Justin Stone and the Iris of the Madonna

[joegoda]

by the official Nanowrimo counter.


Even from the height the dirigible was flying, Jonathan could hear the shouts of the men in the automobile. With the sun behind them, the shadow created by the flying machine had alerted those below that they were being pursued.

A gunshot was heard, and a ricochet pinged off the metal gondola.

"Oh," Jonathan said, woefully. "That's not good." Turning to Marion, he shouted, 'Turn it hard to the left, Marion! We need to get ahead of them."

He looked down at the automobile. Two men, dressed in dark black dusters that flapped and folded around them, were in the back seat and looking up at the dirigible, pistols drawn and pointed. The driver, the man called Englebrandt, was focused on the road ahead, and the passenger next to him, the Verne Imposter, was animatedly doing saying something to him and pointing backwards in the direction of the dirigible.

Marion shoved the directional control hard to the left and the dirigible heaved and bucked, throwing its passengers around.

Jonathan looked back to Justin and saw him looking back, wide eyed with a tight, thin lipped stare. Justin had his arms wrapped around Milky. Jonathan shouted back at his brother. "I'm trying to keep us from dying! Hot bullets and hydrogen, not a good mix! Big Boom!"

Justin nodded his understanding. He said something to Milky, who nodded. Milky looked forward to Jonathan and said something Jonathan couldn't hear. Justin nodded, and said something else. Both he and the boy strengthened their hold on the rope tied to the gondola.

Another gunshot was heard, but there was no sound of any ricochet or the deadly hiss from the balloon over their heads. "Either they're not very good shots, or it's hard to aim from a moving vehicle." Jonathan looked at Marion. "Or both."

Marion had just moved the control hard to the right; causing the dirigible to slewed over and tossing it's passengers to the left side of the gondola. "That road isn't the best, Jon," he said. It's probably a pretty bumpy ride."

"Well, it's about to get a bit bumpier." He turned back to where Justin and Milky sat. "Hey! Milky!" He shouted. Realizing that having Milky toss him one of the bombs may not be the best idea, he shook his head and stumbled back to where they sat. "You guys okay?"

Justin looked very pale and miserable. His teeth chattered when he said, "Of course, Jonathan. Why do you ask?"

Jonathan smiled tightly. "It'll be over soon, Justin. I promise."

Justin swallowed and nodded. "I have complete faith in your abilities, Jonathan." He tightened his grip around Milky's shoulders. "You hear that, Milky. It'll be over soon."

Milky said miserably, "Good. I don't like all this tossing about business."

Jonathan pulled two bombs from the crate. "I don't either," he said. "Maybe I'll figure out some way to dampen the inertia on the ones I design." He held the two bombs in the crook of his arm and touched Justin's shoulder. "I won't lie to you, brother. This might get a bit... rough."

Justin nodded and gave a brave chattering smile. "Do what you feel you have to, Jonathan. Milky and I will be quite fine, thank you."

Jonathan smiled and nodded back. He looked over the edge of the tiny gondola. The dirigible had gotten ahead of the automobile by perhaps half a mile. "Hm. This won't do." After pulling two more bombs from the crate, he stumbled back to Marion and said, "See if you can keep us fairly steady over the road, okay?" Marion nodded. "And slow us down a bit."

"Slow down?" The boy had a perplexed look on his face.

"Yeah. I have about five minutes to stop them, and I don't want to be so far ahead that..." He paused as a thought crossed his mind. He sighed, as he didn't have anything to write the thought down with. Aw well, the correlation between speed and time would simply have to wait for another day. He grumbled, irritated at losing the thought and said, "Just slow us down, okay?"

"Aye, aye," Marion said, throwing a mock salute. Looking down, he said, "We're directly over the road, Jon."

"Good." Jonathan took one of the bombs and wound it. Each click from the key wound mechanism made him more and more nervous. After three full turns, he stopped, looked at Marion and said, "I hope that does it." He took another one and started to wind it, too.

"Does what?" Marion asked as Jonathan dropped the armed bombs over the side.

Jonathan didn't answer the question; instead, he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Cover your ears!"

Justin and Milky did so. Marion did as well, but opened his mouth to ask a question. He never got the chance to, however.

There was a tremendous flash of light, followed by the sound of tremendous thunder. Jonathan pulled his hands away from his ears, and opened his eyes. "Well, that wasn't so bad." He looked around and saw a tremendous cloud of smoke rising.

