for their greater glory

8/14/2019 For Their Greater Glory

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For their greater glory


It is important to note that there is three narrators in this book. Eric's journal is the events as seen by Eric, while Rodriguez's diary is the events as seen by Rodriguez. The same goes for Helena's notes.

Prologue Feel no painEric's Journal

It was right in front of me. This thing that Ihad worked so hard for. It had taken me a year to

get on this team. Yet another year to train for thetournament. And then another to do so well in thetournament. I suppose you're wondering what the hellI'm talking about. The game is called conquest and itis a brutalised version of capture the flag. Each teamhas ten players. Each player is given a different

assortment of weapons which determines theirposition. The decoration on the weapons reflects howgood the team is. The weapons are harmless lasers,but sometimes they overload. I'd gotten hit by that acouple of times. A few scars on my chest and suchlike,but nothing too bad. Anyway, back to the present.

1 The adventures of Eric the Invincible


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he didn't try anything. I noticed he was throwing hissword. Pathetic. I stopped smirking when my right armfell off. I swear, smirk at one foreigner and they bite

your head off. Or in this case, your arm. A loudrepetitive noise above my head told me theMcGilligans had arrived. And so had the Uruguayanteam's entire air force. There was a few dentingnoises and Mark, the Clognose sniper, popped out ofhis hiding place and ran. The assualtist bowled overand their three planes floored it, meaning that Roband Neill, our sentries had taken out the rocketlaunchers. Still left two helicopters engaged withDave and Brian and my arm flooding blood all over the

place. I was feeling dizzy now and that was whenAdam, Billy and Sam flew over the trees in theirplanes. On the ground, they were followed by Aran,the last of our team in the tank. Realising they wereoutnumbered, the helicopters opened fire on the tank,knowing which way home I was most likely to take. A

sniper round shot out from a bush behind me andclipped Adam's wing. While the sniper was celebratingthat he actually hit something he went sprawling over,immobilised by me. Then their tank came out into theforest clearing and their planes worked up thecourage to face the rocket launchers. I was damn near



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unconscious at this point so I pegged it for our tank,climbing in. I ripped up my shirt and bandaged myshoulder. Out the window I could see their tank beingripped to pieces and its driver getting out and openingfire with a laser rifle. Aran had slammed the pedaldown and the massive battle slowly disappeared outthe window. Only drive kept me from unconsciousnessas the tank skidded round in front of the hill on whichour flag was located. I staggered out and lifted thetwo flags high in one hand. Purple and white fireworkssang me to sleep as I fell unconscious on the hill.What a finale that must have made for thespectators. Wondered what all ladies were

thinking.....stars going out.....I thought of theUruguayan assualtist who cut off my arm....and fellright unconscious. The words of our coach floated intomy head. Feel no pain......



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Chapter 1 HospitalisedEric's journal

I woke up in a box. Not a small confined box buta box nonetheless. There was two metal barssupporting the roof and the walls were white. Theroom was quite airy, despite being a box. There was acabinet with a lamp on top of it to the right of me. Iwas lying on a hospital bed, which led me to believethat I was either in hell, or worse, just a hospital.Where my arm should be, there was a thing of sciencefiction. A robot arm. Probably a lot of eight yearolds' dreams, but after thirteen years I had grown

kind of attached to my arm, pardon the pun. Therewas something on my back and I wasn't wearing ashirt. I tried to roll over but something was stoppingme. The new arm did all the normal arm stuff, but Ihad a feeling that it was absolutely bulging with lethalweapons.

Eric! You're up! A doctor walked into theroom. One who I knew very well.Dr. McGilligan? I asked, astounded. What are

you doing here?I came along to watch my sons win the

tournament.



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I wish my father would do that for me. Myfather was a scientist, working on some big projectwhich he wasn't allowed tell anyone anything about.The doctor looked edgy. Never a good sign.

If you see Dave and Brian, tell them to work onthe timing. I said, to break the silence.

Tell us yourself! came the reply from the backof the room as the stars of the moment walked in.

What can this thing do anyway? I said,indicating my arm.

Well, more importantly, take a look at yourback. Dave and Brian held up mirrors so I could seethe metal bar on my back. It split at my shoulders and

ran down my two arms and did the same with my legs.I looked at my feet and saw that the bars turned intostrips with what looked like cooking rings on them.

Thanks to a recent discovery in superhumanmaking, you are able to lift up to thirty tonnes and asfor the rings, they allow you to hover. The doctor

explained.And what about the arm? I asked impatiently.Brian pulled out a remote and the doctor took a deepbreath.

Flamethrower, hammer, rocket launcher,machine gun, sword, electro-magnet, drill, crossbow,



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talons, shotgun and a sniper rifle. My arm changed toeach of the different weapons at a touch from Brianon the remote.

Sniper rifle? I inquired, hoping against hopethat I was wrong about what was coming next.

Now you can be just like me! Came a happyresponse from somewhere or other as Mark Shivanwalked in. We all groaned. Mark wasn't exactlyeveryone's favorite sniper. In fact, that Uruguayanprobably despised him. And me. Good times.

Just to tell you, I've probably missed out a lotof things. Another thing is that you have had glandstransplanted in you that will turn excess food into

bullets and other necessities.Am I able to walk yet? I inquired.See for yourself! grinned Brian. The doctor

said nothing but looked suspiciously at Brian. I swungaround on the hospital bed so that my feet were overthe floor and put them down. They got to about three

inches away before bouncing up above my head. I wasnow hanging upside down in the air and unable to trustmy own feet. Wonderful. Brian pushed a button and Ifell in a mess on the floor. We all burst out laughing,except for the doctor who just scowled. I pointed thesniper rifle arm at Brian, somehow and painstakingly



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untangled myself, just in case I tripped up because myhand was holding my legs together. I managed to getup without incident and walked around the room. I gotback onto the bed and fell asleep. As I sank into sleep,my arm changed back to normal.

***

Several seconds later, a huge explosion woke meup. Mark keeled over like a domino and a flying lamphit Dave, sending him sprawling to the floor. Briancried out in Dave's pain and a metal bar fell on top ofthe doctor. The other one started to fall on top of me

but I caught it and shoved it through the roof,reveling in my new strength. The quake stopped and Ilooked around.

The room had been refurbished by an interiordesigner who had a fixation with disaster zones.There was holes everywhere. The cabinet had

smashed against the wall beside it and collapsed. Thelamp on top of it had smacked into Dave's arm andMark had fallen on the moderately cushionedlampshade. Brian knelt beside Dave wearing a painedexpression. The twins had been known for sharingeach other's pain so I wasn't worried about the two



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of them. I just hoped that Brian wouldn't try to taketo much of Dave's pain and kill himself. Mark wasgetting up now and I could see that he was onlyslightly bruised.

They say that somewhere there's a bullet with your name on it. In the doctor's case, said bullet was alarge metal bar from which his legs protruded. Ugh. Iwalked over to Mark and helped him up.

Mark, I'm gonna lift that bar, and I want youto drag the doctor out as quick as you can, alright?Mark nodded, steeling himself. I took a grip andlifted. It occurred to me that the room might needsupport so I wedged the bar upright in the middle of

the room like a pillar.The doctor was hopeless. From waist up, he was

as flat as a pancake. His waist was torn to the point ofcomplete separation from his legs. I never want seesomething like that again. Ever..............



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I would have cared about having to pay for the guy'snew arm. The victory celebrations were in three daysand we were all invited. I was still considering whetherI should go or not. Helena seemed to insist we weregoing. I didn't really see why we should. I stopped toconsider it for a moment. Maybe I should get to knowthe guy, considering I was paying for his arm. Thenagain, maybe I shouldn't considering I cut it off. Oh,the difficult choices of life.

It's a party! Why shouldn't we go? Helena cutin on my thoughts, knowing exactly where they weregoing, even though she was on a different floor to me.To be honest, part of me wanted to go. Free food is

always a good thing.***

A few minutes later, I was exploring thewasteland that was our cul-de-sac. It was tragic. Theland that had once been a paradise of houses grown

from trees and flowers was now a rocky wasteland.Our house that had been so marvelously woven fromoak and yew trees now was split in half. On one halfthere was the old and beautiful house and on theother, there was a mess of timber. The flowers hadheld, surprisingly. I would guess that there was more



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flowers in the Air City of Punta Del Este than in thewhole land-based world.

