Ch. 36: Romeo, Juliet and Dan Kuso
"What's up with that bracelet?" Loni asked Tails, gesturing to the band of silver with an emerald orb set into it that he was wearing on his left forepaw, and the gem was glowing. "This? It was Chip, aka Light Gaia's neck ring, which he used to control the Gaia Temples and, by extension, the Gaia Colossus. And, by extension of that, the Maxus Gaia Colossus. After Chip said goodbye to Sonic at the end of the game, he left this piece of jewellery behind, and Sonic picked it up and wore it as a bracelet. It's a surprisingly good fit," Tails explained. Loni nodded, understanding.
The pink dragoness took a closer look at it. "It looks kind of like one of the Chaos Emeralds, but smaller and in a different shape,"
"Maybe it shares some of their power. I'm keeping it on me," Tails suggested, before looking towards the staircase that led down to the nearest one of the seven inner sanctums that each contained a Chaos Emerald. This particular one contained the silvery white one that he had shown them before. "Can you do me a little favour and make sure that there aren't any Wisps basking in the radiance of the Chaos Emerald? It's bad for them, there's some kind of reaction between the Chaos Energy and their Hyper-Go-On if they come in contact with one another for too long, and it's seriously unhealthy," the plant dragon explained to Loni.
She nodded, and carefully negotiated the stairs. It was amazing to be a dragon, she reflected, and although when the transformation had first occurred she had been a complete wuss about it, pining for her humanity and trying to suppress the urge to find a living sheep and eat it - without bothering to kill it first - she actually liked some aspects of it. Sure, there were some things about being human that she still missed - make-up, styling her lovely black hair, (which had all fallen out and been lost in space and time) eating with utensils, using a toilet when she had to - urrrgh! Loni shuddered at the way she had been forced to get used to just going wherever she was, like her pet cat - no, actually worse than her pet cat, he had been trained to use a kitty litter - but there were advantages too. Her suddenly amazingly keen sense of smell had always been one of her favourites, as well as that her sight and hearing had received a significant boost as well, not to mention the fact that dragons didn't go through puberty. Dragons didn't even have armpits, so Loni could say a happy goodbye to deodorant. And the way that her scales glistened in the sunlight like spring dew-drops had always been lovely to look at. But one of the largest problems was that having four legs made it significantly more difficult to negotiate stairs, not to mention how the spur-bones in her wings always got caught in the hand rail.
That had happened about a week ago when Tails had mentioned to her that he could still get back to Earth, and he had accidentally brought Cynder and Sunburn back to her home planet the first time. Loni had asked him to take her, and she had, as he had been Whirlwind at the time. The Portal Master had harboured hopes that returning to Earth might buy her a few precious hours of humanity, but she had had no such luck, staring at the same pink, scaly, draconian forepaws that she had possessed since moving to Skylands in late 2010, three and a half years ago.
Loni knew that the word generally accepted as correct was dragonoid, but she had always preferred draconic and draconian for some reason.
However, Tails' attitude towards the transformation between human and dragon had surprised her. He, or she as the occasion arose, actually seemed to prefer a draconian form to his human one. The Portal Master had noticed, in the reflection of the glass as she stared out at the Earth night sky and the half-moon far above and the long-forgotten cityscape all along the horizon, perched on his bedroom windowsill, that he seemed uncomfortable in his human form, aching to return to Skylands and become draconian once more. They had fallen into a quiet, relaxed conversation as Loni looked up at the midnight sky, recalling all of the constellations she had loved so as a young child and semiconsciously swaying her tail back and forth like a pendulum in happiness.
"So," Loni had started, somewhat uncertain as to what to say. "You really like being a dragon, don't you?" she finally asked, hoping that he would understand where she was going with this. Tails shrugged his shoulders. Another thing she somewhat missed, though that didn't bother her so much as some of the other problems. "Well, yeah. Why? Don't you?"
