AOE Saga
The Reluctant Dracopyre
Chapter 2: Mythological Biology 101
The Harbinger zoomed down through the atmosphere of Mysthico. It touched down on the surface, in the middle of a jungle. Everyone got out to see what sort of place this was. Chris looked at all of the bright colors of the native flora and said, "I guess the phrase, 'toning it down' doesn't exist here." Morph sniffed some pretty plants that were growing on a bush and said, "I wonder what kind of bush is this?" Suddenly a carnivorous mouth opened up in the bush and ate Morph. "Apparently, it's a Luring Gobbler Bush," said Stephen. Suddenly the Bush made a face and spat Morph back out. Morph stood up nonchalantly and said, "I'm back, baby." "How'd he do that?" asked Chris. "Plasma-based creatures are capable of secreting a natural chemical that irritates the stomach cells of a wide variety of creatures," said Chip. Chris blinked and said, "What?" Chip sighed and shortened his statement to; "Eating plasma blobs make you throw up." "I learned that the hard way," said Draco.
Matt checked his transmitter to see if there were any civilized places nearby. Suddenly the device let off a beeping sound in confirmation. "I picking up radio signals in that direction," said Matt. "No problem," said Draco, "we'll just take the Harbinger over there." Suddenly there was rustling in the bushes on the other side of the clearing. A band of small monsters came out and started inspecting the Harbinger. They all wore coats and hats that looked like they were from around the era of the Revolutionary War, except the hats were a ruddy red. Some of the hats were brighter shades than others. "What are those things?" asked Lilo. "Redcaps," said Draco, "they're a type of goblin that draw their power from the hats that they wear." "Why are their hats red?" asked Stitch. "That's the color of the blood they dip them into to fuel their powers." Matt made a face and said, "That's disgusting!" Chip rubbed the part where his chin would be and asked, "I wonder if oil would work the same way?" "Why do you ask?" "Because that's apparently what they're trying find out." They looked at the redcaps and saw that they were now attacking the Harbinger. "Hey!" yelled Matt; "I rightfully stole that ship!" "The others gave him odd looks and Matt quickly said, "I mean bought." Regardless to Matt's statement, they all charged the redcaps.
The redcaps were naturally surprised by our heroes' sudden attack. They were equally surprised by the wide variety of powers they possessed. But it wasn't until Stephen unleashed his plasma-fire did they decide to retreat. Draco brushed the dust off his hands and said, "Well, that was easy. But let's get out of here before something else comes." "Like what?" asked Lilo. Suddenly they heard the sound of enormous footsteps. "Sounds like Gantu's species," said Stitch. Suddenly there was the snapping of branches and the treetops moved aside. They looked up into the face of a forty-foot creature covered in moss, bushes, and even small trees. "That's a forest giant," said Draco, "I think it wants the Harbinger." "Oh no, it's not," said Matt. The giant looked at Matt with his sleepy little eyes and then opened its mouth what they thought was a yawn. Instead a gigantic fireball erupted out. Everyone nearly got out of the way. "Must be the fire salamander-eating type," said Draco. The giant leaned forward to grab the Harbinger. "You know what," said Matt, "I think that running is good exercise, don't you?" Then our heroes left the clearing, leaving the forest giant with its prize.
The next couple of hours walking didn't really improve spirits. "Are we there yet?" asked Lilo and Stitch for the umpteenth time. "No, we're not; we still have a way to go." "This jungle is killing me," said Chris, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Morph, who had several thorns, burrs, and parasitic insects stuck to his back, said, "What are you complaining about?" Suddenly a shadow passed over them. They looked up to see some large with wings blocking out the sun. "What's that up in the sky?" asked Matt. "It's a bird," said Lilo. "It's a plane," said Draco. Suddenly the shape flew down and revealed itself to be a roc. The roc grabbed Chip and flew off with him. "No wait, you're right," said Draco; "it is a bird." "I'll get him," said Stephen. He spread his wings and took off. As the others waited, they heard the roc squawk and then Stephen started coming down for a landing. "Wow," said Matt, "that was quick." "Yeah," said Chip as he climbed down from Stephen's back, "that roc was actually willing to give me up when Stephen caught up to it." "Why?" "Because I played a requiem on my violin and it was moved by my music." "You play the violin?" "Like a devil."
