another sort of test run for something before i post to ao3. i'll have costume designs and maybe a sneak peek at a few planned akumas posted to my tumblr, which you can find at the end!
Hanzo's nose was nearly flush with the dusty train window, body pressed uncomfortably close to the car's peeling wallpaper as his brother snoozed on his shoulder. Genji's body bridged their first-class seats and Hanzo propped his chin up on his wrist, eyes trained to the red rock outside the window that swallowed him with the rattle and shake of each passing mile, feeding on his own tiredness as it had his brother's. The landscape may as well have been Martian, as alien as it was - even the sky was orange, though he supposed that was more due to the late hour than the desert. Every little pink flower he spied sprouting from a jade cactus was a pang in his stomach that ached to return home against his father's wishes, but he was trapped on an old-fashioned train - still running on tracks, he couldn't believe it when they had boarded - headed into the heart of the barren desert. What his father saw in this place, this country even, was a mystery to him, but he would sooner go to hell than disobey the man that had raised him and earned his respect for his fearless leadership of the clan. Never before had he seen such an terror in the old man's eyes than when he herded his two sons into the back of an unmarked black car, windows tinted and headlights cut in the dark of midnight; the vision of the frantic goodbye still clung to Hanzo's mind, tainting his fond memories of the timid summer breezes in the courtyard of his childhood home as he tried desperately to recall them for comfort.
Bumping and lurching along its track, the train was blissfully unaware of his conflicts. Clouds of dust in the hues of a sunset danced around the great beast's wheels and puffed up around Hanzo's little looking glass to the outside world beyond the buzz of the air conditioning and his brother's sour breath on his cheek. He made a mental note to tell Genji to brush his teeth when they arrived at their temporary apartment, he had neglected to do so during their travels. Unlike his brother, seemingly, he was fed up with sleeping during the day, drawing shut the heavy curtains of cheap motel rooms and moonless nights of driving across the American continent until the omnic their father had left as their driver and guardian had finally produced train tickets to their final destination - Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Before they had left, his father had explained the choice, albeit briefly. Out of all of his dirty business connections halfway across the world, none was as loyal to the family as the Deadlock Gang that roamed the red desert of the Southwest. They were a pack of wild dogs, faithful to the last breath, and the leader of the Shimada had earned their trust long ago. He had not contacted them yet - for lack of knowledge of their swift departure, he claimed, but the gang knew his face, knew of Hanzo and Genji. They would be safe in America until order was restored to their home. Fraternizing with such a gang was not exactly Hanzo's idea of a good time, but he would do anything to put his father's mind at peace.
The sky had again taken to an inky color when the train finally scuttled into the station. Genji woke with a loud yawn and a lanky stretch of his bare arms, a smack of his dry lips and Hanzo rolled his eyes.
"Father's absence is no excuse to fall behind on your hygiene, brother," he scolded in Japanese as he stood from his seat with a much more reserved pop of his joints. Genji snickered and stood himself, blowing a puff of hot air at Hanzo's nose. The older boy faux-gagged and shoved Genji towards the train doors as he gathered their small amount of luggage. Their guardian was in storage a few cars back, which seemed a little unfair, but it had insisted.
The omnic rented a car for the short drive into town, and they traveled mostly in silence. Genji was awake, at least, but he kept his attention turned to the window, as did Hanzo. As much as he loved the classic look of his hometown, he had to admit the attraction of the architecture, ancient-looking stone cast in the soft yellow glow of street lamps made for a pleasant change of the scenery from the desert train ride - no two structures looked entirely the same, in fact, until they hit the city center.
As they entered the apartment nestled in one of the moderate high-rises, Hanzo realized with a drop in his stomach how well-prepared his father had been for an emergency such as this. It was fully furnished: a few thin carpets covered the pale wood of the floor and a sofa sat opposite a television in the parlor, a ring of keys to a car parked in the building garage on the kitchen counter. The apartment itself was pleasant enough, but it signalled a warning deep in his mind that their departure was not as impromptu as he had been lead to believe.
Genji ignored the lightly decorated living room and plowed through Hanzo with his suitcase, ducking his head into the two rooms down the hallway one by one as the omnic backed out of the doorway to return the rental car, informing them that it would return shortly.
