Ch. 2 Glass House
Next Day at Paynn's Incorporated...
Moordryd angrily walks up to his father and states crossed, "Why did you attack those two Mag-Gear Couriers? Also, why did you steal some of their equipment when you already have enough as it stands? What are you up too?"
Word glares back at his son from his chair and replies, "This is not of my doing. I didn't order an attack on any Mag-Gear Couriers."
He stands up and slams his fist on the table, "So how dare you imply that I'm part of this!"
Moordryd retorts, "I just heard it from some of the crews that two couriers were attacked last night and this morning they only found the transport unit with most of the gear gone."
He adds, "Sounds something you would do Father. You always did teach me to attack the competitions' weak points."
Word comments, "That is true, but I'm telling you the truth. I didn't do this!"
He continues, "I just heard it myself of what has happened with the couriers! My son, you know me! Why would I steal humans for my plans for a Dragon-Human War which eliminates almost every human?"
Moordryd was taken aback by his father's statement. He almost sense that there was truth to what his father was saying, as cold as the statement was. Word growls which catches Moordryd's attention, "Someone is trying to interfere with my plans by making this unexpected callow mistake and now everyone is going to be thinking that I've done this."
Moordryd actually looks down on the floor, feeling sympathy for his father. His father was right, no one would believe he didn't do this.
Word smirks, "Although..."
Moordryd looks at him as he continues, "We can use this to our advantage."
"How?" Moordryd asks confused.
Word states, "If I take the credit of this, then the real culprit who did this will retaliate and show himself to the public."
Moordryd smirks understandingly, "So, you're going to pretend to have something to do with this; so when the real perpetrator, you can take them out, right Father?"
Word smiles, "Ah, my boy is catching on quite quickly. Yes, that is the exact reason why."
He adds while making a fist, "Then, I'll crush them because no one and I mean NO ONE gets away with corrupting my city!"
Meanwhile back at the Penn Stables…
The Penn gang go to the stables and sees Artha's father cleaning some of the stalls.
"Dad," Lance runs over and sees the clean stall, "why are you cleaning these stalls?"
He smiles, "Because I've got to raise some form of income if Artha ever wants to be in the leaderboards, right?"
Artha comments, "Dad, you don't have to worry about that. I got some mad drag skills, remember? I can do this purely with the gear we have."
Kitt retorts, "Hey, big shot aren't you forgetting that you need better gear because these racers have Mag-abilities like your own. On second thought, they have better skills than you and you need every bit of an advantage to help you."
"Parm," Artha calls out, "help me out here man. Tell them how I really don't need new equipment now."
"Artha," he starts, "I know your skills as a racer has improved significantly since back then."
Artha smiles as Parmon continues, "But, you need to be more realistic. Kitt and your dad are right, these races are going to be tenfold harder than the ones you're used to and if you really want to stop the war; you need to pass the academy."
Artha growls lowly, "Thanks a lot Parm, I thought you were my friend."
Parmon counters, "I am. That's why I told you the truth. Would you rather I lied to you and watch you lose or get hurt?"
Artha looks down and sighs, "Fine."
He looks at the group, "I understand. I need better gear."
He smiles, "Side, maybe we can make another gold dragon that's better than Beau."
Beau hears the comment and uses his tail to slap the backside of Artha's head, "Ow!"
Artha turns to Beau and growls, "Beau."
Beau laughs as the other lightly chuckle.
Connor smiles at the two of them, "Your bond with Beau has greatly changed from the first time."
Artha rubs his head, "Tell me about it. Back then Beau didn't always hit me."
Connor adds, "Because you always kept your distance away from him and my other dragons."
Kitt turns to Artha, "Why would you turn away from dragons?"
Artha coughs, "Ermh… Anyway, shouldn't we get back to cleaning the stalls and opening it up for breeders once more?"
Parmon asks, "But what about Word Paynn? Wouldn't he try to attack the stable again to prevent another gold dragon being made?"
"Don't worry," Connor states with a smile, "I asked the Council and they made sure that there will be security around here. Besides, all we're going to do is help clean and feed other dragons that the owners placed here."
Kitt asks, "We're taking care of dragons? Like a dragon spa?"
Lance crosses his arms with a smile, "Well, looks like I'll be playing vid-games then."
