Jake hides behind a corner in the lunchroom as he stays out of sight from the students running out of the lunchroom and out of sight from the Huntsclan members, waiting for the opportune moment to go Dragon and kick some Huntsclan butt. Trixie and Spud have done their part and made everyone to exit the lunchroom before the Huntsclan could do a thing to them, but the room is still with a few students and the Huntsclan members present aren't letting them have a proper escape. It's time to go Dragon.
"Dragon up!" Jake cries as he focuses deep the Dragon Power within, closing his eyes and concentrates on the transformation. His body is engulfed in flames, the fire taking the shape of a dragon, growing in height a couple of feet taller than Jake and sprouting wings. And with closing his fists and thrusting his elbows back close against his sides the flames are doused to reveal the red dragon with yellow scales from the neck down to his stomach and black hair with green tips. He is the American Dragon.
Jake jumps from behind the corner and onto a table, buying the attention of pretty much half of the Huntsclan members in the room. "Hah! American Dragon's in the house, yo! Time to clean up today's lunch scrap!"
Three Huntsclan members lunge in to attack the dragon, fists and kicks flying to go for the offense to the mighty fire breather, but Jake blocks and grabs a Huntsclan's kick and swings him around whacking away the other two Huntsclan members. Two more go in for the offense and throw their punches while Jake jumps to avoid one, kicks a hunter in the face and swing his mighty tail to strike the other attack; Jake Hah's, Yah's and Hooah's for every attack he dodges and performs. Jake gasps to see more Huntsclan members coming in from the lunchroom's windows, some of them with their green energy shooting staffs. "Aw man, can't you guys take a bre- Whoa!" Jake jumps off to one side of the table, flipping it up and using it as a shield from the energy shots of the staffs. Digging his claws into the table Jake lifts it up and throws it to the group of hunters in front of him, crushing them with the table and knocking them out, but more of them keep coming, clearly outnumbering Jake. However, the dragon has an idea and spits out a fireball onto his right hand, "Yo, how about we heat things up a little?"
A quick motion of his hand and flick of the wrist and the fireball is pitched into the direction of a group of hunters. While they take cover running away from the fireball, the ball hits its mark on a table, exploding the area and sending the table's remains around the room and setting the pieces ablaze; the flaming pieces fly and set ablaze the nearest tables and spreading it around the lunchroom, sending even more hunters a run for their lives, some of them even crawling out of the windows they got in from.
"Hahah! How do you like me now?" Jake taunts as he watches the hunters run from the flames and some of them escaping, but that little trick comes to a halt as the fire's smoke reaches up to the roof sprinklers and sets them off, showering the lunchroom with tons of water and dousing the flames.
"Awww maaan…" Jake groans as he himself gets soaked and seeing his fires getting doused, noticing some hunters coming back to try to finish the job. He backs away as some hunters stalk over to him, but the dragon takes up his courage and steps in, crossing his arms over his chest and opening them up whacking the gang of hunters in front of him away, sending them flying. One rushes in for a punch, but Jake lifts up his left arm and blocks it, countering with a right jab across the hunter's face. Another comes from behind with a staff, swinging it at Jake, but the dragon sees this just in time and turns 180 degrees, letting his tail to slam the hunter away followed by a jump kick at a hunter to his right. Jake brings up his right arm to block the incoming punch of a hunter, this time taking note of a small group of three hunters ganged up on a kid, probably intending on gaining a hostage, "Oh no you don't…" He mutters as he pushes the hunter away and takes flight, zig-zagging this way and that dodging the shots from the hunters' staffs.
"Yo, you three!" Jake cries as he comes for a landing near the three Huntsclan members, picking one up and throwing him to the other and whipping his tail to the remaining one, whacking him away.
Yahto's not liking his situation. He jus tripped and now he's surrounded by six mysterious people dressed in black. Yahto was starting to panic and even thought about fighting back whoever these guys are, but before he could react a commotion started on the other side of the lunchroom, forcing three of the men surrounding Yahto to leave the spot, leaving him to the other three.
"Hey, let me go!" Yahto demands as one of them grabs him by the arm and lifts him up, holding him tight so he would not run away. Yahto was in a bind, staring up at the man's eyes as he stares back down at him, and it seems his eyes are set on Yahto's necklace. Is he going to steal it? No way is he going to let that happen! Yahto struggles in the man's hold and elbows his stomach, causing the man to let go of him as he keels over, leaving time for the kid to run off. He manages to run past the two other men, but one of them throws a rope with a ball on each side at Yahto's legs and they tie up on his two legs and send him fall to the ground, "Gah!" Yahto lands hard on the ground, rubbing his chin as he tries to get up, but only to gasp as he sees his legs tied up. And what's more the men are already standing there ready to take him. Yahto could only stare, either they'd steal his necklace or take him away as a hostage for some terrorist operation. This can't be happening…Help…Somebody…Anybody!
