Title: A Dragon in Hollywood (3/6)
Author: Nopporn Wongrassamee aka the Evil Author
EMail Address: EvilAuthor@aol.com
Archive: Anywhere and everywhere. Just tell me if you do.
Spoilers: Anything in the Buffyverse goes. Also contains
spoilers for the PC game Drakan: Order of the Flame.
Summary: Angel helps latest arrivals to Los Angeles.
Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine. They
belong to people that I'm too lazy to look up.
Back during the glory years of the Order of the Flame,
Arokh had attended a number of social functions. In his
experience, humans would gather together to jockey for
status, enter into agreements on all manner of things, and
maybe attract a mate for the night. Occaisionally, a
dragon's rider would drag his or her dragon along to a
formal ball, mostly to impress nonriders.
Arokh and the other dragons usually dreaded those
occaisions.
And now Arokh had let himself be dragged to yet another
social function. It wasn't even his own rider that took
him there. The human female, Cordelia, had taken him to
a small estate with a large house. The "party" as Cordelia
called the social function, was taking place behind the
house around what appeared to be an artificial pond.
This world was so strange. Arokh didn't comprehend half of
what the humans were talking about. The way they spoke,
they might be conceited enough to think they were the
center of the cosmos. On the other claw, they openly
acknoledged that they didn't rule any lands. And while
most of these people smelled human, there were several
who did not. The one called John Tesh was such a one
though he looked perfectly normal. Then there was Rosanne
Barr who smelled human but bore an amazing resemblance to
the Succubus Queen.
To make matters worse, Cordelia had disappeared into the
crowd after introducing Arokh as a "fake" dragon to be
used in something called a "movie". He gathered that he
was supposed to be some sort of construct with a human
riding around inside.
This wouldn't be so bad except for one thing.
"Ooooh, the dragon looks soooo realistic."
"Are you kidding? I've seen more realistic dragons in
Disney cartoons."
Intelligent conversation would have been nice.
***
"Yes, I have it. The Runeblade is this way."
Led by the Death Mage, two dozen Ebon and Crimson Knights
entered the strange city. While far bigger than anything
that had ever existed in Drakan, it was populated only by
humans. How dangerous could they be?
The lead Knight had decided to leave the Blade Dragons on
the hill where they arrived. No need to alert their quarry
that they were coming. Their master desired the Runeblade
and the peasant girl who currently wielded it was
rumored to be very dangerous, especially if she had that
dragon with her.
They were crossing one of the plentiful hard roads when
they ran into their first problem. A huge metal beast with
glowing eyes running on wheels, far larger than most on
the roads, barreled screaming into one of the Crimson
Knights. Another Knight reacted instinctively; he pulled
out a flaming spear and cast it into middle of the beast's
tubular body, just forward of a stylized flame sigil.
The fireball engulfed them all.
***
Rynn was finally sleeping peacefully. Talking about her
brother seemed to have relaxed her. Angel covered her
with a blanket and let her sleep. It was nice to help
someone without pummeling some demon or other.
"Hey, Angel!"
"Sshh!" Angel shushed to Doyle as the latter entered the
apartment, then explained in a whisper, "I just got her
to sleep. Now she needs her rest."
"Oh, I see how it is," Doyle said as Angel steered him
toward the stairs. He winked. "Bet you two want yer
privacy, eh?"
"Doyle!"
"'sall right, Angel," Doyle said. "Just yankin' yer
chain."
"Uh huh, right. Was there something you wanted?" Angel
asked.
"Oh sure. Have you seen Cordelia?" Doyle replied. "I was
hopin' to get some quality time with her, if you know what
I mean."
"She's watching Arokh," Angel told him. Then he thought
about what he just said. "She IS watching Arokh isn't
she?"
"Well, I dunno, Angel," Doyle said slowly. "They weren't
at the warehouse when I stopped by."
"Oh, hell."
"My thoughts exactly."
"What's happened to Arokh?" Angel and Doyle turned to see
Rynn sitting up and staring at them.
"Um, well you see..." Angel began.
"He's not at the warehouse," Doyle told her.
Rynn closed her eyes and appeared to be concentrating.
Then she relaxed and began to giggle. Angel and Doyle
stared in confusion.
"I'm sorry," Rynn finally said. "Arokh's only in danger
of being bored to death. I like to think of it as poetic
justice for all those times I went into mortal danger in
those places where Arokh couldn't follow."
"Huh?" the guys said brilliantly.
