Chapter 38
Luke was sitting in his cabin and he was using his Skype feed to talk to Melissa and the kids back at home. Stacy was showing him all of the new dances that she had learned and the dozens of art projects which she had completed in the two weeks since he had left for the Middle East. When she was finished, Melissa sent her out into the other room to play. She then turned to the screen with a look of concern, “What’s wrong? I can tell by the look on your face that something is bothering you. There was no news feed on what happened over there. What kind of monsters did you run into?”
Luke shook his head as the horrible image of the Colossus of Death and his zombie army ran through his mind, “There was no news feed because anyone who came across the things we encountered is dead.” Luke closed his eyes and he was silent for a moment. Melissa had known him long enough not pressure to him to continue. After taking a second to stead himself, Luke opened his eyes, “I saw horrors over here that deeply disturbed me, but in the end with the help of Chimera we were able to put an end to the threat.” Luke took another deep breath, “Honey, I am not really ready to talk about what I saw here yet. Maybe when I get home and we can talk face to face, but right now I just can’t talk about it.”
Melissa nodded, “That’s okay. When you are ready to talk about it I am here for you.” The doorbell rang and Luke could here Stacy yelling that someone was at the door. Melissa smiled, “Well maybe I am not here for you right this second. Let me go see who that is before Stacy goes nuts.”
Through the Skype feed, Luke watched as Melissa walked over to the door and opened it. He could see a tall, well built, man with long blond hair at the door in a UPS uniform. Luke sighed; it was just his luck that a guy who posed for romance novels would be at his wife’s door when he was Skyping with her. He trusted Melissa of course, but he could see from the way she perked up that she found the guy attractive. That didn’t bother Luke. After all, it wasn’t like he never noticed an attractive woman. He was already thinking about how he was going to playfully give her a hard time about the delivery guy when he saw the delivery guy grab Melissa and kiss her. Anger rushed through Luke but it was quickly replaced with fear when a bright flash of light filled the screen causing him to close his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, he could see that both the delivery man and Melissa were gone. The sound of Stacy screaming came pouring through the Skype feed.
Luke’s thoughts immediately shifted to his daughters. He felt helpless as he started yelling at the screen to get Stacy’s attention. Finally, the five year old came running over to the computer, “Daddy, Daddy, that man took mommy in the light!”
Luke did his best to project a sense of calmness to his daughter, “It’s okay, Stacy. Mommy will be back soon. Where is your sister?”
Stacy was crying, “She is upstairs sleeping in her room.”
Luke nodded, “Okay Stacy, listen carefully. I want you to take the computer, keep it on so that I can see you, then go into your sister’s room and the lock the door. I am going to send over some of the soldiers on the base to come get you and keep you safe. We are going to make a secret word and I don’t want you to open the door unless the people who knock on the door say the secret word. Do you understand?”
Stacy was still crying hysterically but she nodded that she did. Luke spoke in a calm voice, “Okay honey, Ariel is your favorite Disney Princess, right?”
Stacy nodded, “Yes, Daddy. I love Ariel.”
Luke smiled at his daughter, “Okay honey, once you close the door don’t open it unless the man on the other side of the door say’s that your favorite princess is Ariel and keep the computer with you so that I can see you until help comes.”
Luke picked up his laptop and grabbed his radio, “Parsons, Diana, I have an emergency! I need your help! Meet me in the briefing room now!”
Parson’s replied, “Copy that Luke, I am heading to the briefing room now.”
Diana was running as she spoke, “I’ll be there in a second! What’s wrong?”
Luke was fighting with every fiber of his being to stay calm for his daughter who was still watching him through the Skype feed, “It’s my wife. They have taken Melissa. Parson’s, my kids are in the house by themselves, I need you to get a security team over there ASAP! My kids are locked in the toddler’s room. I have them on Skype feed. Tell the security team that the safe word is Princess Ariel.”
Parsons came back, “Copy that Luke. I will have a team there in less than five minutes.”
