53.
Bavaria, Germany
October 24th, 1944
Steve hears the mumble of voices. He forces his eyes open, his vision bleary. His eyes feel so weak he thinks they may close again no matter how hard he tries to keep them open.
There's a throbbing pain all over his body, but the pain in his face and at the back of his head trumps it all. Every pump of blood feels like he's being stabbed repeatedly, making him wince.
Steve squints and forces himself to look. It takes him a moment to realise he's moving, being dragged along through the catwalks and hallways of the factory by a metallic grip that encircles his torso and squeezes tight enough to hitch his breath. In front of him, two-armed Hydra soldiers walk at a steady pace, Doctor Zola walking within their protective reach.
Zola holds up a hand, and the entire group comes to a halt. Steve hangs limp in the grip of the soldier's holding him, trying to pull together the floating threads of his scrambled mind. He struggles to remember what happened, how he possibly could have been captured, when–
A female figure clad in a green and black leather suit walks across Steve's field of vision, carrying in her hands his shield.
"Take it for analysis," Madame Hydra commands a guard, thrusting it into his hands.
"No, stop," Steve tries, weakly attempting to break free from his captors.
Madame Hydra turns to Steve, her mouth curled into a snarl. She storms over to him, raises a hand, and slaps Steve across the face so hard his eyes roll back in his head. "Schwein!"
"Now, now, show our guest some courtesy," Zola berates Madame Hydra. She walks off, still glaring at Steve as he gathers his senses yet again. "Captain, what a pleasure to see you again in person. How wonderful that you have awoken in time for me to show off my laboratory facilities. I trust Iron Cross is treating you gently," Zola continues, waving a hand to the robot that carries Steve under its arm. Steve looks up groggily at the faceless robot. "I'm afraid he was a bit… over-eager earlier when he brought you in."
When Steve looks back around, Madame Hydra is only inches from him, inspecting his face with scrutiny. "His condition is adequate for our purposes," she decides.
"How rude of me. Captain, I know you and Madame Hydra have already been acquainted, but I feel you should know that she is our highest-ranking Lieutenant. She commands the detention area. I would imagine you've never met a woman so powerful in your small-minded military, eh?"
"I know a lady named Peggy who'd love to show you how wrong–" Steve manages to grit out, cut off by another forceful slap from Madame Hydra.
"Struggle all you like. It will do you no good, but I find it quite amusing," she offers, glaring down at Steve with her hands on her hips. Steve struggles to stay sitting upright, feeling exhausted. "Your weakness disturbs you? Herr Zola drained quite a bit of blood for his experiments. By the time your strength returns, of course, you'll have outlived your usefulness," Madame Hydra tells Steve.
Steve didn't even realise they'd done experiments on him, but it explains the weakness he feels in his entire body, like he's been drained.
"Not necessarily, Madame," Zola corrects, pacing in front of Steve. "There's really no need for this unpleasantness, Captain. We have a great deal in common. I seek perfection, and you embody it. We should be allies, you and I."
Steve glares up at Zola, giving him his own snarl. "Go to hell."
"Oh, no, my friend," Zola says, raising a large syringe in front of Steve's face, the needle over six inches long. "That would be you."
Zola jabs the needle into Steve's neck. He feels the pinch, and then the world swims before his eyes once again.
"The late Doctor Erskine was a brilliant man. I've worked to recreate his Super Soldier Serum for some time now, using fragmentary notes and samples of the Red Skull's blood. But they represent his early efforts, and my results have been…erm… flawed. And you know this, Captain. You found some of them in the basement in Hamburg. But now, with your kind cooperation, using your blood samples and the observations I've made of you in combat – surely you realise you've only survived this long because I wish to test your capabilities – I finally have the missing pieces I need to perfect the serum, to complete Project Master Man, and to create an army of Hydra agents as powerful as you."
"And after that, he is mine," Madame Hydra says, walking up to Steve.
"But not yet, I'm afraid. I need him intact until my research is complete. Keep him secured… but unharmed," Zola threatens.
Steve wakes up strapped to a cot. He looks around, shaking his arms to get them free, but they're still too weak to even move. He's in a metal jail cell, an electrical charge running along the bars and the door to his left.
Madame Hydra waltzes inside, looking smug. "We'll meet again soon enough," she promises. "In the meantime, I have other guests to attend to. I wouldn't want your friends to feel neglected. Zola doesn't object if I break them."
With that, Madame Hydra steers another syringe into Steve's neck and smacks him once more across the face, sending his head flying back into the metal rod of the cot.
Steve wakes up, his head throbbing again. The first thing he remembers is that Madame Hydra was on her way to torture his friends, whom he supposes is at least some of the Howling Commandos who parachuted from the plane and landed too close to the factory.
This time, he doesn't spend a second working out where he is or how he got there. He notices immediately that his wrists and ankles have been tied. With an immense amount of strength, he pulls the straps from his arms, sitting up to untie his legs. He swings his legs over the edge with a grunt and stands, his body protesting.
The electrical field buzzes over the doorway before him. Steve watches it for a moment, searching for any weak spots in its electrical field, but finds none. Instead, he goes to the panel on the edge of the bars, ripping the metal covering off. He pulls free two wires and sticks the frayed ends together. The electrical field ripples as they touch, but as soon as the two ends are separated, the field sparks back to life. Steve prepares himself, touches the wires, and in the two second break, darts through the exit, the force field just singing his ankle on the way through. He hisses with pain, falling to the ground outside, but doesn't revel in it long.
Steve finds that his cell is positioned high above the ground in a panopticon-like jail structure. The massive room is over twelve stories high, but Steve can't see the bottom, if there is one, because a mist has settled below the floor level. It's a hexagonal shape with Steve's cell in the middle. Hallways wind around the outside walls, more jail cells running along the hallways. Steve looks down, and it's at least an eight story drop to the ground floor.
Steve grabs hold of the ledge and pulls himself on top of his cell. Above him runs a cable from the guard's tower above Steve's cell to the outside wall. Steve jumps as high as he can, just managing to grab the cable. He wraps both hands around it tightly and slides himself down, the cable cutting up his gloves. For a heart-stopping moment he's suspended all those metres in the air, and even though he knows he would survive the fall, he still retains the fear of being so high with only his own strength to rely on.
