His footsteps made noise in the empty hallway, but her bare feet were silent. It was so clean here that he could almost pinpoint every human in the place just from their scent. They both ducked into a janitor’s closet when he smelled someone coming. He kept the door ajar just enough to see two female scientists walk by, talking about ‘the subject’, whatever that was.
When the way was clear, he turned to leave, but Nydra pulled his sleeve.
“Ryu, I don’t know if I can do this.” She said, “It feels like I’m being hunted.” He stared down at her in the dim light and he realized that she was shaking, probably from fear. He pulled two janitor’s uniforms from the shelf and handed one to her.
“Put this on.” He said, “Call it camouflage.”
The doors to the cafeteria slid open and two scientists stepped inside, heading straight for the coffee machine. As they pulled cups from a dispenser, the woman holding her clipboard let out a sigh as she stared ahead in line.
“Sally, what’s wrong now?” the other said. Sally kept staring off into space.
“It’s that guy who works across from us.” She said, “Kelly, you can’t say you haven’t been drooling over him too!”
“I’m married, honey.” Kelly said, “I’m not looking anymore.”
“But that doesn’t stop you from seeing something good like that!” she said, gesturing towards him in the lunch line.
“No it doesn’t” she said with a smile, “But since I’m not interested, why don’t you make the move?”
“He’s probably married.” She said. Two janitors stepped up behind them and she blushed when she thought they overheard.
“Excuse us.” The man on the right said. Beside him a short girl stared at the floor and stood unusually close to him.
“Oh hello.” Sally said, “You need coffee too, eh?” The male janitor nodded and stepped up to pour himself a cup.
“But honestly, Sally. You need a break from this.” Kelly said, “The subject isn’t going anywhere. I think a date would be great for you!”
“I don’t think a month’s vacation would be enough to get away from that thing.” She said, then leaned in close so only Kelly could hear, “He said that a grey dragon are like death himself. It’s like having the Grim Reaper himself in the room with you.”
“Sally, that’s classified stuff! You can’t say things like that here!” Kelley exclaimed, turning to the two janitors behind her with a nervous smile, “You want to get fired?”
“I’m sorry, but that thing gives me the creeps!” she said, turning to look at the two behind her. She stopped, eyeing the two over.
“Yes?” the man said, “Can I help you?”
“I was just thinking,” she muttered, “You’re friend there has a pretty hair color.” The girl turned away, blushing.
“T-Thank you.” She squeaked.
“In fact you have an interesting hair color as well, sir.” Kelley said, “You two make an odd pair. Red and blue hair.”
“So what of it?” the man asked, staring her in the eyes.
“Is colored contacts a fad here too?” she asked.
“No.”
“Red can’t be your natural eye color.” Sally said, “They have to be contacts!”
“Anyway, which way to the lab?” he asked.
“The lab? It’s down the hall near genetics.” Kelley said, “But you wouldn’t have clearance for there.”
“I have to clean a spill in the hallway there.” He said, “Just wondering.”
“I see.” Kelley still eyed them over, somewhat suspicious, as the two turned away and left the cafeteria. She stared after they left deep in thought, but shook it off and smiled to Sally, “Anyway, you should ask him out! It would be great!”
“I don’t know.” She muttered, but then gasped when he turned and carried his tray past her in line. She sighed when she spotted the ring on his finger and Kelley put a hand on her shoulder.
“Better luck next time.”
The scientists didn’t even notice them enter the room because they were too busy running around the lab. When the two stepped in, a loud siren blared over everything else and a large dome in the middle of the room was glowing brightly. There was people yelling and screaming, but the scene was just utter chaos.
“Why the hell is it awake?” someone yelled.
“The drugs aren’t working! Containment breach in five minutes!”
“Initiate emergency containment procedures! Gas the thing!”
“The gas isn’t working!”
“It’s a bacterial gas you idiot! This thing can kill anything that touches it!”
