Chapter One

Steve's Life So Far + A Talk with Tony

Writer's Note:

In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark went to confront the sinister terrorist known as The Mandarin, only to discover that 'The Mandarin' was a man named Trevor Slattery. With the release of Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, the real Mandarin has appeared.

But what if there was an untold part of Steve "Captain America" Roger's story we never saw, one that involved The Mandarin himself. Brace yourself, true believers. This will be unforgettable; all rights belong to Marvel...

It feels like a lifetime ago, but it feels like yesterday when my life changed forever. I was an ordinary guy in Brooklyn, small and skinny, but I was still a brave and good person. Then I took the serum, that's when the world changed for me. My name is Steve Rogers, but most people know me by another name; Captain America.

A long time ago, I was living a normal life in New York. My father was a soldier who fell victim to the chaos of World War I, shortly before it ended. My mother died years later and I seemed to be alone, but I wasn't. I still had a family; Bucky was a friend to me. He was like the brother I never had. Then America was swept up into the turbulent events of World War II.

The war had its impact on many lives, including mine. Despite the problems that were ailing me, I was still brave and I tried to enlist only to be turned away. Then I met Doctor Erskine. Erskine enlisted me in the United States Army and I became part of a program that selected soldiers for a special project that would see the creation of Super Soldiers.

Despite the odds that seemed to be against me, I became the first guy selected to take the Super Soldier Serum. That was when I became reborn, no longer was I just some kid in Brooklyn, I was Captain America. After the change, Doctor Erskine's life came to an end when an agent of HYDRA, an elite Nazi organization, shot him and tried to take the serum.

Knowing well what had to be done, I chased the spy and caught him while saving a couple of lives in the process. After that, after a long tour around the states and in Italy as a poster boy, I finally saw action against the Nazis and HYDRA when I journeyed to a HYDRA facility to save Bucky. Before I changed, Bucky joined the army and headed off to war as part of the 107th.

I journeyed into enemy territory and rescued the captured soldiers, but as we were making our way out, that was when I encountered him for the first time: The Red Skull. Johann Schmidt had taken an untested version of the super soldier serum years prior and changed to become what he was. Despite Red Skull's attempts to stop me, I managed to save almost all of the prisoners.

Within the weeks and months after my heroics, the Howling Commandos and I were going after Nazi bases and taking out HYDRA outposts, determined to ensure that the Allies beat the Axis and ended the war. In early 1945, while capturing Dr. Zola on a train, we lost Bucky when he fell into an icy ravine. But I never gave up, I pressed on to confront the Red Skull.

Red Skull was planning on bombing as many cities as he could to ensure his conquest of the world, at this point, HYDRA had broken its ties with Adolf Hitler and was now a rogue Nazi group bent on conquering the planet. Knowing what was at stake and that the world had to be saved, I battled the Red Skull on The Valkyrie in the sky for the fate of the future and freedom.

Despite his strength that the serum had given him, it was thanks to my courage and the estranged power of the Tesseract that ensured the Red Skull's defeat. But victory came at a price as I made the sacrifice to save the planet by crashing the ship into the arctic. While the world was saved, I was lost in the ice until I was found and revived in a new world decades later.

After reawakening, I met Director Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D, who invited me into the Avengers program, and just in time too as the world faced a threat in the form of the renegade Asgardian known as Loki. To make things even more dire, Loki had taken the Tesseract, which had been recovered in 1945 after Red Skull was defeated.

Luckily and thankfully, the world had heroes in the form of me, Howard Stark's son Tony aka Iron Man, "Black Widow" Agent Natasha Romanoff, Doctor Bruce "Hulk" Banner, Thor and Clint "Hawkeye" Barton. Together, we founded the Avengers and put an end to the tyranny of Loki during the Battle of New York.

But in the aftermath, while the world may be safe and World War II may be long over, I still have a lot of changes to get used to and some catching up on history to get done. Even after many years, I'm still Captain America and the world still needs a hero like me. And I'll say this, you may never know when a new threat and a new adventure are both just around the corner...