"Wait a minute," said Lilo, "why don't we just fly on Stephen and Draco to wherever those radio signals are coming from." "'Cause Mr. Stubborn Bull refuses to ride on anything living," said Draco pointing at Chris. "This place is crazy enough without me risking my neck on something that can make a mistake thirty feet in the air. If I'm flying, it'll be in a ship." Just then, a melodic sound that resembled a mix between a flute and a horn came through the trees and several small animals started running away from one direction. "Then I'm sure you'd like to run instead of fly away from those deadly manticores," said Draco. "What's so bad about manticores?" asked Stephen. "Nothing much besides the triple rows of teeth, the ripping claws, and the poison barbs they throw from their tails." Suddenly, as if on cue, three barbs came out of the trees and stuck into Morph, who promptly swelled up like a balloon. "Still don't like the idea," said Chris. Chip groan in exasperation and poked Chris on the side of the neck. Chris stiffened, said, "I hate that trick," and fell over out-cold. As Draco put Chris's unconscious body on Stephen's back, he said, "Why did we have to bring him on that test flight in the first place?" By then the sound of the manticores was growing louder so everyone got onto Stephen's back, except for Lilo, Stitch, and Chip who got on Draco's back. They quickly took off before the manticores got there.
As they were flying through the air, Matt asked, "Why are there so many creatures from Earth mythology here?" "It's an interesting story," said Stephen, "you might not be aware of it, but Earth still has plenty of magical creatures on it. They and humanity used to live side-by-side until the humans became too fearful of the magical creatures' strange powers and drove them off. Also, unknown to the humans and most magical creatures, Earth had a connection with Mysthico, but the natives of Mysthico decided to withdraw their union with Earth until a better time. And several of the magical creatures left Earth to live on Mysthico, and they've apparently prospered." "How can you know so much about magical creatures?" asked Lilo, "you've only been a Dracon for five months top." "Actually, my family's has had a very close connection to magic. In fact, I'm a distant descendant of Odysseus." "That's very interesting," said Matt. Suddenly, the transmitter went off again and Matt held it up. "The source of those radio signals is straight ahead, two miles off." They kept flying until they saw a bright and sparkly city up ahead. "Finally," said Chip, "some civilization." "And something to help my swelling," said Morph. "Is that what manticore venom does?" asked Lilo. "No," said Draco, "that's just an allergic reaction."
Stephen set them down in what had been the main square. Burn craters were all over the place and some buildings had holes in them. "Wow…we missed the party," muttered Matt. As the others looked around, Matt went into a deserted security station and called up the NSSC database.
FILE OPEN…SUBJECT: Mythicos/Species
Matt clicked on that and listened as the file began
The dominant lifeform on Mythicos is a close relation of the Earth species, Draco Nobalis and are known as Dracons These creatures seem to be able to use what has been referred to by some experts as 'Magic' and have a rich selection of myths…Do you wish to know more?
Matt looked at that and pressed the relevant button. "Maybe it'll reveal why that crazy Chainsaw thing's here…and why they wanted my ship." He said to himself.
A long list of Dracon legends appeared. Matt skipped down the list till something caught his eye. "Dracopyres?" he muttered and tapped it
Dracopyres…
The legend of the Dracopyres is not pleasant and as most legends are based off of fact has worried many tactical analysts in the NSSC.
The legend goes that long ago a force known as 'The Dark Ones' invaded Mythicos in force. The two sides quickly ended up in stalemate. This ended when the 'Dark Ones' created a creature from 'the essences of the blood moon's minions'. These Dracopyres were said to be made from combined essences of Dracons, Werewolves and Vampires. After a long war, the Dracopyres and their masters were driven off.
