AOE Saga

The Dragon Within

Chapter 3: Maiden Distress

Matt, Draco, Lilo, and Stitch were shown to a doorway that seemed to lead to Times Square, but was more likely a portal to Times Square. Matt was about to step through before he heard someone yell, "Wait! Wait for me!" A Hawaiian girl of about 15 years of age ran over to them. She was wearing blue jeans, an indigo tank top, and had a hairclip that looked like a digital eye. "Erm, do I know you?" asked Matt. The Hawaiian girl took a few minutes to catch her breath and said, "Looks like my disguise works after all." "Disguise?" asked Matt. The girl's face was replaced by Chip's eye, which was practically all of his face. Chip winked and the Hawaiian girl's face returned to normal saying, "Call me Chixie." Matt blinked for a couple seconds as he slowly realized that a cyborg alien experiment that resembled a robot would draw a lot more attention than two other alien experiments that were disguised as Earth animals and a little girl who was turned into an experiment but was hiding this under a similar hologram.

"Isn't Times Square too public to warp to?" he asked. "The reason we're warping to it is because it's so public," said Lilo, "no one will see us among the other dozens of people." Matt nodded and walked through the portal. There was a slight tingling sensation and he found himself in Times Square. As the others materialized behind him, Matt heard someone say, "Yo, what up Lilo?" Matt looked and saw a 13-year old boy with spiky green and black hair and wearing a red jacket and blue jeans shorts. "Aloha Jake," said Lilo. "Hi Jake," said the experiments. "Nice to see you guys back in NYC," said Jake, "who's this?" "Jake," said Chixie, "meet Matt Lynch. Matt, meet Jake Long, he's the American Dragon." Matt and Jake shook hands and Jake asked, "So where you come from?" Matt scratched the back of his head and said, "It's a long, long story." "So, is there any place in New York you wanna see?" "Well," said Draco, "it'd be nice to go see the Empire State-" "Ooh," interrupted Lilo, "what's that over there?" That happened to be one of several clothes shops in Times Square. "Let's check it out," said Chixie and she and Lilo ran over there. "You ever get the feeling you're about to be in an uncomfortable condition?" asked Draco.

Whether it was Draco's psychic horns that made the prediction or just plain dumb luck, all four boys were soon loaded to the max with several bags and boxes of clothes. But fortunately enough, Lilo and Chixie had decided to stop. "You wouldn't happen to be in your feminine form under that hologram, would you?" asked Stitch suspiciously. Chixie looked from side to side before saying, "Maybe." "Why do girls have to buy so many clothes?" groaned Draco, "can't they just be satisfied with what they need?" "With that attitude, you'll never get yourself a girlfriend," said Lilo. Draco snorted loud and long, "Like that'll ever happen. I'm not going to end up cat-whipped like Stitch here." Stitch extended an extra arm and punched Draco in the side.

Fortunately, Draco managed to hold on to his considerable burden. "Well I'm holding on to my dignity, right Jake?" "What, oh sorry, I was thinking of my last dream date with Rose." Draco set his packages down and yelled, "Honestly! You're all pathetic, the lot of you! Except for Matt here." "Yeah," said Lilo, "and his chivalry's worse that yours." The two girls giggled. "Hey!" said Matt, "I can get a girl anytime I want. I'm just too busy fighting evil." "Don't be so quick to judge," said Chixie, "someday, you'll find a female experiment that fits your fancy. Then it'll be lovey-dovey." Draco scoffed and said, "That'll be the day that pigs fly."

Suddenly a greenish pig-like experiment with wings suddenly flew straight between their legs. It was closely followed by Morph, who was for some reason wearing a small brown bowler hat and holding two pieces of bread. "What are you doing?" asked Stitch. "I am trying to make a ham-sandwich," said Morph, "but the ham won't cooperate." "Morph," said Chixie, "that's Hamlet, the pork-making experiment, he could make you into a ham sandwich." Then Chixie did a double take and said, "Scratch that, that's his Viral Clone." She quickly activated her capture gun and put Viral Hamlet into a capture container. "Now go put this back at the storehouse. And can you take these with you? Oh and here's a dollar to buy a hamburger with." Morph stored the capture container inside himself as well as the several cloth packages. He held out his bowler hat and said, "I'd gladly pay you Tuesday for another ham-burger today." Matt gave him some more money and Morph trundled off. "How'd that Viral Clone get on Earth?" asked Lilo. "What's a Viral Clone?" asked Jake. Jake was quickly briefed about Viral Clones. "You know," said Draco, "the Viral Clones were scattered all over the multiverse. It's not impossible for one to wind up here. In fact, who knows how many other clone or even those future experiments are here."

