Look Out! He's Armed And Dangerous!

We started our plan to raid the Nether Prison by…shopping.

…hey, we'd just escaped from the bounty hunter's base with not even an eighth of our equipment. Give us a break.

"Okay. How are we going to play this?" Seu asked. "We don't even know if our...wanted posters...have been put up around town yet."

"True." Dan acknowledged. "But...there is a fifty fifty chance, right?"

Nikai scoffed. "More like a twenty five to seventy five chance."

Ender sighed and adjusted her magenta scarf. "Okay, sunshine. Look. Why don't I go in there, check if there are any posters, and come back."

"Super." Nikai's tone was sarcastic. "It's not like you'd stand out with your pink scarf of yours."

"It's magenta, Nik." Ender scowled at Nikai. "So shut your mouth before I shut it for you."

Nikai rolled his eyes. "First, typical of you to know the difference between magenta and pink—" ("What is THAT supposed to mean?" Ender shouted.) "—and second, do NOT call me that."

"What, Nik?" Ender put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Got something against—"

"This isn't going anywhere." Dan interrupted with a sigh. "Cal, you go."

"What!?" I yelped. "Why me?"

"Because you're the most normal looking out of all of us." Dan reasoned.

"What about Ben?" I protested, gesturing to him. "He's the more normal looking guy!"

We all looked at Ben, who blinked as if to say, 'hey, you're not the one with a broken leg.'

It turns out that Ben had actually broken his leg at some point. Whether it was during the fight with the bounty hunters, when Shell picked us up, or when we were dropped onto the ground like a sack of potatoes, his leg had been broken. Orca attempted to reset his leg, and there was quite a bit of screaming until Orca was done. We weren't sure if it would be safe to have Ben walk yet, so we made him a makeshift crutch for him to walk around on. Ben claimed that it still hurt, but I got the feeling he was just enjoying being babied. (cough, Seu, cough)

And with that they decided to send me, who has the highest bounty, mind you, to check. Great.

We were hiding in a town called Hiemx, and there were two reasons for us being here. One, there was a mart here that we could use to stock up supplies on. Two, last my sister had been seen, she'd been heading here. I shivered at the thought. What had my sister, or even me for that matter, done to be wanted by Klith?

I shivered again, but this time it was because of the cold. The whole town was covered in snow, even though it was just nearing the end of summer. Unfortunately, the only clothes I was wearing was a brown hoodie with a netherite axe knitted on the front, and a pair of jeans. So yeah, I was kind of cold.

I groaned and creeped out of the abandoned alleyway we were hiding in, looking left and right before subtly walk-running away.

Unfortunately, everyone around seemed to be on high alert for whatever reason, making me a little nervous. I looked around, and there didn't seem to be any wanted posters. I turned a left, and found a bunch of guards standing around a demolished cart.

What happened here? I wondered.

I stopped upon seeing a certain wanted poster.

On the wanted poster was Fisherman.

I glowered, remembering the time Fisherman had stabbed me in the back. I hated how even on the poster he looked so smug. Muttering under my breath, I turned...

...and ran into someone. More specifically, a guard.

My blood froze, and I mumbled, "Sorry." I tried to move past, but the officer stuck out an arm, blocking my path.

"Hold on a moment...you look a little familiar."

My heart started pounding triple time, and I paled. "Um...I think you've got the wrong person."

The officer inspected me, and I was being torn between bolting and punching this guy in the face when he said, "My mistake. Thought you looked like someone else. Move on."

I sighed in relief. "By the way...what happened here?"

A forlorn look went onto his face. "A disaster, that's what. Fisherman came here. Fisherman. And him and some little girl started fighting, demolishing so many things and causing hundreds of dollars worth damage. And on top of that, arson!"

Little girl?

...

...there's no way.

"What did this girl look like, exactly?" I asked casually.

The officer frowned. "According to witnesses, she had about shoulder length brown hair, blue eyes, was wearing a grey winter coat, and blue pants. Apparently around eleven to twelve years old. Why, you think you know her?"

