Small Changes
Smoke billowed forth across the melted pavement as well as the skeletal remains of many vehicles and buildings. Dawn was just breaking over the horizon, the sun slowly revealing the devastation left behind by the small war between Lung; the draconic leader of the Asian Bad Boyz, a pan-asian gang, and Keynote; magic girl enforcer of the Doll House, a store that sold custom made clothing. In the wake of the escalating battle between these two unassuming titans, that could be compared to the story of David and Goliath, many are left trying to understand how this conflict began. Some say it began because Keynote refused to go on a date with Lung. Others say it was because Lung was refused a refund on a pair of socks he bought at another store. Some even say it was the teen villain group the Undersiders, that sparked the war between the two just so they could escape the dragon's wrath.
Whatever the truth of the matter is, it no longer is truly of importance, with most of the sub-urban area between the docks and downtown Brockton Bay either charred beyond recognition or still aflame. Amazingly, the cost of lives was luckily very low, as at one point during this rampage, someone in the local PRT building hit the Endbringer alarm by accident in a panic, causing a mass exodus by locals to the nearest shelter.
In the nearby harbour stood the Protectorate headquarters, a converted oil rig where many local and visiting heroes were receiving medical treatment from trying to get in between Lung and his opponent. New orders from up top have the heroes regulated to a holding pattern of Wait and See, with others working the fringe of the battle did Search and Rescue.
The upper echelons of the Protectorate and PRT were very concerned when at one point in the battle, Keynote had surprisingly somehow conjured up an Endbringer like demon that had incredible strength and a powerful ability to control fire. It had briefly battled against Lung before it fell back on command and unbelievably merged with Keynote, turning her normally white hooded coat to turn blood red. After that the order had gone through for everyone to retreat to a safe distance.
Now the streets were empty of traffic, as a heavy silence seemed to hang in the air as bits of discarded paper blew across the roadway. From out of a shadowed alleyway between two still standing buildings, a small corgi with one eye made its way cautiously into the open. Taking a moment to sniff the air for threats, it slowly made its way across the empty street to an abandoned burger stand, where it began scavenging the discarded food. The wind picked up slightly, bringing a sound with it to the corgi's ears. Perking its ears up, the corgi listened closely before quickly snatching up a whole burger off of a plate, bolting down the street and around the corner just as the buildings, where the corgi had emerged from an alley, shattered into a rain of molten stone and fire, as two battling figures crashed into what remained of the burger stand.
Smoke choked the area where the figures had fallen, billowing up to join other similar plumes that had come to define the cityscape in the morning light. From out of the smoke leap a crimson red figure, that landed in a crouch some distance down the street. When it stood up, it became obvious that this person was a young female wearing a deep crimson red hooded coat embedded with veins of liquid fire which pulsed with wicked light. A single twisted black horn pierced through the girls hood on one side of her head, on the other side was a broken stump of a horn that had snapped off. In her clawed hand, she held what could almost be described as a sword, if a sword was made to look like a red dragon coiled around a rocky pillar of cooled magma and teeth that rend armor just as easily as flesh. This was Keynote, the enforcer of the Doll House.
The grey clouds began to thin around Keynote's opponent. From out of the smoke, spread four great silver reptilian wings 70 ft from wing tip to wing tip. Behind them uncurled a forty foot long spiked silver scaled tail. Four heavily muscled limbs began to pull the great beast from the smoke, there on a long thick neck was the draconic face of Lung, leader of the ABB now over forty feet tall and growing. Silver scales encrusted his entire elongated head, thick ridges protected his amber eyed gaze and horns like an elk swooped back over his neck. Sulfuric smoke billowed from Lung's snout, he pulled in a deep breath before his maw split into four pieces in an 'X' shape, showing off rows and rows of silvery sharp teeth, and letting loose a tremendous roar of anger, along with a gout of flame.
Keynote weathered the flame easily as she tiredly prepared for Lung to charge her once again. 'Alright,' she thought to herself, 'once more into hell I go. Only this time remember to NOT split Lung's face down the middle.' Keynote set her stance as the last of the smoke cleared and two more thick necks appeared with slightly smaller heads at the end both, attached to the base of the main heads neck.
In the distance Keynote heard Regents annoying voice yelling at her through a bullhorn, "Get on the Hydra's back!"
Keynote's eye twitched, even as Lung began to charge her, Regent had been yelling that at her every thirty seconds, ever since Lung had grown the extra heads. Keynote dashed at Lung, the business end of her keyblade pointed behind her, a loud bang and a burst of fire had her flying twice as fast as she engaged Lung. Sparks flew as Keynote landed a hit on the side of Lung's neck. Lung retaliated with a fireball, Keynote dodged and raked her claws across one of his eyes.
"Get on the Hydra's back!"
