Grey Griffins: The Clockwork Chronicles #1: The Brimstone Key

by Derek Benz; Jon S. Lewis

  Max’s eyes followed the men through a series of quiet halls until they entered a semicircular corridor with clear windows on the far wall. Beyond the glass was a cavernous room ringed with a series of balconies stacked one on top of the other. In the center of it all stood a clockwork of colossal proportions.

  “The Dreadnaught…” he heard Sprig say.

  Towering nearly twenty feet tall, the Dreadnaught was armored like a tank. Its arms were bristling with weapons, and its legs were outfitted with rocket boosters. A small head with a hinged jaw sat on top of broad shoulders, and two figures stood at its feet. One was an older gentleman in a military uniform. Max knew him immediately to be Otto Von Strife. At his side stood a young woman. Her hair was silken red, and tiny flames flickered over the strands. Max had seen her face once before, though it was only a picture. It was Naomi—the girl who had blown up the Iron Bridge Academy long ago. She didn’t look a day over eighteen.

  After a moment of conversation, she nodded her agreement, and a field of fire ignited around her before she flew up and out of view.

  The scientists came back into view as they approached the Dreadnaught. Locking the table’s wheels, they drew the sheet away and Max could see Robert lying silently on the table. His skin was pale as a corpse, and tubes filled with blue liquid ran up his nose. The worst part may have been the incision on his shaved head.

  Robert’s eyes suddenly opened. Instead of brown, they were an unnatural blue. He remained unblinking as the men in white scanned him with a series of strange instruments. Robert’s inhibitor was gone, but there was a large device planted in the center of his chest. Von Strife took a thick cable and plugged it into the device before one of his assistants attached the other end to the Dreadnaught.

  There was a spark, and Robert screamed.

  “No!” Max cried, as he slammed his fist against the mirror. The surface shattered and the image disappeared. Robert was gone. So was Sprig.

  “You’re going to want to come up here,” Harley called over the intercom.

  64

  THE INFERNO PRISON

  Max rushed to the bridge. The others were staring out the observation window at a ring of jagged mountains. They could just make out the silhouette of a floating tower that was tethered to the mountaintops by five heavy chains. Smoke was rising from the strange building, and the air was lit up with a barrage of energy pulses and blaster fire.

  “We’re too late,” Strange said. “The Inferno Prison is already under attack.”

  Just above the floating tower hovered three ships that resembled floating aircraft carriers. Cannons from the ship pummeled the tower, laying waste to the Templar defenses as flying clockworks shot overhead, picking off the heroic soldiers.

  The Templar countered. One of the enemy airships had already crashed in the valley below, where a thousand clockworks lay scattered like smoking insects.

  “Turn the ship around!” Logan ordered, as he listened to his comlink. “The charges are set. The whole thing is going to blow!”

  “We’re just going to leave your men to die?” Natalia cried.

  Logan ignored her and repeated his order to Monti. The engines roared to life as the airship began its wide turn.

  As Max watched out the window, he could see that Von Strife’s fleet had realized the danger as well. The carriers were being forced into a desperate retreat. The cannons had been silenced as the crews directed all power to turn the aerial goliaths around.

  Max watched as a single ball of flame shot up from one of the towers. It hovered in the air before it turned toward the airship. As it got closer, Max could see that it was actually a girl with flaming hair… Naomi. She crossed the distance between them to hover just outside the window. Her eyes moved over the Griffins as if considering something. Then, with a nod, she blazed off in a trail of fire.

  At that moment, the tower erupted in a cataclysmic explosion that sent a ring of destruction in every direction. Before Max could run for cover, the first wave of energy smashed into the side of the airship.

  “Get away from the window!” Logan shouted. He grabbed Max by the back of his collar, pulling him to the ground just as the ship’s windows blew inward. Shards of glass flew like razors.

  The cabin pitched heavily to starboard, and the engines outside the window had caught fire.

  “We’re going down!” Monti shouted into the comlink. Furniture smashed against the wall and Max barely managed to duck as a heavy table slid like a guillotine over his head.

  Natalia screamed.

  Stumbling to his feet, Max could see Harley leaning out the window, holding desperately to Natalia’s hand. She had fallen through and her feet were dangling a thousand feet above the ice.

