Argonaut - The Apprentice (Part II)

Chapter Twelve – Something Gained, Something Lost

27th Apr 10:12 PM

The convoy of heavily armoured jeeps barrelled down the highway at speed, a large collection of helicopters thundered overhead. In the middle of the row of vehicles was a large semi-trailer, protected by dozens of Humvees.

As Crowley had predicted the road was closed to public traffic, giving the line of Silverlight vehicles a clear run. The Argos hovered some distance in front, observing the trail of lights as they sped closer in the darkness.

“There is your prize captain,” Crowley’s voice filtered through the Argos’s internal P.A, “Inside that truck. Retrieve it quickly, won’t you? And try not to damage the truck; its cargo is quite fragile.”

“Stay off the damn channel Crowley,” Cassius growled, “We’ll call you if we need you.”

He said no more. I could imagine him recoiling slightly in Athena’s observatory in New York, recovering his pride. He was guarded of course; Belisarius, Athena and the kids had stayed to keep an eye on the shady businessman. Trusting Crowley more than you needed to was a big mistake.

“David and Elena; get ready,” Cassius said shortly, pulling the cloaked aircraft closer to the ground. When it was barely ten metres the descent stopped. We stood over the ramp, waiting for the cue. Cassius held a hand over her head without looking back at us, counting down from five. The psychic to me left shot me a small smile, drawing her long blonde hair over her shoulders.

When the countdown reached zero and the captain had a closed fist the ramp opened suddenly, letting us drop out. The fall was relatively short, and the impact on the road was solid. We both stood up in sync, she powered up her E.P Gauntlet as I unclasped the Gladii from my hips. She closed her eyes, letting her ability take hold as we stood in wait for the speeding convoy.

“Dodge left,” she said suddenly; I obeyed the command just as a fat bullet sizzled past where my chest had just been. Anti-Kinetic ammo, so I couldn’t change the course. “Right, left, down!” she yelled in quick succession, foreseeing which manoeuvres would keep us alive and which would get us killed. “Shield!”

I pulled at the road with my ability, tearing up a thick sheet of tarmac big enough to protect us from the bullets. The shield gave us a moment’s reprieve as the vehicles thundered closer, before the helicopters started to rain hell that is.

“Missile from the left!” She cried as more bullets smacked into the shield, I caught a glimpse of a trail of fire streaking through the night from where she had indicated.

“Yeah, I got it.” I muttered, standing in its path. Just before the missile impacted I jumped, sailing over it by a few feet and grabbing it with my mind. It continued its path past us, tearing low to the ground and banking wide to turn around. At this point I made it change direction, directly back at the helicopter that had fired it. Try as it might to evade the weapon under my control, the gunship just wasn’t manoeuvrable enough.

The tail end was completely blown off when it was hit, the rest of the shattered aircraft corkscrewed in a desperate attempt to gain control before it smashed into one of the speeding jeeps.

“Show-off” I heard Elena mutter from behind the barrier. I grinned, powering up the Gladii as more missiles shot out from the other choppers. A wall of rippling energy expanded out as I slashed both of the swords up, destroying all of the missiles and disintegrating another chopper. I dove at Elena’s newest command, just in time as another storm of specialised bullets slammed into the withering shield.