YoruTatsu Chapter 12

YoruTatsu
By Trip Woodward

Chapter 12: No "I" in "Team"


Holy crap, were we stupid. We were going to face THAT MANY dragons?! Yeah, we were nuts. But what was more nuts was, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a clipboard stashed under Tanya's arm.

We flew down and dived for an attack, each of us doing our own thing. I went after the one I had pointed at. I saw Sonya go after Bently, and Max after Jackpot. Linda went for the little one, Tanya went for a dark blue one, and Sarge went after the remaining three. The one I had was nearby the portly boy who got bitten. I noticed that his scales, from what I saw, were the color of rust.

"Wha?!" shouted the weredragon, who had a familiar voice I recognized as someone who's a jerk, but not too much of an asshole, at school who, at least while human, had glasses and was skinnier than a bone. His name was Lenny. He had on a blue zip-up hoodie with guitairs on either side of the zipper and jeans. His scales were dark green, underside was slightly lighter green, his membranes were darker green, and his spines and highlights were black. Lenny looked up at me as I came in.

I readied my Ice Claws. "Stop hurting these people!" I roared, and took a slash as I passed. I missed, and so I folded my wings and skidded to a halt, doing an about-face. "WOAH!" I ducked in time when a blob of...something really horrible and gross came towards me. The hissing as it hit the ground told me what kind of dragon that Lenny had become: Acid. "Acid, huh?" I asked, circling around in a pacing. He did the same. "Fits your nature, you jerk!" I charged.

Lenny and I clashed, me with my Ice Claws, and him with his acid spit and fast, lithe punches. I won't go through the details, because I really don't remember much.


Dragos and the rest of them fought the nine weredragons...and I had to help keep watch over my best friend, Linda. She was doing bloody well against that little boy dragon. He had black scales, an underside the colour of Dragos' whiskers, and the same colour for his wings. That's all I could see; I was too busy chipping in to help Linda.

"Let's get 'im, Manfred!" she yelled as we dived towards the boy. When she got near enough, she yelled out, "CHAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!" The poor tyke was bowled over quite easilly.

"RMRFF!!" he mumbled as the two rolled a ways. Then, I heard some tuneless melody and Linda got blasted strait off!!

"LINDA!!" I screamed, and raced to catch her--forgetting, again, I'm a ghost. She fell RIGHT through me, but she wasn't TOO hurt. "Careful, now," I warned as she got up.

"Mist Saber!" she called, looking up at me and holding her paw up, ready.

I nodded and flew down to her. I went behind her, put my right hand in her paw, and we both focused our spiritual energy. Being an entity of pure spiritual energy, I had energy to spare. She had a lot, too, being all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as I was in my life. Anywho, the sabre seeped into existence in our grip. Then, with me helping a little, we charged.

The boy yelped. "Oh, no!" he yelped, and then did something odd. He opened his mouth and sang out a short, crisp, high C staccato, "AH!!"

The note hit us like a sledgehammer, and we had to get up again. But we were facing a tricky fish, that we were. "Tricky one, that," I commented as Linda and I fell down for the umpteenth time. I was getting rather tired of passing through the ground.

"Tell me about it," she replied through gritted teeth. "SHUT UP!" she roared at the boy.

The boy winced and flinched, almost singing out another note. "But I just wanna sing," he said, but I could tell he wanted to do more than that. He was getting closer each time. He was almost near enough to swing his tail at us...

Linda raced at him, and I followed, holding our sabre. But as he sang another note, I gathered a plan. "DUCK!" I ordered at the last moment, and she did. We didn't fall, seeing as ducking braced us, so we could get up faster. And it worked. We got to the boy and swung and hit, before he could sing another knocking note.

"AAHH!" he screamed as we hit, and immediatly, he knelt to the ground, holding the wound that bled not a drop seeing as it was not a real physical hit. "WAAAHHHHHH!!" he bawled, voice stinging our ears. "THAT HURRRRTT!! WAHHHH!!!" Linda and I blinked and looked at him.

Linda looked at me, and we let go of the Mist Sabre. "Can you say 'wussie?'" she asked me.

"Why yes," I said, matter-of-factly. "Wussie!!" I laughed at the boy for being such a sissy. One hit? And he's with these big blokes? Hah!


