I was reluctant at first to stick this up, you know, because I'm me, but I've had some positive feedback about it.
So I'm going to post this and see what everyone thinks.
Prologue: show
I can't sleep; I turn to my iPod and delete my Skype history. It's nine o'clock at night and I'm at my uncle's house out in the bush. I'm not under the duvet and I'm still in my clothes. I didn't pack pyjamas, for I didn’t think I would have needed them. The only light that is in this room is coming from the clock and the idle TV, the light to show that it's plugged in a steady green.
The door creaks open a crack.
‘Okay, that's not weird at all, it happens all the time.’
Which is true, it does happen a lot. I could never figure out why though, it’s not an old house. Must be full of ghosts or something.
A cool breeze comes through the door, cooling me down on this sweaty night. Well, it’s not as hot as what it is in summer, but it is warm tonight. I had just started to think of turning off my iPod and going to sleep when the dogs start barking.
‘Okay, that's normal too, I am on a farm.’
The dogs don’t bark often at day, but they do bark quite a bit at night, most likely at foxes or dingoes or some other nocturnal animal.
I like my cousin’s dogs. There’s Sally, a big blue heeler, and Ruby, a small Jack Russell. They’ve never bitten, scratched or barked at anyone.
But there's another noise.
Amongst the crickets, the barking dogs and the creaking wood, there's something else, very faint, but it’s there. I could just hear it over all of the ambience.
‘What is it? It's not like anything I've ever heard before.’
That noise I heard that night, it wasn't human.
Something was walking around on the creaky wooden veranda outside, and it was walking on what sounded like claws. Or scales. Or really, really, really dry feet.
‘A possum? A small fox maybe? Wait, no, Josh you’re an idiot. Possums and foxes don’t have scales. Or really, really, really dry feet.’
And then it squeaked.
Not the wood, the animal itself.
‘What the? It can't be a mouse, well; maybe a big one, but I doubt it. What is it?’
It started tapping on the window.
Tap, tap, tap.
Eerily tapping on the window. Ah, the relentless tapping! It annoyed me so much. I just wanted it to go away so I could sleep.
And then I heard something like a whisper, in the back of my mind.
‘Josh... Josh....’
‘Grandma? Have you come to visit me? Heh, that’s right, you’re still alive. Okay, this is getting too creepy; I have to go check it out, even though it may be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. Well, maybe except that one time I licked that frozen pole. But anyway, I have to go see!’
Going against common sense and giving in to curiosity (and stupidness), I ventured outside into the not-so-dark-because-the-moon-was-out night; looking for the thing that wasn't human that was calling my name.
Giving into curiosity that night was the greatest decision I ever made. And the worst.
I opened the front door of the house; it dragged along the ground but amazingly doesn't creak as I swing it open. I step outside, and quickly look over to where the window to my room was along the side of the house.
What I saw that night changed my life forever.
Everything I thought I knew about life was thrown at the ground and shattered like glass at that moment.
Everything I was told to be fictional medieval stories was actually one hundred per cent true.
Everything I had feared was about to come.
Everything I had dreamed of had come true.
I had found a giant lizard with wings. Uh, I mean, a draggie. Baby dragon, a dwagon, whatever you want to call it. I had found a dragon, and it changed my life from that moment on.
The door creaks open a crack.
‘Okay, that's not weird at all, it happens all the time.’
Which is true, it does happen a lot. I could never figure out why though, it’s not an old house. Must be full of ghosts or something.
A cool breeze comes through the door, cooling me down on this sweaty night. Well, it’s not as hot as what it is in summer, but it is warm tonight. I had just started to think of turning off my iPod and going to sleep when the dogs start barking.
‘Okay, that's normal too, I am on a farm.’
The dogs don’t bark often at day, but they do bark quite a bit at night, most likely at foxes or dingoes or some other nocturnal animal.
I like my cousin’s dogs. There’s Sally, a big blue heeler, and Ruby, a small Jack Russell. They’ve never bitten, scratched or barked at anyone.
But there's another noise.
Amongst the crickets, the barking dogs and the creaking wood, there's something else, very faint, but it’s there. I could just hear it over all of the ambience.
‘What is it? It's not like anything I've ever heard before.’
That noise I heard that night, it wasn't human.
Something was walking around on the creaky wooden veranda outside, and it was walking on what sounded like claws. Or scales. Or really, really, really dry feet.
‘A possum? A small fox maybe? Wait, no, Josh you’re an idiot. Possums and foxes don’t have scales. Or really, really, really dry feet.’
And then it squeaked.
Not the wood, the animal itself.
‘What the? It can't be a mouse, well; maybe a big one, but I doubt it. What is it?’
It started tapping on the window.
Tap, tap, tap.
Eerily tapping on the window. Ah, the relentless tapping! It annoyed me so much. I just wanted it to go away so I could sleep.
And then I heard something like a whisper, in the back of my mind.
‘Josh... Josh....’
‘Grandma? Have you come to visit me? Heh, that’s right, you’re still alive. Okay, this is getting too creepy; I have to go check it out, even though it may be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. Well, maybe except that one time I licked that frozen pole. But anyway, I have to go see!’
Going against common sense and giving in to curiosity (and stupidness), I ventured outside into the not-so-dark-because-the-moon-was-out night; looking for the thing that wasn't human that was calling my name.
Giving into curiosity that night was the greatest decision I ever made. And the worst.
I opened the front door of the house; it dragged along the ground but amazingly doesn't creak as I swing it open. I step outside, and quickly look over to where the window to my room was along the side of the house.
What I saw that night changed my life forever.
Everything I thought I knew about life was thrown at the ground and shattered like glass at that moment.
Everything I was told to be fictional medieval stories was actually one hundred per cent true.
Everything I had feared was about to come.
Everything I had dreamed of had come true.
I had found a giant lizard with wings. Uh, I mean, a draggie. Baby dragon, a dwagon, whatever you want to call it. I had found a dragon, and it changed my life from that moment on.
Chapter 1: show
The First Chapter
‘I can’t believe it! It can’t be real! How can it be real? I didn’t know lizards got this big. No, it’s a dragon! But it can’t be real!’
I would've had stood there the whole night and stared with my jaw hitting the floor if one of the dogs had not have come up to me, sat down in front of me and licked my pants.
“Good girl.”
I leaned down and gave the dog a pat. I then started to slowly walk over to this thing. At the time, I had no idea what it was. No idea whatsoever.
Although, its appearance should have given something away.
It was sprawled out over the wood of the veranda, looking like it was sleeping. But as I got closer, it looked at me, so it mustn’t have been sleeping.
It was small, about as big as a small dog, charcoal black and covered in scales. It had cat eyes of gold and short spines that ran from the top of its head, down its back and finishing at the end of its tail. Its belly was grey, not a dark grey, and not the light either, it was somewhere in the middle. It also had wings, the membrane thickness being somewhere in-between cardboard and paper.
I crouched down in front of it, it’s head still following my every movement. When I had fully crouched down in front of it, it curled up into a ball, making that funny squeaking sound again.
"Um..." I felt quite weird talking to this newly discovered whatever-it-was, "Don't be scared, I won't hurt you. Well, I might accidentally, but I’ll try not to…"
I was feeling pretty unsure of what I was saying at the time, I must have sounded like an idiot, but like a dog, the dragon must have been able to smell my kindness or something. For it uncurled and called my name again.
‘Josh...’
I heard the whisper in the back of my mind.
"Yes, my name is Josh."
‘Josh...’
It sat there. Still staring at me, and it shivered, it had suddenly gotten very cold, which is funny considering that 5 minutes earlier I had been really hot and sweating buckets.
I picked it up and turned to take it back inside.
It felt strange, like a lizard, scaly, smooth. Not as cold as you would have expected it to be, it was quite warm, like a puppy. And when I picked it up this sense of security flooded through me, although the feeling was strange, like it wasn't mine, like it was coming from this, thing.
I opened the front door (the door squeaked again) and went back into my room.
My uncle and aunty hadn't noticed anything yet, which was strange, as they weren't very heavy sleepers. I closed the door to my room and hopped back under the sheets, still holding the dragon.
‘Warm...’
That voice, telling me how it felt. I felt warm too…
I whispered back to the dragon.
"Yes, it is warm."
It soon fell asleep, and I was sitting up for was seemed like hours trying to make sense of all that had happened on this warm, sticky night.
After what felt like 2 hours, 34 minutes and 12 seconds, I finally fell asleep.
***
The next morning I woke up to my aunty, uncle and two cousins, Luke and Jess, standing over me.
“Gah!” I sat up in bed, panting. “Don’t do that! It’s really creepy! Did you watch me while I was sleeping or something?”
“No.” my uncle replied, “We didn’t watch you sleep. And we didn’t want to wake you because of that.” My uncle pointed to the dragon.
“What? This overgrown lizard?” I really couldn’t think of what to call it for now. ”OW! Geez, what was that?”
It might have been just me, but I thought I saw the dragon smirk. My uncle chuckled too.
"Well Josh, it seems it got out last night."
"What is 'it' Uncle Marty?"
"Maybe it’s best if I call your parents first, they will come over here explain everything."
“But..."
"Not now, your parents will answer all your questions.” My uncle turned to my aunty. “Judy can you get it some raw meat? It looks like it’ll eat Josh if it goes without food for a little while longer."
"Sure."
My aunty walked off, and my uncle turned back to face me.
"Josh, don't feed it all the meat at once, rip it up into eight bits and feed it a bit at a time. After you've done that, hold onto it until your parents get here."
My uncle left the room, and my tw cousins bombarded me with questions.
“What is it?”
“Where did it come from?’
“Where did you get it?”
“Is it sleeping?”
“Why do you look angry?”
“Because…” I started to reply, “I’d like to be left alone right now.”
“Sorry.” And my cousins left the room.
A little while later, my aunty came back with the meat, handing it to me with a sigh.
"I knew your parents were going to give it to you soon, but it escaping and finding its way here... Just consider yourself very lucky Josh; you are one in seven billion."
My aunty walked out.
‘One in seven billion? That’s like, the population of the world!’
That was a lot to take in.
Is this the only one? Has no one else got one of these, these, whatever-they-weres?
I tried to ignore these questions for the moment, for the dragon had started to snap at the hand that was holding the meat.
"Alright, alright."
I did as my uncle said, ripping the raw greasy meat into eight pieces and feeding them to the dragon one at a time.
The dragon gently ate the bits of meat that I held in my hand, it seemed to be putting a bit of effort into not hurting me.
It finished eating, and then it looked into my eyes.
‘Thank you.’
That whisper in my head.
It lied down in my arms, looking tired.
"I’ve got to take the kids to school Josh."
My aunty stuck her head in the doorway.
"Your parents will be here soon."
"What about uncle Marty?"
"He's already left for work."
"Oh, okay. Bye."
"Seeya later. Stay in bed until your parents get here!"
"I will."
The front door was opened then closed, the car was started up and my aunty drive out the front gate.
"Well, guess it's just you and me, whatever you are."
‘Dragon.’
"You're a dragon?"
‘Yes.’
"No, you look more like a cross between a crow and a lizard."
‘Dragon.’
"There’s no such thing as dragons!"
I didn’t even believe what was sitting on my lap, arguing with me.
Then my dad's car came through the gate.
‘Ah yes, my parents are here, finally, some answers.’
My mum leapt out of the car, burst through the front door and before I could say anything asked me a question.
"Is everything in your bag?"
"Well, yes it..."
"Great. Now quickly get in the car! Before they come."
"But what about..."
"NOW!"
With no time to talk, I hopped out of bed, ran for the car wearing my pyjamas and hopped in the back, doing up my seatbelt. My mum soon after came out the door with my bags, closing the door behind her she literally jumped into the car. Yeah. Right through the open passenger-seat window.
As soon as my mum’s two cheeks were touching the seat, my dad had stuck his foot down and we were speeding off, out the gate and around the corner, almost crashing into a tree.
‘I can’t believe it! It can’t be real! How can it be real? I didn’t know lizards got this big. No, it’s a dragon! But it can’t be real!’
I would've had stood there the whole night and stared with my jaw hitting the floor if one of the dogs had not have come up to me, sat down in front of me and licked my pants.
“Good girl.”
I leaned down and gave the dog a pat. I then started to slowly walk over to this thing. At the time, I had no idea what it was. No idea whatsoever.
Although, its appearance should have given something away.
It was sprawled out over the wood of the veranda, looking like it was sleeping. But as I got closer, it looked at me, so it mustn’t have been sleeping.
It was small, about as big as a small dog, charcoal black and covered in scales. It had cat eyes of gold and short spines that ran from the top of its head, down its back and finishing at the end of its tail. Its belly was grey, not a dark grey, and not the light either, it was somewhere in the middle. It also had wings, the membrane thickness being somewhere in-between cardboard and paper.
I crouched down in front of it, it’s head still following my every movement. When I had fully crouched down in front of it, it curled up into a ball, making that funny squeaking sound again.
"Um..." I felt quite weird talking to this newly discovered whatever-it-was, "Don't be scared, I won't hurt you. Well, I might accidentally, but I’ll try not to…"
I was feeling pretty unsure of what I was saying at the time, I must have sounded like an idiot, but like a dog, the dragon must have been able to smell my kindness or something. For it uncurled and called my name again.
‘Josh...’
