****
Inside the South Fork power station all the phones rang at once. To those who answered, a youthful sounding voice announced that Mystery Man and the dragon Freedom would soon begin feeding from the power at their station. A few already knew about their visit to the baseball stadium, but the landing of the dragon and his passenger at the station still created pandemonium. Several guards fired weapons at the intruders but nobody was injured. Bullets stopped in mid-air before reaching their targets and hung suspended while the dragon grasped power lines where they exited the station and began to absorb electric power.
The dragon slowly increased his energy absorption rate such that the extra load could be addressed by the power plant gradually increasing its generation of electricity. After five minutes the human that sat atop the dragon dropped off the dragon and approached the human onlookers.
“Who’s in charge here?” asked the strangely garbed youngster.
“That would be me, young man. Fred Grimes.”
The young man stepped up to Grimes and shook his hand. “Sorry to barge in on you this way, but we need the energy to fly after those monsters over-seas. Did you happen to hear our announcement at the baseball game a short time ago?”
“Yes I did. It didn’t say anything about stealing electric power,” said Grimes.
“Wartime necessity. Can you sustain this power level for another ten minutes? That would be sufficient.”
“We were planning to shut power off completely,” Grimes admitted.
“I know," said George. "That’s what prompted this conversation. We ask that you not do that.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No, merely a request.”
“My guards want to arrest you.” Grimes nodded towards the dozen armed men that were converging on them.
“Yes, having failed with bullets they figure on overpowering me. That would be ill advised. I don’t want to hurt anyone.” The boy reached out towards one of the approaching armed men and the man’s rifle flew out of his hands and through the air to him. The boy than casually tied the rifle’s steel barrel into a knot, and handed what remained of the weapon to Grimes.
Grimes regarded the young man with even greater astonishment, and the guards respectfully stepped back a few paces. “You really are Mystery Man then? My Pops told me about Mystery Man!”
“Yes, I am the new Mystery Man. There is a TV crew at your gates. Let them in, if you wish.”
In minutes a nervous looking woman and a video camera carrying man approached the strangely clad young man and his nearby dragon. “Lynn Bordan, Action News,” she announced uncertainly. “Are you the ones from the library and the ballgame?” she asked.
“Good guess!" said George. "Yes, that’s us.”
“Is it true that you are going after the monsters that we’ve been hearing of?”
“Yes, and the Witch that’s been turning them lose.”
“Witch? What witch?”
“An Evil intruder from another world. She hides and feeds among you and wakens the sleeping terrors. She’s the key to stopping any new monsters from waking up.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Freedom is a creature of energy, and needs to feed. He’s only drawing on surplus capacity though; so there’s no blackouts or brownouts.”
“Who are you?" the reporter asked. "Where are you from?”
“Freedom’s obviously from another world, but I’m home grown.”
“You’re human? But they say that you can fly!”
“That’s not a big deal,” said the young man. He floated up a couple of feet off the ground.
There were exclamations from the onlookers.
“From where I stand it is,” said the reporter.
“You can stand with me, if you want to.”
Before she could reply verbally, she found herself floating next to Mystery Man, and moving slowly upward, higher and higher off the ground.
“Don’t worry, it’s safe,” the boy assured her. “And yes, I guess that you were fortunate to wear pants today instead of the brown skirt.”
Her jaw dropped open. “Do you read minds?”
“Somewhat. Mostly I work hard to not read minds. I apologize if the skirt remark embarrassed you.”
“That’s OK.” She had great legs and wasn’t shy. She was actually thinking that ratings would have been even higher if she were showing them. She noticed that they were floating still higher. “The range on my mike is only a few yards,” she said. “It feeds to my camera man.”
“I’ve taken care of that. He’s not missing a word. Is this high enough?”
She looked down again. They were floating thirty feet off the ground, nearly at dragon-level. Gusts of air driven by dragon wings threatened her hairdo. She took a deep calming breath. “Yes, this is certainly high enough. Can we have your name?”
“Mystery Man is good enough for now.”
“OK; is the dragon tame?”
George shook his head no. “Wrong question. My partner Freedom is more intelligent than humans and controls himself. Would you say that you are tame, Freedom?”
“I believe that ‘civilized’ is a better term. I am somewhat civilized,” said the dragon.
“He talks!”
“Most assuredly I talk, small one.”
“And you work for our Government?”
“We have agreed to work cooperatively WITH the United States Government, but are pledged to protect all of Earth against a common enemy, and do not favor any one country over others,” explained George. “Sure, I’m an American, and I’m not forgetting that, but this is sort of a higher calling.”
“You’re independent super-heroes?”
“That’s about right. We’re the good guys; that’s what we’ve gone public to tell everyone. Don't panic or shoot us when you see us!”
“But you look like an ordinary kid!”
“I am still mainly an ordinary teen, under the magic armor, but I’m also a dragon partner.” George looked up at Freedom, who had released the wires he had been drawing power from. “We are recharged enough now, and need to go.”
News reporter Lynn Bordan found herself floating down to the ground as Mystery Man quickly flew up and again onto Freedom’s shoulders.
“See you later,” the boy said, as he and the dragon flew up and away.
Purely for show, Freedom roared, belching brilliant green flames and ear splitting sound into the sky. George could sense the dragon chuckling silently.
The cameras had caught it all, and now returned to focus again on wide-eyed Lynn. “There you have it, America, straight from the dragon’s mouth, so to speak, and from Freedom’s partner, Mystery Man returned: our own American super heroes!”
****
White Dragon's Chosen Page 29