“I don’t much care for Dragon squad right now. Ever since the last captain croaked, it’s been going downhill.”
“I know, but we have to keep things up there for now. Captain Adonis is twice as strong as Tummanoon ever was, and he has a new vision for Dragon.”
“Yes yes, his vision is nothing that I want to be a part of. Hood on the other hand, he’s got some good ideas.”
“Finnick you think with you small head more than you should, you know that.”
“I wouldn’t have to if you’d just loosen up a little more Shandra. Just look at what you normally where around me, everything is just about to fall out. You don’t understand the mental battle of men.”
“I do, which is why you haven’t won a sparring match with me yet. You’re too busy staring at my tits.”
Finnick squints his eyes toward her, “Just keep quiet milk jugs, and help me drag this dragon out of here.”
Vernon finally gets close enough to see the dragon laying on the ground, and the long dark metallic hair and chiseled jaw is all he needs to see. It was Dray-Gon. He couldn’t leave him to these two, but he didn’t know if they actually took him down or not.
Shandra says, “Poor bastard,” kicking Gon in the chest, rolling him over. “Running into Hood’s pet unicorns. Something to remember, not even a mighty dragon can overcome.”
Finnick agrees, “Which is why we are going to drag him back to Hood.”
“No, I don’t think you’re taking him anywhere.” Vernon says coming out of the darkness.
Finnick and Shandra jump up into the air, and turn to meet Vernon.
“You’re the rookie, what are you doing here?” Finnick asks.
“I’m here to help Dray-Gon, so you can just go ahead and leave. This doesn’t have to get messy.”
Finnick and Shandra burst into laughter.
Shandra says, “If you’re trying to act tough rookie, you’re going to have to do better than that.”
She fans out her duster, revealing a blade as she draws it. It’s long and slender, shinning in what little light there is in the tunnel. Finnick steps behind her, and begins to chant in some language that Vernon doesn’t know. A white flame begins to surrounds him, and Shandra.
“This will be quick rookie, we don’t have time to play around with you. Hood’s orders.” Shandra says, and attacks.
Her blade comes down with speed, but Vernon can see every movement. He draws out his pistol, catching the blade with the trigger guard, and bringing it to his left. His right fist is already in movement, aiming for Shandra’s face. Her eyes track his fist, and she pulls back her face with an inch to spare.
She jumps backward to get some distance between them.
“Finnick, dragon spell. He already has it on.” She spits out.
Finnick continues his chant, changing the words and his flame changes to green. Shandra is still covered in a white flame as her skin begins to have a green tint to them.
Vernon grabs the shield off his back, in his right hand and arm. Pulls up the pistol in his left, and squeezes the trigger at Finnick. Shandra blurs as she deflects the bullets with her blade.
“Like I said rookie, you’ll have to do better than that.” She gloats.
She rushes toward Vernon, blurring in motion. He begins to reach for his mana, slowly pouring into his wind runes in his boots. Metal clashes against metal, sparks flying off his shield with white flames pouring around the edges.
He pushes back against each blow, inching his way forward. Each hit vibrating him to his bones. She plunges forward, tip first, cutting through the shield, the blade slicing the left side of his face.
Vernon tries to pull the shield away, but Shandra slices off a chunk of it, leaving less than half left. The remaining part falls to the ground, and Vernon jumps backward, switching the gun to his right hand. He activates the gunlet for his left, firing out a few more rounds from the pistol.
She slices through each bullet with ease, burning up each before they pass the blade. He fires off both at her, Shandra meeting each while standing in place. Not able to move from the number of bullets flying at her.
Vernon finally fills his wind rune, and release the imagined blade of air into reality. The flame around Shandra flares up, consuming the wind. She takes the extra flames, and sends them back toward Vernon in a horizontal slash.
Not having the ability to get away fast enough, the flames hit Vernon, flinging him back a few feet to the ground. He crashes down hard hitting his head. The world turns and colorful dots fill his vision.
