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Post by YFWE on Feb 12, 2008 19:15:51 GMT -5
Feisley’s eyes widened, and then his gaze dulled considerably. His arms were still holding Kate against him, the dagger at rest alongside her throat. James lay nearby, still attempting to snap out of his daze so that he could stop Feisley. But he couldn’t… he felt powerless to do so… even in Kate’s time of dire need…
Feisley growled. “It would appear…” he said coldly, “that the status of my colleague, Mr. Harrelson, has been gravely altered.”
James grinned slightly. This had to mean that the others had stopped Harrelson…somehow.
In a quick motion, Feisley removed the dagger from Kate’s throat and shoved her to the ground. He slid his weapon back into his robe, and then stared forward at Kate and James, as James had risen and had come to Kate’s aid, albeit slowly. “Do not think of this as a victory,” Feisley began, “for I warn you—we will meet again. Do recall, a good number of the greatest battles in history were not continuous. Thus, our little conflict, inside this war, shall be so.” He brought his hands to his hood, and pulled it over his head. “I repeat, my children, this is not over. I will not meet you again here, in this place… but rest assured, a conclusion to our divergence shall come in the future. Until that day comes (and I look forward to it), well, I bid thee farewell.”
Before either James or Kate could respond, Feisley walked over to the nearest wall, and, as he had entered into their presence, dissolved into the wall, becoming an ethereal dark shadow on its side. It left their presence quickly, sliding among the wall and off into the distance.
James watched the shadow until it was out of sight, and then turned to Kate. “Are you alright?”
“…I’ve never been so scared in my life…” stuttered Kate in reply.
“But without you, he surely would’ve killed me,” James said as he helped her onto her feet. He rested a talon on her shoulder. “And I thank you for that…”
Kate nodded slowly. “I had to distract him somehow, I guess…”
James smiled. “And that you did.” He then turned in the direction where Feisley had left. “C’mon, I have a feeling that whatever has stopped Harrelson has something to do with the others…” And with that, they left to pursue Feisley, wherever he was off to…
(end)
“Yeah, he’s definitely not moving…” commented Shade on Harrelson’s bull form, which was still idle inside the block of ice. “I don’t think he can even shift his form now!”
“Agreed,” added Raffi. “So what should we do with him?”
“Well, we should try to contact Jay, Kate, and James… get them over here,” Shade replied. “We can go from there. I dunno what to do with him right now…”
“…then perhaps I might be able to take him off of your hands!” shouted a voice from behind them.
Before they could react, Raffi and Shade were both knocked to the ground by a certain force. They then quickly turned their heads, so as to determine what—or who—had knocked them to the ground.
Now knelt beside the block of ice that contained Harrelson was another white-robed figure, another member of the Reich. “It looks like Kenneth finally met his match…” spoke the robed figure. “This quite interests me, if I am to be frank.” He placed his hands on the ice, and, as if by magic, the ice began to melt away.
“Stop!” yelled Shade. He leapt from the ground and bounded at the Reich members. But the kneeling figure, with a flick of his wrist, sent Shade sprawling backward. Kay and Laura, who had been tending to Ash’s idle form, had stopped momentarily to watch these events unfold.
Soon, the ice was completely melted away, and slowly, the bull began to lessen in size, reverting to human form—its dark brown hair receding into its body, the snout diminishing as human facial features began to form, its hooves splitting into five separate digits. Soon, Harrelson’s human form lay where the bull had been, although the bloody scars on his sides that had been inflicted by Kay and Laura were still present, and at that point his eyes were shut tight.
“How unfortunate,” muttered the other Reich member. He laid his hands on Harrelson’s figure once more, and in a flash, both disappeared into the air, nowhere to be seen.
Raffi stood up, and then walked over to Shade, helping him up. “Thanks…” he mumbled, brushing himself off. “I wonder what that was all about.”
“Apparently, someone had come to save Harrelson and take him back to…wherever,” said Raffi. “D’you think it’s over?”
“For now,” Shade replied. “Here, let’s go see how Ash is doing…”
They walked over to Kay and Laura, who were still knelt beside Ash—still in her dragon form. Kay and Laura, however, were already human once more, and soon after, Shade and Raffi joined them. “How’s she doing?” Raffi asked.
“Breathing,” replied Kay. “Apparently, Harrelson couldn’t finish the job… I think we got here just in time.”
“Has she responded yet?”
“No, but we’re working on it,” Laura said. “It’s the back of her head; I think that Harrelson was in his eagle form and sliced the back of it. If we could just wake her up and get her back into her human form, it would be easier to at least hinder her wounds… luckily, she has stopped bleeding, though…”
Shade turned to Raffi. “If we could splash some water on her, we might be able to wake her up… and that would clean up the back of her head, as well. If I can lay out some thin ice on her head, and you can heat it up… maybe it’ll work.”
“Worth a try,” nodded Raffi. “Let’s do it…”
(end)
“How did this happen?” Feisley asked sternly.
Harrelson slumped into a nearby chair. “They ganged up on me, Marcus. I had Ashleigh nearly finished off, when they showed up…”
Feisley sighed, and paced around the room they were now in—a white-walled room, with an enormous screen and various controls and buttons on one side; on the other side, a row of individual doors, which stretched on much further than the room they were in. “I had thought, Kenneth, that you, of all people, would foresee this! You, of all people, would know the children’s strengths and weaknesses!”
“I do,” grimaced Harrelson. “I have been studying them for quite some time. But I was greatly outnumbered! Four to one! What was I supposed to do?”
Feisley stepped towards one of the doors, saying nothing immediately. “ARGH!” he grunted, slamming his fists against the door. Then, keeping one fist raised against the door, socked his head slightly toward Harrelson. “The Sovereign will not be pleased… he’ll have our heads for this.”
“It’s not over yet!” exclaimed Harrelson, who stood up quickly, but then sat back down, clutching his sides in pain. “We can still finish the job later on…”
Feisley turned completely toward Harrelson. “You heard his instructions!—dispose of all of the children. They are now our principal threat, and after today, they have become only more imposing.” He began rubbing his forehead methodically. “It’s the training they received at the academy, I just know it… it wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
Harrelson stood up again and, ignoring his abrasions, ambled over to Feisley until he was right at his face. “Do not worry,” he said in a low, hushed voice. “This all can still be righted.”
“How so?” asked Feisley.
“Report back to the Sovereign, and explain to him that we shall need a bit more time with the children. Convince him to speed up the injection process on our captives.”
“And what about you?”
“I will continue my studies,” said Harrelson with a pained grin. “As such, I will be sure that the children find their way out of the labyrinth. No matter what occurs after that, they will return to the academy. We can converge on them while they are there…”
“Do you think that will work?” Feisley asked doubtfully.
“Of course it will work,” Harrelson nodded. “That academy is not as reclusive, nor as safe, as they believe…”
“Let the power of the Sovereign be with you,” said Feisley. He placed his hands on Harrelson’s sides, where his wounds were. Harrelson winced at this, but soon was soothed. He unbuttoned his robe halfway, so that he could view his midriff. The scars were disappearing, leaving the skin as bare as it had been previously. In seconds, one could not tell that Harrelson had ever been attacked.
“Thank you, brother,” Harrelson bowed to his colleague, buttoning up his robe. He turned on his heel and started out of the room, while Feisley rubbed his head once more and then teleported away.
(end)
Ash coughed, her eyes fluttering open. She moaned soon after this, and rolled over onto her back. “Hello…?” she asked weakly.
“It worked,” Shade grinned at Raffi. “Awesome.” He then turned to Ash. “Welcome back to the land of the living.”
“Was I dead?”
“No, but you probably would’ve been, if we hadn’t shown up,” Kay chimed in.
Ash grunted, raising and propping herself up with her arms. “Where’s Harrelson?”
“Gone,” replied Raffi. “We beat him bad, in fact.”
One of Ash’s hands went to the back of her head. “Why is my head still wet?” she asked. “I’m not still bleeding, am I?”
“No, it’s water. It’s how we woke you up… we weren’t able to any other way.”
“I guess I should thank you guys, shouldn’t I?”
“No need to,” said Shade. “We’re just glad to have you back.” He held out a hand, and Ash took it, so that she could be helped up. She slowly reverted back to human form, and when she was fully human, began to collapse again.
“Whoa!” exclaimed Shade, as he grabbed one of her arms. Laura quickly grasped the other. “I guess you’re not gonna be able to stand by yourself yet…”
“Just give me a sec,” Ash replied. “I’ll be…fine.”
There were footsteps reverberating through the stone corridors, and it seemed to be coming from the area from whence they had initially came. “Not again…” whispered Raffi. “I think someone’s coming!”
And there was someone coming, although their intentions were friendly. “It’s James and Kate!” Kay exclaimed. “They must’ve heard us!”
“We came as quick as we could!” said James, gasping for breath, when the duo reached the larger group. “Has he been here?”
“Harrelson? Yeah, and he left rather quickly, I would say…” beamed Laura.
“No, not Harrelson… Feisley! Marcus Feisley!”
“Marcus Feisley is here too?” Shade asked alarmingly. Then, he receded into deep thought, before saying, “He was the other robed figure…”
“So he’s been here?”
“Yeah,” replied Shade. “And he took away Harrelson before we could figure out what to do with him. They’re both gone…”
James sighed in disappointment. “Well, at least we’re all alright…” Then, looking at Ash: “Most of us, at least.”
“Did you guys find an exit?” asked Kay.
“No, did you?” Kate replied.
Everyone shook their heads. “It’s like this place has no exit…” grumbled James. “But it’s gotta…”
“We could go back to the central chamber of the labyrinth,” Raffi suggested. “We could regroup there, and send everyone out from there. We haven’t checked everywhere yet…”
The group could hear more footsteps. This time, it seemed to be only one person. This unnerved the group—could Harrelson or Feisley be returning for round two?
“Who’s there?” asked Kate aloud.
“It’s me,” came Jay’s voice. “I’ve missed everything, haven’t I?”
“You sure have!” Kay exclaimed as Jay came into full view. “Where have you been?!”
Jay walked up to them slowly, clutching, it seemed, at his head. “I was just walking,” he started, “when I saw something up ahead! I thought it might be a door outta here, or something, so I ran ahead. But when I neared what had caught my eye, I found that it definitely wasn’t a door.
“It was a white-robed man!” he continued. “He was crouched, as if he had been waiting for me to walk by, but had been hiding. When I saw him, though, he arose, and said something… I couldn’t tell what, exactly. And then, before I could react, he disappeared… and then I felt something hit my head from behind me… and that’s all I remember.
“I woke up after that,” said he, “and heard you guys. So I came to find you…”
“It must’ve been Harrelson,” Ash said. “He did the same thing to me.”
“But Feisley’s a teleporter,” said James. “It could’ve been him...”
“Either way,” Shade said, “we’re all together now. And I say that we go with Raffi’s idea.”
“Sounds good to me,” Laura said. “Since Shade and I gotta help Ash, we’ll lead. Everyone follow us…”
And about ten minutes later, they were in the central room of the maze, where Raffi’s tenure in the labyrinth had begun and where Laura had received her most-recent vision. Shade and Laura propped Ash up onto the stone bed, while the others began to talk of a plan.
“So… do you think we should split up into pairs?” asked James. “Eight of us, four different paths…”
“This didn’t work last time,” Jay said. “What makes you think it will this time?”
Laura turned away in disgust. She knew that this would not end well… in the end, no one would be able to figure anything out. It was this maze that was doing this to them… this maze that had no apparent exits…
But then, something caught her eye: the lightning bolts on the columns that lit the chamber. What were they for? Why lightning bolts?
