AOE Saga:

The Reluctant Dracopyre

Chapter 5: Evil of Essence

Chris and Matt eventually reached the top floor without any further incidents. But there was a large door in their way. It looked like it was made of cast iron and sealed tight. "How are we going to get through this?" asked Matt. "Don't worry," said Chris, "I have a skeleton key." Then he blasted the door with his blaster until it cracked. "That's your answer to every obstacle, isn't it?" asked Matt. Chris shrugged his shoulders and said, "Pretty much."

They kicked down the doors and Matt yelled, "Alright Echidra, put down whatever magic you're holding and let Stephen go!" Echidra was standing next to a large cauldron filled with heaven-knows-what. She smiled thinly and said, "Ah, the gallant rescue party have come to save their friend. How heroic, and foolish." Chris loaded his blaster and said, "Hey, we just took out two of your Doom Weapons and have you outnumbered. I say the fight's on our side." Echidra's smile grew and said, "There are only two of you against my might. I still have the advantage." "The others will be here momentarily," said Matt. Right after he said that, the ventilation grate on the ceiling opened and Lilo and Stitch dropped down. Echidra waved a careless hand and said, "The top of this building impossible to enter, even though those other creatures have defeated Fiendglass and Corpselight, they will not come." Chris aimed his blaster and said, "Well, we still have these guns to take you out." Echidra made a sign with her hand and the gun turned itself into a giant leech that immediately attached itself to Chris's face. Naturally, Chris screamed and tried to pull it off.

Echidra laughed and said, "Actually, you came at the right time to see the birth of my new Dracopyre." "We don't care about the Dracopyre, we want Stephen." Echidra tapped her chin thoughtfully and said, "Stephen, Stephen, the human that was transformed into a Dracon by the Drac Omnitrix?" "You were responsible for that too!" yelled Lilo as she yanked the leech off. Echidra ignored that and said, "Well don't worry, your friend's safe. Right in here." She held up a bottle filled with something green that looked like something between liquid and smoke. For a brief second, they could see Stephen's face in it before it faded away. "She's converted Stephen to pure essence!" cried Stitch. Echidra smiled as she uncorked the bottle, "Don't worry, you'll have him back." And she poured the contents into the cauldron.

The cauldron suddenly erupted with magical energy that threw our heroes back. They briefly saw the spirit forms of the various creatures whose essence was in that cauldron. Then the spirits went down into the cauldron and there was a flash of light. After that, the cauldron stood still. Then suddenly, a large three-clawed hand came out of the mouth of the cauldron, followed by another. Then a large shape emerged and let out a cry that sounded like a dragon's roar with the tone of a wolf and the pitch of a bat. "Now you shall face the first of a new line of Dracopyres," said Echidra, "Wyvern, the Reptilian Dracopyre."

Wyvern didn't look too much different from a Dracon, except that his green scales was replaced by fur of the same color. His muzzle looked very similar to a wolf's aside from the strange ridges were perpendicular his lobes. His ears were slightly longer and had a closer resemblance to bat ears. The brown hair on his head had grown longer and partially obscured his eyes, which were red with yellow slits for pupils. Echidra summoned various runes into the air and pointed at our heroes. "Destroy them all, starting with that blond Chihuahua." "Chihuahua?" said Lilo indignantly, but Wyvern making another battle screech and leaping at them, drowning her out.

Wyvern was a more capable fighter than ever. His strength had to at least have been tripled by his transformation and his agility and speed were equivalent to a wolf's. As Chris was batted back by a whack from Wyvern's tail, he said, "Okay, how do we stop him?" "I think we have to sever his connection with Echidra," said Matt, "that'd snap him back to normal." "Don't worry," said Lilo, "I know everything there is to know about werewolves and vampires, he can't surprise us." Suddenly, Wyvern's muzzle split into four along the ridges and his lobes, revealing the hole that opened into his throat. Then a beam of sonic energy came out of it and blasted our heroes. They were scattered around the room by the hit. Stitch groaned and picked himself up saying, "I don't think Echidra used just terrestrial werewolves' essence in that potion." Then the frill-like spine on Wyvern's head glowed yellow and zapped out a lightning bolt. The bolt narrowly missed Matt, who commented, "She didn't just use terrestrial vampires either."

