Dragon Conjurer 4, page 19
In an awesome maneuver, my blond friend vanished from the opalescent dragon’s back and popped up again from a shrub below. He extended the stock of the submachine gun against his shoulder, peered through the sight, and fired a single shot directly at the Quetzalcoatl’s belly.
The bullet hit the monster in the center of its huge green midsection, and a patch of scales were blown open.
The scaly beast’s blood was as scarlet as its feathers, and it dripped to the sand and coated the rocks below. Nonetheless, it stayed in the air and shrieked, and then it blasted the ground near Nick with the most powerful breeze yet. The nymph vanished into a plant before the air had a chance to hit him, but a huge crater was blown into the sandy dirt.
Damn, this fucker had some strong breath.
“How fast can you build your shield?” I asked the girls. “I have a couple ideas, including another air attack with Ky. And then, once I hurt it, I have a plan to force it back down to the ground using Goldie.”
Beyblade was next to me, and he looked up with an injured expression.
“Don’t worry, Bey,” I chuckled. “Once it’s down on the ground, you can fuck it up.”
“Good plan,” Steffi said in my ear as she squeezed me tightly around the waist, and then she called out a little louder to her roommate. “Hey, Nala, let’s do this shield thing! Where’s El?”
That was a good question.
The Quetzalcoatl was distracted by Nick’s shots as he flashed from bush to bush, and I took a second to glance around. I caught a glimpse of the giant French owl perched atop a Joshua tree that was smaller than her body, and it would have been an amusing sight if it weren’t for the death stare in her avian eyes.
In true owl fashion, she was waiting for the right moment to swoop in and attack her prey.
“She’s fine,” I chuckled. “Let’s get back up in the air and lure the Quetzalcoatl-- fuck it, I’m calling it the ‘Q’-- let’s lure the Q, and then you’ll see what I have planned. Ky and Goldie, up!”
When the Quetzalcoatl caught sight of my dragons’ gleaming bodies rising through the air, its attention was drawn away from Nick. It opened its huge mouth and roared, and its tongue shot out again.
“Ky, freeze its tongue!” I shouted, and my blue dragon blasted the forked red appendage with a steady stream of ice crystals.
The tongue immediately solidified, and I watched in triumph as it turned into a giant flag of an ice cube, broke in half, and clattered to the ground. The Quetzalcoatl’s eyes widened in horror, and when it attempted to shoot its air attack again, it choked and spluttered instead.
“Ewww,” Nala said as she pinched my hand. “That was pretty sweet, though, and the Q is really hurting. Steff, time for our plan!”
A sparkling disc emerged from Steffi’s hands just as a thick wall of colorful pebbles rose at Nala’s command, and the rocks merged with the disc to form an almost-solid shield. It was at least fifteen feet in diameter, and it wavered slightly as the two girls worked together to hold it up, but I thought it would be strong enough to use in the next phase of my plan.
“This is where you come in, Goldie,” I growled. “Blow the shield toward the Q!”
Goldie’s wind breath began to push the shield forward right as the Quetzalcoatl managed to squeeze out another puff of air. The two forces held the shield in place for a moment, but the dragon’s breath was stronger than the injured monster.
“It’s working!” I cheered as the Quetzalcoatl was forced back by the shield. “Now, let’s get it down to the ground. Keep going!”
The girls and Goldie coordinated to push the gorgeous monster downward, and the glittering, pebbled shield smashed into the Quetzalcoatl’s face and split apart just as the monster’s tail slammed into the ground. It opened its mouth, but its wounded tongue had started to ooze blood, and bucketfuls of crimson liquid pooled on the desert floor as it coiled itself to the ground like a giant rattlesnake.
Elisabeth swooped in with her talons held out toward the beast’s face, and when its scales were too thick to tear into, she settled for slashing at one of its eyes.
The huge golden orb exploded into a burst of steaming goo, and the monster shrieked again as its neck collapsed against the dirt in pain.
Then Nick flashed into view, aimed his MP5, and blasted the Quetzalcoatl directly between its nostrils.