I tried to keep my expression neutral, but it was probably the exact opposite of neutral.

"I...don't think so." I responded. I mumbled a hasty 'goodbye' to him and quickly walked away before he could get too suspicious.

Don't worry, Cal! I reassured myself. There are plenty of twelve year old girls with brown hair and blue eyes out there! It can't be Toni, can it?

...

Oh, who am I kidding. It's gotta be Toni.

I got back to the alley. "Back so quick?" Dan asked me. Upon seeing my expression, he assumed the worst. "So there are posters."

"No, no." I shook my head. "It's perfectly fine. In fact, I ran right into a guard and he didn't recognize me."

Dan frowned. "Then what's with the expression? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

Maybe not, but it was just as disturbing. Hundreds of dollars worth of damage? Arson? Fisherman?

Oh, Toni. What have you gotten yourself into? I worried.

"Hello? Cal?"

I blinked, snapping out of my thoughts. "Yeah?"

"We lost you there for a moment. Why don't you and Ender accompany Seu to the shop? You know, as a lookout." Dan jabbed his thumb towards Ender, who eyed me like I was a stranger she'd been paired with on a group project.

I honestly shared the sentiment—I didn't know Ender very well. But oh well. It wasn't like it would kill me.

"Now hold on." Orca frowned. "Excuse my manners, but you want to send the two of them to be guards?"

Dan subtly made a few gestures with his hands towards Orca. It wasn't sign language, but I could see a look of apprehension in both Dan and Orca's eyes.

Sending a mixed message here, Dan.

So all three of us girls went off towards the street. We mostly followed Seu, who took multiple twists and turns until we came to a big shop.

Seu turned to us. "Okay, guys. If you see anybody who looks suspicious coming towards you, warn me with your phone, Ender." Seu pulled out something that looked like a mix between a walkie talkie and a phone.

Ender rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay. This isn't my first rodeo, Seu. I got this."

"Uh huh." Seu said sceptically. "Oh, and also...DON'T CAUSE ANY TROUBLE THIS TIME. GOT IT?"

"What do you mean!?" Ender and I said at the same time. Ender blinked at me. Seu sighed like she was regretting her life choices and walked into the shop.

So we just awkwardly stood outside the doorway while people walked in and out.

"So..." I said, attempting to make small talk. "I assume you're the troublemaker of the group?

"If it wasn't obvious already." I noticed she had a slight southern lilt to her voice. "Nikai calls me the Lightning Rod. As in, I attract trouble."

"Ah." I said. A bit of a stupid response, but at that point I wasn't sure what to say.

Ender leaned against the shop's wall and wrapped her scarf around her hand, looking at me with suspicion. I noticed burn marks on one of her hands. "I've never been the subtle type, so I won't beat around the bush. I don't trust you."

I blinked at her bluntness, and she continued.

"I mean, you've only been with us for, what, two or three days?" Ender said. "Dan…I don't know if you two are friends, or allies, or something more, but he trusts you. Seu and Ben…well, they've always been quick to trust. The others see you as a colleague. An acquaintance at best. And suddenly we're on a quest to go and raid the Nether Prison because…why?"

When I began to say some thing angry, Ender cut me off. "Yeah, yeah. Your mom's there. I know. And that sucks, but…I don't like the way you just…showed up one day."

"I didn't come here of my own accord, you know." I said, annoyed.

"Yeah, yeah." Ender flapped her hand at me. "I'm sorry, I just don't see why we need to be dragged into your business."

"Didn't you agree to following along?" I said aggressively. "If you don't trust me that much, why even join? Why not leave?"

Ender was silent for a moment before saying, "Did you know Dan's actually not the leader?"

"He isn't?" I said.

"Yeah." Ender said. "The actual leader is on a vacation somewhere in the south. She appointed Dan as the temporary leader until she gets back. The last thing she said to all of us? Protect the members of this group like a family, because they are your family now. And you know the funny thing? That was a year ago. She hasn't been back from her vacation since."

