If there were any questions in the reviews, I can't leave comments on them. For some reason they won't show up normally, but I do have a few that did come in over email, I just can't read them. So I'll get back with answers and comments hopefully tomorrow. Enjoy the new chap.
2.
Unknown Location
Unknown Date
Unknown Time
Flying from below the island the group slept on, Kyle landed near the area where he had created his construct. Looking around, his only thought was about how something like this could happen. There were no propulsion systems within the rock to be seen and no traces of anti-magnetic technology anywhere, leaving magic as the only possibility.
"It's strange," Terra said. "We've been up for, I'm guessing, twenty four hours, but I'm not hungry. And it feels like we've been asleep for days."
"I know. Normally I have a sore back from sleep sitting, but I feel like I've been sleeping in a five star luxury resort. At least I think that's what I feel like since I've never been to a resort to begin with." Stretching her arms, Cissie could only describe herself as feeling completely rejuvenated. "How's Raven, Gar?"
Looking the sleeping teen over, Garfield checked under the bandage Cissie had put on her. "It looks, fine. Almost no sign she was cut at all. There's a couple of light red marks, but it's almost fully healed."
Thinking back, Garfield recalled when he first helped Raven when she was injured and hoped she would not be too angry with him for making sure she was taken care of. At least this time, they did not have a cyborg terminator chasing them and were in no danger of her being captured for the enemy's use. There was only a demon to contend with, the loss of family and friends, and the lack of a way to get back home, if there even was a home to go back to.
"I think we should head for the temple you saw yesterday," Garfield said as he stood back up.
"Assumed temple, really," Cissie corrected him. "I'm not even sure if it was a temple. It could have been parts of a house or something else."
"We have to take that chance." Looking at the others, Garfield rubbed his arm. "Sorry about...you know. Yesterday."
"It's okay. We all miss them," Cissie told him. "We all did it too."
After grabbing their gear, the four teen heroes made sure Raven was comfortable before starting their journey to the second mass of floating land. Opting to fly, the team wanted to get to the next point as fast as they could. Using his ring, Kyle created a platform large enough for Raven, Terra, and Cissie to ride along while he flew behind them and Garfield traveled as an eagle.
"Wait, stop right here," Cissie instructed as she pulled an arrow from her spare quiver.
"What are you doing?" Kyle asked as he and Garfield landed on the platform.
"Just getting an idea." Pulling the cable for her bow back, the archer fired a tracer straight down into the purple sky. Grabbing the receiver from a belt pouch, she kept track of how far it traveled.
"Well?" Terra asked.
"My bow can shoot a maximum three seventy per second with an average of three thirty eight. The tracer's good for roughly a hundred clicks, so-"
Before the blonde archer could finish, a hard thud struck the platform they stood on. Looking where the green construct ended, they saw the arrow Cissie had just fired a few seconds ago. As one, they looked upwards then looked back over the edge into the light purple void.
"Where the crap are we?!" Kyle yelled. "Part of me is freaking out that we're in another dimension and the other part's panicking we're in another dimension!"
"Can you imagine?" Terra asked. "Falling forever without being able to stop?"
"Just one big loop," Garfield commented. "How long was that."
"About sixteen seconds," Cissie told him.
"Nobody spit over the side," Kyle instructed. "Cause I swear..."
"Let's just get over to the bridge and follow it," Garfield said. "Just in case."
With no objections, Kyle had the platform fly over the stone bridge as they continued to make their way to the second mass of land. Although making a straight line to the floating island would be quicker, no one wanted to stay over the void for too long as the thought of a never ending repetitive fall stayed in the back of their minds. And with how none felt hungry or tired after only one night of rest, an eternity of falling did not sit well with them.
"Nearly there." Increasing speed, Kyle neared the final turn of the bridge when something caught everyone's eye.
Between the rocks, where they joined, a black substance began to bleed over onto the cool gray stone. Slowing down, the group watched as it gathered together a short distance in front of them and formed a pool. More and more, the liquid formed a larger pool of dark, reflective material until the rocks finished bleeding.
