CH 20: The Dragon Roars!
Adrian runs around the corner of a building leaving a medium sized fireball behind him. Following him was a group of goblins running at full speed into the flames resulting in a large explosion. Stepping over the charred corpses, a tall middle-aged man in mideval armor with black hair reaching past his shoulders addressed Adrian. "Splendid, you were able to wipe them out in a single strike." he said as the armor on his right arm began to change shape forming a larger than average lance and his left arm into a shield.
Dammit! This isn't good, I was sure I put more distance between us. Adrian thought to himself as he backed away. He's too close for me to use my firebombs. Adrian prepared for a chance to dodge the knight's attack as a voice was heard from above him.
"GET BACK!" the voice yelled before a glowing blue fist slammed into the shield knocking the knight into the street. Turning around the source of the voice revealed himself to be Arthur.
Shocked by the sudden ally Adrian spoke "You're A.J's little brother. What are you doing here?"
"We can talk about that later." Arthur replied moving back to stand beside Adrian as the knight got to his feet. The older boy noticed Arthur had a multitude of cuts and bruises covering his body. "Don't worry about those." Arthur stated.
"Keep your guard up, he's a General." Adrian warned forming a tiny fireball in his right hand.
"I know, I saw him giving you a hard time before you ran around this corner." Arthur said as the knight showed his speed appearing in front of the two in a flash. Arthur dodged the strike from the lance, rolling behind him. Adrian on the other hand was caught by the kick that followed sending him sliding back a distance. Seeing an opening Arthur used the side of the building as a springboard to land a kick to the knight's head before jumping off and landing next to his partner.
As Arthur prepared to rush in Adrian grabbed his arm. "What's the big deal!" Arthur yelled. Pulling Arthur to the ground Adrian had saved the teen from the enormous explosion that followed.
"That was an attack I've been working on, I call it D2." Adrian stated.
"Impressive." The knight's voice called out calmly as the smoke cleared revealing the explosion had cracked the shield but nothing else. "Your attack may have worked if I didn't have this shield." he admitted.
"I think we might need another one of those..." Arthur said stepping back.
"Damn, I might have enough left in me for one more, can you buy me some time?" Adrian asked.
"Not alone, but lucky for you I didn't come by myself. DEJA NOW!"
"On it!" a high pitc hed voice sounded from a rooftop as 3 basketball sized steel orbs flew towards the knight at high speeds forcing him to move back. Arthur took the opening as a chance to strike, landing a hard punch to his opponent's chest before being knocked back by the shield.
Behind Arthur, the orbs rose from the ground and began to rise and shoot forward circling the knight. "We've got him now." Arthur said rushing in again.
"Do you honestly believe your attacks can defeat me?" the knight questioned as his weapon began to glow. Pointing the tip to the sky he released the energy in the form of a golden explosion destroying all the orbs and sending Arthur flying into a wall unconscious. "And now for you." he said turning his attention to Adrian.
Seeing the enemy rush in faster than he could dodge, Adrian clenched his eyes shut in anticipation of the strike. After a few seconds his eyes opened to the knight being held back easily by a familiar figure. "Is that you, Coleman?"
Looking over his shoulder at the beaten teen AJ replied, "I'm a little disappointed Sparky. To think I had to use my Aces to beat you, only to come back and see you getting destroyed by some bozo in a tin can." He said grabbing the lance and throwing the knight into a building across the street with only his right arm. "Looks like I'm just gonna have to clea-" AJ started as he noticed Arthur a few feet behind Adrian. "Really? C'mon bro. I know you can't still be that weak."
Struggling to his feet Arthur looked at his brother. "So you're back, and here I was going to have more fun with this guy."
"From what I saw, you were getting your ass handed to you." AJ said.
"You saw that?" Arthur asked nervously.
"You know it. Now why don't you take a breather and let the Dragon slay the Knight." AJ said as his left arm covered in scales and his fingers elongated into claws. "Hey, what's your name?" AJ asked the knight.
"You wish to know my name?" he questioned
"Yeah, I want to know what to call my first victim." AJ stated smiling.
"Heh, very well" the knight chuckled aiming his lance at AJ. "You may address me as Sir Percival."
"Alright Percy. Hope you're ready for me." AJ said covering his right fist in flames and throwing a practice punch towards Percival the force of the strike shattering Percival's shield from across the street. "Good, now we can both have a free hand."
"N-no way. He didn't even touch it." Adrian noted "How strong has he gotten these past weeks."
