Supposedly killed in the assault on
Hydra headquarters (ALL-NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA #6), Nomad (Ian Rogers)
had found his way to the Infinite Elevator which takes him to an
alternate New York, a dark and ugly one built by Hydra. Ian spots a
kid spray-painting graffiti on a building and the kid panics. They
are then surrounded by a Hydra police patrol. Ian takes them all down
in a furious fight, then heads off to find out what happened to the
kid....
The kid (Christopher Miller) is taken
away in a cruiser and brought before the holographic image of Arnim
Zola. In view of his bad record, Zola sentences him to “sanitation.”
The boy is taken to a massive incinerator where he is tied up with
other convicts awaiting immolation in the giant furnaces and his
ashes put to a more useful purpose. As Chris is about to be tossed
in, Nomad arrives and saves Chris, telling him to free the other
prisoners. Nomad fights his way out and sabotages the building
explode. Ian takes Chris to a rooftop where the kid explains how the
world is a fascist dictatorship ruled by Hydra (and wonders why Ian
doesn't know this). The kid is suddenly decapitated by a thrown
shield with the Hydra emblem on it. Captain Hydra has arrived and he
is startled to see Ian. They fight and “Cap” unmasks to show that
he is Leopold Zola—the man Ian was meant to become....