Super Soldier: The Wooden Horse (part 2)
On the way out of the alehouse made into a Barracks for Hydra soldiers, Steve came across another journal entry from the mysterious man who kept referring to himself as Zemo. In this entry, Steve sees how the man came to believe that there might be something supernatural about the fabled Sleeper. Did it hail from the stars? From a distant future or some antediluvian past? Was it an artifact left behind by long-forgotten gods? Those questions seemed to plague this Zemo. Though it gave Steve an ominous feeling when the journal entry concluded with Zemo proclaiming that after generations of Baron Zemos. "An Emperor Zemo would have a ring of poetry to it."
Steve slowly made his way down back to the main room of the alehouse and back outside as he looked around for his route towards the final cannon. Down the street to the left was a security checkpoint now guarded by a small platoon of Hydra soldiers that were no doubt placed there by Strucker. A group of snipers was stationed above the wall to give them an aerial advantage while a large line of them with heavy weapons was guarding the door.
Steve felt Firebrand begin to stir as the foal stretched his front legs from the tiny power nap that he took. Looking over Steve's shoulder, Firebrand tapped him with his hoof and asked what was happening.
"Dada, what's wong?" the little foals asked frantically
"Having a little bit of trouble getting past these guys," Steve admitted. "They have a lot of....toys that could hurt us really badly. I'm just trying to see if there's any way past them."
Firebrand looked around looking for anything that might be able to help until he found a few munitions barrels that had not been blown up.
He pointed at the barrels so that Steve could see.
"Great eyes Firebrand!" he quietly exclaimed. "I think that will do just fine."
Hopping over a short brick wall, Steve kicked the stack of barrels over sending them rolling downhill towards the checkpoint. The soldiers reared up their guns, but relaxed when they believed that there was no present threat. Aiming his shield at a lamppost, Steve threw his shield which bounced off and slammed into the barrels, causing an explosion. The soldiers started firing in Steve's direction when the explosion caused pieces of the surrounding buildings to come loose and fall on them in a shower of rubble. All of the soldiers guarding the door were crushed as Steve ran out to the middle of the street, picked his shield up, and chucked it at the snipers on the roof one by one as they were knocked off. The door opened to reveal a short tunnel to the rest of the town.
After dealing with two more soldiers on the other side, Steve maneuvered his way through a maze of alleyways and backways through the village. On the way, they found a small abandoned house filled with dropped files and crates. Steve quickly rummaged through most of the files for a few minutes but only found one that appeared to be of interest. It was filled with papers containing complex algorithms that he couldn't begin to understand, but the title on the top drew his attention: Cloning algorithms case #3. He had a bad feeling just looking at it as he pocketed it, prepared to hand it off to Howard Stark the next chance he had.
It took at least ten minutes of wrong turns and scolding by Firebrand, but Steve soon made it out into another open area where a two-story barn was being used as a guard post for Hydra. As soon as they walked out into the open, the duo was spotted almost immediately, causing one of the soldiers to fire a mounted machine gun at them.
Steve leaped and somersaulted out of the way as he took cover behind an old grain silo. He looked up at the rusted-over, aging structure and saw that it was in the beginning stages of being turned into a watchtower. A platform was placed at the top of the old silo surrounded by a circle of steel railings for any guards that may want to use it. Firebrand tried covering his ears from the loud gunfire that was being pelted at them. They circled the silo and went up against the wall of the barn to avoid the machine gun and rocket launcher. Firebrand found a gold Faberge egg that was hidden in one of the hay bales stacked up on the side of the barn. He reached out and placed it into Steve's pack while they were taking cover.
Three Hydra soldiers with stun batons came down from the barn as they tried rushing Steve. Reacting a little too late, Steve threw his shield at the barn wall, which had a surprisingly beneficial effect. It ricocheted off and struck all three of the soldiers in the chest, knocking them to the ground. Firebrand hopped out of his harness as he angrily hopped from one soldier to the other, smashing his horseshoes into their stomachs. The impact knocked the air out of them as Steve took the opportunity to knock them out.
"I got 'em, daddy!" Firebrand chattered.