Suddenly a noise was heard, but at so far a distance that it could only be heard by Stitch and Draco. It sounded somewhat like a bird that had suddenly been caught unawares. "I think I hear something," said Draco. He quickly climbed up the wall of a nearby building, closely followed by Stitch. The two of them scampered over rooftops towards where the sound came from. Then they heard it again, only it sounded like the bird was in distress. The two experiments hurried their pace and soon came upon a backway alley. At first, it seemed like no one was there. Then suddenly something gold and scarlet flew past at an incredible speed. Seconds later, men dressed in maroon armor came around the corner and started chasing at the flying creature. One of them held up a blue staff and shot a green beam at it. There was a squawk and it fell to the ground. Now Draco and Stitch could see what it was.

It was a bird that looked slightly like a swan with golden plumage. She, for there was a certain feminineness about the bird, had red wings, a purple underbelly, and a red stripe going down from the back of her head to her tail. Her tail was red, but was somewhat reptilian in shape with a row of purple feathers on either side. The tail ended with a long red flame-shaped feather with a golden eye in it. The bird also had three feathers extending from the bridge of her beak that seemed to change color with the light.

The bird tried to take flight again, but a net was thrown over her. Then a man wearing a cape and a dragon's skull on his head walked over and picked up the netted bird. "This is a strange kind of phoenix; it will definitely be worth studying. Back to the Headquarters!" He and the other men disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Draco and Stitch didn't have enough time to respond before they were gone. "I never saw a phoenix before," said Stitch. "That wasn't a phoenix," said Draco, "she had three legs and there were four claws at her wingtips. I think that was an experiment." Stitch then smelled something and went through a couple more alleys with Draco following. Stitch stopped at a collection of crates and rummaged through it. Then he grabbed something and said, "I think you're right about the experiment." And he pulled out a small timepod.

Back at the HQ, the timepod was put under careful surveillance. The first thing that was discovered was the name, "USS Honolulu," printed on the outside. Then they found several documents containing information about the EXP Virus, most of which were already known. It didn't take long to put two and two together. The phoenix experiment had worked on the USS Honolulu on the day the ship was taken over by the Virus Clones and she was sent into space with the documents so they could be turned into the authorities. Unfortunately, most of information was already known and the only thing that wasn't known was the construct of the EXP Virus. But that was in a cryptic code in case the documents fell into the wrong hands.

But the main reason they were examining the timepod was to determine the identity of the phoenix experiment. Suddenly they found one red feather that apparently came off of her when she left the timepod. It was quickly scanned by a computer that had information on all current 777 experiments. After a while, the computer showed a picture of the phoenix experiment's experiment icon as well information about her. "Experiment 750;" read Matt, "Primary function: revitalization. 7-5-0 is a healing experiment designed to heal almost any wounds and can restore inanimate objects to their fully repaired state. She also has fire power for defence and can come back to life after being killed by almost any attack." "Now that is fascinating," said Chip. "We gotta go rescue her," said Draco earnestly. "But we don't know where the Huntsclan's headquarters are," said Lilo. "Actually," said Jake, "I think Rose might be able to get us in. But they've probably made it impenetrable to dragons." "But not to aliens," said Stitch, "we can get in and get out with 7-5-0 without anybody noticing." "Yeah," said Draco, "we won't let her stay in the Huntsclan's clutches." "Since when do you care so much about experiment rescues?" asked Chip. "Well, the Huntsclan could figure out her power and use them for their own selfish purposes," said Draco.

"You know," said Matt, "I know a couple of friends who can help get us in there." "What kind of friends?" asked Stitch. "Er, business friends mostly." Nearly everybody suddenly imagined the sound of a bomb falling and then exploding. "Uh, thanks, but no thanks," said Draco, "I think we can do this on our own." Matt pouted and walked off. "What's his problem?" asked Jake. "Don't know," said Chip, "but anyways, we need to put together a proper rescue team. Draco, Lilo, Stitch, and me can go, but we better leave Morph and Matt behind. This needs to be delicate. You better stay behind too, Jake. If those Huntsmen see you, you'll be skinned without even noticing it. Any other suggestions?" "What about NegaMorph?" asked Lilo, "he's pretty good at sneaking?" Draco laughed and said, "Please, Lilo, the creature's a crook. He was even sent to jail." Suddenly they heard NegaMorph yell from upstairs, "I'll have you know Emperor Hamsterviel personally came to bail me out of prison!" Everyone blinked and asked, "How does he do that?"