"Yeah, yeah. Dibs on this one!" Hanzo fumbled out of his thoughts, following Genji's voice towards their bedrooms. He wandered through the open door to the unclaimed room and tucked his bags into the empty closet, then collapsed onto a plush white comforter tucked into the tall bed. The room itself was fairly plain, but a heavy pair of blue velvet drapes hung parted to reveal a small balcony overlooking the street and bustling city below, and the bed frame and dresser were a rich cherry-tinted wood reminiscent of his room back at the castle in Hanamura. Comfortable enough for an extended stay, but he was too tired to ponder the ramifications of that. Hanzo kicked off the pair of Genji's sneakers he had borrowed and burrowed himself under the blankets, passing out before remembering that Genji had not yet brushed his teeth.
A sliver of sunlight tickling Hanzo's eyes the next morning stirred him a few hours before noon - perhaps one benefit to sneaking across the country in a matter of days was the lack of jet lag. Abrasive fabric stuck to his collar and stomach as he squirmed under the heavy blankets, recalling that he had forgotten to remove his - or his brother's, rather - clothes before falling asleep. Genji's modern wardrobe was better suited to blending into the city, no matter how garish the colors. His own training armors and robes would look out of place even in the majority of their own country, so Genji's t-shirts and jeans it was, for the both of them.
Rolling out from under the covers and stumbling on his sleeping toes, Hanzo sludged to the door of his new room. Light from the balcony window forced his eyes shut to a squint as he cracked it open and made for the kitchen. As his vision adjusted to the waking world, he found Genji already slouched in the sofa with a granola bar in his mouth and a portable game in his hands; he turned as he heard the soft slip of Hanzo's socks across the wood floors.
"Who's falling behind on hygiene now, Hanzo?" Genji snorted through his breakfast, hopping to his feet already dressed for the day ahead. Hanzo grunted in a tired attempt at a sarcastic laugh, but his brother had always been the morning person. The omnic was in the kitchen, and as he rounded the island counter it placed a white mug of black coffee in front of him. He settled into a barstool and Genji bounced up into the one next to him. "It's instant, there isn't a lot of food. New Dad said it'll get groceries while we're touring the local school."
"Mmf," Hanzo groaned, resting his face in his arms on the counter. He considered taking a sip of the coffee, but he didn't want to burn his tongue. Besides, he preferred tea, and New Dad would- wait. "What did you call it?" Hanzo sat up stock straight again as Genji burst into a fit of giggles.
"New Dad! Since we'll probably never see father again," his brother repeated, more solemn but the grin remained, brushing an anxious hand through his spring-green locks and fingering at where the dye was beginning to fade.
"Don't..." Hanzo began, slumping into himself. "Don't say that." Genji didn't reply that time, but snaked a hand across the counter to grab Hanzo's mug. He took a long sip and sighed.
"We can talk about it some other time," He sized up Hanzo's wrinkled outfit. "C'mon." Genji set the mug back down and dropped from the stool back onto his feet, tugging his brother towards their bedrooms.
Hanzo groaned in protest but allowed himself to be jerked along and shoved into his own room, followed by a pair of jeans and a fresh shirt Genji had picked before he had woke. His own door slammed behind him.
"Be careful!" He whined at the loud noise, which was followed by another bout of Genji's airy laughter. Stripping his sweaty clothes and wishing he had more time to shower properly, he changed into the clothes his brother had provided. Despite Genji being a year younger, the jeans were a tad long on his ankles, even with their high waistband. The little green imp had managed to grow taller than Hanzo years earlier, and he had never caught back up. He brushed his fingers through his long hair hurriedly, gathering it into a smooth ponytail at his neck.
Quiety, Hanzo clicked his door back open to find his brother waiting for him on the other side, leaning up against the wall. He scrunched his heavy brows for a moment, then reached in to tuck Hanzo's light blue top into the hem of his jeans.
"Even better than yesterday," Genji grinned and tossed a light jacket across the hall for Hanzo to catch. If Genji found comfort in picking his clothes, Hanzo couldn't find it in himself to complain. He remembered his father's tight grip on his wrist as he was shoved into the car, begging for him to take good care of his little brother, keep him happy - the memory sent a jolt of ice down his spine and he shivered, slipping the jacket over his arms. The front door clicked open and snapped Hanzo back to the present.
