At the Pale City, backstage at the
Front Door Cabaret, Captain America and Lyra (Life Incarnate) are battling an army
of hideous monsters trying to break through. Lyra tells Cap that the monsters
are people she once knew who are no longer alive and would not want to be in
this condition so he need not hold back. So he doubles down, slaughtering the
grisly pack with his new crystal shield which now responds to his needs as the
old one could not. Just when the enemy seems to be thinning out, Lyra tells Cap
that they were merely the scouts then the combat resumes in earnest, any of the
monsters that get by and reach the entrance to the Front Door are met by the
theater’s regulars, fighting on a second front. And then her brother arrives,
Death Incarnate, a red-eyed glob with four arms and the usual sardonic manner.
Lyra warns Cap to look at him only through his crystal shield. The villain taunts
his sister and her hero, offering to show Cap his death: Cap is in the same
spot, choosing to sacrifice himself for the others but making a fatal mistake.
He tells Cap to look at Lyra through the shield and she looks like pure light—but
“Brother” is then able to touch Cap’s right arm, rendering it dead and useless.
Lyra promises that Cap will stand against the foe, who then vanishes to wait
for another time. She helps the wounded Cap back to the cabaret…
…where they discover that Mari,
the girl with butterfly wings, has died in the battle. Lyra can call her back
but it would leave her with no power to heal Steve’s arm; he insists that she
raise Mari, which she does. But through love she can also heal Steve but with a
cryptic limitation: it will stay healed for the rest of his life but not until
the end of his life. Steve understands. Before Steve goes he has one last
question: why him rather than the X-Men or Thor or Captain Marvel who all have
more power? Lyra tells him it’s because he has only one cause in his life: to
protect the innocent. She reveals that she is gathering those who have the potential
to affect the coming nexus but four are missing and she wants Steve to find
them. As he departs, Teresa hands him his horoscope, which outlines his heroic
qualities and encourages him to love.
The emcee welcomes the lost and struggling
to the Front Door where they are under protection….