Having returned to New York, Nomad—the former Captain America—is engaged in a deadly rooftop battle with the Gamecock and his henchman who are out to kill the Falcon. A third shadowy figure appears on an adjacent rooftop and fires a bazooka at the combatants. The villains flee but Nomad is accosted by Leila who tells him the Falcon and the kid Captain America are missing. On his way to Sam’s office Nomad spots a rally by a gang of radicals who are casting Viper as a martyr, as she had desired. Nomad tries to talk some sense into the group but he is attacked by the assembly. He struggles free and heads off, disgusted with the cynical spirit of the times. Arriving at his destination, he breaks into Sam’s office and is surprised by Peggy Carter and Gabe Jones who are also looking for the Falcon. They brush him off, as they don’t know who he is, so Nomad follows his next lead. He goes over to Morgan’s HQ and fights his way through a gang of thugs to confront the gangboss himself. Morgan admits to hiring Gamecock to kill the Falcon but doesn’t otherwise know where he is. Leaving, Nomad soon comes upon a bank panic: someone has replaced the bank’s cash with counterfeit; the hero reminds them of FDIC guarantees and moves on. Trying a very long shot, he looks up Luke Cage but finds the Hero for Hire has gone to Los Angeles. Another bank panic surprises him and a cynic tells him that it’s a diversion to cover up the government’s mismanagement of the economy and that Captain America was the biggest crook of all. Recalling that Professor Xavier said the Falcon had latent mutant abilities, Nomad phones the X-Men but Beast informs him they haven’t had any contact with the missing hero either. Suddenly, Redwing appears before him and he follows the bird’s path—bringing him straight to the gruesomely murdered body of Roscoe, hung from a chimney in his Captain America uniform. Nearby, he finds the bruised and bound Falcon who tells him that he and Roscoe were captured by the Red Skull who, disappointed that he had the wrong Cap, savagely beat the young hero to death and hung him up as a warning. Steve engages in some soul-searching and realizes that evil is everywhere and he let the country down by quitting when he was needed most. Vowing that he will never again let anyone else take risks for him, he puts on the Captain America costume again.

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