In the waning days of World War II, the bunny which would one day become USA GI was taken to be euthanized. A kindly veterinarian, however, protected the bunny and smuggled it out of the clinic.
In the present day, Black Hops is taken by Agent Hudson to meet up with Carly Vanders at Area 51. Millius (with a new eyepatch) and Commando-G are now full members of Black Hops and they introduce themselves to Carly. She says that the rest of her team won’t be there because Kimiko has to renew her work visa and Misha refuses to do any more military jobs, but she’s available to help them.
At Cryptiq’s headquarters, Kanina is called into Apex Moth’s room and is horrified to see him without his helmet. He puts it on and then gets Vicki on a video call. Vicki, sunning herself in the desert environment of the Superstition Mountains
, complains about her orders to drive civilians out of the area. She wants people to see her monsters, which she calls ‘art.’ Apex Moth reassures her that his next plan will be witnessed by the world.
After Vicki hangs up, Apex Moth has Mimic take the severed hand he stole from the military in the previous volume and jam it onto Kanina’s wrist stump. Kanina yells in shock and horror as the hand knits itself to her body, soon becoming a fully functional hand to replace the one she lost fighting USA GI. Kanina threatens to shoot him but Apex Moth is unaffected and Mimic moves to protect him; Kanina eventually desists.
Black Hops and Carly take a helicopter to the Superstition Mountains. Carly sends a text to ‘a friend’ and is cut off by Penelope, who protests that the mission is secret. Hudson informs the team that Vicki’s monsters were spotted in the mountain range, which is why they asked Carly to help them since she’s fought Vermillion Masquerade before. Carly protests Vermillion being labeled as a terrorist but Hudson says she injured six people during her attack on Area 51. He also says that a blogger posted a photo of Vermillion leaving a jet with Apex Moth and Ningen soldiers, meaning she’s now working with an infamous terrorist group and their PMC soldiers.
Hudson explains that they believe this mission is connected to Cryptiq’s theft of the disembodied hand during the Misha extraction mission. He says that the hand belonged to Saint Columba and hasn’t decayed at all even though Columba died more than a thousand years ago; the hand, which was on loan from the Vatican when it was stolen, also has odd effects on matter infused with chimeratons (the same radioactive particles which turned USA GI and Patriot-R into super animals and gave Carly her powers). Their mission, Hudson finishes, is to get the hand back before Apex Moth uses it for evil.
Apex Moth and Kanina reach Vicki’s location, and Kanina bickers with Vicki before Apex shuts them down. He has Kanina push her hand against the ground. When Vicki asks what’s going on, Apex explains that Columba was said to be able to subdue beasts with a wave of his hand, so Apex thinks Columba may have been exposed to chimeratons and gained the power to control cryptids with his hand. He knows there is a cryptid somewhere in the mountains and he wants Kanina to use the head to find it and control it. Kanina, shocked, says she senses the beast and is able to identify its exact coordinates. She uploads them into Apex’s GPS and the group leaves. As they go, Apex’s surveillance reports that Black Hops is approaching; Apex orders Vicki to hold them off and also sends a message to someone else to go to the coordinates Kanina sent.
Black Hops lands and splits into three teams: Patriot-R and Rigor-Tortoise will take a route through a cave system, Millius and Commando-G will go through a cannon, and Carly will accompany USA GI and Penelope over the mesa. Penelope warns Carly to be quiet but she loudly transforms and then gleefully flies off, with a disgruntled Penelope and USA GI following.
Millius and Commando-G go through the ‘Praying Hands’ rock formation when they’re ambushed by Vicki’s rock monsters. Millius’s eyepatch can shoot lasers which either hurt monsters directly or function as a target beam for him to aim at with his gun, and he’s able to kill several monsters. Commando-G has goggles which also let him see the monsters even through rock walls, and Millius fires homing shots which zip around the corner of the canyon and kill the monsters.
Underground, Patriot-R and Rigor-Tortoise are ambushed by strange goblin monsters which are fast enough to dodge most of their attacks. A mysterious figure in the shadows orders the goblins to kill the animals and says she’s going to the location that Apex Moth uploaded.
Carly circles the mesa and, since her transformation blew out her radio, she yells to Penelope that she’s done but didn’t see anything. Penelope yells at her to be quiet but USA GI calms her down. Carly protests that Vermillion wouldn’t really kill them, and she maintains her viewpoint even when Penelope gets a message that Millius was jumped by Vicki’s monsters, but Penelope rejects this. She tells Carly that Black Hops is only used on dangerous enemies that can’t be talked to and can only be killed.
Kanina, Vicki, and Apex Moth arrive at the cryptid’s location. He calls the woman from the caves, now identified as Keli Hopkins, and confirms that she already picked up whatever he sent her to get. He then orders her to leave because there will be an imminent cave in, though she blows this off. Kanina senses the monster sleeping and says it’s at peace, but Apex Moth doesn’t care. He orders Vicki to dig the monster up.
Vicki’s powers shake the landscape as Carly sees an approaching jeep. She flies Penelope to the jeep and the driver turns out to be Misha, the person whom Carly had texted earlier. Misha again protests she doesn’t like military missions and thought this was about Vicki, but Carly cuts her off before Misha can complete the name in Penelope’s presence. Another earthquake shakes the area and forces Millius and Patriot-R, along with their partners, to flee to the surface; a goblin is crushed by falling rocks as Patriot-R gets away.
