Advent of the Dragon - Book 1: Destiny's Call

Chapter 8: Out of the Blue

"Are you alright?" I heard Kevin say.

"Yeah."

I rubbed my eyes and looked up, only to find at first what appeared to be a nothing more than a blinding white light. For a second, that flash seemed to have knocked my vision out of whack, but as my eyes slowly adjusted to the brightness of the new place we were in, the white light began to turn into a bright shade of blue, and after a brief second, I came to realize just where we were—in the sky!

My eyes widened. It was a bright atmosphere, yielding nothing but blue sky and white clouds as far as the eye could see. Above us was the afternoon sun, shining down on us in a fresh bath of comforting warmth, and below us was a thick layer of clouds, which, while beautiful like a hidden paradise, also seemed ominous, as though they were meant to block us off from somewhere—or something.

"Whoa!"

"I know," Zoey responded, "I dunno how we're supposed to find the portal up here, much less what we might be facing."

"At least we got a plane to help us out," said Kevin, "What's the worst that could happen?"

A plane? What?

I stood up and looked around.

Oh, duh! We're in a plane.

It was a small, compact plane, made for two—maybe three?—passengers. It seemed just like the small planes used back in the World Wars. Tiny engines and propellers kept it in the air, no windows or anything stood above us to shield the wind from us (which may very well cost us here), and there were very few buttons and levers activating anything. The only thing in operation was the AUTO PILOT button I noticed flashing.

Then, I thought about what else Kevin had just said: What's the worst that can happen?

"I dunno," Zoey answered, "But considering the wide open space and limitless possibilities of midair combat, I'd say it's pretty bad."

She's right.

"So then what do we do?" Kevin asked.

"What we always do," I said, "Find the portal."

Wait a minute … Where is the portal?

"I don't see it," said Zoey after taking a quick glance around.

"Well, I doubt we're gonna find it right away," said Kevin, "Let's fly this thing around and see if we come across it."

"Are you sure you can fly this thing?" I said turning toward Kevin.

"Y-yeah." His stuttering was very reassuring. "How hard can it be?"

Kevin took the helm, carefully studying every knob, button, and lever he could find. He seemed to have a relatively decent understanding of it—for the most part.

Still, I couldn't help but think, Oh, God. This is NOT gonna end well.

Finally, Kevin turned off the AUTO PILOT and took control of the plane. Zoey and I both flinched, tightly shutting our eyes and clenching our teeth. But nothing happened.

I opened my eyes. Kevin was flying the plane. He was doing it fine!

"How are you doing that!?" Zoey asked, both shocked and amazed.

"Most of the buttons and stuff are labeled," he said casually, "and the controls are actually pretty easy."

"Awesome!" I said, "Wow! This is actually easy so far!"

"Yeah," said Zoey, "But we still can't find the portal."

She was right; the portal was nowhere in sight. We searched high and low—all around the open sky—but we only ended up going around in circles; there was nothing.

"Okay!" said Kevin, lowering his head in frustration, "Now what!?"

"I have no idea," said Zoey, "Shouldn't we be facing something by now?"

Yeah, I thought, Normally, we'd be in total peril now, rather than sheer frustration.

"Hang on," said Zoey, "You guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" said Kevin, "All I hear is the motor."

"Exactly," said Zoey, "Was it always that loud?"

She had a point. Once she had said it, I suddenly noticed that our motor was nearly twice as loud as it was earlier. Either that, or…

"You think there's more than one of them out here?" asked Kevin, echoing my thoughts.

"I think so," I said, "And if that's the case, then I think we're about to face our first trial out here."

CLICK!

"What the…!?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin.

What was that!?

I scrambled over to the side of the plane, looking down to see what had made that noise. But there was nothing!

Something's not right here. There's got to be something around here making all these weird sounds.

But I don't see anything anywhere! Unless…!

"Kevin! Move!!"

"What?"

"Just do it!" I urged.

RATATATATATATATATATATAT!!!

Bullets suddenly came shooting up from beneath the clouds, all of which would have hit us had Kevin not spiraled out of the way just in time to avoid them.

"What was THAT!?" demanded Zoey.

"That," I said, "is our first trial."

Then, it came. Three small jets, armed with built-in rifles, emerged from the layer of clouds below, just as though they were waiting for their cue. And they, unlike our meager aircraft, seemed much more futuristic. They didn't even seem to have anyone operating them; they just flew themselves—and they were targeting us. 

Suddenly, I was missing the frustration.

"Do something!" I urged Kevin.

