Chapter 9: Close Call

A month later,

It was a quiet Saturday morning in the Long home…well…as quiet as the Long home can get.

Jake was reading the paper when he heard a racket upstairs.

"What on Earth do those two do up there every morning?" Rose asked as she looked up at the ceiling.

"It's just a Long sibling ritual" Jake explained knowingly as he went back to his reading. "Race each other to the bathroom. Haley and I did it constantly"

A few minutes later, the looser, which was Ben, came down looking disgruntled

"She used her wings?" Jake asked his son with a smirk

"Yeah" Ben sighed

"Your Aunt did it to me too" Jake explained as he put the paper down. "Ben? How would you like to take today off?"

"Really?" Ben asked perking up before looking suspicious. "COMPLETELY off or will you be springing something on me to keep me on my toes?"

"If anything is sprung on you, it won't be my doing" Jake promised

"Can Mark, Ron, and I go surfing in the harbor?"

"I see no reason why not" Rose said.

"Thanks guys" Ben said hugging his parents before running upstairs to get dressed

"I think you made his day" Rose told her husband as she kissed him.

0000

An hour after Ben left and Julie left to help Seth and Haley at the shop leaving Jake and Rose with the house to themselves

DING DONG

"Who can that be?" Rose asked as she went to the door and opened it to reveal two women her age. "Kara? Sara?"

"Hi Rose" Sara greeted cheerfully

"Hi" Kara added sounding bored.

"Kara? Sara?" Jake asked as he entered the living room from the kitchen as Rose let the oracles in.

"Hi Jake" Sara said cheerfully before her eyes flashed yellow "Rose. You're going to want to not use that broken arm"

"Fun" Rose said sarcastically wondering just HOW she was going to break her arm

"Anyways" Jake said before turning to his old friends. "What brings you two around these parts?"

"Sara saw a vision concerning Ben" Kara said before her eyes flashed yellow "This time it's going to be twins"

The Longs were silent at the news as Jake and Rose turned to Rose's midsection which was still flat.

"Anyways," Jake said figuring he'd talk to Rose about that twin thing later. "Sara. Your vision?"

"Oh yeah" Sara said looking extremely perky. "Chang's escaped from prison and is planning on sacrificing Ben to get the Dark Dragon back"

"WHAT?" Jake exclaimed as Rose gasped in horror

"We can't let her get to him" Rose said

"I'll call Haley" Jake said as he went to the phone.

Just when he was about to pick it up, it rang. Jake and Rose exchanged nervous glances before Jake pushed the speakerphone button.

"Hello?" he asked

"Jake." A familiar voice came. "It's Silver. There's a bit of a…problem at the harbor."

"I'm on my way." Jake said.

"Thanks for the warning" Rose told the oracles

"No problem." Kara said

"Need help?" Sara asked

"If you can tell Haley and Seth and then look after Julie, that'll be GREAT" Jake said as Rose ran to the closet, pushed a LOT of junk out of the way, and pulled out two hunts-staffs

"Rose." Jake tried to argue as the oracles left

"Jake. Don't try to stop me. My baby is in danger and I can be JUST as deadly as you can be" she said "We don't even know if those twins have been conceived yet"

"Fine" Jake said knowing better than to argue with an angry Huntsgirl when she had her hunts-staff. And if she was already pregnant, she was twice as deadly "But if you break your arm…"

"I'll live" she said

0000

At the harbor five minutes later,

"Let me go you ugly old hag!" Ben shouted as a REALLY old lady had a grip on him with her gloves as she tied him with chains. Mark, Ron, and a bunch of mermaids and other magical creatures who had come to help were bound in magical chains

"Didn't your father teach you manners?" Chang asked rhetorically before answering herself, "Probably not considering how he was at your age"

"What are you going to do with him?" Mark demanded

"Foolish human" Chang said

"It's simple really" the monkey on her shoulder answered "She's going to sacrifice the son of the American Dragon to bring back the Dark Dragon. Anything left, she's going to give to the Stregoi as a peace offerin'"

"I don't think so" Ben said. "DRAGON UP!"

Nothing happened

"DRAGON UP!" he tried again

Again, nothing happened

"You are your father's son" Chang laughed. "These chains are reinforced with Sphinx Hair."

"Aw man" Ben groaned as that had been one of the first things his father had taught him

"Now, to the ritual" Chang announced as she threw Ben to the ground

Chang then rose her staff above her head

"BEN!" Ron exclaimed looking scared stiff

Suddenly, the staff was shot out of her hand by three blasts of energy. Two were neon green and the other was gold.

The magical creatures relaxed and the teens' jaws dropped

"Oh boy we're in trouble" Bananas observed.

"Got that right" Jake said landing as Rose jumped off his back wielding the Hunts-staff.

Ben had no idea which parent looked deadlier. His mother or his father.

And it wasn't just them who came to his rescue. There was also his aunt and uncle, Fu Dog, his cousin, her dragon master who was the high school home economics teacher (Sun moved up), Trixie, Spud, Renee, Chad, and another guy Ben hadn't met yet yielding a stick.

