“Go chew on a stone tablet or let me talk. There is only room in all of history for one ‘Noah’s Ark.’ We need to DROP it!”
Suddenly Moses’ eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, and he spun around on his heels. “I got this.” He took the staff with both hands and thrust it into the air above his head in the direction of the drilling ship. He drew a line across the sky and pulled it back like a zipper. The sky ripped apart, revealing Moses’ backyard in heaven and the ark.
Infernal Max appeared at the top of the ramp, groaning and wounded, blood dripping from a gaping slice upon his forehead. He leaned upon the ship’s frame, gasping for air.
“Perfect timing,” said Moses and Noah in unison. It was quite possibly the first thing they had agreed upon in decades.
Moses continued, “Looks like we will have to find another gift for Doubting Thomas.”
Noah faked a sad expression for about three seconds, which emboldened Moses. Moses pulled his staff downward and slammed it to the ground. From overhead the air whipped away with a whistle noise of a bomb dropping. The ark fell out of heaven, smashing on top of Infernal Maximus and the mole-men army inside his ship. The results were more than they could have hoped for. The drilling blade bits were not harmed by the collision; however, the rest of the ship was crushed into the ground and flattened like a tin can under a boot. There was no movement from within. All were dead.
It took a few moments for the dust to settle. Agent Tate looked at her wristwatch and blew away some dust, and then she gave it a quick spit-shine. She noted the current time, almost midnight. Looking around, she observed everyone was in “clean-up” mode in one way or another. Commander Mop radioed to the village and gave them orders to return to base camp. This victory was like an airplane landing; any landing you can walk away from is a good landing. This victory, no matter which way it was handed to him, was still a victory.
Elijah called to Jasper from outside Teddy’s home. “Jasper, a riddle for you: when can a horse be more than a horse and when can a trumpet become more than a trumpet?”
Jasper thought hard on this one, then he replied, “When one uses the power of their imagination.”
“Correct…remember that when push comes to shove, and save your life, it will.”
Moses gave Noah an elbow jab to his side. “Don’t listen now, but Elijah is starting his performance early.”
“We can only hope it doesn’t become another ‘golden calf’ moment,” Noah joked.
“Now that goes beyond friendly banter. Your wisecrack is so out of bounds. Maybe you should take the next 120 years off and practice your jibes before you try again.” Moses grunted.
“Careful, Moses, you are in danger of becoming a cantankerous old saint,” Noah said, jabbing his finger up into the air.
“Who are you to call anyone old, you prickly fossil?” Moses slapped Noah across the back with the small of his hand. Noah grunted. “Oh, did that hurt? Good thing you’re dead, old man.”
Elijah was content to let the two of them verbally spar. He left them on the chariot and wandered over to Jasper and Stacy. “I will leave you both with this small piece of advice: humans make rules and put them in a book to box in morality, but the Lord is just. He always examines the heart and pays no attention to what man-made rule you have broken. The Lord’s law supersedes man, so don’t be afraid to break some rules.” Elijah turned, walked back to his chariot and jumped in. Moses and Noah never even knew he was gone. “As I stated upon my arrival, we will not be late for this meeting, and they can’t start without me so away we go. We shall meet again, young Jasper.”
The chariot shook, and suddenly it was surrounded by a swirl of flames. The force of the fire made the sound of rushing wind. The chariot rose in the air 15 feet straight up, then shot across the sky. It winked out of sight seconds later. A spontaneous cheer was given by the whole crowd of villagers arriving with Aunt Debbie-Lynne, Lance, and the rest of the medical team.
Stacy was thrilled. Soon it would be time to go home to Allegan, Michigan, and get back to a normal life. She looked back over her shoulder as she was beginning to run to Aunt Debbie-Lynne to give her a bear-hug of a greeting. “We won, Jasper, it is over…” But she was never able to finish her trot over to Aunt Debbie-Lynne, nor was she able to finish her comment to Jasper. Her smile faded, and she screamed in terror.