"I'll be right back," he assured the omnic and Genji as he dipped back into his room for a moment, returning with a folded umbrella.
"Are you serious?" Genji quirked a brow. "We're in the middle of the desert!"
"I read the forecast online," Hanzo defended, looping it around his wrist. With what little control he seemed to have over his life at the moment, the very least he could do was be prepared for anything.
Their new school was a sunny few minute's walk away from the apartment, which Hanzo was grateful for. He didn't want kids asking questions about the new students' fancy car and high-class omnic help. Attending a public school at all had been Hanzo's idea in the first place - holing up and wasting away inside with homeschool lessons just wasn't as pleasant anywhere but their true home at Shimada castle. Genji had vouched for it, as well, he had always had a fondness for cowboy stories as a child, what use was living in that very Southwest if he didn't get to meet a few?
Genji's wish was granted as soon as they stepped into a small office down the school's main hall. Leaning back casually in a chair tucked into the modest desk was a boy capped with a classic Stetson and a burgeoning scruffy beard, rocking back with his leather boots propped up on the desk. He didn't even glance back at the two as they clicked the door shut, but he dropped back to his feet as the other door in the room opened and in came a hulking blonde man. The man shot a warning look at the boy in the chair, who stared coolly back, flicking a lollipop stick between his teeth.
"Jesse, I've told you to keep your feet off of my desk," the blonde was clad in a finely pressed formal shirt as blue as his eyes, and his tall form thumped down into the chair on the other side of the desk.
"Whoops," the cowboy finally looked over to the two brothers, silent in a corner of the office. He winked up at Hanzo, folding one leg over the other.
Hanzo blinked in surprise, then scowled and averted his eyes. Boys were Genji's frivolities, not his. Jesse shrugged and turned back to the principal, straightening the lapel of his dusty riding jacket. Genji shanked his elbow into Hanzo's rib.
"Don't be rude," he snickered in Japanese, but Hanzo remained silent, rubbing the bruise gently.
"Your filthy boots are not what you are here to discuss, at any length," the blonde man reminded Jesse. Hanzo spied a name placard on his desk and in the glinting sunlight from the window, he could just make out 'Jack Morrison'. Jack cleared his throat as Jesse feigned insult, polishing his boots with his knuckles. "Luckily for you, I've got more urgent matters to attend to, and they are ten minutes early," he gestured towards Hanzo and Genji.
"Thanks, guys," Jesse lurched to his feet and gave a curt nod towards the brothers as he made to leave.
"Not so fast," Jack stood again, and if he looked more than a little smug as Jesse stopped short and his shoulders sank, Hanzo ignored it. "You can wait here while I give these nice boys a tour of the school."
Jess let out a long, puppy-like whine as he collapsed back into the wooden chair. Hanzo snickered behind a hand as the principal lead them out of his office.
"Can't I join ya?" the delinquent cowboy offered hopefully, but the door slammed on his request.
After a monotonous history of the public school's building and an overly detailed tour, the brothers were back on the streets, though they were no longer so sunny. Hanzo smiled smugly as he popped his little umbrella open in the rolling downpour. Genji reluctantly joined him beneath it and they set off.
Hanzo tuned into the sounds of the rain as Genji gushed about that cute boy in the office, how if he wasn't going to go after him, someone else would have to, in reference to himself. The water thumped a bass sound into his umbrella, squelched in the dust below his sneakers and snaked down the surrounding buildings. He could hear the pleasant tap of his own feet, his brother's, and another unidentified pair. With the streets mostly bare, it was easy to pick out a squat old man, hair white and hide like tanned leather, speckled with moles. His thin wisps of hair and beard dripped down him like white water as he stumbled through the road with a wooden cane. As though he felt Hanzo's curious gaze, he looked up. Their eyes met for a moment before the man's frail body came tumbling down to the ground, splashing in the puddles.
Genji gave a noncommittal hiss of sympathy, then a squeak of surprise when Hanzo changed direction without thinking, picking up the pace to a trot until he could kneel at the man's side.
"Bless you," he mumbled weakly as Hanzo offered a hand under the dry of his umbrella and lifted him back to his feet.