"I can see that!" Steve chuckled. "But maybe you should get back over-"
Steve didn't get the chance to finish as a thunderous sound came bellowing out of the barn and from the corner of his eye, Steve made out the light of a rocket barreling towards Firebrand. He barely had time to react as he grabbed the foal by the scruff of the neck and flung him back into his harness, causing the little colt to yelp in surprise. A small explosion happened just a few feet from their faces as Steve let out a big sigh of relief.
"Let's be a little more careful out here alright?" Steve told the foal in a concerned tone.
Heading into the barn, they found a passageway that was blocked by another security door. Looking around he saw a code console up in the rafters of the barn where he would be able to unlock the door. Searching around the barn, he found a ladder on the other side leading up to the second floor.
"Idiots! There is a target painted on his chest! Kill him!" one of the soldiers barked.
On the top, Steve was forced to stay low and rush the two gunners there at the window with his shield up. Barreling into each of them, they went down fairly easily without sufficient body armor to cover themselves from his strikes. He made his way to the console as he cracked the code and opened the passageway door. He slid down the ladder and went into the dark passage. The sound of steam and leaking pipes echoed through the dark narrow tunnels, forcing Steve to listen for any signs of enemy troops.
He was led to a small room with old wine barrels stacked up against one of the walls and a large stack of crates against the other wall. Makeshift repairs had been made recently to the floorboards as displayed by the fresh plywood that was nailed down. Lights were also recently installed into this passageway that dimly shone in the moist humid air. On one end of the room, a large schematic of some kind laid bare on top of a rotting old table that was tightly bolted to the wall. Upon further inspection, it appeared to be the schematics to the armor that was worn by Hydra grunts all over the castle.
Examining the designs, he found out that the armor, while strong in certain places, can still be stunned for a longer period of time if you hit them in the throat, shoulders, and face. Carefully folding it into a more compact size, he placed the schematic into his pouch for analysis later.
"If I find and take care of another grunt, I might be able to make a makeshift cover for you out of their shields Firebrand," he thought aloud. "Then maybe I'll be able to worry less about you getting hit, shocked, or shot."
"Sh-shock?" Firebrand asked nervously. "Is that the bad feewing I had when that mean man hit me?"
"Yeah, I'm still sorry about that pal," Steve consoled. "Maybe though I can do something about that."
He turned a corner in the room and found a small table behind the stack of crates. It had a mug of coffee lying by the edge which was still fairly lukewarm. The rifle on the table next to it had to have been there for longer. Its stock was busted and its barrel was rusting over with age. Either the soldier had run away when he heard the commotion in the barn, or he was one of the grunts that Steve had already knocked out. Firebrand saw something that had fallen under the table and reached out with his magic as he enveloped it in the bright red glow of his magical grip. Snaking it out from underneath the table, he held it up to Steve who grabbed it out of the air. It was an old folder with the same kind of handwriting that he found in the village. Across the front were the words Cloning Algorithms case #2 as he looked inside and found similar equations and charts. There was a page with a written summary but it seemed to be written in some kind of code. So he pocketed it, hoping to find more folders and hopefully unravel the secret.
"Something tells me that's going to be important sometime soon," Steve said thoughtfully.
"What's clooooon-ing?" Firebrand asked clumsily.
"I think Stark said that it's a theoretical process of perfect copying exact doubles of specific people. If Hydra and Schmitt are interested in that kind of thing, it can't be good."
Heading down the corridor, they found themselves in another building which was being patrolled by three ballistic grunts carrying small shields and stun batons. Steve made quick work of them as he knocked them out and grabbed one of their arm shields. Tearing their belts off and a small piece of rope, he strung the shield over the harness carrying Firebrand to act as an extra piece of protection if he was hit again. Searching through the hydra soldiers, he found a few grenades and a smoke bomb as he slipped them into his belt figuring he would be able to use them very shortly.
