Doppelganger brought his new weapon, a giant fist, down on the Dragoons. Ben dodged to the side, and Jake jumped forward. Both boys took flight. Ben substituted his normal small yet powerful handgun, which had the blasting might of an enormous shotgun, for a sub-machine gun. He blasted away at Doppelganger's enormous form, but the blows did little damage to the giant behemoth. Whatever magical powers were protecting this thing, they were strong.
"Jake, let's hit him with a pincer movement! You hit him from the right, and I'll hit him from the left!" Ben yelled as Jake flew toward the right side of the monster.
"FLAME SHOT!" Ben yelled.
"DIVINE DRAGON CANNON!" Jake shouted. The two mighty spells hit their foe. The spells hit their marks, but did not do as much damage as their casters expected. A small mark, about the size that Jake imagined a paper cut would look on this enormous fiend, was all the damage they did to it.
They tried again, this time their attacks merging to inflict maximum damage. A fiery blast of green energy caught the beast right in the chest. It smiled.
"You'll need to do more than that to take down The Great Behemoth."
*************************
"Vdrash. Call me Rose. I am here to help you. Your friends are in trouble. Look in your top dresser drawer."
Becca, head pounding, walked over to her dresser and opened the top drawer. A black stone was sitting on her clothes, and she picked it up. It glowed in her hands, and she heard the voice again.
"Good. Now go save your friends."
Becca looked out of her second floor window and decided to test her newfound power. She held the stone in her hand, and threw herself out the window. The power took effect immediately. Delicate wings appeared, and she steered herself up above the treetops, her blonde hair blowing in the wind.
"It's time to save your friends. You're the only one who can."
*******************************
The cloaked woman screamed. "Uyoin," she swore in the Old Tongue. "Every time we get close to catching a potential Dragoon, that uyoin Rose gets to them first. Or Lloyd, but they are both uyoin tyorns!" she said again, swearing in the Old Tongue.
"Well, well, well Mistress, it looks like we hit the jackpot," came a voice from the shadows.
"Have you found the man I asked you to?"
The speaker stepped forward from the shadows with a blonde man in handcuffs next to her. Her red hair flashed as she tossed it.
"Of course. I'm not incompetent like your brother's henchmen."
"Let me go you tyorn!" The man yelled at her, trying to pull away. She stared at him, and he became slowly limp. The girl put her head back towards her Mistress.
"He will not bother us for a long time," she said, hoping it wasn't a lie. The man collapsed on the floor, and as he did, a green stone fell out of his pocket. It glowed with a Jade light.
****************************
"Krissi?" Jimbo sat down next to her after getting a quick drink of water. She made a small croaking sound to acknowledge that she'd heard him. "I got you some water."
"You have been in her room for the whole night straight and then some," the nurse said. "Why don't you go home?"
"I can't go back until I get revenge for her. I love her."
The nurse just stared at Jim, and then walked out of Krissi's room. Jim picked up her hand, and she smiled. She leaned back again to go to sleep.
Then her eyes snapped open again. Her entire body convulsed, as if she were having a spasm.
"No, no, NO!" Krissi yelled at nothing. Jim held her down though she continued to twitch.
"Krissi, Krissi sh, it's okay now. I'm here now, you don't have to worry. Sh, you're gonna be okay," he said trying to sooth her. It worked. She screamed one last earsplitting yelp, and collapsed on her hospital bed, drenched in sweat. Jim wrapped his arms around her waist.
"It's going to be okay."
***************************
Becca flew faster, hoping beyond hope that she wasn't too late.
'I hafta save Ben,' she thought. Right now, nothing else mattered. She realized that she loved him a long time ago, and she was sure that he had the same idea.
***************************
Ben was in a lot of pain. Doppelganger had hit him in straight in the chest so many times. He fell onto a rooftop and tried to sit up, but it was too agonizing. With a cry of excruciating pain, he fell to the ground again.
This was how Becca found him. Staring with rage at his adversary, she brandished her dark halberd and stood with a burning flame in her eyes.
