Flashback to 1995: the scrawny young test subject is implanted with a processor which releases timed doses of Acetovaxdol (AVS) into his bloodstream—but there are no results, he remains unchanged. The supervisor of this new Super-Soldier Project, Admiral Jimmy Westbrook, fires a gun point blank into the subject’s head. As he suspected, this shock kick starts the chemical and before their eyes the boy grows into a muscular hero, equal to Captain America….
At the Miami hospital, the Anti-Cap holds an injured Falcon hostage while Cap tries to distract him with a phony sample of the coveted virus. The baddie catches on too quickly and throws Falcon at Cap and takes his leave. Cap and Ali Morales head after the villain, while Falcon contacts Robbie Robertson in New York for information on Acetovaxdol, which the DNA sample Ali obtained (issue #1) revealed was in Anti-Cap’s bloodstream. Meanwhile, Leila realizes that she was set-up: the whole mission was a trap orchestrated by ONI and SHIELD to trap the rogue super-agent and recover the missing bug—and she was just a pawn. Robbie gets back to Falcon that AVX is a super-steroid, similar to the one tested on Luke Cage, and is water-soluble, meaning a subject would have to take regular doses to maintain its effects….
Cap and Ali pursue Anti-Cap though the stormy streets and he surprises them from ambush and quickly overcomes Ali, and then he and Cap engage in a slugging match that ends with the villain defeating the hero and seizing his shield. Cap pursues him though and during the battle they have a running conversation about the meaning of patriotism. Anti-Cap has come to relish wearing the red-white-and-blue uniform for its feeling of power. And he attempts to justify his going rogue—preferring principle over his orders—because Cap himself has done it many times. He insults Cap as an old-fashioned hero designed for an old-fashioned war when goals were clear—but the War on Terror requires the will to fight above everything. "You are a product of America’s hope; I am the sum of America’s fears." Cap criticizes him as a fascist, which Anti-Cap isn’t buying. And now they have reached Ali Morales’ sub and the rogue agent plans to escape so he can unmask the traitors who made the deal with Rivas to examine the bug. Falcon arrives and tells Cap that his foe will soon sweat out his steroid—but that will take too long, so Falcon detonates charges he had implanted in Cap’s shield, knocking the Anti-Cap cold. Now the question is, what to do with him? Cap is unwilling to return him to his handlers since they would likely eliminate him….
Steve Rogers calls a meeting with Nick Fury and Jimmy Westbrook at a Texas diner. He refuses to turn to prisoner over to ONI and will not give the bug to either agency. The Admiral gives him a dark look and leaves….
Epilogue: Damocles Rivas vows revenge against those responsible for the death of his brother…in a way they will not expect. And the Scarlet Witch, disguised, recovers the virus sample ("WWIII in a petri dish") from its hiding place in the Rivas bathroom….