Moist, cold air blasted into their faces as they set forth back into the mountain. Every inch of the interior was in severe disrepair. The brick and mortar was decrepit and cracked in many places. Making the duo wondering how this part of the castle had survived the Sleeper's rampage, let alone a slight vibration. It all looked like it was barely holding together after long years of abuse and neglect. Mold and water coated the walls and the ceiling, giving Steve an idea as to what they were getting close to. The concrete floor was scuffed in many places, as if many heavy things had been moved out of this area off somewhere else further in.
Many papers were left on the wall in this corridor, unlike the impromptu barracks upstairs which were cleaned out in a hurry. Many of them were dirty maps, mathematics, algorithms, letters, and diagrams of every kind that detailed machinery from around the castle. Dust, oil, and soot had soaked into the papers so much that many of the pages were almost impossible to read. Steve looked around for a moment, rummaging around through the leftover data. There was a lot to comb through in such a short amount of time. They had to find Falsworth, but they also had to determine Schmitt and Zola's plans or more people would be in danger.
He felt a lump, like a bulky disc under one haphazard pile of papers and folders and found a log book with Zola's name imprinted on it. Along with another film reel like the one upstairs. This film reel was labeled Sleeper.
Steve pocketed it into his pouch and skimmed through the logbook to find any crucial information that might be helpful to their efforts. He found a page that marked with a special insignia that he couldn't identify.
"The Red Skull has been a man obsessed," Steve read quietly. "Demanding further excavation into the castle foundation. It has become clear to me that he seeks something specific.
He went down to the next entry labeled at a later date and continued.
"We have found it. We have uncovered something monumental. At first I thought it was some type of statue, long buried and forgotten. But as more was revealed, I realized with mounting excitement that it was nothing so mundane. A gigantic mechanical humanoid. Constructed in a forgotten age, forged from materials that I cannot readily identify. Thankfully it is inactive. Sleeping in its stony prison. But with the power of the Cube and the Red Foal...I hope to waken it. Under my command, a creature such as this would dominate any conventional warfare. Even alter the course of history.
Steve went down to the last entry in that section of the logbook.
"The Skull has authorized use of the Cube, but only under his direct supervision. Alas, we still have yet to recover the foal for our goals to enhance the Sleeper. Still, we have all we need. I eagerly await the Skull's arrival. For the hour has come round at last."
Steve was finished and shut the book as he placed it into his intelligence satchel.
"They wanted me to power the robot?" Firebrand asked fearfully.
"It looks that way." Steve replied grimly. "We dont have to worry about that yet. I'm not sure how much of your DNA Zola got his hands on, but you were gone for maybe an hour or two. I dont think that would be enough time to take out that much from you to power the Sleeper."
Steve said that with uncertainty, knowing that it Screamers and a few machines around the castle were already being powered by small charges of Firebrand's magic. Zola could still have some left over that he had saved for the titanic automaton.
Shelving the thought for later, Steve and Firebrand left the room and went back through the Eastern Bastion which was completely destroyed, giving them room to head on down towards the Sewers. Pieces of wet rubble from of the many staircases were littered throughout the passageways of the bastion. Mold was already starting to grow in many places which really made the entire place stink. A couple of times, he stepped in a couple of deep puddles, hoping his boots were thick enough to keep the water out.
They found the passageway which was closed off by a gate with a rusted padlock. Steve was able to break it open easy enough with his bare hands, allowing them to proceed forward into the murky depths of the castle Sewers.
Upon entering the dark tunnels, Steve and Firebrand were surprised when they found that the Sewers were very clean. Any stench and rat infested plumbing that one might see from ages long past were no where to be found. Instead they came across modern technology and tunnels outfitted for maintenance and military transport from one area of the castle to another. The first room was another small office used by Hydra security personnel.
Firebrand scrunched his nose when he took a deep whiff of his surroundings, hoping to smell the same strangely pleasant moist smell of a dark passageway like. It startled him so much that he closed his eyes and started to retch. The entire tunnels seemed to be covered in the foul smell. It was an indescribable smell that made his eyes water only after a few minutes of being there.
"What's that smell daddy? Its making me feel sick," the colt groaned covering his snout with a hoof.
"You can smell that? Jeez, and here I thought they did a pretty good job at cleaning up the place," Steve replied almost sounding disappointed. "Your nose must be more sensitive than mine. That's most likely left over dookie and urine."
"Gross! Why are we going through here?" Firebrand snapped indignantly.
"Not a lot of choice little buddy sorry. Just power through it for a little bit." Steve said apologetically. "I'll dig around my first aid kit for an antacid once we're out in the open again. And some water if I can find a faucet or something around here."
He could hear voices nearby in the tunnels, no doubt they were waiting for the two of them. Just waiting to spring an ambush on the duo. The passageways were pretty cavernous and the ceiling reached up to at least twice Steve's height. Steve deduced that it had to have been used frequently as a way to quickly transport troops and weapons all over the castle.
