At the mystery lab in the Rockies,
Captain America and Falcon drop from the sky to take on Crossbones
and Jack O' Lantern, matching strength against strength and gadget
against gadget. Inside the Quonset hut lab, Dr. Benway calls the main
base for reinforcements and Mother Night and Blackwing are on the
way....
Interlude: The catatonic Dennis
“D-Man” Dunphy wanders into Zerotown, the underground home of
the Night People, who are not happy to see a stranger in their
midst....
As the copter with Mother Night and
Blackwing approaches the site, Zack Moonhunter engages them in Cap's
ship; Night releases the Sleeper onto Zack's wing. Inside the hut,
Diamondback, injected with Cap's Super-Soldier blood, breaks free and
clobbers Dr Benway; exiting, she takes down Mother Night, then
hurries to where Crossbones has Cap over the edge of the cliff.
Diamond garrotes Crossbones while pouring out all her hatred of him
and his treatment of her. Falcon has defeated Jack O'Lantern and now
beats Blackwing. Crossbones gets free and challenges Diamond to kill
him. In the air, Moonhunter scrapes the Sleeper of against the
copter, which crashes into the hut, causing an explosion which sends
a piece of burning shrapnel into Crossbones' back. Cap, startled that
Diamond is just watching 'Bones suffer, tends to his foe's injuries
and radios for help.
On their way back to civilization with
the prisoners, Diamond tells Cap what Crossbones did to her and,
seeing this is not the time for a lecture, Cap comforts her....