“Do you have a better idea?” James asked.
“As a matter of fact, no,” replied Jay. “This place has no exit; I’m sure of it. The Reich just wants us to stay here. The best thing to do is to stay here, so that we’re at least all together!”
James scowled, staring down at the ground. Then, he was about to say something else… but instead, his gaze rested on something else.
“Laura, why are you in your dragon form?”
“I have an idea…” Laura said, glancing around at the four columns. “Pay attention, everyone… I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
She pointed one talon at the closest column. And then, she sent a current of electricity at the column—or, rather, the glowing lightning bolt.
At this, the bolt glowed brighter. Brighter, brighter… and then a beam of light shot at the column next to it. This process repeated until all four columns were glowing bright, and beams of light connected all of the columns.
There came a sound of rumbling from inside the chamber. The stone bed began to shake, causing Ash to leap from it as quickly as she could, holding herself up on James’ arm. The bed then started to move to the side, scratching against the stone floor, as it revealed something underneath where it had once sat.
The rumbling stopped, and so did the bed. The temporary brightness of the columns dimmed, and soon, all was back to the way it had been at first—save, of course, for the new location of the bed.
Jay walked over to the spot where the bed had once sat, and then stepped back. “It’s a staircase…” he announced to the rest of the group. “And a short one, at that. I can see the bottom from here!”
Shade looked at Jay in awe, and then turned to Laura, who was back in her human form. “How did you…?”
“I remembered the flame symbol on the wall a while ago,” explained Laura, “and how it activated the door to get down here. When I saw the lightning bolts, I wondered if that would have some kind of similarity to the flame symbol… and it looks like I was right.”
“Shall we go down, then?” Jay said, returning attention to the newly-found staircase.
“If it’s a way outta here, count me in!” Kate exclaimed. She rushed over and hurried down the stairs without hesitation. The others followed, James and Shade helping Ash down the stairs.
They came to, at the bottom of the stairs, a moderately-sized room… a room that emptied into a long, narrow corridor, which was lined by doors as far as the eye could see. The walls were completely white, and the place itself was only dimly-lit. On one side of the room they had just entered into was a large screen, with many controls around it, as well as a few chairs—perhaps some sort of supercomputer.
“…are you guys thinking what I’m thinking?” Laura asked, eyes wide.
“It’s the place! It’s where the captive dragons are!” Raffi cried out. “Don’t you think?—there’s all these doors! This is what Feisley and Harrelson were trying to keep us from.”
“One problem,” announced Kay, standing at the nearest door with her hand on the handle. “Locked doors.”
“There’s gotta be a button somewhere…” said Shade. “A universal one, that opens all of the doors. Everyone, get looking!”
The group spread out throughout the room, scrutinizing every aspect of the room. “It’s probably over here,” Jay said from the area of the room where the controls and buttons were.
“Yeah, and I think I’ve found it,” Raffi said. She pointed at a large red button that was not labeled. “It just kinda screams ‘don’t push me,’ don’t you think?”
“Push it,” Shade said. “Let’s find out.”
Raffi complied, and as if on cue, all the doors opened synchronically. “Alright!” Kay shouted with glee. She rounded the door and went into the room, expecting to see either a kid or a dragon… but instead…
“There’s nothing in here!”
Shade’s eyes widened. “Someone check the other rooms!” he ordered. The next five rooms were checked—and still, nothing. It looked as if no one had ever been in the rooms, for that matter.
The large screen in front of them flickered on noticeably. All eight teens turned to look, and joined each other at the center of the room.
A white-robed figure had appeared on the screen. It was seated on a large wooden chair, with the backdrop of a tinted wall and a glowing fireplace, and various adornments on the wall.
“Greetings, children,” spoke the figure, whose mouth could not be seen because of the large white hood over its head. It was a man—and, as it seemed, an old one at that. “I am the Sovereign.
“If you are receiving this message, you have not only made it out of the labyrinth, but you have evaded two of my most powerful constituents. Be it known, however, that while I make this message for you in the case that my plan fails, I do not expect this message to be used, as I expect Mr. Feisley and Mr. Harrelson to eliminate you once you are inside the labyrinth. If, however, I am proved erroneous, there shall be much elucidation needed if I am to spare my two dear contemporaries.
“As I am sure you have noticed, the ninety captive dragons are not here. Confused? Yes, I am sure you are. Allow me to let you in on a little secret—they never were here! We planted false information for your friends at the academy in order to lead you all here. And while, it seems, we have failed in our initial plan, this will not change a thing.
“We still have the dragons. They are currently being held at our real headquarters. Where that is, I will not say—you’ve made it this far; I am sure that, given time, you might be able to figure it out for yourselves. But I doubt that, I really do—if you have not determined where the dragons are hidden yet, I doubt you ever will.
“I know that one among you is named Laura, and Laura, I know that you have some questions for me. And to answer you—yes, it is true that we were able to activate your psychic ability. However, the vision that you saw in the operation room was a fabrication, a lie—it never happened… at least, in that room. We awakened your ability so that you could witness this vision, which we planted there in hopes that you would come across it, so that your group would continue to search our ‘headquarters.’ If we did not create a reason for you to believe that the dragons were here, would you have stayed? No, I do not think so.
“So, you all might be asking yourself, ‘What now? Where do we go from here?’ I have just one answer for you, children—run, and hide. Your academy is not as safe as you think it to be; if you return there, we will know, and we will find you. Your only option is to find a secure place, until we can pinpoint your exact location. You see, there is no way out of this—despite what you have been told, you are not prophesized to vanquish us, the all-powerful Reich. You are destined to die at our hands.
“Regrettably, I believe that I have exceeded my time I designated for this message. I have things to do, people to see, and magical creatures to exterminate… I hope you’ll understand. There is a door at the end of the long corridor that will open upon the ending of this message—it is the exit. Do not fear, there will not be an ambush waiting for you. I will give you a head start. Not that it will matter…
“And with this, my children, I bid thee a pleasant return home, or a return to wherever you are headed. I expect that I, or at least one of my colleagues, will be meeting with you soon. But until then… it’s your move.”
END CHAPTER
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Post by charles finley. on Feb 12, 2008 19:46:46 GMT -5
Wow, kinda reminds me of Untraceable, with the whole "You think it's there, but it's really not" thing. XD
Ouchh. *pat's Ash on the head* You'll make it through, gawd dayumit. XD;
Yesss. Mysterryyy. D: you evil person, Kevo.
NAO UPDATE SOONS.
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Post by ADJLFanatic on Feb 12, 2008 20:56:31 GMT -5
You're right; you did update today. Praise the Lord! Hmm, you're not so bad at action yourself. I guess you don't have to like writing it to be good at it. :] I mean, well, I hate doing it too, but I suck at it. Yous special. I love, especially, how you kept working the same exact thought in my mind- with thinking that Ash died or something. Kind of like the thing how the Reich members kept saying how they "finished her off" in such a mischievous manner. Erh, I guess. Bahaha. But yeah, this was a great chapter overall, as I'd usually say. It was like another separation then meeting up again thing, which was cool. Each and every person had a good amount of time to earn theirselves some glory and shaz. Well, except for Jay, I guess. He's somewhat suspicious in my opinion, but that's just me. I could be wrong, because I'm obviously not the person writing this story. XD Wow, though, you kept up with the awesomeness. Well, I saw it coming, but not really. Ya feeeeel? Everything was so suspenseful and made me go on the edge of my seat. Like when Jay ended up being the person joining everyone else (and uh, Kate and James, too) I kept going all "WTF" like there were more Reich members or something. Man, they evil. I mean, duh, but wow. They're so smart. :] And ahhh, I dunno what else to say other than keep it up and I can't wait for the next chapter because I think I'm about to die of suspense and waiting. Ahhh. *dies* Now I'd love to work on ATN even more. I'll seriously try this time. I just seriously love your updates make me do that. So anyway, I bid thee adieu! And uh, keep on doing your soulja boy dance then, Kevin. ;D
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Post by Chaos on Feb 12, 2008 21:48:49 GMT -5
*copies Gluttony* Scary...
I loved this chapter long time. Better than the one before it, for reals now. You may have showed us the faces of a few people in the Reich, we know there are many puzzles ahead and much to know about this Soverign man.
Yay Shade and his awesome ice powers! Even though he can't do that anymore on my end... XD Oh well, still a very cool attack thing. Bull thing was realistic for some reason, I can imagine Shade just grabbing the bull by the horns to hold it back from him.
ANYWAY, I just thought this whole chapter was very suspensing, and odd to see that Ash hadn't been taken when she screamed. But cool! XD
You know that I'd love to put more here, but I can't seem to even do that. x-x Anyway, continue soon and all that jazz. I wonder what they'll do next... That's a good question for me to ponder.
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Post by YFWE on Jun 3, 2008 0:07:24 GMT -5
Sorry if this isn't that great.
The Dragon Chronicles Part 2: The Rescue Mission Chapter 6: Secrets and Lies
As the Sovereign had promised, his televised message concluded with the opening of a narrow door at the brink of the attached corridor. It was the way out of this funhouse, this diversion—as now, they realized, the headquarters had not, in actuality, been a headquarters at all… rather, it had been a trap. A trap that the eight dragons of Lao Shi’s Soldiers had readily stumbled into blindly, and had barely escaped from with their lives. As it was, the Reich had almost killed them. And, they would try it again—this, too, had been promised by the Sovereign.
Nevertheless, one could view the dragons’ survival as a minor victory over their oppressors—and it was obvious that they did. After such a time inside the place, and after the disappointment brought about by discovering that the ninety captive dragons were not, as Atticus Stevenson and his associates had claimed, being held in that place, they were glad simply to be alive.
And so they began the final leg of their journey with an aura of relief and confusion, stepping down the long hallway and passing the various doors that had originally been thought of as containing the captive dragons. They did not know what the future held for them, exactly, but first, they would return to the academy. Perhaps there, they could plot out a further course of action—maybe Atticus had another lead on the dragons’ locations. At the very least, they could rest, and speak to Lao Shi about what had happened…
James was the first to step outside. With his initial glance, he stared around at where the door had led them out to, and then to the area around the door, so as to determine where they were.
“What’s it look like, James,” asked Kay solemnly, as she stepped from the doorway with the rest of the group.
“We’re on the side of a hill,” James replied, “and the first building we went into is up there,” he pointed up the hill. “It looks like we’re behind where we went in, so the path we came in on will be over to the right. It should only take us a few minutes to get up there, I’d imagine.”
“D’you think we could use our dragon forms to get up there?” asked Raffi. “I just wanna get home… I mean, to the academy. It would be faster, and we could find the Globe easier, right?”
“As long as you don’t run into any trees,” James said. “There’s a lot of ‘em around here.”
“We are in a forest,” said Shade, rolling his eyes. “Ash, will you be okay to fly?”
“Well, I’ve felt worse,” replied the slightly-injured Ash, “but I still don’t wanna push the envelope…”
“She can ride on my back…” said Jay. “I don’t mind, really…”
“Then it’s settled,” Shade announced. “Everyone—dragon forms, now. I’ll lead the way… Kate, you get up with me, though. I might need you to help me find the Globe once we’re on the path… you remember were you hid it, right?”
“Vaguely.”
“Alright,” said Shade. “Let’s go.” And with this, the seven able teens shifted to their dragon forms and took off, Jay waiting a little while longer to allow Ash to climb on. In mere moments, the path on which they had walked to find the warehouse was in view. Leaving the building in hindsight, they soared through the forest via the narrow clearing, their eyes turned downward in search of the point where the Globe had touched down hours prior.