  “Don’t let go of me!” she screamed.

  Harley’s arm was bleeding, cut by broken glass that was lodged in the window frame. “I think my shoulder is dislocated,” he said, wincing.

  “Max, get your arms around Harley’s knees to steady him!” Logan ordered.

  “Eight hundred feet and falling,” Monti shouted. “Firing retro rockets! Dropping ballast!”

  “Harley, I’m going to pick you up like a football lineman hitting a sled,” the Scotsman explained as he slid between Harley and the window. “All you need to do is hold on to her.”

  Harley managed a weak nod, and Logan exploded. Harley’s vision went grey as he flew backward, his hand fastened to Natalia’s wrist like a vise.

  “We’re gonna hit!” Monti shouted. “Brace for impact!”

  65

  STRANDED

  Somehow Monti managed to land the airship with minimal damage. The second they hit the ground, an army of gnomes raced to put out fires and repair the engines. Monti was in the middle of it all, trying to bring order to the chaos.

  “Looks like Von Strife didn’t fare much better than we did,” Logan noted, pointing toward two smoking mountains of scrap iron. One of the battleships had managed to get away, but most of Von Strife’s clockwork army had been destroyed.

  “Where’s Obadiah?” Ernie asked, scanning the horizon.

  Logan turned to Monti. “Wasn’t he with you?”

  “He was in the rear observation bridge… the one that got blown away.”

  Natalia gasped in horror, and Logan put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure he survived. He’s indestructible, remember?”

  Logan set his jaw and turned to Harley. “How’s the arm?”

  “Not good.”

  “You!” Logan called to a gnome. “First aid. Now.” The gnome ran off, returning moments later with a kit of medical supplies. Logan wiped off as much blood as he could before applying gauze and wrapping a linen bandage around Harley’s chest and shoulder, pinning his arm so it couldn’t move.

  “That will have to do,” the Scotsman said, surveying his work. “Are you good enough to walk?”

  Harley nodded, and Logan handed him a pistol from his belt. “This isn’t as strong as my Scatter Blaster, but it’ll do in a pinch.”

  “What does he need that for?” Natalia asked.

  “We’re going to look for Strange,” Logan replied.

  With that, he handed each of the Griffins a pack, instructing them to put on the respiratory mask inside. “The air is thin, and it’s full of carbonic acid,” he explained before slipping one of the masks over his own face.

  The sky was filled with ash, and the glow from smoldering fires painted the landscape bloodred. Max could see that the tower holding the gateway had been gutted. He just hoped Robert wasn’t among the wreckage.

  They wandered silently across the snowy plain, as Logan scanned the surrounding area for any sign of their missing companion.

  “Hey, what’s that?” Natalia called out.

  A large clockwork arm was lying in a snowdrift. It was broken off at the shoulder, still clutching a massive gun.

  “Looks like it came from a Nemesis,” Logan observed. “Let’s hope that there aren’t any others hanging around.”
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  “There’re more parts over here,” Harley said as he crested a hill.

  They had stumbled on a graveyard of clockwork parts that littered the valley. Decapitated heads sat at odd angles. Their eye sockets were devoid of life, and their casings were crushed. There were all manner of bolts, gears, and metal rods strewn about.

  “Can you see this?” Logan asked into his comlink.

  “Crystal clear,” Monti replied. “Wreckage from the blast?”

  “Looks like it,” the Scotsman replied.

  “Any survivors?”

  Logan checked his scanner. “Negative.”

  Max walked down the hill, searching for anything that looked like the Dreadnaught he had seen. It was hard differentiating one component from another. Most of the metal was just scrap.

  “What are you looking for?” Harley asked.

  Max stopped for a moment, debating whether or not he should say anything. “Robert.”

  66

  THE DREADNAUGHT

  “What do you mean, you’re looking for Robert?” Ernie wanted to know.

  Max took a deep breath. “I didn’t want to say anything, but before we crashed, Sprig showed me an image of Robert through a portal inside the mirror in my room. He was hooked up to some kind of a machine.”

  “Don’t joke around about stuff like that.”

