Going Nuts

A/N: A thanks to Blue-Inked Frost for her feedback and to Kereea for reviewing actively. And I'm sorry if Lance sounds a bit sexist; that's the way little boys are. :(

Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own Dragon Booster.

Chapter 4:

Working Together

"Kitt?"

"Yeah?"

"You think we should've asked Mortis about handling this situation?" Artha murmured, looking around the barren alley they were in. "I mean, he's got great advice and he knows what to do!"

"Hey, what about me?" Lance quipped. "I'm Mini-Mortis, remember?"

"I don't really want to hear your 'advice' or your next 'plan' on what we're gonna do," Kitt told him wryly.

"Aww," Lance scowled, folding his arms as he pouted.

Meanwhile Cain was busy with Parm's pair of binocs. "Okay, I'm calibrating the proximity of the heat scanners, and I think they're over there!" he announced, pointing behind a building. "There's nobody in the building right now and I can make out the shapes of dragons as well!"

"That's great!" Artha said, starting to get used to the whole personality switching thing. "Let's go get Parm!"

"Before they get away with their dragons," Kitt added.

As they turned the corner behind the building, Moordryd and two other Dragon Eyes were there, along with Parm, who looked like he was enjoying this. Artha and Kitt exchanged glances. It was kind of weird seeing Parm with the other side, not to mention one of many nightmares untold.

"Well, look who's here," Moordryd smirked, who had just finished shooting a green net at the last dragon, who had tried to attack Decepshun and Coershun. He saluted them with two fingers off his forehead. "Hello, stable brats. Back for your friend? Don't bother, he's with us now."

"Oh no," Lance whispered, his eyes widening in horror.

"Rancydd, Swayy, get them!" Moordryd ordered. A man wearing black and red and a girl with green hair extended their mag-staffs and charged at Artha, Kitt, Lance and Cain. Artha quickly extended his own mag-staff as Beau magged him forward at the two Dragon Eyes, knocking them down.

Rancydd and Swayy got up immediately, and Rancydd swung his mag-staff forward. Artha sidestepped out of the way and bent backwards as the man swung it at him again.

"Artha!" Lance cried. Artha looked up to see Swayy advancing on Lance, but not before she was knocked down by a tail lash from Wyldfyr and Kitt.

"Step away from him!" Kitt growled, grabbing her mag-staff and jumping off Wyldfyr, who growled at the Dragon Eye dragons preparing to attack. The street racer dodged a blow from Swayy, before Swayy noticed Cain. Using this opportunity, Kitt grabbed the taken-aback greenette and pinned her to the ground before going after Rancydd.

"Cain?" Swayy asked, getting up as she stared at him in shock. "What are you doing? On their side, no less?"

Cain blinked. "Um, well, miss, long story..." he started, but was interrupted with his own scream as a whip lashed forward. He turned to see Parm with an energy drain whip, cackling.

"You're up next, nerd," Parm grinned, preparing to lash out his whip again. Lance's eyes widened again and Cain whimpered. Cyrano looked up and growled at Parm, who turned to the Bull-class dragon. For a second Parm froze, blinking, then shook his head and was about to attack before Beau knocked him down.

Kitt ran over to Lance, Cain, and their dragons. She was about to attack the figure getting up when she realized it was Parm. She hesistated; she didn't want to attack her friend, be it as annoying as he is and as amnesia-ridden as he was now.

Artha realized this as well, and pushed Rancydd aside. "Parm!" he cried.

The man looked up. "What do you want?" Parm snapped, gritting his teeth and glaring back at Artha.

"Parm, this isn't you!" Artha exclaimed. "You're not on Moordryd's side! You're on our side, Parm. We're your friends! Try and remember!"

For a moment Parm just stared back at Artha, then Kitt and Lance, then Beau, Wyldfyr, and Fracshun, then finally at Cyrano. His eyes became hazy, and for a moment, it looked like there would be hope.

That is, until Parm replied, "Yeah, who are you kidding?"

Artha's mouth fell open. "B-b-but it always works!" he objected, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Not this time, stable boy," Kitt muttered, spinning her mag-staff. Beau snorted and flexed his claws as Wyldfyr cracked his neck determinedly.

Lance noticed Cain and Coershun staring at each other, as though Cain was remembering who his dragon was, before Lance tapped his shoulder. "Uh, Cain?" he asked. "What are you doing?"

"H-huh?" Cain murmured. "Well, it's quite odd. I think I recognize Coershun..."

"Of course you do. He is your dragon."

"Oh, right!" Cain said, looking sheepish. He sighed. "This is a bit strange..."

"No kidding!" Lance grinned, realizing that they might just be getting their memories back. "Hey, Cain, how long can amnesia last, specifically yours?"

"Two years, maybe less, maybe far, far more," was the answer. Lance's face fell. Cain scratched the back of his head. "Er, well, hopefully, my memories do come back soon enough!" he chuckled awkwardly.

Meanwhile, Beau and Artha were freeing the captured dragons by cutting nets, before Parm lashed his whip out at him. Without having to look the teenager grabbed it and yanked it, throwing it far away. "Parm, c'mon, can't you recognize us?" Artha said, Beau behind him.

Parm gritted his teeth, but he didn't respond as he stared at them almost dazedly. Yes! Artha thought victoriously as a smile crossed his face.

Suddenly another energy drain whip caught Artha's wrist. Artha yelped and felt himself weakening as his knees buckled, soon finding them on the ground. Beau growled, but the sound of a dragon tackle followed by Decepshun and Beau's hissing could be heard.

