Another World

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Lucien waited for thirty seconds before heading in. He weaved in and out of buildings and vehicles. A loud sound was going off over and over, an alarm of some sort he was thinking. He used his speed in bursts, not wanting to waste a whole lot of his magic but needing to do this quickly. If the alarm was already sounding there was no doubt, wherever she was, Carrick had her heavily guarded perhaps even at risk of losing her life. As he darted from building to building he looked through the open windows and doors. What he saw was metal contraptions, weapons and armored vehicles.

The few people that he did come across he disabled quickly. He didn't kill them because he didn't know if they were also being manipulated by Carrick or not. So he knocked them out and laid them out of the way of danger. He worked his way from the outside in, making his way to the center of the fortress quite quickly. The center building was large and heavily fortified. He could not see inside, there were no open doors or windows. She must be in this one. Question was where, the building stood at least four floors high and he had no doubt there was a basement or two. He walked around the building trying to decide which looked like the back. Grabbing ahold of the handle of the door, he snaked his magic around it and crumbled it. He pushed the door open and stood to the side, waiting for whatever waited there to fire something or run out so he could make his way in.
 
Tumn thoroughly enjoyed how easily the humans were panicking. It was like they had never seen a dragon before. Large snorts that were very obviously laughter shook his form and he spewed more acid, listening to the shrill alarm going off. Ah, they were aware of the threat. Good. He swooped down and grabbed up a handful of men from the top of the tower in his talons. Twisting around in the air and dipping down low, he threw them all in a lake behind the fortress. Out of the way yet uninjured, in case there were innocents.


Hopefully Lucien was doing well..


Leila felt numb. She obeyed every whim that Carrick spoke of, most of his commands coming in her mind thanks to the headband collar. It made it so that he didn't even need to speak to her. He just thought of what he wanted her to do, and she knew his desires. The downfall of that was that she kept getting his more.. inappropriate desires that weren't meant to be commands. She didn't do them, of course, and tried to ignore them, but they made her sick.


"What is that?" Carrick suddenly said, distracted as he twisted and looked as a light flashing on and off in a brilliant red. It was an alarm. He cursed and looked at a little screen off to the side. Somebody was breaking in. He could see from a small camera that people were rushing outside, but it seemed like nobody had come in. Furious, he grabbed Leila and moved to the stairs, deciding to check it out for himself.


Perhaps the foreigner had come to play.
 
Lucien waited for most of the people to come out of the building, speeding in when the stream became less crowded. He darted into the hallway and looked around. There were rooms everywhere, the doors were open from people exiting which made it easier. He made his way through the entirety of the first floor quickly, remembering where the staircase was. Now the only question was should he go up or down. If she was being held as a potential weapon, he figured they might keep her in the basement away from the people, so he ran back to the stairwell and headed in that direction. He put his energy shield in front of him and unsheathed his sword as he made his way down.

Once he got to the bottom floor he stopped and listened, throwing his senses out to pick up any kind of noise. He didn't think it possible but he heard nothing, not even the alarm he had heard from upstairs. It was like there was a barrier around the basement that sound could not penetrate. Very slowly he advanced on the door. Laying his hand on the handle he tried to turn it but it was also locked. He whispered a word in his ancient tongue to make one of the capsules burst in his mouth, sending a rush of renewed power running through his system and then worked on crumbling the handle as he had done with the one outside.
 
The soldiers atop the building were getting smarter and starting to retaliate. Tumn was now dodging volleys left and right. One hit his left wing and he roared, accidentally smashing into the building and shaking it all the way down to the foundation. Several massive cracks appeared, but it didn't collapse yet. He roared and scrambled up the side of the stone, snapping his massive jaws at anything that moved. No more taking prisoners.


Carrick had guided Leila over to the door but then paused. Something was happening to the door, he could hear it. Smirking, he pushed the girl out in front of him and took a few steps back. Oh, this was going to be fun..


The second that Lucien stepped in, Leila was ready. The black leather armor clung to her body as she gazed at him, her hair down and perfectly straight, held away from her face by the shining green headband. She half cried out, but the sound was cut off by a spasm of pain.


