by Paul Cude
Robes soaked in disgusting, human coloured blood barely visible through their dark brown colour, covered from head to toe in dust, reeking of smoke, toasted flesh and supernatural power, Earth strolled casually up the side of the pile of debris Manson perched atop, taking in all the action, getting ready to enjoy the impending death of his enemies. Sharing a glance, neither said a word. They'd didn't have to; their thoughts, like the expressions on their faces, told their own stories, their destinies intertwined almost as if fate had fashioned them that way.
Directly below Flash, much the same battle was taking place on the ground as Vasuki, king of the nagas, fought furiously with members of his own beloved race, very much against his will and better judgement.
Using an expanding, circular, sonic wave, Vasuki threw back a ring of three of his kind all trying to attack him at once. Knowing that they weren't down for good, he proceeded to press his advantage. At the first sign of naga reinforcements he'd tried to be a good king, do the right thing for his kin, trying to only stun them, take them out of the fight temporarily. Of course it hadn't worked. They'd got up and joined back in with some of their allies, almost costing him his life, but teaching him a very valuable lesson. On the field of battle, there could be no holding back. You had to give it your all, at all times. It was do or die, there was simply no other way. And so it proved to be. Without hesitation, driven on by a sense of self preservation and a determination to stop the abomination of a world that the murderous Manson was trying to create, the naga king ruthlessly used his superior magic to cut down swathes of his own race, in an effort to stop the violence. Unfortunately it wasn't working. The more he destroyed, the more appeared in their place, driven on by some kind of forced magical will. Inside, it broke his heart.
Aware of Flash, his rescuer from that Antarctic nightmare, fighting furiously above him, he too threatening to be overwhelmed, the thought of fleeting respite filled his thoughts. Through the throng of vicious antagonists, he'd briefly caught sight of the giant shield that had moved over to the other side of the arena, now no doubt protecting the king and those that had been fighting alongside him. Realising just how hopeless their position had become, inside his serpent-like head he hatched a plan, one that might cost him his life, but could well save his rescuer above, who he knew had given everything to come back to that Antarctic prison. Opening his mind out into the arena as he continued to stave off attacks, he searched frantically until he found what he was looking for. In a mental kind of knock on the door, he screamed out inside his head, hoping to be noticed.
"FLAAAASSSSHHH! FLAAAASSSSHHH! It'ssss meeeeee... Vaaasssuuukiii. Opeeennnn upppp!"
Suspicious beyond belief, fully knowing that it might be a tactic used by the enemy in an effort to dominate his mind, particularly with a horde of other nagas on the rampage, he wondered how they would know him by name as he glanced down in the direction of the ground at Vasuki himself. One look was enough to confirm Flash's suspicion that it was no ruse. Filtering the contact through a tiny hole in his fortress-like mental barricades, the ex-Crimson Guard asked Vasuki what was so important that it couldn't wait.
"We'llllllll beeee oveeerruuuun sooooon. I caaann clearrrrr ussss a path onnn the grouuuund. Buuuuut weee haave toooo goooo nooowww."
Using a gravitic attack to crush all the bones in an oncoming dragon's wing, Flash swirled round to face the next mid-air attacker, there and then realising the king of the nagas was right. Enemy reinforcements were swarming in from every direction... dragons in the air, nagas on the ground. There was simply no way they could outlive those kind of odds, something the still smirking Manson far below him was no doubt counting on.
"DO IT!" Flash sent out through the link. "I'll be ready."
"I wiiiillllll neeeeed toooo use uuuppp every laaast biiiiiit oooof my maaaagic. I miiiightt noooottt maaake it."
"I understand," replied Flash, wondering what the hell that might mean.
Summoning up a brief icy storm that froze two potential attackers mid-flight, the ex-Crimson Guard circled around only to find himself face to face with the most gruesome and frightening being he'd ever encountered, and that included his little dalliance in Antarctica that still haunted his dreams to this day. There, only a few metres away, closing in at a dizzying speed, was a battle scarred, dark brown and green, three-headed dragon, spitting fire from each of his disfigured jaws, madness rolling around each of his six eyeballs. Any other being approached by this would have frozen up completely. Not Flash. Using a tiny sliver of magic to hugely increase his mass momentarily, he tucked in his wings and let his prehistoric body drop like a stone. It did, narrowly avoiding the creature's violent attack. Out of its reach, Flash returned his mass to its normal density, used his tail as a rudder, flapped both of his powerful wings, and whilst barrel-rolling, at the same time circled as tight as he dared, pulling around and back in behind the macabre beast, hot on its tail so to speak. You'd think with three heads, it would have awesome all round vision, but that didn't seem to be the case with this monster. The way in which its necks were fused together provided all three heads with limited mobility, something that Flash was now about to use against it. Powering his mighty wings as hard as he could, turning on a short burst of speed, Flash glided right up to the back of three heads without the monster even noticing. Pleased at having negotiated his wake without any problems at all, the affable ex-Crimson Guard gathered up all his strength, courage and in this case... rage. Without hesitation he plunged down towards the fiend's exposed back, jaws wide open, fangs bared, ready to take a huge bite. Hitting with the kind of precision you'd expect from a dragon with his experience, his jaw crunching through scale, sinew, soft tissue and bone about half way down his adversary's spine, it was a spectacular attack, almost certainly the most audacious and brilliant aerial assault that had played out that day. With no warning and the ferocity of prehistoric apex predators that had roamed the planet long before his race had been conceived, it was over in a moment, 'Three Heads' plummeting clumsily to the hard surface, far, far below.
