A New Brand of Freedom

by Spettro138

Super Soldier: The First Of The Few

The American kicked open the giant hardwood double doors of the chapel, fully expecting anything and everything to jump out at them at any moment. Firebrand though found himself completely enraptured by the size and scope of the chapel. Red, Black, and Yellow banners carrying the German emblem lined each side of the entrance hallway for a hundred feet. Ornate golden chandeliers brightened up the entire church as good as any electrical lighting ever could. The ceiling of the church was so high that Firebrand had to stretch his neck all the way back just to look at it. Images of angels and holy men were carved into the stone of the walls and columns, each telling a story that Firebrand knew he would have to ask his father later.

Pieces of Hydra equipment and remote generators were scattered about all over the place. It was clear that Zola and the Skull cannabalized what used to be a beautiful building and turned it into another laboratory for their nefarious goals. No light came in through the sky lights but Steve knew that wouldn't last for too much longer. Dawn would be on the way in a few hours and he was determined to finish the mission before then. Extra lights were installed into the entryway pillars that were clearly not part of the ancient architecture of the cathedral. Any old furniture or artifacts of significance had long been taken away from the premises to make way for whatever purposes Hydra for the place.

None of these things were even close to being a priority in Steve's mind as his blood turned cold at the sight of what was up on the altar of the Cathedral. A massive apparatus with two arms running through each side and cables attached to the ceiling that were both connected to an open containment unit. Across the shining silver metal was the emblem of Zola's Master Mann project that Firebrand and himself have been learning about in the castle for the past two days. Inside the containment unit was their friend out cold, but in severe pain.

"Uncle Fally!" Firebrand wailed as he tried to run to the unit to help him.

Firebrand was frantic and he tried looking for anything that might help him release his friend, but the controls were simply too complex for the foal. So he raised his hooves in anger and frustration, ready to break it into pieces of scrap metal.

"Wait! We gotta try to phone for backup first. Falsworth is gonna need some medical attention little buddy. We can't just pull him out of that willy nilly. We might kill him by accident!" Steve explained sternly.

Firebrand gave him a look of fear and then helplessness as he looked back at the silent form of their English compatriot and stifled a sob. He placed

Cap tried to signal for help from Dugan and Bucky, but unfortunately, all he got was static and a shock to the ear which made him recoil.

Suddenly, something from outside violently shook the whole church as the front doors opened with a bang. The duo looked back to what caused the disturbance. They readied themselves for another harsh fight as a massive metal figure stomped across the velvet carpet and towards them. This figure was another robot, just like Iron Cross. Only, there was something different about this one. It was taller and more thin for one thing. Its body looked like it was more suited for quick strikes and proper combat. Unlike Iron Cross before it which was suited more for brutal shock and awe with its wide powerful swings.

The robot had a small head on top of its body, carrying a single gleaming yellow eye that pierced into their souls like a blade. Suddenly, a hatch in its chest opened up to reveal a black screen with a powerful motor that whirred loudly within the giant automaton. The screen activated and a familiar portly face appeared on the screen that made Firebrand's irises shrink in fear. Cap however steeled himself and cracked his knuckles in anticipation of whatever was going to happen next.

"Zola?"

"You thought me dead?" the scientist laughed. "I am beyond life and death. I have transcended flesh. Mastered it. Including your English friend. You and your little companion have inspired me Captain. Your colorful symbolism. The way your inferiors follow you around like obedient sheep. After I have killed you, taken back the colt, and drained your blood, I shall create a more powerful Super Soldier Serum with the colt's magnificent powers...and use it on your friend. Transforming him into a symbol like you."

Firebrand and Steve looked back at Falsworth and noticed a flag in the corner. The Union Jack of Great Britain. The duo finally comprehended what the mad German was trying to accomplish.

"He will be my puppet. The perfect assassin!" Zola gloated with enthusiasm.

Firebrand jumped in front of the container with a hateful look in his eyes and let out a guttural hiss as if he was a wild animal.

"We know this man. He would die first. And I will die before I would ever allow you to lay a finger on either one of them!"

"How nice," Zola replied calmly. "We both want the same thing."

Steve felt his grip on his shield tighten as he advanced on the Zola bot who bounded towards him. Firebrand didnt want to move so much as an inch from his spot. In his mind, if he even moved, it would only give Zola a chance to hurt Falsworth. He wasn't going to let that happen to his new friend for any reason.

