Battle of Washington, D.C.

TALK PAGE

The Battle of Washington, D.C. was a clash between Captain America and a brainwashed Winter Soldier, and an event during the HYDRA Uprising. After Arnim Zola revealed that HYDRA was active for the past seven decades, Captain America and Black Widow recruited Sam Wilson to fight alongside them as the Falcon.

Background
Arnim Zola revealed that HYDRA, despite the defeat of the Red Skull, had been growing inside S.H.I.E.L.D. for the past 70 years to Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff, only to result in HYDRA ordering an airstrike on their location, killing Zola.

Rogers and Romanoff laid low in Sam Wilson's apartment, a friend whom Rogers met previously during a morning run. Wilson revealed his past as a paratrooper and equipment that he had used during his career in the military. Rogers and Romanoff figured that Jasper Sitwell knew information regarding Zola's algorithm. The trio went to Fort Meade to retrieve the EXO-7 Falcon wings.

Wilson brought Sitwell to the top of a building in downtown Washington, D.C. and the team forced him to reveal the true intentions of Project Insight.

Battle
On the freeway, the trio took Sitwell to use him to take down Project Insight, but the plan was foiled when the Winter Soldier leaped on top of Wilson's car, reached in through the window, and threw Sitwell into oncoming traffic. The Soldier attacked the remaining passengers, attempting to shoot Rogers, Romanoff, and Wilson through the roof. They were only saved by Romanoff's quick thinking as she moved herself and pushed the other two out of the bullets' paths. Rogers hit the emergency brake hard, throwing the Winter Soldier off of the car; though he rolled into a landing and steadied himself quickly and without injury. Rogers, Romanoff and Wilson stared at the Soldier intensely, trying to see who he was. Romanoff drew her sidearm and began to aim at him, but this meant none of them realized HYDRA agents were rapidly approaching their car in a Hummer H2. They rammed the back of the sedan, sending it careening forward, and causing Romanoff to drop her gun. The Winter Soldier flipped up on top of the car again, this time reaching through the windshield to rip out the steering wheel. Romanoff grabbed her pistol off the car floor, shooting through the roof at the Soldier, who leaped onto the hood of the HYDRA-operated Hummer, watching as the damaged sedan struggled along the pavement. Another ram from the Hummer sent Wilson's car crashing into the median, which Rogers, Romanoff, and Wilson barely escaped by breaking open the car door. Rogers and Romanoff rode the car door as a makeshift sled down the asphalt until they came to a stop, while Wilson was forced to combat roll. Several Russian HYDRA operatives exited the Hummer, and one of them handed a Milkor MGL Mk 1L grenade launcher to the Winter Soldier, who aimed at Rogers and fired one of the 40mm grenades at him. Rogers defended himself using his shield, but the force from the explosion threw him off the bridge into a travelling bus on the road below. Meanwhile, four of the HYDRA agents advanced and layed down suppressing fire on Romanoff and Wilson, who were still on the bridge and had taken cover behind abandoned vehicles. Romanoff managed to return fire with one of her Glock 26s, although it neither hit nor slowed the HYDRA agents. The Winter Soldier advanced with them, and fired off a grenade from his launcher at Romanoff when she attempted to return fire a second time. Romanoff avoided the blast by mantling over the median and rolled out of incoming traffic's way on the other side. The Winter Soldier fired a follow-up shot, but Romanoff avoided that one as well by leaping off the highway bridge, landing safely by way of a grappling hook. The HYDRA agents took up new positions and covered one another as one of them handed the Winter Soldier an M4A1 carbine in place of the grenade launcher. The Soldier took up overwatch at the edge of the bridge, attempting to find where Romanoff had gone. When he couldn't find her, he looked towards the crashed bus where Rogers had landed and aimed his carbine. Unbeknownst to the Soldier, Romanoff had noticed his shadow as she approached his position, and did not run out into his line of sight. When he shifted his gaze, she shot her dual-wielded pistols at him, breaking from cover. While she did not kill him, she did hit one of his ballistic goggle lenses, which he then removed. The Soldier and Romanoff took shots at each other from behind cover, although neither hit each other. As two of the HYDRA agents came to assist the Soldier, Romanoff broke from cover and ran down the street, prompting the Soldier to follow her. In Russian, he told the operatives to find Rogers and kill him. The Soldier jumped off the side of the bridge, landing on top of a car and began to pursue Romanoff. Four other agents followed him by rappelling down instead of jumping, with one of them brandishing a minigun. They sprayed at the overturned bus, causing Rogers to burst out the back to avoid their fire. He took cover behind his shield, managing to ricochet one of the minigun's bullets into another operative. As a fifth agent was preparing to rappel down and join his comrades, Sam Wilson came up behind him, holding a knife in one hand. Wilson kicked and broke his knee, and when the agent looked to see who had hit him, Wilson struck him with a hook punch to the jaw, followed by an upward slash across the torso with his knife. The agent let his gun go in pain, which Wilson caught. The operative was then kicked over the edge of the bridge, and Wilson began to open fire on the others below. He killed one of them, allowing Rogers to charge the minigunner, whom he killed by slamming him onto his back, fracturing his spine. Rogers looked up once he killed the gunner to see Wilson providing cover fire. Wilson urged Rogers to pursue the Winter Soldier, saying he had the situation under control as he traded shots with the remaining HYDRA operator.

