A/N: Just a heads up, this chapter is long, obviously, but it's been divided into ten chapters and each chapter has at least two thousand words. There is also an epilogue.
Cassie Drake: Mother and veteran treasure hunter.
Joshua Hale: Royal Air Force veteran turned stunt pilot.
The Compass: A four-man gang of Overlord assassins.
Extended Summary
When Cassie Drake was enjoying a quiet evening with her son, her stunt pilot friend, Joshua Hale, visits her and tells her of an expedition gone wrong. Professor Harvey, Cassie's old college professor, has gone missing when searching for a lost city in the sky known as Asgard. Seeing no other options, Cassie decides to save him herself and she and Joshua travel all over the globe from Nepal to Iceland to Greenland to seek out these 'passports' that will grant them access into Asgard, all while being hunted by a gang of Overlord assassins who want her dead.
Chapter 1: Prologue
"Never walk away from home ahead of your axe and sword. You can't feel a battle in your bones or foresee a fight."
Odin, The Havamal
January 2040
Maui, Hawaii
Cassie coughed. She quickly covers her mouth and wipes the drool and saliva away with a paper towel. After her sudden cough attack was over, she threw the paper towel away before picking up her son, Evan. She carefully rocks him in her arms before singing him a lullaby. Evan stared at his mother with a blank expression on his face that slowly turned into a drowsy expression. His eyelids were slowly getting heavy and seeing no reason to fight, he closed them and drifted off to sleep in her arms.
Cassie put Evan to bed in his crib and turned on the baby monitor. She checked her phone for any text messages from her significant other. Unfortunately, none came through. She figured that the overnight art exhibit Derek went to was keeping him distracted for the time being. But she was happy for him because he got to spend his time around like-minded artists.
As Cassie went to bed, her sudden coughing came back. She covered her mouth by coughing into her inner elbow and went into the bathroom to make sure she wasn't coughing up blood. Nope, no blood, just spit. It was January and the weather was still cold but she was sure this cough would go away soon.
Allergies, she figured.
After waking up in bed from Evan crying on the baby monitor, she wanted to go and comfort him but she was following through on the Ferber method, which basically meant that a baby puts itself to sleep by crying. Cassie wanted nothing more than to comfort him, to stop him from crying not only because she needs her beauty sleep but because she wanted Evan to know she'll always be there for him. But nevertheless, she followed through and went to sleep that night after Evan cried himself to sleep.
Waking up early in the morning, she was about to head down to the institution before remembering that today was her day off. She decided to spend the day with Evan before she got a call from a familiar number.
"Joshua?" she read. She picked up the phone and spoke to her stunt pilot friend, Joshua Hale.
"Cassie," a British voice came through, "I need to speak to you, immediately."
Cassie looked confused. "What's going on?"
"I've got something that might be right up your alley. I'm already in Maui and I driving to your place right now."
Cassie was taken aback but she assured him that everything was okay and that he could come by.
One hour later, Joshua Hale came through the front door of her home with a serious look on her face.
"What's going on?" Cassie asked as she made Joshua some tea.
The stunt pilot sat at the kitchen table and looked anxiously at Cassie. "What do you know about Norse mythology?"
"Enough," Cassie answered. She went over to Evan's high chair and began feeding him Goldfish crackers. "I know several stories. I've read the stories about Ragnarok, some stories about Loki being imprisoned, and even some stories about Thor getting married and even some giants."
Joshua reached into his backpack and pulled something out. "Alexander Goldman," he said. "Name ring a bell?"
"A giant church bell," Cassie replied. "Famous explorer, five treasure boxes."
Joshua points to a golden box the size of a shoe box out of his backpack and lays it on the table. He opens it up. "This Goldman's treasure box was found in New Mexico by a familiar person of yours. Professor Harvey."
She smiles. "Nice."
"Yep, your old college professor found a treasure box. A couple of months ago, when he took a group of college students on an expedition to New Mexico, they unearthed this box after Professor Harvey managed to solve it, he picked up whatever trail this box lead him to and he went missing."
Cassie's eyes widened. "Oh, my god."
He nods. "Afraid so."
"How did you end up with this thing?"
"I was the one to fly Professor Harvey and his class to New Mexico. Apparently, I'm the best freelance pilot an archaeologist could have."
"And a badass one too." She jokingly punches his shoulder. "Royal Marine veteran."
"Royal Air Force veteran, mate," he corrected.
"Sorry." She goes silent. "But, Professor Harvey, how long has he been missing?"
"Five days." He slowly stood up. "But, the strangest thing happened."
"What?"
"I was with him when he vanished." He gulped. "When we were flying over Greenland… high in the sky that falling from it would take three minutes to hit the ground… he vanished like a ghost in the passenger seat. I don't know how to explain it but all that was left behind was this box and the object inside." He holds his hands up. "I swear to god, he just vanished into thin air like it was nothing."
"Oh my god," Cassie gasped. "Can I see the treasure box?"
Joshua slid the box towards her. Cassie opened it gingerly and her eyes went wide and they were suddenly full of light and delight.
"Oh my god," she gasped, unable to breathe. "This looks so beautiful."
She pulls the item out, which looks to be a belt. But this belt was made of some kind of metal she couldn't identify and with symbols and writings, she couldn't immediately identify before she recognized several figures used in Norse mythology.
Norse mythology?
She pulled several small cubes out of one of the pockets and looked them over. What are these, Norse breath mints? She returns the cubes to their original place.
Remembering the clues on the last box that helped her in her Noah's Ark adventure, she looked over the artwork on the box's design. An immediate examination of the box made her look at Joshua with a smile on her face.
"Do you know what this is, Joshua?"
He shook his head. "My knowledge in the archaeology field is limited, but based on what Professor Harvey was saying, it's Norse mythology."
"This is the Megingjord."
Joshua stared at her like she had been babbling in a foreign language.
"Thor's belt."
"Oh," Joshua finally understood. "Thor from Nose mythology, his belt. The god of thunder's belt?"
"Yes," Cassie smiled.
"How do you know it's real and not just some random belt?"
"This belt's design, the symbols carved onto the belt, and just the sheer size of it prove that there is something a little more than human-like with this belt. There's also the fact that the metal this belt is made of isn't something I can identify." She held her hands up. "Did you see Professor Harvey experiment with this belt?"
"Yes," Joshua nodded. "I saw him try and destroy the belt with a hammer but the belt was indestructible."
"Good to know." She sits down at the table and rests her elbows on the table. "So, what were you doing in Greenland in the first place?"
"Professor Harvey hired me to fly him to Greenland. Apparently, he said something about the lost city of Asgard being real and the only way to access it is by flying into the Northern Lights."
"The Northern Lights?"
"According to the professor, the Northern Lights act as an access point into Asgard. Professor Harvey wanted to prove the existence of Asgard, saying it would be a historical find of the century and when I flew into the Northern Lights, he vanished."
"Tell me everything." She leaned closer. "I need to know everything, every detail in his journey."
Joshua recapped the story, sparing no detail.
"Why would he fly you to Nepal and Iceland?" Cassie wondered after hearing the story.
"According to something he found on the box, coordinates lead him to these locations. He was searching for something in the mountains of Nepal and Iceland but he couldn't find it."
"Thor's iron gauntlets and hammer," Cassie deduced. "I saw Old Norse symbols translating to gloves and hammers on the box." She rubbed her chin. "I'm going to out on a limb here and say that he was looking for all three of Thor's main possessions but he couldn't find any. And then when he told you to fly into the Northern Lights of Greenland, he vanished. And when he vanished, he happened to have Thor's belt on his body. But you remained unscathed."
"Yes," Joshua monotone.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that in wake of what I heard, Asgard is real but because he didn't return with all three of Thor's main possessions, he was abducted and now he's trapped in Asgard."
Joshua shook his head. "I don't believe that."
"But something happened."
Joshua agreed, "Yeah. Something did happen, considering he just vanished into thin air but Asgard abducted him?
"Suspend your disbelief for the time being." She stands up and picks Evan up.
"I would but I've never seen a lost city before. But for the time being, I will believe that Asgard is real. And then I'll go back to being a skeptic."
"Spoken like a true non-believer."
Joshua stood up to meet her level. "So what are you going to do?"
"Well, it's not like the police can do anything about this for obvious reasons. But… if Asgard is real, then-" Her speech suddenly stops when she realizes something. "Wait a second… you were flying in an airplane up into the sky, into the Northern Lights of Greenland, and Professor Harvey just vanished? And you said you were about three minutes up in the air?"
"I don't remember the exact height but if you were to fall from said height, it would take three minutes before you reached the ground."
"Wow," she gasped. "That means… okay. I think I have this figured out somewhat." She holds her index finger up. "Let's say that Asgard is real. If the only way to get into Asgard is by flying into the Northern Lights, then that means either the Northern Lights act as a gateway to another dimension. Or the one thing that seems more plausible is that Asgard is a city with technology that allows it to float in the sky and use the Northern Lights as illusions to keep it hidden."
"Makes sense," Joshua shrugged.
Cassie bounced Evan in her arms. "Joshua, I've seen dozens of lost cities before and mythical objects but this… if my theory is correct… then that means… we are looking for a lost city… in the sky."
"My element," Joshua snarked. "Atlantis was in my boyfriend's element and now I get a lost city in my element."
"Exactly," Cassie laughed. "But I swear to god, if there's a lost city in outer space then we have officially entered science fiction territory."
"I like science fiction."
"But science fiction in a fantasy setting, that's like putting aliens in Indiana Jones. Oh, wait… never mind, that already happened."
Joshua clicked his tongue. "Speaking of Indiana Jones, I've never seen a movie before. Erkin's been trying to get me to watch them."
"I've seen all five Indiana Jones movies with Harrison Ford. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, The Last Crusade, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Dial of Destiny."
"Does Indiana Jones die in Dial of Destiny?"
"Shh," she put a finger to her mouth. "I don't want to spoil it for you."
"But getting back on topic, what are you going to do about this missing person's case?"
"I'm going to find Asgard and rescue Professor Harvey." She pointed to her companion. "You've already been to all the places Harvey went looking for Thor's gauntlets and hammer. All I gotta do is have you fly me there and then once I find these missing pieces, we return all three to Asgard and then we save Professor Harvey."
Joshua makes a fist. "I'm in," he declared. "If it means bringing back your friend, then I'll happily do it."
"Nepal and Iceland… I've been to both places. Tell me what he was looking for in each country, please?"
"The gloves in Nepal and the hammer in Iceland."
She clicks her tongue. "Makes sense, because Thor usually wears his gloves whenever he lifts his hammer. If even a margin of the Norse stories is true, then that means we have found the gauntlets first so we can lift the hammer."
"Well then, I shall personally fly us to Nepal."