Steve drops down onto one of the levels, the wall crumbled due to the age of its bricks. He tumbles inside and rolls onto his feet, finding himself in an empty brick cell. The wall in front of him is weakened, the bricks dented in, and Steve kicks as hard as he can, breaking through into the next cell. He breaks through the outside wall of the cell, re-emerging at the edge of the cliff down to the bottom of the cells, the unknown drop.
Steve leaps from the opening onto a beam a few stories below, landing gracefully. He jumps from the beam to a horizontal pole, using it as a level to swing himself forward to the beam protruding from the other side of the panopticon. It's quite a distance, and Steve thinks for a moment he might not make it, but his fingers just grab the end of the beam and stop his fall into the fathoms below. Steve hauls himself up onto the beam and runs across to the hall, having successfully crossed to the other side.
It takes Steve a long while to find his way out of the cells. He has no way of entering the hallways, and instead knocks down wall after wall, making his way through the maze in search of a cell missing its doors that he can go through and emerge in the main hallway. He ends up crossing back and forth across the chasm, skirting the edge of the walls along ledges and flinging himself from pole to pole in search of an exit.
He ends up climbing higher rather than lower, deducing that possibly they're underground and the exit will be on the higher levels. He gets high enough that he passes his own cell again and comes level with the guard tower suspended in the middle of the room. He tries to duck behind a crate, but a Hydra guard spots him before he can, pointing.
"The American has escaped! Stop him!"
Like clockwork, Madame Hydra's voice booms over the loudspeaker, echoing through the bricked rooms. "Attention all prison level security, report to the isolation block immediately. It seems our guest was unhappy with his accommodations. Show him how much safer he is in his cell."
Steve quickly jumps up, grabbing hold of a thick chain holding up the suspended guard platform. He hurries along it, swinging to avoid the bullets from the Hydra soldiers, and lands gracefully on the platform. The guards are relatively easy to take down, even without his shield. The first goes down from a kick to the back of the knee, following by a smash to the side of the head. The second and third are taken out by one flying kick, Steve managing to hit them both. The fourth, Steve throws easily over the edge of the platform, the man screaming as he falls into the depths below.
A catwalk connects the platform to the main hallway. Steve crosses it quickly, throwing the approaching guards over the edge without a second glance. Even with their plasma guns, Tesseract beams and pistols, they stand no chance against the super soldier. Steve knows, though, that if he doesn't act quick enough, Zola will unlock the solution to synthesising his own serum, and then winning against Hydra will no longer be like a walk through Central Park.
Steve steals a plasma gun from one guard he takes down on the catwalk, using it as he crosses into a security room on the main floor. The men burn to crisps at the other end of the beam before they can raise their own pistols toward the American soldier.
Steve spots a radio in the corner and he hurries to it, tuning it in to the frequency of HQ. He has no idea how many minutes, hours or even days it's been since the Commandos' plane went down. Peggy would be worried sick.
"HQ, this is Captain Rogers, over."
"Steve, thank God you're alive," Peggy says, sounding extremely relieved. "I would have killed you myself if I had to explain to Isabel something had happened to you. What's your status?"
The mention of Isabel makes Steve's heart race with worry. Isabel had been on the Commandos' plane, and while he knows she would have made it out with a parachute, the idea of her being incarcerated inside Hydra's walls is extremely unsettling, especially considering what happened last time. Madame Hydra had taken a shine to her. Steve gulps.
"I'm in a prison complex… probably underground," Steve says. "They took my shield and my supply belt. Has there been any word from the Commandos?"
"They all bailed out before the crash, thank God. Dernier, Gabriel and Morita have set up a small artillery on a nearby hillside across the river. They said Bucky, Isabel, Falsworth and Dugan bailed over the castle."
Steve sighs. "Then Madame Hydra's got them. They're probably nearby."
"I know how you feel," Peggy says sincerely, "but be careful. Fighting without your shield will take getting used to."
"Copy. I'm going to search the area, try to determine where they're being held. Radio Morita and tell him to stand by for coordinates. From what I've seen down here, I may need that artillery. Rogers, out."
Fighting without the shield certainly does take getting used to. His first five minutes after escaping the jail block, Steve encounters an exo-suit. The suit has a large metal shield that gets slammed into Steve multiple times before he works out how to dodge and move fast enough for the suit to be unable to keep up. Steve lands a kick to its chest hard enough to send it through the concrete wall of the room before Steve hurries onward.
Steve struggles a little when faced with the room full of Hydra agents considering he lacks his shield to deflect their energy beams and bullets. He has to land a punch or kick on the soldier before they can shoot at him first, and the intense battle includes many instances of Steve using another man's body as a makeshift shield to defend himself from the onslaught. They manage to taser him multiple times, sending a painful jolt of electricity through Steve's body, but it only aggravates him more and he only fights better, strong and more strategically. Every movement is carefully thought out, every action with purpose. He can't afford to slip up or get captured again. There are multiple lives counting on him, and he loves two of them dearly.
"How many of you imbeciles does it take to stop one man?! Take him down!"
Clearly, Steve thinks, it will take many more, as he clears out an entire room of Hydra soldiers using a table as a shield.
Steve runs through the now empty warehouse-like rooms. He bursts through a sealed metal door, emerging onto a bridge-like structure passing over a stream of railroad lines that run underneath him. It makes sense for there to be an underground railway, the castle needs a way to keep up its supply and transport their weaponry to and from.
He eventually, through trial and error and a lot of killing, finds himself in a set of laboratories. If Zola wanted the shield analysed, this would be the place to do it. As Steve runs into the concreted rooms, he hears a German voice yell to protect the shield, knowing he's in the right place. Steve takes down the six or seven guards, leaving many of them slumped over the control panels. He steps over their bodies and runs through the labs, finding another smaller hexagonal room. He spots the shield in the middle on a podium, a green beam of light scanning it. Hydra agents stand around it in formation, guns raised to protect the shield.