"Astral Drain!" shouted Becca as her halberd flew up and stabbed Doppelganger in the creature's oversized head. Strong and ancient magic flowed from the weapon as it sucked life from the gargantuan behemoth. She felt herself being healed of what small wounds she had accumulated from her previous encounter with a servant of evil.
She saw Ben sit up, holding his head, but apparently now unscathed. She had done more damage to it then both Ben and Jake combined.
Doppelganger roared, and changed into a redheaded human female. Somehow, it flew up towards the Dragoons.
"This body is strong, stronger than my last," it said. "It will destroy you all!"
*******************************
Jim was still calming Krissi down when she began to talk again.
"Thunder and lightning, Jim, thunder and lightning!" she yelled at him. Not quite understanding what this meant, he just pulled her closer to him.
"Yiru oitn oures Jim, yiru oitn oures! JIM!" She started to go into convulsive movements and she screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Please leave sir," said the nurses who ran to her side within a few minutes. "The doctor requests only family should be here."
So Jim left for Krissi's house to find the answer to the mystery as to why Krissi fell out of the window in the first place.
******************************
"UYOIN!" Eevano swore in the Old Tounge again. "That foolish Wingly escaped again. She is the only Dragoon left living."
"Master, whatever you have planned, it will work, just give it time," said the wounded Kate from the shadows. She was tending to the cut that Doppelganger had given her in Adrianne's hospital room.
"Miss Mueller, I strongly advise you to not speak to someone in a higher position than you beyond 'Yes sir,' " Eevano said. "Are we understood?"
Kate nodded. "Yes sir." She stood, and with great effort, walked to her assigned quarters in Eevano's castle.
"Foolish girl," Eevano said. "She thinks I don't realize she'd betray me when it suits her."
"It would be wise not to underestimate the abilities of your followers, brother," a figure in the darkness said. "They may betray you because you will betray them."
"Leave my subjects out of this sister," Eevano replied. "They are nothing to you."
"Indeed they are not," she scoffed. "For Emma and Doppelganger are more than a match for your pathetic girly girls. Do you realize that the only way you beat the other Dragoons was luck? And help from Father of course. He did most of the work, weakening them for you. And of course there were the two that escaped."
"Sister, I can handle this on my own!" Eevano roared.
"Suit yourself," she said as she shrugged nonchalantly. "It was only a suggestion." She tore open a rift in space and walked through it, like she had used to make her escape so many times before.
"I await your answer for Mother, Eevano," she said as she left. "She is busy locating our aunt, but she can help if you have need of it."
"Tell Mother I have no need of her the kind of help she gives," Eevano growled. "She will be the doom of us all."
The woman shrugged. "Alright, I will relay that message to Mother. But you do realize," she said. "That this will mean you are completely on your own, don't you?"
"Of course sister," Eevano growled. "Now get out of my sight."
The woman left. Eevano turned back to his work. "This will surely capture the Blue Sea Dragoon," he said to himself as he turned it on.
*******************************
Amber awoke once again in cold sweat. The dream was so vivid this time. She was standing on a platform, and Greg was talking about her life. There were tears in his eyes, and he held a blue stone in his hand. It glowed when she looked at it. It drew her gaze closer and closer, and without knowing it, she was face to face with Greg
Suddenly, she felt a pain more excruciating than any she'd previously known. Crying out in fear as well as hurt, she had sat up in bed and seen her parents in her room. She had told them it was only a bad dream. Greg was the only person she could tell this strange dream to.
"Greg? Hi, it's Amber. No, no, the phone line isn't being tapped. How do you think I know? What? Okay, well I had a weird dream that I think I died in. Yes, you were in it too. No, I don't think you died. Greg, you're making too little of this. There was a blue stone, and it drew my attention, but then I died. Okay, sorry to bother you, you bastard."
She hung up on him and threw the phone at the wall. It shattered when the blow connected. Sighing with contempt at wasting a perfectly good phone, she went back to bed.
