Riptide

Chapter 19

Ippótis POV

We trained for weeks.

Hours turned into minutes as I learned how to fight in ways I never thought was possible. Most of the days had the same rhythm; breakfast, train, lunch and theory, train, dinner. But it was the training that made it bearable. My leg had
unfortunately not healed well enough, and it had been amputated. I had a metal one in its place.

I was sitting with Okeanós, my sister, when the first mission came in. Okeanós was teaching me how to do something called 'Vapour-Traveling'. If I mastered it, I would be able to turn myself and others into a mist and use it to travel anywhere in the world, except maybe a dessert. I could already do it underwater, but I was struggling to get it on land.

"Ippótis. Father has given you a mission. You will be heading out in to the mortal world to take out an enemy." Said Astrapí as she walked in.

"Who is the Target?" I asked, standing up. Okeanós soon followed suit.

"His name is Erik Selvig. Leading physicist at Culver University. Associate with Thor, the Norse god of Thunder."

I slowly nodded, "Wouldn't it be a bad idea to kill the friend of a god?"

"Thor is already wasted in his own sorry mess, after him being unable to stop the snap. This will push him over."

I nodded again, "Well then, when to we get started?"

Astrapí smiled at my enthusiasm and handed me a folder, "Right about... now."

In the folder was everything I needed to know about my target. It gave me the mission plan, an alias should I ever need it, and lots of other things like what he does during his day.

As I read the folder, I noticed that Okeanós and Astrapí had left. In their place was Polémos, holding what looked to be a sniper rifle.

Silently, Polémos shoved the rifle into my hands and began to set up a target range. Five dummies were placed, each a random distance from one another. Some were rotated, so that they didn't face directly towards me. One had even been placed on a wire and was moving around the shooting arena.

Polémos stalked up to me and dropped a smaller cylinder into my hand, "Suppressor. Quietens the sound the gun makes. Won't silence it completely, but it'll stop your eardrums from bursting." I fastened the suppressor on and aimed the gun.

"Nearest. Head." I aimed and shot. The vibration traveled up my arm and into my chest. Polémos was right, the suppressor made the sound bearable. It didn't sound like an elephant unlike the last time I had used a sniper. A red hot ring had formed in the centre of the head.

"Nearest. Shoulders." The noise filled the room.

"Nearest. Knees"

"Nearest. Toes."

We continued like that for a while, Polémos would name out one of the dummies and a body part and I would shoot it. Eventually, the twins came and called us for lunch.

As we walked to the dining room, I saw Génos and Kunigós share a look, "Ippótis, last one to the dining hall is a slimy Telkine!" They took off, running.

Sighing, I began to run after them. However, my metal leg kept on getting in the way, and I was tripping all over the place. Eventually, I arrived to see Génos and Kunigós telling everyone that I was a 'slimy Telkine'.

"Alight, boys, calm down. Time for lunch," Said Astrapí as she placed the sandwiches down, "Otherwise, you'll be doing the washing up."

The twins pouted as they sat down. Eventually, Polémos arrived and we began eating.