"It's no trouble," Hanzo assured. Once the man was standing again, Hanzo slipped the rubber grip of the umbrella into his fingers, wrinkled and knotted like tree roots. The man adjusted his rain-spotted glasses to look back up at Hanzo, then nodded and patted his arm in thanks. Genji whined from the other side of the sidewalk as Hanzo returned to his side, hiking his jacket up to cover his hair as they sprinted the short distance back to the lobby of the high rise.
"Awful good heart you have for the heir to a criminal empire," Genji rolled his eyes and gave his back a light slap once they were safely out of the rain.
The next morning, Genji woke Hanzo, rather than the sun. A delicate poke to his cheek, followed by a sudden robbery of his blankets, had him on his feet in seconds.
Like it had promised, the omnic had purchased enough groceries to sustain the boys for a while, and a small breakfast was already prepared when Hanzo sleepily toddled to the kitchen, still in his pajamas. He had stayed up later than he would like to admit the night before, fretting over his father back home and to a lesser extent, their first day of school. A warm cup of tea promised momentary relief - it's not quite the same as back home when it washes down his throat, but similar enough for a pang of homesickness to grip his neck. False advertising, but he kept drinking.
Despite the previous day's downpour, the steps to the school were dry by the time Hanzo and Genji reached them. A few lingering students meandered up and down, but as he climbed, Hanzo's eyes were drawn upwards. Lounging nonchalantly in front of a set of double-doors was the same boy they'd seen in the principal's office, staring intently right back down at the sidewalk. Before Hanzo could be angry, he followed Jesse's gaze to a loose trio of other students a few feet away. Jeers and shouts could be heard, and a soft plea for mercy after each aborted shove two gave towards the other.
Hanzo looked back up to Jesse. His brows were furrowed, teeth ground together as he sat still, face contrasting the laid-back position his body held up against the side of the school. Eyes followed every move of the little group, and the moment one of the outer ring laid his hands on the shortest boy, all the tension in his body erupted.
"Knock it off!" Jesse sprang to his feet, fists clenched as he ducked under the stair railing to reach the boys and push aside two of the bigger ones, dragging their victim out by his arm. The smaller one sighed in relief as Jesse blocked him off. As he came into view, Hanzo realized that he couldn't have been much older than twelve, hugging the very same weighty textbooks that Hanzo held in his own bag to his chest.
Deep in the school building, an alarm buzzed. Genji reacted first, tugging at Hanzo's jacket sleeve as he stood, mildly entranced as Jesse chewed out the bullies.
"Hanzo, please! We'll be late!" his brother whined as Hanzo neglected to follow. At Genji's words, Jesse glanced over his shoulder at them. Now that he had caught the vigilante's gaze, Hanzo lowered his head and scurried towards the door with Genji at his side. Even from inside the building, he could still hear Jesse shouting expletives at the boys, daring them to pick on someone their own size. Though the cowboy was still a mite shorter than both of them, Hanzo had an inkling of thought that they would still be picking a losing fight. He chuckled internally as he neared the classroom the principal had shown him the day before - perhaps the 'delinquent' was more than what had met his eye.
The cowboy had saved him this time, but he might not be there the next day - he hadn't been there the day before. Winston sighed heavily as Jesse herded the two upperclassmen inside the building, in relief or defeat even he couldn't say. When he had been offered the chance to move into accelerated classes at the high school, skipping multiple grades at a time, he had leapt at the opportunity. His head had been filled with dreams of graduating early, moving on to working with the national space program like he'd wanted since he was old enough to talk. What he hadn't considered were the social ramifications - he had no way to deal with boys twice his size picking on him besides hoping for the occasional mercy from a passerby or teacher. No matter how early he snuck in, they found him, pestering and pursuing him until retreating to avoid being late. Sometimes he wished he was their size, just for a day - he'd smack some respect into them, damn the consequences.
"Why stop with them? I can make you big enough to smack plenty of sense into anyone or anything you wish."
Winston looked up in surprise, scanning the area. The late bells had already rung; he was alone outside, as far as he could see.
"Who said that?" he wondered suspiciously, giving the sky a good once-over as well.
