#8 Written by J Hammond Edited by Bob Gansler

Cast of Characters

Previously

Captain America ('Steve Rogers')  A man who grew up idolizng the original super-patriot. Due to a mistake on his part when he took the Super-Soldier seru, his mind has become affected, making him a racist madman. Bucky (Jack Monroe)  A young boy who idolized the first Captain America. He took the impure Super-Soldier serum and became a new Bucky. His mind has become affected by the serum, making him a racist. Commander Liberty (Jackson Adams)  A young black man who was inspired by Captain America to become a symbol for his people. He started as the African-American but assumed the identity of Commander Liberty at J. Edgar Hoover's request. He now is an FBI agent assigned to watch over the volatile Captain America and Bucky.

Cap finally confronted the New York gangland murderer…Baron Blood! They had a heated battle with Cap coming out the eventual victor. Bucky and Detective Brown battled the men behind Blood’s rampage…Mugsy Barlowe, mob boss hopeful. They quickly apprehended Barlowe and his men. At FBI headquarters, Hoover set Commander Liberty to work, honing his combat skills. Back in his apartment, Steve Rogers enjoyed a quiet moment with his new girlfriend, Marie Whitford, only to have it disrupted by a shadow looming outside his window…

Steve Rogers leapt from the couch, sending his girlfriend, Marie Whitford, toppling to the floor. Marie was still screaming, having seen a dark shape lurking outside Steve’s window…four floors up.

Steve started to advance toward the window when it shattered, sending glass flying everywhere in the room. Steve quickly dove on top of Marie, using his body as a shield against the glass. He grimaced at the pain he felt from the glass shards striking his body. Once he was certain the shower of glass raining down on him had ceased, he raised his head. His eyes filled with a familiar visage.

"Baron Blood! What do you want here?" Steve hollered above Marie’s constant screaming. Blood’s violent entrance had terrified her completely. The only way she could cope was to scream. Loudly.

"I told you at the warehouse this affair was not over, Captain. It was too simple to follow you! You really must learn to be more careful, my dear Captain. Your predecessor was never so careless."

"Steve," Jack Monroe yelled, running out of his bedroom, having been alerted by Marie’s screams. "What’s going on?" As soon as Jack saw the cause of Marie’s terrified screams, his face grew pale. "Baron Blood!"

Jack froze in his tracks, shocked to see the British vampire in his own living room. He glanced at Steve, trying to figure out what they were going to do. ‘Wait,’ Jack thought. ‘Steve’s mouthing something to me.’ It quickly dawned on Jack as to what his partner was asking of him and he darted out of the room.

"This is between you and I, Blood. Let her leave and we’ll settle this man to man, just you and I." Steve snarled, still clinging to the terrified Marie.

"Oh, but what would the fun in that be, dear Captain? Three will as easy to kill as two."

Blood suddenly slumped to the floor as his head snapped forward, courtesy of a thrown shield by Jack, now in his Bucky uniform. He tossed Steve his uniform and lifted Marie into his arms.

"I’ll get her out of here, Steve. You take care of Blood."

Steve lifted the prone form of Baron Blood and heaved him out of the broken window to the streets below and quickly pulled his Captain America uniform on. He had just picked up his shield when he heard Blood’s familiar laugh outside the window.

"Come, ersatz Captain America! Your predecessor died at the hands of the Reich. Now, you shall die by mine!"

"Not very likely, you limey bastard!" Cap bellowed as he leapt out the window at Blood. The star-spangled Avenger barreled into his opponent, knocking him from his feet. Cap began pummeling Blood with hammer-like fists.

"It’s bad enough that you killed all of those people in New York, but now you come into my home and threaten me and my girlfriend! You’re just asking for trouble, aren’t you?"

Blood threw his American opponent off of him with a hard kick and sprung to his feet. He charged at Cap as the flag-draped Avenger was just beginning to reassume his vertical base. Cap caught a glimpse of the charging vampire just in time to raise his shield, blocking Blood’s claws from slicing his throat. Cap heaved with all his weight behind his shield, sending Blood careening to the pavement.

