AN: This was written for the WIP Big Bang. There is artwork by singlewalkrun here.

Outside, it was pouring rain. Inside, Montgomery won the same ten dollars off Jim for the third time that night. The rest of the Commandos lounged around the barracks, cleaning weapons, drinking coffee, and trying to doze off without much hope of success. Jim threw down his cards and glared, which just made Montgomery shrug and turn to their leader. "Captain, do you want to join in? I believe our friend Jim could use someone else to share the pain."

Steve looked up from where he was vaguely shuffling through some papers and smiled. "Why not? It's not like we're going anywhere for awhile."

Bucky picked himself up from pretending to sleep and sprawled in the extra chair as Steve took his place at the table. "Deal me in too. Not going to get to sleep with all this racket from the rain anyway."

The cards were passed around, and Montgomery hissed through his teeth at seeing his hand. Jim rolled his eyes. "Don't believe him, he bluffs constantly. Terrible man," he told the newcomers and they nodded as if it was important information they didn't already have from a hundred previous games. Steve bit his lip and adjusted the cards in his hand, but only Bucky drew an extra two cards.

It didn't do him much good, judging only from the look on his face. He sighed and dragged his hand through his hair. "Hey Steve. Much as I love sitting around playing cards all day, you have any idea of when we're going to get to do anything?"

"Can't say. We're waiting on intel to figure out the next place to attack, but...I don't know, in a -" He looked up and cut off quickly. "Oh! Hello agent."

"In a right now, actually." Peggy shook off some of the rain and stepped up to the card table. "Hello Captain. And hello to you all. I'm afraid I have a new mission for you." The rest of the Commandos gathered as she carefully took a set of papers out of her coat and laid them on the table. "Somehow, weaponry we've identified as similar to HYDRA weaponry has been showing up in the regular German army. So far it's only the troops around this one base, Nichts Garten." Peggy took a folded map out and spread it out, pointing at a particular base. "No one knows how or why the weapons appeared, but it's clear. We absolutely cannot let HYDRA weapons percolate through the Nazi army. We're having a hard enough time as it is."

There was a general murmur of agreement. Right now their main advantage was that HYDRA could barely make enough weapons to keep up with the ones they took out. If they actually had the German industrial machine behind them...the Nazis would have more than enough technological advantage to start regaining ground. Jacques spoke up "And we're sure that these are HYDRA-based weapons?"

"Yes. The fact they shoot blue lasers is a bit of a hint. Though these aren't nearly as powerful as the real thing, they do pack a punch. And there's another thing..." Peggy took out a piece of paper from the pile and glanced over it. "We haven't decoded all the transmissions yet, but we have some references to a sort of superweapon they're trying to build. There are numerous references that when they finish 'it' they'll be safe."

"Safe from who, though? The Allies, or HYDRA?" Steve stared at the map. Nichts Garten was probably 30 miles away, but that could take days in this rain.

"We don't know. Possibly both. Either way, your orders are to get in there and find out what's going on. Capture or destroy any HYDRA-based weaponry, capture or destroy this superweapon, and if you find the person behind this, try to capture him. If that's not possible however, it's better to have him dead than with the enemy. Now." Peggy slipped yet another set of papers out from her files and gave the assembled Commandos a serious look. "You've mostly been working on your own up until now. But owing to the urgency and importance of this mission, you're being teamed up with another unit. They've mostly been working on the Eastern Front so far, but supposedly they're one of the best teams for covert operations the Allies've got. They're called The Cobras."

The team looked at each other in confusion before erupting into chatter. "The Cobras?" "Hope they're as good as the agent says." "Supposedly one of the best?" "If they're from the Eastern Front they have to have some experience..." "I hear that place's a bloodbath." "The Cobras? If we howl, do they hiss?"

"Quiet, everyone!" Steve banged his fist on the table, and the room fell silent. "Agent, what can you tell us about these Cobras? Anything?"

Peggy frowned and didn't answer right away. When she did it was with far more uncertainty than her usual professional tone. "Honestly...even in the reports from our side, I'm not sure how much is real and how much is just there to fool the Nazis. Some of the things I'm reading here are completely unbelievable."

There was a slightly painful chuckle from Bucky, "More unbelievable than the Captain here?" He gave Steve a punch to the arm, which he took good-naturedly.

"Honestly if I hadn't seen that experiment done I wouldn't believe it either. But not even the Vita Rays could make someone part plant." She shook her head and when she spoke again she was back to normal. "What is sure is that their entire existence is top secret. They're only listed by codenames, and you are all completely forbidden to speak about them to anyone not in this room. Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"You'll be travelling to this location, just in front of enemy lines, to meet up with them. You're expected within a day. I'll go with you to there, to act as a coordinator for both units. After that, you are to travel together to the fortress Nichts Garten and complete your mission. Understood?" Everyone nodded. "Good. The mission begins as soon as you can get your rears to the truck. Dismissed!"

The truck bounced along the road in time to Jacques' swearing and the thump-thump of the wipers. Steve leaned back, only half-listening to complaints about the road, the rain, the rest of the unit for making him drive, and the general unreliability of American trucks.

"Like France makes 'em any better." Bucky said beside Steve, who made a noise that could be either agreement or denial. "Actually, does France even make cars?"

"'Course they do, son. You have to have at least heard of Citroën. They're all over the damn place here." Dum Dum looked up from from cleaning his rifle, only to have it slip out of his hands when the truck went over a particularly bad hole. For a moment, the cursing from the back and the driver's seat was in perfect stereo harmony.

"Peugeot makes some stylish cars too. I wanted a 202 since I saw one in a magazine, but...well, an imported car is a bit out of my price range." Gabe stretched his legs out and put his arms behind his head. "When I get back...aahh, I'll probably still be taking the tram."

"I want a good, reliable Ford. Something I can play around with and fix myself." Jim nodded to himself.

"Huh, Didn't know you were into hot-rodding."

"I'm not, but after all the grease-monkeying I've been doing for you guys I want to use it for something better than lying in the mud and listening to everyone bitch at me to go faster." As if on clue, the truck bounced again. "By the way, if this thing breaks down I'm making someone else go out there." Jim raised his voice and called to the front. "Hear that, Jacques?"

"I heard you, now let the road repair crews hear you!"

"Good luck," Peggy added drily. "Probably no one's getting out here until the end of the war."

Steve opened his eyes and turned his head to look at Peggy. "Well, we've been traveling for awhile, and we should be getting to the rendezvous point in a few hours. Agent, you've been going through those files, is there anything else in there that sounds like it's good information we should know about our new allies?"

"Well," Peggy again started flipping through the files that had never left her hands the entire trip, "they're technically a joint US-Soviet unit, so they have a pair of Russians with them and the other four are American. Their first mission was helping with the fighting in Stalingrad. Since then it looks like they've been active across the entire European front. Only their codenames are listed here, I suppose we'll have to ask for proper introductions when we meet them."

"A pair of Russkies, eh?" Dum Dum said, lying his rifle down. Steve and Bucky both gave him a sharp look. Dum Dum's opinion of Communists was well known. He raised his hands and shook his head. "Don't worry 'bout me. No politics on a mission, I got it."

Steve leaned back again. "Well, if they're with a group of Americans, I hope the Russians speak English. Does anyone here know any Russian? ...Gabe? You're our language expert."

"Ha! Only by default, Captain. Nah, all I know of Russian is horror stories about cases from the guys brave enough to take it."

"Actually," Montgomery spoke up from where he had been curled into the corner of the truck trying to sleep, "I spent some time wandering around eastern Europe before the war. Picked up a bit of Russian there. I'll cover anyone that wants to order some beer from our new friends."

"Well, what else do you need? That and 'what a nice dress you have' is all the Italian I ever used," Bucky said with a grin. "Well, if nothing else the rest of them should know some Russian; we can pick it up enough for a firefight on the way."

"I hope so. Communication is pretty important. I'd hate to see anyone get hurt because we couldn't understand each other." Steve bit his lip, then sighed and turned back to Peggy. "Anything else, Agent?"

"Well, one of them has an new experimental model of flamethrower, and at least two are masters of stealth and infiltration. That's probably why the top brass wanted them along on this mission." Peggy flipped through the rest of the files with barely a cursory glance. "And that's about it, I'm afraid. I suppose you'll just have to take the measure of them on the way to Nichts Garten."

Steve looked around at his assorted teammates. Just a random bunch that had been thrown together by HYDRA, and together they were one of the strongest teams anyone had seen. No one could deny there was friction, and he'd had to punch out more than a couple guys ragging on Jim or Gabe, but you couldn't argue with results. "Don't worry. It sounds like they can pull their weight, and they can't be any weirder than the group we've already got."

Jim threw a ration at his head for that one, and the truck rattled on.

"The marker! At last!" Jacques' cry heralded a massive jerk sideways that ended in the terrifying screech of metal and a disturbingly final thump. The Commandos in the back slowly picked themselves off the floor with various curses and rubbing their limbs.

"At least we stopped. I don't think I could've taken another hour of that road." Bucky grumbled as he picked himself out of his near faceplant into the far wall. Montgomery worked his way out from under him, with possibly more elbows and knees than was warranted. Dum Dum cracked his back and loudly praised his decision to sit on the floor instead, having only earned a sharp blow to the shoulders rather than the sliding all around like the rest. Gabe cuffed him upside the head.

Only super soldier reflexes had helped Steve avoid following the rest of them to the floor, and the same reflexes had let him grab Peggy to save her from driving her head directly into Jim's ribs. He set her back with an embarrassed apology and looked around. "Everyone all right?"

"Been worse Captain, been a lot worse." Dum Dum leaned over to Steve and continued in a stage-whisper, "But I'm telling you, next time we cheat to make sure Jacques loses the lottery to pick the driver, yes?"

"I'm for it," Jim muttered. "Hell, next time I'll volunteer."

Steve shrugged them both off. "We'll worry about it then. Right now I want to see everyone get their packs on and their uniforms straight. We want to make a good first impression, don't we?" The rest nodded in agreement and set about doing just that. The remaining rifles were quickly unpacked and added to everyone but Steve's pack, along with a number of rations, kit, and other necessities. Long practice had brought about a smooth efficiency, and within minutes the Howling Commandos were ready to move. Steve grabbed the extra pack for Jacques, and they all piled out of the truck.

The forest, now that the truck had stopped, was quiet. The tree cover concentrated the rain from a steady downpour to heavy rivulets that poured down unwary backs. The ground was thick with old leaves and moss, softening all footfalls to a gentle padding. The Commandos moved to circle the truck, on a lookout for anything from the Cobras to an enemy patrol.

"What kind of driving was that? Do you want to alert every Nazi in the area? We're on a secret mission here, we have to be like the wind itself and leave nothing behind!" Everyone jerked suddenly as a young woman strode out of the forest as if she had simply appeared there between one minute and the next. She continued. "Are you really the team that's been taking down HYDRA bases? That loud flashy stuff might look good for the cameras, but there are no newsreels on the battlefield." She finished right in front of Steve, glaring at him like he had personally been the one to drive the truck off the road.

Slowly the Commandos and Peggy began to gather behind Steve, watching the new woman with confusion, suspicion, and interest. Steve just stared at her, trying to force out a proper response. "Well, I'm sorry about the noise, ma'am. So...I take it you're with the Cobras?"

"I am." The woman nodded curtly. "I am The Joy, leader of the Cobras. These are my men." She stepped back and waved her arm at the three men that faded out of the woods behind her without a sound.

There was another murmur of surprise with the faint undercurrent of fear from the rest of the Commandos. Bucky leaned over to Steve and whispered "I didn't see them at all! Talk about stealth. And she's the leader? A little dame like her?" Steve nodded absently, just trying to size up the group.

The Joy was young, maybe even younger than Steve. She had a bit of Peggy's take charge attitude and steel, but where Peggy was as down-to-earth and practical as you could get, The Joy had a certain ethereal aura around her. It was as if Joan of Arc or a valkyrie had stepped out of a painting, put on fatigues, and started running around in the dirt and mud of a modern war. The men behind her looked a little older, a little more experienced, but still with that faint otherworldly feeling. Though, weren't there supposed to be six of them? Before Steve could speak up, The Joy nodded at the one on the far right.

"That's The Fury, our flame soldier. He's an expert at anything having to do with fire or rockets." A large man in some sort of black combat suit with a huge pair of canisters on his back nodded and grinned like he was baring fangs.

"Yes, I am The Fury. I have a flamethrower! I will burn them all, yes?" He patted one of the canisters on his back affectionately and continued in his thick Russian accent. "My English...is not so good. You wish to speak clearly, ask The Joy or The Sorrow. I do not need words to burn." He grinned his feral smile again. "Be careful I do not burn you."

Behind Steve, someone muttered "Oh hell" too softly to identify. Steve couldn't help but agree. Dealing with a pyromaniac with bad English skills was not exactly what he had been hoping for out of this mission. On the other hand, they had known going in that there were a pair of Russians on the team, and that one of them had a flamethrower. Bad luck about them being the same person, but they'd overcome worse. Steve nodded politely and managed to get out something about being glad The Fury was on the team and hoping they could work well together. It seemed to satisfy The Joy at least, and she pointed at a space between The Fury and another Cobra.