Shaking off the sudden loss of his shield, Percival charged at AJ thrusting the weapon towards him.
Grabbing the point of the lance in his dragonic hand AJ caused the lance to melt in his grip. Ripping the lance along with the armor covering Percival's arm off and tossing it to the side AJ sent the knight flying with a flaming uppercut. Staggering to his feet Percival commended AJ's strength. "Not many humans could possibly overpower me so easily. Even this armor can't stand to your power."
"We'll I wouldn't say I'm like most humans." AJ replied. "Now, believe me I would love to beat your ass all day but, I need to finish this." AJ warned holding his right arm in front of him as flames extended from his palm. The fire dispersed revealing a large katana. "Goodbye, Percy." he stated bringing his blade down.
Walking away from the body AJ was met by Arthur, Adrian and a short girl with her hair stopping at the base of her neck. "That was...brutal." Arthur stated watching the body turn to dust and blow away.
"Your point?" AJ asked, "Let's go, I already missed 2 weeks of Black Ops 2." AJ said brushing off the comment. As the group began to leave a voice was heard behind them.
"You handled that a bit better than I expected." Turning around AJ recognized the source of the voice.
"Kallen..." he said manifesting his sword again.
"Hey, you remembered my name. That's nice, too bad I didn't bother memorizing yours." Kallen taunted.
"You know this joker?" Adrian questioned while creating a fireball as Arthur and Deja readied themselves as well.
"Yeah, I do. Leave him to me." AJ answered stepping forward.
"Last time we meet, I left you on ice. That must have been a "chilling" experience for you." Kallen taunted.
"I underestimated you last time. That ain't gonna happen again."
"We'll see about that." Kallen stated slamming a fist into the ground creating a ice cage around them.
"Deja, call back to the hideout and let them know what's going on."
"Right." she said moving away from the battle field.
Kallen fired a cone of ice at AJ, who easily melted it. "Oh so you've improved a little. Well lets see you stop this one." he said smiling and forming a spear of ice charging at AJ.
Using his flames to propel himself AJ clashed with Kallen causing the ground to shake and the cage to begin to crack. "You won't be freezing me like that again." AJ said as the flames intensified breaking through Kallen's spear and sending him flying back.
"Okay maybe slightly more than a little." Kallen admitted recreating his spear with black ice. "Can't believe I need to use this on a small fry like you." he said swinging it and sending an arc of black ice torwards AJ.
Countering with a wave a flames AJ was surprised that the ice didn't melt and froze his arm on contact. "Shit!" he exclaimed
"You see, there's no way my ice will be melted by someone like you."
"Heh, you just caught me a little off guard." AJ said as the ice on his arm burst. "See, no problem." he added before quickly moving forward and landing a powerful punch to Kallen's chest sending him flying into the ice cage, causing him to cough out a bit of blood and drop his spear.
"Damn you." Kallen cursed stepping back. Snapping his fingers Kallen released his ice cage. "I don't have time for this!" he yelled as ice and snow erupted from him violently. After a moment the small blizzard died down and Kallen had vanished, in his place however was a 30 foot tall white wolf with piercing blue eyes.
"Oh. My. Fuck." AJ paused looking at the beast. "ITS A PUPPY!" he yelled. The wolf roared at the teen freezing everything in front of him. "Wooh, that stinks, have you been licking your own asshole."
"A Fenrir? What the hell is that thing doing here?!" Adrian yelled as Arthur took a step back.
"I was willing to help with that knight and maybe that other guy, but this is not what I signed up for." Arthur stated.
"Don't be a little bitch." AJ said walking up to the wolf, the snow melting the closer he got. "C'mon little fella' your master left you here all alone huh." he taunted the beast only for it to swipe at him. Easily dodging the strike AJ sat atop its head. "Nice try Fido." AJ said tapping its ear before slamming his fist down. The force of the strike knocking the wolf's head to the ground, AJ stepping off and turning to face it. "Down boy."
As he stood before the wolf, the beast took the opportunity to snap its mouth around him. Holding its jaws apart easily, AJ continued to taunt it "No, bad dog. I guess I got to train you." he said inhaling deeply before breathing a stream of flames down the wolf's throat causing it to reel back and howl in pain.
Starring at AJ with eyes full of rage the wolf's body tensed and began trembling. Before it could attack again the beast found itself on it's back. Bria stood behind it still gripping its tail from her slam. "Hey AJ!" She called out smiling. Adrian and Arthur stood off to the side dumbfounded at what was happening in front of them.