Though that was in his mind, help did arrive! In the shape of a big red dragon…Wait, a dragon? Those mystical things that his homeroom teacher, Professor Hans Rotwood, fondly talked about in his class…Are real? No way! Yahto can't begin to understand how this dragon came out of nowhere and just kicked these three guys' butt right in front of him…Now the dragon is looking down at him. Oh man oh man oh man…I am not going to be a snack for this guy!
Thankfully enough the dragon just knelt down and quickly breaks the ropes around Yahto's legs and turns around to face the remaining black men in the room, as if protecting the child from them.
"You better get out of here, kid!" The dragon…Spoke? "These punks are really dangerous! So get off your butt and move it!"
"Uhh…Right." Yahto replies, unsure of how this dragon spoke but he can't take any chances on staying here and get caught again. Without a second thought he turns and runs toward the lunchroom doors, running through them and into the hallway. He looks both ways down and up the hallway, seeing the place deserted. They all must've evacuated the school…Or maybe not, Yahto spots some shadows at the end of the hall. Students must be still in the school. I guess I'll get out the school with them then…
"Hey guys!" Yahto calls out to them, "We gotta get out of here! The school's being attacked by…" Yahto slowly stops as the 'students' turn around the corner…More of those black clothed men! Oh snap!
Yahto turns and runs down the hall, surely the black clothed men following from behind. He breathes in and out heavily, his heart thumping rapidly against his chest and his necklace jingling around his neck from the run. He can feel his adrenaline building up, his blood flowing rapidly through his vein and sweat dotting his forehead as he runs down the hall, taking sharp corners in the halls and trying to run at full speed, his mind all in trying to lose these men or at least getting out where everyone surely are. "Whoa!" Yahto cries as he skids to a stop after a corner. He just reached a dead end.
"Oh no…" He mutters then to suddenly turn around as the footsteps become louder and louder until the men that were following him come into view, two men to be exact. Yahto backs up against the wall, his back pressed against it and stuck like a cornered rat, no escape in sight from the two men. And just when the two men take a dash toward the kid, Yahto gasps and freezes, his mind taking in a flash through time…
A roundhouse kick…
An uppercut punch…
A flying kick…
Wall jumps…
A head butt…
Blocks, parries and counters…
All these and more…Performed by a powerful-looking dragon with gold scales…
It rears back a fist…And strikes!
One of the two men cornering Yahto was sent flying back unto the ground. The other black clothed man watches his comrade flying back and unto the ground, slowly turning his head to Yahto, finding him with his left arm extended upward and his hand as a fist. While the man is shocked at the kid's sudden defense Yahto also finds this as bizarre as the man does. Now that he thinks about it, he realized he punched the guy in unison with the vision of the dragon throwing its own punch…But that doesn't make much sense at first…Yahto was never one to resolve anything in violence, nor has he ever gotten in a fight to know the precise moment to swing and send a man flying in pain like that…Now that he really thinks about it, when did he learned all these tactics and information he's suddenly 'remembering?'
The man stares at the kid before attacking, throwing a punch at him. However, something seemed to have ticked in Yahto's mind, triggering another hidden knowledge or memory that 'forces' him to lean back and to the side, dodging the punch. The man throws a low roundhouse kick but Yahto ducks under it and jumps from the quick sweep kick following the roundhouse. The man is puzzled. How can this kid be so agile and somehow so precise at dodging the attacks with such ease? Unless he underwent training, this feat is quite impressive for a 13 year old. Before the man could react the child, still in mid-air from that jump, makes a quick 360 and takes the man out with a spinning kick to the face, knocking him down along with his partner.
Yahto couldn't explain all this rush of Martial Arts knowledge all of a sudden. He has never taken Martial Arts classes before, nor had he any interest in taking them, and he just dodged punches and kicks and single-handedly took down two adult men who did trained in the art of Martial Arts. So where did all these Martial Arts knowledge came to him all of a sudden? Yahto stands there breathing heavily, trying to comprehend the situation. Learning those moves and knowledge could've come from the sudden adrenaline rush from being cornered by these two men…No, that can't be it…he haven't taken any lessons for that kind of fighting… And I better not stick around and get caught by more of these guys.