There was probably going to be a large increasein Air-Cities because of the infertility of the land-based soil. Probably in sea-cities as well. Maybe theAtlantean Guardians would decide to finally resurfaceAtlantis. Or the Licean Guard would open the doors ofLicea, the airborne spy centre, to people who weren'tpart of their own private Secret Service. Or maybeeven Terranea would finally come out of the ground.Okay, maybe that was being overly fanciful.

My thoughts were cut short by another largebooming noise. The side of my house had swelled like a

bubble before popping in a shower of bark andflowers. Quaint.

A thing like a mythological hippogriff walked outof the wreckage. It was saddled and tied to one ofthe saddlebags was a cloth sack which was writhingindignantly. On the saddle of the hippogriff was a

woman wearing odd greeny pink armour. She lookedaround and saw an area of ground that slantedupwards like a ramp. She directed the hippogrifftowards it, which began to run.

It was followed by Helena, firing at it with amachine gun. It must have been protected by a force



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field because every shot bounced to the ground. Itook out my own plasma bolt, which Helena had mademe take with me when I went exploring. It was goodfor taking apart force fields. I fired one burst at itand the field flickered into view beforedisintegrating. Helena emptied the last of the machinegun at the hippogriff which had now taken off,dislodging something, which fell to the ground. Iwalked over to it.

Helena noticed me and ran over. I looked down atthe thing. It was like a plastic baseball with only halfthe seam. Underneath part of the seam there was ahollow. I slid a thumb into it and lifted. On the

underside was a screen. Below it was a fold-outkeyboard and a touch pad.

Any ideas? Helena asked, inquiring about thecomputer.

None whatsoever. What did they take? I replied.Are you sure you want to know? She asked,

looking worried. She continued when I nodded, Theexplosion killed father. And the thing in the sack wasmother,



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Chapter three A helping handEric's journal

The first paper I read told me about akidnapping. Or rather, mothernapping. It was two daysto the banquet. There was a family picture above thearticle. The father, a green eyed, copper haired giantof a man had been killed by the kidnapper. The motherwas blue eyed, with long black hair and medium sized.She was the one who had been kidnapped.

The son was copper haired, but a slightly darkershade than his father, with blue eyes. There was ascar on his cheek. And guess who put it there. Oh

great. I thought I should apologise to him at thefeast. Amusingly, as captain of the losing team, he wasgoing to have to present the cup to me.

His sister was black haired with blue eyes andtall. From the look of their faces, they were twins.Identical as well.

In other news, my father had died because ofthe explosion. My mother had disappeared many yearsago. A sword had come in the post, along with myenormous inheritance. With it I had bought a cavewhich I had extensively furnished. So now I had abase in a country I liked.



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Along with the sword had come a note, sayinghow when mother ran away she took the scabbard andthat was how I was to recognise her.

The Clognose team were unable to go home as aresult of the explosion bringing air force one down onthe college. Santa Claus, the head of boarding, was notpleased. Apparently, he had marched out of the schooland started screaming his head off at the americans.It was amusing, because apparently, Santa Claus hadbeen head of boarding when the president went toschool in Clognose. It was funny, but annoyingly, itdidn't make any difference to the fact that I had tohouse Mark Shivan indefinitely. And the rest of the

team.

*

Rodriguez's diary

A party was a big relief after losing my fatherand mother. We had hacked the computer and itcontained a lot of data about the owner and what shewas doing. All the files were encrypted but I couldguess what they were from the titles. There was onewhich read mass-destruction plan. Big Uh-oh. Then



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there was another which read Mass-destruction plan stage one: kidnapping. Hint, hint.

My adopted cousin Tom had been staying withus when we were attacked and the poor six year oldhad been horribly mutilated. For a start, in theoriginal explosion, his legs had been ripped off by afalling piece of wood. The radiation of the secondexplosion had messed his six year old mind upirreparably. He now seemed to be psychic as well. Aside effect of the radiation apparently.

Anyway, at that moment in time I was at thefeast, having a great time. I was about to take a biteof a cake which looked suspicious. My suspicions were

confirmed when I bit it. It was great.I looked around. Helena was in a corner

surrounded by boys, both Uruguayan and Irish. Tomwas trying to impress the younger sister of the Irishsniper. It wasn't going well. Presumably he could thinkstraight, because he knew exactly what she wanted,

but he wasn't able to speak properly, so I don't thinkthe girl was really flipping. It was funny to watch. Thefact that he had no legs probably didn't help.

Don't get me wrong, I hadn't stopped thinkingabout my mother. I guessed that Tom would behelpful, so long as he could still distinguish right from



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wrong, which I guessed he could.I looked back at Helena and noticed that she

was no longer surrounded by boys. Instead she wassitting next to the captain of the Irish team. Thesame one whose arm I cut off. He noticed me andexcused himself. He walked over to me.

I suppose I should apologise for the scar, hesmiled. He was small with red and orange eyes thatlooked like they might burst into flames.

No need. I got my revenge, I returned thesmile. He seemed an easy guy to be around.

Eric the invincible, at your service, Heintroduced himself.

Rodriguez the downright idiotic, I replied,dryly, Did they start calling you the invinciblebecause of the arm?

Yeah. Before, I was Eric, son of Paddy theinvincible. How about you? Eric continued theconversation.

I managed to get in a fight which there wasabsolutely no way I could win. And then I lost. Thenext day, I got in another fight with the exact sameguy. I lost. And I kept at it for a week until I brokemy arm. Does invincibility run in your family?

No. My dad got in a fight with a gorilla bear.



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Eric seemed to have been through a lot.Better get ready. The main event is in a

minute. I said. Eric nodded. We both ran off to thedifferent ends of the stage where the presentationwas. I could see Eric winking at Helena from my end ofthe stage. Oh joy.

The trumpets sounded and the lights turned on,showing me the world schools under 14's cup which Icame so close to winning.

*

Eric's journal

Tension was all I could feel. I had won the cup,but I just couldn't help feeling something would ruinthis perfect moment. I had found love and success. Iwas about to receive my dream prize. Rodriguez mightbe jealous of Helena for some reason. I sure hoped

not. The trumpets blared and the lights flashed on,showing me the cup. It was a beautiful sight. It wasthe first time an Irish team had ever won it and I wascaptain. Rodriguez walked on to the stage and liftedthe cup off its podium. I walked on to the stage and



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Rodriguez handed me the cup. It was smooth to touch.I raised the cup high and the crowd erupted intocheers. The rest of the two teams walked on andRodriguez and I handed out the prizes for everyone.Mine was two golden swords which moulded to mypreference. I had never used a sword so perfect forme. And now I had two.

I looked at the crowd and saw how the Irishsupporters had blended in with the Uruguayan. It wasa nice sight. Of course, many of the Irish had losthomes in the explosion. Like me.

*

Rodriguez and Helena invited me over to theirplace for dinner the next day. I was quite surprised athow well my little moment of glory had gone.

About halfway through the dinner, the ceilingcollapsed. That's what happens when you make a

house out of trees. Anyway, I was there holding theroof up, while they toed and froed. When they had goteverything safe, we all went off to my cave. The restof the team had all gone off shopping, or so they toldme. I guessed they were all looking for presents forspecial people.



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When we got there, I somehow managed tomake a traditional Irish dinner of roast steak andpotatoes. The Uruguayans were a bit suspicious of thepotatoes but they tried them. After a while, they toldme about their little problem. They showed me adevice the kidnapper had dropped. There was a littleIrish flag imprinted on it. I was immediatelysuspicious of it. There was some basic hackingequipment among all the crazy stuff my father hadsent me as part of the inheritance.

We managed to open a file called massdestruction plan stage one: kidnapping. It describedexactly what had happened to Rodriguez and Helena,

with the exception of them being still alive. I didn'tenvy them.

The next part was more interesting. Itexplained how the kidnapper would return to one offive bases across the Atlantic.

The nearest of these bases was on the island of

Barbados. Yaaaaaaay!! A sun holiday! Except that theexplosion had caused every single volcano on Barbadosto erupt. It was now a barren, lava covered desert.

So it was decided. We would go to barbados.



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actually had it's own motor, so it was just making usgo faster.

*

About an hour later, we saw an actual living bird.It was a griffin eagle. It's feathers were all gold.It's beak was silver and it's eyes were crystal. It flewclose to Helena, who stroked its head. From then on,it was by her side.