Luke sprinted into the briefing room and placed his laptop on the table. Through the Skype feed he could see Stacy slamming the door closed and locking it. The slamming door had woken up her little sister who started crying. Stacy ran over, hugged her, and said, “It’s okay, Sissy. Daddy is on the computer and Mommy will be back soon.”
Luke was overwhelmed with emotions as he watched the scene on his laptop. He had never been so terrified in his entire life and at the same time he had never been so proud. Diana ran into the room and Luke made a motion with his hand indicating to Diana to remain calm. He then pointed at the laptop. Diana quickly understood the gesture and quietly took a seat at the conference table.
Parsons entered the room talking on his radio, “I want those men in that house now!” Luke could hear a voice reply that the team was currently entering the house. Luke kept talking to his daughter, “Stacy, some of Daddy’s friends are coming to help you. Remember to not open the door unless they say your favorite princess.” Stacy nodded in reply as she kept hugging her crying sister. Luke heard a knock on the door through the feed and he heard a voice say, “This is Sergeant Stone, your favorite Princess is Ariel. We are friends of your dad’s. Please open the door, Stacy.”
Stacy looked at her laptop, “Can I open the door, Daddy?”
Luke nodded as tears welled up in his eyes, “Yes, honey. Stacy, I am so proud of how well you did with following my directions and protecting your sister. I love you, honey and I will be home soon. I have to go now. I will call Grandma and have her come down and stay with you girls until I can get home.”
One of the security team members came into the room and Stacy looked toward her computer, “Okay Daddy, I have to stay with sissy or she will be scared, bye-bye.”
Luke whimpered, “Bye, bye, honey.” He then switched off his computer and immediately broke down in tears. Diana ran over and hugged him. She held him in her arms. She didn’t say a word. She knew that there was nothing that she could say that would comfort her friend. All that she could do was be there for him. Parsons was silent as well. He knew that Luke needed a minute to deal with what had just happened to his family.
After several minutes, Luke stopped crying. He wiped his eyes and quietly whispered, “Thank you,” to Diana who nodded in reply. He looked to Parsons who answered his question before he could even ask it, “The girls have been taken to my house to stay with my wife. I have a team of guards stationed at the house as well. I have also radioed Maguire Air Force base in New Jersey. They are sending out a team to pick up your mother. They will fill her in on the situation and have her on military plane to Virginia ASAP. She should be with your kids by the end of the day.” Parsons walked over and put his hand on Luke’s shoulder, “Luke, I am so—”
Luke cut him off, “Don’t say it, Parsons. There is no time to be sorry. It’s time for action. I am getting my wife back!”
Parsons nodded, “Of course we are. Did you see anything through the feed that might help us identify who took her?”
Luke nodded then he replayed the Skype feed. The three of them watched as Aiden knocked on the door, talked to Melissa for a minute, and then kissed her, causing them to disappear in a flash.
Diana cleared her throat, “I, ah… I think that I know who took Melissa.” She pulled out her laptop and connected it the main monitor. Dozens of reports filled the screen, all of them detailing instances where people went missing in a flash of light when they were approached by either an attractive blond man o
r woman. The reports suggest that all of the people who were taken were both young and attractive themselves.” She paused for a second and turned to Luke, “I am sorry Luke, but I think that these people may have been abducted so that they can serve as the breeding partners for the gods in their quest to create a species of demi-gods.”
Luke shook his head, “Melissa had her tubes tied after our second child. She couldn’t be used as one of their breeders.”
Parsons interrupted, “Then it’s clear that she was kidnapped to be used as leverage against Luke and Chimera. We will probably be contacted soon in some fashion with a threat against Melissa unless Luke and Chimera stand down.”
Luke clenched his hands and gritted his teeth, “That’s not going to happen. I love Melissa and I know her. With our kids in danger, she would tell me to press on no matter the danger to her. These bastards think that they have crippled me but all they have done is piss me off. Chimera and I are going to destroy everything that even looks like it’s remotely related to the gods.”
