[b][i]S.H.I.E.L.D. CASEFILE #000341

CLASSIFICATION: Above Top Secret[/i][/b]


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[b][i]NAME:[/i][/b]
[b][color=0054a6]Steven Grant Rogers[/color][/b]

[b][i]KNOWN ALIASES:[/i][/b]
[b][color=0054a6]Captain America[/color][/b]
William Nasland
Jeffrey Mace
William Burnside
[b][REDACTED][/b]

[b][i]CAPABILITIES:[/i][/b]
Rogers is one of the world's finest athletes and fighters. His strength and speed dwarf that of the average Olympian. He has been clocked at a sprinting speed of [b][REDACTED][/b] with a long jump of [b][REDACTED][/b]. His reflexes border on the superhuman. His endurance and durability are well above-average. Advanced cellular regeneration gives him a limited healing factor.
[i][b]Do not engage alone.[/b][/i]

[b][i]BACKGROUND:[/i][/b]
In 1939, the Strategic Science Reserve, under the command of [b][REDACTED][/b] and by orders from [b][REDACTED][/b], initiated [i]Project: Rebirth[/i]. The program, designed by Dr. Abraham Erskine, was commissioned to produce America's first genetically enhanced Super-Soldier. After an extensive nationwide search, viable candidates were invited to [b][REDACTED][/b] to participate in drills designed to determine the best possible test subject. The selected candidate was Steven G. Rogers. 20 years old, Rogers suffered from asthma, rheumatic fever, heart palpitations, and sinusitis, among other ailments. On [b][REDACTED][/b] 1940, Rogers was administered Erskine's serum and exposed to [b][REDACTED][/b]. Following the experiment, Rogers' many ailments were cured. Additionally, the serum provoked extreme cellular growth, resulting in the rapid development of ligament and muscle tissue. Hereafter, Rogers operated at peak human-level performance.

Assuming the title of 'Captain America,' Rogers was deployed in [b][REDACTED][/b] on [b][REDACTED][/b] 1940. Following missions in [b][REDACTED][/b] and [b][REDACTED][/b], Rogers worked alongside the Howling Commandos and the Invaders. The latter team, which consisted of [b][REDACTED][/b] thwarted Axis attempts to create a war-ending superweapon. At the conclusion of World War II, Rogers was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service. In order to obscure America's progress in genetic engineering, all formal documents and evidence relating to Captain America were classified or destroyed. In subsequent conflicts, Rogers assumed a pseudonym, as to avoid arousing suspicion over his unnatural longevity. The official position of the United States government, the Strategic Science Reserve, and S.H.I.E.L.D. was and is that Captain America never existed.

Following his participation in the first Gulf War, Rogers cut all formal ties with S.H.I.E.L.D. He currently resides in [b][REDACTED][/b]. He is not considered to be a threat to the United States or S.H.I.E.L.D. Periodic surveillance has been approved by [b][REDACTED][/b].

[b][i]KNOWN ASSOCIATES:[/i][/b]
Colonel Nicholas J. Fury
Agent Sasha Bordeaux
Jason P. Garrick
Sylvester Pemberton (deceased)
Samuel T. Wilson
Clinton F. Barton

[b][i]VISUAL REFERENCE:[/i][/b]
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[img]https://i2.wp.com/www.hypergeeky.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Steve-Rogers-in-Captain-America-7-2.png[/img]
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[b][i]ADDENDUM

CLASSIFICATION: Unclassified[/i][/b]


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[b]What Makes This Character 'Ultimate'?:[/b]
Well, obviously the biggest thing is that Captain America didn't die in the 1940s. In fact, he came home victorious and -- by virtue of his stunted aging -- went on to participate in every major American conflict through the 1990s. This is a Cap who isn't a "man out of time." He's been there every step of the way, and he's watched the evolution of the nation he loves... And it's a big part of the reason he hung up the mantle. This is a more world-weary Cap, a Cap who's lost a little of that trademark faith and can-do attitude. Make no mistake: this Steve Rogers still looks for the good in others and doesn't back down from a fight. He's just a little rougher around the edges than the traditional portrayal.