I heard the whisper in the back of my mind.
"Yes, my name is Josh."
‘Josh...’
It sat there. Still staring at me, and it shivered, it had suddenly gotten very cold, which is funny considering that 5 minutes earlier I had been really hot and sweating buckets.
I picked it up and turned to take it back inside.
It felt strange, like a lizard, scaly, smooth. Not as cold as you would have expected it to be, it was quite warm, like a puppy. And when I picked it up this sense of security flooded through me, although the feeling was strange, like it wasn't mine, like it was coming from this, thing.
I opened the front door (the door squeaked again) and went back into my room.
My uncle and aunty hadn't noticed anything yet, which was strange, as they weren't very heavy sleepers. I closed the door to my room and hopped back under the sheets, still holding the dragon.
‘Warm...’
That voice, telling me how it felt. I felt warm too…
I whispered back to the dragon.
"Yes, it is warm."
It soon fell asleep, and I was sitting up for was seemed like hours trying to make sense of all that had happened on this warm, sticky night.
After what felt like 2 hours, 34 minutes and 12 seconds, I finally fell asleep.
***
The next morning I woke up to my aunty, uncle and two cousins, Luke and Jess, standing over me.
“Gah!” I sat up in bed, panting. “Don’t do that! It’s really creepy! Did you watch me while I was sleeping or something?”
“No.” my uncle replied, “We didn’t watch you sleep. And we didn’t want to wake you because of that.” My uncle pointed to the dragon.
“What? This overgrown lizard?” I really couldn’t think of what to call it for now. ”OW! Geez, what was that?”
It might have been just me, but I thought I saw the dragon smirk. My uncle chuckled too.
"Well Josh, it seems it got out last night."
"What is 'it' Uncle Marty?"
"Maybe it’s best if I call your parents first, they will come over here explain everything."
“But..."
"Not now, your parents will answer all your questions.” My uncle turned to my aunty. “Judy can you get it some raw meat? It looks like it’ll eat Josh if it goes without food for a little while longer."
"Sure."
My aunty walked off, and my uncle turned back to face me.
"Josh, don't feed it all the meat at once, rip it up into eight bits and feed it a bit at a time. After you've done that, hold onto it until your parents get here."
My uncle left the room, and my tw cousins bombarded me with questions.
“What is it?”
“Where did it come from?’
“Where did you get it?”
“Is it sleeping?”
“Why do you look angry?”
“Because…” I started to reply, “I’d like to be left alone right now.”
“Sorry.” And my cousins left the room.
A little while later, my aunty came back with the meat, handing it to me with a sigh.
"I knew your parents were going to give it to you soon, but it escaping and finding its way here... Just consider yourself very lucky Josh; you are one in seven billion."
My aunty walked out.
‘One in seven billion? That’s like, the population of the world!’
That was a lot to take in.
Is this the only one? Has no one else got one of these, these, whatever-they-weres?
I tried to ignore these questions for the moment, for the dragon had started to snap at the hand that was holding the meat.
"Alright, alright."
I did as my uncle said, ripping the raw greasy meat into eight pieces and feeding them to the dragon one at a time.
The dragon gently ate the bits of meat that I held in my hand, it seemed to be putting a bit of effort into not hurting me.
It finished eating, and then it looked into my eyes.
‘Thank you.’
That whisper in my head.
It lied down in my arms, looking tired.
"I’ve got to take the kids to school Josh."
My aunty stuck her head in the doorway.
"Your parents will be here soon."
"What about uncle Marty?"
"He's already left for work."
"Oh, okay. Bye."
"Seeya later. Stay in bed until your parents get here!"
"I will."
The front door was opened then closed, the car was started up and my aunty drive out the front gate.
"Well, guess it's just you and me, whatever you are."
‘Dragon.’
"You're a dragon?"
‘Yes.’
"No, you look more like a cross between a crow and a lizard."
‘Dragon.’
"There’s no such thing as dragons!"
I didn’t even believe what was sitting on my lap, arguing with me.
Then my dad's car came through the gate.
‘Ah yes, my parents are here, finally, some answers.’
My mum leapt out of the car, burst through the front door and before I could say anything asked me a question.
"Is everything in your bag?"
"Well, yes it..."
"Great. Now quickly get in the car! Before they come."
"But what about..."
"NOW!"
With no time to talk, I hopped out of bed, ran for the car wearing my pyjamas and hopped in the back, doing up my seatbelt. My mum soon after came out the door with my bags, closing the door behind her she literally jumped into the car. Yeah. Right through the open passenger-seat window.
As soon as my mum’s two cheeks were touching the seat, my dad had stuck his foot down and we were speeding off, out the gate and around the corner, almost crashing into a tree.
Chapter 2: show
Answers? Please? Anyone?
“HOLY! Can you watch where you’re driving? You almost killed us!”
“SHHH!”
“But won’t you…”
“SHHH!”
“Why do you keep…”
"Shut up! They could have bugged the car! Do you want to get caught?
“Caught by what?”
“Nevermind. There was a tracking device in it, but luckily John found it before we came to get you."
"John?"
"I'll tell you when we get there Josh, just be quiet!"
My head was still so full of questions, but after the warning my mum had given me, I controlled my, let’s call them 'outbursts' until we arrived.
Along the car trip the dragon was sleeping in my lap, still as warm as ever.
‘Geez, does this thing do anything but sleep?’
The car trip took about five minutes.
When we stopped we were at the local Bush Fire Brigade storage shed, where they kept the fire trucks and equipment.
"What are we...?"
"SHUT UP! Not until we get in!"
My dad pressed a button on the dashboard of the car, which opened the shed door. Once it was fully open, my dad drove in, and then pressed the button again to close the garage door.
A man approached us from behind a little room off the side.
"Hey John, do you think you could squish a bug over here? You know how scared I am of bugs."
'What the? My dad wasn't scared of bugs!'
"Sure Steve."
My mum, dad and myself hopped out of the car, my mum holding my bag and myself holding the dragon, which had started to stir.
We went into the little room off to the side, and sat down for about five seconds before John called to us from the car.
"Got it! They cleverly disguised it, the bastards. This one was harder to find than the last one."
My dad turned to me.
"Josh, this is John; he's our guy in regards to the armoury, weapons, vehicles, debugging equipment if you know what I mean."
"Nice to meet you Josh."
John held out his hand to me and I awkwardly shook it, because I had to hold the dragon with one hand instead of two.
"C'mon Josh, we'll show you around your new home."
"New home mum? It's a shed, what's there to show?"
"You'll be surprised. Just follow me."
My mum walked over to the corner of the little room to the side, and stood in front of a microwave.
She opened it and stuck her hand inside.
My immediate thought was 'Oh a secret entrance. Ha! No such thing, or is there?' So I asked my mum.
"Is there like a secret switch or something in there that leads to an underground base or something?"
"Precisely."
‘Huh, so they do exist.’
"Got it!"
My mum pressed a little button thing and the moved left from where it was, allowing an elevator looking thing to pop up from the floor.
"John, Steve, you two to down and get ready, I'll show Josh how to access this place."
My dad and John hopped into the elevator thing and went down. As soon as they were below floor level, the fridge slid back into place.
"Okay Josh, inside the microwave is a little switch, just under the far edge of the plate here. Can you reach it?"
I stuck one of my hands in the microwave, using the other hand to hold the dragon.
After a few seconds of searching, I found the button.
"Got it."
"Good, now press it."
So I pressed the button and the fridge once again moved left and the elevator thing came up.
"That's good Josh, if you're ever in trouble, just come here. The elevator is special; it will only allow those who we tell it to allow down into the base, anyone else who tries gets knocked out. Then
one of our organisation will come along and bring him back home, wiping his memory in the process. The unauthorised person wakes up with no pain whatsoever. Not even a headache."
I was confused.
"Why go to all this trouble just to keep anyone from finding out? Why not just kill them?"
"Because we try not to kill unless it is necessary, it's not right to kill innocent people to keep a secret."
"Makes sense."
"Of course it does. Now get in the elevator, we'll answer all your questions down in the base."
I got in the elevator thing without further question, followed by my mum. As soon as we were both in, the doors closed and we started to go down.
As soon as we were below the floor level, the fridge once again returned to where it was before, and we were plunged into darkness for about three seconds before the lights turned on.
The elevator went for about 10 seconds before we reached the bottom.
"Okay Josh, get out."
I did as told, and got out of the elevator.
As soon as my mum was also out, the elevator doors closed.
"Okay, follow me."
We walked down a short hallway, and arrived in a quite large room with various other hallways branching off in all directions, with signs above the exits. 'Kitchen, Bedrooms, Pool, Gym, Bathroom, Armoury' and a lot more.
In the middle of this room there was a table.
That was all that was in that room, a fairly large table surrounded by ten chairs.
My dad, John and a couple of other strangers were sitting around the table, a male and a female.
"Sit down Josh."
My dad pulled out a chair next to him for me to sit in, so I sat down.
"Josh, you've already met John, these other two people are Jonas and Madison."
"So you're Josh?"
The male, presumably Jonas, stood up and walked over.
"Great to meet ya. You already look like you'll be great."
He held out his hand, and I shook it.
"So Josh I take care of everything technology related, computers, planning and I'm a pretty good cook if I do say so myself."
Jonas sat back down and the woman talked.
"Hello Josh, I'm Madison, but you can call me Maddie. I take care of cleaning. And cooking when Jonas here doesn't feel like it, which is 99% of the time."
"Hey!"
"Oh shut up Jonas, I'm not done yet. So Josh, I guess you could call me the maid. But don't. Really, don't."
"Okay Josh."
My dad started talking.
"Now that you've met everyone it's time for some answers."
‘Finally.’
"So, first things first, do you have any idea what that thing you found last night is?"
I thought for a moment. The scales, the wings, the unusual appetite for meat, it could only be one thing.
"Well, is it a..."
Before I could say 'dragon' an alarm started going off.
"Oh no, they've found us."
That was John speaking to my dad. Then my dad turned to me.
"Josh, quickly, follow me."
I stood up after my dad and followed him as he ran down a hallway marked 'Emergency Room'.
"Okay Josh, put the thing in this platform here."
When I did out the dragon on the platform, my dad pressed a couple of buttons and a very soft buzzing noise started to fill the air.
"Whatever you do, do not touch anywhere near the platform, we'd rather not have fried Josh for dinner."
‘Fried Josh? Ugh, trust my dad to make one of his terrible jokes in a situation like this.’
"Now run back up above ground, go help the rest of us ward off the intruders. And don't worry about not having a weapon or being hurt, you'll be fine. Just trust your instincts. I've got to stand guard here. Hurry!"
I ran off back down the hallway, down to the big room with a table and up the elevator thing. As soon as I was up top, I saw something I'd only seen in movies.
People in armour, some with guns, some with knives, some with nothing but their hands. There were about twenty of them all up, and five of us. That's four people each.
"Josh, quick, attack someone!"
Madison yelled at me, and then ducked as someone went to punch her in the face, grabbing their legs and breaking their ankle before knocking them out, all in the space of two seconds.
‘Oh damn! What do I do? Dad told me to trust my instincts but...’
I couldn't think anymore as some giant of a man lunged at me with a knife.
I didn't know what I was doing, but I had dodged out of the way and flipped them over onto their back before knocking him out.
‘How the? What the? How did I do that? I guess dad was right, but how did I learn to do that? I was a yellow belt with three stripes in Taekwondo, what I did was way beyond what I had been taught.’
Then I heard a bang and a whizzing sound, and without thinking again, turned around and caught something in mid-air.
It was a bullet! A freaking bullet! I caught a bullet in mid-flight. How the hell does someone do that without forty years of training?
Still not thinking, I ran up to the guy who shot at me and grabbed the barrel of his gun, pushing it back towards him causing the butt to ram under his chin, knocking him out too and sending blood rushing out of his mouth.
‘Wow. I have crazy skills.’
Two more men attacked me, they both had knives, well, knives is a bit of an understatement, I'd call them machetes, but anyway. They attacked me, one from in front, and one from behind. The one in frontal was distracting me, so the one behind could stab me through the back. Just as the one behind me went to stab me, I felt a strange feeling that just told me to duck, so I did, and the guy behind me stabbed his partner in front of me, right in the heart.
The guy in front slid off the machete and fell to the ground, the guy behind me being in shock, seeing himself killing a companion of his. Using this shock to my advantage, I gave him a good whack over the head, knocking the final man out.
As soon as the last man hit the floor, a wave of immense exhaustion flossed though my body.
"Josh!"
My mum ran over to me.
"Josh, are you alright? Are you hurt?"
"No, no. I'm fine. I'm really tired."
I yawned.
"Yes, that does happen without training. It's okay, your father will train you up, you won't feel as tired after some good old training. But for now, you sleep."
"But... answers..."
I had started to sway side to side.
"No, not until you've rested up. Come back down, I presume your father locked it up?"
"Yeah..."
"Okay then, we'll get it back and you can go sleep."
My mum led me back down into the base, back through to the Emergency Room where I grabbed the dragon again, after my dad deactivated it of course.
Then I was led to my bedroom, and laid down in bed, still holding the dragon.
I was asleep within five seconds.
“HOLY! Can you watch where you’re driving? You almost killed us!”
“SHHH!”
“But won’t you…”
“SHHH!”
