by R J Johnson
The masks fell from the cabin ceilings and Alex reached up, pulling the masks down. He yanked it out of the ceiling and a thin filament of wire attached to the release fell out into his lap. He picked up the wire and began to quickly use it to unlock his handcuffs. The agents had been so busy celebrating his capture that when they’d re-cuffed his hands for the journey they hadn’t secured them properly.
Making quick work of the lock, Alex pulled his wrist out of the cuffs and began to work on Emily’s handcuffs as she screamed in terror.
“Alex!” she cried out, “What’s happening?”
He ignored her cries, concentrating instead on the cuffs around her wrists. After the tumbler unlocked, he pulled them off and tore the hood off. Upon seeing his face, she leapt into his arms for a hug, sobbing.
“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” she kept repeating to him. Alex knew she was hysterical, who wouldn’t be in a crashing plane?
“Shh…” he said, pushing his head into her hair and holding her tight. “It’ll be over soon.”
She wept and he joined her, thinking of all the time they could’ve had together if he hadn’t been such a bullheaded moron. He thought about all the lives he wouldn’t have taken if he’d just had the same kind of faith in her that she’d had in him long ago.
He thought most of all how much he regretted never seeing her graduate, or being a part of her proudest moments like taking her dream job at the Allen Telescope Array.
It was in that moment that he made his decision. He wasn’t going to waste any more time.
He stood, ready to do something other than die screaming in a plane crash, when the door to the plane was ripped open. Alex grabbed onto the seat next to him to prevent from being sucked out of the plane.
The first two FBI agents standing in the galley didn’t even see their deaths coming. One moment, they were clinging to the jump seats for their life, and the next they were floating somewhere over the Texas panhandle, falling to their deaths.
Alex watched in horror as the two men were sucked out into the great beyond, but nothing could have prepared him for what he saw next.
Rupert Kline, his stone of strength glistening on his right finger stepped into the cabin as if he were boarding the nonstop express to New York.
Alex’s jaw dropped and felt the rage build up within himself. He’d survived this man through so many crazy experiences, but he didn’t have any idea how he would get out of this one.
“Mr. McCray,” Kline shouted over the din of the dying aircraft. “So good to see you again!”
Alex didn’t respond and could only swallow his shock back seeing the man appearing on his flight.
“Kline, I don’t have your stone!” Alex shouted back at him. “You’ll have to take it up with the Feds.”
“Oh, I’m well aware of who possesses my stones now Mr. McCray,” Kline sneered. “This is purely personal.” He extended his hand as if throwing something.
Alex felt something strike him in his chest, and he looked down in shock. A sharp looking stone the size of a dagger was protruding out of his sternum. Alex staggered back, forgetting for a moment that the blue glow of his stone wouldn’t appear this time.
“ALEX!” Emily shouted. She threw herself over the aircraft’s seat and made her way over to him. She touched the stone coming out of his chest, shaking her head in horror. “No, no, no, no!”
Alex tried to sit up, but felt himself grow weak. Something wasn’t right. He was invincible. He wasn’t supposed to die.
Then from somewhere in the back of his head, a voice reminded him that Colonel Ash had taken his healing stone. There were no more second chances. No more re-spawns. This was it. His final minutes on Earth.
He wondered briefly if he’d see his father.
He looked up to see Emily smiling at him through her tears. If he was about to die, at least he’d do so in the arms of the love of his life.
Kline was about to step forward and finish the job when the Jetstream shuddered and regained control, going into a steep climb.
Kline fell back as the plane twirled insanely through the air as an unearthly roar filled the air around them. The billionaire’s eyes went wide in terror as the enormous eye of a dragon peeked through the window. He grimaced and disappeared in a flash from the plane’s galley, reappearing on the beast’s back. He rose his fist up, hoping to strike it dead with one heavy blow as he’d done to Siobhan in Joshua Tree.