Loni opened her mouth to reply, but Tails unintentionally cut her off. "Because, honestly, I'd love to be where you are right now. A strong, beautiful dragoness, with control over magical portals, accepted and respected by all, not worried about how her family's going to survive the coming times. I'd give anything to be a Portal Master like you, to be where you are right now," Tails confided in her, and Loni could hear the sincerity in his voice. She twisted her thirty-cm-long neck and looked him straight in the eyes where he was lying on his bed, on his back. "Aren't you?" she had to ask. Tails dolefully shook his head. "I can't control my virtuality portal. You use magic for yours, I use technology for mine. And I end up transforming into a facade, and it's always a facade, no matter how much I wish it could be the truth,"
Tails never was sure if Loni had used a Portal of Power or moved on her own feet, but suddenly she was right beside him, her long, sinuous body pressing against his own. The moonlight, shining in through the open windows, glistened on Loni's beautiful scales, and her tail brushed against his feet. Tails thought that this moment could only be more perfect if he too possessed a dragonoid form. His own dragonoid form, not the image of another. Loni looked him in the eyes once more, the tip of her triangular muzzle nought but a couple of inches from his face. "You created a portal between Earth and Skylands. You brought me home, even if I cannot stay. I say that makes you as much of a Portal Master as I am," And her voice, too, was full of sincerity. Tails didn't need dragonoid senses to know that, but wished, more than ever, that he too was truly a dragon.
After that, they had gone downstairs, which had been when Loni's wing got caught in the stairwell, and out into Tails' city-house's small garden. There had been a time when the house he currently lived in had been part of a small resort just on the outskirts of Tails' current home city, but development in the surrounding area had been catastrophic for business and the owner of the resort had been forced to convert them into a dozen or so small homes and sell them at pretty much any price anybody had wanted to pay for them, which was the only reason Tails' mother could afford it. Loni hadn't minded, she had missed the cityscape.
Loni sighed in happiness at the memories, then wondered why. Surely she didn't feel, er, . . . . . that way towards Tails. Surely, she couldn't!
Could she?
She was still debating with herself her feelings towards Tails, as she subconsciously extended her right wing and started flapping at the half a dozen or so Wisps gathered in the chamber, shooing them out. Loni stopped when she realised that there was a Wisp in front of her that was refusing to budge. It was a Magenta Wisp, with an oval-shaped head and one green-irised eye in the front of it, three straw-thin tentacles that each ended in perfect orbs, and a musical flag and stem protruding from the back of it's head. It's eye looked up at her, pleading. One of it's tentacles gestured to the Chaos Emerald frantically. Loni couldn't help but look at it too - and was struck with an idea. Quickly shooing the Wisp out of the chamber, she returned, staring straight at the silver diamond. Before becoming a Portal Master, Loni had been a bit of a gamer - and although she had mostly only played the older Sonic games, she remembered the supposed power of the Chaos Emeralds. It was time to see if that was true.
Despite not making physical contact with the gemstone, Loni looked straight at it and said out loud; "I wish I knew how Tails really feels about me,"
Then a vision came and enveloped her, drawing her personality into its shimmering embrace.
Kaos smirked as he perched on the volcano's lip. "Soon! The volcano will erupt with me inside it, spreading a wave of darkness all over Skylands! I shall see all, hear all, know all, be all! Isn't that what you said, Duskwort?"
"Sure, sure, whatever, just shut the [BLEEP] up and jump into it already!"
Duskwort couldn't help but smirk. This fool was so incompetent. He didn't even realise that an act such as that would completely eradicate his personality, leaving darkness all over the world, and him at the reins of it. And from there, it would seep into other worlds, placing them into an age of darkness too. As long as he made sure that the volcano was permanently evilised with Kaos' body, and as soon as he could find a way to prevent his death - or maybe he should turn himself Undead, they were immortal - he, Duskwort, would be The Lord of the Universe for all eternity! And all he had to do was keep that massive buffoon inside the volcano for the next hour, nothing could stop him after that! Except possibly some kind of massive, technomagical temple powered by magical gemstones of infinite power, and being driven by the Skylanders, or perhaps those dragons working for Kaos' mum, they had seemed like they were peeved that he had captured two of them. Speaking of which . . . . .
