SWORD OF DARKNESS

by Red Alpha Wolf 1

the fallen knight Doberman Claw has long been known for his follies and failures, but what if at heart he was still loyal to the royal family and knighthood that evicted him? what if he must help the paw patrol rescue knights to find and destroy the evil twin of the mystic sword Excaliber known as Caliburn before the duke of flapping-ton can use it against the world!

3. SWORDOFDARKNESSTHEKNIGHTSINTHEDRAGONLAIR

SWORD OF DARKNESS-THE KNIGHTS IN THE DRAGONS LAIR

(CAMPSITE/0510HRS)

The paw patrol was ready to move out and mounted their vehicles and Claw his dragon Sparks, all turned their attention to the coal black mountain just visible in the daybreak light, they moved out with Claw and Sparks in the lead. As they approached the mountain they did not see any sign of the duke. They began thinking they may yet have beat Duke to the mountain, but they were sadly proven wrong when Skye using her magnification goggles confirmed that the dukes jet was around the other side. Claw used his collar pup tag radio to communicate with everyone, briefing them on a despite plan, then he gave Chase a special assignment "Chase, you have to go into the mountain and stop Duke from getting the sword of Caliburn at all cost. Remember what I taught you in the short time I had available, use all of it to your best ability!" Chase was in agreement as he used his vehicle to ascend to the top of the mountain and looks at the entrance cave in dismay. It's huge, Chase hops out and looks around the massive cave structure, but where he was standing the ledge was big enough to contain a dragon at full wing spread and maybe even fly at low height and careful navigation and the tunnel was even larger and it was going straight down, a suicidal drop if he was honest. "Claw said it would be impossible to act out any of our plans, I see why. It would take a year of solid pumping from a ship yard salvage pump to fill this chamber half way with sea water." Chase took a deep breath to steady himself for what is to come and used his vehicle wench to repel himself down the sheer straight down cliff face.

(BACK OUTSIDE WITH CLAW AND SPARKS)

Claw was looking at the eagle jet in hate and debating how to strand the duke here even if he got the sword when he gets an idea "SPARKS, BURN THE JET!" Sparks looks back at Claw and grunts in refusal as he circles around it "Fine, how about if I give you a marshmallow?" Sparks again grunts in refusal. Claw offers a higher price "A fistful-"(claw full, totaling 3) "-of marshmallows?" Sparks again grunts in refusal. Claw offers his final price "Fine! A whole king sized bag of large marshmallows, final offer!" Sparks turns back to the jet and lets go with a big fire ball, it hits the hovering jet broadside leaving a big scorch mark, but it has no effect. Claw screams "Again Sparks!" and Sparks lets go with another one on the top, and a third on the back side, Sparks moves around for another strike.

(BACK INSIDE THE CAVE WITH CHASE)

Chase reached the bottom and detached his line and left it behind to hoist him back to the top as he ran down the largest chamber just as Claw instructed on the way here, towards the dragon and sword. 3 minutes of navigating the many twists and turns of the cave system later his expectations were realized when he saw the duke standing and gazing at the sword in his hands and the jet black death dragon now staring at the duke in complete submission.

(BACK OUTSIDE WITH CLAW AND SPARKS)