"Oh," I said. Again, inadequate, but all I could say.

"Yeah. The only reason I came along is to keep an eye on you, and because I owe the leader a ton." Ender scowled. "Even if she hasn't been the leader she should have been. I don't like this Klith business. So I can't trust you. And I don't intend to, unless you do something for the team. Even then…"

Before she could finish, Seu ran out of the shop with nothing.

"That was fast," Ender commented. "Light spender?"

"Carlos." Seu gasped.

"What?" I said. "How?"

"SEUU!" came a shout.

It was Carlos, the ferocious bounty hunter with a metal arm.

We all started running as Carlos's shouts came closer.

"Go go go!" Seu urged, and we turned a corner right into an alleyway.

We twisted and turned everywhere, but where ever we went, he seemed to follow.

Seu beckoned us to follow her, and we jumped through a broken window into an old, rundown building.

The stench inside was horrible—smelled like mold and something like curdled milk. Seu pushed us down, and Carlos ran past, yelling.

Ender exhaled. "That was—"

Suddenly Carlos appeared through the window, seizing Ender by the hair. "Got you!"

Ender let out a sound of rage. "Don't touch my hair, you prick!" And with that she pulled a purple potion out of her pocket and smashed it into Carlos's face, making him howl and let go.

"Run! Go, go, go! Get out of here NOW!" Seu screamed, and we ran.

Ender pointed to a dirty window. "There!"

Behind us, there was a loud CRASH and some sort of crumpling sound, like someone balling up paper.

I turned my head, and saw that cracks were running through the ceiling and I saw Seu running from Carlos like her life depended on it, which it did.

I turned back towards the window, which Ender got to. She pulled out a small dagger and slammed it into the glass, shattering it. I heard Carlos bellow in fury, and Ender jumped out of the window, landing on the low ground and frantically beckoning to me.

I jumped out and landed gracefully on my face. Ender probably would have made a sarcastic comment had Seu not shouted "GET AWAY FROM THE BUILDING!"

We scrambled away, and I turned to see Seu dive through the window as cracks spread through the wall and the roof started to cave in. The building collapsed in on itself, walls folding inwards with a sound like someone setting off fireworks.

A large cloud of dust washed over us, making us cough as we blindly ran from the building.

We stopped a safe distance away and stood before the wreckage, as columns of dust spiraled into the air.

"Well, I mean...the building was probably going to be torn down anyways, so if you think about it, we just did the people a favor." Seu worried. "Right?"

Ender rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure. Okay, listen. Best case scenario, Carlos was knocked out and will be unconscious for at least an hour. Worst case scenario, he blasts his way out of the debris right now, assuming he kept that laser in his arm."

"The what in his arm?" I repeated.

"Either way, we can't take any chances. Let's go." Ender quickly beckoned to us, and we started running again.

?-V-?

"What happened?" Dan asked us when he saw us. "Where's the supplies? We needed—"

"What we need is to leave, now." Ender snapped. "It's Carlos. He's here."

Dan looked stunned. "What? How'd he find us? We're so far away from base!"

"Come on, let's go!" Ben urgently shouted, and we all quickly ran out of the alleyway.

We started to casually speed walk down the street and out of Hiemx to the lonely path in the forest where we'd tied up our horses.

Until someone behind us shouted, "HEY!"

Of course it was Carlos.

"Go go go!" Dan urged, and we all started running.

"How'd he get out so fast?" Seu yelped.

"Hopefully not with a laser!" Ender called back.

We were almost there. The number of houses we were running past seemed to be shrinking, which meant we were getting close, but obviously Carlos wouldn't let us get away.

I heard the smash of a splash potion, and the next thing I knew I'd been thrown backwards right into the ground.

I groaned, the wind in my lungs forced out of my chest in an instant.

