On the next level down, Steve thought for a moment that he and Firebrand were fairly safe for the moment until two side security doors opened up and six soldiers on either side carrying rifles and stun batons. This time around, Steve had to rely more on his shield than his fists as most of the soldiers kept their distance from the powerful super-soldier. Firebrand's warnings came in handy as he timed their attacks and swung his shield at the fired bullets as he watched them ricochet off with a spark and hit the soldiers back. Doing this a few times, and quickly dispatching the soldiers who came too close to his reach, he quickly took out the group. Unfortunately, it wasn't over, as another group of armed soldiers tried to come through the other side. Getting an idea, Steve angled the shield and aimed at one of the men as he watched it bounce back and forth between them and knock all of them out consecutively. One of them tried to get up as he finished him off with a bash to the face with his shield.
Running to the other door, five other soldiers tried to come through as he went for hand-to-hand combat. The first soldier was downed by a downward punch from him, followed by a jump kick that sent another flying fifteen feet down the hallway and crashing into the wall. Firebrand saw a soldier trying to use his rifle as a club on Steve as he quickly leaned out of his harness and hit the man in the arm with his horseshoes, hearing it snap like fresh celery as his bones broke. The gun clattered to the floor as Steve whipped around and finished the man off with a solid uppercut that shattered his face mask. Two other soldiers tried barreling into him as he tossed his shield down the hallway watching it smash into their faces.
Steve looked down at the man Firebrand had hit and felt vaguely disturbed as he saw that his arm had become hyperextended and was bent in an unnatural direction.
"Jeez Firebrand, we've gotta watch that strength of yours," Steve said concerned. "We need to find somebody who can help you control those freaky black horseshoes of yours."
As he made his way out of the room, he heard the loudspeaker startup as a familiar voice sounded through the complex.
"It has come to my attention that our uninvited guests are none other than the Americans' Super Soldier and Herr Skull's pet. Apparently, this is causing some concern." the Baron's voice boomed. "I remind you that the weapons Herr Zola equipped you with make you his equal. His BETTER. He is One Man with a red rat stuck to his back! You are Hydra! Bring me his head!"
"Don't count on it bub," Steve muttered as he ran through the halls, causing Firebrand to giggle.
After dispatching another duo of guards that were guarding a door, Steve and Firebrand went through, finding themselves in a dimly lit room filled with cubicles, documents, film reels, and books. Further in, he could hear the voice of another Hydra soldier as he sneaked into the room. Putting his finger up to his lips silencing Firebrand, he carefully made his way through the hallway, picking up anything of note until he made his way into the office.
"Another day of strolling through dank hallways, wondering how my promising career in underwater topography went so dreadfully askew." the soldier lamented.
"Probably because it's underwater topography," Steve said dryly before bashing the soldier's face into the door he was guarding.
Allowing Firebrand to hop out of his harness for the moment, they took the time to carefully search around the room for anything of note that might prove to be valuable to their efforts.
"Stark probably wants me to take a look at every inch of this place for any intel or artifacts of note," Steve stated. "Why don't you help me out pal?"
Firebrand shouted "Ok" as he looked in every nook and cranny in the room while Steve looked through the cubicles and bookshelves for anything of note. A few minutes later, Firebrand trotted next to one of the bookshelves as he felt a light breeze coming from behind it. Calling Steve over with a wave of his tiny hoof, the colt poked and nudged at the side of the bookcase.
"What did you find little buddy?" Steve asked.
He pointed at the side of the bookcase as he tried pushing it aside, but couldn't get it to move.
Helping the colt out, Steve pushed the bookcase to the side with ease, revealing a secret passageway behind it leading to another part of the castle. Going through it, Steve picked up a dossier and a significant artifact that belonged to the family who owned the Castle. A family that went by the name Zemo. Apparently, the title Baron Zemo was passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years and it started with his ancestor Harbin Zemo in 1480 who single-handedly slew an entire invading horde. Afterward, he built the castle in recognition of his accomplishments.
"I bet Howard Stark and the others will want these. Maybe if we find more of them, it will shed some light on the story of this place." Steve said aloud to himself.
