The Meeting of Destiny

by DemonicFury

Chapter One

Marcia growled as the mysterious dragons came closer. She activated her blocking staff and got ready to fight. Her dark blue dragon, Starlight, just glared at the dragons in anger. “Starlight, we’re not going to go down without a fight, now are we?” Starlight shook her head and fired a mag burst at the dragons. They dodged the blast and ran at them. Marcia beat them off with her staff as Starlight continued shooting at them. One of them pinned her to the ground and another slammed Marcia into a wall. All Marcia could see were the blurred outlines of the dragon as it came closer. As her vision focused, it looked her right in the eyes. Marcia couldn’t believe it. This dragon showed no fear or anger or rage. Its eyes were lifeless. It was like its soul was separated from its body. It growled and got ready to finish her, when suddenly a roar rang out.

The dragons looked up and roared back. A green dragon jumped from one of the rooftops and walked towards them. The dragons slowly backed away before running at top speed away from the mysterious dragon and rider. Marcia and Starlight stood.

“Thank you.”

“No problem.”

“So, mind telling me who you are?”

“I believe it is common etiquette to give one’s name before asking another’s.” Marcia couldn’t help but be surprised by how proper they sounded.

“Uh, right, of course. I knew that. My name is Marcia and this is my dragon, Starlight.” The stranger took off their helmet. Marcia gasped. Her savior was… a girl!

Chapter Two

“My name…. is Ripper….and this is my dragon, Boy.” Marcia was shocked. What kind of a name was Ripper? She had heard a lot of strange names before but never one like that!

“Um. Anyway, I’d like to thank you for helping me.” Ripper smiled.

“No need. It’s what I do.”

“But I’d still like to thank you. I mean you saved my life.”

“Geez, lady. Just let me leave!” The girl magged onto her dragon and raced away.

Marcia looked around and realized the girl had dropped her helmet in her hasty escape.

“Hey wait!” Marcia signaled Starlight to mag her on and race after the girl.

Chapter Three

Marcia was surprised by Ripper’s dragon. Starlight was one of the fastest in Dragon City and yet Boy was outrunning her without breaking a sweat. Ripper growled. “Stop following me, dammit!”

“But you forgot your helmet!”

Ripper urged Boy into an alley. Starlight rounded the corner at top speed, but stopped as she realized it was a dead end. Starlight slowly walked towards the wall. Marcia looked around. “But, it’s a dead end. How did she escape?” Marcia sighed. “Oh, well. I guess if she wants it back she’ll come find me.”

Marcia raced Starlight out of the alley and back to their home in Down City.

Ripper and Boy watched her leave. “I guess I have to go get my helmet back. Right, Boy?” Boy nodded. “All right. First thing tomorrow we’ll go get it back. Besides, if anything goes wrong, we can escape with ease. After all, we’ve been living here for nine years.” Boy nodded and headed towards the edge of the building. Ripper jumped him off of it and raced him through the streets, heading for their home in the wastelands.

Chapter Four

“Oh no,” Marcia groaned as she looked at the clock. She was late meeting Parm. She quickly got dressed and ran out to the stable. She hurriedly put a saddle, white aero, and red thrusting gear on Starlight. They raced through the many alleyways of Down City. Starlight struggled to stay at top speed. Marcia activated the thrusting gear and headed for Parm’s house in Mid City. They raced up empty racing tracks and past humming turbines. When they finally got to Parm’s house, however, they found it empty. “Oh man. Where did he go?” Marcia looked around and managed to find a note that someone had attached to a hidden piece of gear.

It read:

Dear Marcia,

Artha called me and wanted me to meet him at Penn Stables. I do not know how long I will be detained, but if you cannot wait, then come down to Penn Stables and get me.

Sincerely,

Parmon Sean

Marcia groaned. She hated Artha Penn. He was so stuck up. She didn’t see how Parm put up with him. Marcia sighed and walked back to Starlight. She mounted her and sighed again. “I guess we better go get him.” Starlight nodded and raced off towards Penn Stables.

