This week's stop was Purgatory, New Jersey. Steve and his young partner had stopped by to help with a housing project for the needy, spending sixteen hours a day for the last six days building low income houses. It was back breaking work, but it was worth it to see the smiles on the faces of the people who would be living there.
After returning to the motel for the night to get a few hours rest, Steve and Chase ordered a small dinner and got into their respective beds.
“Good night, kid,” Steve said as he rolled over.
“Good night, sir,” Chase replied as he closed his eyes, falling asleep almost instantly.
Elsewhere in the city, dark forces were gathering in a secret location.
“Captain America is here,” a cloaked man said, looking at his partner in crime.
“Then he will be dealt with,” another man in a cloak replied as he looked down into a crystal ball. “Captain America will face his greatest fear in the eyes, and when he does, he will never awaken.”
The sun was shining bright the next morning as Steve opened his eyes, feeling more tired now than he did when he went to bed. He hadn't felt this weak since before he was injected with the super-soldier serum that had made him Captain America. He got out of the bed and headed to the bathroom to start his day, stripping off his clothes as he headed to the shower. As he looked down at the floor, he saw how small his shirt was.
Shrugging it off, Steve walked past the mirror when he suddenly had to come back and look into his reflection. What was staring back at him wasn't the buff, super-soldier serum enhanced face of Steve Rogers, Captain America.
It was the scrawny face of young Steve Rogers, the one he had to look at every morning in the mirror before he became the world's greatest patriot.
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#5
JUN 13 |
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“Or Die Trying”
“Chase!” Steve shouted as he ran out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. That's when he realized he wasn't in his motel room, but in his bedroom back in New York, circa 1940. “No, this has to be some kind of trick. It has to be some kind of mind game, or an illusion.”
Steve looked around the room, trying to find any flaws. He knew his home inside and out, if anything stood out he'd instantly notice it. Everything was perfect, right down to the last detail. He went to his bed and pulled out a box from underneath.
“No one knew about this,” Steve said as he pulled out his porn stash. He looked at the magazine of a fully dressed woman who was showing off her bare shoulder. He felt dirty looking at it, but he couldn't help himself. “How did I get back here?”
Steve got dressed and headed out of the apartment, looking at the old neighborhood. It was exactly the way he remembered it, right down to kids playing ball in the street. All of his old neighbors were there, the cars were classic models, and he could hear the old time music that he loved listening to playing on a nearby radio.
“Hey, Mr Rogers!” a boy said as he came running up towards him. “Want to play ball with me and the guys? We're a player short.”
“Sorry, Billy, I'm kind of in a hurry today,” Steve told him, recognizing the kid. It was Billy Jenkins, the kid next door. He'd die a hero twenty years later when he became a firefighter, saving several lives before perishing in a fire. “We'll play later, though.”
“Sure thing, Mr. Rogers,” Billy told him as he started back to the lot across the street.
“Billy, wait!” Steve said as the boy turned around. Steve kneeled down to look at him. “You're going to be a great man, Billy. I'm very proud of you kid.”
“Thanks,” Billy smiled as he rushed off.
As Steve continued to look at the old neighborhood, there wasn't a detail out of place, every detail was perfect. Whoever was doing this had done their homework. He put his hands in his pockets as he headed to the local newspaper stand. He pulled out a nickel to pay for it as he took a paper.
“A nickel?” the man at the stand asked. “Kids, put on your Sunday best, we're eating like kings tonight!”
Steve looked down at the paper, ignoring the man as he saw the date on the paper. It was 1940. The date was–
“The day I became Captain America,” Steve whispered as he looked a clock across the street. “No, I'm late!”
Steve started running as fast as he could, getting winded quickly. He had to make it to the lab to get injected with the serum. Millions of lives were depending on him to become Captain America, and scrawny little Steve Rogers would never be able to do the things that Captain America could.
After what seemed like hours, Steve arrived at the lab just in time to hear a loud explosion. As he made his way in, he was brushed aside by a familiar looking man. It was Heinz Kruger, the assassin of the man who created the super soldier serum.
