After surviving their very first political intrigue, the girls text with Tiberius to let him know they'll see him later (presumably for a scolding, although they all agree they don't think they did anything morally wrong) to discuss the party and their apparent connection. They then head off to meet with Aldonza, who is extremely happy with the building and zoning information Valencia's efforts have uncovered. They ask her what the information is for, and she explains that the proposed building projects it describes would cause problems for her gym because the high-rises would block easy visual access to the moon. They find this explanation confusing, but instead of explaining more, Aldonza tells them that they've done such a great job that she wants them to become full-time employees, and extends an invitation for them to come to a meeting at ten o'clock later that night to discuss something about "the final job". Helena, who is less than impressed by Aldonza's weird insinuations, asks her outright if she intends to kill them at this meeting. The other girls are shocked, but not as shocked as Aldonza herself - and they realize from her reactions that while she does not plan to hurt them, she has done something like that in the past and is now wondering what they know about it. Everyone is uncomfortable, but Issy manages to smooth things over, and they leave on friendly terms, promising to return for the meeting later. The three head home to change for their morning meeting with Tiberius, but when they try to call on the way to let him know they're running late, his secretary won't let them talk to him, and seems never to have heard of this meeting. As they approach their apartment, Helena notices that things don't seem quite right; no one is around on the street, the neighbors are in hiding, and everything has a suspicious quiet to it, leading them to be afraid that there might be a trap or maybe police involvement. Issy and Djimy immediately leave the area, afraid for their immigration status, while Helena and Valencia go inside to see what's happening. They discover two large men inside, sitting in their living room, who give Valencia a single rose, the famous calling card of her imprisoned mob-boss father. They tell her that she needs to come to the family casino this evening, and make it clear it's not really a request, leaving her worried about what could be going on in Miami's underbelly that could possibly involve her. Meanwhile, Issy, as she avoids the area, begins to notice more and more birds in the area; an unusual amount of blackbirds, lining every power line and pole and roof, all watching her. As soon as she notices them, they begin screaming at her, and she finds she is able to pick out a small amount of what they're saying, all shrieking that she has to meet with the birds tonight. She tries to communicate with them to find out more, but they don't seem to know anything more, and she figures she'll have to ask Helena for help or else figure it out on her own. The other two call her back now that they've established that it is definitely not the cops who are making the vibe on the street weird, and they discover Hops hiding in their bathroom, where she has been terrified by the strange men and trying not to be noticed (somehow, even as a giant rabbit, she pulled this off). She is excited that they finally have a way into the inner circle at Aldonza's gym, and tells them that the time has come for them to make plans to finish their mission: they must uncover and find a way to destroy the evil colossus who is running the place. When they ask how they're supposed to do that, Hops informs them that she is a rabbit, which is why she hired them in the first place. Hops informs Helena that the spirit of the Everglades is questing for her and that she personally should go back into the swamp, and then returns to the wilderness herself, leaving the girls to finish changing and head off to their meeting with Tiberius. When they arrive at his building, they are denied entry by his secretary, who doesn't believe them about having a meeting; eventually, Valencia remembers that she has his email address and has Issy send a message to him, and he tells them that he's at the building where the party took place, working on fixing the damage. They meet him there and help him clean up goat blood and repair the broken window, but eventually Valencia gets tired of his grumpiness and insinuations that they're secretly Aldonza's henchwomen and storms out, leaving Issy to attempt damage control. After they all leave, they discover that the file folder he gave them is full of blackmail material against them, including Valencia's connections to her father's crime empire, Issy's precarious immigration status, and Helena's past arrests for eco-terrorism, and Valencia is infuriated by the veiled threat. They don't have much time to be angry about it since they're due at the gym for the night meeting, and when they arrive find that the rooftop of the building is a huge ritual center, with Aldonza in a beautiful white dress, thirty or forty women (including the one that attempted to break into their apartment a few nights ago, Valencia realizes) in robes and motorcycle gear, and the colossus herself, an eleven-foot-tall woman made entirely of silver, who welcomes them as new initiates. Aldonza and the colossus explain that theirs is a cult to Artemis, Greek goddess of the moon and the hunt, and that their rituals take place here, which is why they can't afford the new buildings to block their view of the moon. This all seems above-board (if weird) to the three Heroes until they go on to explain that they're also responsible for the fluctuations of the moon; their rituals intentionally drag the tiny moon creatures that the girls have been dealing with out of the moon and onto earth, where they refer to them as The Hunted and compete to see who can catch the most of them. When Helena, sensing a severe breach of environmental ethics, asks what happens to the Hunted after that, the women explain that they ritually sacrifice them and consume their powers as a way of being closer to their lunar patron. No sooner have they explained this than the women lead out a dazed moon creature in chains, and the girls realize that a ritual is about to begin and that they are being invited to participate. While Valencia wants to stick to the plan in order to gather enough information to make sure they can take the colossus down, Helena and Issy are horrified and Valencia realizes in short order that they won't be able to contain themselves. Valencia concentrates all her magical wiles on the colossus to distract her, doing so successfully enough that the giant begins to make romantic overtures toward her, but Helena suddenly magically banishing the moon creature back to its rightful home before it can be sacrificed is too much for even her to keep everyone distracted from. Shouts erupt about how the three girls are traitors, and Issy grabs her companions and leaps off the roof with them, breaking a leg on impact but managing to get everyone safely away. Helena gets everyone into the car and tears off, with huge numbers of motorcycle-riding cultists in hot pursuit, and drives like a maniac to avoid the colossus' laser powers and more mundane bullets. In an attempt to split and overcome pursuers, the three of them peel off; Issy first rolls out of the car somewhere downtown to make a run for it, and Helena drops Valencia off at her family's casino, hoping she'll be safe there, before driving as fast as she can out of town and toward the swamp. As if she weren't having a bad enough day, Valencia discovers that the meeting she was summoned to turns out to be with Tiberius, who is an old employee of her father's. He gives her an enormous briefcase full of money and informs her that her father has officially passed on control of his criminal empire to her, making her the new Rose of Miami, and claims that the blackmail folder was just an attempt by him to make sure she had all the facts on her friends in case she wanted to handle any of these problems. She also learns that the building project that is so annoying the gym members is now one of the many things she owns, and that she can control making sure it goes up. She is none too pleased about the all this new responsibility, and leaves in a huff, letting him know in no uncertain terms that while he may have passed on her father's holdings to her, she has not forgiven him for the way he treated her friends. Who are now missing...
