Part Three: Chaos [3rd Person POV]

[3rd person detected]

[stand by]

The helicopter cut through the storm, blades thrumming. It reached the mountain, and three figures dropped onto a snow-covered ledge. The taller of them waved off the helicopter, and it turned and flew off, blades spiraling in the storm. The three figures crept toward the cave entrance, and the shortest one peeked inside. Four other figures, one a griffin, landed unseen behind the first three.

“BOO!” Peregrinator shouted, causing Darknight, Darkling, and Jay to jump and fall into the snowbank.

“Don’t do that, this is supposed to be a rescue mission, not a party,” Darknight complained quietly. “We don’t want to be discovered.” Peri rolled her eyes but didn’t shout anything else. The group snuck into the cave. “They’ll be in the main room,” Darknight whispered.

“Why the main room?” Jay asked.

“Because that’s where they always put prisoners.”

They crept the rest of the way in silence. Jay peeked around the corner, then jerked back. “They’re here,” she said shakily, “but they’re hanging a foot over the lava.”

“What do we do?” Darkling wondered. Darknight shushed him and peered around the wall. Tied together and hanging over the pool of lava were Dove and Hawk Guy. Both were unconscious, but Dove was stirring. A figure stood near the control panel. Magma. Darknight scowled and slipped back behind the wall.

“We have to attack all at once. Peri, can you get Dove and Avi out of here? We’ll meet you on the ledge, and I’ve got a helicopter waiting.”

Peri nodded silently and slipped into the room, Agent 12 and Wilson trailing her. Darknight, Darkling, and Jay stood and strode into the large room. “Let them go,” Darknight shouted. Magma jerked back from the control panel, whirling around to see who’d invaded his mountain.

“You,” he sneered. “Soon, your friends will be dead, and--”

“I don’t have time for a monologue,” Darknight snapped. “Let them go, or I’ll make you. Better yet, she’ll make you.” Jay smiled evilly at that, and her hands crackled with energy (a device she created made them do that for effect). Magma gulped, but stepped forward, drawing a massive broadsword that was flaked with lava. Darknight summoned his darkness sword, as did Darkling, and Jay drew her sword, coating it in ice.

Darknight charged, swinging his sword, but Magma deflected the strike and caused Darknight’s sword to melt slightly. Off balance, Darknight stumbled into the control panel. Jay charged Magma, her icy sword swinging in a complicated pattern. Magma tried to strike, but Jay blocked, and the lava-sword cooled. Magma growled, using his power to reheat the sword. Darknight, meanwhile, was trying to figure out the control panel. Dove, fully awake, struggled in his bonds. Hawk Guy remained unconscious. Peri, 12, and Spar were trying to position a slab of rock under the two captives so they wouldn’t fall in the lava.

Jay and Magma sparred back and forth, while Darknight and Darkling fiddled with the control panel. The captives were jerked back and forth until finally, he found to release button. The ropes released, and Dove and Hawk Guy crashed to the ground, fortunately on solid rock. Magma growled in frustration, shoving Jay back toward the lava pool. When her feet touched the surface of the bubbling liquid, it froze, creating a solid but slippery surface.

Long story short, Jay fell on her butt.

It was good timing, though, because if she hadn’t she'd have been decapitated. Magma, now unbalanced, fell onto the ice almost on top of Jay, who rolled out of the way and leaped onto solid ground. Magma was slowly being encased in ice.

“Let’s go,” Jay yelled, herding everyone to the entrance. Darknight and Darkling were carrying Hawk Guy on a stretcher made of darkness, while everyone else hurried to the ledge. Darknight called down the helicopter and they all piled in. Darknight turned to the pilot.

“Take us to the HQ.”

[third person end]