Walking outside, Steve discovered that he had found the Motorpool of Castle Zemo which was supposed to be near the final cannon he was set to take out of commission. The area was large and patrolled by a fairly large number of guards due to the numerous hiding spots one could take advantage of. Carefully weaving his way through the large cargo containers, he decided to take things a little more stealthily this time around as he stayed out of the line of sight of the many snipers stationed at vantage points around the immediate area. A hundred feet from the door where Steve and Firebrand were at, was a line of transport jeeps being worked on by mechanics. Right by them was a line of oil drums as Steve prepared to throw his shield to trigger an explosion when he heard an angry squeak as one of Firebrand's horseshoes rocketed by his head. The next thing Steve knew, the barrels exploded, causing a chain reaction and sending the entire southern end of the Motorpool to go up in flames.
Over a dozen soldiers near the explosion were either knocked out or seriously injured as Steve took the opportunity of the distraction to circle the perimeter. A solid clink could be heard as Firebrand's horseshoe once again returned to him. The foal gazed at the vehicles all around that had been set ablaze by his explosion as he began giggling in a way that even a toddler like himself shouldn't be.
"Jeez, Firebrand, we gotta find time to work on that anger of yours there. You've got a bit of a violent edge," Steve scolded. "For now though, let's keep moving. I need to find that last cannon or everybody up there is gonna be dead soon."
Circling one of the smaller buildings in the Motorpool, Steve made his way towards the other side as he passed a two-story stack of steel cargo containers. A Hydra grunt was posted up on top surveying the entire area for them. Firebrand's outburst put them on guard as soldiers ran about looking for their target. Steve would have to be even more cautious now and take things relatively more slowly if they were going to get across without being seen. Waiting until he turned back to their side of the cargo container, Steve chucked his shield at the grunt which knocked him over thirty feet to the ground below. Grabbing his shield after it bounced back, Steve jumped onto the soldier and knocked him out as he threw his unconscious body into a nearby trash can.
Hopping up onto a crate and then on to the cargo containers, he took advantage of his height to launch consecutive sneak attacks on the patrols circling the yard.
"Hey pal, I have an idea, on how you can help," Steve told the foal. "See those two barrels?"
Steve pointed over to two red barrels two hundred feet away nearby a small group of approaching grunts.
"Yeh, Yeh, Yeh, Yeh, Yeh, Yeh, Yeh, Yeh!" he chattered.
"As soon as they get close enough, let loose with those horseshoes of yours. I want to see how far they can go."
Firebrand aimed at one set of barrels, while Steve aimed at another, as they waited patiently for the correct moment. When the patrol groups were close enough, Steve and Firebrand let loose with their respective weapons. Both groups of barrels exploded, killing all eight guards on either side instantly in a fiery blast. Pieces of shrapnel and rubble blew in every direction causing the duo to duck and cover. Steve tried getting up but jumped down to the ground below when he heard a shot from a sniper whiz by his head. Looking around, he saw a sniper up on a balcony by a house facing the yard. Preparing for another shot, Steve held his shield at ready as he watched the sniper reload his rifle and aim at him once again. Hearing the shot ring out, Steve swung his shield and bounced the bullet back, hitting him right between the eyes.
When he was certain the sniper was dead, Steve and Firebrand continued their way through the yard picking up any items of importance they found. They worked their way up a flight of stairs towards the armory warehouse where they went down a long walkway and found a pair of doors. Inside, Steve quietly took out two technicians that were guarding the entrance as he continued through the warehouse. Inside, he found numerous technicians there with light weaponry and little armor, allowing him to dispatch them relatively quickly. Unfortunately, three separate snipers were posted up on the catwalks of the warehouse, forcing him to get creative with his movements.
"Why we hiding again?" Firebrand asked as they ducked behind a crate.
"Three snipers up there and I'm planning a route through them. To keep it simple enough for you, snipers are bad guys that can hit things from a really long way away with their.....boom-boom sticks."
"Can I have a boom-boom stick?" the foal asked. "They look fun!"
"Not until you're 18 young man," Steve chuckled dryly.
"Aw, but I wanna help!" Firebrand whined.
"You can help later, but right now, we are in a bit of trouble at the moment!" Steve quietly exclaimed.