"FUNBAGS, you made it!" AJ called back. "I coulda handled Fluffy myself though."
"I know but don't blame me, Jeremy wanted to finish this thing before you destroyed too much of the city." Bria explained.
"Destroy the city? Doesn't he believe I can hold back?"
"...No. Not one bit." Bria answered hanging her head.
"Oh...that, that's probably justified." AJ replied as Bria grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the recovering beast. "Wait, where are we going?"
"Weren't you listening? I said JEREMY wants to finish this thing."
"Ohhh, we're too close." AJ realized looking at the gathering clouds over the wolf. "You guys might want to get back!" he called out to Arthur and Adrian who stood confused.
Soon after the words left his mouth a tower of lightning struck the wolf leaving nothing but a crater behind. The force of the blast knocking Arthur and Adrian off their feet. "Whoa, that power..." Adrian gasped. "How did they get this strong in only two weeks?" clenching his fist Adrian slammed it into the ground. "At this rate I'll be completely left in the dust."
"WOOH, Damn Jay, you coulda held back!" AJ yelled to his brother standing on the roof of a nearby building with Tonya's hand on his back.
Standing in front of the other teens in the hidden base. Jeremy finished explaining where Team Seiryu had been for the past two weeks, how they achieved their current level of strength and about Hades' team.
"So you're saying that this Hades guy is sending these creatures for a key? Do I have that right?" Kristen asked.
"Basically, and we need to make sure that doesn't happen." Jeremy answered.
"So what does he need these keys for?" Will asked.
"Are you familiar with Greek Mythology?" Nick asked. "There are twelve main gods, thirteen if you include Hades. Before these gods were beings known as the titans and they had power that dwarfed the power of any of the gods. It took the combined might of three of the strongest gods, and the Cyclopes to defeat Cronus the chief of the titans. Afterwords the titans were sealed away within the underworld in a special prison, Tartarus." Nick explained. "Tartarus can only be opened with six keys which are guarded by two gods each. It just so happens that this town is where the gods Hephaestus and Athena are guarding their key."
"So we're just caught in the middle of their turf war." Adrian stated.
"No, if Hades releases the Titans then we're going to be dragged in anyway, and trust me if they are as strong as we were told then our best shot is keeping those keys out of Hades' hands." Jeremy replied.
Moments later the teams had begun to relax again in the base, Adrian walked over to Nick who was working on recovering his data. "Hey, Nash." he called. "Can I ask you something?"
"Let me guess, you want me to develop a training regimen to catch up to AJ, right?"
"Y-yeah, how'd you guess." Adrian asked slightly embarrassed.
"Not really that hard, I know your type, no offense but jocks tend to want to be the best and you being a captain means that goes double for you." Nick replied. "Anyway, I figured you'd try and find a way to get stronger too so when AJ went to back you up I started on one for you. Meet me at the docks tomorrow morning."
"Thank you, how can I re-"
"Don't thank me, just show up tomorrow." Nick said cutting Adrian off and returning to his work.
"YOU FAILURE!" Hades yelled knocking Kallen into a wall. "HOW DARE YOU SHOW YOUR FACE AFTER SUCH A DISGRACEFUL PERFORMANCE!"
"Please, Lord Hades, you shouldn't exert yourself for something so trivial." Karren attempted to calm her master.
"I have no excuse, I underestimated him and was forced to use more of my power than I should have."
"Your power?" Hades questioned. "Watch your words boy, the power you wield has always been and will always be mine."
"I'm sorry, Lord Hades, I misspoke."
"Well Yeti, looks like you got off easy, only having to fight one of my brothers." Marcus said stepping into the room. "By the looks of it, they got stronger too, might even be a equal match for you at full strength."
"What do you mean by that. I wasn't even using fifty percent of the power."
"I noticed and neither was he." Marcus replied "didn't you see how easily he shattered your black ice. That was little more than a warm-up." he continued leaving a shocked look on Kallen's face.
"Cerberus." Hades spoke, "I'll leave the matter of this key to you. You have one week, do not fail me."
Cracking a smile and opening a portal of black flames behind him, Marcus stepped through followed by Cole. "As you wish."
A/N: Well it has been a long time, and again I am late. At this point I'm not even gonna b.s an excuse, I totally forgot to write this out beforehand so there. I will attempt to have the next one before Christmas no promises though. Thanks for reading.