"I have a soul bond with Arokh," Rynn explained. "So I
kind of know what's happening to Arokh at any given
moment. Right now, your friend Cordelia took Arokh to
some kind of gathering."
"The party," Angel said, remembering the coversation he
had with Cordelia earlier.
"Yes, I believe that's what Arokh called it," Rynn
confirmed.
"Oh hell," Angel repeated. This was going to be a long
night.
***
"Kevin!"
Hercules turned to see Ares of all people making his way
through the crowd. As he was dressed in a tux and leading
one of the omnipresent hopeful starlets, Hercules deduced
that Ares was actually attending the party.
What was he doing here?
"Kevin," Ares said jovially. He was definitely up to
something. "I'd like you to meet a very special young
woman I met today. Kevin, this is Cordelia Chase.
Cordelia, this is Kevin Sorbo."
"Hi, Mr. Sorbo," Cordelia said brightly. "I love your TV
show. I watch it all the time."
"Uh, thank you," Hercules said. Did Ares introduce them
to watch Hercules squirm? Couldn't be, he talked to all
these hopeful young starlets every time he went to these
parties.
"Yeah," Cordelia went on, "I just love Hunk To Please."
Ares snickered.
"Hercules," Hercules corrected. He was beginning to have
serious doubts about Cordelia's chances at success in this
business.
"Right, that too."
Ares was obviously fighting a losing battle to keep from
laughing. Idly, Hercules wondered what Ares was calling
himself at this party.
"So how did you two meet?" Hercules asked.
"Oh, Mr. Warsaw liked my dragon," Cordelia told him. "He
said he could use it in a movie he was producing." That
explained what Ares was doing here, but...
"You brought the dragon?" Hercules asked, surprised.
"Well, he's not really my dragon," Cordelia went on. "I
borrowed him...it from a friend. It's a big animatronic
robot y'know."
The hell it was! Hercules could see right away that it
was the real thing. Although he had never actually met a
dragon that could hold a civilized conversation (and
Hollywood chatter barely qualified), Cordelia's dragon
seemed to be doing all right. At least, he wasn't toasting
anybody yet.
"So, Mister Sorbo," Cordelia began, "there wouldn't happen
to be an opening on your show is there?"
"Ah, no," Hercules replied. "Actually, the show is being
canceled. I felt I needed to move on to better things."
"Isn't that a shame," Ares put in sarcastically.
"Oh, that's nice," Cordelia said, visibly losing all
interest in Hercules. She turned and locked eyes
elsewhere. "Margo!" she called, moving away. "You don't
call, you don't write..."
"What are you up to, Ares?" Hercules asked accusingly.
"Moi? I'm making a movie," Ares said with mock innocence.
"It's going to be an action flick with blood and guts."
"So what's the dragon doing here?"
"Not my doing, brother," Ares replied. "The dragon's here
and he's got some...ahem, 'friends' looking for him. Now,
I gotta go mingle."
"Wonderful," Hercules muttered as Ares disappeared into
the crowd.
***
Amazingly enough, about half of the Knights managed to
survive fireball. Oh, some of them had to drag themselves
out of the crater, but they survived. A good many of them
had to drink most of their health potions to get back into
fighting condition.
The Death Mage counted two Ebon and ten Crimson Knights
left. The Mage himself had survived more or less intact
because he had been the farthest from the explosion.
"Hmm, seeing as how your leader is nowhere to be found, I
shall take command here," the Death Mage told the Knights.
"Any objections? No? Good. Let's get back on the hunt. It
is getting far to crowded here." He indicated the
gathering humans.
"Oh and do be careful the next time we run into anything
strange," the Death Mage added. "We don't want anymore
accidents now."
There was no reply or expression from the Knights. But
their auras definitely showed embarrasment.
***
B.A. Baracus pulled his taxi over to pick up the trio.
They were an odd trio, but then again, this was Los
Angeles. All kind of wierd sorts came here. One guy in a
black duster, a man dressed like a cheap acting agent, and
some cute chick in formfitting leather simply did not
qualify as strange in this town.
They got in the cab without a word. The man in the black
duster ushered the chick into the front passenger seat
then got into the back with the other guy. Now that was
strange.
"Where to?" B.A. asked without preamble.
"Rynn?" black duster guy said to the chick.
Rynn closed her eyes for a few seconds then pointed in a
seemingly random direction. "That way," she said. She was
pointing off the road at some location far away.
"Hey, lady, I can't drive through no buildings," B.A.
complained.
"Just zigzag through the streets in the general direction
Rynn points," black duster guy told him. "We'll eventually
get to wherever we're going."