"So, how do you want to handle this pal?" Steve whispered. "Full frontal, stealth, or diversion? I'll give you a chance to see how we can take out these guards.
"Really?" Firebrand chirped excitedly before Steve raised a finger.
"Yeah, stay low, and peek around the corner. Assess their placement and the environment and see how we can get rid of them."
Firebrand hopped off again and carefully peeked around the corner, keeping low so as to not let the soldiers see him. The colt did his best to hold his breath to keep focused and settle his stomach. He spotted a suspiciously large pipe that went down the other side of the tunnel off to the left and right. An idea came into his head as he shot off one of his horseshoes with a bang, sending the soldiers into a frenzy. His horseshoe did its job as the pipe burst, sending gas streaming out of the ruptured pipe. Firebrand leaped out into the open, startling the soldiers. They made the mistake of reacting, as when they cocked their guns, it only took a spark to ignite the gas.
Steve leapt towards the corridor, forgetting for a moment about Firebrand's unique ability as he held up his shield against the powerful torrent of flames that were burning his legs even through his flameproof suit. When the flames died down, he saw Firebrand standing there in the middle of a blackened floor with his mane blown back like he had just been at the barber.
"That is not what I meant by stealth. Please try to be a bit more careful next time you do that? We still don't know how much you can actually take. I'd rather not find out here." Steve chided.
"Sorry! I got them though didn't I?" Firebrand asked hopefully.
Looking up and down the tunnel, he saw a lot of burnt corpses that used to be Hydra soldiers.
"You did alright..."
They continued onwards through the labyrinth of long, dark upgraded tunnels filled with new technology. Grates, wires, and other various pipes were under the walkway that certainly were not part of the original design of the castle. Lights lines the sewer passageways on either side and under the grates, lighting the way for any personnel traveling through them. Steve briefly had a humorous thought about the poor saps that were forced to clean out the sewers before installing the new technology. The rats, cockroaches, and other pests as well had to have taken Hydra a while to completely exterminate from the castle. Those that might still remain were clearly smart enough to stay out of sight.
'The smell must have been rancid,' Steve thought. 'Medieval sewers were almost as bad as New York's sewers. No plumbing too which probably made it worse.'
"Its the fastest way to get to the chapel. Just hold on for a little bit longer Firebrand. Besides, even if this place was still full of literal crap, its nothing compared to what they put me through in Hell Week..."
It continued this way for the next few miles of dark tunnels as Firebrand started feeling worse. His equine senses were picking up every rancid septic and fecal smell that still existed there. He tried to keep on a brave face for Cap, but he wasn't going to last for much longer. He trotted close to Steve, concentrating on breathing through his mouth.
Turning another corner into another passageway, Steve heard a sound like a bell and a flash of light as he quickly reacted. He twisted quickly and held his shield up, not preparing for the kickback as he and Firebrand were launched backwards. Whatever hit them was like a meteor, large, bright and very fast as it impacted against the shield and exploded outwards into the walls of the sewer.
Billowing clouds of grey smoke from the explosion burned their eyes and blocked their sight. Its burnt metal smell, mixed with the old rancid smells in the sewer and the old bricks, made for a rancid smell that burnt their noses. They started coughing to get it out of their systems.
Firebrand lashed out in reaction, shooting off his horse shoes in a random direction, despite the smoke. He heard his shoes impact into the armor of something that gave a familiar shriek, followed by a second louder bang into a second object.
"Can you see through the smoke?" Steve coughed out.
"N-n-no," Firebrand's little voice sputtered.
"Then how-"
Steve's question was answered as Steve stepped forward and out of the smoke cloud. His throat made a few last coughs to get the smoke out of his lungs before he regained his composure once again. Firebrand took a minute longer to recover but he soon opened his eyes too as well to see what happened.
They found two Hydra combatants, a Screamer and a Scorcher. The Screamer had smashed back first into the chest of the Scorcher, sending both sprawling on the ground. One of Firebrand's horse shoes had jammed into what used to be the chest plate of the Screamer while the other took off the Scorcher's right arm entirely. It laid limp on the ground ten feet from the Scorcher's body, bleeding from the stump. A sight that made Firebrand feel sick to his stomach. The colt recalled his precious new weapons back on to his feet before turning slightly green and burping.
"I won't lie to you buddy, it WILL be worse than this," Steve said. "You'll probably see even worse than this as long as I'm around you."
Firebrand shook his head sickly, forcing himself to calm down.
"I'll be fine daddy," the foal replied sickly. "I just feel a little funny."
Firebrand wanted to remain strong for Steve, so he pushed back the tears that were coming up and started running forward in one particular direction. Steve still concerned for his health, stayed close to him as they went on their way through the tunnels. He got ahead of the foal, and turned a few more corners
'Once we get back up top, he'll be right as rain,' Steve thought. 'His animal senses are getting everything here a lot better than mine and its making him sick.'