Since there were no more suggestions, the rescue team then pondered how to get to the Headquarters. "I think we can open a portal directly to where they're hiding 7-5-0," said Draco. "I don't know," said Jake, "I think Rose told me something about direct portal spells." "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," said Draco. There just happen to be enough ingredients for a portal spell. As the portal was being created, Morph sundered on in munching on the last part of a hamburger and asked, "Whatcha doing?" "Making a portal spell so we can rescue an experiment," said Lilo. Morph stepped in front of the portal and asked, "How does it work?"

Before anyone could answer, a Krylock Demon's head came out of the portal and grabbed Morph in its mouth. It then proceeded to shake Morph around. "Now I remember," said Jake, "the Huntsclan hired Krylock Demons to keep any non-Huntsclan members from slipping in." "That would have been useful information 1 minute ago," said Chip. Then the Krylock spat out Morph and went back to its own dimension, closing the portal behind it. "You okay Morph?" asked Stitch. Morph was about to reply when he bloated to five times his normal size. "I thought that only happened with manticores," said Lilo. "No," said Draco, "any magical poison causes an allergic reaction in Morph, and yet it's nullified at the same time." Then he sighed and said, "Guess we'll have to go in the hard way."

Abandoned Subway Station…

In a seemingly abandoned subway station, a girl of about 15 years of age wearing a maroon uniform was pushing a cart carrying a crate with several air-holes in it. There was a lot of grumbling coming from inside the crate. "You guys know what to do when we get there right?" asked the girl. "Yeah, yeah," said Draco's voice from inside the crate, "Can you hurry it up, Chip? I think Stitch had burritos for lunch." Then the girl walked over to a busted-looking ATM. One of her hands shimmered and was replaced by a metal hand with five flat fingers. She slid them down where the card would go and several numbers flashed on the screen. Then there was an affirmative ding, and a door in the wall opened.

The girl took the cart and wheeled it through the door. As the door closed behind her, tow small boys came holding short staves. "Who are you, and what is your business here?" asked one boy with the number 88 on his sleeve. The girl pointed to her sleeve and said, "Number 629, I came to drop off this crate full of magical creatures I caught." The other boy with the number 89 on his sleeve looked through the crate's air-holes and asked, "You sure those are magical creatures?" On cue, Draco put his ice-mouth near the air-hole closest to #89 and gave him a blast of icy-cold breath. #89 withdrew his now icicle-covered face and said with chattering teeth, "They're magical alright." #88 looked nervous for a second and then said, "Take them to Storeroom 75, just follow the signs." #629 smiled and pushed the cart along. As she disappeared around the corner, #89 said to #88, "I didn't know we had 629 members."

When #629 went to Storeroom 75, she went in and closed the door behind her. Then Chip turned off his hologram and used his hands as crowbars to pry the lid off the crate. Lilo, Stitch, and Draco popped out with a few moans. "Why'd Jumba have to make you so long?" asked Lilo. "Hey," said Draco, "3 feet is as short as I can get." It didn't take to long to find Experiment 750. She was kept in a birdcage near some shelves holding several skulls made of crystal and in the Aztec fashion. As Draco started working on the lock keeping the birdcage shut, he said, "Don't worry, we'll get you out. What's your name?" The experiment blinked and said in Turian, "I've always been called 7-5-0." "That's your experiment number, not your name," said Draco, "how about I call you Contrinus?" "That sounds nice," said 7-5-0, now Contrinus. Chip scratched his head and said, "A portmanteau of the Latin words for 'ashes' and 'refresh'? That's very fine, but why are you so interested in…"

Then Chip's two brains made several calculations and reached a conclusion. "Unless you like her," said Chip. "What!?" cried Draco as he let Contrinus out of her cage. "That's it! You so like-like her," said Chip smugly. "No I don't!" said Draco. "Draco's got a crush, Draco's got a crush," sang Chip. "Chip," said Lilo, "this isn't the time and place for this." "You're right," said Chip with a large grin, "we should get Draco's boogie-boo out of here soon." Draco's face turned slightly red and he whacked Chip with his tail. Chip hit the wall and jostled the Aztec skulls on the shelves. Chip looked up to one of them falling right on top of him. Thunk! The skull went right over Chip's head. As Chip struggled to remove it, an alarm suddenly went off.

