A New Brand of Freedom

by Spettro138

Super Soldier: Hell Is For Heroes (part 1)

With a bit of tinkering, Steve was on his way to completing his new impromptu task. It only took a bit of maneuvering up, over, and around through the facility to take out the right parts of each contraption and set them ablaze. Firebrand all the while was still in a deep REM sleep, unaware of anything that was occurring around him. Every now and then while he was running around, Steve would hear the foal mumble a few words in his sleep. It was beginning to worry him greatly. After destroying the Tank Array, Steve found himself in a deserted muster room. It had a single chalkboard on one side of the room detailing all of Hydra's daily maintenance activities in the facility. Various dates, calculations, and schematics were laid all about showing the inner workings of each machine. Steve was running out of room in his intelligence satchel, so he only took the plans that appeared to be of the greatest significance.

He found another golden Faberge egg sitting in the corner of the office, most likely given to one of the senior officers as a reward. Finding treasures all over the castle and especially in the most unlikely of places perplexed Steve. It made him somewhat sad to see someone's work of art treated with such reckless abandon. Taking care as to not damage each one he had found would have to be one of his priorities.

Another detonation occurred behind him in one of the tanks, pulling his attention back on to his main task.

"Everything is falling apart. One more explosion should do the trick." Steve said to himself.

Heading outside of the office and circling another corner, Cap found the Twin Condensers at the opposite end of the facility.

"That thing is big. I wish you were up so we could blast this place sky high little buddy," he said to the still unconscious Firebrand. "Right now though, I'm gonna have to rely on my old skills. I'll have to short out its pressure release valve if those condensers are ever going to overload."

Steve looked around but didnt see any clear way across to the Condensors' control panel. A massive pipe hanging across the length of the room caught his attention. It was barely held up by six cables bolted to the ceiling.

Aiming with his shield, he sliced off four of the cables, causing the pipe to swing around towards him and smash into the railing. Carefully stepping across the pipe, he hiked up the straps on Firebrand's harness to balance out their combined weight. The pipe wobbled and shook underneath his feet, forcing him to slow his advance, lest he take a fall and lose his progress through the power plant. Halfway across, Cap leaped to another bar and swung the rest of the way across, landing on the console platform without much problem. Quickly planting another ball of plastic explosive, Steve sprinted away, and found a suitable way off of the platform, in the form of a steel cable holding up one of the condensors.

Landing at the other side of the room, he turned around to witness his fine work in action as it blew pieces of metal all over the room.

"Ka-boom. This place won't be powering Zemo's little secret any more, I'll tell you that," he said to himself.

The smell of oil, burning metal and smoke was rather disorienting for Steve. Clouds of smoke were billowing out of the wreckage of the machines he had destroyed.

"Why don't we head on out of here little buddy?" Steve mumbled to Firebrand. "Don't want you to be breathing in any of this crud."

He heard the rapid tapping of a dozen set of footsteps coming closer to find a small brigade of soldiers coming to investigate the destruction Cap had caused there.

"What happened?" one of them asked. "Equipment failure? I told Hans to stop drinking Schlitz on the job."

"The same "equipment failure" that destroyed one of the trains? Spread out, idiots!" another said with passive aggressiveness.

The brigade of soldiers and Scorcher juggernauts began sweeping throughout the remains of the facility, searching for any sign of Steve.

"They're blocking the only way out of here," Steve mused to himself nervously. "I don't want to pick a fight with these guys, but this whole place is falling apart around my ears."

As if God himself was playing a joke, a piece of the ceiling broke off from and fell three feet in front of Steve's face.

Rolling his eyes, Steve vaulted over the railing and landed on the main floor, sneaking his way back across the power plant. All the while avoiding any hostile eyes searching for his presence.