****************************
Adrianne ran away from Doppelganger in his Dragoon form before the second battle even started. Ending up on a street adjacent to her house, Adrianne finally stopped running and cut through a neighbor's yard so as not to be seen.
"Whatever you tried, it didn't work," drifted a female voice from the shadows. "I still followed you."
Adrianne's head snapped around. "Who's there?"
"Why Adrianne, I'm surprised you didn't remember me," the voice said. It came from the shadows again. Adrianne turned around. "Come now, Adrianne, you and Becca should know me by now."
'Oh my god,' Adrianne thought. 'Becca.' She started to run to Becca's house, but the figure stopped her.
"Ah, ah Adrianne, I want you to come with me," she said as she grabbed her by the arm.
"Help! I'm being kidnapped!" Adrianne yelled, but to no avail. "Someone!" Then she lost consciousness.
******************************
"Ben!" Becca was fighting what Doppelganger had become now. None of his earlier forms had had strength of this magnitude. Of course Becca had not expected it to be easy, but she had at least expected to win. Ben had already gone over to take out the redhead from the side, but it seemed that Doppelganger was too powerful for their control. Ben and Jake were panting, having not gone through battle before, but the spirit of Rose had already entered Becca's mind, and she was a veteran of many battles, so Becca was not tired in the least.
Doppelganger laughed. "How could you filthy, pathetic humans possibly have any hope of defeating one who has lived for centuries!" Flying up to Jake, he looked into Jake's eyes, and Jake started to become weary.
"Can't..... keep........ going......." he said as he collapsed to the roof of the building. Seeing that Doppelganger was distracted, Becca threw her halberd once again at Doppelganger, and it hit the creature's redheaded form right in the chest. It started to reform into some other monstrosity when Jake heard a voice in his head.
"Hit it," said the voice. "Hit it while it's changing." So Jake raised his cannon arm, and cast his most powerful Dragoon magic.
"DIVINE DRAGON CANNON!"
The beam of energy hit Doppelganger with explosive force. With a terrible scream, it fell to the ground dozens of feet below in a blazing inferno.
*******************************
"I'm telling you, I don't know anything!" Adrianne shouted between blows.
"Frailty," a man said as he struck her across the face. She shrunk backwards and fell on her side. "Thy name," he struck her again. "Is woman." The final kick came now. It hit her with such force that she was knocked against an adjacent wall.
"That Hamlet sure knew his stuff," Adrianne quipped as she tried in vain to stand.
"Come on Adrianne," the villain said. "I thought you'd at least fight back." He went over and picked her up by the collar of her shirt. Her feet dangled above the floor. "I'll ask you one last time, who is the Void Dragoon?"
Shivering, Adrianne pulled her head back and spit blood in his face.
"I'll take that as a no," the man said, wiping off the bloody saliva from his face. "Then I'll just have to kill you." He put his hand to his waist to draw a small knife. "This knife will kill you slowly, taking hours of pain before death finally comes. Do you know what that means? You'll never see your precious Dragoon again!"
"ORINAS!" Eevano thundered, causing the whole hall to shake. Orinas dropped his prisoner. "YOU WILL NOT HARM ADRIANNE!"
"I could have handled it," Adrianne swallowed. "Without your help."
"Of course you could dear," Eevano said calmly.
"Don't patronize me Evan," Adrianne croaked. "I remember that was one of the reasons for your death."
"Ah, so you know the truth."
"Oh course I know the truth," Adrianne said. "I was an eyewitness."
"Well, when that dark spirit attacked you, I jumped in the way, and it mutilated my body, giving you enough time to run away. I believe it was going after you because you are the Great Dragoon. I believe you know of what I speak. "
"Like hell I do," Adrianne replied. "This is more confusing than a Star Wars movie from the 70's."
"Defiant to the end," Eevano sneered. "Just as I remember you." He inched closer to her and put his hand on her swollen cheek. "I was hoping, perhaps, that we could come to," his hand moved to her back. "An agreement."
Adrianne slapped him across the face, and his hand rose to strike her, but he stopped.
