Dragon Island

(All characters and locations in this story are entitled and copyrighted to Poseidon Simons)

Part 3

Chapter 1

The Protector

-- Billy Bishop On the edge of destiny, you must test your strength.

His heart raced, but what could he do, this create was a marvel of evolution. Muscles pulsed as they moved under its green, scales. Sharp claws extended from its large hands, and a pair of bat like wings sprouted from its back.

"This is a dragon! What am I doing?" Shane thought to himself as his attack approached.

"Im gonna cut you up so bad not even your own mother will recognize you!" The attacker said as he walked slowly towards Shane.

No one in the alley seemed to notice the large figure watching above them. Using the zoom in modification built into his head, the protector of Yann city watch patiently for the opportune moment to strike. He had heard talk of the human, so far nothing bad, but he still wanted to make sure saving it would be a good thing for the city.

"Well I cant just let him die, I am the protector after all, and what would Kia say, she knows him!" The protector thought to himself. Sending a signal to the robotic limb that now replaced his once normal, fleshy arm, it began to change into a particle cannon. "Just one shot to scare him off should do it, then save the human and the girl and get out of here." Babe noticed the power bar on his left arm was about half way full, he had enough power to shoot and get back home to recharge. Shifting his weight slightly he took aim at the group of trash cans that separated the human and its attacker.

The sound of the air sizzling and popping caught Shane*s attention and he looked up just in time to see the bright blue beam of energy fall from the roof. The explosion threw Shane and the attacker back. Shane managed to look up and see the armored figure of his new foe jump down from the building.

"Wow, he looks like a cross between robo-cop and Godzilla!" Shane thought. He watched the robotic creature walk towards him, its glowing red eyes sent a chill up Shane*s spine. The creature was finally upon him, the large particle cannon aimed right at Shane*s head. Shane closed his eyes and heard the whistling of air and the quick movement of gears, after a little while he opened his eye and to his surprise a mechanical hand was outstretched before him.

Looking from the glowing red eyes back to the outstretched hand a couple times, Shane took it and allowed the robo-dragon to help him up.

"Who, what are you?" Shane asked. The robot dragon only glared at him and turned to the attacker that was laying on the ground eyeing the protector and his knife that lay just an arms length away. Rushing for the knife the attacker was cut short when the protector, side kicked him in the ribs and knocked him out with one solid punch. Picking up the limp body the robot dragon jumped up the emergency stairs on the side of the building and disappeared into the night.

Shane stood there, staring into the night sky, then it occurred to him. "The Dragoness!" he thought and turned to where the female electric dragon lay. She had apparently fainted. Shane knelt down next to her and shook her shoulder slightly, she didn*t wake. Getting a little worried he moved her hair back away from her neck and checked for a pulse. Then he realized something, there was something very familiar about her face. "She*s one of the dragons that knocked me out when I first came to Yann city!" He thought as the realization finally came to him.

Shaking her shoulder one more time he managed to wake her. With a sudden realization of what was waking her she jumped to her feet and backed up into the wall.

"You!" She said, fear in her eyes.

"Hey! Hey its ok im not going to hurt you, remember I tried to get that robber off of you, then that robot dragon came down and..."

"The protector saved me?" She asked, eyes wide again, but this time with curiosity.

"Yes.. Um he... it.. came down from the building and took that guy away..then he left." Shane told her, then explained what had happened after she fainted.

"Listen, I know you*re the one that knocked me out last week, but don*t be worried, im not going to hurt you." Shane surveyed the area. "Lets get out of this alley. Where do you live I*ll walk you home." He finished and held out his hand. "

Looking up at him, she thought "Well he did try to save me, but what could he have done against that dragon, he*s not very muscular, well I guess it couldn*t hurt for him to walk me home.. Wow the protector saved me, Clair will never believe it." After thinking it over she nodded, reached out and grabbed his hand.

Chapter 2

(A Newfound Friendship)

-- Mario Andretti If everything's under control, you're going too slow.

The bright full moon and stars were the only lights left in the sleeping city of Yann. Yet in this darkness two figures could be seen walking slowing down the street.

