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Chapter 02

A Call to Adventure

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The lair of the Dragon left little to be desired, the old used castle was cramped and messy and had that musk of damp, mould and older people, the kind of smell that seemed to linger on a person no matter where they went afterwards.

The four masters of The High Table dispersed around an old rectangular beaten scuffed dining table made of light wood. They looked anything but intimidating, without powers to enhance their presence, they were as threatening as any other past their prime parent. Though if you looked past their sneers and attitudes, they were old bitter cowards already on their way out in Ace's opinion.

"you will go, you will find the fairy godmother, and you find me the wand." Ace rolled his eyes as the Dragon lounged on an ugly purple seat that had seen better days. She reclined using a nail file to sharpen her claws, of course, she was on an elevated platform looking down on everyone, Ace smelt short person syndrome like the smell of an open sewer.

"what's in it for us?" Mal demanded as she again crossed her arms and stuck out her pouty bottom lip slightly. Ace rolled his eyes he still hadn't got that guarantee and was not liking this proposition at all. This had the stench of a trap and not a subtle one either, eliminate the strongest of the next generation to make the others more pliable.

"Matching thrones, Hers and her crowns." Ace could tell Mal was having none of it as she turned slightly away from her mother to look at her friends in disbelief, thankfully in Ace's opinion, Carlos interrupted. He skulked around Mal moving to his left to shield himself as much as possible behind the Dragons daughter. Cutting off what would no doubt be another rant against Prince Philip that she always seemed to tangent onto in almost every rant about her getting revenge.

"I think she means us." the Dragon sprang to her feet quickly defying her age, making the Devil boy jump and hide behind Mal his lithe form almost wholly concealed by Mal. Given that he had stood up to the old Dragon Ace's opinion of the scaredy-cat had gone up a single rung, in his opinion anyway, which put the son of the skinner one rung higher than a goblin warrior.

"it's all about us my dear, you and me, making people suffer you do enjoy that don't you Mal?" The Dragon ignored the boy and focused solely on Mal. Ace interrupted to save his half-sister from some intense intimidation by her mother.

"oh wonderful," Ace clapped, startling the Old Dragon. "I do so enjoy watching rousing family moments, and maybe we should take a picture you know, immortalise this moment for posterity." Maleficent to the shock of her allies and daughter was startled by the sudden interruption. She immediately tried to regain control of the situation. It was not often that something surprised the Dragon and any weakness would be pounced upon by her allies, as there were just enemies by another name. She adjusted herself before she sat back down in her chair, she chose to ignore the crimson cloaked teen in favour of trying to pressure her daughter into doing her bidding.

"get me the Wand Mal, and I can bend Good and Evil to my will." She stood tall, well as tall as she could, clasping her hands together above her head. But before she could continue, she was once again interrupted, but this time, however, it was the Evil Queen who interrupted her epic rant.

"Our will, my dear." The Queen interrupted in her great sing-song voice that carried with it an almost undetectable edge.

"yes, yes, yes our will, our will." she dismissed her supposed ally with a slight wave of her hand. "and if you refuse, you're all grounded for the rest of your lives." Ace raised an eyebrow at the unfolding family drama.

The Old Dragon almost visibly inflated as she grasped the railing of her elevated platform. Mal locked eyes with her mother the Old Dragon's began to glow eerily green with Power and primal ferocity of a born dragon. Ace knew that the Old Dragon's Power would be much more limited against him, as he had no blood relation to her, she could not project that Power to control him as she could her daughter, he smiled and moved to place himself between his half-sister and her mother.

Mal tried to resist using her own will and strength, but Maleficent's eyes shined a bitter green with Power. It was a Power used by pureblood Mother Dragons to assert dominance and control over their clutch. It's a hardwired instinct that's designed to keep hatchlings safe by stopping them from walking into danger. Within a few moments, Mal was almost ready to capitulate. She was not yet strong enough to overcome her mother, yet being the operative word, as Mal aged the ability would have less and less control over her.

