Prismatic High Pt. 05

He smashed into the hood of a taxi. A shocked looking Shik man gaped at him, his turban knocked askew. Darryl waved, his head ringing.

Then his father and Tazo landed to either side of him, their wings furling behind their back. The woman in the back of the cab ran, screaming, scrambling out of the cab, while other humans with more eagerness and less common sense lifted their phones to start taking pictures. Darryl reached for his sword, but saw it had landed in the sidewalk about ten feet off, blade first. It had sunk to its hilt.

Tazo grabbed him by one ankle, jerking him up and swinging him hard against a lamp-post, which bent with a squeaking, howling sound. The streetlight smashed into the sidewalk with a spray of glittering glass as onlookers went scrambling for cover. Tazo grabbed Darryl by the horn, lifting Darryl's head and his hand in the same motion, his fist curled shut. He brought it down, but Darryl caught his fist and then surged to his feet. He smashed his head into Tazo's snout.

"Look out!"

It was the taxi-cab driver. Darryl flung himself down as Tebby's lightning breath smashed through the air where he had stood. It hit a storefront window and blew a smoldering hole through the glass, leaving a cherry red ring and a haze of cracks around the impact sight. A store mannequin had been reduced to ash, and fires were starting to flicker inside of the building. Darryl shook his head and stepped to the side, evading Tazo's claw slash.

"Gonna be hard to have a war if you blow your cover like this!" he shouted at his the other blue.

"A shockingly realistic commercial for a viral show," Tebby said, spreading his hands. "Easy enough to draw wool over their eyes. I've seen it work before, for the Nazis."

"You could have revealed yourself then!" Darryl snarled, grabbing a manhole cover from the ground, twisting it free and hurling it at his father like throwing a discus. "You could have saved millions of lives just by revealing magic exists, you conceited douchebag!" The manhole smashed into Tebby, sending him flying back into a parked van, crumpling it in half. Tazo charged at him, but Darryl twisted to the side, bringing his elbow smashing down into the back of Tazo's head. He was fighting with every trick his father had taught him, draconic speed and strength making everything seem to move in slow motion. Tazo groaned and lay on the ground.

The second blast of lightning emerged from the wreckage, fired through twisted metal and crushed glass with shocking precision. Without warning, Darryl took the impact in the chest. Despite his natural resistance to electricity, he was still sent flying backwards. He hit the side of a building, rebounding and dragging a furrow along the ground. He groaned, rolling onto his back. Smoke rose from his chest. He started to get to his feet, but Tebby was at him, grabbing him by the throat. Lifting him up, with the effortless ease of the ferociously strong.

"You fight like a human," Tebby growled. He opened his mouth and this time, the lightning blast smashed into Darryl's face at point blank range. Darryl's head rang and his neck felt as if it had almost been twisted in half. His head hung forward and smoke roiled from his horns as he coughed, several teeth dropping to the ground. "You think like one - you don't get it. Do you know why we didn't fight the Nazis, or save your precious grannies from cancer?"

Darryl coughed. "Dick..."

"No," Tebby smirked. "Because humans make better inventions when they're desperate and scared. Every innovation, every design that we've ever reaped from humanity, has been driven by their struggle, their desperate need to prove themselves. It's for their own good, really..." He shook his head. "it's that inability to see the big..." He brought his knee smashing into Darryl's gut, causing Darryl to grunt with the impact. "Fucking." Another knee, this one hard enough to cause things to snap inside of Darryl's body. "Picture."

He dropped Darryl to the ground. Darryl groaned, laying there stunned.

"That...is really the biggest disappointment," Tebby said, sighing. "You called me the two-bit cartoon villain, and yet it seems you're the cliched hero here." He opened his mouth, drawing lightning into his throat. Crackling energy surged there and Darryl was sure this would be one of the last things he ever saw.

"Hey, asshole!"

Tebby turned, distracted. Darryl lifted his head.

Sasha stood about ten paces off, Kevlar tight around her chest, a collection of other vest-clad agents with pistols and assault rifles at the ready. The agents opened fire. Bullets hazed through the air, clattering off the wall of a building, filling it with holes and the air with flying plaster.

But Tebby was, quite suddenly, not there. Darryl forced himself onto his side as Tebby landed behind the first agent, disemboweling him with a slash of claws. Blood misted through the air. Tebby slashed out again and again - the agents running, but many of them falling where they stood, too slow to even react. Then Tebby leaped at Sasha, who dove flat to the ground, evading his strike by just enough to turn what would have killed her into merely a hideous slash across her shoulders. She screamed. Darryl forced himself to sit up, but before he could move, arms closed around his neck and chest.

