by Mell Eight
Platinum couldn't help staring at the two different colors that Alloy sported. He was both a red and a blue dragon, fire and water combined into one creature. It was unnatural and very awful. It was… Platinum swallowed hard. Alloy was an experiment gone wrong. So was Lumie. In fact, all the dragons in this house were rescued from the evil scientists.
"Daisy is our housekeeper and babysitter," Dane finished with a gesture towards the green-skinned woman.
Platinum looked around at the assembled dragons and couldn't help thinking back to the blue dragon that had so frantically been chasing after the van that had taken Lumie and Platinum away. He wasn't present. Maybe he wasn't part of this family? Platinum felt a pang of disappointment in his chest. That boy had looked so desperate as he reached out for the van with his hand and with his magic. Platinum wanted to apologize.
"Is there a water dragon?" he asked hesitantly.
Mercury laughed. "You met Nickel, huh? He's still at Dane's office doing some research on the guys that grabbed you."
"I'm going to bring him a sandwich when I head back," Dane explained. "Daisy, if you wouldn't mind my using the kitchen really quickly?" The kits all looked excited at the prospect of lunch and started babbling again. They began walking as a herd down a nearby hallway. Platinum got caught up with them and was led into a spacious kitchen.
"Lunch is in the oven. Baked mac and cheese," Daisy said. "You've got plenty of time before I have to start heating up the vegetable soup." Several of the kits groaned at the mention of vegetables, but Platinum had never eaten mac and cheese or soup and would love a chance to try them both.
Dane headed into the pantry and fridge to start pulling out everything he needed to make sandwiches. Platinum saw three different kinds of meat and all sorts of vegetables he had seen at the grocery store, but he had no idea what to do with them so hadn't bought them. Lumie climbed up on a stool next to Dane and directed him.
"You need to make one more," Lumie said when Dane pulled out four pieces of bread from a bag and began twisting the opening shut again.
"Becky has her own lunch," Dane disagreed. "I only need to make a sandwich for me and Nickel."
"And Platinum. He's going with you," Lumie insisted.
Dane paused to look at Lumie, then he bent over slightly so he was at Lumie's height on the stool and could firmly catch Lumie's gaze.
"You're not withholding information again, are you, Lumie?" Dane asked warningly.
Lumie started to shake his head, but then his eyes caught on a basket of candy sitting on top of the fridge and his head stilled.
"It's not my secret to tell," he said after a long moment of staring at that basket. He popped his thumb in his mouth as he climbed down from the stool. Lumie went over to the kitchen island and climbed onto another stool next to Alloy. The conversation was apparently over with.
Dane frowned, but he opened the bag of bread again and pulled out two more slices without arguing.
"It looks like you're coming with me," Dane said apologetically to Platinum. "Maybe I can take a look at that tracker in your shoulder while we're there."
Platinum nodded. He didn't want to argue with Lumie either. His turned towards Zinc, who was standing at his shoulder. "I'll be back," he reassured her, hoping he was telling the truth. "I want to try mac and cheese and soup sometime."
"I'll save you a plate," Zinc reassured him tearfully. She also didn't appear to have anything to gainsay Lumie's claim that Platinum needed to go.
Dane finished assembling the sandwiches quickly. He filled a few plastic containers with sides and grabbed a jug he filled with juice, and then he turned to Platinum and held out one hand.
Platinum hugged Zinc quickly before taking Dane's hand. He felt magic settle around him for a brief moment, and the kitchen vanished from sight. A generic office appeared around him moments later. There was an elderly woman sitting in a wide chair behind a desk in the center of the room. Off to one side was a doorway leading to what appeared to be a private office. There was a child-sized desk in the corner covered in papers and a closed laptop.
"Where's Nickel?" Dane asked the old woman. She looked up and Platinum blinked. The old woman was gone, replaced by a middle aged one with a pleasant smile.
"He stepped out for a few minutes," she replied. "Who's this?"