Chapter 2: Getting Started
On The Plane Ride to Nepal
With nothing better to do, Cassie took out a journal and began etching every detail she could about the Goldman's chest into her notebook. She wrote down some Old Norse letters to better help her with her translations while Joshua flew the plane in the direction of Nepal.
"So…" Joshua began, "can you tell me a little more about this box?"
"Three passports," Cassie replied dryly, "good ol' Goldman left a few details to talk about three passports needed to get into Asgard."
"Looks like your theory was correct," Joshua remarked. "Three passports to get into Asgard but I gotta admit, this is kinda ridiculous."
"What's your explanation for what happened then?" Cassie demanded. "You had Professor Harvey in the same seat in which I'm sitting and he vanishes. If it's not the power of gods then I don't know what you believe in."
"How many times do I have to tell you, Cassie; I don't believe in that magic and a lot of superstitious Hocus-McPocus. I am a man of science, not magic."
"You've been with us on our Ys adventure; we found and destroyed the Philosopher's Stone. Your boyfriend helped us find Atlantis like four or five years ago."
"I never saw you discover Atlantis and I never went into any of those alchemist tombs during your Ys adventure." He clenches his fists. "How come whenever you guys go looking for a lost city, I never see it for myself? Seriously, if I had seen a lost city then maybe I would suspend my disbelief… just for the time being."
Realizing that he wasn't going to budge, Cassie decides to change the subject. "How did you get into flying? I've always wanted to know this little tidbit of info about you. I mean, it's not often you have Royal Air Force compadres by your side."
Joshua exhaled. "Easy question, easy answer, mate. I could tell you but if there's one thing I learned from serving with my mates in the force… it's that if you spill your backstory before the action happens, it's almost certainly a death guarantee." He looked at Cassie. "Tell ya what, mate: if we make it out of Nepal in one piece, then I'll tell you where my love of flying came from."
"Wow, Joshua, I didn't know you had it in you to create suspense." She rests her chin on her knuckles. "Ya know what, buddy, you are a representation of good British people."
"Eh?"
"My Dad knew a lot of British people but only one was a good person."
"Eh?"
"Actually, two but the other one was Australian."
"Again mate, eh?"
She looked at him and laughed. "Seems to be the phrase of the day, pal. You know, if ya want, I can help you expand your vocabulary. You'll be able to form fully grammatical-accurate sentence structures."
"Oh good, I'm back in school again."
After she finished jotting her notes down, she reached for the seat behind her and pulled on an army green bomber jacket.
"I have connections in Nepal," Cassie reminded Joshua. "A lot of connections so as soon as we land in the country - I have no intention of adding long-distance calls to my phone bill - I will call some of the old contacts, get some equipment, and then I'll climb to the top of Mount Everest."
"And where will I be during all of this?"
"In the air, providing me support," she answered jokingly.
He looked at her with a look that said 'Are you serious?' and said, "This is a plane, not a helicopter. If I had propellers on the top then I could rope you in, guide you, and then we could egress."
"Good to know because I skipped out on the 'Planes and Helicopters' 101 course in college."
"Tragic."
"Okay then. Well, since I don't know where this hidden temple or location or whatever Harvey was looking for, you're going to have to guide me."
"Understood." He looked ahead before tapping his knuckles on the window to his left.
"Don't tell me you're nervous to climb up a snowy mountain."
"Nah," Joshua denied, "the open ocean terrifies me far more than any mountain ever could."
Cassie looks at him weirdly. Joshua suffers from a fear of the open ocean yet his significant other frequently drive out into the ocean AND Joshua frequently goes on these boat trips with him. Either Joshua is lying or he is swallowing his fear like a cup of water whenever he goes into the ocean.
XXXX
Undisclosed Location in the Himalayas
A bar that was deserted save for four men had a new man walk in. The four men serving themselves turned and eyed the man suspiciously. They recognized the man instantly.
"Richard," the first one called out. "Ex-Overlord soldier from Lemuria."
The first man to talk to Richard was a tall man with light brown hair, and hazel eyes, and was thirty-seven years of age. He wore a heavy trench coat that brought out the color in his eyes and had a front tooth made of silver.
"Not ex anymore," Richard corrected and pulled up his sleeve. The 'ex' in front of his serial number had been removed using laser surgery that left a painful scar behind. "I'm part of Overlord once more."
"You better be grateful for that, for the Leader rarely gives second chances. By all means, by being an accomplice to Casey Blake and Jared Jablonski, we should kill you but we're not going to."
Richard pulled out an envelope. He dropped it before the four men.
The first man picked it up and opened it. "Are you serious?" He pulled cash out along with a photo.
"That money is for each of you, Jeremiah North."
Jeremiah North looked suspiciously at Richard. "You want us to kill this bitch, why?"
"Because I want her dead. I want the Overlord leader to suffer and I'm sure you do too." He reaches over and lifts up North's sleeve. "You have become excommunicated for insubordination. The only reason you're alive is that you're Overlord's best assassin, all four of you. If you have been abandoned, then why not stick it to the leader? Let's destroy the leader together; let's kill Cassie Drake."
North tilted his head. "You're going to come with us on this mission?"
"No. But whatever you need I will supply you." He held his hand up. "Speaking of which, I only know of you, Mr. North, because you are famous in the Overlord underground but I know nothing of your cohorts."
The man standing North sat up. They had short black hair, a beard, dark brown eyes, a muscular physique, and were around the age of thirty-four. "The name's Jean Southworth but on missions, I go by 'Boukman'." He smiled and said, "Asphyxiation is my specialty."
The third one was a tall and skinny black man thirty years old with matching black hair and eyes. "Glenn Weston, also known as 'Jose the Boer'.
And last but not least, the young one with short stature and a nervous look on his face stood up, the energy from his twenty-five-year-old self returning. "I go by 'Slasher Mike' on missions but my real name is Dean Easton."
"Good to know," Richard smiled, "good to know for you all. Remember, the money I gave you is for all of you but it is half the full amount. The other half-"
"Will be paid after we complete our assignment," North finished. "Seems pretty straightforward. Any idea where our target is?"
"According to one of my contacts, Cassie Drake is in Nepal. According to said contact, she was buying equipment to climb the tallest mountain in the world."
"Mount Everest," Mike deduced. "What in god's name is she doing climbing the tallest mountain in the world?"
"Don't know and I sure as hell don't care," Boukman said snidely. "Let's go kill her."
"I don't think we need any more motivation, man," Jose urged. "Let's get this over with so we can retire."
A few minutes after Richard left the bar, the four assassins finished their rinks and since there was no bartender present, they just left. As they went outside to get into their cars, a group of men that had been waiting for them outside surrounded them.
Outnumbered five to one, the four assassins looked at each other as the bandits closed in on them. North gave a shrug before punching the closest bandit to his left.
None of the bandits had any guns on them but they did have knives. Unfortunately for the bandits, the bandits brought knives to a fistfight.
North and the three assassins made quick work of the bandits and attacked them, each taking on four at a time.
North blocked, parried, and dodged incoming punches before returning them with twice the power. He used the knives against the bandits and after collecting four knives from the bandits, stabbed them all into one of the bandits, making him look like a pin cushion. The bandit dropped dead and North took out the four knives and threw them at the second bandit's eyes before the last two lodged into his throat. He snatched two knives out, parried, and dodged several more punches before he stabbed the third one in the groin and finished him off with a snap of the neck. The last one was grabbed in a rear-naked chokehold and had a knife stabbed into his eye.
Boukman knocked three bandits away before taking out a garrote wire and using it to choke one out of the bandits. He uses his kicking foot to keep the other bandits at bay and he snaps the bandit's neck. He threw the body at the bandits and the body slammed one of them hard into the concrete ground. The other two were caught in Boukman's assault and he managed to wrap the garrote wire around both of their necks and choke them out. With the last bandit still on the ground, Boukman jumped on top of him and punched him hard enough to break the throat.
Mike was the only one to pull out a gun. He made gun-fu out of the bandits. He shot the bandits in weak spots like the thighs and shoulders to push them back before he moved in to shoot them in the neck. After reloading, he headshots the second bandit before emptying his still-full magazine and throwing the mag at the third bandit and the empty gun at the fourth bandit. With both men on the ground, he slides to the ground, kicking the third bandit in the nuts, retrieves his fallen magazine, rolls over, and kicks the fourth bandit in the face as he picks up his gun. He slaps the magazine into the gun, cocks it, and headshots the last two bandits.
Jose wasn't using any weapons with his quartet of bandits, only his fists and raw strength. He punched the first bandit so hard that his face started bleeding. He tripped him to the ground and socked the second bandit hard in the nose, breaking it. The third and four bandits charged him at once. Jose kicked them in their groins before launching them to the ground, Brazilian jiu-jitsu style, and he stomped on their heads until their heads caved in. He moves over to the second bandit and punches him repeatedly in the chest before his chest caves in and was stabbed from the insides of his skeleton. Leaving the second dead bandit where he was, he moves over to the first bandit from earlier and pounds his face in until it was not only recognizable but a blob of nothing, and the bandit was nothing but a lifeless blob.
Still riding the high of their adrenaline, North helped Mike to his feet and patted his shoulders. "You got some blood on you," he remarked offhandedly.
"Better their blood than mine."
"Glad to know we're still in tip-top shape." He tugs on Mike's jacket to straighten it. "I'm proud of you, Mike. I'm glad to know you still got that fighting spirit in ya."
"I don't know what you're talking about, North, I've always had this fighting spirit in me."
North smiled warmly at Mike before removing his hands from Mike's jacket.
Chapter 3: Mt. Everest
After everything was arranged, Cassie and Joshua were on their climb up Mount Everest. The good news was they didn't have to climb to the top of Mount Everest; one of Cassie's contacts happened to be a helicopter pilot and flew them to the coordinates Joshua had directed them to.
After they repelled down from the chopper, they double-checked their inventory to make sure everything was in order.
Yep; guns, climbing pitons, ice axes, and grappling hooks. Everything seems to be in shape.
Cassie was wearing her army green bomber jacket from earlier, thick black pants, and snow boots. She tucked a Beretta 92FS into her boots and began climbing and waited for Joshua. He was wearing a similar attire except his brown bomber jacket had fur and he opted to only use the grappling hook and ice axes.
They began hiking up the mountain with Joshua now taking the lead. The cold breeze in this weather makes both companions shiver and make them cover their mouths and noses with face masks. After hiking up the mountain for some time, Joshua headed into a cave that had a floor of black ice beneath them.
Cassie struggled to maintain her grip and not slip but once they got deeper into the cave, the black ice began to fade away and they found themselves surrounded by walls of blue ice.
"Wow," Cassie gasped as she removed her goggles. "Are you seeing this?"
Joshua removed his goggles. "These are goggles, not glasses."
"Smart ass," Cassie smirked. "But you see what I'm seeing?"
"Obviously." Joshua moved through a narrow opening and was closely followed by his female friend. After getting free of the narrow opening, they stopped just short of a cliff that led into oblivion. There was an ice wall across from them. Cassie took out her ice axes, made a run for them, and leaped across, stabbing the ice axes into the ice and pulling herself up.
