Everyone was going back to their business as Nick Fury led Cap down a narrow hallway.
“Well, I’m waiting,” Cap said impatiently as Fury came to a stop at the end of the corridor.
“Not out here. Wait till we get inside,” the Colonel replied.
“Inside where? You’ve stopped us in front of a blank wall.”
“Not exactly.”
Fury reached down, tapping a button in the center of his belt, causing a panel to slide open in the wall.
Cap followed Fury through the newly-opened doorway.
The inside was black as pitch.
“Lights on,” Fury commanded.
Instantly, every light in the room flickered to life, revealing a room much larger than Cap had expected to see.
Fury motioned him toward a desk just a few feet away. They each took a seat on opposite sides. Cap took a quick glance around the room. It was a medium-sized office with several strange devices lining the walls that Cap didn’t recognize.
“Y’know, you don’t have to keep the mask on, Steve. We’re all friends here. ‘Sides, everyone here knows who you really are anyway.”
“What?! How did that information become public?” Anger was plain in his voice.
“Take it easy! Yeesh, don’t have a cow. Anyway, I hate to break it to ya, Steve, but anybody within the proper government channels knows who you are. Hell, we all thought you were dead for the longest. No one’s even seen you since the war ended in September of ’45.”
“You talk about ’45 as if it were ages ago, Colonel.”
“That I do, Cap….. that I do…” Fury paused for a moment, trying to find the right way to explain things. Finally, he gave in and decided it was best to break the news quick and clean. “Cap…Steve… This may be a lot to take in at once but…. What if I were to tell you that the war ended over sixty years ago?”
Cap’s eyes widened. This couldn’t be true, could it?
“I realize this must seem pretty damn crazy, but it’s true. No one’s seen you since 1945, Steve, and we’re in 2009.”
Cap jerked up from his seat, knocking the chair over in the process. Fury got up as well.
“This….this can’t be true… What about my family… all my friends?”
“Most of ‘em either dead or dyin’.”
“Okay, Fury, let’s pretend for a second that I’m buying this… Why aren’t you old and decrepit by now?”
“After our last encounter during the war, I was badly wounded. Got worked on by a man named Sternberg. He gave me a dose of an experimental formula he was working on at the time called: the Infinity Formula. Found out later that, while it does retard the aging process, if I don’t receive annual doses of it, I’ll age at a very rapid pace ‘til I’m dead.”
“A miracle formula, huh? Well, guess I can’t really say much, seeing as I’ve got a similar story. But I do have one very important question… You said no one’s seen me in over sixty years. If that’s true, where was I during that time?”
Fury’s expression became grim. “You were with HYDRA.”
Cap fought back the feeling of shock; there was no reason to get worked up. He hadn’t even heard the whole story yet. Still, HYDRA…
“What did they want with me?” Cap asked slowly, sure he wouldn’t like the answer he was about to get.
“They used you. Created their own super-soldiers, using bits of your DNA.”
“You mean there are enemy super-soldiers running around now?!”
“Not exactly. Strucker’s very paranoid. Doesn’t want any of the soldiers to live long enough to get a mind of their own. So far, he’s killed every one of them after their mission’s done, by detonating a bomb in their skull.”
“Strucker?! How is he still alive after all this time?”
“Cap, I can already see you’ve got a lot of questions. Luckily, I planned for most of ‘em.” He hit a button on his desk, revealing yet another hidden doorway just behind his desk. “Just step inside and take a seat. All your questions will be answered in there...I figured you’d wanna watch this alone.”
Cautiously, Cap approached the doorway. The lights inside were dim. A TV screen was the brightest source of light.
“Just watch the video, Steve. I’ll be here when you’re done,” Fury said, stepping out, the door closing behind him.
I can’t believe this… How can this be true? I mean, anything’s possible, I guess, but this… I’m still not sure I totally buy what Fury is telling me.
Well, then how do you explain all of this crazy technology you’ve seen here, Steve? How do you explain that?
I don’t know, maybe I’m still asleep…
Don’t be a fool! You’re wide awake and this is really happening.He stopped the argument with himself there.
“All this stress is driving me insane! I’d better just watch this footage and see what it tells me.”
He fumbled around until he found the play button. He pressed it in, sat in the chair across from the screen and watched the video play.
* * * * *
Hours later, Captain America stepped out of the small video room, and back into Fury’s office.
Fury turned around in his chair to face Cap.