“Go to back up procedures! We can’t let the dome breach!”
“Back up systems aren’t responding!”
“Then arm yourselves, people. Don’t let it touch you!”
The two in the back watched as the scientists pulled high powered rifles from cabinets in the wall and surrounded the dome, aiming their weapons in its direction. The dome glowed brightly, and then flashed, finally dimming in the end. There was a nervous silence afterwards. So quiet you could hear the guns click as one pulled back on the bolt. It made everyone jump when there was a blast of steam from under the dome, and it slowly began to rise.
Whatever was keeping the subject asleep was now pouring out over the floor, creating a thick fog at their feet and a pillar of smoke under the dome, obscuring the subject from view. One of the scientists raised his gun higher, as the one next to him hit a button on the wall, activating the ventilation system and the smoke started to clear.
It was still at first. When the smoke cleared, its dark scales didn’t even reflect the light of the lab, as if it was meant to be dull in any condition. The scientists jumped when the dragon opened its eyes and slowly lifted its head to look around the room. It eyed all of the guns pointed at it, then rested on the two standing behind the wall of armed scientists, where the shorter one stepped behind the other, seemingly frightened of it. It took a moment for the scientists to realize that it was looking at something else and it was then that they first noticed the two in the back.
“What the hell are you two doing in here?!” one yelled, “Get out!” Still they didn’t listen, but instead stepped forward, with the shorter one still hiding behind the other and the grey dragon staring at them the whole while. They stepped forward past the dumbfounded scientists until the taller janitor was standing inches from the dragon’s nose. It was then that he pulled off his hat, revealing blazing red hair.
“K-Kid, you better back off unless you want to die.” Someone said behind him, but he didn’t respond. The two stared at each other, unmoving. It was when he finally spoke that the dragon moved.
“Let’s get out of here, okay?” he said. The dragon simply nodded, and turned around with the two beside him, heading towards the large loading doors behind them. Still, the scientists held their guns aloft.
“What the hell are you doing?” one shouted as he chased after them. He grabbed the boy by the shoulder but he turned to glare at him with hate in his eyes.
“I’m making things right.” He said, “You have no right to do something like this to a sentient being.”
“Dragons aren’t intelligent, boy.” He said, “They’re monsters.”
“You’re the real monsters here, not us.” He growled. He glanced down at his shoulder where smoke began to rise from under the scientists hand and he pulled it back in pain. The boy turned and made his way back towards the doors as the alarms blared in the background.
“It’s such a small place!” Sparcy exclaimed as they watched over the railing. The ship was just arriving as the sun was setting. The crew was making preparations for dock as the three stood at the bow, watching the island get bigger.
“We have to get ready too, Sparcy.” Crystal
“And this ship is only stopping for a few hours and leaving again.” Jessica said, “The next ship comes by in a week.”
“So we hope he’s nearby when we get there, right?” Sparcy asked.
“Right, just hope he’s not hard to find.” Crystal
“Well, that was easy.” Sparcy said.
“What do we do now?” Jessica asked, “The ship will dock in twenty minutes, but he may need our help sooner than that!”
“Let’s go now.” Crystal
“What are you three girls doing here?” he asked, “And what are you going to do?” The three ignored him and jumped overboard. There was a yell, and a blast of ice, lightning, and smoke that knocked the crewman on his backside, and his jaw dropped when he saw three massive dragons fly off towards the island. It took the ship’s alarm to snap him to his senses.
The loading doors to the lab lay in pieces as they stepped out into the middle of the compound. Alarms were blaring everywhere as they walked across to the docks, where they saw a ship in the distance. Ryu found himself staring into the setting sun and a tug on his sleeve made him look down into Nydra’s eyes.
“Ryu, we’re going to be found with him around.” She said, pointing at the grey dragon behind them. It was obviously true, and easily fixed.
“What is your name anyway?” he asked. The dragon stared at the ground.
“Grim.” He said.
