Pakistan - May 2, 2011, 30 Minutes After Midnight.
My name is Sean Mason. Years ago, I was a part of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, abbreviated as DEVGRU. But you may know them as Seal Team Six. Our mission was to Terminate Osama Bin Laden. We were used as canaries, if he wasn't there we'd sneak off and no one would know we were ever there. However, Bin Laden was there and we were going to kill him.
"To be honest, I'm surprised they didn't just bomb this place." My friend Justin Lenihan said to me. "Maybe he's not here at all, but the CIA seems to think the Intel is on the money." I responded. "If he isn't there, then he has to just be a ghost at this point", said Justin. "If he is, he's going to wish he was a ghost if I get to him." Justin laughed before jokingly aiming a finger Gun at me before quipping "light's out!" followed by an audible "bang!" from his voice before turning his finger gun back into a fist, fist-bumping me. Suddenly our team leader, Patrick Grayson shouted, "Who's ever been in a Helo crash?" to which everyone on the chopper rose their hand. "Ok, so were good then." He said before we felt extreme turbulence, some of the men getting tossed around like rag dolls in the chopper as it crashed.
"Black Hawk Down! Black Hawk Down!" I hear the pilot yell into his radio. The chopper got a little too close to a mountain and our tail got damaged. A few stayed behind with the chopper while the rest made distance from the chopper to finish the mission. After a short trek we found the compound. It was me, Patrick, Justin, and five other seals. We stealthily broke into the compound; it was pitch black dark.
We had our night vision, our tactical gear, and our suppressed weapons. But it wasn't enough to stop one of Bin Laden's wives from stumbling onto us as she was coming out of a bathroom before screaming her head off. "Shut her the fuck up!" Patrick ordered. But it was too late, a couple of guards armed with AK-47's started shooting down at us from the second story. I was already close to the staircase, as my comrades were pinned down, I flanked the two guards and sprayed my HK416 into them. About ten feet from those men was a room with a closed door, but the lights were on.
I peeked my head from the second story. "Clear!" I relayed before closing the distance between me and the room, which also separated me further from the rest of the team. Before they could get up the stairs to me a half a dozen armed men rushed in. Suddenly, I could faintly hear a man frantically talking to someone on the phone. I had a feeling this was it, right behind this door is the man we've been hunting down for over a decade, the man responsible for the death of my family on that fateful day a decade ago.
I tried to wait for my team but every instinct in my body wouldn't let me. The adrenaline from the gunfight made me kick the door open. I lifted my rifle as I came face to face with Bin Laden. Armed with a golden plated desert eagle, already aimed at the door, luckily his aim was shit. The bullet missed me but hit my HK416, disabling it. As the recoil surprised Bin Laden, I quickly unholstered my issued Sig Sauer P226.
The two opened fire simultaneously, both men hit their target. Bin Laden laid dead with 2 bullet wounds to the head while Mason leans on the wall on the opposite side of the room, clutching his bleeding chest.
The rest of the team caught up behind me, Justin quickly rushing to my side. Patrick double tapped Bin Laden's body again with his rifle before running towards me while shouting for medical. As Justin desperately tried to stop me from bleeding out, I take his hand in mine and I utter out my last words. "For my family", my bloody hand wrapped around a picture of me, my brother, and my parents. It was the last picture of us all together, only a short time before the towers fell. I must have died right there in that room because I entered a dreamlike state walking toward a light.
I stopped when I heard soft voice speak from behind, "your journey doesn't have to end here." The voice came from a light, smaller than the big white one and it also had a blue hue to it. "You brought justice and avenged not only your family but thousands of others." I didn't what to say other than to counter with "I'm not a hero, I'm just the guy who pulled the trigger." The voice replied "No, you are much more than that." She explained to him that there's a multiverse and that our souls can transcend the boundaries of different universes… with a little help.
"There's a place where a good man like you could mean the difference between life and death for millions. Or you could keep walking to the light beyond me and go to the… next place." She spoke. "What do you mean make a difference? I'm dead!" The voice replied, "Yes, Sean Mason is dead. But… It all doesn't have end just yet. In my world, the frozen body of Steve Rogers has just been recovered".
Her answer perplexed him. "You mean Captain America? How? He's just a made-up character!" She laughed, "In your universe maybe, but in many others, he is very real." She elaborated, "Steve's body has been perfectly preserved in the ice. However, his soul has long since left the body, he crossed into the next place decades ago." Mason was piecing it together, "So you're telling me that you want to put me- err my consciousness into the body of Steve Rogers?"
