Antarctica...
It's a vast land of frozen terrain. Nothing should be able to survive here. The wind howls. Snow is kicked up. Ice-flows lazily float along the water. A single mining vessel floats along the waters. On deck, scientists mill about, wearing protective clothing to help against the cold. The captain jots down a few notes on his pad of paper before a crew member calls out to him, "Captain, take a look at this!" The captain and several crew members curiously look over the side of the boat. In the water below, a large structure is clearly visible, indicating some sort of drilling tower. From the looks of it, it seems to be roughly seventy years old. "Might as well go down and take a look," the Captain tells his men.
An hour or more later, a small deep-sea vessel is launched under water. It dives down with only a single occupant. The vessel descends past the drilling tower, which is iced over. Farther down, the remains of a small structure are visible. Large pillars of frozen stone and metal jut and twist out of the darkness. The lights of the vessel provide the only source of illumination as it sinks deeper, exploring more of this destroyed compound. "You guys getting all of this?," the vessel's pilots asks as he controls the camera on the bottom side of the vessel. In the boat on the surface, several crew members and the caption watch the screen intently. "Is that what I think it is?," one of them asks. "It has to be," another answers. The vessel is now reaching the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. There are several piles of rubble, but one thing catches the pilot's eye. He moves in closer. Up ahead, there is a large metal cylinder with a foggy window. It is man-sized and seems to have been built specifically for preservation. Along the side: a Nazi swastika. He moves in closer, shinning his light on the foggy window of the cylinder. There is a lot of ice, but he can barely make out what appears to be a very human face. The light lowers and through the ice, a white star is visible on a metal surface with what appears to be a blue and red circle around it. "My God!," he exclaims.
SHIELD Headquarters. - Location: Unknown
A black military helicopter comes in for a landing outside of a secluded base. It's night. There are only a few lights, concealing the base as much as possible. The helicopter lands as several men rush toward it. The rear compartment opens into a ramp. Inside, a large, metal crate is wheeled out. The agents rush the crate inside and down a hallway. It is finally brought into a secured loading area where it is opened by a security clearance card. The crate opens mechanically and the agents pull the Nazi cylinder out on a cart. The device is still partially iced-over, indicating that the crate was keeping it cool. It is quickly wheeled into a nearby laboratory. A mechanical device moves the cylinder onto a table and the cart is wheeled outside. Scientists in white uniforms surround the cylinder and study it briefly as they shine spotlights on it. The lead scientist ignites a laser torch and begins running it along the bolted seal in order to get it open.
Behind a large window pane, a man in a suit watches the scientists work. He is an older man with graying hair. He turns as the sliding doors behind him open. A figure in a black trench coat rushes into the room. This is Nick Fury, the Director of SHIELD. He comes in, business like, flanked by two silent agents. "Colonel Fury," the older man greets him. "Agent Simon," Fury shakes his hand and looks out onto the floor of the lab, "I was informed of everything before I got here, but why don't you explain it to me yourself. I wanna hear this in person."
"A mining ship from Stark Enterprises found a sunken drilling structure in Antarctica. They believe it was the old mining compound that was used during the second World War."
"They were drilling for vibranium, right?"
"Yes,... in both instances, actually," Simon walks over to a nearby table and picks up a folder, "As you know, the compound was top secret at the time, so it has been lost for the past few decades."
"And they found him at the bottom?," Fury indicates the figure inside the cylinder.
"Yes."
"And we know it's our man?"
"We are about 95% sure."
"What about the Pentagon? What did they have to say?"
"Typical Pentagon denial at first, but we managed to get through the red tape this morning," he hands the folder over to Fury, "They faxed the information we needed a few hours ago."
"So... who was Captain America?"
"The information's all there," Fury looks through the folder as Simon continues, "Steve Rogers, born in 1917 to Irish immigrants," Fury comes across an old, black and white photograph of Steve: young, handsome, but sickly and thin, "He was diagnosed with polio at a young age. Refused admittance in the US army twice."
"So this scrawny white boy ended up becoming the living legend of World War II?"
In the lab, the cylinder lid rises, releasing a cloud of steam and a hiss. The scientists carefully raise the lid as Fury and Simon give it their full attention. The ice on the window cracks and slides off. As it open farther, more ice falls to the floor, partially melted. Fury watches carefully. A final cloud of steam falls out and as it clears, the body underneath can be seen more clearly. It is Steve Rogers, but he looks very muscular and healthy despite his pale complexion. His costume is still iced over, but it appears to be a torn leather uniform with bits of chain mail poking out of the tears in the fabric. On his partially exposed chest is a round, metal shield with a star at the center with a blue circle around it. There are two red circles surrounding it and a single white band between them. Despite the state of everything else, the shield remains shiny.
"It appears so," Simon answers Fury.