The Chromatic Dragon
I realise the last chapter probably wasn't written the best, but I hope you all still like it. Again, I can't thank you all enough for sticking by this story.
Let's get racing!
I do not own Dragon Booster, only my oc's.
An early morning greeted Dragon City, people were either still sleeping or out for a morning ride. But for one rider, it was anything but peaceful.
A light blue nautilus-class dragon raced through a pile of brown boxes with its rider, the dragon was being pursued by a pair of dragons and their riders for unknown reasons. The rider, a male, looked back over his shoulder with worry as the pursuers slowly gained on them. The man turned his head back and activated his vid-screen. "Marianis, come in! This is Dorsull, a strange crew is after me and my dragon! I need help! Where is the rest of the Dragon Fish crew?"
"We'll never get there in time. Stay calm, my little fish, you're slippery enough to lose them all by your lonesome." Marianis, the leader of the Dragon Fish crew, spoke calmly to her second-in-command member Dorsull. His dragon leapt onto the wall as he took a turn, Dorsull looked back and then smirked, pressing a button on his control that sent out four draining coils, one of which latched onto the purple pack-class dragon ridden by one of the pursuing riders.
The dragon screeched in pain, sliding to a halt as its energy was being drained. "Stings, huh?" Dorsull grinned and the leader of the pair sneered at the teen before his dragon pulled the drain line off the other dragon, throwing the whole thing away before they took off again.
As they did, the leader gave a few hand signals to his comrade, who nodded and diverged from the path while the leader kept chasing Dorsull. Up on a nearby building, the second rider and his dragon could see Dorsull down below and fired two penning prongs into the ground, forming a type of electric net, blocking the way forward.
Dorsull's eyes widened when he saw the net up ahead. "Hydive, look out!" he pulled back on the handles and his dragon took a sharp left turn, the teen looked back over his shoulder and saw the dragon and rider were not letting up.
He looked back and saw in front of him was yet another trap. "Disruptor mine!" he once again pulled back on the handles as Hydive tried to put on the brakes, but it was in vain as the mine went off and Dorsull was thrown from his saddle and over the edge of the street, his chute opened up, so he was safe, but the same could not be said for Hydive.
The poor dragon swung his head around in the cloud of smoke, and instead of the normal sound of a dragon, his growls sounded more like a dolphin's. As the smoke cleared, he saw the two dragons that had chased him and Dorsull were now back together and snarled at the nautilus dragon. The leader smirked and activated his tandem gear, sending out two drain coils that latched onto Hydive and began draining his energy. The dragon screeched in pain as the men grinned at their accomplishment. "Dinner is served!" Hydive continued to wail in pain.
Elsewhere out on the all-city track, Artha and Kitt were in their chutes with other racers, all waiting to start the race. All the chutes were full except for one that was between Artha and Kitt. "Are we gonna start or what?" Artha wanted to know when they would begin racing.
"Not till Dorsull shows up. Can't race in the all-terrain championship without the all-terrain champion." Kitt explained as Artha's screen popped up, showing Parm and Iris with Lance in the background eating a chocolate bar. "Dorsull missing a race is like Lance missing a meal, it just doesn't happen," Parm stated as Lance perked up behind him, having heard his name.
"Huh, what did you say?" the boy asked, mouth full of food.
"Lance, don't talk with your mouth full." Iris lightly admonished her brother, giving him a light glare before Parm got a message through his com-link.
"Wait, I'm picking up a feed from Dragon City security," he informed the others.
Artha looked a bit concerned. "What is it, Parm?"
As Parm listened, his eyes filled with concern. "Dorsull's been reported missing by his crew. Dragon City security is looking into it, that's all I know."
Kitt and Artha exchanged worried looks as Iris too looked rather concerned by the information. Why was Dorsull missing? Did something happen to him? She may not know any of the down-city crews well, but she knew when it was serious when someone went missing.
Without Dorsull, the race was cancelled and the Penn racing crew headed back to the stables to speak to Mortis and find out what was going on.
"It's not just Dorsull, all the best dragons from every dragon class are disappearing. There is only one crew fully equipped to take down multiple dragons and riders, the Army of the Dragon." Mortis explained to the group as he approached them, staff clanging on the floor.
Parm got his thinking face on. "Hmm, let me think, purple right? Trapping, penning and tandem gear, very effective, all very troubling, they were part of the purple draconium empire from three thousand years ago!"
Mortis nodded. "Yes, they are a very dangerous crew, they act as one, it is their strength...and their weakness. Without their leader Wulph, crew members are basically helpless."
