In the past, a young Siggy dresses up as a shepherd while griping about his role in the Christmas pageant. He grouses that he doesn’t like the costumes but is called out by Vicki, who says that her friend Carly worked hard on them. Vicki points out Carly and Siggy is struck by her beauty; he approaches her to compliment her costumes.
In present-day Orlando, a massive otomoton robot attacks the Nyanfeld World theme park while security struggles to hold it off. An angry mob dressed in dark clothing forms outside the park’s gates and rants that the theme park, not the robot, is the enemy; they also repeatedly chant Cynthia’s ‘Fight the light’ slogan. Carly goes into battle while Black Hops scrambles to get reinforcements, but the otomoton fights back and Carly notes that the monster is using all of the Kamen Corps’ powers. Carly draws a laser sword and gets back into battle.
Sylvia and Gracey are watching the news in Area 51. Gracey exposits that he created the sword, which works by channeling some of Carly’s power through the hilt to make a lightsaber-type weapon. Other news reports indicate that the anti-light mobs, called ‘dark suit protesters,’ are vandalizing power plant facilities. States are also voting on so-called ‘Dark State laws’ to limit light pollution, and some foreign cities are dimming their power grids in solidarity. Sylvia wishes she could help but her suit isn’t repaired yet, and Gracey sends her to help ‘another friend’ (implied to be Vicki) with bureaucratic problems.
Carly destroys the robot with the sword but is attacked by Zener Ecto, who summons the ghosts of kids who died on the theme park’s shoddy rides. He says the kids can’t leave purgatory until they do something to deserve it and then sends the ghosts to fight Carly. The kids do so despite Carly’s protests, and Ecto notes that penitential spirits are so desperate to reach their true afterlife that they’ll believe just about anything he tells them; he proves this by telling the children that Carly was responsible for the poor maintenance and unsafe practices of the park. Carly is body-slammed by a huge ghost which squeezes her chest so hard that she can’t breathe, but at the last minute, she’s rescued by Millius and Grendel as well as Father Patrick Retter, who blesses Carly and enables her bioelectricity powers to hurt the ghosts.
Retter prays to let the ghosts ascend to heaven and then castigates Ecto for misusing his powers, but Ecto lies that he’s just there to support the dark suit protesters. Millius draws a bead on Ecto and warns that he has silver bullets, causing Ecto to flee. Millius notes that Carly has an informant who is able to reliably predict the otomoton attacks, which at least makes their job easier. While the dark suit protesters continue to riot near the gate, Carly rushes home to her family.
Carly talks to her parents and says that, if it weren’t for her jobs with Black Hops and the money she’s making from her Kanekochan ad campaign, she’d be broke; nobody wants to order her clothes since she publicly rejected the Zenerengers and Cynthia in Detroit. Her father Charles notes that Siggy’s family’s gun store is doing very well and jokes that she could marry him to get a piece of those profits. Carly admits she doesn’t want to talk to Siggy about her feelings for fear of ruining a friendship, but Charles says they’re hurting the friendship already by not talking about their feelings. Carly goes to leave on a motorcycle provided by Black Hops, saying she has to talk to a friend, but she promises to drop by the retirement party for Siggy’s father Barrett that night.
A cutaway reveals that Kimiko and Darlene are fighting otomotons in Japan, but Darlene is hamstrung because she couldn’t get American snacks through customs and she’s not sure which Japanese snacks will give Henshy which powers. Back in America, Carly says that Misha will be at the retirement party with Siggy, and Charles notes that Barrett wants to talk business with Misha since she’s been a good employee. Though clearly distressed at the thought of Misha arriving with Siggy, Carly just gets on her motorcycle and rides off, blasting through the dark suit protesters at the chain-link fence surrounding her house and workshop.
Misha and Chad battle another giant robot in Texas. They bicker as their powers conflict with each other, but they manage to take it down in the end. Zener Psycho arrives and boasts that he can read their minds as well as thrown objects around telekinetically. Misha fights back but can’t hit him because he can read her thoughts and anticipate her attacks. He prepares to kill Misha but is shot in the back of the head by Black Hops members Penelope “Ruby” Freling and USA G.I., the latter of whom is an enhanced bunny rabbit. The bullet fails to penetrate Psycho’s helmet, however, and Psycho escapes.
Misha complains about Penelope not telling her what was going on, though Penelope notes that Psycho was a telepath and so it would have been bad had he been able to learn the plan from Misha’s mind. USA G.I. slays the last little robot while more dark suit protesters scream invective at the heroes.
At the headquarters of Prestige Inc., Lansky boasts to Reeser and Cynthia that Zenerenger merchandise is selling incredibly well. Cynthia wants to know how well their dark suits are selling and Lansky says that Western Europe, China, and Australia have already passed laws mandating clothes of that type, so business is incredible. He does note that Japan is resistant to the dark suit laws and that America is split evenly between ‘light states’ which oppose such laws and ‘dark states’ which support them, but he thinks this will change once they introduce dark suits for pets, which he’s sure will be popular.
Reeser says he just wants to save lives, but Cynthia ignores him as she explains that she expects many contracts for her company to build ‘photon friendly’ power plants across the ‘dark states.’ She gets a report that Nevada’s governor has vetoed a law which would mandate reducing the power grid by eighty percent until Prestige power stations are installed, and the legislature is one vote short of overriding the veto. The governor is instead installing massive fortification in Hoover Dam including artillery turrets and a round-the clock garrison, claiming that he wants to defend the dam from otomoton attacks. His critics, however, believe he just wants to shoot dark suit protesters who have been burning down power stations all over the state and who may hit Hoover Dam soon. When the news report mentions that many workers died building the dam in the 1930s and their spirits are rumored to still haunt the facility, Cynthia calls Ecto.
