Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or anything else related.
Hi everyone sorry about the long wait. If you are a fan of my work you'll notice the update on my Kingdom Hearts story. If not and you only like this one, well I've neglect one of my older stories for this one so I decided to write a chapter for it. So now I'm back on track with this one, but next I'll be updating the KH story. It's just to let you know. So I hope you enjoy.
Curious Dragons
Chapter 9
Marello smiled at the sleeping teens and thought the sight was far too cute to resist. He pulled out his looking glass (N/A: A looking glass is basically the equivalent of a cell phone in their world), and took pictures of each teen and his dragon. Once he was done, he decided it was time for everyone to get up. He walked over to each student and spoke gently to them and shook them a bit and slowly brought them back to the conscious world. Tasha followed her friend's example and went over to Ben to wake the young man up. As she shook him, Ben grumped in his sleep and turned over. Tasha's left eyebrow began to twitch a bit, but she kept her temper in check and she tried again. However this time the brunette mumbled something about buggin' off which cracked the calm expression on Tasha's face.
A large vein began to bulge on the woman's forehead as she raised her fist. With lightning speed, she struck the young Tennyson on the head and yelled at him to get up. Ben let out a shrill cry of pain, to which Tasha smirked at him. "Grandpa I know I don't like to get up, but there's no reason to beat the crap out of me," the young Tennyson said as he sat up rubbing the spot where Tasha hit him. As Ben looked around, he realized he wasn't in his room nor was it Max who woke him up. When Ben turned and looked at the slightly annoyed look on Tasha's face, he gave a nervous laugh and started to try and get up.
He soon looked and noticed he was snuggled up under a black wing; he blushed and tried to move the wing. However as he tried to move Kevin's wing, the dragon grumbled a bit and used his wing to pull Ben closer to him and tried to go back to sleep. Tasha sighed now realizing that she was going to have to wake up Kevin as well if she wanted to get her class started.
Raising her fist once again, she gathered a small amount of her powers into her fist and drove said fist on top of Kevin's head. Said dragon roared in a pained cry as he let go of Ben. Kevin snarled as he got to his feet to see who hit him. His eyes soon fell onto Tasha, who had her hips cocked to the side and her arms crossed just under the breasts. She gave Kevin a stern look, which didn't detour Kevin's anger one bit.
"You've got a lot of nerve to hit me lady. Jus be glad I was taught not to fight a lady," Kevin spat angrily.
Tasha challenging posture stayed in place as she stated, "Try me hatchling, and Ben'll have a new pair of dragon hide shoes. It's you who should be glad I didn't just crack over skull open." When Kevin growled at Tasha once more, the young rider smirked at Kevin. She quickly dropped into a fighting stance and began to let her power flow freely. While the humans other than Marello could only see the outline of a lavender colored aura, the dragons could sense Tasha's power washing over them in waves. It started out small but after a few seconds, it rose and was nearly double of that of Kevin's current power. The black dragon stared in shock at the women as her power levels were still climbing when his would have stopped. He reluctantly backed down and went to stand calmly by Ben.
Tasha nodded her head as she stood back up and walked over towards Marello. As she turned back to everyone, she said, "Alright ladies line up with your dragon standing next to you. Dragons you will be introducing yourselves to us. Tell us your name, dragon type, and any other information you'd like to share."
Once she was facing them again, she pointed to Alan and his dragon to start. The red dragon shook its head as if he knew he'd be first. With a sigh he started his introduction. "The names Flare, as you can see I'm a wingless dragon known as Volo Incendia dragon. We are known for our speed, maneuverability, and our bodies produce a unique oily substance that coats our skin, and with a small spark, we turn into a living fireball, and that's all I feel like tellin ya so go to the next dragon."
Tasha was pleased with Flare's introduction so she went to the next dragon, which happened to be Michael's. The white scaled, and light gray haired dragon took a moment began. "Greetings, my name is Van, and I am a Lamia dragon, however we are better known as Vampirus dragons." The other three dragons took an attentive step away from the white dragon, but the white dragon didn't seem to be offended by this. "We are known for draining the energy of other dragons to feed ourselves, and that if we drain enough energy we turn those dragons into ghouls, servants to the one who drained them. In the past we were hunted and killed for this ability, but my kind truly hates the ability we have. We believe that each being was born to be free and our ability would take that gift away so yes we do not like it." Van spoke from his heart and it reached everyone in the room that they wouldn't have to worry about Van feeding off them.
