A New Brand of Freedom

by Spettro138

Cakes, Explosions, and Dwarves, Oh My! (Updated)

For the next few hours, Howard proceeded with more experiments that were safer for Firebrand and more importantly for himself. Especially after taking an explosion to the face, courtesy of Firebrand's little sneeze. Taking hair samples, blood samples, and stool samples he handed them off to the SSR's top biologists for analysis. During which, Howard made sure to keep their tests under close observation so that no harm could ever come to the colt. Once, he even had to fire one of his overly enthusiastic underlings for suggesting dissecting the poor colt. Peggy responded with a solid punch to the scientist's face.

The Colonel made certain that the samples taken from Firebrand were kept under guard and lock and key at all times so the information of Firebrand's existence could never get out to the public.

An hour later after Howard Stark had finished his first round of tests on Firebrand, Peggy decided to treat the little colt to ice cream and chocolate from the local sweet shop. She knew full well that she couldn't allow the little colt into the shop, otherwise, he would have been seen. So she requested from the Colonel that he send two men over to the shop to bring over various sweets for the staff as a cover.

Soon enough, the deliverymen had returned pushing in three large carts of various baked goods and candies for Firebrand and the entire staff of the London branch of the SSR.

"Order for Agent Carter!" one of the deliverymen barked. "And uhhhh.....somebody named Firebrand."

Peggy got up from her chair where she was giving Firebrand company and paid for the catering order. The deliverymen set the carts aside where everybody could grab a bite. The Colonel's employees were grateful for the grub as they talked amongst themselves while they snacked and worked.

Carrying Firebrand, she brought the colt over to the serving carts to let him see the treats she brought for him. The deliverymen brought over various delicious-looking pastries, candies, and even a large three-tiered chocolate cake which seemed to be barely standing. It was decorated with ribbons of frosting, white chocolate shavings, and powdered sugar that made the cake look like a tiny snow-capped mountain.

"See anything that you like sweetheart?"

"Yeh, Yeh, Yeh, Yeh, Yeh, Yeh, Yeh!" he chattered excitedly.

He pointed to the plate of French chocolate eclairs first that made Firebrand's mouth water profusely. He hopped out of her arms and onto the cart as he grabbed one of the sweets with both hooves and began devouring it in only a few seconds. The cream filling and the chocolate coating from the eclairs covered his face as he ravaged the entire plate. Peggy chuckled to herself as she watched Firebrand messily enjoy himself eating down the sweets.

Suddenly, Peggy saw his horn ignite in a glowing red light as he flashed out of existence, and reappeared on top of a shelf adjacent to the cart of sweets.

"...I didn't know you could do that," Peggy said, clearly confused.

Looking up at Firebrand, she saw he was looking down at the cake and immediately knew what he was about to do.

"Come on down sweetheart, you are gonna get hurt up there!"

Reaching up to the shelf, she tried to grab Firebrand and bring him safely back down. Unfortunately, he seemed to sense what she was doing as he leaped off of the shelf and dove down into the cake. The last thing she heard was Firebrand yelling "wheeeee!" before he landed with a loud splat and she found herself and half of the intelligence room completely covered in chocolate cake.

Colonel Phillips came out of his office holding a clipboard and froze as he saw the state of the room. He looked down at the messy Firebrand and gave him a raised eyebrow when he gave him a big toothy smile. Slapping his face, Phillips rubbed the bridge of his nose and brought a mop and bucket to Peggy to clean up Firebrand's mess.

"They don't pay me nearly enough for this," he groaned.

The Agent along with a few of the staff spent the next half hour thoroughly cleaning the intelligence room of all sticky substances. Luckily, most of the sensitive documents and maps were untouched by Firebrand's mess as they scanned the room for any more filth.

"Well, that's done and over with. Though I suppose the Captain will probably want you to be clean if he's going to be carrying you around in that harness of his. I'm sure we have a place to give you a bath in this building."

Peggy went into a washroom down the hall with Firebrand as she drew a bath for him. The first thing she would need to rinse off was the chocolate and cream that had gotten stuck deep into his fur. Firebrand wiggled out of her grasp and leaped into the tub with a splash.

....And completely soaked Peggy's clothes from head to toe.

The English agent looked down at Firebrand with an unamused gaze as he giggled at her.

"You're a lot of trouble you know that?" Peggy wryly remarked with a half-smile.

Being careful not to get any soap in the infant's exceedingly large eyes, Peggy cleaned him thoroughly as she vigorously massaged soap into his bright red fur and golden mane. He loved playing with the foamy bubbles as he splashed around in the porcelain tub. Soon enough, Peggy found him to be clean enough as she lifted him out of the tub and dried him off with a nearby towel.