  “I’m not,” Max replied solemnly. “Von Strife was using a machine that was sucking out his soul and placing it into a Dreadnaught.”

  “Hold on,” Logan said, looking down at his tracking device. “I picked up something big moving this way.”

  “Do you think it’s Robert?” Ernie asked hopefully.

  “Look, Ernie,” Logan started to explain, “even if it is Robert inside one of these machines, the longer he stays there, the less likely he’ll be able to recognize any of us. He’s gone, and he’s not coming back.”

  “You’re lying!” Ernie exclaimed as tears started to well in his eyes. “I bet Monti could help him.”

  The device on Logan’s wrist started to beep rapidly. “It’s almost on us,” Logan said, raising his pulse rifle.

  “I can’t see anything,” Max said.

  “Me, either,” agreed Harley. “Do you think it has some kind of cloaking device?”

  “It might,” Logan admitted. “According to this, it should be right on top of us.”

  “Then why isn’t it firing?” asked Natalia.

  Without warning, Ernie took off. Snow kicked up as he raced to find the Dreadnaught.

  “He’s going to get himself killed,” Logan growled.

  “Robert!” Ernie called. “Robert, are you out there?”

  There was no response.

  “Look, if you can hear me, it’s Ernie! You know, Agent Thunderbolt!” Ernie called out, hoping that if Robert was nearby, he would show himself.

  The air in front of Ernie began to ripple like the surface of water in the wind. A moment later, Ernie found himself standing in the shadow of a menacing clockwork. The war machine was wrapped in thick armor and bristled with weapons.

  Natalia gasped as she stepped behind Harley, looking around his shoulder.

  “Robert, you have to listen to me,” Ernie continued. “I know you’re in there. I promise, if you let us help, we’ll find a way to get you out.”

  The Dreadnaught’s head rotated like a turret as it took focus on Ernie.

  Agent Thunderbolt smiled weakly through his respirator. “That’s right. It’s me!”

  The monstrous machine seemed to consider Ernie before it scanned the metal bones of destroyed clockworks. Then it turned back to Ernie and raised a hand toward him.

  The air exploded with electrical fire as a missile smashed into the Dreadnaught, sending it reeling backward. At the same time, a black shadow raced overhead. It was a Templar hover-copter, and it was coming back for another shot.

  “No!” Ernie cried out.

  Logan activated his comlink and tried to call the pilot off, but it was too late. As the copter flew by, the clockwork launched into the air. Boosters embedded in the bottom of its feet kicked in. With a metal-crunching thud, it punched a hole through the side of the hover-copter. There was a terrible explosion and the wreckage of the ship smashed into the earth in a cloud of fire and smoke.

  The Dreadnaught landed on top of the smoking ruin and began hammering at it like an enraged animal. Pieces of metal flew everywhere, but Ernie still moved closer.

  “It was a mistake, Robert.”

  The Dreadnaught turned toward Agent Thunderbolt. One of its shoulder plates flipped up, and a large Gatling gun appeared. Suddenly twenty barrels were leveled at Ernie.

  “Please, Robert.” Ernie held his ground. “If you come with us, we can help.”

  There was no hesitation this time. The Dreadnaught opened fire, its barrels spinning fast. The explosions sent a shower of ice into the air. When the war machine’s barrels died down, Ernie was nowhere to be found.

  With Ernie out of the way, the Dreadnaught unloaded on the other Griffins. Cannons fired wildly as its fists crushed the earth.

  Max felt a rush of wind over his shoulder. Logan had sent a plasma rocket smashing into the chest of a massive clockwork. The explosion was blinding, but the metal beast wasn’t even stunned. It swung a giant fist at the Scotsman’s head, narrowly missing as Logan threw himself between the machine’s legs. He rolled back to his feet on the other side and fired another round directly into its face. The clockwork was barely fazed.

  “The Mark Six Plasma Charges aren’t working!” Logan shouted into his comlink.

  “I know,” Monti called back. “It looks like it’s time for Plan B.”

  Logan signaled Max and Natalia. “You heard the man.”

  Max was the first to drop his pack into the snow. He tore open the top and fished out a strange device that was about the size of a hockey puck. He ignited his gauntlet and slapped it onto the circular THOR emblem on the top. Instantly, a spark of red energy crackled across the surface.

