Dragon Island

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

Part 4

Meet Bill

Chapter 1

(Coffee Shop)

Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love. Turkish proverb  

The coffee shop had never seen so many people in one day then today. People were lined up in the streets while the manager danced happily around the back room. The people of Dragon Island were more like humans than they thought, when one of their celebrity visits a restaurant then you know it must be good, and because of that reason the small shop was bombarded with hundreds of customers.

"Wow Ace Jackson was sitting right over there Michael!" A young Wingless Griffon said as she squeezed her boyfriends arm. He didn*t seem to mind, he had always loved the DeepRockers and their music.

Away from the ever-growing mob of customers two very different figures, from two very different words sat together, quietly conversing on their pasts and present.

"Well I wasn*t born here in Yann, I just moved here with my friend Clair to go to the college. I grew up a little south of Bay City." Emily said taking a sip from her coffee. "So how about you? I don*t know any cities off this island but you could always explain what they look like."

Shane smiled and looked down at the floor then back up at her. "Well I was born in a big city called New York, but I don*t remember it very well, just after I was born we moved to a big Island called Australia. I was about 2 when my Mother past away.."

"Oh, Im sorry, I didn*t mean to bring up any bad memories." Emily said putting her right hand over her mouth.

"No, no its ok, trust me I had a lot of time to get over it, I just wish I could remember something about her." Shane said this time the tone of his voice had dropped and Emily could tell that he was getting depressed. Before she could say anything a figure came over to their table.

"Im sorry Emily but Julia is going to need some help, we have never been so busy!" Mr. Everson said.

"Ok!" She said getting up and retying her apron. "Um, Shane I guess I*ll see you later." Before she went back to the counter she wrote a number on one of the napkins and handed it to him saying, "Call me later if you want." then walked over behind the counter and began serving the mob of Dragons and Griffons.

Shane watched her for awhile then finished his coffee and got up to head for the door. Like always the people around the door moved aside, wide eyed at his presence. Ill never get use to that, Shane thought and left the building.

. . .

"We have the target leaving the shop!" Delarko said eyeing the human through a pair of binoculars. "The female is not with him, Jack, Sergei get ready, I want this to go as smoothly as possible, and if robo-boy shows up you know what to do!"

Sergei smiled and pulled out a small round cylinder.

"You sure that thing will work?" Jack asked looking at Sergei.

"Flawlessly, I designed it myself, robo-boy will be down for the count when this EMP grenade goes off." Sergei said tossing the grenade from hand to hand.

Walking just 25 meters away from the ally where the team lay ready to strike, Shane had no idea what problems lay in his future.

Delarko watched the human come into sight then whispered to Jack, "Get ready to jump him!"

"NOW!" He yelled and both Jack and him jumped out and grabbed Shane. Before Shane could even yell they had him on the ground and gagged.

Looking proud of themselves they dragged the kicking body to the end of the ally where their car waited. A loud thud behind them made the team turn around. There was the Protector, standing with his plasma launcher out and aimed right at them.

"Let the human go or I will kill you!" Babe said as he slowly walked towards them. But to his surprise instead of fear being in their eyes he saw smiled cross their faces, and he instantly knew something was very wrong.

"Not this time Robo-boy!" Sergei yelled and tossed the grenade.

Babes scanners went over the grenade and his eyes widened when he realizes what it was. He spread his wings to fly out of the blast range but it was too late. The explosion didn*t move a leaf on the ground, but Babe could feel every system in his body turn off and for the first time in a long time fear went threw his mind, and then he was engulfed in darkness.

The team laughed as they walked over and picked up the body of the protector.

"So anyone else hear a large end of the year bonus coming?" Sergei said and he dragged the limp body to the car at the end of the ally. "God he is heavy.. Jack help me out man."

Delarko ignored him and made his phone call.

"This is Delarko."

"Did you get the human?"

"Yes Ma*am. And the RS-2"

"You successfully captured it?"

"Yes Ma*am the EMP grenade worked perfectly."

"Very good Mr. Delarko, I will meet you at the warehouse with a team in 3 hours. I trust nothing will happen."

"No Ma*am, I*ll will be their with both the RS-2 and the human." 

Chapter 2

(Tragedy) 

"Bill! Get over here now!" Sarah yelled as she stared at the blank monitor in front of her.

"What happened? Why are all the monitors off?" Bill frantically said rushing to the computers that monitored Babe*s bio-signs.

"I don*t know, he said they had the human and went to stop them then all I saw was a flash of blue light and the monitors went blank." Sarah said replaying the tapes for Bill.

"Shit! They used some kind of EMP grenade, it was a trap all along." Bill snapped looking over the last of the images that Babe recorded before blacking out.