Shandra chants something Vernon doesn’t understand, adding a new blue flame around her blade to match the white and green. Her eyes ignite in blue flame as she focuses on Vernon.
She says, “Now you’re dead.”
17
Blue and white flame streak toward Vernon, he rolls on the ground avoiding flame. He regains his footing, smoke flowing off his duster. Blood running down the back of his neck. Imagining the door, he opens it, letting his light flow out.
Gathering it into a ball at the tip of his gunlet. Shandra moves in front of Finnick, blue flamed eyes firmly planted on Vernon. He fires off his gunlet, and light. Shandra meets it with her blade, the flames around the blade die down. The bullet hits the tip of the blade shattering it, embedding the tip into her forehead.
She drops to a knee. Her blue flames dissipating away before she falls to the ground. Finnick opens his eyes, still chanting, looks at Shandra and then back to Vernon. He stands up, changing the chant again. The white flames that was surrounding him fade away, replaced by his skin tinting green. Finnick grabs Shandra and runs in the opposite direction from where Vernon showed, leaving Dray-Gon on the ground.
Vernon walks over to Dray-Gon. He checks to see if there are any open wounds he’ll have to be careful with on the way out. Dray-Gon coughs.
“Hey, don’t move. You’re injured badly, and I need to get you out of here.”
One mahogany eye opens two eye lids, and glares at Vernon. Gon’s body relaxes. “Unicorns, too many… Eggs…” His eye rolls back, and closes.
Vernon doesn’t find any wounds, and picks him up placing him over his shoulder. A quick look back shows there isn’t anyone behind him, for now. He starts to move as quickly as he can back toward the cavern. Gon mumbles a few times on the way back. Eggs, son, harvest.
He reaches the cavern entrance with no trouble, but instantly sees a problem. The hole that he came through was only slightly larger than he was, and wouldn’t be able to fit both him and Gon on the way up. Vernon searches around the elevator, hoping it was still in working order. He grabs hold of switches, and presses buttons. Nothing happens. Switching the search for a rope, or anything he can tie to himself and around Gon, he again comes up empty handed.
Not wanting to spend too much more time, he grabs Gon, and begins to make the long trek up the ladder. Once he gets close enough to the hole, he puts Gon on his shoulders, and leans him against the wall. Vernon was starting to appreciate the newly found strength he had acquired. This would have been something he was working toward as a Paladin, this kind of strength. He already had it.
New found strength or no, a couple hundred yards of ladder, carrying a fully grown man on his shoulders started to ware on him. He could see he was getting closer, with the light at the top of the tunnel getting larger. The last few rungs he could feel his arms begin to burn. He pushes Gon out of the hole, and drags himself out shortly after, rolling onto his back.
“Whew! Never want to do that again.” He says out loud.
“We can take him off your hands.” A male voice says.
Vernon sits up, and sees he’s surrounded by people in white robes, wearing black masks. He stands up, and looks around. Every one of them are ready to attack at a moment’s notice.
I haven’t had a good past couple of days, and now this. He thinks.
Angel shows up beside him, “You said that if something changes to let you know. I can help here if you
want.”
He whispers back, “How’s that? You’re not physically here.”
Angel smiles, “Want me to help or not?”
“Sure, go for it.”
“Command accepted, Pilot program active.”
Vernon’s overlay is filled with video feeds from all the cameras surrounding area, and the feeds from the people themselves they are producing. They all come at him at once, like a pack of wolves, and Vernon tells his body move, but it doesn’t follow his orders. It starts to move on it’s own.
He takes a slight step backward, with a slight bend in the knees, as the first masked person comes flying over his shoulder. Grabbing the back of the robe, he flings them to the right, knocking down three more assailants that were the closest to him.
The next throws a punch at the back of Vernon’s head, which is grabbed and thrown over his shoulder at two others. Two more come at his left at are meet with a sweeping kick, followed by fists to their chests. The sound of bones snapping fill the air.
