Hydra cap: What is this? Tony Stark is dead. Hulk is dead, and he's not grey. Thor is not worthy of Mjolnir. The Scarlet Witch is possessed by Chton. And you… of course, you are not me. You can't be shapeshifters, not with such poorly thought disguises. You must be… you must be some alternate dimension dopplegangers! Well, I am Captain America, not you! This letter on my head does not stand for "alternate"!

Ultimate Captain America: Of course not… empty bravado does not impress me. And yes, we are from an alternate reality. I see that you are familiar with the concept.

Hydra cap: And did you came here to appeal to my good side?

Ultimate Captain America: No. I came here to kill you. You are a disgrace to the country, the flag and everything they represent. And yet, at some basic level, we are the same person. I can understand you like no other person can, and so you. Perhaps I will kill you. Perhaps you will kill me. But whoever ends up being the victor here, will always wonder what was the other thinking, why we were alike in everything and yet so different. We owe to ourselves to talk about this first.

Hydra cap (tossing Spider-man aside): Very well. Talk.

Punisher: (what is this all about? Another Captain America? I hate it when things gets so messed up with this kind of mumbo-jumbo. Luckily, I have this Widow's gizmo to hear them)

Ultimate Captain America: I am not Tony Stark, I have been in alternate dimensions a couple of times but I do not fully understand the idea. And yet, there is something I'm completely sure about: if America exists, it will always be America. It may change for a time, but it will always tilt back to the ideals that define her. I have read about you on the way here, you claim that the nazis won World War II, that the allies used reality warping to change that, and that they turned you, their loyal agent, into an American soldier. Is that right?

Punisher: (what?)

Hydra cap: It was Hydra, not the nazis! The allies used the cosmic cube, a…

Ultimate Captain America: Save it. I don't want to listen the details. In my own reality, America was established as a republic, when all the rest of the world was ruled by monarchs, warlords and dictators. In my own reality, America drafted a constitution, with the bill of rights. In my own reality, America proclaimed that all men are created equal, decades before the French Revolution realized the same in Europe. In my own reality, the Monroe Doctrine told the European conquerors to stay away from the Americas. In my own reality, the confederation was defeated in the civil war, and slavery was abolished. That is my country. That is the America I swore loyalty to. What about you? Is your country any different? Did any of those events played out in a different way here? Answer that!

Hydra cap: It… was not different here.

Ultimate Captain America: And yet, you claim that, if not for the intervention of an object that can change reality, America was defeated by the nazis. That just doesn't add up. America would never surrender. America would keep fighting the nazis until they cease to be a threat to the world. The only way the nazis could have defeated America would be by killing every single American. And how did they do that? The allies had more troops, more population, more scientists and more industrial capacity. Unless they have some sort of wildcard to level the odds, such as the Chitauri from my own reality; but I have already asked, there was no such element in play here. The American victory was not an accident of history, it was the inevitable and unavoidable end of World War II since the moment when Pearl Harbor was attacked. How could the nazis have won? Answer that!

Hydra cap: Well, the cosmic cube must have…

Ultimate Captain America: And you said that the "A" does not stand for "Alternate". What does it stand for? What do you stand for? You said that you were changed by the cube, but what were you supposed to be before that? An American? A nazi? Something else? Or an American nazi sympathizer? Which was your goal? Were you a traitor to your own country? Did you work to topple the president and establish something similar to the Vichy regime in France? And do not insist to talk about Hydra as if it was something different from Nazism. I have also checked that on the way here, Hydra are all Nazis, every one of them, and I won't let anyone forget it.

Hydra cap: You make it sound as if it was so terrible. But…

Punisher: (I can't believe it! I can't believe this! This other Captain America says that our Captain America was somehow working for… the nazis! The nazis! And even worse, he is not denying it, he's trying to justify himself! God, the Nazis!)

Hydra cap: ...did not want to destroy this country. They wanted to make it strong, by removing the weak, and uniting people under a strong leadership! That's what they wanted to do here, and in all other countries! A strong America, an America great again! A strong world! A world with no crime, no disorders! A world...

