Dragon Wars
Chapter 1
By: Malaca
"Do I have to go?" the young girl complained as the stores flashed before her eyes, a myriad of colors and lights.
It was dark out, at least as close as you got to dark in the cities of Florida. Bright lights momentarily blinded a teenage girl not more than fifteen. She rolled her eyes at the sound of her young sister, Cassandra, complaining yet again.
"Do you ever stop complaining?" Niccole asked as she became irritated from her whining.
"I'm not complaining," Cassandra muttered.
Niccole rolled her yet again, all the while reasoning if it was possible if this girl was truly her sister. Then again, she hadn't had the life that Niccole had, so in some ways it was better to be different from to be as miserable as she was most of the time.
"Don't you two ever stop fighting? Niccole, I thought you were more mature than that! Cassandra, stop your incessant bickering!" scolded their mother lightly.
Niccole turned her eyes towards the road to her side, now ignoring the arguing her sister tried to trap her mother within. Niccole had been feeling a change over the world and even herself lately. Things were changing quickly, and that worried the young girl. Niccole doubted that she and her clan could stop whatever was coming by themselves. She cursed silently.
'I should have expected something like this! Its been too quiet lately in the demonic rings not to expect something. And here I was thinking that they were afraid of our forces. Ha!'
She thought deeper about them, turning them over and over in her head. Niccole had always trusted her sense but at times meditation was more help, allowing her to focus her energy into her visualize things far away in the future. Sometimes in dreams she could see the passing of lives of those she knew. Her few most trusted friends thought her secret to be a miraculous gift. She saw it as a curse. Niccole sighed.
"No time to think of myself, something horrible is going to happen I can feel it in my bones," Niccole muttered beneath her breath.
While deep in her musings Niccole barely noticed how much time had passed by. Their white mini-van was already pulling in to the plaza and to their destination, the grocery store.
"Nooo-!" Cassandra moaned at the sight of the dreaded grocery store.
Her baby sister giggled at the sound of Cassandra's hysterics beside her. Niccole exchanged looks with her mother, who rolled her eyes in response. The white doors of the van shut sharply as Cassandra and her family exited the van. In Florida they were having a cold spell, the weather had plumaged from a warm 70 degrees to a chilly 30 degrees in one short night. The family shivered in as a unit as they raced to the warm confides of the store.
Overhead, unseen by the humans that were scurrying towards the warmer stores, a dark force chuckled. It was time to have some fun with these pathetic mortals. A crackle of lightning sound lighting up the figures armored face. Kazul laughed. A slaughter was always fun.
"Kento, give it back!" cried Sai as he chased his best friend around their table at the restaurant that they were eating at. Well, they were eating, Kento was inhaling.
"Not on your life, pal," Kento answered back with a smile as he cradled the sandwich against his chest as if to protect it from unknown forces.
"It's mine Kento!" Sai replied in earnest as he leaped over the table in an effort to retrieve his food knowing full well there was no hope for his lost sandwich once Kento had laid his hands upon it.
"I saw it first!" Kento called jumping over an overturned chair.
"How is that possible if Sai bought it?" laughed Rowen earning a glared from the armor bearer of Hardrock.
Rowen rolled his eyes at his two companions in response as they rolled around the ground like two raving dogs. At his side was Ryo who remained quiet as he thought hard about why they were here in America. Something had summoned them here. A tug more so than a summoning, but Ryo saw it as the same. Ryo suspected his armor was trying to tell him something, but what?
Sage was also quiet as he picked at his food. Stray thoughts kept popping in to his head as he tried to focus on the problem. Sage banished them without a second thought, so to speak. What could have been so important to take them all the way over to America? Why was the armor calling us?
Kento and Sai stopped rolling around in the dust as Kento finished off Sai's sandwich.
"Thanks a lot Kento, what am I supposed to eat?"
Kento mumbled something Sai couldn't understand due to the fact that his face was so stuffed full of stolen food that he looked like a chipmunk. Rowen seeing Sai's look of bewilderment, he took glanced over at Kento and cracked up laughing.
"Guys?" Ryo began in deep concentration, "Why do you think we had a feeling to come here?"
"Don't know, Ryo," Sai answered noticing Ryo's concern about the situation.
"Why do you ask?" questioned Kento who had swallowed his mouthful of stolen food.
"Because the feeling has left us, for now at least," Sage said sounding more like he was talking to himself, rather than to the others.
"Maybe the danger is over," Kento added hopefully, "I kind of want to get back to see Mia."
"Do you miss Mia, or her cooking, Kento?" Sai joked.
"Hey!" Kento said as he tackled Sai.
"Does this feel like Déjà vu to you too?" questioned Rowen to Ryo.
Ryo nodded, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen. And he was certain that it wouldn't be a good thing either.
"Do you want tacos or stir fry tomorrow night, Niccole?" her mother asked holding up the two boxes.
Niccole looked around at their surroundings, trying to locate the source of evil she felt. Niccole had no clue that her mother was even talking to her.
"Niccole? Niccole!!" her mother yelled.
"What?!?" Niccole said in confusion as she shook off her earlier feelings.