"This is Platinum. He's Zinc's twin brother. Platinum, this is Becky. She runs this office," Dane explained. "I'll introduce you to Nickel when he gets back. Come into my office and tell me your story while I see what I can do about that tracking chip."
Becky smiled at them both before turning back to her computer. Platinum followed and took one of the guest chairs on the closer side of the desk. Instead of walking around the desk to take his own chair, Dane bent closer to look at the back of Platinum's shoulder.
"They just shoved this in here, didn't they?" he sighed. "It's going to twinge a bit. Why don't you start with after you and Lumie were taken?" He placed his hand on Platinum's shoulder.
Telling what had happened would at least take his mind off of how overwhelming everything else around him was. Maybe Dane would even help explain the parts that Platinum didn't understand.
"Lumie just sat there when the scientist gloated," Platinum began slowly, his voice just above a whisper. It was easier to talk about how Lumie had acted than to focus on how unbelievably scared he had been. "I guess it's because he already knew he could walk us right out of the house the scientist led us to. We were in the car for maybe two hours. The scientist had his shield up so I couldn't stop him with my magic."
"A shield?" Dane asked curiously.
Platinum nodded. His shoulder was itching; Dane must have been doing something. "I can't walk past it, and my magic can't penetrate it. It's awful. But they called Lumie the philosopher's stone dragon and he walked right through the shield like it was nothing! Sometimes… sometimes when they left me alone in a cell for days and days, I would send an entire hurricane of wind at that shield. It never cracked. Not once. And Lumie just walked right through it!" He was sobbing, gasping for breath, and unsure what words were actually coming out of his mouth. "They let me go. I thought I had finally escaped from behind that shield, but I was just bait for their trap. To catch two dragons. And once they had that they threw me back behind that shield again."
A sharp pain made him cry out through his tears. It felt like a needle shoved deep into his shoulder. Dane pulled his hand away with a curse and dropped a smoking bit of metal barely the size of a grain of rice onto the desk in front of Platinum.
"That's it?" Platinum gaped, shocked that something so small could keep track of him so well.
"That's it," Dane confirmed. "I'm sorry that hurt so much, but they added a touch of magic to it to make it difficult to remove. So they wanted two dragons?" he continued, changing the subject swiftly. "You and Lumie?"
"And the dragon soldier," Platinum added. "Mostly they wanted Lumie, I think, but the scientist and Lumie both spoke about the soldier too."
"The dragon soldier?" Dane swore and spun around on his heel. He rushed into the outer office. "What did Nickel say when he left?"
Platinum slowly followed Dane and saw him crouched next to the child-sized desk with the laptop open and running in front of him.
"Just that he wanted some air so he could think," Becky said. She looked worried as Dane flipped through different windows on the laptop. He froze suddenly at one window, reading it with a quickly deepening scowl on his face.
"He knew Lumie and Platinum had come home," Dane mumbled to himself. "He was standing right next to me when I was on the phone with Daisy. Why would he…?" Dane stopped talking for another minute then swore loudly and colorfully. "Because he wanted to catch the person behind all this and stop the dragon hunting once and for all."
Platinum inched closer to read over Dane's shoulder. He had no idea what he was looking at, but he read the words slowly. The text inside was short and pointed. It almost sounded like a conversation to him
.
We have the dragons ready for you. They are waiting at the address below. Can you be there in two hours?
The address didn't mean anything to Platinum. He didn't know where he was on a map. He barely knew how to read, but one of the friendlier guards had given him a children's book once and explained what the different letters meant before vanishing one night.
Below that someone else had written: Yes.
CHAPTER FIVE
Nickel was the first person downstairs for breakfast. It hadn't been storming over Dane's house, so Nickel had no idea whether the storm had held through the night. He was hopeful that Platinum was still safe wherever he had hidden up in the mountain. Lumie wandered downstairs just as Nickel was fixing himself a bowl of cereal, so Nickel helped Lumie fill his bowl too. Dane was only a few minutes behind them, but by the time he was finished eating, Nickel was starting to get antsy.
