Dropping from several hundred feet in the air certainly does damage to most. To a normal human, it would mean being paralyzed or even killed. For Steven Rogers, it only means a slight jolt of pain in his ankles as he impacted on the dirt below. Many of the incidents of the past few days had dulled Steve to the idea of caution and safety. Before the day was out, he was certain that he would have a large number of injuries and battle scars that he would have to tend to.
The open area of the castle the duo had found themselves in was a complex maze of trenches, dug into what appeared to be the remains of an orchard. The terrain rolled up and down every now and then, providing great height and protection for any troops traveling through. A mile away lied a building that was quite newer than the rest of the ancient castle. It appeared to be a communications station. Two large antennae towered above, giving Cap an idea as to their next immediate objective.
"We need to warn HQ about the Skull little buddy," he said to the foal. "See those big shiny sticks that stick up into the sky? Always look for those if you need to call for help out here. There's probably a long range radio inside."
"Like the box you called Mommy with!" Firebrand stated knowingly, understanding the concept.
"A little bigger, but still along the same lines," Steve chuckled.
They headed into the maze, unsure of what kinds of obstructions that they were going to find inside.
Sure enough, only a few yards into the trenches, they caught the familiar ominous sight of a cannon's nose, sticking up over the wall. The barrel was quite long, and he knew what it meant for the Allied invaders.
"Boom Boom Sticks that hurt air planes," Firebrand squeaked.
"Anti-Aircraft Guns." he corrected. "Always hated those things. We shouldn't leave them operational."
He snuck up to the mount where the gun stood and pulled out a small amount of plastic explosives, but stopped when he remembered something.
'Maybe this might be a good time to test out Firebrand's magic a bit.' he thought.
"Hey little buddy, I want to try something. Remember what you did to Madame Hydra?" he asked when he turned his head to the foal.
The little foal shook his head up and down rapidly.
"Do you think that you can shoot your magic over the walls?"
Firebrand gave a look like he was thinking for a moment, before he nodded a few times. He closed his eyes in concentration, and ignited his horn.
Steve watched as his horn's magic glowed brighter and brighter, and grew larger outwards. Soon, the magic was gaining the shape of a ball as Firebrand finally let go of his control and launched his new magical invention over the tall concrete walls.
"Grenade!" someone screamed.
A second later, the cannon went up like a firecracker and was completely obliterated. Steve huddled up against the wall as chunks of burning metal and wood started flying all over the place.
Three armored grunts came running around the corner and discovered their hiding place.
"Its the American! Subdue him or Madame Hydra will have our hides!" one of them cried.
Jumping into two if them, Steve bashed their heads against the wall, while Firebrand levitated a large piece of rubble from the remains of the cannon and dropped it on the last grunt. He giggled madly at the destruction he was causing, making Steve simply give the foal an odd look.
"You alright?" he asked dryly.
"That was fun! Let's do more!"
Moving on, they started to go back into the deep trenches. Steve noticed that the soil in this area of the mountains was filled with a hefty amount of clay. Perfect for building any sort of constructs or reinforcements into the terrain.
When all of a sudden, a loud crack whizzed by his head and impacted right into the wall of the trench. The sound caused him to somersault over to a safe spot where he could get a better look at their newest adversary.
"Sniper. Damn," Steve cursed to himself. "Can't get through until we can see him."
"Snipe?" Firebrand asked goofily.
"That's a bird. A Sniper is...well, that guy. I've taught you already a little bit about guns right?"
"Mommy told me not to touch them."
Looking around, Steve found a discarded empty green wine bottle, most likely left behind by one of the grunts. Poking it our around the corner and into the main trench way, Steve tilted it around, using the bottle as a make shift mirror.
"Well, I'd might as well teach you to at least respect them. Or know how to get around them." Steve instructed.
With the green glass of the bottle, he discovered a figure standing over the wall of the trenches guarding the way from anyone trying to get through.
The soil in this one section was too soft for his shield to get a good ricochet, but he had a different idea in mind for the sniper. Launching out, Steve was quick enough to dodge the first shot from the sniper, which allowed him to stand at the ready with his shield. Watching the sniper's finger movements from forty feet away was an interesting challenge, as he tried firing off a shot right at Steve's head. Pushing all of his adrenaline into a single swing, Steve outpaced the sniper's bullet as he smacked it right back. The sniper collapsed into the trench with a thud, as red blood oozed through his uniform.
Gathering Firebrand back up, they moved on to the next cannon in the field. Stepping into the next trench, Steve noticed that the trenches were more heavily fortified. New thick boards and metal rivets lined the passage ways, most likely to prevent collapse from bombardment or hazardous local weather.
