The Machinesmith's words haunted Steve Rogers more than he cared to admit. The man who wore the mask of Captain America; the man who fought alongside the Avengers; the man who fought for America's freedom more times than he could remember had been hit harder than anything that even threats like Thanos or the Red Skull could deliver.
It had been weeks since Captain America's fight with the Machinesmith and in that time the man had saved the world and countless lives. But it was when the day was done and Steve Rogers was in his apartment, all alone, separated from everyone that he thought about that fight.
“A man,” Steve said to the reflection in the mirror as he stood in front of it. “Just a man.”
Yes, Steve Rogers was just a man. A man endowed with superhuman abilities that stood with Gods and aliens on a daily basis, but a man nonetheless. A man who had done great good for the entire world, but yet somehow, it didn't feel like it was enough anymore. Not when he was also thinking about that fact that he had less than a year to live. Captain America had left a powerful legacy for other heroes to follow should he die.
But what about the man under the mask?
As Steve looked out of the window of his Brooklyn apartment, he looked across the street to a parking lot which was strewn with trash and broken glass. It had once been the playground to several children, where they played baseball, jumped rope and several other activities.
Getting dressed in civilian clothes, Steve looked at his watch. He had just enough time to hit the hardware store.
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“Just a Man”
No one knew where he came from. No one knew who he was when he arrived. All the doctors at the Gary Busey Home for the Mentally Incapacitated knew was that a young man had been found in the river early one morning several years ago. Barely alive, he was declared a John Doe as he was bounced from hospital to hospital, until finally ending up in his current situation.
The young man had no identification, no fingerprints and no family to contact. Since he had been found in the Chase River, that had become his given name: Chase Rivers. For ten years, Chase had lain in a hospital bed, unmoving. The doctors had given up hope that he would ever wake up.
Then, one day, Chase did just that. The nurse had walked into his room, seeing Chase Rivers lying there, his eyes wide open, just staring at the ceiling.
Having bought several cleaning tools, including a large broom, work gloves and several trash bags, Steve headed to the parking lot and started a job that, for once, wasn't going to be a mission for Captain America. This would be 100% Steve Rogers.
Steve started cleaning the lot, not only because he knew that the children would soon come to use it as their playground once again but because it was giving Steve a purpose as something other than a crime fighter. As he cleaned the broken glass, swept the trash out and disposed of the various disgusting things people left, Steve started realizing that maybe this was what his legacy should be. Not just cleaning up America in his costumed identity, but also as the man under the mask.
It wasn't long before people saw Steve working on making the lot a better place, some of them remembering their own childhood playing in the very place. By the end of the second day, there were over a dozen volunteers there, all of them inspired by what one man was doing.
It took three days total to do it, but by the end of the third day all of the trash was gone. Someone had even brought some basketball posts to set up on the far end of the lot. The place had become a playground for the neighborhood kids once again, and it was all thanks to one man. And for the first time in a long time, Steve Rogers was proud of something that he himself had accomplished.
In the sewers, several rats were squeaking, their language being understood by someone who was living under the streets of New York.
“They did what to your feeding ground?”
Chase Rivers had no memory of who he was or how he had ended up in that river as a child. He was barely literate and was unsure of just about anything. But one thing was made certain to him: because he was over the age of eighteen, he wouldn't be able to stay at the hospital anymore now that he woken up.
So, after three weeks of rehabilitation to help him regain the use of his legs after a decade of atrophy, Chase was turned out onto the street. Because the staff had come to care for him, he was given a few dollars and the directions to an employment office to help him find a new life.
Of course, Chase had zero knowledge of the world he was entering. All he knew about the world outside of the hospital was from what little television he watched. He really hoped to avoid the monsters from the Jersey Shore. The Snooki terrified him beyond words.
It was the day after the playground had been reopened to the children of the neighborhood as Chase was walking past. He stopped to watch the activities, seeing everyone having fun and hanging out with their parents. A frown came over Chase's face as he saw everything that he'd never had. It was then that a basketball rolled over to Chase's feet. He picked it up as a kid ran up to him.