“Well, you gonna be okay, Steve?”
Cap finally pulled his mask back behind his head. “So many things have happened in my absence…”
“That’s a hell of an understatement, Cap.”
“There used to be hope in the world. What happened?”
“This world doesn’t know what hope is anymore, Steve. Everyone just tries to make it from day to day the best they can. Hope is a lost concept now.”
“What kind of world are we living in where innocent people are blown up nearly every day because some nut declares a holy war?”
“You forgetting Pearl Harbor, Steve? Crap like this has been goin’ on for years.”
“Yes, but not like this. Pearl Harbor was directed at the military, at the government. The things I saw on that tape…… my God, even children are caught in this….”
“It’s an ugly world, Cap, no doubt, but it’s the world we live in and we have to make the best of it.”
“I… I need time to think… outside of here.”
“Of course, Cap. I’ll arrange to have you dropped off immediately. Of course, you’ll have to wear civilian the clothes. We don’t want everyone knowing Captain America is back just yet.”
“’Drop me off’?” Cap asked curiously. “Where exactly are we now?”
“We’re on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, floating a couple’a thousand feet above New York.” He studied the blank look on Cap’s face for a moment. “Actually, before we drop you off, we’d better go over a few things, Steve.”
For the next two hours, Fury went over everything he thought Steve would need to know before setting foot in modern-day America. Steve was sure he wouldn’t be able to remember everything Fury was pumping into his head, but he would do his best. Steve had also asked if any of his old unit were still living. Fury told him that Kowalski was the only one still kicking, and told Steve he’d arrange a visit.
He was given civilian clothes and discreetly dropped off in a remote area of New York, where a car waited to carry him into the city.
* * * * *
Steve watched the tall buildings pass by him through the window in the back seat of the black sedan. He had been to New York City before, but it was nothing like this. The car stopped near the curb, allowing Steve to get out. He was handed a folded map and told that he would find the location of Kowalski’s home clearly marked. Also, on the map, was the location of a S.H.I.E.L.D. operated base, disguised as a pizzeria, where he was to go when he was ready to be picked up, or if there was anything he needed. He nodded and slipped the map into his coat pocket, waving goodbye as the car pulled away.
He wandered the streets for awhile, just people-watching. It didn’t take long for him to notice just how much society as a whole had changed. That, coupled with what he had already learned from Fury’s video nearly made his head spin.
Cars were faster.
People had set foot on the moon.
And most surprising, television’s had color.
Steve found himself strolling down the sidewalk of a small neighborhood in Queens. Yellow school buses passed by and pulled up to the curb a short distance in front of Steve, with kids shuffling out of it onto the sidewalk. He stared as they walked by him and he suddenly felt the feeling of isolation engulf him.
Some of the children were dressed in almost entirely black baggy clothing, a few even going so far as to wear thick sweaters despite it being a nice warm day. Strange chains were dangling from some of their pants, an earring was pierced onto a girl’s lip, and one boy was wearing a shirt that had a weird mouth shape with a tongue sticking out that read ROLLING STONES.
What does that even mean?Another kid passed by with what Steve assumed was a very small walkie-talkie. But the last time he had seen one of those was during the war and it was far larger than that.
“Hey I just got a text message.” the boy told a friend, looking down at the device’s even smaller screen. “She says ‘lol’. Haha.”
Text message? ‘Lol’? What is going on!? I can’t even understand what they’re talking about!The kids turned the corner onto the next street and Steve was given a moment to take in everything he had just seen and heard. Even after seeing all of the historical events that have happened, even after everything Fury had told him, he still couldn’t comprehend the millions of changes in the world. And for once…
Captain America was an outsider to his own country.
* * * * *
KNOCK. KNOCK.
“I’m coming!” a hoarse voice on the other side of the door called.
Wrinkles ran across the aging face of Jeremy Conway, his dirty, blond hair now completely gray. He slowly walked over to the door and turned the knob, opening it slowly to find an all too familiar face looking back at him.
“Cap?”
Conway stood, his eyes large, staring into the face of a man he had not seen in decades. Steve Rogers was almost exactly as he had remembered him. Tall, well-built, a strong jawline, and a smile that could make you believe there was a small chance of hope even in the most dangerous of situations.
“Long time no see, Conway.”
Conway remained frozen in awe of the hero before him. A hero he believed to have lost all those years ago. Finally, the retired sniper spoke up, his lips trembling.
