Having been returned to 1945, Steve Rogers settles into the familiar life like any other GI returning from the War: taking in a Dodgers game, shopping for new clothes and wondering what he is now going to do with his life. Yet something is different: he can’t get in touch with General Simon, his attempts to explain to black people how racial tensions will ease are taken as a rude joke, and he still can’t locate Peggy Carter. When he finally contacts Simon, he realizes there is nothing he can say….
In 2010, in the thick of battle with Kang, Rick Jones gets an emergency call on his Avengers IdentiCard….
Steve reads about the Invaders in the paper and notes that it did not take long to replace him. He tries to express his confusion to an old pal named Noonan; Steve mentions how Bucky did not survive but he left some other friends in trouble, and now he feels like he failed them too, and there’s no way to reach them. Noonan quotes Captain America, "There’s always a way." He goes home and ponders his IdentiCard, and gets an idea….
As Bucky races toward Cap’s room in the Mansion in 2010, Steve in 1945 writes a note and places it in General Simon’s framed portrait of Cap along with his IdentiCard. It is programmed to set off an alarm on the day Kang arrives on Earth; the note explains exactly where Cap will be at a given time and, sure enough, Reed Richards arrives in his time machine to pick him up and whisk him back to the 21st century and his comrades. Cap invades Kang’s ship just in time to aid Rick in freeing Iron Man and Giant-man from their cells. The united Avengers assault the alien invader, forcing him to retreat from the planet. His grateful teammates appoint him field- commander and Iron Man salutes.
Some time later, as Steve is hiking in the Grand Canyon, he writes in his personal journal how he has adapted to his new era once he started acting like a captain, leaving the past behind and moving into the future. He once asked Bucky what purpose Captain America served outside of war. "It was a foolish question. There’ll always be something to fight for. And I’ll always be a soldier."