She climbs to the top until she is back on solid ground. Joshua was following behind her and he went on ahead, moving through a series of narrow openings and climbing several more ice walls before they finally found something noteworthy.
"Well, well, well," Cassie put her hands on her hips. "That's something you don't see every day."
The ceiling of ice had been sculpted and decorated to display large humanoid figures with what booking to be a Viking helmet on each one. The three ice figures were holding their hands out so that they touched each other with their hands open, almost like they were holding something.
"Yep, this is the place, mate," Joshua confirmed. "This snowy wasteland is the place Professor Harvey said one of the golden passports was but he couldn't find it."
Cassie looked around and saw what Joshua was referring to. There were dozens of other statues spread throughout the rest of this icy cave, each one holding an open hand out. Cassie couldn't resist and she quickly drew the image in her journal.
"Vikings," Joshua deduced. "Right?"
"Yeah."
"Where are the horns on their helmet?"
"Vikings don't have horns on their helmets; a common misconception." She pockets her notebook after she finished drawing the picture and looks around. "So, what did Professor Harvey do?"
"He was looking into the hands of each of these ice statues but he could find nothing."
"Find nothing," Cassie remembered something. "Wait a second. Wait a second; did Professor Harvey have a chance to look at the three ice statues on the ceiling?"
Joshua shook his head. "Nah. He didn't have the proper climbing skills for such a thing."
"Okay, so Professor Harvey checks all these ice statues but finds nothing. Then after giving up, he leaves and flies into the Northern Lights and gets taken into Asgard. However, he didn't check the ice statue on the ceiling." She points up. "If Asgard is a city in the sky then it stands to reason that Thor's gloves are in the statues' hands above."
"If I brought my airplane in here, I could fly you to the top, mate."
"I'll see myself at the top." She takes out her ice axes and heads to the nearest wall before she begins climbing up the wall.
She thrusts the ice axes into the ice wall and pulls herself up, hand over hand and Cassie shivered until she could see her breath.
Once she reached the top of the wall, there was nowhere for her to go except across the ceiling. She digs the ice axes into the ceiling and carefully makes her way across.
Once she was in range, she looked down to see a bottomless chasm below her.
I still got it, she mentally laughed. I'm still the best climber in the business.
Once she lets herself dangle from the ice axes, she takes out her grappling hook and quickly swung her way into the interconnected open palms of the ice statues.
She lands on her feet and quickly coils her grappling hook before something struck her. How are these things not collapsing under my weight? She moved some of the snow off the ice statue to reveal that the statue wasn't made of ice but some kind of metal that rusted over the years, even with the snow covering it.
It's not an ice statue but rather a statue covered in ice.
Speaking of which, she saw something in the center of the hand she was standing on. Kneeling, she rubs snow out of the way to unearth a pair of metal gloves that looked to be made of titanium.
"Titanium?" she gasped. She calls out to Joshua, her voice echoing throughout the cave. "Joshua, d'ya have any idea when titanium was discovered?"
"Around the 1700s," Joshua's echoing voice replied.
"Thank you."
If the Viking era existed before the 1000s and the gloves are made of titanium then that must mean two things. One: someone lost their titanium gloves or two: titanium derived from the lost city of Asgard and used by Vikings.
She rubbed her lips with her gloved hands. Is it possible that Thor's hammer is made of titanium? I guess I'll find out when I cross that bridge.
Prior archaeology experience kicked in and she took out her grappling hook, tied the hook to one of her ice axes, which she pocketed before swinging, and threw it at the ice wall across from her. The ice axe stuck into the ice wall and Cassie gave a tug on the hook to test its secureness before she reached for the titanium gloves.
As soon as she picked up the gloves, a string bounding the gloves to the statue snapped. Cassie reached out and swung on her grappling hook just as the three statues disconnected from the ceiling and fell into the bottomless chasm.
Cassie catches herself against the ice wall and puts the gloves inside her jacket pocket before she detaches her grappling hook and begins climbing down the ice wall.
"Cassie," Joshua called out. "What did you do?"
Cassie was about to answer when she suddenly began coughing. What is going on; I've been coughing like crazy for a long time.
She leaps down from the ice wall before reaching the bottom. She suddenly realizes that she is coughing once more and Joshua runs to check on her.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, just allergies."
"You're allergic to what, snow?"
"Kinda like having a fear of the ocean but taking boat trips anyway."
"Whatever." He points to the chasm. "Those statues, was that you?"
Once Cassie's coughing had ceased, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the gloves. "These are Thor's gloves."
"They're titanium," Joshua pointed out, "not iron."
"Iron was discovered in like 5000 BC so when people made up the Norse stories, they must've assumed it was iron Thor's gloves were made of." She rotates the gloves in her hands. "As an archaeologist who unearthed a number of metals all over the globe, I can tell the difference between iron and titanium by sight alone."
She pockets the gloves. "Let's get out of here and look at these gloves on the plane ride to Iceland."
"Before we head to Iceland, I'm going to stop in China for a refuel."
"Good to know."
The two of them began heading back in the direction in which they came with Joshua leading in front. He was marching forward without any hesitation and stopped only when he heard Cassie coughing once more.
"Seriously, what is up with you coughing?"
"Nothing, just a cough."
Joshua continued to move through the narrow openings and gaps throughout the caves.
"You're also one of the few British people I know who doesn't suffer from claustrophobia."
"Good to know."
"But you're the only one who suffers from a fear of the ocean."
"Yeah yeah, whatever." He looked up above his head. "Watch the icicles above."
"Duly noted." Cassie looked at the icicles and kept her eyes on them as she walked toward the cave's exit.
When she looks ahead, Joshua is struck by a powerful hammer fist in the jaw and sent falling to the ground. Cassie leaps back and reaches for her gun.
Boukman walks into view and kicks Joshua in the side and he rolls over the edge.
"JOSHUA!" She takes out her gun and slaps a magazine in but this new mysterious attacker already slapped the gun out of her hand and sent it flying into the wall.
Cassie and Boukman began fighting in close quarters with Boukman ramming his knee into Cassie's stomach and Cassie grabbing at his hair and punching him in the face. Boukman punched her back and shoved her into the wall before he kicked her in the chest between her breasts. Cassie grunts in pain and catches his next kick and knees him in the groin.
Boukman folds over but only after jumping off his other foot and delivering it into the side of Cassie's face.
Cassie falls to the ground and gets up just as Boukman took out his secret weapon. A piano wire was stretched to its limit and Cassie was on her guard once more and took a ready stance.
She held one hand out to keep Boukman at bay and her eyes briefly flicked to the gun on the ground. That's when Boukman struck.
Cassie relied entirely on going on the defensive and didn't bother fighting back when Boukman was trying to ensnare the wire around her throat.
Boukman changes tactics and goes for her legs. He sweeps her left foot off but she catches herself with her right foot. With her foot still in the air, he wraps the wire around her ankle and drags her to the ground. Cassie launched as many kicks as she could at him as he climbs on top of her and put his hand on her throat.
Cassie reaches for a rock and attempts to hit him, only for him to block it with his forearm.
Boukman stretched the piano wire to its limit once more and was about to wrap it around Cassie's throat when Cassie thrust her hips up and made Boukman fall forward. He would've caught himself by using his hands except he lost his grip on the black ice and fell headfirst to the ground.
Cassie shoved him off and kicked the wire out of his grasp but Boukman was faster in getting up. He charged her and caught her in a rear-naked chokehold. Boukman slips on more of the black ice but refuses to let go. He slams into the ice wall behind him and strengthens his grip on Cassie's throat.
"I'll be a legend," Boukman declared, "they'll finally let me back in after this. Overlord will have no choice but to-"
Boukman's speech is cut off suddenly and his grip on her throat is released. Cassie leaps forward and rotates, ready to fight, only to see an icicle impaled through his scalp, buried halfway into his skull. Boukman fell back against the ice wall and slid down, leaving a bloody trail of brain matter behind before his body finally went limp.
What was that? Cassie wondered before she coughed once more. She stepped back and slipped on the black ice and fell flat on her back. "Shit," she coughed before crawling into a fetal position and closing her eyes, feeling like after all the times she almost risked losing her breath, she at least deserved a chance to sleep and breathe at ease.
But the last person she had on her mind:
Evan.
Chapter 4: Refuge
China
Cassie woke up with a headache. She felt herself lying on something soft and opened her eyes. Staring at a ceiling of some kind, she checked her surroundings. She sits up and realizes that she's inside a small house and Joshua was sitting on a stool in the corner.
"What happened?" Cassie wondered aloud. It took her a minute to register that Joshua was alive and sitting before her. "I thought you went plunging off a cliff."
"I grabbed hold of a handhold," Joshua explained.
"I'm relieved, man."
"Good to know."
Cassie gets out of bed and looks around. "Where are we?"
"China," Joshua answered. "You've been unconscious for a while so I had to carry you down the mountain until we got picked up by a helicopter. They flew us down here to recover and some of your contacts are flying my plane to the airport for refueling."
A Chinese man walked into the room.
"Ahh, our guest awakens," the man spoke in Chinese before switching to English. "Hello, mysterious guess."
"As much as I love the idea of being mysterious, I prefer being on a real-name basis with everyone." She held her hand out. "Cassie Drake."
The Chinese man shook Cassie's hand. "Hung Zhu," he introduced himself.
"Where are we?"
"Tingri. Your friend called Joshua brought you guys here," Hung Zhu answered. "Why were you guys on Mt. Everest?" Hung Zhu asked curiously.
"Mountaineering," Joshua quickly answered.
Cassie nodded. "Yeah. My friend and I were-"
"Cassie Drake?" Hung Zhu repeated. "The name rings a bell, a dead, broken, cracked, rusty bell." His eyes gleam. "Ah, I remember you know. You're the destroyer, are you not?"
"I'm not a destroyer at all," she reassures. "But I-"
"I really hope that you aren't flying to Japan after this adventure."
"Why?"
"Japan has a bounty on your head."
Cassie gapes. "Oh."
Joshua looks at Cassie suspiciously. "Cassie, what did you do to warrant a bounty on your head in Japan?"
"Nothing," Cassie replies almost too quickly. "I haven't done anything to warrant anything worthy of a bounty."
"Then why does Japan-"
"It's not Japan, just a couple of Yakuza guys that have a problem with me."
"I would turn you in for money," Hung Zhu warned, "But you are a guest in my place and you need food and shelter."
"Good man," Joshua praised. "Honor among greeds."
"However, if I can't turn you in and word gets out that the infamous Cassie Drake is here, it might invite some unwanted parties into my community. Therefore, for the safety of my community, I must insist that you leave as soon as your friend's plane is refueled."
Cassie nodded. "Of course, I understand."