“Oh my God…you’re alive!”
The elderly man wrapped his arms around Steve and hugged him tightly. Steve glanced down at the old man who had embraced him so warmly and patted him on the back gently. Conway looked up at his longtime friend with tears glistening in his eyes.
“Please come in, sit down,” Conway said through his tears, inviting him into the house where Steve took a seat on a rather soft couch.
Steve looked around the living room. There was a small TV on the other side of the room and next to that was a table where an old radio that looked like it was back from the war rested. There were pictures framed on the small coffee tables beside the couch. Steve scanned them over to see Conway, a bit older than how he looked in the war, dressed in a tuxedo with a lovely bride by his side.
“My wife, Marcia. Met her shortly after I got back from the war,” Conway said, stiffly taking a seat in a chair across from Steve.
Steve continued to look around the room, noticing a scoped rifle neatly placed in a glass case in the corner of the room. His eyes met with Conway’s and a smile formed on his wrinkled face.
“You recognize that, don’t ya?” Conway chuckled.
Steve returned his grin and then took another look at the pictures to find a group shot of their entire platoon that they took shortly before that final mission.
It was years ago but to Steve it felt like only days.
The familiar faces all grinned at the camera but Steve remembered the details of the day. It wasn’t quite as cheerful as this image made it appear. Steve easily could still place the exact voices of each of these men to their pictures.
“Kowalski made it out of Skull’s fortress that night. The other guys weren’t so lucky…I tried to cover them,…but there was that mine and--“
“You did brilliantly, Conway. Really, you did. There was nothing you could have done to change what happened.”
The aging man nodded solemnly, bowing his head. Steve looked at the image of Sgt. Kowalski in the picture, looking just as grumpy as Steve remembered. He still couldn’t get the conversation they had had before he had left to fight Skull out of his mind.
“Kowalski never hated you, Cap,” Conway said, seemingly reading Steve’s mind. “He just…never understood the need for someone like you. He saw you as just some superhero who couldn’t actually understand what it means to be a soldier.”
“Not all soldiers are super.”
Steve repeated the last words he had heard from a fellow soldier before he was frozen in the ice. Conway looked at him, puzzled, but then bobbed his head in approval.
“Yes. Exactly.”
* * * * *
Steve walked down the sidewalk, still struggling to adjust to the world around him. He had so many questions that needed answering. He wondered when trucks had become so big and when radios had suddenly seemed to go out of favor for this ‘i-pod’ thing.
BBRRINNNGGG
Steve’s thoughts were interrupted by the incredibly loud ringing that appeared to be coming from the next block over. Steve broke into a full sprint, brushing past people with ease as they also raced toward the disturbance, thanks to his peak human physiology.
Steve turned the corner to find people rushing away from a large building that he quickly learned was a bank.
“Someone call the cops! They’re robbing the bank!” a young woman screamed in passing.
“They have guns and hostages!” another man hollered.
Steve made his way closer to the bank, then came to an abrupt halt.
Should I be doing this? I-I’m not a hero. I’m…I’m just a soldier. This isn’t my fight. The police can handle this. Steve waited another few seconds, hoping to hear the sound of sirens but nothing seemed to be coming anytime soon.
People could be hurt, they could be dying. I have to do something. Hmmm, what was that some of the soldiers used to call me… “super hero”?Steve's inner debate raged on for what seemed like hours to him. This wasn't what he was given the super-soldier serum for. This wasn't the reason he was given these abilities. Steve glanced at the bank again, images of innocent people on the floor crying, fearing for their lives rushed into his mind.
I'm no super hero but as a soldier, it's my duty to my country to protect my people. And that's exactly what I intend to do.* * * * *
A lot can happen in five minutes…
Children can be born. People can die. Blond-haired, blue-eyed American men can offer themselves as a trade for another hostage inside a bank.
And within five minutes, Steve Rogers had accomplished the latter.
The elderly woman he had traded places with was having trouble breathing. Steve wasn’t exactly sure what was wrong, but he knew she was having trouble breathing and needed medical attention. The timing couldn’t have been better. Steve needed a way to get inside and this was the perfect opportunity; the elderly woman got medical attention, and the thugs inside didn’t lose a hostage. Unfortunately for them, they had just unwittingly taken in a man more dangerous than they could know… but they would learn soon enough.