Suddenly, Kate called out, “Stop!” She swooped downwards, and Shade, having gone forward a bit longer before he could react, followed soon after. Kate touched down, and stared ahead, scrutinizing a group of trees before her. “It’s there…” she pointed, and at this motion, two of the trees moved off to the side, separating from the positions they had been in previously. And there, in plain view, was the large silver object that the group knew as the Globe—their ticket back to the academy.
“Finally!” sighed Laura. She changed back into her human form and pried open the small hatch that was the door to the Globe, and then shuffled inside. The rest of the group followed suit thereafter, Jay closing the door quickly behind them.
The Globe began to rise immediately, as it seemed that it had been cued to depart for the academy as soon as the door was shut. The computer screens flickered on, and the familiar countdown clock appeared, with one hour and forty-five minutes shown to be remaining before they landed in the front lawn of the academy.
Unlike the trip to New York, however, the eight teens were a great deal closer to each other—rather than before, when they had been spread out amongst the interior room. Shade saw this as an opportunity for at least a slight chat with his partners—a little bit of planning before they returned to the academy and reported to Atticus. “So, everyone,” he spoke, “what do you think we should tell Atticus when we get back?”
“Gee, I dunno,” Ash said. “How about… ‘You were wrong,’ for starters…”
“But we’ll still need to tell him who we fought, in addition,” added Kay. “I mean, it was some sort of Reich stronghold, or at least meeting place—we did meet up with two of the highest-ranking Reich officials, after all…”
“That’s right,” James agreed. “And maybe Atticus and his associates had some other leads on possible places where Jake and the other dragons were being held. Who knows?—we could be leaving the academy again as early as tomorrow!”
“God, I hope not,” Laura grumbled. “I just want some rest…” In response to this, Jay rested his arm around her, and she leaned against his side, closing her eyes.
“Maybe they’ll be able to acquiesce that,” said Shade. “I don’t know. We can’t discern how Atticus will react until we see him ourselves. All we can do is plan out how to break it to him… and to show him that the mission wasn’t a complete failure…”
“And what about Master Shi?” asked Raffi. “What should we tell him?”
“We should thank him, of course!” Kay said. “We wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for his training! I don’t think we could’ve defeated Harrelson, either…”
“Harrelson’s stronger than he let on,” Jay commented. “Or, at least, that’s what I think. You guys saw what he did in one-on-one combat. I believe that we only defeated him because, put simply, he was outnumbered. I don’t think it’ll be that easy next time…”
“And same with Feisley!” Kate exclaimed. “I swear to you all, I was about to die… he was gonna kill me and that was gonna be it. If Harrelson hadn’t been beaten by you guys,” she paused, “…I wouldn’t be here right now… at least, not alive.”
“I still see it as a victory,” said Kay. “We can’t dwell on what might’ve been—we should think about what truly happened. And guys, we stopped two of the Sovereign’s right-hand men from killing us all. Despite what happens in the future, I’m content right now knowing that that happened.”
Everyone nodded in agreement—save for Laura, who seemed to have drifted off to sleep. A prolonged silence followed this, as the rest of the group seemed to be deeply considering Laura’s course of action, as they still had over an hour and a half before touch-down. But before this, James spoke: “You know, think about it—how would this have worked out if the dragons had actually been there and we had rescued them?”
“What do you mean, James?” asked Ash.
“Well, shoot… it’d be a bit crowded in here, don’t you think?”
To this, everyone laughed heartily, and soon visions of an immensely-crowded room full of nearly a hundred kids, speaking incessantly in all kinds of different languages…
It was approximately an hour later when Shade awoke, not having, at first, realized that he had drifted off to sleep. He stared around groggily, noting that everyone was asleep as well. Or… almost everyone.
“Hey, Raffi,” Shade walked up behind his girlfriend, rested his hands on her shoulders, and proceeded to gaze out of the same window she was seated at. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“Didn’t want to,” Raffi replied. “I just wanted to think…”
“About what?”
“Well, today, of course,” answered Raffi with a laugh. “I mean, you heard what the Sovereign said… we’re as good as dead now.”
“They’ll have to find us first…”
“But how hard is that? Shade, they probably already know where the academy is! It couldn’t be that difficult.”
Shade sighed. “I know, Raffi. That’s why we’ll probably be staying at the academy less and less. We’ll need to stay on the move.”
“Unless…”
Raffi paused. Shade stared at her for a few moments, before saying, “Unless what?”
“I know we’re supposed to be replacements, our only purpose to rescue the ninety captive dragons… but what if we took matters into our own hands?”
“How would we do that?” asked Shade.
“Remember when Atticus talked about the place in Europe? The place where he believes the Reich got their power?”
“Yeah… it was some sort of fountain, wasn’t it?”
“Something like that. What if we went there, though? We could stop the Reich ourselves! Then, indirectly, we’d be freeing the captives!”
Shade sighed. “But that’s not our job. We’re working for Atticus Stevenson… and he’s just trying to do what’s best for the magical world. I don’t want to go against that.”
Raffi’s eyes were cast downwards. “I guess you’re right. I guess I just wanna be the hero for a change, you know?”
Shade threw his arms around Raffi’s waist and laid his head against the back of hers’. “If we can pull this off, we will. We just have to trust Atticus on this…”
Raffi twisted around towards Shade, and smiled. “That would be nice…”
“I agree,” nodded Shade.
Raffi stared into Shade’s eyes for a few more moments before sighing. “Wow, I really need some sleep…”
“Then you’d better get sleeping… we’ve only got forty minutes before we get back to the academy.”
Following this, Raffi rose slightly and placed a quick kiss on his cheek. “That sounds fine with me,” she said softly, and slid down the wall until she was seated on the floor, resting her head against the wall and closing her eyes. Shade joined her soon after, and then, all was idle inside the room.
It had begun to storm. The previous night’s forecast had expected this to happen, although this would likely prove to put a damper on the remainder of the day nevertheless. Rain pounded against the windows noisily, and for a while there was a slight rumbling of thunder that resounded around them. As this went on, the storm seemed to grow progressively more aggressive, until all at once there was an enormous crash of thunder, with accompanying lightning, which shook the walls and floors of the room. At this, all inside the room awakened with a jolt, a few leaping up and staring around at their surroundings.
“Rain,” Ash said unsteadily. “Wonderful.”
“It’s a good thing we’re not out there, eh?” observed Kay as she stared through the drenched windows.
“Not right now, at least. But look…” groaned Raffi as she pointed at the computer screens behind them. The countdown clock had reached two minutes.
Everyone rushed to the windows of the Globe. They had begun a slight descent, and in the distance, the darkened roofs of the Stevenson Academy were coming into view. At this point, it had become dark, and thus there were many lamplights that were scattered all around the area.
The Globe touched down lightly, and the countdown clock vanished from the computer screen. The eight walked to the exit of the Globe hesitantly, for not only were they possibly leaving the room for the final time, but the imminence of their venturing into the imposing storm was drawing nearer. “Everyone ready to run for their lives?” asked Laura, pulling her hoodie’s ever-convenient hood over her head.
“As ready as we’ll ever be…” Raffi muttered. She, being the person closest to the door, lifted open the exit and, after a split second of hesitation, rushed outside and into the pouring rain, the others following intently.
Obviously, it had been raining for some time at the academy, as the lawn had begun to flood slightly, water standing all throughout the grass up to the pavement. It was not a long run, but a wet one—and, truthfully, it was a slightly longer run for Ash, who could only jog slightly, as she found that she was still somewhat sore from her encounter with Harrelson hours prior. Finally, bursting through the front door of the academy, which was gratefully unlocked, the eight spilled into the front lobby—cold, wet, and simply happy to finally be ‘home.’ Ash, the final one inside, closed the door behind them.
A familiar voice came from around the corner in the front office, which called, “I’ll be with you in a moment, hold on!” Atticus Stevenson rounded the corner, calling back something into the office indistinctly before turning to his ‘guests.’ At first, there was a moment of hesitation that came from Atticus, but soon a broad smile had appeared upon his face. “Children! Welcome back!” he grinned. “Please, please, come with me,” he said, motioning them into the front lobby.
“Atticus…” said Laura hesitantly, “you know we didn’t rescue the dragons, right?”
“Why, of course I know that, Laura! Else they’d be coming on in with you m wouldn’t they?” he chuckled. He took a spot near the bright, crackling fireplace, while the students filed into chairs amidst the room. Once everyone was situated, Atticus spoke again: “Now, tell me what you know. Tell me everything. The fact that you were unable to carry out the mission is, at this point, irrelevant. What matters now is what you were able to discover about the Reich.”
“Oh, all sorts of things,” replied Shade. “Most importantly… the dragons weren’t even there!”
Atticus appeared stunned. “They weren’t? But we were given information…”
“False information,” Kay said. “The Reich planted it so that you would send us to the place. They wanted to kill us!”
“And almost succeeded,” Raffi added.
Atticus turned from view, his hand at his forehead, rubbing methodically. He began to pace at the front of the room, before pausing. “Then,” he said, “we’ll just have to keep searching.”
“Atticus,” Shade stood, effectively silencing any other comments from the rest of the group, “I have a thought, if you don’t mind…”
“Not at all.”
“Thank you. Now, what about the place in Europe? The place where we were told that Feisley, Harrelson, and Sharp may have received their powers?”
“Yes, what about it?” asked Atticus.
“Well, what if we went there? Couldn’t we stop the Reich that way? Then the other dragons would be released AND the Reich would be stopped.”
Atticus shook his head. “No. I’m not sending you there.”
“…why?”
“Do not question my authority!” snapped Atticus. Shade and the other seven flinched, and Shade returned to his seat. Atticus took a deep breath, calmed himself, and continued: “No. You are not ready. That is a task that shall be reserved for the more experienced dragons, once we pinpoint their location and you rescue them. I shall not have it any other way.”
“I understand, sir,” said Shade, his gaze downcast.
“Good. Now, was there indication of where the dragons are being held?”
“There wasn’t,” Ash said. “We got a message from the Sovereign, which is how we discovered that it had been a trap. He said that they were being held elsewhere… he just didn’t say where.”
“That’s unfortunate,” said Atticus sternly. “Then, I suppose, all we can do is wait until new leads appear. Until then, I shall meet with my associates and we will determine a new course of action. In the meantime, you may go about the academy, return to your dormitories and rest. I or one of my associates will contact you if you are needed. Am I clear?”
The eight teens nodded. At this, Atticus nodded to them amicably, and hurried from the room. They watched him leave and, once they knew he was completely out of sight, turned to one another, although no one knew quite what to say at first. Finally, Kay spoke: “I don’t know about you all, but I definitely need some food. I’m heading over to the cafeteria.”
“Sounds good to me!” Kate jumped from her seat. “I feel like I haven’t eaten all day!”
Kay and Kate walked from the room, the other six in tow. It was true, they were hungry—not since breakfast that morning had anyone eaten, and given the particularly strenuous activities they had partaken in throughout the day, they were far overdue.
The hallways were empty—a strange sight, considering that normally, they were bustling with activity. Every so often, the group did pass another student, but it was a rare occurrence, and at no time did they recognize those whom they viewed in the hallway. In time, they moved into the cafeteria. It was open, as always, and a few students were scattered about inside. These students, who it should be noted were uncharacteristically quiet and unanimated, perked up at the entrance of the eight dragon students, the ones who had been so doted upon by the faculty of the academy and had been so highly spoken of. Each and every student had known of the situation, their mission, their destiny… they wondered now why the dragons had returned empty-handed. Word spread quickly at the academy—they knew that the mission had not been a success the moment the eight kids walked in with no additions to the crew. Had they failed? Had the “elites” of the entire academy been defeated by this inexplicable evil? If so, what did this mean for the rest of them?