"We are having a feast and wish for you to join." He jerks his head to the doorway. "Please, make yourself at home."
"Thank you."
Cassie and Joshua walked outside the room and found themselves in a huge village. They said hello to everyone and one of the mischievous kids hit Joshua in the groin, making him fold over. "Mother of God!" he exclaimed. "Oh, son of a…"
When the pain in his groin wore off, he decided to show the mischievous kids that he meant no harm. He approached a small group of roughly six children, all of who looked to be at least ten years old, and kneeled to their level.
"What's up, mates?" He reached into his jacket pocket. "Who wants to see a magic trick?"
The children looked at him, unfamiliar with his speech. Realizing the language barrier between them, he opted to do his trick regardless. He shuffled the cards before holding them out.
"Pick a card, any card, but don't show me," he said to the four-year-old named Ju. She chose the seven of diamonds. Derek, looking away, told her to put it back on the deck. Ju put it approximately in the middle of the deck.
"Now, with the magic my mum taught me back home in London, I will try to find your card, little lass." He shuffles the cards. When he stopped, he showed her a card. The four of clubs. "Is this your card?" Ju shook her head, chuckling. "No, is this your card?" The queen of hearts. "No, what about this card?" The Ace of Spades. "No, then I give up."
"Wait a second," he suddenly exclaimed. "Ju, what's that in your jacket pocket?" He pointed to her pocket. Ju searched and found nothing. Joshua smiled and reached in and pulled out the seven of diamonds. "Is this your card?"
Ju laughed and clapped. "Yes," She said in accented English.
"Very good, now because you guys were an excellent audience, I will show you guys another card trick," He retrieved the card and shuffled.
He handed the deck to the kids and turned around. "Now hand me a random card in my hand and I will try to guess what it is. I can shuffle with my hands behind my back." He closed his eyes shut and the kids giggled as they chose the kings of hearts. They put the card in his hand along with the card deck. The kids watched as he shuffled the card deck behind his back.
"Okay, I have mixed the cards and now, I will perform an illusion trick." He turned around and showed the back of a random card. "The eight of hearts you see," He showed the card. He turned the card around and said "The eight of clubs," He turned the same card around and it was the eight of clubs.
"Now, to see what card I got, let's see." He chose the two of spades. "Wait, this is the two of spades, if I turn this around, then," He turned the card around and it was the king of hearts.
Needless to say, he made those children's day with those card tricks.
XXXX
One Hour Later
Hung Zhu lay down on the ground, his face under the soles of an American man's boot. He tried to fight but the man held him down as his associate held the entire village at gunpoint.
North looked down at the subdued man. "I got a contact here who says that a woman named Cassie Drake came through this village like an hour ago. Tell me where she is."
Despite the boot pressing down on his temple, he managed to shake his head. "No, I won't talk."
"Tell me," North demanded. "Tell me which direction they went to at least and I'll consider sparing you." He looks to his assistant. "Or I can have Mike here make an example out of children."
Mike grabbed Ju by the hair and put a gun to her head. "Talk."
"Wait," Hung Zhu demanded. "It doesn't have to get violent."
"Oh, but it must," North insisted. "We must get very violent if we want to get what we want." He clicked his tongue. "I love the haircut on that young girl but my colleague won't hesitate to rip her hair out of her scalp if I give the orders. Now tell me where Cassie Drake went and I will have Mike release the young girl."
"The airport eight miles north of here," Hung Zhu immediately answered. "They said they were heading to the airport. They left as soon as their plane was done refueling."
"Perfect." North kicked the back of his skull. "Mike, be a gentleman and release the children."
Mike obeyed said orders before turning to North. "If they had a headstart on us then that means-"
"Jose is closer to the airport than us."
"How could Boukman have died?" Mike wondered aloud.
"Cassie Drake isn't an Omega target for nothing, Mike." He took out his phone and dialed up his accomplice.
XXXX
The Airport
After making it out of the village Hung Zhu so kindly allowed them to stay, Cassie and Joshua were given a ride to the airport in a jeep by one of the village's guides. After they were dropped off, the guide bid them farewell with a flip of the bird before driving off.
Joshua smiled at seeing his plane and jogged to kiss the side door. "I missed ya, lassie."
"Wow," Cassie laughed sarcastically, "I didn't know you were such an airplane lover."
"My father is an RAF veteran; I've been flying since I was fifteen."
Ahh, so that's where his love of flying came from. "Fifteen sounds like a lifetime ago."
"I'm turning twenty-five on April 22nd this year." He climbs into the plane and starts it up.
"As a twenty-five-year-old myself, it feels good to be twenty-five and still in perfect shape. I tell you, I-"
POW!
Cassie is launched to the ground, hitting her shoulder hard and wincing. She picks herself up and throws her right hand at her new attacker but he jerks his head back and dodges the punch by half an inch.
Jose grabbed Cassie by the back of her skull, caught her in a Muay Thai clinch, and kneed her as hard as he could.
Joshua came running towards the side door, only for Jose to sock him as hard as he could in the face, hard enough to make his nose bleed and make him fall flat on his back.
Jose shoves Cassie to the ground but she rolls away and climbs to her feet. She holds her hands up and throws more fists at them. Jose caught several of her fists before Cassie spit in his eye and punched him. Jose absorbed the punch and punched Cassie in the gut. Cassie elbows Jose who then kicks her in the side. They lunged at each other and grabbed at their shoulders before reaching and tugging on their hair.
Joshua, still dazed from the punch, heads over to the pilot's seat and he has the plane start moving forward down the runway.
Jose grabs Cassie's arm and catches her in a chokehold. "You see that," he pointed to the moving plane. "Even your friend doesn't want to be around you. But he is a coward and I will kill him as soon as I am done with you, Cassie Drake."
Cassie bites his forearm. He releases her and they begin struggling. More punches and kicks were exchanged, along with the occasional elbows and jabs and whatnot but while Cassie was faster with her attacks, Jose was hitting Cassie harder with each punch.
Joshua's plane took off.
Cassie was left on the runway, no one around to help her and here she was, being pummeled by this would-be attacker throwing brutal punches at her. Cassie kept on the defense, only going on the offense when she was sure she would have an edge. Cassie is body slammed into the ground and she winces in pain and tries to crawl away.
Joshua's plane made a U-turn and was heading straight for the runway.
Jose kicks Cassie several more times in the gut before he rolls her across the ground and stomps on her back. Cassie tried getting up, only for Jose to kick at her arms, forcing her to the ground once more.
"Hail Mary, Full of Grace, The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." Jose advances on Cassie.
Cassie groans and looks up at the man towering over her and her eyes widened.
Joshua's plane was coming back to the ground and Cassie smirked but made sure the assassin could not see it.
"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of Cassie Drake's death."
Cassie covered herself.
"Glory be to Overlord."
Jose stopped before he was about to finish the job when he heard the sound of a plane engine rumbling behind him. He turned around half a second later and the plane flew over him, the landing gear striking the assassin face-first before he could react and he collapsed to the ground.
Joshua lands the plane and waits before it comes to a full stop before getting out. He sprints to help Cassie to her feet, she was bruised and beaten and looking down at the dead assassin with a grin on her face.
"You said the prayer to the wrong person, bastard," she declared to the assassin that was now missing a face.
Chapter 5: Over the Sea
Cassie's coughing came back to her when they were flying over the North Atlantic. She covers her mouth with her inner elbow before looking out the window. She marvels at the sight before her, smiling and wishing she had been freefalling just to feel the breeze of the wind as she flew.
"We're so high that we're above the clouds," Cassie remarked. "Man. Sometimes, it's the little things that matter the most, man. Can you imagine-"
"We're above the North Atlantic," Joshua deadpanned. "If this plane stutters for whatever reason, we go crashing into the North Atlantic, in the open ocean." The hairs on his nape rose. "I've tripled-checked everything before we took off; I always do."
Cassie decided not to linger on Joshua's sudden statement and instead focused on looking out the window where she could see some clouds clearing up. They were about three-quarters of the way to Iceland and the time on the plane left Cassie with time to reflect. In both times when she fought those two Overlord guys, she nearly lost. She only survived either due to dumb luck or Joshua saving her and in both times, her life flashed before her eyes as the assassins were about to finish her off. She had survived some of the worst encounters against all kinds of thugs in the world but this one hit hard the most.
The face she saw when her life flashed before her eyes were Evan's. If she died, Evan would be without a mother. She choked up and clenched her fists and closed her eyes. She shook her head and looked at Joshua.
"I want to go home."
Joshua looks at her. "What? What was that?"
"I want to go home, Joshua." She seemed unsure in her words this time.
Joshua flinches. "What, why?"
"I almost died… twice now and we barely got two out of three relics we need to get into Asgard. And my life was threatened twice by these Overlord guys."
"Cassie, what about your old college professor? What about him?"
She knew he was going to bring up her old professor's name. "Joshua, I-"
"Do you know what we are doing right now? We are flying from temple to temple to fly into some mythical Norse city in the sky to save your professor. If I thought this was all bullshit then I wouldn't have helped you. I mean seriously? Mythical city in the sky? But I am here."
"But this time is different. I have something to lose now. If I die then Evan won't have a mother. This story already happened with my Dad, I don't want it to happen with my son."
"But that's different; your grandmother was ill and she killed herself. You are young and strong."
"But Evan-"
"I have something to lose on this adventure too." He winces and closes his eyes tightly. "If I die, Erkin will be left without his fiancé." He clenches his fists tight enough that his knuckles turn white. "When I was hanging off that mountain, the first person to cross my mind was Erkin. At that moment, all I wanted was to be with him. I want to go home too, Cassie, but I could never forgive myself if I abandoned someone, knowing full well I could've rescued him.
"Even when I was serving in the Italian Civil War during my RAF days, I still had my parents to lose and my sister. But I had to be there for my comrades because a real man is there for his comrades."
"As much as I want to be there to save Professor Harvey's life, I also want to be there for Evan. The difference between your family and mine is that Evan is my son, my firstborn son."
"Professor Harvey has a family too; he has a wife and two children."
"I'm not against abandoning him, I just think that someone else should save him. Someone with-"
"We're in a race against time, Cassie. Who knows how much longer we have? We have to find Professor Harvey and save him, ASAP!"
"Someone else should save him. Maybe you can drop me off at the nearest airport and I'll fly home and call some of my contacts."
"Like who"
"Marcus Cote, he's an up-and-coming archeologist I work with. Maybe-"
"Marcus doesn't have your experience. How many lost cities have you found?"
"Oh, I'd say about-"
"If we want to save Professor Harvey, we need each other. Only I know all the locations of the temples Harvey was figging through and I know the exact coordinates of where he vanished. Not only that. But you're the only one who can bring him back. You found the iron gauntlets where Harvey failed. You threw your grappling hook before the ice statue's hands broke away. This isn't your first rodeo; only you can do this."