"I am the Reaper, little boy, and you are now my beast," the disembodied voice whispered, gravelly and low. Its tone indicated that this was fact - not up for discussion.
"I'm not so sure I-," Winston's voice was cut off by a tightness in his throat, he gagged and collapsed to his knees, chest throbbing as his vision went dark.
Hanzo was absentmindedly playing with a lock of his own hair, faintly listening to the teacher outline a concept he had learned years earlier in his homeschooling, when the classroom went dark. A girl screamed from the back corner, and a few boys laugh until the announcement system crackled to life.
"This is not a drill. Commence lockdown procedures! An unidentified creature is outside the building!" he recognized the panicked voice of the burly blonde principal, even through the low quality audio relay. The students fell silent and the teacher rushed to the windows to draw the blinds. She's not quite fast enough, and before the crackly plastic draws over the final pane, a horrifying face peered inside.
It's hard to see through the glare in its fishbowl helmet, but it appeared to be a mass of living tar, speckled with festering stars and galaxies. They squirmed and swirled in its gaping maw as it gave a mighty roar that shook the very building. This time, there were significantly more screams. The same liquid made up its entire form, from dagger-like teeth dripping with celestial drool to its writhing tongue, making for a display as disgusting as it was terror-inducing. Hanzo stood quietly from his seat while the rest of the class was distracted with the beast and slipped out the door as he felt his stomach churn and his breakfast bubble in his throat. Some realistic nightmare, this was. He made swiftly for the bathrooms across the hall; even in a dream he would prefer to avoid vomiting on the classroom floor.
After a thorough rinse of his mouth with the lukewarm water from the sink tap, Hanzo reached inside his bag for the cheap cell phone the omnic had given him the night before, intending to check up on dream-Genji. Before the smooth plastic of the phone, though, his fingertips brushed a fine wooden box.
"Odd," he murmured, sliding it out into the dim lighting from a frosted window on the wall. Octagonal in shape, black with red and gold accents painted a distinctly eastern design - not the type of thing he would expect to find in the deserts of North America, certainly. When he pops the lid open, he's greeted with a puff of dust and stale-smelling air, which he blows away with a breath of his own air. Inside rests a golden silk ribbon, folded pristinely. Its fishscale pattern glints in the low light, and Hanzo reaches down to run a forefinger along it. The moment his skin brushes the ancient silk, blue smoke erupts from somewhere within it. Startled, Hanzo tosses the box up, and it lands in the sink.
"Careful with that!" an offended voice scolds, and Hanzo squeaks in surprise, whipping around to look for the speaker. He comes eye-to-eye with a miniature blue dragon floating in mid-air, long and lean with a beard and horns. Its tiny claws scrabble at the air as it bounds on top of his shoulder and launches off it, landing in the sink next to the box.
"S-sorry," Hanzo lifts the box gently in two hands. "This is becoming an awfully strange dream..."
"This is no dream, my Dragonfly," the little beast floats from the sink and brings its miniscule fangs down into the flesh of his thumb.
"Ow! That-" Hanzo's eyes widen. "Hurt?"
"Do you believe me?" the dragon blinks its eyes tiredly as Hanzo nods his head vigorously, breathing beginning to hitch.
"That thing outside is real?"
"Of course," It coolly drifts to sit atop the ribbon. "I am Toyoll, a Kwami. If you so wish, I will grant you the power to stop the it." The dragon's voice is more serious as it makes its offer.
"Excuse me? Stop it?" he nearly chokes on his own spit. "I could hardly look at it!"
"Quite unfortunate," Toyoll yawned.
"Can't you ask-" but the Kwami cut him off.
"No, no. No one else," it waved its paw at him, scoffing. "You have been chosen. Either you accept these powers, or the monster will run free and destroy this city."
"Those aren't very fair choices..." he murmurs, and the dragon flits up to sit on his shoulder.
"Hurry and decide, boy, that thing is wreaking havoc as we speak!" Toyoll stopped still for a moment, then clawed at a loose strand of hair. "Once you put the ribbon on, there's no turning back, but gold is definitely a good color for you," it smirked.
"As if I didn't know that..." Hanzo tried his best to laugh back, but his fingers shake over the soft surface of the magic ribbon. He was duty-bound to keep his brother safe while their father fixed the clan's affairs - if that meant protecting him and the rest of the town from a horrifying slime monster, then so be it.