“Why do you keep…”
"Shut up! They could have bugged the car! Do you want to get caught?
“Caught by what?”
“Nevermind. There was a tracking device in it, but luckily John found it before we came to get you."
"John?"
"I'll tell you when we get there Josh, just be quiet!"
My head was still so full of questions, but after the warning my mum had given me, I controlled my, let’s call them 'outbursts' until we arrived.
Along the car trip the dragon was sleeping in my lap, still as warm as ever.
‘Geez, does this thing do anything but sleep?’
The car trip took about five minutes.
When we stopped we were at the local Bush Fire Brigade storage shed, where they kept the fire trucks and equipment.
"What are we...?"
"SHUT UP! Not until we get in!"
My dad pressed a button on the dashboard of the car, which opened the shed door. Once it was fully open, my dad drove in, and then pressed the button again to close the garage door.
A man approached us from behind a little room off the side.
"Hey John, do you think you could squish a bug over here? You know how scared I am of bugs."
'What the? My dad wasn't scared of bugs!'
"Sure Steve."
My mum, dad and myself hopped out of the car, my mum holding my bag and myself holding the dragon, which had started to stir.
We went into the little room off to the side, and sat down for about five seconds before John called to us from the car.
"Got it! They cleverly disguised it, the bastards. This one was harder to find than the last one."
My dad turned to me.
"Josh, this is John; he's our guy in regards to the armoury, weapons, vehicles, debugging equipment if you know what I mean."
"Nice to meet you Josh."
John held out his hand to me and I awkwardly shook it, because I had to hold the dragon with one hand instead of two.
"C'mon Josh, we'll show you around your new home."
"New home mum? It's a shed, what's there to show?"
"You'll be surprised. Just follow me."
My mum walked over to the corner of the little room to the side, and stood in front of a microwave.
She opened it and stuck her hand inside.
My immediate thought was 'Oh a secret entrance. Ha! No such thing, or is there?' So I asked my mum.
"Is there like a secret switch or something in there that leads to an underground base or something?"
"Precisely."
‘Huh, so they do exist.’
"Got it!"
My mum pressed a little button thing and the moved left from where it was, allowing an elevator looking thing to pop up from the floor.
"John, Steve, you two to down and get ready, I'll show Josh how to access this place."
My dad and John hopped into the elevator thing and went down. As soon as they were below floor level, the fridge slid back into place.
"Okay Josh, inside the microwave is a little switch, just under the far edge of the plate here. Can you reach it?"
I stuck one of my hands in the microwave, using the other hand to hold the dragon.
After a few seconds of searching, I found the button.
"Got it."
"Good, now press it."
So I pressed the button and the fridge once again moved left and the elevator thing came up.
"That's good Josh, if you're ever in trouble, just come here. The elevator is special; it will only allow those who we tell it to allow down into the base, anyone else who tries gets knocked out. Then
one of our organisation will come along and bring him back home, wiping his memory in the process. The unauthorised person wakes up with no pain whatsoever. Not even a headache."
I was confused.
"Why go to all this trouble just to keep anyone from finding out? Why not just kill them?"
"Because we try not to kill unless it is necessary, it's not right to kill innocent people to keep a secret."
"Makes sense."
"Of course it does. Now get in the elevator, we'll answer all your questions down in the base."
I got in the elevator thing without further question, followed by my mum. As soon as we were both in, the doors closed and we started to go down.
As soon as we were below the floor level, the fridge once again returned to where it was before, and we were plunged into darkness for about three seconds before the lights turned on.
The elevator went for about 10 seconds before we reached the bottom.
"Okay Josh, get out."
I did as told, and got out of the elevator.
As soon as my mum was also out, the elevator doors closed.
"Okay, follow me."
We walked down a short hallway, and arrived in a quite large room with various other hallways branching off in all directions, with signs above the exits. 'Kitchen, Bedrooms, Pool, Gym, Bathroom, Armoury' and a lot more.
In the middle of this room there was a table.
That was all that was in that room, a fairly large table surrounded by ten chairs.
My dad, John and a couple of other strangers were sitting around the table, a male and a female.
"Sit down Josh."
My dad pulled out a chair next to him for me to sit in, so I sat down.
"Josh, you've already met John, these other two people are Jonas and Madison."
"So you're Josh?"
The male, presumably Jonas, stood up and walked over.
"Great to meet ya. You already look like you'll be great."
He held out his hand, and I shook it.
"So Josh I take care of everything technology related, computers, planning and I'm a pretty good cook if I do say so myself."
Jonas sat back down and the woman talked.
"Hello Josh, I'm Madison, but you can call me Maddie. I take care of cleaning. And cooking when Jonas here doesn't feel like it, which is 99% of the time."
"Hey!"
"Oh shut up Jonas, I'm not done yet. So Josh, I guess you could call me the maid. But don't. Really, don't."
"Okay Josh."
My dad started talking.
"Now that you've met everyone it's time for some answers."
‘Finally.’
"So, first things first, do you have any idea what that thing you found last night is?"
I thought for a moment. The scales, the wings, the unusual appetite for meat, it could only be one thing.
"Well, is it a..."
Before I could say 'dragon' an alarm started going off.
"Oh no, they've found us."
That was John speaking to my dad. Then my dad turned to me.
"Josh, quickly, follow me."
I stood up after my dad and followed him as he ran down a hallway marked 'Emergency Room'.
"Okay Josh, put the thing in this platform here."
When I did out the dragon on the platform, my dad pressed a couple of buttons and a very soft buzzing noise started to fill the air.
"Whatever you do, do not touch anywhere near the platform, we'd rather not have fried Josh for dinner."
‘Fried Josh? Ugh, trust my dad to make one of his terrible jokes in a situation like this.’
"Now run back up above ground, go help the rest of us ward off the intruders. And don't worry about not having a weapon or being hurt, you'll be fine. Just trust your instincts. I've got to stand guard here. Hurry!"
I ran off back down the hallway, down to the big room with a table and up the elevator thing. As soon as I was up top, I saw something I'd only seen in movies.
People in armour, some with guns, some with knives, some with nothing but their hands. There were about twenty of them all up, and five of us. That's four people each.
"Josh, quick, attack someone!"
Madison yelled at me, and then ducked as someone went to punch her in the face, grabbing their legs and breaking their ankle before knocking them out, all in the space of two seconds.
‘Oh damn! What do I do? Dad told me to trust my instincts but...’
I couldn't think anymore as some giant of a man lunged at me with a knife.
I didn't know what I was doing, but I had dodged out of the way and flipped them over onto their back before knocking him out.
‘How the? What the? How did I do that? I guess dad was right, but how did I learn to do that? I was a yellow belt with three stripes in Taekwondo, what I did was way beyond what I had been taught.’
Then I heard a bang and a whizzing sound, and without thinking again, turned around and caught something in mid-air.
It was a bullet! A freaking bullet! I caught a bullet in mid-flight. How the hell does someone do that without forty years of training?
Still not thinking, I ran up to the guy who shot at me and grabbed the barrel of his gun, pushing it back towards him causing the butt to ram under his chin, knocking him out too and sending blood rushing out of his mouth.
‘Wow. I have crazy skills.’
Two more men attacked me, they both had knives, well, knives is a bit of an understatement, I'd call them machetes, but anyway. They attacked me, one from in front, and one from behind. The one in frontal was distracting me, so the one behind could stab me through the back. Just as the one behind me went to stab me, I felt a strange feeling that just told me to duck, so I did, and the guy behind me stabbed his partner in front of me, right in the heart.
The guy in front slid off the machete and fell to the ground, the guy behind me being in shock, seeing himself killing a companion of his. Using this shock to my advantage, I gave him a good whack over the head, knocking the final man out.
As soon as the last man hit the floor, a wave of immense exhaustion flossed though my body.
"Josh!"
My mum ran over to me.
"Josh, are you alright? Are you hurt?"
"No, no. I'm fine. I'm really tired."
I yawned.
"Yes, that does happen without training. It's okay, your father will train you up, you won't feel as tired after some good old training. But for now, you sleep."
"But... answers..."
I had started to sway side to side.
"No, not until you've rested up. Come back down, I presume your father locked it up?"
"Yeah..."
"Okay then, we'll get it back and you can go sleep."
My mum led me back down into the base, back through to the Emergency Room where I grabbed the dragon again, after my dad deactivated it of course.
Then I was led to my bedroom, and laid down in bed, still holding the dragon.
I was asleep within five seconds.
Chapter 3: show
Okay Seriously, Just Answer the Freaking Questions!
“Josh! Get up you lazy arse!”
I sat up and yawned. I knew my mum was being sarcastic, but at a time like this, I couldn’t handle it.
“Really? At a time like this, you talk to me casually, as if nothing has happened over the past 24 hours? “
“I’m sorry; I’m just trying to take a bit of the stress away from you by acting normal.”
“Well nothing is normal right now, so please stop trying.”
I got out of bed, picked up the dragon (that was sleeping on the end of the bed, it must have moved overnight) and followed my mum to the main room with the table in the middle, and then down a hallway labelled ‘Kitchen’.
When we got there, Jonas was cooking some eggs and bacon.
I sat down at the table, and Maddie walked in through a different door.
“Oh! Jonas! You’re cooking. What, did your computer break again? Do you have to occupy yourself some other way?”
“Oh shut it Maddie, its Josh’s first morning here, I thought I’d treat him to some of my world famous bacon and eggs.”
“World famous bacon and eggs my arse. Josh, you’re so lucky. Jonas only made enough for you and the dragon, you know, because Jonas doesn’t think of anyone else.”
Jonas glared at Maddie.
‘Maddie called it a dragon too? I’ve got to ask about this.’
“So this is a dragon?”
“Don’t ask now Josh, wait until everyone else is here. Then you can ask all the questions you want.”
One dragon feeding, two fried eggs and some bacon later, everyone else started to enter the room and sit down around the table.
My dad turned to me.
“Okay Josh, it’s time we gave you some answers.”
I mumbled under my breath.
“You can say that again.”
My dad kept talking, obviously not hearing what I had said.
“Where do I start? Hmmm. Ah! So Josh, last night I asked you if you had any idea what that is.”
My dad pointed to the dragon on the word ‘that’.
“Well, what were you going to say?”
“I was going to say dragon.”
‘But it can’t be one.’
“Yes Josh, you are correct.”
‘Wow.’
“But this is the only dragon in existence. You are truly one in seven billion.”
I thought about this statement.
“Isn’t there only seven billion people on the planet though?”
“Yes Josh; that makes you very special, very special indeed.”
“Huh. Wow.”
“I’ll start from the beginning. You ready?”
“Of course.”
“Okay then. Well, all these age old stories of mythical creatures, dragons, phoenixes, unicorns, they were all true. Seriously, I’m not lying.”
My dad was telling the truth. I could tell from the tone of his voice and, well, he doesn’t lie.
“This here is the last of all dragons in the world. The dragons were a powerful race, they kept peace everywhere, but knights were afraid of them, the knights didn’t see anything about the dragons except their tough, powerful, intimidating exterior, so they decided to get rid of the dragons to make the world a better place. The knights slowly killed off the dragons, and they almost went extinct. Only this one remains. But ever since the knights started to kill the dragons, there has been another group of people that sought to stop the knights. We are all that is left of those people. We all joined up for a common reason, to save the dragons.”
“Wow.”
“There’s more. The knights are still around, they just aren’t known as knights anymore, they’re known as The Noistarê. Those are the people that attacked us yesterday.”
“The people that attacked us yesterday and failed.” Added Jonas.
My dad continued, “They want to rid the world of the dragons once and for all, and take over the world. You know, cliché evil organisation stuff. So where were we? Ah yes, the Noistarê. The Noistarê will have a hard time killing this dragon.”
“Why’s that?”
“It is a black dragon, the most powerful dragon out there, but it must get trained before it can learn to master any of the elements it is able to.”
“That sucks.”
“You must be trained too, Josh.”
“That sucks even more.”
“You must be highly trained in many martial arts and must be proficient with many types of non-lethal and lethal weapons before we can wipe out the head of their organization’. He’s cruel, mean, and just plain bad. And in typical cliché fashion, he’s German.”
“What’s his name?”
“Josh.” Maddie spoke, “We know his name, we just, we just can’t pronounce it.”
“Well could you write it down?”
“Sure.” My dad answered.
He grabbed a bit of paper and a pen, and wrote down a name. He handed me the paper, and I looked at the name.
‘Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff? What kind of name is that?’
Jonas must have seen the expression on my face, so he talked.
“Yeah, that’s his name.”
That was all a lot of information to take in. I sat there and thought while stroking the dragon. I sat there for what felt like hours before I talked again.
“Why was I able to take out those people last night so easily? Why do I of all people get the dragon? And why did it come to me a couple nights ago?”
“Well Josh, that thing you did last night, you can thank your dragon here. He leant you power to overcome those people and win in the end. It won’t happen all the time; only when you are in a large amount of danger will your dragon lend power to you. You must train to get that powerful.”
“And my other questions?”
“I’m getting to them! Why you were chosen? When you were born, the dragon’s mother came to us to ask us to defeat the Noistarê and return the dragons to their former glory. She was dying and needed someone to raise the all-powerful black dragon, to be its companion and life-long friend. The dragon’s mother took one look at you, touched you on the brow with her snout and that was that. You were chosen from that moment on.”