This time, they encountered less soldiers than usual guarding the cannon. Only four Hydra technicians appeared to be guarding the power box that operated the weapon. Steve overheard them speaking about new battalions that had been brought to the area to deal with him and his Allied friends.
"The American would be a fool to come through here," one of the technicians said. "Madame Hydra's newest battalion is guaranteed to slay him where he stands."
"If she has actually focused on properly training them that is." another said.
"Quiet you fools! Say no more on the matter. The American is around here somewhere and Hydra doesn't need talkative idiots exposing our plans. Regardless, we must protect the cannons. We are replaceable. They are not."
Seeing that they were lightly armed, Steve gave Firebrand a chance to stealth and alternative forms of destruction as he set him up with a fairly simple task. Throwing the glass bottle he picked up at the concrete mount of the cannon, Steve drew out two of the technicians and quietly knocked them out. Meanwhile, Firebrand snuck around the other side and crawled toward the last two. While they were distracted, Firebrand tied their shoes together and looked around for anything that might help.
One of their munitions belts had been unclipped and placed off to the side while they were busy doing maintenance on the cannon. Firebrand found a familiar green object that he had seen Steve use in combat a few times before.
"Pineapples!" he chattered excitedly.
The two soldiers turned around to the sound of his voice as Firebrand covered his mouth, realizing what he had done. Levitating the belt in his magic, he was unable to pull off the set of "pineapples" but, he found another solution as he pulled of all the pins and clips at once as he tossed the belt at the soldiers. They tried to run, but fell flat on their faces as Firebrand dashed back out to Steve and left the technicians to their doom.
"Bye Bye Baddies!" he giggled.
After hearing the screaming and the shouting, Steve saw Firebrand run as fast as he could out of the cannon's mount and jump back into his harness. A few seconds later, the cannon exploded, forcing Steve to run down the next passageway quickly before any shrapnel fell on to them.
Soon the duo found a bunker hidden in the trenches. It appeared to be a temporary barracks for the battalion that was stationed at the communications building and there in the field. A number of munitions crates and filing cabinets filled the room. Off to the side, Steve spotted another familiar object sitting in a slightly opened crate filled with valuables. It was a golden tankard with flowery images engraved upon its coating. Much like the ones he had been finding all over the castle, he figured it had to have contained another one of Zemo's journal entries. Before he advanced upon the soldiers within however, he overheard their conversation.
"Did you hear what the American did to the Baron?" one of the grunts asked.
"Yes, it was quite brutal. It is fortuitous that he is still alive even after such a fall." another added. "Though they say his recovery will take many months. I heard he was moved off site to our headquarters."
'So he survived huh?' Steve thought to himself. 'At the very least he's gonna be out of the picture for a while. Though we need to capture him as soon as possible so that while can turn into for good.'
"Bad claw man okay?" Firebrand asked nervously as his tiny ears expressively pressed up against his head..
"He won't be okay for a long time little buddy, so don't worry about that," Steve said comfortingly.
Tossing his shield at the nearest com unit, the rest went through a chain reaction and consecutively exploded, making the bunker shake and vibrate. Pieces of the ceiling came loose and the whole room began to collapse.
Looking around frantically, Steve pulled out one of the com units and shoved a couple of discarded boards into the damaged spot, which thankfully stabilized the bunker's dirt ceiling.
"That was close," Steve breathed out in relief.
Picking up the tankard and examining it, sure enough, he found that the bottom was detachable as he found a folded up page in the secret compartment. Unfolding the yellowing old page, he read aloud the contents of the page to Firebrand, hoping that he could understand some of it.
"My prior concerns are mollified. Today, I confronted Zola over the risks his twisted experiments pose to the splendor of my home and the treasures housed within. I informed the Skull that he would need to be reined in if the forces of Hydra were to continue to be tolerated at Castle Zemo. Perhaps, the Skull saw reason; perhaps my own inconsiderable army, loyal only to me, gave him pause. Regardless, I am pleased with the outcome: Zola's work suspended, the man himself assigned to simple research."
"Bad man hurt Mr. Zemo's pretty house?" Firebrand asked quizzically.
"That's what I'm getting from this anyway. Its obvious Zola didn't stop his experiments and the castle got wrecked. Where Zemo is though, we are gonna have to find out. It sounds like he could provide us with information on the Skull's operations." Steve replied thoughtfully. "We need all of the journal entries to get the whole story."
After gathering anything else of note, they made their way out of the bunker and back out into the labyrinth like trenches. Soon, their trek led the duo back outside, where they came to another Hydra security checkpoint. However, the area seemed quieter than normal.
'Where are all the guards?' Steve thought cautiously.