Jackpot snarled as I landed in front of him, my new Flame Blade drawn. He had brown scales, light brown wing membranes, and a dark brown underside. He had no frills, only horns, and his claws, horns, talons, and diamond tail tip were dark grey. His spines, which were widely spaced, were dark brown. His scales looked kinda clunky, as did his spines; only his muscles and tail gave him any curve at all. His wings were also much smaller than mine. Not big enough to lift his impossibly-muscular body, that's for sure. Another thing: He got buffer, too. So buff, his head looked smaller than normal because his muscles were so freakishly huge. That didn't count for his paws, though. His paws had grown double, and the palms were definitely textured, and his forearm muscles were as big as his upper arm muscles. I'd better not get in a strangle-hold from him, I thought, my knowledge of anatomy telling me he had a kung fu grip that put GI Joe to shame.

"Remember me?" I asked, getting into fighting position.

His eyeridges jerked up in surprise. "You're that kid that kicked me in the balls in the cafeteria a couple days back," he said. "...Max Johnson?" (This caused Bently, who was busy fighting Sonya, to spin around and look at me, wide-eyed, and promptly getting smacked a good distance from her aluminum bat surrounded by rushing water.)

I nodded. "And I think I just hit the Jackpot in losers," I taunted.

This made him glare and snarl. "You're gonna regret that, you little weakling!!" he growled, and stomped his foot. Immeditaly, a huge pillar of rock came up between us. He punched a fist into each side of the pillar and ripped them out again, boxing gloves of rock around his paws. The rock pillar crumbled--right towards me!! He kicked it totally apart, and I got hit by the surprise debris.

"OOF!!" I fell down, almost losing the Flame Blade. Before I could get up, Jackpot came and slammed his fist down to me. I yelped and rolled left in time, getting up and deciding to use my slight momentum to launch an upper sword swing at his side. FWOOM!! HIT! He roared and reached for his shoulder.

"GGAHHH!! MY JACKET!!" He leered at me with feirce hatred. "You SINGED it, you asshole!!" he roared. Then, Jackpot lost his mind. No words, just grunts, roaring, and growls as he came at me with a flurry of rage, as evident by his huge, hard fists coming at me.

I dodged them and, with both paws, swung my sword at one fist and BARELY blocked the hit. I had to dodge, though, so it was useless, and my arms hurt from the shock. I ducked, dipped, dived, dodged, and finally had an openening. I stabbed with my sword right through his stomach, but the flames of my blade flew to the sides as his literally rock-hard abs blocked. But I had gotten through his shirt, easilly, and he howled and kneed me away. I got sent flying.

And then, BAM!! I was sent down again, and WHAM!! I was sent flying again, this time like a red soccer ball. I slammed into a tree and fell. As this all came to me, all the pain, I roared in pain. I lost my blade as I felt the injuries. Panting, though, I got up. "No broken bones!" I said slowly, quoting Psymon Stark from SSX Tricky. "...That's a shame!"

"It is," said Jackpot in a tone so growling, it almost didn't sound like him. He charged at me and tried a hook. I dodged, and he splintered the tree. I jumped into the air and began to fly around this 300-some pound, 7 foot monster. That's IT! FLYING!! He can't fly with those wings and that body, I thought, snapping my claws and causing a spark.

"Can't catch me, nyeah, nyeah!" I teased, flying around him, making faces.

He growled and jumped rather high, his entire body height, in fact, to get to me. He swung, and I barely dodged it in time. I flew higher, deciding to try and take some potshots at a distance with fireballs. Occasionally, I'd dive in for a cut. The fight wore on.


"COME ON!! THIS IS NOTHING!!"

I looked at my husband as he was having waaaaayy too much fun. He was handling three at once, like I'd suggested, but had added a twist. He was taking one with his tail, one with his legs, and one with his arms. And the sad part was, he was WINNING. I felt bad for those teens. I looked to the one I fought. (By the way, it's very hard to fight in a dress, did you know that? Especially a tight one; I had to rip it to make life easier.) "Look, Mr. Nelson," I tried to reason as my student, whose scales were teal and rest of body had an oceanic color scheme, sent another flying lash of stingingly painful salty water at me, "if you hurt me, I'm going to fail you!"

Kev, who was a troublemaker in class, snarled at me. "I'm getting a bad enough grade already," he griped back. "And I've never liked you, OR your stupid class! It's a pain in the ass!" He chopped the air again, and the trail made by his middle claw made an arc of salt water at me.