Four more on his right had been preparing a spell. Each hold out their hands, and a single fireball grows between them and Vernon. Vernon’s palm is raised to face the flame, and a small dot of light vibrates within his hand. It shoots out of his hand like a bullet, and into the fireball. The flames explode out across the four that were casting it.
Vernon could feel that his heart was beating faster than it should, and his breathing was getting heavy. He falls to a knee as the first four jump on him. All he could see was a black robes past his overlay.
On a few of the feeds, he could see more coming at him. He could also tell that he was getting hit. It felt more like dull nudges than actual punches and kicks.
Angels voice sounds out over the noise, “You’re too worn out for me to win this. With everything that has happened over the last two days. We need to get out of here, but we’re going to have to leave Dray-Gon to do it.”
Vernon’s voice comes out muffled, “No can do, we both walk out or neither of us do.”
“But…”
Vernon cuts her off, “No buts. We can do this.”
He remembers what happened the last time he tried to push his powers, but he doesn’t have much choice. He stands in front of his imaginary door. The size of it larger than he remembers. Finely carved wood, within an arbor, stands twice his height before his inner eye. The handle is in front of him, polished brass, and warm to the touch. Twisting the nob, he can feel the power swelling up on the other side, as he swings the door wide open. Wild white light covers his body, and he flings off the four attacking him.
Angel, still controlling Vernon’s body, rushes over to the four who are casting spells. Grabbing the first, and tossing them into the air behind him. The second receives a punch to the face, knocking them out of the way for Angel to spin Vernon’s body around, applying his right heel to the thirds chest.
The three attacked seem to move in slow motion to Vernon. The initial impact had them moving at a normal pace, but now they float through the air.
His heart is thumping like a jackhammer as his focus turns to five of the assailants. They are all focused on him, but are in mid movement, frozen in place. Appearing in front of them, Angel leaves a ball of light at each of their faces.
Fire ignites in Vernon’s chest, followed by a sharp twisting pain.
“That’s all the time I have.” Angel says, “I can still manage smaller things, but you’ll need to rest before I can do anything like this again.”
The world spins, and Vernon falls to a knee as a whole lot of things happen at once. Each of the balls of light fire off like bullets, followed by the sound of heads smashing into concrete. A scream comes from high up in the air, and an explosion happens behind Vernon. He turns his head to see the one he kicked flew into the one Angel left alone, and was still chanting the group spell. When the group was disrupted, the spell went boom.
Everyone Vernon looks at is lying on the ground. He takes a deep breath, and imagines himself in front of his inner door. He grabs the handle and begins to shut the door, but the power from the other side is too strong for him to close it shut.
His light flairs up, scorching the ground around him. The tips of his hair start to burn, and his skin begins to feel hot. Closing his eyes he concentrates on closing the door, putting effort into pushing.
A humanoid figure appears on the other side, and starts to help him close the door. They reach past the threshold, and together, they shut the door.
Vernon falls to the ground, panting. Weariness fills his body as he gasps for breath. It takes a couple of minutes for him to catch his breath enough to get off the ground. Each movement of every muscle screamed with discomfort as he did. Looking over to Gon, he was still breathing and still not moving.
Needing to move Gon before any of the goons got up became a priority. Vernon pulls up the transit grid to request a car, which all were five minutes out. Something he wouldn’t had to do if he just left the one he had at the gate. Which he mentally kicks himself for not doing. He looks at the two that are close to him, and open one of their driver side doors.
There was a steering wheel sticking out of the dashboard, which was unusual. One would normally have to have the vehicle powered on, and in emergency mode. He looks for the start button, and doesn’t find one. Trying the next car, it was much the same. The wheel was out, and no power button, but there was a metal object in the seat. In the dash, there was a round metal plate where the start button would normally go, and it had a square indent. Vernon had never seen anything like it before. The metal object fit into the indent, but nothing happened. He fiddles with it still in the hole, and the car turns on. He doesn’t know why it takes that metal object, but he doesn’t care, and loads Dray-Gon into the backseat.
