1943, Democracy Pictures studio: Lady Lotus has used the power of her hypnotic gem to enthrall Toro and use him to trap the Young Allies in a wall of flame. She reveals her goal to Bucky: seizing total of the Pacific Rim. She explains she is merely using the Axis forces as a means to her own ends. Who else would she use? She mocks the racially inferior Allies as a so-called aristocrat (Geoff), an Irish guttersnipe (Knuckles), a Blackamoor (Wash), and a Jew (Hank), representatives of a mongrel nation. When they show pride in America, she brings them all under her control and asks which one is the most accomplished pilot. Surprised that it is Wash, she conceives a plan to use the Young Allies against their own nation and perhaps incite a race war. She sends them out in a bomber, with Wash (in a fighter) and Toro (without) to attack Muroc Army Air Field near Los Angeles ….
In the present, Captain America, the former Bucky Barnes, is piloting a jet supplied by Texas Jack Muldoon, trailing Lady Lotus’ plane by means of a tracking device he had planted on it in the previous issue. He finds her on the remote island where her gem was unearthed. Her agent Saburo has excavated the buried temple which once housed it and they examine the carvings on the walls in hopes of finding the location of the gem’s twin, which will restore the one she has just recovered to its full power….
As the Allies head to bomb their target, the memories of Lotus and her disdainful racial slurs forces Wash out of his trance. He opens fire on the bomber carrying his friends as the only way to stop their warped mission and Toro fights back. Wash fires a flare gun and the bright flash snaps his android ally out of the spell, too. Toro then lights up the sky with a blast that restores the minds of all the Young Allies. They then turn the bomber around to take the fight back to the enemy….
In the Pacific, Lady Lotus has deciphered the glyphs with the aid of her gem and now knows the location of the other one. Cap sets off a flash-bang grenade which snaps the workers out of their trances. As Cap jumps into the room and makes a play for the villainess, she uses the gem to cause the temple to come crashing down around them. She re-enslaves the workers and with Saburo sets out on the next part of her quest, confident in the knowledge that Captain America is no longer a threat. Some time later, Cap emerges from the rubble, having been protected from serious injury by his shield, and watches Lotus fly off into the distance. He contacts Texas jack to request more fuel and some backup….