Meanwhile, a cloaked figure on a green dragon watched them from a nearby rooftop.

“Come on, Boy. Let’s go get my helmet.” They quickly raced after Marcia by jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

Chapter Five

Lance looked up from his vidd-game as Marcia rode up on Starlight. “Hey, Parm, Marcia’s here!” Parm looked up from the gear he was working on.

“Coming!” He carefully placed it in a case and locked it. Marcia looked at him and smiled.

“Safety precautions?”

“Safety precautions.”

“Oh man!” Parm looked at Lance. Lance confusedly looked at him.

“What? I lost.”

“Whatcha playing?”

“Oh nothing, just the new version of Battleground Dragons….” Lance stopped talking as he realized that he didn’t know the girl in front of him. “Um. Who are you?”

“Her name’s Ripper. So, what are you doing here?” Ripper straightened to her full height, which put the top of her head even with Marcia’s eyes.

“I believe you found my helmet.”

“Oh right I… Oh scales, I forgot it! I’ll be right back!” Marcia ran to Starlight and raced off to her house to retrieve the helmet. Ripper turned and looked at Parm.

“So, I’m Ripper, this is my dragon, Boy. Who are you guys?”

“Well, um… I am P...P…” Lance hit him on the back. “Parmon Sean!”

“And I’m Lance!” Ripper smiled.

“Well, nice to meet you. Mind if I play?” Lance looked at the controller.

“But I only have one.”

“Oh then let’s go shopping for another one.” She pulled out a small bag and dumped a few dracles out. She smiled. “My treat.”

“Sure! But wait, could we get some draconee-yum bars?” Ripper scoffed.

“Of course!”

“Then let’s go!”

“Shouldn’t we wait for Marcia?”

“Ah she’ll catch up! Now, let’s go!”

They ran to their dragons and raced towards the marketplace.

Chapter Six

“Oh man! They’re back!” Marcia raced Starlight through the streets, struggling to keep ahead of the mysterious black dragons that were chasing her. They snapped at her tail and harshly roared at her.

Suddenly, Marcia was blindsided by an unseen enemy and sent flying into a taxi-dragon. Starlight thudded as she hit the ground. Her gear flew off and skidded across the street. Marcia tried to get Starlight to stand, but the dragons forced them down again, cutting Marcia’s head in the process. Two more black dragons with Bull-Class body shapes rode up pulling a trailer used for moving dragons. The biped black dragons herded them into the trailer and magged the door shut. Marcia slowly lost consciousness as the trailer began moving towards an unknown destination.

Chapter Seven

Because of the main road being closed, they had to leave their dragons in a nearby parking lot. After walking for awhile, Lance started to become impatient.

Lance circled around Ripper like a hyperactive dragon pup. “Oh boy! Oh boy! So, which store are we going to?” Ripper gave him a nervous smile.

“Honestly,” she said, putting her hands behind her head, “I have no idea.”

“What?! You mean we’re just aimlessly walking around here?!” Ripper turned her head to look at Parm.

“Of course not silly. We’re aiming to go to a store and buy a controller and draconee-yum bars. We just don’t know which store to go to.”

“And that changes everything!”

“Yes it does. So glad you agree with me.” Parm groaned and looked at Lance, who seemed to have drifted back into the world of Battleground Dragon Version Four. Parm casually gazed at the screen, finding it more interesting than the confused girl in front of him. He made various noises as he tried to defeat the spiked dragon named Demongo. Suddenly, Lance tripped on something and fell down. Ripper stopped.

“That sounded like it really hurt.”

“Really, really hurt.” Lance turned and found he had tripped on a black and red helmet with small spikes in various places. He picked it up and stood.

“Whoa. Drac helmet.” Ripper turned and looked at it.

“That’s mine,” she said, grabbing it out of his hands.

“Hey! Finders keepers!”

“Shut it, Lance,” she said as she studied the helmet.

“What could you possibly be looking for?”