“We're a person short, want to play?” the kid asked as Chase just stared at the ball.
“I- I really don't know how,” Chase said meekly.
The kid laughed as he saw the older boy was serious. “Wow, really? Come on, it's easy.”
A humanoid rat creature with light pink fur stood in the sewers, a green cloak draped over his face and back. He stared out over an army of rats who had gathered upon his command. Vermin had made the sewers his home, and the rats had become his only friends. So when he heard that the rats feeding ground on the surface had been taken away, Vermin had become angered.
“Humans have taken away what is rightfully yours!” Vermin told the rats. “So we will take back your land! Go, my friends! Go and feed on the flesh of those who are in your domain!”
Steve was sitting in his apartment, reading the evening paper while listening to the Steve Miller Band on his radio. It's not that he had anything against modern day music, far from it. But he found that nothing could beat the classic songs he was used to.
As he read through the evening paper, he occasionally glanced out the window towards the parking lot across the street. He knew now what was missing from his life, now he just had to set out to fix it.
Turning away from the window, Steve returned to the paper. But as soon as he did, he heard the sound of screams coming from the parking lot.
Chase was having fun learning how to play basketball. He was forgetting about his troubles for a short while and was just enjoying being able to play. As he held the basketball, he shot it toward the basket, sinking it as his new friends cheered.
As he turned away from the basket, Chase saw a strange sight. Several rats were gathering in the park, surrounding the area as if to prevent anyone from leaving.
“Is this a regular thing?” Chase asked as he looked around. Once he realized that it wasn't, he started looking around for a way to get everyone out as the rats started closing in on them, as if they were rounding the humans up. It was then that Captain America jumped in, looking at the situation.
“Everyone, stay calm,” Captain America ordered. He looked at Chase, seeing he was the oldest kid there. “I'm going to clear a path, then I need you to make sure everyone gets out. Can you do that?”
“Yes, sir,” Chase told him. He had no idea who the guy in the red, white and blue was, but Chase felt like the man deserved respect despite never having met him before.
“Good, be right back.” Jumping back over the rats that were coming, Captain America got to the nearest fire hydrant and used his strength to turn the nozzle, causing water to shoot out. Putting his shield in front, he deflected the water towards the rats.
Vermin was watching through a sewer vent on the sidewalk, getting angry that once again Captain America was interfering with things.
“Go, run!” Chase shouted as he started herding the younger children out as the rats were dispersing at the water that was being shot their way. Seeing some of the smaller kids falling behind, Chase picked them up and carried them through.
Captain America turned off the hydrant and saw that kids had all gotten out of the lot. As he looked at the rats regrouping, he started to think about who could be behind something like this, and then realized that it must have been Vermin. Once he made sure all the children were safe, he'd go track down the villain and put an end to this game.
“Help!”
Captain America turned and saw a flash of the green cloak disappearing into a manhole. He rushed over and saw Chase and some of the larger kids were knocked to the ground. He looked over and saw the rats disappearing back into the sewers, following their master.
“He just–he just came out of nowhere!” Chase told him. “He grabbed one of the smaller kids and took off with her!”
“Get these children back to their parents,” Captain America ordered. “I'll get the kid and stop Vermin.”
Chase and the other kids watched as the hero climbed down the manhole on his quest to stop the villainous Vermin. Chase knew he had a job to do and started guiding the children back to their parents.
Captain America grabbed a flashlight from his utility belt and started following Vermin's trail. It wasn't difficult to track him, since all he had to do was follow the muddy footprints, as well as the rats that were still running after. He just prayed that he would get to Vermin before an innocent person was harmed.
Vermin had retreated to his lair with the young child, who was crying as she tried not to stare at the large monster that had abducted her.
“I wanna go home!” the crying child told him.
“You and your people stole my rats feeding ground, so now I must find them a new food source,” Vermin told her. “You're going to feed my subjects.”
“Like heck!” Captain America shouted as his shield hit Vermin in the back, causing him to drop the little girl. “You've gone too far this time, Vermin!”
