Ophelia "Viper" Sarkissian is in the middle of buying the loyalty of various narcotics suppliers when she's alerted that Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff has been captured. She goes with a couple of HYDRA soldiers to meet Romanoff, who is bound to a chair with large metal handcuffs, and notes that she still feels her injuries from the last time they fought. Romanoff tells her that she won't be defiant and will just tell her everything she wants to know. Romanoff takes a punch from one of Sarkissian's men and then admits that she was trying to steal a HYDRA transport ship. Sarkissian demands to know who her partners were and why they wanted the ship; Romanoff agrees that she will provide their names and claims they are going to kill Steve Rogers. Sarkissian realizes that Romanoff is being too talkative and demands to know her real angle, to which Romanoff says she knows about Sarkissian's efforts to set up her own narcotics empire. She promises that, should she die, proof of Sarkissian's illegal dealings will be sent to Rogers. Conversely, if Sarkissian helps her, Romanoff will keep quiet, and if she actually does kill Rogers then Sarkissian—whom Romanoff calls the "true Madame HYDRA"—will be in a good position to take over as HYDRA's Supreme Leader. She then breaks out of her bonds and shoots the other HYDRA agents, leaving just her and Sarkissian alive.
During Romanoff's interrogation, a team consisting of Riri "Ironheart" Williams, Joaquin "Falcon" Torres, Miles "Spider-Man" Morales, Nadia "Wasp" Pym, and Viv infiltrates a HYDRA base to rescue someone whom Romanoff told them would win them the war. They reach a secured door and Romanoff contacts them with the access code and hand scan Sarkissian provided. Williams and Torres get into the room and find a very old man hooked up to medical machines and begging for help. Confused, they tell Romanoff they must have the wrong person, but Romanoff insists that man will save them.
In the mysterious forest, the figure claiming to be Steve Rogers walks with the figures that look like Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson. They fish, cook dinner over an open campfire, and chat. The figure claiming to be Rogers smiles contentedly.
On the Tony Stark AI's plane, Scott "Ant-Man" Lang writes his daughter Cassandra and brings her up to speed. His team, he says, has obtained two Cosmic Cube shards, and is now heading to Wakanda to pick up a third. He anticipates that T'Challa will simply give them the shard, but when the jet arrives and the Stark AI asks for it, T'Challa refuses. T'Challa says that the shard belongs to Wakanda and he will not give it up; when the Stark AI insists that he's trying to save the world, T'Challa responds that he doesn't trust the Stark AI to actually help anyone. He notes that Stark's solutions often just make everything worse. The Stark AI insists that T'Challa cannot hold off HYDRA forever, but T'Challa is adamant that Stark with the cosmic cube would be at least a big a threat to Wakanda as HYDRA. As a compromise, T'Challa says that if the Stark AI's team can collect the rest of the shards, they can bring them to Wakanda and give them to T'Challa, who will presumably reassemble the cosmic cube and fix Rogers. He notes that there's no reason not to go with that plan, unless the Stark AI really does want to use the cube himself for some selfish motive beyond fixing Rogers.
Weeks later, the Stark AI's team (consisting of the AI, Lang, Bobbi "Mockingbird" Morse, Pietro "Quicksilver" Maximoff, Sam Wilson, and Hercules) arrives in the island nation of Madripoor and battles legions of Hand ninjas under the control of Hive, a HYDRA leader. The Stark AI takes down Hive with a blast from his armor and all of Hive's minions collapse too. The only enemy left standing is Tomi "Gorgon" Shishido, and Hercules insists on fighting him even though Morse protests that he (Hercules) is already injured. Shishido says it's an honor to be judged a worthy opponent by Hercules, but he's killed gods before and expects to do so again. Hercules boasts that he's stronger than Phobos, and as he jumps at Shishido, he screams that he is not a god but a man. He takes down Shishido but is badly wounded himself and collapses. As Morse tends to him, the Stark AI breaks into a room and finds Shang-Chi, whom he thinks has a cosmic cube shard. Shang-Chi, however, says that he doesn't have it anymore and doesn't know who stole it. A flashback reveals that Emma "White Queen" Frost took it from him and erased his memories of the incident.
Maximoff groans that the mission was a waste. Morse demands to know where he was for the fight, and he says he was hunting for his sister and doesn't care about the overall fight against HYDRA. Meanwhile, Wilson tells the Stark AI it's time to give up; he claims to have a machine which tracks down the cosmic cube shards, but it only led them to three before failing and hasn't worked in weeks. The Stark AI protests that this isn't true but Wilson points out that the machine was wrong about there being a shard in Madripoor, as well as Mount Wundagore, Bagalia, and several other places. Maximoff agrees with Wilson that they should stop. The Stark AI asks Morse for support, but she says that Hercules needs real medical attention and they clearly aren't making progress, so they should go back to their base and heal up before deciding what to do next. Even Lang agrees with the others, and the Stark AI gives in, but says that in doing so they're all giving up on Rogers. Wilson, Lang, and Morse look away from him in shame. They go to leave, with Shang-Chi asking for a ride as well.
