Many years ago in the Arctic Circle: a band of Eskimos discover a man frozen in a black of ice. Believing it to be a sign from the gods, they work to remove the ice block from the ground when it suddenly vanishes in a flash of light. Tath Ki, the Contemplator, has seen this from a nearby hill, and despairs that Captain America has been kidnapped again….
Tath Ki visits the Watcher at his base on the moon and tells him that Steve Rogers’ body is being removed from a multitude of timelines and that the rate is increasing. The Watcher is unconcerned though Tath Ki presses on him the urgency of the possible multiversal catastrophe. As he pleads for help in solving the mystery, the Watcher himself is erased from the reality….
Camp Lehigh, April 1941: Steve Rogers, the newly created Captain America is preparing for his first mission when he vanishes in a bright flash of light….
New York City, the present day: As news reports reveal that Captain America is James "Bucky" Barnes, suspected of being the former Soviet agent known as the Winter Soldier, Bucky Cap is battling Neo-Nazis (see CAPTAIN AMERICA (2009) #611). Trying to suppress his worry about the future, he sees Tath Ki appear before him requesting his aid for an urgent mission. He pursues the ghostly mystic out of his reality…
…and into another where gravity is entirely relative and several other heroes are entering from other portals to other dimensions. Bucky is introduced to his counterparts: Steve Rogers, the original Captain America (who has not yet met Bucky in his timeline); John Walker, once Captain America and now the U.S. Agent; Shannon Carter, American Dream from the next generation; and Kiyogi Morales, Commander A from the 25 century. Tath Ki explains the urgency of the matter: parties unknown are removing the original Cap from a critical moment in time and he needs their help in tracking down those responsible to avoid unleashing a catastrophic entropy wave. The hard-headed Walker considers this all nonsense and the others are somewhat skeptical since their timelines showed nothing happened to Steve Rogers. To allay their doubts, Tath Ki sends them all into an alternate world…
…which is a fascist dictatorship with a red-white-and-blue patriotic veneer. The five transported heroes are confronted by armored police. The Americops try to arrest them for wearing masks in public without authorization but the heroes fight back and flee the reinforcements that follow. One of the stormtroopers pursues by jet pack but American Dream takes him down with her discs. The groups seeks refuge in an alley but a giant shield crashes into the ground, blocking their way. They look up to see a twelve-foot-tall simulacrum of Captain America—the Ameridroid—who orders them to surrender or face lethal force….