Questions such as this went unasked, as it turned out, by the other students. At least for the time being. The dragons seemed tired. It would be rude to bother them.
One caught the dragon students’ eyes. He was seated at a distant table, with a few friends amongst him.
Kay stepped forward, separating herself from the rest of the group. “Will!” she called exuberantly, waving her arms at the boy. Will glanced upward and, catching her gaze, grinned and stood. In moments they were locked in a tight embrace, an embrace that almost seemed to imply that they had not seen each other in a long while—even if it had only been since that morning.
“Those two are great together, I think,” Ash observed. “Well, then, shall we?” She pointed to the nearest food line, which was empty. It took about two minutes before the whole group had entered and exited the line, and following this they took their seats amongst a nearby table.
“I wonder how long we’ll be here,” said Ash, effacing the silence that had been ever-present in the minutes since they had sat down.
“Probably until Atticus gets another lead,” Kate replied thoughtfully. “Wherever that is. We could be out of here by tomorrow morning…”
The cafeteria was largely silent, save for the teens at that very table. This was much different than normal—so what, then, was wrong? Had something occurred at the academy since their departure? Or were the other students only quiet because they were in there?
A few minutes after they sat down, the group saw that Will and his friends were leaving the cafeteria. At this, Kay returned to the table, taking a seat at the end of the group. Her face was twisted in an anticipatory grin, obviously showing that she had something rather important to say.
“Guys,” she said, her voice lowering to a hush, “guess what I just found out from Will.”
“I dunno, but does it have anything to do with the general mood around here right now?” Shade asked.
“Oh, yeah!” replied Kay. “Definitely.”
“Then let’s hear it. What’s up?”
“Well, you guys remember Falco, right?”
“Of course, Kay… we just saw him this morning!” Raffi said.
“It looks like we won’t be seeing him anymore,” continued Kay, ignoring Raffi’s previous statement. “Atticus dismissed him today!”
“Dismissed?”
“Like, fired him! And none of the students know why…”
“Falco was always a weird dude, though…” Jay said. “I personally thought he had something to hide.”
“I got that vibe, too,” said Kate. “But I always thought his intentions were good… he seemed genuinely concerned about us before we left. Don’t you remember last night and this morning?”
“Alright, alright,” Shade said. “So Falco’s gone. That’s why everyone’s acting… different?”
“Oh, no!” exclaimed Kay. “That’s only part of it. Will said that the academy’s been pretty much shut down since we left.”
“Shut down, as in no classes?” asked Laura.
“That, and more! Apparently, LaGuardia came over the intercom and announced that not only were all classes cancelled, but all students were basically to stay in their dorms all day, except for during mealtimes. Apparently, all of Atticus’ associates had this big meeting today…”
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Post by YFWE on Jun 3, 2008 0:07:52 GMT -5
“The meeting was probably about us,” James said. “They were probably planning out what to do if we were able to bring the captives back…”
“That could be, but still,” said Kay, “apparently they were really adamant about keeping the students quarantined. Will said that a few kids tried to leave at one point and one of the staff—a man whom Will said he had never seen—basically appeared out of nowhere and told them to come with him. That was the last anyone saw of them. They’re heading back to their dorms right now to see if they’re there… and, of course, because they have to…”
“I wonder why Atticus told us that we were free to go about the academy as we pleased, then,” Shade said. “We’re students here, too…”
“We’re different,” said Ash. “Maybe we don’t have to follow the same rules.”
“We always have before,” said Raffi thoughtfully. “Maybe Atticus didn’t know about the new rules.”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
“Well, LaGuardia made the announcement… but that’s something that Atticus usually does. Maybe he was out of the academy then…”
“…tending to Falco,” James finished her sentence.
“Then d’you think we should be getting back to our dorms?” asked Laura. “I mean, I’d rather not get in trouble with the staff here… especially the “new” ones.”
They agreed that this was a good idea, and thus, after finishing the last of their food, left the cafeteria and began in the direction of their dormitories. Along the way, they met no one—not a student, nor a staff member. The academy was eerily silent, the only sounds coming from their footsteps on the marble floor. This continued until they reached the hallway where their dorms were located, some few minutes later. There was a low buzz of sound coming from a few of the rooms—likely other students talking to one another as if they had nothing more to do—which, in fact, was almost entirely true. The students were just about to reach their rooms, when—
“Stop,” said a voice behind them. It was a plain, almost-emotionless voice—yet it was a voice that demanded acquiescence. It frightened the eight—mostly due to the suddenness of it and how the masculine voice cut through the silence effortlessly like a knife through butter. Kay gulped in spite of herself. She remembered Will’s story earlier, and how the missing students had been stopped by an unknown man, in the hallway outside their dorms…
They had stopped, but had not yet turned around. The voice spoke again: “What is your business outside your dormitories?” it asked. “The curfew was reemployed fifteen minutes ago. I believe it was made clear earlier that, once curfew is in effect, there are to be no students in the halls…”
The group turned to face their instigator, finally. It was a man, clothed in something resembling a white jumpsuit. He had dark brown hair, and possessed a rather distinct muscle definition. His eyes were hidden by a set of dark, tinted glasses that he wore firmly on his face. “Well?” he asked in annoyance. “I’m waiting.”
“Sir,” Shade said, stepping forward, “we were given approval to be out on the grounds by Atticus Stevenson himself. You see, we just got back from a mission, and…”
If they had been able to see the man’s eyes, they surely would’ve lit up with the rest of his face at this. “Ahh!” he exclaimed. “Right. You’re the rescue cavalry! The ones that were supposed to help the American Dragon and his “colleagues” escape.”
“Yes, that’s right!”
The man snorted, as if he was trying to hold something back. Finally, he said, “That didn’t work out too well, from what I hear. Was it simply too much pressure, knowing that you would fail your entire race if you were unsuccessful?” He grinned. “Perhaps the trust of the opposition should not have been rested in a group of novices—children, no less!”
The man stared around at the group, hoping, it seemed, to get some sort of verbal response from them. But they said nothing—they could say nothing. Shade gazed firmly ahead at the man, while the others’ eyes were downcast in shame, embarrassment, and resentment.
Finally, Shade said, “It was not our problem, sir. The captives were not there.”
“Hmm,” hummed the man. “Is this true? I was not informed of this…”
“You seem like the type of person that’s not informed of anything,” Ash said. “I doubt you’ve even met Atticus Stevenson before…”
The man laughed. “And still,” he said, “you understand and know nothing. Truth be told, I almost pity you. Almost,” he repeated.
“What do you want of us?” Raffi asked finally.
“I’ve already told you what I want,” replied the man. “I want you in your dormitories. I was given firm orders to intercept anyone caught outside their rooms during curfew, in fact. It matters not what Atticus Stevenson has said. Right now, my word is law. Now, on with you, before I decide to have you join the other rule breakers—and believe me, you don’t want me to have you join the others…”
“Yes, sir,” Shade said with a hint of a grudge in his voice. He turned to the others. “Let’s not upset the man, then. Our rooms it is.”
But they did not all venture into their respective rooms—rather, the entire group headed into the boys’ room, after Shade had made a brief, hidden motion to the door. The guard outside could not have known that the girls were not exactly assigned to this room, though—but how could he? He knew nothing about the rooms themselves, whether they were coed or how many individuals could be placed inside. So all, for that moment, was well—and now, finally, the students could talk freely of the oddities that had begun to occur around the academy since their departure earlier that morning.
This would wait, however, as first the teens—Shade, James, and Jay in particular—noticed something rather strange on their beds. Something that had not been there before…
“Guys, we didn’t unpack our clothes before we left, did we?” James asked aloud, egregiously eying the piles of clothing and belongings that now sat on the boys’ beds.
“Mine had been in the closet…” replied Shade. “I dunno why they’d be out…”
“Well, maybe they thought that we wouldn’t be staying another night in the academy,” Jay said, “so they got all of our things together so that we could pack quickly and leave when we got back. We weren’t supposed to be staying, were we?”
“The plan was to stay one last night. Then we’d leave in the morning.”
“Then I wonder if our belongings are like this too…” Laura said thoughtfully.
“We can’t check, though,” said Ash. “Our good friend is still outside, checking the hallways.”
“I say we overlook this, at least for the time being,” Raffi then announced. “Shade, I’m guessing you wanted us in here for a meeting?”
“Why… yeah, I did, thanks,” replied Shade. “Well, then… I suppose I wanted to get you guys’ thoughts on all this…”
“The place is different, that’s for sure. I just can’t seem to figure out why… it’s like it’s changed drastically in the handful of hours that we were gone!” exclaimed Kay.
“Yeah, kids getting apprehended by strange men in white, the entire staff attending these secret meetings, classes getting cancelled, curfews…” added Raffi, “it’s like they planned this the second we left!”
“And Falco! We can’t forget Falco!”
“This all could’ve been in preparation for the ninety dragons we were supposed to rescue!” Jay chimed in. “I mean, ninety additions to a place this size must be somewhat overwhelming. Perhaps the students have a curfew so that they stayed out of the way of the preparations and the meetings were called for the same purpose. Even now—maybe these meetings are designed to find out what to do next.”
“You seem rather quick to side with Atticus, Jay…” Kate said shortly, her eyes narrowed.
“I’m just trying to look at this from a logical standpoint! We can’t go about believing that everyone and everything is out to get us!”
“He’s right,” Ash said. “It’s the Reich that we should be worried about! Atticus and his associates have sheltered us, trained us… they’ve given us an opportunity to do something great and to help save the magical world. I personally don’t care what kind of actions or precautions that they take, as long as it’s beneficial in the end.”
“I didn’t mean it in that way,” said Kate. “What I really meant was…” she turned to Jay, “it’s just been a bit strange. You’ve been a bit strange ever since we all joined up here at the academy.”
“Wh-what do you mean?” Jay asked in bewilderment.
“All the times you’ve been called down to speak privately with Atticus, probably more than the rest of us combined. Or when we were down in the labyrinth and you didn’t turn up ‘til after Feisley and Harrelson had been beat…”
“I’ve told you!” exclaimed Jay. “I would’ve helped in the labyrinth, but I was—oh, I dunno—knocked out?! And Atticus called me down so many times to help me with my powers. You have no idea how hard it’s been for me! It’s all so new!!”
“It has been just as new for me!” Kate shot back. “You and I both found out about our powers at the exact same time. And I haven’t had to get this “extra help” nearly as much!”
“Well, aren’t you just the special one! But of course—everyone loves you—the little manic depressive, the rare little dragon that Lao Shi just loves because she’s got powers over the earth and these so-called healing powers. Say, Kate, have we seen any of these healing powers yet? Hm?”
Jay breathed hard, as if it was an attempt to catch his breath. When he did this, he seemed to calm down, at least slightly. Then, once more, he began to speak. “I didn’t ask for this, you know…”
The dormitory’s door burst open, having not been preceded by a knock or any other such warning of entrance. And in slithered a large, slender blue dragon, one that was mightily unfamiliar to the students…
“Um, hello?” Kay greeted the other dragon with uncertainty.
“I do hope I am not interrupting anything,” came Lao Shi’s voice. “Although if I am, whatever it is will have to wait. This is far more urgent…”
“Lao Shi?!” exclaimed James. “In your dragon form?”
“In the spirit of being clichéd, desperate times call for desperate measures,” replied Lao Shi. “My wheelchair is in the hall…and,” he motioned to his legs, which were strewn on the ground like a rag doll’s, “while my legs may be paralyzed, the rest of my body is not, and I can still fly. I simply never possessed reason to utilize my dragon self up to now.”