"Will he be ok. It didn*t kill him did it?" Sarah asked almost in tears.

"No all his bio-signs are ok, his back up battery is fine and his core memory hasn*t been damaged or erased. Looks like his armor protected him from most of the blast. It may have only paralyzed him, I just hope not indefinitely." Bill explained giving her a worried look. Sarah flooded with tears and the thought of losing the one person she had ever loved cried into Bills arms. Shocked and still confused on what just happened, all Bill could do was comfort her and pray that Babe would pull through this.

. . .

"Warning Power Loss Imminent!"

"Warning Functions Are Offline!"

"Automatic Backup Battery Powering Up." The images had been flashing in front of Babe*s eyes for the last two hours. He had almost given up hope of his back up power being able to restore his systems. Then a new image in bright green began to flash rapidly.

"Scanning Area!" Babe could feel the energy slipping through his systems, one by one they began to repair the damage that had been done by the EMP grenade. His radar now worked and he new he wasn*t alone in the room, there were 6 figures, 1 was human, but the other he couldn*t identify. It took another hour before he had the power to even open his eyes. Careful not to move his head he scanned the room. The room itself was dimly lit, grey concrete walls surrounded the area, and a small window painted black so that nobody could see in was at the far end of the room. Suddenly a new massage flashed in his left eye, and he could slowly move his fingers and limbs.

"Back Up Power Now Online, All Primary Functions Online, Motor Functions Now at 50%, Scanning for casualties."

Trying to get up he was suddenly halted by some object rapped around his hands and waste.

"Its called T-41, its pretty much unbreakable, the more you stress it the harder it gets, of course you already know this. After all the same metal covers your entire body." The voice was cold and sent a familiar chill running through Babe*s mind.

"Who are you? Why have you taken the human and me captive?" Babe said angrily and tried once more to stand, but collapsed, he still didn*t have enough power to fight. The bar on his viser had moved very little and told him that he was at 63% normal power levels.

"You mean you really don*t remember me? After all that quality time was spent together, in the lab. You were to be our greatest accomplishment, the first fully operational robotic soldier, and the first of many. Yet you lacked the interest and murdered the great doctor that put life back into your dead body." The voice continued.

"LIAR! I would have lived, you lied to my family and told them I was dead!" Babe screamed the rage building up inside him.

"Oh calm down you oversized chick!" the figure said walking around Babe to reveal herself. She was a common dragon, much like Player only not as big, her long black hair was tied back in a pony-tail. Babes eyes were wide in shock when he saw her. It was Katherine Serrano, the CEO of Drake Industries, the largest corporation on the island.

"Katherine Serrano? But why?" Babe asked.

"Why!" She turned and gave the now awake Shane a horrible look. "Because 24 years ago I lost my entire family to these, these creatures. I was 12 at the time. My father had become obsessed with us moving back and retaking land from the humans. He said that it was our birth right to rule the Earth not the humans. But of course the Senate denied him the opportunity to even try and negotiate with the humans. So one morning my father said we were going for a flight, I knew then that it was against our laws to leave the island but never questioned my father. We were on the main land for only 5 hours when it happened. We had landed on one of their military training areas, my father and mother were both murdered by these creatures, they didn*t even give them a chance. I was lucky enough to escape but not without a price!" She said pulling the hair away from her face relieving a large scar from the base of her chin to her temple. "This scar is an everyday reminder of their ways. The weapon they used caused a large explosion that incinerated my parents, a small piece of shrapnel did this as I ran away. They chased me for 2 days before I managed to fly my way back here." Katherine finished. "But this will all end.." In the middle of her speech Babe activated his vocal and digital recording systems. "My scientist will engineer a virus that will wipe out all human life on this planet. When the last of the humans are gone we the pure dragons will re-emerge and reclaim the world for which we rightfully own." She slid her hand down the side of Shane*s face, he pulled back to her amusement and glared coldly at her.

"You will never get away, we have the technology to find and stop you..you bitc.." Shane started but was cut off by Katherine*s laugh.

"Im sure! We have even more advanced technology than your kind and soon we will have a virus that will wipe out every major human city on the planet. ." She paused and walked over to Babe. "But then what would we create to take over the last remaining humans, im sure they would take up arms against us." Babe*s eyes widened again with the realization of what she was talking about.

"My dear Babe did it take you this long to realize your only purpose in life? You were to the perfect soldier, strong, invincible, loyal, and very lethal." She laughed again.

"But ever since you left our happy little family we had almost given up on sending an army of robotic soldiers to wipe out any that still lingered. We have decided to move forward with engineering a virus that only affects humans. Its quick, its flawless and they will never see it coming."