Finding a ladder, Steve climbed up and peered over the edge to find half of the brigade guarding the exit. Three soldiers and two Scorchers pacing back and forth across the length of the platform. Planning his attack carefully, Cap tossed his shield at one of the soldiers, causing it to bounce three consecutive times, knocking out all three and temporarily stunning one of the juggernauts. Trying to take him out quickly, Steve charged at the Scorcher, but forgetting the other one who shot at him with his energy cannon. He barely managed to drop to the floor, avoiding the blast, and flipped right back on to his feet to leap over a second blast and upper cut the Scorcher right in the chin, sending it smashing headfirst into the railing.

The first Scorcher came back to his senses and charged up a beam to blast right at Steve from across the room. Cap saw this and blocked the beam, which kept on bombarding him with a steady stream of energy. Pushing against the stream, Steve held his shield at an angle and broke the blast, sending a portion of it back into the Scorcher's chest plate. The act stunned the juggernaut once again, allowing Steve to close in and go for the kill. When the Scorcher tried getting back up, Steve kicked behind his leg, forcing him to his knees. He followed up by restraining him and grabbing ahold of his cannon wielding arm to aim at the other soldiers. Using the juggernaut like a puppet, Cap fired a barrage of energy blasts at incoming Hydra soldiers, killing them and bringing further damage to the already crumbling power plant.

When Steve was certain he had taken out all of the incoming soldiers, he ripped out the juggernaut's oxygen tube and kicked him on to his stomach. The juggernaut hit the metal floor with a loud clank that vibrated the floor underneath Cap's feet.

"That did some damage," Steve said satisfied. "They'll be swarming this place like flies really soon. I've gotta keep moving."

Going down the passageway out of the power plant, Steve heard a tiny cough from behind him, as well as some movement, bringing a relieved smile to his face.

"Firebrand? You awake buddy?"

"Daddy?" the foal asked confused. "Where are we? How did I get back? What happened to the big fuzzy man's castle?"

Steve raised an eyebrow.

"Big fuzzy man? Castle? Well, we are still in something of a castle, but I'm not sure about the first one pal. You must have been dreaming." he replied. "You were in and out of consciousness while we were in that train tunnel. Then you went completely to sleep by the time I went into more underground passages."

"But...it felt so real daddy. I was in a snowy forest and I met this nice, big man who looked like a talking rock with a beard. Something felt funny about him. Something...dark. He...wanted me to do something for him and...gave me something. But I can't remember what exactly though."

"Well, everything up to this point involving you has been pretty weird, so I'll keep a lookout for any giant bearded men owning castles in snowy forests." Steve chuckled. "Regardless though, are you feeling any better? You were sleeping through explosions."

The foal yawned in response.

"I missed making some big boom booms? Awwwwww!" he complained.

"I'll take that as a yes, but don't worry. I'm sure we'll get the chance to blow up a lot more things by the time we get out of here."

He continued down the tunnel as Firebrand asked him more questions about what Steve had been doing while he was asleep.

"So what happened back there? I don't like the smell very much. It smells like Uncle Howard's workshop. If Mommy used a blow torch on it."

"And how do you know what a blow torch is young man?" Steve asked humorously.

"Uncle Dummy let me play with one," he replied innocently. "Said he would teach me to flambe."

"Ugh, I can't leave you two alone can I?"

"Nope!" Firebrand replied with a big smile.

Laughing as he rolled his eyes, Steve made his way down a hallway and found himself in another communications office. Everything was quiet in this office, save for the clicking, whirring, and snapping of all of the various machines and brightly flashing consoles around him in that office. The black and white tiled floors were almost sterile of any dirt or debris, save for what Steve brought in with his boots.Thankfully, it was completely empty, allowing Steve to contact Bucky and give him a status update on their progress. He pressed his earpiece and heard the familiar beep, giving him the go ahead to speak.

"Bucky, I've shut down the power plant. Firebrand has woken up from his little nap too. We are gonna try to reach the Skull."

"Keep him attached to you Steve. We don't want Schmitt getting his hands on Firebrand again. Keep your head on a swivel, you got me Rogers?" he said firmly.

