Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Kate Bishop/Hawkeye came from New York to Venice Beach, Los Angeles to have another go at being an unlicensed superhero Private Investigator. But she was also tracking a lead named Brad in order to find her elusive father. 2 other cases got in the way, but both of them turned out to be connected to her father or Brad. Last issue ended with her picking up her and Clint Barton/Hawkeye's dog Lucky at the airport, and then getting attacked in her own office.
Now she nurses a bruise on her head with a bag of frozen peas and stares at a small box that her assailants deliberately left behind. After debating the wisdom of opening it with Lucky she does so. Inside she finds an invitation from her old foe Madame Masque and a necklace with a triangular pendant which she recognises.
In New York when she was possibly still pre-school age she was relaxing by a pool with her mother on the roof of their penthouse. Her mom was wearing the necklace and she asked her why she always wore it. Eleanor Bishop told her that the 3 sides represented Katie, her mother and her sister. And as long as she wore it they would be united.
2 of Kate's friends/aides Johnny Watts and Quinn walk in and comment on how not fine she seems. She tells them she's had an invitation to a trap and she's going to walk into it, because the bait is irresistible. As she leaves she tells them to look after Lucky and contact Clint if she doesn't return.
But on the way she stops off at the Police Department to talk to her reluctant contact Det Rivera who comments on her lack of bad jokes today. But Kate is serious and gives her the necklace and asks her please to get the blood on it DNA tested. However she can't resist a couple of parting finger-gun shots.
She goes to the skyscraper address on the invite and tries to blag her way past the old male receptionist. He just tells her they're closed for the evening so she puts him to sleep with a gas arrow. Entering the lift she pushes the penthouse button and unpacks her quiver and collapsible bow. But the lift stops at floor 50, just below the penthouse.
In another memory flashback teen Kate is practising (successful) archery in New York State's Adirondack Mountains when another girl interrupts to say her mom's demanding to see her in the Camp Director's office. Kate doesn't believe it because her mother's in Barbados but she goes anyway. However it *is* Eleanor who's furious at being kept away from her daughter for hours. The Director explains that Mr Bishop booked his daughter in with strict instructions that only *he* could take her out. Katie enters and her mom begs her to come away with her. But the Director has obviously called the father and has been stalling for time because Derek Bishop walks in too. He takes Eleanor away as she says she wasn't thinking clearly and they'll both be back to pick her up tomorrow.
The lift has brought Kate to an open-plan double-height floor filled with black-suited goons. She scans the room noting a pool in the middle and a large chandelier plus a mezzanine-level walkway with double doors opposite which she deems is her goal. She dismisses some stairs as too obvious but notes a giant bruiser who could act as a human stepladder. As the men approach menacingly she looses 2 arrows that bring the chandelier down on some of them and acrobatically launches into the rest. Amid her balletic moves and arrow-wounding she fires 2 arrows to lodge in a side of the walkway. Then she climbs the big guy and makes it to a projection from the walkway. But then her plan falters as the big guy shakes the supports of her projection and she falls off into the pool where he holds her down underwater.
Cue another memory. Teen Kate is by the family penthouse pool again. This time she's phoning a hospital where her mother died, asking them about the triangular pendant. They deny that she was wearing it but suggest she ask the investigating police. Kate says she already has and they claim she wasn't wearing it either. The girl is suspicious. She looks up at her father in a room above and then dives into the pool to escape her thoughts. But she knows she can't stay there forever.
Now Kate is being drowned in a pool. Her hand scrabbles on the side of the pool and finds a fallen arrow with which she stabs the man in the arm. He lets go of her and she drags herself ashore and hits his throat with a roundhouse kick. She retrieves her bow and leaps up to grip the 2 arrows she buried in the side of the walkway, and from there over the balustrade onto the balcony itself. Which is deserted because all the bullyboys are incapacitated down below. So she calmly walks to the double doors and opens them expecting to see Madame Masque waiting for her.
But instead inside the office is Derek Bishop looking much younger than his years.