[b]Sample Post:[/b]
Sasha Bordeaux was growing impatient and having a hard time hiding it. As the unmarked black SUV wound through the mountain pass, its engine quietly humming as it climbed, she sat in her seat and fumed. Information was everything to a special agent, and right now she had none. Her boss, Director Nick Fury of SHIELD, had told her nothing of the purpose for this excursion, save that it was a matter of "great importance." Knowing everything that was on the line, she couldn't help but feel like they were wasting their time.

To the Director's credit, despite the fact that he hadn't looked up from his documents in nearly half an hour, he still managed to somehow detect Bordeaux's frustration. Without so much as a glance in her direction, he merely turned the page on his report and spoke aloud, [b]"Is there something bothering you, agent?"[/b]

"With all due respect, sir," Agent Bordeaux began in a tone that suggested anything but, "we've been driving for hours, and you still haven't told me what exactly we're doing out here."

Director Fury looked up from the file in his lap. His lone remaining eye studied her briefly, betraying neither reproach nor sympathy for his subordinate's annoyance. After a moment, he sat up in the seat and closed the folder. [b]"Tell me, Bordeaux, what do you know of Captain America?"[/b] he asked with the restrained insistence of a schoolteacher.

Bordeaux was taken aback. Knowing this was somehow a test -- and determined, therefore, to succeed -- she gathered herself and began reciting what she knew. "He was a propaganda tool from World War II. He and the Invaders were characters created by wartime cartoonists to inspire hope and sell comic books."

[b]"And as far as the public knows, you're absolutely right,"[/b] Fury conceded. [b]"But I'm about to let you in on a secret that maybe a dozen living people know: they were real."[/b] He paused to give the revelation some air to breathe. [b]"The old stories about a German scientist, an experimental serum, the lone test subject? They're all true."[/b]

Agent Bordeaux took a second to process this information. Her reaction was not one of surprise; she had been with SHIELD far too long to be surprised by anything. Instead, she answered curiously, "Then why make everyone believe it was just propaganda?"

[b]"After the war, it was decided that Captain America was most valuable as a covert asset,"[/b] Fury explained. [b]"A disinformation campaign began, starting with the story that Captain America perished at the end of the war while saving the world from an Axis superweapon. Once the world believed he was dead, it was a simple enough thing to convince them that he had never been alive to begin with. All evidence was destroyed; folks who knew anything were silenced. Captain America became a ghost. And with each proceeding conflict, America unleashed its ghost under a different name. Witnesses were discredited, made to look like paranoids furthering a decades-old urban legend. Americans got to sleep tight while Steve Rogers fought for them."[/b]

"Until he didn't," Bordeaux observed.

Fury gave a little nod. [b]"Rogers is an old soul. By the time I met him, he'd been fighting for half a century without end, each conflict murkier than the last. It started to take a toll on him. He couldn't reconcile who he was with what the world was becoming, and he left."[/b]

Agent Bordeaux narrowed her eyes, suggesting, "But you're not telling me everything." She thought she detected a hint of surprise on Fury's face, but his features were so damn difficult to read that it was impossible to tell. Even still, she saw fit to press a little harder. As she motioned to the blur of green passing by their windows, she said, "If you're someone like Rogers, you don't come all the way out here because you're looking for a taste of the simple life; he's secluded himself for a reason." Satisfied with her deduction, she added, "Besides, SHIELD doesn't just [i]let[/i] people walk away."

[b]"They do when those people can single-handedly topple regimes,"[/b] Fury countered. Just then, the SUV slowed to a stop. They were here... wherever "here" was. Agent Bordeaux followed Director Fury as he climbed out of the car. They were in a small clearing outside a modest log cabin. The pickup in the driveway was so rusted that it looked as though it might fall apart the second it moved. And there, sitting on the patio, was a man who -- to Bordeaux's eyes -- looked no older than his early forties. Like Fury, his expression gave away nothing that he might be thinking.

The Director took the lead. [b]"Captain Rogers. It's been a while."[/b]

The man who might've been Captain America made no move. He simply scanned his eyes across the SUV and the agents who had emerged from within. After a moment, he said, [b][color=ed1c24]"[/color][color=0054a6]If you've come to kill me, you didn't bring enough men.[/color][color=ed1c24]"[/color][/b]
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