"Sheesh don*t these people believe in street lights... hmm they probably can see better in the dark than I can." Shane thought to himself. His attention then drew to the figure walking beside him. The fear had long since left her eyes and now he caught her quite often staring at him as they walked towards her home.

Every time, he could feel the hair on the back of his neck rise, he had not felt this way since high school back in Australia when a new girl kept following him. She had liked him of course, but due to his constant moving, Shane never really had time to have a girl friend.

"What am I thinking! This is a dragon! Beside she would never... well at least not after our first encounter." Shane thought as he looked down at her, catching her gaze for a quick second.

"I, umm, live right over this next hill." Emily said pointing ahead of them.

"Ok great...are you sure you don*t want to go to the police or the hospital, that was a pretty traumatic situation." Shane said still looking straight at the street, trying hard not to meet her gaze.

"Yes, it... well..." Emily looked down, then turned her head and looked towards the moon."Its not the first time that*s happened."

"Its not? Why don*t you try to take some classes on self-defence?" Shane said, taken aback by her previous statement.

"I plan to. I just... I haven*t gotten around to it, and I would really rather not talk about the subject right now if you don*t mind."

"Not at all, lets just get you to your apartment."

They came to the apartment and Emily opened the door and stepped inside, turning around she grabbed the door to close it.

"Thank you .. for trying to save me. I am really sorry about the first time we met. If I had know you wouldn*t of hurt my friend I wouldn*t of...." Shane cut her off by raising his hand.

"Don*t worry about it. What happened, happened. Im not angry about it and in the same situation I probably would have done the same." Shane said with a smile.

"Oh I never got your name?" Emily asked.

"Its Shane."

"Shane." She thought over the name. "Im Emily." she said offering him her hand. Shane shook it, and saw her smile for the first time.

"Well I had better be getting back." Shane said and turned around.

"Wait!" Emily yelled on an impulse, then blushed. "Um do you want to stay for some coffee or something?"

"Thank you very much, but I really ought to be going. Maybe some other time. Good bye Emily." Shane said smiling at her and waving as he walked towards his house.

"Goodbye" Emily said loudly waving, "Shane." she finished quietly under he breath.

"What am I doing, he*s not even a dragon and im acting like im 12 with my first crush." Emily thought as she watched him go.

"EMILY!! Where have you been" A voice from inside the apartment shouted. Emily turned around to see her roommate Clair standing in her dark green night gown with a telephone in her red scaled hand. She was a red dragon and had been living with Emily since they graduated together 3 years ago.

"I have been waiting all night for you to get back from work and your 2 hours late! What happened? Clair asked looking frantic.

Celeste smiled and looked back out the open door, then told the story of what happened.

"Oh... my .. God! You got saved by the protector? Was he cute, did you get a good look at him? what kind of dragon was he?" Clair asked getting all jumpy and exited like a cheerleader finding out the lead player liked her.

Emily laughed and explained how she had been knocked out by the blast and never actually saw the protector. With a groan of disappointment Clair settled down and leaned back up against the bed.

"Still even though I didn*t see him, its still a great feeling knowing that he was watching over me." Emily said grinning back at Clair. "Well im going to get ready for bed, that was enough excitement to last me a week."

Clair watched as Emily went to the wardrobe and searched for her night gown.

"So.. what happened next. After he saved you?" Clair asked as Emily walked into the bathroom to change.

"Well.... remember that human we kind of beat up last Wednesday?"

"Yah how could I forget he aimed a gun at me."

"Well, he was there in the alley, he, he tried to save me." Emily said exiting the bathroom now dressed in her light-blue night gown.

"He tried to save you?" Clair said taken aback by what Emily had just said. "No way!"

"Yah, he also walked me home afterwards, you just missed him when you came out of the bedroom. It was a good thing the protector saved us though, that guy was big and I don*t think Shane could of taken him." Emily finished sitting down on her bed.

"Shane?.... Who*s Shane?" Clair asked raising an eyebrow. Emily blushed at the question and answered "That*s his name.. the human*s."

"And you let him walk you home, great so now if he ever remembers what happened up on that hill he will know just where to find us. That*s it im moving back in with my father." Clair said, giving Emily a hysterical look.

