A Hydra convoy is transporting a
prisoner named Alexa through snowy Russian mountains. The mutant
sorceress Selene halts the convoy, destroys the vehicles, feeds on
the Hydra agents' life forces, and leaves with Alexa....
A demonstration on the National Mall in
Washington DC turns violent when right-wing terrorists, cyborgs with
American flags tattooed on their faces, open fire. Captain America is
on the scene, hoping for a peaceful resolution but the terrorists
consider him a traitor. He fights them non-lethally but the
Winter Soldier, perched on a nearby roof, has to shoot down at least one.
Sharon Carter arrives with military craft to evacuate the wounded and
a Stark ship fires off an EMP that shorts out the cyborg killers—Cap
having warned Bucky to get out of their range. Cap then encourages a
boy whose father was shot to be brave as they go to the hospital. But
he has nothing to say to a woman whose two daughters were killed by
men wearing the same flag as Cap....
General Thunderbolt Ross,
one of a number of bad guys paroled for fighting in the
anti-Hydra resistance, arrives, looking for Sharon. He announces that
he has been appointed by the President to look into that day's
incident...but it's Sharon and Bucky he wants to see, not Cap; he
arranges a meeting with Sharon for the next day....
That night at dinner, Steve tells
Sharon he intends to find out who was behind that day's attack and he
wants Sharon to turn over any intel she has on the group; Sharon
declines but assures Steve that she wants to get to the bottom of it
too, detailing how much she has suffered in recent years. But Steve
still worries, America having been broken—as he sees Baron von
Strucker on television, lauded for aiding the government against
Hydra. Later Cap rescues a woman from a pair of pro-Hydra muggers
though the victim seems just as wary of Cap—while in Russia, Selene
liberates a Russian town from Hydra forces and executes the last
agent publicly by draining his life energy, ready to take over
herself....