Its face disintegrated even further, and I waited for it to pixelate. Only part of its giant body was starting to flicker in and out of view, but then I heard a snarl from my left, and I turned to find Beyblade glaring at me.
“Shit, I’m sorry, buddy, go ahead,” I chuckled.
The red dragon bobbed his huge head up and down for a moment to prepare himself, and then he directed a red inferno at the dying monster.
Its impressive plumage went up in a blast of flames, and its half-tongued mouth opened to shriek one final time before the beast disappeared in a wave of digital squares.
“That was fucking awesome!” Nick shouted as he held his MP5 high, and the girls and I dismounted from Ky.
“Epistrophi, Fanhui, Moduro,” I said as the training room began to shrink back to its original size. My dragons looked a little bummed that they couldn’t stick around and play some more, but they morphed back into living, pulsating tattoos in a flash of light.
“I know, guys,” I sighed. “I can’t wait until you have a place to roam free.”
“Let’s regroup, team,” Nala said and headed out toward the control room. “Damn, we are getting stronger and stronger. This session was exactly what I needed!”
Elisabeth hooted in approval before she touched down and shifted her form beside me, and the French girl sent me a pretty smile as we all turned to follow Nala.
“So, what did you think of the Q?” Steffi giggled as she grabbed my arm and bumped my hip with her own.
“Babe, there are so many things I liked about this,” I sighed, but then I bent down to whisper in her ear. “I love you.”
I saw happy little tears prick up in the fairy-girl’s eyes as she squeezed my arm even tighter.
“I love you more,” the fairy-girl giggled, and before I could argue, she let go of me and began to skip in front of the group. “Let’s find somewhere to chill and talk about that fight! I know I’m ready to hang out for a while.”
“And eat!” Nick chimed in. “Obviously.”
“You know, you’re very predictable,” Nala said to the nymph as she poked him in his scrawny side.
“And I predicted you would say that,” my best friend sniffed. “So there.”
“I think there’s a little common room on this level that no one ever hangs out in,” Steffi suggested. “Why don’t we go there?”
“Lead the way,” I responded as we crossed through the control room.
Steffi let her wings flutter as she started to bounce down the hall, and she led us all to an unobtrusive door. It was a standard, brown classroom door with a small window, and the fairy-girl pulled it open and held it for the rest of us.
The room wasn’t big, but big, cushy blue chairs and a matching couch made it look nice and comfortable. A blue and purple rug with a modern, hexagonal design complemented the furniture, and there were old monster movie posters on the walls. A large TV was mounted to the wall, and I was definitely ready to watch a show and chill.
“Well, it’s not too fancy, but it’s kind of comfortable, and it’s all ours,” I said as I plunked myself down on a plush blue chair.
Steffi immediately sat on my lap, and then she laid across me with her head against the arm rest.
“Hi,” the fairy-girl breathed.
“Hey, I liked your present,” I murmured as I bent down to kiss her on the lips.
“So, are we gonna order a pizza, or…?” Nick said as he dropped onto a long blue couch.
“Hold on a minute.” I looked up from my pretty girlfriend. “You're saying Domino’s delivers to a top-secret basement level of a top-secret facility?”
Nick, Nala, and Steffi started to laugh.
“Not Domino’s,” the nymph snorted. “Of course, they can’t bring pizza here. We’ll get it from the cafeteria.”
“You did say order pizza,” Elisabeth giggled. “I pictured what Dylan said, too.”
“Hold up.” I was amazed. “You’re saying… we could have been ordering pizza from the cafeteria this whole time, and we haven’t?”
“How do you not know about this, Dyl?” Nala giggled. “We’ve ordered pizza a million times, just… apparently not since you’ve been here. If we had, you’d already know that Nick’s the weirdo who likes pineapple on his pizza.”
“Whatever, Nala.” The nymph shrugged. “I need the sugar for extra energy.”
The dark beauty smirked. “I don’t really think you’re going to get energy from a couple pieces of canned pineapple--”
“Not canned at AIMM,” Steffi said as she raised a finger and reminded the arguing pair. “Only fresh for the best monster fighters.”
