Papers, Please!
Brief synopsis: The Rod Squad learns of a cargo hijacking nearby where 90+ tons of yellow cake uranium was stolen. After their recent run-ins with the Metahuman Control Unit, a sort of "Superhero Registration Program" is being formed. The honchos of the MCU approach the Rod Squad. As Seattle's only known public "superheroes," the MCU wants them to help be poster children for registration. At least part of the thought behind it all being that if other metahumans have a way to come out and be legitimized, they might not be forced or recruited into a life of crime by criminal supervillains.
The team mulls over this proposal. The benefits of registration are enticing, and there don't seem to be many downsides, but one of which is kind of a doozy.
For any type of registration to work, the registrar generally kind of wants to know certain things about the registrant. Like who you are. For some in the group, this is no big deal. Doc Nano has made no secret of his identity, pulling a Tony Stark ("I am Iron Man") from the beginning. Hot Rod doesn't seem to mind the notion or trusts the government's ability to safeguard the info. Shillelagh has a fairly rock-solid fake ID set up for him by Zymo to cover what they did to help create him. The one hold-out is Crosse. She has a real identity that she wants to protect at all costs, and no fallback options to wiggle out with. Shillelagh suggests that she might hit up Maria Reyes at Zymo to see if they have any ideas, since it was one of their rogue scientists that foisted this metahuman status on her against her will and made her into their legal liability. They come up with some devices to help her spoof the portions of the registration process where she has to give up identifying information (like fingerprints and retinal scans), and with that she is tentatively on board.
With registration underway, the Rod Squad is presented to the people of Seattle as the city's first group of registered Superheroes, which puts them in the crosshairs of the local villains.
The MCU wastes no time in getting the Rod Squad on board with helping in the uranium hijacking case. Plenty of details stand out to members of the team, and key parts of the hijacker's plot seem like they could have been carried out by various members of the Rod Squad. Mention is made of how this almost looks like a set-up to frame them. Doc Nano is able to get some intel from his quasi-contact Cybermind, and now the team and the MCU have a few more details to go on. Later on, the team is jumped while in transit, and a battle breaks out in the middle of town. Several suped-up goons with uniform gear and military precision ambush the Rod Squad, but are quickly beaten into submission. This allows the team to gather some more info, and leads to a name being dropped by one of the captives: MGI.
