During HYDRA's takeover of America, Kamala "Ms Marvel" Khan is in Jersey City and can see the Darkforce Dome covering Manhattan. People tell her she should do something, but she doesn't know what she can do. As the takeover progresses she gets an Avengers communicator she kept from when she was on the team and asks if anyone is out there to give her directions, but she just gets a message from the Tony Stark AI telling her to get off the radio and go to ground. He tells her it's way too dangerous for someone as inexperienced as her to get involved in this battle, especially as she's not even an Avenger anymore. Khan protests that HYDRA is swarming her town and she feels obligated to help, and Stark points out that HYDRA is there to look for her, so she can best help by getting out of town.
Khan finds she can't just do nothing and instead patrols Jersey City, eventually running into a couple of masked teenagers setting up bombs in a HYDRA depot. After spend some time criticizing each other's costumes, Khan says she can't let them set off the bombs because innocents could be hurt. She says they have to fight HYDRA by being better than them, instead of resorting to terrorism. One of the bombers demands to know if Khan really thinks they need 'permission' to fight back. Khan can't answer, but is saved from having to do so by the arrival of HYDRA guards. Khan and the bombers flee into the night.
Later at home, Khan is with her family when HYDRA agents knock. They are going door-to-door looking for one of the bombers; they caught the other one and he provided them with a photograph of his partner, so now HYDRA is asking everyone if the photograph looks familiar. Khan's father claims no knowledge, but when the HYDRA agents leave he tells the rest of his family that the boy is one of their neighbors. Khan's father tells her to stay inside, but she sneaks out to try to save him anyways. She eventually finds a huge crowd of HYDRA agents but realizes that she's not strong enough to fight them. She can only watch as they arrest an unregistered Inhuman. Inhuman insists that he didn't do anything but one of the HYDRA agents explains that, when they nabbed the first bomber, he told HYDRA everything he knew. This included not just the identity of his partner but also the safe house that the Inhuman was using. The agent taunts the Inhuman, saying that Inhumans are rats who will turn on each other. Hiding on her roof, Khan watches helplessly.
Months after the takeover, just past the border of the mutant-controlled nation New Tian, Daisy "Quake" Johnson's team of Inhumans (consisting of herself, Khan, Dante "Inferno" Pertuz, Lunella "Moon Girl" Lafayette, Karnak, and Devil Dinosaur) confront several mutants. The mutants include Tabitha "Boom Boom" Smith, Julio "Rictor" Richter, Hank "Beast" McCoy. Illyana "Magik" Rasputina, Guido "Strong Guy" Carosella, and Warren "Archangel" Worthington III. Lunella says she doesn't want to fight the X-Men again (referencing the event Inhumans vs. X-Men) and Pertuz says he hates the X-Men, but Khan tells Pertuz to be nice and Johnson says they'll try to avoid a fight. She approaches McCoy and says they only ran the border because they didn't think the X-Men would let them in otherwise (which McCoy confirms) and then says they're looking for an Inhuman child named Leer; this is the person that Karnak said they had to find.
McCoy says he's not aware of any Inhumans in New Tian and asks why Johnson thinks Leer is there instead of in the rest of America. Johnson explains that Lafayette found out about a secret lab in New Tian and asks if Leer might perhaps be hidden away there. Meanwhile, Khan tries to introduce herself to Rasputina and Smith, but the other two mock her and say that since the Inhumans never helped the X-Men when the X-Men needed help, they don't feel obligated to help the Inhumans now. They also tease her for being a 'cheerleader' instead of a real hero. Khan protests that she is a real hero and that Leer might be key to saving the Inhumans from being exterminated, but Smith just says it's too bad that Khan won't be able to stop that extermination then. She calls Khan a cheerleader for a second time, and Khan uses her powers to knock her down. A general melee between the Inhumans and X-Men breaks out, with only Karnak and McCoy staying out of it.