“Signs of a struggle.” Parm scoffed.

“Now why would you look for that?”

“Remember how Marcia went back to get my helmet? Well, if its here…”

“Then where’s Marcia?”

“Bingo! That is the question, now let’s find the answer. Parm, got any ideas?” Parm looked around nervously.

“Um… I think we should look around and search for pieces of evidence that would lead us to her whereabouts.” Ripper looked at Lance.

“Do what now?”

“I have no idea.” Parm cleared his throat.

“We should look for clues.”

“Oh right. I knew that.”

“Sure you did.” They quickly looked around the marketplace. Suddenly, Lance tripped again. He turned and found a piece of black draconium gear. Ripper turned to Parm.

“Does he always find stuff by tripping on it?” Parm shrugged and ran to Lance. Parm took the shard of gear and inspected it. It was midnight black and had midnight blue markings on it. It shined as Parm rotated it in the sunlight. Ripper grabbed it from him.

“Hey!” She rotated it a few times before pressing a few buttons on her comm-link. Parm and Lance turned as the sound of a dragon running grew louder. They were shocked to see that Boy had come. Ripper reached up and pressed a glowing red button on his saddle. It beeped and shut off. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

“I think I know what took Marcia,” she said, mounting Boy.

“Who?”

“Never mind that. This isn’t your fight. Stay out of it.”

“But-”

“Shut up, go to your dragons, and get back to Penn Stables. I’ll bring Marcia back.” Parm and Lance watched her ride away at top speed. They looked at each other and nodded. They ran back to their dragons and raced after Ripper, for they weren’t about to stand by while their friend was in trouble.

Chapter Eight

Marcia awoke to find herself trapped against the wall with green trapping gear. Starlight was trapped against the floor with black holding gear. She looked up but found that the top of the building seemed to go on forever. There was barely any floor under her and poor Starlight was stuck on an isolated piece of the floor.

“How did they get you over there girl?” Starlight tried to look at her but found it impossible with all of the gear someone had put on her. She weakly whined and let her head thud against the floor. Suddenly, the door opened. A tall person dressed in dark armor stepped through. Black dragons stood on either side of them. “Who are you? What do you want with me?” He chuckled.

“Now why would I want to spoil the surprise? I want to see the look on your face when my plan is put into effect.”

“Let me go you bastard!” The armored man scoffed.

“I would think that one as proper as you would have better manners. With any luck, they’ll be better after I’m through with you.” The man turned and walked through the door. The dragons stayed and kept watch, never blinking, never resting. Marcia’s head drooped as the door closed and the lights shut off, leaving herself and Starlight in total darkness, with no one but the zombie-like dragons as company.

Chapter Nine

Ripper looked up at the enormous structure that loomed before her. It was a citadel. It was not as tall as the citadel of the famous Word Paynn, but it was still pretty tall. Boy slowly walked up to it. He looked around, as if fearing an approaching enemy. “What’s wrong, Boy?”

He did not look up at her for he did not want to let her see how scared he was. Ripper shook off his strange actions and slowly urged him towards the citadel. She did not want to rush in, for she knew just who would be waiting. Her old “friend” Drakkus would be at the top of the citadel, awaiting her entrance. She opened her bag and pulled out a green draconium gauntlet. Ripper put it on her left arm and magged off of Boy. She placed the hand with the gauntlet on a sensor pad and backed up as the doors opened. Boy magged Ripper on and slowly walked through the open doors, still afraid of what they’d find.

Chapter Ten

Parmon gasped as he and Lance rode up to a building on their dragons, Cyrano and Fracshun. “Now that is a house.”

“Lance, that is not a house. It is a citadel. And a big one at that.”

“Is it Word Paynn’s?”

“No, Lance, his is bigger.”

“Whoa.”

“I know.” Parm shook his head and snapped back into reality. “Come on, Lance. We have to help Ripper save Marcia.”

