"We've arrived." Jordan's voice boomed throughout the three rooms despite him being in the cockpit; evidence that he had an intercom system installed on the ship. Alabaster jumped, his handful of magic cards falling out of his hand. He sat up on the couch. "It's only been ten minutes."
"I told you, this ship flies Mach ten." The reply came through the intercom.
"How can you hear me from all the way there?" Alabaster asked out loud.
"Did you think I would install speakers without installing microphones as well?" Jordan seemed to be enjoying using the intercom. "Go to the coffee room."
"You mean come, not go." Lisa said as she walked past the couch.
Alabaster followed her into the coffee room, where Jordan was putting away all the tools and machinery on the big central table.
"So, this is the enemy." He tapped the table and the black surface suddenly filled with the image of a snowy plain.
"Touch screen," Alabaster said. "Impressive."
In the middle of the plain was a large pack of wolves galloping north. Lisa touched the table with her index fingers and moved her arms apart, enlarging the live image. "Lycaon."
"That guy?" Alabaster stared at the pack of shaggy grey wolves. "Oh, brother."
"The hunters carry silver weapons," Jordan frowned in thought. "So how were the wolves able to capture them?"
"They must've overrun them." Alabaster said. "Look at the size of that pack." There looked to be about forty wolves, six of them pulling a sled piled with three girls in battered silver parkas. The hunters.
"Let's get them." Jordan said confidently.
"How?" Lisa, who'd sounded eager for a fight before, looked apprehensive. "There's only three of us."
"We have him." Jordan jerked a thumb at Alabaster.
Lisa gave Alabaster a glance. Alabaster pounded his fist into his palm.
"Okay," Lisa didn't sound convinced. "What's the plan?"
"Alabaster destroys them," Jordan said. "And then we pull the hunters up."
"Easy-peasy." Alabaster made ok signs with his hands.
"Seriously?" Lisa said, exasperated.
"What?" Jordan asked. "I was being serious."
Whatever Lisa was about to say was cut off by a loud wailing alarm. All three of them looked up from the screen.
"Impossible." Jordan ran for the cockpit.
The ship lurched, sending all three of them staggering, then tilted ninety degrees sideways. Jordan clung to the doorframe. Alabaster and Lisa fell against the wall.
"Ow," Lisa groaned. Her side had hit the edge of the wall's built-in table. Alabaster gave her a hand up.
"What the hell?" Jordan, hanging off the doorframe, dropped athletically to his feet.
The ship remained suspended ninety degrees sideways; the three of them were now standing on the wall.
Then it plummeted out of the air so fast that they started floating upwards like they were in space.
"Your quad-core engine has stopped!" Alabaster yelled at Jordan.
"It's still running," Jordan insisted. "Something's pulling us downward!"
"Hello, brother." A raspy, unmistakably female voice came through the intercom.
"Oh, shit." Alabaster said.
"Who's that?" Lisa cried.
"Lamia," he replied. "My sister."
"I don't care if she's your mother," Jordan yelled. "Kill her!"
Lamia laughed, the sound like glass scraping on wood. "Did you really think that the last hunter would escape our grasp?"
"Your ship is blocking my magic," Alabaster told him. "I need to be outside." He snapped his fingers and disappeared in a burst of green light. A moment later there was a sound like a clap of thunder, so loud that they heard it through the ship's armoured hull.
The velocity of their descent changed subtly. The left vertical engines fired, righting the ship. Their fall slowed to a stop.
"Where did he go?" Lisa shouted. "We're ten thousand feet in the air!"
"He'll be fine," Jordan headed for the cockpit. "But we need to get to those hunters. Once they're across the border it'll be doubly hard to get them."
An image of Lycaon's running pack appeared on the front screen above the cockpit windows.
"How will we get them without Alabaster?" Lisa asked. "You said-"
"As if I'd put all my eggs in one basket." For once Jordan got his phrases right. "My ship has enough weapons to blow them all to bits."
"Don't!" Lisa grabbed his arm. "You'll blow the hunters up too!"
Jordan sighed. "I didn't say I was going to blow them to bits."
He strapped himself into the pilot's chair and pulled a computer mouse from its built-in dock in the table.
"Wolves are most dangerous in the open plain where they have freedom to run. But I work best in small spaces."
