The Strangers visit Hardcase for advice on how to be an ultra-human and a crime fighter. Hardcase regales the Strangers with his tale of the Squad, his old super-team, and of their unfortunate demise. When telling the story, Hardcase makes a realization that the monster that killed the Squad, NM-E, attacked very soon after the Squad rejected the government agency known as Aladdin. Electrocute informs everyone that she learned where Aladdin's headquarters with her time with J.D. Hunt. Hardcase, Choice and the Strangers go to the headquarters but are stopped by Aladdin agents: Foxfire, Dirt Devil, War Eagle and a mysterious, unknown agent that some of the Strangers recognize.

This story is continued in Strangers #4.