The world Xanadu. It was meant to be a paradise for everything, anything, anyone, and everyone. There is much diversity and beauty in this virtual world, which is made to look similar to Earth.
In fact, this was meant to be our second Earth, for when the end comes for the planet, all things will live on in Xanadu, titled Project: New Earth. But not to worry, the end is far from here. This project was also in arms with the infamous Project Carthage, with two different sets of people working on the two projects working side by side.
Along with Xanadu's creation came Matrix: the main control brain of Xanadu. However, due to Waldo Shaeffer's continuous trips into the past and Xana and Matrix having a link to one another, both programs gained an independence.
Waldo pleaded with the people of Xanadu to help him aid in the fight against Xana. However, they could not intervene because Matrix had grown far too strong for them to handle already, and if Xana and Matrix were to come together as one, then all hell would break loose. And if that were the case, both Waldo Shaeffer and the Xanadu people would be the ones to blame for this terrible occurrence, so they refused.
Ever since Matrix had gained it's independence, the Xanadians have trained and fought their hardest in hopes that one day, this mess will be all over and in the past.
Matrix, ever since then, has made monsters of his own of all shapes, sizes, and abilities, but one day, he decided that this was not enough. Matrix then started to take people's bodies and erase their memories. There wasn't anything anyone could do at the first time of this occurrence, but in some cases, the person possessed is able to fight off the darkness in them. But for others, in which the power was too great for them, remained prisoners to Matrix forever. These warriors for Matrix are known as Taxxons.
Aiding in the fight against Matrix is King Gregory, Queen Olivia, and Princess Solana, royalty of Xanadu. There is also Prince Dalton, but he has been artificially made to be a Xanadu A.I., and the 'son' of Gregory and Olivia. Some years later, Gregory and Olivia's blood child was born: Solana.
Every Xanadu warrior is required to have the DNA of a certain animal in their forms and to have a certain element as their power, due to it having a much more greater effect in battle compared to just fighting only with weapons or melee style. Every warrior must pass an initiation test in order to know what type of element and animal is most compatible with, not only their fighting and skill, but with their personalities as well.
The most powerful Xanadu warrior to date is Dalton, since he has the power of the Dragon's Flame and has been fused with the possible DNA prediction of a white dragon. The Dragon's Flame is a power made by the king and queen for Dalton so that he could be can lead the Xanadu Warriors into victory. However, since it's the most powerful of the fire types, Matrix has it's eyes on it to make it his own.
But one day, Solana wanted this power after seeing Dalton train. Since Solana had already picked out her animal before being fused with the DNA of the animal of her choice, the Gray Wolf, so the young one thought to herself 'why not have the same power Dalton has?'
"Mom, dad?" Solana asked her loving parents. "You know how you said that I should think about what I want my powers to be?"
"Yes, sweetie." Olivia said, petting Solana's head. "Have you decided yet?"
"Well, uhmm, yeah." Solana took in a breath out of her nervous anticipation. "I want Dalton's powers."
Both Olivia and Gregory exchanged shocked looks to each other, then back to their daughter. "You mean, the Dragon's Flame?" Gregory asked.
Solana nodded, completely sure with her decision.
Olivia then knelt down to Solana's height. "Solana, are you sure you want to go through with having the Dragon's Flame as your choice of power? It's a big responsibility to handle, and you could get hurt using it."
Solana kept persisting, sure in her decision. "Yes, mom. I want the Dragon's Flame as my power. I'll do whatever it takes. I promise!"
The king and queen then exchanged looks and turned away from their daughter to whisper their thoughts on the predicament, leaving Solana to ponder what their decision would be.
"We can't just give her the Dragon's Flame like that," Gregory stated. "She could get hurt and it would put her life on the line!"
"I know, Greg." Olivia responded in a shushed voice. "But she's done a very excellent job in her initiation training, and she's very responsible for her age."
"But Olivia, what about Matrix? He's going to end up stealing it from her, and then what?"
"Don't worry," Olivia came closer to her husband's ear. "Both you and I have an essence of the Dragon's Flame in our forms. So in a way, it's sort of like a back-up plan in case it gets stolen."
Gregory paused, then let out a heavy sigh. He then nodded, in which the king and queen then came back to their daughter for their verdict.
"Okay, Solana. We've both decided that you are responsible enough to handle the Dragon's Flame." Olivia came out with her and Gregory's say on the matter.
Solana grinned happily, and jumped up to give her father a joyful hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much!" Solana then turned to her mother and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Don't worry, I won't let you down."