Ace stepped between the Dragon and Mal causing the older woman to lose her focus. His own eyes turned from sapphire blue to blazing red for a moment. Mal didn't notice Ace stepping up before she and her mother lost eye contact.

"Fine", Mal said in slight disorientation the old Dragon clapped at herself for her victory than in a juvenile manner she pumped the air in celebration.

"I win." She smiled. Maleficent dropped an arm over her daughter's shoulders tightly bringing her into a very uncomfortable embrace and began to walk towards a large open balcony that overlooked the broken bridge and the marketplace. No doubt she was plotting something, so Ace decided to beat a retreat, he had a lot to arrange and not a lot of time to do it, trap or no he would not leave his sister to the mercies of the so-called heroes.

When he turned and began to walk towards the door, he noticed that the other Villainous parents called their children for what was more than likely in Ace's opinion their own 'nefarious' plans for their time on the mainland. The only exception was the skinners' son she wanted him to stay.

Shaking his head and rolling his eyes slightly, he made his way downstairs. As he reached the courtyard, he was met, much to his surprise by Yen Sid, the Headmaster of Dragon Hall, a master magician in his own right who was sent here to begin helping with the transition from magic to science which was still an uphill struggle.

He was a tall man on the upper end of six feet with a stern face and piercing blue eyes that still held grate power despite the barrier. He had a long well-kept beard that was silvery grey with streaks of dark brown running its length from days long gone.

"old man?" the old Wizard's eyes narrowed as he stroked his long full beard. "what the hell are you doing here?" he never said a word just handed him a red leather duffle bag. The bag had his crest the cracked black hart with checked panels of black and off white with a tint of yellow surrounded by a fallen and broken crown. the same coat of arms decorated his own blood-red musketeer styled cloak. "ah, I take it, you heard then."

"Indeed, you're fortunate, this kind of opportunity does not come around often." His voice was deep and rumbled deeply in his chest. It radiated a powerful tenor that had all the authority and wisdom of centuries behind it.

"yes, perhaps they should have made this sound less like a trap old man" the old Wizard smiled slightly behind his beard; the long whiskers of his beard dragged up somewhat being the only indication to the emotion he gave off.

"why would they want to kill you, my boy?"

"maybe not kill, old man, but control most definitely," he responded with an eerie calm that unsettled the old Wizard to his core. "after all, this prison shows that they are not above grate evil themselves. maybe greater evil than anything our parents ever accomplished."

"I shall miss your paranoia it's one of the most entertaining things on this island," he smiled again .", and I find great enjoyment moving things in your locker and watching you freak out, and try to find out who's been there and if anything was missing. Nevertheless, right now, it's not helping anything." The old Wizard stated

"wait, that was you?" the smile told him all he needed to know. "I beat the crap out of Gaston's knuckle-dragging twins because of that."

"this chance will allow you access to better schooling, better food and better prospects for your future other than just growing old here and dying old here, living as the monument to your parents' sins."

"I RULE HERE!" Ace roared back defiantly startling several people who were watching the events unfolding. "I have territory here, an army here, and loyal retainers who owe their continued prosperity to me." His eyes flashed a deep red that startled the old Wizard. "what am I over there, just some punk kid, some villain son who will live out an eternal punishment for my mother's sins," he spat at the Wizard. The older man knew that Ace just needed to vent for a few minutes. "who sons and daughters will live out that sentence until some bleeding heart opens the barrier and unleashes decades of bitter darkness."

"yes, that would have been your destiny and that of many of the children on this accursed rock." The Wizard spoke with an authority that came naturally to a man of his age and Power. "here you do have an army and responsibilities, but." the Wizard paused for a second. Before he indicated to the mainland "there you may find so much more, be so much more. This is an olive branch." He then placed his hand on Ace's shoulder. "your destiny has not been written, and your future and that of many others may yet be changed if you take this step, will you be a leader and allow yourself to accept it."