Steve felt Firebrand hop out of his harness, causing Steve to panic as Firebrand skittered across the floor, avoiding the first sniper's line of sight. Running up a flight of steps to one of the catwalks, Firebrand found the sniper aiming at Steve's position. Trying to help his adoptive dad, Firebrand charged the soldier as he reared back to buck at his legs. When suddenly, his black horseshoes once again switched places to his back legs almost on instinct and collided. The sniper's legs buckled, smashing his chin against the railing and breaking his jaw. Firebrand went for another buck which broke through the railing and sent the sniper flying 200 feet across the warehouse. His body flew through the window on the other side and sent the other two snipers sprawling over the floor.
Running back down, Firebrand met back with Steve who scolded him before quickly giving him a short hug and a thank you.
"Don't wander off like that again without my permission alright?" Steve asked kindly.
"I'm sowwy. Did I do well again though?"
"Yeah, you did well. Let's just get out of here before more of them show up alright?"
As if to answer him, a giant security door thirty feet away began opening with a whoosh of steam being released. Once the door opened all the way, a large familiar, menacing figure walked out with a giant weapon. As the figure walked out into the light, Steve was able to get a proper look at him. It was one of the giant armored juggernaut soldiers that he had fought all the way back at the Maginot line Hydra facility.
"I'm always jinxing things," Steve lamented before he jumped out of the way of a grenade that the red helmeted juggernaut had launched at him.
The juggernaut continued his attack with a steady stream of flames from his giant weapon as Steve kept his shield up. Firebrand also kept his distance trying to find a way around the flames. When Steve got too close, the juggernaut slammed the head of his gun down on the ground which shook the ground and sent Steve flying three-five feet back.
Grabbing a nearby oil drum, Steve chucked it at the juggernaut who reared his gun up to block it, giving Steve the chance to chuck his shield at it, causing an explosion. The explosion temporarily stunned the large man as Steve spun into a butterfly kick and hit him in the face, knocking him out. Firebrand followed behind Steve closely again, trying not to get lost. Going around the corner towards the staircase up to the catwalk, Steve ran into another juggernaut, forcing him to react quickly as he bashed his shield into the juggernaut's torso and then smashed his face into it. The juggernaut stumbled, allowing Steve to go into a powerful uppercut.
Steve allowed Firebrand to hop back into his harness as he went up the stairs expecting to find a way out but found another blocked security door.
"How do we get through daddy?" Firebrand asked.
"Well, if there isn't a code console here, then I"m assuming...it is over there," Steve replied as he pointed over to the other side of the warehouse.
Firebrand looked around until he saw that there were poles, pipes, and rafters that Steve could use.
"Do the fun upside-down flippy thing! Do the fun upside-down flippy thing!"
"The what?" Steve questioned until he followed where Firebrand was pointing and made an "ooooh" in understanding.
Going to the end of the first catwalk, Steve jumped, flipped, and turned across the ceiling until he made it to the second floor on the other side. The snipers had since recovered from their stumble, forcing Steve to bring his shield up again and charge into one of them. Bashing one of them in the face, he launched into the others as they knocked each other out. He quickly cracked the code on the console as the security door back on the other side slid upwards, allowing them passage.
"Hey, daddy! It's a picture of the big ugly!"
Turning around, Steve found another schematic that seemed to depict the juggernauts aptly named Scorchers, on the schematic along with the designs of their guns and armor.
"Good eye, Stark and the SSR are gonna need this. I have a feeling Schmitt has more than a few of those guys walking around his bases all over the place."
He quickly studied the schematics, discovering key weak points and disadvantages allowing him to stun them for a longer period of time.
Folding it and stuffing it into his bag, he jumped safely back to the ground below and made his way back over to the now opened security door. They made their way out of an office and back outside to the castle grounds.
Steve came across something that caught him just a little off guard once they opened the door. A massive hole at least a mile in diameter and an unfathomable depth had been dug into the mountain below the castle.
"More digging. They're turning this whole mountain into a weapon. I wonder if this has something to do with the "Sleeper," Steve asked himself.
On the other side of the artificial canyon, Steve saw a building that appeared to be heavily fortified with grunts and soldiers covering every inch of it.
"I'd bet my last nickel that's the main armory and storehouse for their weapons. It would probably help a lot if we can destroy it before those weapons get shipped out to the fronts."
Finding a line of flag poles along the castle wall, Cap and Firebrand flipped their way to the other side of the canyon where Firebrand had to push a soldier off of some scaffolding with his magic before he could get in a shot.