"I know Buck, I promise. I'll be extra careful."

"You be careful too Uncah Bucky! Daddy promised you would take me to Coney Island."

"Oh he did, did he?" Bucky laughed through the com link. "I'm going to make him pay for half of the rides then."

"Just as long as you pay for the snacks." Steve quipped.

"Fair enough. I owe you a dog for the one you threw up anyway." Bucky guffawed before turning the comm off.

"I just hope we can win this war fast enough to get you to all of that fun stuff Firebrand. I...would really like to get a shot at raising you. At least until we can find out where you came from," Steve said with a smile.

Searching around the room, Steve found another security door somewhat larger than the others he had encountered in the castle before. It resembled that of a bank vault's door, complete with reinforced steel and heavy bolts going through the walls. It was extra protected with cement wall segments to protect from anyone trying to drill around its defenses.

The security console didn't help in the slightest. Its algorithms and codes appeared to be substantially more complex before, giving Cap the impression that he was heading in the right direction.

"A Triple Layered door." Steve identified. "This is definitely gonna take a while."

While Steve was cracking the code to the door, Firebrand just sat there staring at his reflection in his horse shoes. He had in fact remembered every terrifying detail about what had happened in his dream. The castle, the statues, and all of the frightening creatures who guarded the inner sanctums of that place. The giant's voice was still whispering the same thing into his head, almost like a promise that Firebrand would end up taking to his grave. Breathing in deeply, he let out a small vapor of cold air that coalesced and swirled in the air, just out of Steve's vision, before disappearing

Steve pulled a small notebook out of his bag given to him by Howard Stark in the event that he needed assistance with some of Hydra's more complex codes. The timer quickly counted down as he searched through his friend's notes for the correct combination of numbers and letters. It didn't take too long as he inputted the right code into the keypad and the door clunked open. One layer of doors opened up, followed by a secondary layer that slid into the floor.

Nodding, he flipped the notebook shut and slid it back into his bag.

"You ready for this Firebrand?" Steve asked.

The foal was completely silent, still staring down at his hooves in thought. Steve noticed this and patted him on the head to get his attention. Firebrand flinched but relaxed when he realized what was happening

"Hey buddy, you still with me?"

"Oh, what is it?" he asked.

"We're heading towards Zola and Schmitt. I know how scary they are for you, but this is a defining moment here. When we step outside, I'm gonna need to know that you are going to have your head in the game."

"Zola scares me a lot daddy. He...hurt me." Firebrand said fearfully. "He hurt you too."

"I know, and I will personally make sure that he pays for doing that to you. Both him and the Skull. Right now though, we need to stop both of them before they can get the chance to hurt anyone else. I'm right here with you. They will never get their hands on you again as long as I'm here. Zola still deserves a crushed jaw and I'm going to give it to him."

Heading through the door and circling a corner, the duo found another cavernous area filled with all manner of equipment, scaffolding, workers, and large banners draped down from the catwalks a hundred feet above. At the far side of the room was an array of various conduits and generators pumping power right down into a drop. The drop was hiding something immense just out of view. Something Steve had been nervous about all night. Above, Steve caught the familiar sight of his biggest adversary standing alongside Dr. Arnim Zola.

"The Skull!" he shouted. "Let's go and get this piece of trash."

Firebrand wasn't paying attention to him or anything that he was saying though. All he could do was stare right into the back of Schmitt's crimson red head with a cold fury. A fury that began to spark something dark within him as they closed in on their target. Unbeknownst to him, Firebrand's horse shoes were growing layers of frost as its deep red accents, began to turn a chilling blue as the giant's voice whispered into his head yet again....

Next Time: Hell is For Heroes (part 2)

Author's Note:

Another chapter full of tension and mystery out. The action is about to boil over into another epic confrontation! As always, like and favorite and make sure to leave a comment below.

Make sure to let me know if there are any grading grammar problems or story issues so I can fix them to the best of my abilities.

I hope you are still enjoying the ride Josh!