Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Booster or the Deltora book series, or Storm Hawks. I only own my own characters.
Edna
The noises of fighting where courtesy of me and Dashyr. We were rounding a corner, heading for the part of Penn stables were Riza and Ryfen were, when we were attacked blindly from the dark. A sudden movement was my first warning. Then I was bowled over by someone heavy. I heard Dashyr and another dragon roar. Scratched in several places on my bare arms from the rough pavement, I planted a solid punch on my attacker's face with a angry battle cry. I heard a crack and the person-human, judging from the outline- reeled backward on his knees, holding his face. Remembering Dashyr's roar, I looked in his direction, getting to my feet.
Dashyr had been hounded into one of the stable stalls. Mag energy flashed like crazy fireworks inside, black and red mixing together. Then a red bipedal dragon was rocketed out, skidding along the ground and tumbling into a sitting position. Dashyr bounded out of the stall and pinned the bipedal on his side. My psi class dragon snapped at the red dragon's ear when he tried to get up. I turned to face his human compatriot. Grabbing a handful of the guy's shirt, hauling him up, my fist raised threateningly. At first he seemed to snigger because of my species.
"Stop laughing and start talking!" I snapped, my amber eyes probably blazing like a furnace. Despite looking terrified for his life, the guy said thickly, "I ain't telling you nothing."
I snarled impatiently. Then my ears pricked high when I heard both dragons and humanoids approaching. Ryfen appeared next to me, seemingly from nowhere. She probably had the Felisar stealth skill on her side. She bared her cat teeth in a silent, hostile snarl when she laid eyes on my captive.
"Know who he is, Edna?" she asked in a abrupt fashion. Fyredash, arriving right behind her, bared his teeth and snarled.
"No," I replied, my scathing tone aimed at my captive. "He attacked me from nowhere, probably because he wanted no witnesses for whatever he was about to do. Too bad for him it was the other way around." I grinned deviously, enjoying seeing my captive squirm.
Ryfen rapped her claws on the wall of the stables in a thoughtful way. That was where we were pretty different. Ryfen thought things through-most of the time, at least. Then she looked about like something had occurred to her.
"Where did Riza go?"
"You found her?" I said curiously. My captive tried to punch me, but I grabbed his arm and bent it in a direction it wasn't made to go. I held the arm there, a twitch away from the point of breaking. "Don't try that again or you get a broken arm," I growled. He flinched at my threat.
I heard Cali and Redstreak thundering through the stables, and sadly, the small distraction of their near appearance was all my captive needed.
The guy punched something into his wrist com. It crackled and seemed to send out a signal. I was perfectly ready to snap his arm, which I started to do. I heard a crack and howl form the man, and my fingers closed around something in his pocket, but I couldn't do any further harm because a stream of black draconium came from nowhere, hitting me and sending me flying back. Then the same energy attacked Dashyr, who sprang back with a alarmed cry. My captive scrambled off with his broken arm, as did his dragon. I had enough time to see a broad form and a very large dragon before they were gone the next instant, launching one last attack at us.
Then Ryfen and Fyredash leapt before us, Ryfen using her mag moves with Fyredash's mag energy to block the attack. The two streams of energy collided and practically caused a small explosion. When the sparks and smoke cleared, our foes were gone.
Ryfen (me)
"You'd better run!" I hollered after the strangers, waving my blocking staff in the air. "If you'd stayed, you would have had plenty of broken bones!"
Fyredash grinned and roared in the general direction.
"I doubt they were close enough to hear you," griped Edna. The white female Merb was lying on the pavement, holding something in her four fingered hand. She was muttering curses under her breath and scratched, but she was starting to get up and barely seemed hurt. Edna blew some strands of her long black hair out of her eyes.
"Those idiots will pay next time I see them…" she hissed under her breath. Then Riza and Emerald ran by, with some gear from the looks of it.
"Be careful out there," I called after her. I thought I saw her nod, but Emerald sharply veered around a corner before I could be sure.
"I really hope she keeps an eye out," Edna said from behind me.
"At least she had the idea of bringing some gear with her," I said. "She'll be able to fight back."
"I'd appreciate knowing what just happened," Cali said, crossing her arms.
"My captive got away," Edna growled, stalking up next to me with Dashyr following in her footsteps, and practically strangling an object in her hand from frustration.
Cali's frown of confusion clearly showed I had explaining to do. "We found a guy and his dragon sneaking around the stables," I said. "He got away when some kind of huge reinforcement dragon appeared." I ran over the memory in my head, trying to recall what the thing had looked like. "It was definitely bigger than a normal dragon, plus plenty of sharp features, I think. It might have had a rider, but I'm not really sure…anyway, we need to begin looking for answers."
Cali grimaced. "We really don't have any leads."