A few minutes after, a thing shaped like a bombappeared out of the clouds. It was blue, with greenand brown fins. We were just talking about a cloud

shaped liked a falling bus when the eagle swoopeddown and picked it up. She brought it over to Eric wholooked at it.

His little finger started changing shape. Ericwas looking for a screwdriver. He wasn't doing toowell. Seeing that Eric couldn't do anything, the eagle

brought it over to Helena. I guessed that Eric mighthave got it if he had two hands free.Helena jumped from our hover bike onto the

hovercraft and pulled a screwdriver out of theuppermost bag. Holding on for dear life, she took outone screw, and then the other. She showed it to us. It



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looked like the inside of a computer.Eric finally got the arm to do what he wanted

and his fingers all turned into different cables.Helena threw it over to Eric who just managed tocatch it.

One of the cables, I think it was his middlefinger, connected to one that looked exactly like it.Eric frowned, and through the insert, Tom told methat the bomb was a nuclabioniray. Tom didn't knowwhat that was and I didn't either.

Eric's face told me that the bomb was eitherreally powerful, or really hard to hack. Tom told me itwas the former. Eric was having no trouble getting it

to do what he wanted. A smile slowly began to form onhis face. Tom told me that he had changed the bombfrom a remote controlled one to one that wouldexplode on impact. I wondered what Eric was going todo with it.

The speakers in my hover bike burst into action.

Rodriguez? Eric's voice came through.Yeah? I responded.Did you pay for this thing? He was talking

about the arm.Yeah. Why? I was intrigued.Why on earth did you get me a rocket



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launcher?I didn't choose anything. If I could have, I

wouldn't have given you anything.Oh. Radio silence. Eric put the cover back on

to the bomb and screwed it into place. He put it into apocket somewhere in his cloak. I looked over atHelena, who was still on the hovercraft. She wasplaying with the eagle.

We were just a little way past Brazil when theattack began. The first thing I knew of it, was when Iheard Eric's arm changing shape. I looked at him andsaw the worried expression and pale face he waswearing. Helena had pulled out a sniper rifle from the

bags. I checked the radar on my hover bike's display.There was blue dots everywhere. I couldn't seeanything though. Eric's arm settled on a machine gun.I saw him leaning over the side of the hover bike andlooking down.

It seemed pretty pointless. I mean, why look

down, if the guys were coming at our level. I checkedthe radar again. The twenty or so small dots had been joined by a bigger one. Much bigger.

Suddenly, Helena popped a round from thesniper rifle. One of the dots on my radar turned intoan exclamation mark, indicating it was crippled.



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The big dot was now half the size of the radarscreen. And counting. Eric suddenly looked even paler.I looked over the side of my bike and saw an enormoussilhouette in the clouds. It was the same shape as thebomb.

Eric opened fire. Nine of the nineteen remainingdots, which I could now see were attack hovercraft,crippled and dropped. Eric stopped firing on the smallweapon loaded circle and started attacking the bigthing.

I could now see exactly what it was. It wasabout the size of a terawhale and the same bombshape as well. Actually, even scarier, it was a

terawhale. Instead of the usual large island on it'sback, there was a massive gun platform.

Eric was visibly trying not to hurt it and so wasHelena. They were both focusing on the platform.There was a harness on the back of the whale, holdingthe platform in place.

Eric suddenly cursed. His machine gun had jammed. With his last bullet. He continued to try tofire, until the obstinate bullet popped out. Instantlyhe turned his arm back to normal. He signaled toHelena, who jumped onto his bike and took over. Next,he jumped over the bike.



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He was diving, assisted by his rocket propelledfeet, towards the ten remaining hovercraft. He pickedout one and dived towards it. He punched rightthrough it, but as soon as he was at their level, he wastrapped in a field extending from the nine others. Hisarm was changing shape constantly, but the field hadtrapped him in a bubble and even if he did get theright shape, he couldn't do anything.

Helena loaded her rifle with a plasma bolt andfired on the field. Too late, I realised her mistake.

The hovercraft came up, minus Eric. There wasno resisting them, now they had got to our level. Wewere well and truly hosed.

Eric plummeted down, down and down.



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Chapter five Through prison barsEric's journal

Damnation. My defense had ended in me fallingat extreme speed, and Rodriguez and Helena caughtby our unknown enemy.

Worse, I was still falling. And my foot rocketsweren't working.

Even worse, I could see the ground. And it wasrushing towards me,very, very, very fast. I wonderedif the arm had a parachute. For once the arm did whatI wanted and deployed a parachute.

The ground was still rushing towards me, very

fast. Which was odd. I could see it clearly now and itwas green. Dark green. It looked like a sky island.

Worse. Around the edge of it, I could see awing. I suddenly realized what it was.

A sky turtle. My father had told me manystories about these amazing creatures. They had come

from mars when it dried up. They had hidden beneaththe crust. And then one day, in an attempt to discovermore about our planet, we punctured the crust. Thesky turtles all just flew out. One stayed to tell uswhat they were and apologize for scaring us beforeflying off. They had roamed the skies for forty nine



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years.This one was still rushing towards me. And

getting faster. My foot rockets suddenly kicked in andthe turtle began to approach at a much slower rate. Idescended slowly and made an elegant landing on themassive shell. An ivy string grew out of the turtle'sback. On the top of it, there was some sort of designthat looked like a microphone. The turtle wanted tospeak with me. Which was really good.

Who are you and what do you want? boomed adeep voice through the ivy string. The turtle couldspeak Esperanza.

My name is Eric the invincible and I would like

a ride up. I answered.Good. That's on my way. I am Gigantos. Why

are you going up?I was separated from my friends, who have

been taken prisoner on board a terawhale. We arelooking for a prison on Barbados.

Why?My friend's mother was kidnapped and wethink she may have been brought there.

I just destroyed said prison and released theprisoners. There was no women among them. The onlything that escaped me was a terawhale carrying a gun



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platform.That's our whale.Excellent. It appears you may help me.Destroy the platform or loot it? Sky turtles

were known for being helpful to captives.Both!

*

Rodriguez's diary Once they caught us, we were trapped in

another force field. They dragged us over to theterawhale and put us down on the gun platform. A

group of guards approached us, keeping their riflesfixed on us.

The guards reached us and the force field waslowered. If it had dropped a few seconds earlier, wecould have escaped, but the guards were too close.The guards told us to get off our bikes. We did so.

I told Tom to try to blast them away.Instantly, Toms hands flew up and all fourguards went flying away. As soon as he did so, he fellon his arm. He had been shot by a tranquilizer.

I rushed over to him. That second, one of therecovered guards picked me up. Helena and Tom were



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both grabbed. We were carried out.

*After a few minutes that seemed like hours, we

were brought into a hall. We were thrown in front of athrone. On it sat the green armoured woman who tookmy mother. She had a hawkish face with sinisterreddish eyes.

So, these are our brave little invaders, huh?She boomed in a sinister voice. Is this all of them?She snapped to one of the guards.

Nnno, ma'am. One fell to his death. A guardstammered.

Are you sure he is dead? She asked.No, ma'am. The guard replied. He seemed to

be in charge.You! Lance-commander! She pointed at

another guard. He saluted, as fast as he could. Youare now full commander. Take him away! I was full of

pity for both commanders. She pointed to anothersoldier. The lance commander gave him his oldchevrons.

Now, then. As for you, my dearies. Who are you? What are you doing here?

I am Rodriguez and this is my sister Helena. I



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replied, doing my best to keep the rage, spite andhatred very tangibly in my voice.

Oh? My little problems. Your mother is nothere. Well I am Eriana and you will carry that name tothe grave! Take them to their cell!

*

Our cell was a box. A small confined box. Assoon as our guards left, Tom tried to take the wallsapart.

It was no good. He couldn't concentrate withhis broken arm. I just went to sleep on the floor.

*

The wall of the prison exploded and Eric walkedin. I can tell you, I have never been more annoyed withhim. Seeing my glare he laughed.

What? I took one out, didn't I?

Are you insane-Yes, he said sheepishly. Now lets skedaddle,shall we?

Eric turned his arm into a drill and took theenormous iron door off its hinges. He picked up theinjured Tom, and put him on his back.



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We burst out the door and ran. We made ittwenty meters, before one of the guards shouted outbehind us.

Aw, look! The little babies don't like theirroom!

Eric gently lowered Tom to the ground andturned to face the guard. He was standing on aplatform hovering three feet high.