"Uh huh, right," B.A. said. Just his luck to get some
crazy fools. It almost made him nostalgic for Murdoch and
his days with the Team.
Almost.
***
The humans seemed to have lost interest in Arokh. That was
fine with him. He could do without their chattering at him
and was content to observe their interactions.
"Hi, there. I'm Kevin Sorbo."
Arokh sighed wearily. It had been too good to last.
"Greetings. I am Arokh the Animatronic Dragon," Arokh said
monotonously. By this time, the phrase had become routine.
Oddly, he found that enhanced the illusion that he was a
construct.
"Oh, I don't think so," Kevin Sorbo replied. "I think
you're a real dragon."
Startled, Arokh examined Sorbo closely. He looked well
built in comparison to the other humans. Sorbo was one of
those strange smelling humans, though. And he definitely
seemed more intelligent than anyone else here.
"C'mon, let's go somewhere we can talk in private," Sorbo
suggested.
Arokh nodded and followed Sorbo.
***
"That way," Rynn pointed. She was pleased that they
seemed to be getting closer. Everytime they reached an
intersection, Rynn would point which way Arokh was and
the large taxi driver would either go straight or turn
depending on which would bring them closer to Arokh.
Taxi driving must be a prosperous profession in this
world, Rynn thought absently. Either that or gold
necklaces must be very inexpensive. The driver's neck was
completely hidden by them.
The taxi turned the corner and skidded to a halt. There,
illuminated by the headlights was an armored figure
holding a flaming spear.
"That's a Crimson Knight!" Rynn exclaimed. What was one of
them doing on this world?
Without uttering a word, the Knight threw its spear right
at Rynn. Unable to dodge in the confines of the taxi, Rynn
winced as the spear shattered against the windshield. The
windshield held, although spiderweb cracked spread through
it.
"My taxi!" the driver exclaimed. "That fool damaged my
taxi!" Furiously, the driver opened the door and scrambled
out, drawing a strange object from under his seat. Rynn
presumed it was weapon.
"Everybody out," Doyle quipped as he, Angel, and Rynn
exitted the taxi.
"There's only one of them," Rynn told them. "Shouldn't be
a problem. I've killed enough of them."
At that moment eleven other Knights stepped out of the
shadows, surrounding them.
To be continued...
Author: Nopporn Wongrassamee aka the Evil Author
EMail Address: EvilAuthor@aol.com
Archive: Anywhere and everywhere. Just tell me if you do.
Spoilers: Anything in the Buffyverse goes. Also contains
spoilers for the PC game Drakan: Order of the Flame.
Summary: Angel helps latest arrivals to Los Angeles.
Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine. They
belong to people that I'm too lazy to look up.
Back during the glory years of the Order of the Flame,
Arokh had attended a number of social functions. In his
experience, humans would gather together to jockey for
status, enter into agreements on all manner of things, and
maybe attract a mate for the night. Occaisionally, a
dragon's rider would drag his or her dragon along to a
formal ball, mostly to impress nonriders.
Arokh and the other dragons usually dreaded those
occaisions.
And now Arokh had let himself be dragged to yet another
social function. It wasn't even his own rider that took
him there. The human female, Cordelia, had taken him to
a small estate with a large house. The "party" as Cordelia
called the social function, was taking place behind the
house around what appeared to be an artificial pond.
This world was so strange. Arokh didn't comprehend half of
what the humans were talking about. The way they spoke,
they might be conceited enough to think they were the
center of the cosmos. On the other claw, they openly
acknoledged that they didn't rule any lands. And while
most of these people smelled human, there were several
who did not. The one called John Tesh was such a one
though he looked perfectly normal. Then there was Rosanne
Barr who smelled human but bore an amazing resemblance to
the Succubus Queen.
To make matters worse, Cordelia had disappeared into the
crowd after introducing Arokh as a "fake" dragon to be
used in something called a "movie". He gathered that he
was supposed to be some sort of construct with a human
riding around inside.
This wouldn't be so bad except for one thing.
"Ooooh, the dragon looks soooo realistic."
"Are you kidding? I've seen more realistic dragons in
Disney cartoons."
Intelligent conversation would have been nice.
***
"Yes, I have it. The Runeblade is this way."
Led by the Death Mage, two dozen Ebon and Crimson Knights
entered the strange city. While far bigger than anything
that had ever existed in Drakan, it was populated only by
humans. How dangerous could they be?