Vernon pulls up his overlay, and calls Ashley.
“Hey Ashley, I need to ask for a favor.”
“Oh, hey Vernon. What’s the favor?”
“Come to my place, and bring medical supplies if you can. I need you to heal a friend of mine, but I can’t bring him into a hospital.”
“Ok, why not?”
“You’ll just have to see him when you get there. He’s not dangerous I promise, bring Duke too if he’s ok.”
“Now you’re worrying me.”
“I know Ashley, I’m sorry, but can you do this for me?”
There was a short silence on the voice call. Vernon looks in the rearview, trying to see if he is being followed, and then down to Dray-Gon. He didn’t want to have to bring in friends, but he couldn’t ask for help from the Paladins. They would rather kill a dragon than heal one.
Ashley answers, “It will be a few minutes before I can leave, and I have a medical first aid kit in bags.”
“Thanks Ash, I owe you big for this one.”
“You bet you do. I’ll have Duke with me, because it sounds like I’m going to need him to be.”
“Great, I’ll see you in a few.”
Vernon pulls up close to his apartment, but parks a few buildings back. He isn’t sure if there is a tracking device on the car or not. They already knew where he lived, but if they are just looking for where the car is that might give him just enough time to see them coming. His muscle where still screaming, but not as loudly as they were before. Gon seemed to double in weight on the drive over to Vernon’s place, that or Vernon was really starting to feel the effects of whatever Angel did to him.
Angel was also nowhere to be seen or heard since the incident. He knows it took a lot out of him, so it could have done the same to her. Dray-Gon was getting heavier by the minute as he drags him down the streets, and by the time he reaches his apartment complex he has reverted to his man dragon form. Vernon quickly pulls him into the elevator, and gets him to the sixth floor.
His door was still open, and he could see it was knocked open. He pulls Gon through, and lays him on the couch then tries to shut the door. Dray-Gon was wearing some type of clothing, and Vernon strips him down, looking for any open wo
unds. There are two spiral tattoos on either side of where a human’s heart would be, but he didn’t know if that is where his was. Other than the tattoos, there wasn’t a scratch or bruise on his body. His breathing was getting labored, and the color was beginning to drain out of scales.
There was a knock at Vernon’s door. “Hey buddy you in there?”
It was Duke’s voice. Vernon replies, “Yea, I’m in here. Just a second.”
Vernon moves some furniture away from the door, and pulls it out of the frame. Duke and Ashley are on the other side, both with confused looks on their faces.
“So, how do you like our new place?” Vernon jokes.
“Cozy. The door come like that, or was that an upgrade?” Duke jokes back.
“Boys please. Vernon who needs help?”
Vernon points over to Dray-Gon on the couch. “This is my friend Dray-Gon, leader of the dragons.”
Ashley rolls her eyes, and pushes past Vernon. She kneels down, and starts to check over him. With each movement, she was trying to take off the skin, like it was a set of clothes. She jumps up from the floor.
“Holy shit, this thing is real!”
Duke stands there with his mouth open.
“Look I know,” Vernon now pleas, with Dray-Gon’s breath getting shallower. “Can you help him or not?”
“He’s a dragon, like a fire breathing human eating dragon?”
“Yes to the fire breathing dragon, no to the human part. He got attacked by a couple of Paladins, and then said something about unicorns, eggs, and his son.”
Duke’s head turns to Vernon, “Did you say Unicorns?”
“Yea, he said too many unicorns. Why?”
“Does he have any spiral tattoos?”
“Actually yea, next to where a human’s heart would be, why?”
Duke looks panicked. “Ashley, how are you with magic seals?”
“Really good, it was one of my focuses while I was going to medical school. I told you about it a hundred times.”
Cypher Theorem Series Box Set: Books 1-3, The Zero Class, Shadow Moon, Dragon Fire: A Science Fiction Fantasy Page 52
