Chapter 12: The Chase
"What!" Jake shouted in disbelief.
"It's true I'm afraid…the only reason Rose was to be trained by the Huntsclan was for basic combat skills…after she received what would be considered 'Squire-Level' training, she'd have gone to Orleans, to be given a final choice and the last stage of her training." Damien told him.
"You mean New Orleans?" Jake asked.
"No…Orleans, in France." Damien told him, "But I guess her uncle didn't want that, so she got rid of her parents and stashed her birth-certificate away so he'd win custody over her."
Rose's POV-
Rose couldn't believe she was staring at the person who had been her History teacher up till now, "Why am I here!"
Aiden looked at her, "What…I rescue you, and this is the majority of the thanks I get, so much for gratitude." He answered.
"You kidnapped me, took me from my friends…I'm far from being grateful!" Rose protested.
"How long have you been with the Huntsclan?" Aiden asked.
"A year…but what's that to you?" Rose asked.
"Then you already have the basics down." Aiden said to himself.
"What are you talking about?" Rose asked impatiently.
Aiden looked up at her and asked, "What do you remember about your parents?"
"Not much…just bits and pieces…" She told him, "but what do they have to do in this?" she asked, calming down a bit.
"You mean your uncle never told you?" Aiden asked.
"Told me what?" Rose asked.
Aiden looked at her and said, "I know you're not going to believe me but…your parents Rose…were members of L'Épée Foncée."
Rose looked dumbfounded at Aiden, "That's—t-th-th-that's, THAT'S A LIE!" She screamed at him.
Aiden shook his head and said, "Then you can ask your uncle when we get to our destination…"
Jake looked out at the night sky and asked, "Where are they taking them?"
"To their hide-out I believe…I just hope that we can get Christian back before it's too late." Said Damien.
"Well what are we waiting for, let's find those crimson-cloaked deviants…CHILL OUT!" Michael said, assuming dragon form. "Don't think you're going anywhere without us." Tem said as Gramps and him assumed their dragon forms, Tem didn't look that different from Gramps in form, but in color he was white, green, and navy colored with yellow claws.
Damien got onto a black Harley Davidson he had parked outside, Jake and the others took to the sky while Damien took the street, Jake pulled along side him and said, "Uh Dame…I don't mean to be rude, but unless that thing sprouts wings, you're just going to slow us down."
Damien looked at Jake and cranked the engine until he was going at least 70 miles per hour, then he popped a wheelie and said, "This hog is full of surprises kid." After a few seconds the rear wheel was leaving the ground, Jake watched as the motorcycle left the road and headed skyward to join up with the other dragons. Jake looked at him and said, "Cool, kind of like a Witch's Broom with a motor attached."
"We actually started with regular 10-Speed bikes about some 40 years ago…and brooms are so 200 years ago Jake." Damien told him, "Come on…I'm getting strong magical presence this way."
Jake saw one of the highway signs and said, "They're heading for JFK Airport!"
"Then we have to stop them before they get there…I saw the vehicle they took off in, it was a chrome van surrounded by three motorcycles."
Aiden suddenly looked up and said, "Your friends are close by…obviously trying to rescue you and the Ice Dragon."
"Her name is Christian Knight! And once her brother gets us…you'll be wishing you were never even born!" Rose told him.
Aiden laughed and said, "If he can…you see, we're traveling beside two other vans, surrounded by 9 motorcycles. One contains a bunch of heaters, another has a rather powerful Fire-Bomb inside it…and the third contains us."
When Jake and the crew caught up with the van, they saw that there were three of them, "Dang…they planned ahead." Michael commented.
"This is what we'll do, Tem and Dad you take the one in the middle…Jake and Gramps, the one on the left is yours, I'll go after the one on the right." Michael suggested.
"Are you sure you'll be alright going solo?" Damien asked.
"Trust me Dad…I can take care of myself." Michael answered.
Damien gave a wave of his sword and said, "There are heat signatures in all three so Michael's plan is pretty sound."
"Well see ya'." Jake said as he and Gramps made there descent.
"Take care son." Damien said as he went next, with Tem by his side.
"I will…" Michael thought to himself, trying not to cry.
Immediately upon the descent, the three vans split up…all going different ways but all leading to the same destination, the motorcycles all splitting up with them and going air-borne.
Michael's POV-
Michael stayed right on top of the van, not letting it escape his sight. One of the bikes then tried to collide with him, but he dodged it and cut into it with one of his claws, the bike started to smoke and wobble a bit as it started to turn around and get ahead of him, the other two drew swords and started shooting dark energy spells at him, which he swooped and rolled to avoid. Michael then made some hand gestures and with a cry of "CHRONOS!" everything around him seemed to slow down. He quickly zoomed ahead and totaled one bikes transmission, causing it to start falling out of the sky and towards the ground.