Right, no reason to stick around in this hallway anyway where he could be caught again…
Yahto starts his way down the hall away from the dead end, but as soon as he did he is stopped by a small pain on his left arm. A pain similar to a mosquito injecting its syringe-like needle into your skin as it begins to feed off the blood. He looks down just to see his wristband, a faint glow emitting from underneath it causes the boy to remove the band, revealing his birth mark glowing a faint gold glow. What in the…?
"Hah! Yah! C'mon, can't you guys take a break?" Jake frustratingly yells as he blocks and counters the Huntsclan hunters bent on hunting the dragon. For years this clan has been bent on hunting and catching the American Dragon, and it seems that they won't leave until they have the dragon in their captivity, which means, unfortunately, for Jake that as long as he lives and breathes he'll be on constant attacks every time he goes dragon. Jake catches an incoming punch from a hunter and throws him unto two of his comrades only to be replaced by three more. Some of them have retreated from that fireball attack, but some have stayed behind for the American Dragon. Jake jumps back to avoid a kick and leans against the wall, his chest heaving for breath as he tries to catch his breath from how tired he has grown during this battle, "Hahh…Hahh…Hahh…Man, these guys don't know when to quit…Hahh…I need to find my ticket out of this mess…" Jake looks to his right and finds a stack of lunch trays, and while it's not a best time to grab some lunch these would be great for some projectile offense. And at this time Jake would try anything to get these guys off his back.
"Yo, ninja heads!" Jake gets in position and he picks up the lunch trays and takes aim, "How about having a little lunch to go?" With that, Jake chops at every lunch tray piled up on his right hand and sends them flying at projectiles toward the Huntsclan hunters. One tray hits a hunter in the face while another gets it on his stomach. "Hahah! Is that all you guys can dish out?"
Jake felt a huge wave of arrogance flowing inside of him, making him do his trademark rap dance imitation, "You better give up yo, 'cause the American Dragon is kicking your butts!" His arrogant state, however, comes to an end as he steps on a lunch tray on the floor and slips off on the ground while making Jake fall back over the kitchen counter, "Hey! Whoa!" Jake lands on a box of chocolate pudding the lunch was serving as dessert, his tail flips back and knocks down a bowl of mashed potatoes and sending it falling right onto the dragon over his head, a big mess up for getting arrogant.
Even though this mess up could give the hunters time in regrouping and go quickly after the dragon, they see they've made enough damage and any further attempts would be stopped by the American Dragon, as usual, so they all recover from the fight and exit through the windows to leave and fight for another day.
As for Jake; the American Dragon lies there on the floor behind the counter with a huge bowl of mashed potato over his head with potato all over his shoulders, stomach and face, not to mention the whole mess of pudding he's lying on. "Aww man…" He moans as silence befalls in the lunch room after the hunters have fled. The dragon feels pretty embarrassed how it ended: The hero slips and falls on a box full of edibles and being covered in mashed potatoes while the bad guys have a safe escape. Yup, just another day to mark on how the American Dragon got his butt handed to him by the enemy or by himself.
Just when Jake takes off the bowl off his head, some running footsteps can be heard coming from the hallway, "Great…" Jake mutters, "Just messed up and now I gotta deal with the leftovers?"
The footsteps get louder until they suddenly stop at their loudest, "Hello?"
"Huh?" Jake blinks, recognizing that voice from before. "What's that kid doing here?" The voice is from the kid he saved from the two Huntsclan hunters a few minutes ago…
Yahto had decided to leave the thinking and theorizing until he has gone out of school and to safety from what's going down, if those two ninja men were after him there was no doubt in his mind that they were all after him. But the question is why they were after me.
He couldn't stand around to figure that out, there are ninja people in the school going after him, a dragon fighting them off, and suddenly his wrist began to sting from where the birth mark is. If all of this is really happening for real, then everything that Professor Hans Rotwood has talked about was right. Right…Next thing I'll know I'll be meeting a talking dog or little fairies, gotta stick to reality.