  Natalia was next. She removed her backpack and pulled the ripcord as it hit the ground. The bag opened up, and thirty brass spheres rolled out into the snow. Each was covered with etched lines connecting a series of flashing lights that pulsed like tiny heartbeats.

  Just as Logan was about to get smashed into oblivion, two more Templar hover-copters appeared, engaging the Dreadnaught from a safe distance. They didn’t have the firepower to take the brute down, but they would buy the Griffins some time.

  “Hit the activator!” Logan ordered.

  Natalia complied and the spheres began to twist and rotate, unlocking themselves to transform into small Assembler clockworks.

  “Your turn, Max,” Monti called across the comlink. “This is our only chance!”

  Max prepped his jump boots and raced toward the Dreadnaught. It was distracted by the hover-copters. As he sailed toward the Dreadnaught, he raised his gauntlet and swung with all his might. Max could feel the machine’s head crumple as he hit it. The impact sent Max flying off into a snowdrift, as the Dreadnaught fell to the ground.

  The machine struggled to regain its feet as a plume of smoke rose from the gash in its head. Sparks flew out of its joints, and the light behind its eyes flickered erratically.

  “Quick!” Logan ordered Natalia. “Before it starts to repair itself!”

  Natalia flicked the control panel, and the Assemblers went to work. They swarmed over the fallen giant like a metallic pestilence. With hands made from wrenches, drills, grinders, cutters, hammers, and torches, they were efficient and fast.

  One of the Assemblers deactivated the Dreadnaught’s regen system, and from there it was just a matter of time before the war machine was scrap. The Gatling gun was removed, and then its right arm. Two Assemblers pulled a knee apart, and a third stripped its fingers.

  “No!” Ernie cried as he raced to the Dreadnaught.

  Natalia ran to hug him. “We thought you were dead!”

  Ernie pushed he
r away. “Max, you have to stop them. They’re killing Robert!”

  “I’m sorry, Ernie, but you heard Logan. That isn’t Robert anymore.”

  “What happened to you?” Ernie shouted. “If Iver had been here, he never would have let this happen!”

  Ernie jumped on the colossal machine and kicked at the Assemblers. Several fell, but it was too late. The machines had done their job with mechanical efficiency, splitting open the Dreadnaught’s chest before unscrewing the head. Ernie watched in horror as the light of the Dreadnaught’s eyes extinguished.

  “No!” Ernie screamed. “You guys are monsters! You killed him!”

  A wisp of vapor swirled up out of the metal shell. It gathered there for a moment, taking the shape of a young boy who regarded Ernie with tired eyes. Then, out of the north, a cold wind blew. The figure dissolved into nothing.

  Logan walked solemnly to Ernie and placed a gentle hand on Agent Thunderbolt’s shoulder. Ernie tried to pull away, but Logan held firm. Then Ernie’s chest heaved, and his shoulders shook. He couldn’t hold back the sobs, and he didn’t care.

  67

  GOOD-BYE

  A grey December sky hung over Iron Bridge Academy. Classes had been canceled so the students and faculty could gather in the courtyard to honor Robert. A stone memorial had been erected, surrounded by colorful flowers that were warmed by faerie magic.

  Robert’s parents were dressed in black, their eyes hidden behind dark glasses. Ernie stood beside them in silence as tears ran down his face. Natalia slipped her arm around his shoulder. He smiled weakly, only half listening as Baron Lundgren continued the eulogy.

  “…and this garden will stand in constant bloom to symbolize Robert’s indelible spirit. Yet despite our sorrow, we must push forward. The weak must be defended. The helpless, protected. Robert may have died, but his spirit remains. He will be with us in our fight, never far from our thoughts.”

  Cain’s voice was melancholy as he leaned on his walking stick. Brooke was standing next to him. It was her first time back on campus since the Reaper attack. “The Templar have a long history, and we know well the pain of losing loved ones. We have been victims of hatred. We have been outcasts. We have known the pains of torture, but we have never been defeated. Our anguish will only serve to strengthen our resolve. Long live the Templar.”