Just as it crashed the spell ended and the bikes speeded ahead of Michael again, "I don't have time for this!" Michael thought to himself. He then got between the two motorbikes, they both fired energy at him just as he ducked out of the way, end result…they both went down in flames.
Michael then used a shower of icicles to blow the tires on the van, two soldiers got out and disappeared as he got to the back and found…a bunch of heaters hooked up to small generator.
"BULL-SHIT!" Michael shouted, "Well…all I can do is hope the others have better luck."
Damien and Tem's POV-
Damien and Tem sped up to catch up with the van, just as the motorcycles gave a united cry of "Au nom de Jack!"
"Au nom de Calran!" Damien cried out as he flew down to meet them.
"Let's do this!" Tem growled.
Damien met swords with one of the other bikers, there they sword fought for about 15 minutes until Damien found his opening and decapitated the rider, both bike and rider falling towards the ground.
Tem was keeping the others busy with a game of 'Follow the Leader', forcing one of them to crash into a overhead street sign, the other was following far enough behind to avoid collision and kept chase to him shooting dark energy as it did.
Damien then pulled by the side of the van and with his sword blew out one of the van's tires, when it crashed the biker chasing Tem gave up and took off into the night. Damien and Tem got to the back doors to find inside…a black steel sphere with flames spouting out in a few places and a sound that sounded like a heart-beat. "Oh shoot." Tem whispered.
"FIRE BOMB!" Damien cried as he and Tem ran away from the van just as it exploded into a flaming mess of metal and well, flames.
Gramps' and Jake's POV-
Jake saw the bikers head for them, "Looks like we're in for a fight Gramps!"
"I see that Jake…you stay on the van, I'll take care of these fools." Gramps told him.
Jake gave a nod and slipped right passed the bikers, they were about to turn around to go after him when Gramps sent a fire ball towards one of them, the two other bikers looked at each other, one of them gave the other some hand signs and with that one went to get Gramps, the other went in pursuit of Jake.
Jake landed on the roof of the van and pulled it open, he looked inside to see Rose and Christian. "Jake look out!"
Jake turned around to see Aiden Blackmen, sword drawn, come at him, he got his head out of the hole he made before getting an unwanted hair-cut. "Mr. Blackmen, he's part of L'Épée Foncée?"
Just then the biker jumped off his ride and onto the roof of the van with him, sword drawn.
"Arrêtez-le, il ne peut pas être permis de sauver le glace dragon ou ma filleule !" Blackmen shouted.
"Oui monsieur!" the soldier on the roof answered, he then looked at Jake and said, "Prepare to meet your maker vous surdimensionné cigarette allumeur!"
"I don't know what you called me, but I'm betting it was an insult." Jake said as he blew a fire-ball at the soldier, the soldier quickly took his sword and deflected the shot with the broadside of his sword. Jake quickly wrapped his tail around the foot of the soldier, but the soldier caught it and stabbed the first inch of his sword into it, forcing Jake to let go.
"Okay dude…I tried to be nice, now I'm angry." Jake said, as he chanted some other magic words and cast a lightning bolt at the soldier, it hit and that did it…Jake was finally alone on top of the van…or so he thought, suddenly Aiden jumped up from the hole in the roof and looked at Jake with contempt. "I must give you credit monsieur Dragon…but this is as far as your little rescue mission is ever going to get to Rose or the Ice Dragon!"
"Well that's sort of bad news for you because I'm not leaving!" Jake told him.
"If that's the way it has to be…then fine by me!" Aiden responded back, then charged at him swinging his sword trying to slice Jake in half. Jake tried breathing fire or shooting a couple of fire balls at Aiden, but he either conjured a magic barrier in front of him or deflected it with his sword. Suddenly they reached the gates that lead onto the tarmac of JFK and smashed right through. As soon as they were near the windows looking out on the tarmac a bunch of people, mostly tourists and businessmen. Saw an impressive light-show going on out on the tarmac outside the window below them.
Aiden then took one of Jake's fire-balls and deflected it at the concourse windows, causing an explosion and cries for help as a small chunk of the airport fell off leaving people hanging on to the floor for dear life, Jake saw what Aiden had done. "Difficult choice…you could continue to fight me, but then many more people could die, but you could choose to save them…oh, but then I'd get away with Rose and the Ice Dragon now wouldn't I? So…what will you choose monsieur?"
Jake looked back and decided to help the people, he flew off. Aiden hopped back down into the van as it drove off into the night.
After he was done playing the hero Gramps and the rest showed up, "You were unsuccessful in rescuing Rose and Christian?" Damien asked.
"Blackmen made it tough for me to." Jake told them.
"Mr. Blackmen…the History teacher?" Michael asked.
"Yeah…" Jake said, a little disappointed that he hadn't saved them when he had the chance.
Gramps put his hand on Jake's shoulder, "Do not despair young dragon…we will get them back."
"For now…let's go home, I think we could all use a good-night sleep after what has transpired." Damien suggested.
And with that they headed home.