2013-01-27 What do you call a group of Captains America?

It's twilight on Wall Street and the crowds have gone home for the day. Aside from a few stalwart Occupy protesters and a couple homeless people, it's pretty empty here, so when the explosion blows the wall out of a major financial institution and the shrill alarm pierces the winter air, there isn't much in the way of onlooker chaos. An armored bank truck rolls up outside the gaping hole and the rear opens. Two men in masks jump out and take up flanking positions with their machine guns as four more from inside begin loading stacks and stacks of bearer bonds into the getaway vehicle.

Up above a lone figure stands with perfect posture on the rooftop, one foot on the raised edge, a shield carried proudly on his left forearm. One of the Occupiers points up at him, "It's Cap!" Captain Skull smiles as he takes the shield by the edge in his right hand, draws back and launches it downward in a red, white and blue blur. It ricochets off the side of the armored truck and on its second leg shears a machine gun and the hand holding it clean off the guy carrying it, who hasn't even registered it enough to scream yet. It smashes through two more thieves as the faux hero drops, springboarding off of a flagpole, somersaulting and coming down feet first into the chest of yet another. There is the crack of bone as he makes contact and then again when the body hits the ground.

"Drop you weapon!" the Nazi cries. The lone gunman licks his lips nervously, "O-or what?" Skull smiles again. "There's no or." He walks towards the terrified man, bending to pick up his shield on the way.

Financial institutions aren't the only businesses on the south end of Manhattan. Although the outlet stores are in the Garment District, several fashion giants do the monry work here as well. And that's why in a nearby office, Steve Rogers is currently showing some portfolio work to up and coming designer Janet van Dyne.

"While I appreciate the opportunity, Ms van Dyne, and it was fun work to do," says the commercial artist alter ego of Captain America, "Surely you have your owen people to do these posters."

Steve picks up a cup of tea while Janet flips through the drawings, and turns to look out the window. Just then all hell breaks loose on the street below. His square jaw drops as he sees a sight he never thought he's lay eyes on as it unfolded live - Captain America putting down criminals. Except far too violently. Steve is so surprised he can't say anything, can't do anything for the moment, but watch in horror as someone who looks and moves the way he does slices off a man's hand in sheer malice. The tea turns sour in his mouth.

"Well..." The woman Steve has been talking to turns away from the pictures she has been looking over, Janet's expression amused. "You see... I really don't have people, per se. More like a person." As in her. Janet looks at Steve for what has to be the millionth time since they've started this little meeting, and yet again her face goes a little flushed. Wherever he came from... they sure make their men super cute if he's an example of what people look like. "So you're /really/ helping me out here. I do appreciate that you're willing to do the work for me. Especially on such short notice."

Steve's expression is missed when he notices what's happening below, not only because he's turned away from her but because she's turned to the side now, musing over a color scheme that she is considering for an attempt at a 'spring line'. "So tell me about yourself. You're young, obviously handsome /and/ talented. Are you single?" Someone has yet to teach her not to mix pleasure with business, it seems.

The goon with the gun is now shaking with fear, the gun tip moving wildly around. He yells, "Stop! I mean it! I'll shoot!" The other one with the bearer bonds still in hand watches slack-jawed as Captain Skull keeps walking and a volley of bullets sprays around him, a few ricocheting off of the shield. "Yes, I can see that." Skull backhands/backshields the gunman and sends him flying through plate glass and into the building. He spins and eyes the remaining crook. "Oh my G-god, p-please don't hurt me. Please." His voice barely squeaks out, and it becomes evident that he has lost all control of his bladder. "What was that?" asks the star-spangled avenger. "Hurt you? Well, since you asked so nicely." He springs sudden as a tiger sweeping the shield back and over his head to be grasped in both hands, coming down in what looks like a decapitating finish. All around everyone in the area watch frozen in stunned anticipation.