The first raises his taser baton, and Steve grabs his wrist, twisting. There's an awful snap, and then Steve's got the baton, jamming it into the side of the guard's neck. He goes down in a heap, and Steve stabs the baton into the next man's stomach, actually managing to penetrate as though it were a knife. He flies into the air and spins, kicking the next two across the face, sending one slamming into the podium in the middle, knocking the shield into the floor. Steve swipes it up and makes quick work of the final two guards, leaving a scattering of corpses behind.
As soon as the door on the other side of the room opens, Steve flings the shield, taking down the three agents with one hit. It bounces back to him, and Steve holds it for a moment, smiling.
"That's better. Felt naked without this."
Steve finds his belt on another table in one of the other laboratories, securing it around his waist again. Everything is still intact, and nothing is missing, for which Steve is grateful. The C4 explosive Howard fashioned for him could certainly come in handy sometime soon.
"My poor, foolish Captain. You really think you can save them?" Madame Hydra laughs. Steve rolls his eyes as he continues through the factory. "I think Dugan is my favourite… he reminds me of a dog I used to have so much fun with…"
"Cap, don't. It's a trap," Steve hears Dugan say.
"Ah, now you feel like talking? Lovely. Let's see what else you have to say."
There's a strangled cry that makes Steve cringe as Madame Hydra clearly tortures Dugan. The sound echoes through the hallways, loud and unforgiving, and it only makes Steve hurry faster to find them.
Steve scours the computers in Zola's lab, memorising anything important, before destroying them all and moving off. He disables an armed door to escape. Just before he runs out, he spots a large map of the compound on the far wall, much newer than the discarded one he found. He studies the map carefully, noting the changes Hydra has made to the layout and what areas of the castle they're using for their own repurposing. Beside the panopticon structure he'd been impounded in, there's an adjoining wing of jail cells in a small hexagonal shape, with only six cells rather than the hundreds Steve had found his way through. He deduces that those cells would be where Bucky and the others are being held, he just has to find the correct door.
Bucky sits alone in the wet, mouldy jail cell. He's got his arms wrapped around his knees, pulled up to his chest, and he stares ahead at the wall in front of him. It's all a little too familiar, being caught by Hydra, and while it causes Bucky's thoughts to run rampant, makes his breath quicken and his heart race, he also can't help but feel like it's familiar. It certainly doesn't worry him as much as it did his first two captures. Though, his problem at the moment is that he and his sister were separated when they'd been brought in. Isabel is somewhere, anywhere else in the castle, and this time he doesn't have eyes on her. There's no way he can get to her and protect her, and that frightens him more than what will happen to himself. Even being separated from Dugan and Falsworth causes an unsettling feeling in his gut.
Suddenly, the roller door to Bucky's pitch-black isolation cell opens, letting in a ray of light that makes Bucky blink violently. A Hydra soldier grabs his arm and hauls him up, two of them walking him down the catwalk. Bucky blinks at the dim light, his eyes adjusting.
"Where are we going?" Bucky asks, struggling to get his arms free. Neither of them answers, looking straight ahead as they force Bucky to walk. "You better goddamn let me go. There are some people in here that I need to get back to and they mean an awful lot to me. If they come for me first, you'll be in a hell of a lot of trouble. You hurt them, I'll make sure I damn hurt you, too, and I'm sure they wouldn't hesitate to reciprocate."
"Good luck with that," one of the soldiers sneers, pulling Bucky a little more roughly.
Bucky decides to humour the guard, to sneer and persuade him into letting Bucky go by pushing him and doubting his abilities. "You want a bet? I'm giving you guys a chance. Let me go and I'll take on both of you, unarmed. It's the best offer you'll get." The soldier's grip tightens on Bucky's arm. "I'm trying to help you, pal. You hear that alarm? It's him. Trust me, you'd rather take your chances with me than with Cap–"
Suddenly, a loud metallic bang sounds on the ground behind the three. The soldiers turn, eyes widening at the sight of Captain America's shield lying on the metal grate. They turn back to restrain Bucky, walking straight into the powerful fists of Captain America. The two soldiers fall back with a thud, eyes rolling back in their heads.
"Bucky, are you alright?" Steve asks. He walks ahead and searches the hallways for any more soldiers.
Bucky waves him away as he bends down to steal the men's guns from their belts. "Eh, I used to get worse from that fat kid on Delancey Street. Big as a brick house and twice as stupid. He really gave you a run, too, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember. The others, are they…?"
Bucky nods. "Alive, last I saw 'em. Madame Hydra took Dugan, Falsworth and Isabel in that direction," Bucky says, leading Steve away through the cell block. "They were keeping me detained here until they were ready to continue their experiments on me, Zola said he had to set up the laboratory. The others, I'm not sure what they want them for. I thought they might want Isabel for what she knows about the formula."
"Last time we got captured, they planned on turning all of us into super soldiers. I think this is their second attempt," Steve tells Bucky.
"Makes sense. They're persistent buggers, aren't they? Well, we're not the only ones here. They've got prisoners of war from everywhere – Americans, Brits, Russians, Free French, you name it. Steve, they've been tortured, starved… they need medics."
"They'll get them," Steve promises. "I'll notify Peggy to send extra transport."
"It's just like Azzano, right?" Bucky says, a hint of a chuckle in his words.
Before Steve can reply, he hears a voice call out a command that echoes through the cell block. Steve grabs Bucky and pulls him into a shadowed crevice in the wall. The guards run along the level below them, sweeping the area. The agents announce that they'll check level seven, and then Steve and Bucky hear the sound of footsteps on the metal stairs across the cell block, coming up to their level.
"Listen," Bucky says hurriedly. "There are railway lines running below ground, particularly one running west of here that ends in a bridge across the river out of the castle. I heard that they use it to bring in supplies. It's our best shot at getting that many men outside all at once."
"I've seen it," Steve says nodding in agreement.
"I'll bust the men out if you can take care of the snipers in the guard tower."
"Consider it done," Steve promises.