"NO!" Babe yelled trying to stand with all his might. "I will not let you commit mass genocide on innocent people."

"Innocent? INNOCENT? Were they innocent when they murdered my family? Were they innocent when they almost drove us to extinction? ANSWER ME!!" Katherine said rage and anger unlike anything glaring out of her eyes. A light-brown Rissos dragon stepped forward and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Ma*am are you ok?" He said but she shuck him off.

"Im fine Delarko!" She answered.

"Your mad Katherine!" Babe yelled back.

"No you are, I was going to have you reprogrammed but I would rather test out my latest toy."

She said giving the signal to a figure in the dark corner of the room. Babes scanners picked it up as the anomaly that it could not identify. As it walked into the light Babe gasped. Black metal covered its entire body, strong mechanical muscles powered every limb. Unlike Babe this one was a Griffon, even its beak was metallic.

"Of course we had to upgrade him a little since the demise of the good doctor. RS-1 destroy the RS-2 prototype" Katherine said and the robotic adversary moved forward, 5 long razor sharp talons extended from its left hand and its right reconfigured into a plasma cutter. It was going to literally rip him apart piece by piece.

"System at 95%... Scan show new component........Upgrading data with power converter.... Data transfer complete awaiting authorization to initiate power converter upgrade..."

The words flashed in front of Babe*s eye. "That*s it.. The power converter, Sarah said it would increase my abilities by 100% and keep my power cells charged longer.. but what*s the authorization?" He thought then looked up at his foe coming ever closer. Then it hit him, "Sarah!"

"There*s just one thing you didn*t expect Katherine?

"Oh really! And what would that be?" She said very amused at his little retaliation.

"Me getting really pissed off!!!" "Authorization Sarah 001!" At the sound of the authorization command the prototype power converter that Sarah had made for him activated. It reconverted every bit of energy 100 fold, slowly supercharging all of Babe*s systems.

Chapter 3

(The Strength Within)

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

With a roar Babe extended his wings and shattered the T-41 chain that was rapped around hit. Extending his claws he approached the RS-1 and went to punch it in the face, with lightning speed the RS-1 blocked and returned the punch. Babe was barley able to block it, and the battle began. Babe punched and kicked, slashed and dodged but could lay a single hit on the RS-1, it was just way to fast for him. Suddenly it turned an side kicked Babe square in the chest knocking his helmet off and sending him flying almost half-way across the room. With speed unlike anything he had ever seen Shane watched in horror as the RS-1 jumped and landed on Babe with its claws extended. It landed right on top of him and pinned Babe to the ground, suddenly the plasma torch that was on its right hand re-ignited and the RS-1 moved it towards Babes head. With the RS-1's plasma torch in one hand and its claw in the other Babe was struggling for his life. Never before had he ever fought anything this powerful.

Laughing with pleasure Katherine walked over to where Babe and the RS-1 fought.

"Well Babe its been fun but I have some people to go kill. It seems that a couple people found out your alive, it*s a real shame that happened, what was that girls name again? Oh yes Sarah, Maik, and your mother too, what a shame. Well it looks like your all going to meet in the after life sooner than you thought. RS-1 destroy him now!" Katherine yelled.

Babe suddenly saw images of his mother, his friends Kia, Maik and Bill, his love Sarah, they were all so happy then he say them murdered, laying on the floor, eyes staring blankly into nothing, and something snapped.

Using all the energy that the power converted could used he began to squeeze the RS-1's wrists. Suddenly the metal began to give way slowly bending inward causing wires and gears to break. Sparks of electricity began to dance up and down the arm as the energy was being trapped withing it.

"No!" "That*s impossible!" Katherine screamed. "Everybody get in here we need back up"

As she said this 6 more heavily armed dragons entered the room, but Babe didn*t care, no weapon could stop him now. Suddenly the gears in the RS-1's arms could no longer take the build up of energy and began to melt from the heat. Until both joints where the arms were attached exploded sending Babe flying backwards. Delarko gasped in horror as Babe stood up and through the arms of his robotic adversary to the ground and picked up his helmet. His eyes were glowing a blood red color and his face was that of a man about to kill anyone in his was.

"Kill him use the EMP grenade!" Katherine yelled but it was too late. Babes right arm had changed into a gun and he began to shoot at Delarko*s men. The shots hit Sergei and Jack, knocking both of them back. Delarko and Katherine turned to run but Babe was enraged and too fast for them, Extending his left arm he fired out two cables that wrapped themselves around Delarko and Katherine. Swearing and cursing the doctor that created Babe they fell to the ground.

At the same moment the door busted open and Bill, Sarah and about 25 heavily armed police officers stormed into the room.