Before long Sparks blasted the jet from every angle but besides scorch marks, the fire had no effect on the jet. Claw is frantic "PRY OFF THE TOP HATCH AND FORCE FIRE DOWN INTO THE GUTS, NOW!" Sparks lands on top causing the jet to shudder, Sparks grasps the hatch and pries with all his worth, causing the metal to give way with a groan of defeat, Sparks pulls the hatch free and throws it to the side and takes a few slow, deep breaths in and out in preparation. The faithful sidekick, and pet Jean-Claude the eagle hears this and in fear he mashes a button causing a hole to open under the bottom of the jet and he flies out towards the cave as sparks lets the fire go for all his worth causing the jet to break apart at the seams in a fury of exploding metal and glass but the metal that refused to give way turned red hot as the began jet fall in a nosedive to the ground with a dying shriek as Sparks took off again and Claw says "We have to get to the chamber to help Chase! Lets go Sparks!" Sparks, guided by Claw landed in the entry way and let Claw dismount then took off again to stretch his wings and relieve the boredom he knew would come from the wait. Claw recalls Chases vehicles winch line and uses it to repel down the cliff face to the bottom and just as it was before, he left it at the bottom to ascend back to the top as needed. Claw ran to the sword chamber where he saw that Chase and the duke were already squaring off with screams of adrenaline laced with anger as Chases steel sword crashed against one of the most destructive weapon of all time and showers of glittering steel sparks fly through the air with each crash. "I'm here Chase! (Bark) Sword!" Claw charges forward without hesitation or plan as he says "I have the duke, you kill the dragon, NOW!" The duke looks at what is now his dragon and says "Acheros, kill Chase without your breath. Now for a true opponent and a real battle." Claw stops a dozen feet from the duke and squares himself to make himself ready for battle and snarls at the Duke "Naming your dragon the Latin-American River of sorrow, does your audacity know no bounds William Richardson? Duke of Flapping-ton, you want a worthy opponent, you shall have it!" Claw runs at the duke and roars at the top of his lungs in adrenaline laced anger, every fiber of his body recalling every second of his training, his mind signaling his pup-pack to swing his blade in a well controlled fury-low (blocked) high (blocked) hooked thrust (blocked and Duke countered stabbing downward where his heart would be. The pup-pack and armor saving his life, but the strike resulting in his pup-pack being badly damaged) Claw now seeing the pack on his back sparking and smoking as the sword dropped to the ground unusable. Claw's attention returning to William to see the sword Caliburn an inch from his face and he snarls at the duke and says "If I am to die at least give me an honorable death as a knight, if you will please detach my pup-pack." Claw stands there as the duke William detached and pulled off Claws pup-pack and threw it to the corner of the cave and asks "How do you want your so called honorable death?" Claw smiles and says "I want to fight to the death!" "So be it." Claw jumps and grabs Williams arm and twists his body, causing a deep bloody wound to open on his arm. Claw sees the sword coming at him out of the corner of his eye, he jumps back cat-like with all his worth and avoids the slash by an inch. Duke William does another downward stab aiming for Claws heart causing him to jump to the right and rebound at the dukes leg digging for less than a second then leaping back while holding the depth, slashing deep with his teeth. The duke screams and clutches his leg, which is bleeding alarmingly with one hand and uses the sword as a crutch. Claw moves in for another strike at his sword arm, and in a moment of brilliance he uses the arm hold to swing and sweep the dukes guts with his back claws one, two, three times in one swing. The wounds slashes is not deep but they are long, any more wounds there and the duke will lose his guts (No kidding) William throws Claw with all his force, slashing the arm which now bleeding badly and is slashed from Claws teeth, the sword glancing off his armor. Duke William looks at his wounds and in despiration calls out to his dragon "ACHEROS PROTECT ME!" Death dragon Acheros, who had Chase in his grip and was squeezing the life out of him, drops Chase to the ground unconscious and bounds over to Claw inhaling to breath his death smog, then remembering his masters orders, he let it out without smog as a loud roar and sweeps at him with his claws then tries to bite him. Claw knowing he can't deal with the dragon without a sword rolls the claw swipes and jumps over the bite then runs over to Chase shaking him, trying to awaken him as Duke William calls out "Acheros, get me out of here!" The dragon lays down and lets William climb with great pain onto his back and the great black dragon takes off bounding for the chamber exit with Claw rushing after him "YOUR NOT GETTING AWAY FROM ME THIS TIME WILLIAM!" Claw soon lost sight of the dragon and duke in the cave system, screams loudly in dismay then turns around and runs back to Chase to find him waking up in great pain, barely able to move his torso and breathing nearly impossible because the armor around his midsection crushed to his body. Claw uses his pup-tag to communicate with Ryder "Ryder, alert your team, the duke has the sword of Caliburn and the dragon. He is leaving the chamber, do not engage, repeat, do not engage. We must fall back and regroup, I also need Rocky and Marshall down here to help with Chase. He's hurt badly and his armor is crushed to his body, he can barely breath. They must wait until Duke William and dragon Acheros leave the chamber."

(BACK WITH RYDER AND THE PAW PATROL)

Ryder passed on the message to his team "Pups, the duke has the sword, we are not to attack him. Chase is hurt bad, Rocky, Marshall, after the duke leaves, you both must go help Chase, Claw is with him!" Rocky is forming a giant mental question mark and asks "I can see why you need Marshall, but why do you need me?" "Chases armor is crushed to his chest, you may need to cut off his armor, if you can, or Marshall may not be able to give Chase the care he needs." At that moment the dragon with the duke on his back came out of the cave entry way flying with his pet on his dragons tail to the south toward Barking-burg and Skye asked "Well Ryder, what do we do now?" Ryder is standing on the ground watching this as he says "I don't know. Marshall, Rocky GO NOW!" Marshall and Rocky used their vehicles to ascend the mountain and saw Chases vehicle smashed to a pancake on the rocky entryway floor. Looking at the wreckage and debating what to do now when Sparks landed in the chamber and let the two hop on. Sparks hops over the side and spreads his wings letting them hold the wind like a parachute as they float to the lower chamber floor and hop off. Rocky and Marshall are devastated by the shape that their comrade is in as they arrive in the sword chamber and behold Chases pitiful condition. Rocky immediately goes to work, carefully cutting off Chases armor from his body. When Rocky was done, Marshall immediately used his x-ray screen to confirm there are no broken bones or busted organs. But Marshall's report to Ryder is grim and without much good news. In short Chase is lucky to be alive and would need time to recover. Claw is immediately willing to take Chases place on the team if only temporarily and informs Ryder of just that. Ryder knows that he can't be down a member, even if he was just for a little while, so he accepts. Sparks flies two loads of pups out of the cavern by carefully hovering with each flap of wings, moving forward and back as little as possible, first Rocky and Claw while leaving Marshall so he can prepare Chase for the flight, when Sparks returns and flies out Marshall and Chase in the same manner. Needless to say it did nothing to help Chases condition. Once all were out of the cave system, they were unsure of what to do. They look to Ryder yet again for ideas, but he has a vague hope of an idea. "Lets fall back to the castle and-wait Duke William is probably at the castle by now." Claw ventures forth with an idea "We can go rescue Princess Catherine and Earl Richard, then we can go back to where ever you pups are from. I've seen you both come and go from the city of Barking-burg time and again in your private plane. When we do we can gather a plan together to stop Duke William of Flapping-ton." The idea now in infancy, although formed in desperation, the only plan anyone can come up with at the moment. Claw, Marshall and Ryder carefully loaded Chase onto Sparks saddle and Claw mounted standing to give Chase as much room as possible. They started off to return to the city of Barking-burg and begin the desperate first part of their plan. which Claw hoped and preyed with all his heart and soul would work, because if it failed, there was no fallback, no fail safe, and certainly no turning back.

(END SWORD OF DARKNESS-THE KNIGHTS IN THE DRAGONS LAIR)