It went on like this for another mile as Steve breezed through the small amount of soldiers that had remained behind in the tunnels, while Firebrand stood back, trying to breathe carefully. The little colt was starting to sweat and sway back and forth as if he was starting to get dizzy. Thankfully, the tunnels began going uphill as Steve finally found a gate that led back into the castle. It was just another dilapidated corridor, filled with empty tables and filing cabinets, but it was much better than what Firebrand was forced to go through.
Steve looked down at the foal and saw that he was starting to return to normal. The foal finally couldn't hold it in any more as he wretched into a nearby trashcan that was moved under one of the tables. He heaved a couple more times, as his body tried to acclimate to the normal environment. He rubbed the foal's back a couple of times, trying to make him feel better.
"Feel better?"
Firebrand pulled his head out and weakly looked back at the human and smiled.
"Still funny, but better," he replied.
"Let's go then, Falsworth doesn't have much time," Steve said grimly.
The colt nodded simply and followed behind him as they finally found a door that led back outside into the night time air of the Bavarian Mountains. Firebrand breathed in deeply and felt refreshed at the blast of cold air as a light breeze brushed his face. It reinvigorated him and soothed his eyes somewhat that were still stinging from the smoke down below in the sewers.
Steve noticed that they found themselves in a ruined courtyard where signs of over a dozen tanks moving in and out of the area could be seen. The ground seemed to be permanently marked with the treads of Hydra's super tanks. All the grass had been kicked up and died a long time ago, leaving only rugged earth and rocks. A fountain that once stood in the center was now leveled to the ground. Shards of marble forming a circle and a couple of stray pipes being the only form of proof that the fountain ever existed. Old boards were piled up against a low hanging wall that seemed to divide the courtyard in half.
On the far side of the courtyard, where the last remaining stone stairway was led up to a terrace surrounded by buildings covered in all manner of scaffolding and rigging. Four steel beams in a circle held up a helicopter landing pad with a suspended walkway that reached over to the adjacent buildings. All of it was significantly newer than the castle it was built into.
Steve could faintly hear a group of guards massing at the other side, waiting for Steve and Firebrand to appear.
"I hope they are stupid enough to come through here," one said diabolically.
"Spread out and keep an eye out for them swine!" a louder voice barked.
Hearing nothing but the sound of a warbler bird's call in a nearby tree and the sound of heavy footsteps on the other side, Steve and Firebrand carefully made their way across. Careful so as to not make any loud noises to alert the guards to their presence. Steve knew that they were quickly running out of time. Getting into long fights with the guards would only waste time that Falsworth did not have. He occasionally stepped on a few twigs or crumbling pieces of old tiles but thankfully they werent loud enough to attract any real attention. A Scorcher at the top of the terrace was facing the other direction, watching the other entrances and exits for Steve and Firebrand to appear.
This gave Steve the opportunity to kick the back of his legs in, sending the Scorcher on his knees. Using the incendiary rocket launcher still attached to its arm, he sent a barrage of rockets flaming towards the squad of grunts. They were killed on contact as each rocket exploded into a fiery blaze.
"I wuv the smell of napalm in the mornin," Firebrand chattered menacingly.
Firebrand watched all around for any hidden enemies and spotted a glint of light up by the rooftops. Without thinking, he reached over to Steve's head with his forehooves extended and deflected a sniper's bullet just in the nick of time.
"Thanks," Steve grunted as he kept firing.
One of the rocket's blew the door of a beer hall into a million splinters and cinders that sparked. The shrapnel from the door and pieces of brick blown off the building knocked the other grunts off of their feet, giving Cap the chance to go in for the kill.
It didn't take long as there was only a small patrol in this courtyard village guarding the way towards the chapel. Unfortunately, Steve had an aching suspicion that things were only going to get a lot worse from here on out. Falsworth had been in enemy hands for hours. There was no telling if he was even still in the castle. Let alone if he was even still alive. Still, he was one of his Howling Commandos, and a brother in arms. He knew he had to at least try, no matter what horrors him and Firebrand would bear witness to.
With a single hand, Steve broke the rusty locks off of three old locked iron gates that were preventing the duo from progressing. Each step through wet bricked caked in moss and rust sent a solid clack down the dark alleyway. He adjusted his right sleeve of his uniform that had rolled up from the wrist and tightened the strap on the back of his shield, preparing for anything. Firebrand noticed this in his adoptive father and started to get nervous himself. It made him want to stare into his horse shoes as if he expected the magical items to say something to him. The colt could see his reflection in the polished black metal of the horse shoes. He could tell that the past few days had not done anything kind to his tiny body.
Looking into the reflection of his golden eyes, Firebrand caught a glimmer of silver light flickering like a candle flame across his irises. Followed by a thick breath of cold vapor that billowed from his mouth like a small cloud. It was only for a moment, but it startled the colt. Then he heard a familiar deep laugh echoing in his mind, which made him look all around. The owner of the laugh was nowhere to be seen in the tunnel. This only panicked him even more, wondering what was going to happen in the battle to come...
Next Time-Super Soldier: Church on Time