"Whaddaya want me to do!?"

"You were just flying this thing a minute ago! Can't you attack or something!?"

"No! I'm still kinda new at this! And it's a miracle I just know how to fly it!"

CLICK!

The rifles rose up from their resting position on the jets headed towards us; they were ready to fire!

"Alright!" I said, "Then can you fly away from here before we're shot down!?"

"Okay," said Kevin, grabbing the wheel and holding it tight, "Hang on!"

Zoey and I took the advice and held tight onto whatever we could find. Kevin thrust the wheel forward, and we immediately lurched backward as our plane went shooting past the jets ahead of us. He kept going.

"Did we lose 'em?" he asked us over his shoulder.

I looked backward and found the three jets pursuing us, still ready to blow us out of the sky.

"No," I said, "They're on our tail!"

"Alright," he said, "keep hangin' on back there."

Kevin suddenly made a sharp to the left and started spiraling upward.

CLICK!

I heard the sound again. And I knew what it meant.

"Keep going!" I said, "They're about to shoot!"

RATATATATATATATATATATAT!!!

Bullets were firing everywhere! Over our heads, under our arms, and across our noses, they shot past us. Neither Zoey nor I dared to move so much as an inch, lest we risk moving into the scattershot of bullets that were just barely making their way around us.

"Duck!"

Again, we took Kevin's advice as we shook off our split-second paranoia and ducked for cover as the bullets simply went over our heads. Finally, they stopped.

"Can't we fight back!?" said Zoey.

"I've tried everything!" said Kevin, "Nothing here involves any kind of combat!"

Zoey sighed in frustration and stood up, looking closely at the jets that kept pursuing us.

What is she doing? What could she be possibly thinking of to stop THOSE things!?

"I got it!" she said, "Hand me my backpack."

I did as she said and then waited patiently to see what she could possibly be planning. She did nothing.

"What are you doing?" I finally asked her.

"Hang on," she said.

Finally, she leaned down to take something from her backpack: a keychain. There was nothing more a few rubber balls, a flash drive, and a spare key to our house. She took off the rubber balls.

"Ease up a little bit, Kevin," Zoey said over her shoulder, "I've only got one shot at this."

Kevin slowed down the plane as the jets rapidly caught up with us. Still, Zoey did nothing. She simply held the rubber balls high in the air.

Is she gonna throw them?

Sure enough, she did. She hurled them with all her strength, but at what, I had no idea.

I don't get it. What could she possibly be aiming for?

I had to get a look. I stood up and looked back, trying to find what those rubber balls were headed for. At first, I saw nothing. Then, after a split second, I just barely caught sight of one of them tumbling into its target—the jet turbine. There it went, spurting and shooting all around inside, like it was trying to break out. Eventually, sparks came shooting from the inside. Then, it was gone. The only thing emitting from that turbine was a thin layer of smoke as the ball inside disappeared. From the looks of things, it looked like that ball had gotten lodged into the engine. 

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

My suspicion was suddenly confirmed by three massive explosions, one from each jet, as I suddenly found myself nearly jumping out of my skin. Just like that, all three of those jets were gone!

There was a pause as Kevin looked back to see what the commotion was. Once we both saw what had happened, both our jaws dropped. 

I could barely bring myself to speak. "Holy…!"

"How did you know that would work!?" said Kevin, censoring me.

"I did some studying on engines," she said modestly.

Another pause, and once again, I was the one to break the silence with the obvious question.

"Why?" I asked, raising my arms.

She shrugged, "I dunno. I just felt like it."

The next sound that happened to break that pause was the sound of my hand clapping against my forehead, while Kevin simply shook his head laughing.

"Man," said Kevin, turning his seat back toward the wheel, "You need a vacation."

"Well," I said, finally relaxing, "That's one down. What's next?"

"I dunno," said Zoey, "Hopefully something we can improvise with. Not every flying machine has an Achilles heel like those things."

"Whaddaya mean?" said Kevin over his shoulder.

"Those turbines were a huge weakness to those jets, but not all flying machines have that kind of fatal flaw. A lot of them require major firepower to take them down, and if we come across one of those here, we're screwed."

She's right. We got lucky that time, but how long is that gonna hold out for us?

Not long. A split second after Zoey had said those words, our plane was met with a huge 

BANG!

"Whoa! What the…!?"

I looked around frantically for our attacker as sparks and ashes went flying everywhere and our plane started rocking back and forth. For a split second, we all thought we had been shot down, but after the rocking had stopped, we found that we were still in the air. However, when we saw our attacker, I knew it wouldn't be for long. It was a helicopter. A big one!