Marello smile at Van, and even walked over to scratch the white dragon under its chin. It purred at the touch and Marello to Copper's dragon to go ahead and start. The odd looking dragon seemed to be very nervous, until Marello walked over and started to stroke its mane. In an instant the younger rider knew why the dragon was so scared. He squatted to look the dragon in the eyes and began to make clicking and slight robotic beeps. A few seconds later the dragon began to answer him back with various clicking and beeps of his own. Marello would sigh every now and again, but still continued his clicking.
It was after five minutes of clicking, Tasha become worried about what was happening. "Marly, what's goin on? Why are you making clicking noises instead of chatting with the hatchling," Tasha asked in a motherly tone. Marello stopped clicking looked back to his friend. "This one's a special type of dragon that most have never seen so he's worried about what the others will think of him," Marello explained.
In an instant Van looked to the grey colored dragon and said, "You don't have to worry about what we think of you little one. Just be who you really are, and forget about what they others think ok?"
The grey dragon looked over at Van and clicked at him as his response. Van gave a nod and watched as the shy dragon's eyes began to glow with an eerie red light. To everyone's surprise, except Marello's, two rings of light appeared from the center of the dragons body and to move to the opposite end of the dragon. When the rings vanished, everyone stared at the newly revealed dragon. The dragon looked very odd as pieces of its body were covered or made of mechanical parts. Ben stared at that odd looking dragon, but what astounded him the most was that this dragon was one of the breeds his mom and dad raised at their farm before it was destroyed.
The gray dragon looked mostly like its normal form, except for its gray coloring and normal looking cybernetic parts that replaced the once biological ones. It was then that the dragon wined, but his rider came to his rescue. "Stop gawking at him! He's already self-conscious about his looks, and none of you are helping," Cooper yelled as he glared at everyone. Soon after the dragon began to chirp and click again. When the young dragon finished, Cooper looked at him and said, "I know I'm over reacting but you're my partner, I'm not gonna let them freak you out and not get pissed off." The bio-cyber dragon began his series of whines and clicks again, and slowly Cooper began to calm down. The blonde soon sighed and told his dragon fine and pulled out his personal looking glass. The dragon soon lifted his neck and a small pair of tentacles separated from the cybernetic portion of its neck. It quickly grabbed the looking glass and began to break the device apart.
As the device fell apart, its pieces were quickly absorbed into the dragon's body. Once it was done, its eyes began to glow blue. It took a few seconds for the dragon to completely link the looking glass into its system, but as soon as it was done, the creature began to hack and cough. Cooper looked slightly worried, but soon a kinda of mechanical voice came from the bio-cybernetic dragon. "Ow! Absorbing devices with magical based systems hurt like hell," the cyber dragon said in a scratchy machine like voice. Everyone began to wonder what was going on when the dragon started to explain. "Hello, I'm sorry I wasn't able to speak to you any sooner. I never downloaded a human language thinking I'd never actually meet one. What you see is one of the only created dragons. I'm a grey Bio-Cybernetic dragon. As you can see that my dragon type are not natural born dragons. We, my clan, were created from the remaining life force of young dragon hatchlings that were lost during the Dragon Rider war. The true grey bone dragons found us while a bit of our life force remained inside our bodies. What they did was capture that life force in a specially designed look glass and took our body back to their caves and used alchemy, the art of magic and science, to rebuild our bodies. When they were done they returned our life force back to our bodies and lived with them. They saved us, but we lost what color we once had and abilities of our dragon kind. Now we have the ability to link with almost any machine and take it over."
When he was done Flare smiled at the young dragon and said, "Cool powers kid, now what's your name?"
It took a moment for the hatchling to realize he hadn't told them his name and apologized. "My name is Baz-el, but you can call me Ship," the dragon smiled and snuggled up to his human. Cooper smiled and started to pet his new friend.
Last but not least was the dragon everyone was waiting to hear about. Kevin however wanted to skip his turn but started to introduce himself anyway. "Names Kevin E. Levin, and as you can see I'm an Atra Ala dragon, Black Wing dragon. You all know that legend of how my kind can turn into humans, and its true however he also have another ability. If a dragon gives consent, I can absorb their powers and become more powerful. Because of my dark scales I'm best in night raiders or sneak attacks. So let's get on with these stupid classes I'm gettin pretty bored over here."