Duskwort turned to where Kaos had placed the frozen forms of Darkus and Windstorm. The female, white one was kind of cute. Maybe he would unthaw her and rewrite her mind so that she loved him, not that navy-blue-and-silver bad boy dragon wannabe. Speaking of which, what would he do with that kid? 'Maybe I should turn him to stone,' Duskwort thought to himself. 'Yes, he looks like good lawn or battlement ornament material,' he added.
A mental picture suddenly came into Duskwort's mind of a tour guide and a tourist group passing by the castle he wanted to have when he was Grand Lord of the Universe, and the tour guide pointing to a group of stone statues and explaining, "Those are some of the beings that have opposed our rightful lord and master, transformed into cold, dead rock and guarding his battlements for all eternity. They say they're still alive in there, but trapped for eternity, unable to move, only to see and hear the things around here and not be able to even move a toe to affect them. Just another helpful reminder of why we should all respect and fear our humble leader, the Supreme Marvellous Unbeatable Lord and Master of Every Single Molecule in Existence! Am I right? He prides himself on his humility,"
Duskwort chuckled at that. If there were two things he would not be when he was Lord, it was humble, and merciful. Indeed, he fully intended to transform at least one being into a living frozen stone statue every day. For no reason if he had to. Starting with Darkus. He wasn't sure how Windstorm would react to it all at first, for all he knew she might actually possess a certain level of compassion and kindness, but if she didn't, so much the better, and if she did . . . . He would evilise her heart. There was no escaping or undoing something like that. An evilised heart would permanently transform his queen into the most ruthless, sadistic, unopposable being in all history. Permanently. And it would barely affect her good looks, just, make them darker, more forbidding. Of course, when he turned the both of them Undead, that might affect her beauty, but surely not unduly, and if it did? He was certain it would be no problem for a being of his power. Just one more hour of this insidious buffoon and he would be done, and ready to reap the benefits alongside his new Queen of Darkness. He would be the Supreme Marvellous Unbeatable Lord and Master of Every Single Molecule in Existence!, or SMULMESME when he didn't feel like saying the whole thing.
'Wait, what's that in the distance?' Duskwort squinted. It looked like some kind of massive, technomagical temple powered by magical gemstones of infinite power, and being driven by the Skylanders! Just like what he had been thinking of before! "How does that make any sense?!" he ranted at nobody in particular. The dragon of Darkness sighed. "And I was so looking forward to making Darkus the first member of my statue collection. Looks like he'll have to be my guard dog instead,"
Sighing to himself, Duskwort reached deep inside him and did something not even the Arkeyans when they had possessed the Petrified Darkness had ever dared to, something that nobody had ever dared to do until now. He summoned the true power of Petrified Darkness and launched it at Darkus' frozen form.
The ice around him began to crack as his eyes, which had been frozen open, glowed purple and his body began to swell. Windstorm, however, still remained frozen.
Duskwort smiled as for the first time in history, the true potential of petrified darkness was revealed.
In the vision granted to her by the Chaos Emerald, Loni saw herself, still as a dragon, but older, perhaps seventeen or eighteen, lying on the hillock with the Dragon's Peak horn back on the Isle of Light with an unfamiliar dragon with sea-blue scales and a deep crimson wing membrane, spines and underbelly, about the same age as the vision version of her. They were just lying together in the moonlight, simply enjoying the moment. Loni wondered what this had to do with how Tails felt about her, then she realised that the blue-and-red dragon was Tails. "He wants to permanently transform himself into a dragon just so he can be with me," the teenage dragoness realised.
But, as she took a closer look, she realised that in the vision, the older version of herself was absolutely stunning. The perfect way her pink scales transformed into blue wing membrane along her spine, the gorgeous way that the moonlight glistened on her scales, the way that her twin semi-crescent-shaped ivory horns reflected the water in the bay below like clouds sparkling in the sky, the beautiful way her ivory teeth gleamed. She looked perfect, like a draconic angel without a halo, like everything that could possibly be bad about her just didn't exist, never had, and never would. "Is that really how he sees me?" Loni whispered to herself, incredulous at the very idea that she could be that perfect in that amazing way, yet thinking that it was really sweet of him to think of her like that, even blushing a bit.
