Prolouge: A Dragon on Wilson Witty Way
It was a dark and stormy night. Just joshin'. All these types of stories start that way. It makes the story sound brooding, mysterious, and foreboding. Truthfully it was a quite mild summer night. The entire East Attleboro police force was surrounding the high school. Good ol' EAHS on Wilson Witty Way, home of the Red Rocketters. They were joined by S.W.A.T. teams and a handful of National Guard troops. One of the new guys guarding the perimeter looked terrified. Officer Benjamin Jenkins. Another cop came over to relieve him.
"Take five and get it together Jenkins. I know you're nervous, but we need everyone on their A game tonight to take this monster out." Jenkins walked away trying unsuccessfully to relax. He got into his patrol car and slumped down in the seat
"Jesus, I cant' believe this is happening." He said.
"Ahhh innocence. I remember thinking like you once." A voice said, coming from his partner's seat. Jenkins swerved his head to the right to find a black clad figure in his car. Before he could reach his gun, the stranger knocked him out cold.
"Poor guy. Been on the job two weeks and he's thrown into this mess."
"Sack up Five." Steph said. She was waiting in the shadows with Connor and Meg.
"Come on Nine, have a heart. He's probably a good dude. I feel bad having to cold-cock him in the face."
"You're about to feel worse." Sydney told me. "Help me get his clothes off."
"Kinky." I said smirking.
"Can we keep the line banter free for three minutes?" George said from the van with Nicole, Sarah, and Jack.
"Please?" John said perched on top of a nearby tree with his rifle.
"Nope." Aj and I said in unison.
"Focus guys." Sydney said dressed in Jenkins clothes. "You know the drill. We distract the police and army, you guys and Three take down-," a nearby sliced though the air interrupting Sydney. "-That." She finished.
"Ugh, fine. Nine, Eleven, One, you ready to party?" I asked.
"Waiting on Four." Steph replied. I turned to Sydney.
"You ready?" She put on Jenkins hat and took a deep breath.
"Let's do this. When heads start to turn, start firing tranq darts Six."
"Roger." John said. Sydney walked into the crowd of people and started spurting out cop jargon as loudly as she could. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE turned their head towards her. If Sydney wasn't a Watcher, she'd be the best damn actress in Hollywood. While she was turning heads, Steph, Connor, and Meg were covertly taking down all of the troops they could. John was tranqing any reporter that was trying to get a better view to what was going on. While all the commotion was going on around us, Aj, Jess, and I made our way to the roof of the high school.
"What are we dealing with anyways?" Jess asked.
"Time dragon." George said through the earpiece.
"They aren't normally this big, are they Five?" Jess asked me, some of her nervousness showing.
"All we have to do is blow it's head off. That's why you've got this puppy." I patted the RPG she was holding. Talk of explosions always calmed Jess down. It's weird, I know. I'm just thankful that she relatively well adjusted for being a pyromaniac. "This'll be a cakewalk."
"Really Five? Really?" Aj spat.
"What?"
"All the whining you give us about not saying famous last words before a mission and you go ahead and say 'It'll be a cakewalk'."
"Eh you don't know what you're talking about." We finally reached the roof. He did know what he was talking about.
"What was that about a cakewalk?" The dragon was at least three times bigger than the one that tried to kill me on the Half And Half World. And while the one on the island looked more cartoon-y, this one looked more like what you'd expect a dragon to look like. While we were staring awestruck, it launched a fireball at us. Aj pulled us out of the way as the flame tore a hole in the roof. "So," Aj started sarcastically. "What's the plan here?" My attention went back to the dragon. What WAS the plan here?
"Two, you getting a look at this?" I asked
"Wow..." George was as dumbstruck as we were.
"TWO!" I yelled.
"Yeah okay ummm..." George was the brains of the group. Evidently not at the moment. "Let Three take a crack at it." I eyed Jess.
"Ready to make boom boom? Seven and I have your back." Jess psyched herself up and gripped the RPG. "Seven?" Aj was staring at the dragon. Not so much in awe, but like he was trying to remember if he's seen it before. "Seven!" Aj snapped back to reality.
"Yeah we have your back Three." Jess whistled to the dragon. It stopped lighting soldiers on fire. We had it's full attention. Jess fired. The explosion rocked the battlefield. "Do you think it's dead?" The dust settled. The dragon was still standing. It was alive and it was pissed.
"Oh no." Jess stuttered. It opened it's mouth and lunged for us.
"GO GO GO GO GO GO GO!" Aj screamed. We bolted as the dragon nearly destroyed the school. When it raised it's head I saw that the blast made a crack in it's hide. Stupid idea time.
"Three, give me a grenade." I said. She tossed one to me.
"What are you going to do?" Jess asked.
"What do you think?" I said backing up to get a running start.
"Something stupid that you SHOULDN'T D-"
"Bingoooo!" I jumped on the dragon before Aj could finish reprimanding me. I immediately wished I listened to Aj.
