CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVEN

The Fast and the Ferocious, Part 2

Sam, Thunder, and Jackboot got back into the bus at Farsight’s request because she didn’t need them falling off while she drove the bus off the edge of Ares’ Sacred Grove and back to their world. Dr. Hearthstone was already strapped to his seat in the living area. He was nursing a hot drink in his hands.

“I brewed coffee for everyone,” he said, and then offered Thunder a cup.

“Thanks, doc,” she said.

As she took her seat next to him, Thunder sipped on her cup, which was when her eyes widened slightly.

“That bad?” Sam whispered into her ear.

“Kind of spicy but really tasty,” she replied.

“Special blend,” Dr. Hearthstone grinned. “Grounded Chilean beans mixed with high-grade cardamom powder and half-moon ginger from the gardens of Priapos.”

“Priapos,” Sam repeated, recalling the name of the Olympian god of gardens just before his eyes widened too. “Didn’t the vegetables grown on the Priapus Farm in Kansas have special properties?”

“Taste it,” Thunder said as she passed him her cup.

A single gulp was all it took for a notification to appear in the air. [ALERT! [Dr. Hearthstone’s Special Coffee Blend] has invigorated your body, lessening your fatigue from [65%] to [30%].]

“Wow,” Sam smiled, “I could get used to this.”

“Glad you’re all enjoying this lull in hostilities”—Farsight’s eyes were rolling at them from the rearview mirror—“but you all better get strapped in… It’s about to get bumpy.”

“Is it just me or does that dimensional wall look alarmingly solid?” Jackboot asked from his seat behind Farsight’s cockpit.

“The dragon got through it easily enough,” Dr. Hearthstone replied.

Medea’s solar dragon had plunged through the dark red membrane with just the barest hint of a struggle. As if the wall between dimensions had tried but failed to keep the horror from punching a hole through it.

“It’s a dragon… they’re extremely fast,” Jackboot replied.

Farsight glanced over her shoulder to spare him a toothy grin before her rejoinder of, “We can go really fast too, Jack.”

She flicked the switch on the dashboard labeled [BOOST] while Jackboot cursed, “Bloody Duat…”

His hands quickly found the edge of his seat. While beside him, Sam’s and Thunder’s arms linked together. The pair gave each other worried looks a millisecond before they all felt the Argo VII’s undercarriage rumbling. Then they were all forced to sink into their seats as the school bus flew across the edge of the grove and smashed into the glassy membrane that separated the divine from the mortal plane.

“It’s not—working!” Sam yelled.

The membrane held onto the Argo VII’s front like sticky glue, trapping the bus in its reddish, glassy folds.

“Yes”—Farsight pushed another button; a bright green one labeled [FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY]—“it will!”

Emerald flames burst out of the Argo VII’s front bumper, enveloping their windshield in bright green hues of fire that exuded such intense heat that they could all feel it within the interior of their bus.

“This is insane—”

With the sound of glass shattering into thousands of tiny shards, the membrane-like wall finally gave way to the Argo VII’s determined charge, sending the bus and its inhabitants plunging into a near pitch-black void lit only by the distant stars wheeling around it. After its inhabitants experienced a brief feeling of weightlessness, the Argo VII was suddenly crashing back onto solid ground with only thick fog ahead of it.

Through all of that strangeness, Sam and Thunder had found comfort in each other’s arms. Although they were quick to disentangle from each other once they realized that the danger had passed and both their cheeks flared red immediately afterward.

“What’s wrong with you two?” Jackboot asked as he glanced between them.

“Nothing,” Thunder said quickly. She noticed something strange about her friend and couldn’t help but stare. “Jack… you took your mask off?”

“Wouldn’t make sense to barf into it,” he explained. Then adding, “Excuse me,” he hurled the contents of his stomach into the duffel bag lying on the floor.

“Um, dude”—Sam raised an eyebrow at Jackboot’s back—“that bag’s not empty…what’s left of Ash’s vials are in there.”

“Welp, not using them anymore,” Farsight replied in a disgusted tone. “We’re home by the way.”

As the fog cleared before them, the crew of the Argo VII let out a collective sigh of relief at the sight of the tall red arches of the Golden Gate Bridge. However, a new dilemma lay before them. A pileup of cars on their side of the bridge led back to San Francisco City beginning about ten yards from where the bus idled to stretch the entire length of the bridge.

“Now what do we do?” Sam asked worriedly.

Many of the drivers and passengers had hurriedly fled their vehicles, possibly out of fear of the golden-scaled dragon soaring low over the bridge.

“Can’t really blame them… In this day and age, a dragon’s a rare and frightening sight to see,” Thunder said as her gaze fixed on the horror in the sky.

“Definite omens of doom and gloom,” Jackboot agreed.

“Ash…” Sam began, but Farsight was quick to cut him off with, “Follow that dragon, right?”

Sam could see the seer chuckle at him from the rear-view mirror, which was when he realized that she’d been intentionally stealing that line he wanted to say himself.