“Well, it’s still gross,” Nala giggled. She and Elisabeth were playing footsie on the couch, and between Steffi on my lap and the other two lying together, I was content to kick back and relax while the others hashed this out.
“What do you want?” Nick scoffed. “Mushrooms? Now that is disgusting--”
“Aren’t you supposed to like all plants?” Nala retorted. “I can be picky, but I like mushrooms, since they’re from the earth--”
“From shit,” Nick corrected. “Mushrooms grow from shit. Pineapples are pure, and I’ve read they’re good for quite a few things that you ladies might be interested in.”
“That thing with cum is a myth,” Steffi sighed.
“You sure about that?” the nymph asked and grinned.
All three girls looked at me.
“Would someone just order something?” I laughed. “Even I’m feeling my blood sugar dip.”
“Oh, poor Dyl, you had blood drawn today,” Steffi cooed with a worried frown. “Get up, Nick, hurry! There’s a phone on the wall.”
My pink-haired lover pointed toward a sleek white conference landline attached to the wall. Several red lights were flashing on the display, and I wondered who else could possibly be using this old line.
“I think I press ‘one,’” Nick thought aloud as he stood up and walked over to the wall. He picked up the sleek receiver and hit a button, and his face brightened when someone picked up. He mumbled out an order for way too many pizzas, and then he put his hand over the phone and called out to us. “Hey, anyone want anything other than pizza? Dylan, they can bring us anything they have.”
“Chocolate,” Steffi said as she laid back on my lap with her eyes closed. “Do they have cake?”
“And a chocolate cake,” the nymph said decisively into the receiver. “What room are we in? Um, let me see…”
I looked around, and I pointed to a sign on the wall.
“B112,” Nick reported. “Great, thanks.”
The blond nymph hung up, and we all looked at him expectantly.
“How long until you get your pineapple?” Nala asked.
“They said a few minutes,” Nick said and shrugged a single shoulder as he settled back down into the long blue couch. “AIMM is usually pretty efficient, though.”
“Good,” Steffi purred as she started stroking her fingers through my hair. “Dylan needs sustenance.”
“I definitely do with you three around,” I muttered and leaned down for another kiss.
“Gross, dude,” Nick said and grabbed a remote from a side table. Then he turned on the TV and started flipping through channels at a rapid-fire pace.
“They aren’t gross, they’re in love,” Elisabeth said in a dreamy voice.
“Okay,” the blond nymph snickered. “If that’s what the four of you want to call it. Shit, do you really have three girlfriends now? Dylan, you pimp…”
“Hey!” Nala scoffed. “What are you implying?”
“Oh! Nooo!” Nick blanched as his grin dropped. “No, no, no! I did not mean it like that. Come on, Nal, you know I didn’t mean it that way. No, I meant like… like Hugh Hefner status! Not--”
“That’s enough,” I sighed. “I want to talk about the fight, and your monster choices were amazing. Thanks to Steffi, the Q really topped it off.”
“I wanted to pick something for the final battle that you totally wouldn’t expect, given the geography,” the pink-haired girl explained. “And something unbelievably gorgeous, of course.”
“It was so beautiful,” Nala agreed. “If we didn’t have to fight it, I definitely could have laid back and watched it fly for a while.”
“And yet it came to such a gory end,” Nick laughed. “A popsicle tongue, a lacerated eye, flaming feathers…”
“And a storm of bullets,” I reminded him. “Yeah, we kicked its ass. And obviously, that’s a good thing, since we need to get used to fighting huge, displaced monsters like that. I liked that it was a surprise because I had to come up with some stuff on the fly, and the pebble shield idea was totally badass. When did you come up with that?”
“Steffi and I had been chatting for a while,” Nala said with a proud grin. “I did like how it turned out, but I’m surprised how much effort it took to maintain it when Goldie and the Q were using their wind against it.”
“Me, too,” the fairy-girl agreed. “I had to focus extra hard to keep my fairy magic from scattering, but Dylan getting Goldie to push the Q back to the ground was worth it.”
“That did work out well,” I agreed as I scratched my head and looked up at the ceiling. “I like that we’re coming up with new ways to combine our powers from fight to fight.”