Before Steve had been dragged through the doorway and the old woman shoved outside, he had gone over three possible scenarios. He had been sitting in the floor with an AK-47 pointed in his face for eleven minutes now…
A lot can happen in eleven minutes…
Thousands of children can be born. Thousands upon thousands of people can die. And a super-soldier can assess all the ins and outs of thirty-two different scenarios and finally pick just the right one to break up a bank robbery.
There were eight men to deal with. He’d have to time everything just right.
Two of them were two rooms away, in the vault with the president of the bank. It was a good thing they’d picked a small, one-floor bank to knock-over, otherwise this would be a lot tougher…
If I can take out these six quietly enough, I can ambush the other two when they come back through. They’re two rooms away, and inside a vault to boot, so unless a gun goes off, it shouldn’t be too hard… Or… better yet…He looked up at the guard watching over his group. “How much are you making off of this deal?” he asked quietly.
No Answer.
“Come on. If you’re going to hold a gun in my face, the least you can do is talk to me a little.”
“It’s an even, eight-way split. Now shut up!”
“How do you know that?”
“Huh?”
“How do you know you’re really getting an even cut? What if the two of them in there are pocketing some extra cash right now? Nobody’s watching them, after all.”
“Shut up,” the thug replied gruffly. Then, after taking time to dwell on Steve’s words, he motioned one of his friends over.
They all wore masks that covered everything but their eyes, so Steve couldn’t read their lips, but he was pretty sure he knew what they were saying.
The other thief nodded and returned to his station. Once he got back, he motioned one of the other robbers over, whispering something to him.
Steve fought back a smile. His plan was working.
The police had pulled up not long before, demanding that the hostages be released. Their only response was a death threat aimed at the hostages. The police could do nothing; their hands were tied, but not Steve’s, quite literally. They hadn’t thought to tie his hands when they brought him in, and he was sure that would come in handy.
The two thugs from the back made their way to the front. Steve couldn’t see them from where he was sitting, until they came out from behind the large counter, the bank president marching slowly in front of them. She couldn’t have been past her late-thirties; she hadn’t had this job for long, Steve assumed.
One of the men whacked her on the back of the head with the butt of his pistol. She collapsed to the floor in a heap.
Steve could feel his cheeks growing hot. That was no way to treat a lady. He steadied himself. Getting too jumpy now would ruin everything; instead, he sat back and waited.
He didn’t have to wait long. As soon as two thugs from the back shouldered the two large, money-lined bags, the rest of the group gathered around them. One of them insisted that the two of them empty out their pockets, to make sure they weren’t cheating the rest of them.
In no time at all, it escalated into a more hostel situation, with one of the men shooting another. A woman screamed and was quickly told to shut up by three of the remaining men. She didn’t argue. After that, they turned back around.
The moment was perfect; there was no more attention on the hostages, and that meant it was time for Steve to make his move.
He grabbed a pen from the pocket of the man next to him, pressing his forefinger to his lips, informing the man to keep quiet. He waited until they all took a second to look out the window at the cop cars as they continued to argue. Then, he made his move.
He launched at the one in the center, stabbing him in the leg with the pen. The man screamed, dropping his gun and clutching at his leg. Steve had already grabbed the rifle from the man to the right and slammed it across his face, knocking him to the ground before the other five were able to jerk their heads around.
He kicked another man and sent him crashing into one of his buddies, both of them losing their weapons on the way down. There were three in front of him now, guns lifted up into firing position. He didn’t have much time.
Steve hauled the nearest man effortlessly into the air and threw him at the remaining two, rendering them unconscious.
The man he’d stabbed in the leg, reached for the pistol on the floor behind him. Acting without thinking, Steve stepped on the mans hand, breaking his fingers.
“AHHHHHH! Y-Y-You broke my fingers you sonofabitch!”
Steve grabbed him by the collar and held him up off the floor.
“Watch the language, there are women and children present,” Steve said gruffly. “And by the way, I haven’t forgotten how you treated that poor woman you knocked out with your gun. I don’t like scum who mistreat women.”
Setting him on the ground, Steve gave him a hard right to the gut. The thug doubled over in pain as police swarmed the building, cuffing the men and dragging them out to their cars.
One of the officers shook Steve’s hand in gratitude and asked him to please wait outside to give a statement.
It had been a trying day and the last thing he wanted to do was wait around and talk about how he’d stopped those thugs. He didn’t like to brag...
Before he could leave, he saw a young woman across the street, motioning him toward her.
Hmmm… guess I’d better see what this is about…
