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Captain-America.US
What If Captain
America woke up in 2099?
by "Cap Writer" a Captain America Fan
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Keeping in the great tradition of Marvel “What If” storylines came last Fall’s 2099 series of one-shots. Here’s my take on Captain America. DISCLAIMER: I love the U.S. and I have the utmost respect for Canada. The following is a wild, what-if scenario not meant to belittle or minimize anyone, but rather to peak the imagination and allow you to fill in your own gaps.
Captain America 2099
I. Rebirth The year is 2005. A young, sickly Bay Area man named Steve Rogers, 21, is closely following the war in Iraq as his older brother Ben, 24, is serving as an elite Army Ranger. One day a military official knocks on Steve’s door and notifies him that Ben heroically died in combat – sacrificing himself for the good of his unit. The official – Agent Thraun – gives Steve a folded flag and several valor awards that Ben is awarded posthumously.
Steve asks Thraun if there is anything he can do to serve the military and honor Ben’s life and death. Thraun looks over the fragile young man and says no, but before leaving he says that there is one thing Steve may be able to do. Thraun tells Steve that he can volunteer to be the first of an extremely risky top-secret project that could end in death for Steve, if he chooses to participate. Steve, with no family and nothing to lose, agrees to take the risk in honor of Ben. Being a big fan of superheroes, Steve is enamored with the idea of taking a risk for the good of man-kind while doing something his brother would be proud of.
Steve enters the black-ops program known as the “Super Soldier Project,” a joint effort between the controversial Bay Area Lab Co-Operative (BALCO) and the Federal Government. Steve is transformed into a super soldier with all of the combined strength, endurance, speed, agility and explosiveness of the greatest Olympians in history. Steve’s health concerns are a thing of the past, as his body is now at the peak of human efficiency with no side effects.
Shortly after the success of the experiment, BALCO is shut down due to controversy over high-profile professional athletes and performance enhancing drugs. BALCO’s owner is thrown in jail where he commits suicide, taking the secrets of the Super Soldier Project to his prison grave.
Steve Rogers takes the codename “Captain America” and leads coalition forces to victory after victory in Iraq, Afghanistan
and other Middle East countries known to harbor terrorists, weapons of mass destruction and illegal nuclear weapons projects. From time to time, he teams with S.H.I.E.L.D. and other superheroes on specialty missions too dangerous for rank and file soldiers.
After four grueling years of fighting, Captain America symbolically ends the first war on terror by capturing Osama bin Laden and bringing him to justice. All the while he receives not a single word of publicity throughout his brilliant career, seemingly leading an invisible existence. Because of his anonymity, Cap looks forward to returning home to a life of peace and anonymity … but instead a different twist of fate awaits our hero.
II. A strange, new reality
Upon arriving stateside, Cap is told that he needs to undergo an extensive biological analysis that may help unlock the secrets to the super soldier program. Cap goes under anesthesia and never comes to. Agent Thraun and other government agents associated with the super soldier project pronounce Cap dead.
Fast forward to year 2099. Cap awakens, groggy, his vision is unclear and sensitive to light, his memory is a blur and he is shivering from ice-cold chill. After regaining his senses, he is greeted by a team of military doctors who welcome Cap to the year 2099. Cap is convinced he is dreaming or that the doctors are trying to pull a fast one on him. After showing Cap significant proof, he asks for details about what happened. The doctors explain that the experiments on his body went horribly wrong and left him in state while under the anesthesia. The government of The United States of America and Canada decided to keep Cap alive in a cryogenics coffin until it had sufficient knowledge to safely revive his slumbering person.
Cap freaks out – not at the story of his freezing and revival – but at the “and Canada” now part of the United States. The doctors explain that both countries found it mutually beneficial to merge in the year 2069, with Washington D.C. and the White House still recognized as the capital of the country, observing a President and English as its sole language. Canada’s most visible contribution was the addition of thirteen Maple leaves added to the far right side of the thirteen red and white stripes of the old American flag. Canada also contributes an infrastructure for many successful social programs and policies. All Cap can say is “this is crazy.” They tell him of international plans to absorb Greenland and Mexico as states that would spawn the new name “The United States of North America.” Cap asks why the U.S. simply doesn’t take over the world and call itself the United States of Earth. All of the scientists stare at each other uneasily, as if sharing some secret. They tell Cap that S.H.I.E.L.D. will further handle his re-assimilation once they are
finished checking his vital signs and running a standard physical.
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