"What?...Oh, I'm single..." Steve answers. To say his voice sounds distracted is an understatement. He puts down the teacup slowly. Instantly the shock evaporates to replaced by steely resolve. He turns back to his 'employer'

"Ms van Dyne - Janet - " he says calmly. "There is a violent crime going on outside." It's said with a straight face, as if one couldn't possibly hear the gunfire by now. "I'm going to call the police. I suggest you lock the door and find somewhere to hide. Everything will be fine." Steve states this with such calm, with such utter conviction that it misdirects from the fact that there is a phone in the room. It also makes it seem believable that he needs to bring the oversized valise he left by the door with him as he leaves. The whole performance is done with aplomb and grace - not some like someone more mild-mannered, or a billionaire playboy feeling danger.

Once out of the room Steve runs down the stairwell shedding clothes. An inner pocket of the valise opens to reveal the Shield of Freedom. As he pushes open the lobby door, Steve pulls the cowl over his head.

"Alright, mister!" Captain America yells to the impostor as he runs into the fray, "I don't remember authorizing a franchise!"

Janet's eyes go wide as Steve explains the situation, her head whipping towards the window once she hears a round of shots going off. "Right, right... I'll just..." Of course he's gone once she starts to speak, that striking her as a bit strange. "Alright. Well. I will /not/ be just sitting here, cowering."

The fashion designer grabs a bag of her own and takes it into the bathroom only to emerge several minutes later, dressed in the Wasp costume she recently designed. Gold-on-black, it's pretty eye-catching. And fashionable, too! Shrinking down to about four inches, the winsome creature flies off as soon as her wings are fully manifested, going as fast as those appendages can carry her.

Imagine her surprise when she realizes what is going on once the location of the altercation is found, the building not yet entered, however. She is peeking in a window, her small face and tiny hands pressed to the glass when she does. "What the... hell?" Yeah. Life just took a turn. For the surreal.

KRAAANG!!!

The interruption by the real Captain America is all that is needed to throw Skull off his stride and and break the robber out his frozen state. He falls to one side and the shield is smashed into the side of the truck, wedging there. Skull strains, trying to pull it out. He speaks quietly into his subvocal mic connecting him to his AIM lackeys watching from a Fox News/Hydra satellite above. "He's here. Power up the machine and initiate lock on targets 717 and 93070." A voice relays back to him, "Confirmed. Locking."

With a final surge, the shield comes free and Captain Skull turns to the real McCoy. "I don't know who you think you are, son, but I suggest you put down that shield and take off that uniform. Captain America isn't a title you can buy at Woolworths."

The comment about the now defunct five-and-dime brand brings a wry smirk to Captain America's face. Most people probably think Steve still talks like that, which means if he's made more appearances than that thing with the giant beetles, he's fooling the average person. The violence notwithstanding. Still that decapitation was likely going to make people wonder. Wasn't it? Steve hopes.

Cap puts the thoughts of his reputation and people's faith in him aside - there's a bigger issue at hand. "No, no it isn't," he agrees. "It doesn't come with a license to kill either."

Cap twists at the waist and snaps his elbow as he hurls his shield like a discus - he hasn't thrown it by the edge in decades either. It slices through the air straight for its replica like the arrow Robin Hood fired at the Sheriff of Notingham's bullseye.

Oh boy. This is not good. Of course Captain America (the real one, not the jerk copy cat who is dressed like him) can hold his own but Janet just can not keep out of it, not when it seems like she might possibly be needed at some point. Flying upwards a couple stories, the minuscule heroine finding an entry point in the form of a duct that is perfect for her to use. Shrinking down a bit more, she slides between the slats and then flies off, winding her way down the maze of duct work with zero difficulty.

By the time she enters the same room the others are in she has herself quite worked up, the little woman at a point of indignation that borders on righteous. "Hey! You fake bully! You're so going to get your ass kicked." Ha! She forgot she can't be heard but she's still big enough to be visible, especially when she gets closer to the fighting.