Apex tells Kanina she can control the monster, but Kanina says she can sense its fury as the landscape shudders.Vicki unearths the monster as Apex names it: the monster is the thunderbird, a colossal avian said to be able to devour mountains and cleave oceans. The massive bird rises into the air and screeches in rage.
Apex uses the animal language he speaks to order the thunderbird to wreck havoc on human cities. Kanina protests, saying she’s willing to kill for money but not just to cause chaos, but Apex doesn’t care and the bird won’t listen to Kanina. Apex informs her she’ll need to practice and learn the animal language before she can actually use her hand’s powers, and tells her that all she can do in the meantime is just ‘enjoy the show.’
Millius’s and Patriot-R’s teams link up and make radio contact with Penelope’s group, which finds Vicki. Carly and Misha rush off to battle Vicki; she’s able to block a few of their attacks but Carly is eventually able to land a hit which shatters her disguise. Carly begs Vicki to stop before Homeland Security kills her, and Misha points out that Vicki just let loose a monster which will kill people. Vicki protests that Apex just told her monster would ‘dazzle’ people and she was expecting something more like a unicorn; when Carly orders her to return the monster to the ground, Vicki says she doesn’t know how. The thunderbird shoots a combined blast of fire and electricity at them and Vicki takes the chance to make a hole and flee into it; Carly and Misha have to stay behind to stop the thunderbird.
Black Hops is unable to outgun the monster. Millius sends Commando-G back to the plane and he returns with Hudson and some smokescreen launchers. The group fights the thunderbird, and the smokescreen proves capable of keeping it back, but they still can’t bring it down. Then USA GI tugs on Penelope’s boot and the two run off to ‘pursue a lead’ while the others keep fighting.
In a canyon, Apex mocks Kanina for having chased the thunderbird for a mile without gaining control of it; additionally, whenever she tries to use her powers against it, her hand burns in pain. Apex says Kanina will only gain control of the bird with his help. Then Penelope, guided to his position by USA GI, snipes Apex in his helmet; USA GI follows up by launching a grenade. The blast hurts Apex Moth and also buries him in rocks when part of the canyon wall falls on him, Kanina isn’t worried for him, saying he’s tougher than that, and then she asks USA GI for a knife to cut off Saint Columba’s hand so it stops burning her. The rabbit refuses and Kanina threatens to just shoot her hand off so nobody gets it. However, she then freezes in shock as USA GI says something and she understands it.
At Penelope’s urging, USA GI puts his paw on Kanina’s head and she’s able to see his memory in which he went ballistic in a military base and his owner, Calvin Freling, had to calm him down. Calvin empathized with USA GI over the bunny’s ribbon, which came from his owner who was killed in the Hiroshima bombing, and Calvin shows him a photograph of his brother who was killed at Pearl Harbor. He said that he hoped the two of them could fight together in order to prevent more atrocities.
—Calvin Freling
Kanina realizes that the hand isn’t about controlling animals; it just helps communicate with them, as Calvin communicated to USA GI. She tells Penelope she can stop the monster if she can make physical contact with it, so Penelope radios Millius and asks for Carly to help. Millius warns that the thunderbird’s fire and electric elements make it partially immune to Carly’s and Misha’s powers, and it also seems able to siphon their energy. Penelope says she has a solution but needs Carly to ‘extract’ Kanina. Millius agrees and sends Carly over; Carly grabs Kanina and hauls her into the air.
Carly and Kanina bicker but Carly does managed to drop Kanina on the monster. Carly then faints, her power drained, but Kanina has the bird catch her and set her down safely before sending it off to an airbase where it will be able to fly freely (and where scientists will be able to study it). Kanina told it that it could fly as long as it hurt nobody, and the bird agreed.
Kanina is arrested and exchanges glances with her sister Misha before she’s taken into the helicopter. Penelope apologizes to Carly for being rough on her, but Carly says she didn’t notice because the media is harder on her anyways. Penelope then asks what happened to Vermillion and both Carly and Misha deflect, saying she escaped. Hudson then warns them that Apex Moth probably has another plan up his sleeve, and he’s skeptical that the villain is still where he was buried by rocks in the canyon.
Indeed, Hopkins has her goblins dig Apex Moth up. She reveals that she moved underground and stole a feather from the thunderbird while it was sleeping, which satisfies Apex Moth. Apex is blasé about losing Kanina, saying Cryptiq has expanded now (including by recruiting Hopkins) and no longer needs Ningen. He’s more upset about losing the hand of Saint Columba, but says that the scientists won’t understand it. Finally, he says he’s looking for an evil more valuable prize.
In an epilogue, Hudson talks to Kanina in her prison cell. He warns her that her troops killed twelve soldiers and that she really should consider the ‘community service’ offer he extended. She agrees and he leaves. Kanina sits back on her bed and reveals that the hand of Saint Columba also gave her the ability to control her hair, and she’s using it to hold various objects such as a cigarette, a lighter, and a book.
This comic contains examples of the following tropes:
- Boxed Crook: Kanina becomes one after she’s captured at the end.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Kanina will happily kill people for money, but she won’t kill people just to cause chaos.
- Giant Flyer: The thunderbird is one.
- Our Goblins Are Different: Apex Moth’s new lieutenant, Hopkins, has a small army of goblins which help her dig and attack her enemies.
- Prehensile Hair: Kanina gains this power from her new hand.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Apex Moth was already able to do this, at least for chimeraton-enhanced creatures, and Kanina picks up this ability too thanks to her hand.
