Behold, The Mimic!

Mimic is approached by SHIELD, and the officer offers to expunge his criminal record in exchange for his presence on the taskforce being formed. He agrees to listen, and speaks with Agent James Woo. Woo gives him a similar pitch as he did with the rest of the team, and he agrees to join The Invaders Initiative.

He meets up with the rest of the team, and immediately gets a chilly reception from Robert Drake (Iceman) — there’s some history between the two, back when Mimic was a villain. Still, the team continues their discussion and planning on how to handle The Beetle’s presumed assault on Sunrise Labs.

Crushing a Beetle

Sunspot creates some fake Latvarian credentials for a fictional woman. Elsa Bloodstone infiltrates the Werner Academy, looking into options for her “overseas cousin,” and ends up getting a long pitch from one of the professors (Professor Ravan). As she gets inside, however, she sees a heavy door at the end of a hallway. Captain Britain recognizes the door as similar to some Doomtech he saw in a Latvarian operation a year or so back. She manages to catch a glimpse of someone moving into the door before it closes.

The rest of the team lies in wait around Sunrise Labs. Captain Britain noticed some movement off in the distance — an armored figure flying in at high speed. The Captain goes to grab Elsa while the rest of the team flies out to meet the foe, who turns out to be the Beetle. The fighting is fierce, and the Beetle nearly fights the team to a standstill, until Sunspot channels all of his solar energy into a massive EMP burst. He falls unconscious, but Beetle is trapped in his armor, unable to move.

Woo brings in a SHIELD helicopter to collect the armored mercenary, and Iron Man comes to confront the team. Woo stands up against Tony Stark, and the two exchange some heated words. Iron Man tries to claim that the thief should be under his jurisdiction, since the technology in the suit is his intellectual property, but Woo declines, and Stark eventually flies off.

Back at the ship, the man inside the armor turns out to be Grigore Stenescu. He turns out to be a Latvarian extremist, who believes that he was given orders directly from Doctor Doom. However, Elsa notices a whiff of vampiric stench off of Grigore. She worked in the past with another vampire hunter known as Blade, and she offers to get in touch with him to see if they can narrow the list of suspects, since there are a lot of vampires (particularly in Europe).

During this discussion, Woo checks his email, and laughs — SHIELD has been served with a Cease and Desist by Stark International for refusing to hand over stolen trade secrets.

Doctor Doom!

The team decides to assault the Werner Academy, to see what Doom might be planning. Dirt Devil digs through the floor into the sealed Doomtech room. Alarms in the building go off, and the police are called, but they are redirected to an alleged armored man assault on the other side of downtown (unaware of how accurate they will end up being). The team follows through Dirt Devil’s hole in the floor, and see Doctor Doom inside the room. They immediately flee, claiming to be in pursuit of Dirt Devil as a “dangerous fugitive.”

At this point, Elsa is across the street, watching the scene with a rifle. She notices another armored figure fly to the building and attack the Werner Academy — Crimson Dynamo.

Captain Britain tries to take the fight to Dynamo, but knows how powerful he is. He uses the fight to secretly plant a tracker on the suit, so the team can follow him. Dynamo breaks into the same room as Doctor Doom, and the two begin to fight, unseen by the rest of the team. After a minute, Dynamo leaves, holding something in his arms. The Captain engages again, and gets a whiff of magic from the object. The two fight, as Elsa takes careful aim with her rifle. She takes the shot, and miraculously manages to shoot a critical part of Dynamo’s armor. Captain Britain extends his force field into an invisible cushion, and halts their mutual fall before they smash into the concrete.

Dynamo was holding a vibranium box that stinks of magic. They find the person inside is Valentin Shatolov, who happens to be the Russian thug that Bobby got into a fight with a couple of nights ago!