“We can work with the dragons from now on?” Nala asked eagerly.
“Absolutely, they seem to like it,” I assured her.
“On the other hand, I missed a lot of shots today, and I’m still not as strong from a dragon’s back as I’d like,” Nick admitted. “So, like Dylan was telling me back when we were fighting the Bigfoot and the Black Dog, we all really need to learn to vibe with these dragons individually. I’ve usually worked with Beyblade, and that fiery little guy gets my energy, but Goldie, I’ve mostly used for drop-ins. I was not expecting her to be a challenge.”
“You’ll all get a feel for the dragons’ temperaments soon,” I told my friends. “They have subtle differences in battle, but if you can work with their styles, they’ll give you everything they’ve got. The same goes for all of us. The better we get to know each others’ moves and magical energy, the better we’ll be able to cooperate and take these monsters out.”
“I love to be a bird, it is so magnificent,” Elisabeth said and steepled her fingers in front of her pretty face. “But I felt a little out of touch with the whole team since I was so far away. I had the idea to attack the Q’s eyes, but I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“We’ll keep working on your communication,” I assured the French girl. “I’m not sure we need to know what specific attack you’re planning. I trust you.”
“Oui,” Elisabeth said with a thoughtful expression. “Thank you for saying that, Dylan.”
“Mostly, I want to keep up the multi-monster practice,” Nick sighed. “It’s weird, but that’s feeling like a more natural scenario lately.”
“Yeah, we’ve been entering fights with an idea of what’s ahead, and then we have the surprise attacks,” I mused. “Like the gargoyles, and I’m sure there are many more to come. The faster we can coordinate at a moment’s notice, the better. I already know we can think on our feet and come up with a group plan.”
“I agree.” Steffi nodded. “Quick, what would we have done if the Q knocked us off Dylan’s dragons and managed to get us close to those rocks?”
“I was already thinking about that,” Nala assured the fairy-girl. “I think I can root us all to the earth if we’re being blown away, though I don’t know what the chances are of encountering a huge wind beast again anytime soon.”
“I wonder what monster could be next,” Elisabeth said as she idly twirled a strand of long, red hair around her finger. “It’s scary that they can come from anywhere around the world now.”
“Which is why I loved that element of surprise.” I kissed Steffi gently on the lips again, and she giggled softly and burrowed into me. “How crazy is it that any monster from anywhere could appear with no warning?”
“It’s crazier that the world’s in danger and no one even knows about it,” Nick mused. “They’re talking about this bullshit on TV, and here we are saving the world in secret.”
The nymph shook his head and picked up the remote from his armrest, and the channel changed to some random twenty-four hour weather station.
We all stared at the screen for a moment as they reported plain old meteorology, but it was odd seeing the world from this point of view.
It was starting to seem like monsters could be in control of many, if not most, of the world’s weather systems.
“If you didn’t have powers, would you want to know about the monster threats?” Nick suddenly asked.
“Of course, I’d want to know,” I answered. “I gained a ton of valuable knowledge at college, but it almost seems silly that I was taking all these classes about mythological beasts and had no idea they actually existed.”
“Yeah…” the nymph trailed off as he flipped the channel again, and he perked up when he found an old kung-fu movie. “Now this is more my speed.”
A knock came at the door, and the fidgety nymph leapt up in an instant to answer it. I traced circles on Steffi’s thighs while Nick groaned and grabbed everything the cafeteria workers had sent up, and then he returned with six stacked pizza boxes and a giant white cake box on top.
“You got six large pizzas?” Steffi giggled. “There are only five of us, Nick. But hey, thanks for the cake.”
“They gave us plates and everything,” the nymph said as he spread out the array of food and utensils on the coffee table. “Dig in!”
I grabbed a napkin and a greasy slice of pepperoni, and I moaned when I took a bite and a long string of cheese stretched out from the crust. The sauce was perfectly spicy, and the crust was thick and chewy, and while I always enjoyed the food when we were eating in the cafeteria, there was something about having pizza delivered and sitting around with my friends.