"Move it, Kevin!" I urged him, "He's right behind us!"

Kevin heeded my order and pushed the wheel forward, sending us flying out of that helicopter's reach—for now—leaving us to figure out a new strategy while that helicopter was pre-occupied with simply keeping up with us.

"What's the damage?" I asked Kevin.

He scanned the dashboard for any indication of serious damage.

"We're a little banged up," he said, "But nothing all that serious."

I turned to Zoey.

"Quick, Zoey. You know any way of taking down one of those?"

She hesitated.

"I'm afraid not…" she finally said.

"What!?" I snapped, "If you can take down those jets with a few rubber balls, you've gotta have something!"

"I've got nothing!" she said, "I'm sorry! But there are absolutely no outlets on that thing that lead to the engine!"

"Maybe we don't need to go for the engine," said Kevin.

"Huh?" I turned to Kevin.

"I've got an idea," he got up, "Quick, David. Take the wheel."

"Are you crazy!? I can't fly this thing!"

"Okay, fine!" he said, "Here, I'll put it on Auto Pilot."

He pressed the button labeled AUTO PILOT and came with us to inspect the helicopter.

CLICK!

"Look out!" Kevin and Zoey heeded my warning and ducked.

BANG!

We were hit! More sparks were sent flying, and the three of us were nearly shaken out of our skin. Then, we started falling.

"Shit!" Kevin yelled, "We're done for!"

"What happened!?" I said, looking around frantically; nothing seemed to be destroyed or severely damaged.

"Look," Zoey pointed toward the front seat.

"The Auto-Pilot's fried! Take the wheel! Hurry!" she urged Kevin.

Kevin scrambled to his feet and ran to the wheel. He grabbed it and yanked it up with all his strength; we stopped falling.

I clutched my chest. My heart was nearly pounding out of my ribcage. 

"That was too close!"

"Okay," said Kevin, "I gotta stay at the helm, so you're gonna have to go through with the plan."

"Alright! So what's the plan!?" Zoey interrogated Kevin.

"Okay, find something long and hard."

Ignoring the severity of our situation for a second, I snickered.

"Oh, grow up!" Zoey elbowed me.

Ignoring her, I snapped out of it and started searching. I crawled around the floor, looking for any objects that we might be able to disconnect, or possibly just something that might be lying around. Nothing.

CLICK!

"Hang on!" I heard Kevin say. 

Without warning, the plane lurched forward, throwing me off balance and sending me crashing into the wall behind me.

CLUNK!

Something huge and metal had apparently gotten knocked down and hit me on the head. I fell to the floor, nearly unconscious.

I squinted my eyes open and immediately found what had struck me, laying on the floor right in front of me—a long metal rod. I picked it up and rushed toward Kevin.

"Will this do?"

He glanced back.

"Yeah," he said, "Give it to Zoey."

"Here," I held the metal rod out toward Zoey.

"Okay," Zoey took it from my hand and held it, a look of confusion written across her face, "Now what?"

"Aim for the chopper," said Kevin.

"Ugh!" Zoey clapped her hand to her forehead, "How did I not think of that!?"

"Never mind," I said, "Look back. Do you have a good shot?"

Zoey stood up straight and turned back toward the helicopter, still flying after us.

"Not quite," she said, "Slow her down, Kevin."

CLICK!

"No time!" I urged her, "Just take the shot!"

She hesitated for a second. Then, as she saw the rifle rising from the helicopter's frontal exterior—aiming at us—she raised the metal rod up over her head, and hurled it.

I bit my lip, waiting for the rod to make its impact. Finally, it hit—and the chopper stopped.

"Come on…!" Zoey said under her breath, "Crash already!"

BANG!

"Look out!"

I dove to the floor, throwing Zoey down with me as one last massive bullet flew just over our heads. When we looked back over the plane, the helicopter was gone.

Finally, I relaxed. I collapsed on the floor, nearly losing consciousness after all the energy that the stress of the last few battles sapped from me finally caught up from me. I was completely wiped out.

"You alright?" said Zoey, sounding concerned.

"What's the matter?" said Kevin over his shoulder.

"I…" I almost lacked the energy to even speak, "I dunno. I just feel kinda wiped out…"

"Really?" said Zoey, sounding surprised, "Why now?"

"C'mon, we need you, man," said Kevin over his shoulder.

"What's the matter?" Zoey asked me.

