Chapter 9: Upside down
Megufu yawned and opened his eyes. He felt very tired. His mouth was wet with drool and he felt dirty. The sun was shinning with an orange morning glow. It had probably rained on him in the night. His hand was curled in front of him. Slowly he opened it to reveal the black rock.
"Oh my god…" he whispered everything coming back to him. He stood carefully to his feet and crept over to the edge of the building. He gazed briefly over the edge and what he saw sent a shock down his body. The Limo was crashed against a wall and blood was everywhere. Several enforcers were below one a detective dressed in a black coat speaking into a communicator. There were several enforcer magic-wheels parked here and there and red tape sealed the area off. Little did they know the murderer was still in the area. Scientists probably from the black tower were scanning the walls and bodies with white blue glowing devices. Quickly Megufu moved away his heart beating fast. He hid behind the small wall on the roof that stopped people from falling off and gazed again at the black rock in his hand.
"A dragoon? Is this really? Me?" he whispered the old legends dawning on him, "Then that stone… the green stone in the royal palace that is property of the monarchy… that is really the dragoon spirit belonging to Albert 1st? Are all the old legends true? Does this mean that the dragon campaigns… are not false?"
Again he uncurled his hand and looked at the rock. As if in answer it glowed silently only enough to illuminate his hand in a dark purpleish black.
"How ironic that I should be the last dragoon… how ironic that I should receive this… the dragoon spirit of darkness. Fitting maybe…"
Again carefully he gazed over the edge and looked at the men below. Quickly he moved away again, "Shit," he whispered, "They've found my bag… I've got to get out of here"
There was a door on the roof but there was no way he could take it. In all likelihood the enforcers were probably already searching the building. It would only be a matter of time before they came onto the roof.
Crawling away from the wall he stood up and walked to the other side of the building. An enforcer magi-wheel pulled up and an enforcer with a large sniffer dog stepped out. This would be a huge investigation in a matter of minutes. He took a step back and held out the dragoon spirit.
"I don't know how hard this will be," he muttered.
It wasn't hard at all. There was only a single thought involved. The dragoon spirit itself seemed to know when it's owner wanted to connect with it.
"I should be dead …" he thought silently to himself as the stone flashed brightly transforming him, "Why didn't I die back there?"
The wings shot out as black armour surrounded him. It was this time round that he began to realize how draining this magic stone was on him. It seemed to feed on his battle emotions – fear, anger, and probably lust. It was wearing for him to be like this even for a second. It was like using up energy you don't have. Kneeling and stepping back he shot up in the air and flew far and wide over the top of the building.
The man below looked up briefly after a shadow passed over him. He didn't notice what it was as by the time he had looked up it had gone.
Megufu headed for the sea. He'd get a boat out of here and think about where he was going on the way. The power was draining every second and he found that his mind was tiring. He landed again almost at the waterfront behind some industrial metal bins. Light surrounded him and he gasped for breath exhausted. He had not expected the power to be this draining. The danger of heading towards the sea, as he had done, was that he was passing close to the Black Tower where he had stolen the rock. Whether or not those scientists had been petrified was still unknown to him. He knew they were on his trail so something must have happened to the scientists otherwise there wouldn't have been scientists at the crime scene.
Once he felt strong enough to stand up again Megufu left from behind the litter bins and hit the streets. Over the top of buildings he could see the tower in the distance. It was such a large black shape that it was hard to define it as a tower. It was more like a castle or something. Why it had been called a tower Megufu had never been sure.
He stopped walking for a moment as he came to a payfreind outside one of the major banks. With his hands he started searching the folds of his engineer clothes until he found what he was looking for; the second ID. Carefully he put it into the payfreind and waited until a different screen came up to the welcome one. He entered the pin number that Phleg had taught him off by heart and waited as the balance came up on screen. There wasn't a lot of money but enough to buy his way to somewhere or other. He withdrew it all and stuffed the notes in his pocket along with the card.
Warning: Account balance at 0. If Stationary account will close in fifty days.
That would be a worry to most people as it was difficult to get a bank account in Serdio. If an account closed because it had no money in it, it went on the permanent record and it made it much harder to open a new account. Virage owned a smaller branch bank Megufu happened to know. It was the only bank in Serdio and Tiberoa that would allow people to overdraw and go into the red. People who did so and couldn't pay the money back quickly faced huge interest rates and the possibility of Virage men coming to reclaim household items in compensation. Megufu had no worry of this as the account was completely fake. He was lucky to have gotten to the money before Virage closed it down. They would not be happy that he had escaped with the rock alive, and withdrawn their money that was supposed to be only for emergencies. As far as Megufu was concerned this was certainly an emergency for him. The world had suddenly turned upside down.