"Right…" Artha agreed as he removed his helmet while seated in his saddle. "Can't think if you lose your head."
Iris chuckled softly at her brother's joke as Prisma huffed in agreement. Then she frowned. "But why take a dragon from every colour?" she wondered as Lance was again munching on a chocolate bar.
"I have no doubt that it is because they are working for Word Paynn," Mortis concluded as Lance swallowed his bite a bit too loudly, looking a bit fearful. Waving his hand, Mortis summoned a screen that showed every single colour and class of dragons in the city. "Word must be trying to breed his own black and gold dragon of legend." as he explained this, the colours all showed up one after the other.
"Like Beau." Lance realised.
"But that would take years," Artha said with a bit of shock in his voice.
"Do not put it past Word to have devised some shortcut, some plan. He has great technology at his disposal, and great knowledge of the ancient ways."
Parm had his calculator in his hands. "Ah, oh dear, according to your information, and doing a quick re-calculation of the existing dragon breeds, including the light nautilus class that was just stolen…there's only one breed left…" as he spoke and typed in the numbers, each of the colours on the screen began to vanish, leaving only one colour behind. "Brutaris, the leading bull-class dragon, owned by the down-city council leader himself…Phistus."
"Well, we better pay him a little visit and clue him in." Artha decided it was a good idea to go see Phistus and warn him that Brutaris was in danger.
The five humans and their dragons mounted up and headed for the racing tents, where Phistus was busy loading up a van with gear while Brutaris stood nearby.
"Yo, Phisty!" Kitt called out and the man turned to see the five teens behind him. "It's the five little fingers of the Penn racing crew, you all can just about make a tiny fist." the man joked in a good manner as he looked at the teens.
"Very funny, big guy. But we're not here to joke around, we're here to warn you." Kitt, while she enjoyed a little joke now and then, knew this was serious and that it was no time for a joke.
Phistus grew a bit concerned, yet angry at the same time. "Warn me, about what?"
"The best dragons from each colour have been disappearing lately and Brutaris is the only one remaining. You need to get him out of here now before he gets caught!" Iris cautioned the man that his dragon was in trouble, but to her shock, Phistus, and Brutaris started laughing, thinking it was all a joke. She glared at them for their disrespect.
"You've come to warn me that my dragon is in danger of being stolen." he laughed some more, then scoffed at the thought. "There isn't a crew alive who can take Brutaris from me." he turned back to his work. Iris huffed, folding her arms.
"Fine, if he won't listen, why are we here?" Iris grumbled.
"It's okay, Iris, we won't leave until the Army of the Dragon shows up, then everyone can get a visit from the Dragon Booster."
Artha looked at Lance, Kitt and Parm. "Alright, me, Lance, Kitt and Parm will watch from the rooftops, Iris, you and Prisma wait down here in that alley over there." Artha pointed over to a nearby alley. "Prisma is half-pack-class, maybe she can talk the dragons out of taking Brutaris, or if it gets bad, take him someplace safe, okay?"
Iris nodded, she would do what she could to help. The dragons all split up as Iris and Prisma hid in the alley. "Oh, I hope this doesn't blow up in our faces."
"I'm here with you, Iris, we will be fine," Prisma assured her sister that everything would be okay as long as she was here with her. Hearing that put a smile on the teen's face and she patted her dragon on the cheek.
On the roofs, Artha watched Phistus down below before he looked over at Kitt, who was on a ledge a little higher up, then to Parm, up higher above them, standing up in his saddle with his binocs and finally Lance, who was lounging on Fracshun's back and tossing a coin in the air while humming to himself.
Fracshun snorted, sensing something approaching down below them and snarled. "Lance, we have company." his growls alerted Lance, who sat up a little straighter. "What is it, Fracshun?" he momentarily forgot about the coin he'd been tossing in the air and yelped as it hit him on the head and fell over the edge, landing in front of Wulph and his second-in-command, Ferryt.
Seeing the coin and realizing someone was up on the roof, Wulph made a few hand signals of Ferryt, who urged his dragon Pursoot to jump high into the air, how they managed to reach the roof in one jump was anyone's guess, the pair landing in front of a scared Lance and Fracshun, Pursuit roared aggressively to the young ones as Lance screamed in fear.
Iris gasped when she saw Lance was in trouble from her position. "Oh no, Lance," she whispered and opened her comm-link. "Kitt, go and help my brother!"
"Okay, I'm on it! Hee-yah!" Wyldfyr leapt down from the building they were on. As Ferryt approached the young ones, he heard a noise and looked up, which was a big mistake as Wyldfyr's foot connected with Ferryt, who was a bit disorientated by the blow and he lost a piece of his gear that was latched onto his wrist, which Kitt caught and put on her own, aiming it as Pursoot shook his head, snarling. "Step away from the kid!" Kitt ordered harshly.