"What are you going to do?" Lisa asked.
"My shells are armed with Greek fire," Jordan moved the cursor, which evidently served as a firing pin. "We'll trap them in a ring of flames."
The Javelin tilted forward, levelling it's nose toward the plain below. The vertical engines roared, keeping the aircraft in position. A cannon lowered out of the ship's underbelly just below the nose.
Jorden clicked his mouse. The cannon opened fire in a series of cracking discharges that echoed across the Alaskan plain. A wall of fire erupt across the wolves' path as the shells hit the ground. The entire pack skidded to a halt, baying in confusion. Some of them tried to go round, but Jordan kept firing, creating a line of flames that curved steadily around them until the entire pack was trapped in a circle of six-metre flames.
"Right." Jordan stood from his chair, rolling his shoulders as he headed down the ship back into the living room. He opened his wardrobe, pushing aside a row of shirts, and pulled out what resembled a cross between a motorcycle helmet and clone trooper's helmet, bulky and rounded, jet black, with a breathing apparatus protruding out of the front. He lingered at the wardrobe for a moment.
"The rest isn't finished yet." he muttered. He closed the wardrobe and turned to Lisa, pulling the helmet on. "Let's go down there and kill them."
They went into the coffee room, stepped onto the platform.
"Once we're out there, you do what I say." he said. "No question. A single mistake and the wolves will tear you apart."
"I've fought them before, you know." Lisa pulled out her bow, two arrows nocked. "I know what I'm doing."
Jordan grabbed her arm. "The only way we can save those hunters is if we work together. We must be on the same page."
"All right, Jordan." Lisa pulled her arm free. "I know."
The bay doors opened, lowering them out of the ship. Freezing wind howled, making them stagger slightly before they leaned into the wind. Jordan clipped two zip lines to their belts. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Swiss army knife.
"Are you kidding me?" Lisa asked.
Jordan unfolded an extension shaped like a silhouette of a rifle. To Lisa's surprise the army knife expanded, growing longer and heavier until Jordan was holding an actual assault rifle in his hands.
"Ready?" he asked.
Lisa nodded. Together, they jumped off the platform into the ring of flames.
Both of them opened fire as they descended, raining slaughter on the wolf pack from above. Lisa could nock three arrows at once, each one aimed for the heart of a grey wolf. Jordan fired in short bursts, wary of the powerful wind that might divert his aim. The bullets and arrows caught the Greek fire as they flickered through the flames; each shot was like a splash of fuel that engulfed wolves in flames upon contact. The wolf pack yelped and jumped as the salvo struck home, melting into puddles upon contact with the magical ammunition.
Lisa and Jordan landed just inside the circle of fire, a wall of flames roaring at their backs. The wolf pack gave a great howl as they spotted them and surged forward, a tidal wave of shaggy grey fur flashing with claws and fangs.
Jordan switched to full automatic and opened fire, mowing the first line of eager wolves down with a sweep of his rifle. Lisa abandoned accuracy for speed, firing arrows one after another into the charging pack. She could not miss at such close range.
Despite the siblings' best efforts there were too many wolves to be held back by arrows and bullets alone. The wolf pack closed within seconds, the light of the Greek fire reflecting off their eyes.
Jordan unfolded a second attachment on his Swiss army knife. A tomahawk sprang out in his hand, a short, one-handed axe designed for close combat. With his other hand he drew out a long knife, holding it backhand red-indian style. Lisa yanked two hairclips from her hair which grew into silver knives and dropped into a fighting stance.
The two sides clashed in a fury of strikes. Jordan sidestepped the first snarling wolf, stabbing it in the neck as it went past him. A second wolf lunged and he threw his tomahawk into its forehead so hard that the blade thudded through its skull into its brain. The wolf slid to a stop at his feet, dead. A third wolf leaped at him from above and he dropped to a crouch; the wolf sailed harmlessly over his head straight into the flames.
More wolves scrambled over the fallen corpses towards him. Jordan rose from the crouch, driving his knife up a wolf's jaw. He pulled his tomahawk free from the dead wolf's forehead and struck another on the jaw, then whipped it across another's snout. Both of them reeled bloodily aside and collapsed.