Luke walked out of the conference room and onto the deck of the Argos. He stared out over the ocean and silently said a prayer that Melissa would be safe. He thought back to when he had talked to her about accepting this position. He told Melissa that he needed her by his side because every challenge that they had faced in their adult life they had done so together. Now this new challenge Luke accepted has put Melissa in grave danger. He thought of his wife and looked to her for strength. As he had said to his friends, she would tell him to press on. He cleared his eyes and made a promise to his wife, “Melissa, I swear to god that I will do everything possible to get you back and to make these so-called gods pay for taking you.” He began to cry as he finished the last part of his promise, “If they hurt you in any way, I promise that you will be the last person that they ever hurt because Chimera and I will destroy them and everything that they hold dear!”
Luke turned around to see Diana standing behind him. He looked at her with a grim determination, “We have work to do.”
She held out her hand to him, “Let’s get to it then.” Luke took her hand and they walked back to the conference room together.
Chapter 39
Germany
The smell coming from the entrance to the cave was horrid and overwhelming. The odor was the stench of thousands of years of decay. Allison stood in front of the cave for a moment and thought to herself that this is another reason that she hated the Asgardians. The Olympians and the Mesopotamians had her finding the most attractive men on Earth for them. The Asgardians sent her to retrieve a dragon that had been wallowing in his own filth and self-pity for countless centuries. She took a cautious first step into the dark cave. She walked over the remains of deer, bears, horses, and cows. Long ago, the dragon had nearly been slain by the hero Siegfried. Siegfried also succeeded in taking Fafnir’s treasure. It took Fafnir several centuries to recover from his physical wounds but the beast had never recovered emotionally from the loss of his coveted treasure. The presence of the animal remains showed that Fafnir was eating just enough to sustain himself in between his long slumbers. If a cow went missing every twenty years or so no one asked any questions. Fafnir was able to eat quickly and return to his cave where he would hibernate until his body forced him to wake again and feed.
As Allison walked deeper into the cave, she was forced to form a ball of light in the palm of her hand so that she could see where she was going. She walked into the darkness for several more minutes and then suddenly she found that the cave was filled with a thick white mist. Unlike most dragons that had the ability to breathe fire, Fafnir was capable of emanating poison gas from his mouth. Had Allison been a mortal, she would have begun choking and died in under minute. Allison walked through the gasses and continued down further into the cave.
A deep a guttural voice came from the darkness ahead of her, “Even an immortal shall not disturb my sleep and leave my cave unharmed. Be warned intruder, if you tread any further you shall incur the wrath of Fafnir!”
A chill ran down Allison’s spine, as she was more than aware of what a dragon like Fafnir was capable of doing to her. She stopped walking then shouted down into the darkness, “I come with word from Lord Odin! He feels that you have suffered long enough. He has a new treasure that is yours for the taking if you are willing to fight for it!”
The grim voice rose an octave at the suggestions of acquiring a treasure, “A new treasure? I warn you, if this is a ploy you shall pay dearly!”
Allison shook her head, “It’s no ploy. The treasure is across the ocean in the land of Kentucky at the Fort of Knox. The humans have this treasure and they guard it with their guns, planes, and tanks.”
Fafnir was silent for a moment then he replied with renewed vigor in his voice, “I have slept for a long time, but in my dreams I have seen many of the treasures amassed by the humans. Often have I dreamt of the treasure at the Fort of Knox. I have also dreamt of the pitiful defense that the humans have placed around the treasure. Long have I wished to obtain a new treasure and yet I have not done so for fear of retaliation from the gods and yet you claim that Odin himself has decreed that I may have this treasure?”
Allison smiled, “Lord Odin stated that if you can take the treasure from the humans that it will be yours as long as you can defend it.”
Fafnir laughed, “I shall crush the humans who horde this treasure! Then I welcome any challenger who seeks to take my treasure from me!”