It was then that his mind filled with a familiar voice, from the ground.
"Threeeeee... twoooooo..."
'Oh crap,' thought Flash.
"Onnnneeeeee..."
An explosion, the likes of which dwarfed anything that had gone on previously, thundered out concentrically from a single point on the ground below him. That point was Vasuki. Everything on the ground that hadn't been protected by magic in a two hundred metre radius was decimated. Life ended instantly on an epic scale. Manson and his monstrous bride would have died, if not for Earth's split second intervention, wrapping her personal shield around them both, providing immunity from the superheated wave of fire, fury and magic. The timing of her arrival had been nothing short of miraculous. Nagas were indiscriminately cut in half, their bodies burned and torn asunder. In the air confusion reigned, the concussive blast bursting the eardrums of many dragons, affecting their balance and of course their flying aptitude, Flash included. Knowing exactly what had happened, he was only too aware of what he needed to do. Unlike every other being left alive, he turned tail and headed at speed directly towards the epicentre of the blast, ground zero... Vasuki.
'Damn, he wasn't kidding,' thought Flash as he approached his target. There, lying on the ground, totally silent and still, the naga king's body resembled a statue that had tumbled to the floor, never to be picked up. Considering his options in double quick time, and noticing that a path leading directly to the shield and his friends had been fully cleared of all and any enemies, he had but one thought. SAFETY! However temporary it might be. And so with outstretched talons, and with the tenderness and care associated with mother crocodiles when they carry their newborn babies to the water in their jaws, Flash swooped down, picked up Vasuki's motionless body and, zipping along no higher than a metre off the ground at quite a blistering speed, headed directly towards the shield, his friends and the monarch he would unquestioningly die for. As his elegant, pow
erful and quite stunning body cut through the air on something of a collision course, a stray thought tickled his brain.
'I wonder if they'll recognise me?'
Rocked from their thoughts about the White Dragon prophecy, each and every being behind the protective shield flinched as a wave of utter devastation rippled out from a point directly behind their enemies.
'That's where Flash and the naga king were,' thought Peter, concerns for his friend overriding every self preservation instinct he had.
'What the...?' thought Richie, not knowing what to make of all the nagas being sliced in two directly in front of her.
George and Fredric turned to face the commotion, ready to fight at a moment's notice.
Yoyo continued to heal, unperturbed. His band of misfits were somewhat startled, but maintained their composure enough to carry out their duties.
As the smoke, debris, blood and body parts cleared, a dramatic, eye-catching and remarkable sight had them all shaking in their boots.
Faster than a speeding bullet, a striking, unrecognisable, silver dragon, its talons hooked into a naga body directly beneath it, headed their way at breakneck speed, seemingly with no intention of stopping.
"That naga corpse must be some sort of bomb," screamed one of Yoyo's young charges from somewhere near the back.
"I think we may be in trouble," suggested Fredric from George's side.
"Don't panic," Peter told Janice. "I'm going to change into my dragon form to protect you... stay sheltered behind me."
And with that, the young hockey playing dragon released the bonds of his DNA and started his transformation. It was anybody's guess whether he'd be ready in time.
Reinforcing the front of the shield with every ounce of magic she could muster, something scratched her soul, stabbed her dragoness, prodded her psyche... something familiar.
'It can't be, can it?' she thought, as the mother of all collisions rumbled towards them like a runaway freight train. It was all on her. Nobody else had the power or time to do anything about it; all their lives quite literally depended on her next actions. And so with timing down to one thousandth of a second, she dropped the shield in front of her as the glorious winged beast passed through the barrier, narrowly avoiding all the beings gathered there, and glided to a halt in less time than anyone there thought it possibly could, just in front of Yoyo and the wounded he was working on. Gently it dropped its cargo to the ground. To everyone's surprise it was Vasuki, the naga king. Almost failing to remember, Richie reignited the wall of the shield she'd brought down to let their flying visitor in. Once again they were all surrounded by magic and, at least for the time being, relatively safe.
