A quiet moment. Artwork for this one.
Shout out to Phoebe Miller for beta reading!
Fact #20: Dragon cartoons are a thing. A very popular thing.
Season: Early Season 3
Dust motes floated through the beam of his flashlight. The abandoned warehouse-turned-hideout held a strangled silence after having been filled with screaming twenty seconds earlier. It was dark and dank, smelling moldy. But there was another scent starting to permeate the gloom. Smoke. Singed hair and flesh.
"No, no, no, no, no," his knuckles were turning white from his clenched grip on his gun.
Peeling around one old and rusty shipping container, he paused. Blood turned to ice. Heart dropped out of his ribcage.
"Steve!"
Bile rose in his throat.
Charred skin, cracked and flaking in some places, covered his partner's facial features. The fingers on his hands were gnarled and blackened bones poked through the charcoaled flesh. His t-shirt and cargo pants had melted and merged with him. Smoke wisped up in lazy tendrils.
He choked. "Oh my god, Steve-"
The malevolent shadow hanging from the catwalk swung down to the ground. Beady, fiery orange eyes narrowed at him.
He fired round after round at him, but it didn't faze him. The Wyvern screeched at him, opening his mouth and releasing a torrent of all consuming fire -
Steve glanced over as Danny startled awake.
"Bad dreams," Grace whispered with a worried look at her dad.
The TV on the other side of the room droned on quietly. He had been released from the hospital that morning with strict orders not to do much of anything other than keep an eye on his burns and return in a few days to be examined again.
The usual round of visitors that appeared whenever someone made it home from the hospital had already been by. Chin and Kono had brought him lunch, Kamekona swung by with balloons and garlic shrimp, Max dropped off a card, and of course Danny was the last to arrive. He had picked up Grace after work and brought Italian over for dinner.
"You okay there, bud?" he asked.
"Hmm?" Danny rubbed his hands down his face and settled more comfortably into the corner of the couch. "Yeah. Just had a nightmare that I owned a really nice car, but was cursed to never drive it again."
Steve gave him a 'not buying it' look. But he'd let it slide for now.
"Uncle Steve, what do you think of the thing I got you?" Grace asked.
Steve looked down at her snuggled against his left side and then at the coffee table were the little stuffed dragon was. "I think she's adorable."
"He."
"He," he corrected.
"His name is Toby," Grace leaned forward and snatched it off the table. She handed it to him.
"How do you know that?" he couldn't see any little tag with a name on it like TY Babies had.
"He's a character from that cartoon," Danny waved a hand between the toy and the TV. "You know, the one with all the little dragons and the monsters and it's supposed to teach kids life lessons."
"The one with all the high-pitched singing?" he furrowed his brows.
"No, that's Stomp Party, that one's for really little kids," Grace said. "Toby's from Dragon Ranger Academy."
Danny pointed. "That's the one."
"Huh," he gave the toy a light squeeze. It was actually very soft and cute. "So I take it that Toby's an Arboreal?"
"Uh huh," Grace nodded. "Haven't you seen Dragon Ranger Academy?"
Steve shot his partner a glance and received an ambiguous smirk. "Um…no?"
Grace grabbed the remote. "They do all day marathons of it on Fridays on one of the kid channels."
Danny crossed his arms over his chest with a grin that Steve wasn't particularly sure he liked. He had watched cartoons when he was young, typical '80s stuff. There had been Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Thundercats, G.I. Joe, Dragon Force, things like that. Once he was a teenager and especially once he had gone into the Navy he hadn't had the urge or time to watch cartoons other than pieces here and there when his partner's daughter was around.
Grace found the channel she was looking for and clicked on it. She sat back, head resting on his chest with her knees tucked up. Steve kicked his feet up on the coffee table and reclined farther into the couch, mimicking his partner's position.
Barely two minutes into the show he leaned over and stage whispered, "What's going on?"
"The one they're trying to get out of the crack in the ground is Mai," Grace pointed as the characters flicked across the screen. "The two arguing on top of the cliff are Toby and Cedar."
"I see the resemblance now," he held up the stuffed toy and compared it to the spruce and pale blue Arboreal character having a heated argument with a rusty orange Drake that must've been Cedar.
He went quiet as the show progressed. They had come in during the middle of an episode, which partially explained why he was lost. Apparently, it was set in the not too distant future where young, he was guessing early to mid teens if the voice acting was anything to go by, dragon kids had the option to go to school to become Dragon Rangers.