"Yeah!" Lance cheered, thinking he was safe, but that proved to be the wrong thing to say as Wulph and his dragon Hyve leapt up, surrounding the pair of teens. "You are flanked, your escape route's cut off." Wulph declared as Wyldfyr backed up a bit.
Parm then chose this moment to appear by bashing through a wall with Cyrano. "Not for long!"
While all this was happening, Prisma darted out from the alley and stopped in front of Brutaris. "Brutaris, you are in danger if you stay here! Do as I say and come with me and Iris, we can take you to safety!" the hybrid instructed the bull-class dragon as Iris spoke frantically to Phistus.
"Phistus, this is serious, Prisma and I can take Brutaris to safety! Please, listen to me!?"
Seeing the frantic look in her eyes and the way she spoke seemed to make the big gentle man realize that maybe he had come off too harshly before by laughing when Iris had tried to warn him. "You really think my dragon is in trouble?" he finally asked.
"Yes, and if we don't leave now while they're distracted, your dragon will be taken to Word Paynn."
It seemed like forever as Phistus thought this over before he looked the teen in the eyes. "You'll keep him safe?" she nodded. "On my life," she vowed. That statement caused Phistus to nod his consent for her to take his dragon to safety.
With his consent, Prisma turned around. "Follow me, Brutaris." the cross-breed ran down the alley she'd been hiding in, and Brutaris followed the pair out of sight, leaving Phistus behind. The man sighed, hoping that Iris would keep her word and protect his dragon.
Back up on the roof, once Parm had appeared, Wulph gave Ferryt more hand signals before he turned his dragon around and they leapt off the roof. "Artha, they're going after Phistus!" Parm warned his friend.
"Stay and help Kitt and Lance, I'm going after him."
"But you need our help too," Parm said, but Artha cut him off.
"Stay there Parm, Iris is down there with them and I hope she has Brutaris with her. Release the dragon!" he and Beau changed into their booster forms and leapt down to help.
Phistus stood by the van when green trapping gear was shot at him, pinning him to the box he was previously pushing inside the van. Wulph lowered his arm with the green trapping gear but noticed Brutaris wasn't there anymore. He growled, where had the dragon gone? "Where is your dragon, Phistus?"
The man just growled, he refused to tell the leader of the Army of the Dragon nothing. "He's safe, away from you."
Wulph sneered, looking around for anything that might lead him to where the dragon had gone too. He found nothing out of the ordinary and contacted his friend. "Ferryt, abort your operations now, we have a dragon to find."
Ferryt grinned and aimed his trapping gear, but Kitt reacted faster and fired what she thought was maybe something useful, but was just a draconium tag that latched onto Pursoot's chest, the dragon looked down at the tag and snorted.
"That was helpful, at least it could fire a net or something," Kitt grumbled as she fiddled with the gear, doing that made her vulnerable and she, Lance and Parm were all sent flying back with green trapping gear latched to their chests and pinned to the wall behind them. Their dragons growled, but could not help their riders.
Down below, Phistus continued trying to break free of the trapping gear as Dragon Booster appeared behind Wulph. "Hi, Wulph." Beau snarled at the leader as Dragon Booster held his jakk-stick in his hand.
"How about a little one-on-one?"
Wulph turned to look at the gold-clad hero. "The Dragon Booster." He fully turned to face the hero with a glare. "You complicate things."
"Let Phistus go!" Dragon Booster ordered firmly.
Wulph shook his head. "Not until he tells me where his dragon is."
Phistus glared hatefully at Wulph. "I'll never tell you where he is!"
Suddenly, cries for help were heard coming from the roof. "Help us! Oh please, save us, Dragon Booster!" The voice sounded much like Lance as Dragon Booster narrowed his eyes.
"You appear to have two choices, them or me?" Wulph bargained as the Dragon Booster glared at him. "This isn't over, Wulph!" He declared before Beau roared and headed for the roof, jumping up and completely missing Ferryt, who left to join Wulph as Beau stopped in front of the three pinned humans.
"Is Brutaris safe?" Parm asked.
"Well, I think so, I didn't see Iris so I assume she has him, but you guys were calling out for help."
Kitt shook her head. "Help us later, Phistus and Iris need you, she can't protect Brutaris by herself!"
Artha finally fully realised that his sister was somewhere with Brutaris on her own while the Army of the Dragon was looking for Brutaris. "Scales, Iris!" Beau turned and leapt back down, stopping to release Phistus from the green trapping gear and he landed on Beau's back.