"No," he said. "No, I won't hurt you. Damn this host of mine," he swore. "He always takes over when you're around."
"Who?"
"You think I'm Eevano, don't you?" Eevano asked, and Adrianne nodded. "Well, that is only half-true. Half of me is Evan. The other half is the vengeful spirit who was willing to take over you, and not Evan, that day in the forest near your home in San Francisco. It is the spirit that is in control. Save me Adrianne!"
Eevano was going through a battle inside himself at this moment. He dropped to the floor and writhed in pain. His servant Orinas ran to his side. Reaching out his hand, he healed Eevano's spiritual wounds with some kind of otherworldly magic. Eevano stood again.
"This is why I keep him," Eevano said. "That, and Krissi and Kate have both failed me on more occasions than I care to remember." Eevano turned to Orinas. "Not that Orinas hasn't, but Krissi has been punished already, and Kate's punishment will come for losing you to Rose."
"The only reason Rawlena was able to kidnap me was because Lloyd drove Kate off," Adrianne said. Eevano looked sick.
"So, my sister is involved in this as well," he said with a look of deep thought in his eyes.
"What's going on? Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on!?" Adrianne yelled at the top of her lungs, which was not very loud because she had screamed a lot when Orinas was torturing her. As a result, she had lost her voice.
"His sister is trying to sabotage his attempt to get all of the Endiness Dragoons. Kate was trying to kidnap you when her servant Doppelganger drove her off.
"So Jake really does love me, and he will come to rescue me," she said.
*********************
Doppelganger rose, but this time, it's form was a wisp of black cloud. It was considerably weaker in this form.
"You've discovered my secret, but how, I do not know. There is only one who knows, and he is dead."
"Lloyd. He must have told me how to beat him," Jake said to himself.
"Lloyd?" Becca asked. "Who's Lloyd?"
"Lloyd is the original Void Dragoon. He and Rose kidnapped Adrianne to try and keep her from Eevano, but I'm guessing the location they brought her to was not secure enough. So they left her with-" Jake's face turned white. "They left her with me."
The Dragoons took flight, and left the extremely annoyed Doppelganger screaming for a rematch.
"Come back!"
*****************************
Lloyd flew over the Castle of Death, as it was known by as one of it's names. In his hands, he held the Jade Dragoon Spirit, and with it came the soul of Albert. Albert was the Endiness Jade Dragoon. In hot pursuit was Mottom, one of Eevano's imps.
Greg was walking home from Amber's house when he saw the two opponents flying over Krissi Manion's house. Mottom sliced Lloyd above the shoulder, and he landed in front of Greg.
"Take this," Lloyd said as he handed Greg the Dragoon Spirit. "It will be safer with the Dragoons. Find them, and give them this."
The stone glowed dully in Lloyd's hands, but as soon as it passed to Greg, it glowed with a bright light. Jade armor appeared on him. A green spear appeared in his arms, and he turned to the blood-colored servant of darkness.
"Wing Blaster!" A jade-colored bird appeared and crashed into the imp.
"Are you okay?" Greg asked Lloyd as he tried to stand. The imp stood again, but before he could make a move, Greg hit him with his spear. The metal part went right through the creature's chest, skewering him. Mottom dropped dead on the sidewalk.
"You have saved my life this day, Jade Dragoon," Lloyd said, standing.
"Don't mention it," Greg said, helping him up.
"And as for your reward, I think the Dragoon choosing you is reward enough. Now, your friends should be over near Adrianne's house. Find them. I must leave you now, for I also have a Wingly to save. And I must rescue Wink. Farewell, for this day, you have earned the trust of the Winglies."
*****************************
Jake, Ben and Becca found the street lot near Adrianne's home empty. They assumed the worst.
"What if she got captured?" Jake asked. "What if Eevano has her in his horrible palace right now?"
"Jake, you're overreacting," Becca said. "For all you know, she could be late."
Greg touched down next to them. "Eevano has Adrianne."
