00. | THE FIRST AVENGER

To: S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent CLASSIFIED
From: Agent Sitwell
Subject: The Winter Soldier

During out investigation we recovered the followed top secret files. These records have been obtained through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most advanced form of spy technology: nano-camera and sound recorders, security cameras hacked by S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel, as well as recorders hidden in plain sight, in objects like pens, watches, phones, and computers, to name a few. After careful consideration, we have agreed to allow you limited access to these documents. This information is vital to the safety of S.H.I.E.L.D. As we look back at the events involving Operation: Winter Soldier, we can see the strengths and weaknesses of S.H.I.E.L.D., and in order for you to be a vital part of our organization, you must be able to analyze these files, both physical and digital, and understand their importance to the future of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the world.

Sincerely,
Agent Sitwell

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THE WORLD WAS AT WAR, and American was sending all its young men off to fight. Everywhere you went, you could see posters of Uncle Sam asking Americans to take their parts in the battle.
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Steven Rogers, a scrawny and sickly kid from Brooklyn, just wanted to be a soldier. But his poor physical health prevented him from enlisting. He knew there were severe consequences for forging information during the draft process, yet that didn't stop him from traveling to various recruiting centers and trying to enlist. One recruiter after another grabbed a huge stamp and slammed it down on his form. The stamps all read the same: 4F - REJECTED. Knowing he could not apply twice at the same location, Steve said he was from Hoboken, New Jersey; Paramus, New Jersey; Brooklyn, New York: anywhere to try to get into the army. But the response was always the same: You're not good enough. Not strong enough. Not fast enough. Not enough...
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Steve's best friend, James Buchanan Barnes, or, as his friends called him, Bucky, took Steve with him to the World Expo in hopes of cheering him up, but Steve left Bucky and wandered around on his own. Ironically, he found a recruiting center. There he met a genius scientist name Dr. Erskine, who told Steve he could get him into the army, but it would involve being a part of a very special project. After having attempted to enlist in five different cities, Steve accepted his offer. What did he have to lose? Steve asked the doctor why he chose such a small and scrawny person. His reply: "Because the strong man who has known power all his life may lose respect for that power, but a weak man knows the value of strength and knows...compassion."
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At the same time, he met Peggy Carter, an agent of the Special Scientific Reserve who, like Steve, worked very hard to gain the respect she deserved in the army. She might not have been weak, but she was a woman. Women were supposed to stay home, but Peggy Carter was like Steve and wanted to help. Steve was smitten.

He felt like his life had just begun.

​A few weeks into basic training, Dr. Erskine told Steve that he had created a Super-Soldier Serum, a serum that would grant him peak physical abilities. He informed Steve that the serum would not only affect his muscle; it would affect his cells as well and create a protective system of regeneration and healing. Steve's metabolism would burn four times faster than the average human's. The serum would amplify everything in the mind as well. So good would become great, but also, bad would become worse.

​Steve had the mind and fortitude of a soldier, so, fearless, he went into the lab and emerged a Super-Soldier. He was no longer a skinny kid, who weighed 95lbs and stood at 5'4"; he was a muscular man, who now weighed a bulky 240lbs and stood at 6'2" and had the strength of an entire army! Dr. Erskine reminded Steve that he must stay who he was. Not a perfect soldier...but a good man.
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Suddenly, a spy seated in the gallery of spectators observing the operation shot Dr. Erskine. Steve ran after the man and tracked him down. The spy was a part of HYDRA: a sinister organization bent on taking over the world. HYDRA was led by the Red Skull. Before Dr. Erskine came to America, he'd live in Germany where he had created the Super-Soldier Serum and injected it into a German soldier during one of Erskine's early trials. The serum turned the man into the Red Skull, with a creepy red face and a heart that was driven by pure evil. It seemed the spy shot Erskine so he would not share the serum with anyone else. Red Skull wanted to be the only one with that power!

Steve Rogers wanted to go to Europe to fight HYDRA, but history repeated itself. Steve was told he couldn't fight. Instead, America used Steve as a spokesperson for the army. He became Captain America, a living Super Hero. There were comic books based on Captain America and a hugely popular traveling show in which Cap (as he was now called by the locals) showed his strength and his belief in the army. Captain America had become a song-and-dance act.

​Finally, the Super-Soldier was sent to Europe, but it wasn't to fight in the war against HYDRA. Instead, it was to perform. Steve was upset and hurt when the real soldiers heckled him during his Captain America show. When Steve found out that all the soldiers were distressed because half their platoon had been captured, he empathized with them. Then he found out that his best friend, Bucky, was one of the abducted soldiers, and Steve decided to give up the life of a showman and started the life of a soldier!

Armed with a shield created by inventor Howard Stark (the father of Tony Stark, aka Iron Man), Cap went deep into battle, fighting HYDRA and Red Skull and saving the platoon. Sadly, Bucky perished while fight the enemy. He and Steve had an intense battle against HYDRA aboard a speeding train somewhere in Europe. On a later mission, Steve Rogers crashed a plane that doubled as a hydrogen bomb somewhere in Antarctica. The First Avenger, Captain America, sacrificed his own life to save his country and the world.

Seventy years later, Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. went to Antarctica after discovering a weird anomaly in the ice. They dug it up and discovered Captain America. Now, awake and adjusting to the twenty-first century, this Super-Soldier is ready to for freedom.

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