“And why it came to me…?”
Jonas talked for my dad. “Well, it uh, kinda escaped. Don’t worry; we’ve ramped up security since then.”
“Wow.”
My dad talked again. “And Josh, before you go, what shall you call the dragon?”
“What shall I call him? Hmm…”
One name popped into my head. A very familiar name, but I couldn’t think of where I had heard it before.
“Ezekiel. His name will be Ezekiel.”
“Oh wow, Josh.”
“What did I do Maddie? Did I say something bad?”
“Ezekiel. You said Ezekiel.”
“I don’t-“
“That was the name of the last black dragon that lived; over 700 years ago.”
Then that whisper in my head.
‘Ezekiel…’
‘Yes, your name is Ezekiel.’
‘My name… Ezekiel…’
‘Wait, since when could I talk to you with my mind?’
‘Always you idiot.’
‘Wait, when did you gain the ability to say more than one thing at a time?’
‘I have had this ability since I was born, I just felt like trolling you a bit before you knew.’
‘I think we’re going to get along great Ezekiel.’
‘Me too Josh.’
“So Josh, all good now?”
“Yeah dad, I’m all good.”
“Great! Grab Ezekiel and we’ll start training right away.”
“WHAT?”
“Stop whinging and hurry up.”
“Ugh, fine.”
I picked up Ezekiel and followed my dad back into the main room and down a corridor labelled ‘Training Room’. We were halfway down the hallway when Ezekiel talked to me again.
‘What’s so bad about training Josh?’
‘Just one thing. The ‘training’ part.’
‘Weak little human.’
‘Hey! I’m stronger than you!’
‘We’ll see about that.’
‘What do you mean “we’ll see”?’
Ezekiel didn’t respond.
‘Ezekiel? Ezekiel! Dammit.’
“Josh! Get up you lazy arse!”
I sat up and yawned. I knew my mum was being sarcastic, but at a time like this, I couldn’t handle it.
“Really? At a time like this, you talk to me casually, as if nothing has happened over the past 24 hours? “
“I’m sorry; I’m just trying to take a bit of the stress away from you by acting normal.”
“Well nothing is normal right now, so please stop trying.”
I got out of bed, picked up the dragon (that was sleeping on the end of the bed, it must have moved overnight) and followed my mum to the main room with the table in the middle, and then down a hallway labelled ‘Kitchen’.
When we got there, Jonas was cooking some eggs and bacon.
I sat down at the table, and Maddie walked in through a different door.
“Oh! Jonas! You’re cooking. What, did your computer break again? Do you have to occupy yourself some other way?”
“Oh shut it Maddie, its Josh’s first morning here, I thought I’d treat him to some of my world famous bacon and eggs.”
“World famous bacon and eggs my arse. Josh, you’re so lucky. Jonas only made enough for you and the dragon, you know, because Jonas doesn’t think of anyone else.”
Jonas glared at Maddie.
‘Maddie called it a dragon too? I’ve got to ask about this.’
“So this is a dragon?”
“Don’t ask now Josh, wait until everyone else is here. Then you can ask all the questions you want.”
One dragon feeding, two fried eggs and some bacon later, everyone else started to enter the room and sit down around the table.
My dad turned to me.
“Okay Josh, it’s time we gave you some answers.”
I mumbled under my breath.
“You can say that again.”
My dad kept talking, obviously not hearing what I had said.
“Where do I start? Hmmm. Ah! So Josh, last night I asked you if you had any idea what that is.”
My dad pointed to the dragon on the word ‘that’.
“Well, what were you going to say?”
“I was going to say dragon.”
‘But it can’t be one.’
“Yes Josh, you are correct.”
‘Wow.’
“But this is the only dragon in existence. You are truly one in seven billion.”
I thought about this statement.
“Isn’t there only seven billion people on the planet though?”
“Yes Josh; that makes you very special, very special indeed.”
“Huh. Wow.”
“I’ll start from the beginning. You ready?”
“Of course.”
“Okay then. Well, all these age old stories of mythical creatures, dragons, phoenixes, unicorns, they were all true. Seriously, I’m not lying.”
My dad was telling the truth. I could tell from the tone of his voice and, well, he doesn’t lie.
“This here is the last of all dragons in the world. The dragons were a powerful race, they kept peace everywhere, but knights were afraid of them, the knights didn’t see anything about the dragons except their tough, powerful, intimidating exterior, so they decided to get rid of the dragons to make the world a better place. The knights slowly killed off the dragons, and they almost went extinct. Only this one remains. But ever since the knights started to kill the dragons, there has been another group of people that sought to stop the knights. We are all that is left of those people. We all joined up for a common reason, to save the dragons.”
“Wow.”
“There’s more. The knights are still around, they just aren’t known as knights anymore, they’re known as The Noistarê. Those are the people that attacked us yesterday.”
“The people that attacked us yesterday and failed.” Added Jonas.
My dad continued, “They want to rid the world of the dragons once and for all, and take over the world. You know, cliché evil organisation stuff. So where were we? Ah yes, the Noistarê. The Noistarê will have a hard time killing this dragon.”
“Why’s that?”
“It is a black dragon, the most powerful dragon out there, but it must get trained before it can learn to master any of the elements it is able to.”
“That sucks.”
“You must be trained too, Josh.”
“That sucks even more.”
“You must be highly trained in many martial arts and must be proficient with many types of non-lethal and lethal weapons before we can wipe out the head of their organization’. He’s cruel, mean, and just plain bad. And in typical cliché fashion, he’s German.”
“What’s his name?”
“Josh.” Maddie spoke, “We know his name, we just, we just can’t pronounce it.”
“Well could you write it down?”
“Sure.” My dad answered.
He grabbed a bit of paper and a pen, and wrote down a name. He handed me the paper, and I looked at the name.
‘Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff? What kind of name is that?’
Jonas must have seen the expression on my face, so he talked.
“Yeah, that’s his name.”
That was all a lot of information to take in. I sat there and thought while stroking the dragon. I sat there for what felt like hours before I talked again.
“Why was I able to take out those people last night so easily? Why do I of all people get the dragon? And why did it come to me a couple nights ago?”
“Well Josh, that thing you did last night, you can thank your dragon here. He leant you power to overcome those people and win in the end. It won’t happen all the time; only when you are in a large amount of danger will your dragon lend power to you. You must train to get that powerful.”
“And my other questions?”
“I’m getting to them! Why you were chosen? When you were born, the dragon’s mother came to us to ask us to defeat the Noistarê and return the dragons to their former glory. She was dying and needed someone to raise the all-powerful black dragon, to be its companion and life-long friend. The dragon’s mother took one look at you, touched you on the brow with her snout and that was that. You were chosen from that moment on.”
“And why it came to me…?”
Jonas talked for my dad. “Well, it uh, kinda escaped. Don’t worry; we’ve ramped up security since then.”
“Wow.”
My dad talked again. “And Josh, before you go, what shall you call the dragon?”
“What shall I call him? Hmm…”
One name popped into my head. A very familiar name, but I couldn’t think of where I had heard it before.
“Ezekiel. His name will be Ezekiel.”
“Oh wow, Josh.”
“What did I do Maddie? Did I say something bad?”
“Ezekiel. You said Ezekiel.”
“I don’t-“
“That was the name of the last black dragon that lived; over 700 years ago.”
Then that whisper in my head.
‘Ezekiel…’
‘Yes, your name is Ezekiel.’
‘My name… Ezekiel…’
‘Wait, since when could I talk to you with my mind?’
‘Always you idiot.’
‘Wait, when did you gain the ability to say more than one thing at a time?’
‘I have had this ability since I was born, I just felt like trolling you a bit before you knew.’
‘I think we’re going to get along great Ezekiel.’
‘Me too Josh.’
“So Josh, all good now?”
“Yeah dad, I’m all good.”
“Great! Grab Ezekiel and we’ll start training right away.”
“WHAT?”
“Stop whinging and hurry up.”
“Ugh, fine.”
I picked up Ezekiel and followed my dad back into the main room and down a corridor labelled ‘Training Room’. We were halfway down the hallway when Ezekiel talked to me again.
‘What’s so bad about training Josh?’
‘Just one thing. The ‘training’ part.’
‘Weak little human.’
‘Hey! I’m stronger than you!’
‘We’ll see about that.’
‘What do you mean “we’ll see”?’
Ezekiel didn’t respond.
‘Ezekiel? Ezekiel! Dammit.’
Chapter 4: show
Training, Training and Guess What? More Training
“Ow! My patella!”
I grabbed my knee and fell to the ground.
“Get up you weakling, that was hardly a hit.”
“Well it still hurt!”
I sat down on the floor, clutching my knee. There’s sweat dripping off of my face and my muscles are refusing to work at all.
“C’mon Josh, get back up!”
My dad walks over to me and offers a hand. I grab it, and he lifts me back up.
“Can we stop now dad?”
I slightly sway, feeling dizzy and a little dehydrated.
“Well Josh, we have been at it for eight hours straight. Hmmm, no. We can’t stop.”
My expression turned from one of pain to one of horror.
“I have two weeks left to train you enough to become powerful enough against The Noistarê, and in the six weeks we’ve been training, you haven’t improved much. You’re stronger than what you were before, but still not half as strong as what you should be by now.”
I had been training. Not just combat with my dad, but tech stuff with Jonas and weapons with John. I had gone far beyond Jonas’ and John’s expectations in their fields of expertise, but I was still lacking in one area, combat.
“Yeah I know dad, I’m trying my best.”
‘That’s rubbish Josh.’
And Ezekiel? Honestly, he had been training harder than me. He had also grown in six weeks to roughly the size of a very large dog. Or a small horse.
‘I know Ez; I’ve just got to train harder, work harder.’
‘No Josh. You’re fine. You are as powerful as you should be. You just aren’t putting effort into it. Just try a little will you?’
‘Fine.’
‘You don’t sound so confident.’
‘Fine Ez, I’ll try harder.’
“So Josh, one more spar?”
My aching body parts, my sweaty everything, I tried to ignore it, and I answered my dad.
“Yeah, sure. Why not?”
Taking what Ezekiel had said into account, I somehow found energy from some place deep inside wherever energy is stored, and faced my dad for another spar.
“Dad, go a little bit harder on me.”
“Are you sure? You haven’t been able to hit me when I was-”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
We bowed, and my dad said the word to commence the fight.
I raised my fists up to my face in defence, and my dad did the same.
We circled around each other, before I lazily threw a punch at my dad’s face.
He blocked it of course.
Ezekiel was watching from the side.
‘You call that putting in effort Josh? I know rabbits that could beat you in a fight.’
‘Yeah, because you know a rabbit that can outsmart a bullet.’
With my right side open, my dad went to punch me in the solar plexus, but amazingly I blocked it.
I blocked it!
I hadn’t done that in, well, in forever.
“Good Josh, you’re actually reacting at a normal speed for once.”
‘Oh shut up dad.’
I aimed a kick at my dad’s ribs, but he blocked and went to counter by grabbing my leg, which I used to my advantage. I jumped up and used my free leg to kick him in the other side of his torso, sending us both crashing to the ground.
‘Well done Josh.’
“That was a lot better Josh; I see you’re putting in some effort.”
“Yeah dad, I thought putting a little effort in would do something.”
“When did you figure that out? Idiot. Okay Josh, get up, we’ll go again.”
“But I thought-“
“Nope! We’re sparring again.”
We untangled ourselves from each other; stood up, faced each other, bowed and my dad said the commencing word.
Before waiting for me to attack first, my dad went straight in with a couple kicks, one to the left of my torso, one to the right.
I blocked, and countered. This time however, I faked a kick at his groin and instead whacked him over the head. While he was dazed, I grabbed his right arm, pulled it up around his back, kicked the back of his knee, making him fall and forcing him to the ground. I pinned his legs in place with my knees, and pushed his face into the training mat.
“Held.”
I let go of my dad, and we got up.
“Okay Josh that was one opponent, but how about three?”
“What?”
‘Hehe Josh, you’re screwed.’
‘Gee, thanks for the words of encouragement.’
‘Thanks, I do try my best.’
‘Yeah, best joke I’ve heard all day.’
“JONAS! JOHN! GET IN HERE!”
After my dad yelled out, he faced me.
“You ready Josh? If you can beat us without so much as a bruise, you’re more than ready. You get so much as a flicked ear, it’s more training.”
‘You can do it Josh!’
‘You sure? I don’t think-‘
‘I’m sure.’
“Yeah, I think I’m ready.”
‘You can do this Josh, I feel the power in you, and you just have to try.’
‘Thanks Ez.’
‘No problem.’
John and Jonas walked through the door.
“Now Josh, John and Jonas are at the same level as me when it comes to hand-to-hand combat. Are you sure you’re ready for all three of us?”
“Yeah, just say the word whenever you’re all ready.”
I faced Jonas, John and my dad, and we all bowed.
My dad said the word.
Before I could even think about thinking about attacking, Jonas leapt at me with a flying kick to the face. I ducked and grabbed his leg that was airborne above me which caused him to crash to the ground.
John came at me from behind, supposedly to knock me down with a kick to the back of my legs, but he missed as I somehow did a backflip on the spot.
Yeah, a backflip.
