Firebrand was rather lucky being covered in a thick layer of fur and having a human body warmer. For their current assignment, he was going to need it badly. Wind speeds alone were making their vantage point on the ridge miserable. The rock beneath their feet was ash grey but slick in some places. Their ridged boots kept a grip on the otherwise dangerous footing. A few badly placed steps and trips forward would mean a straight drop into the depths of the valley below, obscured by a thick layer of ice fog. Steve looked out over the ridge down at a frozen railway track on the opposite side.
Three months had gone by since Steve and his cohorts had began their crusade against Hydra. Four months since Steve had personally taken it upon himself to become Firebrand's new father. Every day, he could see Firebrand was growing. If not in body than certainly in mind. Every assault, he picked out the weaknesses in the enemy defenses and formulated a plan to exploit it. After hearing that Zola was the target on this latest mission, Firebrand was reluctant to join Steve. After everything that had happened at Castle Zemo, Steve didn't know if the colt could handle it. He tried to have Firebrand stay at the London office, but the Colonel was firm.
"Sorry Rogers but no can do. We already have the extraction plan for you and your team but we cannot divert a single plane at the moment. Not with ol Adolf's ass getting puckered and hot. We were just hit with the worst bombardment in months and are trying to move top secret assets back to the States. Your present company hanging off of you excluded."
He could tell in his voice that the decision was bothering him as well, but there was nothing to be done about it.
It still weighed on his mind as he stared out over the mountain side listening past the whistling wind for the pumping, airy sounds of the train.
Cap had the team launch a steel cable into the icy rock on the other side of the gorge while Morita and Gabe listened in to Hydra communiques. Bucky walked up to the cable and wobbled it around with one hand, watching the taught cable sway in the wind slightly.
"Remember when I made you ride the Cyclone at Coney Island?" Bucky asked his friend nervously.
"Yeah, and I threw up?"
"This isn't payback is it?" he asked glumly.
"Now why would I do that?"
"I didn't know you got sick daddy!"" Firebrand giggled.
"Drinking four bottles of root beer beforehand was probably the main reason."
The silence after that short moment of levity was palpable. Firebrand jumped out of the harness for a short moment to take a look at their surroundings. The radio whirring behind Firebrand, the wind whipping around, the sound of snow and ice being crunched under their feet. Firebrand tried to look out over the scenery to clear his head of unpleasant thoughts. The snow capped mountain range before him was picturesque. It reminded him of something he had seen back in Bavaria.
His eyes shrank when he looked upon the mighty face of the mountain parallel to their spot. Or rather, the giant man's face that appeared upon it. It leered down at him with eyes like lifeless granite and a wide grin filled with demonic white icicles. It was the giant from his dream of a dead tundra. The one who spoke sickly sweet words into his ears and made his insides feel hard and cold. The fur on the back of his neck prickled when he noticed he was backing up and breathing faster. Firebrand had to resist the urge to scream as the mountain seemed to cave and flex up and down.
...like laughter.
It's shadow seemed to grow and loom over him creating a phantom weight that made the colt fall on his back. When the shadow reached his face, the garbled sound of the radio blaring loudly shocked him back into reality.
Herr Zola ist auf dem Weg zum nächsten Kontrollpunkt. Öffnen Sie den Gasschnellzug! Wir müssen das Ziel bei Sonnenuntergang erreichen!
"We were right! Dr. Zola is on the train!" Gabe announced. "A Hydra dispatcher just gave their Schnellzug permission to open up the throttle! Wherever he's going, they must need him bad."
Cap nodded and strapped on his cowl while the others began to pack up and load up their weapons. Firebrand looked back at the mountain and angrily threw one of his shoes at it, hearing a solid crack of rock before recalling it back to his hoof. Frost caked the shoe as it slid back through the storm and onto his hoof, chilling him to the bone.
"You alright little buddy?" Steve asked with concern.
"...yeah. I just...thought I saw something." Firebrand lied.
Steve went back to checking his gear but knew something bad was up.
Before long, they could hear the sound of the train's horn roaring in the distance just around the bend. Falsworth pulled out a pair of binoculars and watched the train carefully.
"Let's get moving lads, they're moving like the Devil." Falsworth said stiffly.
Steve scooped up Firebrand back into his harness and latched a zip line handle onto the cable.
"We only got a ten second window, if we miss that window, we'll be bugs on a wind shield!" Steve barked.
"Mind the gap," Falsworth added.