Carly talks to her friend, who turns out to be the reporter Karat Enshtick. Enshtick notes that nobody’s ever seen the otomotons arriving from space, nor has anyone actually tested the dark suits to see if they truly minimize light reflection. She also looked into the Zenerengers and discovered that Reeser was a former member of the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade who got recruited by Prestige after a wildfire devastated part of Austria; similarly, Zener Hydro is a Filipina named Sirena Siyokoy who was recruited by Prestige during relief efforts after Sirena’s city was wrecked by a tsunami. Both their stories check out, but Enshtick says that’s not the case for the third Zenerenger she identified.
Enshtick goes on to identify name Techno as Nano Moritou, a power plant consultant who claims that Prestige introduced her to Aragaki’s company Kagemitsu when the otomotons attacked. Enshtick dug further, however, and found that Moritou had worked for Kagemitsu for several years before the otomotons showed up. Carly is reluctant to doubt Aragaki’s good faith, but Enshtick notes that every attack so far has occurred very close to a Kagemitsu lab. Enshtick advises Carly to have the military search for high energy locations near Kagemitsu’s remaining facilities and monitor them.
Carly goes to the retirement party and talks to Siggy’s sister Sierra. They chat, but the mood is dampened when Carly sees Mr. Kaminski. He tells her that Sylvia called but has no new updates on Vicki’s status. They note that Vicki is apparently doing some kind of work for the military but Carly isn’t allowed to speak with her. Despite the secrecy, though, Mr. Kaminski says he’s grateful that Vicki has friends like Carly and Sylvia.
Sierra signals that Misha and Siggy have arrived, and she takes Misha to meet Barrett so that Carly and Siggy can talk. Misha is amazed to recognize Barrett as one of the missionaries she held hostage, but he says he forgives her. Meanwhile, Siggy talks to Carly outside, and she says she should be telling Mr. Kaminski the truth about Vicki herself instead of shunting him off to Sylvia. Siggy reassures her that she’s shouldering many responsibilities, including dealing with Prestige, the Zenerengers, and (in conjunction with Black Hops) the otomotons, and tells Carly that there’s no shame in seeking help. Carly says she wants to be self-reliant but Siggy says he can tell Carly is getting worn down. He begins offering to help her and reaches for her hand... at which point Misha bursts through the door and complains he never told her that she’d taken his dad hostage.
With the moment at least temporarily ruined, Carly checks her phone and sees that Gracey wants her in Nevada. She asks him to come with her so they can finally have a talk without being interrupted, but Siggy is hesitant. He goes to Misha, who sighs that she can tell he doesn’t truly love her no matter how much she flirts. She reminisces about a fellow soldier named Iori whom she was attacked to, but he was maimed in battle, and by the time she mustered the courage to reveal her feelings, he was dead. Misha tells Siggy that he should get over his own self-doubt, catch up to Carly (who already left for Nevada), and confess her feelings. She then kisses him good bye and tells him to chase his dream.
Siggy pursues Carly and in turn is seen by Carly’s parents in their own car, who observe him speeding and wonder what’s wrong. Unable to get cell service, Siggy just keeps driving quickly, but he’s ambushed by biker ghosts in his car. He jumps out and shoots the ghosts to no effect, at which point Zener Ecto appears, taunts him, and tells the ghosts that Siggy was the guy who ran over their gang. Siggy manages to shoot Ecto and the ghosts vanish, but as Echo’s helmet crumbles, a bony skull with a glowing eye peers back at Siggy, and he says Siggy should have used silver bullets. Siggy fires again and again but his bullets do nothing.
As Cynthia leads an angry mob of dark suit protesters at the Hoover Dam, and as otomotons approach the dam from deep within Lake Mead, Carly and Millius talk at the airfield. Carly was waiting for Siggy but no longer thinks he’ll show up, so she agrees to leave for Nevada. Kimiko and Darlene (with Henshy) approach America in a plane, Sylvia talks with an unseen figure (implied to be Vicki) in Area 51, and Siggy watches as Ecto summons the biker ghosts again. Ecto laughs and says they used the ‘divide and conquer’ tactic, and now the heroes are doomed.
In an epilogue, Karat Enshtick continues her investigations.
This comic contains examples of the following tropes:
- All Bikers are Hells Angels: Siggy has to contend with the ghosts of a dead biker gang which acts like outlaws and proceeds to attack him.
- Amusement Park of Doom: Nyanfeld World's rides seem to have killed a lot of kids, judging by the number of ghosts Ecto is able to summon.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: Ecto is monstrously evil, and his powers involve manipulating and harming the ghosts of dead children.
- Divide and Conquer: The Zenerengers use this tactic and manage to split up the Kamen Corps before the big showdown at the dam.
- Expy: Nyanfeld is a big orange cat who seems to be a parody or homage of Garfield.
- Good Shepherd: Retter showcases this side of himself when he prays to help the ghost children reach the true afterlife.
- Intrepid Reporter: Enshtick fits the bill to a tee, asking questions nobody else does and tracking down information about the Zenerrengers as well as Aragaki.
- Would Hurt a Child: Ecto shows his cruelty when he summons children’ ghosts and brainwashes them into fighting Carly.