“Up to now?” Raffi asked. “Why ‘up to now?’ And how did you get past the guard outside? Aren’t you supposed to be in the meeting Atticus is holding?”
“As I said, desperate measures,” he averted his gaze to the doorway.
They rushed to the door, and found the guard outside, lying on the floor, apparently unconscious. “He was right outside your door,” explained Lao Shi, who floated over to his wheelchair and pushed it lightly towards Ash. “Get this downstairs for me, won’t you?”
“He was listening outside our door?” Laura asked. “That’s encouraging…”
“You’ve no idea,” countered Lao Shi. “In fact, I believe this whole thing to be much larger than a mere question of surveillance.”
“Meaning…?”
“I will explain shortly. But now is not the best time—surely someone will notice the unconscious man in the hallway soon. Follow me into my quarters… we will discuss the current situation more thoroughly when we are there; at least then, we will have at least a few minutes of safety.”
“Safety? Safety from what?” asked Kay.
“I told you, I cannot explain it now! Now, follow me!” Lao Shi darted quickly down the hallway, towards the main stairs. His room was on the second floor to their third—at the far end of the hallway. It, thus, took them a minute or two (a bit more than expected, considering that they had to carry the old man’s wheelchair down the stairs) before they reached the door. There was no guard in that particular hallway at that moment, which gave them reason to rest easy, but they knew that, at any time, one could appear at the end of the hallway and spot them without any prior warning, so Lao Shi hurried them inside his room, taking good care to shut the door as quietly as possible.
The old man made his way to his wheelchair once all were inside, and he reverted back to human form thereafter, his small body dropping into its seat.
“Okay, everyone’s here,” said Shade. “What’s going on?”
Lao Shi, at first, seemed to ignore this. Instead, he glanced over at his closet door. “Christian!” he called. “It is safe to come out.”
The closet door slid open, and out stepped a man, one that seemed vaguely familiar to the group he stood before…
“Falco?” James questioned with a bemused look on his face. “But weren’t you…”
“Banished? Dismissed?” spoke the man they had known as Emerson Falco. “Correct, I was. But, having been here for a few months now, I do know the many ways of getting back in—with Lao’s assistance, of course.”
“Now we can explain the situation at hand. I do believe that it might be in best interest for you to first introduce yourself, Christian—in all truthfulness, this time,” said Lao Shi.
“As you wish. Children, my name is not Emerson Falco and I am not truly an associate of Atticus Stevenson. My name is Christian Hoffman, and I work for the WOPW—the World Organization of Powerful Wizards.” (A/N: More stale cookies for the reader that can tell me which story of mine the WOPW originated in.)
“Then why are you here? Isn’t the WOPW based in London?” asked Shade.
“Yes, but it is a worldwide organization… the United Nations is not made up of merely the Netherlands, is it?” Hoffman said. “See, I was hired by the WOPW two years ago for my espionage abilities. I am not only a wizard, you see, but a rather skilled one at that—and then, of course, there is my charm, my distinct ability to get almost anyone to warm up to me.
“I was hired to track Adam Smart, whom I believe you know as the Sovereign of the Reich. However, my efforts were not going too well until we discovered another organization, one quite smaller than our own, that had expressed a desire to locate the Reich as well. It was led, as it is now, by Atticus Stevenson, the head of a reclusive academy for young children with various magical abilities such as wizardry.
“We contacted the academy numerous times, in an attempt to possibly combine our forces with theirs for the search. However, we were never able to get a definitive answer—it seemed as if they wanted to do this completely alone. This came off as slightly suspicious to the WOPW. Thus, I was sent in undercover to the academy, to both monitor and assist their efforts.
“Of course, I had to change my name—for we did not know Atticus Stevenson and what he might or might not have been capable of. Truth be told, there is no record of him anywhere until only five years ago, when the academy was established—it’s like he had been laying low for so many years before surfacing… odd, considering he is a wizard and wizards are usually required to register with the WOPW as wizards, except under extreme circumstances. But at any rate, the likelihood that he would run a background check on any of his employees would be high, we thought. And thus, Emerson Falco, a person with as little a past as Atticus seemed to have, was born.
“Apparently, someone had been dismissed from Atticus’ “inner circle” just prior to my arrival, for I was quickly told that there was a job opening at the academy when I first visited. I was able to meet with Atticus almost immediately, and I was able to warm up to him to the best of my ability. But I got the feeling, however, that I was still not as acquainted with the man as others were. Sure, I ventured to meetings on school issues and the means by which we would bring you all to the academy. But there were other meetings, I know it—meetings behind closed doors with only Atticus, LaGuardia, Warburton, and a handful of others. And all the while, I felt as if every move I made was scrutinized by Atticus and his “inner circle”—as if they were either considering me for passage into their exclusive group or trying to find something wrong with the persona I had created.
“I was always feeding information back to the WOPW throughout this. Of course, this was done as secretly as possible, usually in my sleeping quarters at night. Aside from the slight sense I got that they were hiding something more, however, there was no indication of anything out of the ordinary while there. I got further and further in cohorts with the other associates, and I found their interest in the eight of you to be quite genuine. But I still stayed at somewhat of a distance, for I did not want to become too close with the associates—my job was strictly to assist and to gather information, not to make friends.
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Post by YFWE on Jun 3, 2008 0:08:15 GMT -5
“I believe that this may have contributed to my dismissal. After the eight of you left this morning, there was an emergency meeting called and all classes were cancelled for the remaining students. I was about to venture into the supposed meeting place, when Atticus suddenly came out of the room I was about to enter. “Take a walk with me, Emerson,” he said to me. Well, I’m not one to disobey those whom I work for, so I agreed. He took me outside, and we began to talk of various items, including the eight of you. See, I had retained a bit of uneasiness about your journey—I was fearful that there might have been an ambush and that the captive dragons were not there. Atticus insisted, however, that they were rather certain of their location—for they possessed an extremely high-tech navigational system, or so I was often told. It is supposedly located in the basement of the academy… I have glanced through a small window on the door before, and there was merely a long white hallway with doors lined on the sides. The navigational system was through one of those doors, but I was unable to ever find out where, exactly, this system was, for I was never authorized to enter that hallway, and furthermore, it was always locked, so I was unable to explore without permission even if I wanted to. At any rate, Atticus made it a point to inform me that all was going according to plan and that I need not worry.
“We walked far, much farther than I had ever gone on the property. There’s a trail that goes into the woods near the back of the academy, I’m sure you’ve seen it. That’s where we were. We ventured all the way to a small clearing—very small, in fact. There was a tall fence that separated the academy’s property from the outside world, with a door built in the fence at the end of the path, a series of automated locks on it.
“I had a feeling as to what was going on, and as it turns out, I was right. “Emerson,” Atticus said to me, “you do know about the background checks we make on our employees, yes?” I replied that I knew, of course, and I asked him why he brought it up. Well, Atticus went on to say that they had never let my résumé go, because they found it odd that there was no obvious evidence of my ever existing before coming to the academy.
“The hypocrite,” said Hoffman, as he lit a cigarette, before continuing. “Anyways, he told me that they had finally found my match, listening to old records of phone calls from the WOPW. Why they were doing this, I can’t say. But someone found that my voice was akin to that of Christian Hoffman, who had called many months prior about joining forces against the Reich. They then found my identification picture on the WOPW’s website (yes, we do have a website, although it’s almost impossible to be found by mere mortals), and that was it.
“ “I thought I had made it clear the first time,” he had said, “that we needed no help, especially from the likes of you. I do not question your willingness to help, Emerson… or, it’s Christian now, isn’t it? Christian, I suggest that you inform the WOPW that Atticus Stevenson prefers to work either alone or with a few of my closest associates.” Atticus pointed to the door behind me soon after. “We will send your belongings to the WOPW by tonight. I bid you luck in trying to find and stop the Reich… perhaps we shall meet again in that respect, someday,” he said. And that was it; he turned and walked back down the path.”
“But you’re here,” said Shade. “You didn’t leave. Why did you come back?”
“Because, Shade, it was precisely the sort of erratic behavior from Atticus that I had been looking for! It gave me reason to believe that he was possibly hiding something…”
“And that’s why you came back here?” Kate asked. “Because you have this feeling about Atticus?”
“Basically. In fact, I have some personal claims myself as to what it is they’re hiding… I’m just not going to reveal them yet, because I don’t want to make any false accusations. I hope you’ll understand.”
“I understand that,” said Ash. “Here’s what I don’t understand, though—how did you get back in the academy?”
“Oh, that’s not hard at all when you’ve been here as long as I have,” Hoffman replied. “See, I never actually left the property, first of all—I merely waited until Atticus was out of the vicinity, and then I began towards the academy, making myself invisible in the process. Now, Lao Shi was outside at the back of the academy at this point, which just happened to be my luck.”
“I already knew Christian’s secret,” explained Lao Shi. “I knew that he had come from the WOPW and that he was on an undercover mission to gather information about Atticus. We’d met prior to this, actually… at the Stockholm episode of ’85. You remember that, don’t you, Christian?”
“How could I not?” grinned Hoffman. “So, anyways, I spoke to Lao slowly, so as to not startle him—disembodied voices can be rather unnerving, as I’m sure you’ll concur. But I soon explained the situation, and he let me in through the window. We’d been speaking in here, when we saw that the lot of you had arrived. And that, well, basically brings us to now.”
“So what now?” Kay asked.
“We have to get underground,” said Hoffman sternly. “But we have to be surreptitious—we can’t be spotted down there, and I’m certain that, if there are guards up on the above-ground floors, there will be more below ground. I want to say that we could use invisibility, but that many not get us into some of the rooms—some likely need fingerprint identification, and I may or may not be able to get into these rooms, if I ever was able.”
“And the thing is,” Lao Shi added, “we cannot send everyone. It is too risky. The rest may go out as lookouts…”
“What about getting out of here, though?” asked Shade. “Surely someone will see the knocked-out guard soon…”
And as if on cue, there came a sound from outside the door—muffled footsteps, growing exceedingly closer to their room. “Quick!” exclaimed Hoffman. “Out the window, the eight of you! Now!” He pointed his hand at the nearby window and flung it upward, the window sliding up adjacently. There was a small eave immediately outside the window, and other directly above—this could provide a quick escape. As quietly as they could, the eight rushed from the room and through the window, which was large enough to accommodate their frames without being too constrictive. One by one, they veered to the left, stepping out of view from the window. “Up here!” exclaimed Raffi, pointing to the part of the roof above the window, which was reachable if one could jump and pull oneself up and over the edge. But they would have to do so quickly.
Without a word, Hoffman nodded to Lao Shi, and ran into the nearby closet. The moment he closed the door to his hiding pace, there came a knocking at the door to the dormitory.
“Lao Shi, we know you’re in there,” came an unfamiliar male voice. “Open up.”
“The door is unlocked,” called Lao Shi in reply. “You may come in any time you’d like.”
There was a short lull thereafter, followed by the turning of the doorknob. The door then swung open rather violently, and three men, much like the one that had been patrolling the hallways earlier and had been rendered unconscious, entered inside. The men seemed to have been expecting some sort of much larger opposition, and thus appeared to find Lao Shi sitting there, alone, in the middle of the room.
“May I help you, gentlemen?” Lao Shi asked politely. “You seem to be in quite a rush.”
“Where are they?” the man whose voice had been heard outside the door growled, avoiding the old man’s question.
“Where is who?” replied Lao Shi. “Did no one tell you that I room alone here?”
“Where are they?” the man repeated, taking one step forward. “The children!”