"Then we better get moving bugs!" Dugan cackled to the others.
Jacques acted as the timer as he waited for the train to reach the second bend in the track before giving the signal.
"Maintenant!"
Steve went first as he leaped over the edge and let his weight push him fast down the cable. The others followed suit closely behind as they flew over the gorge and over the train that was passing in a parallel path just underneath their feet. Firebrand still felt a little nauseous from the height but handled it better than before. Cap gauged the distance as the gap between them and the top of the train began to close. He released his grip and fell, expecting to land on his feet without a problem. Except when he did, the ice was much to slick for him and he felt himself starting to slip off of the train.
Firebrand acted accordingly and flung his shoes onto the roof. He wrapped his hind legs around the straps of the harness and held his forehooves out. Reaching out with his magic, he created a tether to the immovable shoes and pulled themselves back in like a winch. Steve didn't know what was going on but he hazarded a quick guess as he regained his footing and balanced himself.
"Oi watch yourself Captain!" Falsworth scolded.
"That was my bad," Steve breathed out with relief. "Where did you learn that?"
"When Uncle Howard tried giving me a mane cut," Firebrand said sheepishly.
"Ah."
Being more careful, Cap and the Howling Commandoes inched along the train, watching their footing and heading to the engine. Steve found a rounded off car with a ladder encircling it for maintenance purposes. He went down and wrenched open a door on the side and hopped into the interior. Bucky followed closely behind and closed the door with a clunk.
It was a storage car of some sort filled with cases and shelves. Everything was uniform but he had a feeling that it was important. The main shelf was placed right in the middle separating the car into two compartments. Bucky went down the right while Steve and Firebrand went along the left side.
They took a moment to inspect the car's inventory and found many things of interest. Rifles, ammo cartridges, armor, cybernetics presumably created by Zola and Strucker. An improved version of a Warden's claw laid on the bottom in one case.
Along the middle shelf, Firebrand felt a strange familiar aura coming from a small box. Steve noticed his interest in it and carefully opened the lock, being sure not to make any loud noises. Inside was a small talisman inscribed with some ancient Norse script he couldn't readily identify. What was unusual about this talisman was the feeling it gave off. The runes upon it glowed and steadily pulsed with red light. Steve just had a strange feeling that it was going to come in handy, so he pocketed it in a side pouch for later.
The port to the next car was opened wide and it seemed to be empty, but he sensed that this wasn't the case. So he pulled out his pistol and readied himself as he walked over the threshold. The middle hallway interconnecting the two cars was empty, but as soon as the duo passed into the next car, both doors slammed shut with a bang locking in place and separating them from Bucky in the last car. Steve began to panic as he tried forcing the door open but it was electromagnetically sealed. Bucky turned and fired at someone Steve and Firebrand couldn't see.
Unfortunately for them, they had their own pressing matters to deal with as the sound of an energy cannon charged forcing their attention to the front of the car. It was a new Juggernaut, with energy cannons strapped to each arm. He tried firing right between the eyes of his new adversary but the bullets harmlessly bounced off. Two concussive blasts were fired their way as Firebrand swatted them away with his right hoof. The blasts melted holes in the wall of the train, letting super cooled air inside. Steve ducked behind a row of crates and carts as the Juggernaut continued firing. Swinging his shield in such a confined space would be difficult without enough room for movement.
"Stop him! Fire again!" Zola's voice shouted through a speaker.
Steve tried to come out while it was firing, but he lost his grip for a moment and his shield tilted, making him lose his balance for a moment. He could hear Bucky engaging in what heard like a viscous firefight and it didn't sound good. When the Juggernaut entered into what appeared to be a short cooldown period, Steve leaped to a craning mechanism that slid him across the car and over their enemy's head. It whipped around to blast them both, but Firebrand leaped out and stuck both hooves into the large barrels of the Juggernaut's cannons just before they fired. Blue light exploded out the backs and launched the man like a rocket backwards, smashing the door down separating them from Bucky.
"Thanks buddy," Steve quickly said as Firebrand looked at his smoking horse shoes.
Firebrand saw Bucky crouching down behind some crates, clearly out of ammo as he smashed the window with a swing of his hoof. Steve broke a nearby terminal, cutting power to the door and pulled it open. He signaled to Bucky and tossed his own pistol to his friend.