"Looks like Long brought in the cavalry" Chang mused

"Got that right" Jake told her "Luckily, we're not too late"

"I beg to differ" Chang said before transforming and going for her staff

"Oh no you don't!" Rose shouted pointing her hunts-staff at the space between Chang and the magical staff.

However Chang got to it first and pointed the staff at Rose shooting the mother.

"ROSE!/MOM!" everyone shouted as Jake flew to catch his wife.

"Seth. Tend..." Jake started to instruct before realizing that he was speaking to air. He turned and saw that Seth was putting his Huntsclan training to some REALLY good use

"He always saw Rose as a sister" Chad explained. "How would you feel if Haley had been the one shot"

"Good point" Spud mused before rushing to go help the mermaids

"Everyone else, free the others!" Jake instructed. "Except you Trixie. Tend to Rose"

"Right" Trixie said taking Jake's spot as he flew over to Ben

"Watch out Dad. It's Sphinx Hair" Ben warned

"Thanks for the warning" Jake said extending his claws. "Hold perfectly still."

With one flawless swipe, the chains were released and Ben transformed before turning to Chang

"Normally I'd say Uncle Seth has this under control" Ben told his father with awe as he watch his uncle not hold back his potential

"Normally?" Jake asked wondering if his son was thinking the same thing he was

"But NOBODY hurts my mother" Ben informed his father

"I completely agree" Jake stated

The two flew over to the main fight. Ben blew some fire at Chang as Jake caught Seth's eye. Seth shot Jake an I-can-handle-this look, but realized what Jake was doing when the dragon touched his left ear. Seth nodded to show that he understood and waited for Ben and Jake to get Chang into position

"When will you learn Chang?" Jake asked "no matter what you do, the Dark Dragon won't come back"

"Says you American Dragon"

"You're the only one who wants him back" Ben pointed out drawing the attention away from Jake giving the father time to use his tail to knock the staff from Chang's hand and into Ben's. With one swift movement, Ben broke the staff

"You just made a FATAL mistake Long" Chang growled

"Actually, you did" Seth said causing her to turn a bit

She briefly saw Seth come down

"Not the left ear!" Bananas exclaimed as Chang fell down dead. "I'm outta here"

"I don't think so" a mermaid said grabbing the monkey by the tail

"Nice catch Dolsetto" Spud said

"Thank you Spud" the ex-principal said

"Good shot" Jake praised his brother-in-law

"She may not be by blood, but Rose is my sister." Seth said before they turned to said huntress.

Rose had regained consciousness earlier on and was holding her arm giving Jake a look that said 'you were right, but I don't care'

"You okay Ben?" Jake asked his son knowing that his wife was going to be okay.

"Yeah" Ben said as they transformed back into their human forms

The next thing Ben knew, Ron's arms were around him hugging him like no tomorrow.

"You okay?" she asked

"I'm good. You?" he asked

She just smiled at him and then gave him a kiss right on the lips

"It's about time" Mark muttered

"So Long?" Nigel said as he walked up to Jake. "Going to introduce me to your boy?"

"Once he's done making out with his new girlfriend" Jake said teasing his oblivious son

0000

Once Ron and Ben were pried apart, the 'rescue team' went back to the shop where the oracles were talking to Julie.

"Ben!" Julie exclaimed as she hugged her brother. "Are you okay? Sara said that you would have been sacrificed if Mom and Dad didn't come to the rescue. And what's this I hear about you getting a girlfriend from Kara?"

"Calm down Julie" Ben told his sister wondering how she knew and who Sara and Kara were

"Thanks for looking after her" Jake told the two women Ben assumed were Kara and Sara

"No problem. She's a cutie" Sara said

Kara's eyes then flashed yellow

"She'll make a good big sister" Kara announced

With that, everyone turned to Jake and Rose

"Apparently we'll be getting twins soon" Rose admitted still holding her broken arm. Her years of training had taught her to withstand the pain.

"YES!" Julie and Karen cheered as everyone congratulated the couple

"I so didn't need to hear that" Ben muttered

"What?" Mark teased "That your parents still.."

"Mark. Shut it" Ben warned

"Well," Trixie said in a professional manner. "Rose. We better get that arm in a cast"

"Right" Rose agreed

"Mom? What happened?" Julie asked

"This evil dragon broke Mom's arm" Ben explained "but Dad, Uncle Seth and I took care of her"

"Good" Julie said with her blue eyes flashing reminding Ben of his mother. "Nobody messes with our family"

"Ben. Julie" Jake said after getting a congratulations from the sorcerer. "I'd like you two to meet someone. This is Nigel. He's a wizard I met when I was about Ben's age"

"It's nice to finally meet you two" Nigel greeted the kids.

"Likewise" Ben said shaking the man's hand as Julie swooned at the British accent.

TBC

The conclusion next time:

"You mean there was a dragon, a dragon slayer, and a mermaid at the school and Rotwood didn't know it?"

"There was also a wizard and for a while, two oracles"

"Man he was dumb" Ben muttered