Synopsis
Steve Rogers has a terrifying nightmare that Captain America is fighting a cadre of Nazi monsters only to end up at Bucky’s grave, with the ghost of his late partner haunting him for his failure. On awakening he makes an appointment with Dr. Faustus, a psychiatrist he met a month earlier. What Steve does not suspect is that Faustus is an enemy: he has been causing Cap’s nightmares by having his sidekick Ferret, a bellboy at Cap’s hotel, slip him a drug. On his way to the doctor, Steve spots Sharon Carter walking down the street and hurries after her. Catching up he finds she is not Sharon and a passing police officer takes on the face of the Red Skull. Believing he’s going mad, Steve runs to Faustus’ office, unaware that behind him the woman and the cop reveal themselves to be Faustus’ henchmen, using masks to dupe Steve. At Faustus’ office, Steve suddenly finds himself the prisoner of Nazi monsters, being shaken back to reality by the psychiatrist. Faustus prescribes stronger medication and sends Steve home, then shows us that the dream was created by actors in a concealed room. Back home, Cap works out with a SHIELD plastoid until Ferret arrives with the new pills. Cap awakens in the middle of the night to find himself an old wrinkled man, with Bucky recruiting him for a mission—a recreation of Bucky’s final adventure. When Steve fails to save his partner yet again, he breaks down into a babbling madman. Dr. Faustus arrives to commend his staff—when Cap jumps up and beats all the henchmen. A surprised Faustus asks what happened and Cap reveals that he had been suspicious and sent the pills to SHIELD for analysis. He only pretended to take the final pill and is wearing an old age mask. As SHIELD agents surround Faustus, the evil psychiatrist challenges Cap to single combat. It lasts one punch.