I don't hold back. There's no time. Machinesmith could be selling the formula right this second. But also... because I don't want to. These men are bullies. Brutes. Using the Super-Soldier Serum like steroids. And I won't deny how angry that makes me. 
Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Several bullies (Only appearance)[1] (Only in flashback)
- Machinesmith's Robots (Only appearance)[1]
Machinesmith (Sam Saxon) (Main story and recap)- Guardsmen (Last appearance)
- Super-Soldier Serum Subjects (Only appearance; dies)[1]
Other Characters:
- Nextin Pharmaceuticals (Referenced)
- Jacob Erskine (Mentioned)
- Project Rebirth (Mentioned)
- Abraham Erskine (Mentioned)
- United States Army (Photo)
- Lt. Cynthia Glass (Photo)
- Sharon Carter (Referenced)
- God (Yahweh) (Invoked)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- United States of America (Only in flashback)
- New York (Only in flashback)
- New York City (Only in flashback)
- Manhattan (Only in flashback)
- Lower East Side (Only in flashback)
- Manhattan (Only in flashback)
- New York City (Only in flashback)
- New York (Only in flashback)
- Madripoor
- United States of America (Only in flashback)
- Hell (Invoked)
Items:
- Super-Soldier Serum
- Captain America's Uniform (Photo)
- Captain America's Shield (Photo)
- Energy Shield
Synopsis for 1st story
In his childhood, young Steve Rogers was picked on by others bigger than him, seeing him as a weak, easy target. In the present, with the Super-Soldier Serum inside him deactivated, Steve is weak as he was in the 1940s and is now a prisoner of Machinesmith. He takes Steve to a lab, where he plans to extract a blood sample to recreate the perfected Super-Soldier Serum. Machinesmith explains that he is the one that convinced Jacob Erskine to change his surname and help them perfect his grandfather's serum. Or more accurately, his android wife Anita had convinced Erskine to change his name so as to draw Rogers out. Machinesmith reveals that he has based Anita's image off of a picture of Cynthia Glass, which Erskine's father kept as a memento. After that, one of Machinesmith's thugs knocks Steve out.
Steve awakens in a cell, where he is contacted by Machinesmith through a hologram. Machinesmith says that he doesn't need Steve anymore, and then, several guards appear to take him away. However, Steve breaks free of the guards and manages to defeat them through skill. He then returns to the lab and reactivates Anita, who reveals to him that they are in a secret lab inside the beach house. Anita accepts to help Steve and leads him to a room that contains a Vita-Ray projector. Anita exposes Steve to the Vita-Ray, reactivating the Super-Soldier Serum inside him. Then, they are attacked by guards, but Steve defeats them.
Steve and Anita take a car and drive away. Anita tells Steve that Machinesmith is holding a meeting with representatives of terrorist-supporting countries in a Nextin base with an airfield. Steve then goes to stop him and asks Anita if she is in his inside, and Anita says that she is.
Solicit Synopsis
His enemy stands revealed - but that's just the beginning of Steve's problems: Reverted to his former 98-pound-weakling self, Steve is trapped in the heart of the enemy's lair and fighting for his life!
Notes
Chronology Notes
A flashback in this story affects the chronology of the following characters:
Captain America / Steve Rogers