Ooh! A hero! He giggled. Get 'em!A ring of guards ran out around us. They knelt downand trained their rifles on us. I pulled out a jar ofGreek Fire and Helena moved her finger to the ring ofa Roman Hubris grenade. I sniffed. The air smelt bad.

Very bad.Deal with them! He shouted.Fight us yourself! Eric's murky voice had a

threatening tone to it. The guard turned his back onus and floated away.

The other guards opened fire.

I could see the bullets moving towards us. Mylife flashed before me. The bullets were closer now.They were about a metre away now. Suddenly

every single one went back to its firer. Tom fell over.Eric smiled. Helena hugged me.

Our happiness was interrupted by an



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earthquake. A hole appeared in the ground.

*

Eric's journal Greek mythology is full of scary gribblies. Of all

these, one of the nastiest is the chimera. It wassomething like this that shot out of the hole.

It was very like the chimera. However, it wasminus the fire breathing goat part and plus the batwings part.

It shot up to the roof and then back downagain, to land in front of us. The snake tail snapped

out and nearly ripped my head off. Thankfully Iducked.

The lion turned on me and Tom, while the snakestarted to attack Helena and Rodriguez. I decided todo things the Eric-the-invincible style.

My arm turned into a sword from elbow down

and I charged the thing.Its breath reeked. I tried not to breath in toomuch as I got closer to the thing.

It attempted to bat me away with one paw. Igrabbed it and sliced the leg off. With my free hand,I picked up the leg and poked it in the eye. It roared.



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Helena's eagle had grabbed the snake by thehead and Rodriguez was bashing it with a pistol, whileHelena was trying, unsuccessfully to remove its fangs.

The lion was trying to hit me with its other paw.I did the same thing again.

Unfortunately, that was what it wanted me todo. The paw smashed into my arm and batted it out ofthe way. The lion hit me with its paw and threw meacross the room.

I was thrown against the wall. I decided closecombat time was over and blowing up time wasstarting. My arm turned into a rocket launcher and Iloaded it with a grenade.

Helena realised what I was going to do and tookout a knife. She cut the snake-tail off the thing and ithowled. I fired.

The grenade streaked through the air in abeautiful tight spiral, before landing in the closingmouth and exploding. Its head turned into a cloud of

brilliant red.The thing fell over, minus its head. I picked upthe disembodied paw and shoved it down the lion'sexposed windpipe. Lovely.

I remembered Gigantos's plan.How did you survive, Eric? asked Helena.



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Tell you later. What did they do with thebikes?

We don't know. When they caught us, we werebrought to the floor above. Rodriguez interjected.

Has the whale done anything?That hole might be it's blow hole.It's a sky creature, it doesn't need one. Also,

why would that thing be living inside the whale?Oh yeah. That Where's the stairs?Dunno.So we're gonna have to search the whole

bottom floor of the prison for a stairs?

There's only one cell on the floor.And we could just use the elevator behind you.

Helena pointed out. Most annoyingly.We all piled into the elevator. Helena pressed

the button saying hangar.There was a little window in the cell. Rodriguez

and I stood looking out it. Two men looked out throughprison bars. One saw mud, the other saw stars...



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Chapter six Escape!Eric's Journal

The elevator pinged and we looked out into a bigdark room. In one corner I could see a force field. Inthat, I guessed, was our bikes.

It was the rest of the hangar that interestedme. The entire left side of the hangar was dominatedby the rectangular bulk of a hover carrier.

Then, there was thirty nine hovercraft. Ninewere the upside down helicopter, attack variety, tenwere the lightwing variety, which looked like apacheattack choppers with wings and rotors on the

underside of each wing. Then there was twenty of thetriangular, anti grav, gun platform, defender variety.

There was a school of dolphin submarines, whichdid exactly what they said on the tin, annihilatortanks, which were shaped like the ancient tanks of theearly twenty first century with a bit more curve in

them, there was destroyer tanks, which looked likeannihilators with heavier guns. There was a tankcarrier for them to fit in as well.

There was fifty scout bikes, which were likeearly twenty first century motor bikes with a frontwheel that could switch between skis, one on each



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wheel holder, a normal wheel and floats and tanktracks/propellers for a back one, even the armouredmight of a superspeeder.

Superspeeders were like an old Ferrari enzo,minus the wheels, with jet boosters and tracks, skis,wheels, propellers, wings, whatever the situationneeded. We had had one, my dad and I, and I had onceused it for water skiing. It absolutely wrecked when Ifell off.

There was one thing I knew, though, and thatwas that I was going nowhere with that kind of armychasing me. Our bikes were fast, but there was no waythey could outrun lightwings. That meant hijacking, or

good old fashioned kaboom. I just didn't have theheart for the latter.

What do we do now? Helena broke the silence.You two guard, I'll hijack. I said, turning my

hand into cable fingers, to show what I meant.There's going to be guards, Eric. Rodriguez

warned me.I'll deal with my problems as they come, Itold him, before picking up Tom and walking towardsthe hover carrier. I studied the hover carrier frommy position. It was absolutely massive. It ran thelength of the hangar and half the width (I'd say a



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kilometre long, half one wide). It was rectangular.First of all there was the back which was basically abox, but with a lot of weapons sticking out, and thenthe cargo hangar door at the back. This was joined tothe cockpit by two cylindrical passages. In one ofthese was embedded the crew door. The cockpit wassimilar to that of a helicopter.

A thing like a sniper rifle scope popped out ofmy shoulder and moved in front of my mouth. Ibreathed into it. Instantly a picture formed in mymind of the hangar. I could see Rodriguez and Helenaat the back, covering the three doors. I could see allthe vehicles around the hangar. So that was sonar.

And it wasn't going to help much.The sonar ring popped back into my shoulder

and was replaced by a satellite type thing. This beganto spin and another image formed in my mind. This onewas a heat sensor. I could see that there was a guardby the crew door of the hover carrier and one in its

cargo bay.I turned my arm into a sword as I neared thecrew door. The guard suddenly saw me and ripped outa shotgun. Time for a food fight. My arm turned into amachine gun and I pointed at the guard. Guard stewfor dinner. I hoped there was a cleaning robot



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somewhere.The satellite told me the other guard had heard

the noise. Knifing time again. Tiny blades popped up allalong the sword and began whirring like a chainsaw. Ientered through the crew door.

Just as I entered, the guard walked in. Buzzbuzz buzz scream. I walked into the cockpit, lookingfor something for Tom's arm. There was nothingthere.

I checked the two passages. A bit ofmaintenance stuff, including a cleaning robot, which Iturned on, but nothing more. Beyond the two passageswas a little chamber, which I supposed was for a

cockpit guard.Beyond that was the armoury. I grabbed a

plasma bolt from the weapon rack. As I was holding itin my right hand, two vertical bars popped out of mypalm. A laser ran between them and then moved upand down the plasma bolt. Immediately my middle

finger turned into a compact version of it.Next through that was the infirmary. A medicbot was waiting there. I put Tom down on a bed andthe robot moved over to him. I blinked and Tom's armwas in a sling.

Satisfied, I proceeded through the next



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doorway. In there, was the crew sleeping area. Itlooked quite comfortable. There was bunk beds set inthe two walls, going five layers.

Beyond this was the cargo hangar. It was alarge room, with a raised gallery on the side. Guardrobots were standing, powered off, in neat little rowsalong the gallery.

I walked towards the massive cargo door.Beside it was a control panel. Cable fingers time again.The massive door opened slowly. I could see thepistons at the top working like crazy. The door hit thefloor with an enormous bang. I strode out of thecarrier. The front of the carrier had been facing the

internal entrance to the hangar, so I was facing thevehicle entrance.

Rodriguez and Helena had opened up the forcefield guarding our bikes and hovercraft and pulled outtwo machine guns. They knelt, covering the twoentrances. I walked over to my bike and detached the

tow laser. I attached the laser to Rodriguez's bikeand mounted up.My bike had been given to me by my dad for my

thirteenth birthday. As I moved up the cargo hangardoor, a pang of homesickness overcame me. It wasuncomfortable, to say the least.



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I parked the vehicles in the corner of the cargobay. Tom was sitting on top of the gallery, his armslung up. I was glad to see he was well.

Next to go in were the attack hovercraft. I cantell you, it is not easy trying to tow nine of thosethings. They kept slipping and sliding.

