Sharon Carter joins Nick Fury and Dum Dum Dugan at the mysterious funeral, as the story again flashes back several days to when Captain America dove under the Gulf of Mexico with Iron Man to guide him by sensor in his search for the hijacked Helicarrier. Cap finds the craft and fights off underwater guards to enter through an exhaust vent….
In Louisiana to investigate the enigmatic hate crime, Nick Fury is attacked by a group of black men who think he is part of the white mob that has been burning black-owned homes, churches and businesses at the instigation of Adam Hauser. The thugs arrive and when Fury tries to talk sense into them he is beaten and, on Hauser’s orders, tossed off a cliff….
Inside the Helicarrier which has surfaced and is hovering high in the sky, Cap fights his way to the control room, where he finds the Red Skull, who outlines his plan to destroy America from within, by fanning the flames of the people’s hatred. The Skull then drops Cap out through a trap door.
In the present, the Avengers arrive for the mysterious funeral of a fallen hero….