"Iris Penn is out there with Brutaris, she needs help!" Dragon Booster said to Phistus, who nodded.
"Let's go help her." The leader of the council suggested and the two humans and dragon left to look for Iris. Dragon Booster pressed his comm-link on his helmet.
"Iris Penn, can you hear me?" He got static from the other end and felt worry grip his stomach like a vice.
Elsewhere Iris was with Brutaris, and the two dragons and humans were hidden in one of the alleys, away from the track. She peeked out around the corner, seeing no one following them. Turning to face Brutaris, she exhaled a breath of relief. "I think we're safe for now." she dismounted the saddle and stood beside Prisma as the cross-breed spoke with Brutaris.
"Are you doing well, Brutaris?" she asked, keeping her eyes and nose out for any scents.
The bull-class dragon grumbled. "I am well, Prisma, thank you and your rider for keeping me safe." he thanked both of them for their concern with wanting to keep him safe from the Army of the Dragon crew. "I am sorry I laughed at your rider's words earlier when she was trying to warn me and Phistus, that was rude of us."
The hybrid growled softly. "It's alright, but next time we say you are in danger, please heed our words. Iris can tell when something is wrong by trusting her gut, which I have learned to trust too."
Brutaris approached Iris and the teen smiled at the large, green dragon, who smiled a dragon grin and she patted his nose. "We'll keep you safe, Brutaris. I swore we would."
Prisma sniffed the air and snarled quietly. "Iris, someone is coming." the dragoness warned her sister.
Iris looked at Brutaris. "Quick, in there." she pointed to a dark building not far from them that looked like it was abandoned. The trio entered the building and Iris pulled the door shut, silently thanking whoever owned the place that they oiled the hinges on the door as it shut quietly. For extra protection, she grabbed a bent pole and slid it through the handles.
She stood back, admiring her work with a grin. Turning to the two dragons, she looked around, the room once looked like a gear shed, but now had crates stacked around the room. Approaching Prisma, the hybrid lowered her head and the teen unclipped the mag-locks on the saddle, pulling it down and off her dragon's head so she could rest.
Brutaris laid down as Prisma did the same, inviting Iris to sit beside her. Iris sat down against Prisma's side as the hybrid curled her tail around her body protectively. "Guess we can stay here for a bit till things die down."
Her helmet gave off some static and she pressed a finger to her comm-link, Artha's voice came through. "Iris Penn, thank Draconis, are you and the dragons safe?" he asked and she frowned, why was he using her full name? Unless he had Phistus with him and had to act professionally.
"We're safe, Dragon Booster, we're in an old abandoned building away from the tents and tracks," she informed the hero, speaking softly.
"Okay, just stay there, Phistus and I are on our way!"
She nodded and the link cut off, leaving them in silence. Iris sighed, removing her helmet to let her hair down, and setting it down beside her. Leaning her head back, she looked up at the ceiling before both dragons tensed, snarling softly.
Sitting up straight, the teen looked over at the doors, she strained her ears and could hear faint voices outside. "Search the area, they can't be far." the voice sounded like it was the leader of the Army of the Dragon, Wulph.
Iris turned to look at the dragons, putting a finger to her lips as they soundlessly rose to their feet and quietly moved to the back of the building. Prisma bared her teeth, pushing Iris against her body with her tail, her saddle magged to her head.
Brutaris looked around as footsteps were heard walking around outside the building. He stayed close to Prisma as she shielded Iris, ready to mag her and make a run for it!
Suddenly, there was a faint beeping sound before the front doors of the building were blasted open by a fire grenade, Iris yelped as debris fell around the area. "Go, Brutaris, get out of here!" she urged the green dragon to run for it and he bashed right through the wall and out of the building as Wulph and Ferryt emerged.
Prisma snarled, magging Iris to her saddle. "Where is the green dragon?" Wulph demanded.
"He's gone!" Iris said, brandishing her jakk-stick as it extended to its full length. Wulph and Ferryt glared at her as their dragons snarled. Prisma hissed back.
"Why are you doing this? Stealing dragons is wrong!" Prisma growled as she spoke to the pack-class dragons.
Hyve hissed at the hybrid. "We follow strength and order. Word Paynn is the strongest, so we follow him!"
"But he doesn't care about you! He only wants you to do his dirty work!" the hybrid tried to persuade the two dragons to not go after Brutaris.