"The Fear...oh hell. Come out! Now!" As far as anyone else could tell, she was snapping at thin air. The Commandos shared some awkward looks amongst themselves, trying avoid staring at the woman haranguing a tree. Had they lost a few members on the way? Shell shock?

And then a man crawled down the tree facing them and there was absolutely no way a human's limbs were meant to bend like that. He lept lightly to the ground, swaying almost drunkenly, but with a terrifyingly intense light in his eyes. He had...a pair of crossbows strapped to his back? Steve blinked. Seriously, crossbows? The Joy just sighed and shook her head. "There you are. This is The Fear, our spider soldier. A master of stealth and expert on poisons. He's also skilled with traps."

The Fear grinned and licked his lips with an obscenely long tongue. "Pleased to meet you all. I bring fear to my enemies...but we are to be friends. Then...I suppose I'll be watching your backs, gathered soldiers."

There was utter silence from the Commandos. Peggy looked pale, and hastily hid it under an iron mask of professionalism. Dum Dum slipped close up behind Steve and whispered to him "I know all's fair in love and war, Captain, but we could at least be honourable about it. It's the proper thing to do." Steve just elbowed him in the gut as subtly as possible. Like it or not, and he wasn't exactly liking it, these were their allies against the Nazis and HYDRA alike. He gave The Fear his best Captain America smile and something pleasant about looking out for each other.

"And there's our sniper and wilderness expert, The End." The Joy pointed at an unassuming bush, which shook slightly and parted to reveal an old man who couldn't be a day under 90. A parrot flew out of the trees and perched on his shoulder as he slowly levered himself up from the ground and gave the Commandos a deeply sceptical look. Steve was absolutely sure at this point that it wasn't his team who deserved that. The Joy ignored them and kept speaking. "As you just saw, he's a master of camouflage and is able to use a limited form of photosynthesis to remain active for days at a time. Of all of us, he's the most experienced in the field." For the first time, The Joy sounded deeply respectful instead of just proud of her men. Honestly, Steve couldn't really argue with 'most experienced'...but the rest of it? Was she serious?

The End nodded slowly at all of them, seeming a bit more satisfied now he had a good look at them. "I'm glad to fight with you, in this great war. I look forward to finding your mettle as soldiers." He nodded, slowly, then settled back against a tree and closed his eyes. Steve nodded in return and managed to get out a few more pleasantries, while the rest of the Commandos and Peggy seemed to be either stunned into silence or waiting for the other shoe to drop. Peggy gave Steve an apologetic look out of the corner of her eyes, and he shrugged slightly in return. He couldn't blame anyone for assuming that abilities like this were exaggerated for the benefit of any listening Germans. He wasn't quite ready to believe what was right in front of him.

Th Joy moved on to clasp the shoulder of a pale man with glasses who looked more like he belonged in front of a classroom than in a war, though he had some of the same ethereal look The Joy did. "This is The Sorrow, who can communicate with the spirits of the dead. He can also summon them into his body to use their combat skills," she said, giving The Sorrow an affectionate smile as she did.

He gave her a fond look in return before fully facing Steve and the others. "Hello, all of you." He spoke softly, with a Russian accent, though it was noticeably lighter than The Fury's. "I mostly use my powers for gathering intelligence on the enemy. Combat...is not my strong point. But I shall let you know the voices of the dead." He bowed, slightly, as if just saying that made it real.

That got a reaction out of the assembled Commandos. Montgomery looked fascinated and ready to ask questions as soon as the introductions were over. Gabe and Jim seemed sceptical, but they stayed quiet about it. Dum Dum, not so much. He shouted "On top of everything, you want us to believe this hokum?!" at the same time Bucky spoke up with "Can you contact my mother? I'd like to see if she's okay, you know." They both broke off to stare at each other with looks of confusion and slight betrayal. Steve didn't actually know how to feel about it. He was sure souls went to Heaven or Hell when they died, but after everything else...well, he'd wait for The Sorrow to prove himself, just like all the others.

The Sorrow jerked back, offended. "It is not hokum!" he snapped back, stumbling a little on the unfamiliar word. "I hear voices of the dead. Even if you do not believe or cannot hear them, they cry out pain and sorrow to those who can." He glared at them, and the rest of the Cobras seemed ready to back him up even if it meant a fight.

It was Peggy who stepped in. "I apologize for any offence. I'm afraid we rather assumed such abilities were exaggerated in the reports, but I'm sure everyone will have a chance to prove themselves on this mission. This is, after all, a co-operative operation to take out a massive threat to the Allies. There might be friction, but we need to stay professional and deal with it like professionals," she said, pleasant and smooth with some very definite emphasis. There was some shuffling and awkward looks, but the tension seemed to dissipate a little...or at least was buried for the moment.

"Well said," The Joy said, still looking tense but hiding it under iron professionalism. She moved on to the last man, a giant wearing a yellow uniform and a black balaclava. "Our final member is our hornet soldier, The Pain. He can control a swarm of hornets at will to attack or deceive enemies." The Pain spun around and opened a pack on his hip, letting out a swarm of hornets that swirled around him. The Commandos all got ready to run backwards, but the hornets just settled calmly on The Pain's body like a living suit of armour.

"These are my brothers!" He raised one leg and stomped on the ground, not disturbing the hornets one bit. "With them, I will show our enemies true pain." He made another gesture and the bees formed...a tommygun? He relaxed and they dispersed again, hovering around him and filling the air with buzzing.

Steve had seen a lot of weird stuff in the war so far, but this, all of this, was taking it a little far. Way too far. He was going to fight alongside a man who thought being covered in bees was a combat tactic? He could hear Jim and Gabe whispering behind him, hopefully too faint for the Cobras to pick up on. 'Hey, don't knock it. If he really can control them...lots of people are scared of hornets. Heck, I'm scared of 'em!' 'You know what else people are scared of, Jim? Bullets.'

The Joy didn't seem to notice their disbelief, or maybe took their silence as acceptance of her team. Either way she turned to face them sharply and spoke with clear precision. "That's the Cobra Unit. And you are?"

Steve and Peggy looked at each other, trying to gauge who should go first. Eventually Steve deferred to the lady, and let her step forward. "I'm Agent Peggy Carter, of the Strategic Science Reserve. I'm here to help co-ordinate both your teams during this mission. Up until now I've worked heavily with Captain America and the Howling Commandos, and I look forward to supporting the Cobra Unit as well. I won't be going on the attack with you, but I'll be staying back here ready to offer any help I can over the radio." She spoke with a crispness that suggested she didn't see anything weird about the situation, and Steve had to admire her cool.

"The SSR, hm? I've heard of you, the ones working on all the extraordinary research. They have a lot of good agents working for them." The Joy seemed to relax a bit and looked at Peggy with a bit of newfound respect. "My men and I look forward to working with you as well, Agent Carter." She held out her hand, and Peggy shook it firmly. They both stepped back, and Peggy looked at Steve. So apparently he was handling the rest of the introductions. Steve squared his shoulders and summoned up every bit of speech-making prowess he had. There was no way he was going to let the Howling Commandos lose to any of this set of weirdos.

"Hello there. I'm Captain Steve Rogers, codename Captain America. I'm the leader of this band of merry men, and I carry this shield that can stop anything in its tracks. We've been mostly fighting against HYDRA up until now, and I'll try to inform you on them as we head for the fortress," Steve said while giving another picture-perfect Captain America smile. It didn't seem to impress the Cobras as much as it did the kids back in the States, but The Joy nodded with grudging approval.

"We've read all the official files on HYDRA that were provided to us, but it's always good to speak to someone with actual experience." The Joy paused, then continued in a tone a little too flat to completely mask the contempt. "But do you have another uniform? That star-spangled one stands out like a sore thumb."

This was certainly a woman who didn't hold her opinions back. Steve kept his smile pasted to his face with long practice and answered, "It's served me well on all my missions so far, ma'am." The Joy didn't look convinced, but she let the matter drop and Steve moved on.

He grabbed Bucky's shoulder and dragged him forward to stand right next to him. "This is Sergeant James Barnes, my second in command and a crack shot with a rifle. He can hit a target from a kilometer feet away, dead on." Bucky gave him a bit of a look, but it quickly disappeared under a cocky grin for the benefit of the Cobras.

"Well hello there, all of you. I'm technically Sergeant Barnes, but you can call me Bucky. I've seen a lot of HYDRA goons myself, so if Steve here can't answer any of your questions just come to me," he said. Steve didn't feel like he particularly deserved that crack, but it was true that they'd gotten a good deal of information from Bucky. Bucky just gave them another smile, particularly looking at The Joy - who definitely wasn't as impressed as the girls back home - and moved behind Steve to let him continue the introductions.

Steve gestured at Dum Dum and said, "This here is Corporal Timothy Dugan, one of the strongest men on the team and anyone's equal in hand-to-hand combat. There's not many who want to step into the ring with him." Dum Dum straightened up and tipped his bowler at the Cobras as neat as you please and told them that he looked forward to working with them and completely avoided glaring at the Russians. The Cobras acknowledged him in turn, not seeming too amazed, though Steve thought he saw The Pain give The Joy an amused look. She didn't return it.

Next Steve indicated Gabe, who was standing conveniently close to him. "This is Private Gabriel Jones, our language expert and main intelligence gatherer."

Gabe gave him a bit of a glare when he stepped up, but masked it quickly under a mask of calm. "Pleased to meet you all. I mostly speak German, but I'd be glad to start learning some Russian to help battlefield communications, if any of you want to teach me." The Cobras seemed satisfied with this, and The Sorrow especially seemed to be looking friendlier. Though when Gabe stepped back he muttered under his breath to Steve "'language expert'? Captain, I took two semesters of German and the rest I picked up here. Who's the 'expert'?"

"That's more German than any of the rest of us ever took, isn't it?" Steve whispered in return before returning his attention to what he was supposed to be doing. He pointed at Montgomery next and started talking. "This is Private Montgomery Falsworth, our scout and wilderness expert. He's also travelled extensively, so he has deep knowledge of most of Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia." Montgomery took the praise well and cheerfully told the Cobras how he'd be happy to swap travel stories and help with survival. Steve pretended not to notice when he mouthed 'scout and wilderness expert?' at him. Maybe he wasn't literally part plant, but he knew all about running around in forests and was a better tracker than anyone.

"Then here is Private Jim Morita, our technical wizard. He's great with any sort of technology, and there's no one who knows more about explosives." Jim didn't even bother to say anything to Steve, just trusting that his eyeroll would be seen and be too far away for the Cobras to notice. Technical wizard might be pushing it, but Jim was a dab hand with machines and he could throw a grenade with near pinpoint accuracy. Steve wasn't exaggerating that much. Just a little, to compete with literal supernatural powers.

Jim finished up his little introduction and Steve moved on to the last member of the Howling Commandos. "And finally, this is Private Jacques Dernier, our communications expert. In addition to maintaining those, as a former member of the French resistance he has plenty of contacts and networks that have been a great help in helping us root out HYDRA." Jacques didn't seem to mind mostly being described as support, which was good because Steve was assuming the Cobras knew all of them could handle a gun perfectly well. He mostly seemed happy to be meeting some actual Russians who presumably had more Communist sympathies than, well, Dum Dum.

Jacques stepped back and Peggy took over again. "If the introductions are all finished, I believe it's time to officially start the mission." The assembled soldiers all straightened and paid attention as she continued. "As I said, I'll be staying back to support you and to provide a link with the commanders back at base. Howard - Howard Stark, the man behind most of our technological innovations - has what he says is a 'trackless radio' we'll be using to stay in contact. According to him, at least, anything we transmit with one of these cannot be traced by the enemy. They also have a basic automatic encryption on them, for added security. They can still intercept calls if they luck into the right band, though, so keep that in mind." Jacques took out his spare trackless radio and held it out to the Cobras. The Sorrow took it off his hands, turning it over and over with a good deal of curiosity. Peggy went on. "Keep those safe, there's only three in the entire world. Now, none of our intercepted communications indicate any sort of German or HYDRA troop movement in this area for at least another week, which is why we picked here as the starting point. However, that doesn't mean there's no one around. Be careful, and if any enemies see you out there, make absolutely sure they won't be making any reports back to their commanders. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Then head out, soldiers, and God be with you." Peggy finished her speech and turned sharply on her heel as the soldiers prepared to move. Jacques took The Sorrow aside to relay more detailed information about the radio, while Montgomery, Bucky, The Joy and The End gathered in a small group to plan out the best route past enemy lines. Bucky and The Joy both looked questioningly at Steve when he didn't join them immediately, but he nodded at them and jerked his head towards Peggy to show he wanted some extra words with their liaison first. The pair looked at each other and Bucky said something to The Joy that made her give Steve an unreadable look before she shrugged and turned her attention back to the map Montgomery was holding.

Peggy slowed down when she noticed Steve trying to catch up. "What is it, Captain?"