The size of the yard outside the armory was relatively small, but it gave Steve free enough room to quickly take out the five troops that had been posted outside.
Cap and Firebrand went in the front doors, and into what appeared to be a lobby or a changing room for the troops stationed there. He decided to take things a little more slowly this time around as he gradually knocked out each of the soldiers one by one, locking them in a chokehold and throwing them behind a stack of crates. It took an extra fifteen minutes to achieve, but he soon had quietly disposed of every soldier on the first floor without triggering any alarms.
Unfortunately, when he reached the second floor down, he was met with over a dozen armed soldiers that he had relative difficulty dealing with. Most of the ballistic soldiers went down easily along with a little help from Firebrand who pulled a wardrobe down on three of them with his magic.
"I shall call for reinforcements!" one of the soldiers barked.
Then Steve knew that they were in trouble when a group of grunts armed with shotguns came charging out of multiple doors. He was able to take down the first two by the stairs with a well-placed throw from his shield, but one of them charged in front of him and got in a lucky shot. A sharp feeling of pain surged through Steve's chest as he cried out in pain and fell back with a small amount of blood beginning to seep out. Firebrand caught him with his horseshoes assisting him with more strength before Steve could fall. Struggling to stand up, Steve ripped his shield out of a nearby pillar it had got jammed in and rushed the grunt as he tackled him into another wardrobe, breaking the soldier's spine.
The pain was annoying, but Steve ignored it as he took out the other shotgunners one by one until all of the soldiers in the building had been properly dealt with.
"Damn, I need to be more careful around shotguns. Those things sting like crazy!" he chuckles painfully as he grabbed his side.
Firebrand hugged his leg and gave him a pathetic apologetic sound.
"I'm sowwy I couldn't stop him from hurting you...."
"It's alright, my healing factor should be kicking in any minute," Steve reassured. "Now though, we need to see what we are dealing with."
Going to the other side of the room, Steve and Firebrand found a large vault filled with thousands of crates and cases filled with rifles, pistols, strangely shaped guns, and explosives of all kinds. The vault was so heavily packed that it reached all the way up to the ceiling.
"God and country, if these reach the front lines, our boys could be torn to shreds. I got to destroy all of this and do it fast!"
"Are we making another boom?!" Firebrand asked excitedly.
"A really big boom preferably, maybe if I can hook those ammo caches up to that detonator, maybe I can make a big enough explo--"
"I'll make a boom!"
All of a sudden, Firebrand giggled maniacally as he ignited his horn he targeted a crate filled with grenades and set the wooden casing on fire.
Steve's eyes widened with confusion and fear as the fire began to spread. He yanked Firebrand off of the floor and stuffed him back into his harness and made a quick dash to the exit.
"Come on, Come on, Come on, Come on!" he cried.
He ran into a group of soldiers that he was forced to dodge and escape as he found another door back outside.
Firebrand laughed as the facility began to go up in flames and a large bang took the roof off of the armory. The duo had to duck behind a brick wall to avoid the explosion that had made its way out.
He found a moment to take a breath as he started walking up a hill just outside the walls of the castle. Over the loudspeaker, they heard the angry voice of the Baron calling out to them.
"DO YOU HEAR ME AMERICAN? EVERY MAN IN THIS CASTLE IS NOW HUNTING YOU AND YOUR LITTLE EQUINE RAT!" Strucker bellowed. "PRAY ONE OF THEM FINDS YOU BEFORE I DO!"
Firebrand looked up and gave the unseen voice a raspberry, causing Steve to give a big hearty belly laugh.
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As a quick note, "horseshoe" is one word.
Is Captain America: Super Soldier really canon to the movie?
9841548
Well, I believe its theoretically canon. It doesn't really change anything that's established in the movie, so it functions as a supplementary
You all realise that firebrand is a youtuber right?
9849548
His OC anyway. Not the youtuber himself
9849548
Yes we know this, and is part of why I'm loving this story.
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9849548
You might have missed it, but he has been reading and commenting on this fic. The again, this comment is around two years old, so maybe you've noticed in a later chapter.