Held in the air, a good ten feet off the ground, hung Jasper in the angry-fisted grip of Infernal Maximus. Max was blood-soaked, but his cuts seemed to be self-healing by the second and he was growing taller. Jasper, held by his neck, was turning blue. Infernal Maximus raised him up to his own eye level and pulled him in close. They were nose-to-nose. “Yes, Jasper…it is so over.”
chAPTER fifty
“P…o…s…s…u...m…” was all Jasper was able to squeak out of his throat. His eyes were becoming bloodshot and ready to bulge from their sockets as Infernal Maximus tightened his grip. The air in his lungs was all but gone...
“HELP HIM, PLEASE!” Stacy was screaming as she ran away with her eyes to the ground, attempting to find an assault weapon from one of the fallen black ops soldiers. The first shot she heard stopped her in her tracks. The second shot sent her running toward Jasper once again.
Agent Tate was first to shoot. She went for the leg, and it had little to no effect whatsoever. Max seemed to absorb the bullet and heal almost instantly. Commander Mop, however, was a little bold in his approach. He approximated Jasper had only seconds left before Max either tore him in half like he had done to his big brother or simply popped off his head like a PEZ candy dispenser. He shot directly into the back of Max’s hand breaking his grip. Jasper dropped to the ground, barely conscious and struggling to put wind back in his lungs.
Commander Mop gave Agent Tate a smile that said “Pet me, I’m a good dog. Look what trick I performed,” and the end result was freedom for Jasper. Tate instead gave him a scolding that said, “What were you thinking, you could have hit Jasper,” the end result, Jasper is dead.
Max was still standing tall, and what was left of the assault team opened fire. Max was no dummy; he could absorb a bullet or two, maybe three, but not machine gun fire. He hid behind a pile of ark rubble. He mumbled beneath his breath to the rocks around him, “This is my victory to win, my victory to lose. My father is lord of the underworld, and I will do him proud. This cross I face is my death. The son of God, Jesus, had legions of angels to call to his rescue and did nothing. He died in weakness, but I shall live on in strength.”
Max kneeled to the ground, placing both his palms to the ground, and began to speak in Sanskrit. The oldest language in the world, it has Indo-Iranian roots that date back to the Vedas and predated Greek, Latin, and even Hebrew. It is a language so precise it has a deviation of zero and has been selected by NASA for use in computational linguistics for A.I. – artificial intelligence-but today it was used for the purpose of evil. Max dug his fingers into the ground, and a black pool of liquid formed on the surface of the ground below him. A small black hole began to form on top of the ground. The whole area dimmed as the light was sucked down into its core. As the light was swallowed, the hole enlarged to a width the size of a pickup truck. Max had broken into a chant, and the ground trembled. Demons, hundreds of them, answered the summons sent forth by Infernal Maximus. Each one having red eyes and a grotesque bodily form, all of them moaned from some unseen pain being inflicted upon them at a deeper supernatural level than any human could see. They were angry, they wanted to destroy, and they cultivated the fear that poured off of them by the stomping of their claw-like feet.
Stacy and Thunder had managed to help Jasper back onto his feet, but while they were doing that, the demons had closed ranks to encircle all of them. Max climbed to the top of the rubble pile and began to cruelly laugh. “In a moment you shall all die a slow and tormented death, one by one…and I will force you all to watch the one who goes before you, starting with you, Jasper Indiana. Bring him to me,” Infernal Max raged.
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Jasper suddenly heard Thunder’s thoughts louder than ever before. Thunder forced an image of Elijah before Jasper’s very eyes. Elijah was saying “When is a trumpet more than a trumpet?” Jasper reached for the sash upon his shoulders and pulled it forward, flipping his red trumpet into his hands. As soon as it landed between them it began to glow again. Jasper brought the mouthpiece to his lips and blew the longest high “C” note of his life. The sky above began to pop in a series of small lights, much like the flash on a camera. Emerging from each flash of light was a moving object, but no one could identify what they were except Jasper who stood with a smile upon his face. As they came closer, Stacy shouted, “Purple flamingos…thousands of them.”
