David's father grazes Steelheart's cheek with a stray bullet while shooting Deathpoint, accidentally exposing the Epic's hidden vulnerability.

Steelheart kills David's father and destroys the bank to silence all witnesses; David escapes and vows revenge.

David helps Megan kill Fortuity and escapes with her and the other Reckoners in a garbage truck.

David reveals to the Reckoners that he once witnessed Steelheart bleed, convincing them to remain in Newcago.

David retrieves his Epic research notebooks while Enforcement soldiers search his room in the understreets.

The Reckoners purchase a powerful gauss gun from weapons merchant Diamond to serve as their signature weapon.

David shines a UV scanner on Nightwielder at Diamond's shop, secretly recording the Epic's weakness on a data chip.

The Reckoners destroy Newcago's power plant and steal fuel cells needed to charge the gauss gun.

David visits the excavated bank vault and discovers his father's steel-preserved corpse among the ruins.

Nightwielder ambushes the Reckoners during the Conflux mission, forcing them to flee and abandoning their original plan.

Tia's surgery fails to save Megan, who dies from injuries sustained during the failed Conflux mission.

The Reckoners prepare Soldier Field for the final confrontation with Steelheart, carving tunnels and setting up sniper positions.

David corners Nightwielder beneath Soldier Field's stands and kills the Epic using a UV flashlight.

David tricks Steelheart into firing a gun loaded with a detonator, using the Epic's own fearlessness to destroy him.

Prof stops the deadly blast, revealing he is an Epic; David finds Megan alive and reincarnated nearby.

David's father accidentally exposes Steelheart's hidden vulnerability and is killed for it, leaving a young David to escape the destroyed bank and swear revenge. A decade later, David joins the Reckoners and convinces them to target Steelheart by revealing he once witnessed the tyrant bleed. The team acquires critical weapons and intelligence, culminating in the destruction of Newcago's power plant to impersonate a rival Epic. A failed mission to capture Conflux results in Megan's death, forcing the Reckoners to regroup and prepare a desperate final confrontation at Soldier Field. In the climactic battle, David kills Nightwielder and uncovers Steelheart's true weakness, tricking the tyrant into killing himself with his own fearlessness. The aftermath exposes Prof as a secret Epic and reveals Megan as a reincarnated survivor, leaving Newcago's future uncertain but filled with possibility.

The headline events of the mission to kill Steelheart.

Deathpoint enters a bank and kills civilians; David's father picks up a gun and quietly allies with the arriving Steelheart.

David follows Epic Fortuity to a theater, watching for the Reckoners to make their move against him.

Megan lures Fortuity away from the theater while David intercepts a minor Epic named Curveball to clear her path.

David and Megan simultaneously trap Fortuity between two guns, executing a checkmate plan that kills the precognition Epic.

The Reckoners capture David and interrogate him at their hidden base deep in the steel catacombs.

David spots an illusionist Epic named Refractionary concealing Enforcement soldiers outside his understreets room.

Megan shoots Refractionary dead after David finds the Epic's phone number on a soldier's mobile and calls it.

David misleads a soldier named Roy by planting rumors that a rival Epic named Limelight plans to overthrow Steelheart.

Rerouted by unwitting civilians, David and Megan climb the power plant's elevator shaft after David carves handholds with a tensor.

Megan confesses to David that she believes Steelheart provides necessary order to Newcago and does not deserve to die.

Abraham reveals he is one of the Faithful, believing good Epics will one day emerge and save humanity.

Prof and Megan argue about whether killing Steelheart is just, with Prof insisting Newcago's stability is no excuse for tyranny.

Cody breaks through Conflux's limousine defenses and discovers the Epic bound and unconscious in the trunk.

The Reckoners interrogate Conflux and learn he is Steelheart's prisoner rather than a willing ally or confidante.

Nightwielder's death lifts ten years of darkness over Newcago, and the sun rises over the city for the first time.

Beginning at the bank with Steelheart's rise and David's father's fateful choice, this pool traces the smaller but pivotal steps David takes to infiltrate and assist the Reckoners. David identifies the illusionist Refractionary, engineers the Limelight rumor to mislead Enforcement, and helps the team scale Newcago's power plant, revealing his resourcefulness at every turn. Megan's confession that she sees value in Steelheart's order sparks a deeper ideological divide within the group, further complicated by Abraham's faith in Epics' potential for goodness. The mission against Conflux unravels in unexpected ways, exposing Steelheart's inner circle as prisoners rather than willing allies. The pool closes with the literal dawn breaking over Newcago after Nightwielder's death, marking the symbolic end of a decade-long era of darkness.

The supporting missions and debates that shaped the plan.

Steelheart sees blood on his cheek and massacres everyone in the bank to ensure no witness to his weakness survives.

David hides inside a steel vault, plays dead, and slips into an alley to escape the collapsing bank.

David shoots four armed thugs pursuing Megan through the streets, risking his life to help someone he has just met.

David pieces together that Prof is Jonathan Phaedrus, the founder of the entire Reckoners organization, after Tia calls him Jon.

David presents his assassination plan to the Reckoners: impersonate an Epic called Limelight to lure Steelheart out of his palace.

David improvises at Diamond's shop by stepping into the open and posing as an employee to distract Nightwielder.

Prof revises the plan, deciding the Reckoners must attack Steelheart's infrastructure first to convincingly impersonate a contending Epic.

Guards shine flashlights directly at David and Megan hanging in the elevator shaft but inexplicably fail to spot them.

David and Megan find a hidden room missing from the power plant's official floorplans and search it for secret files.

Abraham recovers David's father's gun from beside the steel corpse, believing it may be the key to Steelheart's weakness.

Trapped with a gravely injured Megan behind rubble, David confesses his feelings to her while she remains unconscious.

Prof single-handedly destroys an Enforcement squad with his tensors, then declares himself Limelight to send a message to Steelheart.

David grabs Megan's arm during the final battle and confirms she is solid, realizing she is the Epic Firefight who betrayed the Reckoners.

Kneeling beside the fallen Prof, David grasps Steelheart's weakness and loads his father's gun with a hidden detonator pen.

Megan explains her reincarnation powers and hidden recording device to David, then refuses to board the Reckoners' escape copter.

This pool follows the turning points that reshape both the mission and David's understanding of himself and his enemies. Starting with Steelheart's cold decision to massacre the entire bank to protect his secret, Pool 3 tracks David's slow evolution from a boy defined by rage into someone capable of real connection and sacrifice. Critical improvised moments — distracting Nightwielder, carving handholds in a steel shaft, confessing his feelings to an unconscious Megan — reveal a growing resourcefulness and humanity that revenge alone never could have built. Revelations escalate toward the climax: Megan is unmasked as the Epic Firefight, Prof is confirmed as both the organization's founder and a secret gifter Epic, and David finally grasps the nature of Steelheart's weakness in a flash of clarity. The pool ends with Megan's reincarnation explained and her future left deliberately open, closing the story on a note of fragile but genuine hope.