Disclamer: I still don't own Dragon booster or any of there characters

This is a small look into Brads life

Chapter 2: The encounter

Brad jumped to his feet in a fighting stance, awakened by the terrible memory, drenched in sweat breathing heavily with panic and rage in his eyes. He grasped for the purple bone hunting knives his father gave him before his death in his hands ready to kill the next thing that moved. He quickly looked around surveying the area for any changes, any movement, ANYTHING! But there was nothing, no changes he finally allowed himself to relax. He replaced his knives into their sheaths and dropped his left hand to his side and grasped a sapphire blue lightning bolt shaped pendant he wore around his neck in his right hand. But his scowl remained; it had become a permanent feature on his brown face.

The young black man was now 17 years old and that nightmare has haunted him for the past nine years. The memory of what happened that night in down city was painfully engraved into his memory along with the scar on his right shoulder.

Brad's face was almost identical to his fathers. He had a strong jaw, a squared chin that was adorned with a small bush of black facial hair. What once were cornrows have been remolded into dread locks that fell just above his shoulders. The beginnings of sideburns reached to the top of his ear. His eyes, once filled with life and imagination were now a cold midnight blue, so deep that his pupils seemed to fade into the iris. The moons Dracus and Abandon reflected in his eyes like two stars in the void of space. The hairs end of his left eyebrow laid in the opposite direction of the others causing his already furrowed brow to have an unusually pointed arch. He also wore a single small silver piercing at the top of the peculiar arch. In his right ear had three piercings, two in the upper part of his cartilage and a small stud in the lobe. He was tall about 6'2' and lean with excellent muscle tone and not an ounce of body fat on his entire body.

Brad could never force himself back to sleep after being awaked by this particular nightmare, so instead of wasting the energy to try he left his makeshift cabin and decided to go into the forest to clear his head. He threw on his usual baggy navy blue cargo pants a grey muscle shirt and black boots. He had a regular spot that he visited regularly when he needed to think. It was a cliff-top at the edge of the forest, opposite a waterfall that emptied into a bay that flowed into a river a few miles down. The cliff overlooked the bay in the middle of a clearing. From where he stood, that was the perfect mirror to the night sky. He could look up or down and still gaze into the moon all night. But what really kept him returning to the area, was that a pack of Purple dragons made a cave behind the water fall their den and every once in a while he would see them leave or return from a hunt or even play with the pups in the grass. The alpha female was a painful resemblance to Thrasha, the only difference being that she had a white strip going along her body where as Thrasha's was black.

It would appear that Brad wasn't the only restless on tonight atop the waterfall across the way, was a large blue energy-class dragon. He was large for an energy dragon, with the most common usually having small, point heads, and being of sleek and slender build. With thin legs pointed spade shaped paws and a mix of blue light blue and orange markings, energy dragons were streamlined in every way. This allowed them as well as red fire-class dragons to be the fastest in the world.

This four-legged dragon, however was physically much different. The dragon was a deep blue on top, the same shade as Brad's eyes, and light blue underbelly. Separated but a black line that ran the entire length of his body and black outlined his facial features. His head was more like that of a purple pack-class than that of an energy class, the difference being, where as a purple dragons jaw continued to slope forward, his stopped and was almost square, giving him only a slight under-bite. Three ridges on the front of his chin, out lined in black, creating three stacked V's that resembled a beard. He also had the pointed ears and the keen nose of a hunter. His sharp eyes were grey and full of light. His neck was thick and well muscled as was the rest of his body. He had broad shoulders and a wide chest that made him look massive. At the base of his neck, two small spikes stick forward from his collar-bone. His forearms were strong and thick with muscle, and his paws were large with claws like silver talons that could shake the earth with every step. He however had a walk that was both stern and silent. He had sharp almost blade like spikes that came from his elbows. When he stood straight up the rested flat against the back of his bicep and came about half way to his shoulder joint. His hind legs had powerful thigh muscles, and his tail was thick broad, just like that of a hunter class. Flared at the base, as long as his torso and ended in a point.

He was a blue warrior-energy-class dragon, a direct descendant of the ancient Samurox who fought against the original Dragon Booster. Warrior-energy class dragons were the original energy class dragons. Though just as fast if not faster than their more streamlined counterparts, their speed came from raw power. As wild blue dragons began moving to the water, their size slowed them down, so they became more streamlined to maintain their speed. After the Dragon Human war, the warrior dragons were nearly exterminated as a precaution against another war. The remaining warrior dragons were breed to what are now purple pack-class dragons. The more streamlined dragons were split into two breeds, the blue energy-class dragons and the light blue nautilus-class dragons. White, and turquoise dragons were also breed from the energy class dragon by breeding them with other classes of dragon. However since they are the result of selective breeding instead of a natural occurrence, none of the other breeds could ever compete with an energy-class dragon or a magma-class dragon.

Brad had seen this dragon many times and even fought along side him as well as the purple dragons when the den was under attack by five light blue nautilus-class dragons. That's when the alpha male of the purple dragon pack died, and Brad and the unique dragon were invited by the widowed alpha to join the pack. Brad refused because he simply could not take being around a dragon that reminded him so much of his old friend and the blue dragon refused for some unknown reason.