The other wolves started to back away as the corpses piled at his feet, unwilling to waste their lives on Jordan's dripping black blades. They baring their fangs at him with barely-suppressed hatred.
Jordan switched to his assault rifle and blew them away as they stood snarling. The other wolves turned to flee.
"COME ON!" he roared. "Cowards!"
A chill went down his spine. Beside him, Lisa cried out in pain. Jordan spun around to see a wolf crash into her, sending her through the wall of flames.
"NO!" Jordan roared. He opened fire, blasting the wolf into oblivion.
A warning flashed inside his helmet. Jordan spun around in time to see a pair of clawed hands coming for his throat. He threw up his rifle to block the attack while simultaneously dropping his stance to avoid being knocked off his feet.
Lycaon the wolf-king growled at him, dripping red fangs two inches from his face. Jordan butted the wolfman in the face, slammed him with the shaft of his gun. Lycaon swiped at him, catching him in the side of the helmet so hard that he stumbled, almost falling into the snow. He instinctively thrust the stock of his rifle backwards, hitting Lycaon in the snout. Lycaon reeled backwards and Jordan unfolded his tomahawk.
His first blow was blocked, as he expected. Lycaon parried the tomahawk's overhead strike with a clawed hand, sparks flying as the two edges clashed. Jordan swiped low with his knife, intending to split Lycaon's guts, but the wolf-king's reflexes were lightning-fast and he stepped backwards to avoid the stroke. Jordan reversed the movement and stepped in, stabbing towards Lycaon's stomach. It was a classic backhand knife move and Lycaon had anticipated it. He grabbed Jordan's forearm, stopping him cold.
Jordan's eyes widened. He tried to pull away, but Lycaon's grip was like steel. He swung with his tomahawk. Lycaon ducked under the strike and tackled him, throwing him to the ground.
"Fool," he laughed, pinning Jordan to the ground. "Did you really think that you, a mere son of Athena, could defeat me?"
He thrust out his claws to tear out his throat.
A blur of green fire knocked him off his feet. Lycaon howled as a figure wreathed in green flames collided into him, setting him on fire as they tumbled in a heap onto the ground.
It was Lisa, her fireproof hunters' clothes covered in Greek fire like a flaming torch. Lycaon screamed as the flames seared his skin, but managed to get his feet under Lisa and launched her away, back through the ring of flames.
Jordan staggered to his feet, blinking spots out of his eyes. He unfolded his assault rifle, tottering slightly.
"Kill him!" Lycaon screamed.
Wolves surged forward. Jordan took aim and managed to shoot one, then blew another away at point-blank range. The other wolves were one metre from him when a blast of green energy struck the centre of the charging line, throwing them all backwards.
It was Alabaster, covered in burns and scratches from his battle with Lamia. He thrust out his arms and a second explosion of green blew half the pack away like rag dolls, howling as they passed through the flames.
While they'd been fighting a group of wolves had managed to dig their way under the ring of fire. A dozen of them now escaped through the tunnel, dragging Lycaon and the captured hunters away from the fight. The rest of the wolves fled after them.
"Alabaster," Jordan groaned. "Get Lisa."
Alabaster turned and ran after her, passing through the Greek fire as if it was no more than an illusion.
Jordan pressed a button on his belt to activate his tracker, signalling the Javelin to land at his location.
The wind changed slightly as the big aircraft arrived, coming to a stop above him. Confused by the Greek fire, the ship's sensors were unable to set a location to land.
Jordan sighed as he realised the problem. He pulled a grappling gun from his belt and fired it skyward. The Javelin swooped towards the line, snapping it up like a fishing hook. Jordan pulled the trigger again and the gun started to reel in the cable, pulling him out of the ring of fire. He managed to drag himself onto the lowered platform.
Alabaster flew up to join him, bearing a half-conscious Lisa in his arms.
"She'll be fine," Alabaster saw his anxious look. "Just needs some rest."
"And yourself?" Jordan took in his friend's bloodied appearance.
"I'll live." The bay doors closed, sealing them inside the ship's heated interior. "What about you?"
"I need to finish my suit." Jordan growled.
(Line break)
Aaand I'm back! Sorry for the long wait. Been kinda busy. As always, thanks for all the views. Leave me a review. I need feedback to know where to improve.