I hadn’t done one of those before, but I just did without prior training. I can’t describe it. It was just instinct. I landed behind John, knocking him down. As he fell, he landed badly on his wrist. He stood himself up and walked out holding his limp right hand in his left one, saying it wasn’t my fault.
‘Well, one down two to go. How’s that Ez?’
‘Meh. I can still do better.’
‘Well you are a dragon.’
The next few things I did were a blur.
A kick here, a punch there, a hadouken over in the corner, an accidental fireball, kamehameha wave at the moon.
In the end, I was left standing, untouched, while Jonas and my dad were lying face-down, groaning.
The smoke from the fireball reached the fire system and the sprinklers turned on.
‘Nice one Josh.’
‘Is that meant to be sincere or sarcastic Ez?’
‘A little of both.’
“Okay Josh, I think you’re good now.”
“Go get mum or Maddie will ya Josh? I’m feeling a bit sore.”
Jonas and my dad were talking slowly, wincing every time they spoke a word.
***
“Hey guys, I’m sorry for all the damage and pain I caused you.”
“Ah it’s not your fault Josh, you did well.”
John was lying down with a bandage around his right wrist.
“Yeah Josh, don’t worry ‘bout me, I’m fine.”
Jonas was sitting in a chair.
“That was very good Josh. You’re more than ready to face The Noistarê when the time arises. For now, two more weeks of training. But, it will be reduced to about one hour a day with each of us. And that hadouken? Very good, even I can’t do one of those. I knew you were ready.”
“Then why did you tell me I wasn’t?”
“I had to tell you something to motivate you.”
“Actually, it was Ez who motivated me.”
“Ah! Even better! Well Josh, I suppose you’d best get to bed. You’ve had a long day, and you’d probably like a whole heap of sleep right now.”
I was feeling very tired.
“Okay. Goodnight guys.”
A synchronised response came from John, Jonas and dad.
“Goodnight Josh.”
I turned and walked out the door, to the main room and then down the hallway labelled ‘Quarters’. My room was room 9. It was quite a large room, with a big comfy bed right in the middle for me, and something that looked like an over-sized dog bed.
‘C’mon Ez, I know you’re feeling tired too.’
‘How’d you know?’
‘I’ve started to feel your emotions, it’s weird, I couldn’t before, but now I can.’
‘You really are getting stronger. Your dad is a good trainer.’
‘Yeah, he is. A good trainer and a good father.’
I hopped into bed, and Ez got comfy in his dragon-bed.
‘Goodnight Ez.’
‘Goodnight Josh.’
“Ow! My patella!”
I grabbed my knee and fell to the ground.
“Get up you weakling, that was hardly a hit.”
“Well it still hurt!”
I sat down on the floor, clutching my knee. There’s sweat dripping off of my face and my muscles are refusing to work at all.
“C’mon Josh, get back up!”
My dad walks over to me and offers a hand. I grab it, and he lifts me back up.
“Can we stop now dad?”
I slightly sway, feeling dizzy and a little dehydrated.
“Well Josh, we have been at it for eight hours straight. Hmmm, no. We can’t stop.”
My expression turned from one of pain to one of horror.
“I have two weeks left to train you enough to become powerful enough against The Noistarê, and in the six weeks we’ve been training, you haven’t improved much. You’re stronger than what you were before, but still not half as strong as what you should be by now.”
I had been training. Not just combat with my dad, but tech stuff with Jonas and weapons with John. I had gone far beyond Jonas’ and John’s expectations in their fields of expertise, but I was still lacking in one area, combat.
“Yeah I know dad, I’m trying my best.”
‘That’s rubbish Josh.’
And Ezekiel? Honestly, he had been training harder than me. He had also grown in six weeks to roughly the size of a very large dog. Or a small horse.
‘I know Ez; I’ve just got to train harder, work harder.’
‘No Josh. You’re fine. You are as powerful as you should be. You just aren’t putting effort into it. Just try a little will you?’
‘Fine.’
‘You don’t sound so confident.’
‘Fine Ez, I’ll try harder.’
“So Josh, one more spar?”
My aching body parts, my sweaty everything, I tried to ignore it, and I answered my dad.
“Yeah, sure. Why not?”
Taking what Ezekiel had said into account, I somehow found energy from some place deep inside wherever energy is stored, and faced my dad for another spar.
“Dad, go a little bit harder on me.”
“Are you sure? You haven’t been able to hit me when I was-”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
We bowed, and my dad said the word to commence the fight.
I raised my fists up to my face in defence, and my dad did the same.
We circled around each other, before I lazily threw a punch at my dad’s face.
He blocked it of course.
Ezekiel was watching from the side.
‘You call that putting in effort Josh? I know rabbits that could beat you in a fight.’
‘Yeah, because you know a rabbit that can outsmart a bullet.’
With my right side open, my dad went to punch me in the solar plexus, but amazingly I blocked it.
I blocked it!
I hadn’t done that in, well, in forever.
“Good Josh, you’re actually reacting at a normal speed for once.”
‘Oh shut up dad.’
I aimed a kick at my dad’s ribs, but he blocked and went to counter by grabbing my leg, which I used to my advantage. I jumped up and used my free leg to kick him in the other side of his torso, sending us both crashing to the ground.
‘Well done Josh.’
“That was a lot better Josh; I see you’re putting in some effort.”
“Yeah dad, I thought putting a little effort in would do something.”
“When did you figure that out? Idiot. Okay Josh, get up, we’ll go again.”
“But I thought-“
“Nope! We’re sparring again.”
We untangled ourselves from each other; stood up, faced each other, bowed and my dad said the commencing word.
Before waiting for me to attack first, my dad went straight in with a couple kicks, one to the left of my torso, one to the right.
I blocked, and countered. This time however, I faked a kick at his groin and instead whacked him over the head. While he was dazed, I grabbed his right arm, pulled it up around his back, kicked the back of his knee, making him fall and forcing him to the ground. I pinned his legs in place with my knees, and pushed his face into the training mat.
“Held.”
I let go of my dad, and we got up.
“Okay Josh that was one opponent, but how about three?”
“What?”
‘Hehe Josh, you’re screwed.’
‘Gee, thanks for the words of encouragement.’
‘Thanks, I do try my best.’
‘Yeah, best joke I’ve heard all day.’
“JONAS! JOHN! GET IN HERE!”
After my dad yelled out, he faced me.
“You ready Josh? If you can beat us without so much as a bruise, you’re more than ready. You get so much as a flicked ear, it’s more training.”
‘You can do it Josh!’
‘You sure? I don’t think-‘
‘I’m sure.’
“Yeah, I think I’m ready.”
‘You can do this Josh, I feel the power in you, and you just have to try.’
‘Thanks Ez.’
‘No problem.’
John and Jonas walked through the door.
“Now Josh, John and Jonas are at the same level as me when it comes to hand-to-hand combat. Are you sure you’re ready for all three of us?”
“Yeah, just say the word whenever you’re all ready.”
I faced Jonas, John and my dad, and we all bowed.
My dad said the word.
Before I could even think about thinking about attacking, Jonas leapt at me with a flying kick to the face. I ducked and grabbed his leg that was airborne above me which caused him to crash to the ground.
John came at me from behind, supposedly to knock me down with a kick to the back of my legs, but he missed as I somehow did a backflip on the spot.
Yeah, a backflip.
I hadn’t done one of those before, but I just did without prior training. I can’t describe it. It was just instinct. I landed behind John, knocking him down. As he fell, he landed badly on his wrist. He stood himself up and walked out holding his limp right hand in his left one, saying it wasn’t my fault.
‘Well, one down two to go. How’s that Ez?’
‘Meh. I can still do better.’
‘Well you are a dragon.’
The next few things I did were a blur.
A kick here, a punch there, a hadouken over in the corner, an accidental fireball, kamehameha wave at the moon.
In the end, I was left standing, untouched, while Jonas and my dad were lying face-down, groaning.
The smoke from the fireball reached the fire system and the sprinklers turned on.
‘Nice one Josh.’
‘Is that meant to be sincere or sarcastic Ez?’
‘A little of both.’
“Okay Josh, I think you’re good now.”
“Go get mum or Maddie will ya Josh? I’m feeling a bit sore.”
Jonas and my dad were talking slowly, wincing every time they spoke a word.
***
“Hey guys, I’m sorry for all the damage and pain I caused you.”
“Ah it’s not your fault Josh, you did well.”
John was lying down with a bandage around his right wrist.
“Yeah Josh, don’t worry ‘bout me, I’m fine.”
Jonas was sitting in a chair.
“That was very good Josh. You’re more than ready to face The Noistarê when the time arises. For now, two more weeks of training. But, it will be reduced to about one hour a day with each of us. And that hadouken? Very good, even I can’t do one of those. I knew you were ready.”
“Then why did you tell me I wasn’t?”
“I had to tell you something to motivate you.”
“Actually, it was Ez who motivated me.”
“Ah! Even better! Well Josh, I suppose you’d best get to bed. You’ve had a long day, and you’d probably like a whole heap of sleep right now.”
I was feeling very tired.
“Okay. Goodnight guys.”
A synchronised response came from John, Jonas and dad.
“Goodnight Josh.”
I turned and walked out the door, to the main room and then down the hallway labelled ‘Quarters’. My room was room 9. It was quite a large room, with a big comfy bed right in the middle for me, and something that looked like an over-sized dog bed.
‘C’mon Ez, I know you’re feeling tired too.’
‘How’d you know?’
‘I’ve started to feel your emotions, it’s weird, I couldn’t before, but now I can.’
‘You really are getting stronger. Your dad is a good trainer.’
‘Yeah, he is. A good trainer and a good father.’
I hopped into bed, and Ez got comfy in his dragon-bed.
‘Goodnight Ez.’
‘Goodnight Josh.’
Chapter 5: show
Ezekiel's Might
It had been a week and a half since my training incident, and my dad wanted to see what Ez could achieve, as our first mission was to be in a few days.
“So Ez, show us what you can do.”
‘Alright. I’m warning you now, stand back.’
I relayed the message to my dad, and we both stood over by the door.
Ezekiel made a funny noise, kind of like a little ‘puff’ and a tiny bit of smoke came out of his nostrils.
‘That’s it? Ha! I thought you were more powerful then that!’
‘I am.’
‘Prove it.’
Ezekiel made another ‘puff’ noise, although this time it was louder. It was so amazing! Like nothing I’d ever seen before! It… it was more smoke then last time.
I couldn’t resist laughing. Even my dad couldn’t contain a smile.
“That’s it Ez? That’s all you can do? I thought you were more powerful than that. We’ve seen better. Where has better gone?”
Ezekiel‘s response was an angry grunt.
It seems like my dad agrees with me then.
“What are you? A dragon or a glorified chimney?”
I felt angry; the anger was coming from Ez, not from me.
‘Is dad annoying you Ez?’
‘Of course he is.’
‘Well he is kinda making sense…’
‘Kinda!?’
Ez got a bit angry at me too.
‘Sorry, sorry, but you aren’t showing much of your almighty dragon power that we saw a couple days ago All you’re able to do now is make smoke. Not very amazing.’
‘Oh really? I’d like to see you make smoke.’
‘What about that hadouken I did a couple of weeks ago?’
‘That doesn’t count.’
‘Hmph. Still not showing much ‘high and mighty’ power Ez.’
“Josh, can I see you over here for a moment?”
“Sure dad.”
I followed my dad outside the training room. When I was out of the room, my dad closed the door behind me, and started whispering.
“Josh, I must tell you now, that I’ve noticed that Ez is actually as powerful as he should be already.”
“I know, but why isn’t he showing it?”
“I don’t really know. That’s where I’m going to have to get you to do something.”
“What do I have to do?”
“Make him angry.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah, you’re going to have to make Ez feel so angry with himself that he lets out all his power.”
“Such a wonderful job I have! Do you have an ambulance waiting? You know, just in case.”
“Trust me Josh, he won’t hurt you. No matter what you do, he won’t hurt you of all people. You’re going to have to go in there and make fun of him. I know you’ll feel bad doing it, but it’s the only way.”
I looked around. I considered what I had to do. I remembered our mission. Is not making Ezekiel angry really worth risking the world being lost to The Noistarê? No, there are worse things than teasing something that won’t hurt a hair on your body. I just, I just didn’t want to make him feel bad.
With much hesitation, I responded.
“Okay dad, I’ll do it.”
“Great, now get back in there and start being mean.”
My dad opened the door for me, and we walked in the room to find Ezekiel still trying. He was still only achieving smoke.
‘Nice job Ez! Have you mastered the powers of the chimney yet?’
I felt bad about that.
‘Not ye- HEY!’
‘What? I was just curious. It’s not like you have anything better to tell me.’
Feeling a bit worse.
‘I do so!’
‘I don’t care about what type of rabbit tastes the best.’
‘I DON’T EAT RABBIT!’
‘I’m sorry, you’re a chimney, you eat wood. Forgive me.’
Feeling a little regretful now.
‘I’M MORE THEN A CHIMNEY!’
‘ A magical chimney with wings?’
I was feeling terrible at that moment.
‘I’M A DRAGON!’
‘I haven’t seen anything so far to prove that. Well, except your wings and your amazing ability to produce smoke.’
Ezekiel didn’t answer, he just gave me an evil-eye, and his rage filled me.
I felt really bad for this, but it was the only way.