The vision vanished as quickly as it had started, leaving Loni collapsed on the floor in the chamber with the Chaos Emerald. She hurriedly picked herself up, and dashed back out through the stairwell, where she was surprised to see Tails approaching the top of the stairwell. "What happened in there?" he asked, genuine concern etched into his scaly, green face. "You were in there for almost an hour. We've almost arrived at the Cloudbreak Volcano. I was about to go looking for you,"
"No, no, everything's fine," Loni hastily gushed. "I've gotta go talk to Cynder, see ya!" And she ran off as quickly as her four legs would carry her.
Tails turned to Spyro, who was sitting a few metres away with a cube-like Blue Wisp, who he had found and bonded with while Loni was in the Chaos Emerald chamber. "Do you have any idea what that was about?" the plant dragon had to ask. The purple dragon dragon-shrugged. "Either she's crushing on you, or she thinks you're crushing on her,"
"Well, if it's the second, she's right. But why would she . . . . . ." Tails trailed off as his gaze caught the entrance to the Chaos Emerald's chamber. "If she just did what I think she just did, I hope she liked it,"
"What do you think she did?" Spyro asked. Tails facepalmed.
"I think she just used the power of the Chaos Emerald to find out how I really feel about her. For a purple dragon, you can be a bit thick at times," Tails explained, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Well, excuse me for Sonic the Hedgehog and stuff not being quite as well-known in Skylands as it is on Earth," Spyro retorted. "Wait, shouldn't you be piloting this thing?" he asked, worried. "Don't worry, I discovered it has an autopilot," Tails smiled, before returning to the cockpit.
All of the other Skylanders, plus Avril, Duff and, since neither Drobot nor Flynn was present to fly the ship, a Fabbory named Gerald who was a fairly skilled pilot, were aboard the new and improved Dread-Yacht. And, since they were so close together, several Wisps had decided to cross the gap between the crafts and explore this new area. Trigger Happy was already bonding with an Orange Wisp that he was calling Stream, and Zap and Riley were playing with a Yellow Wisp and an Ivory Wisp. Even Bash had come out of his shell for a Crimson Wisp, as, according to the pamphlets Tails had prepared, they could transform a being into the Crimson Eagle. And Bash still dreamed of flight.
Tails frowned at something in the distance. "What's that?"
It was a massive, mutated purple dragon, encrusted in random places with the traditional pink crystals of an evilised being. Its eyes glowed purple, and it looked savage.
Spyro and his Blue Wisp came to join him. "Okay, that's scary," he ascertained. "And somewhat familiar,"
And it's iris-less, pupil-less, soulless eyes were locked onto the Maxus Gaia Colossus.
Loni finally found Cynder in a chamber further down the main body of the Maxus Gaia Colossus, accompanied by her Purple Wisp. It was this chamber that contained another one of the Chaos Emeralds, the one that was actually an emerald, the green one. "What do you want?" Cynder asked, not even looking at the Portal Master. Cynder and Loni weren't really friends, and they never had that much to do with each other, but on the occasions that they had, Loni had been nice enough, if somewhat reserved, which was better than the majority of the treatment that Cynder had received, so she was willing to give Loni a chance.
"I need your help," Loni confessed.
"What with?" Cynder asked, still looking away, gazing at the Chaos Emerald like it was the key to the universe.
"I'm pretty sure Tails is in love with me, so I need your advice on how to react," Loni told the other dragoness.
"Well, duh," Cynder commented, studiously watching the Chaos Emerald.
"Wait, you knew?" Loni asked, surprised.
"Everybody knew, but it was Tails, so nobody told you," Cynder smiled, raising her brows.
"What do you mean, 'it was Tails'?" Loni questioned the Undead dragoness.
"Well, there's no way you could be together back on Earth, as I'm sure you've worked out your transformation is irreversible, and Tails can only get to Skylands by taking the form of someone else. So unless the same thing happens to him that did to you, which honestly there's a very small chance of, it just wouldn't work out. Everyone figured that it was best to not mention it to you and hope you would remain ignorant of his feelings towards you," Cynder explained, STILL focusing her gaze on the Chaos Emerald.