Connor looks to his son, "Didn't you hear me. WE all have to work together, even you Lance."
"What?!" Lance yells. "Oh, scales."
He adds whispering, "I wish Mortis was here, he wouldn't allow me to do dangerous things like this."
Connor places his hand on Lance's head and messes up his hair, "Funny Lance."
Connor takes his hand off his son's head and puts it on his shoulder then Artha states, "Lance, everything is going to be okay. Actually, better than okay. We're a family again and we have great friends too."
Lance nods, "Yeah, you're right Artha."
Artha adds, "Change isn't necessarily bad."
Lance comments as he steps at Artha, "Is that some Ancient Dragon Priest Wisdom?"
"Ha. Ha. Very funny," Artha replies with a small scowl.
Everyone else laughs at Lance's comment and his reaction.
Meanwhile...
Dalesilverson & Rebekah were both scanning the recently caught dragons and their owners. Motural was overlooking the two scientists work. He calls them, "How is the recent research going?"
Dalesilverson states, "We're working on it as fast as we possibly can."
Motural notices a hint of something in Dalesilverson's voice, "Is something the matter?"
Rebekah laughs, "No, we've everything under control here sir."
He strolls over in his chair and states lowly, "I don't like to be lied too."
Both nervously gulp and Dalesilverson starts, "Well, it's just that the D-drones are starting to become more and more restless and animalistic. I'm worried that one of these will turn on us."
Motural coldly states, "If they defect, exterminate them. They are nothing more than failures anyway. Why worry about mindless creatures as these D-drones when you should be worrying what I can do to you if you produce any more failures."
He gulps, "Y-Yes sir."
He adds with a stutter, "B-But, what about the Dragon Booster? Wouldn't he try to stop us if he ever catches wind of this?"
Motural comments, "What about him? We're trying to help prevent the war just like him. We're just doing it our own way. Besides, the Dragon Booster will never know unless someone opens their big mouth about our plans and starts gaining immediate attention. But, who would ever try to destroy these plans and research I've been...we've been doing for such a long time."
He sends a glare at Dalesilverson, "Oh no, not me sir. Just worrying about your health."
"Once I get my new body," Motural retorts with a tired sigh, "you won't have to worry about that."
Rebekah leaves the room and enters an elevator; she presses the "B" button and descends downward.
Few minutes...
She counts all of the D-drones they have in the cells, "Man, I don't know how many of these things we can hold until we run out of room."
She orders one of them, "Get me the files of Project: Reborn."
It bows and then walks away as she swiftly glances over other files to make sure all the contents are there. The D-drone comes back and sees turns to she it didn't bring anything with it.
She sighs, "Of course."
She walks passed it, "You don't know what I'm talking about because you don't have the brain capacity to understand even the simplest of things. It's a miracle any of you can do some right things some of the times."
Then she goes to where the files are located and files the file. She puts it under her armpit as she closes the drawer and walks back to the elevator.
Few seconds...
She enters the room with Dalesilverson and Motural.
She goes over to Dalesilverson as she hands him the file. Both are overlooking it as she starts, "You know..."
He looks at her as she finishes, "We could increase the intelligence of these D-drones so they can be more productive in their work and in our work too."
He comments with a smile, "That would be so drac. Then we would be able to finish our projects faster and then Master Motural would be impressed; twice because we gave him intellectual D-drones."
"Then let the experiments begin," she smirks as he nods.
Back to the Penn Stables...
Artha and gang were cleaning as Artha looks at Cyrano, Fracshun, Wyldfyr, and Beau playing together.
He smiles softly, 'Yeah, it was cool being in Beau's place; though, it was hard to do the things he and the other dragons could do.'
He remembers when the time their minds switch places and he found himself in Beau's body; freaking out about it at first and trying to tell everyone what had happened. Though it took awhile, the gang soon found out and they had to work together to overcome this obstacle. It felt awesome that Beau and him manage to become even closer after that event.
Kitt calls his name, "Artha!"
"Huh, what?" he turns to face Kitt.
She crosses her arms over her chest, "You miss playing around?"
"Yeah," he admits with a little shrug.
He adds, "To think a few months ago, I was interested with vid-games and trying to make my own game with Parm. But, look at me...at us now."