"Just wanted to double-check about you being all right here out on your own. This isn't technically enemy territory, but backup's going to be hours away if anything happens."

Peggy nodded solemnly, then shrugged. "It's a risk, to be sure, but Howard's radios don't reach far enough to keep in contact with you all the way back at base, and we can't chance you going into an almost completely unknown situation without some way of getting information back." She paused, then continued with a tinge of morbid finality. "After all, someone has to be able to call in an airstrike if all of you can't take care of this superweapon on your own."

That was all true, but leaving anyone alone this close to the enemy didn't sit right with Steve. "Yes, but-"

"Stop it, Captain." And there was Agent Carter with her voice full of steel. "I'm taking a risk for the Allies, just like you are. There's weapons and ammunition in the truck, and I'll be scanning for any enemy activity. Don't worry, I'm not planning on throwing my life away. If I can get out I'll do it and come back as soon as it's clear. But this is my mission, and I'm going to complete it like all the rest."

Steve nodded, still unhappy about it but without any arguments left. "I understand, Agent. I just wish someone could be here with you."

Peggy laughed without much amusement. "Believe me Captain, so do I. But the brass thinks sending the Howling Commandos and the Cobra Unit out on the same mission is all the manpower they can afford to spare for this. It's a nasty business, but that's war, isn't it."

Steve could barely summon up a dry laugh in return. "It sure is, Agent. Then...I guess I'll be going." He sketched her a quick salute and walked back to join his men, leaving Peggy to settle in the truck with her radio and a spare rifle.

He slipped into the group looking at the map, listening to Montgomery talk about the area. "...and then there's a small river. It's probably a good idea to move along that for awhile, try to confuse anyone that happens across our tracks. After that the main line is here," he pointed to a marked area on the map, "but this forest isn't heavily garrisoned. There's a small outpost, but we should be able to slip through their lines without too much trouble. They'll probably be patrolling, but if we avoid the fort itself they should be easy to avoid. After that..."

"After that it's a straight shot to Nichts Garten." The Joy frowned at the map. "We'll have to avoid the roads, and patrols will increase as we get closer. The bulk of the German army is off in the east and south, but they'll definitely be guarding there. Though there is the question of HYDRA."

"Nothing to do but to go for it. It doesn't seem like there are too many natural obstacles past the river, besides any mud from this damn rain," Steve said, looking at the map he had all but memorized already. "As for HYDRA...we just don't have enough information on them. We've never been able to crack their codes, but on the upside there's not nearly as many of them as there are Nazis. If they do show up, at least they'll probably be gunning for Nichts Garten too, and they won't be expecting us either." It was a slim advantage, but it was all they had. They'd been able to use it so far, and with any luck they'd be able to keep it.

"The mud may be an advantage for us. We are on foot, and if we avoid the roads it'll be hard for any large force to pursue us," The End said. "Assuming you and your men know enough to survive in the forest."

"We've done it before, we'll do it again. Besides, we'll have the experts with us, won't be?" Bucky's tone was close to challenging.

Neither of the Cobras seemed to want to rise to the bait. "If you have any problems, feel free to ask for help," The Joy said, then turned away from the small map. "We seem to agree on our plans. Head to the river, then run along it to disguise our trail and avoid hitting the fort itself. Slip past the enemy lines, and head for the fortress. We'll reconvene on the outskirts of Nichts Garten and scope out the situation there." Her words were half addressed to the rest of the group, who had all perked up to listen.

"And keep an eye out for any good campsites as we go, we're not going to make it to the fortress in a day," Steve said. "I can't promise any sausage roasts, though." There was some laughter from the Commandos, and a few of the Cobras at least smiled.

"I can. I can roast anything we find. Anything," The Fury called from where he was standing and for the life of him Steve couldn't tell if he was still joking or not. He probably was?

The Joy sighed, then raised her voice over the remaining nervous chuckles. "The Captain is right, we'll camp when it's safe. Until then, move out!" Everyone rushed to obey.

It wasn't a proper march, with everyone in a line. The forest wasn't clear enough for that, and they couldn't afford the trail it would leave if they tried to force it. The Fear took off into the trees without even looking at anyone else, presumably to scout ahead. Montgomery looked at him, then askance at Steve. At Steve's nod he disappeared into the underbrush ahead as well, slightly at an angle from The Fear's heading. Dum Dum and The Fury both took up the rear, their weapons in easy reach. Everyone else kept into a loose cloud, trying to move through the wet leaves and mud as quickly as possible without leaving a blatant trail for the enemy to follow.

The Pain had turned his jacket inside out to reveal a reverse coated with a brown, papery material. He had called most of his swarm back to his pack, leaving only a few to crawl around on his body like pets. Most of the Commandos avoided him, though Jim looked interested in a careful way. Gabe walked close to The Sorrow, and Steve could hear them talking quietly in a mix of English and Russian. Steve kept an eye on The End for awhile, along with most of the Commandos, but the old man didn't seem to have any trouble navigating the forest. In fact he was by far the one who had the least amount of trouble making his way through. Once he was satisfied with that Steve made an effort to put himself next to The Joy. She matched his pace easily, which honestly surprised him a bit. He'd been expecting her to be able to march as well as many man, but he wasn't just any man any more. But after all, you didn't get to be leader of an elite special forces team by being ordinary. But thinking of ordinary... "So, The Joy, can I ask you something?" Steve said.

"Yes?"

"So...you gave us all your codenames, but you have to have real ones. I mean, your parents didn't name you 'The Joy'." It was possible they had named her 'Joy', Steve supposed. That was a perfectly good name for a girl. But that really didn't explain any of the rest of them, or why she'd add a 'The' to it. "And why The Joy, anyway?"

"We have no names outside the battlefield," The Joy replied with absolute conviction. "We gave those up when we joined the Cobras and took our place in this war."

"I have a name outside the battlefield!" Bucky called out as he caught up with the pair and marched beside them. "It's the same as my name on it."

The Joy steadfastly ignored him. "As for the other question, we are all named for emotions we found to carry into battle. The joy of battle, of serving something greater, victory...that's me. It's what I am," she said. She gave Steve a long sidelong look. "I suppose I don't need to ask where you got yours. The brilliant representation of America, coming into war at long last to save us all."

Steve was used to that bitterness by now, and at least The Joy kept it faint. He'd gotten a lot worse from Montgomery and Jacques, even if they were mostly joking now. "Yeah, I get that a lot. I know you all were fighting years ago. But I'm here now, and I'll do whatever I can," he replied, keeping his voice steady with long practice. "When did you come over here? Just...asking." If there was a bit of bitterness of his own, he tried to mask it under a light tone. From the cool look The Joy gave him he hadn't quite succeed.

"I joined the SAS as a special consultant in 1939. The Cobra Unit came later," she said, and left it at that. She did seem to be looking at him with a bit more respect now, though. It would be nice if someone could have that faith in him from the beginning, but Steve would take what he could get. But then Bucky jostled his shoulder companionably and felt heartened. He'd always have Bucky on his side, if nothing else.

Conversations slowly died as they progressed through the forest, falling into whispers and then a tense silence as they slowly got closer to the enemy. They walked as quietly as possible, alert for any noise that wasn't the rough shuffle of their passing. Steve shook the thoughts out of his head and re-concentrated on stepping lightly through the littered forest floor. The rain had slowed, turning from fat drops to a light mist and then finally dying all together towards the end of the day, though the dim twilight sun couldn't quite make up the effort to punch through the clouds.

When they found the river it was barely large enough to earn the name, honestly little more than a creek cutting through the woods. It didn't look too deep to wade through, and the bottom was covered with rocks that would hold no tracks. It was the perfect place to confuse a trail.

Montgomery was waiting for them at the edge of the river, while The Fear kept watch in the trees. He leaped down with an agility Steve had to admire as Montgomery turned to greet them. "There you all are. You sure kept us waiting."

"Not our fault if you run off ahead. No one in the area?" Steve asked.

"Nothing but rabbits and birds. But we'll find some when we get nearer to their lines," The Fear said, and he sounded almost eager to find some German soldiers. The Joy gave him a look even Steve could interpret as 'this is a sneaking mission, remember that' and he seemed to settle a bit. Not enough to stop moving, but from what Steve had seen so far he was nearly incapable of holding completely still.

"We'll take a short break, then keep pressing on. We should get to the enemy lines after dark." Steve looked at The Joy while he was talking, but she didn't seem to have any objections to the plan.

"Better to slip past any patrols in the night," she said, and Steve couldn't fault that. Around them their men settled down for a break after a day's walking. A few rations were taken out and shared around, backs were cracked and legs rubbed. The End sat down against a tree and was snoring softly in seconds. Jacques took out the radio and made a report to Peggy that amounted to 'nothing to report', and when he was done said that she had about the same to say in return. The Sorrow came up to The Joy and they slipped off to speak together in hushed Russian. Steve sat down next to Dum Dum to ask if he'd seen anything in the back and what he thought of their new friends so far, to which the answers were no and that they were a bunch of creepy weirdos, but at least The Fury didn't seem to be much of a communist. It was about what Steve had expected from him, really, but it was good to know.

All too soon they had to get up and move on. The group waded to the middle of the river and started to walk upstream against the light current. Even the faint grey light from the sun was fading now, though the clouds were breaking up a little. With luck they'd have a bit of moonlight to show the way. If not...they'd have to break out the flashlights just to get through the forest, with the tiny disadvantage of being a nice bright beacon for any enemy troops in the area. Steve could only hope this area had as few soldiers as they'd heard, otherwise...well, he'd gotten over a hundred prisoners out of enemy territory in the dark before, sneaking back in with a couple of elite squads couldn't be any harder.

After half a mile or so they left the river and headed back into the forest, only slightly illuminated by the moon forcing its way through the clouds. It was just enough to see by, with a bit of eyestrain. This time Montgomery and The Fear stayed in sight, though still ahead of the rest and nearly invisible in the dark. The trees were shadows with leaves of silver, and the ground barely more than inky blackness. The Joy paused, listening intently, before shaking her head and speaking. "I don't hear anything, yet. Proceed with twice as much caution."

"Don't need to tell anyone that, missy," Dum Dum muttered under his breath.

Steve shushed him just as quietly. "No talking unless you see the enemy, Corporal. They have just as good ears as we do." Dum Dum shrugged, but kept quiet as they moved on.

Progress was slow and unsteady. A deer burst out of the brush right in front of them, froze, and by some miracle was not shot before it could run off again into the forest. They stopped and waited in darkness listening for anything but the pounding of their hearts for at least fifteen minutes anyway, and only proceeded when The End said that the animals didn't know of any humans in the area besides them. Steve didn't really believe he could talk to animals, but he couldn't hear anything moving around out there or see any lights, so it seemed they were all right.

The moonlight brightened and faded over the night and even supersoldier muscles were starting to tire by the time they definitely found enemy lines - by finding the enemy. Steve almost mistook the sound of snapping twigs and rustling leaves for their own passage and nerves, but the sound of German conversation was hard to mistake. The rest of the team didn't need the hissed "down!" to drop to the ground, hiding in bushes and watching the swing of flashlights get slowly closer, coming right towards them.

It didn't seem like the enemy had noticed them yet, but it was just a matter of time. They had gotten close enough while the Commandos and Cobras were frozen that any movement would give away their position and bring on a fight. Steve watched the lights and considered his options carefully. He didn't notice The Joy shifting next to him until she whispered in his ear. "If you don't have another plan we're going to have to fight. With any luck they won't be due back for a few hours."

"I don't think we should alert anyone to our mission yet, don't you?" Steve whispered back. He could barely see the outline of The Joy's face in the dark, but he could imagine from the tilt of her head that she wasn't too happy about it either. "Stay down. I have an idea." As soon as he finished he stood up and unslung his shield.

"What are you - Get back down!" The Joy sounded as outraged as you could get in an undertone, but Steve barely paid attention. He knew how to throw his shield so that it went exactly where it was supposed to now, even in the dark, and he flung it out just slightly to the side of the enemy patrol.

The shield tore through foliage and hit a tree with a massive, resounding crack before ricocheting off and flying safely back to Steve's arm. There was a veritable waterfall of leaves and branches, accompanied by the squawks of rudely awakened birds. The enemy patrol burst out with exclamations of surprise and panic, a few of them firing wildly into the dark and causing even more general confusion. Steve signalled to everyone to start moving and if they abandoned caution to run more quickly, then the Germans were in no position to notice. Not when there was another wooden crack and the tree the shield had hit slowly fell over with a ponderous thud that shook the forest.

"What the hell was that?!" The Joy hissed at Steve as they ran past the patrol and into the very relative safety of enemy-controlled territory, confused shouts and German curses fading behind them.

"A distraction!"

There was no more time or breath for words until they stopped running out of sheer exhaustion later. The rasp of their collective breathing filled the air, but no sounds of pursuit. The Fear jumped to the tallest tree in the area and started climbing, presumably to scout, while the rest started to stake out a perimeter. Steve was counting shadows and trying to find The End when The Joy tapped him on the shoulder. "Did you get a look at their weapons as we passed? I'm pretty sure they were standard-issue," she said, her anger earlier apparently forgotten.

