Theron left the Huntsboy behind, striding down the short hallway and tucking himself into his makeshift office. It was nothing like the grandeur of his study in the Huntsclan – it lacked the powerful view, the luxurious furniture and the resources – but, for it literally being a hole in the ground, it served him well. He had managed to set up a functioning technological station below the ground and though he no longer had access to the Huntsclan's global databases, he did have access to NYPD databases along with some FBI and CIA. He read them sometimes, for amusement.
Some humans were so ignorant.
But he was not sitting down to amuse himself today. He had a mission today. Typing quickly on his computer keyboard, Theron was quickly tapped into all of the surveillance cameras set up in the Manhattan area. He had narrowed the Chinese Dragon's location down to half of the city. He was intent on capturing the foul creature, as was the Dark Dragon who, like Theron, had a personal vendetta against the ancient blue dragon and the young American Dragon.
As Theron began sweeping through cameras, checking for signs of life, he physically spotted the dragon. He'd seen the dragon on the surveillance cameras before but Theron had never been in the position where he could capture the dragon. Despite its obvious age, the beast was still a trained fighter and Theron couldn't take the risk of being seen or injured. Now, however, the perfect opportunity to take the Chinese Dragon had presented itself and Theron just had to take it.
"Dark Dragon!" He shouted, noting the location the Chinese Dragon was currently in and what direction it was heading before leaping to his feet and hunting out his companion. "Dragon!"
"What?" The reptile-like creature hissed, snaking his head into the entrance of the hallway, his body too big to fit. "What is it?"
"The Chinese Dragon is in flight," Theron revealed. "Take him down."
The Dark Dragon grinned devilishly as Theron detailed where he would find the troublesome Chinese Dragon. Confident that he would be able to locate the blue dragon, the black scaled dragon left his lair and took to the air, sweeping high above the New York skyscrapers. The Dark Dragon flew higher than most dragons and, hopefully, high enough that the Chinese Dragon wouldn't notice his presence until he was being knocked unconscious and being gathered into the Dark Dragon's claws.
The Dark Dragon hated magical creatures in general – he thought that they were petty, cowardly, selfish beings. Magic shouldn't be kept hidden. Magic should be used openly; magic users should be ruling instead of the ignorant humans that populated the globe. It was this belief that made the Dark Dragon overly suspicious of Theron, he who had once ruled the Huntsclan. Still, the Dark Dragon needed the arrogant human. Theron, unwittingly, gave him insight on how the Huntsclan was being run and, thus, the best way to defeat it. In time, Theron would outlive his purpose and the Dark Dragon would murder him without hesitation but the moment was not at hand.
The moment at hand was capturing the Chinese Dragon, also known as Lao Shi. With Lao Shi, and his meddling prodigy, the American Dragon, it was personal. Lao Shi had always suspected the Dark Dragon of wrongdoing. The rest of the Dragon Council and the magical community had brushed him off – he'd only been a young dragon the first time he'd voiced his accusation and the Dark Dragon had been an upstanding member of society for a long while – until the Dark Dragon had miscalculated and let his true intentions (world domination) slip to the wrong person. Lao Shi had not only been the one to make everyone suspicious of him but he'd also been the dragon that the Dark Dragon had battled. Lao Shi had grievously injured him, thus sending the Dark Dragon into hiding for many years. When he'd finally emerged, thinking himself strong enough to finally succeed in his mission this time, he'd found that he was wrong when Lao Shi's damned protégée, the American Dragon, had defeated him again.
Anger roared against the Dark Dragon's belly as Lao Shi came into view. It was so tempting to just snap Lao Shi's neck now; to end it all and get rid of the pest. But he couldn't do it. Theron needed answers; the Dark Dragon needed information. The Chinese Dragon could provide both of these things. Unfortunately, he needed to be alive to do so.
The Dark Dragon opened his wings wider so that he caught a light breeze with them. He ceased to flap his wings to propel himself forward and instead he drifted silently downward on angle, just above Lao Shi. Before the Chinese Dragon could even sense that he was there, the Dark Dragon secured his talons around the smaller dragon's neck. The thinner dragon thrashed, but only for a minute. The Dark Dragon pressed close to Lao Shi's left ear. A direct hit to the left ear would kill a dragon while a close touch would knock them unconscious for a while.
Lao Shi slumped in the Dark Dragon's claws, dead to the world. Task accomplished, the Dark Dragon turned around and headed for the lair so that he and Theron could properly secure the prisoner.
He never noticed the small dog that Lao Shi had been carrying.
And he certainly never saw the dog plummet toward the New York City streets.
(-.-)
It was no small miracle that Fu survived the fall.
As soon as he'd looked around Lao Shi's flying body and saw the dark shape descending, Fu had known exactly who it was. He'd been too paralyzed to make a sound as the Dark Dragon had knocked the old man unconscious, causing Lao Shi to let go of his beloved animal. On the way down, Fu had tried to force himself to not panic, which is a very difficult thing to do when you're flying toward concrete. Instead, he'd urged himself to search his rolls in case there was anything in there that could help him live through this.