She asks, "Yeah, so why did you not like dragons anyway?"
He rubs the back of his head, "I guess it was from a bad experience with dragons I had as a kid."
He frowns and she states, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"I do," he sighs.
Flashback...
Artha is 7 yrs old while walking with his mom along with baby Lance in the stroller. His mom had fleshy skin tone with black hair always low and free, but most importantly she had a big heart. They were walking back to Penn Stables.
Artha was running ahead of them, "Daddy! Daddy, guess what!"
"Daddy!" the voice cries out as Artha's mother smiles, "Someone is energetic."
She picks up Lance and walks inside the stable to see her husband having Artha on his shoulders and playing around. He turns to her and smiles widely, "Hey honey."
She smiles back, "Hey."
They kiss and Artha spats, "Ew!"
They both chuckle as Connor pulls away from her lips and sets Artha down to the ground.
"Daddy," he speaks happily, "you'll never guess what happened today?"
He asks Artha, "What happened?"
He smiles widely as he throws his hands out, "I had an amazing day! I saw the vidd-game console and it looks so cool! Oh, please can I get one daddy! Please, please, please!"
Connor smirks, "Maybe, if you're a good boy."
Artha jumps for joy, "Alright! Can't wait to get my very first vidd-game console!"
He runs around, "Woo hoo!"
Connor shouts, "Remember, only if you're a good boy that you may get it!"
But Artha was too happy in his world to even his father's statement. He shakes his head and turns back to his wife, who puts down Lance in his crib for his nap.
She asks Connor, "So, how is the little dragon pups coming along?"
He laughs, "They are doing fine, Gwenhwyfar."
She lightly hits him, "You know I hate when you say my name like that."
He smiles, "I know, Guinevere, I know. But, it's because I love you that's why I play with you."
She shakes her head, "Oh you."
She kisses his cheek and then pulls back, "So, how's Beau?"
"He's adventurous," Connor simply states.
"Beau! Get off of me! Beau!" Connor and Guinevere run to the back and see a little baby black and gold dragon licking Artha.
Artha finally pushes Beau off and runs over to his mother, hiding behind her. Beau walks over to them and looks at Guinevere with a happy expression; however, Connor picks Beau up. "Come on boy."
He takes Beau back to where the other baby dragons were and Guinevere looks at Artha as he wipes himself.
"I don't like dragons," he states angrily, "especially Beau. He never leaves me alone."
Guinevere crouches down and wipes the rest of the slobber off him, "Artha, baby, you got to understand that Beau is still a young child like you. He's just trying to make friends with you, what's the problem with that."
Artha crosses his arms over his chest, "Because dragons are scary."
She lightly laughs, "Oh, Artha...not all dragons are bad."
"Hmm..." he looks down to the ground, "yes they are."
Next, he heard two loud dragon roars and hid behind his mom again. Guinevere looks to the noise and sees Beau and Connor running away from two dragons. "Guinevere! I think your dragons are mad at me!"
"Rhongomyniad! Carnwennan!" she yells their names and both stop as Beau hides behind Guinevere beside Artha with Connor beside his wife.
She walks up to Rhongomyniad, a bipedal magma dragon. She has a slim, dark red dragon with an orange underbelly and long tail, and asks, "Why are you mad at my husband? Hm...?"
The other, Carnwennan, a quadrupedal sky dragon. He has some spikes from his shoulders and upper back on his white sleek figure, walks over to Guinevere as she pets him, "What did he do to you?"
Both softly roar and she nods, "Oh..."
She turns to her husband and asks, "You called them by their nicknames, weren't you?"
He lightly shrugs, "Yeah, only because it sort of slipped."
Guinevere shakes her head, "You know that my dragons don't like to be called by their nicknames in front of the baby dragons. My dragons think it might confuse the young ones since you keep changing their names."
Connor looks at her, "How are you so sure?"
She pats Rhongomyniad, "Mother's intuition."
"And," she adds, "because I know if you kept changing my name constantly, Artha and Lance would get confused about me."
He nods, "Right."
He faces the dragons, "Sorry, I didn't mean to call you by your nicknames. It's just I try to come up with nicknames because their original names are hard to pronounce; however, we should at least have an official pet name thing."
She points out, "You mean a better nickname than the ones you always give my dragons, right?"