Another pulsing vein appeared on Tasha's forehead but she held back her anger and stated, "We're not done with introductions youngling. Marello and I are going to let you meet our dragons, Marello why don't you go first."
Marello gave Tasha a small nod as he reached towards his neck. Digging underneath his shirt, he pulled out a silver chain necklace. Hanging at the bottom of the chain laid an odd looking onyx skeleton key wrapped in thin wire made of silver. Marello took hold of the key and pulled it from the chain and pulled back the long sleeve of his shirt to reveal his Dragianium summoner. It was true that every summoner was different, but the four students and their partner stared at the armguard that was strapped onto Marello's arm. The bottom portion of the armguard was made of quality light blue leather and on top of it was silver metal embedded into the leather. Ancient incantation were inscribed into the band and in the center was upraised portion in the shape of the key that Marello held in his hand. Marello quickly brought the summoner level with his chest, and started letting his power flow into the device.
The light blue aura began to surround Marello once again as he dropped the onyx key into the summoner. As the device began to power up, a spell circle appeared underneath Marello. The circle was the same icy blue color as Marello's aura, and while the other could see that something was coming for the spell circle. In a swift movement, Marello pointed at the spell circle with his index and middle fingers and threw his arm into the air. Once his fingers were pointing to the heavens, a dragon's head came up from the center of the circle. Slowly but surely, the dragon pulled himself out the spell circle until he stood in front of his partner. Finally after the dragon completely came out of the circle, the spell circle faded. In the next second, the students and dragon were shocked to see the large dragon tackle his rider to the ground and started licking his face.
Marello laughed at the loving gesture and did his best to push the large dragon off him. Tasha laughed and looked at to the students. "If you wondering why this dragon's acting like an excited puppy, it due to this being the first time he's seen Marello in six months. Marello's dragon was on a recon mission to see if he could find any trace of Aggregor's forces. It's true the dragon council didn't know that it was a dragon who was leading our enemies, but we knew that something was happening so we sent Marello's dragon. So now that they're together again, he's a little excited."
Marello giddy laugh soon slowed as he finally pushed his friend away and got to his feet. With a smile on his face, he said, "Everyone allow me to introduce my dragon Arc. He's an Algor Tempestas dragon, but he's better known as a Cold Storm dragon, because most of his kind lives in the harsh cold lands in the far north." Arc nodded his head and bowed slightly as his greeting to the others.
Ben and the others looked Arc over and noticed that the dragon had glacier blue scales, a pale gold mane, and a large pair of wings that sat on his back. He had a pair of dark gold horn and claws.
The more the students stared at Arc, the more Tasha thought she should bring out her partner. Once she decided this, she looked down at her Dragianium summoner. The design of Tasha's summoner was the by far one of the most unique. The design of her summoner was based off a ring her mother once owned. The ring was made of a black metal and pressed to look as if it had scales. The face of the ring had a lightning bolt formed from gold on each side, and it had a larger bolt coming down the center. The large bolt ended at the snout of the dragon faced ring. Off to the sides of the larger bolt, sat to small red rubies that were crafted as the eyes for the dragon's face.
Tasha closed her eyes and pressed a kiss to the ring, then balled her hand into a fist. Her aura soon appeared as it had done for Marello; however her aura was a pale lavender color. Once she had gathered enough power, she raised her hand into the air and brought forth her spell circle. It didn't take long for her partner to answer her call as a phantom shadow flew out of the portal. The dragon wrapped itself around its rider in a loving manner. The dragon had lavender scales, a lithe and slightly long body, silver claws and long sliver horns that sat on her head. Her mane was black hair with red undertone, and her most noticeable feature was her dark coal eyes.
When the femme dragon looked at the new recruits, she gave them and curious glance, but swiftly turned her attention to her rider.
"Tasha, please tell me that these children aren't the recruits we're supposed to be training," the femme dragon asked in annoyed voice. Tasha sighed and shook her head at her partner. It was true that the four boys they got weren't much to look at, but Xylene should know better than to judge a book by its cover. While most of the boys looked offended by the femme dragon, the one who spoke first was Marello.
"Xylene, drop the attitude. This isn't the time to start with it and these guys have shown that they have the potential to become strong riders. You of all dragons should know what mean it means to be judged by appearance alone," Marello spoke firmly but it could be seen in Xylene's eyes that the young rider had hit something with her. However to hide her shame, she snorted at the rider and looked to the recruits.