The dragons all rumbled and shifted their shoulders, looking idly about. They were clearly as lost as we were about what to do now. We'd basically been handed a huge task, one that we didn't even know how to start. While we stood there trying to think, I caught sight of Edna turning something idly in her hand.
"What's that?" I asked her.
"This?"
"Yes."
"I don't know," Edna said with a shrug. Cali's ears pricked and she took two huge steps forward, her black fur blending some of her with the shadows. She took the object from Edna and examined it. It looked to me like a welder with a long knife attached. (Don't think I have tool experience form that. I only know because I've seen Cali use welders on our racing gear and a old skimmer we found.)
"That is one odd welder," I said with a frown.
"It barely is one, it's more like a weapon," Cali said confusedly, turning to Edna, who was self consciously scratching the back of her neck.
"I grabbed it from the shady guy's pocket," she said shortly, her sharp carved facial features casting shadows across her face. She scowled when she recalled her captive's escape.
"Still ruffled about that?" I said teasingly.
"Don't remind me."
"Can I continue?" Cali said with narrowed eyes. Me and Edna both stopped our dialogue and grinned sheepishly at her. Cali rolled her dark blue eyes and held the odd welder up for us to see. "This is enforced to cut through metal locks, bolts, thick wooden doors, and metal vaults." Digging her claws into a part of the item, Cali frowned when she saw what was inside. "There's a Firebolt crystal in her in addition to the normal blazer. And it's a weapon class Firebolt."
"Why would anyone bother with this?" Edna said.
I stood straighter as I remembered the clue we had received earlier, from the radio transmission. "The dragon thieves have reached Dragon City," I growled in an animalistic manner.
…
After that bit of disturbing yet interesting theory, we set off for our compound. We passed through Squire's End, but unlike most Down City Crews, our compound was far from the area. The compound is pretty much a flat area of land within a walled circle that was the size of a mansion courtyard. Some old stone buildings lay within, in which we lived and stored our gear and other stuff. The wall surrounding the compound was completely smooth and enforced so it couldn't be climbed. The compound lay within a wide collection of ruins that surrounded it from all sides. Tons of traps were hidden in them, all from ancient times. We had managed to learn how to activate them. The ruins themselves could hopelessly confuse anyone who didn't know their way through by heart as we did.
Even though we're in the Academy, we preferred to stay at our compound during the night and go to the racing school during the day. But since there was no big elite races coming up, we didn't need to spend much time there for a week or two.
This was perfectly fine with me. We had bigger issues to deal with than racing drills.
Once we entered our compound, we went into the largest of the buildings, which was the size of a two room house. Inside we had a couch, an armchair, and piles of old pillows that the dragons would either relax or sleep on. Then we had a tv hooked to a portable crystal converter and a radio, and a collection of water bottles in a small fridge, also hooked to the same converter as the tv.
Edna immediately stretched out on her stomach across the couch, taking up nearly all of it with her slim but tall frame.
"Hey, get up, I want to sit," I said indignantly. I tried to hoist Edna's head and shoulders up, but she stubbornly grasped the couch pillows. "I'm tired," She mumbled with a yawn. Dashyr rumbled agreement from the dragon pillow piles.
"You can be tired all you want, but I want to sit," I said firmly. I wrestled Edna up and slid onto the end of the couch, only to have the white Merb drop her head onto my lap, her brown, baggy clothes wrinkled from her brief struggle with me. Edna blinked her eyes up at me like a endearing puppy, probably hoping I'd let her get away with acting like a lapdog.
"Get off," I said firmly. Edna huffed an irritated but not angry sigh, rolling of the couch and loping over to the armchair. She draped herself across it. Cali sat down on the other end of the couch, her hand on her chin thoughtfully, while I stood and began to pace, my tail twitching behind me. My cat headed shadow showed vaguely on the wall behind me as I flicked my hair back, then crossed my arms and continued to pace.
"Okay, what do we have so far?" I asked after ten minutes of hearing nothing.
"Precinct!" Edna said suddenly from the armchair, stretching her arms in the air with her hands spread. "It could be helpful."
"Precinct is a police station," Cali sighed. "Giant, but still a police station."
"She could be onto something."
Cali looked up at me with a expression of complete bewilderment. Edna smirked, then grinned victoriously when Cali glanced at her.
"Dragon City is a key port location for Deltora," I said. "Power crystal shipments are always coming in, and many times so is other stuff. Precinct is required by law to keep worldwide shipping records on all that, like every center of authority in major cities."
"I never would have guessed you would bother to know that," Cali quirked.
"It's common knowledge," was my drawled and confident reply. "But if we want to use it, we need to go to Precinct and ask to be let in, now don't we?"