“Right.” They urged their dragons towards the huge building, but stopped as they realized the door was locked. “How do you plan on getting us in, Professor?” Parm activated Cyrano’s green bashing gear and slammed into the door. Pieces of glass and drywall flew everywhere. “Wow. You’ve never destroyed private property before.”

“Well, my friends have never been in trouble before.”

“Wait. So, you think Ripper’s your friend?”

“Honestly, yes. I’m not sure why, I just have this feeling that she’s a friend. Besides, she’s trying to save Marcia. And remember the saying, ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’?” He turned to find that Lance had left him behind. “Lance!”

“Parmon!” Parm raced Cyrano after the quickly moving Lance and Fracshun.

Chapter Eleven

“Back off you stupid shadow dragons!” Ripper yelled as she beat the mysterious black dragons off with her blocking staff. Boy hit as many dragons as he could with mag bursts, but they just kept getting back up. The shadow dragons roared and jumped at them. Even with her strength, she was barely able to keep them at bay. “Forget this, Boy. Let’s go.” Ripper grabbed the handlebars and raced Boy towards the door to the next room. A group of shadow dragons ran in front of them, but Boy jumped over them with ease. They raced through the door and headed for the staircase that led to the top floor, the floor where Drakkus awaited them.

Boy raced up the staircase, blasting the shadow dragons off of it with his mag bursts. He had to hold them off while Ripper kept them from running off of the staircase. The draconium energy measurer that was built into the saddle beeped slowly as his energy began running low. “Oh man. At this rate we’ll be out of energy before we even get to the top floor.” She slowed Boy to try to reserve energy, but the shadow dragons just kept coming. “Oh man. We need-” A lightbulb went off in her head. “I gots an idea!” She reached under her saddle and pulled out a fire grenade. “Boy, when I throw this, you have to start running at full speed towards the top. Okay?” Boy nodded. “Okay. Here we go.” Ripper pressed the button and threw it behind them, aiming for the shadow dragons.

It hit the staircase and exploded in a flash of fire and smoke. The dragons hit directly were almost instantly killed and sent crashing to the ground. Debris bombarded the shadow dragons that remained at the lower levels of the staircase. The highest levels of the staircase crumbled and slowly crashed to the ground.

Ripper groaned as the final pieces of the staircase hit the ground. “That was close. Too close. We are never using a fire grenade again. Okay?” Boy nodded and slowly walked towards the door. “All right. Big battle, here we come.” They magged the door open and raced inside.

Chapter Twelve

Parmon whimpered as a huge explosion rocked the citadel. "What was that?"

"I don't know, Lance, but it can't be good." They raced their dragons at full speed and found themselves facing a group of shadow dragons. Parm activated his green ramming gear and slammed Cyrano into them. They crashed into the wall, knocking it down.

"Nice." They carefully stepped over the motionless bodies and rubble. "Whoa," Lance gasped in awe as he looked up at the pile of debris. "What happened?"

"Well, this explains the explosion. Ripper probably got into a fight and for some reason; one side blew up the stairs."

"Do you think Marcia was caught in the blast?"

"Probably not. Ripper was probably on her way up the stairs. Otherwise, we would've run into her."

"Oh, right. Wait, how are we going to get up there and help Marcia?"

"There's got to be an elevator somewhere."

"Wouldn't Ripper have used it?"

"Does she seem like the person to do that?"

"Not really, no."

"Exactly. Now come on. We need to find a way up." They searched around the room but found nothing. "Any luck?"

"No." Suddenly, Fracshun started walking. "What is it boy?" Fracshun grunted as a platform lit up. He stepped on it and a keypad came up out of the floor. "All right! Parmon, over here!" Cyrano raced over to them.

"Good going, Lance." He magged off of Cyrano and walked over to the keypad. "All right, everyone on the elevator."

"Do you know how to work it?"

"I believe I can figure it out." He pressed a few buttons and the platform slowly began descending.

"Hey wait. Up, not down!"

"Don't worry. I can fix it." He pressed a few more buttons and the platform began ascending. "See?" Lance rolled his eyes.

