Camp Griggs, USMC Forward Operating Base
South of Dilla, Ethiopia
0340 Hours, Local Time

Natasha would have preferred going on the helicopter with Steve and Rhodes, but her cover story as an intelligence liaison had put her in a proverbial corner. With no combat role, her chances of inserting herself on the mission were nil. Her ( Read more... )

U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69)
Somewhere in the Red Sea
1800 Hours, Local Time

The Greyhound shook and shuddered as it landed on the aircraft carrier's flight deck. Despite Ramirez's assurance that it was all quite normal for a carrier landing, it had Steve thinking about those rickety transport planes he'd been in during the war ( Read more... )

Chapter 1

Naval Air Station Sigonella

Sicily, Italy

0800 Hours, Local Time

Mt. Etna was as impressive a sight in 2015 as it had been in 1943. Steve let his eyes roam over the vista for a few moments before returning to his sketch pad. He almost had the eastern slopes right....

Focusing on his drawing was more than an attempt ( Read more... )

James Barnes was not stalking Steve Rogers.

He'd gone to great pains to keep Steve away. Going after an organization like HYDRA was a dangerous, ruthless business. That danger didn't phase James-after all, he was living on borrowed time. He should have died seven decades earlier, when he fell from that train in the Alps. If ( Read more... )

Present Day

Somewhere in the Canadian Rockies

British Columbia, Canada

"Foul creatures!" Thor snarled as he slammed Mjolnir down into the midsection of a multi-legged HYDRA battle drone. Mechanical components exploded as the hammer channeled an immensely bright bolt of lightning through the robot. "They lack the courage to meet in battle ( Read more... )

That water's gotta by ice cold by now, Sam mused to himself. Barnes was still in the shower. Sam hadn't left the corner, as instructed. But, he had slid one of the dinette table's chairs over and sat down. No reason to stay standing, after all.

Finally, the water stopped running, and a few minutes of shuffling sounds later, ( Read more... )

Present Day

Washington, D.C.

The Oval Office

It was after 11 o'clock when the C-40 touched down at Andrews Air Force Base. Two Secret Service agents in dark suits escorted Steve to a black Suburban and he was in the Oval Office just before midnight. President Ellis was there, as well as the Secretary of State and an Army general. Ellis ( Read more... )

Present Day

Camp Atwater

Decommissioned U.S. Army Induction Center, Northwest Missouri

The former Camp Atwater had been built in 1916, during the military buildup before the United States' entry into World War One. It served as a recruitment hub for the central Midwest, then as a training camp between the wars, and again as a recruiting ( Read more... )

Chapter 4            The hotel room is colder than he remembers. James tries to sit up, but he can't. Alarmed, he looks down to find a series of thick leather straps holding him to a table. He panics, struggling to break them. He should be able to, but he can't ( Read more... )

Chasing Ghosts, Part I

Chapter 3

Present Day
Two Months After the Fall of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Three Hours Outside of Cleveland, Ohio            Steve ended the call and glanced at Sam, who was squinting over the steering wheel to see better through the rain-soaked windshield. The unexpected derecho over the Midwest was not welcome. While it wouldn' ( Read more... )