Our Worlds Are Crashing and Burning
1945
Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean
~~~
Joey crashed the HYDRA bomber into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with a huge splash.
It started sinking beneath the icy cold waters, taking him down with the plane. Taking his hands off the wheel, the man in the red, white and blue suit leaned back.
There was no going back now. He could've survived this and jumped out of the plane, but he wasn't concerned about saving his own life. His duty came first.
Joey also didn't want to risk getting spotted in the waters by the wrong people and reveal the location of a top-secret plane of bombs.
And if he jumped out, where would he go? He couldn't stay in the freezing waters for long. Nor could he swim a hundred miles.
Even with the super soldier serum running through his veins. He wasn't invincible. Joey was human.
An enhanced human sure, but still a human.
As the waters rose, he took his last moments to reflect on life.
This was it. This was where he dies. Where it all ends.
Joey gets to finally know the question of what happens to a person after death.
He didn't fight back, accepting his fate. He knew death would come eventually and take him into their cruel embrace.
Better him than millions of New Yorkers. Too much blood had already been shed on the battlefields of this world war.
One dead body is better than millions of dead bodies. And if he didn't make sure this plane and all the bombs in it were destroyed, he could cause the Allies to lose this war.
New York was the port of call for most soldiers to be shipped to Europe. Aircraft was unreliable. So things were sent via ships.
Without New York, the Allies would instantly lose the war.
He almost laughed when his mind drifted to another thought.
Who would've thought the world would go to war twice in less than 50 years?
Joey didn't, if he was being honest. He also didn't expect to become the world's first and only super soldier.
He used to be just a lanky little lad who couldn't join the army. And now...he wasn't.
No one expected it. Yet somehow... it felt like destiny.
One last thing he didn't expect: to see his best friend, Colleen fall from the mountain train and die. Even if it was nearly a year ago, the thought of her death brought as much pain as it did a year ago.
"Colleen! Grab my hand!" he shouted, reaching out towards her. His friend reached out to grab his hand, but the railing she was holding onto snapped and she fell, screaming on the way down.
He watched as she fell onto the mountains below, closing his eyes as she fell, even though he couldn't make out her body in the snow.
Being a woman, Colleen was an outcast just like Joey. That's the foundation of their friendship. Having no one.
But then finding each other. Until he lost her. And she left him all alone.
Just when he needed her most.
He missed her. Spent the past year wishing it was him that fell instead. Colleen had a lover back home. His name was Erik. They were going to get married.
But then the war slapped them all in the face and tore them apart. Guess not everyone gets a happy ending. Least of all during a time like this.
Taking his last gulp of air above the surface, Joey couldn't help but feel a little joy. He was going to see her again.
Joey sank beneath the surface and didn't come back up.
Joey Graceffa was then declared dead to the rest of the world, his body never to be found. Never to be seen again.
~~~
2020
New York City
~~~
74 years after Joey Graceffa crashed the HYDRA bomber into the Atlantic Ocean, S.H.I.E.L.D agents found his body in the ice under the state of suspended animation. After 74 years, nothing has changed about him.
One day, his eyes flew open, seeing a ceiling fan spinning around in circles and hearing... a radio. He hadn't heard a radio in a while. Clearing his head, questions bombarded his head.
How the heck am I alive? Am I alive? Where am I?
He sat up from the bed, taking in his surroundings. He had no idea where he was, the place was completely foreign to him. The walls were half-green, half-white. There was a white nightstand with a porcelain lamp next to the bed he was lying in, with newspapers scattered. A pitcher of water was there too, but he wasn't thirsty. A vanity was in the corner, along with a radiator.
Joey then realized that the radio was playing a baseball game. He remembered that game. He was there. May 1941. But how could he be in here if he went to that baseball game? He couldn't be at two places at the same time. The super solder furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, sitting on the side of the bed.
What...the...heck?
A ginger woman walks in, a smile on her face. Dressed in 40s fashion. But something was off about her. It was too... modern. Her hair. Her tie. She shut the door behind her, saying, "Good morning." she glanced at the watch on her wrist. "Or should I say, good afternoon?"
Even the way she spoke was a little off to Joey. He asked the stranger, "Where am I?"
"You're in a recovery room in New York City."
He glanced around the room, not believing her. There was no way that he was where she said he was. Joey frowned and pressed, "Where am I really?"
She looked puzzled. "I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean."
"The game, it's from May 1941. I know because I was there." He narrowed his eyes at the ginger woman, suspicions growing. This was definitely not a recovery room. "I'm gonna ask you one last time- Where. Am. I?" He stood up, approaching the woman, who stiffened at his tone.
"Captain Graceffa-"
Two uniformed men came bursting into the room and charged towards Joey. He threw them into the wall, breaking it in the process. He stepped out, realizing the room wasn't real. It was merely scenery, a fake. He was just in a smaller room that was part of a larger room.
"Captain Graceffa, wait," the woman said, but he ignored her, wanting to get the heck out of there as soon as possible. And as far away from this unfamiliar place as soon as possible. He knew he couldn't trust anyone here, the woman who lied to him was a testament to that.
But how would he get the truth of where he really was if he couldn't trust anybody here?
~~~
"Captain Graceffa, wait!" the woman shouted again, voice getting farther and farther away as Joey ran. He opened the door, running straight into the streets of New York City.
"What the...?" Joey asked, puzzled. The outside world looked so... weird. Alien-like, almost. Futuristic.
Something told the super soldier that he wasn't in 1945 anymore. But if it wasn't 1945, what year was it? The buildings and objects around him looked far too advanced to have been made a few years after the crash...
Joey marveled at cars and everything around them. It was so different from what he knew, yet so fascinating.
Big screens were flashing advertisements, all in color. Strange, for he thought things shown on television and similar screens were all in black and white. Things have changed since he was in the ice. This wasn't the New York he knew.
If this place was New York at all. Black vans skidded around the man, surrounding him. He was trapped. He had considered running again, but then an Asian-looking man in all-black stepped out of one of the vans.
"At ease, soldier," the stranger said. "I'm sorry for what happened back there, but I thought breaking it to you slowly would be best."
Mainly because it's been 70 years. Who knows if Joey was still sane? Or if he was able to speak? Or if the serum had helped him or turned him into a vegetable.
"What do you mean, sir?" Joey asked, catching his breath from all the sprinting. The super soldier titling his head in confusion. He didn't understand anything that was going on.
And that terrified him.
"You've been asleep, Cap. For over 70 years."
His heart sank at the man's words.