"Well, I guess you all will have to do. My name is Xylene as you have already heard. My dragon breed is the Tele RecedentiaHablar dragon, or better known as Far Talk dragon. I know you humans have probably never heard of my kind before. So I'll dumb this down for you as much as possible. My breed has the power over enhance telepathic and telekinetic abilities," Xylene said sounding obviously bored.
"Wait a sec, I thought telepathy and telekinesis was the same thing," Alan said slightly confused. Xylene rolled her eyes at the young, but before she could tell the boy off, someone spoke up.
"Actually Alan, it's a common misconception. Telepathy is the ability to read and communicate with your mind. Telekinesis is more of moving an object with the mind. I believe Xylene dragon type would more used for sabotage, or gathering information from captured enemies. Am I right Xylene," Cooper reasoned looking to the dragon for confirmation.
Xylene was slightly stunned at how well the human had explained her powers, but she quickly recovered and nodded at him. Cooper smiled while his hmmed feeling proud his partner far from being a mindless buffoon.
Now that the introductions were finished, Marello and Arc started to sneak away from the group hoping to spend some alone time with their partner. At least that's what he planned until, "Marello get back here! I'll need your help teaching my class," Tasha called. Marello and Arc sighed as they turned back around and headed back towards the recruits. Tasha gave Marello and his friend a sympathetic smile, but they had work to do before they could go play.
Tasha cleared her throat and looked at the dragons and their rider. "Alright gentlemen, the first lesson you will be learning telepathic communication with your dragon. This is the first step of Mastering the Ancient Ways of the Dragon. The next will be Dragon Combative, followed by Flying, and finally Dragon Soul Unity. The first class will be taught by me and Xylene, and Combative will be taught by Marello. For now though Marello will act as my demonstrator, and will help you create the connection with dragon," Tasha explained walking back and forth in front of the recruits.
As the class progressed, it was explained that telepathic communication with your partner was only possible through trust between rider and dragon, as well as opening their hearts to the other. While the dragons trusted the humans, it would take more faith on the human's part for their telepathic link to become possible.
It took the remainder of the day, but by its end, Ben and the others started to open their hearts to the dragons and trust them as well. On the dragons end, they continuously sent messages to the hearts and minds to their riders. Ben, who had fallen for his partner, trusted and opened his heart Kevin first, but kept up the appearance that nothing had happened yet. The next to open a link was surprisingly, Cooper. He was still a bit awkward with the proposition of friends, but he still opened up to Ship and was greeted with a warm feeling flowing into his heart.
After Cooper, was Alan, and finally Michael to open up to their respective dragons. The reason behind Michael's being last was mostly due to him never having much contact with people in general. His parents were always busy and never spent time with their son. The person Michael felt most attached to was their butler, Leon. Leon always did to what Michael told him to do, but after one Leon lost his life trying to protect Michael from a kidnapping attempt. As Leon laid on the ground bleeding to death, Michael rushed to the older man's side and begged him not to go. Michael told him he'd stop acting like a brat if he did, but the older man just laughed at him.
With his last bit of strength, Leon spoke to his young master/charge very softly, "Michael, I have worked for your family for over thirty years now. I've seen all of them turn into cruel and heartless business men, lawyers, and many other things. However you were different. You cared about your family and were saddened when they left you alone. In all my years of working for your family, you were the only one to show any feeling at all other than greed, so I watched out for you hoping to see you blossom into a strong young man. Michael, I still wish to see this, but I won't be able to see it in person so please show mw who you truly are from my place in the clouds."
When Michael lost his that one person, Michael slowly began to change and become more like the cold and callus men of his family. However, when he closed his eyes and was near Van, he heard Leon's words and his heart would open a bit more and more to the heart that reached for his.
Once everyone was connected, Marello and Tasha cheered and told the recruits that they were going to cook a feast to show them how proud they were of accomplishing their first lesson on the first day. Most started too turned down, but when the sound of hungry bellies sounded that were forced to follow Tasha and Marello back to their on campus apartment.
TBC…..
Hey everyone! I'm sorry this took me so long, but my muses went on strike. However I got a break from stressful job and they soon returned. So here was what I came up with. I hope you all like it. Tell me what you think please. If you do, you will be feeding my muses and I can turn out another chapter. Well TFN…