The attack hovercraft may have been hard butthen I took the defender and lightwings together.Super easy, you can bet your life on it.

The dolphin submarines were a bit of a problem,until I figured out that they could swim in air as well.They all slotted neatly into the hover carrier likeeverything else.

The tanks did exactly what I wanted to do andslotted into the tank carrier neatly. The tank carrieralso had twenty iron horse tanks to defend the fourbehemoth tanks.

The tank carrier went quite nicely into thehover carrier. Everything seemed to have a place in

the massive construction.The scout bikes all lined up in nice little rowsalong the massive cargo hangar. That just left thesuperspeeder.

The superspeeder slotted in at the back. Afterit went in, I strode up to the cockpit. A little bit of



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hacking and the adamantite monster was mine. Theengine roared and Rodriguez and Helena came runningover to us. They climbed the crew door.

Well done, Eric. Any problems? Rodriguezasked.

Nope. I'm going to sabotage this place. I'll bediving off the landing pad when we next meet. I wouldencourage you to be there, because I'm running low onfuel. I informed them.

Be careful out there. This place is going to becrawling with guards when they realise we escaped.

Alright. Tom's in the cargo hangar, I think. Igot out, and turned my arm into a chainsword. I

turned to face the oncoming horde.It was blasted apart as the hover carrier lifted

off the ground and reversed out the hangar door.



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Chapter seven Lone rangerEric's journal

A buzz here, give the next guy an untrainedshave, buzz. As I ran, I tore apart anything that gotin my way. There was a new scanner on my shoulder,which seemed to be making a map of the place as Iran. I was looking for the control room, so I couldrelease the whale. The problem with that logic wasthat, a terawhale's island is its source of pride. Thegun platform would be the closest thing the whale hadto an island and if I took it away, it would not be ahappy camper. No siree.

Of course, Eriana was treating the whalehorribly, and Gigantos had told me to get rid of theplatform.

The mapping scanner had found the controlroom. The problem was, there was a large wall robot inbetween me and it. As the blockade came into view, I

saw that each segment of the wall robot was guardedby a force field.My finger went plasma bolt again. One shot

dissolved the central force field and began eatingaway at the rest. Rocket launcher time again.Suddenly, I was dragged towards the writhing wall. I



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realised that with all the metal in me, at least some ofit would be magnetic. They wanted to play rough then?Chainsword time.

I aided my speed towards the wall with a littlerocket booster. As I neared the spiky, spinning wall ofsegments, the chainsword began whirring like crazy.Buzz, slash, buzz, boom.

A spike from the wall robot had fallen to thefloor. I picked it up and the arm analysed it. As I hadexpected, it didn't know what it was for. I startedthinking what I wanted the arm to do with it and,unsurprisingly, it worked. The spike was absorbed intomy arm and my arm turned into a sword, minus the

chain. The spike had been superheated and was now awhite rod that ran the length of the sword along thecurved edge. It was suspended a little away from theblade.

I had intended to use it for cutting throughrocks and the like, but it might prove a very lethal

weapon. Very lethal indeed.The control room was just around the corner. Ientered it and was amazed. There was a small room,with a computer inset in the one curved wall. Therewere a few ports in the bottom of the computer. Ipicked one that looked fairly promising.



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Unsurprisingly, the computer asked for a password.One of my new glands saved me, with a large energyreserve which smashed through the computer'sdefenses like a nuke.

I reminded myself to try and hack thecomputer Rodriguez had found. A bit of informationcould have saved that reserve for a much bigger fight.

I began searching the computer for anything todo with the whale. Instantly I found severaldocuments. There was also a program which appearedto control the whale. I remembered seeing a lot ofequipment and wires connected to the whale fromGigantos's back. I looked for commands until I found

the emergency release command. I exited, turned thecomputer off and hared for the landing pad which themapper had found.

*

A few minutes and a couple of buzzes later Iburst out on to the landing pad.Exactly what I had been dreading was waiting

for me. It was another of Eriana's crazy creatures.She seemed to have a fad for Greek mythology, likeme. She also was big into putting wings on her pets.



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This time it was the hydra. Overgrown komodo dragonwith nine heads. And wings.

Instantly, I was holding the chainsword as theHydra jumped into the air and glided down in front ofme. Off with three heads.

What I had forgotten was what made the hydratruly terrifying. As the three heads fell to the floor,six more grew back in their place.

I rocketed out of its range and tried to think.Then I realised that Eriana was not about to let meget off easy. Great gouts of water spewed from theHydra's mouths. I ducked as the torrent flew over myhead. Immediately I was up in the air.

How had the hydra been defeated before? Icouldn't remember. I was just going to have to fend itoff until the carrier arrived.

It drew back its central head. Instinctively, Iknew it was going to give me a tirade again. Inspirationstruck me. I took out the superheated blade and

prepared to weather the storm. As the torrentrushed toward me, it began to heat. Slowly, thetorrent began to dissipate.

The hydra jumped off the ground, up to mylevel. One long leg attempted to strike me. I parried. Icould smell the hydra's breath from this distance. It



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reeked of fish. I remembered that the hydra's fangscarried an incredibly deadly poison. And I would haveto evade twelve snake heads trying to bite me. Add tothat, four strong legs and a pair of wings and youcould see my situation. A wave of hopelessnessovercame me. I could see the hydra's red eyes.Twenty four pairs of eyes stared back at me. It was ascary sight. So scary, in fact, that I rammed mysword into the closest eye.

The hydra recoiled, instantly. A claw punchedme as the monster flew backwards. I pressed myadvantage, jabbing and blocking, leaping over thehydra to attack it from behind. Instantly, it had

turned around and was hitting me again. Thesuperheated part of the sword was beginning to cool.I decided enough was enough. The sword switched to amachine gun and I lanced across the sky away fromthe hydra.

I opened fire on the beast and pumped holes in

it. Scales began peeling off and green blood flowedfreely from the wounds.The problem, of course was that the wounds

healed instantly. I switched to the shotgun.Ya kids'd best be getting da hell offa ma lawn

or brandine'll be having yar noggins for candle



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holders! I just couldn't resist the Cletus the slack jawed yokel impression. It was that kind of shotgun.Chugga-boom popped a shell at the hydra. It healedthat as well.

In a flash, I remembered how the hydra hadbeen defeated. I needed heat. And I had the perfectweapon. I had longed to use the flamethrower fromthe moment I had heard I had it. It was beautiful.

A billowing cloud of fire stretched from thenozzle of the flamethrower. It extended down to thehydra and engulfed it in a cloud of smoke and fire. Asthe inferno cleared, I could see the hydra. It wasabsolutely wrecked. All its scales had fallen off and

its skin had burnt. I could see all the muscles andtendons, all the veins and arteries, even its organs andbones. The worst part was it was still alive.

As I approached it with the re-heated sword,one head snapped out at me. Slice. I rammed thesword down the gaping windpipe and pulled it back out.

The hydra tried one last all out attack on mewith its eleven remaining heads. Slicey-dicey. I landedgently back on the platform. Unlike the hydra, whichfell down with a crash.

I walked over to its corpse and found one of thesevered heads. Being very careful only to use my



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robot arm, I pulled out one of the fangs. Analysis toldme the arm didn't what to do with it. I made it intoanother attachement for my sword. A poisonous oneas well.

Ah-hah! We've found our little sabotager!Show him his room. The guards had appeared behindme. Eriana was nowhere to be seen. Unimportant. Iwas well and truly screwed.

Of course, that was when the hover carrierarrived. Finally. I ran for the edge of the pad andcatapulted onto the top of the carrier. From the roofof the carrier, I popped a sniper round into theclosest guard, before the incredible variety of guns on

the carrier shattered them.I looked down and saw Gigantos talking to the

whale. Seeing me, he said something to the whale andit nose-dived, and tail flipped and barrel rolled andmany other things, until the platform fell off its back.

An elevator pinged up behind me. I got in and as

I sank down, the last thing I saw was Gigantos waving.The lone ranger returned home.



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Chapter eight The next stop?Eric's journal

I nearly fell asleep as the elevator as it sankdown into the cockpit guard chamber. The door slidopen and I walked out of the wall embedded portal. Iwaved away all the questions Rodriguez and Helenahad for me. Tom fell in step with me and we walkedoff to the dormitory. I was asleep before I even hitmy bed.