But, before he had a chance to strike, the dragon rolled his body, holding the plane as they corkscrewed through the sky. Taken off guard, Kline fell from the beast’s back, his hands searching for purchase.
The plane leveled off, as the pilots struggled to control what was left of the plane’s hydraulics. Realizing Scott had come to their rescue and was currently manhandling the plane, Emily hauled Alex up, hoping that she could keep him alive just long enough for them to get out of the crashing Jetstream.
“Alex! Scott’s outside!”
Alex couldn’t hear her properly and was fading in and out of consciousness. She slapped him on the face.
“Come on soldier, you’re not a dead man yet!”
Alex heard this and struggled to his feet, blood leaking out from around his wound. They drunkenly moved through the cabin to the front door, heading for the front door where Kline had entered. Their plummet to the ground had been arrested by the dragon’s grip and they were cruising only a few hundred feet over the Texas hardpan.
An enormous claw found its way into the cabin, beckoning them toward it. Emily dragged Alex up and onto the claw, holding on tight. She only hoped she had enough strength left to keep them safely ensconced on the dragon’s palm.
Scott, feeling the pair get into his hand, let go of the plane with his other massive claw, allowing the remains of the Jetstream tumble down and crash into the desert below.
Emily hung precariously from Scott’s dragon’s claw as they came to a gentle landing on the ground. Scott set them down gently on the ground, beating his wings against the air to land. Emily rushed over to where Alex lay on the ground bleeding as Scott transformed back into his human form.
Only, he wasn’t the same. This Scott had changed, and not just on the outside. His eyes were different. Gone was the quick laughter that had been his defense mechanism. He didn’t slouch, or avert his eyes when you looked at him. He stood tall, his chest out, as he looked down at his friends. He even looked older, but Emily chalked that up to the poor lighting.
Emily turned Alex over, feeling for a pulse. Finding none, she began doing chest compressions on him using her weight to keep his life moving. Instead, the stone dagger fell out of his chest, and blood poured out of the wound. She fell back, horrified and looked up at Scott.
“I did everything I could,” she said, tears running down her cheeks. “I…”
Scott waved a hand and suddenly the blue glow that accompanied the healing power of Alex’s stone flashed through the night sky. Emily fell back, gasping in surprise as she watched the wound seal itself up. Alex sat up suddenly, gasping for air, feeling at his chest, watching in wonder as the wound finished healing. He glanced up at Scott who stood there saying nothing, watching him with a small grin.
“You shoulda said something,” Scott told Emily crossly. He walked over to his friend and opened up his hand. In it was his necklace that held the healing stone.
Emily looked down at Alex with relief, tears streaming down her cheeks as she pulled him in tightly for a hug.
“You bastard,” she whispered. “You aren’t supposed to die remember?”
“Well, I would’ve had a better shot if Ash hadn’t gotten ahold of my stones,” Alex glanced up at his friend, amazed. He knew his friend was tough, but if he’d been able to wrest his stones back from Ash, it was no wonder Scott looked like he’d been through the wringer.
Scott looked back at him, a shadow crossing his face. Something was wrong, his friend looked sad. But why? His friend had come in and sav
ed him as he’d expected him to. That’s why he had trusted him with the stone.
He reached for Scott’s hand and felt himself lifted up into a tight hug from his best friend. It almost sounded like he was crying. Alex pushed Scott back and looked at him concerned.
“Hey, it’s cool dude. We’re good. We made it…”
Scott pulled back and wiped his eyes. He swallowed and turned around as if expecting what they heard next.
“I wouldn’t say that necessarily.”
Kline stood there, hate in his eyes. His stone fist glistened with stone of strength visible from a hundred feet away. Alex’s eyes narrowed. He could feel Kline holding five stones. They couldn’t allow him to gather any more. This ended now. But before he could warn the billionaire, Scott stepped up and called out the billionaire.