"CAL!" Dan turned to fight, only for Carlos to punch him in the chest. Dan staggered backwards, and Carlos delivered a spinning kick right into the side of Dan's neck, sending him crashing to the ground.

I got to my feet and noticed pale blue swirls emanating off of Carlos's body.

Speed potion.

Carlos pulled out a large axe made of some shimmering white grey metal and swung it at the nearest person, Durham. The axe caught Durham in the chest and threw him backwards off the road.

"Look out! The axe is enchanted with Knockback!" Seu shouted.

I got to my feet, drawing my netherite axe.

Carlos swung at Seu, and she blocked the blow with her sword. An arrow from Orca slammed into Carlos's leg, making him grunt. Nikai ran up from behind and swung his sword at Carlos's head.

Carlos turned and grabbed the sword. He bent it in half, tossed it away, and backhanded Nikai so hard he comically spun before crumpling to the ground. Carlos turned back to Seu and sliced her sword out of her hands, and then smashed the dull side of his axe into Seu's chest, throwing her backwards into the air before falling to the ground. Ender hurled a potion at Carlos, who dodged and punched her in the face, making her crumple.

He kicked Seu's sword into the air, caught it, and sent it flying towards Orca, who yelled out as the sword slammed into his cheat and sent him tumbling to the ground. Ben ran at Carlos, his sword raised, but Carlos simply kicked his injured leg, making him yell and fall to the ground.

I raised my axe and swung it at Carlos as hard as I could, but Carlos merely grabbed the axe, ripped it out of my hands and threw it away, and backhanded me across the face, throwing me backwards onto the ground with a dull 'thud'.

Carlos stood there for a moment. Not even a bead of sweat had popped up on his forehead. "I'm taking all of you in."

Suddenly thick, muscled arms wrapped around Carlos, and there was a brief look of shock on his face before he was lifted into the air and thrown off the path right into a tree.

Durham stood there, rubbing his chest. "Get up," he said. "He won't stay unconscious for long." And then he then ran back to the others.

I pulled Ender to her feet, who gave me a grudging nod. Orca was in the worst condition—he was bleeding heavily from the spot that the sword had penetrated.

"Ender, do you have any potions that can help?" Dan asked frantically.

"Only one healing potion," Ender said and tossed it to Dan, who immediately poured it into the wound. Orca moaned, and the cut sealed a little, but it was still open.

"Hang in there, bud," Dan said as he wrapped Orca's arm around his shoulder. They both stood, and we heard a whinny close by. We found our horses standing there hidden in the foliage off-road, just calmly loitering around a safe distance away from Shell, who was yawning and revealing his razor sharp teeth the size of kitchen knives.

"Come on, let's go!" Dan shouted. We all got on our respective horses, Orca going on Ender's horse, when suddenly there was a shout that didn't belong to anyone in our group, or even Carlos.

"Uh oh." Ben said, which perfectly summed up the situation.

I swung myself onto Shell's back, and Shell stood, stretching his wings.

"Quick, follow me! I have a friend near here who has a boat that goes straight to Cratre! Let's go!" Seu shouted, and sped off.

Just as Carlos burst through the greenery behind us, we sped off, following Seu.

Shell burst into the air with a wing beat that threw up dust and made the trees sway, and we darted into the air, following Seu and the others to a beach that seemed a short ways away. The sun was setting, drawing soft pinks and purples all over the sky.

You'd think it'd be hard to see a full grown enderdragon at sunset, considering their scales are literally pitch black, but apparently not, looking at the crowd of bounty hunters following us.

Soon, we could see the dark, endless ocean in front of us, and Dan shouted, "We're here! Shell, think you can stave them off till we get in the boat?"

But before he even finished his sentence, there was a loud snapping sound, and all of a sudden I saw something like a spider web spiraling towards us.

"DAN!" I screamed, realizing too late what it was.

The net wrapped around Shell, entangling and snaring his wings. Shell let out a bellow, and we began to spiral towards the ground. It was like déjà vu as wind whipped my hair against my face, blinding me as I blindly held on to Shell's saddle.