Suddenly, the dirigible was buffeted by a tremendous tail wind, hot and blistering. The rear of the balloon lifted and threatened to tip, aft for bow.

Justin cried out, "Jonathan! What the devil?" The only thing that kept him and Milky from sliding helplessly toward the bow and then out and down to the ground was the rope tied about his waist. Milky was wrapped around Justin like a monkey clinging to a tree.

"I forgot about the blast pressure!" Jonathan turned to Marion. "Marion, hard to Port! Bring her about!" He gripped the edge of the gondola and braced his feet against the short wall. The gondola had tipped enough that he could see the ground below rather than the horizon.

"What?" Marion had already pulled the lever all the way to the port position, and was holding onto the pedestal for dear life. "What good will that do?"

The dirigible bucked and complained and twisted horribly, throwing its passengers back and forth. The propellers whined and groaned but the flying machine slowly fought against the heavy gust of wind and turned its nose back to point in the other direction.

Midway around, the entire gondola slewed and horribly, and the passengers all cried out and grabbed whatever they could and hung on. From Jonathan's position, he could see that the road directly behind the dirigible had evaporated. In its place was a crater, nearly thirty feet in circumference. The heat that battered the dirigible was fierce, and Jonathan watched a tiny thread of smoke rise up from the lower tail fin.

"More power!" He yelled at Marion. "Give it more power!"

Marion nodded and holding on to the pedestal with one hand, gave the speed dial a tremendous twist with the other. The pointer buried itself into the far side of the dial, pointing accusingly at the number sixty. The propellers screamed in defiance as they strove to spin faster while fighting the wind that was pushing against them.

Twisting like a fish on a hook, the dirigible swung about and pointed directly into the fierce wind. The blast wave had started to abate, and though the nose tilted up threatening, it was not so steep an angle as to cause those in the gondola much worry. They were already holding on as tightly as they could to whatever they could, and as the gust died, the nose of the dirigible settled back down to true.

Jonathan looked over at Marion, how had pulled himself up right and was already adjusting the directional lever to keep the ship pointed parallel to the road. "That's what you wanted, right?" Marion had to yell over the sound of the engines.

"Exactly right, Captain Marion!" He let loose of the edge of the gondola and patted the boy on the shoulder. "I think we're going to have to give you a real job. You've got a good head on your shoulders."

He leaned over the gondola's railing to look down to where the automobile had been tossed by the blast. Two forms lay on the ground, and they weren't getting up. The men in the back had been thrown clear of the automobile and were either dead or unconscious. The vehicle itself had been pushed off the side of the road and tipped on its side. Verne and his man were frantically trying to right it.

The airship was close enough to them that Jonathan could see the distinct green glow of the plasma ball shining through the undercarriage of the vehicle. The glow grew more intense even as he watched.

"That's not good," he muttered. "I want to fly over them and then come back." He looked at Marion. "Think you can do that?"

Marion returned a great smile. "I don't have to think. I know I can do it!" The airship had already overshot the automobile. "How far do you want to go before turning around?"

"Not too far," Jonathan said. Jonathan looked toward the stern. Justin and Milky were huddled as tight as peas in a pod. "Are you all right?" he yelled back to them.

Justin held his hand to his ear. The engine noise was too great for him to hear. Jonathan raised his eyebrows and sketched a question mark in the air. Justin nodded, looked at Milky and said something. Milky also nodded and Justin threw the thumb and forefinger at his brother. 'Everything is Okay' was the message.

Beyond them, Jonathan could see the automobile, in front of the crater. The two men had the vehicle back on four tires and were trying to work their way around the large hole in the ground. He turned back to Marion.

"Now! Bring it about now!" Jonathan crossed to the pedestal where Marion had just moved the lever to turn the dirigible back around. "I want you to go back to where Justin and Milky are and strap in as best you can." The dirigible was moving quickly back toward where the automobile was making slow progress around the crater.

"What are you gonna do?" Marion didn't move from his station. He looked at the hard look on Jonathan's face. "Oh!" he yelled. "You're going to ram them, aren't you? Why don't you just drop one of those bombs on 'em?"

"Because...," Jonathan thought furiously. "Look, I don't have the time to explain why." He pointed to the greenish light that was now spilling out of the hood of the automobile. "See that green light?" Marion looked to where Jonathan pointed and nodded. "Then trust me when I say that an explosion combined with what's causing that light would be what I call very, very bad." He pointed back to Justin and Milky. "Now, get your butt back there!"