Before he could answer the honking of a horn blared loudly enough to startle the old Wizard. Next came the sound of running teens and the heavy wooden footsteps came the thundering of a group charging down wooden stairs, as Jay and Carlos ran to the car that had pulled up and blown its horn. It was a long black monstrosity that had dark windows outside of the vehicle were two very tall men dressed in black suits, white shirts and black ties, they had mirrored glasses and where holding the rear doors open on each side of the vehicle.

"This still feels like a trap." Said Ace as he put his bag in the back of the car but keeping his sword on him as he removed his hat and entered the vehicle.

"just go and try to enjoy yourself." Called the old Wizard as he waved his hand slightly

"wait, I have to tell Rochefort," he said as he began to exit the car, the old Wizard pushed him back in and said reassuringly.

"I have informed the Count of what is happening here. He assures me that your territory will be adequately defended, he also wants you to keep up your sword training."

Ace huffed as he allowed himself to be pushed back into the car, he kept his hand on his sword, adjusting his grip slightly before he sat next to Mal's two Knuckleheads. Mal was the last to enter she spent some time memorising the place maybe for the last time, and he could empathise had he known that they were moving to the mainland today he would have tried to remember the place as it was as well.

Inside the car, there was an assortment of rainbow coloured capsules and lozenges along with items that looked like cables and others that reminded Ace of sewage waist of the brown variety. It disgusted him as Carlos and Jay began to devour the 'food' as Mal pouted and Evie just checked her makeup, Ace saw a flash of electric blue that could only be one person, but as soon as he turned to confirm it, it was gone.

He turned back and was horrified by what he saw.

"what the hell are you two piglets doing?" they paused in stuffing their faces for a moment as Carlos had opened his mouth with brown partly chewed food showing for all to see. Jay was looking like a deer caught in the headlights. "let's unpack what's going on right now, shall we. We are on the way to what could be our deaths as the quote-unquote heroes summon us from our homes and territory where we have guards and loyal retainers to defend us, over to the mainland, with people that hate everything we are down to the blood in our veins. So instead of waiting to test the food, they have given us you two pigs have been devouring what could quite possibly be poison with abandon because you lack the danger senses of even the most common worms."

"poison?" Carlos asked though the food in his mouth muffled the sound, his apparent innocence was infuriating to Ace, as it went against everything, he had been through as a kid from the Isle.

"They could probably make it look like an allergic reaction as we don't have these things on the island, do we?"

They dropped the colourful things when the wall separating the driver from the rear dropped, and they noticed the car was heading straight to the broken bridge and started going at considerable speed.

"It's a Trap!" Carlos screamed

"I knew it we're doomed," said Ace with a hint of Vindication in his tone.

The core four hugged each other tightly, screaming. Ace was too stunned to cry and just accepted that this was how he would die, closing his eyes to await the inevitable. Then a blinding light filled the car and nothing. It took a few moments before Ace realised that they were fine.

"what just happened?" asked Jay his cheeks still stuffed with the disturbingly brown confection.

"It must be Magic." Evie smiled, excited about her first real experience with magic.

'yes, magic at last' Ace thought as he felt a fire burn within him, he felt an itching beneath his skin that felt like a strange warmth that started at his chest and moved down his limbs pulsating in time with his heartbeat. 'I wonder if the runes on my sword would work now?' he smirked to himself, 'I'm going to need time to check later.'

Mal turned to face the front of the car holding up a small black object in her hand as she did so.

"hey, did this button open the gate?" asked Mal as she tapped the glass to get the drivers attention.

"No," came the quick reply from the driver who showed off a similar but golden device. "this opened the portal, that only works on my garage." The man smirked and reached up to the roof. "and this one." he pressed a button on the roof. The wall once again came back up, sealing the five in the back.

"Nasty, I like him" Mal smirked as she turned back facing Ace.

"Indeed" Ace too was impressed with the driver, he was probably the most honest of the Mainlanders he would meet for some time.