"No, he was very nice. He said he wasn*t mad about the incident on the hill. Your just judging him, after all he did try to save me." Emily snapped at Clair.

"Im not judging anyone im just saying, you don*t know anything about this guy, and just because he stepped into an alley to save you before he knew who you were doesn*t mean that he*s not going to try something. But if you say he*s nice I*ll take your word for it." Clair said and slipped under the covers of her bed, then turned out the light on her dresser.

"Good night Emily." Clair said in a lighter tone.

"Good night Clair." Emily replies, but she did not go back to sleep. Something still tugged on the edge of her mind. "Why cant I stop thinking about that human? Arrgg I need therapy." she thought and finally fell asleep.

. . .

In a top secrete lab, under a corporate building two figures conversed on what they had just witnesses on the monitor.

"He took the bait just as you said he would ma*am." said one of the dark figures.

"When have you ever doubt my genius Mr. Delarko?"

A smile crept across both their faces. "Well the camera*s were in just the right places, im just worried about that robot hero. He may try to interfere again."

The lady gave a loud and wicked laugh."Then we will have to re-educate him, after all he was meant to be a tool for us if Dr. had not..made such an error. We take action now, let us make the first move to a brave new world, where we the true rulers of this planet take back what is rightfully ours." The monitors suddenly froze on the images of Babe, and Shane.

"This will be our finest hour ma*am. I will handle the abduction personally." Delarko said and exited the room. The lone figure stood up and moved towards the monitor, casting away the shadows the engulfed her, and revealing the scar that lay across her face. Touching it a tear ran down her face, and a memory flashed into her thoughts.

Chapter 3

(Dreams)

"If you don't have a dream, how are you going to make a dream come true?"

by Oscar Hammerstein

The Rain plummeted from the darkened heavens, pounding the Earth like a hammer and blanketing the island in all its furry. Among the ferocity of the storm a single figure stood as if to challenge the mighty God that had brought forth this terror or Mother Nature. The figure pushes forth through the storm, and into a clearing. Yet in this clearing another figure stood, awaiting the first. The human stopped as the other figure came into view; solid white scales seemed to glow in the gloom of the rain. The creature approached slowly, the human turned to run but was unable to move, fear and curiosity had struck deep into its mind and froze its feet where they lay. A great burst of light danced off the creature*s skin; a light so bright that even with its eyes closed the human could see the eerie yellow glow. When the light finally faded there stood an animal man had feared for centuries, its pale white skin gleaming like a ghost, its dark lifeless eyes stared deep into his. Finally the massive white dragon rushed forward, its mouth open revealing the double rows of razor sharp teeth and darkness that only welcomes death.

Shane woke up from this dream drenched in sweat and panting like he had been running for hours. He rushed to the bathroom and turned on the faucet, splashing his face with the cool water. This was the 4^th time he had awaken like this from the very same nightmare. Walking back to his bed he looked at the clock. "4:00" He thought trying to clear his ming of the horrible dream he just had.

Shane walked into the kitchen for a glass of water then sat down on his couch and thought of everything that had happened in the last few days. Yet the more Shane thought about the dream the more he began to wonder about last night. Celeste was an electric dragon, and he remembered seeing something happen to her before he went completely into unconsciousness. "

"She changed... into a larger dragon... I need to talk to her about this.. maybe she*s the only one that can do it, or maybe everyone here on this island can do it.. or maybe I was hit on the head with a rock and it was an illusion." Shane thought to himself. "I*ll see if I can meet her tomorrow, then I*ll ask her."

. . .

"You did what?... What did he look like up close, and his skin was it smooth or rough? What was his muscle structure like? What.."

Babe barely managed to cut Bill off. He was going nuts after hearing about him saving the Human.

"I didn*t really stay around to give him a physical Bill, I saved him and the girl then took off." Babe said trying to easy his hysterical partner.

"Man I wish I could have been there, im still waiting on those picture my friend at the University is sending me on him." Bill said running over to his computer. "Did you at least scan him?"

"No Bill!" Babe said sitting down next to Sarah.