*

After about twenty four hours of sleep andeight ten course meals, I got up and began work. Thefirst thing I had to do was hack that computer. Thereserve gland got me into something very interesting.The owner's email records.

Eriana was an interesting character. From the

emails, I was able to piece together information, andinformation was what we all needed.The early emails were very interesting. There

was a lot of juicy personal details in them. I found outthat she had three families, which she had left. Shehad a husband named Patrick and one son in one family



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, a second husband and another son and finally a thirdhusband and one daughter.

There was also constant mention of a fourth,more shadowy man in her life. I could find no clearinformation about him, but I figured that he had notbeen ditched. She never actually named this fourthcharacter, nor did she ever describe her relationshipwith him. She made eight referrals to him, one beforeand one after each marriage, birth and escape. Fromthis, I guessed that she was in fact being bossedaround by him. That was all I could find out about herfamily.

She was from Ireland, which explained the flag

on the back of the computer. Her maiden name wasMcIron, a name which I recognised. The McIrons werea family run criminal empire of nastiness. To attack aMcIron was like signing your own death warrant. Shehad lived in the floating village of Dunliath, which wasowned by the McIrons.

There was a folder called work. This was soheavily encrypted, I doubted an energy reserve woulddo anything to it. I left it for a later date.

Next, I drew up the stage one plan again anddiscovered that our next stop was in the floridaeverglades. Time for a picnic.



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***

A few minutes later, after telling Rodriguez ourdestination, as well as the remaining few and having afew bagels to replenish my reserve, I was in thearmoury, looking for a few half decent weapons. I hadfound a morning star and a mace, which I absorbed. Iwas looking for some good plasma weapons and a bit ofarmour.

As I searched, I found some very interestingweapons. There was an atom sphere, which wascapable of reducing an opponent to their genetic

material. That was absorbed. Then, there was apsycho-focus shoulder turret, which could take all

your anger and then dish it into a target of yourchoice in the form of quicksilver streams. This, Iwould build into my armour. There was a fusion shield.It could protect my entire body, and since it was just

an arm strap, it didn't weigh a thing. I decided Iwould build that into my armour.I finally found what I was looking, for in the

form of a plasma rifle. After taking this, I noticedanother spike lying in the corner. I picked it up. Thearm didn't know what to do with it, yet again. This



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became another attachment for my sword, this timemade of plasma.

Next I found some adamantite-carbon-cottonalloy armour. It was flexible and light, but hard as adiamond. It was also capable of deploying weapons onmy forearms and shoulders, and able to turn invisible.It had a spiked back and arms and a crash helmet typething. The shoulder turret attached to it, along withthe fusion shield.

I decided I needed to train a little with my newgear. There was a training room on the bottom floor,which I had discovered, went round in a U back to thehangar.

After getting to the training room, I found thatthere was snowmen put up as training dummies. Irealised that it was for atom spears, because snowmenwould just turn back into snow whereas anything elsewould make a mess. Donning the new armour, I feltvery in control. I noticed one of the snowmen had

been made to look like it was sticking its tongue out atme. The psycho turret smashed it apart and I felt asif a massive weight had been lifted off me. The atomspear proved its worth by snowising the next snowmanin line. The morning star on its fusion chain smashedthe furthest one away from me. Next, I boosted



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towards the next in line and maced him. The next onemelted when I got within a couple of metres, courtesyof the superheated sword. I switched to the plasmarifle and a stream of the purple stuff blasted the lastone apart.

Satisfied, I turned on the arena cleaning robotand went up to the sweet dispenser in the crewdormitory for a bite to eat.



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Chapter nine Second attemptRodriguez's diary

Eric walked into the bridge. Instantly I knew hehad found something. I could hear him hovering behindme. He only really hovered when he was excited oragitated. I shifted into auto pilot and turned round.

Alright, what's this amazing piece of news that you want me to know? I inquired.

Well, I managed to open her email records.Excellent. Anything?She has a three families, all of whom she has

left. She has three husbands, possibly a fourth, two

sons and one daughter. The fourth is a sort ofshadowy overlord. That was all I found out about herfamily.

What else?She is one of the McIrons. They are a family

criminal empire. She has lived in Dunliath, the family

village, which is so called because it is a floatingfortress of steel.Alright, well, what's the deal with the

McIrons?To attack a McIron is to sign your own death

warrant. They're international as well, so dropping a



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few plasma rounds on Dunliath won't save us. When Iwas growing up in Dublin, we were always hearingreports of their activities coming in from the eastside. Knifing certain people, stealing stuff fromothers, but mostly just drug dealing. The southeastside went crazy for a bit because of them, in about2096. The problem was, that although everyone knewit was them, they couldn't find a scrap of evidence,and then, suddenly, last year, they all turned intosmoke. This is the first time I've heard of them since.I'd say they went underground,

So she's Irish?Yes,

Anything else?No. Our next stop is the Florida everglades.

They were a dangerous place before the explosion andeverything, and the trees there were proven to beable survive a nuclear apocalypse in 2050. The thingsEriana could have done with all the animals there

would scare anyone. It's going to be one hell of afight,Excellent. Prepare for a party, I said. Eric

nodded and walked out.I looked up the everglades in the carrier's

atlas. They were about two megametres north north



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west away from our position. About turn, and off wewent.

*

About a hundred kilometres from theeverglades, we were attacked by harpies. It wasn'tanything big, just a bit of a fry up and some wastedammo.

It happened more and more, the closer we gotto the everglades. I began to realise they wereuncoordinated attacks, just random attacks from thewild creatures of the forest. The harpies were

probably discarded experiments of Eriana's. Iwondered why she was making all these creatures. Ithad to be difficult to make one new species so whymake so many?

When we neared the everglades, I pulled thecarrier below the clouds. For the first time since the

explosion, I saw the Atlantic. It was no longer water.It was molten rock. You read right. The entireAtlantic ocean had turned to lava. I saw a bubbleattempt to rise to the surface. The lava was too thickand it exploded.

I finally managed to take my eyes off the new



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red sea and saw something much scarier. Theeverglades were a forest of steely wood. Standing atthe front of the forest was a grizzly wolf in all itsradiational glory. The massive four legged behemothwas chewing a salmon. I didn't envy the salmon.



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Chapter Ten Glades of DoomEric's Journal

I was lying on a couch in the living room on thebottom floor, watching TV with Tom, when Rodrigueztold us we were beginning the attack, through theintercom. Tom went off to the hangar, and I jumpedup and ran over to the window, where I saw the moltenAtlantic, and the jutting cliff that was the edge ofthe everglades. I saw the grizzly wolf that Rodriguezmentioned. It was massive. Its eyes were yellow andred, and its fur looked like steel.

Grizzly wolves and gorilla bears were two of the

Montreal incident species. They had each and alldescended from one mutated animal and one healthyone. What had happened was that an experimentalfacility had exposed the animals to insane amounts ofradiation. In each case, if the animals were about ametre or more away from each other, nothing

happened to them. If they were closer, they somehowmerged. The animals then proved that they all had abit of rabbit in them and began spreading all over theworld. There was one incident of a janitor wanderinginto the wrong place at the wrong time and beingmerged with a small scorpion and a rhino. He called



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himself the rhinopion. Animal rights parties had tornthe facility down and there was murder over it.

The glades themselves looked like a wall of irontrunks with leaves hung on them in strategic places.They were huge. I'd say that so close to Iceland, theforest must have been affected by radiation, whichwould have messed up the trees. I walked out of the Ushaped bottom floor, out into the hangar, where I metHelena and Tom.

What are we going to do about the grizzly wolfout there? Rodriguez asked, joining us.

I'm a little better with animals than my father.I'll see what I can do. I told him.

Alright. We'll get something from our fleet forthe forest while you're out there, Rodriguezanswered me.

Scout bikes and an attack hovercraft, nothingtoo bulky, I reminded him.

Good luck, Helena said. Her eagle perched on

my shoulder and rubbed my cheek, then returned toher. I nodded and walked over to the cargo door. Ipushed the button and the door fell out and hoveredover the lava. Running down the ramp, I leapt off thebottom, slowly gliding up, rather than doing it quicklyand scaring the wolf. If I botched things up here, I



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would either have some real life practice with my newgear or I would be stew for Mrs. Outrageously largewolf.