"Of course you won't. We believe in you." Gregory said with a smile as he embraced Solana and Olivia in a group hug.
The next day, Solana, Dalton, Olivia, Gregory, and some technical assistants were in the Fusion Room of the Xanadu Castle. This room is where the Xanadu Warriors go to after they've completed their initiation training and choose their animal DNA and elemental powers.
Inside this room there are five cylinder shaped chambers that faced upwards on top of a thick, large pedestal with stairs in the center along with an array of computers on the sides of the pedestal and on the walls. The color all around consisted of a light blue, with the computers being a neutral silver.
"Solana, are you sure you want to go through with this?"
Solana gave out a nod to her concerned parents and brother with a determined shine in her pupiless Columbia blue eyes.
Olivia then placed her hand on Gregory's shoulder and looked up at him with her Hunter green eyes. "Greg, she's ready." Olivia's voice rang inside his conscience, reminding him to let go of the reigns this one time.
When Solana stepped inside the chamber in the center, she looked at the others in front of her who were outside the pedestal sidelines. She was nervous, and she could feel the same vibe coming from her parents. But from Dalton, she couldn't tell what was racing through his mind, what with the serious look on his face and his practically colorless eyes, with just the faintest hint of green in them.
When the technicians gave the queue that it was time for the Power Bonding Process, Solana was instantly enclosed in the translucent chamber and was engulfed in a bright white light.
Wow, Solana thought. I never thought it would be so warm in here.
As Solana looked down, she began to notice that small flames were starting to appear on her body, which started to become more apparent by each passing second. The Dragon's Flame. I think I can feel it….
And right in front of her eyes, an image came to her. Of a dragon's head, colored red, orange, and yellow with piercing white eyes which seemed to be staring right into the young girl. Am I dreaming? Is that… the Xanadu Dragon?
"Power bondage to the Dragon's Flame with Solana is currently at forty-five percent," A technician at the computer counted. "forty-six percent, forty-seven percent, forty-eight percent, forty-nine-"
But then, he was instantly cut off by a loud booming noise, which caused everyone in the room to look around to try to see the cause of the noise.
What? What's going on? Solana's concerned and scared face reflected.
Then, a huge cloud of dark, black smoke came and filled the entire Fusion Room, making the people inside cough and try to hold in their breath. But once the fog cleared, the silhouette of three figures appeared.
"Well well well, looks like there's another keeper of the Dragon's Flame among the Xanadu Royals." The conniving voice of a male said, still in the shadow of the smoke.
Who are they? Solana thought. And what do they want?
As the fog disappeared, the three faces became clear. The trio consisted of two women and the male that was the first to talk.
The women wore tight and revealing clothing such as corsets, short skirts, and long skirts with a large gap on the side of the leg. The girl on the far left had short, black hair with a side bang that covered the left of two of her visible red eyes. The other had wavy, midnight blue hair and blunt bangs which the length of the hair reached to her shoulders.
The male had on a dark red suit with a cloak that had black on the outside and red on the inside. He had dark brown hair with sunken in black eyes that spoke of trouble.
He is known as Kuro, formerly known as Caleb, a Taxxon Commander, and his henchmen Amari, former name Nella, and Tika, formerly Jane.
"Kuro! What are you doing here?" Gregory nearly screamed, but also trying to keep his composure at the same time.
"A little birdie told us that there would be another flame carrier, so we thought that we would come and do you a favor and offer you kindly to give the partial flame to us." Kuro said sneakily with a sly smirk on his face.
What? What do they want with the Dragon's Flame? Solana thought, her body completely stiff with fear.
Gregory grimaced at the sheer thought of it.
"None of us here are going to even think about stooping down to your level, Kuro!" Olivia glared at the Taxxon Commander in disgust.
"Well, it's still nice to see that you're still the same fiesty lady from before," Kuro flirted with the Xanadu Queen.
"Don't you even dare Kuro!" Gregory pointed at him, as a gesture to stay away from his wife.
Kuro's usual sadistic grin began to come back on his thin, pale face. This caused Gregory and Olivia to exchange looks to one another in solemn awe, wondering what Kuro and his henchmen were planning to do this time around. As far as evil went, Kuro was all over the place, trying one new idea after another. In a way, nobody knew what would come next after he launched a plan, which either lead in failure or success.
Kuro sighed, and proceeded to step forward to the group. "Look, I know that the Dragon's Flame is everything to you. It's also an important artifact to Xanadu as well. You, your lovely wife,"
At this time, he attempts to kiss Olivia's hand, but she swipes it away before his finger could get to hers.
