. John Doran learned to his dismay that thirty-two of his fellow officers, many of whom saved John from Lord Defile and his Daemonites six months ago, were killed. Jackson King has managed to recover security footage from the Precinct which shows the Ghost and his underling Dirty Bomb walking into the building in which the latter primed himself to explode; there was nothing everyone could have done to prevent this. Jackson tries to reassure John to let Stormwatch to track down the Ghost and allow him some rest, but John is determined to bring in Tataryn.
John soon gathers the PHD team and announces his intentions to capture the Ghost to not only avenge their deceased comrades, but to send a message to the world by making an example of Tataryn to never dare kill their friends and loved ones. The PHD makes their move by capturing one of the Ghost's mobster allies, Vladimir, and the Machinist makes him talk under threat of torture. They learned from Vladimir that Tataryn is in hiding, but he does not know where he is. However, the PHD knows Dirty Bomb is hiding at a cabin upstate; unknown to Dirty Bomb, the Ghost hung him out dry to serve as a distraction to Stormwatch (who can trace Dirty Bomb's energy trail) to cover his own escape.
The PHD later proceed to capture Dirty Bomb by dropping his guard by having Black Betty posing herself as a call girl sent by the Ghost to 'entertain' Dirty Bomb. The Ghost's underling easily falls to Betty’s enchanted tattoo. After bringing Dirty Bomb to Stormwatch's custody, Jackson scans his mind for the Ghost's whereabouts but it is without success as Dirty Bomb is unaware of his boss' location. However, Gorgeous uses her mob connections to locate Tataryn at a private airfield in Connecticut where he plans to leave the country.
The PHD ambushed the Ghost before he could leave on his private jet. While Fahrenheit tries to engulf the Ghost in flames to deprive him of oxygen, the Ghost bypasses her attempts by harming her more vulnerable teammates. Taking advantage of the team’s concerns for each other, Tataryn knocks out some of his enemies. Relishing over his victory, the Ghost prepares to execute Gorgeous for her betrayal to him. But Tataryn unwittingly made himself vulnerable to John, who grazed the Ghost's skull with a gunshot that left him unconscious.
The Ghost is taken to Rikers Island and placed in a holding cell where his powers are rendered null by power dampeners. Tataryn brags to John that he is certain that he can escape at any second if the dampeners deactivate or that he leaves their range. But John makes certain that Tataryn will never escape by bringing Christine Trelane, a Seedling Activator, to deactivate the Ghost's powers. To Tataryn's horror, he is then interned at Rikers' general prisoner population, in which many of them are from the Ghost's rival gangs who have personal grudges against him. Unknown to Tataryn, Christine had only suppressed his power temporarily for only a long couple weeks.
With Tataryn dealt with, John checks on Christine, who has been taking medications and therapy to recover from her postpartum psychosis. While Christine is spared from a trial due to being the U.S. government's only Activator, her relationship with Jackson is still rocky since she had shot her husband. John then tells Christine what he had told Jackson: to never let what happened destroy her, or let it remind her what is truly important in her life, and make that her focus instead of running around it.
John returns to Stormwatch Plaza where the PHD are offered temporary housing. He admits to Jackson and his team that he has second thoughts on whether he should remain in PHD since he now believes he has no place in it any more. But everyone makes John reconsider as the PHD would have not succeeded with capturing the Ghost without John’s leadership. He is convinced to give himself time to make his decision. John, his team, and Jackson later attend the funeral of the lives lost at the 18th Precinct.
Appearing in "The Big Payback"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Grigori Tataryn (The Walking Ghost)
- Dirty Bomb
Other Characters:
Locations:
- New York City, New York
- StormWatch Plaza
- Rikers Island
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- This issue is collected in the Stormwatch PHD Vol. 2 trade.
- This is the final issue of the pre-World's End run. The series went on a planned 10-month hiatus before issue #13 was released in order to set things up in other Wildstorm titles for the World's End storyline.
See Also
- Cover gallery for the Stormwatch: Post Human Division series
- Images from Stormwatch: Post Human Division Vol 1 12