Not long after she finished with him, Peggy got herself cleaned up as she got a message from Howard Stark that he had equipment and gear for Steve to choose for his loadout. Going through the clothes in her wardrobe, she strangely felt like wearing the red dress she had bought in New York to meet Steve.

---

At the pub...

"See, I told you," Bucky joked with Steve about their new friends. "They are all idiots."

"What about you bud? Are you ready to follow Captain America into the jaws of death?" Steve asked slyly.

Bucky smiled and shook his head in response.

"Hell no. That little guy from Brooklyn who was too dumb not to run away from a fight...I'm following him and your new boy".

Then he looked around to make sure they weren't being eavesdropped on and leaned in close to Steve.

"But....you're keeping the outfit right?" Bucky asked hopefully.

"....You know what? It's kinda growing on me," Steve said as he looked back towards a poster of himself with his stage costume.

"Maybe you can get that new little kid of yours an outfit of his own huh?" Bucky jokingly said as he playfully jabbed at Steve.

Suddenly, all of the loud singing and drinking in the pub seemed to die down as they all looked to the entrance where a familiar woman was standing. Out of respect, both Steve and Bucky stood at attention. Though Steve noticed Bucky was eyeing her up and down hungrily as they gazed at her beautiful red dress.

"Captain," she greeted.

"Agent Carter." he greeted back.

"Howard has some equipment for you and your little tyke to give a whirl," she explained. "Also, it seems your request for adoption went off smoothly. Congratulations."

"That's really great news. Thank you, Agent Carter."

Peggy looked around and listened to the sound of singing as a look of vague disdain appeared on her face when she saw Steve's friends sloppily drinking down beer.

"I can see you and your top squad are prepping for duty."

"What, you don't like music?"

"Oh, I do actually," she replied. "I might even....after this is all over. Go dancing. I might teach a few tricks to your new.....child Captain."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Bucky asked slyly.

Peggy just ignored him and kept her gaze on Steve as she said one thing before she turned and left the building.

"The right partner.....Be there by 0800 Captain."

As the two were left alone, Bucky just stood there, shuffling in place and laughing awkwardly as he blushed hardly.

"I-I'm invisible. I can't believe it. I'm turning into you. This is a horrible dream."

With a half-smile, he mockingly patted his friend on the shoulder before leaving the building.

"Don't beat yourself up. Maybe she's got a friend."

Back at the intelligence office, Howard Stark had just started experiments on the ammo cartridge Steve had brought back from Hydra's headquarters in Austria. Taking care not to cause any bad chemical reactions, he used the same robotic arms to slowly take apart the outer casing of the cartridge to get at the glowing blue energy source that lied within. His assistant stood by documenting everything that was happening. Unfortunately, while his attention was occupied, he didn't notice Firebrand sneak into the room and watch everything that Howard was doing.

"The emissions signature is quite unusual." Howard mused. "Alpha/Beta ray is neutral...though I highly doubt Rodgers picked up on that. The energy signature is strikingly similar to what I found on Firebrand."

As he slowly used one of the robotic arms from behind the barrier, Firebrand sneaked through an opening in the barrier and went through to see what Howard was looking at. The blue glow of the cartridge caught his attention as he tried reaching up to the table where it was. He tried jumping up at first but found that he was too small to reach up to the pedestal. With a coo, he reached out with his magical grasp for the cartridge, not knowing the reaction it would have, being in contact with his magic.

"Whatever this energy is, it seems harmless enough," Howard said calmly. "It's hard to see what all the fuss is about..."

Suddenly, he saw Firebrand through the glass as he ignited his horn and attempt to lift the cartridge from the pedestal. He tried to call over to the colt, but it was too late, as when the colt touched the cartridge with his magical grasp, the reaction caused an explosion outwards, once again knocking Howard onto his butt.

"Write that down," he remarked dizzily while he painfully tried to get back up.

While Howard was down, Firebrand sat down mesmerized by the swirling shape his magic was made in conjunction with the energy expelled by the weapon cartridge. Suddenly, a beam of light exploded upwards and outwards in all directions, revealing the image of a cosmic tree made of blue and green swirling clouds and golden shining stars against an inky black sky. Firebrand walked forward and tried to sniff through the image the aura was creating but fell flat on his face with a painful smack.

