CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-EIGH

Death Valley, Part 1

“You heard me right, my Icicles,” Ice Brand was grinning widely at his floating camcorder, “I and my new crew are on a cool pursuit of the dragon that’s been sighted in the skies across America.”

“Shouldn’t it be hot pursuit?” Miracle Girl asked from off-camera.

The hero with the fluffy white hair glanced sideways at a frowning Miracle Girl and gestured for her to keep quiet.

“Now, I’m not allowed to talk specifics, because this is an ultra-secret mission…” He winked twice at the orb’s lens. “But I can tell you that this golden dragon that’s on the news was first seen in New York where—”

The people seated close to him all cleared their throats, with Miracle Girl smashing her fist against her palm for emphasis.

“Well, um, I hope you’re all excited about what’s coming… it’s going to be one Hel of a ride,” he emphasized the ‘Hel’ bit before directing the camcorder to swivel around the Argo VII’s living room compartment where everyone was gathered. “And we’ve got some seriously big guns for this mission… Say hi to Apollo’s number one seer—it’s Farsight!”

Yes, even Farsight was lounging in her Lazy Boy next to Sam and Thunder’s couch because the Argo VII two-point-oh had an autopilot feature for expansive freeway driving. She offered the camera the middle finger, prompting Ice Brand to call her out as the cool teenage rebel of the group.

“Moving on…” he said quickly and then directed his camera to pan to the right. “You’ve all heard of the rabbit man who’s rapidly rising in the U.S. hero charts… here’s Jackboot!”

“I’m not a rabbit man, mate,” Jackboot was fiddling with the goggles of his brand-new mask, “I’ve got the proportionate powers of a hare.”

“There’s a difference?” Farsight asked.

“Obviously,” Jackboot sighed. “They may look similar but they’re different species…”

Ice Brand cleared his throat. “By the way, your new look is way cool. Very shiny.”

He was referring to how the new suit Mr. Moonday made for Jackboot was now less spandex and more metallic body armor that still stuck to the contours of his form like his old suit did.

“It’s a little too shiny, isn’t it,” Jackboot replied distractedly because he was busy inspecting the silver bands around his wrists that morphed into the tonfas Mr. Moonday forged from a shard of ironbark taken from the missing Club of Heracles.

“Why are you even wearing your suit?” Farsight asked. “We’re not even there yet.”

“Ice Brand told us he was starting his stream and I didn’t want his fans to see me in my nickers, did I?” Jackboot countered.

“Were you in underwear before the stream started?” Miracle Girl teased.

“You know I wasn’t…” Jackboot worriedly looked at the floating camcorder. “I’m not some pervert… I just didn’t want you all to catch me in civies.”

“He could have just put on his mask then, couldn’t he?” Miracle Girl asked Farsight.

Farsight nodded. “Yep.”

Jackboot sighed. “Brilliant, it’s like Farsight’s got a twin now…”

“What do you call the new look, man?” Ice Brand asked. Not just for his viewers but also to save Jackboot from the team’s new terror twins.

“I reckon it should be—”

“The Iron Hare!” Farsight piped up, chuckling fiendishly afterward.

Revealing that to the hundreds of thousands of Ice Brand’s followers possibly made the name canon, making Jackboot sigh heavily behind his mask.

“And that’s an Icicle exclusive, folks,” Ice Brand chuckled. “By the way, thanks for the hundred drachma donation, Mr.Rabbit_Fettish69!”

“You earn a hundred drachmas from just that?” Sam asked perplexed.

The camcorder swiveled toward his voice, catching Sam and Thunder who were quick to let go of each other’s hands just before the lens caught them. Not that this mattered. The rumors of them dating were now rampant on both the internet and in the tabloids thanks to Warden Captain Malarkey’s vindictiveness.

After confirming Thunder’s alibi two days ago and losing credibility on his evidence of photos whose source none of his team could recall or find, the angry warden took his ire out on Sam and let it slip to the press that Herculean had spent the night in Thunder’s Upper East Side home.

Of course, neither Sam nor Thunder could confirm or deny anything as they were already on the road and chasing after Medea’s dragon as it journeyed into the western half of North America. Sam only hoped Sophie could deal with the mess they left back in New York.