It was mid-January of 2013, several months had passed since the Battle of New York and we had just about passed by the 70th anniversary of when I became Captain America. Today was a peaceful day for now and I was heading over to Tony Stark's place to pay him a visit. After his house got destroyed in December, Mr. Stark and his girlfriend Pepper had relocated.

As a matter of fact, they were living in a fancy house in upstate New York. I'd never visited Stark's home in Florida, but at this point, visiting Stark's old home was a missed opportunity. But at least Tony was in good health. When it came to me being aware of what had been happening on Stark's side of things during the Holidays, I'd heard a little bit of info.

Over the course of the week leading up to Christmas, I'd been working out and occasionally doing S.H.I.E.L.D business which involved simple missions. But whenever I had downtime or was able to catch a glimpse of someone watching TV, that was when I would hear news broadcasts about "The Mandarin" or his threatening broadcasts.

As Christmas drew nearer, I'd been on a treadmill at the local gym in Brooklyn when the next damn Mandarin broadcast came up. It was just sickening that this guy would "shoot" Mr. Richards when President Elias was calling him. Thank goodness that the crisis was resolved quickly, he was just as over the roof compared to Red Skull.

Loki? Different story, you can't compare the fake Mandarin to either villain. Most bad guys are different from other bad guys anyway, just as most heroes are different from other heroes. I'm not like Tony, I'm not rich and I can't use an advanced suit of armor, that's fine. Tony is Iron Man and I'm Captain America, we don't have to do any swapping or play 'what if'.

I drove my motorcycle up towards Tony's house and parked it near the driveway, making sure the motorbike didn't tip over as I got off of it. Tony's car was silently still, the trees rustled as the winter wind blew through the vicinity. A few orange leaves littered the ground, nothing to worry about since they could be swept up any time by anyone like, say, Happy Hogan.

Tony's good friend Happy was near the front porch by the door, sweeping leaves and traces of snow with a rake. When he saw me, he waved with one of his best smiles I'd ever seen. Whenever one saw Hogan, it was always wondered if "Happy" was his first name or if that was something he'd accepted during his boxing days. Either way, "Happy Hogan" was a good name.

"Hey, Cap. Great to see you." Happy said as I walked up.

"Great to see you too, Happy." I replied casually.

We shook hands and he put aside his rake for now as Happy led me to the front door. Tony came out to check on the raking and saw me. For a guy who'd been trying to take it easy after what happened in New York, he looked fine. Tony's hair was neatly combed, his mustache and beard were decent and he wore a nice pair of clothes.

Both of us hugged and Tony led me inside the house while Happy stayed outside to continue his task. The house looked very decent and comfortable to live in, nothing looked dirty or out of place. Everything was in order. The floor was swept and the counters were free of dust. A couple of pictures hung up on the wall, be it photographs or paintings.

Pepper was waiting for us in the living room with some wine out, the heater was on and a warm breeze was flowing through the house. I sat down on the sofa across from Tony and his girlfriend, we shared drinks and swapped stories about what we did over the holidays. Of course, since I knew very little about the events of December, Tony decided to fill me in on it.

"You're aware of 'The Mandarin' debacle, right?" He asked, "Well, it turned out that he was actually a washed-up British actor named Trevor Slattery. The real bad guy was an old friend named Aldrich Killian, he was working on something called 'Extremis' and he needed someone to take credit for any explosions that went off in public. Trevor was the perfect guy."

Upon hearing all of this, I was surprised. I'd seen the news and had seen the police taking 'The Mandarin' away, actually hearing him with a British accent really made me raise an eyebrow when he was greeting the gathered mob happily. It was like he'd been trying to throw off some people, but now, you could see the big picture in a new light and things made sense.

"Well, thank goodness you stopped Aldrich and that Pepper's ok." I remarked positively, "And Trevor sounds like he was a nice guy who was misled by a vengeful man." We changed the subject to something else and went back to sharing drinks while enjoying our spare time. Little did we know of what this week would have in store for the Star-Spangled Man very soon...