"Nice one, Professor." He magged back on Cyrano and got ready to fight, for he had no idea what they would face on the next level.

Chapter Thirteen

Parmon gasped as the elevator reached the top floor and revealed a horrible scene. Ripper and Boy were staring down, or in this case up, a giant black quadruped dragon with three foot long horns and an armored rider. Boy growled and jumped at the dragon, which quickly spun, slamming Boy and Ripper into the wall with his tail. The rider laughed as Ripper struggled to get Boy to stand.

“Come on, Ripper. I know you can do it!” Lance’s voice rang out against the silence. The dragon and rider turned to look at them. He laughed again.

“Oh, look. You seem to have friends. And they’ve even come to watch your downfall. But I think they’d be better off watching us from above!” He glowed and shot a mag burst at them.

“Aaahhhhh!!!” Lance and Parmon ducked, but the blast never hit. They looked up to see Ripper and Boy deflecting the blast with a mag stream.

“All right!” Ripper destroyed the burst and growled.

“Stay out of this. This battle does not concern you.”

“You need help.”

“No, I don’t. Now go hide while I take care of this idiot.”

“Wait!” Parm’s cries fell on deaf ears as Ripper raced Boy around the gigantic dragon.

“Over here, Drakkus!” He shot at them, but missed. “Oh! Too slow!” He tried again, but no luck. “Nope! Over here!” He growled.

“You little brat!” He gathered up enough mag energy to create a shield and then sent the shield flying at them.

“Oh, no.” Ripper and Boy crashed into Marcia’s cage. The cage shattered and they slid across the floor, coming to rest at Marcia’s feet. Marcia pulled her off of Boy’s saddle and tried to shake her awake.

“Come on, Ripper! You have to get up!” However, Ripper remained unresponsive. Drakkus laughed.

“Some hero! She takes one hit and cannot stand!” He turned to face Parmon and Lance. “And now for the sidekicks.” He powered, preparing to mag blast them.

“I don’t think so!” Marcia magged on Starlight and slammed into a column. It cracked and fell towards Drakkus. He quickly mag blasted it instead of Parm and Lance, who took this opportunity to run over to Marcia. “Guys. We need to buy some time to see if Ripper and Boy can recover.”

“But what can we do?”

“Just run around him and if he tries to mag shield you, run over to Ripper and mag blast it. We can’t let him get her while she’s down!”

“Right!” They quickly surrounded Drakkus, who simply laughed at them.

“You pitiful fools think you can take me on?” Lance growled.

“We’re not pathetic!”

“Or fools!” Marcia looked at Parmon.

“Nice save.” He rolled his eyes.

“Look at you. You cannot even work together. What makes you think you can take me on?”

“This.” Starlight shot a mag bolt at him. He deflected it with an armored hand. “Now!” The trio quickly raced around him. Drakkus quickly shot multiple mag bursts at them, narrowly missing Lance and Fracshun. “Faster!” They stepped their speeds up to close to two hundred miles per hour, but the blasts just kept getting closer and closer. One blast even scraped some scales off of Fracshun’s tail.

“Guys! I can’t keep up!”

“Keep trying, Lance! We can’t give up now!” They struggled to keep up the pace. Drakkus chuckled and shot at Marcia. The blast hit, sending her flying. She and Starlight slid a few feet before coming to a stop. Drakkus walked his dragon over to them.

“Stupid girl! I’ll destroy you!” He powered up.

“No!” Boy slammed into his dragon, causing it to fall. It crashed loudly to the ground. “Come on guys! Let’s get out of here!” The group raced towards the elevator. Ripper quickly pressed a few buttons and the platform began descending. Drakkus slowed forced his dragon up.

“No!” He tried to stop them, but the floor closed above them just as he got to the open space. The elevator quickly passed floor after floor, finally reaching the bottom. They raced out and headed for the doorway. Ripper gave a confused look as they passed through a hole instead of a door.

“Wha- Know what? I don’t want to know. I just don’t want to know. So where are we going?”

