While waiting to meet Nick Fury at a carnival, Captain America spends a moment to get his fortune out of a fortune telling machine, which reads "tomorrow you live, tonight I die!". This fortune would prove ominous when Cap realizes he's walked into a trap by Hydra who attack him with guns blazing. Seeking cover, Captain America comes to realize how much danger there is in his life and how easy it is for his enemies can reach him because his true identity is public knowledge. As he fights off his attackers he demands to know who Madame Hydra is, but none of the Hydra assassins talk. He fights the Hydra agents into retreat, and Cap decides to go looking for Rick to make sure he's okay.

While at Hydra headquarters, the leader of the attack on Captain America is brought before Madam Hydra who kills him for his failure, by exposing him to a hallucinogenic drug. Meanwhile, at Avengers Mansion, Cap and Rick go through a training session. While Rick does well, Captain America goes through a routine to show him how to maximize his effectiveness in acrobatic fighting. While this was meant to be instructional, Rick takes it as a failure and once more gets down on himself for not being as good as the original Bucky. Later, Rick goes to the door when the doorbell is rang and find an envelop addressed to Captain America marked urgent. With Cap currently out of the mansion, Rick decides to open it to see what the message is about. This turns out to be a Hydra trap and Rick inhales a dose of hallucinogenics. Rick has a hallucination where he is being judged by Bucky himself, however Rick tries to show that he's worthy of the title and that Bucky is dead. When the Hydra agents burst inside the mansion they find Rick instead of Cap knocked out. They decide to take the boy hostage so that Madam Hydra doesn't punish them by at least brining her a hostage that will draw Captain America to her instead.

As they are leaving, Captain America returns to the mansion and spotting the envelope he detects traces of the narcotic used in it. Rushing outside he attacks the Hydra agents just as they are about to load Rick into their getaway car. However, the Hydra agents manage to get away, and when Cap grabs one of them for questioning he's shocked when the agents of Hydra kill one of their own men. With Rick their hostage, Cap laments that none of this would have happened if people didn't know his true identity.

At Hydra headquarters, Rick is brought before Madam Hydra, who believes that Captain America will go back to the carnival where they attacked him earlier to search for clues. She then orders Rick be locked up, but he manages to escape and flee to the carnival to try and warn Captain America. Cap meanwhile is already there searching for clues when he is attacked by Hydra's Mankiller robot. During the fight, the robot tries to blow up Cap with missiles that are loaded in it's chest. Cap lunges at the robot and blocks it's launches with his shield causing a backfire that destroys the machine.

As a Hydra ambush starts setting up to shoot Cap, Rick arrives and warns Captain America of the danger. Suddenly, Cap makes a jump for the water as the Hydra agents open fire on him. To all witnessing it, it appears that all the bullets strike Captain America as he lands in the water. Hydra retreats as the police arrive on the scene, and when they go searching the water for a body, all the find are Captain America's bullet riddled uniform and a lifelike mask with the likeness of Steve Rogers. With this discovery, the police conclude that Captain America was never really Steve Rogers at all.

This story is continued next issue...

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