I sighed and stopped it with a thought. "Then you're going to have to serve detention...Glory style," I said calmly, and threw up my clipboard. I grabbed it and took the pencil attached, then began making observations. In the meantime, I dashed in for the melee to my student.

Kev spun around and lashed his powerful fin-like tail at me, almost getting me had I not sheilded myself psychically. And my sheilds were hard to break. I opened it up and, feeling both like a bad teacher and a woman who has had a little bit of her bottled-up stress taken out, socked him a powerful uppercut, powered by psychic energy. The poor kid went down in one blow, and I made sure that he wasn't playing possum.

I sighed. "Maybe I should've taken him a little less strongly...?" I wondered aloud, bringing down my clipboard.


When I came down to that jerk who changed my life, Bently, I wound up...and oh, my, God, he is a MORON! He was staring at me, and then I just go up and take a slug out at him with an aluminum bat covered with water, and he just stands there and gets NAILED?! IDIOT!! I landed on him while he was dazed and smashed my bat into his head, overhead strikes, twice, before he threw me off.

"Took you long enough," I said, landing and skidding. I got up and swiveled my bat in my paw. "C'mon, Bently, it's time for a little payback for that time here," I said, mad.

He jerked back. "Wait...Are you...?" he began, but he heard something and spun around. In an instant, WWHHAACLLAANNGG!! I smacked him AGAIN!

I kicked off his chest and made him go down like a sack of potatoes. "GEEZE, you're stupid!" I commented as I landed. Wait...I remembered the kinds of things he did to--"YEEEEEK!!" I was lifted off the ground BY the ground, a big hunk of it, and then it went back down, and as I fell, WHAM!! I got nailed with a smaller and faster pillar! It was that attack, uh, uh, uh...UH UH UH!!! *snaps claws* Nature's Wrath!! I snapped my wings open and flew off to avoid it...but they went HIGH!! "EEEP!" I yelped, flying around and dodging.

"HAH!" Bently went, paw on ground. "I'm smarter than I look!" He smirked up at me.

I glared down at him. "Yeah, right," I mumbled, and flew right over him. I just looked forward and listened.

"SHIT!!"

WHAM!!

Here's the pitch, coming strait up...WHHACCKKLLAAAANNGG!!! I swung with all my strength, and, even though I was up in the air, I NAILED him and shot him RIGHT into the ground!! But he saved himself by, well, grabbing himself with the ground, making a soft spot for him. He gazed up at me--right into the emergency blasts of water I slammed at him from above. And those seemed to really hurt, at least, more than they hurt Mina.

He went down easy. I just flew around, nailed him with water balls, and he was swaying in moments. I took this opportunity to dive at him.

"Uhhhhh...I won't...be beaten...by a girl..." he mumbled, feeling faint. Well, I made him feel fainter.

WWHHHAAACCCKKLLLLLAANNNGGG!!! *THUMP*

I landed on his totally knocked-out body and raised my arms in victory. "Hooray! I win!" I said, smiling.


I knelt over the new dragon, Lenny on the ground with his mouth frozen completly shut. He still looked a little chunky, but I realized that was all muscle. But something seemed...dextrous about him, despite his moderatly big muscles. His paws seemed large, but also...nimble. I just got a feeling. He was groaning and rubbing his left arm. "You okay?" I asked softly.

He jumped and scooted away from me. "Stay the FUCK away from me!" he shouted.

I laughed. "I'm not going to hurt you!" I said, pointing to the indisposed Lenny.

The rust-scaled dragon stopped and blinked. "Oh," he said. I came over and asked his name. "Mark," he said. He wore glasses, and, to my great surprise, kept his short dirty blonde haircut. His underside was the color of motor oil and unbanded, and his wings had only two "fingers," one outer and one middle. The membranes were rusty brown, and his spines were dark blue. But the main thing were his highlights. They were chrome.

I held my paw down to him. "Dragos," I said as he took it.

"Nice to meet ya," he said, then added, "all things considered, of course." I helped him up, and I found he was taller than me. "So, who the heck are you guys?" he asked.

I blinked, thinking. "Ummm...a group of family members and friends," I honestly said. "We just, ah, heard of a disturbance, and so we came here to check." I'm not a good liar at times like this.

Mark raised an eyeridge at me. "Well, I dunno about you," he said, "but I wanna just get the fuck outta--"

"EEYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

EVERYONE stopped and spun to face the sound. It was male. And it was such a cry of pain that even the bad guys stopped. I looked, and Max, who'd just barely handled the hard-to-handle rock-head Jackpot, was wincing. Sonya had a face that read, "Uh-oh..." Tanya was talking with her husband. Sarge was were-free, and I had a feeling that was what was going on.

"YAAAAAAAAAOUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

"What the fuck?!" Mark asked.

I hesitated, then ran off. "I dunno, but I don't like it," I said. When I got there, I stopped and gasped.

There lay a teenage boy with ass-length long, wavy, braided tan hair, wide brown eyes, a shirt that had an X with arrows at the points with the phrase "THIS WAY UP" over it, blue jean cargoes, black pants, and a mouth wide in pain from the six bite marks. The three weres who caused it were flying off.

I looked at him, then at the the three retreating. I threw my fist away in the air. "Dammit!" I flew after them and, in a rage at what they did, found out I could do something horrible.

I had both paws clenched, and I saw coldness was beginning to surge around them, as well as the rest of my arms. I flew fast up to the three, and I'm not even going to describe them. With rage in my eyes, I just roared and sent flying a beam of coldness that hit all three...and froze them in a solid block of ice.

It wasn't until I remembered that ice shattered along with everything in it if it hit hard ground.

And underneath was the path.

I quickly dashed through the sky and began slashing with my claws at the ice as the chunk fell. A flame came from my right and I looked over. Max was helping by throwing fireballs at the ice, trying to melt it. I thought I'd dealt enough damage just freezing them, and so now I was in a fury trying to free them. I saw the chunk gain a violet outline, and I knew Tanya was helping. Max was now hacking and slaying the ice with his Flame Blade, and soon, the ice all dripped down as water towards the ground. The three fell, too...not moving.

"Shit," I cursed and flew down to them. They were being horrible, biting people just because, but I didn't want anyone dead. I shook one of them and took their pulse. And he groaned. "Thank you, God," I whispered--then smacked the guy upside the head. KO, baby!

The other two were alive, too, but got knocked out by me or Max. We all smiled and stood up, admiring our work. The others came over and stood with us. I saw that Mark and that boy with the many bites were with Sgt. and Mrs. Glory. The boy was unconcious, but his bites were healed, as were his clothes. But I was certain that by now, he should've been transforming. Are some people immune...? I shrugged.

Max smiled. But then, we all heard something that made us all--

"FREEZE!"

Max spun around, putting away his weapon. He gasped as he saw a swarm of police officers, guns all pointed at us.

"You're under arrest, whatever the fuck you things are!" the cheif said, making sure not to let his gun shake too much. Everyone was freaked out and wanted these things gone. Besides, the things had been fighting, and disturbing the peace, and...

"Please, officers, don't shoot, please," Tanya said at her most kind.

"Yeah, cuz I can get my superiors after you," Sgt. Glory threatened, crossing his arms. He got shut up by a look from his wife.

"We mean you no harm," assured the Math teacher, holding out her paws to show she held nothing.

The cheif gulped. "Y-you're under arrest for street fighting, d-disturbing the peace, and what appears to be vigilantism. Do not resist arrest or we WILL open fire!" he threatened.

Max gulped and just tried to take a step back. But then, one cop, who was a lot more cowardly than the rest of them, panicked. And he began to open fire. And with him, most of the others panicked and shot, too.

And all at Max.

For him, I know, everything just went down in slow motion. His face registered shock. He fell slowly down to his side. In slow motion, a psychic barrier went around us, stopping the bullets. The rest of us retalliated against the police. And Max thumped to the ground. I tore over to him and knelt down and picked him up to my knee. I called his name and asked if he was okay, and, at his blank expression, I'm sure he wasn't. I called for Sarge. For him, it was all muffled. I heard him and his feeble noises...And finally...

"UHHhhhhhhhhh..."

My best friend died in my arms.




"This just in: A large group of local law enforcement has been picked up to the hospitol for hypothermia. However, temperatures are well above freezing. The group was in the park, a site of many recent strange sounds being reported, and a lamp post mysteriously being knocked down. The cops were puzzled as to why they were in the park in the first place; it appears whatever gave them hypothermia also inflicted some amnesia. More on this story as it develops.

"Wait; there's also a spot in the park, at the place the police officers were found, that has become a crater of, strangely, frozen ground. The police and their cars were in the crater. Reports say that the ground is still, in fact, very deeply frozen, as if some memorial of whatever happened. Again, more on this story as it develops."