Cap then went to the Shield TOC to check in. Sharon was there going over some items with agents. He joined her. "Just spoke with Fury. He was pleased." "You don't seem so." "I am; but it was only a battle." "You saved dozens of lives; and had many others arrested. As for the baddie dead; they'll never hurt anyone again." "Yeah." He looked over at the wall monitors that watched the traffic Shield was following; he folded his arms before him. Sharon looked him over, notably the Nomad shield on his back, and smiled a little. He caught this. "What?" "Nothing. It's like you're still you; but different." "Bad?" "Good. Like the beard too. Warriors wear beards." "Thor would say I copied him." She laughed a little. "Maybe. But he is Thor; and you're Nomad. Both super bad asses." "I'll keep that in mind."

It helped him relax a little. Sharon noticed that. "Wanna get back to shop again?" "Yeah; that'd be good. I wanna bag this Salazar guy. He's evil." "Yeah; he is." She led him over to a side group of monitors. "We've been watching his Juarez compound rather closely. He's been making a lot of calls. He intends to move more people; along with everything else."

Being old Cap would have made it a little harder going right into there and taking him out. Both for optics and diplomacy aspects. With Nomad it really did make a difference. One wouldn't think so but it did. Nomad was the dark Captain America. Perhaps the American Winter Soldier even. Now there's a thought.

But there was also something... different about Nomad. It really was a ronin equivalent. A wanderer; with no lord or country. Akin to Musashi. It was philosophical; spiritual even. A warrior pilgrimage. Cap's faith had grown deeper in recent years. He didn't follow any organized religion; just a growing belief in something more. God or something. Maybe I'm just getting older; senile even. Ridiculous of course as the SSS kept his genetic structure constantly at its apex. He didn't age. Although he did gain more experience with life. That could still affect everything else. Make one feel older; different. It still affected perception. That in turn still affected everything else.

"One of the calls was more interesting than the others..." Sharon didn't keep her boyfriend in suspense. He saw what she meant. "He spoke to a flag smasher cell; right here in New York." "Correct. They're in on it together. Shield estimates suggest that the flag smashers are more deeply intertwined in this national mess than originally thought. From Covid to the race war things. It's all the flag smashers. They're targeting cops as misdirection for imposing globalism on the world." "Sounds about right. I was wondering when these dots would connect."

"The flag smashers should be our priority then," she said. "Both because they are domestically positioned and also because they are the greater threat." Cap agreed; but there was still a part of him that wanted Salazar's head stuffed/mounted on a wall. "Do you have a mission profile worked up for me?" "Of course. It's already been uploaded to your server." "Thanks Sharon." "Steve; do whatever you need to. You're Nomad now."

He knew precisely what she meant by that. "I will."

xxx

That night Cap went out ready to wage war. He'd do whatever he had to in order to restore stability to a country that was tearing itself apart. As Nomad he was free to do that now. He was still the shield of freedom. Molon labe... Since coming out of the ice Cap had read very deeply into the Spartan ways. Fascinating stuff. He felt like kindred to them. Their way was timeless; inasmuch as he was out of time. But time was both something the Spartan way and he had defied. And they would defy it again now.

As he'd done with old cap he mostly only carried his shield again. He still carried various utility belt gear when in the field. But his shield was his mainstay again. He'd had no problem with using guns swords or any of that. But the shield just felt natural. He was a shield fighter at heart it seemed. Just style preference.

Cap rode his Shield issue motorcycle to the flag smasher target. He got some looks by denizens as he rode to his next target. He was still throwing some people off with the entire Nomad change. Keep them guessing. Nothing wrong with that.

All anyone had to know was that he meant business. He turned down an alley and stopped the bike there. It was a strange place to leave it in some ways but with Shield tech it was secure and trackable. In other words not a good idea for a person to steal.

Making sure it was clear Cap went to a building side and scrambled up it almost as good as Spidey. Upon reaching a rooftop, unassisted, he flipped over and landed in a crouch. He then leaped across several rooftops.

He then reached the best vantage to surveil the target. He went prone. He focused his eyes. He had compact binos in his belt but didn't think he'd need them for this job part. His eyes zoomed in to a point. He could make out the flag smasher cell members. By their faces. Shield had good intel on some of them. Some were perfect matches. Cap could confirm it with eidetic recall; a super soldier benefit.

Shield and Sharon are right. These guys are smashers. And they are right here in New York. The Brooklyn native would make them regret ever coming to his town.

He pulled off his shield. He was gonna enter his way. He ran off the roof and leaped for the target window a few floors down. He crashed through and landed in a roll. The smashers were stunned. They didn't have time to recover. Cap was up and bashing them down. He had the cell leader tactically separated for interrogation.

He killed the others with quick powerful blows. The cell leader scrambled for a gun but Cap drilled him with a roundhouse kick to the face that stunned him good. Cap kicked the gun away.

"We're gonna have a little conversation." Cap brought his foot down hard to shatter the smasher's ankle. Yep; definitely not Captain America anymore. Just Nomad now...