Dragonia

By Dixxy

Chapter Four: Discovery

(Lucky)

By the time I had spent a week with Mia, Ryo, Rowen, Yuli, and White Blaze, I had learned a lot about their world. Computers, television (I liked that a lot!), digital clocks, cars, and all sorts of cool things we didn't have in Dragonia. Oh, sure we had magic that they couldn't comprehend (even with their "mystical armor" story), but Dragonia doesn't have the pure genius that is Jerry Springer.

Beautiful!

Computers were devices that Mia was very much an expert in, and worked with one of the computers in the household quite infrequently. Sometimes, right after having breakfast, she'd go to the computer room and not come down until dinner time. Sometimes I worried about that.

"Mia's grandfather left that computer behind," Rowen explained to me one day. The two of us and Ryo were going up to check on Mia, Ryo carrying a tray with a sandwich and a soda (a bubbly drink I didn't like- it tickled my nose). "It contains everything he knew about our armors and the Dynasty, but, trouble is, he left it in code, and so far we've only been able to crack some of the code. That's why Mia spends so much time up there- she's trying to find out more about our armors and maybe some information on some Nether Realm lords that Ryo and I might have to contend with. Now that it's just the two of us, we need to be extra prepared in case on an attack."

"What about the Warlords and Lady Kayura?" I asked, sitting on Rowen's head.

"Haven't heard from them since the end of our second fight against Talpa," Ryo said. He sighed heavily as he re-balanced the tray he was holding. "Sometimes I worry about them, too, but they aren't pushovers by any means- Kayura has the Staff of the Ancient One and the three Dark Warlords have been training with their powers for hundreds of years- they probably OUR armors better then WE do."

"They must be quite old," I said.

"They don't look it, though- they're a sort of strange mix between mortal and immortal. They can die- Anubis died saving Kayura from Talpa's control- but they don't age and they're all well over four hundred years old. If you saw them on the street you'd swear they were only about twenty-something years old," Rowen said.

"MAIL'S HERE!"

Yuli darted up the stairs past the rest of us carrying a stack of mail. Ryo nearly lost his balance and produced quite an amusing display as he tried to keep everything on the tray from toppling over. Rowen scolded Yuli for running, but the boy was already gone, more than likely in the computer room with Mia. Ryo grumbled something incoherent as he continued up the stairs.

Once we reached the computer room, Mia was sorting through the mail as Yuli stood looking over her shoulder. She looked disappointed as she named off the people who had sent her letters. As usual, there was a few letters from a man named Bill who Mia didn't seem to be very fond of. She looked up to see us, placing a large manila envelope in her lap as she smiled. "Hello," she greeted.

"Hey Mia- we bring you offerings of food," said Ryo, holding up the tray.

"Thank you," she said. Ryo placed it on a table on the opposite side of the computer (food and water don't mix well with computers, or so I've been told). The two older males then sat down, me still sitting on Rowen's head. Mia saw this and giggled. I twitched my tail happily.

Ever since I'd arrived at the mansion, I'd found myself on very good terms with Rowen (aside from our initial encounter). Sure, I got along well enough with everyone else, but somehow the blue haired one and I, as he put it, "clicked". He's more tolerant of me taking a seat on his head or on his shoulder than everyone else is, and he's better at explaining things I don't understand than Ryo and Mia are.

"Any luck?" Rowen asked, crossing his legs and putting one elbow on a table.

"Well. . . I think I'm getting closer," said Mia. She rolled away from the computer screen. "I was able to get everything organized to the point where I only have to crack it folder-by-folder." Sure enough, several pictures on the screen looked like tiny little folders with words under them. "There's a folder on your armors and the legend behind them, a folder on the Inferno armor that contains information on other armors that I haven't been able to access yet, and several folders whose names are encrypted, so I don't know what their content is. Yet."

"Hey, that's a lot of process!" said Ryo, cracking a grin. "You should be proud of yourself."

Mia smiled back, then frowned. "I'm trying to get into another folder that's a little bit bigger than the folder on your armors- I've got a prompt asking me for a password, but I'm not sure what it is," she said. "I've got it down to six characters, though."

"Six? Well, that only leaves. . . er. . . how many characters are possible?"
"All the letters in the alphabet and the digits zero through nine- that means I can't just go through it systematically," said Mia. She groaned in frustration. "Even if it's numbers ALONE that's nine-hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine combinations!"

"Ooo. . . that'll take MONTHS to go through all those combinations!" said Ryo.