There was a sinister chuckle from the direction of where the whip came from. "Take him," Moordryd's voice ordered. Artha saw the Dragon Eyes advancing forward, towards him. Kitt cried out in protest, and prepared to pummel Moordryd, but she was quickly seized and held back by Swayy. Cain got off Cyrano and stepped forward before he was blocked off by Parm.

"Look, Parmon, please don't do this!" Cain begged, raising his hands. "This is not what you are supposed to do, it isn't your calling!"

Parm just scoffed at him. "What do you know about destiny, geekazoid?" he retorted hotly. "Besides, didn't you used to do this? Well, then, if we're each other now, then I suppose we'll just have to play the role."

Cain shrieked and stepped back, completely afraid of what the man was going to do to him, even with such a skinny stature.

Just then there was a tremendous boom, and the ground began shaking under their feet. "Wh-what's happening?" Moordryd gasped, his attention drawn away from Artha as he looked around frantically.

"It's an earthquake!" Lance cried as he gripped onto a frantically squeaking Fracshun's saddle. Beau quickly ran towards them and surrounded the two protectively as he looked around.

"No, not an earthquake!" Cain responded, immediately pulling out one of Parm's gadgets and typing commands in. "Far less powerful on this Ryktyrr scale!"

There was another loud, booming sound going off, before Parm shouted, "Disrupter mines from below!"

"Let's get outta here!" Rancydd yelled.

Both Rancydd and Swayy jumped on their dragons and sped off. "Come back here!" Moordryd called, but at that moment the supports on the street broke off. The first to fall were Cain and Parm.

"Parm, Cain!" Kitt screamed, running forward with the rest. Cyrano and Coershun shrieked and were about to jump after their riders before Decepshun's rappelling gear activated. Two cords with grips shot down and grabbed both of them, Parm by his arm and Cain by his foot.

Cain looked down and shrieked, looking ready to faint. It was a long way down, and one of them had to have the bigger fear of heights. Parm gulped, hoping desperately he wouldn't fall. "Pull us up!" Parm yelled.

Suddenly, a net shot out from below the street, snagging both men and pulling them away. There was a bright flash, followed by the sound of rappelling gear being withdrawn. "Wh-what?" Artha stammered. "Where'd they go?" He reached for the amulet around his neck, but Kitt placed a hand on his shoulder, her face clearly saying, "no."

"Cain?" Moordryd called. "Cain!" He tried a comm-link connection, seeing the man's frantic face. "Cain, what – " Moordryd started, but just then the connection was briskly cut off and Moordryd was left staring at static. "Something's not right here..."

"I'll say!" Kitt retorted. "First the amnesia thing, then a dragon theft – "

"That was nearly successful, no thanks to you," Moordryd interrupted, scowling.

"Whatever, Paynn!" Kitt said. "To top things off, Parm and Cain just got kidnapped!"

"You behind this, Moordryd?" Artha asked, lowering his eyebrows.

"No way!" Moordryd said. "Why do you think I'd be behind this?"

Artha looked down under the track. "Lance, get your rappelling gear off Fracshun and give it to Cyrano," Artha told him. "I'm going to check it out."

"But I wanna see!" Lance argued, placing the gear on Cyrano. He grabbed the grip and jumped down.

"Lance!" Kitt started, reaching out, but he was slowly lowered down thanks to the grip that Cain had modified (successfully after five tries) earlier. The boy looked around carefully before he picked up something. Artha and Moordryd pulled on the cord as Lance came back up.

"So what did you find?" Kitt asked.

"I found this," Lance said, opening his palm and showing a small gadget resembling a flash stick. Moordryd took it and examined the object.

"A blinding device," Moordryd murmured, remembering when Stewardd used one against him and Cain in the middle of a dragon theft. "This is turquoise draconium, and it's got some kinda symbol on it."

"Let me see," Artha said, snatching the device from Moordryd and looking at where the symbol was. The symbol represented soundwaves, which were coloured turquoise.

"The Voice of the Dragon crew!" Kitt exclaimed.

"One thing I know is that Vociferous and most of his crewmembers can be careless," Moordryd said distastefully. "Though I don't know what they would want with Cain and Parm."

"Well, one thing's for sure. We have to go after them again!" Kitt said.

"Wait, we?" Artha questioned, raising an eyebrow. "As in, we and Moordryd?"

"I don't think so," Moordryd agreed, also raising the right side of his brow.

"You're probably in better terms with Vociferous and the Voice of the Dragon crew, Paynn," Kitt explained. "You know more about them than we do. Plus, Cain's your friend. So for now, you're part of 'we'."

"What?" Moordryd gasped in disbelief.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Artha scoffed.

"Look, are we getting Parm and Cain back, or not?" Kitt growled, clenching her fists.

Both shut up. "Good," Kitt said, turning around to hop back on Wyldfyr while Moordryd and Artha quickly exchanged glares.

"Uh, so does this mean we're gonna be following you?" Lance asked, who, like most little kids, was discriminating without realizing the sheer crime. Kitt shot a look at Lance when Moordryd and Decepshun started forward.

"I'll lead," he said, rolling his eyes.

"No, I'll lead," Artha shot back, he and Beau moving forward quickly. He turned his head around and smirked. "Right then, follow me!"

"Artha, do you know where you're going?" Lance asked.

There was a BANG as Artha's head hit a sign. Beau rolled his eyes and chuckled while Moordryd tried hard not to burst out laughing. "I think that's his answer," Kitt told an unimpressed Lance. "So...how does following a girl sound right now?"

To Be Continued