"Here," Bucky continues, pulling a small device from his pocket. It fits perfectly in the palm of his hand. "Courtesy of Stark. Miniaturised short-range radio receiver so that the Commandos can keep in touch. He gave them to us but not to you, gave me a spare."
"Amazing," Steve breathes, taking it in his gloved hand. "Look at the size of it."
"I'll be impressed when it picks up Fibber McGee and Molly. Now, once I get the prisoners out, I'll come back inside and–"
"No," Steve interrupts. "You'll rendezvous with the others and head to the extraction point."
"When hell freezes over!" Bucky protests. "Steve, my sister is in here somewhere. I know what she means to you, but she's my family. I'm coming back to help save her."
"Buck, if what you told me is true, these men will never make it on their own. I need you to get them out safely. I trust you to do it. I'll find Isabel and I'll keep her safe," Steve promises. He puts a hand on Bucky's shoulder.
Bucky steps away in mock offence. "Always a killjoy, huh, Rogers?"
Steve smiles at that. "Take care of yourself," he says, patting Bucky's shoulder.
Steve grabs hold of the railing and jumps over the edge, disappearing from Bucky's sight. Bucky watches the now empty space where Steve had been a moment before for a few seconds, before muttering, "You too, Steve."
Steve drops down to two floors below, on the same level as the suspended guard house in the middle of the panopticon. He needs to keep the guards busy to give Bucky time to escape with the prisoners. Steve spots Bucky a few floors down, sprinting down the stairwells to the bottom floor where the men are being kept.
"Attention all security staff, this is Madame Hydra. It seems my little pets are escaping their pens. All long-range units converge on the eastern rail bridge. The rest of you… Kill the super soldier!"
"Dammit," Steve hisses. Madame Hydra must have eyes everywhere. She knows what's happening before it's even happened.
Steve doesn't waste any time. He hurls the shield across the bridge linking him to the guardhouse, smacking it into the control pad beside the door. The roller door opens with a rumble, and Steve runs inside. The room is small, computers and security cameras circling the walls. Due to the size of the room, when Steve throws the shield, it bounces from wall to wall and manages to knock out every guard with one throw.
From outside, Steve hears the clang of a heavy metal door opening and then the echo of hundreds of footsteps. He peeks outside and looks down over the edge, spotting the prisoners at the very bottom level of the complex. Hundreds of men, looking worse for wear, trail through the corridors behind Bucky, who walks determinedly at the front of the herd, rifle raised. Many of them are supporting each other, arms around each other's shoulders to get themselves toward liberation.
Steve walks back inside and walks to the ladder that extends up into the roof. He hears voices from above. "Shoot them. Don't let them escape!" One guard yells, and seconds later single gunshots echo through the cell block toward the corridors below at Bucky and the group of prisoners.
Steve hurries up the ladder, emerging on the top security level. He hits the snipers in the back of the head with the shield from behind, and they go down, slumping over their rifles. He takes out all six of them easily, them being so preoccupied by taking down the escaping prisoners they've forgotten to watch their backs.
Steve heads back down to the control room, running to the security cameras. On the screen, he sees the massive group of men flocking through the hallways past the cameras. Bucky still walks at the front, and the screen flicks to the view from another camera as Bucky shoots his rifle at an approaching guard, not breaking his stride.
Steve uses the computers and searches for the controls to open the gated door that opens into the hallway leading to the railway line. On the security cameras, Bucky and the sickly-looking men reach the door just as it slides open with a clang, striding through.
"Okay," Bucky's voice comes through the portable radio. "We're all clear and heading for the train. See you there."
Steve hurries to follow after them, descending the stairs and manoeuvring his way to the western rail line. He doesn't encounter any guards on his journey, hurrying to attempt to catch up to the prisoners.
He pushes his way through a set of heavy metal doors, finding himself in a set of tunnels with high ceilings and an arched roof. He walks up the incline and emerges onto the platform of one of the railway lines. Across the room, a large steam train stands waiting, and Steve sees the last few prisoners of war jumping on board. At the end of the tracks is a large metal door that blocks them from the outside world.
"We're all aboard, Steve. I've almost got the controls unlocked," Bucky tells Steve over the transponder.
"Good going. Is there a way to open that bulkhead door?" Steve replies, eyeing the large door blocking the exit to the tunnels. The train can only go further into the castle without opening the massive door contraption.
"Not from here. We'll need your help with that. I can see a control panel on the observation deck above you."
"Copy. I'll take a look," Steve says, before launching himself up to the protruding platform with one jump. He grabs the bottom and uses his momentum to fling himself up, landing on his knees on the platform's grate.
Steve finds a random lever and turns it, causing the massive door to roll itself down into the ground, leaving the doorframe open. It's a round shape, just large enough for the train to fit through. Electricity flows through the door itself, sparking and crackling as it descends into the floor. It reveals the world outside, the sun setting in the distance making the sky a pink and purple haze over the tree-covered mountain landscape.
"That way is clear, Buck. Get going," Steve commands.
The train starts to steam, Bucky fumbling with the controls in the hope he can find the way to get the train moving. Train driving wasn't exactly a fundamental part of basic training.
Steve makes his way outside to ensure the path is clear and is met by a large group of exo-suits and Hydra soldiers on the grounds below. "There's a welcoming committee outside," Steve warns Bucky. "I'll handle them. Keep moving and don't stop for anything!"
The men and exo-suits hide out in large metal bunkers positioned on either side of the train tracks. Steve needs to find some serious firepower to take them down and provide cover for the train. He's got time, luckily, since Bucky hasn't worked out how to move forward yet.
Steve launches off the deck and flings himself around, grabbing hold of the rough mountainside. He uses the rocks as footsteps to climb up the side to the upper level balcony. He swings off the levers and pipes and flips himself onto the concrete balcony. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he hears the chugging noise of the train beginning forward, the wheels rolling along the track. It's moving slow, but it slowly gains speed.