Iris glanced between the pair, then she narrowed her blue eyes. "Go!" Prisma turned and started to run for the hole in the wall. "No! Stop!" Wulph shouted, sending a bunch of blue dragon throwing stars at the pair, they managed to dodge a few until Iris cried out in pain as one star sliced her right side, just below her ribs, shredding that part of her jacket and shirt.
Ferryt fired green trapping gear, but the pair managed to avoid them as they exited the building with the Army of the Dragon on their tail. Iris gripped her wounded side while trying to hold onto the handles with one hand.
"Hang on, Iris!" Prisma begged as she took a sharp turn, nearly jolting her sister from the saddle. She roared out in hopes that Beau would hear her.
"Beau, if you can hear me, we need you!"
There was a resounding roar and then Beau appeared in front of her, forcing the hybrid to slide to a stop in front of him. "Iris Penn, where is Brutatris?" Dragon Booster asked before he noticed how Iris was hunched over, one hand holding her right side.
His eyes widened beneath the visor when he saw the red staining her hand and seeping through her fingers. "Oh no!" Iris could hold on no longer and fell sideways out of her saddle. Beau magged Dragon Booster over quickly and he caught the teen, gently lowering her to the ground and applying pressure to the wound.
"Hold on, we'll get you to a doctor." Dragon Booster swore as Phistus dismounted the black and gold dragon, coming to kneel beside the younger teen. Iris looked at the leader of the council, tears pooling in her eyes as guilt surfaced. "I'm sorry, Phistus, I sent Brutaris away, but I don't know if he got away. I failed you! I'm sorry." she looked down in shame.
While Phistus was worried about his dragon, right now, Iris needed medical attention! He gently laid a hand on her shoulder. "Don't be sorry, Iris. You did your best."
Another roar, this one filled with pain, resounded around the area. "Brutaris!" Prisma screeched loudly. When they fled the building, Wulph and Ferryt split up to cover more ground and one of them likely found Brutaris hiding and got the other one involved.
"No!" Iris cried out, bursting into tears as Dragon Booster continued to hold pressure against the wound. "Iris, listen to me, we need you to take your jacket off so we can tie it around your wound till we get to the hospital."
Still sobbing, she managed to shrug off her now ruined jacket and both Dragon Booster and Phistus tied it around her waist. Dragon Booster then picked her up bridal style and Beau magged them into his saddle. Prisma magged Phistus into her saddle for the time being.
The dragons and humans left the area, arriving at Dragon City Hospital where Iris was treated for her wound, getting stitches and told to rest up for the next few weeks.
Phistus left to go back to wherever he lived while Dragon Booster, Iris, Prisma and Beau all went back for the others, freeing them from the trapping gear and then all of them went back to the stables where they regrouped in the temple.
"This is very disturbing, now Word has all the dragons he needs," Mortis said after receiving the news that Brutaris was taken. Iris sat beside one of the statues, leaning against Prisma as the hybrid lay down beside her sister.
Artha was angry at himself for falling for the voice trick and his sister getting hurt. "I can't believe I fell for that trick."
"Me neither, that guy didn't even sound like me," Lance said with his arms folded.
"Why didn't you try us on your wrist comm?" Parm questioned.
"I didn't think of it, okay?" Artha snapped, growing frustrated and angry.
"It's far from okay, these are serious times, and communication with your teammates is crucial."
Artha blinked. "Oh, so this is all my fault?" he snapped.
"Hey, whoa, no one is saying that." Parm tried to diffuse the situation.
Artha growled. "I need a rest, from all of this. A rest from you." he snarled at Kitt, Parm and Lance. "From you!" his next gaze was to Mortis. "And from you!" Beau looked stunned by his words.
"Artha, it's okay to be angry," Iris spoke up, getting to her feet and resting a hand on Prisma's side. Then her brother's angry gaze met her. "And because of this, you got hurt! Why didn't you try and do better?" Iris flinched at his words as he grabbed his armband. "And from the Dragon Booster!" he threw it to the ground, looking at the star amulet before tossing it to the ground and storming out.
Lance picked up the amulet and gauntlet in his hands. "Artha!" he called out to his brother pleadingly.
"Let him go," Mortis assured the boy, laying a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "He clearly needs to think."
Iris sank back to the ground, holding her head in her hands while trying not to cry again. Lance noticed his sister and walked over. "Iris?"
"It's my fault Brutaris got kidnapped if I'd just been better..." Her shoulders started shaking as sobs escaped for the second time that night. Lance wrapped his arms around his sister, careful of her injury as Parm and Kitt walked over and joined them in a group hug.