"I think the officer's looked different, but it was dark. I could've been imagining things." Steve considered for a bit. "That doesn't necessarily mean anything, though. I don't think they'd give their best weapons to patrol a quiet forest in the middle of the night."

The Joy nodded in agreement and paused before continuing. "If you're looking for The End, he's asleep over there. He'll wake up if we need him, but his parrot will keep his watch. I'm putting The Fury on first. And...that was good thinking, back there."

"I'm not all show, you know," Steve said, unable to resist a bit of a smirk.

"Perhaps not." With that she turned around started to walk away, but not before calling over her shoulder. "Get some sleep, Captain. We're not done yet."

"Roger that." Steve found Gabe and put him on watch as well, trusting him to wake Jim up when it was time to switch. After that he found a spot near to the edge and fell into a light doze, ready to wake up again at any suspicious sound.

"-some politician's daughter? What're you doing out here in the mud with us, then? Shouldn't you be back running the war from an office with actual carpet?" Bucky's voice roused Steve from his slumber, and he took a few minutes to take stock of the situation before getting up. The forest was filled with the pale grey light of dawn, though it looked like the clouds had come back overnight. Birds were chirping cheerfully in the branches, and there was the faint damp smell of earth after rain. It was a nice morning if you weren't in a war.

"I'm doing my duty, the same as all of you." The Joy's voice was brisk and cold, and Steve was pretty sure he should step in right about now, for the sake of inter-team unity on the mission. He kept lying there instead, just a little too curious about what Bucky would say about duty and honour and people who shouldn't be fighting in wars when it wasn't straight to Steve's face. And it wasn't like The Joy couldn't take care of herself.

"Your duty." There was a heavy pause. "Is being your father's daughter what got you to the special forces, or do you have some sort of crazy power too? A super science experiment, or were you just born that way?"

There was a hiss of breath. "I trained every day since I was a little girl to be the best damn soldier I could be. That's all I ever needed." There was another pause, this one tense and angry, before The Joy walked away, the leaves crackling under her feet.

Steve waited a bit longer, giving everyone a bit of time to cool down, then stretched with exaggerated care and sat up. He saw Bucky looking towards the trees, looking vaguely shamefaced and angry about it. He knew he needed to talk to Bucky about this. He knew Bucky was upset at getting rescued by the kid he used to have to protect, but Steve had thought they were over that, the entire matter forgiven and forgotten in the blaze of war. It might not be the best time, but the air needed clearing. Steve wasn't about to let this end his oldest friendship. He stood up and moved next to Bucky, forcing his voice to not show even the slightest hint of hurt. "Morning, Bucky. You were-"

"When'd you wake up?" Bucky's voice was oddly flat, and he refused to look at Steve.

"About the time you asked her why she was out here with us." Steve looked at Bucky out of the corner of his eye just in time to see a flash of betrayal cross Bucky's face before being smoothed away.

"...sorry. Look, just forget it. I'm not mad at you."

That wasn't the problem and Steve tried to figure out some way to express that without making the whole conversation worse. "Bucky-"

"Captain America!" The Sorrow called out from where he was kneeling on the ground with the radio. "Please come here, I am going to make a report to the Agent."

Steve hesitated, but duty won out. He clapped Bucky on the shoulder and said "We'll talk later, all right?" before walking over to The Sorrow and The Joy. Time for Captain America to face the day.

The Joy gave him a bit of a look when he crouched down beside them, but she kept her silence and Steve was grateful to her for it. The Sorrow played with the radio dials for a bit longer and started speaking into the microphone. "Hello? Hello, Agent Carter, do you hear me? Agent Carter?"

"I hear you, who is this?" Peggy's voice came through faint and crackling, but audible. Howard had never quite managed to get the same clarity out of the trackless radios that he could with regular ones.

"This is The Sorrow of the Cobra Unit, making report. The Joy and Captain America are with me. We are about halfway to Nichts Garten, in the middle of the Dunklenwald forest." The Sorrow stopped there and stared into the air like he had lost all contact with the world. When he spoke again his voice was as strong as usual, but it still somehow sounded like he was speaking from far away. "There are many dead here. They know the way to the fortress, but not the way inside. They do not know what awaits, only that it is hell. Enemy and ally, they are all sorrowing and afraid."

Peggy seemed as at loss for words as Steve. There was some static from the radio before her voice came through again. "R-Roger that, Sorrow. Keep moving towards Nichts Garten. Don't let anything get in your way. I'll inform you if we manage to intercept and decode any messages out of there."

"Any news from the rest of the war, Agent?" Steve said.

"We haven't seen anything more out of HYDRA proper, but we got a report from Italy about seeing the knock-off weapons. It seems they've at least produced enough to outfit special forces away from Nichts Garten. We don't know how long they've been out there. We've been trying to contact the Soviets to find out if they've seen anything in the east since we first heard about the weapons, but progress there is slow." Under her professional tone Steve thought he could hear some frustration at bureaucracy and tenuous allies.

The Joy and The Sorrow shared a look, then The Sorrow shrugged. The Joy spoke. "We've been out of contact with Soviet command for a few months, so I'm afraid we don't know any more than you do. If you can, get in contact with Major Stanislav Votintsev; he's the man who co-ordinated most of our missions on that side. Tell him I sent you."

"I'll relay that back to the brass. But this doesn't change your mission. Get in there and shut production of those weapons down. Over."

"Yes ma'am!" they chorused. The Sorrow turned the radio off and put it away, while Steve stood up and took a look around the camp. Jacques was cooking a rabbit over The Fury's flamethrower while chatting mostly in French and Russian. Steve couldn't understand most of what they were saying, but he caught the French for "ratfucking sons of whores". They must've been talking about politicians, then. Jim was sitting next to them skinning another rabbit and The Pain was nearby, eating one that had presumably already been cooked. Dum Dum and Gabe were splitting a few rations between themselves, and Montgomery was bringing in a few eggs from the forest. He couldn't see The Fear or The End, so he asked The Joy where they had gone off to while heading over to Jacques to get some of that breakfast.

Before she could answer a shot rang out. Steve had his shield and was facing the direction it had come from before he even quite registered that it was happening. He had to get the Commandos together and ready for a fight - the enemy was here and their cover had been completely blown - there was still a chance to fix things all he had to do was take out whoever made that shot - he was pulling back to throw his shield when someone grabbed his arm hard enough to actually stop him. "Captain! Stop it!"

Steve blinked and turned to look into The Joy's face from where she had a deathgrip on his arm. Her eyes slipped away for a moment before she started to explain with a bit of shame in her tone. "That was a Mosin Nagant, it's just The End doing a little hunting. He already asked the animals if anyone was in earshot. It's all right."

A dead goose dropped from the sky right next to The Fury, who tossed it to Jim for cleaning without a second glance. Steve looked at Jim and Jacques, who were both half out of their crouches and with one hand on their rifles, and they looked back at him in mute appeal for the right way forward. Slowly, Steve lowered his arm. "Well. Give us some warning next time, right? We are in enemy territory."

"I tried. He was just a little too quick on the trigger." The Joy let go and stepped away, Steve worked his arm around as subtly as possible. Lot of grip on that woman. She continued. "Let's eat and be on our way. The sun is almost up, and we have a long way to go."

There was nothing to do but agree to that. Steve was still pretty put out about firing unsuppressed weapons in enemy territory in a stealth mission with no warning, but no hordes of Nazi soldiers descended upon them in the rest of the time it took to cook the remaining rabbit, the goose, and the eggs and to scarf them down with some rations, so they at least got away with it. The Fear dropped in halfway through and reported no patrols around, but there were planes on the horizon heading in the direction of Nichts Garten. Soon enough they were all fed, packed, and ready for another day's march.

The clouds scattered and reformed as the days went on, sometimes letting the sun brighten the forest into bold greens and soft shadows, sometimes washing over everything with soft greys. The ground was still soft and muddy, they had to carefully pick the thickest carpets of leaves to avoid leaving tracks even the most urban of recruits could follow. The nights were chill, and one filled with pouring rain that left them all waking up half sunk into mud. The geography changed slowly, the ground beginning to rise and fall and then start to break up into ridges and valleys. Progress was slow, but every rocky cliff scaled was one step closer to the fortress.

The teams started to intermingle a bit more over the course of the days, mostly Jacques and Jim trying to make friends, with more or less success. The rest kept a professional distance that the Cobras returned, even with Gabe learning basic Russian from The Sorrow. For his part, Steve had to admit that for all their foibles, the Cobras could hold their own in the wilderness and The Joy was a capable leader. The rest of his judgement he'd hold back until seeing them in battle.

The sun was painting the sky with bloody reds and golds when they finally saw it three days later. Nichts Garten was set in mountain face that rose away in front of them, huge and imposing in the sunset light. They were still in the shadows of a few trees, but the forest was thinner now, with smaller trees and few bushes to hide in before it disappeared entirely to be replaced with rocks and scraggly grass. The End's parrot had been watching out for them since the beginning of the day, but now it finished circling and landed on The End's shoulder to rest. The teams took what cover they could among the trees, alert for any movement. Steve laid down beside The Joy in the dirt. "Now we just wait until dark. Who do you think should infiltrate the fortress?"

"You and me, of course."

Steve gave her an incredulous look. "I thought you didn't like my uniform. Something about standing out like a sore thumb."

The Joy shrugged. "We'll have to find you a disguise. But if things go south I'd rather have you with me than someone else. And I did hear how you infiltrated that enemy camp." Steve felt that sneaking into a fortress with electric lights everywhere was a bit different from sneaking into a wide-open POW camp at night, and there was the tiny problem of his not knowing enough German to hold a conversation that wasn't mainly pointing and grunting, but The Joy kept going. "We'll have the rest of our men stage a distraction. The Pain's good at those." Steve could definitely believe that.

"Captain-!"

"Spione!"

Dum Dum's cry was cut off by an angry German voice with the smallest undercurrent of fear. Steve grabbed his shield and got it in front of him before the Germans could unsling their guns and start shooting. "Joy, I'll cover you, so-" The rest of his command went unheard as The Joy sprung forward with a total absence of fear and charged the enemy squadron. Apparently the Germans hadn't expected that either, and the officer barely got his rifle up before she grabbed it, twisted it down, and used the entire thing as leverage to throw the officer into the man right next to him while she aimed the rifle straight at the man on the other side, just as the officer's finger managed to find the trigger. A blast of blue light exploded from the rifle and the third man went down with a hole in his stomach, while The Joy instantly spun to punch a fourth man in the face so hard Steve could hear the crack of his jaw from ten feet away. The Fear got him just as he was stumbling back from the force of the blow. There was another gunshot, though Steve couldn't tell from who and the officer grunt combo went down like cut marionettes instead of grown men.

The remaining two Germans clearly decided discretion was the better part of valour and started to sprint off in different directions into the forest. One was caught by a burst of flame from The Fury and went down screaming and rolling on the ground before getting a shot in the head from Jim. The other ran straight into a cloud of hornets and started flailing his arms around wildly, almost turning and running straight back to the waiting Joy when another crossbow bolt pierced him straight through the throat. He fell without another sound.

It was quite possibly the fastest take down of six men Steve had seen that didn't involve a grenade or a machine gun. He stood up, feeling more than a bit overwhelmed. "Ah...good work. Any survivors?"

The Joy checked over the officer and the other soldier. "The End got them. Good work." She stood up and looked around. "The Sorrow, you know what to do." He made a noise of agreement and stared off into nothing again with his eyes wide and breathing shallow.

That old man had aimed around his leader to shoot two men at once? That was some skill with a rifle all right. But now Steve had more important things to do than admire the Cobras' skill. "All right then. Commandos, check the area for any other squads and be through this time! I don't want to get caught off-guard again! We're right next to the enemy base, so watch your backs and don't get caught!" The rest of the Commandos saluted and moved out to scan the forest for any other enemy movement. Steve started to join them, but The Joy stopped him.

"Hold on. The Sorrow's going to interrogate the officer and try to find out more about Nichts Garten. It's better for you to hear that than to go running around in the forest." She turned to her men. "Cobras, you heard the Captain! Same orders!" The Cobras, minus The Sorrow, disappeared into the forest.

"He really can - I mean, of course." There was at least something freaky about The Sorrow, but after a few days with the Cobras Steve was almost ready to believe in mediums. Was a man talking to the dead really any weirder than skinny kid Steve Rogers turning into Captain America?

The Joy narrowed her eyes at his doubts, but she didn't say anything. The Sorrow ignored them both and started speaking in Russian, then glanced at Steve and switched to English. "He is...at the start of river. I see him, and many dead cry out for his blood." He paused, then shook his head. "He is loyal. He says that Nichts Garten is invincible, even against HYDRA...Dr. Branstein's invention will keep them safe."

"How long does this usually take?" Steve whispered to The Joy. It somehow felt wrong to speak loudly in the middle of what was basically a seance, even if it was in a damp German forest instead of a fine Victorian drawing room.