None of that now, Leila.. Attack him..


She formed ice spears in her hands and hurled them at Lucien, but they turned to a harmless water splash halfway there. There was no way she could attack him.. Carrick sent her a wave of pain, driving her almost to her knees. Lashing out blindly, she hurled a small tidal wave at Lucien, just hoping he could swim.
 
Lucien froze after the first couple of steps as his eyes locked on Leila. She was wearing form fitting black armor but the thing that caught his eye was the brilliant green headband. It was completely out of place. He could see a man behind her, his mouth formed into a twisted evil smile. It must be Carrick. Lucien judged the situation by what he saw. She opened her mouth to say something and then was in pain. He saw her form ice spears that she threw at him but they dissolved before they got to him. He didn't know what was coming next and he knew it wasn't her fault so he brought his energy shield up in front of him and took a defensive stance. And then her face twisted in agony again.

All he saw was a wall of crashing water coming towards him. He tried to flatten himself against the wall to steady himself but it came so fast that it pushed him with all its force, his body smacking against the wall because of the angle he took it at. He slid down the wall but recovered into a crouching position as fast as he could. He shook his head to clear the stars that danced in front of his eyes. "You going to keep hiding behind her Carrick or are you going to face me yourself?" he shouted. He was trying to buy some time. He ducked and rolled to the side, clearing distance to get slightly behind Leila and more in the position to strike at Carrick. He brought his shield back up in front of him for any surprise attack the man might launch. He didn't want to get between them but he could be at the side of them safely. His eyes were on them both. He didn't fault Leila at all for her attacks against him, she must have something on her that forced her to do his bidding or maybe it was telepathic. While he was trying to figure it out he pointed his sword and sent an energy ball a foot in diameter hurling straight towards Carrick.
 
Leila winced as Lucien slammed into the wall, trying to reel the water back in to give him time to recover. Carrick sent a warning pang of pain and she stopped, lettting him get to his feet himself. Chuckling, Carrick shook his head and kept his stance relaxed as he shrugged at the foreigner.


"Hiding? Oh, no. You misjudge me. I am simply.. watching the entertainment," he said, waving a hand to Leila and Lucien as if they were some kind of performing act. With a mere gesture, he forced Leila to step to the side and she took Lucien's ball straight to the belly, doubling over with a gasp.


Attack him again, Leila.
No!
Do it.. Now..
No, Carrick, please..
NOW!


Leila turned toward Lucien and swept her hands up, slamming another wave at him. At the same time, a torrent of wind swept up the water and spun it around rapidly while the water heated. In all, a scalding cyclone made to sweep Lucien up and likely boil him alive if he didn't get away from it. The whole time, Leila felt numb. She disconnected from her emotions so that she wouldn't feel the immense pain this was bringing her just to witness.
 
Lucien instantly felt sick to his stomach as he watched Leila take the energy ball instead of Carrick. This was more difficult that he thought it would be. He could hurt Carrick without injuring her. He silently spoke another command word and another capsule broke in his mouth. He was going to need more power than this if he was going to defeat his foe. He braced for the next wave of water but saw that it was doing something different. It had turned into a tornado of boiling hot water. He took a deep breath and with a burst of speed darted around the room, following the wall to avoid it from sucking him up. He hoped it would just crash into the wall.

He positioned himself behind Carrick but against the wall. Not wanting to risk hurting Leila again he didn't send and energy bolt, instead lunged forward himself, sword at the ready. His plan was to wait to strike until he was right next to him and take one of his legs out of commission. He knew full well that if he came at him sword first he'd have Leila step in front of him again, this way he could strike when he was ready with no risk of touching her with the blue energized blade.
 
You failed!


Leila yelped and fell to her hands and knees as the cyclone slammed into the wall and she lost her grip on the energy that it took to control it, washing warm water harmlessly all over the tile floor. She held her hands halfway up to her face as it frozen. It was the closest she could get to ripping the headband off. She was spasming in pain, struggling to get Carrick to stop his fury about her missing her target. Of course, she hadn't missed by accident - she could have had the cyclone follow Lucien easily.


Carrick knew this.


