Steam Riders of New London [Wattys 2017]

Chapter 10:

Eagle flew back to the League's headquarters. Hawk had woken up, but was still not completely conscious. Eagle was helping him walk.
"So, those two are dead?" Hawk asked.
"Nobody could have survived that." Eagle replied. "They're dead. No question."
"At least we didn't end up like Sparrow." Hawk laughed. Eagle chuckled a bit himself. They reached the door and stepped inside. Owl was inside, facing away from them, arms crossed behind his back. Once he heard them enter, his head slowly turned to look at them.
"Your task was completed, I trust." He hissed.
"Yes. Martin and Karina are dead." Eagle replied. Behind his mask, Owl smirked.
"Excellent. I must inform our client, so leave now." He ordered. Eagle and Hawk nodded and left the room. Owl turned back to the wall he was looking at before, and faced a large monitor. A keyboard jutted out of the wall underneath it. This was a communicator, similar in function to Martin's, but much larger. Owl pressed a few keys and was almost instantly connected to Terrance Chandler. He was wearing a sleek black suit, as he usually did, and had his dark hair slicked back. He was most likely currently conducting business, no matter how shady it might have been.
"Hello, Owl. I assume you have some good news." He said.
"Indeed I do. The Steam Riders will not be bothering you any time soon." Owl replied. "There was a minor setback, however. I was forced to terminate one of my best assassins."
"Sparrow? That's a shame. I liked her." Terrance said, brow furrowed. "Well, no matter. You'll receive you're payment by the end of the day, as promised. But I have something else to ask of you."
"Very well, but it will be a separate payment, of course." Owl nodded.
"I need you to kidnap President Rose's daughter." Terrance explained.

The first thing Martin noticed when he woke up was an intense pain on his forehead. Then he felt pain everywhere else. He raised a hand to his forehead, feeling the spot that hurt. It stung as he touched it, and he pulled away. He felt blood. He decided to ignore it for now, and tried to survey his surroundings. He was still inside Geoffrey's chest cavity, and so were Jade and Karina. Jade was knocked out, completely unconscious, lying face-down on top of him. Karina was also unconscious and was curled up in the corner near his feet. Martin also noticed it was dark. He knocked on the wall.
"Geoffrey, what's going on out there?" He asked. No answer came. Geoffrey was most likely de-activated. His power came from steam, like most everything else in New London, and Martin guessed that his steam generator had broken. But there was also no handle on the inside of the door. Without Geoffrey to let them out, they were stuck. Or at least that's what Martin thought. Suddenly, the door opened, letting an intense light in. Martin had to shield his eyes until they adjusted. He heard a voice, speaking to him.
"Y'all still alive in there?" The voice was raspy and had an accent, one that Martin didn't recognize. Nobody in New London spoke like that.
"Yes, we're alive. Our airship crashed and we landed here. I don't know how long we've..." He stopped shielding his eyes, only to see a barrel of a shotgun pointed at him. The wielder of the gun was wearing a long brown duster, a stetson covering his short blonde hair, and dark brown boots. A white button-up shirt and light brown open vest lay underneath his jacket. Martin quickly scrambled up and raised his hands, accidentally making Jade roll off of him, and the shotgun followed him. He heard Jade groan as she awoke, but kept his attention on the gun's barrel.
"L-listen, I don't want any trouble." Martin tried to reason.
"You're one of those 'New London' types, right?" The owner of the gun interrupted. "I've never met someone 'round here with a vessel like that."
Martin quickly glanced behind him, and saw the ruined remains of the Phoenix. It was completely broken in two. Most of the remains were buried by sand. After observing their surroundings, Martin realized they were in a desert. Remembering the gun pointed at him, he turned his attention back to it.
"Yes, we're from New London. Our ship crashed and we fell here." Martin explained, repeating himself. He stuck out a hand for the gun wielder to shake, trying to be friendly. "My name is Martin Richardson."
The gun wielder hesitated a moment before smirking and putting the gun away. "Ah, you're not a threat." He shook Martin's hand. "The name's Flint. Flint Armine." He looked down at Geoffrey, and saw Karina and Jade inside it. The two were now getting up.
"Now, explain to me why you have two unconscious girls in there with you." Flint said. Martin stepped out of Geoffrey's cavity, along with Karina and Jade.
"This is Karina, my associate." Martin replied, gesturing to Karina. She looked at Flint and smiled nervously, quickly wiping the dirt and grime from her face.
"Hello." She stammered. Flint nodded and tipped his hat.
"And this is Jade, the daughter of President Rose." Martin continued, gesturing to Jade, who was standing behind him. Flint raised an eyebrow.
"President... who?" He asked. "I ain't too familiar with New London politics. We don't have any presidents 'round here."
"Um... where are we exactly?" Karina asked.
"Right now you're stuck in the Noman Desert." Flint explained. "There's a town not 5 miles from here. I could take you. I'd bet there's someone who could fix your ship too."
"I think that could work." Martin agreed. Karina and Jade nodded.
"I only have two horses, though." Flint said, gesturing behind him to two horses, one black and one white, which he had brought with him. "One of you can ride with me, but the other two will have to walk. We can switch up every few miles."
Martin looked back to Geoffrey's unpowered frame, and an idea struck him. He turned back to the others.
"Would those horses be strong enough to pull my robot here?" He asked. Flint looked at Geoffrey, tipping his hat.
"That's a robot?" He asked.
"Well, it's broken now, but yes." Martin explained. Flint nodded.
"I'm sure my horses could pull it." He said.
"In that case, Karina can ride with you." Martin said. "Jade and I will ride on Geoffrey while the horses pull."
"That'll work." Flint agreed. "Now c'mon, we're losing daylight."