"Do not blame yourself, Iris. It's not your fault." Mortis assured the teen gently. "You did your best to protect Brutaris." he noticed how she looked tired and weary. "Now you need your rest, so I suggest you go up and get some sleep. It will do you no good if you didn't rest up while you healed."
Heeding his words, Iris wiped her eyes, thanking her brother and friends for their support before she and Prisma headed for the elevator to take them to the stable. Prisma was settled in for the night as Iris went inside, changed into her night clothes and laid down.
Kitt, Parm and Lance, after making sure Iris was safe, headed out on their dragons. "Okay, the new plan is we track a member of the Army of the Dragon to wherever they're hiding the stolen dragons."
"Sure, no problem," Parm spoke up, sarcasm in his voice. "You know, last time I checked, they were the trackers, not us."
Lance then took notice of the gadget on Kitt's wrist blinking. "Hey Kitt?" he called out.
"What?" she snapped, looking down at the boy.
"Why is your wrist thing blinking?"
She looked down at it and pointed it to the left, the radar beeped and she held it forward, where she could see two red dots on the radar. "So that's what this is. It's marking gear."
Thanks to the marking gear, it led them straight to where the stolen dragons were being kept. "Oh great."
"That marking gear led us straight to Word's citadel." she sighed heavily. "We could really use a Dragon Booster right about now. And Iris too."
While he was worried about Artha, Lance tried to keep the mood happy. "Don't worry, we've got me, I can do lots of stuff even Dragon Booster could."
Parm scoffed at the thought. "Like what? You're half his size." he held his thumb and pointer finger close together for emphasis.
Kitt then got an idea about that, she saw a vent and followed the pipe with her eyes, it led right into the citadel. She turned her head to look at Lance, seeing his slim build, he seemed to catch onto what she was thinking, developing a look of shock as she tapped a finger to her chin, humming in thought before her dragon magged her onto the ground. "You know, I think he's right."
Lance blinked, he didn't expect Kitt to agree with him. "I am? Uh, wait, I don't think this is a good…" he trailed off as Kitt pulled the vet cover off and gestured for him to get in.
"...Idea." he finished in a defeated tone as he crawled through the vent, coming to a stop in front of a covering that showed all the missing dragons in a circle with Brutaris in the middle. "What? Whoa, they're all here, all the missing dragons." his eyes moved to Word, who was standing near the control panel, and then his eyes found a multicoloured bone mark floating above Brutaris. "Word has some kind of bone mark, I've never seen anything like it, it's got all the colours in it," he spoke into his comm-link to Kitt and Parm.
"That's his plan!" Parm realised as he typed on his calculator. "It must be some kind of artificial bone mark, perhaps from bone mark fragments he's collected. Oh, this will certainly speed up his ability to create an artificial gold dragon. We've got to get Lance out of there and get this information back to Mortis!"
"Forget it! We've got to do something and it's got to be now!"
From his hiding place, Lance watched as Word pressed a series of buttons on his control panel and flipped a switch that lowered the bone mark onto Brutaris' head, glowing with energy. Word pushed a small lever that made the bone mark open up and drain the other dragons of their energy, all different kinds of colours were absorbed into the bone mark as the dragons cried out in pain while Lance backed away in horror as Brutaris underwent a transformation that made him bigger and stronger than anything ever seen before, glowing all kinds of draconium energy colours as Word watched with glee.
"Soon a new dragon of legend will walk the earth. My dragon of legend!" Word said as the dragon roared.
Artha walked through the wastelands, grumbling to himself. He was still angry about the whole ordeal. "I didn't ask to be the Dragon Booster! I'm tired of carrying the world on my shoulders."
A growl made him freeze and look around, he couldn't see anything until a familiar red and blue dragon appeared in front of him, roaring and scaring him. He screamed as Beau laughed at him. "Oh, Beau, you scared me, boy."
Beau then seemed to notice something and nudged Artha's back. "What?" he nudged him again. "Hey, Beau, stop that." he finally looked in the direction his dragon was looking and saw a large statue of the original Dragon Booster.
"The Dragon Booster? The original Dragon Booster?" he said in awe at meeting the previous hero as Beau closed his eyes and his star mark glowed brightly, a star-shaped rock at the base of the statue glowed the same golden colour before it opened up, revealing a black and gold recorder.
"Drac. what's this?"
Artha pressed the play button and the original Dragon Booster's voice could be heard. 'War has come to Dragon City, Beau and I are the only things that stand in its way. We have allies, sure, many dragons, many humans. But the responsibility is so great, they want a leader. What if I lead them wrong? Still, I am the Dragon Booster, and I've got to try!" the message finished as Artha reflected on the words.