"I know. . . that's why I'm afraid I won't be able to get into these folders- if I have to do this for ALL of them then. . . GRAGGHH!" Mia screamed, grasping her hands to her head as she stared at the screen in frustration. "This stupid code! Oh, Grandfather! Why did you leave me with this damned code?"

"Mia, calm down!" Ryo said, standing up and putting his hands on her shoulder. He gently began to rub them and gave her a sympathetic look. "We know how much cracking your grandfather's code gets to you, but you can't loose your cool- if you do that then you'll NEVER crack it!" Mia nodded quickly, breathing in quite rapidly. Ryo shook his head. "Take a few slow, deep breaths and calm down." The woman complied, Ryo's suggestions seeming to work. "That's good."

"I have an idea!" I announced, jumping off of Rowen's head. I flew over to where Mia was a sat down right infront of the computer. I extended my paws out in front of me and began to hit random squares on the device infront of me. "Melody used to always say that I'm true to my name- maybe I can get the code to work!"

"Lucky, I don't know if-"

ACCESS GRANTED.

All eyes stared at the computer screen in disbelief, none more than Mia. I grinned and flew back to Rowen, who looked at me rather strangely. "I told you it was a good idea! See? Mia can get into her folder and I helped!" I said proudly, puffing my chest out and flapping my wings with pride.

Mia composed herself and turned to me with a wide smile. "Thank you, Lucky," she said. Her eyes closed slightly and she turned her head. "But I don't know if that will work again- that was a lucky guess, all right, but luck like that might not work for everything. Still, you probably saved my sanity for a few more months."

"Aw, it was nothing!" I said.

"Mia, what did Lucky unlock?" asked Yuli.

"Yeah, what is it?" asked Ryo.

"Hmm. . ." said Mia, clicking the folder open. It contained a single file, which she opened and began to scan. Rowen walked over to Mia to get a closer look (me going with him since I was sitting on his head again). Slowly, her eyes began to dilate as she slowly got to her feet, a shocked expression on her face. "Ryo. . . Rowen. . . this is BIG!"

"It is?" asked Ryo. "What's it say?"

"In short, there's a second set of armors!" she said.

"What?"
"More armors!"

"Cool!"

Mia nodded, sitting back down. "It says here that after Talpa failed to take over the world, a sister of his also tried and failed. A second set of armors similar to your armors was made from her powers," she said. She scrolled down further. "The basic design of the armors is identical to your armors, but they're meant for female usage."

"Chicks with armors?" said Ryo.

"Why didn't the Ancient tell us about this?" I said.

"It says there that the female armor bearers can't know about the male armors- or, you guys- until they've developed their powers to the point where they can survive on their own against an enemy. Else wise, there's a risk that the girls will become dependent on the male armors," said Mia. She growled. "Bull."

"No, not necessarily," Rowen, pointing at the next paragraph. "The females can't use our sure kills- they use elemental magic, which is harder to control and learn than the sure kills are. In other words, if they can't use their OWN magic well enough and they see that the male armors can do a lot of damage with the attack magic of the sure kills, they won't bother furthering their skills any."

"Oh," said Mia. "That makes sense. I guess."

"So once they prove themselves with their magic skills, then they learn about the male armors without consequence- then they won't be so quick to rely on them if they can handle it themselves," said Ryo. "Personally I think that the whole idea is a little sexist on the part of the Ancient One, but maybe it has something to do with the influence of the armor over its bearer."

"Right," said Rowen. "Keep reading."

Mia nodded, continuing down. "When the second set was made, the Ancient added side properties to all of the armors. For instance, the Strata armor has a side element of music and the Torrent armor has an element that works with the slaying of some dark spirits such as Nether Spirits," she said. She turned to Rowen with a grin. "So, maybe you WEREN'T crazy when you heard that girl singing a few months ago."

Rowen blushed. "You don't think that was the Strata girl, do you?"

Ryo snickered. "So Rowen, you have a girlfriend?"

"Shut up!"

"What, Rowen? Does this mean I'm not invited the wedding?"
"Ryo, can it already!"

"Oh, it's okay, just don't hesitate to name your first born after me or anything-"

"RYO!"

"Let's change the subject!" Yuli (wisely) interjected, picking up the manila envelope in Mia's lap. Ryo and Rowen stopped squabbling long enough to see what he was pointing at. "Everything in the mail was just normal stuff- flyers, bills, and some coupons. But what's this thing?"