The ground beneath Allison’s feet started to shake as Fafnir began making his way out the cave. She quickly teleported herself to the mouth of the cave. When she was outside of the cave, she ran to a nearby tree and crouched behind it. She watched as a long snake-like body slithered out of the cave. First Fafnir extended his four powerful legs, then used them to lift his massive body off of the ground. With his legs beneath him, the dragon spread his wings, covering Allison beneath their shadow. Fafnir roared and began flapping his wings. Allison was knocked to the ground by the force of the wind generated by the flapping wings. She was lying on the ground as she watched the dragon streak off in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean. She was considering the dragon’s boast of welcoming any challenger in regards to Chimera. She watched as Fafnir flew out of sight then she whispered, “Be careful what you wish for, dragon.”
Fafnir flew out over the ocean where he broke the sound barrier causing as sonic boom, then flew straight up into the stratosphere. When he was far above the planet, he accelerated to speeds beyond human comprehension. He could detect a piece of gold as small as a gram from across the planet. Fafnir could sense the store of gold in Fort Knox as easily as a shark could smell a gallon of blood in a tank of water. He zeroed in on the treasure and calculated that at his current speed he would reach his destination in just under two hours. A smile formed across Fafnir’s reptilian face as the thought of possessing a treasure crossed his mind. For centuries, he had stayed in his cave and tried to sleep off his desire to obtain a new mound of gold for fear of angering the gods, but now that Odin had directed him to take this Fort for his own, he finally had a purpose in life again. Fafnir shifted his course slightly to the south as he could sense the gold of Fort Knox growing closer by the second.
Norway
Two large stone pillars stood roughly twenty feet apart in the vast forest region of northern Norway. The pillars were so deep in the woods that they had not been seen by human eyes for hundreds of years. The runic inscriptions on the pillars were long grown over with moss and lichens. As the sun slowly rose on the forest, the light pierced the trees and shone through the pillars and, for the first time in nearly thirteen hundred years, when the light passed between the two pillars it began to refract and form a rainbow. The rainbow started out as a small band of light between the ancient structures. The band of light slowly grew until the rainbow filled the entire space between the two pillars. The rainbow was shining brilliantly until the form of a large Viking warrior suddenly stepped through it. Th
e thunder god Thor breathed the air of Earth for first time since he and his father had left this planet in the hands of the humans many centuries ago. Simply by taking a breath of the air, Thor could feel the changes that men had brought upon the planet through their actions. Even in this untouched forest, Thor could sense that the air was filled with particles of smog and smoke that tainted the atmosphere. While it was cold in the early morning, Thor could sense that it was much warmer out than it should be in an area so far north. Thor shook his head in disappointment; he and the other gods had left the precious gift of this planet in the hands of the humans and they were destroying it for no other purpose than to serve their own greed. Thor looked to the heavens and realized that his cause was just, that he needed to eliminate the humans from the planet if there was to be anything left worth defending at the coming of Ragnarok when the Dark Ones retuned.
Thor began heading even further north through the dense forest. After walking for a few minutes, he had reached the appropriate area of the Arctic Circle. When he was in deep enough into the Arctic Circle, he reached into his garments and pulled out the Belt of Strength given to him by his father. Thor snapped the belt around his waist and his body began to grow until he towered over the trees at a height of over three hundred feet tall. With his strength at its peak, he placed the iron gloves on his hands, which he required in order to use his hammer, to control the elements. After placing the gloves over his hands, Thor removed his hammer from his belt. Holding the hammer by its handle, he began to swing the weapon over his head, causing a massive storm the magnitude of a class five hurricane to form above him. The trees in the forest were bent and broke as the wind from the storm tore through the ancient woodland. Thor focused his thoughts and bent the storm to his will. He caused a bolt of lightning to shoot up from the clouds and into the outreaches of Earth striking the magnetosphere. Once the first bolt of lightning struck the magnetosphere, he could feel the shield around the planet condense slightly. Even with his powers, Thor could sense that in order to condense Earth’s magnetic shield to the point that he required would take time and most of his energy. Thor closed his eyes and then focused his energy on lessening Earth’s defense from the sun itself.
Chimera: Scourge of the Gods: A Kaiju Thriller Page 18