I landed on the cliff and approached the wolfwith my hands up and a smile on my mouth, being verycareful to keep my teeth to myself. I walked towardsit slowly, making no sudden movements. The wolfseemed to get the picture and padded towards me,where it proceeded to rub my leg. The unnervingeffect of having a ten foot wolf rub my leg waslessened by the pleasure I got from knowing that theunnatural arm had done nothing to my animalisticcharisma.

Rodriguez, Helena and Tom arrived. Rodriguezwas on a scout bike and towing another one for me.Helena was piloting an attack hovercraft, with Tomsitting beside her. The eagle was flying beside them.They flew down slowly, knowing not to scare the wolf.Speaking of the wolf, it padded away, off into the

forest. They landed beside me, and I realised I wasforgetting something really important.

Sorry, I forgot something. Be right back, Itold Rodriguez. He nodded and I jumped off the cliffand hovered over to the crew door. I opened it and



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walked in. I ran to the hangar, where the baggagehovercraft was and grabbed the sword my father hadsent me. I knew somewhere inside me that I neededit. Maybe it was because it was one of the lastmemories of my father. Maybe there was some other,more sinister reason for it. I just needed it and Ididn't really care why.

Leaving the carrier, I joined Helena andRodriguez. There was something going on. I could feelit. Helena was looking really angry and Rodriguez worea nervous expression. Curious about this newdevelopment, I hovered towards them.

What's going on now? I asked.

Well, your wolf has just set off a howl. Which,I might add, was answered. From all over the forest.Helena informed me.

Firstly, he's not my wolf. Secondly, did yourecord this howl? I inquired.

Oh yeah, we'd really think to record a noise

when a herd of ten foot wolves could burst throughthe forest at any moment. Why didn't you just kill thewolf in the first place? Rodriguez said, lookingterrified.

Because other wolves would have found thecarcass, not to mention the fact that a ten foot wolf



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is a useful ally. Anyway, there's nothing we can donow. We'll just have to get going and hope wolfiedoesn't find us, I said, in what I hoped was areassuring tone.

I climbed onto my hover bike and veered offinto the trees. They followed. We were almostimmediately swallowed up by the trees. The hydra'swave of hopelessness overcame me again. It mighthave been something to do with meeting its eyes. Or itwas just the trees. Either way, I was worried. I had afeeling Eriana had another crazy monster waiting forme.

***

The further in we got, the closer together thetrees got. My imagination began to play tricks on me.Behind every tree, a monster lurked. The invinciblenemean lion was behind one, while Hephaestus' bronze

bulls were behind two more. The mouth of hell openedbehind me and the hydra and chimera walked out tosay hi and ask me to dinner with Satan. But despite allof these fantasies, one creature never appeared toinvite me to tea and torture. I knew it was it whowaited for me in Erianna's fortress and I was



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terrified.

***

After about an hour of tree trekking, wereached a point where the trees were impenetrable.They were so close together there was no way to getthrough. I looked up and saw they stretched high upinto the sky. The trees here had more of a steely lookto them than the other trees. Much steelier in fact.So steely in fact, that they could only be that waybecause they were made of steel.

We dismounted and walked towards the wall of

steel, looking for a gate. Rodriguez tripped over a rootthat seemed to have come from nowhere. He shookhimself and got up.

I smiled, and kept walking. A branchmatierialized in front of me and I smacked my headoff it. I ducked under it and walked on.

Something about the third time was what setme off. Helena was laughing at both of us whensuddenly, she was grabbed by two of the trees.Rodriguez was instantly beside one, attempting tohack it to pieces with his axe. I went for a moredignified approach, ripping out the flamethrower and



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smothering the trees in an inferno. It proved moreeffective than I had thought. The nearest ten or sotrees all shrivelled away to ashes. Helena fell over.Rodriguez's axe sliced right through the witheredhusk.

Helena picked herself up and glared indignantlyat the fortress.

That thing is coming down. Right now, Shesaid.

Wrong. It's going up. Way up, I smiled. Myarm went rocket launcher and Rodriguez and Helenastepped back. I ignored them and concentrated on ahole in the nearest tree. I loaded the rocket launcher

with a frag shell and knelt on one knee. I took verycareful aim and fired. The rocket smashed across theair, went right into the hole and exploded when it hitthe steel back of the tree. The explosive fragmentsblew a few more holes in it.

The tree was still there. I blinked and it was

still there. That wasn't much of a problem because Ihad lots more tricks up my sleeve. The next in line wasa black hole missile. I pushed it into the barrel of thelauncher and took aim. Once again, I concentrated onthe hole in the steel tree. I fired and the missile

jetted through the air before impacting with the back



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of the tree and causing a black hole for a fraction ofa second. That fraction of a second was enough andthe tree imploded into the hole.

As the smoke cleared, I became aware thatsomething was wrong. Rodriguez and Helena noticed itto. So did Tom, coming to join us from the attackhovercraft's cockpit. Even the eagle was worried. Icould smell something that can only be described asbad. A shadow formed in the smoke, and out walkedthe nemean lion.



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Chapter eleven When creation was begunEric's journal

The nemean lion stood blocking the entrance toErianna's second fortess. It was exactly as describedin mythology. A massive lion, with a golden coat.Thankfully no wings.

It roared a roar that shook the earth andcharged at me. Helena had pummelled it with morebullets than there are stars in the sky before itreached me, but her machine gun bullets bounced offits coat harmlessly.

It impacted with me and knocked me to the

ground. I looked up at the massive golden jungle catstanding on top of me and smiled. As it opened its mawto bite my head off, I threw it with all my superhumanstrength. The lion flew off me and hit the wall ofsteel trees with a mighty crunch. Helena opened fireon it as it sailed through the air. She was firing

plasma bolts at it, to no avail.The lion hit the wall and sank down. It was onits feet before it landed and was fighting offRodriguez's axe. I was immediately beside him, withmy sword set to plasma. I was using my father's swordin my left hand and it felt very uncomfortable and



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unwieldy. I realized I would have to do somethingabout that. Again and again our blows bounced off it.

Helena's eagle swooped down from the treesand pecked the lion in the eye. It roared itsearthquake roar and its eye grew back. It found theeagle and batted it against a tree. Helena stoppedfiring and dropped her machine gun to run to theeagle. The lion saw her running, and realised she wouldbe vulnerable. It turned away from us and beganrunning.

As the lion ran towards Helena, time seemed toslow down for me. I could see all the muscles movingunder the lion's coat. Numbers raced through my head

and I realised that if the lion hit Helena, she would bedead as a doornail. I bended my knees and leapt offthe ground, my rocket feet sending me there in whatwould have appeared to Rodriguez and his cousin asatto-seconds. I flew, spinning like a top, straight atthe lion. Helena turned round, to see me crash into

the lion and lift it off the ground, to fly it into a tree.Or just a blur. Or the lion dissapear.I let go of the lion a few metres before it hit

the tree and sent it flying through the tree. I landedback on the ground, feeling like a god. Rodriguez,Helena and Tom just stood there staring at me. I



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grinned and fell over.That, of course, was when the lion jumped

through the hole in the tree I had thrown it through,and landed millimeters away from me. It roared againand the earthquake shook me into standing.Rodriguez's axe was bouncing off it again. Helena waspummelling rounds at it already. This was all very well,but it wasn't hurting the beast in the slightest. Therewas definitely some way to hurt it. I knew that. Buthow?

Tom, floating silently behind Rodriguez, pickedup the lion with his mind and hurled it against theground. I was still watching the world in slow motion

through a veil of numbers and arrows. As the lion wentup, I could see the psychic arm lifting it up andthrowing it at the ground. It fell and I could see thewind lifting the hairs on its coat in glorioustechnicolour. As the hairs lifted up, I could see theskin below it which rippled in a way that just didn't

seem natural.The lion landed with a crash, the shockwavesending me up into the sky.

Having recovered from its tea party with thetree, the eagle swooped down below me and peckedthe lion in the eyes, this time managing to get away.



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I landed smoothly on the ground as the lionopened its mouth and roared for a fourth time. As itsmaw opened, One of the arrows that veiled my visionpointed inside the mouth. At the side of my vision, Isaw an icon like the atom spear flashing. I knewexactly what my supercharged unconscience wastrying to tell me.

I leapt off the ground and jetted towards theenormous toothy hole, my arm an atom spear, pointedout in front of me. As I flew towards the closing pit,my speed ever increasing, I remembered somethingabout the lion. It's coat was completely separate fromit and also completely immune to all harm. That was

why the spear couldn't work its magic on the lion.I suddenly flew into the lion, my spear

connecting with its tonsils. The brute instantly rottedaway to biological soup of some form or another. Thecoat fell on top of the golden syrup. I picked it up andput it on Tom, before collapsing.