At the edge of the balcony, Steve spots a missile turret. There's a Hydra soldier working it, preparing to shoot down the train from behind. Steve taps him on the shoulder, and he turns with a hum of surprise straight into Steve's fist. Steve throws him over the balcony and takes control of the missile launcher. The men below are already shooting at the approaching train, releasing beams of the plasma energy. Steve shoots down at the men and suits, sending flaming missile down at them that explode upon impact. The train emerges from the tunnel, the front of it on fire from the plasma, but it steadily rolls along the track, approaching the bridge. The entire thing is on fire, flames rising into the air, but it doesn't stop. They must be cooking inside the train, but they only need to make it to the other side of the bridge across the great chasm and they'll be safe.
Steve sets the entirety of the ground and mountainside on fire to ensure their escape, and then watches the train reach land on the other side, passing into a secondary tunnel and disappearing from sight.
"We made it, Steve. Man, that was hairy for a while," Bucky's voice eventually comes through. He sounds distressed, but unharmed, and Steve breathes a sigh of relief.
"And it could be again if they come after you. So, let's make sure that they don't," Steve replies. "Rogers to Morita, do you read? Peggy told me you boys have artillery. I could definitely use some."
There's a hiss, and then Morita's voice floods through. "Roger Wilco, Cap. Just give me coordinates."
"There's some sort of range-finding radar device up here. I'll see if I can get it to work. Stand by."
Steve runs over to a second machine on the platform, the radar device. He points it at the middle of the bridge Bucky's train just passed over, locking it on. "Rogers to Morita. Prepare to receive coordinates by Morse code."
The machine makes a beeping noise and then whirrs to life. It sparks with electricity and then shorts out, and Steve says a little prayer that it worked.
"Coordinates received. Get clear, Cap. Alright, Gabe and Dernier, stand by for the initial fire order."
Seconds later, a missile whirs its way across the sky, slamming straight into the bridge and sending it into a million pieces, falling into the cavern between the mountains below. Steve ducks against the explosion. There's no way Hydra can follow the train, at least, not in that direction.
"Nice, Steve," Bucky's voice comes through again. "One of the POWS overheard a code cipher Zola uses to get deeper into the labs. It's Delta, One, One, Seven, Foxtrot."
"Copy. Thanks, Buck. Now get those men clear. I'm going back in to find Dugan, Falsworth and Belle."
"Attention all laboratory personnel. There is a code twelve evacuation in progress. Several experiments have escaped containment. Armoured security is en route."
Steve runs through the halls, attempting to find his way back to Zola's laboratories. He encounters no one, and he wonders whether the evacuation is for the entire complex or just the laboratories. Steve's radio crackles to life then, and he listens intently. Dugan's voice comes through, pained and quiet. "Please help… too many… can't get out."
Steve doesn't reply, not wanting to draw attention to Dugan using his radio to contact the Captain. Steve's under if Madame Hydra is aware he's using it at all.
"What is all this infernal racket?" Steve hears Madame ask, Dugan leaving the radio on to Steve can hear.
"Apologies, Madame. We seem to have a containment breach. Security is on their way. We have the situation under control," an unknown German voice explains.
"See that you do!" Madame Hydra spits. "The prisoners are nearly prepped, and we do not wish to be interrupted."
Steve's worst fears are realised in that moment. Madame Hydra is planning on experimenting once again on his Howling Commandos. He climbs and runs a little faster, weaving his way through the halls to find them before they can be hurt.
Steve eventually winds up in the laboratories again and finds a hidden door he hadn't noticed before. Using the code Bucky gave him, Steve descends further underground in the laboratories. The corridors are all concrete, dark with lights than cut in and out. It's freezing and smells of wetness. He runs into the rooms and finds a few bodies of Hydra soldiers sprawled dead on the ground, some of them slumped over their positions at the lab desks.
He walks in further, spotting a row of chambers along the far wall. Inside them are men, standing upright but with their eyes closed as though they were asleep. Steve gets closer and notices they have frost in their hair and allow their eyelashes, their lips a dark blue colour. He touches the glass and its cold against his skin. He wonders whether these are a type of morgue, but then remembers what they'd found in Hamburg. They're a containment vessel for preserving these people until they're needed. They're most likely Hydra's attempts at replicating the super soldier serum.
Steve backs away from them, unsure of whether to release them or not. He isn't even sure if they are alive. But if they're as dangerous and unstable as Zola had described them in the Hamburg factory's files, perhaps they're better off remaining on ice.
Steve leaves them, making a mental note to return if he has the time and resources. He continues deeper into the laboratories, pausing only when he hears Madame Hydra's voice once again.
"Herr Zola, I am forced to evacuate. Leave the serum experiments, they did not work anyway, it was a dud serum. They are all on the verge of death," Madame Hydra commands, answering Steve's own questions about the men in the chambers. "You! Untie the English one, he is healthier. And bring the girl, she is especially treasured by the American Captain. Leave the other for the creatures. I want an armoured escort, and someone get that bloody lift working!" Her voice echoes through the closed metal door before Steve.
Steve struggles with the decoding machine, trying number after number to get the door open. None of the codes he's heard before work. In frustration, he slams the shield into it again, causing it to malfunction and the door to release. He has to force it open manually, and he pulls it open just enough for him to slip inside.
The room is even larger than the last, the ceilings rising intimidatingly over him. There are a number of computers and laboratory desks, and then in the far end of the room, a round class encasing sits around a body lying on an experimentation bed, surrounded by machinery. There are three other metal surgical beds in there as well, but they're empty.
"Dugan," Steve breathes, recognising the man on the metal slab.
There's a large gap between the main floor that Steve stands on and the platform that Dugan is suspended on, and below them is another indeterminable drop. Steve gets a running start and flies through the air, just landing on the edge of the platform. He rolls off his shoulder to break his fall, emerging upright and unharmed.
Inside the glass casing of the room are multiple exo-skeletons, and Steve spends a good ten minutes and a tonne of energy taking them all down, grateful to once again have the shield. As the final suit hits the ground, Steve slams his foot into its face, sending its head back into the metal grate and leaving a dent in the metal.
Steve runs to Dugan, and the man struggles against the binds that hold him to the metal surgical table. "Hold still. I'll have you free in a second," Steve promises, ripping the ties. "Are you hurt?"
