Synopsis / Summary / Plot
2 years ago Riri Williams graduated from High School in Chicago (a few years early). She already has the pennant signifying her acceptance at MIT. Her older friend Daija Hamilton is there to congratulate her. We learn that she herself never graduated because she had to leave school to help her mother. Mrs Williams invites her round for cake.
Now Daija has gone missing and Riri has returned home to find her. But she also encountered a gang of young pickpockets who seem to be backed by ninjas. She (correctly) suspects that it's all connected. Her friend Xavier King finds her studying an electronic map of recent pickpocket incidents, but she can't find any correlations. Xavier suggests looking at the victims. The 1 Ironheart was involved with last issue turns out to be named Malcolm Rice.
At this point Mrs Williams interrupts them to complain that her daughter is missing her MIT classes. Riri tries to get out of it by saying that her NATALIE AI is attending them for her. (We see her there making notes in her mind.) Mrs W (whose 1st name we at last learn is Ronnie) embarrasses her by returning to a perennial subject. She thinks Riri ought to go to a support group with her to deal with the death of her stepfather and her best friend Natalie in a drive-by shooting. But she also invites Xavier to stay for dinner.
Xavier tells Riri maybe she should listen to her mom. And he asks why the Champions aren't helping her with this mystery. Riri says things are awkward between them at the moment, and redirects the conversation to their investigation. But 2 hours later they haven't found any patterns in the victims of the crimes. Mrs W calls them for dinner, but Riri has 1 last possibility. She checks their jobs and finds that they all work for local politicians.
Mrs W calls to them again but this time it's to say that Daija's been found and it's on the news. She's being interviewed and claims that she ran away from home because of stress. She tripped over in some woods and was knocked unconscious, but now she's back. (But we know she was held captive by the person who's running the teen gang.) Various pundits apply their pet theories to the case. And we see rolling news announce that Thomas Birch's only rival for the governership has dropped out. (Last issue we learned that Daija had been working for him, and that someone leaked private dirt on the rival to the Internet.) Mrs W and her daughter both think there's something wrong with Daija's story.
That night Ironheart breaks through the window of Daija's hospital room. Unmasking as Riri she asks her friend why she lied. Daija tells her to go away and leave it. Before going Riri notes some expensive sneakers. After she's gone a figure emerges from the shadows in the room. It appears that he let Daija go because she said that would stop Riri investigating. But now that plan's failed Ironheart must die. And our heroine overhears this via a bug she dropped in the sneakers.
The mystery guy starts hunting Ironheart, musing that she reminds him of "another armoured warrior I once knew". But IH finds *him* via thermal imaging. What follows (in the obligatory empty warehouse) is armour vs agility and the ability to be shrouded in darkness, including now to thermal wavelengths as well. Stealth seems to be winning as he pins her down with a hand round her throat. Until Ironheart fires a mini-missile at him at close range from her back. In the breathing space this affords Riri lifts some fingerprints from the neck of her armour, and her AI identifies her opponent as Midnight's Fire.
But then he's on her again and lifts her up by the neck. Which causes Riri to experience a flashback to when Thanos had her at the same disadvantage, and then destroyed her previous armour (Infinity Countdown: Champions #2). But Natalie (either the AI or the memory) brings her out of her fugue. And she (armoured) headbutts Midnight's Fire and blasts him into a wall of the building. He springs back but she blasts him again and he stays down.
NATALIE says he's not dead, so Ironheart leaves him to the approaching police sirens. As she flies away the AI berates her for being reckless. She says she should seek help, both from a psychiatrist and the Champions. But Riri switches off the voice. She tells herself that being alone means no-one else gets hurt. Tell that to her worried mother and crying Daija.
And the police find Midnight's Fire gone.