Sarah, Bill*s lab assistant and Babe*s newfound love, attached a power cable to a small socket in Babe*s back.

"You drained most of your power flying, im still working on that new power converter, it will save you a lot of energy when you decide to take your little joy rides around the city." Sarah said smiling and rubbing the back of his neck as she secured the cable. "I*ll go get you some sugar."

"Thank you Sarah." Babe said beaming at her as she walked out of the room.

"You know Bill, if your really so interested in the human why don*t you just go meet him. Im sure Kia will know where he is, she did tell me a lot about him."

Bills eyes seemed to enlarge even behind the glasses he wore.

"Kia knows him, great, I wonder what he*s like as a person. Wow! I cant wait to meet him" Bill said turning back to his work on the computer.

"Oh boy, Bill needs to get out more often, maybe I need to get him a new girlfriend." Babe thought chuckling to himself. He turned his attention to Sarah when she re-entered the room with a bowl of sugar. He did not feel th old hunger like a normal person, just a sudden need to consume something with high amounts of sugar.

"Man I would die right now for a pizza or a steak." Babe said taking the bowl from Sarah.

"Well your just going to half to cope with the sugar until I find away that will let you. Im still working on those schematics Bill made up but there is a lot missing."

"Hey! I heard that there is nothing wrong with my schematics. They would be better but unfortunately I don*t know what will happen if I take him apart." Bill said looking insulted. Which was just what Sarah was aiming for and laughed at him. Getting the feeling he was being made fun of Bill went back to his computer muttering about Babe not having his radar on when she discovered the lab.

"So what happened?" Sarah said turning back to Babe.

"Well I went to listen to Kia and James perform at their practice, she leaves a speaker up their so I can hear them without going inside. Then I followed the human, I believe his name is Shane. He went into an alley to help a dragoness, and I jumped down to help." Babe explained to her.

"Oh, sure, just saving the human not interested in the girl huh?" Sarah said giving him a sly grin and leaning her back against his chest. Babe turned an odd shade of red, being a brown mountain dragon blushing looks kind of odd.

"Come on Sarah, you know its my job to save the people of this city, whether they are a boy or a girl. You*re the one I love." Babe said kissing her gently on the forehead. This of course lightened her mood, she knew already that half the girls in the city were madly in love with Babe, and she always got jealous when he saved a new one.

"You just make sure you remember that." Sarah said kissing him back. She then got up and went to work the computer next to Bill where her designs of the new power converter lay waiting.

"How long till you think it will be done?" Bill asked looking over her shoulder.

"Hopefully soon, all test simulations worked out and all it really needs is a test run. We should try it out soon though." Sarah replied face buried in the monitor.

. . .

A knock on the door, drove Player to his feet, grumbling about killing door to door salesmen he went to open it.

"Hey James, is Kia here." Shane said poking his head through the door as Player opened it.

"Yah, she*s taking a shower right now, she should be out in a couple minute." Player said letting Shane inside. He had never been inside Kia*s house before, normally they just stopped by when she needed to pick up or drop off something. It was about the size of his apartment, and was decorated very nicely. A couple posters of the DeepRockers and other famous bands were on the walls and a group of framed pictures displaying Kia*s family and friends.

A door opened down the hall and Kia emerged, slightly wet in her bathrobe.

"Hi Shane, I*ll be right back, got to change into something more decent." Kia said and went to her room closing the door behind her.

"So where did you run off to last night?" Player asked. "We stopped by your apartment on our way back and you weren*t there. Did you get lost?"

"No, I*ll tell you what happened when Kia gets here.. its kind of a long story." Shane replied.

Shane didn*t seem to notice the small animal staring at him from across the room. Like most dragons, its natural curiosity drove him to fly in for a closer look at the strange new creature that had entered its domain. The small dragon flew over and found a good perch, right on the end of Shane*s nose.

"Aaaahhh! What the Hell is that!" Shane said standing up and swatting at the quicker fairy dragon that now did laps around his head.

"NINO! Get over here!" Player yelled, and to Shane*s surprise the small fairy dragon stopped its laps and flew over to Player, landing on his shoulder.