Meanwhile, Outside… (at the same time as Chip and the gang were in the storeroom)

Matt had been watching as Chip had gone into the subway station from across the street. He was dressed in combat fatigues with a symbol of an hourglass on the shoulder. He scratched his shoulder. He hadn't worn his old Temporal Marines kit for ages. "Ok, they've been in there too long," he said to one of the figures next to him. A black American with the name badge 'Wilson' nodded. "So…What's the deal with this?…you call out of the blue after a year…" he said till he noticed Matt's stare, "Fine…let's go." The two began to cross the street towards it. Three others strolled out of their hiding places.

The first was a Chinese girl about 19 called Talia. She was a sharpshooter for the team and could hit a target a mile away…blindfolded. The second was a British guy, about 18 and the youngest. He was wearing a baseball cap backwards. His nickname was Techo and, in his words, if it was computerized, he could make it do anything. The last person was the tallest. He looked like a normal guy but he was a Splitter. His name was Xander. Techo looked at the ATM. "They really don't like visitors here. Triple thread encryption…amateurs," he said and began to screw around with the buttons. Matt turned to the others. "Simple plan…NO shooting 'em…that's why we've got stunguns…if they hit you…hit 'em back," said Matt simply. Techo swore as the ATM said 'access denied' for the 15th time. Xander said, "Allow me," and pushed the wall door down…with one hand. "There…the door's open," he said smugly as the alarm sounded. Matt stepped through and right into #88 and #89. The squad as one grinned. Every invading force loves to meet guards with room temperature IQ's.

"Ok…We're coming in," said Matt, trying to walk past. The two Huntsclan members aimed at him with shaking staffs. "Get lost…w-we're not scared of y-y-you," said #89 despite the evidence. Matt shrugged. "You're right. This isn't a scary uniform. Xander?" he said stepping aside. #88 and #89 were aware of the light being blocked out. "Now this…" said Matt from somewhere behind the eclipse "…is a scary uniform…hello?" Talia looked. "They fainted…" she said. Matt shrugged. "Meh…shove 'em in the closet," he said. Xander put them in the guard room and locked the door.

A few more Huntsclan ran round the corner and, seeing Matt, fired some plasma blasts at him from their staffs, knocking him over. The rest of the team dived for cover. "They shot Lynch…Those smeggers," said Techo angrily. Wilson drew his stungun. "I'm gonna…the hell?" he said. Matt got up again. "You…smegheads. I had this kit years…and you go blast a hole in it," he said to the stunned Huntsclan members who tried to shoot him again. Matt shrugged and stopped the plasma orbs in mid air before sending them back, knocking the Huntsclan out cold. He turned to his team. "Let's go tear the place apart…when we're done, they'll beg to tell us where my friends are," he said.

The second the alarm went off, the experiments knew it was time to leave, and to heck with keeping it quiet. As Draco ripped the door of its hinges, Lilo and Stitch tried unsuccessfully to remove the Aztec skull from Chip's head. When they heard plasma gunfire, Lilo said, "We'll have to remove it when we get back." Then they all ran out the door. Unfortunately for Chip, the skull was shaped like that of a human's, which he was clearly not. So not only was a bit uncomfortable, his large eye couldn't see out of the skull's eye sockets at the same time. This resulted in a lot of stumbling, banging into walls, and going the wrong way. "You know you deserve it for teasing Draco," said Stitch. "Okay, okay, I admit it," said Chip, his mouth wasn't part of his head so his voice wasn't muffled, "but even you have to admit that it's pretty obvious Draco's smitten with Contrinus." Then Chip tripped again and Draco snapped with irritation, "Look through the nose hole." Chip found this to be far better than the eye sockets and his clumsiness decreased.

Suddenly they ran into a larger room. Metal spikes came up from the floors and covered the doors. The group tried to ram through them, but they quickly learned they were electrified. Then Huntsclan members dropped down from the ceiling using trapdoors and surrounded the group. Then the Huntsmaster himself appeared. "Well, well, well," he said, "look what our newest catch has brought us. I admire your effort to rescue her, but your attempt is hardly commendable. Now, you will surrender both the phoenix and that dragon. Don't try to tell me he's not a dragon," he said as the others were about to protest, "I recognize dragon when I see it, even if it's a strange breed. Now if you two, dogs, want to leave, you'll also surrender the mechanical squid that's stealing our skull." "I'm not a squid, they're not dogs, we won't surrender anybody," said Chip, "and I can't give you this skull even if I wanted to. It's stuck on." The Huntsmaster shrugged and said, "No matter, I doubt the skulls' contents will matter when we do the ritual, but the body has to go. But enough talk, you two are going into nice comfortable cages." Then he seized Contrinus by the neck.