"The original Dragon Booster doubted himself too? And he stopped the fighting!" Beau smiled at his rider as Artha gained a determined look on his face.
Back with the others, Lance was safely back with them. "Okay, it's up to us…we're going in!" Kitt decided with a smile on her face and her fist up.
Parm spluttered at her words. "Going in? The Army of the Dragon crew? Word and Moordryd are probably nearby. And a powerful new dragon of legend? Why the odds are…"
"Pretty bad, Professor." Kitt finished for him.
"Maybe one of us could be the Dragon Booster?" Lance suggested, holding up the amulet and gauntlet.
"You took that?"
"Lance Penn, you give those to me right this instant!" a voice called out… the trio saw Prisma running towards them with Iris in the saddle.
"Iris, what are you doing here? How did you find us? And why aren't you resting?" Kitt asked, looking worried for her friend.
"I'm here to help, I don't want to stay back resting when you guys are here trying to stop this. And I found you with Prisma's help." Iris said as Prisma slowed to a stop. Even from where they were sitting in their saddles, they could tell she was trying to mask a grimace of pain.
"You've likely torn your stitches by coming here, Iris," Parm noted.
"I don't care about that right now, all I care about is making sure you guys are safe, so…" she directed her gaze to her little brother. "Hand over the amulet and gauntlet, Lance. You're not supposed to have them." she held out her hand for the two items. Lance groaned in defeat but knew it was pointless trying to hold onto them, so he handed them over.
"Scales." the boy grumbled as Iris put the amulet and gauntlet into her storage container.
Kitt's marking gear beeped, alerting them to approaching enemies. "Double scales, we've got company." up above on the pipeline were Wulph and Ferryt. "Yet another crew is working for Word Paynn," she added with a sneer.
"Word Paynn is the strongest, we follow strength! Survival of the fittest!"
"More like the demise of the dopey."
"Yeah!' Lance added. "You should try thinking for yourself once in a while."
Wulph glared at the kid. "Silence!"
"Leave him alone!" Iris snapped before a roar could be heard, followed by a dust cloud that slowed to a stop, revealing a mutated massive dragon.
"Oh no. We're too late. A chromatic dragon, all the colours in one!" Parm explained as the dragons backed up as the massive dragon unleashed a powerful roar at the teens.
"What did you say?" Lance called out, having not heard Parm's words.
"Doesn't matter, everybody run for it!" Iris directed, the dragons turned and started running for their lives!
The chromatic dragon snarled and looked up to see Wulph and Ferryt on the pipes, he fired a mag blast at them. "Run!" Wulph yelled and their dragons raced off. There was a loud explosion behind them as the massive, multi-coloured dragon chased after the teens.
Word watched the whole thing on his screens. "The friends and sister of Artha Penn. You shall have the privilege to be destroyed by my new dragon of legend." he folded his fingers in front of his face with a sinister grin.
The dragon chased the four teens through alleyways. Iris winced as the motion made her side stretch and flare with pain as her wound was now torn open. She knew it was a bad idea to come here and even Prisma had told her she should be resting, but how could she when her friends and brother were out looking for the missing dragons?
The group turned another corner and had to hit the brakes as they found themselves in a dead end! Heavy footsteps alerted them to the fact that the mutated dragon was still chasing them. "It's coming!" Kitt gasped.
"I wish Artha was here," Lance said with fear in his voice.
"Did somebody say my name?" the four of them looked up to see Artha and Beau standing above them. "Artha!" Iris called out happily to her brother.
Beau leapt down and landed beside Prisma. Artha blinked. "Iris, you're meant to be back at the stables resting."
"I couldn't stand by while they…" she gestured to the others with her head. "Went out looking for the missing dragons. I know doing this will push me back with healing, but I couldn't let them do it by themselves."
While he was a bit disappointed in her for not resting up like she was told, he understood her reasoning. Then a snarl was heard before the multicoloured dragon emerged around the corner, approaching the group.
"That has got to be the ugliest dragon I've ever seen. Guess Word couldn't settle on a colour, huh?" Artha joked lightly.
"That's Brutaris," Lance confirmed for them all.
"Word changed him into a chromatic dragon," Parm added.
"Then we've got to change him back," Artha stated.
The chromatic dragon roared at the group as Word smiled. "Excellent. Destroy the son and daughter of Connor Penn first!"
The dragon roared at them as Beau roared back in defiance. "Challenge me, I dare you!"
Brutaris glowed brightly and shot a mag blast that knocked Artha, Beau, Iris and Prisma right through the wall, they were left dangling over the edge. "Artha!" Kitt cried.
