Black-and-white-costumed hijackers on jet-skis board a passenger jet in flight over the Atlantic; their leader, the Flag-Smasher, takes control….
Captain America stops by the New Jersey home of Hiram Riddley to present him and his friends who monitor Cap’s hotline with matching red-white-and-blue team jackets. Cap stays to dinner, even removing his mask out of politeness. Later Hiram’s mom Holly and Cap have a quiet moment alone where she thanks him for being such a positive role model and casually hinting there may be a romantic attraction growing. They are interrupted by Hiram who brings a message for Cap over his monitor: Flag-Smasher is demanding that Captain America surrender to them or they will execute the hostages….
Later from their secret base in Europe, Flag-Smasher, leader of the group ULTIMATUM (Underground Liberated Totally Integrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind), broadcasts to the world his manifesto to see all national boundaries erased—and to show he means business he intends to execute Cap on television. Cap, in a borrowed Quinjet, flies across the Atlantic to search for the gang’s headquarters among other villains’ abandoned hideouts. By calculating distance and airplane fuel, etc., he decides to check out a former Hydra airbase in the snowy Swiss Alps. Tracking radio signals he finds an ULTIMATUM sentry station; quickly overpowering the two soldiers, Cap dons one of their uniforms and infiltrates the main HQ. Tricking a guard into revealing that the hostages are in the monastery, Cap dons jet-skis to head to its likely location. Entering the building, Cap quietly dispatches some of the guards but one he missed starts firing at the assembled hostages. Cap snatches up a machine gun and shoots down the trigger-happy guard. As he sends the freed passengers away on the plane, Cap vows to avenge his lost honor—that came from killing for his cause….