Damn it, why did he have to have a point? "I don't know, I-"
"You owe him, Cassie."
Cassie wanted to continue to argue because she knew that she was losing. A lot of questions were rummaging in her head, getting jumbled and lost in her thoughts that she couldn't concentrate. Yes, she should save Professor Harvey but she should also be there for her son. She barely survived that attack on those two Overlord assassins and things were looking somewhat grim.
Compared to everyone around her, no one had as much experience as she did in treasure hunting aside from her husband but he was busy watching her son. Nope, she would not trade places with Derek in this adventure; Evan needs at least one living parent.
And Professor Harvey… if she abandoned him, knowing full well that she could've saved him…
Goddamn it.
Cassie sighs. "Damn it. Well, yeah, I owe him for giving me all those As on my report cards."
"Dman right," Joshua clicked his tongue. "I was a pretty average student in school but good for you."
Cassie sighed heavily and rested her head against the window beside her. She chuckled before turning to Joshua. "You know, I can't help but recall you said you'd elaborate on yourself if we survive the first ice temple."
Joshua kept his gaze looking ahead. "I guess I did, didn't I?" He laughed.
Cassie flinches. How rare it is for Joshua to laugh. Or smile. Or chuckle. Or do anything with a non-blank expression on his face.
XXXX
March 2032
The Bermuda Triangle
Joshua was feeling slightly uneasy when Erkin started the boat up. Aside from him being on the speed boat, there was Erkin at the wheel and Erkin's siblings, Sergei, Viktor, Anya, and his father aboard.
Joshua held onto the railing as the boat took off and he held on for his literal life.
Erkin's father took over driving the boat so Erkin moved over to Joshua's side to comfort him on his subtle anxiety trip.
After driving for about ten minutes out in the open ocean, they finally come to a stop in the middle of nowhere and everyone starts settling in for a fishing trip.
With Erkin's family being distracted by throwing fishing lines out, Erkin and Joshua stood by each other, looking out into the open sea.
"Wow," Erkin marveled. "Look at this place. Look how beautiful this ocean is. It's like a goddamn Pablo Picasso."
"Bob Ross," Joshua replied, his English accent thick.
"Eh, his paintings are a little too, mountain-y for me. I'm sure you understand."
Joshua refrained from looking out into the ocean.
"What's wrong, pal?"
Joshua gulped. "I am terrified of the open ocean." He closes his eyes. "Just, being in the water, surrounded by absolutely nothing with God-knows-what's down there. I just can't shake the idea."
"Hey, I understand." Erkin laughed. "If it makes you feel any better, I have a fear of heights."
Joshua looked at him. "What's not to like about heights?"
"What's not to like about the open ocean, pal?" He spreads his arms out like an eagle. "Just like at this place? Peace, serenity, as far as the eye can see. You think of all the sea monsters that can be lurking in the abyss, I'm thinking of all the treasures I can find. Pirate treasure, UFOs crashed here, and maybe even Atlantis." He took a deep breath. "And the best part, just me, alone with my thoughts. The cool breeze, the cool water, and the occasional call of birds." He noticed that Joshua still refrained from looking at him. "I understand that you're a little afraid of the open ocean but you know what, my papa always said face your fears head-on." He patted Joshua on the back. "Let's turn this fishing trip into a scuba diving trip."
"No," Joshua refused.
"Fly guy, you're enlisting in the Royal Air Force in three weeks, right? They're probably gonna force you to dive in the open ocean to help you get over your fear." He put his hand on his chest. "Dive with me and we can get the fear out of the way already. I'll dive with you and if you want, I'll even hold your hand."
Joshua looks away to cover the blush creeping up on him.
Not refusing, Joshua and Erkin are dressed in their scuba diving gear before they submerge themselves underwater.
They were wearing the type of masks they could talk into and communicate with each other.
Joshua was wearing a yellow scuba diving outfit while Erkin was wearing a blue one.
As soon as Joshua felt himself sink underwater, he immediately looked around, his pulse flaring up and his arms suddenly wrapping around Erkin's shoulders.
"Relax," Erkin reassured him. "I'm here for you, man." Erkin gave Joshua a hug. "I'm here for you, man, and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon."
Joshua's breathing picked up but it reached a somewhat stable level after feeling himself wrap around Erkin's shoulders for a short time. When he looked around in the abyss of nothingness called the ocean, his hearing was ambushed by the sounds of water breaking around him.
When he looked above him, he could see the sun reflecting off the surface. When he looked below him, he saw darkness. When he looked to the left or right, he saw blue as far as the eye could see. No reefs, no fish, no life, absolutely nothing.
Erkin stroked the back of Joshua's head, his hands caressing his hair softly, prompting Joshua to look up at him.
It was just the two of them, he realized. Just the two of them. No parents, no siblings, no stress, just him and Erkin, floating together in the ocean, clinging tightly to each other and listening to the beat of each other's heartbeats.
Strangely, when Joshua looked into the eyes of Erkin, all worries around him being in the open ocean suddenly vanished. He felt like he could take on the world by himself and he was free to do whatever he want and he never noticed how beautiful Erkin looked before him.
"See," Erkin said, "I told you: beautiful."
"Beautiful."
Joshua took a deep breath and removed his mask. Erkin copied him and removed his mask.
Joshua grabs the locks in Erkin's hair and slowly pulls him in for a kiss.
XXXX
"Aww, how romantic," Cassie cooed. "So…"
"Yep," Joshua confirmed. "Erkin and I took a dive and shared our first kiss together underwater. I was sixteen turning seventeen at the time and Erkin was around fifteen."
"How did you from getting over your fear of the ocean to going back to being afraid of the ocean?"
"Well, I'm still afraid of the ocean but I've always felt safe when around Erkin. I feel like I could conquer the world with him around. But I will tell you one thing: my irrational fear of the open ocean was not so irrational after all."
"Why?"
"Your Atlantis adventure? Erkin told me all about it."
Oh, the Megalodon. "Well, sorry for turning your irrational fear into a rational fear. But there is one thing I'm curious about: If you're afraid of the ocean and Erkin is afraid of heights, how are you guys compatible?"
"We help each other get over our fears, if only temporarily. I will be at peace underwater with Erkin and he feels safe with me on an airplane."
"Good for you." Cassie smiles and sinks into her seat. "If there's one thing I learned about love, it's that everyone has their own strength and weakness but we chose our partners because they have qualities we wish we had."
"Very insightful, Dr. Drake."
Cassie groans. "Please don't call me 'Dr. Drake', it does not have a nice ring to it."
"What's the point of having a Ph.D. if you have no intention of calling yourself a doctor?"
"Different strokes for different folks."
He shrugs. "If you say so."
Cassie looks at her watch. "Only a few more hours until we get to Iceland."
Chapter 6: Prince of Overlord
They may have been down by two men but the latest assassin had done his job. He managed to put a tracker on the airplane being used by Cassie Drake and Joshua Hale. That's why North and Mike were on an international plane flying from China to Iceland at the moment.
Boukman and Jose may have died but North will make sure that their deaths will not be in vain.
Sitting in an aisle seat on the plane, North pulled out a lunch box he packed with him and made prepped himself for the meal of his life. His lunch box included a sub sandwich loaded with meat, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and various condiments like ketchup, mustard, relish, and mayonnaise. As for sides, he had a salad dressing with a thermos of warm tea. A second container he had on him contained chicken soup of the ramen variety.
As North began to dig into his food, a boy beside him looked at him. North looked at the boy and smiled. "Hi."
"Hi," the boy said nervously.
The boy looked to be around the age of eight and had short brown hair. He was not Chinese which lead to North believing that he was going on vacation with his parents, considering the flight he was on left from the Canadian airport.
"How did you get those burns on your hand?"
North looked down to where the boy was pointing. The sleeves on Norht's hand climbed up to his forearm so that the skin grafts on the back of his hand and wrist were visible. North looked at the boy and noticed that the boy had some skin grafts on the left side of his face. He smiled.
"I got it on one of my missions."
"Your missions?" the boy wondered.
"Yeah, you see, I'm a knight. I'm a knight who rides a horse to fight his enemies."
"That's cool," the boy smiled. "Where's your horse?"
"Sadly, I had to leave it behind."
"Are you from Europe?"
North clicked his tongue. "Not exactly."
"What kingdom are you from?"
"Uh…. well…" He shook his head. "It's better if I tell you a tale since we still got an hour or so left on this flight." He sat back in his seat and made sure his lunch box was sitting still on the tray.
"Once upon a time, there was a knight in shining armor named Prince Jeremiah. He was born in the United States but raised in Poland. One night, when Prince Jeremiah was twenty years old, he got married to a princess named Wislawa and lived happily for three years. One night, bandits raided the home where Jeremiah and Wislawa were sleeping and a fire broke out.
"Prince Jeremiah was burned alive in his bed but he managed to survive with the left side of his body burned off. But as for Wislawa, she did not make it for the black smoke proved to be far more dangerous than flames. After Prince Jeremiah was saved, he found out that Wislawa was pregnant and the baby died in her tummy along with Wislawa. Prince Jeremiah was devastated because the arson bandits were released because of a deal they made with the police.
"Prince Jeremiah sought to get justice but was unable to. Until the kingdom of Over… uh… Over… Overload. The Kingdom of Overload brought him in and trained him. Prince Jeremiah became a knight in shining armor, riding a white stallion, and wielding a sword as he slayed the bandits and police that took his wife and unborn away from him."
North ahead. "Unfortunately, had Prince Jeremiah just stopped right there, all would be well. For the next several years, he would undergo secret operations, killing and slaying evil people off the record without the king of Overload's permission. When the king of Overload found out, Prince Jeremiah was punished. He was on his way to being Code: Blacked and he would've been Code: Blacked, had it not been for the fact that he was the best assassin Overload had to end. As a result, he was excommunicated indefinitely and is currently awaiting to be reinstated into Overload, despite knowing that he'll never be reinstated. He understands that Overload is keeping them alive and once they finish training the next generations of assassins, Prince Jeremiah will be useless and assassinated."
"I don't know what Code: Black means," the boy told.
"Good."
After he finished telling the tale, the boy got bored and went to sleep in his seat.
North stood up and tugged Mike out of his seat beside him. Ignoring the glances of the people around them, north helped Mike tuck his shirt in.
"How many times do we have to do this?" North scolded. "Me, dressing you up; do you not know how to tuck in your shirt?"
"I do." Mike smiled. "But I keep messing up."
"What kind of logic is that?"
North finished tugging on Mike's shirt before Mike flexed his shoulders and ran his hands down his shirt. "Thank you for fixing up my shirt."
"Did your father ever teach you how to dress up?"
"I like it when you dress me up." He smiled softly.
"Sure," North said. "Whatever you say."
"Just wait. The next time I get dressed up, you'll be proud of how I tuck in my shirt." To prove his point, he began buttoning up his shirt one button by one and he zipped up his jacket. He pulled the collars on his shirt up before North reached out and pushed the collars down.