"Just say, 'transform me'."
He reached up to tie the ribbon into his ponytail, thin fabric almost buzzing between his fingers.
"T-transform me?" he stuttered, squeezing his eyes shut. As the knot in the ribbon tightens, Toyoll disappears, and he feels a cool, cleansing wave wash over his body.
"Jesse, stay here while I check the hallway for stragglers, okay?" Jack's voice is panicked as he dug through his desk drawers for a flashlight. Jesse nodded, speechless, as he stares at the creature's body through the window. Its feet were the size of cars, leaving dents in the grassy field out back. It had materialized out of seemingly thin air just a few minutes after the principal had busted him for cursing and yelling at those bullies - sometimes it felt like Jack had a vendetta against him.
"Let me out! Hey!" a muffled voice from the ground caught his attention as the door slammed shut.
"Who..." he furrowed his brows as he peeked over the desk and found nobody.
"In your bag, dumbass!"
"Rude," Jesse grimaced and popped his messenger bag open. A blur of orange-brown fur came hurling out, flinging itself onto the brim of his hat.
"The box, the box!" it urged, and Jesse spied an unfamiliar box among his books.
"What's with the rush?" he wondered as he lifted it to eye level, peering along the red and gold designs.
"We're late!" the fur peeked down over his hat, and Jesse could finally see a long snout and whiskers. It looked a bit like a scruffy dog, if dogs were the size of fat caterpillars. "Can't leave your partner waiting!"
"Pardner?" Jesse clicked the box open.
"Part. Ner," the dog repeated, deadpan, clearly unamused with his drawl. Inside the box lay a garishly large vanity belt buckle, bearing the acronym BAMF.
"God, that's awful," Jesse chuckled, lifting it and dropping the box to the desk unceremoniously to give it a better look over. "This for me?"
"Not so fast! If you put on that buckle, you are accepting the duty of protecting this city from monsters!" the pup tumbled from the brim of his hat down to his shoulder. "I am Wenndi, and I can give you magical powers if you choose to-"
"Hell yeah!" Jesse's eyes widened.
"Oh. You... Really?" Wenndi seemed confused, blinking. "It's a full time job, you know. No going back."
"I get it, I know," Jesse waved the words off. "I'm down! Let's go! Can't keep that partner you mentioned waitin'."
"Right, right," Wenndi sighed. "Well, then, Coyote. Just say 'transform me'," the cowboy nodded as he finished fastening the buckle to his belt.
"Transform me?" the tiny dog vanished, and an invigorating fire rushed down his limbs.
"Hey!" A loud bark from the ground caught Dragonfly's attention as he watched the monster turn its attention away from the school and towards the rest of the city, ignoring him completely. From a wider perspective, it's easy to see that the soupy monster is contained in a white space suit. A figure leapt up on the roof of the school, stumbling up next to him. "Damn, that's gonna take some gettin' used to," He chuckled. "So, I figured you're probably my partner, right?" He offered a hand.
"Partner?" Dragonfly's eyes lit up. "I don't have to defeat it alone?" He tentatively placed his right hand, decked in a fingerless glove, into the man's own leather-clad fingers.
"'Course not! Coyote, at your service. And, you are?" he gave a slight tip of his Stetson with a grin, an excited glint in his masked eyes as he sized up his new partner. Blue horns sprouted from his head, along with the tail of a serpentine predator at his hips. A tight black braid fell down his back, fanned by a delicate golden scarf, and an intricate swirl of scaley ink peeked from his bare shoulder. "Well, damn lovely, for one thing," Coyote gave a soft whistle, and the skin below the soft dusting of blue and gold scales on Dragonfly's cheeks glowed pink. He pursed his lips and withdrew his hand, swiveling back towards the lumbering beast tearing up the road into downtown.
"Aw, what's wrong?" Coyote pouted. Dragonfly was silent as he brought the delicate bow on his back forward, and Coyote mirrored with the silver revolver at his hip.