“We saw them come in here with you,” spoke one of the other men, “after they decided to dispose of one of our other guards…”
“Whatever might you mean?” Lao Shi said. “The children merely came to my room to ask a question, and left five minutes ago. And there was no guard on the way here—quite odd, if you ask me; perhaps you should step it up a bit—so I do not know which ‘other guard’ you speak of.”
“It was a blue dragon!” cried the third man. “And there’s only nine dragons here—you and the children. And last time I checked, you’re crippled—unable to fight.”
Lao Shi shrugged. “Perhaps your security cameras are a bit off. But feel free to search in here if you’d like… I’ve nothing to hide.”
From the part of the ceiling that was nearest to the window, there was a loud crack—one much louder than what might come from a setting building. This crack could’ve been made merely by someone or something, directly above the ceiling.
The three men’s heads turned synchronically. “Mr. Shi,” said the first man with an accusational tone, “why is the window open?”
“Oh, you know how it is,” replied Lao Shi. “It can get rather warm during this time of year…and the fans can only do so much…”
“Really?” the man began to step slowly towards the window. “Care to explain why there was a sound coming from the spot above the window?”
“No, I cannot. It could just be the place setting…”
“Could be. But it was slightly louder than that. In fact, it sounded to me like someone’s footsteps…” the man motioned his accomplices to the open window, and the first man stuck his head outside. He looked to his left and right, crinkled his nose, and then placed himself out onto the eave outside. He first stared out and beyond the academy, and then turned to the academy itself, peering up and above the window at the small spot of level roofing above it, and then at the row of windows signifying the third floor, and finally at the absolute roof at the very top of the building… with not a living thing in sight.
The man leapt from the window and, without a glance or referral to his two accomplices, stood almost directly above Lao Shi, bending over so that he was nearly eye-to-eye with the old man. “How long have they been gone?!” he growled into his face.
“I told you, they left five minutes ago, out the door, like civilized folk. If one of them happened to disable one of your guards, it is not my problem,” Lao Shi replied.
“It IS your problem! You are their master!—you were the one put in charge of them!”
“True, but I cannot prevent them from wrongdoing at every moment of the day—granted that, of course, any of the children actually did partake in the action you accuse them of…”
The man threw himself away from Lao Shi, straightening to his full frame. “This is inconceivable!” he cried as he paced about the room. “You know something. Either you assaulted our guard or someone you know committed the very same offense.”
“I never ruled that out. I merely stated that I did not know of such a thing happening until the three of you blatantly barged in here and demanded, more or less, a confession. Now, PLEASE leave, before I am forced to contact Atticus…”
“Mr. Stevenson is in a meeting; he can’t save you right now,” sneered the second man. “It makes me wonder why you are so eager to have us leave…”
“Yeah, it’s as if you still have something to hide…” said the third.
“Then it’s settled, gentlemen?” the first man spoke. “Shall we search the premises, then?”
Lao Shi had no chance to protest or to evade the men, for at these words they sprang into action, rummaging through whatever they thought could quarter any small piece of evidence.
“You’ve no idea what you’re doing,” Lao Shi said. “I implore you, it is in your best interest to stop now.”
They did not seem to hear him. Rather, they continued to search—looking under the bed, in drawers…
“I repeat, it is in your best interest…”
“Our best interest?” chuckled the second man as he threw open the closet door carelessly. “Says who… you?!”
“Him… and me.”
The man glimpsed into the closet, just in time to see Christian Hoffman leap out at him, the previously-hidden wizard grabbing him around the waist and spearing him to the ground.
“Falco!” exclaimed the first man in surprise. Then, his expression hardening, he reached up his sleeve and drew a pistol…
Hoffman, who had been atop the second man and was pinning his arms to the ground, glared up at the man malevolently, before smiling eerily. He lifted his right hand from his captive’s arm, and snapped his fingers together. All three men (most notably the two that had been standing up) slumped to the ground on cue, as if they were rag dolls.
Lao Shi stared around at the men, who were not moving. “…that was quite non-climactic,” he noted. “Surely you didn’t kill them… did you?”
“Of course not,” replied Hoffman, as he struggled to his feet, “although I could’ve if I wanted to. It was a mere stunning spell; knocks them unconscious for a couple of minutes. It’s a handy thing to know how to do, but damn, if it doesn’t wear me out!” Hoffman, upon getting on his feet completely, felt his knees buckle beneath him, and hence he slumped to the ground, holding his arms out in front of him to prop himself up.
“Are you okay?” asked Lao Shi with concern, wheeling over to Hoffman’s figure. “You don’t look well…”
“I’ll be fine,” Hoffman replied. “I merely need a few moments of rest, nothing more.” He stared off towards the still-open window. “The real question is: are the children okay? The entire academy’ll be on the lookout for them now…”
“I think they’ll be fine; they’ve been trained well. We need to get downstairs—I have a feeling that, no matter what, we’ll be needed down there eventually.”
(end)
“We should go back,” said Kate quickly, her clawed hands covering her head in frustration. “What if they need our help?”
Now in their dragon forms, the eight kids were idle on the opposite side of the building, still on the roof—out of sight of anyone, unless one was to spot them from the enclosed, grassy backyard of the academy. It had been a close call, their escape—knowing that the possibility of the aggressors inside the building looking out the window and finding them was present, Shade made a quick decision to go into their dragon forms and retreat to the other side of the roof, where they could have at least a few moments to regroup and to plan their next course of action, which had not yet happened. Instead, a few of the group’s members were relatively adamant about returning to Lao Shi’s room, to fight if needed.
“Whoever it is that entered the room, they’re going up against a wizard trained in espionage and one of the most powerful dragons in the world. I think they’ll be fine on their own—they can meet up with us later,” Raffi said.
“Then what should we do now?”
“We need to get back inside the academy,” announced Shade. “There’s definitely something going on in there… we need to go down and find Atticus.”
“If that’s what we’re gonna do, let’s do it quick,” James said. “Listen!”
There was an alarm sounding, one that, while it seemed to be coming mostly from the interior of the building, was also blaring outside as well. “Not good!” Ash yelled. “They’re going into lockdown; no one will be able to get in or out. We need to get back in—now!”
Shade leapt from the roof, the other seven in tow. The alarm’s sharp sound seared through their minds all the while, providing an imposing distraction as they soared down the side of the building and to the back entrance of the academy. The rain had cease since the previous time they had been outside, and the short grass in the backyard was wet with the remnants of that rain. They touched down and, taking care to avoid slipping, dashed to the doors leading inside the academy.
“Look!” exclaimed Kay, pointing at the nearby windows. There were giant steel barriers lowering over the windows—and, as it appeared, the same was happening to the doors that stood before them. They did not have much time, maybe seconds.
Shade threw open the doors, making the entrance as wide as realistically possible. “Get inside!” he ordered, propping himself against one door to keep it open. Jay rushed to the other door to keep it from closing, and the rest of the group rushed inside and into the living room-esque area that the doors emptied into.
The alarm continued to sound loudly. Jay and Shade closed the doors behind them and rejoined the other six. Just as before, the interior of the academy was consistently silent—and, additionally, someone had opted to shut of all the lights in that particular section of the first floor, the only light coming from quite far down the hall, where the cafeteria was.
“Atticus would be downstairs,” said Ash, “wouldn’t he? What do you think?”
“Well, it is the staff-only area,” Raffi replied. “And his office is down there. Perhaps this meeting he’s tied up in is down there as well.”
“So we’ll all head down there?”
“Wait!” exclaimed Shade. “No, we can’t do that.”
“Why not,” James asked.
“It’s too risky and too noticeable if all of us went down there. There are probably guards there and more coming up here. Someone’ll need to fend off the ones approaching from up here, while the others head downstairs.”
“Who’ll go down, then?”
“Kate,” Shade said,” you’re pretty good at unlocking doors. You’ll definitely need to go down there, in case if anything needs unlocking.”
“Agreed. Shall I go alone?” Kate asked.
“No. Ash will go with you.”
“And miss all the fun up here?!” protested Ash.
“Like I said, there’ll probably be some guards downstairs. While you’re a very strong dragon and no one can dispute that, you haven’t been training with the rest of us as long—you missed a few weeks, remember? We need a formidable dragon to go down with Kate so that she can work on what she needs to work on.”
“Fine. Is that all?”
“For now,” replied Shade. “But if we are fine up here and haven’t heard back from you, we’ll send down Laura.”
“Got it,” Laura nodded.
“Good. The rest of us,” he turned to Raffi, Kay, James, and Jay, “will keep watch up here. Any questions?”
“None,” replied the others.
“Then let’s go.”
Kate and Ash began toward the other side of the room, where there was a door that led downstairs—evidenced by the ‘staff-only’ notice that had been placed on it. In addition, this was the place from which Jay had come earlier on in their stay at the academy, when he had been meeting with Atticus. The two girls shifted into human form, so as to navigate the basement area easier. Of course, they did not know what the downstairs area was like, and this they would need to be as surreptitious as possible—two dragons, after all, would be far easier to spot than two humans.
But before they could so much as touch the doorknob, the door burst open. Ash and Kate darted to the left and into the shadows of the dark hallway. The six remaining dragons perked up and turned wildly to face who—or what—had come through the door.
“Children!” came Warburton’s voice as a group of people stepped into view. “Stay where you are.” One of the lights from above flickered on, although Ash and Kate’s hiding spot was still concealed.
“What are you doing outside your dormitories?” Kennel asked loudly, emerging from behind Warburton. Smith and Green soon appeared as well… followed, finally, by LaGuardia, her arms folded and her gaze menacing as always.
“We need to talk to Atticus,” Shade replied, but daring not to move a muscle. “Where is he?”
Ignoring his question, Smith said, “You need to talk to Atticus, eh? And you decided to take out anyone in your path in order to do so, is that it?”
“I—”
“Don’t even act like you’ve no clue as to what we’re talking about,” Green said in a dense Irish accent that, truthfully, had never been as distinct as it was then. “We en’t stupid, y’know!”
“So, what do you have to say for yourselves?” boomed Warburton.
“We don’t know what you’re talking about!” Kay exclaimed. “We just got back, and we had to talk to Atticus! Something weird is—”
“LIES,” LaGuardia cried, stepping out from behind the other associates. “Acrid, despicable lies! You have not only assaulted an official, but you have, wholly, assaulted the entire academy and all that it stands for!”
“And what’s more, two additional guards—guards with perfectly passive intentions, I might add—were knocked unconscious while searching for you!” Warburton said. “This does not happen by accident, nor by mere coincidence.”
“Well, if you didn’t have all those creepy men following us around, perhaps everything’d be a bit more civil,” James said.
“So you admit it?”
“We admit nothing,” growled Shade. “I think that James merely was commenting on the nature of the situation…”
“Then how do you explain THREE ASSAULTED GUARDS?”
“Do you truly expect us to believe that that old cripple Lao Shi did this?!” exclaimed Smith.
“Lao Shi is not a man to be underestimated,” came a new voice. Atticus’ associates, all five of them, spun to their left, searching erratically in the dark for the voice, one that seemed all too familiar…
From their concealed hiding place in the shadows of the hallway to the associates’ right, Kate and Ash, too, squinted to find some figure that the voice belonged to. “Kate,” whispered Ash, “it totally sound like—”
“Shh!” Kate shot back, attempting to keep as silent as possible so that their spot would not be revealed—a daunting task, but it would need to be done.
A metal object rolled into view, glinting in the newfound moonlight that had begun to seep into the academy and light the room, which had previously been lit merely by that dimmed light above them. It was a wheelchair—Lao Shi’s wheelchair. And there, sitting upon it, was Lao Shi himself.
But he was not alone, as the voice spoke again. “Hello, my friends,” it said as the body possessing it came into view as well. “Surprised to see me?”