"Iris!" Lance screamed as his sister grabbed hold of the handles of her saddle as Prisma dug her claws into the steel. "Hang on, guys, just hang on!" Artha called out as Beau struggled to keep his grip.
"Iris, quick, give Artha the amulet and gauntlet!" Parm called out as Prisma magged the gauntlet and amulet out of her saddle compartment and handed it to Artha, who was happy to have them back, but he knew they were sitting ducks hanging over the ledge like this, so he had Beau leap off the ledge, freefalling through the air as Artha slid the gauntlet over his wrist, transforming into the Dragon Booster.
Beau's star mark lit up and his wing flaps emerged from his slides, he glided back up to the ledge, pushing Prisma up first with his head before landing and roaring out. Dragon Booster used his jakk-stick to hit the mutated dragon to force him back.
"Word's prism bone mark is the source of its power," Parm stated as Artha growled.
"And I can't get anywhere near it!" he replied, Beau backed up as Brutaris glowed brightly with all the colours as Prisma stood beside Lance and Parm with Iris.
"He's gonna mag blast!" Lance cried out in fear.
"Nowhere to hide, he's got us!"
Before Brutaris could blast the teens, tandem gear latched onto either side of his front feet, draining his energy, the dragon screeched as the Army of the Dragon struggled to hold him still. "Today the Army of the Dragon thinks for itself. Your orders?" Wulph declared his loyalty to Dragon Booster, who was grateful for their help.
"Okay, we've got one chance to get this right. Let's surround it and keep it busy!" he ordered.
"Wulph, hold him with your tethering gear for as long as you can!" he called out to the leader of the Army of the Dragon, who nodded as Hyve and Pursoot struggled, slowly being pulled forward no matter how hard they tried pulling backwards.
"I'm going after the prism bone mark. Okay, gang, let's do this!" the teens surrounded the massive dragon, calling out to diverge his attention. With his attention caught between all the teens, he was left wide open.
"Beau, get ready to mag-blast me. Now!" Dragon Booster cried and Beau magged him straight towards the bone mark, once he reached it, he smashed it to pieces with his jakk-stick! Energy from every draconium colour erupted from the dragon before a bright flash of light forced everyone to look away as Dragon Booster was sent flying and landed on the ground. When the light died out, Brutaris reverted to his normal form.
The bull dragon shook his head before spotting Artha on the ground, he approached the hero as the others waited anxiously, hoping he didn't hurt the hero. Brutaris grabbed hold of one of the back pieces of the armour, lifting the hero to his feet. Everyone smiled as Dragon Booster patted his nose. "Welcome back, Brutaris."
The dragon smiled at him before his gaze met Prisma. "Thank you for trying to save me, Prisma." the hybrid bowed her head to him before he ran off to reunite with Phistus.
"Today, the Army of the Dragon chose to serve the greater good," Wulph stated as he and Ferryt saluted the Dragon Booster, who saluted them back. Wulph then looked over at Iris, who was now holding her wounded side.
"I want to apologise for hurting you, Iris Penn. You were just trying to protect him. So I am very sorry." Wulph expressed his apologies for hurting Iris.
"It's okay, Wulph. Please don't do it again." Iris accepted his apology.
"Understood. Move out!" the pair left the teens. Artha held up the recorder as the original Dragon Booster's voice echoed in his mind. Still, I am the Dragon Booster, and I've got to try!
The teens left, taking Iris to the hospital to get her new stitches, she was given a firm scolding by the doctor for her actions before she was sent home, telling the others to make sure she stayed on bed rest for the next few days.
Iris was also scolded by Mortis for disobeying the doctor's orders and sent to rest in her bedroom, she didn't fight and obliged. Artha apologised to her for his words earlier and she was just happy to have him back safe.
"With the prism bone mark destroyed, Word will be unable to create another chromatic dragon, the city is safe…for now," Mortis added before leaving.
Kitt looked over at Artha. "Nice job, glad you got your act together," she said, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"Thanks." he looked at his friends and brother. "I should really be apologising, I'm sorry I left when you all needed me."
"Hey, it's okay, we understand the pressure you're under." Parm was not going to stay angry at his friend.
"That's why we're all here to help, you lead…"
"...And we'll follow." Lance finished.
Beau then shoved Artha forward, the teen stumbling before he stepped into a pile of dragon poop. Lance plugged his nose from the smell as Parm giggled behind his hand while Kitt just smirked. "Uh, most of the time."
Artha rolled his eyes, great, now he had to wash his shoes.
There we go! Iris got hurt protecting Brutaris, but she'll be okay. See you all next time!