Yahto runs past the lunchroom doors, but something in him forces him to stop, realizing the deathly silence that has befallen in the room. Either the fight has ended, or something really bad has happened, namely the ninja men took out the dragon. Yahto knows he should just get out of here, but a feeling in his heart is telling him to check things out and see if the dragon is OK. After all, if it wasn't for the dragon he could've been taken away by them. An attack of conscience…Of all the times it should show up…
He sighs and walks into the lunchroom, and like he expected the room was empty. Wet, destroyed, burnt and some weapons lying around, but empty. And no dragon…
"Hello?" Yahto calls out. The call is a bad move; any of those men left over would've heard that and come after him, spelling trouble for him. But, has luck would have it, no one was left behind. The whole room is empty with nothing but a few police and ambulance sirens from outside and the almost inaudible mutters of the whole entire school body evacuated outside waiting for news on what happened to get to them. He cautiously walks into the room, footsteps splashing onto the puddles made from the sprinklers which were triggered from the dragon's fireball, not to mention his clothes are still damp from that incident. He looks to the right to see broken and burnt tables and a staff or two lying around, not a ninja in sight. He looks to the left, nothing but a wall and some lunch trays on the ground. Yahto sighs in relief as it seems the coast is clear, but something that sounded like a pantry smacking the ground causes him to turn to the lunchroom's counter.
"Who's there?" Yahto calls out only to have a moan be the answer to the question. It sounded too young to be another one of those ninjas, and whoever it is he sounds hurt, "Hey, you alright over there?"
The person behind the counter stands up and rubs his head as he leans over the counter with a groan. Mash potatoes reside all over the kid's hair and shoulder; he must've fallen over on food. It's that kid.
Yahto has seen this kid before. They share the same homeroom and have spotted him just before entering the classroom. He cannot mistake him for another student, who else has green tips on their hair and wears a red jacket with yellow details on the shoulders and chest? "You alright?" Yahto rushes over to the counter, stopping as the kid walks around the counter to the other side, also noticing chocolate pudding all over his pants.
"Yeah, I'm alright…" The kid replies while rubbing his head, looking at Yahto. "What are you doing here, man? You should be outside along with everybody else."
Yahto scratches the back of his head, looking sorry for not doing so... Wait a minute…Why am I sorry for that? He should've done the same thing!
"I could say the same to you," Yahto comebacks, pointing at the kid, "What are you doing here!"
"I uhhh…Umm…" The kid stammers as he brushes the mashed potatoes off his shoulders and hair, he stammers like he's trying to think of a good excuse. "Well uhhh…I…Was in…Line and then those…People came in through the windows and…" The kid stammers between sentences, forcing Yahto to raise an eyebrow at him, but then the kid just stopped and gave him a look. "Look, I don't have to tell you why I was here; I must've been knocked out during the attack and got thrown over the counter."
"Alright, I'm sorry," Yahto holds his hands up defensively as he takes a step back, a bit taken back and intimidated by the tone in the kid's voice. "I was just in here to see if I saw that dra-aag-aahh…" He stutters to stop the rest of his sentence. He's a new kid in this school and this is first day, would he really say that he saw a dragon and probably scar his reputation in just one day? He would be as crazy as Hans Rotwood, though right now he's not looking like a crazy man.
The kid in front of him just smirks, seeming as if he knows what Yahto is referring to. "Forget about it, man." The kid shakes his head, "Look, let's just get out of here before those guys decide to come back."
"Right," Yahto agrees and sprints to the lunchroom door and into the hallway, but before he takes a turn away from the door he stops and turns to the door, facing the kid who's still in the lunchroom. "Hey! I never caught your name!"
"Awww man…" Jake groans as he picks and picks mashed potato pieces out of his hair. Though he's glad to see the kid was alright and got away from the Huntsclan hunters, but he should've ran right out of the school, not down the hall and then back. However, the kid came back just to check if the dragon that saved him was alright. And while Jake couldn't tell him his secret about him being that dragon that saved him, it was nice to know that he came back to see if he made it through the fight.
"Hey! I never caught your name!"
"Huh?" Jake turns his head to the door where that kid is standing. Right, he never introduced himself before, and he knows this kid is new at school, that nutty professor Hans Rotwood introduced his class to. "It's Jake! Jake Long!"
"Jake Long, eh?" The kid echoes, committing to memory Jake's name. "Mine's Yahto!"
Jake looks on as Yahto sprints down the hall away from the doorway. "Yahto, huh?" Jake talks to himself, repeating the kid's name. "Sounds like a Native American name…" Jake dusts some dirt and food off his clothes and heads to the door…That is, until a little glow to his right gets his attention. "Huh?" He slowly heads to the glow, and up close he can see it coming from under a piece of a broken table. Jake studies the glow as he drops on his hands and knees for a closer look, seeing the glow is of a yellow…No, gold color. "What's this…?" He mutters as he lifts the table piece up, revealing what looks like a golden scale under the table, "A scale?"