Two of Lung's heads attempted to bite Keynote, but she dodged it in a feat of acrobatics, by gripping one of it's teeth and swinging herself to the side of its neck, before using her blade to fire a fireball into the other head's mouth, using the momentum to flip over the back of the beast's neck, neatly avoiding a wave of flame thrown by the third head. Keynote sliced one of Lung's horns off his head before leaping back to avoid a swipe of his claws.
"Get on the Hydra's back!"
Keynote's eye twitched again, even as she cut open the back of Lung's hand. She danced out of the way of Lung's snapping jaws even as she peppered his hide with her fire spell. The intake of air to her left, alerted Taylor to roll out of the way of another fireball from Lung, who quickly took control of the fight, leaving Keynote frantically dodging for nearly a minute.
"Get on the Hydra's back!"
Twitch. Dodge. Roll. Slice. Dodge.
"Get on the Hydra's back!"
Twitch. Twitch. Fireball. Roll. Stab. Parry. Dodge. Cut. Dodge! Dodge! DODGE!
"Get on the Hydra's back!"
Twitch! Keynote spun on her heel, and let out a massive fireball towards where Regent's voice was coming from. "Will you shut UP!" she screamed, before getting blindsided by Lung's whiplike tail. In an instant, Keynote was airborne, flying uncontrollably down the street, before smashing through the window of a Convenience store.
Keynote groaned in pain, even as she used her magic to heal herself, she was quickly growing tired. If she had to guess, between that last fire spell and the one to heal her, she had maybe enough magic left to cast one more spell, but none of what she had currently was strong enough to take Lung down. He was just too big!
Big. There was something there. What was that thing Mog had told her? That magic is based off of intent? An angry roar of a dragon could be heard outside. How could she use that though, she asked picking herself up out of the fallen glass. Lung was so big, too big. She'd have to get him to somehow shrink down some to have a more even fight, that is if she fought fair. Subtechtonic footfalls are felt through the floor as Keynote made her way out of the store.
Magic began to gather within Keynote, sensing it's mistress had a new task for it, she concentrated on Lung, even as he began to charge at her, she thought of how she wished deeply that the dragon coming for her was smaller, easier to fight. Keynote brought her keyblade up to shoulder level, aiming it at Lung. Magic for a new spell began to gather on the tip of her blade, 'Smaller', she thought. Keynote began to pant in exhaustion, even as a small purplish ball of magic made itself known, her entire focus was on the dragon that was nearly upon her.
Moments, before the three headed monster bit into her, something in her mind snapped into place as she dodged certain death and thrust her blade towards her foe. Unbidden, the words came to her voice…
"Oh, Great expanse,
beyond mortal sight.
Let thyself be brought before mine eye,
so ere may see onto yours.
MINI!"
Keynote, nearly collapsed in pure exhaustion, even as the purple mote of magic struck true to Lung. A bright flash of light, temporarily blinded Keynote before dissipating. Keynote blinked furiously to regain her vision while also remaining on guard, when sight returned to her, she quickly searched for Lung's familiar form, but he was nowhere in sight.
This time, Keynote did finally feel to her knees in exhaustion. "It's over," she mumbled. "It's finally over. Gods, I need a nap."
A clatter of stone had Keynote alert in an instant, as a nearby pile of loose stone shifted and out crawled a now one headed silver dragon, the size of a housecat. Keynote blinked in astonishment, lowering her blade as the small dragon hissed and puffed smoke at her. Keynote groaned as she sat down in the dirt, "I'm too tired for this," she grumbled, bringing her hands up to rub her eye. Feeling something rubbing against her, she looked down to see the little dragon rubbing against her leg and purring!?
"Definitely too tired for this," she whined as she began searching for a convenient wall that she could bang her head against. Looking around, Keynote spotted a leather satchel bag, discarded in the rubble within arms reach. Dragging it over to herself, she emptied its contents, before picking up the happily purring dragon and placing it inside. Standing up, she began to walk back to where she remembered leaving her friends.
Keynote tossed a tired look at the leather bag, seeing the little dragon's head poking out to look at her inquisitively, she said, "I'll figure out what just happened tomorrow. You better behave or I'll give you to Miss Milita as a new handbag."
The little dragon, yipped cutely and Keyblade could almost swear it had said "Scout's Honor."
She snorted. "I doubt you were ever a scout. Whatever. I'm gonna call you Mushu from now on, just to throw off the PRT for a while." Mushu, barked in agreement.
As Keynote, walked past an alleyway she paused when she heard a loud groan coming from a nearby dumpster. Cautiously moving towards it, she blinked in surprise at seeing a slightly charred Regent lying curled around a broken and burnt megaphone. She looked at him in amusement, he looked at her in pain. Keynote reached up to grip the lid of the dumpster, then looked down at the prone Regent, "Toasty," was all she said, as she pulled the lid down and then walked away.
Behind her, as Keynote made her way out the other end of the alley, the corgi with one eye crawled out from under the dumpster. It's prize still in it's mouth, lifted a leg and peed on Regent's scepter before moving off to enjoy it's meal.