*************************
A/N: Eevano has Adrianne!? What a surprise. She's gotta be rescued again. Seriously, I didn't mean for her to be such a Mary-Sue. My girls are usually more Kate-like. They kick boo-teh! But something happened to Adrianne. I'll change her.
More singing, more kissing, and more Adrianne abuse in the next chapter!
"Jake, let's hit him with a pincer movement! You hit him from the right, and I'll hit him from the left!" Ben yelled as Jake flew toward the right side of the monster.
"FLAME SHOT!" Ben yelled.
"DIVINE DRAGON CANNON!" Jake shouted. The two mighty spells hit their foe. The spells hit their marks, but did not do as much damage as their casters expected. A small mark, about the size that Jake imagined a paper cut would look on this enormous fiend, was all the damage they did to it.
They tried again, this time their attacks merging to inflict maximum damage. A fiery blast of green energy caught the beast right in the chest. It smiled.
"You'll need to do more than that to take down The Great Behemoth."
*************************
"Vdrash. Call me Rose. I am here to help you. Your friends are in trouble. Look in your top dresser drawer."
Becca, head pounding, walked over to her dresser and opened the top drawer. A black stone was sitting on her clothes, and she picked it up. It glowed in her hands, and she heard the voice again.
"Good. Now go save your friends."
Becca looked out of her second floor window and decided to test her newfound power. She held the stone in her hand, and threw herself out the window. The power took effect immediately. Delicate wings appeared, and she steered herself up above the treetops, her blonde hair blowing in the wind.
"It's time to save your friends. You're the only one who can."
*******************************
The cloaked woman screamed. "Uyoin," she swore in the Old Tongue. "Every time we get close to catching a potential Dragoon, that uyoin Rose gets to them first. Or Lloyd, but they are both uyoin tyorns!" she said again, swearing in the Old Tongue.
"Well, well, well Mistress, it looks like we hit the jackpot," came a voice from the shadows.
"Have you found the man I asked you to?"
The speaker stepped forward from the shadows with a blonde man in handcuffs next to her. Her red hair flashed as she tossed it.
"Of course. I'm not incompetent like your brother's henchmen."
"Let me go you tyorn!" The man yelled at her, trying to pull away. She stared at him, and he became slowly limp. The girl put her head back towards her Mistress.
"He will not bother us for a long time," she said, hoping it wasn't a lie. The man collapsed on the floor, and as he did, a green stone fell out of his pocket. It glowed with a Jade light.
****************************
"Krissi?" Jimbo sat down next to her after getting a quick drink of water. She made a small croaking sound to acknowledge that she'd heard him. "I got you some water."
"You have been in her room for the whole night straight and then some," the nurse said. "Why don't you go home?"
"I can't go back until I get revenge for her. I love her."
The nurse just stared at Jim, and then walked out of Krissi's room. Jim picked up her hand, and she smiled. She leaned back again to go to sleep.
Then her eyes snapped open again. Her entire body convulsed, as if she were having a spasm.
"No, no, NO!" Krissi yelled at nothing. Jim held her down though she continued to twitch.
"Krissi, Krissi sh, it's okay now. I'm here now, you don't have to worry. Sh, you're gonna be okay," he said trying to sooth her. It worked. She screamed one last earsplitting yelp, and collapsed on her hospital bed, drenched in sweat. Jim wrapped his arms around her waist.
"It's going to be okay."
***************************
Becca flew faster, hoping beyond hope that she wasn't too late.
'I hafta save Ben,' she thought. Right now, nothing else mattered. She realized that she loved him a long time ago, and she was sure that he had the same idea.
***************************
Ben was in a lot of pain. Doppelganger had hit him in straight in the chest so many times. He fell onto a rooftop and tried to sit up, but it was too agonizing. With a cry of excruciating pain, he fell to the ground again.
This was how Becca found him. Staring with rage at his adversary, she brandished her dark halberd and stood with a burning flame in her eyes.
"Astral Drain!" shouted Becca as her halberd flew up and stabbed Doppelganger in the creature's oversized head. Strong and ancient magic flowed from the weapon as it sucked life from the gargantuan behemoth. She felt herself being healed of what small wounds she had accumulated from her previous encounter with a servant of evil.