"You what!" The Huntsmaster shouted. He is very displeased and angry that his hunters have not only failed to bring anything back from the hunt, but they also lost one of the scales! "How dare you lose something that precious!"
"Hu-Huntsmaster…" A trembling hunter speaks out, his legs trembling in fright. "Forgive us…We-"
"Silence!" Huntsmaster shouts as he turns around and aims his specter at the hunter who spoke, his red eyes narrowing even deeper with his anger building up. "Do you have any idea how precious that scale was to our hunt?" The hunters just look at each other then back at the Huntsmaster, they know the scale is to locate the dragon they're seeking, but how exactly was that scale precious to them?
Huntsmaster's glare softens, but still quite dangerous. "That scale belongs to the most mythical dragon of all…Born every 100 years to rule the skies and other dragons alike…The Millenium Dragon." Huntsmaster raises his specter into the sky and a hologram forms from the tip of the specter and up into the sky. Soon enough the hologram of a golden, tall and strong-looking dragon show up, and soon everyone begin to mutter and talk about this image of the dragon. They've seen the American Dragon and his mentor countless times, but this dragon makes those two seem like nothing. How does the Huntsmaster expect the Huntsclan to capture a dragon like that?
"However," Huntsmaster continues while gazing up at the hologram, "this dragon has tremendous power even the American Dragon can't hope to rival. Its sheer power shoves greed and arrogance into the dragon's heart, corrupting and using its powers for evil purposes. I have longed to get my hands on that dragon, and with its help I'd be able to hunt the dragons with ease and take over the mythical world!" The hologram projection fades out as the Huntsmaster lowers his specter to the ground. "And judging the amount of time passed since the last Millenium Dragon, it is time for the new Millenium Dragon to be born. That is why I send you all to find it before it realizes what it can do, so we can control it! But instead all I get from you are nothing but failures!"
All Huntsclan hunters practically bow their heads in shame of that last statement, but one of them gathers up the courage to step forward and speak. "Excuse me, Huntsmaster. With all due respect, but me and my men believe we have found the Millenium Dragon's human form."
"Really?" This news buys the Huntsmaster's attention, making him in stepping closer to the hunter, "Go on."
The Huntsclan hunter continues, "We invaded a school that the scale led us to, and inside we found a child that the scale reacted to. Also worth to add that the child was wearing a necklace around his neck which also reacted along with the scale we had in hand. We believe he is the one we've been searching for, the Millenium Dragon's human form."
"Interesting," Huntsmaster confesses, his glare softening a bit. "And you all say that the American Dragon was also present at that school?" Everyone nods at the Huntsmaster, making the situation much more entertaining. "Well done…Proceed with training and preparations, tomorrow we got a hunt to attend to…" The Huntsmaster turns away and starts his way to the back area of the meeting area. He made a big deal about the lost scale, but no matter, as that scale was just a chip off a much larger scale the Huntsmaster has in his possession. But now, he needs to go home, he believes a certain girl needs to attend at tomorrow's hunt…
Yahto gives a deep sigh as he opens the door to his room. Today was exhausting, that incident at school, the numerous interrogations from the officials that he and some chosen people who were in the lunchroom had to go through, him trying to figure out where that Martial Arts knowledge came from and why his birth mark glowed back there when he took down those two bad guys. Everything about today was just bizarre. He can still recall all the information he suddenly acquired about fighting back there when he was cornered; how to throw a roundhouse kick, how to time and throw an effective punch, it's as if the theory of reincarnation was true and he somehow gained knowledge from his past life.
Yahto also couldn't stop thinking about Jake. It was nice meeting someone at the new school and actually knowing his name, but after the interrogations he didn't see him again, not even the guy and girl he saw him with that morning. He hoped it wasn't just a quick meeting and then back to their corners without developing a friendship from beyond classmates, the last thing he needs is to spend a year at school without friends before actually developing a friendship with someone. He suffered that enough at the last school he was, where it took him a year or so before he actually opened up to his classmates and made friends with them. Sometimes I feel I'm too shy for my own good…
It's already 7 PM and Yahto doesn't feel like catching his favorite TV program. He just yawns and drops onto his bed face down, kicking his shoes off his feet before snuggling up onto his bed and burying his face on his pillow. He can feel his necklace prodding against his chest as he lies face down on the bed, making it an uncomfortable position to sleep in. But Yahto doesn't care; he's way too tired to be bothered with that, and cranky... All I need is a good night's sleep…
And off to sleep he did…Until his dreams are plagued by nightmares again.