Ezekiel turned around to face the firing wall, and with an almighty roar, he let loose a fire ball smaller than what mine was, but from the heat I could feel standing twenty metres away from it, it was at least ten times as powerful.
It hit the target with a giant explosion, and knocked my dad and I off of our feet.
After the heat died down, Ezekiel collapsed, exhausted.
Then the sprinklers turned on and dad and I regained consciousness.
‘Well Ez, I guess that where there is smoke, there is fire.’
‘Shut up Josh.’
‘But-’
‘I’m not talking to you right now.’
‘I was making you angry on purpose.’
‘What?’
‘I had to. Dad said it was the only way to get you to show your full power.’
‘Really?’
“It’s true Ez.”
“Dad?! How the hell did you know what we were thinking?”
“Umm, iDerp app that Jonas made.”
“When was I told about this?”
“You weren’t.”
“Why not?”
“Well, you see… No reason.”
“Please delete it, and tell the others to do the same.”
“But-“
“Quickly! Before I hadouken that iDerp into the plains of oblivion.”
My dad pulled out his iDerp and presumably deleted the app that Jonas had made for the rest of the guys/Maddie, so that they could join in our conversations when needed. It was not needed now. Or ever.
“So as I was saying, yes Ez, it is true. Josh did have to make you angry.”
‘Oh. Well if it was necessary… No hard feelings?’
‘Sure. No hard feelings.’
‘By the way Ez, can I tell you something?’
‘What is it?’
‘Your nickname has now officially been changed from ‘Ez’ to ‘Chimney’.’
“Nice one Josh!”
“DAD! DELETE THE APP!”
“Sorry.”
‘You really want to call me that Josh?’
Ez let some smoke out.
‘Fine, fine. It stays as it is.’
So, Ez and I had almost reached out full potential at this stage, all thanks to the other. Training not only made us stronger fighting-wise, but it also strengthened the bond between us.
***
Later that night, before I went to bed, I went in to see dad. I approached his study and knocked.
“Come in Josh.”
I opened the door.
“How’d you know it was me?”
“I didn’t. So, what do you want?”
“To say thanks.”
“For?”
“Training me and Ez, your training has really been showing.”
“Yes, I learnt from the best. My mentor taught me. But to tell you the truth, you didn’t have to make Ez angry.”
“What!?”
“Well, my mentor taught me to do this to get rid of all fear from the person who has the dragon. This is the only way.”
“Gee, thanks again dad. Who was your mentor?”
“My father, your grandfather.”
“He was in this too?”
“He was.”
“Why isn’t he anymore?”
“Kath.”
“That witch?”
“Witch would be surprisingly accurate Josh. Kath is actually a member of The Noistarê, sent in to keep your grandfather away. She uses a strange combination of herbs to keep him under her spell.”
“Why don’t you go there and knock her out? Taser her or whack her over the head or give her an arrow to the knee? Why do you just sit there and tell him to get rid of her instead of doing something yourself?”
“It’s his fight Josh, not ours; he has to win this one himself. You know how my side of the family acts like we dislike him now? Well, we actually don’t, we just have to act that way to conceal it. If he sees we do not love him anymore, he’ll try harder.”
“Wait, your whole family is in on this?”
“Josh, my whole side of the family is this organisation. Our family founded it, and our family continues on to one day win, when we all may rest easy.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, wow is correct. Now back to the topic of your grandfather. Hopefully one day he’ll win his battle.”
“I hope that too dad. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight Josh.”
I walked out of my dad’s study and closed the door.
So my grandfather wasn’t as bad as I thought he was, he was just being held captive by a witch.
I wish I could take back every bad thing I said about him since Kath came into his life.
I wish he’d win his battle so I could hug him, smell his distinctive smell, walk around his house and above all, apologise for doubting him.
It had been a week and a half since my training incident, and my dad wanted to see what Ez could achieve, as our first mission was to be in a few days.
“So Ez, show us what you can do.”
‘Alright. I’m warning you now, stand back.’
I relayed the message to my dad, and we both stood over by the door.
Ezekiel made a funny noise, kind of like a little ‘puff’ and a tiny bit of smoke came out of his nostrils.
‘That’s it? Ha! I thought you were more powerful then that!’
‘I am.’
‘Prove it.’
Ezekiel made another ‘puff’ noise, although this time it was louder. It was so amazing! Like nothing I’d ever seen before! It… it was more smoke then last time.
I couldn’t resist laughing. Even my dad couldn’t contain a smile.
“That’s it Ez? That’s all you can do? I thought you were more powerful than that. We’ve seen better. Where has better gone?”
Ezekiel‘s response was an angry grunt.
It seems like my dad agrees with me then.
“What are you? A dragon or a glorified chimney?”
I felt angry; the anger was coming from Ez, not from me.
‘Is dad annoying you Ez?’
‘Of course he is.’
‘Well he is kinda making sense…’
‘Kinda!?’
Ez got a bit angry at me too.
‘Sorry, sorry, but you aren’t showing much of your almighty dragon power that we saw a couple days ago All you’re able to do now is make smoke. Not very amazing.’
‘Oh really? I’d like to see you make smoke.’
‘What about that hadouken I did a couple of weeks ago?’
‘That doesn’t count.’
‘Hmph. Still not showing much ‘high and mighty’ power Ez.’
“Josh, can I see you over here for a moment?”
“Sure dad.”
I followed my dad outside the training room. When I was out of the room, my dad closed the door behind me, and started whispering.
“Josh, I must tell you now, that I’ve noticed that Ez is actually as powerful as he should be already.”
“I know, but why isn’t he showing it?”
“I don’t really know. That’s where I’m going to have to get you to do something.”
“What do I have to do?”
“Make him angry.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah, you’re going to have to make Ez feel so angry with himself that he lets out all his power.”
“Such a wonderful job I have! Do you have an ambulance waiting? You know, just in case.”
“Trust me Josh, he won’t hurt you. No matter what you do, he won’t hurt you of all people. You’re going to have to go in there and make fun of him. I know you’ll feel bad doing it, but it’s the only way.”
I looked around. I considered what I had to do. I remembered our mission. Is not making Ezekiel angry really worth risking the world being lost to The Noistarê? No, there are worse things than teasing something that won’t hurt a hair on your body. I just, I just didn’t want to make him feel bad.
With much hesitation, I responded.
“Okay dad, I’ll do it.”
“Great, now get back in there and start being mean.”
My dad opened the door for me, and we walked in the room to find Ezekiel still trying. He was still only achieving smoke.
‘Nice job Ez! Have you mastered the powers of the chimney yet?’
I felt bad about that.
‘Not ye- HEY!’
‘What? I was just curious. It’s not like you have anything better to tell me.’
Feeling a bit worse.
‘I do so!’
‘I don’t care about what type of rabbit tastes the best.’
‘I DON’T EAT RABBIT!’
‘I’m sorry, you’re a chimney, you eat wood. Forgive me.’
Feeling a little regretful now.
‘I’M MORE THEN A CHIMNEY!’
‘ A magical chimney with wings?’
I was feeling terrible at that moment.
‘I’M A DRAGON!’
‘I haven’t seen anything so far to prove that. Well, except your wings and your amazing ability to produce smoke.’
Ezekiel didn’t answer, he just gave me an evil-eye, and his rage filled me.
I felt really bad for this, but it was the only way.
Ezekiel turned around to face the firing wall, and with an almighty roar, he let loose a fire ball smaller than what mine was, but from the heat I could feel standing twenty metres away from it, it was at least ten times as powerful.
It hit the target with a giant explosion, and knocked my dad and I off of our feet.
After the heat died down, Ezekiel collapsed, exhausted.
Then the sprinklers turned on and dad and I regained consciousness.
‘Well Ez, I guess that where there is smoke, there is fire.’
‘Shut up Josh.’
‘But-’
‘I’m not talking to you right now.’
‘I was making you angry on purpose.’
‘What?’
‘I had to. Dad said it was the only way to get you to show your full power.’
‘Really?’
“It’s true Ez.”
“Dad?! How the hell did you know what we were thinking?”
“Umm, iDerp app that Jonas made.”
“When was I told about this?”
“You weren’t.”
“Why not?”
“Well, you see… No reason.”
“Please delete it, and tell the others to do the same.”
“But-“
“Quickly! Before I hadouken that iDerp into the plains of oblivion.”
My dad pulled out his iDerp and presumably deleted the app that Jonas had made for the rest of the guys/Maddie, so that they could join in our conversations when needed. It was not needed now. Or ever.
“So as I was saying, yes Ez, it is true. Josh did have to make you angry.”
‘Oh. Well if it was necessary… No hard feelings?’
‘Sure. No hard feelings.’
‘By the way Ez, can I tell you something?’
‘What is it?’
‘Your nickname has now officially been changed from ‘Ez’ to ‘Chimney’.’
“Nice one Josh!”
“DAD! DELETE THE APP!”
“Sorry.”
‘You really want to call me that Josh?’
Ez let some smoke out.
‘Fine, fine. It stays as it is.’
So, Ez and I had almost reached out full potential at this stage, all thanks to the other. Training not only made us stronger fighting-wise, but it also strengthened the bond between us.
***
Later that night, before I went to bed, I went in to see dad. I approached his study and knocked.
“Come in Josh.”
I opened the door.
“How’d you know it was me?”
“I didn’t. So, what do you want?”
“To say thanks.”
“For?”
“Training me and Ez, your training has really been showing.”
“Yes, I learnt from the best. My mentor taught me. But to tell you the truth, you didn’t have to make Ez angry.”
“What!?”
“Well, my mentor taught me to do this to get rid of all fear from the person who has the dragon. This is the only way.”
“Gee, thanks again dad. Who was your mentor?”
“My father, your grandfather.”
“He was in this too?”
“He was.”
“Why isn’t he anymore?”
“Kath.”
“That witch?”
“Witch would be surprisingly accurate Josh. Kath is actually a member of The Noistarê, sent in to keep your grandfather away. She uses a strange combination of herbs to keep him under her spell.”
“Why don’t you go there and knock her out? Taser her or whack her over the head or give her an arrow to the knee? Why do you just sit there and tell him to get rid of her instead of doing something yourself?”
“It’s his fight Josh, not ours; he has to win this one himself. You know how my side of the family acts like we dislike him now? Well, we actually don’t, we just have to act that way to conceal it. If he sees we do not love him anymore, he’ll try harder.”
“Wait, your whole family is in on this?”
“Josh, my whole side of the family is this organisation. Our family founded it, and our family continues on to one day win, when we all may rest easy.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, wow is correct. Now back to the topic of your grandfather. Hopefully one day he’ll win his battle.”
“I hope that too dad. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight Josh.”
I walked out of my dad’s study and closed the door.
So my grandfather wasn’t as bad as I thought he was, he was just being held captive by a witch.
I wish I could take back every bad thing I said about him since Kath came into his life.
I wish he’d win his battle so I could hug him, smell his distinctive smell, walk around his house and above all, apologise for doubting him.
Chapter 6: show
Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff
I was angry, I pressed the button on the phone on my desk that linked me straight to my secretary, Linda; a short, blonde haired, middle-aged woman that was the one person in this organisation that could tolerate me for more than five minutes.
"Linda! Get zee head of the zee missions department immediately!"
"Yes sir, right away."
‘Ah Linda, what would I do without her?’
I sat back in my chair and twiddled my thumbs, fuming about the mess-up. What had happened was that I had requested an attack on the base of the ‘dragon lovers’, as I like to call them, and ordered the head of missions, Thomas Finch, to plan and carry out the operation.
He said he had handpicked the finest people to go on the mission, but when I had a look at who he sent, I was disgraced. He had sent our newest recruits off to attack the base of our greatest enemy! I had ordered him to send our best men, not our worst!
And what's even worse is that the mission was a total failure! Not one of our agents even got a scratch on any of the ‘dragon lovers’. I wanted to have a little chat with Thomas, but Thomas had taken the last few days off due to an 'unforeseen illness'.
Pah! He was never sick; he knew what was going to happen if he showed up again. Coward! He'll get his quite soon.
While going over what elaborate ways I could torture Thomas, Linda called me.
"Sir, Thomas is here."
"Send eem in."
There was a knock on my door.
"Come een!"
Thomas opened the door slowly, and the door creaked. (Note to self: oil door)
Thomas entered looking quite scared, with sweat running down his shiny bald head.
"Ah, Thomas. Pleeze, zit down."
Thomas went to sit down on one of the chairs furthest away from my desk, mostly because he was afraid of me. Good, he should be.
"No Thomas, zis vun here."
I pointed to a chair closer to my desk.
Thomas sat on the chair I pointed at, wiping his brow with a handkerchief.
"So, I assume you know why you are here?"
"Yes sir."
"Iz it true that you stuffed up my plans?"
"Yes sir."
"Iz it true vat you lied to me?"
"Yes sir."
"Do you vear ladies underwear?"
"Yes sir. Uh, I mean..."
I giggled a little bit; I liked to do that to people when they were scared. ‘Trolling’ is what I think it is called. I then regained myself.
"You have not been liztening!"
"But Sir I-"
"That's Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff to you!"
"I'm sorry Mister Sir Brockwurst Hizen-fliggle-biggle, er, how do you say your name again?"
I answered him, feeling quite annoyed that he didn’t know how to pronounce my name.
“Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff.”