All the dishes were put into the sink. Mercury would dump them in the dishwasher before he went to work in an hour. Dane would be at his office much earlier than normal, but Nickel didn't care. He needed to be there to help Platinum, and something told Nickel that today would be the day he would finally have that chance.
The office was still dark when they arrived. They had beaten Becky there, which didn't happen very often. Nickel took his hand from Dane's shoulder and hurried to the front door to unlock it and turn on the lights. Lumie let go of Dane's hand and went to the nearby window to look out at the street.
Nickel moved to his too-small desk next. He opened his laptop cover and hit the button to start it up. The phone's message light was blinking.
"There's a message on the machine," Nickel called into Dane's office where he was also getting set up for the day.
"Go ahead and listen to it. Take notes for Becky," Dane replied quickly.
Nickel picked up the handset and held it to his ear then hit the button for the messages.
This is Georgetown Electric with a great deal on solar panels!
Nickel hit the delete key. The machine beeped and moved to the next message.
Hey, this is Ryan next door at the grocery store. Platinum, that kid you asked me about, is here right now. I snuck a glance at him just now, and he looks to me like he's getting ready to skip town. I'll try to convince him to head your way first, but you might want to come over here…
Nickel hung up before the message had finished playing. "Platinum's at the grocery store right now!" he yelled excitedly to Dane.
Lumie was already outside and halfway down the sidewalk. He was heading straight for a young man with white hair braided and pinned to his head who was walking along the sidewalk away from the consulting firm. Nickel jogged after them.
A large white commercial van with no windows surged past Nickel, driving much faster than most cars bothered in the sleepy town. A side door popped open, and Nickel saw a man lean out and reach for Lumie and Platinum.
"Lumie! Platinum!" Nickel shrieked, sending a jet of water at the truck. His magic didn't rebound, exactly. Nickel wasn't entirely certain where his magic went, just that it vanished before it could hit the van. Platinum spun and sent a wave of air at the truck. His magic vanished too, and some sort of force knocked both him and Lumie to the ground.
For a startling second, Nickel thought Zinc was lying on the ground, but she was safely at home and he was definitely looking at a male dragon trying to scramble to safety. Another force yanked Platinum and Lumie up and into the van. The side panel closed, and the van took off with a screech of tires. Nickel sent another plume of water after the van and watched in disbelief as his magic dissipated on impact. The van vanished around a curve in the road.
Nickel wanted to change shape and fly after the van. He could keep track of it from the air and help Platinum and Lumie escape once the van reached its destination. He snarled in fury and was about to shift when Becky's arm slid through his.
"I have the make and model of that van as well as the license plate number. No need to go chasing after it. We'll find it on our own." She dragged him back to the office and handed him over to Dane, who was standing at the office door with a pinched look on his face.
"Lumie," Dane grumbled. "That little brat!"
"I can fly after them!" Nickel insisted. "I'll carry a cellphone and report back when I've found their hiding spot."
"You will do no such thing," Dane disagreed immediately. "It's bad enough Lumie's gone haring off. I won't have you disappearing too."
"Someone's got to save them!" Nickel yelled. "They've been taken by the enemy!"
"I know," Dane said in a voice far too calm for Nickel's liking. He growled loudly at Dane to emphasize that fact. "You think I'm happy one of my kits and another dragon we've been hunting for years just got snatched on my front doorstep?" His voice thundered with power. "I'm pretty damned pissed. But think for a second, Nickel! Lumie is with Platinum. Remember that. By the time you reach them, Lumie could already have gotten them both free and then you'll be infiltrating an empty lair. What we need to do is contact our allies, alert the proper authorities, and start making a plan. The enemy has shown their hand, so we need to respond stronger and more forcefully to shut them down for good."
"And what if Lumie can't get free?" Nickel whispered, his fears taking root now that his frantic anger had diminished.
"Lumie is the philosopher's stone dragon. I have absolutely no doubt of that," Dane said. "A few years ago, when Mercury first started working as a field agent, he caught a copycat Quicksilver bombing case."