"No sir!" Marion refused to release his hold on the pedestal. "I've always heard a captain goes down with his ship." He grew hard in the face and his eyes narrowed. "Besides..." He paused and looked down at the automobile. He gently pulled on the handled that raised and lowered the airship and its nose obediently pointed down. "I'm not going let you hog all the glory. I'd really like to see this."

Jonathan gave an angry and admiring glare to the boy. "You..." And then he had to laugh. "Hell, I would too!" He clapped the boy on the shoulder. "I would too." He pointed at the automobile, looming closer by the moment. "You think you can drop this tub right on top of the back of her? I don't want the front damaged."

"What about the people?" Marion pointed at the two men in the front seat.

They were close enough to see the fake Vern's derby, still on his head. The man was turned around in his seat and his eyes were wide, seeing the looming airship as it closed on them. He was shouting something furiously at the driver, Englebrandt.

"Well," Jonathan said, "I guess... if you can avoid killing them that would be a good thing."

"Okie doke." Marion nursed the elevation lever, and the airship dropped down, down and slowed until it appeared to be hovering ten feet above the moving automobile. Jonathan could see the white of Verne's eyes and hear him yell "Swerve, you idiot!"

"Verne!" Jonathan yelled down at the man. "Or whatever your name is!" The imposter looked up. "Stop the automobile!" The glow that had been streaming out of the hood grew suddenly brighter and then started to dim. "You have to stop the automobile, NOW!"

The imposter slapped Englebrandt on the shoulder. "Faster!" The automobile started to pull away, bouncing over the rough ground.

"No!" Jonathan yelled. He turned to Marion. "Drop it, Marion. Right on top of it." He turned and yelled at Justin and Milky. "Hold on Justin. Hold on for dear life!"

Again, Justin raised his hand to his ear. Then, seeing the ground looming before the bow of the dirigible and intuiting what was about to happen, his eyes grew very wide and Jonathan saw him wrap his hands into the restraining rope. Milky, seeing what Justin was doing, followed suit.

Jonathan nodded, satisfied and turned back, just in time to see the gondola make contact with the wooden boattail of the automobile. The gondola landed hard and both he and Marion were thrown off their feet. Marion had his hands wrapped about the pedestal, and in fact had never let go of it since the bombs had gone off. Jonathan, on the other hand, could only hold onto the railing of the gondola, and that had suddenly given way.

He found himself flying out and into the air, directly at the back of Englebrandt's head. He only had time to think to himself, "This is gonna hurt." And then it did. And then it was black.

Comments

[capi.livejournal.com]

He looked down at the automobile. Two men, dressed in dark black dusters that flapped and folded around them, were in the back seat and looking up at the dirigible, pistols drawn and pointed. The driver, the man called Englebrandt, was focused on the road ahead, and the passenger next to him, the Verne Imposter, was animatedly doing saying something to him and pointing backwards in the direction of the dirigible. (( Imposter need not be capitalized... and you've got "doing saying something" all together ))
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Marion had just moved the control hard to the right; causing the dirigible to slewed (( slew )) over and tossing it's passengers to the left side of the gondola. "That road isn't the best, Jon," he said. It's probably a pretty bumpy ride." (( Marion says this? He's what, 16? 17? How would he know the condition of the road? Seriously? It didn't sound like he could drive, earlier... or barely. Jonathan, yes. Marion? *doubtful eyes* ))
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What?" Marion had already pulled the lever all the way to the port position, and was holding onto the pedestal for dear life. "What good will that do?"

The dirigible bucked and complained and twisted horribly, throwing its passengers back and forth. The propellers whined and groaned but the flying machine slowly fought against the heavy gust of wind and turned its nose back to point in the other direction. (( So ok, Jon gives an order, Marion questions it, and then it *appears* as if maybe he did it, but it's only a guess. You never say one way or the other if he does or not....
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Midway around, the entire gondola slewed and horribly,... (( huh? ))
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Twisting like a fish on a hook, the dirigible swung about and pointed directly into the fierce wind. The blast wave had started to abate, and though the nose tilted up threatening,... (( threateningly? ))
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Jonathan looked over at Marion, how (( who? )) had pulled himself up right (( upright? )) and was already adjusting the directional lever to keep the ship pointed parallel to the road. "That's what you wanted, right?" Marion had to yell over the sound of the engines.
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Oh.... OH!! OH NO!!! However will i wait til the next installment? I'm not breathing!!!!!!