Having rescued Captain America from Serpent Solutions (the former Serpent Society),
Joaquin Torres now finds himself surrounded by the Serpents. Cap is still
paralyzed by venom (and still a werewolf) and cannot help Joaquin against the
foes. To rattle the young hero, Viper goes into a rant about how Joaquin's
wings were given to him by Dr Karl Malus (issue #3) who was working for Serpent
Solutions, therefore Joaquin is stealing their intellectual property—and then
he orders the Serpents to attack. Joaquin runs, then Cap realizes that if he
and Joaquin both share a psychic bond with Redwing, then Cap can direct
Joaquin's battle using the falcon as a conduit. With Cap calling the shots, the
boy starts holding his own against his foes; as the fight is televised,
commentators start weighing in with their opinions on how this battle will
affect the economy and the stock market. Suddenly, the Serpents overcome their
lone foe and Cottonmouth bites the kid's face off (ick!)--but Joaquin has a
healing factor and is quickly back in the brawl. Then Diamondback switches
sides, followed by the arrival of Misty Knight, and D-Man soon shows up in a
dune buggy to the sounds of Credence Clearwater Revival. By now Cap's paralysis
has worn off and they make short work of the Serpents.
Cap returns the beaten Viper to his corporate masters and
reveals he has proof that these CEOs and corporate fatcats knew full well what
Serpent Solutions was doing and chose to look the other way. A spokesman for
the rich guys tells Cap that sending them to prison would destroy the economy.
A little thought tells Cap that he is correct: their arrests would cause their
corporations to fail throwing thousands if not millions out of work. Cap
decides to take only the spokesman to jail and threatens the others if they do
not keep his company running. This does not sit well with Joaquin—nor with the
news media which mostly concentrates on trying to pull a scandal out of his
meeting with Diamondback (issue #4)....
Cap is now back to normal and Misty and D-Man have a surprise for him: Joaquin
in a uniform (with Redwing) introduces himself as the new Falcon.