That was a rather bad mistake, as Draco roared and started to go into alien mode. He spat a fireball which the Huntsmaster deflected with his fireproof cape. Other Huntsclan shot several nets that covered Draco from head to tail before Draco could extend more than two of his wings and his horns. "You won't do that again," said the Huntsmaster, "that's sphinx hair, you cannot break, it?" Draco had nonchalantly shredded the nets on him. "That may work on an ordinary dragon," said Draco as he extended all of his extra limbs, wings, and opened his extra mouths, "but I'm no ordinary dragon." There was a flurry of activity as the experiments and the Huntsclan battled it out. The Huntsclan were strong but were unprepared against aliens. Very swiftly, most of the Huntsclan were defeated. When Chip was about to strike the last one, she cried, "Wait!" She took of her mask and said, "I'm Rose, Jake's girlfriend." The other experiments paused. "Jake managed to tell me about your rescue mission. I was going to help you escape but someone barged in and set off the alarm." "Who would be dumb enough to do that?" asked Contrinus. The others only had to think ten seconds before they all yelled, "Matt!" Then they all ran towards the exit.

The experiments ran into a room where they saw Matt and his team beating up a load of Huntsclan. Xander whacked one Huntsclan so hard he went about 15 feet…into another group of clan members. Talia was using some Tae kwon do moves to beat up anyone who tried their luck. Techo was being chased by a few Huntsclan, emptying his pockets as he did so. He finally pulled out a funny orb filled with green liquid. "There you are," he said tossing it over his shoulder where it exploded, the liquid gluing the clan members in place. "Nice…it worked," he said.

Matt and Wilson were back to back, shooting their stunguns at any clan member they saw. "Just like old times, eh Lynch?" said Wilson. Matt stunned a Huntsclan member taking aim at Talia and said, "Yeah…brings back memories." Xander spotted a few clan members running in down some metal steps. He sent a blue lightning bolt into the steps, shocking the clan members into the air and stunning them.

Matt turned and spotted Chip and the others. "Oh…er…hey guys…rescue team?" he said. "In this order," said Chip, "What were you thinking, how'd you find us, and who the heck are these guys?" "You might need help getting out, we followed you, and these are some old friends of mine," answered Matt. "What's with the hourglass?" asked Lilo. "Talk later," said Matt as he kicked another Huntsclan member, "who's that." "I'm Rose," said Rose as she put her mask back on, "sorry, but I have to make this look convincing." She swung her staff at Matt who dodged it. "Okay," said Matt, who was slightly irritated, "you asked for it." He was about to throw some plasma when Rose whacked him several times and threw him to the floor. Around then, the other Huntsclan members started retreating. As Matt got painfully back to his feet, his friends started to advance towards Rose. "Don't hurt her;" said Stitch, "she's a double agent." Then Talia looked at the experiments and said, "So these are your friends Matt? You really haven't changed too much." "More that you know," said Matt. Then Techo noticed Chip, "that's one nifty robot you got there, even if he's dressed like a Cubone. You don't mind if I have a look at him, would you." Chip slapped Techo's approaching hands and said, "Mess with my insides and you'll have to build yourself some new arms. But you can get this skull off my head."

"You better go," said Rose, "the rest of the Huntsclan will be back with reinforcements. I'll stay here and say you knocked me out and left." The others agreed and walked outside. Matt was forced to explain to Lilo and Stitch about his friends. Chip didn't have any problems aside from grumbling, "He could have least call me a Marowak." Draco and Contrinus walked out last. "Thanks for saving me," she said. "No problem," said Draco, "and don't you worry about a home, there's plenty of room on the BiNebular for you. But not everyone speaks Turian, so you'll have to learn English." Contrinus was quiet for a bit and asked, "Would you like to go flying with me some time?" "Sure," said Draco, "I've always wanted to go to the top of the Empire State Building. Of course, I've heard there's a griffin nesting there." As they continued to talk, their tails slowly wound about each others.

There's another chapter. As you can see, Draco's now has a girlfriend and you'll be seeing a little more romance in future stories. Please tell me what you think of this. Keep an eye out for the next chapter.