Scanning every possible hiding place in the immediate area, Steve slowly stepped out of the trenches and into an open security checkpoint. On the other side of the field was a rocket launcher mount sitting in a shallow concrete pit. Two sniper towers on either sides of the checkpoint appeared to be deserted, though Steve kept a close eye on them at all times. A few nearby birds chirping their usual cheerful songs and the mountain breeze whistling through the castle were the only things to break up the relative silence.
While Steve was examining what seemed to be a harmless pile of junk off to the right side of the yard, the inactive rocket launcher blasted off a missile in their direction. Steve went to pull his shield up, but stopped when Firebrand leaped out of his harness. Landing on the ground, Firebrand halted the missile with a glow from his horn, leaving it hovering in the air. With a grunt of effort, the colt sent the missile right back at the missile mount. The mount instantly immolated as pieces of the rocket launcher flew in every direction.
Soldiers then started coming out of every fox hole and camouflaged spot as Cap and Firebrand sprinted towards the last trench passage towards the complex.
The first few waves of soldiers were not much problem for them as Steve's shield took out most of them with only a few well placed throws. Unfortunately, when they emerged once again from thee trenches, their problems would only increase from there.
Three Hydra Juggernaut Scorchers and two Wardens were waiting for them, quickly followed by a small brigade of grunts who came running from around the complex. Shipping containers were stacked up everywhere, giving the enemy perfect hiding places to snipe.
"Damn," Steve swore. "We're too exposed out here. I'm not seeing a safe way through this."
"We have the two of you surrounded Captain," one of the Warden's said in a deep menacing voice. "Lay down your arms and we won't be forced to rip both of yours off."
Firebrand looked up and noticed that one of the crates stacked on top of the steel containers was dangerously leaning on the edge. Seeing the placement of the soldiers, Firebrand came up with an idea.
Focusing as much magic as he was able to into his horn, the colt struggled and whimpered in pain as he pulled the heavy crates over the side and right onto the grunts. The crate shattered upon impact, seriously injuring most of the soldiers instantly. The contents of the crate spilled all over the ground, as Firebrand gave Steve the opportunity that he was looking for.
Not noticing that Firebrand jumped down, Steve sprinted across the yard and charged the group of Juggernauts, before any of them could counter attack. As soon as he was in range, Steve leaped off the ground and used his momentum to ram his shield right into a Warden's skull like a battering ram. Firebrand meanwhile was busy handling the last few grunts that Steve hadn't dealt with. Using his tiny frame to dodge any attacks they might have used against him, Firebrand expertly moved through the battlefield. Even though using magic while moving proved difficult for the pony, Firebrand took advantage of the environmental obstacles by luring soldiers into ditches or over barbed wire. One of the grunts who tried to grab the colt met with a set of teeth clamping down on his hand. The pain forced him to drop his stun baton, giving Firebrand a new weapon to "play" with.
The stun baton proved to be a valuable tool for Firebrand whenever he was unable to get close enough to use his mysterious horse shoes or whenever his magic needed ample time to recover. He was forced to awkwardly grip the human weapon in between his growing teeth by the leather grip. The baton activated automatically as soon as Firebrand fully "gripped" it with his mouth.
Soon, most all of the soldiers in the field had been dispatched, except for two remaining Scorchers and a Warden. Steve moved on to the Warden by wrenching its riot shield out of its arm and go in for a solid kick to the midsection. It fell backwards and tried swiping back at Steve in retaliation. Catching the massive steel claw of the Warden, the two were caught in a violent grapple. The two Scorchers left took the opportunity to try to kill Steve off with their flamethrowers while the Warden had Steve held down.
Out of the corner of his eye, Steve had only a brief glace at the two flamethrowers only a few feet in front of his face, before he saw flames rush out of the nozzles. When all of a sudden, a flash of red and gold hair dashed in front of their flamethrowers and took the flames head on.
"FIREBRAND!!!!!" Steve screamed in horror.
The foal he had come to love with all of his heart, was being burned alive right before his eyes, and he was unable to do a single thing about it.
Once again, Steve felt his very blood boil and his heart scream in agony. In a fit of rage, Steve headbutted the Warden, knocking him out, and dived at the two Scorchers, sending them sailing through the air. Grabbing ahold of one of their arms from behind, Steve activated their grenade launcher and shot it at the other Scorcher. The resulting explosion sent the other one flying backwards and into the concrete wall of the comm tower.
Turning on the last Juggernaut, he spun around and used his momentum to smash his throat, collapsing his wind pipe and killing him instantly. However, killing the Scorcher didn't feel like enough as he just kept punching the face of the corpse he had just created for killing his new son. The feeling burned at his senses and destroyed his judgement. Soon, his knuckles started to bleed underneath his combat gloves from punching the metal mask. So much so, that he didn't notice a familiar figure slowly walking towards him.
