After a tough night on a mission with Police Sgt. Tork, the Falcon stretches his wings and flies, looping and soaring through the air. In his ecstasy, he destroys a parachute—swiftly he catches the falling woman and lowers her to the ground safely. The skydiver explains that she was blown off course and introduces herself as Rachel. Falcon flies off, unaware that something terrible is waiting under a nearby landfill….
Tork drops by Sam’s apartment and awakens him for his busy day at the social work office. That night, the Falcon meets with the Legion, a former street gang under new leadership. They want to abandon their criminal past and reinvent themselves as a neighborhood watch, and they need the Falcon’s influence to get permission to march in the next day’s parade, helping them gain acceptance with the community. Falcon promises their leader Xeon to be there. On his way home Falcon walks past the landfill and to his (and our) surprise, a Sentinel, buried there since X-MEN #98, leaps out and seizes and gasses the hero who it identifies as a mutant—and is programmed to kill….
Falcon awakens in a glass tube at the giant robot’s base—and realizes it is morning, and he never interceded for the Legion with the parade organizers. Crashing out, he evades the Sentinel and zooms out of the building, followed by his bird Redwing….
Back in the city, the Legion tries to march in the parade but they are stopped by the police, who know them only as a criminal gang. A cop shoves Xeon, which leads to a fight, and a frightened rookie shooting a gang member fatally. Xeon blames the Falcon for having abandoned them and a riot ensues….
Meanwhile, Falcon is being pursued through the skies by the Sentinel, unable to lose it as they soar across upstate New York. Spying a military artillery range in use, the hero leads his gigantic foe through the shell fire where it is seriously damaged—but not destroyed. It seizes Falcon and begins to squeeze…. Falcon uses his mental powers to summon Redwing who enters the hole in the side of the monster’s head and rips out the wiring, disabling the Sentinel. Back at the riot, Rachel (the skydiver from the beginning of the story) arrives in a limousine looking for the Falcon, but the street is blocked off by the chaos. A thug intends to shoot her in retaliation for the Legion guy who was killed but Falcon swoops down and snatches him away in the nick of time. Falcon tries to explain to Xeon but the gang leader isn’t listening, blinded by his feelings of betrayal. Sam knows it will be a long slow road to win back their trust….