Even expecting the strike, Skull is almost caught off guard. He hasn't practiced those moves tens of thousands of times like Rogers, and the muscle memory makes a clear difference. SSSPAAAAANG!!! Skull barely tilts his shield in time to deflect the oncoming missile instead of take it head on. The energy modifications his AIM crew have made to the shield since the last public foray hold for now, and there is no apparent damage to the surface this time. "Since you didn't even bother to warn me, I'm going to have to assume you're hostile." The Skull is filled with liquid glee as his breathing deepens and his muscles relax. The dance! Trading blows with Rogers on the field of battle! Life is good. He hauls his arm and fist back behind his head and brings them forward, slinging his shield vertically back at the real Cap then begins sprinting to his right. Wasp enters his field of vision and he sends the feed up above, along with a message. "Locate appropriate targets quickly and lock. Execute 717 and 93070. Confirm." From his earpiece: "Confirmed. Executing."

Captain America frowns when his doppleganger's shield doesn't crack as expected. While its possible that in seventy plus years they've duplicated the accidental process that crafted the 'indestructible' alloy of his signature weapon, the Star-Spangled Avenger has been spoiled.

As the copycat weapon spins vertically at him, Captain America drops flat on his back to let it sail by. "Do Not Want."

Cap kips up to his feet and executing a cartwheel, stretches out his left arm. His own shield by now has ricocheted off a streetlight, a mailbox, and one of the few remaining phone booths in Manhattan to slide back into Cap's grip.

"You can stick to the choir boy routine all you want 'son', but it's starting to smell of self-delusion. By the time this hits the news, no one will take you for me. Why don't you tell me what this is really about!"

Cap starts to sprint to his own right intending to circle his impersonator, unconsciously engaging in the very dance Skull is reveling in.

Captain America is just about to muse on how much like his own the face until the other cowl is when he notices the tiny winged woman, her dark shape in front of the bright colors of his mirror image. He adjusts and runs right at the 'other Cap'. "I see you!" he shouts to her not having heard her shifted voice. "What's your part in this!?"

The thrown shield's deftly dodged, Wasp having no difficulty in doing so thanks to a bit of aerobatics. "Hey, watch it! I'm on your si... oh." Right. Too small to be heard! Frowning, Wasp focuses for a second and starts to grow, not too much so she won't be able to fly but enough so her voice can carry further than it does now. "I have no part in this, Cap... er, wait."

Frowning, Janet notices just how close the two patriotic-themed men are, it giving her enough reason to pause. "Which witch is which," she murmurs to herself, her gaze darting between one and then the other. "I didn't know Captain America came in a two-pack. How unfortunate." Gritting her teeth, Janet plays a quick mental game of Eeeny-Meeny and then shoots a volley of Wasp's Stings towards the one she saw make with all the violence and stuff. Or at least she /thinks/ it's the same guy. Could be the other Cap who seems to be fighting the other. Oh shoot. This bites.

As the combat deepens, some of the Occupy audience slip their way around, heading for the man without a hand who is in the process of bleeding out and intending to help him and any other injured. As true Cap springs to his feet and shifts his weight right, Skull's shield finds its true target, embedding itself in the gas tank of the SUV behind the super soldier. The current running through the fake shield ignites the fuel.

Ka-THWAAAAMMMM!!!

The blast sends the fake shield spinning up into the air and not right towards Skull, but not far from him either. He changes direction to intercept it when Janet's blasts start peppering him and force him into a complex series of acrobatics. He basically has to tack back in forth in handsprings to get to where he's headed.

"717 and 93070 arriving." VOOOORP. VOOOORP. Two blue vertical fields of light fade into existence and then fade out, leaving two new people in the mix. One is... Captain America? Only with a sidearm and some kind of rifle strapped to his back. The other is dressed in a blue Union army officer's jacket with white pants, 19th Century leather cavalry boots, a blue Native American headdress that covers the upper face and is crowned with white feathers and a hide shield of white and red with a native stylized white eagle in the center. He has an old revolver tucked in his belt. Together they both say, "What the...?"