He was so focused on her that he tore his eyes off of the foreigner. His thought was that Leila would keep attacking him - he didn't think about the fact that she couldn't attack while he was punishing her. Right before Lucien was about to land next to him, he looked up and gasped in surprise. He slid to the side on the slick floor and drew out a handgun quickly, cocked, but he didn't shoot it yet.


Leila, get up. Kill him.
Carrick..
Do you want to disappoint me?
No.
Good girl.


Leila forced herself up from the floor and shook her head to clear it, her vision slightly blurred from the high dose of pain Carrick had thoughtlessly poured into her. She focused on Lucien as best as she could and acted without a single original thought in her mind - she was Carrick's puppet, a mere toy. A three-foot-wide ball of flames erupted from her hands, flying at him rapidly while Carrick scrambled to put Leila between himself and Lucien.
 
Lucien cursed in his own language as Carrick sidestepped his blade just as he lashed out at him. With the cyclone of water gone he focused on Leila again. She was holding her head and on the floor in pain. This was the last straw. Carrick had pulled out a smaller metal contraption than the soldiers had tried to use, he vaguely remembered Leila calling it a gun. He called out a line of ancient tongue that had every single capsule in his mouth popping, infusing him with power. His thumb moved just slightly to the third and final gem on the hilt of his dagger. He stared at Carrick with malice in his eyes as his body started shifting. Dark midnight blue scales started lining his skin as his bones popped and crackled to adjust for his new form, his muscles swelled under his skin forcing it to stretch painfully. He had never performed this transformation before and it was just about killing him as the pain ripped through his body.

As his body was becoming a full fledged dragon, he saw Leila cast a fire spell at him. This must have been what Markus had been warning him about, or it was done completely through Carrick himself. His full height reached to be about eight feet tall, ten feet long and five feet wide, his tail snaking around the corner. He opened his mouth and blew a cloud of ice at the fireball itself, dissipating them both right between him and Leila. His eyes focused on Carrick as he roared loudly issuing a challenge to just him.

[[I know it seems pretty ironic that he would turn into an ice dragon but I had this planned out since I thought up the dagger and well everything else about his magic is blue, so blue dragon = ice right?]]
 
[xD Sounds good to me!]


As Lucien changed, Carrick's jaw dropped and his expression changed to one of pure horror and fear. He had thought that the foreigner was weak.. but this.. His body even trembled a little once before he got a grip on himself. Leila, meanwhile, had also been staring at Lucien - in awe, not fear. She glanced at Carrick and noticed that he looked like he was about to crap himself. A tiny laugh slipped out of her lips and she clasped her hands over her mouth to keep from bursting into laughter, but it was too late. Their mental connection allowed him to sense her amusement.


You have disappointed me, Leila.
No, wait, Carrick, I'm sorry!
Too late.


He gestured at her slightly and she tensed for just a moment before collapsing on the floor. Carrick sighed as though annoyed and turned back to Lucien.


"Alright, beastie. You wanted a fight just you and me, yeah? Well, here we go. Nobody else to interfere. Bring it on," he growled, throwing his gun aside since he knew it'd be useless. Instead, he started forming a small whirlwind between his palms as his eyes started to glow. The wind pulled water up from the floor, making another, smaller, cyclone. He sped it up until the wind alone could tear through skin, a smirk on his lips.


"Come on, you oversized lizard.."
 
Lucien roared again in his dragon form as he saw Leila drop to the floor, the noise echoing and vibrating the walls. He counted on his scales to help protect him from the mini tornado Carrick had formed but he knew it wouldn't stop everything. He didn't know if she was dead or just unconscious but either way he would free her of this lunatic. He was willing to die just to see it happen. And if he didn't die, he was in for a large amount of pain. All he cared about was knocking out, maiming or killing this man.

With his mouth agape he charged at Carrick, not able to pick up too much speed as his body filled a third of the room. He was going for anything, a bite, a scratch with his long front talons or a tail whip. Any of them would work. And since he covered such a large portion of the room he had good odds. The odds were against him though in the attempt to get him and dodge the cyclone at the same time, so he didn't bother.
 