“That’s right folks, Herculean and Thunder, New York’s newest power couple are leading this adventure into the unknown,” Ice Brand announced.

There was a brief pause with him quickly checking his tablet.

“Um…” Ice Brand glanced apologetically at Sam and Thunder. “My Icicles would like to know if the rumors about you two dating are—”

“Okay, that’s enough of that!” Miracle Girl jumped up from her seat and swatted the camcorder away from Sam’s and Thunder’s faces. “Turn that thing off so we can start the team meeting already, Jin-Oppa.”

“Codenames in the field, Miracle Girl,” Dr. Hearthstone reminded her. He turned his patented raised eyebrow at Ice Brand next. “She’s right though. It’s time we got down to business.”

His smoldering gaze was enough for Ice Brand to give his ‘icicles’ a quick farewell, which included several “Thanks!” for his many donations and promises of future scoops while on the road—which meant it wasn’t a short goodbye at all—before he turned off the camera and their pre-game meeting began.

It had been three days since they set out of New York, with the Argo VII picking up the other team members outside Mr. Moonday’s shop so that the team’s original members could claim their new gear in time for this new mission. Well, technically it was an old mission, but things have changed drastically since Sam received [HANDS OFF THE GOLDEN FLEECE!].

The name and details were altered the moment the Trickster kidnapped Crow-Man.

NEW MISSION: [THE RISE OF PRIDE!] Medea will soon have all she requires to discover the Grave of Pride hidden somewhere deep within Hades! Stop the sorceress’ evil plan before it comes to fruition, and save the mortal world from the curse of Pride! CONDITION ONE: The sorceress must not be allowed to enter the Underworld with the Golden Fleece and her captives in tow! Prevent her from opening a pirate portal into Hades and complete the mission! CONDITION TWO: If you fail to keep the sorceress and her minions from entering Hades, then you must prevent her from reaching the Grave of Pride at all costs! CONDITION THREE: If the sorceress reaches the Grave of Pride, then your job will be to take back both the Golden Fleece and the intended sacrifice before an elder giant is revived. REWARDS: To be determined based on which conditions are met for success. WARNING! Failure to stop the raising of Pride will result in a great catastrophe for the mortal world!

Sam had never seen so many conditions and possible scenarios on a mission before, and this worried him.

No need to panic. This just means you’ve got three chances to do it right, kid, Chiron had reminded him on the first day of their journey.

Sam had also explained the mission’s parameters to his new team when they’d first gathered inside the Argo VII’s living compartment. Although he didn’t bother to explain in detail where he’d gotten this information from, passing it off as a message from the gods, which it technically was.

That was three days ago.

Early on the third day and just before Ice Brand’s stream began, Thunder, who’d taken on the role of the Argo VII’s Comms Specialist, noticed on the radar that the solar dragon finally finished its nonstop flight westward somewhere in the Amargosa Mountains which was about an hour’s drive from the road they were on. She waited for Ice Brand’s stream to end before she reported this to the team, with both Dr. Hearthstone and Sam coming to the same conclusion.

“Death Valley,” they said together.

“Well, either that or Vegas,” Farsight chimed in. “Everyone knows Hades likes to gamble so it wouldn’t be a stretch for an unknown portal to the underworld to be placed there.”

“It’s gotta be Death Valley,” Sam insisted, frowning slightly as he listened to Chiron’s explanation about how Death Valley was the lowest point in North America. “It’s called Badwater Basin.”

Sam couldn’t help making it sound like this information was directly coming from him as he couldn’t reveal Chiron’s voice in his brain to the team’s new additions, leaving both Ice Brand and Miracle Girl looking impressed, while Raven Knight just glanced curiously at the slight look of guilt on Sam’s face.

“It’s not a sure thing… but more of a gut feeling,” Sam conceded.

“The lowest point in North America,” Thunder repeated. “Would that make it the ideal location to build a pirate portal into Hades, doc?”

All gazes turned to the former heart surgeon turned explorer and former member of Heroes without Borders.

Dr. Hearthstone’s brow creased slightly. “There’s too much symbolism in the site for it not to be the ideal location… I think we can go on Sam’s gut feeling here.”

“Then you lot better suit up…” Jackboot sounded extra smug because he was already wearing his new threads. “We’ve got an evil sorceress to cancel.”