The tale opens in the recent past, with
Alexa Lukin exhuming the body of her late husband and explaining to
Selene how easy it will be for the Power Elite to take over the USA
in the wake of the Hydra conquest....
On his way to rescue Sharon Carter,
captive in Alberia, Captain America has come face-to-face with
Taskmaster and the ensuing battle is fierce. It looks like Cap is
down but he hears Sharon scream nearby and he pops up and clobbers
his foe, choking him into unconsciousness. He crashes into the lab
where Alexa Lukin and Selene are holding Sharon and quickly takes
down the guards. Cap mixes it up with the deadly Selene but realizes
she is just a distraction as Lukin opens a portal elsewhere and the
two women vanish through it. Sharon is very happy to see him....
Back in Brooklyn, Cap meets with
Winter Soldier and they discuss the media's coverage of Cap's recent
exploits, condemning his adventures with Black Panther and in
Alberia, even General Thunderbolt Ross turning against the hero. All the baddies'
traces have been covered, but Cap is most curious about the other
woman with Selene....
Alexa Lukin and Selene return to the
lab in Alberia where Alexa's plan comes to fruition: raising her
husband Aleksander Lukin from the dead, with the Red Skull still in
his brain....