"Not near as bad as those Hydra devils will be when I get my hands around their necks," Dugan promises, sitting up and rubbing the red marks on his wrists.
"Do you know where they took Falsworth and Isabel?"
"They were on those tables not five minutes ago," Dugan says, pointing to two of the other empty surgical tables in the room. "They had Monty drugged, and Isabel, poor darl; she was bawling her eyes out in fear. I don't know what Madame Hydra said to her, but she scared her good. God knows what they're going to do to them. That witch Madame Hydra, she ran off with them as soon as the alarm sounded."
"Oh my God," Steve says, running a hand down his face. "Alright. Bucky took the prisoners out of the castle. Find your way to them on the western edge and I'll be right behind you with Falsworth and Isabel."
"Who says I can't come with you? There's two of us, right? Better than one. We'll find them together."
"You aren't armed," Steve points out.
"I am now. I'll have my little friend to keep me company," Dugan says, standing and going to one of the fallen exo-skeletons. He takes its plasma-ray gun, holding the massive contraption in his hands.
"Alright," Steve agrees, wary of how much time is passing and how far away they would be getting. "Which way did she take them?"
"The freight elevator. Probably the best way for us to get topside and out of these laboratories, too. Let's go."
As they make their way from the laboratories, Dugan shoots at every computer and medical machinery he sees, and as they step into the freight elevator, the entire room is in flames. The doors to the elevator close and it roars to life, carrying them up out of the depths of the castle. Steve hadn't noticed how deep underground he had travelled until he watches the floor numbers tick over on the panel above the control pad.
Dugan readies his weapon as the doors open again and they're deposited into the courtyard outside. The sun has nearly set, on Steve's second day within the castle walls, throwing them almost into darkness, but the courtyard is well lit by large floodlights pointing down onto the grounds. They've emerged onto a brick balcony that overlooks the courtyard and the mine, on the opposite side to where Steve had been earlier. There's a hedge maze below them, winding in an intricate pattern. There are many statues standing along the balcony overlooking the grounds, looking peaceful and entirely out of place in the Hydra-run castle.
On the far side of the courtyard, near the armoury Steve had destroyed earlier, the hedges peter out into another raised balcony with others doors along it entering back into the castle. One entrance has large concrete pillars stretching to the high roof, the doors open to reveal a hall. In front of that building, Steve spots a group of people walking. Flanked by two exo-skeleton suits, Madame Hydra walks with Falsworth, pushing him along roughly. Isabel is being carried behind them by another Hydra soldier, and she's limp in the man's arms, swaying with every step the man takes.
"Belle!" Steve can't stop himself from screaming out at the sight of her, and the noise gets Madame Hydra's attention.
She turns with wide eyes, easily spotting the colour-clad figure amongst the brown brick. She laughs, stopping with Falsworth, who looks up with disorientation. "So close yet so far, hey Captain?" She mocks.
She's cut off by a blast from Dugan's weapon beside Steve, the energy beam hitting the ground right between Madame Hydra and the soldier. Madame Hydra ducks away, taking Falsworth with her, whilst the soldier holding Isabel is knocked back by the blast, both of them hitting the ground hard. Steve flinches at the sight, watching helplessly as the man scrambles to pick the girl up again from the hard ground. Dugan attempts to hit Madame Hydra again but can't get a clear shot without risking hitting Falsworth. Madame Hydra drags Monty inside the building and into the doors, shielding herself from fire whilst the soldier follows with Isabel.
"I can't get a clear shot, let's get 'em," Dugan says.
Dugan sprints into the hedge maze, attempting to find his way through on sheer luck. Steve stays at his vantage point for a moment, scanning the maze. He quickly finds the way through, memorising the turns, before vaulting the balcony and landing in front of Dugan within the hedges. Steve leads the way, turning left and right and running straight, not hesitating for a moment.
Quickly and without getting lost, the two men emerge out of the maze. Dugan runs around to the staircase on the side of the balcony whilst Steve jumps up and pulls himself over. He's met with an exo-suit, but he makes quick work of it. As he runs toward it, the suit holds up its shield in defence. Steve runs up the shield like a ramp, grabbing the man's head at the top. He flings his legs over and using his grip on the suit's head, smashing his feet into its back. The suit flies forward with enough force to fly straight through the wooden doors of the main building, busting the lock on the inside. The suit lies amongst the shattered wood and doesn't move again.
Steve steps over it on his way inside, Dugan now on his heels. The doors open into a beautiful hallway with red-lined wallpaper, portraits lining the walls, and a painted mural along the arched ceiling. Statues line the edges of the hallway as well, standing in their own small alcoves. Their eyes are white a beady and hollow, unnerving as though they were tracing Steve and Dugan through the hallway.
Steve hurries up the carpeted stairs and into a lobby area. A classic fountain sits in the middle, winged angel statues above it playing harps as if they were people frozen like stone rather than carved from it. There's a glass roof above them, the night sky visible above, and hanging from the middle of the dome is a lit chandelier made from hundreds of glass crystals.
"Fancy," Dugan remarks, looking up at the ceiling in awe.
"Ah, I do like a persistent suitor," they suddenly hear Madame Hydra remark, her voice echoing through the halls from the staircases descending down on either side of the lobby. Dugan turns toward the voice, raising his weapon. He nods to Steve and the two of them descend the stairs, both of them leading to the one room just visible down the halls.
Steve leads, his shield raised against a potential attack, and slows when they enter a large recreation room. There's a main floor, filled with sofas and bookcases and coffee tables, and a balcony running around the outside one floor above. Madame Hydra is nowhere in sight. Steve motions for Dugan to stay by the main entrance beneath the protection of the balcony and slowly but confidently steps inside, looking around for the dark-haired woman. When he gets to the middle of the room, standing on top of an intricately designed carpet rug, he hears a slow, sarcastic clap from behind him. He turns and looks up, Madame Hydra leaning on the banister of the balcony behind him, just above where Dugan waits.
"Where's Isabel and Falsworth?" Steve yells up at her, all patience gone from his tone.