“How about Penn Stables?”

“How about no?”

“Then where do you suggest we go?”

“Well, I still need to get a vidd-game controller, and you still need to give me my helmet.”

“Oh, scales! I think I lost it when Drakkus kidnapped me!”

“Dude. I just thought of something.”

“What?”

“You’re not a kid, so is it still called KIDnapping?”

“I don’t know. Let’s just get to the market and then get to Penn Stables.”

“Fine. If you wanna be boring about it.” They turned right and slowed their dragons to a walk as they headed towards the marketplace.

Chapter Fourteen

Lance perked up as they neared to marketplace. “Oh, cool! The construction is finished. We can ride our dragons instead of walking around!” Ripper grinned.

“Awesome!” She grabbed the handlebars and directed Boy forward, towards the many stands. “Ye-haw! Faster, Boy! Faster!”

“Ripper, slow down!” Marcia desperately tried to get Ripper to slow Boy down, but she just kept making him go faster. “You could hit someone!”

“I’m not gonna hit someo- Aaahhhh!!!” Ripper quickly jumped Boy over the taxi-dragon and its helpless rider, who just stared at her in shock. Boy’s feet hit the ground with a dull thud. He shook his head and quickly worked his way back to his original pace. Ripper looked at the speedometer that was built into her saddle. “175 miles per hour! That’s all! Come on, Boy! Let’s try for 200!” Boy nodded his head and focused on moving faster. Ripper tried to focus her energy into Boy as she leaned lower and lower in her saddle. She closed her eyes and felt her soul trying to combine with Boy’s. He closed his eyes and sent mag energy into her body.

Marcia gasped. Boy seemed to be going so fast that he was flying over the ground. “Ripper, wake up! Ripper!”

“Huh?” Her eyes shot open, as did Boy’s. They gazed ahead and saw a child, lost and in the middle of the street, in the way. “No.” Ripper pulled back on the handlebars and desperately tried to stop. Sparks flew as Boy’s feet skidded across the ground. They drew closer and closer to the child. “STOP!” Boy turned and dug his claws into the ground. They ripped through the ground. “Get a grip!” Boy stabbed his claws into the ground and stopped. Ripper was thrown from his saddle. She landed a few feet away from the child.

“My baby!” A woman ran out and picked the child up. She glared at Ripper. “You little brat! Watch where you’re going!” She walked away, leaving Ripper lying in the dirt. Parm magged off of Cyrano and walked over to Ripper’s lifeless body.

“Oh, dear. This is bad. This is very bad.”

“I told you to slow down.” Ripper slowly stood, cradling her arm. However, she was not up for long. Her legs gave and she fell into Parm’s arms.

“Are you okay?” She groaned and looked up at him.

“Not really.” Ripper shifted her focus on the woman who had let her child walk into the street, who was now coming back, and she had a group of police officers behind her.

“There she is! Seize her!” The officers surrounded the group. “Ready.” The officers prepared to shoot their green trapping gear. “Aim. Fire.” As the trapping gear shot out of its holder, Ripper drew her energy draining whip. She extended it and spun around in a circle. The whip hit each piece of gear, causing them to hit the ground as harmless as a feather. The captain growled. “Stay where you are or we will be forced to shoot!”

“Shouldn’t you have said that earlier?”

“Whatever. You’re under arrest for reckless endangerment and reckless driving. Oh, and you also broke the speed limit by 190 miles per hour.” One of the officers activated green bashing gear. “Halt.” He ignored the command and fired. The spiked ball slammed into Ripper. A sickening crack rang out. She fell backwards on the ground, causing dust to fly up.

“Ripper.” Parm rushed over to her. He saw tears streaming down her face and a look of pain in her eyes. He started to caress her face but she knocked his hand away and ran over to her dragon. She jumped on Boy and raced away. Parm gave the captain a look of disgust and punched him. He hit the ground hard and did not get up. Parm magged on Cyrano and raced after Ripper, hoping that he could catch up.