Rowen took the envelope from Yuli and looked at it, raising an eyebrow. The envelope was a little bigger than a normal piece of paper and was a little on the thick side. It had a lot of stamps on it and a bunch of marks from the post office. "It's address to all of us except for White Blaze and Yuli," he said.

"Who's it from?"

"The label is from someone named Michael Jones in- Boston, Massachusetts! That's in the United States!" Rowen exclaimed. He turned to Mia. "Do you know this guy or anyone else in the US? I sure don't, and I don't think Ryo or Yuli knows anyone there, either."

"What's the United States?" I asked.

"Another country," said Ryo. "A country FAR, FAR away from Japan than doesn't speak our language- we're talking a few thousand kilometers far away!" He took the envelope from Rowen and looked it over, gently feeling it over. "This is really, really weird- why does this guy want to mail us and how does he know all of our names?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," Mia mumbled. "Should we open it?"

"Well, it's probably the only way we'll ever find out who this guy is," said Rowen. He took the letter back from Ryo and began to tear at the seal. "Maybe he's a friend of my mom's- you know how much she travels for her job. Sometimes she sends me stuff from the places she visits. But she's never used someone else's name before."

"Then maybe it isn't your mom," said Yuli.

"What about a college?" said Mia. "That one area is supposed to have some of the most famous colleges in the world, including Harvard- that's an Ivy League school. Maybe they're soliciting to us for a research study they're conducting, or perhaps they want to recruit Ryo and Rowen?"

Ryo snorted. "With my grades I'm not getting into any Ivy League school, Mia. Rowen? Sure, no problem- he could probably teach at an Ivy League school if he really wanted to. Besides, you and Yuli are on the envelope, too- you're already graduated college and Yuli's too young for colleges to start looking at him."

"Maybe he's going to start sending Mia lots of letters like that Bill guy," I said.

Once the envelope was open, Rowen reached a hand inside the envelope to start pulling the contents out. "I guess there's really only one way to find out then," he said. He looked in. "Whoever this guy is, he seems to be a shutter bug- I think there's pictures in here and a few-"

WHOOSH! BANG!

"Ah! What was that?" asked Yuli. All eyes turned to the window in the room, which had suddenly flown open. A sudden gust of wind came into the room, blowing papers and light-weighted objects everywhere. The room suddenly darkened, followed shortly by the sky outside as clouds covered the sun. I clung to Rowen's head, afraid to get blown away while Yuli clung to Mia and Ryo took hold of a heavy cabinet.

"What's going on?" Mia screamed over the sound of the wind.

"This is bad!" Ryo said, struggling to keep his hold.

"Show yourself! We're not afraid of you!" Rowen snapped back.

As a bright flash of light briefly lit up the room, we could all the see silhouette of something in the room. Slowly, the wind began to die down, letting us loosen our grips on our safe holds. Silence came, and no one moved. The pause was so pregnant that it was about to go into labor.

SNAP!

Several small fires appeared, lighting the room so we could see who we were faced with. The source of the strong magic was a tall, stocky man with blue skin. He was dressed in a red and black sorcerer's robe that had a sharply pointed hood. His eyes were as red as the red of his robe, several strange black symbols seemingly painted onto his face. In his hand he carried a tall, golden staff with a large, spherical ruby in the center.

"Who are you?" Ryo demanded.

The man slowly turned to Ryo. His eyes flashed briefly, but he didn't answer.

"Mia. . . what's going on?" asked Yuli.

The man slowly closed his eyes and began to speak. "If I'm not mistaken, I am in the presence of the Ronin Warriors, am I not?" he said in a deep, almost sophisticated sounding voice. Ryo and Rowen both dropped their jaws and Yuli clung closer to Mia, obviously frightened.

Ryo shook his head, composing himself. "Yes- I am Ryo of the Wildfire. What do you want? Who are you? Why are you here?" he asked. He was halfway in a fighting stance, ready to attack if the strange man tried anything funny. "Well? Answer me! Who are you and what do you want from us?"

The man looked over at me and began to walk towards me. Rowen stepped backward and I clung closer to his head. "Hmm. . . a dragon. I did not expect to find you in the presence of a dragon. But no matter. Just as well- it doesn't matter, I suppose. But still, this intrigues me."

"Would you answer the damn question already?" Ryo snapped.

Slowly, the man turned to Ryo. "There's no need to be rude," he said. This only made the dark haired youth fume, clenching his fists tighter. "If you're so anxious to know who I am, than I shall tell you who I am- I am known as Demone, the master of the eternal darkness."

My eyes widened. Oh no. . . not him!