"Um, this is Nino, he*s our, well... he*s our mascot, or at least that*s what Kia wants him to be." Player said dabbing some sugar on his finger and holding it out to the small fairy dragon, who instantly began to lick it off.

"Yes he*s our mascot." Kia said as she emerged from her room. "Player*s just mad because Nino made a nest inside him."

"He made a nest inside him? How?.. Where?" Shane said giving Player an odd look.

"In my chest, he flies down my throat and nests in my chest." Player said snorting at Nino, forcing the small dragon to once again take flight.

Shane put a little sugar on his finger and held it out. Sure enough Nino came flying over and landed to lick the sugar off. Shane couldn*t help but laugh, the little dragon was cute, and the fact that it made Player into a condo just cracked him up.

"I know why your laughing and unless you want to be the only human on this island with a limp I suggest you stop." Player said, but this only made Shane laugh harder, and Kia joined in. Player sat back and crossed his arms, knowing that Kia would never let him near Shane if he wanted to hurt him, and apparently Shane knew this.

Shane then went on and told them about the night before. How he had tried to save the girl, and got saved in return. Then about the dream and finally about Emily.

"Emily, hmm that name sounds familiar." Kia said rubbing her temple. Finally she realized who he was talking about. The coffee shop! She thought, and with a smile decided to play matchmaker again.

"Hey I have an idea lets go get some coffee! I know a great place." She said.

"But Kia I already.. OW!" Player started but was cut off when Kia stepped on his tail. She then gazed at him and nodded her head towards the door. Getting the point he got to his feet and walked outside to wait.

"Oh Player be a good boy and call the rest of the gang." Kia hollered at him in a sweat innocent voice. Grumbling about being better off living with a rabid lion, Player walked back inside and picked up the phone to call the rest of the DeepRockers.

Chapter 4

(Emily)

Perhaps we all give the best of our hearts uncritically - to those who hardly think about us in return.

TH White

Emily woke the next morning feeling great, she stretched and changed into some day cloths. When she came out her roommate Clair was already up making breakfast, which meant, cereal and donuts. Emily giggled to herself, her friend never learned how to make a very good breakfast.

"We need to go shopping soon Emily, we*re almost out of milk and bacon." Clair said handing her a plate of cereal and the last little bit of milk.. "Want some coffee?"

"No thanks. I really need to get to work." Emily answered and finished her breakfast. Clair*s father paid for most of the expenses, and was pretty rich, thus Clair could just sit at home and watch t.v. all day or go shopping. He offered to pay for Emily*s expenses too but she declined the offer, she needed to make it on her own. Not to say she didn*t like being around her red dragon side kick during the holidays.

Saying goodbye to Clair, Emily quickly went out to catch the bus, to work. On her arrival at the coffee shop, which was also the number one reason she didn*t drink a lot of coffee, 6 hours a day smelling nothing but coffee can make one sick of it rather quickly. It wasn*t until she got off the bus that she saw the swarm of people outside the shop.

"I wonder what all the commotions about?" she thought, crossing her figures that her cruel boss had been burnt by the cappuccino machine she wanted fixed.

Emily managed to push her way through the people, hearing some say things like.

"Oh my god its them." or "Wow, he is so cute.", and it wasn*t until she got inside that she saw them. The DeepRockers, the most famous band in Yann city was sitting down drinking coffee. Pik, Ace, Player, and Kia all were staring at her, then she noticed the other 2 figures sitting down with them. One she didn*t recognize but he had to be some cross between a griffin and a griffon, and the other, who was beaming at her, was Shane.

"Emily!" Her manager yelled. "Your late and we have a lot of customers here, now get an apron on and get to work serving these people."

"Yes Mr. Everson." Emily said hurrying behind the vendor to take the orders of the costumers here to see the DeepRockers. "Wow, is he here to see me? How did he know I worked here?"

Emily thought as she took the orders.

After about twenty minutes she watched her manager walk over to the table where Shane was seated, but could not hear what they were taking about. After a shot conversation the manager walked back behind the counter.

"Emily take a break. Julia take over for her." Mr. Everson said as he approached.

"Mr. Everson?" Emily said staring at him.

"Did I stutter Miss. Hanley? Your on break." He said again.