And, at the last second it seemed, he had. He had tossed the potion from his skin pouch, screaming magic words as the street came up and bruised him. The potion had protected him from losing his life, but it hadn't protected him from severe wounds. Nearly every bone felt as though it was broken and Fu knew that every inch of skin had to be bruised.
He also knew that he couldn't lay here and dwell on how much pain he was in. He had to contact Jake and make sure that the kid was okay and then he had to make the boy come get him so that they could come up with a game plan. If the Dark Dragon had taken the old man, that must mean there was some kind of scheme to it all. The Dark Dragon had been acting randomly, seemingly, but Lao Shi knew that the Dark Dragon just didn't do such a thing; there was a method to his madness. Now, it was up to Fu and Jake to find out exactly what the Dark Dragon was up to and rescue the old man before anything could happen.
He forced his injured paw into the depths of his rolls and pulled out the slightly outdated cell phone that he always kept on him. When he'd first started carrying it, he thought that it was a bothersome inconvenience; an unfamiliar weight that he'd hardly ever used. Since then, Fu had changed his tune. No one in the magical community carried the thing, and Gramps wouldn't know what to do with one unless it magically became possessed and bit him (though even then Fu had his doubts), but when it came to getting ahold of Jake, nothing worked better than the cell phone.
He hit Jake's speed dial, number two, and forced his likely broken arm to bring the phone up to his ear. It rang and rang and rang. Come on, kid, Fu pleaded internally, and audibly whimper of pain escaping his wide lips. He didn't know what he would do if Jake didn't pick up. But, finally, the kid answered the phone.
"Sorry Fu," Jake breathed, sounding winded. "I was … busy."
He wondered what the kid had been doing until he heard Rose in the background ask who he was talking to. If Fu had been calling at any other time, he might have felt so embarrassed that he would have just hung up on the kid right then and there. At this moment, however, Fu was so hurt that it barely registered that Jake and Rose could possibly be naked right now.
"Come." Fu ordered, voice high with agony. He gave Jake the street address. "Come now."
"Is everything all right?" Jake asked.
"Now," Fu hissed and blacked out from the pain.
(-.-)
When Fu came to, he was back at the shop. The majority of his body was bandaged tightly and he had an ice pack on one injury and a heating pad on the other. He shifted on the couch and immediately winced, finding that any sort of movement was a bad idea. He could hear Jake and Rose talking not far off – the kitchen, he estimated – and let out a canine yip to get their attention. It worked. He only had to wait a moment before the duo entered the living room. Rose sat at the end of the couch, down by Fu's back paws, while Jake settled himself cross-legged on the floor beside Fu's head.
"I bandaged you up best I could," Rose confided. "Though I'm sure you have a magical way to find out what exactly is wrong." Neither Fu nor Jake noticed how her blue eyes turned to ice at the mention of a magical method.
"It's not important," Fu muttered, pushing his pain to the side. There were more demanding things to focus on at the moment than him.
Jake reached out and gently pet Fu behind his ears. When the dog indulged in letting Jake or Lao Shi pat him, which wasn't often, it was behind his ears that he liked it best. Jake was just trying to comfort Fu.
"What happened?" He asked. "Why wasn't Gramps with you?"
Gramps and Fu were nearly inseparable. The older that Lao Shi became the closer he kept Fu Dog by his side.
"He was. He was taken, Jake."
"Taken?" Rose squawked, surprised by the news. "By who?"
"The Dark Dragon."
Her eyes hardened. "The Dark Dragon," she repeated.
Her mind immediately flashed to a scene months ago when she discovered that the Master had paired himself with the beast. She'd had no idea what to do with the information and had even gone so far as to accuse the Master of being a traitor (it had been the last time she had ever doubted him). The longer she had spent with Master, however, the more she had seen how useful the Dark Dragon could be. He had not, as Master had explained it to her, "outlived his usefulness quite yet". If the Dark Dragon had Lao Shi it meant that the Master was speeding up their plan of global takeover, though Rose wasn't worried. The Huntsclan was in the palm of her hand and were unknowingly returning to their bloodthirsty ways.
"Tell me this," Rose said, knowing that she needed to pop into the Clan and then go immediately to Master's side. "If the Clan takes this dragon down, are we going to be crucified?"
It irked her that she still had to pretend that she cared about magical creatures but that was all going to be over soon. Soon, they would all be dead.
Both Jake and Fu shook their heads.
"But we need him to tell us where Gramps is before we kill him," Fu blurted.
"And he's dangerous," Jake added. "Don't do anything stupid. I can't have anything happen to you again."
"Don't worry," Rose assured him, gathering her things to leave. "The Clan will simply work on finding him."
It was an easy lie; it fell from her lips without thought, as most of her lies to Jake did.
Jake stood and walked her to the door. He kissed her firmly before she left and told her that he loved her.
"I love you too," Rose said and her stomach twisted.
For reasons unknown to her, this was not an easy lie to tell.