"What are you doing?" Loni had to ask.
"Trying to see if there's a way to use this thing to make me more accepted around here," Cynder replied.
"Tails is a genius. He'll work it out," Loni replied confidently before leaving the room.
Cynder remained, gazing at the Chaos Emerald. Her Purple Wisp followed suit, turning it's head towards the gemstone on it's square altar, and, although nobody noticed, the tiniest tinges of cyan began to appear on its back.
The massive, mutated Darkus was a complete and utter abomination, grotesquely deformed, yet still formidable in battle, if in a lumbering, unwieldy way. Due to the process of his evilisation, his mind had been reduced to animal intelligence.
And that animal instinct told him that the massive technomagical stone colossus was a threat, and so should be attacked.
From where he crouched on the edge of the blackened, charred island the Cloudbreak Volcano was situated on, Darkus leapt at the great construction.
Panicking, Tails reared up on his hind legs and made a grabbing motion with his forepaws - and the Maxus Gaia Colossus caught Darkus around the waist, like an overgrown feral cat.
Tails dropped back to all fours, unable to maintain his balance on his hind legs any longer. The Colossus misinterpreted the action and bodily slammed the monstrous dragon into the nearest Skyland.
The Dread-Yacht drew back, it's inhabitants not wanting to get caught in the cross-fire.
As if he had read their minds, Darkus pushed himself out of the machine's grip and away a couple of kilometres, drew in a great breath, and breathed malign purple fire at the Colossus' midsection. But before it could, an unfamiliar voice shouted "Bakugan BRAWL! Ability Activate! Fire Shield!" and a giant, anthropomorphic dragon with red scales and wings, both of which had yellow and silver highlights, and a yellow underbelly with a ruby-shaped emerald, or maybe it was an emerald-coloured ruby, set into a hollow in his chest. A massive, scythe-like horn protruded from the end of the top of his muzzle, and two more that were the same shape, but smaller, from above his eyes, and his tail ended in a three-pointed vice-like set of prongs.
The dragonoid monster clapped it's forepaws (arms, perhaps? It possessed an elfin body structure that appeared to have been 'dragonized') together and a red energy shield appeared around it, and the Maxus Gaia Colossus. Spyro and his Blue Wisp moved towards Tails. "I've gotta give you props for the massive dragonoid monster. Where do you get this stuff?"
Spyro's smile slid off his face like melted butter as he saw Tails' expression. "I didn't create a dragonoid monster like that. Whatever it is, it's not mine. But it does look somewhat familiar,"
The Fire dragon who had woken up an hour ago, but taken that long to get his bearings, stumbled up the stairs, searching for a good vantage point yet constantly tripping over his own feet on the stairs. Finally he spotted a stone temple-like protrusion in what appeared to be the chest of the thing he was currently standing in, with a deep blue disc of light on its roof and a balcony ringed with pillars. And it seemed to be protruding from something that looked rather familiar. Was that really Pyrus Spyderfencer? Consistently tripping over his feet, and hoping that the way he was carrying his gauntlet in his mouth wouldn't damage it, he managed to make his way to the balcony.
The dragon dropped the gauntlet to the ground, and, fumbling with his claws, managed to strap it to his left foreleg. "Gauntlet! Activate!" he shouted to nobody in particular. "Good to see you're ready, partner. I'm not sure what kind of Bakugan this is, but I don't think I can hold out against it!" the anthropomorphic dragon yelled at the Fire dragon.
Tails took a moment to transform into Sonic Boom, cocked her head and pricked up her ears. "This sounds familiar," she commented to Spyro. "I can't make out the words, but I think it's something about a gauntlet. That rings a bell, but I can't place it," the female griffin added.
The Fire dragon took a pair of cards from a little satchel on his back and slid them into a slot on his red-and-white gauntlet one by one. "Double Ability Activate! Blazing Fire, plus Ultimate Pyrus Combination!"
