These two issues wrap up the battle with the evil internet service provider Parliamech that began in the last issue and finally brings Captain America face to face with Protocide (as seen in the second cover here).
At the end of the last issue, Cap and the Falcon succumbed to gas in the Parliamech headquarters—a completely normal experience when visiting your ISP, if visiting an ISP can ever be considered normal—and, as this issue opens, Cap finds himself back in the ice, which feels all too familiar.
Cap continues to ponder this mystery as he fights off ice creatures; meanwhile, back in New York, Thor’s current human host, Jake Olson (whom we met in Thor #1-2) is attending to USAgent, who was felled by Protocide at the end of the last issue.
But once Jake gets USAgent’s pulse back, Sharon Carter and Dum Dum Dugan take over in the name of SHIELD, and after he loses the jurisdictional argument, Thor wonders what’s happened to Nick Fury. (He’s actually been looking into someone, which we’ll find out about in good time.)
Returning to Cap, he has figured out he’s not actually in the land of ice and snow…
…and finds a way to reveal his true surroundings: the holodeck of the U.S.S. Enterprise. (Or the Danger Room, if you read those X-people funny books.)
More surprising is who his foe is: the cloud come to life…
…to make awful puns.
To Cap this is just another day fighting just another would-be world conqueror, and even though he has Taskmaster’s knowledge of fighting styles, Cache lacks his experience with them…
…but Cap hits him where it hurts: one fact he doesn’t know.
Captain America, striking a blow for nostalgia!
When he finally reconnects with Josh and Dawn, the two people who led him to Parliamech in the first place, and Sam—all the whom were in a holographic jungle until Cap and Cache burst in during their fight—Cap learns about the dangers of sentient AI.
Cap sees little value in the two going to prison, especially when Josh is well positioned to put Humpty Dumpty back together again (which serves justice more than strict adherence to the law would).
(What’s with his eyes in the second panel above? Is this Dark Cap?)
The issue ends with a visit to AIM, who were actually behind the creation of Cache, and their pet, Protocide, who is given his next mission.
This would be a good time to review what we know about Protocide so far, but didn’t cover earlier because it had nothing yet to do with Cap. It started with one of the three young SHIELD agents who tried to “arrest” Cap in issue #25, who was actually an undercover AIM agent trying to find the body of a man they believed to have been an early test subject of Project Rebirth who was killed by an incomplete serum. AIM revived him and started testing him, training him, and brainwashing him to hate Captain America. USAgent was unlucky enough to run into him while interrupting an AIM burglary, which we saw at the issue #33.
As issue #35 opens, Cap is busting up a jewelry store robbery when he informs his fellow combatants that he has better things to do, and while the police officers arriving on the scene assume he’s heading to tackle another dire threat to freedom and justice…
…he’s meeting a “friend” at a ballgame instead.
Hmm… the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958, which means that even though he covered quickly with the “father” business, he’s still claiming to be at least 42 years old (plus however old he “was” when he heard the Dodgers left Brooklyn).
Connie introduces Steve to the man who provided their tickets, who is grateful to her for solving some legal issues regarding his company’s business, which Steve is not comfortable with.
It’s not that simple—she has no obligation to represent his firm if she believes they are guilty—but OK. (The guy sure made it seem slimy, so I think she’s being facetious by claiming she was just doing her Constitutional duty.)
Steve surprises her when he turns down her offer for “coffee”…
…which piques her interest into what he does when he’s not with her.
After changing into his work clothes, Cap reflects on the priority he places on work over romance before revealing his current mission, to help SHIELD move a dangerous chemical weapon away from the Red Skull’s grasp.
Unfortunately, the AIM mole inside SHIELD is also there, hoping to steal the Omega Compound, and with him is Protocide, hoping to kill the man AIM told him sabotaged his own treatment to claim it for his own.
Protocide lands another powerful blow…
…which, unfortunately for him, gives Cap license to let loose for a change.
After taking a shield to the face, Protocide gets another good blow in before abandoning the fight to get the compound…
…and despite the split mission, he manages to nearly defeat our hero. He seems poised to deliver a fatal blow as Sharon and Dum Dum arrive on the scene, but he is pulled away again by his handlers…
…which gives Cap has the chance to end the fight and reclaim the Omega Compound, even if he’s a little shaky.
Sharon and Dum Dum very gently and carefully pick him up so he doesn’t drop the vial… just kidding. Throw caution to the wind, guys! No danger here!
When they land, we see the vial is intact, but our hero is not.
The story continues in the 2000 Annual, which does involve Cap as well as revealing more about Protocide’s past, and then we switch gears for the Maximum Security event in issue #36.
ISSUE DETAILS
Captain America (vol. 3) #34, October 2000: Dan Jurgens (writer and pencils), Art Thibert (inks), Gregory Wright (colors), Todd Klein (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Captain America (vol. 3) #35, November 2000: Dan Jurgens (writer and pencils), Walden Wong (inks), Gregory Wright (colors), Todd Klein (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Collected in: Captain America by Dan Jurgens Omnibus.
PREVIOUS ISSUE: Captain America #33 (September 2000)
NEXT ISSUES: Captain America Annual 2000 and Captain America #36 (December 2000)
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 
It seemed strange to me how Sharon went from someone who was jaded about, & opposed to, the national security state to being a good little employee again.
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True — she’s all over the place in many ways.
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