As the pool finished gathering, the edges began to recede as the center of the tar-like mass began to rise. A bubbling, gurgling sound occurred as the liquid rose up like a steeple with two other angled arches forming next. A long, tube-like formation rose out from the liquid and seemed to look at the teens who did not believe what they were looking at.
"Um, is that, is that-" Cissie stuttered.
"Yeah." Garfield said. "It's a dragon."
Slamming a clawed had on the ground, a large pitch black dragon flashed a pair of purple eyes before rearing its head back and unleashing a mighty roar, forcing the group to tumble off the platform and onto the stone pathway.
Knocking an arrow, Cissie aimed and fired it at the chest of the beast. The sharpened arrowhead dug into the being then fell as it had struck a thick gel, leaving no mark where it hit.
Growling, the large beast eyed the red clad archer and roared again, following it up with a tail swipe that nearly caught the group from how fast it was. Scattering, the teens were forced to come up with a plan of attack to deal with the large creature. It was fast, striking out with clawed hands, tail swipes, and snaps of its razor sharp jaws at whichever teen to get close enough.
Diving off the side of the bridge, Garfield morphed into a winged lizard, gliding under the floating structure and clinging to the ground underneath. Rapidly moving, he made sure Kyle had secured Raven in a shallow cove to keep her out of danger as he snuck to the other side to flank the dragon.
Up on the bridge, Cissie landed in a rollout and fired three explosive arrows. Each struck the dragon on its wings, protecting it from the projectiles. Charging forward, it was then bashed by the railings from the bridge, sandwiching its head and dazing the creature. With the beast momentarily stunned from Terra's attack, Cissie took advantage and fired a bola trick arrow, successfully wrapping its mouth shut just as Kyle, donned in his Green Lantern uniform, came up and connected with a glove construct with sharp spikes on the knuckles.
Flying away, Lantern was just forming a set of shoulder mounted canons to fight at a distance with when he was brought down and pinned underneath a clawed hand. Ripping the cable off it's pointed snout, the dragon opened its jaws when a large boulder slammed into its face, lodging in its mouth and preventing it from closing. Its attention was then drawn to a low growl from behind.
Turning its head, the dragon saw a green Tyrannosaurs Rex standing behind it, teeth dripped saliva as it roared and charged forward. The momentary lapse in attention for its captive was enough time for Lantern to create a spiked bubble around himself to get free. He then got clear as the green dinosaur clamped its jaws around the left wing of the black colored creature.
Clearing the area, Lantern floated a few yards from the battling beasts and reformed his shoulder canons along with a large gattling gun in front of him and opened fire. "Whoo hoo! Yeah, get some!"
Rock and dirt shot into the air as emerald colored energy blasts tore up the area around the dragon. Every time Lantern paused to move to a better position, Beast Boy would attack and drive the beast close to the edge in an attempt to knock it off.
Sliding to a knee, Cissie fired a electrical bola trick arrow, snagging the dragon's two front legs. The bolas slowed it down and eventually tripped it up but the electricity did nothing. Spinning around, the creature did something no one was prepared for but should have been. Regaining its stance, the dragon walked through the bola restraint in a phasing manner. The cable passed through it's limbs and lay on the ground.
"What's this thing made of?" Creating several pot holes, Terra was successful in catching one of its legs.
Pinned for the moment, Terra kept down as Lantern and Arrowette fired upon the beast's head, allowing Beast Boy to drive it further to the edge. Letting out a roar, the dragon tried to put a stop to its forced movement when it attempted to snap at Terra. The blonde teen barely managed to get away in time when she tripped over a tanglement of plants and fell over the side of the bridge. Snagging the ledge, Terra dangled above the void and tried to pull herself up. It was all for nothing as the damaged rock gave way from the fight above.
Letting out a scream, Terra concentrated on the stones in her hands. With her eyes glowing a bright yellow, she felt herself slow down, giving her time to summon a large piece of stone debris from the bridge. Shooting down to meet her, she pulled herself up at just the right moment to hop onto a skateboard shaped slab of Earth and rode it back to the bridge. Gathering a great deal of large stones, she launched them all forward at the dragon, pelting it in the face repeatedly.
