After being shot down by the Punisher on the Capitol steps, the gravely wounded Captain America is rushed to Walter Reed Hospital for emergency treatment. Nick Fury is there, coordinating the efforts and trying to run a security check on the staff working to save the hero. Cap explains to Fury about a rogue element in the US government shipping sabotaged weapons to General Miguel Navatilas, dictator of the Latin American nation of Medisuelas. Cap also request that Fury let him die….
The funeral of Captain America takes place on a rainy Washington morning, while the Punisher (in disguise) meets an informant in a diner in Michigan. An embittered civil servant named Booch tells the vigilante all about the DEA-confiscated drugs vanishing from the impound and turning up on the streets; the scam is coordinated by someone obviously high in power, even able to frame Captain America. Booch believes that only the Punisher can get this job done….
Attorney General Roger Mollech and aide Angela Stone meet with General Navatilas to update him on the project status: the proceeds from the drug sales are going to buy weapons for his army—so long as he uses them against his communist neighbors. After the General leaves, Colonel Kalee reports that his man Theopolis has already been dispatched to eliminate the Punisher, while the double-cross of Navatilas proceeds….
Outside the Michigan diner, Punisher takes his leave of Booch and head off on his motorcycle. After he’s gone, the hapless informant is stabbed by Theopolis who sends his cycle-riding henchmen after the vigilante hero. An undercover Steve Rogers overcomes the thug ordered to dispose of the body and calls for medical assistance for Booch. On the road, Punisher fights against the killers in a road race of death. When they have him at their mercy, Steve Rogers rides by and disarms the bad guys, giving the Punisher the time he needs to recover and turn violent tables on his assassins. Cap and the Punisher compete in an insane version of "chicken" with Theopolis in an eighteen-wheeler, which ends with the villain and his truck careening over a cliff. With this, the Punisher tries to take his leave, reasoning that having saved Cap’s life on the truck makes up for having shot him earlier. Cap reminds him that he is a soldier: he does not have the liberty to choose his battles but must serve his country when needed. Acknowledging his duty, the vigilante agrees to join Cap’s mission….
In Medisuela, AG Mollech relaxes at a party thrown by General Navatilas; when the festivities turn out to include a human sacrifice, Mollech is at first appalled, then intrigued….
In disguise, Cap and the Punisher approach a weapons dealer through their agent Ms. White where they learn this is the firm responsible for the defective weapons. They return later and break into the facility where they hack into the computer and discover that the munitions are being purchased, not by General Navatilas, but by the US Department of Defense, and the Defense Intelligence Agency is at the center of it. They determine to pay General Navatilas a call at home. Meanwhile, Angela Stone has brutally tortured Ms White and learned about the two visitors and calls Mollech to arrange a bitter welcome for the two heroes….
Cap and the Punisher enter Medisuela secretly and discover the weapons cache in a deserted village. Cap discovers a bomb about to go off and has only seconds to toss his shield to the Punisher for protection before it explodes. Cap is taken prisoner by the General’s men, while the gravely injured Punisher lies unconscious in the forest….