"I remember," Nickel said, wondering where this conversation was going.
"He made a mistake and got caught in a spell that was trying to force him to change shape. Mercury thinks the spell was supposed to draw me out and keep us both busy while the enemy caught three dragon kits and their mother running in the woods. Except I brought Lumie with me, and he popped Mercury free in seconds. One of the enemies snapped a photograph of Lumie and probably told a superior about what Lumie had done. Someone must have guessed that he's one of the dragons Quicksilver rescued and that one of their experiments had gone right."
"And you think they've been aiming to capture Lumie ever since?"
"I think that's very possible," Dane agreed. "You remember Jessica, the territory leader that tried to grab Alloy? She went after Lumie first, couldn't catch him and grabbed Alloy instead. But I don't think they have any understanding of what Lumie can do. Lumie can walk through my wards like they don't even exist; he'll have no problem escaping the enemy." It sounded like Dane was reassuring himself along with Nickel.
Nickel growled and stomped over to his desk. He couldn't just stand around and wait while Becky and Dane made phone calls. Nickel needed to do something too, anything that might help locate the enemy and stop them for good. Maybe there would be someone in that chat room running their mouths.
Becky hung up her phone at her desk. "An all-points bulletin is out on that van," she announced, which meant that all the local and state police officers would be on the lookout for it. Without Nickel tracking the van from overhead, it was all they could really do. Nickel was worried and upset, but he was also still angry that Becky had stopped him from chasing after that van and that Dane had agreed with her. Sitting behind his too-small desk while staring at a blank chat room screen was infuriating.
Some of the things Nickel remembered reading from the last time he had logged into the chat room were starting to make a bit of horrible sense. Petridish1000 had been camping in the woods, probably following Platinum around and waiting for him to finally make contact with any of Dane's dragons. Well, the bastard had what he wanted now, at least until Lumie made his move. Dane was probably right about that. Petridish1000 had no idea what he had actually caught. If Lumie could walk through a half-god's shields, a human's stolen magic wouldn't be able to touch him.
Although, the shield that had stopped Nickel and Platinum's magic had been decidedly odd. Nickel had sent a very strong wave of water magic at the shield,
which would make even Dane's shields creak with strain when they practiced combat. The enemy's shield hadn't budged in the slightest. In fact, if Nickel had to make a guess, he thought that maybe instead of trying to block Nickel's magic or force it to rebound, the shield had instead absorbed his magic.
What if—and even in Nickel's mind it was a radical thought—what if it was a self-sustaining shield? He had actually read about them in one of Dane's catch-all magic books back at the house. It made sense the more he thought about it. The humans had such a limited amount of magic, and keeping a shield up against the combined onslaught of Nickel and Platinum's attacks should have flattened the magic user in an instant. All the other battles Nickel had fought against the enemy had ended similarly with him popping whatever personal shield they had and then ending them swiftly. But what if the shield absorbed whatever magic was attacking it and used that extra magic to continue powering itself? Platinum could control the weather—he was probably even more powerful than Nickel. There was no way a mere human could contain him unless Platinum's own magic was used against him.
That was actually a very saddening thought. The idea that Platinum had involuntarily kept himself confined for all these years was heartbreaking. All he had needed to do was wait patiently for the human's magic to run out. The shield would have fallen and he would have been free much sooner and without the tracking chip implanted.
ThatGuy signed in about an hour after Lumie and Platinum had been kitnapped, but his status immediately went to unavailable. Nickel wanted to demand the whereabouts, but he knew he couldn't blow his cover yet. The SupFeds had worked hard to set up his fake online persona and blowing it before ThatGuy had the chance to divulge everything would be a terrible waste. Besides, ThatGuy could log out of the chat room and Nickel wouldn't be able to contact him for information ever again.
Nickel waited for another hour and a half, impatiently tapping his foot against the side of his desk while Dane and Becky made phone call after phone call to try and organize some sort of help. After two and a half hours, Petridish1000 logged in. Nickel froze in place, waiting for the bastard to type something. He didn't have to wait long.