"DO YOU WANT TACOS OR STIR FRY TOMORROW?" her sister said sarcastically.
"Tacos," she said absently.
"But you hate tacos," Cassandra looked at Niccole like she was swallowing frogs.
Just then all of the lights went out and Niccole grimaced as her feeling returned. Niccole braced herself for the worse which was bound to happen.
Sage's head jerked hard as he felt the Dynasty's presence come from seemingly nowhere. The rest of the Ronin's felt the same thing. Kento fell over onto the table next to him, spilling food and the members of the table all over the floor. Rowen dropped a bowl of hot soup down his new shirt, while Sai pushed his hands over his ears trying to shut out the Dynasty, for he did not wish to fight. Ryo just grimaced and looked over to the horizon, once bright with the lights of stores, now dark with the evil of the Dynasty.
"Come on guys, time to go before we scare the locals," Ryo said as he stood.
"So sorry, sorry," Kento apologized in a hurry as he stumbled out the door.
The man on which he had fallen on, glared menacingly at Kento, and started to cuss at him in English. Kento was long gone by the time he finished. Sage pulled a wallet out of his pocket and shoved some bills into the cashier's hand. He then ran out to catch up with his companions who had already started their way running towards the darkened area of the city.
Niccole's mother looked up and gave her a glance questioningly. She nodded in answer. Niccole slowly slunk away from her family, leaving them alone as she explored the darkened store. She searched each aisle carefully, making sure not to bump any people who all huddled down low to the ground. The air was tinted with evil, but not as much as before. The threat here was over, and Niccole sighed with relief. Quickly hardening her face, Niccole left the store knowing her family would be safe.
Niccole started to explore the parking lot, searching for any sign of an evil taint. She found it overloading the parking lot with its stench. Wrinkling her brow at the mental smell, she frowned as green fog rolled over the cemented ground, masking all things in its wake.
"I know you're here!" she said out loud addressing the evil to its face.
"I know you know we are here, but how do you? You are a mere mortal, no threat to the Dynasty," a cold voice echoed through the parking lot.
"I don't really care if I am a mortal or not, you are endangering the lives of others and I will stop you even if I have to sacrifice myself in the process!" Niccole said out loud with a new sense of strength.
"Foolish mortal," the voice answered as it came closer.
"Foolish demon," she snarled back, "you don't know who you are messing with."
The voice did not answer her challenge and Niccole cursed softly. This was so not her day.
She looked around cautiously trying to feel the exact location of the evil. Evil was blurred all around her not allowing her to fix on to the power that threatened her. For the first time Niccole felt something similar to fear.
Niccole gathering her strength said aloud, "If you were a true fighter, you would show yourself to me!"
A voice chuckled sinisterly, "Very well, I'm not afraid of you little one."
And with that the fog lifted revealing a warlord dressed in green and red armor with silver highlights. Niccole gasped as she took as step back.
"Not expecting that were you?" the warlord stated cruelly.
"Not really, I was expecting the Frosty the Snowman," Niccole joked trying to remain calm enough to focus the power she knew laid dormant in her soul, kept there for exactly this purpose.
"Your humor does not impress me, mortal!"
"I wasn't expecting you to have a sense of humor," she snapped back.
"This will be your last day on earth," he said coldly.
The warlord then threw a bolt of lightning at the young girl. Niccole smirked and dodged it with ease coming closer to the warlord for easier fighting. Kazul noticed this and smiled.
"Maybe this will be interesting, but I should let you know that you don't stand a chance of winning against me!" he laughed.
Niccole rolled her eyes, "Just watch me!"
She stepped heavily into a stance gathering bright blue flames around her body. Kazul cocked his head surprised. Niccole smirked at this once more and concentrated on gathering her energy. The flames condensed into her right hand with a single unspoken command. Sweat poured down her face in an effort to maintain her human form.
"ECLIPSE SOUL ATTACK!" Niccole cried releasing the energy at the warlord.
Kazul shook his head in amusement as the power raced at him. A shield of dark energy formed up around him to protect him from her power. The power bounced off the shield and return full force at the young American.
Niccole dropped her jaw, "Oooh, shit!"
She was taken off her feet and thrown into several parked cars. The girl groaned and struggled to get herself out of the dented car. She landed on the street on her fours breathing heavily.
"He's good," she coughed.
Kazul snarled in surprise that the girl was still alive. Enough was enough. He was sick of playing with this stupid girl.
"Die!" his eyes flashed in furry.
"Hey, ugly, why don't you mess with someone who can fight back!" Kento screamed at the warlord.
He and the rest of the Ronin's ran to confront the warlord thinking that they were saving the poor girl.
Niccole looked up in surprise to see several teens that looked remarkably similar to her as though she had seen them before somewhere. She frowned in deep thought as she watched the next events take place.
'The change is coming, are these boys involved?'
Hey all!
I finally got around to redoing this chapter. I wasn't aware on how bad it sucked! (excuse my French) Anywho, I'm working on redoing the second chapter as well. Oh and visit my new site at http://www.angelfire.com/anime2/fanfiction Ja!
Malaca