"What the hell are you doing!?" Multiple people were chastising me through comms.
"Crack in the hide. Gonna try to slice it open a little more of it and blow it up from the inside." Much harder than I thought it was going to be. The dragon was doing everything in it's power to shake me off. I persevered and made my way towards the crack. When I got there, I jammed my knife in and pierced the skin. It roared in pain. Time to finish this. I got the grenade. THAT'S when Aj decided to throw a wrench into everything.
"WAIT!" He yelled. Are you kidding me? I'm hanging on to a dragon by one hand and you're telling me to wait.
"Yes seven?" I said ready to murder him.
"It's Alicia."
"Exsqueeze me?"
"The dragon's my friend Alicia. I don't know how, but it's her.
"Explain." George said.
"We painted that exact dragon on an English teacher's wall with a group of friends."
"It's not exactly solid evidence Seven." I remarked. The dragon (I guess we'll call her Alicia) finally knocked me off. This wasn't going to end well.
"Two, has the dragon moved beyond the school?" Aj asked.
"No. It showed up here randomly. It's been meandering around ever since."
"I'm telling you Five, it's her." Aj insisted. "She came here for the play tonight. She isn't moving because she recognizes the school."
"SHE IS TRYING TO STEP ON ME!!!"
"Two check with the Factory. See if a human turning into a time monster checks out."
"Teddy's telling me it's possible if they come in contact with a time crystal."
"Five..." Aj said trying to convince me.
"Okay it's Alicia." I said dodging claws and fire. "How do we bring her down?" I started getting static on my earpiece. Someone from the Factory was trying to reach me.
"Alex. Alex are you there?" It was Tango.
"A tad busy trying not to get eaten."
"The tranq darts," she said.
"Yeah?"
"The tranq darts are Factory tech. Get one inside of her. She should throw up the crystal and return to normal." Okay. This should go smoother now. At least we have a plan.
"Got it. Get the rewind net ready." I switched back to the Watcher's frequency. "Six. How good are you with that rifle?"
"The best. What are we doing?"
"I need you to shoot a very tiny hole on the dragons throat." I managed to make my way back on the dragon.
"I can't get a good shot with the school in the way. She's got to move." The dragon's wings shot out. Oh, shit.
"Shes about to." Alicia took to the sky.
"Goddamn..." John said with an amused tone I didn't appreciate.
"Wait til I give the go ahead." I hate heights. I made my way to her throat battling an uncontrollable urge to look down. I took hold of the knife. "Sorry about this Alicia." I drove it downward. "NOW!" Ever had a fly whiz past your ear? A bullet feels the same way. The exact same way. Isn't that strange? You'd expect it to be more intense right? It should be that your heart skips a beat, realizing if the person who shot's aim was off by a hair, you'd be pushing up daisies. To me... it was only a fly. Oh well, back to Alicia. She started spinning and roaring. John's shot found its mark. A purple ooze started pouring out of Alicia's dragon jaws. She began changing back to a human. My relief was cut short, realizing how high up we were. Thissss is gonna hurt. I grabbed human Alicia and braced for impact. We hit the ground with a deafening thud. Yowsa, that hurt. Aj and Jess rushed over to check on me.
"How you feeling?" Aj was grinning ear to ear.
"Like I'm glad the marks on our hands enhance us. Help me up." Aj shook his head helping me back on my feet. Alicia was throwing up whatever crap that crystal put inside of her.
"Nice work Five." Jess popped in. "By the way, a bunch of cops are pointing guns at us." I looked around at the army surrounding us. I couldn't help it. I started to giggle.
"You forgot the National Guard and S.W.A.T.were here, didn't you?" Aj asked. My giggle turned into a full blown laughing fit. I totally forgot the National Guard and S.W.A.T. were here.
"DON'T MOVE OR WE WILL SHOOT!" Some Police Chief or whoever the head honcho was in charge of this was screaming at us through a megaphone. I calmed down and addressed the crowd.
"It's cool fellas. Our friend had a bit too much to drink, you how it is."
"I SAID FREEZ-" I called Tango.
"Go ahead with the rewind net." The world turned pink. The night's events began to run in reverse. The school became undestroyed and the soldiers left. The chaotic mob of people vanished until Aj, Jess, and I were the only ones left. Jess bagged the throw up and the crystal. The van pulled up with the rest of the group.
"Mission accomplished?" Nicole asked.
"Mission accomplished." We hopped in. I sunk to the ground, exhausted after a long night's work. I heard Tango over my earpiece.
"You still alive?"
"You ain't getting rid of me that easy pussycat. I still want to earn that kiss." You could almost hear her smirking.
"Good to know you're in one piece, dummy."
"Yeah, I'm happy for me too. We'll send the crystal when we get back."
"Solid work Alex. Not too shabby. Enjoy the rest of your night."
"I shall." I hung up leaning back against the van's cool metal doors. Not too shabby indeed.