Zola began his assault on them by firing a rapid laser from his robot's head. The eye seemed to act as an offensive weapon and a stun weapon as it let out bright flashes every now and then that temporarily blinded Cap. That kept giving Zola the chance he needed to close the distance as he tried killing Steve with an overhead swing from his spinning claws. Steve had to act faster than his mind as he just managed to block the first blow from one claw. Unfortunately, that left him open as Zola managed to get in and swipe him away with his other claw.

Before he could hit the wall painfully and shatter his bones on solid marble, Steve felt a soft warm cushion break his backward movement. He looked down and found he was leaning up against a glowing red cloud of magic.

Steve looked over and saw that Firebrand had instinctively come up with a new spell just in the nick of time. Just in time for him to swing his shield at the neck of the Zola bot, causing him to falter, allowing Steve to jump in between and knock him back with a spinning butterfly kick. Firebrand helped even more by igniting and throwing a nearby full toolbox at Zola at full speed, knocking it on its back.

"Get the hell away from him Zola!" Steve growled.

The face of Zola on the screen just laughed as his robot body stood back up.

"Your fear is understandable. The more super soldiers I create. The more irrelevant you become." Zola said with delight.

"There's nothing special about me. Nothing that sets me part from any other good man fighting this war." Steve proclaimed.

"You are right in one respect Captain. You will all die."

Zola retaliated by firing another volley of shots from his head cannon and a quick short charge to catch Cap off guard. However, Steve was completely prepared for this as he dodged out of the way at the last second and let Zola run headfirst into a pillar. One of his claws became stuck, giving Steve the moment he needed to critically damage the robot.

"That day might come. Maybe even today. But it will not be by your hand." Steve shot back defiantly.

Steve punched the robot with a beat down of successive blows to the mid section and then swung his shield upward. The blow knocked the Zola bot's head back, freeing it from its momentary trap, but stunning it even further. He quickly followed up by leaping five feet off the ground and side kicking the bot in the neck, making it stumble. Firebrand added to the damage by launching a horse shoe from his position right into the waist of the bot, causing it to collapse to the ground. Steve found the chance he needed and pulled the chest cavity back open with all of his might. The face of Zola showed a look of disdain and anger before Steve shut it off forever by shattering the screen with the edge of his shield.

The bot, finally destroyed burst into sparks and fell into a pile of scraps on the floor of the chapel. Steve turned around and ran back to the capsule to release his friend.

"Falsworth! Hold on!"

"How do we get him out?" Firebrand cried desperately. "We can't leave him in there daddy!"

Steve looked around the area of the altar near the capsule, looking for anything that might help him disengage the entire device. He knew he couldn't wait for Dugan and Bucky to help him. The Sleeper would be right on top of them any minute. They didnt have the luxury of time any longer. Cap's luck paid off once again as he found a series of power stations that inverted and converted power from many sources coming from the castle into the Master Mann capsule.

"Fire. You can help me out here," Steve said. "Go to that metal box opposite from me and open the shiny panel that looks like a door. Just pull as hard as you can until it comes off."

"Okay."

Firebrand ran over and ignited his horn. He focused his magic on the panel that he was talking about. The colt strained and struggled for a moment but he managed to break the panel from its bolts to reveal the electronic circuitry inside.

"Good. Now pull out any of those little colored strings and touch them together. We have to do it at the same time."

He did as the human asked, pulling out the circuit board and looked for two wires of different colors to tear apart. Just like he had seen him do many times in the past two days. Hidden in one of the ridges of the circuits he found a green and a blue wire on separate sides. Carefully tearing them with his magic, he pulled the two wires close but didn't touch them together. He looked over and found that Cap had already done the same with another power box.

"Ready?"

The colt nodded vehemently.

"NOW!"

They touched their sets of wires at the same time, causing a cascading series of internal combustion in every power box. Each one sputtered and spat, clattered and clanked with a fit until they finally all blew simultaneously. The Master Mann capsule died with a whine as steam was released from the door and it opened with a clunk. Before he could fall to the ground, the duo caught the man and helped prop him upright. He went in and out of consciousness for a minute until he finally came back to his senses, albeit very exhausted.

"Just take a moment James. You were drugged." Steve said gently.

"Thank you my friend." he panted out.

Firebrand came up to the man and hugged his leg tightly, cooing softly. Falsworth chuckled lightly and gave the goal a pat on the head.

"I'm alright little friend. Thank you too. When I get a stiff drink and some quality food, I'll be right as rain." he assured Firebrand.

He stood back up with a little difficulty and tried his best to explain to Steve what had happened.

"Zola was about to put me under entirely before you showed up. If you hadn't, he would have..."

"It wouldn't have worked. He lost his chance."