"Depends on the target. But even the loyal ones give up eventually...countries and ideologies are meaningless to the dead."

Well. That was true enough. Steve straightened up and started listening to The Sorrow again. "Dr. Branstein...he was once part of HYDRA, but loyal enough to Germany to leave when the Red Skull declared his goal of conquering Europe for himself. He snuck off with HYDRA technology and has been copying and modifying it to be usable even without the Red Skull's power source. Branstein is building a superweapon...he will not tell me what it is, he merely laughs and mocks the idea of us destroying it. It is stored in the mountain, on the train tracks that come in from the back. Ah...Nichts Garten has a thousand men, all with HYDRA arms. That is all he will tell."

"Good work, Sorrow." The Joy rubbed at her chin. "1000 men is nothing to take lightly. We'd better be prepared."

"His final message: If any of us are ever in Munich, please look up Miss Helena Schneider and give her his love. He is off to the river." The Sorrow shook himself and suddenly seemed to return to the real world. He looked a little tired, but shook it off quickly. "There are more ghosts around, I will try to talk to them before we move onto the fortress. They have been dead longer, they may give up more information."

"Take a break for a bit." The Joy clapped him on the shoulder and smiled. "I'll make a report to the Agent about this Dr. Branstein, see if the brass knows anything about him."

"I've never heard of him, he must've been pretty low on the totem pole if he actually managed to get away. From what I've seen the Red Skull doesn't take defection lightly," Steve said. "We'd better have some contingency plans for party-crashers." If HYDRA hadn't gotten to Branstein by now they were probably waiting for the right opportunity...and Steve had to admit, using the Commandos and the Cobras as a distraction would work very well for HYDRA. Then again, HYDRA attacking would certainly take the pressure of 1000 soldiers with laser weapons off of them.

The Joy sighed as she took the radio from The Sorrow. "What a mess... But there's nothing for it but to move forward." She knelt in the dirt and started to work the dials. She was more clumsy at it than Jacques or The Sorrow, but she picked it up quickly.

Steve knew he should probably join her, but she knew about as much of HYDRA's plans as he did. Besides, there was something The Sorrow said that had disturbed him. "Excuse me, The Sorrow? Can I ask you something?"

"Captain America? What is it?" They stepped away, letting The Joy make her report in peace.

"You said something about a river...and the dead crying out for blood." Steve paused. He knew how it was supposed to go in the afterlife, with judgement and heaven and hell. He'd been trying not to think of it too much, here in the war and just hoping God would be able to sort everything out. He still wasn't entirely sure how much he believed in The Sorrow's powers, but it was hard to deny actionable intelligence - if any of it panned out. The Joy certainly believed in all of it, enough to make reports based on his words. But that meant Steve was talking to someone that actually knew what happened to people after they died. Even if it was a bad idea, he couldn't quite resist trying to find out more. "Just...what did you mean? Is that what happens? After you die?"

The Sorrow looked distant. "I know the dead cry out their sorrow and rage to any who can hear. I know that in death you must walk down a river, facing all those you have killed. Not many are pleased to die." He gave Steve a long look. "You will face them too, in time. It may be a long time, or a short one...but in the end you will."

Steve swallowed. "And after the river?"

"Heaven? Hell? Nothingness? I still live, Captain. There are mysteries that are only for the peaceful dead." He smiled without humour. "There are not many of those, in these times."

"No, I'd bet not." Steve rubbed at his forehead, feeling tired. "Thanks, I'll let you get back to...whatever you need to do now." The Sorrow nodded once and went back to The Joy, leaving Steve with his thoughts.

It wasn't like he didn't know what he was signing up for. War was about killing people, plain and simple. But the idea that he'd have to face every person he'd killed someday, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week... It wasn't horrifying because he didn't want to face them again - he knew more than one HYDRA agent he'd like another shot at - it was just that they killed someone, and he killed them, and someday someone would probably kill him, and every single one of them was trapped in a cycle of death and sorrow with millions of others that not even death could free them from and all because some jumped-up little tinhead had to impose his thoughts on everyone else by force. And this only a generation after the world had ripped herself apart with war the first time.

The man who had gotten a crossbow bolt to the throat was at his feet, dead eyes wide and staring and mouth overflowing with blood. Steve couldn't say what kind of man he'd been, or would've been without the war that had consumed everything. Probably better off. They'd all be. Bucky would have his girls and a chance at the shop he talked about, Dum Dum would have his wife and kids, Jim would work on his parent's farm, Jacques would be working for his newspaper, Montgomery could go back to travelling, Gabe could go back to collage, The Joy would probably be dressing up and going to fancy balls as hard as that was to picture, and Steve would...he'd...

Steve shook his head. There was nothing for it. All he could do for them, for everyone, was to end the war as quickly as possible and make sure they wouldn't see another one. He packed away the anger and sorrow, gave the fallen soldier one last look and walked away. He had a fortress assault to plan.

Steve and The Joy waited in the dark, watching a small side-door into Nichts Garten. It was guarded by two obviously bored soldiers with the knock-off HYDRA weapons, which looked like an awkward combination of practical rifle and science fiction contraption. Neither guard seemed comfortable properly holding the bulbous butt of the weapon, preferring to just rest the tip on the ground. The soldier on the right generally tried to stand up straight and regularly scanned the area with such uncaring thoroughness he missed the pair of Americans lying in the dark a few feet away from him. The soldier on the left couldn't seem to keep himself still, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot and occasionally rubbing his stomach. The one on the right gave him a look, then sighed and dragged out a pack of cigarettes, offering one to his companion. The offer was not accepted.

"The rest should be getting into position now, attack soon. Now or then?" Steve murmured to the The Joy, who never took her eyes off the smoking guard and his miserable partner.

"I just don't want to have any more guards breathing down our necks if we attack too soon. This is just a side entrance, but we don't know how many are here and how many are elsewhere."

"I think we can take care of these two fairly quietly, at least." Steve waited for the smoker to concentrate on his cigarette and the uncomfortable one to bend over in pain before bringing his shield arm to lay in front of him, ready for action. Beside him The Joy tensed. It wouldn't even be a challenge.

"Get ready -" Whatever else The Joy wanted to say was lost under an explosion to the left. The attack, at last! Both the guards started and spun around to the source of the noise, the smoker losing his cigarette to gravity as he did. The uncomfortable one let out a wail of distress, and his partner couldn't seem to decide between investigating an attack for glory or staying put to save his own skin.

The problem was solved for the hapless guards when the door banged open to reveal a tall officer with broad shoulders and short-cropped blond hair. Steve grinned. Looked like his disguise was going to fall right into their lap. Behind the officer a pale-faced scientist in a lab coat wrung his hands and looked around him in shock, jumping as another explosion rang out. The officer wasted no time in starting to harangue the guards, and while Steve couldn't understand the words, after a couple years in the army he could understand 'get out there you maggots!' in any language. The guards grabbed up their rifles and started to move reluctantly towards the explosion, neither looking particularly thrilled about the idea, the officer right behind them and still shouting. Time for Captain America and The Joy to make their move.

Steve scrambled to his feet, swung his shield, and sent it flying directly at the officer's sharp nose while The Joy burst forward with the same fearless agility she'd used to charge the patrol squad earlier. Steve followed her a half second later, rushing forward to catch the formerly smoking guard right in the temple with a running punch and grabbing his shield on the rebound in the same moment. The officer stumbled back, grabbing his bloody nose while the guard fell silently to the ground. Steve was vaguely aware of the uncomfortable guard running into the pile of rocks to their right and he could almost swear he heard the man's stomach gurgling when he passed. Steve finished up the officer with a quick punch to the stomach and another crack upside the head with the shield, and he went down to join the guard on the ground.

The scientist took one look at the fight and turned to run away, only getting a few feet before The Joy executed a perfect running tackle to his midsection, bringing them both down in a heap on the floor. A swift crack of his head on the floor and he lay still. The Joy stayed crouched over his body, scanning the room for anyone else. Steve took a glance inside and saw mostly crates, apparently this was a storage area. No one else burst out of the woodwork yelling about enemy spies, and pretty soon The Joy stood up and looked back at Steve. "Get those two inside, we'll put them in a crate or something. What about the other one?"

Steve looked over at the pile of rocks where the uncomfortable guard had run off to. There was a wet, squelching noise and several moans of distress from behind one of the larger rocks. "Ah...I'm not sure, but I don't think he's going to make trouble." Steve called out to the guard. "Hey! You! Want trouble or no?"

"No, no!" The guard called back in-between moans. "Nicht...not Captain America sehen! Agggh!" There were more squelching noises, and the faint whiff of a terrible smell.

Steve looked at The Joy and shrugged. She glared back at him, a look Steve could pretty easily interpret as 'but what if he warns the rest of the fortress?' Steve somehow couldn't see this one being able to get around to it any time soon, but it was worth it to check. He started over to the rock, wishing for a gas mask, or even a strip of cloth to cover his nose. What were they feeding this guy? He called out "This base...danger! Verboten! Stay out! Go away!" as he approached and hit the rock with his shield. Hopefully the guard could understand his tone of voice, if nothing else. From the other side of the rock the guard made a panicked noise and there was the sound of scraping rock and rapid footfalls moving away, then a crash that sounded a lot like a man taking a slide down a mountain.

Steve took that as the cue to go back, gather up the unconscious officer and guard and drag them inside.

Once inside and with the door safely shut and locked, Steve set to getting the officer out of his pants and jacket as quickly as possible. The boots probably wouldn't fit over his uniform boots; he'd just have to hope everyone on base was too jumpy to look down. Steve shoved back his face mask and set the officer's cap firmly on his head to complete the look. The mask left an awkward lump at the base of his neck, but as long as it didn't show above the jacket collar he was probably all right. He looked over at The Joy to see her wrapping the scientist's lab coat around herself. Without the bandanna and her hair pulled back and tucked into her collar...well, she still had a definite feminine look, but she could pass as a scientist as well as Steve could pass as a German soldier.

They grabbed some rope that had been used to tie crates together and bound up the unconscious men before unceremoniously packing them into empty boxes. There were a few more explosions while they were doing that, though they were fainter than the first two. Steve hoped the rest would have the sense to get away before the Germans could get their act together, no matter what their skill they were out-numbered here. The Joy finished putting the last lid on as the boom was fading away, then she looked at Steve with pursed lips. "What do we do with the shield? You can't carry it around inconspicuously."

She had a point. Steve looked around, and seeing no better ideas, grabbed a cloth used for packing and draped it over his shield before handing it off to The Joy. "Here. Keep it covered and pretend it's important scientific equipment. If trouble comes, I'll grab it and you can take the rifle." So saying, Steve picked up the officer's rifle and looked it over. There were no labels on it, just a standard German rifle with the stock replaced by bulging chrome. Lines near the trigger glowed an ominous blue. He carried it in his arms, ignoring the strap. He couldn't say he was happy handing over his shield, but The Joy was right, there was no good reason for his disguise to be carrying around a round hunk of metal. The Joy just accepted the shield solemnly and started towards the large door to the rest of the base at a brisk pace. Steve followed.

The corridors were plain and well lit. A few men in service uniforms ran around like chickens in a flutter, but none of them bothered Steve and The Joy. Steve did his best to walk straight-backed as if he owned the place, like he was an arrogant officer that didn't want to be bothered by some silly workers who couldn't handle a few explosions without panicking. It was a little like doing shows again, where he'd put on the Captain America persona with the stage make-up. One of the showgirls, Helen, had told him the trick to getting around somewhere you weren't supposed to be was to act like you belonged there, something she'd used to sneak into all sorts of events before the war.

It proved true, and they walked out of the storage area with their cover intact. Steve resisted the urge to check around every corner, forced himself to stride boldly forward glancing neither right nor left. The plain concrete corridors with occasional boxes were replaced with white-washed corridors and flattened carpet, and rushing soldiers replaced rushing workers. Steve caught snatches of rumours as he walked past the soldiers, only understanding a few words. "HYDRA." "Johann Schmidt." "Herr Branstein." Only one man brought up Captain America, and he was quickly shouted down by his companions. It seemed the men here feared HYDRA more than the Allies. Steve walked past as quickly as possible, keeping close to The Joy and glaring at any soldiers that tried to approach. He couldn't afford to blow their cover by trying to give some private orders. Mostly because he'd only be able to give those orders in English.

Glaring and walking fast got them deeper into the base, but it didn't help them find Dr. Branstein or his superweapon. Steve looked around for scientists to follow and he hoped The Joy had the same idea. He concentrated on catching the flutter of a white labcoat or a regular suit or anything besides endless uniforms. He concentrated so hard, in fact, that it took him by surprise that the very angry man who had started yelling a few seconds ago was, in fact, yelling at him.

He jerked halfway around to see another officer approaching. This one was older, with a bit of a paunch and a bright red face under the kind of moustache that had gone out of style 20 years ago. Steve wasn't entirely up on his German rank insignias, but he could guess that this man outranked the man he was pretending to be. Steve felt The Joy slipping behind him and helped by stepping up with his best military posture.