"I'll hold you to it." He grasped Mike's shoulder but relented from digging too much force into his shoulders. "Just… try not to get your shirt dirty on our next adventure."
"No problemo."
Mike sat down in his seat and took out his lunch box. As he was rummaging through, he looked a bit lost, almost like he forgot something. "Do you have any soup on you?"
"Of course." North sat down and pulled out a spare container of soup. "It's chowder; your favorite."
Mike took the container with a grateful smile on his face. "Thank you, Jer."
"Anything for you, Dean."
Chapter 7: Old Cave
Iceland
After Joshua finished his flight, the duo finally landed at an airport in Reykjavik where they rented a truck fitted for traveling in the snow and Joshua drove them to the destination in which Professor Harvey's latest failed archeology excavation was. As they were driving in the snow, Cassie sat in the passenger seat, coughing as she looked out the window. She was definitely in familiar territory, the territory she hadn't been into since 2033 a little over six years ago. Oh, how times have changed?
However, the coughing didn't bother her as much as it did when she realized that they were driving to a familiar landscape filled with caves and chasms.
Cassie's face flushes red when she realizes that she was standing in front of the very same cave that she and Derek got naked in. Joshua noticed and furrowed his brows.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
Of all places she had to be, it was the cave where she and Derek stripped their clothes off. Realizing that this place had been excavated by archaeologists made her feel violated like everyone in the world knew this is the place where she and Derek got naked.
"Just cold," she added to her excuse.
They walked into the cave and much to Cassie's further embarrassment, she spotted the place she and Derek were sitting at. She blocked the moment out of her head and instead focused on something else.
She remembers it raining when she took refuge in this cave. Rain, in Iceland.
Maybe Thor had a hand in making it rain and lightning that fateful night.
Joshua lead her through the cave, taking her to places she didn't have the chance to back then. She never realized how big this cave was until she was actually inside. She licked her lips and anxiously ran a hand through her hair before coughing.
There was another ice wall for them to climb except there was no gap for them to jump across. The two friends simply stabbed their ice axes into the wall and climbed up. Cassie reached the top first and helped pull Joshua up.
They shined their flashlights to light up their path and began moving forward. Cassie nearly lost her balance when some walkways gave way and fell into a chasm but she managed to secure herself. They shimmied across a narrow walkway against the wall before they found several more ice statues, each one with their hands held out and palms open.
"Ooh," Cassie smiled, "more ice statues." She looked to her right and saw what looked like, what could only be described as, paintings on the wall that had been covered with ice.
Cassie shines her light on the wall and realizes these paintings were indeed some kind of ancient paintings of Norse gods with Old Norse writing. She uses her ice pick to dig and un-ice the paintings and when the ice gave away, she had a clear view of the painting and the image it transcribed.
"Look," she pointed. "It looks like Thor picking up the hammer."
She noticed something about Thor. "Huh, he doesn't look like a human being."
"Deities are supposed to be larger than life," Joshua figured, "so, obviously, they wouldn't look like humans." He tilted his head. "Then again, I-"
"Also, Thor is pulling at the hammer while wearing the gloves." She pointed to the painting. "See."
"Yep."
"Okay then, so if Thor's hammer is in this cave when we pick it up, it has to be with the iron gloves. Or titanium gloves as we just discovered."
"You better start monkey around on these statues."
Cassie put her angle head flashlight in her front pocket to help her navigate the cave. Like the last cave, there was a chasm but she could see the bottom and a simple fall of rock from below her took at least eight seconds before it struck rock bottom.
Cassie spends twenty minutes climbing to each ice statue's hand only to find nothing. However, when she climbed the ice statue that was stationed at the very top of the cage, she discovered a lever of some kind stuck to the wall.
The lever, covered in ice, prompted her to be very careful in touching for she didn't want to feel the pain of the ice cold. She pulled the lever down and a large clanking sound shook the room. All of a sudden, a circle in the ceiling began to descend into the depths of the cave being supported by chains made of titanium. It was an elevator.
Cassie sprinted for it and jumped on the descending elevator just as it passed and she was then lowered into the chasm. Cassie took out her walkie-talkie to radio Joshua. She told Joshua that she may need some help getting out so she had Joshua climb up to the ice statue and pull the lever when she was ready.
When the elevator finally reached the bottom, Cassie was surrounded by darkness. She took out her angle head flashlight and shined it all around her. Surely, there was nothing but rocks below but there was a glint that made her do a double-take.
Something was sticking out of the ground, something made of metal with a wooden hilt that was sticking up.
Cassie steps off of the elevator and carefully walks over to the device and sure enough, Cassie's eyes went wide.
Thor's hammer looked nothing like it did in the Marvel movies. The very hammer had a solid rectangular shape with old Norse writing on both the front and back and a hilt that was about two feet long and made of titanium but had been painted brown.
Cassie took out the iron gloves, fitted them on, and discovered that they might have been slightly too big for her hands to fit through completely but she decided she'll worry about that later.
She grabs the hammer by the hilt and carefully lifts it up. Unsurprisingly, the hammer was heavy, weighing about sixty pounds. Cassie struggled just to lift it from her stomach level and she nearly gave out when she started coughing again. SHe pulled through and kept a firm grip on the handle and took the time to revel in the fact she was carrying Thor's hammer.
She. Was carrying. Thor's. Hammer!
Chapter 8: Worst Elevator Ride
When it was time for her to come back up, she climbed back on the elevator and radioed for Joshua to pull the lever and carry her back up. As she nearly lost her balance when the elevator suddenly started going up, she realized something she hadn't.
There was no opening for the elevator in the ceiling. The elevator just descended down from the ceiling, only going down to the chasm, no entrance or exit once it reached the top, only the ceiling. When she realized this, she panicked slightly.
Oh crap, she mentally cursed at herself. I did NOT think this through.
She jumped onto the elevator from the ice statue's hand but jumping back on while holding onto something that weight sixty pounds would not be an easy task. That's when an idea came to her.
"Joshie," she spoke into the radio. "Just before I get to the very top of the ceiling, pull the lever and lower me down."
"No problem," Joshua replied.
Once Cassie was halfway at the top, Joshua prepared to lower the elevator by keeping his hand on the lever but that's when-
BANG!
Joshua is shot in the hand by an unseen force and his hand flies off the lever.
Cassie looks down and spots a human-shaped figure standing near the ice paintings from earlier. Based on the jacket the figure was wearing, it was another overlord assassin.
Cassie drew her gun and fired at the person.
Mike flinched and returned fire at Cassie.
Cassie, realizing that she was getting closer and closer to benign smushed against the ceiling, quickly threw the hammer over the edge and watched it fall on the ice statue Joshua resided on.
Joshua used his uninjured hand to pull the lever, making the elevator descend and save Cassie's life.
Cassie quickly reloaded her gun as the assassin opened fire on her. When his pistol ran dry, Cassie was going to use this opportunity to jump off the elevator, before Mike quickly switched to an Uzi and sprayed Cassie with bullets.
The elevator was high enough to give Cassie some cover but she still felt the bullets rush past her, prompting her to back away to take cover. She was still reloading and by the time she slapped a new magazine in, Mike finished reloading his Uzi and sprayed Cassie with more bullets.
Realizing that the lower the elevator descended, the less cover she got, Joshua quickly pushed the lever up, making the elevator ascend once more.
"Worse elevator ride of my life!" Cassie screamed. She coughed once more.
Mike was carrying a sniper rifle on him and he quickly unholstered it from his shoulder and took aim. The .50 caliber bullet of his Barrett M82 hit one of the four chains holding the elevator. The chain broke off and made the elevator wobble.
Cassie had flinched like she was having a heart attack when she heard that sniper round go off years of experience told her what kind of gun it was and given how the elevator chains were being shot off, she had an idea of Mike's plan.
With the elevator still going up, the second chain was shot off, making the elevator come loose and dangle at a ninety-degree angle. The only thing keeping the elevator from falling all the way down were the last two chains that Mike was going to shoot off.
The good news was, she was behind dangling from the side of the elevator that was not in Mike's sight so she had the perfect cover.
Joshua quickly pulled on the lever once more, hoping by the time it reached the bottom, Cassie wouldn't fall and break her neck.
Cassie saved herself from sliding off by stabbing an ice axe into the center of the elevator, which seemed to work since it was covered in frozen ice. She quickly uncoiled her grappling hook and with one hand, wrapped her spare ice axe around it.
A third gunshot rang off and the third chain was shot off, making Cassie nearly lose her balance. She uses the grappling hook to pull herself to the top and she quickly launches it into the ice wall across from her. The ice axe connected to the end of her grappling hook digs deeply into the ice wall and she gives a quick tug to make sure it could support her weight.
The last chain was shot off by the heavy sniper rifle and plunged into the chasm. Cassie had already jumped off and she was swinging in the direction of the shooter. When she feels the grappling hook come loose, she fell and landed right on top of the assassin as he was about to fire his fifth shot.
She piledrives on him hard enough to bury him in the snow and make him fire off the sniper rifle on reflex.
Cassie feels snowfall on top of her head from above. She looks up to see that the sniper rifle fired a .50 caliber bullet into an ice statue positioned above her. The statue came loose and was about to fall and crush her. Cassie quickly dived out of the way, but Mike, however, wasn't so lucky.
The ground on which the ice statue fell gave way and plunged into the bottom of the chasm, leaving a big ravine behind. Cassie took a moment to catch her and pull herself to her feet.
"Death from above, pal."
She quickly climbs over to the ice statue where Joshua sat and gasped upon seeing his left arm bleed.
"This is nothing," he assures her. "I've been shot in the Italian Civil War before."
"I'm glad you're okay," she sighed with relief. She looks at the hammer. "Sorry if that hammer was of any inconvenience."
"It burned me," Joshua nearly shouted. "I grabbed that hammer by the handle and it burned me." He took off his glove to show a burn mark on the palm of his hand.
"Shit," Cassie cursed. She looks down at her iron gloves. "That must be why Thor used the gloves to lift the hammer; the hammer is made of some kind of material that burns human flesh and the gloves protect Thor's hand."
"Greek Norse mythology lesson. Now can we get out of here, please?"
"Yeah."
Cassie picked up the hammer and carefully lowered it down to the bottom using her grappling hook. She then helped lower Joshua to the ground.
Luck was on their side when the chasm created by the falling ice statue left a narrow walkway against the wall for them to shimmy across. It was difficult for Cassie for she had to carry sixty pounds in her hands as she walked across but they used the grappling hook to help steady her across.
When both people made it out, they ran for the exit, taking whatever route required them to climb the least and they made it out of the cave.
Back in the snowy wastelands, Joshua sighs heavily and points to the truck. "We got what we needed, now let's get out of here."
"Asgard," Cassie said loudly, panting. "We have all the 'passports' we need to get into Asgard. That means we can finally get into Asgard and save Professor Harvey."