Despite refusing to join them he still frequented this spot, as did the blue dragon at the top of the waterfall. The Alpha even used her mag energy to charge his knives as a thank you to him. As Brad watched the blue dragon stare into the bay, who still had not noticing Brads presence for he was down wind from the dragon, he noticed his attention shift toward the den. Brad looked to where the dragon's attention had diverted to, to see the purple alpha had come from behind the waterfall and was letting out low growls, barks and other sounds to her blue admirer. He returned the sounds and after they continued this for a few more minutes they sent a mag burst toward each other that connected half and it was clear that they loved each other. But something was keeping him from her.

Brad envied the dragons for having been able to love when everyone he ever cared for died before his eyes that night so long ago. This combined with the fact that not only had they found each other but they couldn't even be together only served to deepen his scowl. No matter which way he looked at it, it just wasn't right.

Despite not being the reason he had come to the cliff in the first place, but it was enough to distract him and give him something else to focus on. So he returned to his "home" to finally get some rest.

The next day Brad made his way into the near by town that was only a short trip from his cabin to work at a gear shop. He built, repaired and customized gears of all different types in order to keep enough money for food clothing and his own personal tools. Brad even modified a white gliding gear into a sort of hover-board that he used to get around quickly. Because of the extensive work he did and the simple life he lived, Brad actually had quite a large amount of money saved in an account. But because he had no real desire for material things all it ever did was sit and build in interest.

Brad spent a few days in the town working the shop and taking on extra orders for the shop owner. One day a tall middle-aged man with white hair and a pale complexion came into the shop. Brad was an excellent judge of character and every thing about this man screamed of bad intentions. His already poor disposition was doubled by the man's dark presence. The man felt powerful eyes on him and looked to see Brad behind the front counter cleaning a red speed gear with a scowl on his face and a glare that could force the mightiest of dragons into submission. This man however only smirked and approached the counter introducing himself as Word Paynn. Brad's instincts told him not to drop his guard around this particular man.

"The owner's not in." Brad spat coldly

"That's a shame…" Word said with a snide voice. "However I am looking for someone by the name of Brad. I understand that he makes the best gear in the world and I was hoping to have my sons dragon fitted with something… special, as kind of a gift." His smirk and tone of voice made Brad very uneasy, he knew nothing good would come out of taking this job.

"I will of coarse make it worth all the trouble." Word said snapping his fingers, two pathetic looking lackeys entered wearing uniforms that had a strange symbol on them. The men presented Brad with $60,000 drackles each in cash. With that money Brad could buy and remodel the entire shop. However this was not what he wanted and he had a feeling that the money was tainted.

"No deal." Brad said sternly not breaking his glare at the clearly powerful man.

Fact was Brad was already rich. Despite only being 17 his talents were rare and unmatched by anyone one because of this, his work came with a heavy but fair price.

"What!" Word relied worth shock on his face that quickly turned into fury.

"Now you listen good you little peasant! I am Word Paynn! One of the most powerful people in the most powerful city on the planet! You will not defy me!"

Just as Brad suspected, what ever this man wanted it was only going to bring pain and suffering.

"I said NO DEAL old man! Now I'm going to have to ask you and your lackeys to leave." Brad said with a low growl in his voice. His tone was stern and direct and left no room for argument.

"Why you…" "What's going on in hear? Paynn! What do you want in my shop?" Word was interrupted by Teo the shop owner.

"Ahh if it isn't my old friend Teo. How have you been? I hope you and Titan have forgiven me from that little incident all that time ago." Word said full of arrogance.

"I have done fine sense you betrayed me Paynn and Titan is still getting around if that's what you asking." Teo said glaring at Word.

Teo was a rather heavy man in his 50's. He had a large belly but a strong chest and thick arms. His head was bald and his red beard was beginning to grey. He walked with a bad limp due to an injury he got about seven years ago before Brad came to the area and he taught him everything there is to know about gears.

Titan was a huge green bull-class dragon. He had a gash going down the right side of his face and his rear right leg was a prosthetic made by Teo himself. Titans hide was covered in scars and discolored tissues. But he was still strong, fearless and loyal to Teo to the very end.

"Titan is the one who couldn't wait to come back to the shop Paynn." He said in a matter-of-fact tone. "He must have been excited to see you again."

Just as Teo finished speaking, Words dragon cried out in pain and was thrown across the dirt in front of the shop. The purple, fuchsia and grey psi-class dragon bounced a few times before his slim and lanky body fell to the ground. He winced and hissed at the large mountain of a dragon that had tossed him so easily.

"Boss I think it's time to go" one of words Lackeys pleaded as Titan was beginning to paw at the ground beneath him as if ready to charge and trample the rest of his crew.

"Fine! We're leaving this dump." Word grumbled in defeat and stalked toward the door.

Teo chuckled at this "So long "Old Friend" we must do this again some time." He said sarcastically

"Or not!" Brad added folding his arms staring daggers at Word.

"Oh you can count on it Teo. Mark my words." He said with a hiss that made Brad grit his teeth. Brad wanted nothing more than to beat the man who had "betrayed" his boss and only friend to a pulp.