"Daddy?"
Cap went in for another punch, but stopped when he heard the familiar voice. The word made his heart nearly leap right out of his chest. Turning his head to the side, he discovered Firebrand alive with his mane glowing, hovering and flowing in the wind for a brief second. It moved much like a raging wildfire and felt warm like a comforting camp fire.
"Daddy...are you okay? I feel funny...."
His mane then flattened back down to normal, and Firebrand started to tiredly wobble all over the place before collapsing to the ground.
"Firebrand!"
Steve reached toward the foal, but stopped, fearing that what he was seeing was merely a hallucination brought on by extreme emotions. He trusted his instincts though and placed his hand on Firebrand, thankfully feeling his soft fur. It was now quite hot to touch, even underneath his thick gloves. It was almost like sticking his hand on a hot frying pan, but Steve pushed through the pain to wrap his arms around the pony. Simply glad that he was alive and well.
"What do ya know? You're fireproof," he chuckled painfully. "Gotta remember that."
Steve was feeling quite tired himself as all he could think about doing was sitting down in the soft dirt holding his son, listening to the wind whistle and the clouds go by that bright sunny afternoon.
After what felt like an hour of sitting in silence, Steve shook himself out of his stupor and remembered his mission. He once again strapped Firebrand back into his harness. Picking up his shield with an aching hand, Steve looked towards the entrance to the communications center and marched forward, now with confusing thoughts moving through his head on where his responsibilities lied and what his priorities should be.
He silently entered into the building, uncaring of how run down and dilapidated the entire facility seemed to be. Stairwells were barely still usable, pieces of the walls were falling off, and lights were barely hanging on to the rotted ceiling. Excessive amounts of mold and mildew were growing all over the walls. The inside of the building was filled with a thick atmosphere of humidity and moisture.
There was another set of security doors across the way which blocked off any conventional ways to exit the building or move to the next floor.
"Ophelia probably warned them about us," he groaned in annoyance. "Oh well, we never really use the normal ways anyway. There's probably a radio in here. Gotta find it quickly."
Walking into one of the destroyed stairwells, Cap launched off of the remaining bottom steps and grabbed onto the mounts still bolted to the wall. Shimmying across, he made it to a higher floor and maneuvered through the rest of the building. Crossing rusted old beams and swinging off of grimy pipes, he soon found his way to the third floor where several well used radio units had been left behind. Walking up to one of them, he switched it on and unhooked the microphone. He only had to wait but a couple of seconds for the machine to buzz to life.
"Rogers to base. Come In... Do you copy?"
"This is Peggy. We read you. What's your status? Have you found Firebrand yet?"
'Yeah, I found him...but it wasn't pretty. They...did things to him Peggy. Things that...made me do awful things to them."
"Oh Steve... Is he...alright?" she asked with dread.
"He's alive, but..."
"What?"
"Its going to be a while before he's gonna be comfortable on his own. Zola has been experimenting with people and turning them into twisted creatures. One of them tried to suck out Firebrands magic."
"We'll get through this together Captain. But first we need you to finish your mission and come back alive. What else do you have to report?"
"The Red Skull is on his way...if he's not here already. Any idea on how he might arrive at the castle?"
"Recon shows an air dock on the eastern side of the complex," the Colonel chimed in. "Schmitt has been known to frequently travel by Zeppelin."
"I'm on the eastern edge now. I need to find a better vantage point."
"Their rail system runs fully east to west through the complex. The eastern rail bridge should give you a clear view of the air docks. Find a way to the rail lines."
"But be careful. Both of you. We still don't know Schmidt's full capabilities and Falsworth still remains their prisoner."
"I know. While I'm not sure where, if I can capture the Skull, Hydra will be forced to free Falsworth and every other prisoner here. I've got to try. Rogers out."
Activating a lever off to the side, Steve opened one of the security doors, revealing an elevator that could lead all the way down into the railway tunnels beneath the castle. Hopping down off of a nearby ledge, Steve dropped all the way back down to the bottom floor, hitting the concrete with a solid crack. Firebrand was still out cold and he was hoping that the elevator ride would provide some semblance of rest and respite for the duo who had accomplished so much together. He stepped into the elevator and gave the rusted lever a strong tug, hearing it screech and scratch across its joint as it moved into position. The doors of the elevator closed, once again leaving the duo in a relatively dark, but rather calming place that gave Steve Rogers another moment to think about things. He carefully sat down with Firebrand's harness staying vertical to the floor and closed his eyes for a moment, letting everything melt away and allowing the darkness to envelop him.