"No, no, no!" Dan somehow managed to take out his obsidian scimitar and was trying to cut through the net, but his scimitar shook so much it would have resulted in him cutting Shell's wing instead.

I shook my hair out of my face only to see that we were headed straight towards the horses our partners were on.

I shouted, and one of them must have heard, because they looked up and yelled in shock. A split second later, Shell plowed directly into the ground.

After flapping in the air like a banner for the duration of the fall, I was instantly slammed into Shell's back, forcing all of the air in my lungs out. Shell went into a roll, and suddenly the entire world flipped upside down as my hands slipped off the saddle and I flew off of Shell's back, being sent spiraling into someone who grunted as I knocked them off their horse.

We both rolled away and into a ditch with some weeds and plants, and I slammed into a bush.

The branches of the bush were sharp, thorny, and generally a bad time. It felt like someone was stabbing me with a bunch of needles all over my body. I struggled out of the bush, groaning at the pain, and found that I'd slammed into Ender, who laid on the ground beside me, also winded.

And all the while, the screaming of the bounty hunters were getting closer.

Get up.

I struggled to my feet, still slightly disoriented. I noticed Durham and Nikai sawing away at the nets that entangled Shell's wings. I noticed some of the horses were gone. I noticed that there were cuts where the net had dug into Shell's wings, drawing purple luminescent blood.

I took all of this in in a split second, and suddenly there was shouting and screaming, and I watched as Dan dragged a groaning Orca away into a boat.

Shell was like a huge wall between us and the boat. Everyone had been getting off their horses when we had crashed into the ground in front of them.

"Oh, crap." Ender groaned.

"Go go go!" Seu shouted from a distance.

The sun had now fully set. Some people piled into the boat, but it was too dark to see who they were. Before the rest of us could get on, the boat suddenly moved with a jolt, and began to drift away.

Ben had been knocked off his horse into the ground, and was stumbling towards the boat, but he apparently still wasn't stable enough, because he tripped and landed on his face.

I climbed out of the ditch I'd been lying in and ran for the boat, but the boat was floating even further away. A silhouette that could have been Nikai managed to jump in, but by the time me, Ender, and Ben got to the boat, it was too late. They were too far.

And now the bounty hunters were here. We turned to face them, but turns out we didn't have to.

Shell turned his head and sprayed fire over the crowd of bounty hunters, lighting the entire beach a fierce pink.

Some of them were smart and held up shields, or quickly placed down blocks in front of them to avoid the stream of flames that burst from Shell's mouth, but the others weren't so lucky. The people in the front covered with flames, with the people in the back being lucky and only having certain parts set on fire.

There was a lot of screaming and panic, and everyone ran around like you would when you're on fire. Some actually ran past us and jumped into the water.

The people who weren't on fire shot arrows, threw tridents, and tossed all sorts of stuff at us. I was almost killed five times by multiple projectiles, but somehow managed to find shelter behind Shell's back.

"WE NEED TO LEAVE!" Ben bellowed.

I raised my axe and sliced through the remaining ropes, and Shell instantly stood, turning and smashing down half the bounty hunters with his tail. Ender jumped onto Shell's back helping up Ben, and I barely managed to grab Shell's saddle before he turned and bounded away.

Most may not know, since dragons are most known for their ability to fly, but dragons can actually run pretty dang fast when they need to, and Shell was no exception.

Shell ran off, charging through the bounty hunters (and maybe trampling some) and running off the beach and into the forest ahead. Unfortunately, we had one unwelcome stowaway.

Carlos was hanging from Shell's tail, and despite being dragged across the ground and probably getting all types of burns, he hung on and started pulling himself towards us. I was also still hanging from Shell's side, but managed to pull myself on just as Carlos seized my foot and uses it to pull himself even more onto Shell's back.

Ender glanced backwards at Carlos and aimed a well aimed kick at his face.