"Holy shit!" Bill said as he walked around the clutter of groaning bodies. Sarah ran over to Babe and hugged him with all her might.

"Oh Babe I was so worried, when we lost contact with you Bill and I immediately went to the Prime Minister and explained to him about you and all. And when we finally got a signal he sent us down here with 25 of the best officers Yann city has to offer." Sarah said tears in her eyes. She buried her head in his chest. "I was afraid we would be too late." Her attention suddenly turned to the RS-1 laying on the floor. "Oh my God! What is that thing?"

"Its ok. Im fine, your power converter is what saved me.. Worked like a charm, boosted my power supply as well as all my systems by 100%." Babe said hugging her back. Then explained to her what the RS-1 was, and how the TDO had control over Drake Industries.

"Hey I really hate to break up all this lovely romance but could somebody please untie me. Sheesh cant stay one month on this island with out being kidnaped or attacked by some giant animal, or knocked on the head, or..."Shane went on and on but nobody but Bill seemed to listen to Shane as he untired him.

Babe and Sarah walked outside the building and watched the police arrest Delarko and Katherine.

"So all this time it was her fault that your like this." Sarah said.

"Yah, I can remember her now, she was in the room when the doctor was doing some of the procedures." Babe replied and looked back inside where Shane was talking to the police chief, while Bill examined him.

"Bill doesn*t seem to respect anyone*s personal space if they have something interesting about them."Babe said laughing for the first time in a long time.

"Yah and neither do I when it*s the guy I love." Sarah said rubbing up against him and nuzzling her head under his neck. Babe turned red, and responded by wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight.

"Yes then she said that the whole reason for...... Will you stop touching me! ... Who the Hell are you?" Shane yelled at Bill. Babe and Sarah only laughed and walked back to the lab to rest in each others company. 

Chapter 4

(Trial)

-- Lord ActonPower tends to corrupt, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely

The trial was held four days after the incident. In those four days the topic of the news was the TO trying to take over the world and how the protector had stopped them. Many people interviewed Shane, Sarah, Bill and Celeste about the events that had occurred. Bill was on TV a lot over those days explaining how he helped the protector, and aided in his rescues. All the news crews wanted an interview with the Protector but Babe was uninterested and preferred the shadowy, character he had become. After discovering that the TDO had control over Drake Industries it was decided to be put under police control until the Senate found a new CEO they could trust.

The trail was held at the Senate and everyone watched as the Prime Minister convicted her.

"Mrs. Katherine Serrano please rise." She stood up and sent a hateful glare at Shane, who only smiled and waved back.

"On the accusations of corrupting Drake enterprise*s with TDO intentions, unauthorized testing on live dragon subjects, 2 cases of kidnaping, 7 cases of murder, 2 cases of attempted murder, the usage of unauthorized weapons on Yann city citizens, and finally for attempted mass genocide of the human race. We find you guilty of all charges."

"It is by the decision of this Senate the you Katherine Serrano be sentenced to 30 years at the Coral Bay Mental Health Clinic, with no chance for parole. This trial is now adjourned.

The Judge said and hit a small bell with a hammer that resembled the Gavel used by human judges.

As Katherine walked by with two armed security officers, Shane had no choice but to stand up in front of her and say, "You know we had people back where im from that were just like you, but you know what. They all got what they deserved and so will you."

She glared at him with hatred and was pushed forward and out of the building. As Shane got up the Prime Minister came over and apologized.

"Shane I am so sorry that this happened. If there is anything that we can do to show you that we are not all as filled with hatred for the human race as Katherine was, please tell me." Shane looked over his shoulder as Emily wrapped her hand around his.

"Mr. Prime Minister, I already know that not all of you are like her, and I accept your apology."

Shane said and walked off with Emily by his side and... Bill tagging along behind him every now and then examining Shane a little too closely.

"Hey Bill what did I tell you .. 5 feet is the limit." Shane yelled chasing Bill around the street. High above them unnoticed to all except one dragoness, Babe watched Bill and Shane. He then looked up at the city and then to Sarah, smiling he picked her off her feet and took to the sky.

. . .

In an armored car heading towards the South part of the island, Delarko and Katherine sat quietly.

"So Ma*am what was it you called this project?" Delarko asked sarcastically breaking the silence.

"Shut up Delarko!"

"Oh yes, the flawless operation."

"Shut Up Delarko!!"

"Didn*t go so flawlessly did it.. Ma*am!"

"Delarko for the love of god SHUT UP!!" Katherine screamed. Delarko only laughed, he had been allowed parole and was only going away for 10 years, he was finally out of her clutches.

Katherine sighed and thought deeply, Im going to kill them both one day.... then I*ll be unstoppable.