“Falco!” Green exclaimed. “But you’re here…”
“It’s Hoffman, my friend, Christian Hoffman. And yes, I am here—it’s not all that hard to get in, after all. I’d suggest far more security…”
“So it’s you,” snarled LaGuardia acrimoniously. “You’re behind this, are you?”
“It is partially so, I must admit,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Of course, Lao here was of some help as well…”
“Not bad for an old cripple, eh?” Lao Shi added, directing this particularly at Smith.
“I’d expect this from you, Christian, is it?” LaGuardia said. “But Lao Shi—after all, we’ve done for you, this is how you repay us?!”
“Your guards are corrupt.”
“And as I’m thinking, so are you,” Hoffman said.
“Corrupt?” a new figure had emerged from the doorway. “Why, you don’t know the half of it.”
Atticus Stevenson walked briskly to stand beside LaGuardia, his finger wagging in protest at Hoffman and Lao Shi. “I must say, though, you are quite clever—I’d have expected no one to come back to the academy after being banished.” His gaze narrowed. “Why did you come back, Christian?”
“Unfinished business,” Hoffman shot back, maintaining perfect eye contact with the man. “I’m sure you understand.”
“I might,” Atticus turned from them to the dragons. “And you! Welcome, welcome… I’m sorry you’ve had to witness this… I will be honest, I did not think it was you attacking our guards, but… one cannot be too careful, eh?”
“Sir,” Shade said, “that’s what we wanted to speak with you about. The guards are acting strange… everyone is, actually. We want answers, sir.”
“Answers?” Atticus asked, seemingly surprised. “There are no answers that you do not already know already. Is it not obvious?—Christian here, upset with his banishment, wanted to create a certain havoc here at the academy as an act of revenge—and, as it seems, he’s tried to corrupt your minds into thinking that what he was said is true. Sadly, the wise Lao Shi has even fallen victim to this hoax, this fabrication…”
“Then hat about the lockdown on the place?” asked Raffi. “And the curfew?”
“My dear, meetings concerning the future of the magical world have been occurring all day here. As such, we wished to have no outside distractions to said meetings, and thus the remaining students were directed to steer clear of becoming distractions.”
“Don’t listen to him!” Hoffman addressed the students. “He’s not who you think he is!”
“Christian, Christian… first accusations that my intentions are not what I claim, and now—I myself am not who I say I am? You’ve quite an accusational mind…”
“I’ve figured it out. I hadn’t at first, and it took me a while, but now it all makes sense. You, sir, are not Atticus Stevenson.”
“I AM Atticus Stevenson!”
“No, you’re not. In fact, a man such named never even existed!”
“This is preposterous—”
“As I said before, children,” said Hoffman, “there was no record of an Atticus Stevenson on the face of this earth until a few years ago. First peculiar thing there. Secondly, he sends the eight of you to a place where an absolute ambush is waiting!
“Now, the final act. Those goons that were sent up to find the children—quite incompetent fellows, if you ask me. I noticed, however, that… well, you know about those disgusting white jumpsuits they wear. I decided to search inside one—for maybe some sort of identification card, in case there are rooms inside the academy that only those with such cards could reach. In doing this, this is what I found—”
Hoffman tuned back the way they had came. With a swift motion of his hand, three figures appeared in the dark of the hallway. They emerged from the darkness, revealing themselves to be the three guards that had barged into Lao Shi’s room. They appeared to be in some sort of a trance.
“If you would,” spoke Hoffman, “kindly remove your jumpsuits.”
The three men, without hesitation, did so obediently. They grabbed at small, hidden zippers that were at their necks and began to pull their outer clothing downwards. While this at first seemed a bit strange to most in the room, soon they began to understand the gravity of the situation. “Tell me, Shade,” Hoffman said when the three men appeared to have finished removing their jumpsuits, “what do you see? Anything a bit… unordinary, esoteric?”
“I… dunno. I can’t really see them that well…”
“Gentlemen, might you step a bit closer, more into the light?”
The three men took five steps forward, until they were as illuminated as all others in the room, save for the two still hidden nearby.
“Now, Shade?”
“They’re… wearing robes… white ones…” whispered Shade. He turned to Atticus, who had said nothing, but merely glared at him. “They’re…you’re…”
“The Reich?” the corners of Atticus’ mouth twitched upwards. “Why… yes, it would appear so, wouldn’t it?”
“It was YOU?!” yelled James. “All along?”
Atticus said nothing, but instead turned to his associates, a look of annoyance spread across his face. LaGuardia met this look with an apathetic shrug, staring coldly into his eyes. “It appears…” said Atticus. “That the game has… changed.”
He put a dense stress on the final word, and clapped his hands together. At this, the lights flashed off and the room was shrouded in darkness. This, however, occurred for only a few moments, as then the light returned to the room.
It had at first appeared as if there were new figures inside the room completely—at least, in the place of Atticus and his associates. But this was merely a mirage that had been imposed by the shock of seeing something quite different in such a short period of time. It was still Atticus, still LaGuardia, Warburton and all the associates. However, akin to the three guards, they now donned long white robes, the hoods of which hung deftly at their necks.
“You bastards!” Laura exclaimed. “We trusted you!”
“Trust is quite a delicate emotion… as such, it can be manipulated easily. You, children, have embodied just that.” Atticus began to pace slowly, his gaze not leaving the students nor Hoffman and Lao Shi, who had joined them in standing opposite of him. “I expect that you’d like an explanation. We’ve a good amount of time, after all… will you be willing to listen both closely and amiably?”
“Can you honestly expect us to listen to you? After you’ve tried to kill us?” Shade said.
“Given your current situation, I think that he can,” another figure, white-robed, had emerged from the doorway, the hood pulled over his head. Ash and Kate retreated further into the darkness of the hallway.
“I’d know that voice anywhere,” snarled James. “It’s Feisley.”
Marcus Feisley removed the hood from his head, revealing a glistening smile. “We meet again, my friends,” he spoke, staring around at the six dragons. At this, his expression turned downward. “Are there not eight of you? Where are the other two?”
“…up in their dorms; they didn’t come with us,” Kay said.
Feisley shifted his gaze over to the three guards, who were still standing at attention, in the mesmerizing trance that Hoffman had put them in. “Mind-controlling, I see.” He concentrated hard, still staring ahead at the three. “Not a very strong trance, though. Quite breakable.” He waved his arm towards them with a quick motion, and in response the three men blinked, and bemusedly glanced at their surroundings. “Guards,” Feisley spoke again, “apparently there are two students that need to be located in the academy. You will find them, if I am not mistaken, in rooms 203A and 204A. Am I clear?”
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Post by YFWE on Jun 3, 2008 0:08:31 GMT -5
The three guards nodded slowly, as if they were still in a daze after their long period of stupor. They turned to leave, but not before glancing evanescently at Hoffman and Lao Shi, at whom one grinned and ran his finger across his neck in a rather suggestive notion.
“Now,” Feisley turned back to Atticus and bowed low. “Proceed, my lord.”
“Children,” announced Atticus vociferously, “let me begin by noting that, as you have undoubtedly noticed, things are not always as they seem. My name is, obviously, not Atticus Stevenson. Atticus Stevenson was borne from my true name, a name that you have indubitably heard before—Adam Smart.”
“I figured,” Hoffman growled. “It’s been so long since you went underground… no wonder I did not recognize you.”
“Yes, how unfortunate. But at any rate, when the Reich was established, so was this academy and the persona of Atticus Stevenson. From there, we began a rather rigorous journey, with the goal of, of course, wiping out the entire magical race.
“Now, here is why the academy was established: I merely wanted to weed out those who are not of pure magical blood, as myself, so that I could build new, young armies to combat the opposition. In addition, however, I brought other young people—such as yourself—to aid my cause. We could train you, manipulate you… until the only truth in your eyes was our own truth. And then, of course, you would be disposed of. We were unfortunately unable to do so with neither the dragons nor the others here at the academy.
“I will be honest, though, our intent for bringing you here was to have you killed at the warehouse—that would strike even more fear into the WOPW and the Magical World if they knew that you had died while trying to rescue the captive dragons. It unfortunately did not work that way, as you can tell. We brought Lao Shi in as well, so that it did not look like we were sending you all in unprepared.
“I think everything else is rather self-explanatory. Yes, the warehouse was an ambush and yes, we knew about it. Yes, we are holding the other dragons captive still. Of course I will not say where—what is the fun in that, eh? And yes, what we told you about the Reich is true—not that it will be too beneficial to your lot.”
“My lord,” Feisley said, “isn’t that enough? We should finish the job, before the other students get word…”
“Marcus, the academy is done-for; they can find out if they so desire. They’ll be dead quite shortly anyway… once our job here is done.”
“So that’s it?” asked James. “You’re just going to kill us?”
“That’s certainly the general consensus, I do believe.”
“Not if I can help it.”
James leapt into the air, flying quickly at the Sovereign. The man quickly stepped to the side, and the black dragon soared past him, making a quick u-turn so as to avoid the wall.
Ash clutched Kate’s hand and sprang forward before her companion could protest. In seconds, they were at the door to the basement, and rushed inside without hesitation. “Ash, what are you doing?!” whispered Kate hastily. “They need help…”
“This is our job,” shot back Ash. “Besides, I have an idea.”
“An idea?!”
“Yes, an idea. It stems off of a conversation I overheard a few weeks ago between Kennel and Smith. I think I understand it now, just trust me on this.” And together they descended the narrow stairs, into a place they did not know…
“Coward!” James exclaimed back upstairs. “Why won’t you fight me?”
“It would be a waste of my time,” replied the Sovereign apathetically.
James felt a numbing blow at the side of his head, sending him sprawling onto the floor. “My associates, on the other hand…” he heard the Sovereign say as James looked up at Warburton, who was staring down at him vindictively.
“James!” exclaimed Kay, looking fearfully at his grounded frame. She turned to the others. “We have to fight!”
“You’re right,” Shade said. “Today we either save the Magical World… or die trying. Let’s go, everyone.”
The other five dragons sprang into action, rocketing towards the robed Reich members. And the battle was on.
LaGuardia leapt backwards from Raffi’s approaching figure. “Oh no, you don’t!” she exclaimed, having nearly been caught off guard. She quickly produced a sort of force-field, one that Raffi slammed into almost immediately. She fell to the ground, but retaliated quickly, sending a steady stream of fire back at the force-field, which seemed to shatter upon impact. Seeing this as her utmost chance to inflict some sort of imposing blow, Raffi landed a rapid blow against LaGuardia’s stomach, causing the woman to double over in pain.
James continued at Warburton, but the large man was having none of it. James would try to barge into Warburton, attempting to knock him to the ground, but Warburton deflected each and every attack effortlessly. Truly it was going to take more than just brawn. At that moment, however, James was having difficulty realizing it.
Shade and Kay were tangled up (literally) in Kennel, Smith, and Green. The duo had gone after the three Reich members, who appeared to have been either trying to escape or trying to alert more guards (this was the likelihood), and now had their hands full with the three wizards, who were noticeably not as formidable as the others but were still quite daunting. “Incoming!” yelled Hoffman, dashing in from the side and sending a repelling spell at the trio, forcing them in many different directions. “Let’s make it a fair fight, shall we?”
As Laura watched all this unfold, she stared straight ahead to find that the Sovereign was watching all of this almost jadedly, certainly not paying attention to her. “This might be my shot,” she whispered to herself. She sped towards the Sovereign’s oblivious figure, and it seemed as if he might not ever see her…
But suddenly, Laura was knocked to the side by a force that had been invisible to her before that point in time. Confused, she stared up and around, trying to find her attacker.