She saw Ben sit up, holding his head, but apparently now unscathed. She had done more damage to it then both Ben and Jake combined.
Doppelganger roared, and changed into a redheaded human female. Somehow, it flew up towards the Dragoons.
"This body is strong, stronger than my last," it said. "It will destroy you all!"
*******************************
Jim was still calming Krissi down when she began to talk again.
"Thunder and lightning, Jim, thunder and lightning!" she yelled at him. Not quite understanding what this meant, he just pulled her closer to him.
"Yiru oitn oures Jim, yiru oitn oures! JIM!" She started to go into convulsive movements and she screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Please leave sir," said the nurses who ran to her side within a few minutes. "The doctor requests only family should be here."
So Jim left for Krissi's house to find the answer to the mystery as to why Krissi fell out of the window in the first place.
******************************
"UYOIN!" Eevano swore in the Old Tounge again. "That foolish Wingly escaped again. She is the only Dragoon left living."
"Master, whatever you have planned, it will work, just give it time," said the wounded Kate from the shadows. She was tending to the cut that Doppelganger had given her in Adrianne's hospital room.
"Miss Mueller, I strongly advise you to not speak to someone in a higher position than you beyond 'Yes sir,' " Eevano said. "Are we understood?"
Kate nodded. "Yes sir." She stood, and with great effort, walked to her assigned quarters in Eevano's castle.
"Foolish girl," Eevano said. "She thinks I don't realize she'd betray me when it suits her."
"It would be wise not to underestimate the abilities of your followers, brother," a figure in the darkness said. "They may betray you because you will betray them."
"Leave my subjects out of this sister," Eevano replied. "They are nothing to you."
"Indeed they are not," she scoffed. "For Emma and Doppelganger are more than a match for your pathetic girly girls. Do you realize that the only way you beat the other Dragoons was luck? And help from Father of course. He did most of the work, weakening them for you. And of course there were the two that escaped."
"Sister, I can handle this on my own!" Eevano roared.
"Suit yourself," she said as she shrugged nonchalantly. "It was only a suggestion." She tore open a rift in space and walked through it, like she had used to make her escape so many times before.
"I await your answer for Mother, Eevano," she said as she left. "She is busy locating our aunt, but she can help if you have need of it."
"Tell Mother I have no need of her the kind of help she gives," Eevano growled. "She will be the doom of us all."
The woman shrugged. "Alright, I will relay that message to Mother. But you do realize," she said. "That this will mean you are completely on your own, don't you?"
"Of course sister," Eevano growled. "Now get out of my sight."
The woman left. Eevano turned back to his work. "This will surely capture the Blue Sea Dragoon," he said to himself as he turned it on.
*******************************
Amber awoke once again in cold sweat. The dream was so vivid this time. She was standing on a platform, and Greg was talking about her life. There were tears in his eyes, and he held a blue stone in his hand. It glowed when she looked at it. It drew her gaze closer and closer, and without knowing it, she was face to face with Greg
Suddenly, she felt a pain more excruciating than any she'd previously known. Crying out in fear as well as hurt, she had sat up in bed and seen her parents in her room. She had told them it was only a bad dream. Greg was the only person she could tell this strange dream to.
"Greg? Hi, it's Amber. No, no, the phone line isn't being tapped. How do you think I know? What? Okay, well I had a weird dream that I think I died in. Yes, you were in it too. No, I don't think you died. Greg, you're making too little of this. There was a blue stone, and it drew my attention, but then I died. Okay, sorry to bother you, you bastard."
She hung up on him and threw the phone at the wall. It shattered when the blow connected. Sighing with contempt at wasting a perfectly good phone, she went back to bed.
****************************
Adrianne ran away from Doppelganger in his Dragoon form before the second battle even started. Ending up on a street adjacent to her house, Adrianne finally stopped running and cut through a neighbor's yard so as not to be seen.
"Whatever you tried, it didn't work," drifted a female voice from the shadows. "I still followed you."