"Where we all are," she answers vaguely, beginning to slowly pace along the balcony. "Where they are most useful to Hydra."
"You're used to speaking to me when I'm restrained, or behind bars, or out of reach. But things are different now. I'm not one of the helpless prisoners you enjoy torturing so much." When Madame Hydra doesn't reply, Steve glares harder and brings himself just a little taller. "I'll ask again. Where is Falsworth? And where. is. Isabel?" Steve punctuates, stepping closer to the woman above him.
Madame Hydra takes a small, subconscious step away from Steve but catches herself. She raises her chin momentarily before glaring down at the Captain. "They'd say they're in hell!" She yells back. "Let me send you to them! You only delay the inevitable, Captain."
Madame Hydra brings her hand across her chest and flings a grenade from under her arm. It flies through the air, emitting an emerald green smoke, and lands on the ground in front of Steve. Steve quickly jumps away, rolling off his shield and ducking away from the smoke. He puts a hand over his mouth as the smoke gets thicker and surrounds him. Seconds later, he hears a ping against the metal of his shield. He squints through the fog, seeing that Madame Hydra has set up a rifle on the balcony, attempting to shoot at him when he can't see through the fog.
Steve pulls out his own pistol and prepares to wait for the smoke to dissipate. As soon as it does and Madame Hydra spots him, she shoots at him again. Steve is prepared, and he knocks the bullet back when it gets close, sending it flying into Madame Hydra herself. It hits her in the shoulder and she falls backward with a yelp, but gets up quickly, her mouth set into a determined scowl.
"So, you are what passes for a man in your country?" Madame Hydra mocks from above, watching smugly at the far door.
Seconds later, the far door opens and a mass of Hydra soldier run out, heading for Steve. A blast of yellow energy heads for the fray and hits two of the men at once, sending them down. Madame Hydra looks around in shock, unaware that Dugan had been there the entire time. Steve flings the shield into the rest of them, leaving himself momentarily open to Madame Hydra's attack, but the woman still misses.
Steve takes down the last man, who attempts to jab him with the electrically charged stick, but misses. Steve slams him into the ground with enough force to crack his skull. He then turns back to Madame Hydra just as she shoots again, and it goes careening off the shield. Steve shoots up at her, the shots missing by mere inches.
"Your friends are lost, as is your cause!" Madame Hydra tells him.
Steve hears more footsteps and a larger wave of Hydra goons comes toward him. Most of them are taken down by Dugan's weapon of choice leaving crisp bodies on the beautiful rug. Steve smashes his shield into the rest of them before hitting Madame Hydra with a surprise attack, throwing the shield up at her. It hits her in the chest before flying back to Steve. The woman looks surprised and wounded, holding her chest with her hand and bending over.
"This is beneath me," she spits once she's gotten her breath back before running along the balcony, Steve's gunshots hitting the walls just behind her. Steve's gun clicks out of ammo, and he quickly digs in his utility belt to pull out another cartridge.
"Running when things get tough. I'm seeing a pattern here," Steve taunts right back, loading the gun as he watches her run away.
He watches her go, descending down a flight of stairs and further into the east wing. Dugan is at his side in a moment. They run for the far door and into the hallway, emerging at an intersection. To their left is the stairs ascending to the balcony Madame Hydra had come down. In front of them is a parlour room with another a set of lounge chairs, coffee tables, awall of bookshelves and a roaring fire at the back. They must be in the leisure section of the castle.
"'Come into my parlour,' said the spider to the fly," Steve recites a book they'd read in high school English, walking in.
He listens for any sign of the woman and hears footsteps to their right just beyond a set of double doors. Steve hurries through, ducking back behind them when Madame Hydra stops in her run to let off two shots toward him. She continues down the large hallway.
"Get back here!" Steve yells after her, taking after her.
Dugan stops to shoot at her, the beam of energy hitting the ground just behind her feet and sending her flying forward and landing hard on the marble floor. She scrambles up with muttered German curses and rushes through the door at the end. The roller door falls behind her, sealing off the trophy room from Steve and Dugan. Steve runs to it and jumps straight into it with the shield extended in front of him, knocking the metal door right from its hinges and leaving a sizeable dent. He falls in on top of the metal, confronted with three soldiers, an exo-skeleton, and Madame Hydra suspended on, once again, another balcony.
"What have you done to my friends?" Steve growls, throwing the shield at the men on the ground. It bounces between them, taking down the un-suited men, and comes back to him just in time to deflect Madame Hydra's shot. The man scramble back up from the ground, surprisingly resilient to the shield's power.
"Lass ihn nicht die Herrin erreichen! (Don't let him reach the mistress!)" One orders, shooting at Steve with his own plasma-powered weapon.
Before the others can join the fray, they're hit by a beam from Dugan, who invites himself to the party. Steve lets him take on the remaining soldier whilst Steve confronts the exo-suit. Steve takes it down relatively easily, having worked out the way the machines function from battling so many within the last few hours. He runs up its shield again, landing behind it, and pulls the wires from the back of its suit, causing it to power down. He smashes its face into the ground and leaves it to lay motionless.
Madame Hydra, apparently infuriated by Steve's ability to defeat the suits, lets out a constant stream of bullets aimed at him. Steve jumps away and ducks behind the shield, dragging Dugan behind as well to shield him. Dugan uses the protection of the disc to shoot at the soldiers that emerge from the doorway, sending them down in a fiery mess before they can enter the room. The bang of bullets against the shield rarely ceases, and Steve suspects Madame Hydra's pistols may have been altered somehow to last longer than the regular gun.
Eventually, she does run out of ammo, and Dugan uses the opportunity to shoot the plasma at her once again. She dodges to the side just as he does, the beam skimming her arm, enough to make her shout out. It leaves a welting burn on her upper arm and she glares down at Dugan, looking angrier than they've ever seen her.
"Aargh! I'll kill you myself!" She screams, letting out a new flurry of bullets.
The string of Hydra soldiers seems never ending and relentless, the men piling into the room from all angles. Steve and Dugan shoot and shoot, but the stream never seems to lessen.
