Chapter 1 - Prologue
Steve catches a quick glance of Bucky's metal arm across the room that Iron Man blew off near the shoulder. Although the limb was cybernetic, its dismemberment caused Bucky the same shock and pain as losing a flesh and blood arm. Even so, Bucky remained semi-conscious, lying on his back on the cold, concrete floor of the bunker.
While Steve is distracted, Tony shoots him in the gut with a repulsor blast that sends him flying across the room. Steve looks up and pleads with Tony, "He's my friend."
"So was I," Tony laments, as he punches Steve in the face and hurls him backwards into another wall. "Stay down. Final warning." Iron Man growls.
Unable to remember the last time he'd taken a beating like this, Steve braced against the wall and dragged himself to his feet, fists raised. Stubbornly he gasps, "I could do this all day."
"You just don't know when to quit. Do you?"
As Tony charges up his repulsor to blast Steve again, he's distracted as Bucky Barnes rolls over and desperately grabs Stark's booted foot with his good hand. Tony spins around and brutally kicks Bucky in the face.
Before Tony can whirl back around, Captain America seizes him by the shoulders. Steve raises Tony over his head, throws him to the ground, and bashes the Iron Man mask off with his shield.
Suddenly, the frozen outside world is shut out as walls slide from the floor and ceiling to close off the interior of the Hydra bunker where the three men lie, beaten and bloody. As gas begins to seep into the room, they begin to realize that the bunker isn't as abandoned as it seemed when they followed Zemo into the facility. Apparently, Hydra is still growing and thriving underground - literally, waiting for the right time to re-emerge.
Just as they begin to lose consciousness from their wounds, their exhaustion, and the gas, a man in an air purification mask appears before them. "Конечно, вы не думали, что Гидра оставит пять Зимних Солдат без охраны, не так ли?" (Surely, you did not think that Hydra would leave five Winter Soldiers unguarded, did you?) he purrs in Russian.