Part Nine

                “Boys…” said Mark’s normally strong voice, “I think this may be my fault.”

                There was silence as the three of us looked at each other quizzically. “What do you mean?” I asked.

                “Two years ago when Mary and Bill were dating I told him about her situation.” He paused looking at us, tears glistening in his faded eyes, “He knew about everything, about where we come from, what Mary really is and what she is capable of.”

                “And just what are you?” Snapped Andy.

                “I am Mary’s father.” He looked down at the cold roof of the building little droplets of rain began to wet its surface, “I am one of them.”

                At this point I wasn’t very surprised by the idea of Mark being some world ending monster, he had certainly made me feel as though he could end my world on any given night. Andy on the other hand was regaining his color, his hair brightening again. “Then why don’t you look like them?”

                “It doesn’t matter Andy, we need to get Mary back.” I cut in. “Where do you think he is going?”

                “I don’t know what his plan is, I thought he was the one to keep Mary safe and that’s why I confided in him. I thought he was strong and capable.”

                “What does he know that we don’t?” Asked Josh.

                “He seemed so in love with Mary, I didn’t see that she just didn’t love him back. I was too focused on her protector.”

                “Mark.”

                “He knows about the ritual, how to unlock Mary’s true power.”

                “And what is that?” I asked.

                “When Mary’s true power is revealed there is supposed to be a battle of champions. A battle between the Glordon and Mary. The winner will decided the fate of the chosen world. Your world.”

                “So Mary is as powerful as Glordon?”

                “When her power is unlocked the egg will also hatch?” Asked Josh.

                “I do not know how powerful Mary is, Bill was supposed to keep her from ever having to fight. She may need all the help she can get to defeat Glordon if it comes to that, it may even be impossible to kill him. And yes, I believe that when the ritual is completed the egg will hatch.”

                The rain began to pick up, thick drops began splashing down all around us and soon the roof wasn’t just speckled with dots it was pooling from the huge drops of water. The sky had grown dark all around us. “What does he need to perform the ritual?”

                “Nothing really, he just needs Mary to stay in one spot long enough for him to finish saying a few words.”

                “Well we all know Mary and she isn’t going to like having been captured one bit.” Said Josh.

                “She doesn’t know she has been captured…” My heart sank with my own words. Lighting broke across the dark sky off in the distance. The thunder came crashing over us, I had never heard thunder any louder than on that day and we all gasped. But not because of the thunder. Where the lighting had struck we could now see the egg. It was glowing red like a rising sun against the black backdrop of the stormy sky.

                “Shit.” Said Andy, again colorless.

                “You two, go to the egg. Try to stop Glordon from getting out.” I said my insides burning once again, I could feel her, I knew where she was and nothing was going to stop me from getting to her. “I’m going to get Mary.”

                Andy nodded and took off running and leaped aiming for the next building. He went plummeting into the ground. A sickening crunch filled our ears as Andy collided with the pavement.

                Speechless we ran to the edge of the building. We were two stories up and the darkness made it hard to see but there was Andy, his red hair laying against the wet cement. His legs were bent up under him, he wasn’t moving.

                “What’s going on?”

                “Mary is concentrating her power. She is taking it away from you. We are too late.”

                But my body was telling me otherwise, I had never felt so powerful it was like I had one too many shots of whiskey without any of the ill side effects. I felt gung-ho, I was ready to rock. I couldn’t understand why I was feeling this way when it was obvious that we no longer had our powers. Andy was probably dead because of it.

                “I’m going down to him.” Josh said running for the roof top exit. I turned to follow him down but when I moved my legs my stomach lurched. I didn’t feel anything with my foot, it felt like I had reached the top of a flight of stairs and tried to keep going and tripping over the empty air.

                I was floating.

                “I’m going to get Mary.” I didn’t look back.

Part Eight

The dragons had me going all over the place. A trail of burning buildings lay behind me as I tried desperately to catch up to Bill and Mary.
But now as I was about to land I felt Mary back towards where we had come from. Back behind the two dragons and their relentless fire.
As soon as I touched down I leaped right back at the dragons. I could see myself though the smoke filled sky. Reflected back by the dragon’s eyes before they glossed over filled with fear. I was burning inside, angry and filled with the power of Mary’s love. I could feel her reaching out to me, guiding me empowering me. She was like the engineer, feeding coal into the furnace and I was the big bad ass, top of the line locomotive and I was pissed. Right when I was between the two dragons I spun in the air. The beasts were too stunned to move despite the shrieks of horror coming from their hooded riders.
Hit me with you best shot started rolling though my mind. Pat Benetar wailed away in my head while my sword lopped the head off the first dragon then came crashing down between the second riders neck and shoulder carving down into his chest. His mount gave a whimper and decided to save his best shot for another time choosing instead to hightail off after the three still chasing what they thought was Mary.
Of course Mark has me pegged correctly, I can only ever manage to do half of any given task correctly. And now I found myself in the air with no idea where I was heading. I went crashing into an abandoned warehouse. Cobwebs and rat droppings went flying as I hit the cement floor with a resounding thud that echoed through the empty building.
Only slightly worse than when I had come across the disgruntled golfing father.
I was on my feet in seconds, blood poured from my noes but I had to move. The other hoods could figure out that Bill had ditched Mary at any second.
I was practically flying now, I hardly put down both feet as I jumped from rooftop to rooftop. Faster and faster I went my heart sinking as I made my way across the city. Mary was getting farther away.
Half a mile off I could see three figures on the roof of an old grocery store. Mark, Josh and Andy stood all grey faced and gloomy.
I couldn’t find words when I joined them. I felt ashamed. My body had lost all heat, I was cold. Frozen inside.
“They got her.” Josh said hollowly.
“They didn’t get her,” snapped Andy his red hair looking notably colorless, “he gave her to them.”
“That bastard…” I put in.