“Okay, Grim.” Ryu said, “Anywhere particular you want to go?”
“No, I have no family.” He muttered, “No friends either.”
“Well want to come with us?” Ryu asked. Nydra gasped.
“But he’s a grey dragon! He can kill us by just touching us!” she exclaimed.
“I don’t think so, Nydra. Every dragon can control their powers, right?”
“Well can he?” she asked.
“I can.” He muttered, “But if I make you that frightened, I’ll leave.”
“No, no. I didn’t mean it like that!” she said, “I was just worried, that’s all.”
“So you don’t mind?”
“Not at all.”
“Anyway, Grim. Can you take human form like us?” Ryu asked, “We need to hide to get out of this.”
“I can.” He said. They watched as his body became fuzzy, like his outline blurred for a moment. Then, as if someone fixed the focus on the camera, he reappeared as a twenty year old man, with long grey hair and an athletic physique. He was dressed in black, with a long black leather jacket. This was the first time he noticed how close Nydra was standing to him because he could feel her face turn red next to him. Ryu looked down to see her staring at him with an odd glare in her eyes that made him laugh.
“Well, what do you think?” Grim asked in a monotone voice.
“It’ll do.” Ryu said.
“Huh? What?” Nydra blushed as his voice startled her, making her embarrassed.
“A bit distracted, Nydra?” Ryu asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” she snorted, “The sun was in my eyes!”
“Right, let’s get a move on.” He said.
“We can’t” Grim said.
“Why not?” Ryu asked. Grim just pointed over his shoulder and Ryu turned to see two dozen soldiers wielding rifles, and aiming at them.
“Oh, that’s why.”
“What are we going to do?” Nydra whimpered, once again hiding behind him. Grim stepped forward.
“I don’t like killing people, but I will if I have to.” He muttered.
“You won’t have to.” Ryu said, “It’s getting cold.”
“So what does the weather have to do with this?” Nydra asked. She then jumped when a bolt of lightning struck the ground in front of them, and the sound of flapping wings filled the air. The soldiers turned and ran when three adult dragons set down on the docks behind them. The three turned and ran out the doors of the compound and towards the docks.
They made it about half way towards the docks when they heard yet another roar. They stopped and turned to see three other dragons set down behind them and they roared again.
“Oh no! It’s them!” Nydra cried, “They found me!”
“These are the guys that held you captive and hunted you?’ Ryu asked.
“It’s them.” She cried, and cowered behind his back. The three dragons ran at them, but Ryu didn’t move. Instead he stepped forward, transformed into his dragon form, and readied for battle. The three dragons on the dock saw the flash of light, and took off to help.
The battle was one sided, with Ryu mainly trying to dodge their attacks. Grim even tried to jump in but couldn’t because Ryu would move to stop him. It was when they had him cornered against the compound wall when they stopped attacking and began to toy with him. With blood running down his neck, Ryu still stepped up to fight. He surprised them all when a pillar of fire engulfed his body, and he reappeared in his smaller, dragon-humanoid form, the same as he did in the alleyway when he first left Rosette. Crystal
“Ryu, what are you doing?” She yelled, “You have to get out of here! She’s waiting for you to come home!”
“I have to protect my friends!” he yelled, “I will come home!” He stepped forward and the three dragons seemed to laugh. They stopped, however, when Ryu disappeared.
“What the hell?” Nydra gasped, “Where did he go?” Her question was answered when one dragon suddenly dropped to the ground. Ryu was moving too fast to see.
The other two searched frantically around them as Ryu darted around. Small flashes of light appeared wherever he landed a blow, with him adding a little fire magic with each hit. When all three dragons were defeated, Ryu appeared next to Nydra and his knee hit the ground.
“Ryu, are you alright?” she cried, rushing to his side. He was breathing hard and his throat echoed with each breath.
“Let’s go.” He muttered. They turned to leave when he heard another familiar voice behind him.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
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