Johnson, frustrated, uses her earthquake powers to try to split the sides apart, but Richter is faster and produces a bigger chasm between them. Johnson rolls her eyes and curses as Richter tells her to get more original powers. McCoy orders the Inhumans to leave, and when Khan protests Karnak tells her he's right. When she quietly asks if they're really leaving, though, he says they are not. They go to their car, and Johnson takes Khan aside to chew her out for starting the fight. Johnson notes that she'd actually gotten the X-Men to agree to help them until Khan screwed it up by attacking Smith. Johnson stalks off, cursing and calling Khan a child, before ordering Pertuz to drive them away.
As they drive off an X-Men jet follows them to make sure they actually leave. Pertuz gripes that the X-Men have a better vehicle than the beat-up car the Inhumans have been using. Meanwhile, Johnson is still sore over Richter's comment that her powers are unoriginal, and in a fit of anger she blasts the jet out of the sky. Khan is horrified to think that Johnson might have just killed the X-Men, but Johnson said she 'probably' didn't and now they can go find Leer.
The team arrives at the base and notes that it looks like an outhouse. Johnson asks how Lafayette became aware of the base in the first place, and she says Karnak told her where it was. He takes them inside and they see a lab with shrouded bodies on slabs; the bodies are covered in wires and test tubes and were obviously used for experiments. Then Dark Beast, Hank McCoy from another dimension, enters. He's in charge of the lab and claims not to know who Leer is, but he's not hostile. The group subdues Dark Beast and tries to figure out which one he is, comparing him both to the McCoy from their dimension as well a Beast they've heard of who came from the future and who had travelled back to their time.
Johnson directs Khan to put Dark Beast in a room that is empty except for one chair, and Khan does. Dark Beast calls Johnson feisty and snarks that she's leading a bunch of misfits to harass him, resulting in Khan insisting that Johnson is not their leader. Johnson demands information on Leer, but Dark Beast continues to insist he knows nothing. He also begins to psychoanalyze Johnson, guessing she has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Johnson curses and orders everyone else out of the room so she can get the information she needs by any means necessary. Khan protests that heroes don't do this, but Johnson says they're at war and they'll do whatever is necessary. She uses her powers to throw her entire team except for Karnak out of the room before shutting the door. Khan tries to break in, but Lafayette says they can't get through the reinforced steel door. As Dark Beast begins to scream from the torture Johnson and Karnak inflict on him, Khan can only bang on the door and scream for them to stop.
Some time later, Khan has given up and is waiting with the others for Johnson and Karnak to finish. The two Inhumans eventually leave the room, and when Khan demands to know what they did, Johnson snarks that she got information from an evil mad scientist. Khan insists that they can't torture, but Karnak corrects her and says he clearly can and in fact just did so. Johnson snaps at Khan that she hates doing what she does but there aren't any good answers that will stop everyone from getting hurt. If they do things her way, she argues, then at least the people getting hurt will be the bad guys instead of innocent civilians. Khan says she sounds like Nick Fury, whom she claims betrayed everyone who trusted him. Johnson calls Khan a kid again and says she will do anything necessary to save people, including murdering any monsters that happen to get in their way. Khan threatens to quit the team and Johnson says she should just do it, but then Pertuz alerts them to a large force of X-Men breaking into the base.
The Hank McCoy Johnson talked to by the New Tian border approaches Johnson and says he's mad about Johnson crashing their plane. Johnson gets him to admit that he didn't know about the secret torture lab, and McCoy eventually concedes that, for their service, he will let them leave the country provided they never return. The group drives away, with Pertuz sighing that he thought Tabitha Smith was gorgeous (and grossing out Lafayette) before asking if Dark Beast had any useful information. Johnson says that he did; he was able to tell Johnson that HYDRA took Leer. The team tries to figure out what to do next, but neither Pertuz nor Johnson have any ideas, and Khan just wants to go back to Jersey. An exasperated Johnson says she's fine with Khan quitting, but the car is suddenly blasted off the road. As the groups crawls out, they find themselves confronted with a large army of HYDRA soldiers, several members of HYDRA's Avengers, and Calvin "Mister Hyde" Zabo, Johnson's father.
Tropes
- Out of Focus: Pertuz and Lafayette are mostly in the background as this issue focuses on the conflict between Khan and the duo of Johnson and Karnak.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Johnson is called out on blowing up the X-Men's jet for no reason other than being grumpy.
