Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Student journalist Mikka Nguyen was investigating a group called Take Back Control, and she was also being hassled by stalker Larry Gort (but also probably by someone else). Unlicensed PI/superhero Kate Bishop/Hawkeye confronted Larry but Mikka got abducted. Larry was a member of TBC and gave her a mask and password to get in to a meeting. But Kate was rumbled and a maddened crowd (mind control seems to be involved) chased her to the end of the Venice Beach pier.
Kate is steeling herself to jump off the pier when a woman from the masked crowd rushes forward and takes both of them into the water. Kate desperately gets away from her and makes it to the shore with the other in pursuit. She knocks a threatening arrow but the woman unmasks as Detective Rivera who wasn't very helpful last issue when Kate tried to get Gort arrested. It turns out she was investigating TBC undercover (so that's who had an ankle holster last issue). Kate tells her that Mikka is missing but Rivera warns her off interfering in police business. If TBC have her then *she* will find her. She won't confirm that mind control is involved but warns Kate not to let anyone put a TBC adhesive patch on her flesh.
Kate goes back to her apartment/office and finds Ramone, her neighbour and Mikka's (ex-)girlfriend, still there. She updates her with what's been happening and then goes and changes into her Hawkeye uniform. Meanwhile someone enters the office and Ramone says it's her brother. Kate returns and is flustered to see it's Johnny who she met last issue, and they flirted. They continue flirting until Ramone tells them to stop. She's been going through Kate's (few) case files and come across Brad (who she was tailing in #1). Who it turns out she knows because he uses her surf shop. But both siblings think he's an ass. Ramone proposes a deal. She'll tell Kate where to find him *after* they save Mikka.
Ramone's been searching through Mikka's bag that she found last issue but not come up with anything. Kate takes a look and pops the back of her phone and finds 1 of the TBC patches inside. They use Kate's laptop to check where the tracker she stuck on Larry is. Kate's 'staff member' Quinn calls up to say he's traced the mystery stalker's IP, and it turns out to be the address Gort's gone to. She tells him to stay where he is, but *that* turns out to be just outside her door.
So now all 4 of them go to that address, which in turn turns out to be hosting a big party. Kate makes 1 last-ditch attempt to persuade the others to stay outside but they refuse. So she enters, hiding her bow and arrows bag in bushes outside, and scans the party. Then she realises in relief that the others *haven't* followed her, and she goes to look closer at a suspiciously large walled-off space protruding into the room. Pausing only to get chatted up by a handsome frat-guy named Greg, she surreptitiously slips under a rope barring the way upstairs to try to find what's behind the mystery wall.
She looks in various rooms upstairs and sees:- a couple making out, a man asleep and a man on the toilet. The 4th door is heavily locked and reinforced. But the bathroom is now empty so she shucks off her civilian disguise (a hoodie) which hid (a bit) her superhero costume and climbs out of its window. Then she manages to get across to the window of the locked room (nearly falling in the process). Inside she finds a large room which includes a wall of books next to a full-length mirror. Searching for a lever to open a secret room she spots a copy of Through The Looking Glass, and when she pulls it the mirror swings open to reveal a winding stairway going down.
At the bottom she finds a 'dungeon' with screens showing multiple views of the party, a load of masks as worn by the TBC cultists - and Mikka bound and gagged on a chair. She removes the gag but the girl seems drugged, and Kate notices many of the TBC patches stuck on her skin. So she starts to untie her but is interrupted by a large hooded man in a TBC mask.