I started rubbing my head, still throbbing in pain from the metal rod that had struck me earlier.

"I dunno," I said, "Other than the exhaustion from the battles, just the metal bar that hit me on the head and nearly made me lose consciousness."

"Ooh!" Zoey winced, "Hang on a sec. Lemme see…"

She put her hand on my head and rested it there—worsening my pain like salt on an open wound. Then, she eased her hand off of it.

"Yeah, you got a pretty big lump there," she said, "Could be a minor concussion."

"A whaa?" I asked.

"You need to sit this next one out," she said, "It doesn't seem too serious, but there's no sense in exacerbating it."

She turned toward Kevin.

"Kevin, you're the athlete here. Do you have anything that might help him?"

"Look in my backpack," he said, "There should be a washcloth and a bottle of ice water in there."

"Perfect."

She rummaged through Kevin's bookbag, digging through all sorts of sports supplies, finding a surprisingly clean washcloth already wrapped around a bottle of ice-cold water. (No doubt, the washcloth was intended to keep it cold.) She wrapped my hand around the bottle and put it to my head where that lump was.

"Keep that there," said Zoey, "If you can stay rested for a few minutes and keep that icing on your head, you should recover in just a bit while we face our next enemy."

"Speaking of enemies," interrupted Kevin, "that last one really did a number on our aircraft. I'm surprised we're still in the air."

"Well, what's the damage?" I asked.

"Other than the Auto Pilot getting fried and a bunch o' serious dents in the plane's exterior, nothin' too bad," he said, "but another battle like that and it's over."

"Well, we've only got one enemy left here," said Zoey, "We just need to be ready for it."

"Ya mean, you need to be ready for it," Kevin rebutted, "With the Auto Pilot down, I'm not goin' anywhere. And between me having to fly this thing and David having to rest his head, you're gonna need to be the one to come up with the plan here."

He's right, I thought, Damn, why do I have to sit this out? Kevin and Zoey need me!

Then, just like a prayer that was being answered, I suddenly found myself taking that ice water off of my head. I could still feel the pain on my head; the lump was still there. But the will I had to keep fighting it suddenly seemed to overpower it.

I stood up.

"Feeling better already?" said Zoey.

Not really.

"Yeah."

"Well, good," she said, "Then we're ready."

"So where's this enemy, already!?" said Kevin, growing frustrated.

"I dunno," said Zoey, "It should've come by now."

Then, right on cue, we heard it—a powerful motor in the distance, one that sounded like it dwarfed our meager aircraft, and it was headed straight for us.

"You guys here that?" said Kevin.

"Yeah," confirmed Zoey, "I don't like this. From the sound of things, whatever that thing is, it's big!"

Zoey didn't know how right she was. As the sound of that massive engine finally came upon us, we saw the enemy we were facing slowly rising up through the clouds below us—another jet, twice as big as all three of the previous jets we faced combined—armed not with rifles, but with a weapon that could blow us to pieces in one thunderous shot—a missile launcher!

"Oh, damn!" Kevin froze, "What is that!?!"

"I dunno," said Zoey, "I've definitely never seen anything like that!"

"So you wouldn't know how to take that down?" I asked Zoey in futility.

"Hell no!" she said, "And with that missile launcher ready to take us out in one blow, I'm less worried about how we're gonna destroy it and more worried about how it's gonna destroy us!"

She's right. How can we worry about taking it down when that thing has the weaponry to blow us out of the sky in one shot!?

"So what do we do?" said Kevin.

CLICK!

Again, there was the indication that our enemy was about to take a shot at us and blow us from the sky.

"Take us down," I said.

"Are you crazy!?" exclaimed Kevin, "How are we supposed to know what's waiting for us down there!?"

"It's not gonna do us any good fighting that thing up here," I said, urging Kevin to stay calm, "Whatever territory is down there, I'm sure we can use it to our advantage. Plus, I doubt our chances of crashing will be nearly as high if we're only a few feet from the ground."

BOOM!

A missile was fired, and it was headed straight for us, while Kevin was still frozen in fear at the sight of it. I couldn't keep calm any longer.

"Do it! Hurry!!"

As the missile closed in on us, Kevin snapped out of it and with one big shove on the wheel, we were suddenly swept out of the sky and started shooting downward, dodging the missile by a longshot.

"Can you ease up a bit there, Kevin?" Zoey complained, "At this rate, we won't even need that jet to crash us!"

"I can't let up now," said Kevin, "Look back."