Firebrand scrunched his nose with discomfort as he began angrily throwing things at the annoying image in an attempt to disperse it. Suddenly the cloud began to focus on one of the lower "branches" of the cosmic tree as an image of a dark stone cavern. This immense cavern of rock and metal was barely illuminated by the fire from the hundreds of torches mounted on every inch of the walls and the rivers of molten metal flowing through the halls like golden honey from a hive. Countless entrances into smaller rooms lined the endless hallways among the rock and stone of the cavern. The tiny colt held off his anger for a moment as he watched the image, interested in what was going on.

The image shifted to a smaller room where thousands of weapons were neatly stacked against the walls. In the middle of the room was a large forge where two short, bearded men hammered away at large red hot plates of metal on giant anvils the size of cars. The colt leaned forward, trying to make out what the two men were saying.

"Brother Brokkr?" one of the men asked.

"Yes brother Eitri?" the other replied.

"We must hurry to finish Lord Sleipnir's U'ruu horseshoes before Lord Odin has our hides."

"I am trying! I would be going a lot faster if you would stop howling like a mangy dog!"

"Then act like it, you blooming idjit! I'd rather not be late with this order after being late with the order for Lord Thor's weapon!"

"I'm no idjit, you thin-skinned yellow bellow! I'm not the one who dropped the hammer when it was still cooling!"

"Why are you still going on about that, we fixed the damages on the handle didn't we?"

"Right before you let it soak in Bullsnipe urine! That had to be the longest bath I have taken in millennia. It took me weeks to get the smell out of my armor. It is damn near impossible to wash off."

"That was an accident brother and you know it. Bomp'ber was drunk and throwing axes at the wall again, you know that."

"Suuuure, Keep telling yourself that halfwit. He is not responsible for your work, you are."

"Oh yeah? Well, I'm not the one who called Lord Loki a horse plower in front of Lady Freya!"

"I'm telling you! I saw him sneaking around with a white-winged unicorn!"

"You've been hitting the Cliffchaser again, haven't you? Unless you actually wish for a brutal beating from Lady Svaðilfari and Lady Freya at the same time you poor excuse for a dwarf of Nidavellir."

"Why you..."

The two bearded men tackled each other to the ground and began trading brutal blows with one another as two small black objects clattered closer to Firebrand as he looked with interest at the two items. He stepped forward and didn't notice that he had walked halfway through the image with his front end sticking into the cavern. Looking down at the objects, he noticed that they were two chunks of strange-looking metal. Instinctively thinking he would get back in Howard's good graces, he picked up the two pieces of metal with his mouth and slowly backed away, as the two scruffy Dwarves turned their attention to the colt who disappeared back into the lab.

"Brother?"

Yes, Brother Eitri?"

"You just saw a big-eyed, red unicorn steal pieces of U'uru and disappear into thin air didn't you?"

"Yes...Yes, I did."

"Good...good. At least I know I'm not turning mad in my old age."

"Quite.....Now lets both go drink our finest ale to dull the pain of our inevitable punishments.".

"Yes, I do believe that sounds quite nice....."

---

Far away in the realm of Niflheim, where ice never melts and the dead forever walk across empty tundras of fog and wind, the ruler of a dark castle, nestled in the middle of a craggy mountain range began to stir. For many millennia, he stood to watch over the dead, hating the gods who placed him there in servitude. Many eons of hatred, festered and boiled over as he patiently waited out the endless years for the perfect moment to enact his revenge. From his icy realm, he felt something new emerge all the way on Midgard. Something powerful. Something young...

"A fire for me to put out," the ruler boomed gleefully. "Perfect."

Author's Note:

Happy belated birthday Josh Scorcher! I hope you are enjoying my little story!

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Wut? Explosions equal portals? At least Howard gets a nice apology gift for being exploded this time.

[Lorddarkrai2000]

that was priceless

[The Fiery Joker]

Oooooooh that's what those were!

[Chrome Masquerade]

Carrying Firebrand, she brought the colt over to the serving carts to let him see the treats she brought for him. The deliverymen brought over various delicious looking pastries, candies, and even a large three tiered chocolate cake which seemed to be barely standing. It was decorated with ribbons of frosting, white chocolate shavings, and powered sugar that made the cake look like a tiny snow capped mountain.

Remind me to tell you about the Chocolate Suicide Cake sometime.

[Well Geboren]

He hopped out of her arms and on to the cart as he grabbed one of "the" with both hooves and began devouring it in only a few seconds.

The the needs to be 'them'

..revealing the image of a cosmic tree mad"" of swirling clouds and..

Needs the "e" for made.

"Oh yeah? Well, I'm not the one who called Lord Loki a horse plower in front of Lady Freya!"

Nothing wrong here, only that I got a jolly good laugh of yer inclusion of that bit of the Norse legends. XD XD XD