Firebrand noticed something shining right behind out of the corner of his eye. It was Zola's robot body. The eye was somehow still active as the brightness of it became like a floodlight. He narrowed the his brow as the light turned off. At the same time, speakers set all over the chapel were beginning to turn on with a low whine.

The doors to the church suddenly opened up once again. The three turned around and were pleasantly surprised to see two friendly faces running toward them.

"Falsworth! Are you alright?" Dugan asked.

Falsworth smiled wearily at his friend.

"Dugan, I thought you were well rid of me."

Dugan and Bucky went up the stairs to check on their compatriot, before Dugan turned around to get a look at the broken Zola bot.

"Careful, Zola somehow put his mind into that thing. No telling if it's active or not still."

"Ha! Butterball didn't like his own body, so he got a new one huh? Dugan laughed as he kicked the bot. "Wish I'd been here to put him down myself."

Suddenly, one of the speakers screeched on as a chilling voice came through.

"Your ignorance is exceeded only by your arrogance." the voice of Zola sneered in reply. "None of you could put me down. I am far beyond anything that you can conceive of. You thought yourself the next step in human evolution, Captain? I'm afraid not...I am. And it is the duty of the Cro-Magnon to cleanse the earth of the Neanderthal."

Bucky raised his pistol to silence the annoying scientist, but Firebrand beat him to the punch by blasting every speaker in the cathedral with rapidly firing shots of his magic. All that was left was a ring of black soot encircling the main chamber where the speakers used to be on each section of wall.

They all looked down at Firebrand in surprise who blew the smoke from his smoldering horn.

"Its my duty to make annoying fat man shut up," Firebrand shot back.

"I love it! He's already growing a massive pair," Dugan cackled.

"A pair of what?" Firebrand asked innocently.

"Not now! We got to get out of here so that the planes can bomb this place" Bucky snapped.

"Wait! There's something underground. Something big burrowing up here fast. I'm not sure if the planes can stop it. Or even survive it."

"Well, then we'll deal with it," Falsworth replied calmly.

"WE nothin, you're going outside where the rest of the POWs are." Dugan chided. "The rest..."

"No. You're all going."

Bucky turned back to Steve with a heated look in his eye.

"Cap, if you think you're putting me on the bench again..."

"I'm not, we need everyone on the field."

"Even me?" Firebrand asked hopefully.

Cap looked down at him with an unreadable blank stare for a few seconds and picked him up, slinging the foal back into his harness.

"Yeah...you too. I think you will come in handy on the battlefield Firebrand. I can never seem to keep you away for long even if I tried to send you away. But please promise you won't tell Peggy?"

"Hmmm...Maybe."

The others snickered at the foal's response. Steve just sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Good enough I guess. The Sleeper, that's what its called is their ultimate weapon. Or at least they want it to be. They can't even control it properly yet. I'm not sure Firebrand and I can stop it. I'm not sure all five of us will be able to stop it. We will need heavy firepower. Long range support. I'll need you all manning the mortars.

"Dugan and Falsworth can do that," Bucky suggested.

Dugan raised an eyebrow at him.

"Or you Barnes, what makes you so special?"

"Stop. None of us are special," Steve proclaimed.

Firebrand all of a sudden found himself transfixed on everything his adoptive father was saying. They were words that gave him a sense of strength that he felt as if would remain for the rest of his life.

"If we win, that will be why. Because Zola, Skull, and Hitler think they are some master race, and we know they're not. We know no man in this war or at home is more valuable than any other. Our souls all come from the same place and we all bleed the same blood. We know it'll take all of us to stop this evil from spreading. All of us standing together. Doing our part. At the moment, Firebrand and I are the best equipped to go down there and see if there's anything I can do to stop it. To find out what I can and relay it to you. But the truth is, it will probably be more than we can handle. Which means it will be up to you and the Allies to stop it for good, whatever you have to do to blow that thing back to the pit of hell it crawled out of. Either we win together or we die together."

Feeling a new sense of strength and relief in Steve's words. Falsworth stepped forward and shook Steve's hand.

"We'll do our duty. Have no fear of that."

As Steve and Firebrand descended the stairs, Dugan gave each of them a friendly slap on the back.

"Give em a boot to the head for me, will ya?"

Firebrand had a devilishly clever idea pop into his head as he mischievously rubbed his forehooves together.

"When the evacuation plane comes, you need to be there to meet them. With or without us..."

Next Time: Super Soldier- Went The Day Well?

Author's Note:

Here's another fun one that I hope you all get a kick out of. With that, my story has reached the 100,000 word count mark and I'm not even done yet. I will probably revise this later in the week as needed.

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Closing in on the climax, I forsee explosions.