"What have you done, child?" yelled the king at Richie. "Why did you let it pass?"
"It's Flash... Your Majesty," she replied, sarcastically.
"I'd know that Crimson Guard in a heartbeat. Not only can he not assume his original form, but that looks nothing like what he once was. Everyone on me," announced the king. "Ready your magic!"
Despite her severe injuries, Amelia Battlehard was the first to do as the king asked, a blistering ball of brilliant, crimson energy clasped firmly between both her hands, ready and waiting to be used.
"Whoa..." came a soft, startled voice from behind the newest prehistoric addition to join the group.
"Peter?" announced the perfectly formed silver dragon, noticing the bent whistle shape on the scales of the dragon crouched over Janice.
"FLASH!" stated the young hockey player, hardly able to believe his eyes.
"Of course it's me. Who else do you think could pull off something as stunningly wicked as that? Yoyo, I know you're tending to injuries, but could you take a look at Vasuki please? He used up all his magic in buying us a chance to get over here. I couldn't feel his presence anywhere inside his body. I'm not sure he made it."
Apologising profusely to the dragon he was attending to, Yoyo leapt up, heading straight for the naga king, slapping Flash's stomach as he sprinted past.
"Nice body, my boy. I bet you're pleased to have that back. Congratulations!"
"It wasn't the one I was born with, hence the little standoff we find ourselves in."
"Indeed," acknowledged George, "indeed."
"It's me sire... honestly!"
"If it wasn't you, that's what I'd expect you to say."
"It's Flash, Your Majesty. I wouldn't have let him through otherwise," declared Richie.
"How come he can once again take dragon form? And why is it I don't recognise him? I know what his lost form looks like, I have after all sent it on missions many times over."
"I think I may be able to answer your first question," interjected Fredric.
George turned to face his best friend.
"Really?"
"During the battle to break free in Antarctica, Flash was fatally stabbed by that son of a bitch of a jailer. Luckily at the time he'd just transformed the chains into pure, unadulterated laminium, and so using our connection I repaired the damage he'd just suffered, and in the same instant I noticed an underlying flaw in his DNA, and so repaired that as well. Up until now, I didn't think anything of it. I'm guessing that what I did allowed him retake his natural form. It might even explain his change of appearance."
It could explain things, thought the king. But he had to be sure, totally and utterly sure. If this was some kind of infiltrator, then the lives of everyone here were on the line, and he wasn't about to risk that again.
"Tell me something only I'd know," he ordered the giant silver dragon.
Without thinking, Flash just said it.
"You talk in your sleep, sire. Over and over again you go on about a failed mission, and how it was your fault you'd sent your best friend to his death. I take it that friend is Fredric there, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't your fault. Also you like to listen to 80's music when there's no one around, or at least you think there's no one around."
Chuckles from Yoyo's charges broke the ice, because they too had taken to listening to 80's music in the workshop deep beneath the computer repair shop in Australia.
"Oh... one last thing. You're utterly hopeless with technology, and can't use it worth a damn."
"Ahhhh... that one I recognise. You've always been like that," laughed Fredric, slapping his friend hard on the middle of his scaled belly, which everybody there thought was most certainly not royal protocol.
"You certainly make a compelling case, Mendrik," ventured the king, in one last gamble.
"It's Dendrik, as well you know, sire. Dendrik Ridge!"
"Owww... he's James Bond," whispered Janice, or at least that's what she thought, not knowing about the heightened sense of hearing nearly all the beings surrounding her had.
"Who's James Bond?" asked the king.
Janice blushed. Peter answered.
"A fictional super suave spy from a series of movies that the humans above absolutely adore."
"Oh?"
"That does sound a little bit like me," joked Flash, hoping that everyone, including the monarch, had come to realise it was actually him.
"One last thing please Flash... change back," ordered the king.
Of course, it made sense, but the ex-Crimson Guard really didn't want to give up his new found, mighty, magnificent dragon persona, not after all this time being unable to change back to his base DNA. Reluctantly, in front of everybody, he did so.
In but a moment, the human shape they were all familiar with, down to the very last freckle on his arms, emerged before them, much to George's satisfaction.
"It's good to see you well, Flash. I'm sorry I doubted you. But I just had to be certain. I'm sure you understand."
"I do, Your Majesty. I understand just how much you value everyone's safety."