About a dozen circles of red energy appeared in front of the massive monster, who sucked in a massive breath. "Blazing Fire costs you 100 G-Power, while Ultimate Pyrus Combination multiples by ten the effects of any Ability Card played by a Pyrus Bakugan! So you lose 1000 Gs!" the Fire dragon shouted, as the dragon monster expelled a great fireball which got larger as it passed through each of the rings.
The mutated Darkus simply stepped out of the way and the fireball whistled past him.
"What?" Both dragon and dragonoid roared at the same time. "He didn't even use an Ability Card! He just moved! According to the Bakugan rule book, that's not even possible!" the Fire dragon gasped, stunned.
"I don't think that this is a Bakugan, old friend," the dragonoid monster replied.
"Aww, snap! Then if it's not a Bakugan, what is it?!"
Then the Fire dragon turned around and spotted a passage that led to a chamber containing a diamond-shaped ruby. Dashing over to it and narrowly avoiding tripping over yet again, the dragon scooped up the gemstone and touched it to a slot on his gauntlet. A new card appeared out of nowhere, and the dragon snatched it up. "Homing Chaos Ultra Blaster. I have no idea what that is, but it sounds awesome," The dragon returned to the balcony, the Chaos Emerald still clutched against his gauntlet. "Ability Activate! Homing Chaos Ultra Blaster!"
The dragonoid monster's eyes glowed red and his body began to resolve itself into a glowing red energy beam. As fast as sound, the laser pummelled into Darkus' body and out the other end, then it swerved around and went through again. Every time the mutated Darkus seemed to get smaller, and every time the laser grew a little more purplish in colour, until finally Darkus had shrunk to about the size of a car, and the laser reformed itself back into the dragon, who expelled all of the Darkness energy it had absorbed in one fell blast.
When the resulting smoke cleared, Darkus had completely reverted to normal.
"Bakugan! Return!" The cry rang out around the Maxus Gaia Colossus. The dragonoid monster became energy once more, reshaped itself into a small ball and swept to a point in the Maxus Gaia Colossus' torso.
The Fire dragon carefully replaced the ruby-coloured Chaos Emerald on its podium, and raised his forepaw to catch the little ball. "Whaddya say we go find someone who can tell us what's going down in this place, bud?"
The ball replied "I agree. The sooner we find out where we are, the better,"
With that, they both began ascending the Maxus Gaia Colossus.
Finally, and after getting lost multiple times, they reached the cockpit in a remarkably short amount of time, and found Tails and Spyro.
"Were you the ones who just kicked that thing's butt?" Spyro asked, raising a scaly eyebrow.
The Fire dragon nodded, an arrogant smirk on his face. "Drago totally rocked that battle," Noticing the confused expressions, he gestured to the little ball floating beside him. "That's Drago. He's a Bakugan, Pyrus Cross Dragonoid,"
"Renowned as the greatest Bakugan that ever lived," the ball told them. "No one says that, Drago," the other dragon told them.
"And you are?" Spyro questioned.
The cocky, arrogant smirk returned to the Fire dragon's face as he replied, "Dan. Dan Kuso,"
Tails' eyes widened and his jaw dropped open. "You're what now?"
Okay, I've impressed even myself. The battle between the Maxus Gaia Colossus and the giant dragonoid Kaos was supposed to be last chapter, now it's gonna have to be in the next.
'Please, the only reason that it wasn't in this chapter was because of all the TailsXLoni fluff,'
Yeah, sorry about that. Unlike a lot of stuff here, the TailsXLoni thing never really becomes important, yet it was all that I could feel inspired to write about. Sure, it does result in some really nice scenes, like the ones here, but it's never that important. You know, unless I say it will be important later. It just isn't important by my current plan. Unlike how Dan Kuso just showed up as a dragon. Now that is important later.
'Yes, I cannot wait for that spin-off, -'
Because it involves you?
'Because it involves me!'
Is it weird that I'm starting to miss the evil version of her? On an unrelated note, how's the search for Riley going? We need our censurer back!
'Nope. Nada. Maybe if you start writing the spin-off about me, Dan and Drago, we might have more luck in the author's notes there,'
{the lights go out, a resounding smack echoes throughout the room}
You do not want those lights back on. Peace!