Synopsis
Late night in a bar: as the bartender expounds his theory of a government conspiracy behind the assassination of Captain America, Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, debates his next step in investigating Cap’s murder. In prison, the assassin Crossbones is being mind-probed by Charles Xavier who discovers that the killer’s memories have been erased, preventing anyone from discovering who hired him; Tony Stark prepares to send him to the Raft, the maximum security prison for supervillains. Sin and her Serpent Squad—Cobra, Eel, and Viper—attack an office, destroying equipment and killing or maiming the staff; it is a hub for the Asian stock market, and this act of anarchy will cause havoc on the exchange the next day. The Falcon and Sharon Carter search for Bucky; Nick Fury has no leads so the two decide to concentrate on locating the Red Skull, figuring that Bucky will be after him too. In his office disguised as Dr Benjamin, Dr. Faustus continues to plant hypnotic suggestions in SHIELD agents. New SHIELD Director Tony Stark turns away yet another applicant for the position of Captain America, as a lawyer delivers to Tony a secret letter containing Cap’s final wishes. After two days of hunting, Winter Soldier has some luck and locates an A.I.M. listening post; assaulting the facility he forces the staff to reveal their job for the Skull: learning the locations of SHIELD monitoring stations in New York and the names of agents stationed there. Elsewhere, Sin and the Serpent Squad invade one of those stations with the help of a Faustus-hypnotized agent, and they capture authentic SHIELD uniforms which, with the help of holographic image generators to alter their appearances, they will use to carry out their real mission: rescuing Crossbones.