"and your beautiful children all have a piece of it inside of them and you. And if all four pieces were united as one, it would create the Xanadu Dragon, the celestial being in this fancy digital world. But what if the Xanadu Dragon were to die in one instant swoop? What will happen then? If only you had some sort of backup copy so that this sort of situation wouldn't happen. That is, unless you give us the Dragon's Flame, clone it, and give the original back to you. No harm will be done to the dragon and you can always turn to us for a back up. Now, what do you say to that? You do realize that you can't turn down that kind of offer, right?"
There was a moment of complete silence within the Fusion Room. They couldn't possibly believe this bogus lie, right? This was Kuro they were thinking about, part of the enemy.
As Solana remained completely silent, Kuro's face came into contact with hers. Kuro's smile came back, which started to send chills up the young girls' spine. "Or better yet," Kuro came up to the chamber Solana was in, and used a smoke ball to free her from the tight space. When Solana came out, she was taking in a deep breath and running for her parents and Dalton. "You can just, oh, I don't know, hand over you're part of the Dragon's Flame?" Kuro knelt down to Solana's height. "What do say, little girl?"
The young Solana only hid behind Dalton, while at the same time giving Kuro a grouchy expression.
Dalton saw her little sister and put his hand on her head. "See? She doesn't want to give up her part of the Dragon's Flame." Dalton defended.
Kuro then got up to his full height, hiding his disapproval in the process. "Well, if that's how you want to play it, looks like we'll have to do this the hard way."
Gregory and Olivia stared at Kuro in confusion while Dalton's determined face predicted the possible outcomes.
Then from out of his cloak came black smoke rings, which instantly attached to anyone in its way, wrapping onto the Xanadu Royals and the technicians with their arms attached to their sides.
"Don't even try breaking free from those with your powers. Because it just so happens that an electrical shock will be waiting for you in the end." Tika informed the people about the rings.
As everyone tried to break free, Kuro had his grin out again, this time to his henchmen, who seemed to already know what Kuro had in mind of doing. "Amari, Tika. Grab the girl." He commanded as pointed to the young Solana, with a singe of fear on her face.
Amari and Tika did as they were told, and grabbed the young one by her upper arms, and proceeded to drag her out of the room.
"Wh-what are gonna do to me?" Solana said in a spooked voice. Her widened eyes further expressed her fearful mood.
"Why, it's simple, little girl." Amari said.
"We're taking the fire inside of you." Tika further explained, her voice more slimier than Amari's.
Kuro then turned to the King and Queen. "See? I told you that we would have to do this the hard way, now would we?" Kuro raised an eyebrow in victory.
Queen Olivia felt like crying right there on the spot. She couldn't bear the thought of her own daughter becoming a Taxxon. Olivia felt weak, but she knew that she had to do something. But what?
"Wait!" Olivia shouted to the three Taxxons. "Take me instead!"
Solana turned around, her face even more fearful this time. Olivia, having not realized what she had offered to do, was in fear herself. But she continued to talk.
"In case you forgot, I myself also have some of the Dragon's Flame in me. So, if you must take someone from here, then take me." Olivia bowed her head down.
"M-mom…" Solana studdered, almost about to cry from the unexpected outcome.
Kuro turned around to face Olivia, then back to her daughter. "Hmmm.." he pondered.
After a short moment of thinking, Kuro turned to the other two Taxxons with him. "Amari, Tika… take the queen instead. I can tell that she clearly possesses more power than this little runt."
Solana plopped to the ground as Tika and Amari let go of her and followed the commander's orders to take Queen Olivia. Olivia just followed Amari and Tika to the door.
"Mom!" Solana shouted to her mother. "You can't go! You just can't! I won't let them do this to you mom!" Solana's tears came down slow, but to her, they felt like icicles on her skin.
Olivia was then given the chance to have some last words with her daughter. She knelt down to Solana and bushed off her tears with her pointer finger.
"Look, Solana. I know that you're very upset right now. But I have to do what's right for the kingdom. You're the princess, and that means you'll eventually have to make decisions like these when your older as well. I'll always love you, Dalton, and your father. And nothing's ever going to change that, even if I'm far away."
"Yeah, yeah, quit the lovey-dovey shmuck and let's get this show on the road." Amari intervened and tugged Olivia's arm as a signal to go with the Taxxons.
Solana managed to get one last look at her loving mother, whom she probably won't see for some time.
Solana continued to cry, but this time, the tears were harder, and more cold with melancholy. She then felt the warm prescence of her brother beside her, and she instantly latched into his arms.
"We'll get mom back. I promise."