J. Edgar Hoover stood on the observation deck looking over the training field as his newest agent, Jackson Adams, alias Commander Liberty, went through yet another training exercise. Libby, as Hoover’s agents had taken to calling him, was up to an expert level of training already. It didn’t seem…right to Hoover. Maybe there was more to the Commander than even he himself knew…

Hoover was snapped from his reverie by one of his agents shaking him by the shoulder. Hoover glared at the young man.

"What do you want, Johnson? Can’t you see I’m busy supervising Liberty’s training?" Hoover hissed. He shoved the young man’s hand off his shoulder and straightened his jacket.

"Sir…" Johnson stammered. It was clear the young agent was terrified of the Director. "We’re…um…we’re getting reports from downtown that Captain America is fighting some…something. They’re tearing up the streets bad! The mayor’s asking us for help…what should we do?"

Hoover stroked his chin for a moment, trying to decide on a course of action. He slowly turned his head back to the training levels and smiled. If Agent Johnson could have seen Hoover’s face at that moment, the smile would have made him even more afraid of the Director than he already was.

Captain America staggered back from another blow by Baron Blood. Cap’s blooded dripped from the vampire’s claws. Blood smiled a cruel, vicious smile at Cap and licked the patriotic Avenger’s blood from his hands.

"Quite an interesting flavor you have, Captain. I will enjoy feasting on you once I tire of this dance."

"Stuff it, Blood!" Cap yelled as he leapt at the Briton in a football style lunge, his shield raised up in front of him. Blood tried to evade the attack but he wasn’t fast enough and the two combatants crashed into a parked car, shattering the windshield.

Cap grabbed Blood’s head and proceeded to smash it into each of the remaining windows of the car, shattering each. Cap threw the battered vampire to the ground and pinned him down, his shield at his foe’s throat.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now. Not that it’ll work, mind you."

Cap pressed his shield a little harder into the Baron’s throat. Blood stared up at Cap, not a hint of fear in his eyes.

"You will not kill me because you CAN NOT, human!" Blood snarled as he threw Cap off of him. "I am a vampire, one of the living dead, Captain. I can not be killed by something as simple as mere fists!"

Cap sprung to his feet almost as soon as he hit the ground. He charged at Blood again, his fist cocked back. The vampire just stood his ground, waiting for his star-spangled opponent. Cap was almost in range for a punch when he suddenly switched tactics and threw his shield, catching Blood off guard. The discus hit the vampire square in the sternum, the force of the blow sending him soaring back and eventually slamming him into a building.

"Nice, Captain." Blood said as he pulled himself from the rubble. "Of course, you are nowhere near the level of combat ability of the original." Baron Blood inhaled deeply and let out a sigh of boredom. "I begin to tire of this, Captain. It’s time I turned this battle over to someone else, I believe."

"What are you talking about, Blood? Face me like a man. Finish this, you coward!"

Blood smiled, baring his fangs and spread his arms out wide.

"Come my brood. Kill the American fool and bring him to me so that I may feast upon him!"

Several forms materialized out of the shadows. It took a few moments for Cap to realize that they were the gangsters Blood had killed back in New York. Apparently, Blood had decided to make him his servants. They seemed to be mindless, though, upon closer inspection. ‘No matter,’ Cap thought to himself. ‘I’ll tear them apart just like anyone I fight.’

Several of the zombies swarmed at Cap, trying to smother him with their combined mass. More and more piled on and Cap slowly sank to his knees and disappeared beneath the mountain of undead. Suddenly, the zombies went flying in all directions, splattering on the ground and the buildings and vehicles in the vicinity.

"When will my opponents learn? That tactic never works against me!"

Cap tore into the approaching zombies, pounding any unfortunate enough to come within range of his fists, feet and shield. The zombies surged forward no matter how many Cap defeated. They just pulled themselves back together and swarmed at the American Avenger.

"Looks like I can’t let you can’t go anywhere without me! You always get into trouble!"

Bucky dove into the nearest zombie to Cap and pummeled it until it moved no more. He sprung to his feet and attacked several more in the same fashion. Same as before, the zombies simply reformed and began their attacks anew.