The officer walked closer and closer, getting louder and angrier as he did, until his nose was an inch from Steve's. He finished his rant with a final explosive burst that ended with a question. It would be nice, Steve reflected, if he knew enough German to know what the officer wanted. It was probably 'why aren't you out there, maggot?' but it could also be 'who's that girl with you?' or even 'are you funning with me?' He settled for staring down the hallway - no one around, maybe all the soldiers got scared by the shouting, so much the better for him - and crisply replying with one of the few German words he knew. "Ja!"

The officer stared at him in disbelief. "Ja...?" he repeated, followed by more German. Steve wished he had bothered to ask Gabe for the German for 'yes, sir!' before they had left. Nothing for it now. The officer was staring into Steve's face as if looking for something, turning his head and checking from every angle. His eyes narrowed.

Before he could raise an alarm at this strange man impersonating an officer Steve gave him a swift uppercut to the jaw, lifting him a few inches off the ground in the bargain. He landed on the ground and swayed a bit, unable to get his bearing before The Joy grabbed him by the arm and half dragged, half flung him into an open door nearby. So that's what she had been up to. Steve took an extra few glances up and down the hallway - still clear, thank god - and rushed inside the room to heft the officer off the floor and put him in a solid headlock, restraining his right arm in a bruising grip. The man snarled and struggled in Steve's arms, but a middle-aged officer with a desk job wasn't a match for Captain America. He'd given up and settled on glaring when The Joy approached after locking the door.

"Don't think anyone saw that, but we'd better keep low anyway," she said, standing in front of Steve and the officer and crossing her arms. "Now then...after that little display I take it you don't speak any German?"

Steve shrugged as best he could while holding a man prisoner. "I know some. Ja, nein, danke, sterben Amerikaner... But if you know more then feel free to ask the questions."

The Joy pursed her lips, but nodded. "Wo ist Herr Branstein?" she asked, and got spit on her labcoat for her trouble.

The next thing Steve knew she had a hand in the officer's hair and a knife at his throat. Steve jerked backwards, trying to get away from her, though it didn't break her grip. "What are you doing?"

She gave him a clear 'what does it look like?' look and went back to threatening the officer with her knife. She repeated her question, and this time got a shaking head and muttered German Steve couldn't quite catch. The Joy frowned and pressed in with the knife. Steve felt a wet trickle on the sleeve of his borrowed uniform as the officer hissed in sudden pain.

That was more than enough for Steve. He let go of the officer's arm long enough to grab The Joy's knife-hand, dragging it away from the officer's neck. "Stop that! Stop that right now! We are absolutely not torturing anyone for information!"

The Joy wrenched her hand away. "Don't tell him that!" She glared at Steve and he glared right back. If they had to search the entire building top to bottom for Branstein then they would. There was no way Steve was letting anyone on his side reduce themselves to that level. He might be be able to explain what it was like, finding Bucky in that camp...and it wasn't the time for it anyway. But that didn't mean he was just going to watch an ally use the tactics of the enemy.

"Have some pride as an American."

"There's no time for holding back on the battlefield." She stepped forward, raising her knife again. The officer swallowed audibly and Steve raised his hand in a warding gesture.

The tension stretched between them, both aware that they could be discovered any second, but unwilling to give even an inch to the other. The officer's eyes moved wildly back and forth between them, though he held his body carefully still. As the silence lingered, he cleared his throat. "Ah...Amerikaner...?" He added more in German, his voice strained.

The Joy shifted her eyes to him and said something in halting German. He repeated what he had said, slower and more carefully than before. The Joy snapped her eyes back to Steve, her expression unchanging. "He says if you let him go and we promise not to hurt him, he'll point us in the right direction."

Steve breathed an internal sigh of relief. It had been unintentional, but somehow they'd pulled enough of a good cop-bad cop routine to convince the guy. "Sure, I promise. What about you?"

"As long as we can continue with the mission." With that she stepped back, and Steve took that as his cue to release the officer. He stepped away but kept himself ready to rush forward and restrain again at any wrong move. He was trusting, not stupid.

Fortunately the officer had apparently meant his surrender, and he kept his movements to pressing a hand against his neck to hold back the trickle of blood. He threw dark looks at both Americans, impressing neither. The Joy said something to him in German, presumably 'get on with it'. The officer humphed, then pointed deeper into the fortress and seemed to consider this the end of his cooperation. He adjusted his uniform, smoothing out several imaginary creases and wiping off invisible dust, then crossed his arms and kept glaring at them, as if to cow them into leaving. Steve started looking around the room for some way to hold him instead. It was one thing to walk away from grunt with bowel problems to occupy him, another to leave an angry officer free to alert the base.

The room was apparently used as an office, with a desk, two chairs, a mess of papers, a mug stained with coffee, a bookshelf, and a set of lockers. Steve looked at The Joy and tilted his head to the lockers. Her eyes flicked over to them, and apparently decided that it was as good an idea as any because next she had one of the officer's arms behind his back and a hand over his mouth. Steve opened the locker for her and she shoved the officer in, ignoring his furious protests. It was a tight fit, and getting the officer out of there would be an adventure, but that was for some other poor sap to deal with. The Joy shoved the officer's handkerchief in his mouth and stepped back so Steve could close the door. He looked at the blazing red face of the officer and told him "It's not like we can just let you run around, so you're going to be a little inconvenienced. But you'll be fine," and shut the door.

"If everything goes well. If it all goes to hell he'd be dead anyway," The Joy added drily as she leaned down to pick up Steve's covered shield again. She paused, watching Steve pick up his officer's hat from where it had fallen to the floor in the struggle and put it back on. "...I was only planning on scaring him with a few scratches. A threat has to be believable to be effective."

Steve would be lying if he'd said the Commandos had never threatened an enemy for information, but he was still sore about getting taken by surprise. And besides, wasn't a knife at the throat threat enough? "We should be holding ourselves to a higher standard. We can't let ourselves become like the enemy." He picked up the rifle from where he'd dropped it by the door, but didn't take his eyes off The Joy.

"Just us, or all the Allied soldiers?" The Joy snorted, and there was a hint of bitterness in her eyes under her hard expression. "I love my country, and when I'm asked to lay down my life I won't hesitate. But I've seen too much to think that we're as pure and clean as the posters proclaim."

"I know that," Steve said, quietly. Anyone who actually went to war knew it wasn't like the newsreels and posters said it was. And he'd only heard rumours about how bad it got out there on the Eastern Front, but it probably wasn't possible for a war between the Russians and the Germans to be clean. "It's easy for men to become monsters. That's why we have to constantly strive to do better."

The Joy walked to the door and opened it without looking behind her. "Come on, let's go."

Steve followed.

The base was calming down a bit outside, but there was still tension in the air. Soldiers marched along in groups, casting wary glances around each corner as if HYDRA would burst out of the walls any second. Steve gave them sharp nods but stayed close to The Joy, trying to make it seem like he was escorting an absent-minded scientist back to safety. He got more suspicious glares than before, but no one seemed to want to challenge him on it. The number of guards just increased as they went in the direction the officer had pointed them, and Steve had to admit to getting a little nervy as the chances of a nice clean get-out got worse. Then again, there hadn't been much chance of that in the first place.

They finally came to a large set of double doors with a pair of guards outside, one of whom opened a door and gestured The Joy inside. As they approached Steve could hear someone yelling at the top of his lungs in the room, sounding absolutely furious. The guard who had opened the door rolled his eyes and whispered something to Steve with a tone of amused resignation, the only part of which Steve got was "Herr Branstein". He nodded as if he had understood and repeated "Herr Branstein" in the same tone, and got the shared smile of underlings under an unreasonable master in return. The other guard coughed and glared at them, making the door-opener straighten up immediately, as if he had never had any thought of whispering in his head. Steve nodded sharply at both of them and followed The Joy into the room.

It was a medium-sized auditorium, entirely filled with scientists and engineers in various states of disarray. Steve immediately checked around for more guards and exits, seeing a pair of small doors on the other side of the room on either side of a large blackboard, each guarded by one soldier, two more guards in about the middle of the room, and finally a last pair guarding the double doors he'd just come through. The pair by the door gave him a confused look, maybe officers weren't supposed to be here. But they didn't raise an alarm about it and Steve and The Joy were allowed to join the mass of scientists. Most were engaged in scattered conversations, a few were paying attention to the shouting man on the podium in front of the blackboard. That had be Dr. Branstein.

Dr. Branstein was a blazingly red-headed man with short, slicked-back hair and a neat, foxy moustache with a goatee. And whatever he was angry about, boy howdy was he angry about it. He pounded on the podium, waved his arms in the air, and leaned so far forward he was about to go head over heels all while raving loud enough to be heard clearly even in the very back of the room. Steve thought he caught something about HYDRA and maybe America, but it was nearly impossible to say.

He nudged at The Joy as subtly as possible and spoke in his lowest undertone, not that anyone would've heard him over the shouting. "Got a plan?"

"We can wait for him to finish and hope he goes off on his own, or we can try to trick him into coming with us," The Joy replied, sounding a little tense. Neither of them had expected to find Dr. Branstein in a room full of people.

"The longer we wait the more likely it is that someone's going to notice we don't belong." Already a few scientists were looking nervously at him, and it felt like any second a spotlight would come down and a full orchestra appear to start playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" just to give them away. Steve pulled his hat down a little further. It didn't help.

The Joy frowned, slightly, then handed Steve his shield with a muttered German phrase. Steve tried to hold it like he was doing it as a favour for someone else and followed as she made her way around the crowd of scientists to the podium. It probably didn't make sense for an officer to play page to a scientist, but Steve couldn't just put his shield down and he wasn't going to let them get separated in the middle of an enemy fortress. The guard at the door in the back gave him an odd look for it, and Steve tried not to meet his eyes.

If all this went south...he placed himself close enough to swing his shield out and give the near guard a good crack in the face. The scientists probably wouldn't attack, and he'd be able to cover The Joy when the guard on the other side started shooting. He'd have to be careful to deflect the shots away from the scientists. The ceiling was a good option, take out the lights. If he and The Joy went out the door then he could fairly easily hold off anyone following them by simple virtue of the door forcing everyone to go through single file and then filling up the doorway with unconscious or dead soldiers. Between that and a room full of non-combatants any pursuit would be heavily delayed. Then they just had to worry about making their way through a fortress full of enemies and no idea where they were going.

If all this went south.

Steve bit his lip as The Joy approached Dr. Branstein without even a hint of hesitation in her walk. Surely an actual scientist would be nervous about interrupting his boss in the middle of a rant? A few of the men in the front row who had actually been paying attention to Dr. Branstein looked curiously at her, and one nudged his fellow in the side. Were they worried about another attack? Admiring the person who dared approach? Wondering what a girl was doing here? It was impossible to tell.

The Joy pulled gently on Dr. Branstein's shirt sleeve and he jolted out his rant, for a moment unable to continue, his face a caricature of disbelief. He sputtered, sputtered with spit when The Joy said something to him with her voice pitched low, then waved his arm in a grand expansive gesture and leaned into her face.

Then he stopped.

"Fraulein?!" he bellowed, and stumbled back against the podium in shock.

A confused murmur ran through the crowd of scientists, and all the guards went on alert. The near one crept forward, his gun at the ready while the far one called "Fraulein spion!" followed by probably a command to surrender. Of course The Joy had no intention of doing so - Steve wouldn't either, in her position.

Branstein had recovered himself a bit, enough to try to move behind the podium, when The Joy grabbed him, spun him around, and ended holding him in front of her with a knife to his throat. He stiffened and for the first time since Steve had seen him dropped his voice to something appropriate for the indoors, either asking The Joy not to hurt him or the guard not to shoot. But the guard nearer to Steve had no such worries, and raised his rifle to fire directly at The Joy's back.

Steve swung his shield right into the guard's nose, sending him flying back to bounce his skull against the wall with a distinctly hollow thud. His rifle discharged as he fell, blowing a nice twelve inch hole in the ceiling and that woke the scientists up from their confused stupor. The front row started clambering both over their seats and the men behind them who were scrambling to get away themselves alike. It was just a couple steps from a riot and the far guard was still trying to line up a bead on The Joy while she was backing away. Well. Steve could give him something to aim at.

He flung off the damn uniform with a flourish worthy of the stage and charged forward, shield front and howling at the top of his lungs. The guard jerked to face him with a cry of "Captain America?!", surprise in every line of his body as he started firing wildly, some of his shots managing to hit the shield and bounce away to the ceiling where lightbulbs exploded into blue light. Others scored the floor and blackboard; one caught an unfortunate scientist who couldn't get away in time and flung him against the podium where he collapsed with a pained moan. Steve flung himself forward into a roll and came up right in front of the guard, giving him a good solid punch to the stomach and another to the jaw before he could react. The guard sank to the floor and Steve gave him another good punch to the back of the head, knocking him out and finally stopping the wild firing.