With the combined attacks of the four heroes, the dragon was not able to keep its place on the bridge and was finally pushed off the side. With a roar, it extended its wings and give a massive flap to have it float over the teens and dinosaur to land back on the bridge.
"Hugh, you've got to be kidding me," Arrowette muttered as she tossed her first empty quiver away and grabbed her second, thankful she had grabbed it before jumping into the portal.
Backing up, the Tyrannosaurs Rex morphed back into Beast Boy as the dragon advanced. He managed to fly away as a sparrow before ending up a meal for the creature. High in the air, the green bird looked around and got an idea. If this thing could not be harmed by conventual weapons but regular physical attacks, then they had a shot to end this fight, it would just be considered a Wally-esque idea, one so stupid, it had to work, and flew to Arrowette.
Raising a boulder from the ground, Terra used it to block a claw strike then had a pointed pillar shoot up from under its stomach. The dragon was flipped over to its back and squirmed to get up as it hissed from being hit in the stomach. Before it could right itself; however, Lantern came down from overhead and stabbed a spear into its gut. He was so into the fight, he had formed armor like that of a medieval knight.
"You ready?" Beast Boy asked as he and Arrowette stood on the edge of the bridge.
"This is so stupid," she told him as she took out an arrow and had it ready in the same hand as her bow.
"Noted. Let's go."
Jumping off head first, Arrowette streamlined her body as she dove into the void beneath. Counting to five, Beast Boy dove after her in the same position to reach maximum velocity. Both teens knew they had roughly sixteen seconds before reaching the bridge again and counted in their heads. It was not long before the red clad archer could see the top of the bridge slowly come into view with the dragon rampaging about as Lantern and Terra held it off.
Readying her bow, Arrowette drew the loaded arrow back and aimed for the top of the dragon's back. Letting it fly, she slipped the weapon over her shoulders and drew her crossbow with a grapple bolt already loaded.
Seeing their two teammates appear overhead, Lantern and Terra cleared the area around the dragon while making sure the beast was stuck in place. Using a combination of Earth and constructs, the duo held it down to allow the others to finish the plan.
Unable to move, the dragon was struck on the spine by one of Arrowette's trick arrows. The projectile released a thick red gel to trap the creature's neck and head on the stones in less then five seconds. Falling past her target, the archer fired her cross bow to snag the railing still intact and swung underneath to flip over on the other side while Beast Boy morphed into a large animal as he fell.
Struggling to get free, the dragon never noticed a small shadow grow large enough to cover its body. As it concentrated on freeing itself, a large blue whale body-slammed itself onto the creature's back, creating a massive dust storm from the weight it crashed down with. The entire bridge shook but did not give, only slightly sank lower where the two animals lay.
Once the dust settled, Beast Boy morphed back to his usual self with the others running up to him. There was no sign of the dragon under the shapeshifter's whale form, only the black substance it was made of as it sank into the crevices between the stones.
"Wow. Just, just wow." Standing where the dragon was, Terra stared wide eyed at the black liquid as it disappeared.
"You okay, Gar?" Arrowette asked as she helped her friend up.
"Ugh, belly flopped a dragon. Effective, but not a good idea." Letting out a loud burp, Beast Boy stayed with his hands on his knees.
"At least we don't have to worry about the dragon anymore." Fading his armor away, Lantern hovered into the air. "I'll be back. You relax while I get Raven."
"Yeah, I think we all need a quick break," Terra commented.
"Truly a dumb idea. But Wally would be proud." Taking off her mask, Cissie sat beside Garfield. "Tell you what, that would make for a great bungee ride."
Underneath the bridge, Lantern went to the spot where he left Raven behind a wall construct. Spotting it, he flew up to the glowing green barrier and had it dematerialize. A surprise greeted him once he looked into the alcove where he left his friend.
"Uh oh."