Steve took a chance as he charged back into the car with a bellow and slammed shield first into the middle shelf, which pushed a long heavy container down towards where one of the grunts was hiding. The grunt reacted quickly, but badly as Bucky shot him in the neck, followed by a box dropped on his head Firebrand tossed over with his magic.
The three turned to each other and with a nod of understanding they believed they had a moment to catch their breath.
A chunk and a charge from behind said otherwise as another Juggernaut's cannons opened up like flowers pulsing with red energy.
"GET DOWN!"
Firebrand moved faster than Steve did as he leaped out of the harness, but before he could hold up his shoes, the blast was absorbed into his horn and exploded outwards, bursting the train open like a tin can. All three were knocked back and dazed as they heard Zola egging it on.
"Fire again! Kill the Americans now!"
Bucky looked over and saw Steve and Firebrand received the worst of it. He was struggling to get on his feet and Firebrand was gripping his head in agony as his eyes watered and his face paled from the pain. Cap's shield laid on the floor caught his attention immediately when the Juggernaut started charging up again. He grabbed it and started firing, but the Juggernaut's blasts were stronger as he was launched back to the edge and dangled off strips of metal, holding on to a railing for dear life. The man tried to finish Bucky off, but Steve pushed through his foggy head and leaped back onto his feet. Grasping at his shield he flicked under armed and knocked the Juggernaut back. Firebrand got up a moment later and followed up Steve's attack with a double hoof slam to the helmet, knocking out the Juggernaut.
They focused their attention back on Bucky who was still trying to hang on.
"BUCKY!"
Steve held on to the train wall that had been burst open and tried sliding out as far as he could to reach out to his friend. Firebrand still dazed and in immense pain came out to the edge and watched intently, barely able to stand up on all fours.
Bucky tried to reach out for a moment but Firebrand could hear the metal begin to buckle and snap.
"NO!"
The handle snapped off and Bucky began to fall. Firebrand shrieked in searing pain as he tried holding Bucky up with his magic. Steve looked back and saw Firebrand shaking and sweating pools. His horn was singed from the previous blast and was in bad shape. Firebrand screamed as he tried hoisting Bucky up close enough to where Steve could grab. Cap leaned over as their hands were just an inch away, when Firebrand reached his limit and his horn cracked, which cancelled the spell. Bucky screamed as he fell thousands of feet into the icy waters of the river below.
Firebrand just stared down at the river below like he just had his heart ripped out of his chest. He was wheezing for air and his golden eyes were red. He had popped blood vessels from the extreme effort and bruised them. He could hear his own heart beating violently into his ears like a persistent knocking at a door. Everything came to a head as every sensation seemed to die in an instant. He felt like death. Steve was weeping silently into the metal as he moved back into the train.
The colt's eyes stared into the icy abyss and he felt something else stare back into him. Unseen eyes with a silvery slick familiar voice.
"Let me in...you don't need to be afraid of the cold..."
"I love the cold..."
"Yes...you do."
Then his eyes turned black.
Steve couldn't believe what had just happened. Everything seemed like a dream now. A nightmare. To make things worse, his hands were feeling like they were being scorched by the walls he was leaning on. Everything seemed to be growing colder as well. Frost began to encrust the entire inside of the car and around his feet and fingers.
"What?"
He looked down at Firebrand and his blood chilled. The colt was still as a corpse and his breath was thick and viscous like clouds being puffed.
"Firebrand?"
He tried reaching for the colt, but before he could, he let out an inhuman shriek like a banshee and all color drained from his fur. His scream was so loud and so demonic that he knew the colt could never have made it himself. Every ounce of ice and frost in the train car shattered in an instant and turned into a swirling blizzard that raged and roared. The colt seemed to levitate off the ground as he screaming grew louder and louder like a shrieking wind. The cold bit into Steve's face and it made everything nearly impossible to see.
"No," Firebrand hissed. "Frostbite."
Cold air exuberated from the pony and his fur and mane began to crust over around his lifeless black eyes. The ice were soaked into the colt's fur and mane changing it into that evil blue and silver that Steve knew too well.
Firebrand turned in the direction of where the engine was and blasted through each metal door, freezing through and shattering them like glass. He flew on gusts of cold air rocketing through the train cars and out of sight as Steve began to hear screams of terror and un natural sounds.
"Oh no..." Steve breathed out.
He shook off his stupor and ran through the cars as fast as he could, chasing after the demon who took his son. Cap could only hope that he got there quickly before it did too much damage.
Next Time: Loss and Capture