“Oh, alright then. But Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff, I am truly-”
"Apologies don't get you anywhere in vis business! Good vork and loyalty does, and you have shown none of vis! You have two choices, you may retire and lead a good life, or you can be fed to zee kangaroos. Vat wood you prever?"
"Do kangaroos even eat meat Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff?"
"Vees ones do. I trained them to eat any meat vey see, except, of courze, each other, because that would get nowhere, and I’d have to get more kangaroos and avoid the RSPCA, eetz just too much vork."
"Well, if you don't mind Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff, I'll take the retirement."
"Nice choice. Vell, it vas a nice chat. Thank you for your service."
I stood up and shook Thomas' hand, pretending to be sincere, when really I was being very evil.
"I hope you lead a happy und healthy life!"
"Thank you Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff! I must say, this is out of character!"
“Of courze not! I am alvays like vis!”
“Really Sir? I-I didn’t know.”
“Vell you do now, go on and lead a good life Mr Finch!”
“Thankyou Sir!”
Thomas left and I sat down behind my desk, my finger hovering over a button.
I whispered under my breath.
"Vree, two, vun..."
*clunk, whirr, splash*
Thomas had reached the front door and I had pushed a button to open the trapdoor to the kangaroo tank. I had heard a scream and an awful screeching noise. He must surely have been eaten by now, the kangaroos haven’t been fed for a week.
I sat back down and pressed the Linda button on my phone.
"Linda, please regretfully inform Mr Finch's family vat he has died. Make up a story vor his death."
"Yes sir."
'Now, vat shall I do? I guess I still have my best men… No. I'll leave vem for anuzzer time. For now, I just sit back and train my best men even more!'
I went over to my phone and pressed the ‘Colonel Sanderz’ button. No, I don’t have direct contact with the man that founded KFC, Colonel Sanderz was the head of the training department; an expert in hand-to-hand combat and a master of weapons. Colonel Sanderz was a tall, well-built man with more muscles then Arnold Schwarzenegger. He had a shaven head and a tanned body. He is a great cook too, he makes wonderful cakes.
“Sir?”
“Colonel Sanderz, you must train zee new recruits harder! Train the like they’ve never been trained bevore! Motivate vem wiv vun of your cakes! Just make them powerful! You can inject vem wiv super-knight serum, just do someving!”
“Yes sir, I’ll be glad to.”
“Vankyou Colonel.”
That was what I was going to do, train the recruits harder, so that when the time came, the dragons would be gone once and for all. Those vile beasts would be finally gone from this world, and the Noistarê will have succeeded! I waited for the day when I could confront this new dragon and it’s owner, the day when I would fulfil my destiny and take over all of New South Wales!
I was angry, I pressed the button on the phone on my desk that linked me straight to my secretary, Linda; a short, blonde haired, middle-aged woman that was the one person in this organisation that could tolerate me for more than five minutes.
"Linda! Get zee head of the zee missions department immediately!"
"Yes sir, right away."
‘Ah Linda, what would I do without her?’
I sat back in my chair and twiddled my thumbs, fuming about the mess-up. What had happened was that I had requested an attack on the base of the ‘dragon lovers’, as I like to call them, and ordered the head of missions, Thomas Finch, to plan and carry out the operation.
He said he had handpicked the finest people to go on the mission, but when I had a look at who he sent, I was disgraced. He had sent our newest recruits off to attack the base of our greatest enemy! I had ordered him to send our best men, not our worst!
And what's even worse is that the mission was a total failure! Not one of our agents even got a scratch on any of the ‘dragon lovers’. I wanted to have a little chat with Thomas, but Thomas had taken the last few days off due to an 'unforeseen illness'.
Pah! He was never sick; he knew what was going to happen if he showed up again. Coward! He'll get his quite soon.
While going over what elaborate ways I could torture Thomas, Linda called me.
"Sir, Thomas is here."
"Send eem in."
There was a knock on my door.
"Come een!"
Thomas opened the door slowly, and the door creaked. (Note to self: oil door)
Thomas entered looking quite scared, with sweat running down his shiny bald head.
"Ah, Thomas. Pleeze, zit down."
Thomas went to sit down on one of the chairs furthest away from my desk, mostly because he was afraid of me. Good, he should be.
"No Thomas, zis vun here."
I pointed to a chair closer to my desk.
Thomas sat on the chair I pointed at, wiping his brow with a handkerchief.
"So, I assume you know why you are here?"
"Yes sir."
"Iz it true that you stuffed up my plans?"
"Yes sir."
"Iz it true vat you lied to me?"
"Yes sir."
"Do you vear ladies underwear?"
"Yes sir. Uh, I mean..."
I giggled a little bit; I liked to do that to people when they were scared. ‘Trolling’ is what I think it is called. I then regained myself.
"You have not been liztening!"
"But Sir I-"
"That's Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff to you!"
"I'm sorry Mister Sir Brockwurst Hizen-fliggle-biggle, er, how do you say your name again?"
I answered him, feeling quite annoyed that he didn’t know how to pronounce my name.
“Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff.”
“Oh, alright then. But Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff, I am truly-”
"Apologies don't get you anywhere in vis business! Good vork and loyalty does, and you have shown none of vis! You have two choices, you may retire and lead a good life, or you can be fed to zee kangaroos. Vat wood you prever?"
"Do kangaroos even eat meat Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff?"
"Vees ones do. I trained them to eat any meat vey see, except, of courze, each other, because that would get nowhere, and I’d have to get more kangaroos and avoid the RSPCA, eetz just too much vork."
"Well, if you don't mind Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff, I'll take the retirement."
"Nice choice. Vell, it vas a nice chat. Thank you for your service."
I stood up and shook Thomas' hand, pretending to be sincere, when really I was being very evil.
"I hope you lead a happy und healthy life!"
"Thank you Mister Sir Brockwurst Heisengalgherbrouff! I must say, this is out of character!"
“Of courze not! I am alvays like vis!”
“Really Sir? I-I didn’t know.”
“Vell you do now, go on and lead a good life Mr Finch!”
“Thankyou Sir!”
Thomas left and I sat down behind my desk, my finger hovering over a button.
I whispered under my breath.
"Vree, two, vun..."
*clunk, whirr, splash*
Thomas had reached the front door and I had pushed a button to open the trapdoor to the kangaroo tank. I had heard a scream and an awful screeching noise. He must surely have been eaten by now, the kangaroos haven’t been fed for a week.
I sat back down and pressed the Linda button on my phone.
"Linda, please regretfully inform Mr Finch's family vat he has died. Make up a story vor his death."
"Yes sir."
'Now, vat shall I do? I guess I still have my best men… No. I'll leave vem for anuzzer time. For now, I just sit back and train my best men even more!'
I went over to my phone and pressed the ‘Colonel Sanderz’ button. No, I don’t have direct contact with the man that founded KFC, Colonel Sanderz was the head of the training department; an expert in hand-to-hand combat and a master of weapons. Colonel Sanderz was a tall, well-built man with more muscles then Arnold Schwarzenegger. He had a shaven head and a tanned body. He is a great cook too, he makes wonderful cakes.
“Sir?”
“Colonel Sanderz, you must train zee new recruits harder! Train the like they’ve never been trained bevore! Motivate vem wiv vun of your cakes! Just make them powerful! You can inject vem wiv super-knight serum, just do someving!”
“Yes sir, I’ll be glad to.”
“Vankyou Colonel.”
That was what I was going to do, train the recruits harder, so that when the time came, the dragons would be gone once and for all. Those vile beasts would be finally gone from this world, and the Noistarê will have succeeded! I waited for the day when I could confront this new dragon and it’s owner, the day when I would fulfil my destiny and take over all of New South Wales!
Chapter 7: show
“Alright Josh! Get up! Time for your first mission!”
I groaned. I had been up all night, too excited to sleep as my first mission was coming up.
‘What did I tell you Josh?’
‘Hm?’
‘I told you that I could make you sleep with some of my Almighty Dragon Powers™.”
‘Wait, how’d you get the ™ in there?’
‘With my Almighty Dragon Powers™!’
‘Could you please stop that?’
‘Hmmm… Let me think about that…’
‘Aw, come on Ez!
‘Fine.’
“Josh!”
“Yeah, I’m coming mum!”
I sat up and yawned, I was really tired. I got changed, and headed out to the kitchen area, where Jonas was making his famous eggs.
“Hey Josh! It’s your first mission, so I thought I’d make some eggs for ya.”
“Thanks Jonas.”
I sat down at the table, and while waiting for the eggs, Ezekiel and I had a chat with each other.
‘Excited Josh?’
‘You know I am.’
‘Can’t we have a nice pre-first-mission chat?’
‘Yeah, we can.’
‘What’s up with you? You don’t seem like yourself.’
‘I’m just, excited and worried. Excited because it’s our first mission, and worried because it could also be my last.’
‘Come on Josh! Don’t talk like that! You’ve been training for ages, and if you really are in big trouble, I’m here for you.’
‘But what if-‘
‘No buts! You are going to escape unharmed!’
‘But-‘
‘What did I say about buts!’
‘Alright then, I believe you Ez.’
‘Good. Oh look, breakfast is coming!’
What Jonas put in front of me on the table was amazing. There were eggs, and bacon, a bit of buttered toast, a couple sausages, a few hash browns.
“Jonas, how am I supposed to eat all that?”
“Trust me, you will.”
Jonas walked over to Ezekiel, and dumped half a calf in front of him.
“There ya go Ez!”
‘Wow! I’ve never had this much to eat in one sitting before!’
'Me either Ez.’
“Enjoy you two!”
“Thanks again Jonas.”
I looked down at my food.
I stared at it.
I didn’t believe my eyes.
Then I started to eat.
10 minutes later, I had cleaned off my plate. That breakfast was the most amazing thing I had ever eaten. Ez had told me the same thing.
“Alright then. Josh, Ez, come with me and we’ll get you suited up.”
My dad had walked into the room and called out to us.
Ezekiel and I stood up, and followed my dad down the hallway labelled ‘Armoury’. When we reached the end of the hallway, there was a heavily armoured door that led to the armoury. My dad put in the password, scanned his thumb, scanned his eye and then spoke for the voice recognition. The door unlocked.
“Hey dad, why do we need this much security for the armoury?”
“We have experimental stuff in here that can’t afford to be stolen.
“Experimental stuff?”
“You’ll see.”
We walked into the armoury, and the first thing I saw was something that looked strangely like a Portal gun.
“Is that a-?”
“Yes.”
Then I saw something that looked strangely like a Gravity gun.
“And is that a-?”
“Yes.”
“How did you get-?”
“I can’t say.”
“Fair enough.”
We walked through countless desks, eventually coming to a wall with numerous things hanging on it.
“Josh, see that raised circle platform?”
“Yeah.”
“Go stand on it.”
I stood on the platform, and my dad called out.
“Ready?”
“For what?”
He didn’t respond, he just pulled a switch and some other things happened, I don’t really know.. What happened is still unclear to me, I could not remember a thing, but the next thing I knew, I was in some type of black and gold armour.
The machine stopped and my dad asked me a question.
“What do you think? We had it made as soon as you came here for the first time.”
“Uhh….”
’Uhh… Josh?’
“Well?”
“Won’t this like, restrict my movements, my fighting skills, you know, stuff like that.”
“No, it’s been designed to do just the opposite.”
“But if I’m ready, why do I need this… Whatever it is?”
“It’s just in case.”
“Explain.”
“First of all, it’s called the Combat Armour Thing, or CAT for short.”
“CAT? Was that on purpose?”
“Yes.”
“What the-“
“Don’t ask. So, it’s designed to not restrict any of your movements. The colouring is so that you can blend into the shadows if need be. There are places for everything, I assume you’ve already figured out that.”
There were pockets everywhere.
“It is also very good at protecting against stabbing and gun shots. If you get wounded it is able to heal you. It also has a lot of other features, I’ll go over that later.”
“What’s it made of?”
“Hm? Oh, it’s made of an element that is very hard to find. We call it Catnium.”
‘Of course.’
“It is very rare, so try not to damage the suit.”
“Okay. But wait, what about Ez? Does he need a-“
“He’s a dragon! Of course he doesn’t.”
“Makes sense.”
“Now Josh, follow me and we’ll get you all geared up.”
My dad beckoned me over to the wall with various things hanging on it.
“Hmm, let’s see. You’ll need this, this, this and, where is it? Ah yes!”
My dad grabbed a bunch of things and set them down on a table.
“Here we are. First thing, a wrist-mounted crossbow.”
“Wow.”
‘Yeah Josh, that is pretty amazing.’
“I assume you know how to use it, you’ve used similar things, right?”
“Yeah, I have.”
“Great, slip it on.”
I picked it up and slipped my hand into it. It was a perfect fit, I had no need to adjust anything.
“Okay, second thing. Two stun guns.”
“Okay.”
“Just stick them in the holsters there.”
I picked up the stun guns and put them in the holster on both sides.
“This, is an iDerp MKII. It can now disable security cameras, pick locks and do numerous other things that you will figure out.”
“Okay then Josh, let’s get you to that mission!”
‘Whoopee.’
‘You sound excited Josh.’
‘I am.’
***
“[censored]!”
‘[censored]?’
“Yes, [censored]!”
‘What did you do this time?’
“Well I… Hey! What do you mean ‘this time’?”