“IS THAT THE BEST YOUR GOD CAN DO? BIRDS?” Max shouted from the top of the rubble pile. He leaped down and landed in front of Jasper, grabbing the trumpet from out of his hands and smashing it flat under his massive foot. The demons started again, their moaning turning to a hideous, evil laughter, almost a cry. The purple flamingos landed one by one. There were thousands of them. They were everywhere and between everyone, even landing on top of and beneath both portal ships, and then, in a flash of blinding hot white light, they ignited into very tall warrior angels. They removed their swords from their sheaths, and the demons ran. The angels pursued. They cut down each and every demon until none remained, and while this battle raged on Jasper looked over and noticed an angel waving at him. It was Abbadorn; he waved, then he disappeared with a group of angels into the portal ships. The Moses and The Noah began to move high above into the air, untouchable, and drifted back in the direction of the village, safely out of sight.
When a demon is destroyed, it doesn’t flow calmly back into the Lord’s creation energy force. No, they fall dead in a swirl of black mist and dissipate into thin air, all the while giving off a loud, agonizing shriek as the vapor dissolves. Infernal Maximus knew he was half-demon and had no intention of finding out how the other half of him would die. He needed to escape. There was only one exit at this point. The lava slide was just 100 yards away. Time to run, but he needed insurance that the angels would hesitate to give chase. He took Jasper by his legs and dragged him on his back behind him as he sprinted toward the lava slide. He would be there in seconds…
Jasper shouted “MALOOF!” and Thunder was transformed into a gigantic orange and black tiger, just like the large Allegan Tiger mascot mural outside the snack bar by the gym. Thunder was swift and reached Infernal Max just before he stepped up to the lava slide. He bit down upon Max’s arm, pulling away a few pounds of flesh. Max jerked back his arm into the air, sending Jasper flying backward toward the way they had come. Max had let Jasper go, but Thunder knew in his heart that as long as he was alive, he would always remain a threat. The pearl doors of the lava slide glowed red and parted open a moment later, allowing Max to run inside. Thunder leapt in after him, tearing into Infernal Max’s legs; Max pounded his fist into Thunder’s side. Thunder roared in pain and stumbled back. Thunder knew the doors would slide shut at any second, and Max would get away. He couldn’t let that happen. He had to bite down on him and drag him back outside the slide. He lunged directly at Max’s chest and clawed his head, ripping off his ears and producing deep scratches across his face. Max tumbled to his knees, and Thunder bit down on his head and began to pull him out. Just as Thunder was halfway out, the pearl doors shut upon him. Thunder roared again in agony so great that Jasper, who had finally stood to his feet with the help of Stacy, screamed as well. The pearl doors were so powerful that they were beginning to cut into Thunder’s sides.
“They might cut him in two!” Jasper screamed as he staggered downward. Stacy held him up as Agent Tate and Commander Mop ran toward the slide, weapons drawn and ready to fire upon Max to give Thunder a chance to escape.
Max was free from Thunder’s powerful jaws. He was sitting on the floor of the lava slide leaning backward, supported by the palms of his hands. His ears were re-forming on the sides of his head, and the scratches were fading by the second. He saw the disadvantaged tiger and brought his foot forward, kicking Thunder in the face repeatedly. Blow after blow knocked Thunder further outside the tube. Max was almost home free. Jasper doubled over in pain, screaming as blood poured out from Thunder’s sides. Stacy held him close and looked desperately at Thunder as the doors began to cut through him. Max was laughing so loudly from inside the tube that it could be heard over Jasper’s painful screams. Tate and Mop arrived at the doors but were unable to get a shot off to the inside of the lava slide as Thunder’s tiger body wrenched in agony. His back feet lifted off the ground in a spastic-like spring motion. Tate and Mop attempted to pull Thunder out, but they slipped and fell to the ground from the pool of blood running out from his sides.
Jasper suddenly stopped. He stood up straight and held both hands to his head; he felt as if he didn’t, his head would surely explode off his shoulders. He closed his eyes, and a thousand images of him and Thunder spending time together and playing endlessly flashed in front of his mind’s eye in a mere blink. Image after image, each one coming at him faster than the one before last, until the final image of a large blue whale hung in front of him. Jasper opened his eyes and yelled at the top of his voice, “Thunder…NOOOOOO!”