"Cap! This is crazy! These things are unstoppable! I knock one’s head off and four more take its place!"

"Think, Bucky. I know you stay up all night watching horror movies. How do you stop zombies? How do you stop them for good?"

Cap grabbed a zombie and, using a judo throw, sent it careening into a group of its fellows, bowling them all over. He spun wide with his shield, beheading several of his undead foes.

"Cap, I got it! We need to burn them!"

Bucky looked around, trying to find something he could start a fire with. His eyes slowly fell on upturned car, it’s gas tank ruptured. The All-American boy rummaged in his pockets till he found a pack of matches. He lit one and used it to ignite the whole pack and heaved it towards the car. Cap and Bucky dove to the ground as the tank exploded, raining shrapnel everywhere, except on Cap and Bucky, who were safe beneath the Sentinel of Liberty’s shield.

When the smoke finally cleared, Cap and Bucky could see that most of the zombies had been destroyed by the blast, turned into smoking piles of ash. The patriotic duo quickly set about herding the survivors into the flames. In a few short minutes, the entire zombie population of Washington, D.C. was annihilated. Cap and Bucky looked up to the sound of clapping.

"Very good. Very good indeed." Baron Blood leapt from the roof of a nearby building, gliding gracefully to the ground. "I wondered how long, if at all, it would take you to defeat my minions. Quite impressive, boy. You do your namesake justice."

"Blow it out your ear, Blood!" Bucky cried as he charged the advancing Baron. Bucky jumped and went for a dropkick, but Blood simply sidestepped and caught the boy in the back of the head with a hard chop.

"You must try harder than that to defeat me, boy."

Blood hammered Bucky with another punch, this one in the ribs. The boy howled in pain and slumped to the ground beneath Blood’s onslaught. Bucky’s eyes flickered for a moment and then, slowly, slid shut.

"BLOOD! Release my partner, NOW!" Cap bellowed, his voice so forceful not even the Baron could resist the urge to turn and look at the source. "Face me, leave the boy out of this."

"Surely you jest, Captain." Blood replied, picking the unconscious Bucky from the ground by the throat. "As surely as I will kill you, I will have this boy’s blood. It makes no difference if it happens now or after I finish with you."

Blood scratched Bucky’s face with his claw, drawing blood. He gathered some on his finger and drew it to his mouth and smiled.

"Most exquisite, Captain. Quite sweet actually, you really should try some, I believe. He doesn’t have nearly as good a taste as you, I’m afraid."

"You animal! You sick, mindless ANIMAL!"

Overcome by his anger, Cap charged the Baron, sliding his shield into his hand. He drew close to his target and, rather than throw the shield as Blood had expected, he swung it, slashing at Blood’s chest, creating a gaping wound on his pectorals.

Blood dropped Bucky and clutched the wound the Captain had made. It had been a long time since Blood had felt pain such as this. In a perverse way, he actually ENJOYED it.

Cap leapt into the air, preparing for a dropkick, but Blood leapfrogged over the star-spangled Avenger, but that feat didn’t stop the crazed super-patriot. He immediately spun around in mid-air and smashed Blood in the back of the head with his shield. Cap rebounded off the roof of a parked car and sprung back at the English vampire.

"I don’t give a damn if you’re Jesus Christ himself come back to life, thinking he can kick my ass! Like I’ve said to you and so many others before you…I AM CAPTAIN AMERICA!" Cap sent the Baron flying with a stiff uppercut to the jaw. "And Captain America doesn’t lose…PERIOD!"

"Oh, but you do not understand, my dear Captain." Blood sneered, rubbing his jaw. Cap’s most recent punch had hurt him more than he would have cared to admit. "I have more power in my index finger than you have in your entire body!"

Blood rose to his feet, a sinister smile on his face. He began advancing at Cap, his claws unsheathed and his fangs beared. Blood was almost ten feet away when he suddenly knocked from his feet. Cap looked past Blood to see a man in a red, white and blue costume leap down from a nearby rooftop and pick up a shield and trot towards him.

"I’m Commander Liberty! I saw you on the new fighting him. I figured I’d come and lend a hand!" Liberty extended a hand to Cap and the Sentinel of Liberty shook it warmly.