‘Heheh, you know what I mean.’
I let off a couple of mumbled angry words at Ezekiel.
“I seem to have tripped off an alarm.”
‘How do you know?’
“Because I can hear it.”
‘Really? I can’t hear anything.’
“Strange… Well, we’d best fulfill our objective before we get caught.”
‘Seems like a good idea.’
I had just sent an alarm off in one of the Noistarê’s bases.
Our mission was simple, gather some information from the computers, and then set the self-destruct up.
We were five minutes into the mission when I set off the alarm. Yeah, I was just that good back then.
“Hey, Ezekiel, there’s an air vent here labelled ‘Computer Room’. Where do you think it leads?”
‘I dunno, the computer room maybe?’
“How did you figure that out?”
If Ezekiel could have, he would have face-palmed at that moment.
“Well would you look at that, you won’t fit Ez. Must be all that food you’ve been eating lately.”
‘Hey!’
“What? All I said is you’ve been eating more lately.”
‘Hmph.’
“I’ll get through here and do what I can, you wait here and I’ll be back as soon as I’m done, six minutes at the most.”
‘Are you sure you’ll be fine?’
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
‘Well, you just sent off an alarm and-‘
“Yeah, yeah, I get what you’re trying to say. I’ll be back.”
I crawled into the vent. The metal was cold and hard. Maybe because it was metal. There were lots of side paths, branching off into other rooms, but I just kept going straight ahead, ignoring the side paths.
Eventually, I came to a dead end. I panicked, then looked down and saw that there was an opening into a room full of computers.
I dropped down into the computer room, and prepared to defend myself. There was no one in the room but me. That was strange, but I shrugged off the thought.
“Alright, let’s see here.”
I looked around the room.
There was one computer, connected to about 6 monitors. I found the computer tower, and was taken aback. It looked like something from 1998. I plugged in the Western Digital Elements™ Portable Hard Drive and the computer detected it after about 1 minutes.
I didn’t know what exactly to copy over, so I copy/pasted the contents of the computer’s hard drive onto the portable one.
After 3 hours, it finished, and I unplugged the Western Digital Elements™ Portable Hard Drive and hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete on the really old computer. I heard a really loud noise.
“SELF DESTRUCT INITIATED”
“Well that was easy.”
I jumped back into the vent, and made my way back to Ezekiel.
‘Josh! Are you hurt?’
“Nah, I’m fine. The twenty people that attacked me with rocket launchers had nothing on me.”
‘I’m finding it hard to believe you right now…’
“Good. Let’s get out of here!”
I ran out the way we came in, with Ezekiel close behind, and just as we were about to burst out the door, we were blocked by twenty of the Noistarê with rocket launchers.
Oh the irony.
“Ezekiel! Can you take on ten of them for me?”
‘Of course.’
“Alright then, let’s get this over with.”
“ONE MINUTE TO SELF-DESTRUCT”
“[censored].”
The Noistarê attacked and I’ll say it now, rocket launchers are hard to fight against.
I took out a couple in a few seconds with the wrist mounted crossbow, and then it jammed and I couldn’t get any more bolts in it.
I took out the dual stun guns and took out another two Noistarê. Only six to go.
Using a special function of the suit, I disabled three of The Noistarê’s rocket launchers, leaving them confused for a moment.
While they were confused, I took out the remaining Noistarê soldier with the only working rocket launcher with a blow to the head.
Before I could take out the last three Noistarê, Ezekiel stepped on them. Accidentally.
“Ez!”
‘What? Oh, oops.’
“Oops!?”
‘Guess I wasn’t looking where I was going.’
“You can say that again. Come on!”
We burst out of the base, and I got on Ezekiel and he flew off, just in time too. I watched in awe as the base underneath blew up.
‘So Ez, we did it.’
‘Yeah…’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing, I’m just amazed that we did it.’
‘Me too.’
I groaned. I had been up all night, too excited to sleep as my first mission was coming up.
‘What did I tell you Josh?’
‘Hm?’
‘I told you that I could make you sleep with some of my Almighty Dragon Powers™.”
‘Wait, how’d you get the ™ in there?’
‘With my Almighty Dragon Powers™!’
‘Could you please stop that?’
‘Hmmm… Let me think about that…’
‘Aw, come on Ez!
‘Fine.’
“Josh!”
“Yeah, I’m coming mum!”
I sat up and yawned, I was really tired. I got changed, and headed out to the kitchen area, where Jonas was making his famous eggs.
“Hey Josh! It’s your first mission, so I thought I’d make some eggs for ya.”
“Thanks Jonas.”
I sat down at the table, and while waiting for the eggs, Ezekiel and I had a chat with each other.
‘Excited Josh?’
‘You know I am.’
‘Can’t we have a nice pre-first-mission chat?’
‘Yeah, we can.’
‘What’s up with you? You don’t seem like yourself.’
‘I’m just, excited and worried. Excited because it’s our first mission, and worried because it could also be my last.’
‘Come on Josh! Don’t talk like that! You’ve been training for ages, and if you really are in big trouble, I’m here for you.’
‘But what if-‘
‘No buts! You are going to escape unharmed!’
‘But-‘
‘What did I say about buts!’
‘Alright then, I believe you Ez.’
‘Good. Oh look, breakfast is coming!’
What Jonas put in front of me on the table was amazing. There were eggs, and bacon, a bit of buttered toast, a couple sausages, a few hash browns.
“Jonas, how am I supposed to eat all that?”
“Trust me, you will.”
Jonas walked over to Ezekiel, and dumped half a calf in front of him.
“There ya go Ez!”
‘Wow! I’ve never had this much to eat in one sitting before!’
'Me either Ez.’
“Enjoy you two!”
“Thanks again Jonas.”
I looked down at my food.
I stared at it.
I didn’t believe my eyes.
Then I started to eat.
10 minutes later, I had cleaned off my plate. That breakfast was the most amazing thing I had ever eaten. Ez had told me the same thing.
“Alright then. Josh, Ez, come with me and we’ll get you suited up.”
My dad had walked into the room and called out to us.
Ezekiel and I stood up, and followed my dad down the hallway labelled ‘Armoury’. When we reached the end of the hallway, there was a heavily armoured door that led to the armoury. My dad put in the password, scanned his thumb, scanned his eye and then spoke for the voice recognition. The door unlocked.
“Hey dad, why do we need this much security for the armoury?”
“We have experimental stuff in here that can’t afford to be stolen.
“Experimental stuff?”
“You’ll see.”
We walked into the armoury, and the first thing I saw was something that looked strangely like a Portal gun.
“Is that a-?”
“Yes.”
Then I saw something that looked strangely like a Gravity gun.
“And is that a-?”
“Yes.”
“How did you get-?”
“I can’t say.”
“Fair enough.”
We walked through countless desks, eventually coming to a wall with numerous things hanging on it.
“Josh, see that raised circle platform?”
“Yeah.”
“Go stand on it.”
I stood on the platform, and my dad called out.
“Ready?”
“For what?”
He didn’t respond, he just pulled a switch and some other things happened, I don’t really know.. What happened is still unclear to me, I could not remember a thing, but the next thing I knew, I was in some type of black and gold armour.
The machine stopped and my dad asked me a question.
“What do you think? We had it made as soon as you came here for the first time.”
“Uhh….”
’Uhh… Josh?’
“Well?”
“Won’t this like, restrict my movements, my fighting skills, you know, stuff like that.”
“No, it’s been designed to do just the opposite.”
“But if I’m ready, why do I need this… Whatever it is?”
“It’s just in case.”
“Explain.”
“First of all, it’s called the Combat Armour Thing, or CAT for short.”
“CAT? Was that on purpose?”
“Yes.”
“What the-“
“Don’t ask. So, it’s designed to not restrict any of your movements. The colouring is so that you can blend into the shadows if need be. There are places for everything, I assume you’ve already figured out that.”
There were pockets everywhere.
“It is also very good at protecting against stabbing and gun shots. If you get wounded it is able to heal you. It also has a lot of other features, I’ll go over that later.”
“What’s it made of?”
“Hm? Oh, it’s made of an element that is very hard to find. We call it Catnium.”
‘Of course.’
“It is very rare, so try not to damage the suit.”
“Okay. But wait, what about Ez? Does he need a-“
“He’s a dragon! Of course he doesn’t.”
“Makes sense.”
“Now Josh, follow me and we’ll get you all geared up.”
My dad beckoned me over to the wall with various things hanging on it.
“Hmm, let’s see. You’ll need this, this, this and, where is it? Ah yes!”
My dad grabbed a bunch of things and set them down on a table.
“Here we are. First thing, a wrist-mounted crossbow.”
“Wow.”
‘Yeah Josh, that is pretty amazing.’
“I assume you know how to use it, you’ve used similar things, right?”
“Yeah, I have.”
“Great, slip it on.”
I picked it up and slipped my hand into it. It was a perfect fit, I had no need to adjust anything.
“Okay, second thing. Two stun guns.”
“Okay.”
“Just stick them in the holsters there.”
I picked up the stun guns and put them in the holster on both sides.
“This, is an iDerp MKII. It can now disable security cameras, pick locks and do numerous other things that you will figure out.”
“Okay then Josh, let’s get you to that mission!”
‘Whoopee.’
‘You sound excited Josh.’
‘I am.’
***
“[censored]!”
‘[censored]?’
“Yes, [censored]!”
‘What did you do this time?’
“Well I… Hey! What do you mean ‘this time’?”
‘Heheh, you know what I mean.’
I let off a couple of mumbled angry words at Ezekiel.
“I seem to have tripped off an alarm.”
‘How do you know?’
“Because I can hear it.”
‘Really? I can’t hear anything.’
“Strange… Well, we’d best fulfill our objective before we get caught.”
‘Seems like a good idea.’
I had just sent an alarm off in one of the Noistarê’s bases.
Our mission was simple, gather some information from the computers, and then set the self-destruct up.
We were five minutes into the mission when I set off the alarm. Yeah, I was just that good back then.
“Hey, Ezekiel, there’s an air vent here labelled ‘Computer Room’. Where do you think it leads?”
‘I dunno, the computer room maybe?’
“How did you figure that out?”
If Ezekiel could have, he would have face-palmed at that moment.
“Well would you look at that, you won’t fit Ez. Must be all that food you’ve been eating lately.”
‘Hey!’
“What? All I said is you’ve been eating more lately.”
‘Hmph.’
“I’ll get through here and do what I can, you wait here and I’ll be back as soon as I’m done, six minutes at the most.”
‘Are you sure you’ll be fine?’
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
‘Well, you just sent off an alarm and-‘
“Yeah, yeah, I get what you’re trying to say. I’ll be back.”
I crawled into the vent. The metal was cold and hard. Maybe because it was metal. There were lots of side paths, branching off into other rooms, but I just kept going straight ahead, ignoring the side paths.
Eventually, I came to a dead end. I panicked, then looked down and saw that there was an opening into a room full of computers.
I dropped down into the computer room, and prepared to defend myself. There was no one in the room but me. That was strange, but I shrugged off the thought.
“Alright, let’s see here.”
I looked around the room.
There was one computer, connected to about 6 monitors. I found the computer tower, and was taken aback. It looked like something from 1998. I plugged in the Western Digital Elements™ Portable Hard Drive and the computer detected it after about 1 minutes.
I didn’t know what exactly to copy over, so I copy/pasted the contents of the computer’s hard drive onto the portable one.
After 3 hours, it finished, and I unplugged the Western Digital Elements™ Portable Hard Drive and hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete on the really old computer. I heard a really loud noise.
“SELF DESTRUCT INITIATED”
“Well that was easy.”
I jumped back into the vent, and made my way back to Ezekiel.
‘Josh! Are you hurt?’
“Nah, I’m fine. The twenty people that attacked me with rocket launchers had nothing on me.”
‘I’m finding it hard to believe you right now…’
“Good. Let’s get out of here!”
I ran out the way we came in, with Ezekiel close behind, and just as we were about to burst out the door, we were blocked by twenty of the Noistarê with rocket launchers.
Oh the irony.
“Ezekiel! Can you take on ten of them for me?”
‘Of course.’
“Alright then, let’s get this over with.”
“ONE MINUTE TO SELF-DESTRUCT”
“[censored].”
The Noistarê attacked and I’ll say it now, rocket launchers are hard to fight against.
I took out a couple in a few seconds with the wrist mounted crossbow, and then it jammed and I couldn’t get any more bolts in it.
I took out the dual stun guns and took out another two Noistarê. Only six to go.
Using a special function of the suit, I disabled three of The Noistarê’s rocket launchers, leaving them confused for a moment.
While they were confused, I took out the remaining Noistarê soldier with the only working rocket launcher with a blow to the head.
Before I could take out the last three Noistarê, Ezekiel stepped on them. Accidentally.
“Ez!”
‘What? Oh, oops.’
“Oops!?”
‘Guess I wasn’t looking where I was going.’
“You can say that again. Come on!”
We burst out of the base, and I got on Ezekiel and he flew off, just in time too. I watched in awe as the base underneath blew up.
‘So Ez, we did it.’
‘Yeah…’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing, I’m just amazed that we did it.’
‘Me too.’
Yeah, I know, it's really short, chapters are only ~1,000 words each, but it is my first attempt at anything like it.
Tell me what you think!
Really good!
Hehe..