“Kline,” Scott said sounding determined. “This is your only chance. No other warnings. End it now and things can still end well for us all. We can move forward, without all the pain and problems. Trust me…” Scott, almost pleading with the deranged billionaire, “Please trust me when I say this is the best way, the only way. Surrender now, and you can still have your dignity and money.”
“Do you really think you can stand there and presume to tell me what I want?” Kline asked, derisively laughing at him. “At some point, it no longer becomes about the money, instead about realizing my full potential.”
“And what’s that even mean?” Alex shouted at Kline. “When will it be enough?”
“It’s not about having enough,” Kline replied, his voice smooth, “it’s about knowing you’re better than those around you. Someone has to be the best in the world! Someone has to be the tip of the spear! Someone has to stand atop the Bell Curve of humanity! I submit to you that I am that man, molded in God’s image. I was granted these powers from on high to lead humanity into the future!
“Think of the potential!” Kline’s eyes flashed. “Like a Roman God living here on Earth. I will rule above you all, taking as I please, living as I please, and controlling the fates and minds of humanity as I please. And I shall use these gifts to shape the people of this world into more perfect versions of myself. And from there, we move into the cosmos, and perhaps even other dimensions. Who knows what awaits us out there beyond this earthly realm? With me leading humanity, I shall bring us to a new state of evolution. A new state of being. A new world order!”
“You do that and we all die Kline,” Scott snapped. “I’ve seen it.”
Alex and Emily glanced at each other and back at Scott. Kline seemed unfazed by this.
“The future remains unwritten,” he said, ignoring Scott’s pleas. “And it is my hand that holds the pen of history.”
“I’ll say it one last time,” Scott said, stepping forward. “One last chance to keep what remains of your dignity.”
Kline laughed, shaking his head. “What pray tell would I have to fear from you? I sense the power you hold. All you hold is your pathetic shapeshifting and healing stone while I hold the power of five stones, each more powerful than the last.”
“You’re missing someone.”
Out from the shadows Christina emerged, looking nearly as beaten and bruised as Scott did. She too looked different than when Emily had last seen her. Christina reached her hand out to Scott, smiling broadly. “Sorry I’m late hun. Love you…”
Alex and Emily were doubly shocked now. Hun?
“Love you too panda bear,” Scott said, smiling back at her.
Alex had no idea what’d happened over the last four hours, but clearly, they’d fallen into a parallel universe. Not twelve hours ago, Scott had been incredibly morose over Molly. Did killing Halprin have that much of an effect on his friend? When did these two even have time to hook up?
Alex decided it was probably better that he ignore their budding relationship in favor of figuring out how to defeat the man who’d killed his father once and for all.
Kline looked at the four of them, shaking his head.
“I almost regret having this come to an end. You four have been the most interesting foes I’ve ever encountered. I’ve crushed business adversaries, far smarter, far more resourceful, far richer than you all, and yet, here you are once again. I don’t even know most of your names. Funny that.”
“My name is Scott Ermy.” Scott said, his voice stronger than Alex had ever heard it. “And I’m the man who’s going to kill you.”
Scott immediately began to transform. Scales burst out over his skin as his body became elongated, expanding outward as he grew into the fearsome dragon that had terrorized Southern California over the last few days.
He stood, rearing back and roared spewing white hot flames toward Kline. The billionaire disappeared, reappearing behind the dragon, raising his fist made of stone, ready to crush the beast’s skull.
Christina raised her hand and sent an enormous fireball headed for Kline that knocked him off Scott’s back. Dragon Scott began to loop up around the sky and looked down on Alex and Emily.
Alex felt a green haze come over his body and readied himself for what came next. Emily had no idea what was happening and began to scream in terror as they both began to transform into a dragon like Scott.
“Relax and let the power flow through you!” Alex shouted, his voice becoming a dull roar, barely intelligible through his long red neck. “The scales will protect you and you can use those wings to get the hell out of here.”