Captain America watches as the newcomer fires energy blasts at his copycat. "Alright," he says, "you seem to be on my side. Look, I know you have no reason to believe me," Cap says to his tiny ally, "but I am the real Captain America. I would never do the thing he's done. I think you've already figured that out. Any help you can be, I'll take. Have you got a --"

Before Captain America can say "name", the SUV explodes, throwing him to the ground. He twists to put up the shield, hoping the hide Janet in its lee. As the shock wave subsides, the Living Legend gets to his red booted feet, momnentarily stunned. He blinks to clear his vison as the new pair of red-white-and-blue figures appear. "Wonderful," Cap mutters.

The Wasp smiles smugly as the blasts sends the fake into a bit of a retreat, it giving her a little chance to address the one who seems to be the real Cap. "I do believe you," she calls out, her wings flitting to keep herself aloft midair. "But look, we don't have time for this. We can do all the socially polite stuff lat.... eeeeep!"

The explosion has the diminutive heroine flying under the provided cover of Cap's shield which she is very grateful for but while she's safe her field of vision's obscurred and she doesn't see the newly arrived men appear out of thin air. "Hey, look. I can give that other guy a run for his money if you need a distraction..."

The two new Capains America don't stay frozen for long in the midst of all the carnage. The one with the guns dodges left pulling out his hand gun in his free hand, the other to the right. Pulling out his handgun in his free hand. It's like a weird mirror image the way they move. Skull hoots and points to the stunned native Captain America. "There is the man who is responsible for our being here!" He points over to the felled criminals. "He savagely attacked those men, then attacked me and even now is trying to kill the small woman! Get him!" Skull picks up his shield and charges towards his age-old enemy with murder in his eye.

Militant Captain America looks at Civil War Captain America, and they begin to follow.

Captain America actually facepalms. "That's a lie!" he yells to the newcomers. "If you wear that uniform for the same reasons I do, then judge for yourselves!" He pivots and runs at his still unrevealed arch-enemy. If it was a weird reflection watching the armed Captains move, this is surreal.

Captain America pulls his left elbow in to guard his flank with the shield, and throws a right cross at the Ameri-Skull.

Jan peeks out and then flies off just before Captain America runs to face his foes, her eyes narrowing when she realizes that they number more than just the one from before. "Oh no..." Chewing her lower lip, she does the only thing she can think to do, that being firing more energy bolts from her hands, these aimed at the same man as before.

"Please listen to him," she cries out imploringly to the not-of-this-world men. "Cap's telling the truth! He isn't the one you should fight. Please join us in taking the fake out!" Not that she expects to be listened to but hey. Hope. It's a good thing!

KLOK! Finally, after all these decades, the Red Skull takes on on the chin from Captain America again! The crowd goes wild! Seriously, the onlooking Occupy camp has been following this from the beginning, and they know what's what. "Yeah! You get that fascist caveman, Cap!" Ironic? Beyond. Skull spins with the force of the blow and just manages to keep his feet by dropping his free hand to the ground. Blood drips from his mouth and it stretches wide into an evil grin. There is something very disturbingly familiar about that grin, but it may be mixed up with the fact that it's Steve Rogers' face sporting it. "Steve Rogers, how I have waited for this mom-SCHEISSE!" He is peppered with Wasp stings. He back pedals until he trips and falls behind the approaching Captains. They step forward and stop. "Ma'am," the frontierish looking one says to Janet. "Sir," the more modern one says to Cap, then continues, "I don't know what's going on here. I don't know why I'm here, or even where here is. This is New York, but it's clearly not my New York. I don't see any any World Trade Center, so that's a little clue. And I don't know if I should be on your side or his side," Skull, "or even *his* side," Civil War cap, "but I do know that I'd like you to drop your weapons until I figure out just what the Hell this is all about. Do you understand?"

In Skulls ear comes the voice, "Sir, we are having problems with the equipment. Magneto's damage was extensive as we told you, and I can't vouch for their integrity much longer."

The word fascist. That grin - even on Steve Rogers' face - that unmistakable grin. The German profanity, and to top it all off he knows Captain America' name. There can be only explanation, but can Cap afford to believe?