"Yeah," Joshua panted. "As soon as I get my wounds patched up, I'm flying us to Greenland and then we can fly into the Northern lights."
"Can you imagine?" Cassie suddenly smiled. "Asgard, a lost city in the sky, being discovered by yours truly. I know that we're going to save Professor Harvey but I can't help but fathom the idea that… we're going to find a lost city in the sky."
"Believe what you want to believe; all I want is to get Professor Harvey back."
"Right," Cassie looked serious. "Let's go save Professor Harvey."
Unknown to the duo, hiding in the snow wearing a ghillie suit fitted for the snowy environment, was North.
Asgard? North thought. Asgard is REAL?!
Chapter 9: The Northern Lights
Greenland
The time has come for them to hurry up and finish this adventure. That's why one day passed and with the plane with a full tank of gas, it was ascending into the air, flying up to over a hundred thousand feet in the air.
Cassie and Joshua came equipped with oxygen masks and took deep breaths as the plane got closer and closer to the Northern lights. Cassie snapped a quick photo before pocketing her phone. She sat up and checked to make sure her oxygen mask was on correctly before she headed for the back of the plane to grab two parachutes. She put one before carrying the second one in her hand.
With Thor's belt around her waist, iron gloves on, and hammer in hand, Cassie felt like a Viking getting ready to go into battle and annihilate her enemies. She sat back down in the passenger seat and quickly looked over at Joshua.
"You remember the plan, right?" she asked aloud.
Joshua nodded. "Yeah. I fly you in, and once you get into Asgard, you save Professor Harvey before parachuting to safety." He looks at her. "Do you have the GPS trackers?"
Cassie checks her watch, which was a custom watch Joshua handed to her that would act as a beacon in case of emergencies. "It's all good and well."
"And you have your walkie-talkie with you?"
Cassie reached for the walkie-talkie at her belt. "Got it. Everything seems to be a-OK."
Cassie looked ahead and gave a surprised look when she saw that they were getting closer to the Northern Lights. It was almost like they were about to enter a portal to another world. She is restless, given that she's tapping her foot against the floor, but she felt her adrenaline pump inside her when she saw the fly right into the Northern Lights, kinda like a car into a car wash.
She was about to smile until she felt a blade touch her throat. "Oh, crap."
North grabbed the back of Cassie's head and tugged on her hair hard enough to make her wince. He holds the blade above her eye with steady hands like a surgeon. "If you try anything, I'll blind you in the left eye."
Cassie realized that he was holding two knives; one at her neck and the other over her left eye.
"Joshua," she called out, "thanks for the assist, buddy." She narrowed her eyes in confusion when she heard no response. "Joshua?"
She looks to her left and saw that Joshua had vanished from sight. What the hell? If Joshua's gone then does that mean…
"Joshua's still flying the plane," North reassured. "This lost city in the sky, I did some digging and some very interesting cases about people suddenly vanishing if they're holding something of Thor's arsenal."
"Cassie," she heard Joshua's voice but failed to spot him. "Where did you go?"
"Joshua, I'm over here!"
"Oh," North gasped, "it's an illusion. These Northern Lights create an illusion so we can't see each other. Because we're touching, we're able to see each. We can still hear each other but it seems-"
The side door suddenly burst open and a winged creature with pale skin, talons, and a deformed face flew in. Cassie and North gasped and jumped to their feet, North never letting go of touching Cassie. He holds one of his knives up as the creature approaches them.
"Graaghk-sokh-mnah!" the creature growled.
Before either person could comprehend this incomprehensible sentence, the winged monster lunged for Cassie and North and dragged them to the open door. The creature leaped outside, taking the two prisoners with them, and held them tightly against its chest as it began flying up in the air.
"So this is how it happens," Cassie gasped. "Abductors from above, kinda like aliens."
"These aren't aliens," North declared. "They look too human to be aliens." He gestures to the wings. "And if you look carefully, you can see that the creatures have the wings attached to them via straps rather than the wings sticking out of their back."
Cassie glared at the assassin. "Who the hell are you? Why did you attack me?!"
"Why, I'm an Overlord assassin, of course, the last of four men to kill you."
Cassie flipped him the bird. "I wanted to avoid acknowledging it for as long as possible but yeah, I got wind of three of your guys trying to kill me. Glad you got to see this beautiful bird's eye view."
North looked at the winged beast carrying them. "Isn't it weird that we're over here, chatting about killing each other then we're being abducted by some kind of winged monster?" He looked ahead. "To be taken to there?"
Cassie followed his gaze and her eyes widened in shock. "Is that…"
"Asgard," North whispered.
Floating thousands of feet above the air on what looked to be a helipad, was a small metropolis made of pure silver that caught the reflection of the moon. There were fans set up around every edge of the floating city generating colorful green smoke that was floating off into the air.
"Asgard," Cassie gasps. "A floating city in the sky."
"Those giant fans on the edge of the city must be releasing some kind of hallucinogen that causes people to mis-see things. It's how they've remained invisible to the naked eye."
"Wow, can you imagine how advanced their technology must be?"
"Yeah. Imagine what Overlord can do with that."
She glares at him. "Screw Overlord; I thought I was an Omega target but the fact that-"
"Oh you are, you selfish vain woman, you still are an Omega target."
They were getting closer and closer to the city with each passing second.
"All I wanted was to use my assassin skills for good, I still can do. But the Overlord leader, my Leader won't let me. He excommunicated me from Overlord but once I…" He smiled widely. "Once the Overlord leader sees what I've discovered, he's going to thank me for everything I've done."
"Sure…" Cassie hissed. She pulled out her gun. "But first of all…"
North drew his knife. "I have to survive."
"And the leader wouldn't like it if you killed an Omega target." She chambers a bullet.
"Yeah, my leader wouldn't." He brought his second knife up.
"Well, it looks, looks to me like this is a win-win situation. But only…"
"If we both…
"Survive."
Cassie and North attacked the winged beast carrying them just as it dropped them down on the city.
Chapter 10: City in the Sky
Cassie and North landed down on what they would assume is, the street, and they rolled away from the winged beast as it writhed in pain. Cassie got up to one knee, drew her gun, and open-fired on the beast. With the parachute around her inner elbow in her left arm and Thor's Hammer in her right arm, she was firing from her left hand at the creatures as they advanced on her.
More of those creatures were coming, only they weren't winged and were advancing toward them on their hands and knees. North charged for them and struck their weak points with both knives, namely their jugulars, and wrists. When Cassie ran dry of ammo, North took out a magazine from her his pocket and tossed it to her. She caught it in her arm and slapped the new magazine in.
"I've always preferred knives when I kill," North declared, "much more personal."
The creatures were advancing on them and North had already slain about six of them. Cassie dropped the hammer and now had both hands free to shoot and reload. After she killed about a dozen of these beasts, the first wave of attacks came to an end with Cassie and North standing as the victors.
Cassie suddenly coughed, which caught North's attention. Cassie aimed he gun in his direction. North drew his knife back, ready to throw it. Cassie fired and North chucked the knife. The beasts standing behind Cassie and North went down almost instantly. Cassie took back North's knife and tossed it to him.
"Good aim," North praised.
"Touche," Cassie clicked her tongue.
The two nodded to each other. Cassie reloaded her now empty gun and watched as North discarded the knife that already became dull. The two of them continued forward with Cassie picking up the hammer and taking it with her.
"I see experience has taught you well, Cassie Drake."
"Same to you, North." She looked around the empty streets for any more beasts. "Imagine what you could do as a soldier with those knife-fighting skills of yours."
"And you with your treasure-hunting skills as an overlord soldier."
"Answer's still no."
"As much as I hate my Leader, my Leader gave me a home and a job."
"I have a family, something worth more than all the treasures in the world combined."
"Mike was my treasure," North hissed. "You killed my treasure in that cave."
"Self-defense."
"True. I miss tucking in his shirts and fixing his collar; it was one of the many things I enjoyed with him."
Cassie gives North a side glance. You're NEVER getting anything you want, Overlord scum. If you're going to use this technology here to take over the world, then I will happily destroy it and based on what I've seen, those fans seem to be the lifeline of this city, both on the edge and the ones on the bottom keeping the city afloat. Once I destroy those fans, this city will fall to the earth.
They moved into the center f the city where they came across several more of these Asgardian creatures. They took them down systematically and as a team. Cassie took out the ones coming in at a distance while North had the honors of slayings the ones that got too close to them.
After they slayed about three more waves of Asgardians, they came across an intersection of some kind with buildings standing tall around them.
"It's like Times Square," North remarked, noting all the shiny and bright lights on the buildings.
"We shouldn't stay here," Cassie warned, "a big place like this is bound to have an army of Asgardians."
Apparently, the dinner bell had been run because a large swarm of those Asgardians was heading in their direction. Cassie and North hid behind several columns and out of sight just before the swarm was on them. They moved back and stayed hidden in the shadows. They heard the soft clanking of metal beneath their feet and saw a manhole covered with bars beneath them. Also, they could see a glint of some kind coming from inside.
"Professor Harvey," she gaps upon recognizing the figure. She gently puts the hammer down and lifts the manhole cover. North took the cover and helped lower her down. It was a twelve foot tall but Cassie was able to have herself lowered down by a few feet before she dropped the rest of the way.
"Cassie," Professor Harvey gasped. He quickly hugs her. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you."
"Cassie to the rescue," she snarked. "Glad to know you're okay." She looks around and notices how small this underground pit was. She notices torn clothes on the ground. She takes off her oxygen mask, seeing she doesn't need it as Harvey was breathing fine without one. "Are these your clothes?"
He shook his head.
"Oh. Where's everyone else? What do they do with humans?"
Harvey turns pale. "You don't want to know."
Before the idea escapes her, she quickly asks the professor an important question. "Professor, how do I blow this place up? I intend to knock this place out of the sky and I need all the information I can get."
"Thor's Belt," he gasped. He pointed to the object around her waist. "Where's Thor's Hammer at?"
"It's up there on the surface with my companion."
"These beings, they are nothing like the Norse mythology figures. Whatever they are, they're humans, not aliens, but they do possess advanced technology. Technology that could practically help them build the pyramids. if this wasn't a life-or-death situation, then I'd suspect this civilization had a hand in building the pyramids."
He holds a finger up. "But I figured out what they're all about based on a couple of observations I've had in my few days captive here." He points to the belt. "Thor's belt isn't just a belt for a fashion statement; it holds batteries inside, batteries that power up the fans and keeps it floating. You see, this city is running on fumes at this point and they've been searching desperately for Thor's hammer."
Batteries? Cassie removes the cubes from Thor's Belt. Oh, these aren't breath mints, they're batteries. She pockets the batteries.
