Sodality: Determination

Having slipped up a second time, Candi and Donte begin talking about marriage. Jack wonders what they're worried about, especially since Candi doesn't appear to be pregnant. However, the couple decides they aren't curious enough to find out what further life without each other would be like.

Meanwhile, Jeral's love Emily is still missing. The team; now consisting of Ciem, Emeraldon, Jackrabbit, Earwig, Jeraime, Laurie, Miranda, Lex, and Botan; pool resources to battle the Phaletori in the hopes of rescuing Emily. However, the Phaletori reveal themselves to have plenty of tricks up their own sleeves. They've managed to produce True Centhuens, which can fight Ciem with little effort. The Sapphire King decides to abandon his ways as a thief temporarily, realizing that Emeraldon needs help protecting Ciem and Earwig from the Centhuen abominations that can outmatch either in a fight. The situation destabilizes some when Ameristani forces advance the regime's plans for a full-scale Jihadist invasion of Toklisana. With Lex distracted, the base of operations comes under Hebbleskin Gang assault. Laurie quits the team, fearing that her involvement will endanger her life too much. Team Ciem sets up a new base, but soon finds itself pulled in multiple different directions by the constant Hebbleskin onslaught.

After Candi and Donte's wedding, Botan and the others agree to temporarily split up. He goes his own way to battle the Phaletori. Ciem, Jackrabbit, Emeraldon, Sapphire King, and Earwig end up in separate locations across the country looking for the Phaletori's monsters. However, Arfaas decides he won't take the loss of Don the Psycho, Gunner, Skellig, and Musaran sitting down. He launches Simon Aardvin, a man he was able to blackmail, on the general population. He also launches Rico "Lobe" Rodriguez, a werewolf. Since he was short on true wolf DNA, he substituted in Simon's case with aardwolf and hyena. However, the experiment on Simon backfires, and Simon goes more insane than planned. Rather than be a loyal and submissive minion like Lobe, Simon rebels and kills Arfaas. He then goes on to steal the Ming-Yo, which was first stolen by Hebbleskin operatives from Beijing.

The attack on Arfaas' hideout, and theft of the Ming-Yo, lead to immediate headline news. Miriam and her friends from China are sent out to investigate; and to recover the Ming-Yo if at all possible. In spite Tin Dragon and Teal Hog being killed when their helicopter is shot down, Miriam and the others make it safely to the ground. However, Miriam starts to feel uncomfortable. She confides to Steve that she fears she's pregnant. Lobe tries to attack them, but Stung Hornet gets a lucky shot and saves her teammates. Team Ciem and Team Sniperbadger end up in contact with each other, and the Flippo sisters are reunited. Candi begins to suspect that she too may be pregnant, given the glitches in her Ciem powers as of late. The combined teams decide that as they consider whether or not Candi and Miriam should go on maternity leave, the men need to take the initiative. Simon, however, has stolen several bits of equipment from Arfaas. He begins to plot his own empire, and starts calling himself "Captain Aardwulf." He considers having confiscated the Ming-Yo to be his biggest prize. But he feels that kidnapping the infamous Sniperbadger would give him bargaining power with the Chinese government.

The combined teams, worn out by their battle with the Phaletori and the assaults they face from Ameristan, retreat into hiding. Capp Aard begins stalking them on his own, and builds his own device from stolen blueprints to show off the Ming-Yo's power. Team Ciem moves in to put a stop to the death ray. But when Capp Aard is defeated, they make an even more unpleasant discovery.