Punisher: (yes, I have heard those speeches before. That's why I supported him. But now, it sounds so… I dunno. Something about this seems to be wrong)

Ultimate Captain America: And then what? Let's say that you achieved this goal. What would happen then? You want America to be strong, but what would America do with such strength? Which would be the American goal and purpose that could only be achieved by living under a dictatorship? Believe me, I have walked this path myself, I worked to impose the American military on other countries, and I ended fighting a man just like me, who took the serum to fight against what he saw as a menacing tyranny. Yes, a man saw me the same way I once saw Hitler, and then I realized that there was something greatly wrong in my actions. Think about that. Before the cosmic cube, before being Captain America, you were just Steve Rogers, a mere scrawny boy. What motivated you to join the army anyway, if not your desire to defeat precisely that kind of tyranny? Why would you support a government that, when targeting the weak, would have targeted you? As I said, your story makes absolutely no sense! You say that a world under the swastika would have no crime, but dictatorships always have the worst crimes, those committed and sponsored by the state itself!

Punisher: (Is he right? Am I really fighting crime this way? Or am I just a mafia henchman in a fight between the big mafia and the small mafia? The small mafia is scum, right, but is the current government any better? Should I really work for them, or target them the same way I target the street criminals?)

Ultimate Captain America: ...a dictator is the most dangerous criminal, it's a criminal who has the power to decide what is and what isn't a crime! A dictator can target anyone for any petty reason, even a traditional family having a picnic in a park, and rest secured that he would remain untouchable for it! A dictator…

Punisher: (No! That's it! Never again!)

And Hydra cap falls

Ultimate Captain America: What happened?

Iron Man: It was a shot. A sniper, sure. But…

Hawkeye: I see him, he's in the window of that building over there. Good shot, it's almost 2000 yards of distance. Don't worry, I got this (and he makes his own shot, nailing Punisher's hand to the wall)

Captain Marvel: Did you kill him?

Hawkeye: No. Regardless of everything said, this is still the US, and that man had just killed the president. I'm sure that Nick Fury, or the local equivalent, will want to have a nasty interrogation in Guantanamo. And besides… this one must be in the top ten of the longest sniper kills in history. The man has my respect.

Lots of Hydra soldiers arrive to the place

Hydra guy: Supreme leader! What has happened here?

Ultimate Captain America: At ease, soldier. I have just stopped this impostor, with the help of… the Avengers.

Hydra guy: Very well, Supreme Leader. Your orders?

Ultimate Captain America: Orders… I order to liberate all political prisoners and all the inhumans in concentration camps, turn down all blacklists, cancel martial law and the military control of the population and the press, and call to elections. Reopen the Congress, allow all former legislators to return to their offices, and announce that I am ready to stand trial for everything I have done as Supreme Leader

Hydra guy: But… are you…

Ultimate Captain America: That's an order, soldier!

Hydra guy: As you command. Hail, Hydra!

Iron Man: What are you doing? Are you crazy? You haven't done anything! Why are you standing trial? The dictator is dead, mission accomplished, we should go back home.

Ultimate Captain America: No. If I simply leave now, someone else from this regime may take advantage, cancel everything I have just ordered, be the new dictator, and everything would stay the same. Besides, Americans can't simply turn the page to something like this, have a fresh start and pretend that nothing happened. They need to see it that the law is above everyone, even superheroes, even presidents. They need to see the criminals pay for their crimes, so that nothing like this ever happens again. I will stay here, and pay for the crimes of my doppelganger. Back at home, I was created as a symbol of patriotism; here I will be a symbol of the mistakes that must not be repeated.

Iron Man: Wow. Are you sure about this?

Ultimate Captain America: Yes. But you, you must all go home. If you stay and meet any of those "Avengers", our origin would be clear, and it would ruin everything. Even worse, we may turn this dictator into a martyr, if people thought that he was killed by invaders from an alternate dimension.

Captain Marvel: Well, we know the truth about you, but we understand your reasons, and will keep the secret. It may have been a coincidence that we took your team name, but it's an honor to share it with heroes like you.

Iron Man: Yes, about that… do you have trademark laws in this universe? Because we created the Ultimates back in 2002, and the name now belongs to the "Millar & Hitch" division of Stark Enterprises.

(Everybody laughs)

Iron Man: I'm being serious!

Thor: That was enough, Stark. Rogers advised us to go back home now, so that his sacrifice is not pointless. Let's go!

Thor opens a portal, and the Ultimates go back to the Ultimate universe

Captain Marvel: Well, that was intense. I wonder if we'll meet them again.

Blue Marvel: About that, didn't they say that they were not the actual ultimates, but just molecular reconstructions?

Captain Marvel: Yes, what's up with that?

Blue Marvel: And now they have left to their home universe, to resume their live there

Captain Marvel: Yes, and… oh!

NEXT: ULTIMATES CUBED!