Motoko meets up with Batou, Saito, Ishikawa, and new recruit Standard (who Batou nicknames "Clown") on the war-torn roads of Palm Springs as they try to find the person supplying local bandits with high-powered weapons. Meanwhile, a newly-divorced Togusa has returned to police work in Japan when Aramaki calls for his help with a new investigation. Back in Palm Springs, Motoko's group meets up with a confidential informant who claims that the belligerents are getting weapons from a "Good 1%er" but doesn't know who that is, when they suddenly walk into a robotic guard dog.