Carrick hurled the cyclone at Lucien right as he began to charge. It would sear his scales with a burn similar to road rash, not able to slice through the tough skin as easily as it would have cut into normal flesh. He smirked and tried to dodge Lucien's lunge, realizing too late that there wasn't exactly a lot of room for him to run. Backed against a wall, he rolled to the floor and earned a jagged cut from his shoulder to his wrist on the left side from a talon.


Groaning in pain, he rolled on the floor, leaving a blood trail as he darted to the opposite side of the room. Honestly, without guns or bombs, he was pretty useless against a dragon - and he knew it. He picked up a larger gun from behind a desk and took aim, firing several shots at once and just hoping one hit. His accuracy was poor thanks to his wavering with the sliced arm, but he was presented with such a large target that hopefully it wouldn't matter.
 
Lucien growled as he felt one of his talons connect with flesh. His nose picked up the keen scent of fresh blood and his mouth watered, the only drawback to this form. Luckily for him it was partially diluted by the water on the floor. That gave him an idea. The cyclone had hurt a bit but not as bad as he thought it would or perhaps it was just the rush of adrenaline. He turned to face Carrick in time to see him pick up a large gun. There was no way he was going to be able to dodge that. So he turned slightly to the side and darted to the opposite corner, catching one of the large bullets in his right flank. He audibly groaned.

He needed this to stop, he was in pain and he didn't know how much longer Leila had or if he could even save her. He blew out a large ice cloud at the floor, freezing all the water and hopefully catching Carrick's footwear in it to keep him stationary. He didn't wait to see if it worked however. He charged again, this time shooting two ice spears from his nostrils at him and going full tilt with his front claws again. If he hit him with the spears, it wouldn't kill him, just freeze him into an icicle, one he could keep frozen for a long time until they decided what to do with him.
 
Smirking as he heard the groan of pain, Carrick was all set and ready to fire off more shots until his boots were suddenly frozen to the floor. Looking down in alarm, he tried hard to pull them free, not paying attention to Lucien until the first spear flew right past his ear. As he looked up, he only had time to gasp before the second one caught him right in the chest and he froze, still clutching the gun in one hand, a horrified expression on his face that betrayed his fear.


Leila remained sprawled on the floor, seemingly unaffected by the ice or anything else. Her chest still moved with her breathing, but it was barely there and very shallow. In addition to Carrick's utter control of her mind, she had hit her head upon contact with the tile, driving her even further away from consciousness.


Tumn, who hadn't stopped working the entire time, suddenly ripped the entire building off from above them. Most of it had eroded from the acid, and almost all of the soldiers were dead. He blinked in surprise at Lucien and sniffed the smaller dragon, then let off a sound that was unmistakably a chuckle. It was when he saw Leila, however, that he growled and cowered down to get a better look. Once he decided that she was alive, he leaned over and snapped up the frozen Carrick in his jaws, enjoying him like a frozen fish stick.
 
Lucien smiled at Tumn's reaction to the frozen man. He had figured he would leave the judgement of what happened with him to someone else more close to the situation. He really did like the dragon, they had a very similar thought process when it came to Leila. He sighed and sat down on his haunches, immediately regretting he did so. Through all the mess and with all the adrenaline running through his system he had forgotten completely about being shot in the flank. The bullet wound was nasty and he could feel the metal scrap implanted in the meat of his leg.

He looked up at Tumn still crunching on the man flavored ice cube, concentrating on being as clear as he could in this form, "Get...Leila...home...and...seen...to. I...will...meet...you...there." He had used everything he had to transform and take care of Carrick. He wasn't positive he could make it the hours it would take to get back to their city but he would try. He didn't know how bad this wound would be when he shifted back down but he wouldn't have much of a chance to stop it from happening. The magic coursing through his system was already dwindling. He hoped Tumn would just take her and go.
 
Tumn licked his lips clean after swallowing Carrick - who was, admittedly, pretty delicious. He eyed Lucien as he told him to leave, just then noticing the injury. With a frown, he shook his massive head and latched on around Lucien's neck with his massive jaws. Moving him like a tiger might move a cub, he swung the smaller dragon around and plopped him down on his own back. That done, he scooped Leila up in his talons gently and cradled her securely so that she wouldn't fall mid-flight.


