Chapter 16

The Word from the future was still there in the hall with his scanner as I walked by him. He was tracking me with the scanner and had a very unhappy expression on his face, but he wasn't doing anything to interfere with me. Not that there was much he could do at the moment thanks to my gear. He had no choice but to wait for the other Word to get back with the black interference gear. That gave me and my future self a little breathing room.

He also didn't say or do anything that might indicate that he knew there were really two of me here. Hopefully, he hadn't figured that out yet either, which gave me and my other self another slight advantage.

My future self wasted no time at getting down to business. The trail of footprints he was leaving went straight to the conference table where the gear was and he immediately fired a highly concentrated and sustained black draconium mag-burst at the gear. In shock, Word screamed, "No! Stop!" as if my future self was really going to listen. With a scowl, Word looked back down the hall for his other self and said, "Where is he with that gear! We need it now!"

My future self was really pouring it on with the mag-energy. The intense mag-burst he was putting out continued. At the rate he was going, he wasn't just trying to overload and damage the gear, but it looked like he wanted to melt it down. So much the better, I thought. That will guarantee that Word will never be able to repair it. Though it looked like this was going to take awhile. That was the thing about ancient gear: it was really built to last. The draconium in it was nearly pure and it was forged with skills and techniques that had long been lost to history. It was really tough stuff and didn't break easily. Plus this was red gear which could withstand intense amounts of heat and energy to begin with.

I heard running footsteps out in the hall. Oh, scales. It looked like the other Word was coming back with the black gear. This wasn't good and I looked to see what my future self was going to do. To my surprise though, he wasn't doing anything about Word. He just continued the mag-burst. Could this be right? Surely, he knew the other Word was almost here with the gear. Wasn't he going to do something about it?

Word then ran into the room with the gear. It was the same black draconium pod I had encountered before that nearly shutdown my own gear and threatened to send me to oblivion. My future self just continued the mag-burst and seemed to ignore Word. I was getting nervous. Wasn't he going to do something?

Word pressed the activation button on the gear and the antennas on it began to extend.

Scales! This was bad. Then it dawned on me: maybe my future self wasn't doing anything about Word because I'm supposed to take care of him. I made the decision to act.

I jumped towards Word, landed in a crouch, spun around and tripped him with my tail. He emitted a very surprised, "Ahhh!" and fell over sideways, throwing the black gear up in the air as he tried to use his hands to break his fall. I continued the spin, and as I came around to face Word, I caught his gear in my mouth as it came down.

The other Word who was holding scanner screamed, "WHAT! Impossible!" He frantically studied the display on the scanner. "It can't be! There's TWO of them!"

The other word on the floor was trying to get back on his feet and said, "How can that be!? Connor only bred a single gold dragon!"

"The dragon must have used the time machine! He came back again from the future!"

"A dragon?! Using my time machine?!"

The two Words were angry beyond belief, but there wasn't much they could do. To emphasize the point, I bit down and crushed the interference gear with my jaws and spat it out at their feet. It clanged on the ground and rolled towards them. They both just looked at it in silence with a mixture of surprise and anger on their faces.

It looked like the two of me were safe for the moment. I just hoped Word didn't have another one of those pods nearby.

Throughout all this, my future self had continued his mag-burst. The red gear was glowing intensely from the buildup of energy. Heat waves were shimmering in the air.

Finally, the red gear slowly started to fall in on itself. It was beginning to melt. My future self continued directing his energy into the gear. He wasn't taking any chances that Word would somehow be able to salvage the gear. Thankfully, the draconium finally reached the critical temperature and became molten. It started oozing across the table and over the side. Only then did the mag-burst stop. There was nothing left of the gear but a pile of slag on the table and the floor.

One of the Words said, "We're ruined! How can we build a time machine now? That was the last remaining piece of red entropy gear. We'll never be able to repair it!"

"Maybe so, but it's not over yet," the other said in a cold and calculating way. "We have one last chance to eliminate the gold dragon."