Adrianne's head snapped around. "Who's there?"
"Why Adrianne, I'm surprised you didn't remember me," the voice said. It came from the shadows again. Adrianne turned around. "Come now, Adrianne, you and Becca should know me by now."
'Oh my god,' Adrianne thought. 'Becca.' She started to run to Becca's house, but the figure stopped her.
"Ah, ah Adrianne, I want you to come with me," she said as she grabbed her by the arm.
"Help! I'm being kidnapped!" Adrianne yelled, but to no avail. "Someone!" Then she lost consciousness.
******************************
"Ben!" Becca was fighting what Doppelganger had become now. None of his earlier forms had had strength of this magnitude. Of course Becca had not expected it to be easy, but she had at least expected to win. Ben had already gone over to take out the redhead from the side, but it seemed that Doppelganger was too powerful for their control. Ben and Jake were panting, having not gone through battle before, but the spirit of Rose had already entered Becca's mind, and she was a veteran of many battles, so Becca was not tired in the least.
Doppelganger laughed. "How could you filthy, pathetic humans possibly have any hope of defeating one who has lived for centuries!" Flying up to Jake, he looked into Jake's eyes, and Jake started to become weary.
"Can't..... keep........ going......." he said as he collapsed to the roof of the building. Seeing that Doppelganger was distracted, Becca threw her halberd once again at Doppelganger, and it hit the creature's redheaded form right in the chest. It started to reform into some other monstrosity when Jake heard a voice in his head.
"Hit it," said the voice. "Hit it while it's changing." So Jake raised his cannon arm, and cast his most powerful Dragoon magic.
"DIVINE DRAGON CANNON!"
The beam of energy hit Doppelganger with explosive force. With a terrible scream, it fell to the ground dozens of feet below in a blazing inferno.
*******************************
"I'm telling you, I don't know anything!" Adrianne shouted between blows.
"Frailty," a man said as he struck her across the face. She shrunk backwards and fell on her side. "Thy name," he struck her again. "Is woman." The final kick came now. It hit her with such force that she was knocked against an adjacent wall.
"That Hamlet sure knew his stuff," Adrianne quipped as she tried in vain to stand.
"Come on Adrianne," the villain said. "I thought you'd at least fight back." He went over and picked her up by the collar of her shirt. Her feet dangled above the floor. "I'll ask you one last time, who is the Void Dragoon?"
Shivering, Adrianne pulled her head back and spit blood in his face.
"I'll take that as a no," the man said, wiping off the bloody saliva from his face. "Then I'll just have to kill you." He put his hand to his waist to draw a small knife. "This knife will kill you slowly, taking hours of pain before death finally comes. Do you know what that means? You'll never see your precious Dragoon again!"
"ORINAS!" Eevano thundered, causing the whole hall to shake. Orinas dropped his prisoner. "YOU WILL NOT HARM ADRIANNE!"
"I could have handled it," Adrianne swallowed. "Without your help."
"Of course you could dear," Eevano said calmly.
"Don't patronize me Evan," Adrianne croaked. "I remember that was one of the reasons for your death."
"Ah, so you know the truth."
"Oh course I know the truth," Adrianne said. "I was an eyewitness."
"Well, when that dark spirit attacked you, I jumped in the way, and it mutilated my body, giving you enough time to run away. I believe it was going after you because you are the Great Dragoon. I believe you know of what I speak. "
"Like hell I do," Adrianne replied. "This is more confusing than a Star Wars movie from the 70's."
"Defiant to the end," Eevano sneered. "Just as I remember you." He inched closer to her and put his hand on her swollen cheek. "I was hoping, perhaps, that we could come to," his hand moved to her back. "An agreement."
Adrianne slapped him across the face, and his hand rose to strike her, but he stopped.
"No," he said. "No, I won't hurt you. Damn this host of mine," he swore. "He always takes over when you're around."
"Who?"
