In Cleveland, Captain America and Battlestar hunt down and capture a young mutant with porcupine-like powers for failing to register with the government. While transporting the prisoner by helicopter, they're attacked by a quartet of mutants in yellow and black uniforms riding on a flying, burning chunk of rock. The mutants announce themselves as the Resistants out to fight registration. Outgunned and with no room to maneuver, Cap and Battlestar fail to stop them from wrecking the chopper and escaping with their prisoner. The government heroes survive the crash, but their pilot does not. Captain America swears vengeance on the men responsible.

Elsewhere, the other Captain rushes down to the hangar of Serpent Citadel in hopes of catching Viper before she escapes. Since her Serpent Saucer is already taking off, he barely catches onto the underside as it flies away. He doesn't escape Viper's notice, and she does her best to shake him free during the flight. Diamondback takes the rest of Cap's crew and the captive Slither on another saucer in pursuit. When they catch up, Nomad reasons that Cap must not be onboard the other saucer or he would have overpowered Viper by then. He and Diamondback are eager to shoot it down. D-Man protests, but Nomad shouts him down and has Diamondback open fire. The fleeing saucer takes the hit and Viper reluctantly uses the last charge in her teleport ring to abandon ship. Cap, still clinging to the side, is forced to leap off and count on his new vibranium shield to absorb the kinetic energy from the fall. The stunt works and Cap finds Viper on the ground. Viper attacks in desperation, but can't get through the Captain's defenses before he knocks her out and confiscates her teleport ring. When Diamondback, Nomad, and D-Man land to meet up with Steve, they're sheepish about almost killing him by shooting the saucer down, but he smiles and assures them that it all turned out alright.

Meanwhile, Cobra, Copperhead, and Boomslang empty the contents of Viper's cannisters into the Washington D.C. water supply. Falcon had split off from the group to get the word out about Viper's plan once they interrogated Slither about it. At the White House, the President is about to answer the phone just after taking a drink of water.

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