Cyberdata scientist Hymie Vexter and a S.H.O.C. team led by Killjoy arrive in Death Valley to retrieve an artifact called a “shard”. At her New York apartment, Ballistic scares off a pair of bill collectors. Her friend Jackie then comes over to watch a movie. In Death Valley, the Cyberdata team finds the shard in a large underground cavern which houses a castle. Inside, Ambassador Sandri tries to gain the allegiance of Teppish, lord of the vampire-werewolf hybrids called Ethreal, to join the werewolf nation’s war against vampires. Teppish senses the Cyberdata intruders and attacks them, but a S.H.O.C. kills him. His children—Dia, Kracus, and Myrna—see this and attack, but the S.H.O.C.s capture them and take the shard. Later, at a Cyberdata facility, Vexter implants the three Ethreal with mind control “brain boxes”. But, the process backfires and supercharges the Ethreal’s powers, enabling them to escape. One of the S.H.O.C.s, Duncan Shields, is wounded and flees to New York. An old friend of Ballistic, he goes to her apartment seeking help. She leaves him with Jackie and visits Killjoy to find out what happened. Killjoy points her to Death Valley. Meanwhile, Sandri reports the situation to werewolf leader Armand Waering, and Waering orders Mother-One to assemble a Wetworks team to investigate. In New York, Shields kills Jackie, and, when Ballistic returns home, he bites her neck. She wakes up to a vision of Kracus calling to her.