Steve glanced around, the door was still closed tight but the guard in the middle of the room was fighting his way through the panicking scientists, finally just shoving the last one out of his way with the butt of his rifle. A quick look over showed The Joy firing at his fellow on the other side of the room with what looked like a Welrod pistol, still keeping Branstein close. Better to make it quick, then. The guard in front of him raised his rifle and aimed with unsteady hands, but Steve was faster and flung his shield to hit the guard right in the chest. He fell backward, losing his grip on his rifle and skidding backward on the floor. Steve caught his shield and waited to see what the guard could do, but either he'd hit his head on the floor pretty hard or he was playing dead. Either way The Joy was dragging Branstein through one of the doors and backing her up was more important than making sure one soldier was down for the count.

The scientists and engineers were in a full stampede to get out of the auditorium in direct opposition to the soldiers trying to flood in through the same set of double doors. Someone was trying to shout orders over the cacophony of screams and curses, but not to much success. Only a few people remained in the front of the room, a couple hiding under chairs, more unconscious in the aisles, and one man trying to wake up the scientist against the podium to little effect. He scrambled backward and cowered against a chair as Steve rushed past, making choked whimpering noises.

Steve raced over to catch up with The Joy. She still had her knife to Branstein's throat, though she'd had to holster her gun to hold his arms still. Beyond the door was another plain concrete hallway with a closed door at the end. Steve closed the door to the auditorium, broke the lock as best he could, then gave it a few sharp bashes with his shield for good measure. Satisfied that no one was getting it open in a hurry, he turned to The Joy. "Right. I think our options right now are fighting our way out or fighting our way out."

"You forgot, Captain America, the option of dying!" Branstein spoke up, his face twisted in a vicious grin.

"You speak English? That's convenient. Tell me, what's this superweapon you're building?" The Joy adjusted her grip, keeping her knife steady at Branstein's throat. Steve kept one eye on her as he checked down the hallway for anyone coming the other way.

"Ha, you will see soon! By stealing technology back from that traitorous hound Schmit, I have crafted the ultimate weapon to bring you Allies to your knees! And in only a few more hours, it will be ready for its first testing! The Eisenkäfer is the ultimate mixture of short and long range total destruction!"

"Yes, but what does it - Damn!" The Joy jerked her head to the side along with Steve as they both heard the far door clang open and an entire squad of enemy soldiers came rushing through.

Branstein shouted something in German that was lost under the exclamations from the squad and the sound of all their rifles charging up at once. Steve didn't give them time to fire. He jumped forward, landing on his hands and used those as a springboard to land his feet directly in the jaws of the lead pair of men. He landed and sprang back to solid ground, bringing his shield up to deflect any fire. Eight men total, two down, who knew how many behind them. Two were in range of a good punch, the other four were hanging back and aiming over the shoulders of their fellows. Correction, one in range of a good punch, as the other went down under the weight of a flying Dr. Branstein. The Joy finished him off with a sharp punch to the jaw, sending the guard down to the ground. Branstein cracked his head on the floor in the fall and laid there quietly.

"Wasn't he our important prisoner and the entire reason for the mission?" Steve asked as the other soldier in range tried to bring his rifle to bear - a stupid choice in close quarters, did he just not have a pistol? - which Steve easily deflected with his shield and followed up with a good punch to the guard's torso. The guard tried to get Steve in the nose, but his effort was more flailing than a proper punch and he went down after catching the edge of the shield with his temple.

The Joy ran forward, grabbing one of the remaining soldier's arms and flipping him into the wall with a twist and snap that meant his arm was probably broken. "I'm not planning on letting him escape. Are you?" The other three soldiers hesitated, clearly torn between duty and not getting their heads cracked together. One of the ones in the back did fire, a blue bolt hitting just above The Joy's head as she flung herself down and into a tackle aimed at another, closer, soldier's knees. They both went down in a heap and started rolling around, wrestling on the floor. The two remaining soldiers started backing away, the one who had fired aiming at Steve, the other watching The Joy's fight and clearly waiting for a good shot.

Steve took a quick glance behind him to check on Branstein, who was slowly picking himself up off the floor and shaking his head. A distinctive whine-crack of the modified rifle firing jerked his attention back in front of him, seeing one of the blue bolts coming directly at his head. Barely enough time to deflect it, but he didn't have near superhuman reflexes for nothing. He flung the shield up in front of his face, just barely angled enough to - A brief scream told Steve he had been successful, and he looked out around the shield to see the soldier who had been aiming at The Joy fly backwards and hit the ground with a smoking hole in his chest. He met eyes with the one who had fired, who was now looking distinctly frightened about what he'd gotten himself into. Now, if only Steve could remember the German for "surrender now".

Behind him Steve heard Branstein mumbling something, still sounding a little dazed. He looked back and saw Branstein stagger to his feet with a hand to his head. Steve tensed, glancing between Branstein and the remaining guards. If he grabbed Branstein the guard probably would avoid shooting at him, and it looked like the Joy had her soldier on the ropes, if the way she had him to the ground with his arm twisted behind his back was any hint, so - and then the decision was made for him when The Joy hauled herself and the soldier she was wrestling up off the floor and flung the guard straight at Branstein, dropping them both back down to the floor. The Joy instantly spun on her heel and aimed her Welrod at the last guard just as he caught up to the situation and aimed at her instead. A stand-off.

The Joy presumably asked for his surrender, but the soldier didn't lower his rifle even as the tip jerked back and forth in a nervous dance. Was he waiting for back-up, or was he hoping to take at least one of them down for some sort of glory in death? The lights on the side of his rifle were flickering, but the soldier pushed some sort of switch and they brightened steadily. Nothing for it, then.

Steve threw his shield at the wall, letting it bounce off and hit the soldier right in the temple just as The Joy fired two shots into his chest. He went down with barely a grunt.

The shield flew across to the other wall, bounced off, and returned neatly to Steve's hand. He automatically checked the open door at the end of the hallway, but no one else charged through. There were loud clangs coming from the closed one they had come through, and Steve fancied he could hear snatches of cursing coming through the steel. Time to move fast.

He tossed one unconscious soldier off of Branstein and hauled the scientist to his feet. "All right, up-si-daisy," Steve said, giving Branstein an absent look-over for wounds. He seemed to be all in one piece, if stunned and probably with a nasty headache. Steve picked him up and tucked him under one arm, then turned to The Joy. "We need to get moving. There'll probably be more resistance, do you have anything better than that popgun?"

The Joy's face twisted in irritation with a hint of disgust. "I left my Thompson with the rest of the team, since it's harder to hide on covert operations. I'll have to borrow one of theirs," she said as she tossed off the labcoat and re-tied her bandanna around her head. "This has turned out to be hotter than I'd like, but there's nothing for it. We have to complete the mission." She leaned down and grabbed one of the strange German rifles, tossing the strap over her shoulder and investigating the controls.

"Can you think of any way to contact the others?" Steve took one last look at the closed door, now bending under the weight of repeated blows before taking off for the other end of the hallway and - hopefully - a way out.

"There's one that always works," The Joy said with a smile between wry and bitter as she matched pace with Steve. "As soon as we meet some more guards I'll see what I can do."

They ran through the door and into a room filled with desks and papers, probably everything the scientists had written down about the principles of HYDRA's technology. Steve couldn't be sure what any of it said, but he grabbed a few papers filled with diagrams and equations and stuffed them into a pocket anyway. Howard could probably get something out of them. A few extra he handed to The Joy, which she silently accepted and stowed away. The sound of marching feet hurried them onward, faded as they moved through the maze of rooms and hallways that made up the back of Nichts Garten.

Beyond there The Joy looked at the signs scattered around and aimed them towards the hangar, which sounded like the best place to steal a vehicle and get out. As they continued deeper into the fortress Steve couldn't help jerking his head around at every noise, and he noticed The Joy glancing twice around every corner and door as well. They should've been buried under guards by now, so where was everyone? It all smelled like a trap. Dr. Branstein was a dead weight on Steve's arm; it didn't matter if he was really out or just faking, there were no answers from that quarter. All they could do was keep going, creeping past every open door and holding their breath at every corner.

Their instincts were proven right just before the hangar in a large room filled with various mechanical parts, some boxed up in crates and others scattered on the floor. The Joy was going ahead, rifle charged and ready and carefully sweeping the room for any threats. Steve was following her, shield in front and carrying Branstein, when a sudden impact knocked him right off his feet and sent him sprawling on the floor.

"Oof!" Steve fell back, cracking his head on the floor and losing his grip on Dr. Branstein. He rolled back on pure instinct to get away, ending up crouched behind his shield and scanning the area for the new threat. His right side ached with a slow, dull throb, but it didn't feel like he was bleeding.

"Cap-!" The Joy cut herself off and leapt backward just in time to avoid an iron fist rocketing at her stomach. The fist hit the floor instead, smashing it and shooting shards of concrete all around. The Joy fired her rifle blindly through the cloud of dust, but merely hit the other wall instead, charring and cracking it with the blue laser bolts. She paused, then called out. "Who's there?"

A figure stepped into view from behind one of the piles of crates, moving with an arrogant swagger and stopping directly between them and the far door. "Hello there, Captain America and his lady friend! It is a pleasure to meet you at last, and even more of a pleasure to grind you into dust!"

It had once been a man, Steve was fairly sure about that. But now...now the only part of him that still looked human was his wolfishly grinning face. His arms and chest were completely mechanical, wires and pistons peeking out inbetween polished steel plates that disappeared under bolted-down flesh at his neck. He wore pants but no boots, but his twisted and sharp metal feet wouldn't have fit into any of them anyway. His shaved head was covered with fresh pink scars and bolts that stuck grotesquely out of his skull. He smashed his fists together in a cloud of blue sparks and a pair of cylinders rose from his back to vent massive gouts of steam. "I am Rittersturm, the Crimson Blade Storm!" His grin got even wider, if possible. "And...your doom."

"I'm The Joy, leader of the Cobra Unit." Her voice was kept carefully neutral and her rifle aimed directly at Rittersturm. Her eyes flicked over to Branstein lying in a heap on the floor, then to Steve. Almost imperceptibly she nodded her head to the far side of the room. Steve took the hint and shifted, getting ready to circle around for a pincher.

"The Cobra Unit?" That seemed to take Rittersturm by surprise, and he looked at The Joy with a bit more respect before settling back into that grin. "Wonderful. That's wonderful! This is a perfect two birds with one stone! I was right to challenge you two myself."

"Are you the reason we haven't seen any guards?" The Joy began to move too, circling away from Steve. Rittersturm tracked her with lazy eyes, never losing his smile.

"Of course! Those cowards of the bottom ranks already wanted an excuse to run away, and it is not as if they would be able to stop you in any case. Yes?" He turned suddenly and addressed the last to Steve, who had been carefully creeping around to his flank.

Steve froze, then stood up and shook himself out like he hadn't been trying to sneak at all. "You've got it right there. Mighty nice of you, sparing your men from having to die." He doubted that had been Ritterstum's idea at all, but he could see The Joy backing away and into the mess of crates by the wall and anything to keep Rittersturm talking while she got into a better position. He'd had plenty of practice at being a target by now anyway.

"Ha! Sparing them? Most are as useless as the filth they shoot! But bodies are bodies, and the war eats up so many." He hummed to himself for a bit. "That will change soon. Once I kill both of you I will prove once and for all our superiority over you low fleshy creatures. Then like me the best will be transformed into true men of blood and iron and the world will be crushed under our heel, where it belongs!" He faced Steve and spread his arms out wide, as if to encompass the world that he wanted to ruin. "So you see, Captain -"

Steve's shield struck his chest with a clang that rang through the room. "I'm getting damn sick of all these speeches."

Rittersturm stumbled backward against the wall, cursing roundly until he managed to get a grip on himself and launched himself at Steve, snarling with fury. Steve crouched down with shield up and ready to meet the iron parody of a man.

Before Rittersturm's fists could meet the shield a one-two burst of blue laser fire exploded from the crates and hit him, one in the knee and another in the back. He flew forward, crashed into Steve and was violently flung away to bounce against the floor. There was a scratching and shuffling from the crates, then The Joy's voice floated out. "It's easier to just knock them out first, if you don't want to listen to the ranting."

Rittersturm pushed himself up, shaking his head. Before he could get his feet under him Steve sent his shield flying around in a perfect arc aimed directly at his head. Rittersturm sprung backward, launching one fist at the shield and knocking it off course. Steve had just enough time to notice that the fists were on long wires - so that was how he pulled them back - before Rittersturm sent the other fist directly at his face. Steve punched it out of the way with a sharp pain in his knuckles and the fist flew backward to shatter a crate, sending metal gears cascading down to the floor. The shield bounced off walls and crates before tumbling to the floor on the other side of the room, useless.

Rittersturm was still on the floor, though his wired fists were returning at speed. Steve took a chance and dived for his shield. A cry from The Joy alerted him while he was still halfway across the room and he turned, ready to smack another fist out of the air only to have to throw himself backward into a roll to avoid a laser that singed his uniform as it passed. Rittersturm had a gun? Where had he pulled that from? There was no time to check as more fire forced Steve to somersault along the floor away from his shield, only stopping when he flung himself behind a pile of steel plating. It wouldn't stand up long to sustained fire, but he just needed a chance to assess the situation.