He nods sleepishly, "Yeah."
She pets the dragons, "Hmm... For Rhongomyniad, her nickname should be Striker. Do you like it?"
Rhongomyniad nods with a joyous roar.
Guinevere turns to Carnwennan, "And your nickname shall be Snow."
Carnwennan licks her and she laughs, "Yeah, they like their new nicknames."
"Wow," Artha states looking at how cool his mom was with the two dragons.
He turns around and sees Beau with a perplexed expression.
Artha ponders and says, "Your nickname is going to be blacky."
Beau lifts his head up and walks away from Artha and Artha crosses his arms over his chest, "Fine, be like that."
He lowly mumbles, "Dumb dragon."
Beau walks with Rhongomyniad and Carnwennan and Guinevere while Artha walks back with his father.
Minutes later...
Guinevere and Connor were talking to each other while the boys were asleep.
Connor sighs and Guinevere looks to her husband, "What's the matter?"
He states, "I wish Artha liked dragons, so he can have a good relationship with them and also..."
Guinevere grabs his hand, "You believe he'll be the next Dragon Booster and stop the next Dragon-Human War."
He looks at her, "What are we going to do? You heard the news, the Down City Crews are still to get all riled up."
She comments, "You believe it to be Word and his evil witch of a wife, Morgan le Fay."
He scowls, "Can't believe Word would go to such lengths and actually had someone to match his intelligence to help him with his goals."
She puts her hand on his face, "Don't worry. Artha will come around soon."
She smiles, "I think it's fair to say that Beau has imprinted on our little son."
His scowl turns to a soft smile as he lightly chuckles, "You don't know the half of it."
She looks to him and he adds, "Every single night when I pass by Artha's room, Beau is sleeping right next to him on the bed and Artha holds Beau close to him."
She replies, "Aw...That must be cute. Wish I could see it."
"Maybe tonight," he retorts as he rubs his red haired mohawk.
"What?" she asks confused.
"Yeah, Beau always manages to get out of the pen and finds Artha's room with ease," he states with a smile.
He yawns and Guinevere kisses Connor on the cheek, "You go to bed. I'll take Beau to where the other dragons are."
"Okay," he stands up and stretches, "Goodnight."
He leaves as she speaks, "Goodnight."
She stands up and walks over to Artha's room in quiet, quick strides and carefully opens his door. Her heart flutters as she sees the site of Artha hugging Beau and sleeping so calmly and peacefully.
"How precious," she softly whispers as she carefully closes the door again.
She leaves the room and just sits on the porch outside, admiring the calm, clear night. It was peaceful and beautiful.
Few minutes later...
She woke up after hearing the growling of the dragons, "What the...?"
She runs to the stables and sees the dragons are acting up; as if they could sense something bad was happening.
"What's the problem?" she asks them.
Two people from the side of the stable, she rushes to the side and hides behind a corner. She gazes over and sees them holding a bag that was wriggling around.
The guys shout, "Keep calm in there! Soon, you'll see your new home!"
The other laughs, "Yeah, you're going to love it there."
He tosses the bag inside the back end of a carrier and closes the door.
"Hey!" she yells as the man looks back.
He runs, "We've gotta get out of here!"
"No!" She screams as she runs after them, but they already had a lead ahead of her. "Connor! Connor, help!"
She yells as she chases them, "CONNOR!"
She stops to catches her breath as she sees them running away. She mutters, "What did they take?"
She hears footsteps and sees Connor running to her and pants, "What's wrong?"
"Two people just stole something," she states and Connor's face pales after she said that.
"Connor, what's wrong?" she asks as fear took over her.
"Artha..." he quietly admits after a few seconds, "he's not in bed and not in the house."
She adds, "Nor the stables."
She covers her mouth, "You don't think they..."
He looks down and shakes looks back out, "We need to get him back! They took our son! But why!?"
Connor replies, "Beau. They were after Beau and Artha was just mistakingly taken."
She runs over to the stables and hops on Striker and runs over to Connor, "I'm going after them and you call the police."
"B-but," Connor starts, but Guinevere interjects, "There's no time for this. We have to do something or we'll lose them both forever."
He grumbles and nods, "Fine, just be careful."
She nods and then she and Striker went after the two crooks.
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