"I am not here to flirt with you," Dragonfly mumbled, pulling back his empty bowstring and taking aim at the monster's massive back, and an arrow forms from thin air as he releases. The magic weapon is similar enough in weight and give to his bow back in Hanamura, one that he loved to spend long hours practicing with when he had finished his studies for the day. A fondness for this new weapon crept into his skin and he grips it a little tighter.
"Don't mean I can't," Coyote gave the gun a spin, testing its weight.
"Watch out!" Dragonfly grabbed onto the royal blue bandana around Coyote's neck as the great, slow beast very suddenly crashed its fat hand into the roof of the school and leapt into the air to avoid it. The two landed on the demolished road.
"Phew! You done this before, darlin'?"
"No!" Dragonfly barked, exasperated, and jumped up onto the building across the street, scaling the face of it. The creature took another swing, stomping its foot into where Coyote had stood moments before for leverage. Just before the fist hits, Dragonfly hopped to the roof of the building, letting the monster slam its knuckles into the concrete and windows. The massive white glove is trapped for a moment, and Dragonfly prayed silently for it to stick. To no avail, though, as it is ripped right back out, no worse for the wear. In comes the glove again, smacking flat against the roof Dragonfly stands atop. He dodged with another leap, but his timing was off and he landed on the back of its hand. Coyote made his way back to the roof of the school, skipping over the widening hole above the middle of the hallway. He took careful aim with his revolver, this time at the fishbowl helmet rather than the larger target of the monster's back as Dragonfly sprinted across its arm. Luckily, it's too sluggish to shake the hero before he reached the relative safety of the beast's shoulder.
A spidery crack in the glass echoes loudly as Coyote took his first shot, hitting the helmet dead center, and the slime gives a great bellow, loud enough to shake Dragonfly's balance momentarily. It swung for him again, but he dashes to its other shoulder, letting the fist smash into the fishbowl. Dragonfly's eyes widened as he saw the solution in the webby pattern of breaks in the helmet.
"Coyote! Weaken the glass!" he shouted into his hand, and Coyote nodded vigorously, seeing the plan as well. He popped another four shots into the helmet, spreading the cracks all around the front. Inevitably, it goes in for another swing, and Dragonfly dodged yet again, pulling a second weapon off of his back: a long golden sword. He stabs it into the already-softened glass, weakening it further. Knuckles hit the middle of the five gunshots and slashes, and finally smash through the bowl entirely. Again, the creature roared, but this time its huge body crashed into the road, motionless save for the slime oozing its way out of the helmet.
As the space suit fell, Dragonfly lost his balance on its shoulder. Coyote jumped to his rescue, sliding out underneath his falling body just in time to catch him in his arms.
"I'm not all that useless, am I?" he grinned and set the blushing dragon back on his feet as he sheathed the sword and draws back the string of his bow again. Words bubbled to his lips as the awful sticky beast makes to jump upon and eat them, drooling more stars than are visible in the city sky.
"Ryuu ga waga teki wo kurau!"
The arrow formed by the shout was engulfed in a magnificent blue flame, and from it burst forth two mystical dragons much like the Kwami he had met earlier. They rushed at the slime and dove down its throat, ripping it to shreds like it was paper rather than a gelatinous beast. It melted away with a faint shriek, and to the heroes' surprise, a young boy remained unconscious on the ground where it had vanished.
Dragonfly dashed forwards and lifted the child's head into his lap - he could feel weak breath on his wrist. The boy had simply fallen asleep from the exertion.
When he looked up from the crumpled body, he's amazed to find that his dragons had not only freed the boy, but repaired the extensive damage he had done; the school roof, high rise windows, even the dents in the school field were as good as new.
"Mighty useful trick that is, doll," Coyote whistled, sauntering up behind Dragonfly and the boy as the dragons came to rest by his sides, fading into a soft blue mist. He could almost hear the man scowl as he comes closer.
"I am not your 'doll'," the dragon rose to his feet and thrust the child at Coyote. "Return this boy to his parents.
Coyote nodded, grabbing the kid under his armpits and hiking him up on his hip. Dragonfly turns away, making to leave.
"Hey, wait!" Coyote whined. "You gotta tell me your name, at least, partner!" The raven-haired serpent sighed in defeat.
"You may call me Dragonfly," he said with a tiny smile, then takes a running leap and scaled the face of one of the newly-repaired buildings.
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