Emily removed her apron and walked over to the computer to punch out. When she looked up she could see Shane issuing her to come over and take a seat next to him, and the DeepRockers, she could hardly believe it, and a little shaken, slowly walked over.

"You did that didn*t you?" Emily asked as she took a seat between Shane and Pik. She looked at Shane for a moment then let her eyes swing from one rock star to another.

"Yah, I did that, I didn*t know you worked here." Shane said giving her a smile. "Oh. Emily this is Ace, Kia, Don, Pik and James... or uh Player." Shane finished pointing to each one of his friends. "Guys this is Emily, the girl that made quite an impression on our first encounter."

"Yah in the back of your head!" Pik said with a laugh, but that was cut off when Ace purposely stepped on his foot. Emily only blinked, eyes still wide with amazement about drinking coffee with the DeepRockers, and for the first time in a long time, the thought of coffee seemed really promising.

"Hi, Emily, so are you ok after last night? Shane told us all about it this morning." Kia said filling her cup.

"Yah, im fine." Emily managed to say after a few seconds. This only brought a smile to the groups faces.

"Wow look at the time. We had better get going to practice." Ace said as he got up, give the cue for the rest to leave.

"But Ace practice isn*t until..... OW!" James started but Kia stepped on his tail and glared at him. "Oh, yah now I remember." he finished giving a Kia a wink, then grabbed his tail and held it sympathetically.

Emily understood why they left and looked back a Shane. He was sitting nervously in his chair.

"Emily I have something to ask you." Shane said looking down at his feet. "The day when you knocked me out, I thought I saw you... well change."

"You saw me change... what do you mean?" She replied then it hit her. "Oh you mean you saw me change into my dragon form. Don*t worry that*s something all the people here on this island can do. It*s a kind of magic I guess." She said relieved it was something more drastic.

"Oh I see, well that explains a lot. I didn*t want to tell the others because if it was a secret I didn*t want to give it away." Shane said blushing at how stupid he felt just then.

"Don*t worry." Emily said laying her hand on his. "Think of it this way you*re the only human that knows it."

Shane chuckled. "Yah, your right about that."

"So Emily, um..."Shane started.

"Yes?"

"Are you."

Shane took a deep breath. "Are you seeing anyone?"

Emily looked shocked at first then smiled and shuck her head "No, im not."

Shane smiled and began to breath normally, "Would you like to, sometime, maybe get something to eat or see a movie?" Shane asked, eyes full of hope.

Emily looked into his eyes, seeing the true meaning of the question. "He just asked me out on a date." she thought.

She looked down for a moment then back up into his eyes. "Yes, I would love to!"

. . .

Unseen by the two figures inside the shop enjoying each others company, 5 figures stood outside watching.

"That is so cute." Kia said hugging Pik as he put his arm around her.

"Yah but it will never last." Player said. Everyone turned and looked at him. Player turned red. "Well it may, but I mean come on are they even compatible?"

Kia signed. "You know Player there is more to love and romance than just sex."

"That*s not what I meant.. I .. well.. Arrgg Kia must you make everything hard for me?" Player finished and started walking towards the studio. The rest shuck their heads and followed, leaving the new couple to their privacy.

. . .

Across the street, in the shadows of an alley 3 figures watched and waited. One a razor picked up his cell-phone and made a call.

"This is Delarko.. Yes ma*am we have identified the target... target has made a slight romantic entanglement... Yes ma*am I understand... not a problem." Delarko hung up the phone and turned to his 2 associates.

"Alright gentlemen, the boss wants this done nice and easy. If necessary the female he is with can be used as a hostage, we wait till they near the alley and we take them both as quickly as possible. Got it?"

"Yes sir!"

"Understood sir, but what if the girl gets in the way.. They can be kind of noisy."

"The boss doesn*t want a scene so, lets fix it so she cant scream too much." This brought a grin to their faces and they got in position for the abduction.

Yet even unaware to them, high on the building tops, Babe, who was collecting data on the human for Bill, had over heard their plan. "I cant let them do this, but why are they so interested in this human?" he thought to himself, and await their next move.

Part 4

(Meet Bill)