…
And so, that was how we were off once again. It wasn't very late yet. But we were all beginning to become tired, dragons and riders alike. We'd already been running all sorts of places all day, including grueling races. The atmosphere wasn't helping either. It was misty and humid from the huge storm a few days ago, and Dragon City's build trapped rain like it blocked out light in everywhere but Sun City, the highest level.
By the time we reached Precinct, I could feel Fyredash huffing, and when he plodded to a stop, I lay a hand on his neck and felt a rapid pulse. I could see his flanks moving a little faster than normal too. After the trip back to the compound, we definitely wouldn't be able to go anywhere else until tomorrow. From the haggard faces of my friends and their dragons, I got the impression the same would go for them.
The unfortunate thing is, when I get tired, my temper burns up like a dynamite wick. I should have known it would be problematic, but I didn't pay attention to the nagging voice in my tired mind.
After waiting a few minutes and staring with boredom at the huge doors of Precinct, they finally opened with a creak.
Captain Faier came striding out with one or two enforcers. The tall and thickset man didn't seem happy to see us. I couldn't really blame him. Down city crews didn't usually meet with his ally standards, and considering what some are like, I can't really blame him.
"Why are you here?" Faier demanded, his arms crossed. "Down City crews are not welcomed here at Precinct."
Normally Faier wasn't this crude. I guess the night was getting late for him too. "We need to see the aerial shipping records between Deltora and Atmos, Faier. Every carrier ship's cargo record in the last months needs to be checked."
Faier's lips became a thin line. "I cannot allow a street crew into a place like that. Those records are for official eyes only, not for a trio of street racing Academy students."
"Just let us look at the records," I said angrily, my green eyes narrowing. "We caught a suspicious person sneaking around a stable, and found a Firebolt crystal in an improvised welder, in his pocket. We need to know where the Firebolt came from, and who the thieves are."
"Impossible," was Faier's stoic and final response, lighting a blaze of fury in me. "This city has received no Firebolt shipments in the last few months, and the thieves are probably the easy to deal with Dragon Eyes crew. I will hear no more of this. Now leave, Serpents."
My fury finally erupted. Fyredash, sensing my discontent, took a slow two steps forward, until he was staring Faier in the face. He hissed, then let it explode into a roar. To his credit, Faier didn't flinch, but looked plenty shocked.
"Look, idiot!" I shouted furiously, my temper finally breaking loose. "These dragon thefts are going to hit Dragon City full force soon if you don't let us look at those shipping records. Those measly Dragon Eyes are not part of this, and if you won't help find the real culprits, you're no captain, you're a freaking coward!"
That didn't receive a positive reaction. The security guards lining Faier took a step forward on their dragons, all aiming stun weapons at us.
…
I groaned and laid a hand on my head. I sat up from where I had been lying on the couch in our compound. I had a faint headache that was deceasing, but I remembered well enough what it was from. After my disrespectful rant to Faier, he had bellowed at us to leave so loudly he probably woke everyone near Precinct. He then threatened to stun us, throw us in a cell for a day or two, and fine the Academy so the headmaster would tell Sentruss to punish us severely...luckily, no more threats were made, and we backed off, departing for our compound. After we reached it, we collapsed onto any available soft spot, falling instantly asleep.
From what I could see now, it was sunset now. We'd slept for so long that we had been asleep most of today, the day after the disastrous Precinct visit. Edna had wound up on her stomach next to Dashyr on one of the dragon pillow mounds. The white furred Merb was still on her stomach, her shirt riding a little above the waistband of her pants. Fyredash and Redstreak had lain down in a stacked way, with Fyredash lying across Redstreak's shoulders while the red magma class slept soundly, despite Fyredash's head on his shoulders. Cali had slumped against Redstreak's back legs, her arms clasping her dragon's tail over her chest, most likely for warmth. From my muddled memory of getting back last night, I got the certain idea that I had curled up on the couch.
"Urgh," Edna moaned, rolling onto her feet and blinking her amber eyes. "Last night didn't go well, did it?"
"No," I answered point blank, sitting heavily back down on the couch. "We're just going to ave to find another way."
"Like what?" Cali mumbled.
…
"We're going to sneak into Precinct?" Cali said in shock, staring at me like I was crazy.
"If Faier won't let us see those records, it's the only way," I said with a melancholy shrug. Fyredash trod his paws, looking eager to conduct with my suggestion.
"Do you have any idea how much trouble we'd be in if we were caught?" Cali pleaded.
"We're not taking anything," I countered. "We look at the shipping records, then go."
"Please talk her out of this, Edna," Cali groaned.
Edna's mouth creeped into a smile. "I like it, actually!" she said enthusiastically, clapping. Cali's face went white under her black fur.
"Are me and Redstreak the only sane ones in this crew?"
Sure, not great, but this story really needed and update. I'm going to try and work on it more along with my other story. Other authors may be allowed to have their characters be in this story, but I don't know for what.
Review please.
~dharak