In Washington DC, Hank "Beast" McCoy notes that Rogers left Mjolnir lying on the National Mall and asks why. Rogers says he's giving everyone a chance to prove that they're worthy just like he was. The two shake hands and McCoy says that New Tian is a wonderful home for mutants; they can finally rule themselves instead of being ruled by others. Rogers notes that it's not a perfect place and mentions problems with refugees and terrorists. He quickly shifts topics, however, and says that he's heard New Tian has something belonging to him. This is Frost's cosmic cube shard, though Rogers doesn't tell McCoy that. Rogers goes on and muses how the other reason he left the hammer out in the open is so people are reminded that he once wielded it and caused terrible devastation to the heroes who fought against him. He threatens to use it against New Tian if he doesn't get what's his. McCoy notes sardonically that it must be hard to resist the urge to pick up the hammer and play god, and Rogers says he doesn't need the hammer to do that. He then leaves in a helicopter.
Later, Rogers talks with his advisor Elisa "Madame HYDRA" Sinclair. She tells him that 'it' is really happening, and Rogers concurs, saying their team is ready. Wanda Maximoff is still under the control of the evil god Chthon, and though she's slaughtered some members of her personal staff she's still able to fight HYDRA's enemies. Vision is also under their control thanks to an AI virus, though he does occasionally manage to reassert control of himself for a few seconds before the virus takes over again. Rogers then asks about Thor Odinson, causing Sinclair to become hesitant.
Odinson prays to Odin and asks for help understanding what he should do. He notes that though he is very jaded when it comes to politics, he deeply trusts and respects Rogers, but finds the things the HYDRA government is doing to be troubling. He adds that 'they' (presumably HYDRA) have told him only they can save Jane Foster from wherever she was banished to and restore Earth's connection to Asgard. He believes they were lying, but on the other hand he knows Rogers did wield Mjolnir and was thus proven more worthy than Thor himself. Given his most recent orders, however, he doesn't understand how Rogers can be 'worthy' in any meaningful sense of the word.
Sinclair tells Rogers that she can't enthrall Odinson, and Johann "Doctor Faustus" Fenhoff can't brainwash him either; Odinson is just too strong. Rogers promises to talk to him. Before he leaves to give more orders, though, Sinclair stops him and tells him how proud she is of him, claiming that she truly loves him and sees him as a son to her.
The Stark AI's team returns to the mount in defeat, with Lang again sending updates to his daughter. When they land, Lang notes that it felt good to return home, and the team hugs various members of the Underground who remained at base. Hercules is taken away for medical attention and Wilson kisses Misty Knight. However, when the team gathers to debrief, Clint "Hawkeye" Barton calls the mission a failure; the Stark AI had said there were eight or nine shards but they only returned with two. Lang says they can at least run some tests but Barton says the refugees living in the base won't care; they needed hope and now they don't have it.
The Stark AI goes to his lab and finds it's been reconfigured by Rayshaun "Patriot" Lucas and Raz "Giant-Man" Malhotra, who pushed some things to the side for Malhotra's experiment. They built a nearly-indestructible time capsule out of adamantium and are going to bury it; after 100 years, when HYDRA will presumably have been defeated and its defenses (such as Earth's shield and the Darkforce dome surrounding Manhattan) will have lowered, the capsule will send messages to those locations and then back in time. The messages will thus appear in those locations before the dome and shield were raised, hopefully alerting heroes in time to stop HYDRA. The Stark AI says it's a good idea but time manipulation is more Reed Richards' thing than it is Malhotra's. Malhotra says he built an AI to help him, which causes the Stark AI to warn Malhotra about how that can be dangerous, but they're cut off by Lucas asking how the Stark AI's team did. The AI is forced to admit they couldn't find enough shards, and Malhotra reveals that the Stark AI never had a machine to track the cosmic cube fragments; he was just using Rick Jones' best leads and lying to the others so they wouldn't lose hope. Before the conversation can continue, though, the Stark AI suddenly realizes something is amiss; elsewhere in the base, Morse sends a message that the Underground has two cosmic cube shards and the operation can start. The Stark AI orders the shields to be raised just as three massive HYDRA battleships appear overhead.
Aboard the battleship, Arnim Zola says their cannons can't break through the base's shields, but Rogers says they have a secret weapon.
In the forest, the Rogers figure is bantering with the the other two when the figure that looks like Wilson steps into a trap and is lifted up by a large net. The figure that looks like Bucky is then hit with a dart and collapses, and the Rogers figure is hit with a spiked club. He turns, begging for mercy, but his attacker says that he's actually there to save Rogers. The figure looks just like the Red Skull, and he promises to free Rogers from the forest.
Back on a HYDRA battleship, Zola leads Rogers to the room with their secret weapon. He says that the weapon is disoriented but sane, though his condition will quickly degrade. Rogers says he just needs the person in question for a short time to crush the resistance. He enters the room and looks at Bruce Banner, saying it's good to see him again.
Tropes:
- Unexplained Recovery: It's not clear how Banner survived being shot by Barton in Civil War II.
