The Star Spangled Man With the Plan as we know it never happened. Either he never had the serum or he never got to fight. Below are my Top 5 Favorite stories:
“The Silver Answer” (T, 22k) by dirtybinary
On May 7, 2013, the sixty-eighth anniversary of Steve Rogers’s death, the war record of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops was declassified. Overnight, their work in World War II became public knowledge: a “Ghost Army” that deceived and terrorised Axis forces with phantom troops, decoy inflatables, spoofed radio signals, professionally recorded sound effects—and the myth of Captain America himself.
Steve Rogers never got the serum. He doesn't have superhuman abilities. What he has is a paintbrush, some stage props, a stomach full of spite, and a Bucky Barnes.
It's enough.
+ WW2 to modern. Mixed media: interviews, letters, and photos. Steve doesn’t have the serum but punches the Red Skull anyway. Steve and Bucky get to grow old together
-☆-
“Like the Tide” (E, 53k) by Deisderium
There's no SSR anymore. It's SHIELD, now. The worst part is, it's named after him in some way, Peggy's idea of a memorial to honor his sacrifice. He hates the thought of it, because it makes him feel like a hypocrite. His shield was only ever a prop, not something to base an agency around.
But he's been mythologized differently. They give him files to read on this thing that Peggy and Howard built, and his story is a part of it—or anyway, the story that Peggy and Howard chose to tell about him.
It shouldn't matter; they thought he was dead. They never thought he would see what they turned him into.
*
In which Steve and Bucky never met, and Steve was always a USO performer instead of an actual supersoldier. The serum keeps Steve alive in the ice, but he wakes up the size he used to be in the 1930s, albeit healthier. Hydra sends the Soldier to kill Captain America, but somehow the Soldier can't make himself do it.
Suddenly Steve is stuck with an assassin who can't quite kill him but refuses to leave him alone and the knowledge that Hydra is still out there somewhere.
If you can't beat them, subvert them.
+ WW2 to Modern. Instead of murdering smol Steve, the Asset moves in and adopts two kids with him
-☆-
“The Role We Are Cast In” (T, 6k) by 74days
Bucky Barnes loves his daughter just as much as any man ever did. He expected to be the most important man in her life for a lot longer than 5 years old, when she comes home to tell him that her teacher is Captain America, shrunk down in a Nazi plot.
But the war is over, and Bucky's got a bum arm and a job working in the office of the docks he worked as a lad, and he really doesn't give it too much thought.
+ Post WW2. Steve is the voice actor for the Captain America radio show
-☆-
“A Contest of Stories” (NR, 70k) by alby_mangroves, hansbekhard, and Scappodaqui
All actions in war take place in an atmosphere of uncertainty, or the "fog of war." Uncertainty pervades battle in the form of unknowns about the enemy, about the environment, and even about the friendly situation. While we try to reduce these unknowns by gathering information, we must realize that we cannot eliminate them—or even come close. The very nature of war makes certainty impossible; all actions in war will be based on incomplete, inaccurate, or even contradictory information. Having said this, we realize that it is precisely those actions that seem improbable that often have the greatest impact on the outcome of war.
(Warfighting, Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1)
+ Azzano and WW2. Steve joins the Ghost Army, foils Hydra, and disappears with Bucky
-☆-
"Of ghosts and inflatable tanks” (T, 4k) by liionne
They were part of the 603rd Camouflage Engineers and The Signal Company Special respectively, divisions of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops.
They were the Ghost Army.
+ WW2. They’re scared and scared for each other, but they’re doing their best together
-☆-
*More Propaganda stories in Genderbend