Kevin was right. As soon as I looked back, I saw the jet already swooping down after us—and gaining on us.

"So what kinda stunt are you planning to pull!?" I asked Kevin, knowing he would do something brilliant or stupid.

"Simple," he responded, "A power dive."

Stupid.

"A power dive?" echoed Zoey, obviously not knowing what was about to happen to us.

"He's gonna keep heading straight to the ground until that jet chickens out first!" I explained.

"WHAT!?"

"Relax!" said Kevin, "I've already had some experience flying this thing, and I can already tell that it turns on a dime!"

"You'd better be right!" Zoey warned Kevin.

Soon, we passed through the layer of clouds, revealing what our new fighting territory would be—the Grand Canyon—and we were approaching it fast.

"Come on!" I urged Kevin, "We can't afford to risk it here! Turn now!"

He looked back to see that jet still in pursuit of us.

"Man, this guy's not lettin' up!"

"Then turn now!" Zoey said in panic, "We can't afford the risk of crashing over one stunt, especially not over a place as rocky as this canyon!"

Then, as I saw Kevin turn his head slightly, the expression on his face I could barely see indicated that he knew Zoey was right. However, he seemed to be setting his sights on something else. He had another plan.

"Alright!" he said, "Hang on!"

Kevin made a sharp left turn as the jet continuing to gain on us immediately picked up on it and followed us. We spiraled downward as we began to come toward some sort of open spot in the canyon. I couldn't make it out while we were spinning so uncontrollably. Then, the spiraling suddenly came to a halt as our plane suddenly came level with what Kevin was lowering us into—a trench.

"You sure about this?" I asked Kevin, trying to ensure that he knew what he was doing.

"Positive." Something in his tone told me he was pretty sure of himself.

I looked back again and saw our attacker come at us once again. It was approaching us fast, and even at the speed we were going, we couldn't escape its grasp.

CLICK!

"It's about to nail us!" I alerted Kevin, "Do something!"

"I got it!"

Just as soon as it was said, I saw Kevin turn the wheel nearly hard enough to break it, causing Zoey and me to immediately lurch to the side of the plane—almost falling out—as it came around a sharp bend in the trench, turning to its side in order to make it through—not even a scratch!

I clutched my chest again, my heart pounding even harder than before. "How did you do that?!?"

"I told ya this thing turns on a dime."

I saw Zoey look back. 

"It's a good thing that jet doesn't."

"Huh?"

"Look back," she told me, gesturing with her thumb.

I leaned up and looked directly behind us.

What's the deal? The jet's still following us. What's going on with it?

Then, I saw it. The wing. It was completely torn up. A giant rift was torn in its exterior, from which sparks came flying and spurting.

"Whoa!" My eyes widened. "How did that happen!?"

"I guess the turn was just a little too sharp for it," Kevin answered, barely looking over his shoulder, "And judging from the look of this trench, I doubt it can take much more."

I looked ahead at the snake-like formation of the trench, yielding nothing but twists and turns in every direction. As long as Kevin was able to fly this right, we'd take down that jet no problem!

Man, I gotta hand it to Kevin. That was genius. Seriously, how did he come up with a way to take down the jet THAT easily!? A few more hits, and that thing's done for!

"Make sure you buckle up back there," Kevin warned us, "It's gonna be a hell of a ride!"

We both heeded his warning as we approached another bend in the trench—this one even sharper than the last. He thrust the wheel forward—nearly doubling our speed—as we drew near it.

What is he doing!? If he tries to make the turn at this speed, we'll be killed!

Judging from the look on Zoey's face, I'd say she was thinking the same thing. Then, she brought herself to ask it.

"What are you doing!?!"

"We wanna finish that thing off as quickly as possible," he said calmly, "Watch this!"

He shoved the wheel to the side—nearly ripping it out of its socket—as the plane turned completely sideways, coming around the bend in the trench just sharply enough to stay out of the wall's reach. Again, we had made it without a scratch.

I saw Zoey's skin go pale. "I can't take much more of this, Kevin! If you keep this up, that jet won't even have to kill us!"

"I know!" said Kevin, "I already heard that from David a minute ago. Just look back."

He didn't need to tell us twice. We stood up and looked back to see what had happened, as though our lives depended on the outcome of that one turn, which they probably did. Nothing so far.

Then it came—turning just hard enough to save all the damage for its other wing. By the time it came around, its wing was almost completely gone, save for the one piece of metal it was dangling from. Yet it was still in the air—still coming after us!

"Man!" I said, "This guy won't quit!"

