Although Hydra had fallen, the seeds it planted had already taken root and sprouted.
The Registration Act had been passed legally. The politicians in Congress would not repeal a law simply because Hydra had been destroyed.
And the rift between the heroes ran far deeper than anyone had imagined.
The faction supporting registration, led by Iron Man, believed that superpowered individuals had to be regulated. Otherwise, similar tragedies would happen again.
The faction opposing registration, led by Captain America, believed that the Registration Act violated civil liberties and turned heroes into weapons of the government.
The two sides clashed repeatedly in streets and alleys—captures and counter-captures, battles and escapes.
New York's citizens had grown used to the occasional streaks of energy across the sky and the sound of explosions, just as they were used to rain and sunshine.
And behind all of this, there was one more person whose existence made the situation even more complicated.
That person was none other than the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes.
Captain America's best friend, a member of the Howling Commandos during World War II, and a super-assassin brainwashed and modified by Hydra for seventy years.
Before Hydra fell, they had legalized Bucky Barnes's identity through the Superhero Registration Act.
The reason given was that the crimes committed by James Buchanan Barnes while under Hydra's control had not been of his own will, and he was therefore pardoned.
At the same time, given his status as a superpowered individual and his combat experience, he had been specially appointed as an enforcement consultant for the Superhero Registration Act, responsible for hunting down illegal superpowered individuals who refused to register.
Hydra's plan was simple: send Bucky to hunt down the heroes who opposed registration, especially his old friend Captain America.
Not only would this intensify the