While searching for Romanoff, the Winter Soldier destroyed a Metropolitan Police Department cruiser which was arriving on scene by shooting it with the M203 underbarrel grenade launcher mounted onto his M4A1. He loaded another 40mm grenade into the launcher and resumed his search. The Soldier heard Romanoff's voice radioing for backup behind a car, so he quietly rolled a custom metallic grenade under the vehicle behind which she was hiding, and aimed down the EOTech optic on his carbine, ready to take a shot if she noticed the grenade and broke cover trying to flee. Romanoff did not run, so the Winter Soldier watched as the explosive detonated and destroyed the car. However, Romanoff tricked him. She was not behind the car and instead had placed her PDA there, which was playing the words the Soldier had heard on a loop, for the purpose of distracting him. While the Soldier was distracted by the explosion, Romanoff used a flying kick from behind to disarm him. She straddled his shoulders, producing a garrote and attempted to strangle him. The Soldier used the strength of his prosthetic arm to break free from her grip by hurling her into a car. Recovering from being thrown, she threw a taser disc at his prosthetic, preventing him from shooting her with his gun which he had just picked back up. Romanoff fled from him, urging civilians to get clear of the area. The Soldier pried the disc off his arm; re-calibrated it and on got back on her trail once more. He managed to find her and shot through several car windows, wounding her in the shoulder. The Soldier leaped onto the roof of a car and prepared to execute her, but Rogers rushed to her rescue, engaging the Winter Soldier in combat. After the Soldier tried several times with several different types of guns to kill Rogers (with Rogers blocking the bullets each time with his shield), the two engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Both Rogers and the Soldier disarmed each other, and each landed brutal blows on the other. Rogers eventually regained his shield, and took back the advantage. Rogers damaged the Soldier's prosthetic arm with it, and forced the Winter Soldier's mask to come off with a powerful throw. It was then revealed to him that the Winter Soldier was Bucky Barnes, Rogers' long-lost friend whom it was thought had died in World War II. Rogers was taken aback, and asked incredulously if it was really Barnes before him. Barnes did not recognize his own name, asking "Who the hell is Bucky?" as he drew another sidearm. Rogers was so stunned that if it had not been for the intervention of Wilson, who had killed the remaining HYDRA agent, put the EXO-7 'Falcon' pack on, and delivered an airborne kick to Barnes' head, Rogers likely would have been shot. Barnes, himself confused, recovered from Wilson's kick, and aimed again at Rogers, who still had not moved. Romanoff then saved him by firing the underbarrel grenade launcher on the M4A1 carbine Barnes had dropped. When the fire and smoke cleared from the grenade's explosion, Barnes had disappeared. Moments later, the STRIKE team led by Brock Rumlow arrived and were about to execute the three, but Rumlow ordered his men to stand down and merely arrest Rogers, Romanoff, and Wilson, as there were news helicopters filming them. They were then driven away by armored vehicles in heavy restraints to be executed away from public view.

Aftermath
Rogers, Romanoff and Wilson, with the help of Maria Hill escaped from STRIKE. Hill took them to a hidden facility. While the doctors inside began to treat Romanoff for medical procedures, the three of them were taken to Nick Fury's presence, who was still alive. Fury revealed he took Tetrodotoxine B, a drug developed as a heart-rate suppressant by Bruce Banner, and they began to plan how to take down Project Insight.