"What!?!" Kevin turned around for a split second, as though to make sure what I had just said, and then returned to the wheel.

"He's still coming after us!" confirmed Zoey.

CLICK!

"And he's about to retaliate!"

I looked ahead.

Damn! The turn ahead is like a mile away!

"Hold on guys!" said Kevin, "We gotta make this turn fast!"

Again, he thrust the wheel forward, increasing our velocity to the point where it seemed as though we previously weren't moving at all. The wind blinded us, and the sudden rush nearly sent us flying out of our seats. We didn't dare look anywhere but straight ahead, squinting our eyes open just wide enough to see the upcoming turn drawing ever closer.

BOOM!

Just a little farther…!

BANG!

CRASH!

Just as we came to the turn, we were hit, sending our left wing flying from our aircraft, and leaving the body to take the hit on the wall, ricocheting off from it into the next fragment of the trench—not that we could make any of it out; we were spiraling out of control—literally!

"Shit!" Kevin shouted, "We're hit!"

"Oh, gee!" I said sharply, "Thanks for the late breaking news! Do something!"

"I can't!" said Kevin, "I got no control here!"

"Guys?" said Zoey.

"Well, you're the one who came up with this plan in the first place!" I yelled, "Figure something out!"

"Like what!?" he said.

"GUYS!!!"

"What!?!" We both turned toward Zoey.

"I know that this is a very stressful time for us right now, but I just thought you guys might wanna know."

"Know what!?" I demanded.

"WALL!!!"

I turned around frantically and fixed my eyes directly in front of us, trying to make out what she had meant as we continued to spiral forward. Then, I saw it. A dead end!

"What the hell do we do now?!?" I said.

"I told you!" said Kevin, "I've got no control here! There's nothing we can do!"

Then we're toast!

BANG!

We were hit again. This time, our right wing was blown away, leaving our plane to drop straight to the ground. We stopped spinning and started skidding through the ground. Sparks were sent flying, our aircraft was pulverized, and we were sitting ducks.

"We're slowing down!"

Zoey was right. I looked back, immediately noticing the intense friction that broke our speed, allowing the jet to easily finish us off.

"Our plane's about to get blown to bits!" shouted Kevin.

Suddenly, it hit me.

"Then let's leave!"

"What!?" said both Kevin and Zoey.

"Jump!"

"You're crazy!" yelled Zoey.

"We're already on the ground!" I urged them, "We gotta jump now if we wanna make it!"

They knew I was right, and they stood up, getting ready to make their move.

"On three: one, two, THREE!"

We made a jump for it, hardly able to adjust to the cease of the air rushing through us. All we had to do was land successfully. We leaned forward in the air, bracing for impact. Finally, we landed, rolling safely as we came in contact with the ground. We were safe!

"Duck!"

My warning was heeded as the jet tore through the air just over our heads, still in pursuit of the plane drawing ever closer to the wall in front of it. Finally, our plane crashed, taking the jet down with it in a fiery explosion of metal and glass. They were both gone!

We all watched the blast in awe as the rubble went flying everywhere. Then, as the fiery blast turned to dark, thick smoke, that same rubble came raining back down to the ground. And as the sounds of the motors and collisions finally faded away, we knew we were now safe, yet at the same time, we couldn't help but wonder how the hell we had gotten out of that mess.

Finally, Kevin stood up.

"Well," he said, casually searching for something to say, "There goes our last foe."

"Yeah," said Zoey, standing up like she already had something to say, "And there goes our plane as well."

"So?"

"So how are we supposed to get to that portal now?!?"

My heart suddenly plummeted; Zoey was right. We may not have had anything else to worry about with our final airborne foe defeated here, but with our sole means of transportation gone, there was no way we could find the portal now. We were trapped.

"So what do we do?" I asked calmly.

As Kevin slowly began to stray from our position, ignored, Zoey said, "I dunno! We'll need a freaking miracle!"

"Like what? Is the portal gonna magically appear in front of us?"

"Yes," interrupted Kevin.

"Huh?" I ran and caught up with him.

"Look at that wall."

Zoey came near us as well as we looked at the wall where the huge crash just was. There was something inside the smoke. Something bright. Slowly, the smoke began to dissipate. Then, I saw it. It was the portal!

"Let's go," I said.

Kevin and Zoey, knowing we'd had enough delays, followed me to the portal. A flash, once again, and now, we were facing our next major obstacle. And it wasn't going to be as merciful as an armed jet.

We were in deep trouble now.