Reverse MALOOF. Thunder had activated it himself. In a Nanosecond of sheer horror, his best friend had given his life away to save him from the evil that was Infernal Maximus. Jasper’s orange and black tiger, stained with blood, had transformed into that big blue whale. With the last ounce of might in his back legs, Thunder pushed himself forward into the slide just as his legs were turning to tail and fins. The pearl doors slammed shut behind him just as Thunder’s angel creation life force, Bell, rocketed out of him and straight back toward Jasper, collapsing both him and Stacy to the ground in a shower of golden light. Tate and Mop raced away to safety, knowing that it was about to blow. Inside the tube Thunder’s blue whale body continued to expand to its full shape, pressing Infernal Maximus through the inner wall of the lava slide and into the spinning hot magma. Upon contact, a screaming Max was destroyed. The lava continued to swirl out from the cracks. Nothing could contain it, and the pearl doors broke away. Lava gushed out as Thunder’s whale body quickly dissolved, Thunder was dead.
The lava pooled for a brief moment in front of the slide entrance, and then in one massive eruption, the lava gushed up in a wave and rushed out away from the slide in every direction, like water pouring from a busted dam.
“We need to get them out of here.” Agent Tate grabbed ahold of Stacy and hoisted her up onto her back and shoulders using the firemen rescue technique.
“Head back to the village. The portal ships can pick us up,” Mop commanded as he lifted Jasper in like manner.
They rushed back, but the lava was closing in fast. They reached the hole where the drilling ship had first invaded. Some of the lava flowed naturally into the hole, giving them a small break and enough lead time to make it past the fallen debris field of the ark, but it wasn’t enough. The lava was coming at them too quickly from every side. They were cut off, and they weren’t going to make it. It would all end here in front of Teddy’s house. The trumpet, the flattened trumpet was glowing again. It began to form up. Eyes blinking, it formed into the shape of a human, and in a flash the archangel Gabriel stepped forward with his arm extended straight out. His trumpet was part of his body, right where his hand should have been. The rest of the warrior angels hovered into the air just above the lava wave that Gabriel now boldly faced down. He bowed his head, then lifted his chin forward, dropping his mouth wide open. His trumpet arm blew sound waves directly into the path of the lava, pushing it back. It pooled upward, rolling away. He spun around in a circle, and all the lava fell backward onto itself. The thousands of angels above produced a mighty gusting wind by the force of their wings, cooling the lava into rock. The lava was stopped. The angels lifted high into the air and transformed back into the purple flamingos before twinkling away out of sigh
t.
Gabriel seemed to glide over to where Agent Tate and Commander Mop had laid Jasper and Stacy down upon the ground. He overshadowed them with his glory, and he said, “It is midnight, Jasper. You have endured maximum damage this night, but you are not alone. You will never be alone, I promise. Know this in your heart, when a friend gives his life to save his friend, of this there is no greater love. Remember this lesson well, but for now, peace I give unto you; peace I leave you.” Gabriel placed his hand upon Jasper’s forehead, and light transferred from his hand, absorbing into his skin. He turned and smiled down at Stacy, touching her in like manner. Leaning into her ear, he whispered, “It begins here, and the next trial to behold will belong to you.” Without saying another word, Gabriel lifted high into the air and disappeared.
From the direction of the village a humming could be heard, and a moment later one of the portal ships returned. The blue platform spiraled down to the ground. Abbadorn appeared, and he invited them to board. They loaded up and returned to the heart of the village. While on board, a saddened Jasper and Stacy awoke. Aunt Debbie-Lynne and Tammy Sue Tate brought comfort to Stacy while Abbadorn talked with Jasper. Lance, Teddy, and Mop stood close by. Abbadorn led them all into a large room where Jasper’s parents rested in their comatose state upon huge crystal slabs that half-enclosed their bodies.
“Jasper, your parents live, and we will take them to archangel Volnar. He can heal them.” Abbadorn attempted to comfort Jasper.
“Will our medical teams be needed for this journey?” Mop asked.
“No. The angelic guard will be the only passengers on board this vessel. Our creation technology will keep them safe for their journey to Iconium.”
“Very good then, old fellow. Lance, give instructions to remove all medical apparatuses as soon as possible. I will wait for you in the village below.” Commander Mop was leaving the room when Abbadorn asked him to stay.
Jasper: Purple Flamingos Fly at Midnight (Jasper - Purple Flamingos Fly at Midnight Book 1) Page 27