"You think I'm Eevano, don't you?" Eevano asked, and Adrianne nodded. "Well, that is only half-true. Half of me is Evan. The other half is the vengeful spirit who was willing to take over you, and not Evan, that day in the forest near your home in San Francisco. It is the spirit that is in control. Save me Adrianne!"
Eevano was going through a battle inside himself at this moment. He dropped to the floor and writhed in pain. His servant Orinas ran to his side. Reaching out his hand, he healed Eevano's spiritual wounds with some kind of otherworldly magic. Eevano stood again.
"This is why I keep him," Eevano said. "That, and Krissi and Kate have both failed me on more occasions than I care to remember." Eevano turned to Orinas. "Not that Orinas hasn't, but Krissi has been punished already, and Kate's punishment will come for losing you to Rose."
"The only reason Rawlena was able to kidnap me was because Lloyd drove Kate off," Adrianne said. Eevano looked sick.
"So, my sister is involved in this as well," he said with a look of deep thought in his eyes.
"What's going on? Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on!?" Adrianne yelled at the top of her lungs, which was not very loud because she had screamed a lot when Orinas was torturing her. As a result, she had lost her voice.
"His sister is trying to sabotage his attempt to get all of the Endiness Dragoons. Kate was trying to kidnap you when her servant Doppelganger drove her off.
"So Jake really does love me, and he will come to rescue me," she said.
*********************
Doppelganger rose, but this time, it's form was a wisp of black cloud. It was considerably weaker in this form.
"You've discovered my secret, but how, I do not know. There is only one who knows, and he is dead."
"Lloyd. He must have told me how to beat him," Jake said to himself.
"Lloyd?" Becca asked. "Who's Lloyd?"
"Lloyd is the original Void Dragoon. He and Rose kidnapped Adrianne to try and keep her from Eevano, but I'm guessing the location they brought her to was not secure enough. So they left her with-" Jake's face turned white. "They left her with me."
The Dragoons took flight, and left the extremely annoyed Doppelganger screaming for a rematch.
"Come back!"
*****************************
Lloyd flew over the Castle of Death, as it was known by as one of it's names. In his hands, he held the Jade Dragoon Spirit, and with it came the soul of Albert. Albert was the Endiness Jade Dragoon. In hot pursuit was Mottom, one of Eevano's imps.
Greg was walking home from Amber's house when he saw the two opponents flying over Krissi Manion's house. Mottom sliced Lloyd above the shoulder, and he landed in front of Greg.
"Take this," Lloyd said as he handed Greg the Dragoon Spirit. "It will be safer with the Dragoons. Find them, and give them this."
The stone glowed dully in Lloyd's hands, but as soon as it passed to Greg, it glowed with a bright light. Jade armor appeared on him. A green spear appeared in his arms, and he turned to the blood-colored servant of darkness.
"Wing Blaster!" A jade-colored bird appeared and crashed into the imp.
"Are you okay?" Greg asked Lloyd as he tried to stand. The imp stood again, but before he could make a move, Greg hit him with his spear. The metal part went right through the creature's chest, skewering him. Mottom dropped dead on the sidewalk.
"You have saved my life this day, Jade Dragoon," Lloyd said, standing.
"Don't mention it," Greg said, helping him up.
"And as for your reward, I think the Dragoon choosing you is reward enough. Now, your friends should be over near Adrianne's house. Find them. I must leave you now, for I also have a Wingly to save. And I must rescue Wink. Farewell, for this day, you have earned the trust of the Winglies."
*****************************
Jake, Ben and Becca found the street lot near Adrianne's home empty. They assumed the worst.
"What if she got captured?" Jake asked. "What if Eevano has her in his horrible palace right now?"
"Jake, you're overreacting," Becca said. "For all you know, she could be late."
Greg touched down next to them. "Eevano has Adrianne."
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A/N: Eevano has Adrianne!? What a surprise. She's gotta be rescued again. Seriously, I didn't mean for her to be such a Mary-Sue. My girls are usually more Kate-like. They kick boo-teh! But something happened to Adrianne. I'll change her.
More singing, more kissing, and more Adrianne abuse in the next chapter!