“Somebody stop that man! He just killed Dr. Reinstein and stole the super serum!” a soldier shouted as Steve started running after. As Heinz got into his getaway car and drove off, Steve summoned all of his energy and jumped onto the back of the car.
“Can't let him get away,” Steve said as he struggled to hold on. “Can't let history be changed!”
The man in the driver's seat saw Steve hanging onto the back as he started driving wildly to shake the young man, shouting in German as he did. Steve hung on with everything he had, knowing that everything was riding on him. After a few tries, Steve was finally flung off as the man smiled, looking back behind him, not paying attention to the road ahead.
“Sheizer!” Heinz shouted as the car drove off the pier, landing in the water below. Steve got to the pier, seeing the car sinking.
“The serum,” Steve said as he kicked off his shoes and dove into the water, swimming toward the sinking car. He struggled to pull the door open but it was stuck. The water was murky, but Steve saw that Heinz hadn't been wearing his seatbelt and hit the windshield upon impact, dying instantly. Steve tried summoning all of his strength, finally opening the door as he looked inside to find the serum before he ran out of air.
As he looked inside the car, he found the vial of serum. Unfortunately it had been shattered in the crash, destroying the future of Captain America in the process. Steve swam back to the top of the water, breathing in the air as he reached the surface. Heinz Kruger was dead. Dr. Reinstein was dead. And now Captain America would never exist.
It wasn't too long before Steve Rogers was handed his discharge papers. With no super soldier project, the army had no use for a scrawny kid. It was all over. People were now going to die because of him.
But why did he wake up late? Yesterday it was 2013, and he was travelling the country with his new partner. Today he was back to being scrawny Steve Rogers, with no powers and no way to help people.
As he sat in the chair in his apartment, Steve let it all race through his mind. It all kept coming back to one conversation. The one that he'd had with Machinesmith some time ago*.
*Captain America #1
As Steve sat there, thinking about what was happening, one thing came to his mind as he stood up. “The world needs Captain America. They need a symbol of hope. I may not have my powers anymore, but darnit, Captain America's not going to go down without a fight!”
Steve pulled on his jacket and headed to the nearest costume store before heading to the junkyard. He was going to fix this or die trying. But first he had to find his closest ally.
Camp LeHigh
Virginia
Two Weeks Later
James Barnes, the camp mascot, was carrying a load of laundry to be washed when he though he heard someone whisper his name. He looked around and saw nothing when he his name whispered again. He looked around and finally saw someone motioning to him from behind a cabin.
“James, it's me,” Steve said as his former partner came closer. “It's Steve.”
“Sorry, but I've never met you in my life,” James replied. “Aren't you a little scrawny to be a soldier?”
“Aren't you a little young to be here?” Steve shot back. “James, something's happened. History's been altered and I need your help.”
“Sure, mister,” James said, slowly backing away. “I'm just going to get some help for you. Maybe some guys with a nice, white jacket.”
“Darnit, James!” Steve told him. “I'm not crazy! I was supposed to be injected with a serum that gave me super powers, fight Hitler and the Red Skull, then get frozen and wake up in the future. Yesterday was 2013, now it's 1940 and now there's no Captain America! Does that sound crazy to you?”
James just raised an eyebrow at him.
“Look, you're my closest friend and ally, you become my sidekick,” Steve told him. “We know everything about each other.”
“Really? Tell me something that no one else knows,” James said, wondering why he was giving this man the time of day.
“You auditioned for the Little Rascals and got one of the main roles, but you dropped out when Alfalfa made a pass at you,” Steve told him.
James gasped when Steve said that. “I never told anyone about that. How did you–?”
“I told you, history's been changed,” Steve replied. “Captain America's been taken out of the equation, and now a lot of people are going to die if we don't do something.”
“What exactly are we supposed to do?” James asked as he looked at Steve.
“We have to end World War II,” Steve told him.
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To Be Continued...
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