And there, over her, stood an orange dragon. Jay.
“Jay, what are you—?”
Jay grinned as his features seemed to melt from his face, revealing his known human form. But then, as an even more sinister grin spread across his face, his features changed again… he seemed to grow older, stronger…
Laura was soon staring into the face of Kenneth Harrelson.
“NO!”
Harrelson seemed as if he was about to strike, his arms raised menacingly… but was knocked aback by a remnant blast of fire that had come from James. Laura dashed to her feet, still in extreme shock from what she had just witnessed. “Surprised?” Harrelson asked as he steadied himself again. “I’m sure you are…”
“Wh-what did you do to Jay?”
“Jay never existed, my dear. It was me, all along… studying the seven of you, pretending to be one of you! And hell, you all bought it! Especially you!”
“So you mean—”
“…that you were fooled by the Reich once more?! Yes, you certainly were.”
“No,” stuttered Laura. She looked into Harrelson’s eyes, “You mean I made out with an old man?” She stood, straightening to her full height. “This isn’t gonna feel good,” she said calmly. And, quickly, she sent a bolt of lightning at his chest, sending him sprawling backwards, onto the ground.
Shade and Kay met up in the air, near the ceiling, surveying the scene before them. They only had mere seconds to talk, but it would have to do. “Shade, we can’t beat them,” Kay said quickly. “They’re too powerful… we need reinforcements, pronto.”
Shade dodged a spell that soared past his head. “I know, but who?” he asked.
“Well, I… WILL!”
Shade spun around, finding Will standing and waving at them enthusiastically. Behind him stood about forty other students… and the group was growing by the second.
“Well, this sure is perfect timing,” Shade grinned. “Hey, Reich! Don’t look now, but it looks like the cavalry is here!”
The Sovereign’s eyes widened upon his viewing of the group, which seemed to include just about, if not all of the students in the school. Most of them were glaring at him angrily. It was apparent that word had spread quickly.
Laura, James, and Raffi joined the other two in the air, watching as Will led the group towards the robed figures, who had stopped what they were doing to stare at the humongous crowd now before them. An additional group began to approach from the back, towards the cafeteria. They all had the same angry stares.
“My lord!” Feisley exclaimed. “Orders, sir?”
The Sovereign grinned. “I must admit,” he said, addressing the crowd before him, “this is quite a gathering. It is obvious that we are outnumbered.”
He turned upwards to the airborne dragons. “It would appear as if your dying day has been postponed. No matter—it shall come soon. I congratulate you all, though—you are becoming a force that we were not originally expecting to become so imposing. We shall spare you all a bit longer… but rest assured, this is not the last time that you will see us.” He nodded to the other robed figures and, with a snap of his fingers, vanished into thin air, the others following.
“…are they really gone?” asked Raffi.
“I think so!” Kay said. “We did it!!”
The crowd cheered joyfully. The five dragons returned to the floor and reverted back to human form. Kay rushed into Will’s arms, and the others assembled near Hoffman and Lao Shi.
“Children, this was not a victory,” Lao Shi said as they neared him. “I hope you understand this.”
“It certainly was to me,” Laura replied. “I mean, they’re not here and we are, right?”
“I suppose so.”
“I’m confused, though,” Hoffman said. “Where has Jay gone?”
“Oh…” Laura said, her eyes downcast. “I… don’t want to talk about it.”
“Was he Harrelson?”
“How did you…”
“Once again, it was a feeling.”
“Whatever, I’ll talk about it later. The important thing is that we pretty much scared the Reich off…”
“I’m sorry, but it was merely a reprieve. They will be back,” Hoffman said. “You can count on it.”
“We can just find them, can’t we?” asked Shade. “Or…”
Raffi gasped. “The fountain. We could find the fountain. The source of their power.”
“Yes!” exclaimed Hoffman. “It will be tough to locate, but it is our only hope now. You can be sure, however, that it’ll be heavily guarded.”
“Then just let them try to stop us,” Shade grinned. “With the seven of us, plus the other students, there’s nothing we can’t do.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Lao Shi said with a smile, the first smile that had formed at his face for a while. It was a smile of hope; hope for the magical race and for those that were inside the academy. And for once, it seemed as if they had a fighting chance against the Reich. But as said before, only time would tell.
(end)
“D’you think it’s this door?” Kate asked Ash, glancing at the tall white door that was to the left of them once they reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Yes, I’m almost positive,” Ash replied, placing her hands on the doorknob and pulling it open. Surprisingly, it was unlocked.
They stepped inside, not even caring to close the door behind them. They had come into a long hallway, white-walled and dimly lit, with many, many doors lining its sides.
Ash went to the first door, the one closest to them. She cast a sideward glance at Kate, grinned, and heaved the door open. It was pitch-black inside, but there was noticeably some sort of movement inside when the door was opened.
“Hello?” Ash asked uneasily into the darkness. “Is anyone in here?”
“Who… who’s there?” spoke a teenage boy’s voice. “Who are you?”
“I’m… Ash,” she said, beaming. “Who’s this?”
“Jake… Jake Long. The American Dragon.”
END PART TWO
I apologize in advance for the last fourth of the chapter. Certainly not my best work in the slightest.
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Post by charles finley. on Jun 3, 2008 3:28:55 GMT -5
omgkevini'vebeenreadingthissincetenandnowit'shalfanhourpastmidnightomg.
Haha. Ash is epic. I found teh American Dragon. I is epic. *shot*
Godd, kevin. That was long. I think I might go get some sleep now, because that was LONGGG. Holy cow.
ohnoestratiors.
...
Update soon, please. :D
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Post by ADJLFanatic on Jun 3, 2008 12:07:13 GMT -5
Dude, you are seriously way too negative. XD
Oh, and I'm happy to say that it took me forty five minutes to read all of this. Yay! I loved every moment of this part, and I could see that you certainly busted your ass to finish it. :P Well, I can't say that I didn't expect anything from Atticus Stevenson, and especially Jay. I feel bad for Laura and her old man makeout sessions, though. Ohohoho, I certainly wouldn't want to find out that my ex from early May was twenty bazillion years older than me or something. It would make me feel so corrupted and violated. DX
BUT WOW, I wonder how long that's been then. Haha, but yeahh, I've been noticing things mostly about Jay, since he's certainly been having a crazy "behavior problem" and really is unlike the others. My jaw still dropped when we found out that he was Harrelson. I thought at least they took the real Jay, but no, he was a fake all this time. Yikes...
And as for Atticus? I kind of caught on after a while, but what really got me thinking was when everyone came in, and he wasn't freaking out; especially at his quick assumption that they didn't capture those dragons. See, if I were a good guy that really took them there, mistakenly thinking that the dragons would be there, I'd probably look a bit more shocked and a lot less calm about it. Plus, Ewan kind of spoiled it for me when he texted me and I told him I was reading TDC. xD Even if was kinda obvious from what I saw from a bit earlier in part two. Oh, that evil man. I figured he was up to no good...
And by the way, wasn't his name Adam Sharp? Not Smart? :O I don't know; I could be wrong. It just doesn't sound right to me, though, that's alllawlz. Plus, that dude was certainly not bright, lawlz. Sikee, he's certainly a big mastermind behind all of it. I mean, even I couldn't think up something like that in a hundred trazillion majillion years.
But wow, I certainly loved that little addition of action right there. I wasll "oh my godding" at the part when Jay attacked her. I was all, "Oh my gulay, another huge thing coming up." Ahaha, I felt so bad for Falco... I mean, Christian. Dahh, guess he's on our side now; makes up for the fact that "Jay" is no longer in our group. Ohh the insanity.
I figured much that having a curfew and ten trillion security guards not allowing any student to come out around the hallways would surely make it all the more completely farfetched. Haha, I think I almost freaked out at the part when Lao Shi came in... like, after everyone's getting all skeptical on the "yet to be discovered as Harrelson" fellow. I even wonder why they would simply only knock out a kid like Jay back in that part. I thought they would've just killed him while they had the chance? Well, then again, they could've done the same for me, but his little "adventure" sure wasn't quite as interesting to hear from. That sounds really gross though; melting away? So how does Harrelson get all of that back on? Hahaha, and acting like a teenager? Aye, must be tough for an old man. :] But eh, to put it simply, that little story he told was a bit odd to me last chapter. Man, as if everything was already bad enough.
Plus, Atticus got a bit brittle and irritable at Shade during that part when he took MY suggestion to go to Europe and destroy the fountain. I mean, to simply annihilate such a thing wouldn't take experts to do it. Even my fugly mortal self could do it; just give me some tools and I'll bash it. xD Unless that fountain is mystical and could be difficult to demolish. Either that, or that thing is pret-ty heavily guarded. But that's only my suggestion. <_<
AAH, I don't know. Words are gushing out of my mouth like a fountain right now. I can't imagine how much things will completely change after the revelations from this chapter. After all, we just found out that Atticus is the head honcho in this whole Sovereign dealio, and that a member of the group in which we fully trusted to be just an innocent teenaged turned out to be Harrelson. How much more surprising can this get?! xD Oh, and before I end it here, I must say, I admire Lao Shi for his character and how calm he asks for an "inquisitive hour." :P Ahh, you portrayed him quite well; a wise, old man who isn't afraid of anything... at least, I don't think so.
But anyway, I have gone on far too long with this whole review. xD Hey, you did want an "extra-specially," lengthy one from me, am I right? And well, there you have it. I'm telling you, Kevin. You ARE my favorite writer ever. :P And nothing in this chapter sucked, and I'm serious. Haha, cross my heart and hope to die, my Kevywaffles. You are my idol!! xDD
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Post by Chaos on Jun 3, 2008 17:44:26 GMT -5
Okay, I read this before Ash and Raffi. And I was talking to Raffi at school when she was reading it. Just wanted to say...
And this WAS a great chapter. The 'action' came back earlier than I thought it would, considering that they had just come back. And I figured that for some reason, when everyone was gone, I thought it was 90 people gone, because they were really the kidnapped dragons, only brainwashed. XD
Atticus being a bad guy? SO saw it coming. I just thought he would have bailed way sooner. The whole Lao Shi and us running from Atticus's men was really cool. I imagined us on the roof, like jumping from roof to roof. XD And that stupid janitor man, PFTA to him!
Aww. No pressure point or powers from Shade. XD Atticus, you coward. I can't wait for the moment one of us (or our little eight... seven-cause of Jay-man group), that will be epic. We haven't even seen what he can do? Other than command the Reich, which shouldn't be hard. COWARD.
And WOPW... sounds like something from Harry Potter. I wouldn't know what one, though. So if it is a Harry Potter, stale cookie for me! I'm trying my best to make a Raffi-reply, and it's not working well. *embarrassed*
Hmm. Shade's continued leadership, even with Lao Shi helping a lot, was still awesome. It actually sounds like stuff that I would do! Okay, probably not, but I do like how you kept that going for my character. The whole leadership contrasting to Raffi's... neglect(?) is also a fun little thing that I see going on. But not fun for Raffi. Poor Raffi. =(
And I surprisingly kept up with everything going on in the whole fic, even seeing how long it was. I'm so sad. My fics are so small. That's probably why Raffi never reads them. *embarrassed even more*
Lastly, seeing Jake Long back was a very good cliffhanger. Lao Shi will be ecstatic to find his grandson safe, but will probably feel really bad because he didn't know his grandson was in the school, all along. But however that works out, makes me really happy.
And now, I would like you to update soon. As soon as I do with my crappy fics... or fic that I still need to post and think about. Just continue. Please. Maybe not so big... BUT ACTION. Oh, action and drama and suspense and adventure. Those are the things that make a fic good. At least in TDC. =D
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