Continuing down the hallway, they soon made it to the end where they triggered another opening out of the secret passageway, and into an open room. Off to the right, a giant sliding steel door opened up followed by two Hydra soldiers carrying unusual collapsing shields.
"Take him! Even he can't punch through steel!" one of them shouted.
Giving an over the head toss, Steve angled the shield so it would fly over the soldier's armor and knock him on the head. While the first soldier was occupied, Steve grabbed the second soldier's shield and ripped it away, allowing him to land a finishing blow.
"I didn't need to," Steve replied snarkily.
Hearing the cocking of a gun, Steve turned to see the first soldier aiming at him. But before he could get off a shot, he felt himself being kicked in the head and flew upward as his head smashed through the ceiling, leaving him dangling there. Looking down at the colt, he found that his horseshoes seemed to automatically switch to his back legs at will. This just made for another confusing detail to give to Stark in his next debriefing report to the SSR.
"Thanks, little buddy."
"He flew like a birdy!" Firebrand chattered excitedly.
Steve gave a lighthearted laugh as the colt ran back up to him and got back into his harness as they continued forward. Before he made his way out of the room, he picked up another film reel by a fireplace that he was certain he would be looking at soon enough.
In the next large room, they found large cooling generators that hooked up to the second massive anti-aircraft cannon that they were tasked with taking out.
"The AA cannons seem to be hooked up to these machines. Maybe if we can disable them, we can take the cannons out a little more quietly.
Running up to one of the machines, he scanned it until he found a panel which he dismounted from the machine, revealing the circuitry inside including a couple of loose wires.
'If I touch these things together there's a chance I could get fried.' he thought. 'If only there was a way to short this thing out without touching it.'
Suddenly, Steve got an idea. Pulling Firebrand out, he instructed him on what to do.
"Listen little buddy. Do you see these two wires?"
"Uh-huh," he affirmed.
"Here's a chance to learn something in the field. Think you can shock this machine here by pulling these wires together?"
Jumping onto Steve's shoulder, Firebrand concentrated with his telekinesis as he levitated the two wires in his crimson glow and pressed them together carefully. When he saw a little spark, he followed Steve's instructions to twist the wires so that they would be connected permanently.
When the machine cluttered and gave a bang, Firebrand was so startled that he fell backward, headfirst into his harness so that his plot was sticking in the air.
"Nice job! That ought to start getting the cannon on the warm side," Steve said oblivious of the colt's uncomfortable position. "Let's get on to the others and take out that cannon."
The next thing Firebrand knew, he barely could make out another big door that slid open as two more armored guards came through. Then he found himself being tossed around in his harness as he was forced to deal with Steve spinning around while he was dangling upside down. Getting shot at and Steve moving around made him only angrier and angrier as his magic reacted to his emotions, and caused a blast of magical energy that shot out from his horn and blasted Steve skyward like a rocket.
Being launched up towards an unreachable target made things easier for Steve, if not a bit jarring as he was forced to hold his shield out like a battering ram and smash into the rifle of the Hydra soldier that tried to shoot him. On the upper platform, Steve landed safely as he looked down to find the Hydra soldier out cold and his gun flattened like a pancake.
"Firebrand? Was that you who just did that?" Steve asked confused
"Dada, pwease fix me!" he loudly cried.
"Fix you? .....Oh!" he realized as he saw his plot sticking out from behind his shoulder.
He struggled to keep a straight face as he grabbed the foal and placed him back in the harness right side up.
Firebrand smacked him on the back of his helmet in anger, causing Steve to laugh.
"Sorry about that little buddy. I'll try to watch you a little more closely here on out."
"NO SHAKEY WHEN SKY IS GROUND!" Firebrand snapped with a cute angry face.
Jumping back down onto the lower floor, Steve looked around for a way up and found a ladder that he had to hit with his shield to extend downwards. Making their way up the chamber, Steve had to jump from post to post and swing from pole to pole just to make his way further up until he made his way to the other side.
