Chapter 3

Reptile Battle

They caught Gonzalez and were now flying on Touridor's back high above the clouds. Gonzalez was tied up, this somewhat amused Hitamari. They soon make it to their extraction point and Touridor lands. He everyone slide off his back. "Alright... we are here. Now we just have to wait." Anthony muttered. Terozanan looks at Gonzalez, who had a grin on his face. Touridor also notices this and growls "What's so funny, Gonzalez?"

A loud engine roar could be heard from far off.

"Hector's coming. He's gonna get us~" Gonzalez started chuckling.

Touridor snarls "...how do you know that name?" he then whips his head toward the direction of the engine roar. He then looks up, seeing a missile. He pushes everyone out of the way then gets struck at the side. He roars out in pain as he was knocked back a couple of yards. Anthony's serious face started to turn into fear as he saw the one he considers as his only brother get knocked back by such an attack "Dark 2!"

Touridor struggles to get up and watches as a beam of light shines down a few feet away from Anthony and the others, "There's the extraction point! Get the hell out of here!"

Anthony hesitated for a moment then watches 5 missiles come into view. His heart sank. The engine noises got louder. "Dark 1...?"

No reply.

"Dark 1?"

Gonzalez starts laughing but Hitamari knocks him out. Terozanan points toward the beam of light "Dark 4, go. I'll meet up with you."

Hitamari nodded and headed into the beam of light with Gonzalez, disappearing afterwards.

"Dark 1, we have to go." Terozanan said with concern.

"...But what about Touri...?" Anthony replied, his voice weak and he started to sweat. Touridor looks over to Anthony "Dark 1, go with him, I'll meet up with you. I promise."

"You promise?"

"Yes."

"I-I better see you again." Anthony stammered before disappearing into the beam of light. Terozanan looks at Touridor then also disappeared into the beam of light. The beam of light disappears. Touridor was alone. He swiftly dodges the missiles at the last second. He watches as a single dark green Ford Mustang Super Snake with a white stripe come at him. Touridor morphs into a black ZR1 Corvette and charges toward the Mustang. Upon getting a few meters close, Touridor morphs back into a dragon and leaps at the Mustang. The Mustang morphs into a giant dark green and white snake. It now just sees Touridor and gets bittin in the face by Touridor. The snake clenches his teeth and throws Touridor off. Touridor lands on all fours. "Hello Hector." Touridor snarled. The snake hissed before lunging at Touridor, maw wide open. Touridor sidesteps and pounces Hector. Hector wraps around Touridor, trying to suffocate him. Touridor growls and sinks his fangs into Hector's midsection. Hector hisses in pain and sinks his four fangs into Touridor's neck. Touridor roars in pain and tries to get free. Hector smiles a bit and throws Touridor away. Touridor lands on his side. Touridor uses the distance to his advantage by morphing into a black F-22 and taking to the sky. Hector hisses in anger, thinking Touridor was retreating "get down here, coward!"

He then realizes that Touridor was not running away; Touridor turns around and flies toward Hector.

Hector's widens his eyes "...oh shit." he tries to take cover from the hundreds of unguided rockets that flew toward him that were launched from Touridor, but failed to do so. Smoke and dust filled the air, blocking Touridor's visibility. Touridor lands, morphing back into a dragon. He tries switching to thermal vision but was suddenly stabbled by Hector's tail. Touridor roars in pain as the tail went deep into his chest. Touridor twitches then slowly falls to the ground. Hector smiles and extracts his tail from Touridor's chest. Black blood gradually poured out of Touridor's chest. Hector chuckled "Anthony is now freed from you. You will melt into black liquid and evaporate. You will be nothing when you die. Fucking parasite." Hector hissed. Touridor looks up at Hector, giving him the look that gave the message, "You'll never understand." Hector glared, "I'll leave you to die now. Bye, old friend." with this, Hector morphed back into a Ford Mustang and drove off. Touridor slowly melts, becoming just a pool of black liquid.

Dark Force 717 HQ

Anthony said farewell to Terozanan and Hitamari. He exited the HQ and went into his yellow '00 Z06 Corvette. He turned it on and drove off. He clutches his chest with one hand; he felt power slowly drain from him.

Touridor was dead.

Anthony made it home and went to bed without a word.

3 hours flew by. He couldn't sleep. He couldn't stop thinking about Touridor. He felt empty. He felt lost. He sobbed. He was so numb, he did not feel the black liquid engulf him and sink into his skin. He blacks out.

A few days later, Terozanan and Hitamari regroup at Dark Force 717 HQ for a debriefing to assault Gonzalez's armory base. They havn't seen Anthony for days; so they were concerned. The debriefing room was empty, black, decorationless, as usual. Only a single table with light coming down at it was all there was. Immorten walked over to the single table in the spacious room and looks at Terozanan and Hitamari. He debriefs them about the mission to take over the armory. How they will need another dragon or creature to man their ESM. Yes, he knew that Touridor was dead. Terozanan and Hitamari were suprised. The mission was to happen tomorrow. Terozanan and Hitamari were dismissed. Terozanan contacts Anthony through his phone.

"Hey, Anth?"

"Yeah?" his voice seemed washed up

"Where are you?"

"Home."

"...Sorry about Touridor."

No reply.

"Listen... I know you are going through a tough time right now, but we need an ESM carrier for the mission to take over Gonzalez's armory. Do you know anyone?"

Anthony thought for a long moment then smiled, "Yeah, I know somebody that might take the job.