Suddenly, she jumps down from the balcony, landing before them like an agile cat. Despite the men behind her, Steve leaves the shield with Dugan and rushes her, landing a punch to the side of her face. She stumbles away with a cry of pain before taking a step toward him again. She steps onto his leg and then runs up his chest and flips backward off his shoulders away from him. The force and unexpectedness of the move sends Steve flying to the ground. Madame Hydra lands on her feet. She takes his moment of shock and weakness to shoot at him as he's getting up off the ground, unarmed without the shield.
Steve rolls away but the bullets still lodge in his upper back, causing him to cry out. Seconds later, there's a familiar wooshing sound as Dugan throws the shield at her. It slams into her stomach, sending her backwards. Steve scrambles up at the same time she does, his back aching between his shoulder blades. He can feel his body pushing it away, the adrenaline speeding up his healing.
He bares through the pain enough to punch her in the face, in her wounded arm, and then in the stomach, sending her into the air. She flips and manages to land on her feet but is noticeably incapacitated by the attack. Steve grabs her arm and spins her around, kicking her in the back. Her back arches oddly at the force and she flies into the wall at the side of the room, hitting to the ground rather limply.
Before Steve can rush her once again for a possibly final strike, he's attacked from all sides by the still standing Hydra agents. Steve almost forgets about the pain altogether at the sight of them. While he and Dugan are occupied taking them out, Steve with his attention divided between the soldiers and the woman, Madame Hydra gets to her feet and manages just enough energy to jump up onto a ledge above. She pulls herself up and over the balcony. She disappears for a moment and Steve thinks she may have run again, but she reappears seconds later with a grenade launcher.
Steve just manages to dive away as the grenade flies through the air toward him, hitting one of her own soldiers rather than him. The fire continues, and Steve motions for Dugan to take cover in the doorway. Dugan complies, hunkering down and offering firepower from his new position. He shoots down any approaching soldiers, allowing Steve to take on Madame Hydra undisturbed.
The explosions continue for a moment before Madame Hydra fires again with her pistol, a few of the bullets hitting Steve before he can lift the shield. The armour of his suit somewhat softens the blow, but it still manages to tear the skin and he feels the warmth of his blood run down his chest.
Steve looks down at the holes in his newest suit, and the back up at Madame Hydra. He's sweating with the pain, his hands shaking from exhaustion, but something in his expression must send fear down her spine, because Madame Hydra seems to falter for a split second before she shoots again, a stream of bullets. Steve is prepared this time, and he flicks the bullets back the way they'd come. Madame Hydra contorts her body to avoid being hit, the bullets flying past her.
Steve can only just see over the edge of the balcony that on a crate behind Madame Hydra is an open briefcase of weapons, and he assumes, grenades. The bullets fly into the suitcase and not two seconds later, the grenades explode. The explosion is massive, blowing a hole in the wall behind the briefcase but also sending debris flying at Madame Hydra and raining down on Steve below. Madame Hydra falls aside to the ground, clutching the side of her face with a strangled yell.
"No! You… you…!" She stammers, lifting her hand away to reveal that the side of her face has been burnt immensely, her dark hair singed.
Steve steps toward her slowly, frowning up at her. Dugan slowly emerges from his hiding place, looking warily up at the woman. "Surrender," Steve commands, his tone strong but wary. "I'll see that you get medical attention," he offers.
"Surrender?! To you?!" Madame Hydra yells back, her voice even thicker with accent in her pain. She clutches the left side of her face, her right eye open and wide as the stares at Steve. "This is a badge of honour. I would sacrifice my life to give the master the time he requires!"
"If you call Zola "master" then you're sicker than I–"
Madame Hydra laughs hysterically, cutting Steve off. She stands and glares down at him again, removing her hand to reveal her distorted face. "Zola? No. I answer to a much greater power."
"The Red Skull?" Steve guesses immediately, his body tensing in defensiveness immediately. "He's here? Tell me where, now!"
Suddenly, the noise of a helicopter fills the room, getting louder and Madame Hydra's head snaps toward it, a smug smile appearing on her damaged face. Through the hole in the wall behind the woman, Steve sees the chopper line itself up, floating in the air.
"Farewell, Captain. May your death be agonising!" Madame Hydra yells, raising her pistols one last time. She shoots another round at Steve, who deflects with the shield, as she backs toward the hole in the wall. "Hail Hydra!" She yells finally as she jumps from the building into the floating chopper, grabbed by the soldiers inside and pulled into the safety of its cabin. The chopper turns and flies off across the castle grounds, the sound growing fainter the further away they get.
"Dammit," Steve hisses, turning to Dugan. "We need to follow her. She's probably heading straight for the Skull."
"Agreed. She's a slippery sucker, I'll give her that." Dugan takes a good look at Steve then. "But you've been shot, Cap. Like eight times. We can't–"
"I have a field pack on my belt," Steve huffs, pulling the small box from his waist. "If you can get the bullets out, I'll be good to go."
And so, Dugan does what Isabel usually does, with a whole lot of dry reaching but thankfully no passing out. He uses the tweezers to dig the small bullets from beneath the Captain's skin, which hadn't penetrated as far as they should have thanks to Howard's suit design and Steve's healing factor. Once they're removed, Steve shrugs his uniform back on properly and clips the medic kit back onto his belt.
"Let's go," Steve says, his hand still shaking slightly.
"Not like we can jump out of the hole in the wall, though," Dugan mutters, following Steve up to the balcony.
They stand in the obliterated wall and look out at the castle ground below. It isn't a massive drop, but certainly not possible for Dugan to make without injury.
"You can't, but I can," Steve says.
And then he's grabbing Dugan's arm and pulling him into his arms before jumping out the hole. Steve lands balanced but hard on the ground, Dugan in his arms bridal style so that the man doesn't hit the ground. Dugan jumps out of Steve's arms like he's on fire, taking a step away with an awkward chuckle, fixing his bowler hat.
"I ain't your girl, Cap," he jokes. "We'll never say a word of this, you hear?"
Steve holds his hands up in surrender, smiling despite their situation. "I wouldn't dare."