"Nice to see a real American trying to make a difference. Especially after that stupid darkie tried to impersonate me for the last few weeks."

"Yes, I…um…heard about that, Captain." Liberty stammered. Hoover was right. Cap seemed to assume that he was a white man underneath his mask. Hoover’s plan might work after all. "Shouldn’t we see to that guy you and Bucky were fighting?"

"Already on it, son." Cap slid his shield off his forearm and threw it at Baron Blood. The shield flew true, catching the vampire in the sternum just as he regained his vertical base. Cap charged at the prone Blood, catching his shield on the rebound. The practice he’d been undertaking with his shield was definitely beginning to show. He was still nowhere near the level of the first Captain America as far as shield slinging went, but he was respectable at it.

Blood again began to get back to his feet. This time, he was sent to the ground when Cap tackled him and began to rain punches down on him.

"I’m going to kill you for what you did to my partner, Blood, and if he dies…I’ll dig you back up and kill you again!"

"A wise man…knows when he is…beaten, Captain." Blood grunted as he kicked Cap off of him. "There are too many of you…for now." Blood hissed, observing Commander Liberty helping Bucky to his feet. "But be warned, Americans. I will be back and I will have my revenge."

Blood morphed into the form of a bat and took flight, soaring over the three heroes’ heads. Cap and Liberty threw their shields at him, but both missed their mark. Each retrieved their shield and turned to face one another.

"Thanks for the assist, son. Not that we needed it, mind you."

"Of course not, Cap. It’s just…you’re the reason I’m doing this. I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet you."

Liberty’s words were only partly true. Jackson HAD been inspired by Captain America to become the African American. And Cap’s refusal to represent minorities inspired him to continue in that role, picking up the slack Cap chose to ignore. He carried on, even when Cap himself threatened him. Now, he was Commander Liberty to help keep an eye on Captain America, and because Cap wouldn’t know his true ethnicity in this new guise.

"I’m sure we’ll see one another around, Commander. For now, though, Bucky and I have some personal matters to attend to." Cap called out as he and Bucky sprinted back to their apartment building.

"I’m sure we will, Captain. I’m sure we will."

Steve Rogers, Jack Monroe and Marie Whitford all sat around the kitchen table. Marie was clearly still quite disheveled from the night’s prior events.

"I know I probably wasn’t meant to know you and Jack are Captain America and Bucky, but now that I do…I hope it doesn’t change things between us, Steve."

"It doesn’t change what already was, Marie." Steve took Marie’s hand in his. "But it does add a new element to the mix. You have to promise you won’t reveal what you know, under any circumstances. Please."

"Of…of course, Steve. Your secret is safe with me. God, did I just say that? That sounds so corny?" Marie laughed.

"Good. That’s all I needed to hear."

Sentences of Liberty

I'm enjoying it okay. Which I don't mean to be damning with faint praise, it's just that...

Well, I haven't been blown away by any of the issues so far.

My dislike for Hoover (the historical one) makes me object to any depiction of him that's less than loathing - which is unfair, I know, but I really hate Hoover. :-)

Your prose doesn't make me cringe, and is improving. Believe me, that puts you several steps ahead of most fanfic writers – especially the improving part. You're doing a decent job of showing both sides of Cap and Bucky; I don't really want to like either of them, but you're making them more than one-dimensional characters.

I guess I'm just waiting for a story idea that will really wow me. It's not that your stories aren't good, just that they (so far) haven't quite been to my taste.

Maybe the story with the Russians will change my mind?

Jess

Sorry you haven’t been blown away by the stories yet, Jess. I’m still sort of new to this. Most of my experience is in art.

I’m working on making Hoover a little more dislikable. He’s by no means a man to be looked up to, that’s for sure.

I appreciate the compliments on my still developing writing skills. Let me know what you thought of this issue.

As for a story that will wow you, I hope my next idea will be that very story…the untold events behind CapIV’s origin.

Next Issue…

Comments, criticisms, and concerns for this issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA 1958 accepted at mailto:%20captainamerica3@mailcity.com