"You get to watch her die, you asshole," Tazo snarled in his ear.

Darryl grabbed at Tazo's arms. The chinese dragon clenched tighter, and Darryl knew he could have snapped his neck right then. But he was waiting.

Sasha screamed as she was lifted up.

"How to deal with you," Tebby muttered, holding her by the Kevlar vest.

"Fuck you." Sasha spat in his face. Tebby sneered at her.

"Ah, I know..." Tebby murmured, then purred. He forced Sasha down to her knees, then mashed her face against his crotch. Tazo laughed, quietly as Sasha squirmed, her arms thrusting out as Tebby ground his cock and balls against her face, sneering at Darryl as he did so. Sasha put her hands against his hips and Tebby snorted quietly, smoke rising from his nostrils. "She's had training. Mmm, not breathing won't help. Breathe it in. Yeah. Breathe it in, bitch." He mashed his balls against her face. Sasha shoved at him, making soft, whimpering noises. Tebby just chuckled.

After a few more seconds, though Sasha's arms started to slap more weakly against his thighs. Then, slowly, then slipped along his knees, to hang limp. Tebby snorted, then tugged Sasha's head back. Her eyes shone with eagerness, her tongue lolling out. She had been sucking on his balls. "Do you want this cock, slut?" Tebby purred, slapping Sasha's blood flecked cheek with his dick, which had rapidly started to reach full mast.

Sasha mewled. "Yesss!"

"All you need to do, then," Tebby murmured. "Is take that gun..." he nodded at the rifle. "And shoot that little cuck there full of holes."

He nodded to Darryl, who struggled against Tazo, who started to laugh. Huge, full, booming laughs. Darryl kicked at the ground, snarling - but his ribs ached with his movement. He shook his head, desperately. Sasha, her eyes cock drunk and eager, started to walk forward, picking up the rifle, licking her lips. She grabbed onto the forward handle, bracing it as she aimed at Darryl.

"Sasha, please," Darryl whispered.

Sasha bit her lower lip, aiming sloooowly up along his chest.

Her eyes met his.

Darryl winked.

Nodded.

Sasha grinned.

Then lifted the rifle a half an inch and blew Tazo's brains out.

Tazo's head jerked back and he was stretched out on the pavement. Darryl forced himself to leap to his face as Tebby stood there, looking utterly shocked as Sasha turned to face him - then pulled out a gleaming, silver crucifix from around her neck. She stuck her tongue out at him with a loud 'nyah!' Darryl leaned half on her, his body still feeling as if he had been worked over with a sledgehammer. Tebby snarled, then started to walk forward. Sasha leveled her rifle at him - but he reached outwards, his fingers curling. Magic crackled around his fingertips and the rifle flew from her hand to his. He crushed it.

"I'm going to rape her eyesocket!" he growled.

"Hey!"

This voice was utterly unfamiliar. But it didn't stop Tebby. He wasn't going to stop for anything. He leaped forward. Darryl reached out, his heart hammering. Kneeling there, beside his dropped, almost forgotten sword, was the woman from the taxi. She had come back, maybe to find out what she had run from. Maybe she had never left. Maybe she had only run for cover. But now, she was kneeling at the sword and ripped it out of the ground with a gasp. It sparked. Flash. Then she hurled it, swinging it like a bat. It spun. Spun.

The hilt slapped into Darryl's palm.

He brought the point around.

Tebby smashed into him and the two of them went flying backwards, stopping as they smashed into a fire hydrant. Water sprayed into the air. Darryl panted, softly, then pushed hard with his foot. Tebby sprawled backwards, his eyes wide and staring. His arms flopped open, revealing the blade sticking out of his heart, the hilt glowing with magical fire. The hydrant continued to pour down like rain as Darryl forced himself to his feet, his head spinning.

Sasha staggered over to stand next to him. The two of them looked down at Tebby.

"Shawarma?" Darryl asked.

"I could kill for a shawarma," Sasha laughed - but it was nearly hysterical, and then was drowned by the howling of sirens.

###

Darryl was startled awake by the door to his room banging open and his mother smashing into him. She threw her arms around his shoulders and hugged him so tightly that he was pretty sure if he hadn't been a dragon, he'd have broken something. He squeaked and squirmed and looked around - just to remember where he was. The white walls, the bed that was clearly not designed for a tail and wings, this was...a human hospital. He blinked a few more times as his mother drew back, a babble escaping her.

