Synopsis
Last issue the staff and trainees of Camp Hammond Initiative training base went off to fight the Secret Invasion of Skrulls. But Ant-Man (Eric O'Grady) went small and hid to avoid the draft. And then he saw Yellowjacket (Skrull Criti Noll) inviting lots of fellow Skrulls in to take over the place. Which is where we find him now.
But there are other humans left on the base. In the day care centre Bengal of the Shadow Initiative is with his wife and young son along with Gauntlet's wife and little daughter and others. He sees what's happening outside and gets them all to hide in the void under the floor and play what he and his son call the Secret Avenger game, ie keep very quiet. Then he triggers an alert for the rest of his squad. We see Trauma get the call in the infirmary with medic Physique and weakened scientist Baron Blitzschlag who's complaining how (#15) War Machine didn't thank him for draining his body's electrical power to save his life. Constrictor attaches his cyborg arms. Mutant Zero in the Zero Room stops her (red-haired, naked) meditation and suits up in her all-concealing costume.
Meanwhile Ant-Man is psyching himself up by reminding himself of his SHIELD training from people like Dum Dum Dugan. But then Dugan turns up as a super-Skrull to be greeted by YJ and announcing that he has destroyed SWORD's orbital station (Sec Inv #1). He's closely followed by their Queen Veranke as Spider-Woman and some hooded and robed Skrull priests. That too is news to AM and he panics because he thinks she'll have a Spider-sense like Spider-Man's that will tell her he's here. And then a hand grabs him and drags him into darkness. But it's Bengal and the other Shadow Initiative who commend him for leading them to the Queen, which he quickly agrees was what he was doing. Bengal now says that their mission is to assassinate her.
But we'll leave them there and turn to Nevada and the base of that State's Initiative team the Heavy Hitters (Gravity, Hardball and newbies Nonstop (speedster) and Telemetry (psi-tech). The Skrull Kill Krew (Riot, Ryder and 3-D Man) have just exposed and killed an unnamed Skrull member of the team. The monstrous Riot continues to tear the Skrull corpse to pieces, and Ryder is disinclined to stop her. Telemetry is injured so Nonstop rushes her to hospital. Komodo came with the SKK from the Arizona Initiative (last issue) to see her boyfriend Hardball. Delroy Garrett reports their success ...
... to the SKK's new base in New Mexico, the bomb shelter of the house of Hal and rejuvenated Chuck Chandler. Hal tells them that Yellowjacket is a Skrull who's advising people to submit to their new rulers. Hal's wife Peggy calls down that they have a visitor and it's Jocasta of NM's Initiative team the Mavericks looking for 3-D Man (technically a member of Hawaii's Point Men).
Back in Camp Hammond's sewers the SI consider their situation. As super-Skrulls SpW and YJ obviously have their namesakes' powers but probably have unknown extra powers. AM reports that he saw DDD levitating with a fiery aura. Trauma points out that they will all also have the Skrulls' natural ability to change shape. They immediately suspect the size-changing Ant-Man, but O'Grady points out that they all know him well by now, and they know that if *he* could shapeshift he'd have imitated Brad Pitt and had sex with Angelina Jolie. Constrictor removes 1 of his cyborg arms and reminds them that when the originals were cut off (by KIA in #10) they didn't bleed Skrull-green. Trauma has an idea. He reminds them that he can become anyone's greatest fear, and they could use that to expose Skrulls. Bengal allows him to try it on him, and he sees his wife and child murdered. He turns to Mutant Zero and we see the back of his head as he gains long red hair. AM gasps that MZero's fear is herself! And Zero hits Trauma before he can tell them who she really is, and stalks out.
Next stop is 1 of Nick Fury's safehouses. The high-tech base is currently home to some Young Avengers (Hawkeye, Vision and Wiccan), some Initiative trainees (Annex, Batwing and Crusader) and some of his Secret Warriors (Druid, Phobos and Quake). They see 'Henry Pym' on TV and Crusader is painfully aware that he knew YJ was a Skrull some time ago (#14) and didn't tell anyone (because he didn't want to admit that *he* is a Skrull, but a friendly 1). He admits the 1st part to Fury who gives him a morale-boosting speech about soldiers do their best but always make mistakes. What matters is that they fight to protect what's dear to them. Crusader is fired up.
Dugan, Veranke, YJ and the priests are in their commandeered war room discussing some hi-tech plan. But Ant-Man sneaks into the room and then enlarges a bomb which blows a hole big enough for the Shadow Initiative to join him. Battle ensues and they all target Spider-Woman. Mutant Zero shoots her through the head, spraying green blood. But then 1 of the priests drops her robe to reveal the real Veranke who says they've copied the SHIELD trick of using decoy doubles. She also insinuates (helped by Spider-Woman's pheromones) that 1 of the SI is a Skrull. They now suspect Trauma himself who reacts to their fears by *becoming* a Skrull so they all dogpile on him. The Queen gloats how easy it is to turn Earthlings against each other while Criti-Noll and Thing-armed Dugan defeat the humans.
But miniature Eric O'Grady escapes notice again. His mask protects him from SpW's pheromones so it's just his own nature that tempts him to clamber over her voluptuous body. However by concentrating on her Skrull reality he runs away. But on the way out he sees what plan they were discussing and takes pictures via his helmet. He is now determined to escape to warn the heroes.
Jocasta has taken the Chandlers to the Mavericks' base. She's replaced the Skrull-corrupted StarkTech in the comms and now she reboots the system and contacts the Hawaii Point Men base for 1 particular hero who's been proven non-Skrull.
The Skrull Kill Krew, now incorporating Hardball as well as Komodo, are in Utah where 3-D Man is reporting to Chuck Chandler that they've just taken out the unnamed Skrull infiltrator in that State's team The Called. But he complains about how long it's taking to go from State to State. Chuck says that the solution to that problem should be with them almost immediately. And Jocasta materialises in front of them courtesy of the Shadow Cloak of her companion, the Point Men's Devil-Slayer (who Delroy met in #14).