"No, there is no World Trade Center, Captain America," tells his alternate counterpart. "It was taken. Taken by people like him." Cap points an accusing red-gloved finger at the fallen man. Hope? How's 'I hope I'm wrong' for hoping?

"Taken by the man who stands for all we stand against. And Johann Schmidt you are going to tell me how you managed to be here, if I have to drag us both into Hell to you make you!"

Bending both legs until he's almost on his haunches, Cap leaps forward. He puts one hand on each of the alternate Captains shoulder's and swings his legs between them, vaulting at his greatest enemy feet first.

The Wasp comes to a hover over the fallen man, her hands held out in front of her like she might fire some more bolts at him, her expression stern. Angry even. "Stay down," she yells, her voice tight from emotion. "No more fighting, no more lies, no more trying to ruin Captain America's good name." She doesn't have any weapons so the other Caps should be alright with her actions, she believes. Besides. She's not doing anything bad. She's just trying to make sure the bad guy stays put.

The Red Skull gets to his feet in time to take the kick to his chest. He is rocketed backwards into the base of a statue and wheezes, but he's smiling now. "I told you... you can't... trust him." Immediately the other two Caps grab Rogers from each side and immobilize him. Keeping a calm face now, wiping the blood from his mouth, the fake Captain says, "I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of being attacked for things I didn't do. I'm perfectly willing to prove who I am, even if you are not." The other two Caps are watching him now as he raises a hand slowly to his mask and begins pulling it off. Hiding the grin of triumph deep inside is the hardest thing he has ever done, but it is worth it a million times over.

Hauled to his feet by the other two, Captain America realizes that to throw them off is only going to futher play into the Red skull's hands. So he doesn't. If Schmidt thinks it hard to keep a poker face, imagine how Steve feels as he realizes what Skull is going to do. "That's not going to work either," he says. "What happens when I let them unmask me? Then we are back to square one. I won't stop no matter what you do."

Cap looks to the left and the right at his 'captors'. "But I would never casually throw away the power of being a symbol like he is about to do. Or the responsibility. I suspect neither would you. And that is why you must know, in your very souls who is really Captain America in this world or any other." This is the last card Steve has - the ability to inspire, to get people to do the right thing. If it moves the common soldier, surely it resonates with the two men holding his arms.

The threatening manner in which Jan keeps her hands thrusted out before her is turned onto the others, her heart starting to pound in her ears. "Don't you see what's happening," she chokes out, sounding like she is about to cry. "Look with your hearts, not your eyes, dummies! Can't you see it? Look at what is going on!" A finger is pointed accusingly at the felled figure, that hand shaking. "You two can stop this right now. But the question is... do you have the balls to?"

The two Caps are watching, listening the whole time. It's amazing how alike they are with the man they are holding. Quiet. Calm. Steady. They don't lessen their grip for a moment, but without speaking a decision is made. Captain Punisher's gun arcs out and points directly towards Skull's face as the mask is half way off. "Put it back. Now. I still don't know who to believe, but I see no good reason for you to expose these men." The Skull snarls, "Are you kidding me? Put that gun away before I--" CLICK. "Before you what?" Civil War cap releases Rogers and flanks Skull from the other side. "I want to go home. Now. There are people counting on me."

Captain America exhales in relief as his gamble that some things are constant pays off. The observation by the man in the Union attire reaffirms his belief in -- well everything. For a moment he thinks about Professor Erksine and for once actually feels worthy of the man's work. He stands straighter.

"That's checkmate, Skull," he declares, finally admitting that this is somehow the Red Skull returned. "Unless you think you can defeat _three_ of me and our flying friend, surrender, and tell us how to send these men back where they belong."

There is static in Skull's ear piece and then the two visitors are enveloped in blue for a moment before they vanish. Skull looks up at Rogers and grins fully now. "Done. And I don't think I can defeat you, my old friend. I already have. You just don't know it yet. Skull to Outpost 1. Take me home." More blue, this time around the arch villain. "When we meet again, Captain, it will already be too late." And then he's gone.