"I was so worried, I saw on the news, they're hushing it up, claiming it was a movie shoot, but I knew better, I am so sorry, I had no idea that Teb was such a-" she said, the words starting to blur together as Darryl noticed a lean, somewhat shy looking blue dragon standing in the doorway. He wore shorts and a pair of glasses and looked as close as it was draconically possible to being a total fucking nerd.

"Whose that?" Darryl asked.

"Oh, uh," Mom said, blushing. "This is your father, Garicaus!"

Darryl blinked a few times. Then he slowly laid his head back on the bed. "Fucking hell, Mom, you really were a turboslut..." he muttered, before he could stop himself.

"Son, language!" Mom and Garicaus said at the same time. Mom flushed furiously, continuing in a severe tone. "Dragons aren't exceptionally particular, and so many of them are handsome. There was Brash and Teb and Gari here and also Steventorus and Lucithana and-"

"Wait, isn't that a girl's name?" Darryl asked.

"And this is your real father! I-I checked!" Mom said, quickly. "We used magic!"

"Hey, uh, son," Gari said, a bit awkwardly as he stepped forward.

Darryl gulped. "Uh, yeah, hi, is Sasha okay?"

"She is," Mom said, nodding. "Xia is healing her as we speak, using magic."

"Good," Darryl said, letting himself relax on the bed. "But, wait, wait, I thought I was supposed to be Teb's son. He used magic and everything."

Gari snorted. "Tebondarious was using a method of reproduction that involves diluting a dragon's sperm via shapeshifting. Might have worked, if I hadn't been there first, with hundred percent dragon, ah, seed." He coughed. "I was kind of drunk at the time, so I forgot to...switch off." He blushed, hard, adjusting his glasses. "Still. I think I know why the spell Tebondarious used to try and detect his offspring failed so spectacularly. It was designed to detect a mixture of human and dragon features and..."

He reached over, then picked up a small glass vial. He wiggled it and a small, silvery disk clinked and clattered within. Darryl looked at it, uncomprehending. Then a light dawned in his brains.

"The tracking device," he whispered.

"Tracking device? What tracking device!?" Mom asked, sounding offended.

The door to the room opened without even a knock. A tall, grim faced looking black man who had gone completely bald and had shaved away any facial hair he had walked in. His face was lined and seamed with age and he looked as if he hated everything in the world with a particular passion. He scowled as he looked at Garicaus, then scowled as he looked at Mom, then scowled harder at Darryl.

"Well," he said. "This is the boy who nearly doomed the human race."

Mom growled, but before she could speak, the man shook his head. "My name is Director Thetis. Director of what you likely already know - and shouldn't. And no, Thetis isn't my real name."

"Do you know you're named after a goddess?" Darryl asked.

"Yes, and I don't care," Thetis said, frowning severely.

"And a White Wolf villain?" Darryl asked.

Thetis looked a bit confused at that. But he shook his head. "Mr. George, your girlfriend is why I'm bald right now. She had one mission, one job. Keep an eye on you and slip a tracking device on you. Maybe steal an artifact, if she could. Not fall in love with you. Not involve herself in this mad scheme. And definitely not break a carefully maintained operational security by bringing a strike team into open conflict with a goddamn dragon!"

"Are the other agents okay?" Darryl asked. "A lot of them looked hurt."

"One died," Thetis said, frowning. Then, sighing. "The rest will need magic to ever walk again. And the worst thing of it all is?"

"Yes?" Darryl asked, still feeling dazed.

"...it worked out," he said, sounding furious that regulations, rules and common sense had all been tossed overboard and been rewarded with success, as if the very idea made him dirty. "We now have friendly relations with the metallic half of the draconic council, as well as active assistance in several important operations. Humanity has just claimed a major piece of the pie, all thanks to you. So..." He frowned, deeply. "You will continue to date Agent Fong. You will continue to remember who your loyalties are towards, and you will cooperate with Agent Fong's cover-up. Understand?"

Darryl gulped. Nodded.

"Cover up?" Mom asked, sounding a bit dazed.

"Well," Director Thetis said, adjusting his collar. "The current cover up is that it was shooting for a new movie. Dragonheart or something." He waved his hand. "The movie will need an actor and need to be produced, and so, you get to be the new breakout movie star. Congratulations."