The lead Knight had decided to leave the Blade Dragons on
the hill where they arrived. No need to alert their quarry
that they were coming. Their master desired the Runeblade
and the peasant girl who currently wielded it was
rumored to be very dangerous, especially if she had that
dragon with her.
They were crossing one of the plentiful hard roads when
they ran into their first problem. A huge metal beast with
glowing eyes running on wheels, far larger than most on
the roads, barreled screaming into one of the Crimson
Knights. Another Knight reacted instinctively; he pulled
out a flaming spear and cast it into middle of the beast's
tubular body, just forward of a stylized flame sigil.
The fireball engulfed them all.
***
Rynn was finally sleeping peacefully. Talking about her
brother seemed to have relaxed her. Angel covered her
with a blanket and let her sleep. It was nice to help
someone without pummeling some demon or other.
"Hey, Angel!"
"Sshh!" Angel shushed to Doyle as the latter entered the
apartment, then explained in a whisper, "I just got her
to sleep. Now she needs her rest."
"Oh, I see how it is," Doyle said as Angel steered him
toward the stairs. He winked. "Bet you two want yer
privacy, eh?"
"Doyle!"
"'sall right, Angel," Doyle said. "Just yankin' yer
chain."
"Uh huh, right. Was there something you wanted?" Angel
asked.
"Oh sure. Have you seen Cordelia?" Doyle replied. "I was
hopin' to get some quality time with her, if you know what
I mean."
"She's watching Arokh," Angel told him. Then he thought
about what he just said. "She IS watching Arokh isn't
she?"
"Well, I dunno, Angel," Doyle said slowly. "They weren't
at the warehouse when I stopped by."
"Oh, hell."
"My thoughts exactly."
"What's happened to Arokh?" Angel and Doyle turned to see
Rynn sitting up and staring at them.
"Um, well you see..." Angel began.
"He's not at the warehouse," Doyle told her.
Rynn closed her eyes and appeared to be concentrating.
Then she relaxed and began to giggle. Angel and Doyle
stared in confusion.
"I'm sorry," Rynn finally said. "Arokh's only in danger
of being bored to death. I like to think of it as poetic
justice for all those times I went into mortal danger in
those places where Arokh couldn't follow."
"Huh?" the guys said brilliantly.
"I have a soul bond with Arokh," Rynn explained. "So I
kind of know what's happening to Arokh at any given
moment. Right now, your friend Cordelia took Arokh to
some kind of gathering."
"The party," Angel said, remembering the coversation he
had with Cordelia earlier.
"Yes, I believe that's what Arokh called it," Rynn
confirmed.
"Oh hell," Angel repeated. This was going to be a long
night.
***
"Kevin!"
Hercules turned to see Ares of all people making his way
through the crowd. As he was dressed in a tux and leading
one of the omnipresent hopeful starlets, Hercules deduced
that Ares was actually attending the party.
What was he doing here?
"Kevin," Ares said jovially. He was definitely up to
something. "I'd like you to meet a very special young
woman I met today. Kevin, this is Cordelia Chase.
Cordelia, this is Kevin Sorbo."
"Hi, Mr. Sorbo," Cordelia said brightly. "I love your TV
show. I watch it all the time."
"Uh, thank you," Hercules said. Did Ares introduce them
to watch Hercules squirm? Couldn't be, he talked to all
these hopeful young starlets every time he went to these
parties.
"Yeah," Cordelia went on, "I just love Hunk To Please."
Ares snickered.
"Hercules," Hercules corrected. He was beginning to have
serious doubts about Cordelia's chances at success in this
business.
"Right, that too."
Ares was obviously fighting a losing battle to keep from
laughing. Idly, Hercules wondered what Ares was calling
himself at this party.
"So how did you two meet?" Hercules asked.
"Oh, Mr. Warsaw liked my dragon," Cordelia told him. "He
said he could use it in a movie he was producing." That
explained what Ares was doing here, but...
"You brought the dragon?" Hercules asked, surprised.
"Well, he's not really my dragon," Cordelia went on. "I
borrowed him...it from a friend. It's a big animatronic
robot y'know."
The hell it was! Hercules could see right away that it
was the real thing. Although he had never actually met a
dragon that could hold a civilized conversation (and
Hollywood chatter barely qualified), Cordelia's dragon
seemed to be doing all right. At least, he wasn't toasting
anybody yet.
"So, Mister Sorbo," Cordelia began, "there wouldn't happen
to be an opening on your show is there?"
"Ah, no," Hercules replied. "Actually, the show is being
canceled. I felt I needed to move on to better things."
"Isn't that a shame," Ares put in sarcastically.