“NO!” Emily’s dragon screamed. The voice was higher pitched and came out wheezing. “If we can end him together like this, we end this now!”
Kline sighed in frustration, as he watched the four transform in front of him. He snapped his fingers and disappeared as they all looped through the sky trying to keep moving to keep Kline from landing on one of them.
They scattered through the sky, Kline teleporting all around them. Scott grabbed Kline with his claws, and tossed him to Christina. The billionaire screamed as he was thrown across the sky into Christina’s tail that batted him into the ground
Kline landed roughly, bouncing several times on the Texas hardpan, dazed. He turned, hoping to get his bearings and find the four who had given him so much trouble.
He watched the four dragons fly through the air, and found himself getting frustrated. All this power, and yet, so far, he’d been able to accomplish nothing!
He looked around and decided to try one of his new powers out. Closing his eyes, he began saturating the air around him, using the stone of control to whip up gusts of wind. Using the combined powers, a thunderstorm began to form around their area, the huge thunderheads rearing up miles into the sky.
Alex, Emily, Scott and Christina were startled to see the sky had turned against them. Bright flashes of lighting and bursts of thunder knocked the four dragons out of the sky. The turbulent winds were beginning to make flying difficult for them. Alex was forced to fly lower in order to try and find Kline who was now hiding among the gullies below.
Scott’s dragon flew low over a gully, and Kline leapt up, grabbing onto his talon and pulling himself up Scott’s scaly body. Scott screeched in pain, and vainly shouted for help.
Alex and Christina’s dragon nearly collided into each other as they darted through the thunderheads around them. Lightening flashed brilliantly next to them, the thunderclap nearly deafening.
“Can you hear that?” Christina shouted.
Alex strained his ears against the howling wind and heard what sounded like shouts.
“Barely!”
“We have to land!” Christina’s dragon nodded her head down to the ground and Alex understood, following her down.
Meanwhile, Kline was concentrated hard on Scott’s talon and the claw began to ossify as it quickly turned into stone. The rest of Scott’s body began to follow as Scott continued to futilely shout through the thunder and rain for Alex and Christina to come help him.
Suddenly, the screams fell silent.
Alex and Christina were only a few dozen feet fr
om the ground when their bodies suddenly shifted back into their human form. Alex landed with an “oof” as Christina managed to land a bit more gracefully, rolling down a hill.
Alex’s projected his stone’s energy around his friends, and found he could no longer sense Scott. He wasn’t out there.
His eyes went wide as he shouted, “Scott! Where are you?”
Above him an impossibly large statue seemed to be falling from the sky. It thudded down next to Alex, sinking deep within the mud.
It was Scott.
Half man, half dragon, Kline had turned him into a granite, while still trying to shift back to his human form. His face looked perfectly calm, as if accepting his fate.
Outstretched in his hand were two stones and Scott’s hand seemed to be offering them out to Alex.
Emily pointed to the stones in horror. “He’s…”
“A statue…” Alex finished in disbelief.
Kline also fell from the sky, landing painfully a few hundred feet away from the group. Standing, he glanced around, looking for where that blasted meddler had landed. He’d managed to transform seconds before his entire body had finished ossifying.
He leaned forward intending to use the stone for teleportation to catch up to them and take the rest of their stones, but found his teleportation abilities gone. Surprised, he quickly took inventory of what remained. His stone of strength was secure on his finger of course. Feeling his pockets for the other stones, he quickly discovered that the stone he’d claimed in Zambia was missing. Somehow during their fight amongst the thunderheads, that blasted nerd had pulled the teleportation stone off his ring from under his nose.
Which meant McCray and his friends had it now.
Panicked, he began running toward them, hoping to reclaim it before they got away.
Alex saw Kline making a mad dash for them and made his decision. He pulled the two stones out of Scott’s ossified hands and felt the power overwhelm him. One was definitely the shapeshifting stone Siobhan had held.
And the other was the answer to their prayers.