Vermin stood up and hissed at Captain America, lunging at him at the two started to fight. Vermin knocked Captain America to the ground, who pushed the villain up with his legs as he fell back, vaulting him back into the wall behind them. Meanwhile, the girl was too scared to run, giving the rats time to gather around her.
Elsewhere, Chase had climbed down into the sewer after getting the rest of the kids back to their parents. He felt responsible for letting the little girl get kidnapped and wanted to help get her back. He followed the same trail that Captain America had and soon arrived at Vermin's lair.
Captain America and Vermin continued their fight, trading punches back and forth. Because of the enhanced abilities of both, neither was able to harm the other with a simple punch. Vermin grabbed Captain America's arm and pulled him forward with the intent of stabbing him with his claws, but the hero uppercut him with his shield, knocking Vermin onto his back.
“You can't win,” Captain America told him. “Evil never wins.”
“Oh, no?” asked Vermin as he pointed to his rats, whose hunger was growing as they got closer to the child. “Feed, my children!”
“Stop!” Chase shouted as he ran in. “Let her go and you can have me.”
“What?” asked Vermin with a laugh.
“What!?” asked Captain America in a stern voice.
“That kid's only about three or four, look how small she is,” Chase told her. “She's not big enough to feed all those rats. I'm three times as big. Let her go, and I'll take her place.”
“No deal,” Captain America told him. “I'm not letting either of you do this.”
“I accept your offer,” Vermin said as he called off his rats, telling them to back Chase into a corner. He looked at Captain America. “Take the brat and go before I change my mind.”
“Get her out of here,” Chase told the hero. “Please.”
Captain America looked at Chase, then at the crying child. He knew what he had to do. He looked at Vermin. “I'll be back for you.”
Captain America scooped the child up and ran as fast as he could out of the lair. Chase watched them leave and closed his eyes, expecting to be devoured at any second.
Captain America got to the surface and rushed to the first house he could with the still crying child in his arms. Furiously knocking on the door, he watched it open as he saw the woman open. Luckily he knew all of the people in the neighborhood and that she was trustworthy.
“She needs to go home,” Captain America told the woman. “No time to explain, but I still have one more life to save.”
Quickly rushing off, Captain America jumped back down the sewer hole, hoping and praying that he wasn't too late.
Chase was lying on a table as Vermin stood over him with a knife in his hand. Chase had been stripped down to his boxers as the rats looked on hungrily. Vermin put the knife to Chase's chest, ready to cut off the first slice for the feast.
“Patience, my friends,” Vermin said to the rats. “There will be plenty for all of you.”
“Sorry, dinner plans have been canceled!” Captain America shouted as he tossed his shield, knocking the knife out of Vermin's hand. The shield rebounded back, landing back in Captain America's hand. “I told you I'd be back.”
“Devour him!” Vermin shouted to the rats as they stampeded toward the hero. Captain America raised his shield and started deflecting the rodents as they jumped at him. Vermin started laughing, not realizing that Chase had gotten off the table and went to a nearby steam pipe. He turned the knob and started releasing steam into the lair until there was zero visibility.
Captain America took the opportunity to get away from the rats and used his senses to locate Vermin in the steam filled room, knocking him out with one super powered punch. As Vermin hit the ground, his control over the rats faded as they started scampering away in search of food that wasn't human flesh.
Chase turned off the steam as the room started to clear. “You came back for me.”
“I wasn't about to let a friend die,” Captain America told him as he picked Vermin up. “Now, let's get this guy to the local authorities.”
Later that night, Steve Rogers was walking home alongside Chase. When they reached his apartment, Steve looked at the young man. “See you around the neighborhood, kid.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Chase told him as Steve looked at him. Chase had told him the story about waking up in the hospital, but neglected to mention he had nowhere to go. But being who he was, Steve realized something was wrong.
“I've got some spare blankets and a pillow,” Steve told him. “Why don't you crash on the couch until you get on your feet?”
“Really?” Chase asked. “I couldn't–”
“You can,” Steve said as he led the young man into his apartment. “Steve Rogers doesn't turn a friend out into the streets. Besides, I have a business proposition for you if you're interested...”
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To Be Continued...
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