Captain America, having been imprisoned in the center of the Maze of the Ancients, finds himself facing the Alchemoid, a super-strong artificial creature whose body secretes a caustic chemical. As Cap battles his superhuman foe, The Druid reveals his plan to create more Alchemoids to battle SHIELD as his druid cult takes over the world….
Meanwhile, the comatose Sam Wilson—the Falcon—lies in a hospital guarded by SHIELD agents. Sam’s girlfriend Leila Taylor has been summoned to see if a familiar face can snap him out of the coma. Sam awakens briefly to a hallucination that Steve Rogers, in his Nomad costume, is standing before him; as he watches, Nomad morphs into a dying Captain America, then into the Red Skull…. Sam’s scream alerts the agents who rush in and find nothing. They take Leila into custody on general principles. Shocked, Peggy Carter and Gabriel Jones beam up to the Helicarrier to demand an explanation from Nick Fury for the Agency’s treatment of Leila. Instead they find Co-Director Jeff Cochren, who defends the decision, since the Falcon could be a threat to national security. He tells Peggy and Gabe that their new assignment is to head to Los Angeles to investigate Sam’s background to see if the Red Skull’s claims are true. Meanwhile, Eric Koenig and the Contessa have located Cap in The Druid’s lair and are preparing a rescue operation….
As Cap battles the Alchemoid, he realizes that the "stones" in the arena are actually power–boosters for his foe and he uses his agility to manipulate the Alchemoid into destroying the stones. The Druid cranks his creation up to full power, but the Alchemoid overloads and explodes. Cap challenges The Druid and his followers to battle and finds that the cultists have no fighting ability at all. He dodges The Druid’s chemical grenades and clobbers his foe. Suddenly an eerie beam of light appears and levitates the unconscious villain out of the room and away in an egg-shaped craft. Eric Koenig arrives leading a team of SHIELD agents and they take care of the rest of the cultists. Eric then brings in a helicopter to rush Cap back to the Falcon’s side.