Captain America leads a SHIELD assault
team in an attack on the Red Skull's secret Rocky Mountain hideaway,
the location having been revealed by the captive Viper. As Nick Fury
and his team engage the villain's guards, Cap enters to discover that
the Skull has already fled. Soon Quasar arrives, having pulled the
Skull's deadly satellite out of orbit and down to the ground. Cap is
frustrated but Fury has a long shot lead....
In Los Angeles, the Blazing Skull (a
dude whose glowing green bones show through the skin) is giving a
beating to Digger of the Night Shift, wanting information. Skull is
interrupted by the arrival of Captain America: Cap wants to know
Blazing's connection to the Red Skull, and Skull suspects Cap of
being another one of the Night Shift in disguise, so they fight in
the alley for a few pages. Then the real Night Shift arrives, at
least the Brothers Grimm, Needle, and Misfit. Suddenly the two wary
good guys are facing a quartet of genuine baddies and a melee breaks
out. Cap easily takes down Misfit and Needle, then he and B-Skull
slam the two Brothers Grimm into each other. And Digger surrenders
quietly. Cap and Skull sort things out and depart.
Epilogue 1: Red Skull tells
Machinesmith that he had leaked the rumor of the Blazing Skull being
one of his operatives to throw his enemies off the trail....
Epilogue 2: Cap receives a call from
Giscard Epurer, telling him that his old ally Nomad, Jack Monroe, is
in a psychiatric ward in Florida, under the care of Dr. Faustus....
Continued in NOMAD (Vol. 2) #18.