Out of the corner of his eye, Firebrand saw a glint of something gold that he pointed Steve around a battered bookcase where he found another strange artifact. A small gold statue of a woman wearing unusual clothing. Looking underneath it, Steve found that the statue was hollow and it contained another journal entry from the mysterious Baron Zemo. Unfolding it, Steve took the liberty to read it aloud this time now that they had a free moment:
"I had always assumed the isolated mountainous location of Castle Zemo to be strategic; the better to defend against attacks from invaders, or unruly peasants. And no doubt those were considerations. But it seems my ancestor was motivated by a desire to investigate legends of something ancient buried under these mountains. Something unimaginably powerful beyond understanding. Something referred to only in half-remembered tales as.....The Sleeper."
"Sweeper?" Firebrand asked tilting his head to the side.
"Sleeper little buddy," Steve replied chuckling. "But it does seem that Schmitt took a bit of interest in this place more than just for its strategic location. This deserves a little more digging into if we're gonna find out what he's up to here. Especially if this...Sleeper turns out to be some kind of weapon. Or something like you Firebrand."
"Me?" he asked quizzically.
"Yeah. If Skull found you, there's no reason to think that there aren't any others like you on Earth."
Steve could tell his words got to him, as Firebrand went silent, no doubt processing the idea. Meanwhile, Steve continued, maneuvering his way around the room as the flips and turns from bookcases and scaffolding posts became more and more precarious, the further up he went. On one jump, he was forced to leap twenty feet from a railing to a horizontal beam where he jumped and swung himself around a corner onto another beam and around the scaffolding once again to land safely on the next floor.
Finally, they made it to the next cooling generator where Steve had Firebrand once again use his magic to short out the machine. Pulling off the panel like Steve did with the first one, Firebrand pulled out the circuit board of the machine where he yanked out two red wires. Tying them together, the wires sputtered and crackled with electricity as the machine started to break down.
"Nice job Firebrand," Steve complimented.
They were just about to turn around and search around for the final cooling unit when a large bang made them jump. Air came leaking out of the machine as it started shrieking louder and louder as pressure built up behind the metal. Then all of a sudden, a sound like rapid gunfire turned their attention to the right where pressure had built up so much behind another panel on the machine, that the bolts began to rocket out of their sockets.
A sudden sixth sense feeling made him react as he held up his shield protecting Firebrand and himself when part of the machine finally exploded in a fiery inferno blowing a hole through the castle wall. When he felt that it was safe enough, he lowered his shield, revealing a passageway that had opened up right behind the second cooling unit.
"Again! Again!" Firebrand chattered excitedly. "Want more Booms!"
"Oh, I think we are going to get a lot more of those while we are here," Steve muttered nervously.
'This pony is gonna give me a heart attack one of these days he thought.
Making their way through the passageway, Steve and Firebrand began to feel the heat climb and climb the further in they went. Soon they came upon what appeared to be a maintenance shaft that was filled with steam and water pipes. The shaft was dimly lit by lines of lamps and lanterns dangling by wires.
"That's a lot of heat being vented from down there." Steve thought aloud. "Gotta get out of here before you get sick little buddy. I may have a bit of gear on, but you have that fur coat keeping in all of that heat. Let's see if we can get you back outside to that nice, cool mountain air."
On the other side of the shaft, Steve was able to make out the shape of the final cooling unit in the tower as he started carefully making his way around the chamber, being careful as to not touch any of the dangerously hot pipes that lay everywhere as if they were tripwire.
As soon as he made it across, Steve found a small platform with a control unit for the cooling system. Once again, Steve found the maintenance access panel for the machine as he ripped out the circuit board and started sabotaging the machine. Unfortunately, Firebrand was becoming a little too enthusiastic with what they were doing as he picked up a nearby wrench in his magical grasp and began laughing maniacally as he started smashing it around the insides of the machine.
"Hold up! Hold up! Hold up!" Steve shouted nervously as he saw the machine start to go as every wire started to spark.
Suddenly, the machine started to explode as the pipes in the shaft burst one after the other until the chain reaction made it to the cooling system.
Before Steve knew it, the entire tower was engulfed in multiple explosions as the force of the blast sent the duo flying a hundred feet out of the tower and into the air.
Steve could only hear one thing from the colt as they soared through the air before the tower blew apart in all directions.
"KA-BOOOOOOOOOM!"