"Ha! You are all certainly good at hiding!" More whirrs and bangs followed Rittersturm's taunts and the steel plates shuddered under multiple impacts. "But what can you expect from a couple of scurrying rats? Once properly challenged you're nothing!" Steve's hand closed around a nearby length of pipe as he carefully peeked out around the plates. Rittersturm was standing in the middle of the room, right between Steve and his shield, his mocking grin back on his face. As Steve watched he spun around, lifted a leg off the ground, and fired a shot from the point of his foot into one of the crates. The unfortunate crate exploded and between the smoke and shards Steve thought he caught a glimpse of The Joy scrambling away. He ducked back behind the plates as Rittersturm cast a lazy look over his shoulder, then tensed in preparation. As soon as Rittersturm looked away...

A slow, lazy tapping signalled movement, a glance out confirmed that Rittersturm was stalking closer to The Joy's assumed position. It was now or never.

Steve lept over the plating and hurled the pipe with Olympic accuracy straight at the back of Rittersturm's head. It struck true, sending him falling forward with a heavy thunk. But Rittersturm caught himself on his hands and kicked his legs out, firing twin bolts directly behind him. Steve dodged to the side, turning an awkward jump into a smooth roll and ending up by the loose pile of gears. Rittersturm pushed back and landed on his feet in a crouch, one leg kicking out and firing at Steve. Easily dodged.

The Joy took Rittersturm's momentary distraction to shoot and move. One bolt hit him in the chest, another fell wide and Rittersturm lurched backward, giving The Joy a second to jump across the open space between a pile of crates and a pile of engine blocks - but a second wasn't enough.

"There you are, little rat!" One of Rittersturm's fists caught her in the side and she hit the wall with a very definite thump. Steve gave a loud yell and grabbed up some of the gears to throw, hurling them like discs across the room. They wouldn't do much damage, but he was just using them as cover for rushing in and delivering a good hard punch to the iron man's face.

At least he still had a jaw like a normal person. Rittersturm went down on one hand and Steve stole a look at The Joy. She had rolled across the floor and was crouching next to his shield, not down yet by any count. Steve nodded at her with an expression that hopefully conveyed 'I'll try to set him up for shots, be ready' and she nodded what he was pretty sure was agreement in return. It was close enough, so Steve reached down and hauled Rittersturm to his feet, his other hand already coming around for another solid blow.

Rittersturm caught the blow in one hand and slammed his knee in Steve's stomach hard enough to send a jolt through his entire body. Ever since the serum Steve hadn't had to worry about fighting people as strong as he was, but it looked like those days were over. He gritted his teeth and grabbed onto Rittersturm's shoulder, shoving him around so his back faced The Joy and giving him a kick to the knee in the bargain. The knee didn't break, though Rittersturm's footing did slip for a second before another shot hit him in the back. He jerked like a puppet on strings, his limbs shaking with odd, jerky movements, but kept his balance and didn't fall. Instead he snarled, mad eyes an inch from Steve's, and shifted his grip to grab Steve around the middle and bodily hurl him up, over, and head-first into the far wall.

Newly ingrained habits had Steve twist in mid-air, tucking his head in and taking the impact on his shoulders. He still smashed into the concrete hard enough to bounce off, bouncing against wood and steel in a bone-rattling descent to the floor that left him stunned and aching. He could vaguely hear Rittersturm shouting, something about burning away the vermin once and for all, and feel The Joy prodding his shoulder, ordering him to get up. His head spun as he pushed himself up, trying to focus - just in time to see Rittersturm rip open his stomach, revealing a pointed silver rocket that blasted out straight at them.

Steve tried to tackle The Joy and get them both out of the way, but his head swam and his limbs wouldn't cooperate. He'd be fine in less than a minute, and they'd be dead in seconds. His shield was there, just out of reach and he strained for it but his arm was just a handspan too short -

The Joy grabbed it instead.

She brought it up to meet the missile just before it hit, barely giving them both time to duck behind it. The missile hit the shield and exploded with a thunderous boom loud enough to shatter eardrums, sending flames and shrapnel flying in every direction with a blinding flash. Steve felt the heat singe his uniform, shards of wood and metal embedding themselves in the leather. He crowded in closer, trying to shield The Joy's head from the worst of it - when this was over he'd tell her about all the useful advantages to be gained from wearing a helmet - as all the piles of stored parts collapsed around them. Plates creaked and fell in a crash, ball bearings flew in all directions in a deadly hail, more gears rolled across the floor in a waterfall of metal, and a pile of engines tilted, groaned, and smashed to the floor.

Slowly, the worst of it ended. Unidentifiable bits of metal still peppered Steve's back, but the most massive of parts seemed to have stopped moving. He still couldn't hear over the ringing in his ears and the air was thick with dust. The Joy carefully peeked out from behind the shield, but nothing was visible past the thick clouds. She was covered in dust and bleeding from various scratches, a bruise was rising on her temple and she seemed to favour her right side. Steve was sure he didn't look any better. There was a painful scratch along his cheek and a massive bruise across his shoulders, plus other aches and pains. Nothing broken yet, at least.

The Joy met Steve's eyes and raised her finger to her lips. He nodded acknowledgement, and she handed over his shield. Steve pointed at the rifle she still carried and she raised it enough for him to see under the dust that the glowing lines on the side were completely dark. It had to be out of power, and they had no idea how to get it more. For right now their weapons amounted to his shield, her Welrod, and anything around they could use as a club.

The dust was starting to settle, and the ringing in Steve's ears slowly faded. If he listened hard he could hear mechanical clanking on the other side of the room; Rittersturm was pacing around. He probably thought they were dead and was just waiting to make sure. Not much of an advantage, but all they had. Steve nudged at The Joy and made hand gestures to convey 'separate and circle around, try catch him by surprise'. They shook hands once, for luck, and began to move.

Steve kept low as he moved, always keeping a wary eye out for a sudden attack from the clouds of dust. Soon a figure emerged from the dust whose swagger instantly identified it as Rittersturm. He was pacing, but idly and certainly not prepared to be attacked. There was no chance of seeing The Joy from where Steve was, but they couldn't afford to wait until the dust settled completely. Steve tensed, watching as Rittersturm turned to walk away, then aimed for the legs and sprung.

It might've been the slap of boots against concrete, or subtle changes in the air, or even just plain bad luck, but Rittersturm turned back while Steve was in mid-leap. He started, eyes widening in surprise for just a second before narrowing as he raised a leg glowing with ice-blue power.

Steve twisted in mid-air, trying to bring up his shield against the bolt and only partway succeeding. It tore across his shoulder, burning flesh and leather and only failing at removing his entire arm because of the shield. Unbalanced Steve crashed into the ground and rolled, ignoring the blaze of pain across his shoulder. There was the click of metal on concrete as Rittersturm strolled closer. "So you did not die! Ah, but it was too much to expect you would make this easy. But it is by struggle and dominance that the superior prove themselves, yes?" He stopped just out of reach and leaned over, grinning a bloody grin. "Now, let me prove the superiority of German engineering." He raised one leg and aimed at Steve's head.

The shot went wide as a length of steel pipe slammed into Rittersturm's chest, knocking him off balance. He stumbled backward, hopping as he tried to get his feet under him as the pipe hit him again, this time right in the face. He swung his arms wildly, cursing loudly as he tried to adjust to this new threat. "W-what? Who?!"

"Face me!" The Joy cried, wielding her length of pipe like a staff. She pressed forward with a series of poking strikes, forcing Rittersturm backward.

"Damn, you too? I was careless. But this is where it ends!" Rittersturm blocked the pipe with one arm and punched forward with the other, sending a flying fist directly at The Joy's midsection. She jumped backward, swinging the pipe so it hit the wire and wrapped around the pipe, leaving her and Rittersturm braced at two ends of an odd tug-of-war. The crucial difference was that The Joy was forced to hold her pipe with two hands, and Rittersturm still had one hand free. He brought up his other hand, taking his time to aim it right at The Joy's head.

Steve scrambled to his feet and rushed forward. He smacked the fist of the out the way with his shield, sending it flying off in another direction entirely. He glanced at The Joy, trying to communicate 'brace yourself' with nothing but a look, and grabbed onto the wire in front of him with both hands. It tensed as The Joy dug in her heels, holding onto the pipe with bloody intensity, and further when Rittersturm realised his mistake and tried futilely to reclaim his hand. Steve wrenched at the wire, feeling it dig into his hands so hard as to bruise even through his gloves. The pipe bent.

The wire snapped.

Rittersturm and The Joy both fell backwards. Rittersturm stared, immobile, at the stump where his hand used to be in shock. The Joy caught herself with the pipe and pushed off the floor like a boater to rush at him again. He managed to block her first strike, but his movements were slowed and it was simple for Steve to catch a hold of his uninjured arm and throw him to the ground. Rittersturm kicked out and got a lucky hit to Steve's knee, then used his temporary halt to roll away. He stood, got a pipe to the chest that bounced off with little effect, and reached behind him with his existing hand. Thick red-black blood poured from his nose and covered the entire lower half of his face in a gruesome mask. He wasn't grinning any more.

Steve looked at The Joy out of the corner of his eye and by unspoken communication they both charged at once. Steve aimed for the body, The Joy aimed for the head, and a step away from contact Rittersturm brought his hand out from behind him. A heartbeat away and the object in his hand grew into a sword with a glowing blue edge that sliced through The Joy's pipe like soft butter.

The Joy sidestepped to avoid the rest of Rittersturm's swing and jammed her remaining length of pipe directly into his eye. More black blood exploded out as he howled in pain and fury, reaching his stump up to bat uselessly at the metal in his eye. He raised his sword and whipped it around in a furious arc, driving Steve and The Joy back a few steps. "Du...schwein...filthy beasts! I will...I will...Ich werde dich töten!"

Rittersturm stabbed with his blade, thrusting forward again and again. Steve tried to dodge and flank him, but had to block a vicious swing with his shield. The swing was followed with another aimed to take his head, and another at his knees, keeping Steve too busy trying to block to think of going on the offensive. The blade clanged on the shield, unable to cut the vibranium...but Rittersturm only had to get lucky once and even supersoldier muscles would tire before wires and steel.

The Joy circled around to Rittersturm's blind spot and tried to rush in herself, but he must've heard her coming somehow and she had to back off from another wide swing. Her face twisted with frustration and pulled out her Welrod, aiming as carefully as possible. She fired.

Rittersturm jerked his sword around at the sound and sliced the bullet out of mid-air. There was a small ping as the casing bounced off the blade and hit the floor. "Ha! Too fast! Too fast for your little tricks!" he crowed.

Steve knew an opportunity when he saw one. He reached out and grabbed at Rittersturm's sword arm with both hands, then brought his knee up to the elbow with as much force as he could muster. His knee exploded into pain. Rittersturm's elbow exploded into a shower of sparks.

"Wh-? Was?" Rittersturm jerked to a halt, staring at his now-useless arm and the sword that dropped from nerveless fingers to the floor. He swayed, then came back to himself with fury. "It's not over-!"

"Carry this message into death. Tell him it's time for the snake to be reunited," The Joy said, her words solemn and formal. This time shot shot hit him right between the eyes.

Steve watched Rittersturm fall, shuddering a little as he finally let himself catch his breath and feel all the accumulated aches and pains he had gained over the battle. He waited a few minutes, just to see, but the corpse remained a corpse. Steve sighed and pressed gently at the burn on his shoulder. No blood, and his knee felt well enough to put weight on. He looked back at The Joy. "Takes care of him, at least. Now..."

The Joy reloaded her Welrod. "Now we keep going - wait." Her eyes darted around the burned and blasted room. "Where's Dr. Branstein?"

Steve looked around. She was right, Branstein was nowhere to be seen. "He must've escaped while we were fighting Rittersturm. Damn!" He couldn't recall seeing Branstein after Rittersturm's initial attack, but he's been too busy fighting to look. The man had been suspiciously still the entire way, had his unconsciousness all been a rouse? Steve had the sinking feeling that they'd fallen into a trap, one that wasn't over just because they had beaten Rittersturm. How close was this Eisenkafer to completion? If Branstein had time to activate his plane, or gun, or death ray, or whatever it was...could they beat it?

They didn't have a choice. Steve squared his shoulders and faced The Joy. "Did you notice him heading in any direction while we were fighting?" He privately hoped Branstein hadn't gone back to the maze of offices. He'd be nearly impossible to track down there, and they only had until someone figured out Ritterturm had lost before they'd have dozens of guards breathing down their necks.

The Joy paused, thoughtful. "I think I saw him heading that way," she pointed at the door to the hangar, "which would make sense if he wanted to find more guards; there weren't any behind us."

"That's true. It's also the best place to meet up with the others. The more the merrier if we end up having to search." Assuming Rittersturm delivered his message to The Sorrow properly. If he didn't, they'd have no way of knowing. But there was nothing either of them could do about that.

The Joy turned and walked towards the door. "Let's go." Steve followed.