Darryl sat there, stunned, as Thetis continued to bark orders at him. Eventually, he turned and he stalked off, muttering under his breath. When Darryl finally got to sit with Sasha, her body wrapped in glowing bandages, she leaned against him and sobbed her eyes out. She used her wing as an impromptu napkin. Not intentionally, she was too busy blubbering and apologizing for falling to pieces to notice she was smearing goop on him. Darryl smiled and bore it, petting her head gently. A golden crucifix, a replica of the same one Aliya had worn, hung around his neck, making things easier.

Once Sasha had finished crying, the two of them looked out the window of the hospital room, Darryl's arm around her shoulder.

"So, I get to be the next Daniel Radcliffe apparently," Darryl said.

"Oh goodie," Sasha said, quietly. "I...how can you still love me?"

"Huh?" Darryl asked.

"I lied to you. And more, I got you into this whole dangerous shitstorm," she said, quietly, ducking her head forward.

"You also walked into a fight between dragons with nothing but a bulletproof vest and a pistol," Darryl said, smiling slightly. "For me."

"For the human race, Darryl," she said, chuckling. "A-And for you."

"I don't know if we'll always be in love," Darryl said. "But..." he trailed off.

"Well, I know we won't," Sasha said, her voice slightly grim. "Humans live to be ninety, maybe a hundred. If we're lucky. You could see the fall of the Roman Empire three times over and still be what dragons call middle aged." She snorted.

Darryl shook his head. "W-What I mean is I don't know if we'll still be in love. I think a small part of it has to be the fact you're hot as shit, if I'm going to be super honest." He winced as Sasha elbowed him with a playful snort. "But we like the same nerdy shit. We don't agree with each other on everything. And you're the only one, I think, will remind me that I'm human. And that's worth more all the gold in Fort Knox."

Sasha leaned against him.

Quietly, she whispered. "What will I ever say to Agent Fiorie's mom?"

Darryl slid his arm around her shoulder and held her tightly.

###

"Duuuuude!" Geo said, looking around the inside of the trailer, his eyes wide. "This is fucking rad! I should become a movie star!"

"It's fake," Darryl said, his eyes skimming over the script, muttering under his breath. "The NSA paid for it - in case any, uh, tabloid hacks get back here. What the fuck are you doing here?" he asked, his head aching. He had been reading the script for the upcoming interview again and again and again. Someone in the NSA or the FBI or D13 or Project Hunin or something had written up a whole set of answers for him. To explain why he was the star of a movie that hadn't even been rumored to be in production, based off an obscure and unpopular line of incredibly shitty YA novels whose basic rough outline kind of fit the idea of superhuman dragons duking it out in the modern day.

Darryl had tried to read the first book, to get ready for his part of the coverup. Then he had ended up blitzing through the entire series and sobbing his fucking eyes out.

Not that anyone but Sasha was going to learn that.

"Uh, the same thing I do every week!" Geo said, cheerily, slapping down a folder full of papers. "Homework delivery."

"Balllllllllllllls!" Darryl groaned, rolling his head back. "Can't you tell Principal Lung that a dog ate it?"

"Ladies," Geo said, wiggling his eyebrows. He was in his human form, and so he actually had eyebrows to wiggle. Darryl shook his head slowly from side to side and was about to tell Geo that that made no sense what so ever when a red headed girl stuck her head into the trailer.

"The press conference is starting in ten minutes, Mr. George!" she said, her voice perky and cheery.

"I'll be right out." Darryl rubbed his hands along his face, stretching out his skin. It felt weird and yet also amazingly good to be back in human form after so long walking around, dick swinging free. He stretched his skin more and then let his hands drop. "Wanna watch me flail around trying to be an actor?"

"Sure!" Geo said. "I'll sit with your girlfriend and throw popcorn at ya!"

Darryl walked out towards the meeting hall, his NSA agent - a smiling blond guy who went by the name of Smiley for reasons that utterly escaped him. "So, it shouldn't be hard. Just be that charming, likable Darryl George we all know and love."

"I haven't existed yet as an actor," Darryl muttered. "This film is still looking for a director."

Smiley laughed, as if he had been joking.

They came out onto the stage, where the interviewer was waiting for him. The audience sat on folding chairs. Posters for the movie - which had been renamed from Dragonheart to Dragonstar when they had realized that a movie had been released with that tile - were set against the wall. Whoever had worked them up in such a tearing hurry had done a great job. Very Drew Struzan. The cameras flashed, but didn't obscure the fact that Sasha, Mom, and the human form of Principal Lung and Gari were sitting there. Gari waved excitedly. He was wearing a Hawaiin shirt and seemed to be really happy to be married to Mom.