“Guess no one’s going to complain if we take the scenic route,” Farsight added.

The only way for the Argo VII to chase after Medea’s solar dragon and avoid hitting the back of the minivan directly in front of them was to slide over to the opposite lane of the bridge which was less packed with cars. Farsight’s new dilemma, however, was avoiding the onrush of automobiles fleeing toward the Marin County end of the bridge behind them.

“Is it just me or are these vehicles trying to hit us?” Jackboot asked.

This came in response to the Camaro that just narrowly missed smashing into the Argo VII’s right front bumper.

“It’s natural for them to want to run away in the opposite direction of where the fire-breathing dragon is flying toward,” Farsight replied.

Thankfully, her probability powers made dodging and weaving out of oncoming traffic a manageable task. Things seemed to be going smoothly for the crew for once. That is until Jackboot once again tempted the Fates with, “At least we don’t have the Spartoi or that bloody Nemean Lion to worry about anymore.”

“Jack!” They all yelled.

“Oh, bloody Duat,” he sighed. “I just did it again, didn’t I?”

In almost comical fashion, as soon as Jackboot finished his lines, the bridge beneath them began to rumble.

Sam’s gaze snapped to the rear-view camera’s screen on the dashboard. “Maybe that was just an earthquake…”

Of course, it wasn’t just an earthquake. The screen proved that quickly enough when it captured the very moment the air behind them shattered into thousands of tiny shards big enough to create the interdimensional hole that could accommodate the size of the beast-like man that lumbered onto the Golden Gate Bridge.

“I didn’t know he could teleport,” Sam grumbled. “Styx… he can teleport?”

“There’s no teleportation gift registered to Apex on the Wardens database. That’s probably another villain’s ability,” Dr. Hearthstone answered.

“Great, now there’s a villain with a teleportation gift in Chimera’s roster of bad apples,” Jackboot sighed. “What an absolute waste of such a rare power.”

Apex let out a mighty inhuman roar, causing the vehicles racing toward the Argo VII to suddenly stop in their tracks. Unfortunately, the cars that had already passed their school bus were now under threat from the villain who seemed hellbent on causing as much collateral damage as possible while he chased after the Argo VII. That Camaro that nearly hit their bus was the first casualty. The car’s hood caved under Apex’s fists just before the descendant of Hercules swiped it out of the way, sending it hurtling into the traffic jam on the opposite side of the bridge. A school bus was also sent crashing halfway through the barrier that separated the bridge from the San Francisco Bay below. It dangled there precariously, and the kids inside it—the ones running to the rear of the bus—were screaming for help.

Thunder was already moving toward the door when she noticed that Sam hadn’t followed after her.

“We have to save them!” She insisted.

Sam knew Thunder was right, of course. However, as he gazed back at the dragon flying ahead of them, his eyes fixed on the teenage girl whose dark brown hair billowed in the wind, he couldn’t help but hesitate. His sister was moving further and further away from his reach, and the thought that he might never see her again kept his feet glued to the floor.

Then warmth, the kind that came from the touch of someone precious to him, brushed against Sam’s hand. “Sam,” Thunder called, her voice sympathetic, with her hand gently squeezing his.

“I know, I know… lesson number ten.” Sam gave the retreating dragon one last longing look, and then he sighed. “Ash… turn us around.”

“Already on it,” Farsight replied. “Best get ready, boys and girl… this is going to be our toughest battle yet.”

“Did your gift tell you that?” Dr. Hearthstone asked curiously.

“Don’t need my powers to know that bastard won’t go down easily, doc,” she replied.

It didn’t take long for the Argo VII to arrive at the area of the bridge where Apex waited. The villain knew that it didn’t need to chase after the heroes. He only needed to cause enough mayhem to send them running back to him.

“Are you sure you don’t need help distracting him?” Dr. Hearthstone asked while he hefted the first-aid bag over his shoulder.

Sam was too busy putting on the partially damaged Apollonian armor over his last spare suit to do anything more than nod. He was lucky Crow-Man had thought to supply them with the extra equipment. Otherwise, Sam would have had to face his ‘Third Labor’ with his right butt cheek visible for the world to see—and he was already far too embarrassed that Thunder and Farsight had seen it earlier.

“Alright. Thunder, Jackboot, and I will handle evacuating the civilians while Farsight provides you backup from inside the Argo VII,” Dr. Hearthstone reiterated the plan.

“Targeting systems are back online, but don’t expect anything big… we’ve depleted most of our ammo,” Farsight added.

“The flares will have to do,” Dr. Hearthstone said as he pulled open the door. Then the veteran hero glanced over his shoulder to ask Sam, “Keep him away from the civilians for as long as you can.”

“Don’t worry,” Sam said in as confident a tone as he could manage. “I’ve got this.”

Thunder, who was about to follow Dr. Hearthstone out of the door, gave Sam a heartfelt smile when she passed him by. “You always do. Now go be a hero.”