Wyvern was now heading towards Lilo with deadly strikes. She managed to dodge them, but they kept getting more accurate. Stitch in desperation jumped onto Wyvern's back. Wyvern barely noticed the weight and shook until Stitch started to lose his grip. Suddenly something small and hard hit Wyvern on the nose. He looked around for the perpetrator until he saw Matt holding a small rock in his hand. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" challenged Matt. Wyvern snapped his neck forward and then back, causing Stitch to fly off and collide into Matt. As Matt got up, he noticed the lights on his inhibitor start to flicker. "All right," said V-627, "It's almost playtime." Then Matt heard something in front of him and looked up to see Wyvern's face only two feet away from his own. Wyvern roared loudly, causing Matt's ears to ring and his face to be sprayed with Dracopyre spittle. "On second thought," said V-627,"I think I'll sit this one out."

Then Wyvern whacked Matt to the other side of the room with his wing. Matt barely had time to get up when Wyvern spat out his plasma-flame at him. Matt held up his hands, bracing to feel the fiery burn. When it didn't come, he opened his eyes. The plasma-fire was frozen in midair and softly glowing light blue. "Duh," thought Matt, "control over plasma." He stood up and said, "Sorry Stephen," and threw the plasma-fire back at him. The plasma-flames hit Wyvern at the base of the neck, causing Wyvern to shriek with discomfort. As the flames went out, Matt could have sworn he saw the Drac Omnitrix logo flicker a bit and something briefly flashed into visibility between Wyvern and Echidra. Could that have been what Echidra was using to control Wyvern?

Echidra scowled and said, "Change of plans, get the plasmabender first." Wyvern growled and turned his attention towards Matt again. Matt felt a glimmer of an idea creep into his mind and he pointed at his chest saying, "Burn one right here!" Wyvern opened his mouth and belched out plasma-flames. Matt held up his hands and the plasma-fire started forming itself into a concentrated ball. After adding some of his own plasma, Matt said, "What comes around, goes around," and threw it straight into the Drac Omnitrix logo.

The blast was much more spectacular as Wyvern shrieked louder and the scent of burnt fur filled the room. This time, there appeared a glowing red line connecting the Drac Omnitrix to Echidra's runes. Also, Wyvern's eyes switched from red with yellow pupils to yellow with red pupils and back. "It's not just a mind-control spell," said Chris, "it's a leash." Lilo looked at the leash-spell and thought, "Okay, I need a laser to cut through that, something that negates magic." She concentrated on finding such a laser until she was sure she had one. She aimed carefully and let it go. The laser zapped forward and cut the leash-spell in two. Echidra's runes instantly disappeared. Echidra looked at Lilo with a mixture of surprise, anger, and a little bit of astonishment.

At the same time, Wyvern blinked his eyes and they became yellow with red pupils. "What happened?" he asked. Then he noticed the fur covering his body and asked, "What did that witch do to me?" "Not sure," said Matt, "but you want get back at her, now's your chance." Stephen glared at Echidra and split his muzzle open. From the hole that was revealed, he shot out a mixture of plasma-fire and sonic waves at Echidra. Echidra hurriedly put up several shield spells, but they barely withstood the attack. Then Stephen attacked her with his claws and fangs. She only managed to avoid becoming mincemeat by transforming into her half-rotting jackal/half-worm form. She zapped Stephen with a stun spell that threw him on top of Stitch. Echidra glared at Matt and growled, "You and that brat will pay for ruining my new Dracopyre." Then she torn open a dimensional portal and escaped.

"Good riddance," said Matt. "Wonder what we should do with all this?" asked Lilo. Echidra had apparently been in such a rush to leave that she left all her magical equipment behind. "The Dracons will find a use for it," said Chris as he started looking through some of it. Matt frowned and said, "Where's Stitch?" Stephen's face had a sheepish look as he rolled off Stitch. "You okay?" asked Lilo. Stitch sat up and said, "I'm okay, I'm fluffy." Stephen looked at his transformed claws and said, "How are we going to break the spell off of this one?" "Not sure," said Chris as he picked up a younger-looking book, "but I'm sure Echidra's journal can tell us."

There's another chapter. Just one more and this story's done. Then me and largefish8 are going to do something really interesting. Please review. For once.