*

When I had recovered and managed to get up, Iwalked over to Rodriguez.

What in God's name was that? Rodriguez



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asked, incredulously.Not sure. Could have been the energy reserve

though. Shall we get to work? I answered him.Let's go. We set off into the fortress of

doom, a bunch of young hopefuls who probably weren'tgoing to survive the next hour.

*Rodriguez's diary

As we walked through the great steel maze, Inoticed a change in Eric. He was becoming more andmore agitated, the further in we went. Helena noticedit too. It was having a bad effect on her. Eric was

walking faster, so it was easy for the two of us tohang back and talk while he went on ahead, talking tohimself and fidgeting. We met a couple of guards, buthe vaporised them, chopped them up or otherwisemaimed them. Eventually, he was far enough ahead forus to whisper without him noticing.

What's wrong with him? Helena whispered.You're the one who's been all close to him, youtell me, I whispered back.

He's been talking to himself,Has he been expecting a reply?No,



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Good. What's he been talking about?Something about someone or something coming

to get him,Oh. Has he mentioned us?He said he had to fight it alone. And then he

kept repeating the last word,What's the hell is he doing now? We had

reached a place where the corridor turned right andthen kept going in its original direction. The wall infront of us was made of stone, while the rest of theplace was made of steel. Eric was standing in front ofthe stone wall and tracing something on it. He finishedand the wall slid aside. He was now completely calm

and was that a trace of resignation?This is where we must part. I may come back,

but I probably will not. Do not follow me. He is comingfor me and I must face him alone even if it is and itprobably will be the last thing I do, He said thisgravely, in a way that I didn't think was possible for a

thirteen year old. Helena started to protest, but hewas gone, into the tunnel and the wall had slid back.The squeak of a mouse made all three of us turn

around and when we looked back, the stone wall haddisappeared, to be replaced by a steel one. I had afeeling the steel wall was just a covering, but we all



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knew that even if we removed the covering and blewthe stone wall to pieces, there would just be theglades beyond it.

I was the first to move. A sign above thecorridor said command center. I turned the stealthfield on my armour on, sent my bike back to thecarrier and crept along, my back flat against the wall.Before long we were inside the command center.

The center was a large octagonal room. Threesides of the room had a large glass window on them.Through this I could see what looked like a factoryfloor. People were working at different station. Theywere making different types of weapons.

The remainder of the sides were covered inbuttons, levers and all sorts of other crazy things. Itprobably would have been a paradise for Eric. I could

just imagine him going crazy there. He probably wouldhave blown the factory to pieces within a minute.

The room had about eight people in it, apart

from Eriana. They were all working at different sidesof the room. Three were overseeing the work on thefloor. In the center of the room was an octagonalpillar which went about halfway to the ceiling. It was aholo-communicator. Eriana was facing this and talking.There was a hologram on the ccommunicator but I



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couldn't see it properly.Have you moved the prisoner yet Eriana? The

figure spoke. It was a deep sinister voice. Theprisoner mother?

Yes, my lord. Are you absolutely certain she isthe one we need for our plan? What plan?

For the last time, Eriana, yes she is. Thecommission is annoyed with the manner in which youperformed the abduction. They found the fact thatthere was survivors was irritating, to say the least,Survivors? That could only mean one thing: us.

I understand my lord. I am eternally gratefulfor your intercession, Intercession? That was what

people prayed to saints for. It wasn't used anywhereelse, so perhaps the figure was regarded as a saintand this was some sort of twisted cult? Or worse,perhaps he was regarded as a messiah. That wouldprobably mean a new world order. What had startedas a simple mission to find and rescue my mother had

turned into something a lot more important, somethingthat would probably mean the end of the world as weknow it, or even the complete end of the world. Ishuddered, remembering how I had thought theapocalypse was over.

I had to intervene. We could not do without



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your skills, What skills? Does being able to mess uploads of innocent animals count as a skill? I could makefortune then!

Oh? You had no personal reasons? Personalreasons? Then, could this be the fourth husband Erichad talked about?

Of course I had personal reasons, Eriana.There is a personal reason behind everything I do.What I meant was that the commission agreed not tokill you because of your skills, Who the hell were thecommission?

That is good. Now, this boy, Eric? Or me? Orsome other poor sucker?

Have you set the trap for him? Trap? Eric,then. Probably somewhere in that tunnel.

Yes. Are you certain that he is the boy in theprophesy? Prophesy? What prophesy?

No. But if he survived a fall like that, I don'tthink he could be anyone else, Almost certainly Eric.

If he survived a fall like that, what makes youthink the beast can kill him in time? I relaxed. Eric'smonster slaying skills had been proved to me twicealready.

Nothing. The trap is there to test him. He willdefinitely not kill the creature, however. The reason I



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set the trap was to see if he would go alone, which hisnature will almost certainly command him to, He is coming for me and I must face him alone. Thesentence suddenly had a lot more weight to it. Besideme, Helena squirmed, dangerously. I grabbed hershoulder to try and calm her.

Whatever they may say in Iceland, I thinkproject HADES was a tremendous success, don't

you? Project HADES? What in God's name was that?Could it have been the explosion that killed Eric'sfather?

Yes. People will forever remember it as the daythe creators succeeded, The creators?

The cult, Helena hissed to me, reading mythoughts.

The day when creation was begun



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Chapter twelve Son of PasiphaeEric's journal

As I walked along the winding tunnels of thelabyrinth, doubts began to gnaw away at me, yet again.I knew that, despite her obsession with mythology,Eriana could not have made the labyrinth. Could thatmean that there was more to the greek legends than

just myths? And then there was the sign. Where hadthat come from? I had seen it before somewhere.Could my father have shown it to me? I doubted that.Maybe I had gone exploring in the room in my housewhere my father had kept all my mother's old things.

The maze was rather interesting. I had beenwandering for around an hour, but I was neitherhungry, thirsty nor tired. The maze was hewn into therock and I felt like I was wandering round in a wallcarving belonging to some twisted god.

There was gemstones on the walls and these

cast light on the tunnels. Except that they flashedrather than provide solid light. The tunnels were longcircular corridors with caves scattered at random.There was a lot of interesting things in the caves. Ifound some really cool rock formations in one.

There was a rock that was carved like the



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world. Water filled all the gaps where the sea shouldbe and the rock rotated just like the world. There wasa long thin piece of rock that went through the rocklike a skewer and the rock rotated around this. Scary.A ray of sunshine came down and hit the rock and alittle area around it. This one area was the only placeof green in the whole labyrinth. I wouldn't have beensurprised if there was a life tree sapling growing inthe center of the globe.

I walked into another cave. This one was muchmore sinister. The cave was spherical and there was aring of lava around a circular rock floor. There wastwo corridors leading into it. The one I had come in

through and another straight ahead of me. I couldhear his breathing. Smell his last meal whichprobably hadn't been in a week.

Are you going to just skulk around there like aworm or are you going to come and get me, ratbreath? The challenge was improvised, but I felt it

was still pretty good.There was a bellow, the likes of which I havenever heard from another source and which I know Iwill never forget, in this life or the next. Thegemstones flashed and I saw a shadow. Another flashmade that shadow into his silhouette, dark and



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powerful.The next flash broke out of the usual rythm of

Pink, orange, blue, purple, brown, green and yellow. Itshould have been blue, but instead, it was a deep, richred, the colour of blood and rage. Several of thegemstones glowed black or white, amidst the blood. Asif by magic, he was standing in front of me. Theminotaur. Son of pasiphae, half-man, half-bull. He hadthe head and lower legs of a bull, but from his kneesto his neck, he was all man. He wore a tunic which usedto be blue as the sea, but was now brown with driedblood.

He held an axe many times the size of me. I

didn't want to think about the heads that had rolledbecause of that axe. More than a just few of hisbovine brethren, probably. The twelve foot tall bulldemon lifted his axe and began to swing. The fusionshield spoke to his axe as only a blocked killing blowcan.

The beast roared at me and swung his battleaxeagain. I stepped out of the way, rather neatly. Theaxe embedded itself in the ground and rat-breathattempted a punch at me. The fusion shield blockedthe impact, but I still went flying.

I stabilized myself with rocket boosters and


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