The light was silent for a second before responding "That is correct." She continued on, "You are familiar with the world he would have inhabited, tell me exactly why it shouldn't be you?" Mason hesitated before responding, "Because I know my family is in the next place, and all I want to is to see them again!" The voice was silent for a few seconds.
"Believe me, I understand what you are going through, but you have the opportunity to be the hero my world needs." the voice argued before stopping herself. "Who are you?" Mason questioned. The light suddenly changed its form to that of a beautiful woman that the he recognized. "You?" Mason was beyond perplexed. "Peggy Carter? How is this possible?" He stammered. "Because this was my world, and I've seen glimpses of its future without a Captain America… without him".
Mason understood her point but still had questions. "Why can't Steve Rogers just come back from the next place and reclaim his body? I asked." She replied, "Because there is no coming back once you actually go to the next place." Mason was piecing it together, "You're a ghost with unfinished business, that's why you haven't crossed over yet, and it's not that you can't go to the next place. It's because you don't want to."
Peggy nodded, "You're not wrong, but I couldn't let an opportunity like this go to waste, if we move quickly you could get into his body befo-" "Before what?!", he cut her off. Peggy stood-fast, "Before they try to revive a house with no lights on." She said bluntly before sighing again. "This world needs Captain America, and time is running out." "What do you mean?" He questioned. She decided to show him a vision of the chunk of ice with the body of Steve Rogers inside being removed from an arctic tomb. "They are going to try and revive the body, if you're not in there, then my world would have lost one of its greatest defenders."
Sean Mason thought hard about his decision, while one half of him wanted to just forget about it all and cross over to the other place, his other side however found it difficult to turn away from someone who was in need of his help. "Maybe I should chance it", he thought. "It's not everyday a supernatural entity offers to insert your soul into an empty shell body, IN ANOTHER WORLD, much less a world where really anything could be possible…" he stopped his thought and turned towards Peggy. "I'll do it." He told her. "Really? You will?" She looked up both shocked and pleasantly surprised.
Peggy wrapped her arms around him and then took his hands into hers. "Thank you, I knew I made the right call choosing you." Mason asked, "So what happens now?" "There's so much I want to tell you but there just isn't enough time." She then pulled him close to her again, her left hand still locked into his right while her right hand is placed on his forehead. "What are you doi-"he was interrupted. "Just close your eyes, clear your mind, and relax." She spoke. Suddenly, His entire body felt like it was heating up to its boiling point and he blacked out.
A series of lights flashed through his consciousness, the day his family died on 9/11, memories of his time as a Navy Seal flooding his mind. Then he flashes back to when Bin Laden aims his desert eagle at him then shoots. The last image made Mason awake with a jolt, he slowly began to gain some clarity onto where he was. On a slab, in some sort of medical facility. "Oh my god, this guy's still alive!" he heard a voice yell out.
I blacked out again shortly after I first awoke in Cap- I mean. MY new body. I woke up to the sound of a baseball game playing on an old timely radio. I look around the room, observing my surroundings before a nurse entered the room. "Morning", She greeted before double checking her watch. "Or should I say afternoon" Correcting herself. "Where am I?" I asked. "You're in a recovery room in New York City", she replied. "New York? But how? I died!" Slowly the memory of Peggy Carter re-entered my mind and I quickly ran to mirror in the room to check my reflection. I couldn't believe it… the face staring back at me wasn't my own… and to be honest it freaked me out. I stared wide eyed into the mirror for a good while before the nurse began to get worried. "Is everything okay Captain Rogers?" she asked.
Being called by HIS name freaked me out even more causing me to have a panic attack. "I-I just need to get some air" I said as I started walking to the door she came through. "Captain Rogers wait!" I heard the nurse call out before I opened door only to find myself in what looked like the inside of a warehouse with a big matte painting outside the windows of the room. Two security guards came at me at the same time but it didn't take much effort to put both of them on their asses. "Right… super strength" I thought to myself as I ran out the exit.
The door opened to what looked like an office building, awkward glances were exchanged before a voice on an intercom relayed "All agents code 13! Repeat! All agents code 13!" I sprinted to an exit, knocking down a few security guards along the way. Once outside I ran until I found myself in Times Square. Half a dozen blacked out vehicles surrounded me before I heard I heard a familiar voice call out "At ease soldier!" I turned around and Nick Fury, eyepatch and all. Was walking toward me. "Sorry about the show back there, I felt it would be best to break it to you slowly." I knew what he was saying. "How long was I out?" I asked. Fury spoke plainly "You've been asleep for 70 years Captain." I started to feel queasy after he said that. "Are you okay?" He asked me. "Y-yea I'm fine" I said, pulling myself back together. I looked around, "I just needed some air". I said while taking in my surroundings.