Cloak and Dagger #4 (1984)

Dagger is hospitalized because she has been sending out too many light daggers to help feed Cloak’s hunger for light and doctors are struggling to understand her condition. Cloak arrives and insists that Dagger take back the light he has consumed from her to restore her health. Detective O’Reilly seems to understand their unusual relationship but Father Delgado is troubled by the interaction. Cloak and Dagger offer to reveal their origin to Delgado and O’Reilly to help them understand who they are. They enter Cloak’s cloak and are teleported to The Holy Ghost Church. After they arrive at the church, Dagger reveals her real name to be Tandy Bowen and begins telling her story. She reveals that she was a teenager in wealthy suburban Cleveland but that her mother prioritized her career over raising her despite her talents ballet dancing. Her real father isn’t in the picture and she rejects her step-father’s desire to build a relationship with her and is meanwhile heart-broken when a local boy leaves for college who she thought loved her. Feeling alone and unloved she decides to go to New York City. Cloak then begins to tell his story and reveals his name to be Tyrone, a poor kid from South Boston who struggled with a stuttering problem despite succeeding in school and showing prowess on the basketball court. He is befriended by another classmate named Billy who is with Tyrone when they witness a shooting. Billy is shot and killed by police when they assume Tyrone and Billy are culpable and Tyrone blames himself as he was unable to explain the situation to the trigger-happy cops due to his severe stutter. Tyrone flees from the law to New York City and is reflecting on his situation when he witnesses Tandy getting her purse stolen and tackles the thief. Tandy is gracious and buys Tyrone a meal. Afterwards, they are approached by a group who offer them a place to stay. They reluctantly agree but Tyrone suspects trouble. Tandy and Tyrone are attacked and put on a boat that takes them to Ellis Island where runaways are being experimented upon by chemists with a synthetic drug meant to replace more expensive heroin imports. The other kids succumb to the experimental drug but it doesn’t seem to affect Tandy and Tyrone in the same way and they escape. As they swim through the river while fleeing, Tandy mentions that she’s burning up despite the freezing water and Tyrone becomes swallowed by darkness until Tandy begins to glow brightly and dispels the darkness. When they are back on land, they struggle to understand the new sensations and powers affecting them and come to the conclusion that the experimental drug must be the culprit. After concluding their story, Cloak says that their mission is to help save children from a similar fate as theirs. O’Reilly is compelled to omit the details from her police report to prevent any further harassment from law enforcement and Father Delgado admits that his place is not to judge, but to pray for them instead.