Her combat boot hit him in the face, and blood spurted from his nose. And by the way he howled, I guessed that it was most likely broken.

But still he hung on, and suddenly in one swift move he pulled himself onto Shell's back and grabbed Ender.

One inch to the side, and both of them would fly off Shell's back. Plus with Shell jumping and weaving through the dark forest, the odds weren't looking good for either of them.

They both slid to the side, and suddenly Ender was barely hanging on to Shell's back, with one hand grabbing the saddle on Shell's back.

Ender pulled out a potion with her other hand and waved it at Carlos.

"Here's a lesson," Ender snarled. "Don't mess with a woman's hair."

Carlos's eyes widened in alarm, and Ender threw the potion.

The fragile bottle burst, and Carlos howled in pain. The glass shards probably didn't help either.

With poison and blood mixing and running down his face, he had no choice but to let go.

Carlos was quickly lost in the foliage, I pulled Ender back up, and we sped away into the night.

?-V-?

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Dan shouted at the unfortunate captain. "We just left three—no, four of our crew behind!"

The captain stammered, "W-well, those men were coming fast, you see, and—"

"You panicked and left? Even though we still had time to get them on?" Dan's voice was stone cold.

"Well, what would we have done about the dragon? From what I saw she wouldn't have been able to fly anyways!" the captain argued. "And even if we got her on the boat, she would have weighed us down anyways!"

"We would have figured something out!" Dan yelled. "We're going back! And by the way, Shell is a BOY!"

Seu put a calming hand on Dan's shoulder. "Dan. You know we can't do that."

"Why not?" Dan said desperately, turning to Seu. "They could be dead by now!"

"They have a dragon, Dan." Seu reassured. "I'm sure they'll be fine."

"A dragon who can't fly!" Dan ran his hand through his hair.

"We wouldn't have been able to do anything anyways." Nikai said. "The man is right. And besides, Orca is still in critical condition. We'll just have to hope that they find their own way to Cratre."

"Then we're going to have to be doing a lot of hoping, Nikai." Dan sighed.

?-V-?

Ender paced back and forth in the darkness. Shell had stopped in a clearing and plopped down, and that was the end of it. We agreed not to make a campfire, because although we were a long ways away from the rest of the bounty hunters, we couldn't risk drawing attention to ourselves with too much smoke.

"Well, this is great." Ender grunted. "We've been abandoned by the others, and we're supposed to meet them in Cratre, which sucks because it is a ten hour trip, and that's only if we keep going without resting, which is not likely as we have a wounded dragon, a boy with a broken leg, and a girl that barely knows how to lift an axe."

"Hey!" I shouted. "I'm not that—"

"Ender, they didn't abandon us and you know it. If you want to blame someone, blame the driver of the boat." Ben said tiredly.

Ender made a frustrated noise. "I know. I'm just pissed right now."

"All of us are pissed in some way." Ben sighed. "We just have to deal with it."

"Oh, super advice." Ender groaned. "Let's go. I'm sure the bounty hunters aren't far behind us."

"Shell still needs to rest," I said to Ender. "He's going to collapse if we keep forcing him to move, and then it'll take even slower."

"Fine," Ender snapped and laid down.

Ben looked at me apologetically. "Sorry, Ender has a bit of a bad temper."

"I can still hear you," Ender said, and Ben went silent.

Ben sighed again. "Let's get some rest, and then head out."

I laid down on the grass and closed my eyes, and drifted off into an uneasy sleep

Okay, so I haven't done an author's note in a while, but that was just because I was lazy.

But mostly, the reason for this is because I want to shout out DragonHighElder, who wrote six consecutive reviews! And all of them were fun to read!

Also, DragonHighElder's stories are cool, and I especially liked 'The Misfit Mobs' so go check them out! They're cool in my book!

Be cool like DragonHighElder—leave a review! I might actually start responding to reviews next chapter, so do that please!

Peace out—Krios