"Oh, that's nice," Cordelia said, visibly losing all
interest in Hercules. She turned and locked eyes
elsewhere. "Margo!" she called, moving away. "You don't
call, you don't write..."
"What are you up to, Ares?" Hercules asked accusingly.
"Moi? I'm making a movie," Ares said with mock innocence.
"It's going to be an action flick with blood and guts."
"So what's the dragon doing here?"
"Not my doing, brother," Ares replied. "The dragon's here
and he's got some...ahem, 'friends' looking for him. Now,
I gotta go mingle."
"Wonderful," Hercules muttered as Ares disappeared into
the crowd.
***
Amazingly enough, about half of the Knights managed to
survive fireball. Oh, some of them had to drag themselves
out of the crater, but they survived. A good many of them
had to drink most of their health potions to get back into
fighting condition.
The Death Mage counted two Ebon and ten Crimson Knights
left. The Mage himself had survived more or less intact
because he had been the farthest from the explosion.
"Hmm, seeing as how your leader is nowhere to be found, I
shall take command here," the Death Mage told the Knights.
"Any objections? No? Good. Let's get back on the hunt. It
is getting far to crowded here." He indicated the
gathering humans.
"Oh and do be careful the next time we run into anything
strange," the Death Mage added. "We don't want anymore
accidents now."
There was no reply or expression from the Knights. But
their auras definitely showed embarrasment.
***
B.A. Baracus pulled his taxi over to pick up the trio.
They were an odd trio, but then again, this was Los
Angeles. All kind of wierd sorts came here. One guy in a
black duster, a man dressed like a cheap acting agent, and
some cute chick in formfitting leather simply did not
qualify as strange in this town.
They got in the cab without a word. The man in the black
duster ushered the chick into the front passenger seat
then got into the back with the other guy. Now that was
strange.
"Where to?" B.A. asked without preamble.
"Rynn?" black duster guy said to the chick.
Rynn closed her eyes for a few seconds then pointed in a
seemingly random direction. "That way," she said. She was
pointing off the road at some location far away.
"Hey, lady, I can't drive through no buildings," B.A.
complained.
"Just zigzag through the streets in the general direction
Rynn points," black duster guy told him. "We'll eventually
get to wherever we're going."
"Uh huh, right," B.A. said. Just his luck to get some
crazy fools. It almost made him nostalgic for Murdoch and
his days with the Team.
Almost.
***
The humans seemed to have lost interest in Arokh. That was
fine with him. He could do without their chattering at him
and was content to observe their interactions.
"Hi, there. I'm Kevin Sorbo."
Arokh sighed wearily. It had been too good to last.
"Greetings. I am Arokh the Animatronic Dragon," Arokh said
monotonously. By this time, the phrase had become routine.
Oddly, he found that enhanced the illusion that he was a
construct.
"Oh, I don't think so," Kevin Sorbo replied. "I think
you're a real dragon."
Startled, Arokh examined Sorbo closely. He looked well
built in comparison to the other humans. Sorbo was one of
those strange smelling humans, though. And he definitely
seemed more intelligent than anyone else here.
"C'mon, let's go somewhere we can talk in private," Sorbo
suggested.
Arokh nodded and followed Sorbo.
***
"That way," Rynn pointed. She was pleased that they
seemed to be getting closer. Everytime they reached an
intersection, Rynn would point which way Arokh was and
the large taxi driver would either go straight or turn
depending on which would bring them closer to Arokh.
Taxi driving must be a prosperous profession in this
world, Rynn thought absently. Either that or gold
necklaces must be very inexpensive. The driver's neck was
completely hidden by them.
The taxi turned the corner and skidded to a halt. There,
illuminated by the headlights was an armored figure
holding a flaming spear.
"That's a Crimson Knight!" Rynn exclaimed. What was one of
them doing on this world?
Without uttering a word, the Knight threw its spear right
at Rynn. Unable to dodge in the confines of the taxi, Rynn
winced as the spear shattered against the windshield. The
windshield held, although spiderweb cracked spread through
it.
"My taxi!" the driver exclaimed. "That fool damaged my
taxi!" Furiously, the driver opened the door and scrambled
out, drawing a strange object from under his seat. Rynn
presumed it was weapon.
"Everybody out," Doyle quipped as he, Angel, and Rynn
exitted the taxi.
"There's only one of them," Rynn told them. "Shouldn't be
a problem. I've killed enough of them."
At that moment eleven other Knights stepped out of the
shadows, surrounding them.
To be continued...