"Why can't she just fly out of there? She is a Wyvern, isn't she?" he asked.
"She broke her wing in the last episode when an earthquake knocked down part of the Academy," Grace answered.
"You've seen this episode before?"
"No, Steve, she's seen every episode. Three times," Danny said. He flicked his wrist at the TV. "The show's in the middle of its fourth-"
"Fifth."
"Fifth season right now. Seriously, babe, how have you not seen it before?"
"I dunno," he shrugged, wincing as it pulled the tender flesh on his shoulder and chest.
"It's one of the most popular cartoons."
"I thought that was The Simpsons?"
"Well, for you and me, maybe, but for kids and young teens it's this show, My Little Pony, and Adventure Time," Danny explained. "I, myself, personally prefer the antics of Bugs Bunny."
"Of course you would, he's a streetwise Brooklynite," he shook his head.
"Shhh," Grace hushed them.
"Sorry," they both muttered.
Danny cracked his eyes open, relieved to not be startled out of sleep this time. He must have dozed off again. It had been a long, hard week. The whole Wyvern attack and the subsequent paperwork had left them all drained emotionally and physically. And then another case had already been dropped in their lap. Something to do with pharmacy break ins that if he was honest should have been handled by HPD.
He craned his head around. It was dark outside. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the time. Seven thirty. Grace and him probably needed to get home.
"You're still watching this?" he asked as he lowered his feet off the coffee table and sat up straight. The talon marks being held together by stitches on his back and his severely bruised sternum yelled in protest.
Steve nodded, holding a finger up to his lips and pointing at Grace. A pillow had been moved onto his lap and her head was resting on it, sound asleep.
Danny grinned. In a softer voice he said, "I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you now know every character on the show, huh?"
"Toby the leader, Mai the gentle, Cedar the muscle, Hawthorne the shy, Beck the brilliant, and Aspen the brave," Steve named off flawlessly.
"That's what two and a half hours of watching this show will do to you," he gestured to the battle montage taking place on the screen. "I can name almost every kid that attends the Academy and all of the teachers and all of the bad guys."
"That one guy with all the black tar oozing out of him is kind of freaky," Steve said.
"Ah, Balthazar and Calloway," he nodded.
"And? Both heads have a name?"
"At the end of one of the seasons you find out that they're actually twins that fused in their dragon forms at birth and can't shift into humans."
"That's why they have four wings and two tails."
Danny snorted with a laugh.
Steve furrowed his brows at him. "What?"
"Oh, nothing," he held up his hands. "You're just so into it. Mister Navy SEAL, a man of many national secrets and our very own Team Superhero, is enjoying a show aimed at ten year olds."
"Says the man that knows the name of the bad guy," Steve smirked.
"Touché."
Steve's smirk faded and he looked at him seriously. "But, I think the title of Team Superhero belongs to you, partner."
The currently dormant scales on his forearms itched and the strained muscles in his shoulders twitched as he flashed back to jumping in front of a torrent of fire and to diving off the hotel after Kono.
"According to you, this is what I signed up for," he glanced at the TV.
"Hey," Steve waited until he was looking at him again. "Thanks for saving me at the warehouse."
"How'd-"
"Chin ratted you out when I thanked him for saving me."
"You grilled him, huh? Couldn't just take my word for it?"
"Not when you're saying one thing and I can see another. Like how every time you moved your shoulders you winced. Why didn't you just tell me? Why so secretive?"
"Because…it's classified."
"Come on, man."
Danny stood up. He set his hand on his daughter's shoulder gently. "It's to protect her. Grace, come on, baby, let's go home."
She mumbled sleepily. "Mmm, stay the night."
"Grace."
"It's cool, man."
"Monkey, you don't even have a toothbrush or pajamas," he pointed out.
"She can wear one of my t-shirts and I've probably got a toothbrush she can use," Steve, ever the enabler, said.
"Please, Danno?"
He sighed heavily and frowned at the big brown eyes being directed up at him. "Okay, okay. I'll be over in the morning. Give your Uncle Steve a hard time for me, huh?"
"Love you, Danno," she sat up and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"Love you too, Monkey," he ruffled her hair and then looked at his partner. "You're not getting a kiss."
Steve grinned. "Night, Danno."
"Yeah, night, Steve."
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Thursday on "Dragons", a new type of chemical weapon used to disorient humans has a radical effect on dragons. And it may prove fatal to underestimate Danny.
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