Professor Harvey continued, "Apparently, the main building in front of us, the brightest one, is actually the building that provides power to this floating city but the power control room or something is locked and the only way to unlock it is with Thor's hammer. My guess is that the reason these beings leave the belt or whatever object behind is to prompt the humans to find the rest of the artifacts." He sighs regretfully.
"God," Cassie gasps. "My companion traveling with me is an Overlord scumbag. As much as I don't want to, I'm going to take and gamble and try and convince him to cover you while I sneak into the building and figure out a way to turn off the power."
"Anything to knock this floating city out of the sky." She hands him the spare parachute and a spare GPS tracker. "When the city starts falling, jump off. When you get clear, pull the chute and Joshua will save you."
"Good ol' Joshua."
Cassie chambers her gun. "I'm going to create a distraction." She hands him a spare gun. "Defend yourself."
After Cassie went over the plan with him, Cassie threw her grappling hook up to North, who caught it and helped pull the professor out. After Cassie got out of the pit, she was going to pretend that her gun was going to go off but instead, she coughed and attracted the herd of Asgardians.
In all the chaos and confusion, Cassie took her gun, and the hammer, and shot her way through the crowd to make it to the building before her.
XXXX
"She really did it," North growled. He sliced the neck of the creature beside him. "Professor Harvey, I assume?"
"At your service." He shoots three creatures. "I could use some ammo in the future."
"I got plenty on me." He snaps the neck of another creature. "If you shoot me, your ammo merchant won't be getting you any more ammo."
He threw a knife at another incoming creature and began backing away. Harvey followed his example and looked to see Cassie had already gone and vanished.
"Where's Cassie Drake?" North wondered after stabbing a creature in the eye.
"Exploring?" He head-shotted one of the creatures.
North growled and continued to slash at the creatures. The creatures, while they may seem physically strong, were far more vulnerable than regular humans. but there were a lot of them and North's stamina was depleting with each thrust of the knife. Harvey's aim wasn't the best and he barely managed to nick the creatures most of the time but even a single nick was able to kill these creatures.
They've been up here for so long that even a single scratch is enough to kill them. With no durability or immunity to diseases, living in the sky made them far more vulnerable than any human on Earth.
The farther away they backed from the crowd, the closer they got to the edge. North suddenly became aware of the fact that Harvey had a parachute and he didn't. He growled and nearly reached out to snatch it but a creature snuck up on him, forcing him to push it back before slitting his throat and in the process, breaking his knife at the halfway point.
"Shit," he cursed.
When Harvey ran dry of ammo, North reached to toss him more, only to find out he was out of magazines.
"Thank you," Harvey said to the assassin before rotating on his heels and jumping over the edge.
All alone and with no backup to assist him, North gave it his all with all the knives he still had on hand but they all ran dull and he was left with only one. Once his last knife broke off, North used his hands to snap as many necks as possible but even that zapped a lot of energy and stamina from him.
only three feet away from the edge, he gritted his teeth and looked desperately at the tall building before him, suddenly wanting to reach out and ask God if he could see Dean one last time.
The lights went out.
The only sound North could hear was the wind when the fans from the edge of the city and blow suddenly stop spinning. That's when he felt weightless and began floating in the air. The city dropped out of the sky completely with the tallest building leaning forward and crashing into the ground, causing the entire city to crumble apart. North jumped off the falling city at the very last second and was left thrashing through the air as he plunged to the earth.
using his skydiving training, he flies as far away as he could from the collapsing city and looks ahead for something to climb on. If Harvey jumped off first then he'll definitely have deployed his chute.
He didn't find Harvey in the chaos of falling debris but he did see another parachute falling just ten feet away from him. He knew it was a parachute because it had the same color scheme as Cassie's parachute.
He flew as fast as he could towards the parachute, reached out a hand to grab it when-
Cassie snatches the parachute at the very last second and quickly puts it on.
No, not like this!
He grabs onto Cassie's legs and holds on as tight as he could. Cassie reaches for the pin and quickly yanks it. The sudden stop was too much for him, even when he held on tight, and his fingers just slipped from her leg.
XXXX
She didn't know what prompted her to reach out at the last second to grab onto North's hand but for whatever reason, she wasn't fast enough as the chute finally deployed. When she saw the falling assassin reach out a hand for her to grab, Cassie felt a pang in her stomach that nearly made her tear up. She had no idea what it was; she's killed and felt remorse before but never like this.
She wanted to look away but felt like she owed it to North, the Overlord assassin who, despite trying to kill her, helped give her a fighting chance against the Asgardians. That's why she didn't close her eyes and turn away, even when North's body disappeared into the clouds below.
Three minutes. So little time but such an eternity.
Epilogue
According to plan, Joshua tracked Harvey and Cassie on GPS and used a grappling hook from the plane to snag them while they were floating down from the parachutes. They were reeled into the plane after discarding their parachutes and the two finally had a chance to catch their breath.
Cassie opted to sit in the back of the plane while Harvey took this opportunity to greet Joshua.
"It's nice to see you again, Joshua," Professor Harvey said with a smile.
Joshua looked over his shoulder but maintained his eyes forward. "Thank you. And I'm glad you're still alive."
"Joshua helped a lot in this adventure," Cassie proclaimed. "If not for him, you probably would've been dead."
"By these 'Asgadians'," Joshua choked. "This is yet again, another lost city I didn't get to see."
"Be grateful that you didn't see." He rests his hand on the wall beside him.
"Where's the hammer and everything else?"
Cassie looked down at the ground. "When I found the power room, I had to put the hammer against a panel to unlock the power room. After that, all I did was overload the generators by inserting one too many batteries into their system. The lights went out rather quickly and I had to leave the hammer behind. When I got trapped between doors, I had to remove my parachute to free myself when the floating city suddenly came falling. Thor's hammer, belt, and gloves were left behind and have been lost with this city."
"Chances are, it'll plunge into the ocean and be lost forever," Joshua said. "No more lost cities in the sky on this one."
"Yeah." Cassie pants and covers her mouth with her fist as she coughs three times. "Can you take us home now, Joshua?"
"Aye-aye, captain."
Harvey approached Cassie. "Thank you both so much for saving my life."
Cassie coughs once more. "Anything for you, teach."
Cassie looks out the window beside her and stares at the Northern Lights, the ones not caused by powerful fans.
No matter how I look at it, I'm never going to escape this life. I want nothing more than to escape it but at the same time, I thoroughly enjoyed this adventure; the dangers were thrilling. But after seeing North plunge to his death, the only face I could see was Evan.
I am so grateful to be alive and to have won. I am so glad I saved my professor's life. And I can't wait to see my baby boy once again.
Oh man, I can't WAIT to tell Derek about this adventure.
XXXX
Serbia
No matter where he tried to go, there was no denying the fact: Richard was surrounded by those he once considered his teammates. Richard couldn't see any way out of the warehouse with all the Overlord soldiers surrounding him and once he saw the Overlord Leader with his own eyes in the flesh, standing before him, he knew further resistance was futile.
The Overlord Leader approached Richard and stopped short of ten feet from him.
"We lost many good men because of you," Overlord Leader Vale declared. "I was about to lift the four-man assassins' excommunicate status when you just had to go and recruit them to kill a high-value target that was off-limits." He smiles. "But as I always knew, Cassie Drake would make it out alive. I didn't want to kill you but-"
Richard lunged for the leader. Vale kicked Richard in the stomach, slowing him in his tracks before grabbing him and flipping him over his waist. Richard throws a fist at him, only for Vale to parry out of the way and drag Richard to his feet and plunge his fist into his stomach. Richard tries for a knee attack when Vale blocks the kicks with his elbows and bodyslams Richard.
Richard goes to sweep at his legs but Vale had already lifted his feet into the air and does a backflip before landing on his back with his boot coming down Richard's gut. With Richard still, on the floor, he climbs on top of him and plunges another fist into his face repeatedly until his front teeth fall out.
"Damn it," Vale cursed. "What an ugly site." Vale picks himself off of Richard before taking a rag out of his pocket and cleaning his hand with it.
"I really didn't want to do this but if you had beaten me then I would've let you go." He draws a Beretta 92FS. "I hope you go to Heaven when you die." He shoots Richard in the head.
Vale tucks his gun away and begins tugging on the cuff links on his wrist. He licks his lips before looking over his shoulder where his companions, Vasily, and Alexa were looking at him.
"Never one to disappoint, Eric," Alexa praised.
"I'm rusty," Vale scoffed.
"A rusty knife is still a dangerous knife," Vasily claimed.
"We lost our four best assassins," Vale declared. "Our population is dwindling." He tugs on the collars of his suit. "I'm afraid with my new job, I will be away from Overlord headquarters from now on."
"We figured," Alexa shrugged, "it would be very odd if the newly elected president of the United States suddenly had a lot of free time."
"Overlord is a global terrorist group and we will not take advantage of our numbers. In the meantime, while Vasily and I play president with the two superpowers of this world, Alexa will act as the face of the Overlord in my place."
Making sure that all blood was off of him, he turned to one of the soldiers in the warehouse with him. "I would like to broadcast a message to all my Overlord employees."
The soldier nodded before she took out a laptop from her backpack, set it up, and had a live stream chat with the camera turned off go live across the world.
Vale cleared his throat before he spoke into the mic, which had a filter to change his voice.
"Hello, my fellow loyal Overlord employees, as always, it is an honor to talk to each and every one of you." He smacks his lips. "I'm afraid I have some bad news. With the new president of the United States, Eric Vale…" he smiled mischievously, "and Russian President Vasily Orlov…" he looks at Vasily, "working with Overlord personally, it means that we're running on a tight schedule." His smile remained on his face. "The president can only be president for two terms max but I know for a fact with a large number of you people voting on my behalf, we can have anyone we want to be president twice so make sure for the next election, vote for Eric Vale."
He stands up straight. "The good news woven in with the bad news, however, is that with the president of the two superpowers on our side, we have access to the entire armed forces of both America and Russia." He laughed. "We have access to the two most powerful countries in the world from both the inside and outside but only for eight years. This means we have a short timeframe to complete our mission.
"If we want to make this world a better place then we have eight years to do so. We have until 2048 to take over the world. It may not seem like a long time but do know this: I've seen the future and we find what we're looking for.'
He leans closer to the microphone. "To all Overlord soldiers listening in, if your serial number starts with a 5, you are about to become active. If your serial number starts with a 6, you are about to become active. Overlord soldiers with serial numbers starting with 7 and 8, enjoy the rest of your time off because the heavy work starts now."
He sends a text message out and waits thirteen seconds later before a reply comes back.
CONFIRMED: Overlord agents active in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica.
Vale smiles once more and pockets his phone. "My fellow Overlord employees, stay calm and wait patiently for your new worders. If you're ever having doubts, remember what our goals are and the kind of people we are, and the kind of people we save. Stay calm and we will prevail. With that being said, I only have one message to relay to you all."
He leaned as closed as he could to the mic.
"Let's take over the world."
The End of Chapter 14