Hang on, little one. Dig your talons into my scales, it won't hurt me, he told Lucien, speaking directly into his mind since it was much easier. Once Lucien was settled, he spread his wings and took off, going considerably slower with the extra weight but still moving back toward home with both of them in tow.
 
Lucien cringed as he saw Tumn's enormous mouth come right at him, inevitably exposing his neck to give Tumn a better grip on him. Once he felt himself tossed on his back he relaxed. He watched him pick Leila up and cradle her safely against him like he would hold a child. The voice in his head startled him. He wondered if Tumn could speak like that only because he was in the form of a dragon. He gingerly gripped his scales to hang on, but he didn't know how long he would be able to do so and tried to mentally project that to Tumn.

Most of the ride went pretty smooth. He concentrated for as long as he could on staying in dragon form. Once they got to the point where they could see the city in the distance he couldn't hold on to the spell any longer and began to shift back into his normal form. He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around as much of Tumn's neck as he could to hold on. The trick to riding with a dragon was using the muscles in your legs to hold on mostly and he couldn't do that right now. He felt his body steadily weaken from loss of blood but forced himself to stay conscious. He needed to know that Leila was alright.
 
Feeling the sudden change in weight as Lucien changed back, Tumn knew that the boy was weakening. He sped up and quickly landed in the field outside of the city. Markus was already there, having spotted them when they were still in the distance. He ran up and gasped when he saw the condition that both Leila and Lucien were in. Quickly he checked Leila, making sure that she still had a pulse. It was very faint, and there was dried blood on the back of her head. Not understanding, he went to Lucien.


"Come here, let me see your leg. Tell me what happened while I fix this," he said, not giving Lucien time to argue as he tugged him down off of Tumn's back and waved his fingers over the wound to manipulate the blood. It was easy to get the bullet shoved out, and once that was done, he made sure that the blood was clean and slowly poured healing magicks into him until it was sealed. "Was it Carrick?" he asked, looking up at Lucien with a frown.


Tumn was crouched over Leila's sprawled form, sniffing at her, not understanding why she wasn't awake. Something about her was different, and he couldn't focus on what it was. Nudging at her with his massive snout, he keened sadly, laying down on his belly like a dog trying to get its ill owner to wake up.
 
Lucien was never so happy to land and practically fell off of Tumn's back when Markus tugged on him. He tried to argue, tried to push the man to see to Leila first. "Carrick was controlling her somehow. I could tell he was giving her commands because I could see her defiance, every time she did she clutched her head. I think it might have been telepathic. After she failed him, she fell unconscious and hit her head on the floor. I turned him into an ice cube and Tumn ate him. You really need to see to her head." He winced as the bullet was forced out of his flesh but the pain subsided once the wound was closed. He was still weak from loss of blood and felt completely helpless without his magic.

He crawled over to Leila and pulled her up into his lap, holding her head up so he could examine the wound. Her hair was all down so it would have been easy to part it if it wasn't for the headband. He tried to see how it was attached but couldn't do that very well while holding her head. "We need to get this thing off her to see the wound. I can't tell how its attached, I don't know if its tangled in her hair or not." He looked up to Markus, his eyes pleading for help.
 
"Telepathic? Impossible, Carrick didn't have that ability. He would have needed assistance if he was controlling her that way," Markus disagreed, though he was amused to hear that Tumn had eaten Carrick. He went over to Lucien after he had picked up Leila and examined the headband thoughtfully. It was pretty, but not something he had ever seen her wear before. Tugging on it gently, he frowned when it didn't come free, realizing then that tiny spikes from it were sunk into her skin to hold it there. His expression turned grim.


"This is how he did it.." he muttered, very gently prying each of the tiny spikes out before he hurled the headband aside. It would leave a small scar under her hair line along the top of her neck, but that couldn't be helped now. He tipped her head and examined the wound. It was dirty and hadn't closed. Shaking his head, he cleaned it carefully with water pulled from the air, then closed it as he had Lucien's. That done, he examined her face closely. "I don't know why she isn't waking up," he admitted softly.
 
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