While this is naturally impossible, records and archeological teams have found evidence of some kind of large scale planetary bombardment consistent with planetary assault…
Matt clicked it off. "The NSSC are in for a big surprise soon enough." He looked out at Stephen. "Prototype," he said to himself. "Hey," said a familiarly evil voice behind him from an active laser cell. Matt turned and grinned. "NegaMorph, you little evil blob you. How'd you get where you belong?" he said leaning in. NegaMorph rolled his eyes, which is hard to tell with his pupil-less eyes, and said, "Dr. Johnson was testing this new teleportation belt on me. It's supposed to help soldiers invade enemy strongholds. The only problem was instead of sending me to the other lab, it sent straight to this place. I didn't have enough power to go back and the Dracons captured me." NegaMorph looked elsewhere and said, "Funny thing was they weren't all that familiar with genetic experiments, couldn't figure out what I was. Apparently on the spiritual plane, I'm completely unidentifiable. That's probably why those things passed me by." "What things?" asked Matt suspiciously. "Those monsters that attacked the city."
Matt's train of thought quickly went back to the state of the city. "What happened here anyway? And where is everybody?" NegaMorph shrugged his shoulders and said, "Killed, taken away, or left to safer places, that was their choices. It wasn't too long after they caught me did the city get attacked by these worm-like things. The Dracons fought back of course and squashed many of the creatures. But then the monsters must have had some physiological weapon of some sort, because all the Dracons started flying away screaming. The monsters ransacked the place after that."
Matt rubbed his chin and said to himself, "I wonder what the Dracons had that those creatures wanted." NegaMorph scoffed and said, "They weren't after the Dracons' technology, they were after the Dracons." "What?" said Matt, completely surprised. "Yep, one of the Dracons fell not to far from the doorway there. Some kind of demon came to collect it, but the Dracon said, 'You'll never have me,' and cut his own throat. Fortunately that demon didn't see me; my reflection didn't even give me away. It left after that." Matt pondered over this new information. The creatures were after the Dracons, but why? According to NegaMorph, who admittedly wasn't that reliable a source, those monsters wanted the Dracons alive, not dead. What use would they be for? Then the part of the worm-creatures clicked something in his head. Hadn't he just encountered worm-monsters not too long ago?
As he stared around the room in thought, he noticed that there weren't any reflective surfaces anywhere. Matt grinned and said, "Thought you could trick me didn't you?" "Eh?" "You were telling me lies to try to fool me?" "What would I get from lying?" asked NegaMorph. "You said that your reflection escaped that demon's notice, but there's nothing to reflect on in here." "Yeah, I know that, I was talking about my reflection of that demon's face." Matt felt some of the color come out of his face, "Wh-what?" "Oh yeah, that demon I mentioned, it was kind of like a winged mirror with one eye. Just looked at me and passed on by." Matt wasn't looking at NegaMorph now, he was seeing himself being led through the forests of Nocturnus-13 by four demonic artifacts. Now Matt was seeing a connection: those worm-creatures that attacked the city must have been Waste-Crawlers and the mirror-demon must have been Fiendglass. And Massacrate and some Waste-Crawlers had attacked the Ohana, looking for Stephen. And who was the commander of these creatures? The answer was Echidra.
NegaMorph coughed politely and said, "You can let me out now." Matt's attention snapped back to NegaMorph, "What?" "I answer all your questions and you will let me out as payment." Matt gave a laugh and said, "So you can stab me in the back first chance you get? Not gonna happen." As Matt walked out of the security station, NegaMorph yelled, "You can't leave me here!" "You're right," said Matt, "as soon as we find a ship to get off this planet, we'll take you to a nice, quiet prison." Behind him, Matt heard NegaMorph roar with rage.
The others were waiting patiently outside. Chris had by that time woken up. "What was that?" asked Chris. "That was NegaMorph," said Matt, "he's locked up in a laser cell." Chris laughed and said, "It's about time that thing was put behind bars." "Yeah, but we have more important things to worry about. It was Echidra's goons who attacked this city. They were after the Dracons." "But why?" asked Lilo. "I don't know, but I'm sure I don't want to find out. Massacrate must have attacked the Ohana because Stephen was onboard. They know we escaped the explosion and since this was the closest civilized place…" "That means they know we're here," finished Stephen. "Guess we'll have to take shifts sleeping," said Draco.
There's another chapter. Note the foreshadowing technique. You're going to be seeing some freaky things in the next chapter. Will try to update soon. Please review.