Incident on Staten Island

An  occurred between Joseph Everest VI and his Olympian Master, Loren Rojas and the Supreme Acolyte of Darkness, Zwarst Hercules. Rojas led Joseph to believe that he had lured Hercules into a trap aboard his airship Arbitrator, that it was finally time to strike their enemy down. However, as Joseph would come to learn, it was not a trap but simply an attempt to kill Joseph as it was revealed that while Loren Rojas was indeed once an Olympian Master, he was actually the Supreme Will of Darkness, Zwarst Tate.

Afterwards, Joseph was brought back to Tate's secret fortress and restored to continue his training and to build an alliance against the Empire. Back in Manhattan, Joseph put aside his crime fighting and his master's last order and returned his attention to the war against the Four Families Cartel.

Prelude
After Voltage battled and killed Elizabeth "Mad Lizzy" Maddox, the Overboss of the Conduit gang, the Ravagers, he was ordered to convene with his Olympian master, Loren Rojas, on  The Arbitrator above Miller Field in Staten Island. By eliminating a conduit Overboss, Rojas was convinced that his apprentice, Joseph Everest VI, was now strong enough to face his rival and assured him that time had come to challenge him, the Supreme Acolyte of Darkness, Zwarst Hercules. Though he contained his enthusiasm in front of his master, Joseph was elated by the thought of becoming a full-fledged Olympian Knight, something Rojas assured him would occur should he kill Hercules. Aside from his desire to obtain the strength necessary to protect his family, Hercules' death was a goal that Joseph had been training for over the last two months.

As he hung up his Voltage mask, Joseph pondered aloud with Reese on what his vigilante future would hold with Hercules' death, wondering if he would lose the luster to fight crime after he only took up the mantle of Voltage to draw out Hercules. He made a promise to himself and to Reese that no matter what happened, he would never stop defending those in need. As he departed for his masters airship aboard his light speeder Flynn, Joseph envisioned his future as an Olympian Knight while his Master rose more Olympians on Earth and, together, restored the Olympian Order to its former glory. He even envisioned going to find the center of his studies, Brutus Agathon, the famed Grand Master of the Olympian Order, to see if he was still alive, and killing whoever the Supreme Lord of Darkness was.

The incident
"Hercules has arrived" "Wow. You know, I had my doubts as to whether or not you could do what you said you would do, but you did. You have lured Hercules to us. So, when do we strike Master?"

- Loren Rojas and Joseph Everest aboard the Arbitrator Upon his return to the Arbitrator, Joseph rendezvoused with Rojas on the bridge of the Amagonian Flying Fortress. Beyond the viewport, master and apprentice watched together as Hercules' personal freighter, The Cicero, converged on the Arbitrator's position. Joseph thought that his master had successfully manipulated Hercules into their trap, despite his doubts when his master said he would. However, Joseph learns the truth when Rojas impales Joseph from behind through the abdomen with a red Spathi; Hercules' spies, as Rojas claimed, had followed Joseph all the way to the Arbitrator. When Joseph collapsed to the floor in utter shock and pain, Hercules entered the chamber, with Rojas addressing Hercules as his master, and Hercules addressing him as "Zwarst Tate", revealing Rojas' true identity- the Supreme Will of Darkness, Zwarst Tate.

Hercules, seemingly seething with rage, accused Tate of treason, against both the Empire and the Tenebrae's Reign of the Triumvirate, and order him to kill his apprentice, who tried to assure Tate that they could defeat Hercules together. As Hercules turned his back to allow his apprentice to end Joseph peacefully, Joseph pulled Tate's aqua-green Spathi to his hand and attempted to strike at Hercules, only to then have his right forearm amputated by Hercules. He then fell to the ground, screaming in pain and agony and clutching his wound, realizing that he was in fact nowhere near strong enough to face Hercules on his own. Hercules then demanded Tate deal with the boy before he stands again, lest he join him in death by his own hand. Now faced with the threat of death, Tate complies by telekinetically thrashing Joseph around the room. Once he sensed that Joseph's spirit and resolve had broken, he then hurled Joseph through the viewport and down onto the open field 100 feet below, much to Hercules' sadistic delight.